Teacher/Researcher Wins Prestigious NSF Award

Sarah Michel, PhD, an assistant professor, has won a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award from the National Science Foundation.

By Jeff Raymond
January 7, 2008

Sarah Michel, PhD, an assistant professor at the School of Pharmacy, has been named the recipient of a $570,000 award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help fund her work for five years. Michel, 35, received NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development Program award.

Michel earned her award for her work studying two specific proteins. One is involved in inflammatory response and the other in the development of neurons. Both use zinc to function, but can also use iron, which can be toxic. Michel’s lab is using a multidisciplinary approach to determining whether the substitution of iron for zinc has toxic consequences for the proteins.

She is also helping to develop an educational/research partnership with the chemistry department at Morgan State University. The heart of the partnership is a week-long graduate school immersion program call SIMSI (Spring Into Maryland Science). The program provides short- and long-term research opportunities and mentors, with the aim of inspiring undergraduate students from under-represented groups to pursue science careers.

The CAREER program offers the NSF’s most prestigious awards, recognizing the early career-development of those faculty members who most effectively integrate research and education within their organizations.