Alexey A. Petrov, Ph.D., of Livonia, Michigan and assistant professor of physics at Wayne State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Development (CAREER) Award.

The NSF CAREER Award is one of the highest honors granted by the NSF to young faculty members in the area of science and engineering, and is intended to support their career-development activities. The five-year, $400,000 grant was awarded to Dr. Petrov for his proposal, “CAREER: An Integrated Research and Education Program in Physics of Heavy Hadrons.”

Dr. Petrov will develop new theoretical and computational methods to study the effects of strong interactions in the decays and production of particles containing heavy quarks. He will also work with greater Detroit area high schools to develop an educational program in computational science.

According to Dr. John Oliver, WSU’s vice president for research, “With support from this prestigious award, Dr. Petrov plans to not only develop new theoretical and computational methods, but will also plan an outreach program to African-American students and other under-represented groups in Detroit schools to instruct them and high school teachers about particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. It will not only be a great benefit to Dr. Petrov and his research, but to our community as well.”

Dr. Petrov received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his Diploma from St. Petersburg Technical University.

Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world.