CLAS chemistry assistant professor awarded funding from Department of Energy

Korey Carter, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, was one of 93 early career scientists to receive funding from the Department of Energy to further his research.
Monday, January 8, 2024

By Emily Delgado  

Korey Carter, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, received $875,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to further his research in quantum information sciences.  

Carter was one of 93 early career scientists to receive funding through the DOE’s Early Career Research Program in 2023. He was the only awardee from the state of Iowa. 

The program supports noteworthy researchers at the start of their careers, which is when many researchers and scientists conduct their formative work. The awards are a part of the DOE’s efforts to develop the next generation of STEM leaders. 

Carter’s proposal — titled "Design of Molecular Spin Qubits Featuring Clock Transitions via Encapsulation of f-Elements in Polyoxometalates” — was his first external project selected for funding. He said the news surprised him, as securing funding for a project is difficult, and it was the best sort of news to receive. 

“Receiving this award will allow the QIS [Quantum Information Science] research in my group to flourish,” Carter said. “We now have the resources to make and characterize the complexes that are most promising, including traveling to NSF and DOE user facilities to collect data on specialized instrumentation.”  

The funds also will allow undergraduate and graduate student involvement in the research.  

Carter’s proposal focuses on how to create molecules that can act as quantum bits — qubits —  which are the basic unit of information used in quantum computing.  

"The realization of qubits has the potential to be transformative within the broader field of quantum information science, which could revolutionize a diverse range of scientific fields,” Carter said  

Since quantum information science is a new area of study, Carter has not found any overlap between his research and his classes but he anticipates this will change in the future.  

“As we make progress though with the synthesis and characterization of f-element qubits, it could become a part of upper-level chemistry courses” Carter said.  

Carter, who is still in the early phases of his career, is grateful for the opportunity to further expand his research.  

“Different versions of this project have been included in multiple proposals that were not selected for funding or awards. Over the past four years, I've continued to improve and refine the ideas in this project,” Carter said. “The preliminary data obtained since 2021 and the improvements I made to the proposal based on reviewer feedback are what helped get this project funded this year.”  

While Carter was refining the details of his proposal, the college and University of Iowa supported him by allowing him to recruit a graduate student to assist with the research.  

“Joining UI as an assistant professor provided a platform for my research and teaching career to grow by providing new opportunities to lead a research group and teach classes at the undergraduate and graduate level,” Carter said.  

The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.