Daniel Tabor, assistant professor of chemistry at Texas A&M University, has been selected as a 2023 Cottrell Scholar by Research Corporation for Science Advancement, America’s first foundation dedicated wholly to science.
Tabor is one of 25 early career scholars in chemistry, physics and astronomy recognized with the prestigious award, named for educator, inventor and science visionary Frederick Gardner Cottrell, who founded Research Corporation for Science Advancement in 1912. Each will receive a $100,000 award to support their research and educational programs.
“The future of science depends on innovation, diversity, and commitment to student success,” said RCSA President and CEO Daniel Linzer. “These new awardees have been selected as much for their research and teaching excellence as for their potential to become change-makers at their institutions, in science and society at large.”
Cottrell Scholars are chosen through a rigorous peer-review process of applications from public and private research universities and primarily undergraduate institutions across the United States and Canada. Their award proposals incorporate both research and science education.
A member of the Texas A&M Department of Chemistry faculty since 2019, Tabor is the director of the Chemistry Honors Program as well as the current chair of the Texas A&M Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS). He earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016 and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University prior to coming to Texas A&M, where his research focuses on theoretical and computational chemistry, with the goal of developing and applying both physics-based and data-driven models to solve problems in the areas of advanced materials design, energy storage and spectroscopy.
Tabor’s Cottrell Scholar proposal, “Intelligent Optimization of Organic Photophysical Chemical Spaces,” will take on the challenge of designing new molecules that interact with light "in just the right way." He and his research group will continue to work to develop smart and adaptive computational models capable of searching efficiently through a chemist's myriad molecular possibilities to determine the right molecule for a given task.
"A major focus of our group is building interpretable models, where we can understand why the computational methods predict that their lead candidates are what they are — and we can tweak them if we see fit," Tabor said. "In parallel to this work, we focus on training a workforce ready to integrate spectroscopy and fundamentals of data science into their future work, given the ubiquity of both tools in modern research and development. In addition, we will address concerns about data equity and biases that can exist in large datasets and their impacts in generating biased and overconfident models.”
Tabor was recognized in 2021 as a Texas A&M Institute of Data Science Career Initiation Fellow and with a 2016 Richard and Joan Hartl Excellence in Research Award for Physical Chemistry while at the University of Wisconsin. A native of Tomball, he received his bachelor of science in chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 2011, where he earned selection as a 2010 Beckman Scholar.
As their careers advance, Cottrell Scholars become eligible to compete for several additional levels of funding through the Cottrell Plus Awards. Scholars meet each July at the annual Cottrell Scholar Conference to network, exchange ideas and develop collaborative projects with potential national impact. This year’s event is scheduled for July 19-21 in Tucson, Arizona.
“It’s always an honor to welcome a new class to the Cottrell Scholar family,” said RCSA Senior Program Director Silvia Ronco. “We look forward to seeing the fresh ideas and energy these outstanding researchers, teachers and mentors bring to the community and the impact they will have for decades to come.”
Tabor joins fellow Texas A&M chemists Lane Baker (2009), Sarbajit Banerjee (2011) and Hongcai Joe Zhou (2005) as previous recipients of Cottrell Scholar Awards.
"I am very pleased to see Daniel recognized as a Cottrell Scholar, an award that honors faculty who excel as both researchers and educators," said Simon W. North, John W. Bevan Professor of Chemistry and head of the Department of Chemistry. "There has been only one other faculty member to receive this prestigious award while at Texas A&M University, although we have been extremely fortunate to recruit three Cottrell Scholars to the Department of Chemistry.”
For additional information about Tabor’s research, visit https://dtaborgroup.com/.