The research efforts and accomplishments of ISU faculty members are not going unnoticed – Xun Gu is living proof.

Gu, assistant professor of genetics, zoology and agronomy, is one of 10 in the nation to win the DuPont Young Professor Grant.

The award gives each winner $75,000 over three years to support the research projects of their choice.

Gu, a member of the Laurence H. Baker Center for Bioinformatics and Biological Statistics at ISU, said he would spend his money to support graduate students and to purchase some new equipment.

“The money is not for salary, but to promote work,” he said. “No penny will go to my pocket.”

The award is available only to untenured faculty members in their first five years of full-time employment.

The purpose of the award is to “promote young scientists to do something brave and creative,” said Gu, who has worked at Iowa State for three years

Members of the DuPont corporate family, which includes Pioneer Hi-Bred International in Des Moines, nominate the winners of the DuPont Young Professor Grant.

Guoping Shu, a research manager at Pioneer, nominated Gu.

“I believe that his work is fundamentally important to human well-being, and it fits DuPont’s mission and vision as a company,” Shu said.

Gu said his main area of research and interest is bioinformatics.

“Bioinformatics uses other disciplines, such as math and physics, to solve problems and data analysis,” he said.

Gu said much of his research is done with plant, animal or human genomes to try to improve agriculture, meat and public health.

“We use computers to predict, like forecasting,” he said. “We may not always be 100 percent, but we are close.”

The problem is that “knowledge isn’t expanding as quickly as the data . we lack the people and universities need these people. Companies need these people,” Gu said.

Having an ISU professor win this award is “a sign of recognition and a sign of encouragement to everyone in every department,” said Duane Enger, professor and chairman of zoology and genetics.

“[Gu] has done some fundamental research in the area of evolutionary biology, recognizing key events in the evolution of animals,” he said.