Early Career Investigator Awards
The San José State University Research Foundation invites you to submit faculty nominations for the 2023 Early Career Investigator Awards (ECIA). Nominations for the award are due by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, January 26, 2024.
We are excited to provide this opportunity to celebrate SJSU faculty members for their Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity (RSCA) accomplishments, and we look forward to your participation.
Award purpose
This award recognizes two tenure-track SJSU faculty who have excelled in areas of research, scholarship, and creative activity during their probationary period at SJSU. One awardee will be selected from each of the categories described below.
Category 1
Considers faculty member in the following colleges:
- Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering
- College of Science
Category 2
Considers faculty member in the following colleges:
- Lucas College and Graduate School of Business
- Connie L. Lurie College of Education
- College of Health and Human Sciences
- College of Professional and Global Education
- College of Humanities and the Arts
- College of Social Sciences
- SJSU Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
Eligibility criteria
- The nominee is a full-time Unit 3 faculty member.
- The nominee is tenure-track, but non-tenured at the time of the nomination
- The nominee has completed no more than six full years in their SJSU tenure-track appointment.
- The nominee must not have previously received this award.
Nomination instructions
Nominations may come from the faculty member’s academic unit (dean, chair, or faculty). Nominators do not need to be tenured or tenure-track. Self-nominations will also be accepted. Faculty members who are submitting a self-nomination should notify their dean and chair of their submission.
To nominate, please complete the SJSU Research Foundation Early Career Investigator Award Nomination Form. Explain your reasons for nominating the faculty member and describe the accomplishments of the nominee as they relate to the selection criteria listed above. You may do so on the nomination form itself, or you may submit a letter containing that information (maximum one page, 12 point Times New Roman font). Nominations should also include a CV or resume. Nominations are due Friday, January 26, 2024, at 11:59 p.m.
The selection committee will consider a nomination and its supporting materials through three selection cycles as long as the nominee still meets all eligibility criteria. Nominees from previous years will be asked to submit an updated CV before each year’s nomination deadline.
Selection criteria
Selection will be based on the nominee’s demonstration of success in the following areas:
- Securing External Funding
This category encompasses having been awarded externally funded research grants and/or contracts. An explanation of how such awards contribute to the research capability and recognition of San José State University may be included.
Only the following grants and contracts will be considered:
– Those on which the nominee has served as the principal investigator or co-principal investigator
– Those awarded on or before midnight June 30 of the prior fiscal year
– Those awarded during employment by or affiliation with with the San José State University Research Foundation or San José State University - Scholarship and Creative Activity
This category encompasses successfully publishing in top-ranked peer-reviewed journals, authoring respected scholarly books, presenting at conferences, exhibiting in renowned galleries, or other artistic endeavors. Specific information (journal name, book citations, presentations, exhibits, performances, etc.) should be included in the nomination form, curriculum vitae (CV), or resume. - Student Involvement
This category includes the nominee’s impact on student RSCA in a manner that benefits the students in their academic journey. This support can include evidence of students as part of the research team that benefits students in their student’s academic journey, financial support, mentor relationships, teaching research methods, and presentation skills, among other benefits. - Interdisciplinary Research
Interdisciplinary research Integrates information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge, can be done by teams or by individuals, and advances fundamental understanding or solves problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline or area of research practice. - Community-engaged Research
Community-engaged research is a process that incorporates input from people who are impacted by the research outcomes — the research outcomes will impact and involve such people or groups as equal partners throughout the research process. This involvement may include co-designing research questions to solve problems, making decisions, influencing policies, and creating programs and interventions that affect their own lives. Community engagement often involves partnerships and coalitions that help mobilize resources and influence systems, change relationships among partners, and serve as catalysts for changing policies, programs, and practices.
Selection Committee
The selection committee will consist of the Associate Vice President for Research, the Research Foundation Executive Director, the Research Foundation Director of Sponsored Programs, one faculty researcher from Category 1, one faculty researcher from Category 2, and one prior award winner.
Reward and recognition
Each award recipient will receive a commemorative trophy, a cash award of $5,000, and a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition. The award will be presented at the Celebration of Research. A profile of each recipient’s accomplishments will be announced to faculty and staff via email and featured on the Research Foundation’s website and in the Research Foundation’s Annual Report. This information may also be publicized in university media. ECIA award winners are expected to make themselves available for the year after their award to attend division of R&I events, speak about their RSCA journey at SJSU and sit on the selection committee for the following year.
2022 ECIA Winners
Please join us in congratulating the San José State University Research Foundation (SJSURF) 2022 Early Career Investigator Award (ECIA) recipients – Assistant Professor Dahyun Oh in the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering and Assistant Professor Tammie Visintainer in the Connie L. Lurie College of Education and the College of Science.
This award recognizes tenure-track SJSU faculty who have excelled in areas of research, scholarship, and creative activity during their probationary period at SJSU. The two awardees were honored at the 2023 Celebration of Research held on Thursday, April 27, 2023, at the Diaz Compean Student Union.
Drs. Dahyun Oh (left) and Tammie Visintainer (right)
Dr. Dahyun Oh joined the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering as an assistant professor in 2017, where she has been directing the Energy Materials Laboratory and training more than 35 BS and MS students in the past five years. Her research has focused on the development of next-generation batteries, including solid-state electrolyte and aqueous electrolyte-based batteries for safer energy storage devices. She has received funding for her work from the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, CSUPERB, and LG Chem, for a total of $1.2M as Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI. Dr. Oh has published 15 articles, been a frequent reviewer of multiple respected and peer-reviewed journals and proposals, and delivered nearly a dozen presentations at international conferences. She is an Associate member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and served as a review editor/guest editor of journals.
Dr. Tammie Visintainer is an assistant professor of science education and has held a joint appointment in the Teacher Education Department, Connie L. Lurie College of Education, and the Science Education Program, College of Science, since 2017. Her research focuses on supporting teachers and students as climate justice action researchers and change agents in their school communities as well as transforming introductory undergraduate STEM courses to center asset-based, culturally-sustaining approaches to teaching and learning. Dr. Visintainer has received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the California State University Chancellor’s Office, for a total of $2.3M as PI or co-PI. Dr. Visintainer published 10 articles, and delivered 25 presentations at multiple national and international conferences. She serves as an Advisory Board Member for an NSF Advances in Informal Science Learning project and is a founding Advisory Board Member for the Institute of Emancipatory Education. She is a member of the American Educational Research Association, the International Society of the Learning Sciences, and the National Association for Research in Science Teaching.
Past ECIA Winners
Congratulations to all of our previous recipients.
