UCLA assistant professor of geography Daniela Cusack has been selected to receive a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Early Career Research Program. She is one of 49 recipients nationwide.
The program, now in its seventh year, is designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work. University-based researchers are awarded at least $150,000 per year to cover summer salary and research expenses.
Cusack’s ongoing research is focused in biogeography and ecosystem science, emphasizing on tropical ecology and global change factors. The DOE grant will go toward her current research into the effects of global climate change in the soil of tropical rainforests as they respond to reduced rainfall.
To be eligible for the DOE award, a researcher must be an untenured, tenure-track assistant or associate professor at a U.S. academic institution or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory, who received a Ph.D. within the past 10 years.
