ITHACA, N.Y. -- Jed P. Sparks, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a Faculty Early Career Development program grant from the National Science Foundation. He will receive five-year funding of $500,000 to support research into foliar uptake of atmospheric nitrogen from the molecular to ecosystems levels.

Early Career awards are NSF's most prestigious honor for new faculty members, recognizing and supporting teacher-scholars who are considered most likely to become academic leaders of the 21st century.

Sparks joined the Cornell faculty in 2002 after earning a Ph.D. in botany at Washington State University in 1998 and conducting research at the University of Colorado and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. His current research focuses on how plant communities physiologically respond and contribute to environmental conditions in the atmosphere and soil around them. The ultimate aim of Sparks' studies is to predict the response of plant communities and ecosystems to human-driven alterations, such as pollution, global climate change and disturbances. Other funding for his plant biosphere-atmosphere interaction research comes from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He is a steering committee member of the University of Michigan-based Program for Research on Oxidants: Photochemistry, Emissions and Transport.

At Cornell, Sparks teaches courses in ecology and the environment and physiological plant ecology.

Related World Wide Web sites: The following site provides additional information on this news release.

o Sparks laboratory: http://www.es.cornell.edu/sparks/sparkshome.html