Faculty Spotlight

MTSU faculty members Seth Jones and Hanna Terletska hold a distinction no other MTSU professors have ever obtained—National Science Foundation Early Career Development (CAREER) grant recipients.

The NSF CAREER awards support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through research, education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organization.

Given annually, the award comes with a federal grant for research and education activities for five consecutive years. Combined, their grants total nearly $1.2 million.

The recognition is considered NSF’s most prestigious award for early-career faculty. NSF receives more than 50,000 competitive proposals for funding each year and makes about 12,000 new funding awards. NSF awarded $499,879 to Terletska, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, for her “Beyond Ideal Quantum Materials: Understanding the Critical Role of Disorder and Electron-Electron Interactions” proposal. The development plan is a fundamental research, education, and outreach program by Randy Weiler

that focuses on theoretical and computational study of functional quantum materials with strong electron-electron interactions and disorder. Terletska’s award began May 1 and ends April 30, 2025. Jones, an assistant professor in the Womack Educational Leadership Department, earned a five-year, $700,000 NSF grant for his “Supporting Statistical Model-Based Inference as an Integrated Effort Between Mathematics and Science” proposal. His research project seeks to design opportunities for middle school math and science teachers to coordinate their instruction to support a more coherent approach to teaching statistical model-based inference. Jones’ award began Feb. 1 and runs until Jan. 31, 2025.

Both awards will include student involvement.

David Butler, MTSU’s vice provost for research and dean of the College of Graduate Studies, said NSF CAREER Awards “are very rare and difficult to obtain as they are for the top junior scholars in their fields.

“Their success is a symbol of how MTSU is transforming into a research university, producing valuable research and development for the state of Tennessee and its citizens, fulfilling the role of a publicly supported state institution,” he added.