Professor Justin Sambur has been awarded a Monfort Professorship for the 2024-2026 period. Monfort Professorships are awarded to CSU Professors who are rising stars in their fields. The program supports early-career faculty by providing unrestricted support for advancing their research, teaching, and career. Sambur is the sixth faculty member from the Department of Chemistry to win the professorship. Past department members who have won: Amber Krummel, Melissa Reynolds, Amy Prieto, Tomislav Rovis, and Yian Shi.

The Monfort Family Foundation established the Monfort Professors Program at Colorado State University in 2002. Each year, two faculty members are selected as a Monfort Professor by a committee appointed by the Provost. They retain this designation for two years and each receive $100,000 in research support.

Each nominee submitted an action plan for the Monfort nomination package. Sambur’s action plan focused on creating new clean hydrogen technologies at CSU. Sambur envisions a societal shift to a clean hydrogen economy instead of the current fossil-fuel based economy. When hydrogen fuel is consumed, the byproduct is water rather than the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Sambur plans to use nanomaterials to create clean hydrogen fuel from sunlight. This could accelerate reaching net-carbon emissions by 2050, which is critical to fighting the climate crisis.