NEWS
NORMAN, OKLA. – Two early career researchers were recently awarded grants from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities organization of $10,000 each. Elizabeth Zumpe, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education, will study outcomes in educational research, and Shuozhi Xu, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Gallogly College of Engineering, will study high-performance structural materials capable of withstanding extreme environments. Zumpe and Xu were selected from 164 applications representing 91 member institutions.
ORAU, part of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, awarded grants to 36 junior faculty from member institutions across the country. The annual grants are made through the company’s Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards program, which provides seed grants to enrich the research and professional growth of young faculty.
“Junior faculty at our member institutions represent the future of the nation’s research enterprise. Supporting the research and professional development of emerging leaders at the universities who are members of the ORAU consortium is an investment in the future of research,” said Ashley Stowe, ORAU chief research and university partnerships officer.
Elizabeth Zumpe: Research-Practice Partnerships
The purpose of Zumpe’s study is to understand how early-career researchers develop as they engage in research-practice partnerships. These partnerships bring together researchers and educators to solve real-world problems in education.
“As an early career scholar, receiving this award provides a critical boost of confidence and momentum to my research about the dynamics of building collaborative research partnerships in education,” Zumpe said.
Zumpe describes a research-practice partnership as a long-term collaboration between researchers and educators focused on using research to address high-leverage problems of practice. These types of partnerships challenge the usual expectations about roles and responsibilities in research, calling for skills and capabilities that graduate programs are not typically designed to cultivate.
Her project involves a multi-year qualitative case study, now entering its third year, studying a postdoctoral program hosted by two research universities in a metropolitan area in the Midwest. Participants include the universities’ postdoctoral fellows and program mentors.
“My longer-term aspiration is to use the results of this research to develop a research-practice partnership researcher preparation program here at OU,” Zumpe said.
Shuozhi Xu: Multi-Principal Element Alloys in Extreme Environments
Xu’s research focuses on better understanding multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs) for use in extreme environment applications.
The development of MPEAs represents a transformative advancement in the quest for high-performance structural materials that can withstand extreme environments. MPEAs, composed of three or more principal elements in nearly equal proportions, unlike regular alloys with one primary metal, demonstrate exceptional resistance to wear, corrosion, irradiation, and creep – sometimes called cold flow, describes the tendency of a solid material to undergo slow deformation when under stress – making MPEAs strong candidates for aerospace, nuclear and energy applications.
However, a fundamental understanding of their plastic deformation mechanisms remains elusive, especially in comparison to conventional metals. Dislocation motion, how tiny defects in a metal's structure move when the metal is bent or stretched, is poorly understood in MPEAs, and often behaves in unexpected ways. This is the focus of Xu’s research.
The tools and insights gained from this research will deepen the fundamental understanding of defect-mediated deformation in complex alloys and provide a predictive pathway for designing next-generation materials. The project will also support the education and training of a doctoral student in cutting-edge techniques spanning simulation, data science and solid mechanics.
“Receiving this award validates my commitment to addressing fundamental challenges in materials science through innovative, interdisciplinary approaches,” said Xu. “It inspires confidence that my efforts can lead to real-world impact in the design of materials for extreme environments.”
The recipients, each of whom is in the first two years of a tenure-track position, will receive $5,000 in seed money for the 2025-26 academic year to enhance their research during the early stages of their careers. Each recipient’s institution matches the award with an additional $5,000, making the total prize worth $10,000 to support their research efforts.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu.
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