Professor Natalia Shustova has been selected as a recipient of the prestigious Cottrell Scholar Award by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA).  She is the third person during the history of the University of South Carolina who received this competitive award.  Prof. Shustova is one of 24 top early career academic scientists selected to receive this designation.  This honor carries with it an award of $100,000 to further the research and teaching of the Scholar.  This award is unusual in that it recognizes faculty who excel in both teaching and research, and they are among the most prestigious fellowships for beginning faculty in the sciences.

“The Cottrell Scholar (CS) program champions the very best early career teacher-scholars in chemistry, physics and astronomy by providing these significant discretionary awards,” said RCSA Senior Program Director Silvia Ronco.

Prof. Shustova's proposal was entitled "Photophysics of Hybrid Hierarchical Structures with Emphasis on Directional Energy Transfer". Research in the Shustova group focuses on the investigation of energy transfer processes in hybrid systems, in particular, metal-organic frameworks.  Understanding of those processes is a key criteria for design of novel solar cells, sensors, light-emitting diodes, and photocatalysts.