New Jersey Institute of Technology biologist Xiaonan Tai has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to investigate how landscape positions determine forest fate during extreme heat and drought — a factor that could help explain why some forests perish while others survive.

The CAREER Award, among NSF’s most prestigious honors for junior faculty, includes a grant of $1,162,914 to support Tai’s project, “Unveiling the Role of Hillslope Hydrology in Mediating Ecosystem Response to Drought,” over the next five years.

Nanozymes are synthetic materials that have enzyme-like catalytic properties, and they are broadly used for biomedical purposes, such as disease diagnostics. However, inorganic nanozymes are generally toxic, expensive, and complicated to produce, making them unsuitable for the agricultural and food industries. A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research team has developed organic-material-based nanozymes that are non-toxic, environmentally friendly, and cost effective. In two new studies, they introduce next-generation organic nanozymes and explore a point-of-use platform for molecule detection in agricultural products.