IIT Kanpur alumnus receives $500,000 NSF research award

As part of his CAREER award, Karthik Nayani will create programs for K-12 students to bolster their understanding of the world around them

Karthik Nayani / Arkansas University website

Chemical Engineering Asst. Professor at Arkansas University, Karthik Nayani, has won the National Science Foundation's CAREER Award.

The $500,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award will be used by Nayani to research how rod-shaped strands of DNA move particles within cells to create these compartments, over the next five years.

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Nayani's research to understand how DNA works within a cell could lead to faster and more sensitive tests for infectious diseases or abnormal genes.

The prestigious CAREER grants support early-career faculty with the "potential to serve as academic role models in research and education," according to the NSF.

Breaking down the foundational goals of his research, Nayani described each cell as a restaurant dining room about to host a banquet. He added, in order to make room for the many guests, the tables and chairs must be moved against the walls. In a cell, large particles are pushed together to make room for smaller particles to move about, a process in chemistry called depletion. Rod-shaped particles like DNA are particularly strong depletion forces.

Nayani is attempting to find out why rod-shaped particles have such high depletion force, using the NSF award.

Expressing his excitement over the NSF award's ability to fuel his research, Nayani told Arkansas University, "The CAREER award gives me an amazing opportunity to do some fundamental science that will unravel the mysteries behind liquid-liquid phase separation caused by rod-shaped particles."

He added, "I am extremely excited about this project and am happy that the scientific community finds this important problem highly relevant."

Nayani holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and a PhD from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.

As part of his CAREER award, Nayani will create programs for K-12 students to show them how soft matter (a class of materials that are easily deformable by external forces) and chemical engineering can help them understand the world around them.

Keisha Walters, chair of the Ralph E. Martin Department of Chemical Engineering told Arkansas University, "I am thrilled that Karthik has received an NSF CAREER award."

Walters added, "Not only does this award support the research success of talented junior faculty, like Karthik, it also advances cutting-edge science and engineering efforts in our state and helps prepare our students for career success."

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