The School of Engineering and Applied Science has honored Jonathan Conway with the E. Lawrence Keyes, Jr./Emerson Electric Co. Faculty Advancement Award for early-career excellence in research and teaching. He is one of three recipients of the award and one of seven assistant professors to receive a junior faculty award this year. Each recipient will receive $50,000 to support their research.

An assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering, Conway studies the interactions between microbes and plants. Those interactions play a major role in the health, productivity and eventual decomposition of the plants that drive atmospheric carbon cycles and shape life on Earth. Conway’s research uses genetic engineering of bacteria found at plant-microbe interfaces and biomolecular engineering of their products to probe and define consequential plant-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions in these ecosystems. His work has revealed pathways to new bioenergy and agricultural technologies that could help with climate change mitigation and adaptation. 

The combination of genetic engineering and mechanistic understanding of these interactions makes Conway’s “research program particularly unique,” according to Christos Maravelias, chair of chemical and biological engineering. In three years, Conway has mentored nine senior thesis projects and five junior independent projects. He has also introduced a program where graduate students present their work to undergraduates, enhancing educational opportunities for both groups. 

Conway was recently named a New Investigator with the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Project. He also received funding from Princeton’s IP Accelerator Fund this year and was previously the recipient of a Project X Fund research grant. He joined Princeton in 2021 from the University of North Carolina, where he was a postdoctoral researcher. He is an associated faculty member of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, the High Meadows Environmental Institute, and the Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute.