NSF CAREER Award connects UTC’s Murat Barisik with national peers

Dr. Murat Barisik smiled as he recalled the long wait before he learned he had been selected for a National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

“It took a while for them to make the final decision,” said Barisik, an associate professor in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Mechanical Engineering. “I’m lucky that I made it. Only four people received it in my specialization.”

This summer, Barisik joined three peers from across the country in receiving a 2025 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the NSF’s Thermal Transport Processes program. His five-year, $501,760 grant supports the project titled “Multiscale characterization of heat transfer in nanoporous materials assisted by machine learning.”

The CAREER program is among the NSF’s most competitive, recognizing early-career faculty seen as future leaders in research and education.

Barisik’s work explores how nanoporous materials such as aerogels—composed of 99% air and among the best insulators—can be better understood and optimized. By integrating molecular simulations with machine learning, he aims to predict how nanoscale structures influence heat transfer.

The NSF-funded research has the potential to save billions in energy costs and contribute to the development of sustainable technologies in clean energy, medicine, agriculture and aerospace.

“There was a lot of competition for these awards,” he said. “There are more than 600 institutes in the U.S. and so many eligible people. Every department has assistant professors. Many apply, but very few are fortunate enough to receive it.”

Barisik explained that the CAREER Award creates opportunities not only for himself but also for UTC students. This is the third externally competitive grant he has received in the past three years following his arrival at UTC in 2022. His lab now includes a postdoctoral researcher, five doctoral students, two master’s students and several undergraduates.

“This is what I envisioned when I came here,” he said. “We need many graduate students to increase research productivity, and to support them we need multiple projects. Each project has a different scope, offering students unique topics and opportunities to grow.

“Developing new projects with varied scopes is challenging because it requires constant learning, but that’s also what I love about research. Every project expands my knowledge and expertise while helping students push the boundaries of science and technology.”

Just before the 2025-26 academic year began, Barisik joined his three other Thermal Transport Processes CAREER awardees for an online kickoff meeting organized by NSF Program Officer Dr. Fangyu Cao.

“The kickoff meeting was about introducing ourselves and our research,” Barisik said of being introduced to Dr. Bo Zhao of the University of Houston, Dr. Linyue Gao of the University of Colorado Denver and Dr. Xiang (Shawn) Chen of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “I met them for the first time, and they are all from very prestigious R1 universities.

“I’m happy to connect with them. I’m happy to represent UTC. I’m happy to bring their knowledge here as well because we are going to learn from each other.”

UTC College of Engineering and Computer Science Dean Kumar Yelamarthi said that Barisik’s recognition as an NSF CAREER awardee highlighted UTC’s growing stature.

“Dr. Barisik’s NSF CAREER Award is a testament to the caliber of research and innovation happening at UTC CECS,” Yelamarthi said. “His work not only elevates our national reputation but also creates transformative opportunities for our students.

“We’re proud to have such impactful scholarship in our college, and this is just one example of the transformational work happening across CECS.”

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UTC mechanical engineering professor Murat Barisik receives prestigious NSF CAREER Award

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