Congratulations to Sauleh Siddiqui, assistant professor of civil engineering, who has been selected to receive one of thirty-two 2018 Johns Hopkins Catalyst Awards.

Initiated in 2015, these grant awards of up to $75,000 support the promising research and creative endeavors of early career faculty with the goal of launching them on a path to a sustainable and rewarding academic career. The program encompasses funding, mentoring opportunities, and the chance to join a cohort of peers at a similar stage in their career. The funds are allocated on a competitive basis in response to an annual university-wide request for applications.

“In an environment where federal research funding remains elusive, especially for early-career faculty, it is vital that we support the most creative and ambitious ideas of our brightest minds,” says Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels. “Our investment in these scholars is a commitment not only to them and to our institution but to the future of their fields.”

Prof. Siddqui’s funds will be used to create mathematical models to help predict learning, decision-making, and gaming for a variety of societal systems. The goal is for these models to serve as a unified mathematical framework for many research projects across the university while also helping JHU strengthen its collaborations and remain competitive in the securing of large government grants.

“The Catalyst Award will not only serve to push research collaborations forward, but will also provide a vital asset in furthering my objective of solving large-scale systems problems. Creating  new integrative math tools will provide a framework for not only civil engineering, but fields such as energy, economics, and public health so that faculty can have a unified model to use for a variety of applications,” he states.