TXST News
An NSF CAREER award for construction materials you can recycle — and commercialisation training built in for engineering PhDs
Dr. Xijun (Jeff) Shi, associate professor of civil engineering in Texas State’s Ingram School of Engineering, has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation — NSF’s award for early-career faculty who excel in both research and teaching.
A material that sets hard enough to build with — then comes apart to be made again
The project develops recyclable biopolymer composite construction materials for resource-limited settings. The key is the binder: it hardens enough to meet structural requirements, but can later be reversed and reprocessed — so material can be produced, reused and recycled from resources available on site.
The problem it targets is places short of materials and short of water. The field calls this direction circular construction.
The figure the university left out
The university’s announcement does not mention an amount. NSF’s public award database does: award 2544055 to Xijun Shi, $611,453, 1 September 2026 to 31 August 2031.
To judge that, you need a yardstick. The CAREER programme rules (solicitation NSF 22-586) set a minimum of $400,000 over five years for most of NSF — but $500,000 for Engineering, Biological Sciences and Polar Programs.
| Level | Amount (5 years) |
|---|---|
| CAREER minimum, most directorates | $400,000 |
| CAREER minimum, Engineering | $500,000 |
| Dr. Shi’s award | $611,453 |
So: above the Engineering floor. Not a vast sum — but a CAREER award matters for other reasons: it is NSF’s most prestigious award for junior faculty, and it tends to be the platform for larger grants later.
The part worth reading if you are weighing an engineering PhD
A CAREER award must carry an education plan. Dr. Shi’s is not an extra course — it is entrepreneurial training for engineering students, particularly at doctoral level: innovation, customer discovery and technology commercialisation. The aim is to close the gap between the lab and practice, so doctoral students know how to take new technology to market.
That is rarer than you might think. Most doctoral programmes teach you to do research, not to sell what it produces.
“This CAREER award reflects the strength of our faculty and the growing impact of the Ingram School of Engineering in advancing infrastructure materials research and engineering education.”
JESUS ALEJANDRO JIMENEZ, DIRECTOR, INGRAM SCHOOL OF ENGINEERINGThe project also includes outreach to K-12 and community college students, encouraging them into engineering.
Also at the Ingram School of Engineering: smart home Wi-Fi research with a master’s student on the team.
Sources: Texas State’s Shi honored with prestigious NSF CAREER Award, news.txst.edu, 17 September 2026 (project description, education plan, quotation) · NSF Award 2544055 (amount, period) · NSF 22-586, Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER minimums). The comparison against the minimum is ours.
Interested in engineering at Texas State?
The programme list covers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in the Ingram School of Engineering.
See the programme list
