Since 1986, KY NSF EPSCoR Track-1 funding has supported hundreds of new faculty hires across Kentucky institutions. These faculty have helped build Kentucky research infrastructure, leading to innovations in energy, agriculture, advanced manufacturing, and most currently, climate hazard resilience through the CLIMBS project.
Many of these researchers, after an initial support boost through their Track-1, will pursue and earn follow-on awards—additional funding related to their expertise. One of the most distinguished awards available to them, particularly for early-career faculty, is the NSF CAREER Award.
The NSF CAREER Award is NSF’s most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education while advancing the mission of their department or organization. The five-year award is designed to be “potentially transformative,” meaning the funded research should have the potential to reshape the discipline.
Since 2011, KY NSF EPSCoR Track-1 supported faculty have earned 11 NSF CAREER Awards. All 11 of those CAREER awards were awarded to Kentucky’s R1 research institutions, as classified by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education—the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville.
This month, a KY NSF EPSCoR Track-1 funded professor became the 12th faculty member to secure a CAREER Award. Meteorology Professor Zachary Suriano.
Suriano is the first NSF CAREER award winner at Western Kentucky University (WKU), and one of only three individuals to ever earn the grant outside of Kentucky’s R1 institutions. His achievement bolsters WKU in their growing research infrastructure and helps diversify the commonwealth’s research network.
For Suriano, the NSF CAREER Award is more than just a grant—it a reflection of his research, his students, and his proposal editing process.
“Career awards are typically multi-year processes,” Suriano explained. “You’re only allowed three attempts at the CAREER award, so you have to make it count. It’s exciting to be able to incorporate feedback from previous iterations and refine the proposal to grow as a writer and researcher.”
Suriano refined his process well enough to nail it on his third and final try, previously applying once at the University of Nebraska Omaha in 2020 and again at WKU in 2023. This award now becomes a major milestone in his career.
“[This award] really embodies all of the things that I do as an academic,” he said. “It allows me to conduct cutting-edge research on high-impact weather, implement experiential learning opportunities in the classroom, create and disseminate open educational resources, and then ultimately share that knowledge with the broader community through outreach. I’ve been doing these things for over a decade, but now I get the opportunity to do them collectively, in one consistent effort, which is really rewarding.”
Suriano’s five-year award totals over $440,000 and is jointly funded through EPSCoR and the Atmosphere Cluster within the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS). It is titled Historical and Projected Atmospheric and Energetic Forcings of Eastern United States Snow Ablation.
Snow Ablation is the process of snow or ice melting, evaporating, or being removed by the wind. Rapid ablation of snow can cause flooding and incidentally push excessive nutrients and pollutants into waterways.
Suriano and his team will use climate models and historical data to assess future snow melt projections. His findings will ideally contribute to a better understanding of the processes that drive snowmelt and the projected variability of future ablation.
The end goal is to provide water resource and risk managers with the necessary data to better develop infrastructure and hazard mitigation strategies for the communities they serve.
“[Snow melt events] are particularly challenging in the eastern and central United States, where the snow accumulates and melts multiple times per season,” says Suriano. “We are trying to understand the dynamical and thermodynamical processes that cause those high impact events. We can then look out longer into the future and assess what the outcomes might be. These types of layers of information are critical for those in risk management and decision making positions.”
Suriano’s project will also have a large educational impact at WKU. The NSF CAREER Award is a single-investigator grant, meaning Suriano will lead the research effort with the support of students rather than formal collaborators. Each year, his project will involve at least one graduate student, two to three undergraduate researchers, and around 20 additional students engaged through coursework.
“That’s something like 25 students per year on average,” Suriano estimates. “Through a service-learning pedagogical framework, students will work with community partners—like transportation departments or emergency management agencies—to conduct community-inspired research. It’s about ensuring that the research serves the community while also advancing our scientific understanding.”
Additionally, Suriano will create and disseminate Open Educational Resources, expanding STEM education beyond WKU and nurturing student-led scientific inquiry.
Suriano’s research, while distinct, shares structural similarities and missions with KY NSF EPSCoR’s current Track-1 project—CLIMBS. Suriano serves as a major participant in the project, both in Projects 1 and 7. (Link to Climbs)
CLIMBS’ primary research synthesis is to collect novel climate, paleontological, and flood data, then use that data to help predict disasters, and enhance response systems. Thus, building climate resilience in Kentucky. Suriano’s CAREER Award research shares these same goals, while having a few complementary differences. While CLIMBS primarily concentrates on Kentucky, Suriano’s research extends beyond state borders. His work strengthens CLIMBS’ mission by adding a supplementary layer of understanding about snow ablation hazards.
“The motivation is very similar,” Suriano noted. “We’re identifying hazards and building resilience, but my work brings a new dimension—snowmelt is not a primary focus within the CLIMBS effort. But, there is a clear connection—we are all pushing towards the same goal of building climate resilience within the broader part of the United States.”
As Suriano dives into the work of his new NSF CAREER award alongside CLIMBS, he is grateful and hopeful that his achievement will start a domino-effect of researchers from regional universities pursuing notable research awards.
“For an institution like WKU, this award is a big deal,” says Suriano. “It proves that faculty here can be successful in securing prestigious research grants typically associated with R1 institutions. I hope this is just the first of many CAREER Awards coming to WKU and to the broader CLIMBS research group. Having someone on the team with this award can help open doors for others, creating new opportunities and fostering a culture of research excellence.”
