NC State announced its 2025-26 class of Goodnight Early Career Innovators today. This program recognizes and rewards promising NC State early-career faculty whose scholarship is in STEM or STEM education. The 25 faculty selected will receive $22,000 for each of the next three years to support their scholarship and research endeavors.
“The Goodnight’s commitment to investing in our faculty lays the groundwork for the recruitment, retention and rewarding of our nation’s brightest higher education scholars,” said Chancellor Kevin Howell. “We are excited to see what our Goodnight Early Career Innovators will build for the future of NC State.”
Faculty members eligible for the award must be tenure-track assistant professors at the time of nomination and their scholarship must clearly and substantively contribute to innovations and advancement in STEM or STEM education. Nominees were evaluated based on evidence of early productivity in research and innovation, which may include a strong early record of scholarly publication or dissemination appropriate to their discipline, external funding or recognition as an early career leader in their field.
Nominees were recommended by their colleges and selected by a committee of distinguished faculty from across the STEM disciplines at NC State. Forty-one faculty members were nominated for the award.
“Through the Goodnight’s generosity, our faculty are able to increase their impact in their respective fields through groundbreaking research,” said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Warwick Arden. “We are incredibly thankful for this opportunity to elevate NC State’s status as a premier R1 university.”
This year’s class of Goodnight Early Career Innovators includes:
- Amay Bandodkar, assistant professor, electrical and computer engineering
- James Braun, assistant professor, mechanical and aerospace engineering
- Zixuan Cang, assistant professor, mathematics
- Amanda Cardoso, assistant professor, crop and soil sciences
- Andrew Greenland, assistant professor, agricultural and resource economics
- Jingjie Hu, assistant professor, mechanical and aerospace engineering
- Jicai Jiang, assistant professor, animal science
- Daniela Jones, assistant professor, biological and agricultural engineering
- Melinda Knuth, assistant professor, horticultural science
- Kai Lan, assistant professor, forest biomaterials
- Xiaorui Liu, assistant professor, computer science
- Yuan Liu, assistant professor, electrical and computer engineering
- Yuchen Liu, assistant professor, computer science
- Julio Monti Belmonte, assistant professor, physics and astronomy
- Gareth Powell, assistant professor, entomology and plant pathology
- Allison Pullin, assistant professor, poultry science
- Michael Rahe, assistant professor, population health and pathobiology
- Katie Sanders, assistant professor, agricultural and human sciences
- Vijay Shah, assistant professor, electrical and computer engineering
- Debjani Sihi, assistant professor, plant and microbial biology
- Arianna Soldati, assistant professor, marine, earth and atmospheric sciences
- Ruijuan Xu, assistant professor, materials science and engineering
- Ruozhou Yu, assistant professor, computer science
- Yang Zhang, assistant professor, textile engineering, chemistry and science
- Y. Stacy Zhang, assistant professor, marine, earth and atmospheric sciences
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