SEED GRANT PROGRAM WINNERS

OVPR Seed Grant Program

The OVPR Seed Grant Program is the regular seed grant program open to faculty in all fields with support from the OVPR. 

• Spring 2024 Seed Grant Awards

  Below are the winners of the Spring 2024 Seed Grant Program competition. Faculty were asked to submit an abstract and brief proposal, including a timeline that demonstrated how this seed funding would help to develop a highly competitive proposal for extramural funding. Seventy-two applications were received from Stony Brook colleges, including, but not limited to, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business, the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Renaissance School of Medicine, the School of Health Professions, and the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. The following projects were selected for funding with an award start date of August 1, 2024.

  Eric Brouzes, Department of Biomedical Engineering, KennethShroyer, Department of Pathology: Point of Care Digital Platform for Cervical Cancer Prognosis

  Eva Carceles Poveda, Dana Golden, Ria Rajib Shah, Department of Economics: The International Determinants of Shareholder Disagreement

  Nilanjan Chakraborty and Kedar Kirane, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IV Ramakrishnan and Georgios Georgakis, Department of Surgery: Data-Enabled Manipulation Planning and Control for Autonomous Robotic Surgical Assistants

  Christine DeLorenzo, Department of Psychiatry and Department of Biomedical Engineering: Development of a Blood Glucose Based Correction Factor for Brain Glutamate Estimates

  Margaret Echelbarger, College of Business: Children’s Reasoning about Nonobvious Cues to Wealth and Power

  Guanyu Huang, Program in Public Health, John Mak, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences: Acquisition of an HCHO Analyzer for Studies of Photochemical Smog and its Health Impact

  Shubham Jain, Department of Computer Science, Craig Beale and Rachel Meaney, Department of Speech Language and Hearing: Assistive Wearable Technology to Improve Communication for Individuals with Speech Disorders

  Hyungjin Kim and Gilbert Rahme, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Luis Martinez, Department of Pathology: Key Determinants of DNA Replication Catastrophe Signaling in Anti-Cancer Therapy

  Min-Jeong Kim, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health: PET Imaging of Reactive Astrocytes and Microglia in Alzheimer's Disease

  Haibin Ling, Department of Computer Science, Yingtian Pan, Department of Biomedical Engineering: AI-Empowered Optical Coherence Tomography

  Zhenhua Liu, Department of Applied Math and Statistics, Anshul Gandhi, Department of Computer Science: Towards Efficient and Sustainable LLM Deployments

  Lisa Muratori, Department of Physical Therapy, Petar Djuric, Department of Electrical Engineering, Shubham Jain, Department of Computer Science, Margaret Schedel, Department of Music and The Institute of Advanced Computational Science, Joshua Plotkin, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior: Engineering Gait Rehabilitation in Parkinson’s Disease through Music and AI

  Neil Nadkarni, Department of Neurology, Stella Tsirka, Department of Pharmacology, Chao Chen and Prateek Prassana, Department of Biomedical Informatics: Multi-Scale Imaging Informatics to Define Inflammatory Dynamics in Stroke Throughout Aging

  Jesus Perez Rios, Department of Physics and Astronomy: Decoherence in Quantum Gates Based on Ultracold Molecules

  Hyowon Seo, Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering: Efficiency at Scale: High-Capacity High-Throughput Electrochemical Carbon Capture Using Sediment Flow and Pulsed Electrolysis

  Qiaojie Xiong, Department of Neurobiology & Behavior, Song Wu, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics: The Role of Tail Striatal Astrocyte in Regulating Neuronal Plasticity during Associative Learning

  Wei Yang, Department of Pathology: PHF8 Promotes Prostate Cancer Metastasis by Epigenetically Upregulating RIPK2

  Donghui Zhu and Juncen Zhou, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wayne Waltzer, Department of Urology: Biodegradable Metallic Stents for Ureteral Obstruction Treatment

  Qingzhi Zhu, Christopher Gobler, and Yi Zhang, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences: Overcome the Challenge of Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) Removal in Aquatic Systems using Molecular Tailoring Technology

  Michael Zingale, Department of Physics and Astronomy: Building a Community for Reactive Flow Software Infrastructure

• Fall 2023 Seed Grant Awards

  Below are the winners of the Fall 2023 Seed Grant Program competition. Faculty were asked to submit an abstract and brief proposal, including a timeline that demonstrated how this seed funding would help to develop a highly competitive proposal for extramural funding. Sixty-six applications were received from Stony Brook colleges, including, but not limited to, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Renaissance School of Medicine, the School of Communication and Journalism, the School of Dental Medicine, and the School of Health Professions. The following projects were selected for funding with an award start date of January 12, 2024. 

  Dimitris Assanis and David Hwang, Department of Mechanical Engineering: Overcoming Carbon-Free Fuel Challenges: Laser-Induced Ammonia Combustion

  Niranjan Balasubramanian, Aruna Balasubramanian, and Anshul Gandhi, Department of Computer Science: Significantly Reducing Energy Consumption of Deep Neural Networks

  Isadora Botwinick, Department of Surgery, Ulas Sunar, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Lucian Manu, Department of Psychiatry, and Charles Mikell, Department of Neurosurgery: Neuromodulation for Delirium in Critically-Ill Patients

  Quinton Bruch, Department of Chemistry: Bimetallic Catalysts for Upcycling CO2 and Oxygenase Mimicry

  Nicholas Carpino, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and Iwao Ojima, Department of Chemistry: Targeting Sts to Optimize Host Antimicrobial Immunity

  Holly Colognato, Department of Pharmacological Sciences: Enhancing Regeneration in Demyelinating Conditions by Using Metformin to Promote Myelin Repair

  Marine Frouin, Department of Geosciences: Understanding the relationship between the variability of the Radiofluorescence Signal and the Variability in the Geochemistry of Individual feldspar grains

  John Haley, Department of Pathology, Robert Rizzo, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, and Peter Tonge, Department of Chemistry: Development of neutral ceramidase (nCDase) Inhibitors for Colorectal Cancer

  Briana Last, Department of Psychology: Policies as Structural Determinants of Sexual and Gender Minority People's Mental Health

  Wenbo Li, School of Communication and Journalism: Combating AI-Generated Science Misinformation: Investigating Impact on Racial Minority Communities and Developing Effective Science Communication Strategies

  Mina Mahdian, Department of Prosthodontics and Digital Technology, Prateek Prasanna, Department of Biomedical Informatics, and Haibin Ling, Department of Computer Science: Automated Characterization of Carotid Artery Calcification in Dental Cone Beam Computed Tomographic Images as a Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease

  Sharon Martino, Department of Physical Therapy, Wei Yin, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Adam Gonzalez, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health: Effects of Activity Tracking and Virtual Reality Mindfulness on Stress and Cardiometabolic Health of College Students

  Thomas McFadden, John Frederick Bailyn, and Sandhya Sundaresan, Department of Linguistics, and Thomas Graf, Department of Linguistics and Institute for Advanced Computational Science: Syntactic Locality: An Interface of Typology, Theory and Computation

  Robert Rizzo, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, and Peter Tonge, Department of Chemistry: Structure-Based Design of Anti-Bacterial Agents Targeting LpxC

  Chander Sadasivan, Department of Neurosurgery, Shikui Chen, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and David Gu, Department of Computer Science and Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics: Topology Optimization for the Design of Deployable Personalized Medical Devices

  Neelima Sehgal, Department of Physics and Astronomy: Enabling the Sharpest Baby Picture of Our Universe

  Maya Shelly, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior: Mechanistic Elucidation of Active Forgetting in the Management of Memory

  Jawaad Sheriff and Danny Bluestein, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wadie F. Bahou, Department of Medicine, and Yuefan Deng, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics: Platelet Mechanical Stiffness and Shear-Mediated Response Across the Lifespan

  Josef Stiegler, Kimberley Chapelle, and Andrew J. Moore, Department of Anatomical Sciences: Paleontology of Early Dinosaurs and Their Kin at the Snyder Quarry: An Exceptional Late Triassic Site in the Chama Basin of Northern New Mexico

  Ken-Ichi Takemaru, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Michael Airola, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Christopher Percival, Department of Anthropology, and  Natalia Peunova, Department of Anesthesiology: Mechanisms of Ciliary Membrane Shaping in Airways

  Peter Tonge and Alyssa Pollard, Department of Chemistry: Targeted Degradation of Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) and Tryptophan 2,3- Dioxygenase (TDO) as a Novel Anti-Cancer Strategy

• Spring 2023 Seed Grant Awards

  Below are the winners of the Spring 2023 Seed Grant Program competition. Faculty were asked to submit an abstract and brief proposal, including a timeline that demonstrated how this seed funding would help to develop a highly competitive proposal for extramural funding. Forty-four applications were received from the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the School of Medicine,  the School of Communication and Journalism, the School of Dental Medicine, and the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. The following projects were selected for funding with an award start date of April 3, 2023.

  Josephine Aller and Michael G. Frisk, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, and Gregory A. Henkes, Department of Geosciences: Reconstructing paleo-fisheries and the paleoenvironment of Lake Turkana, Kenya, to understand drivers of ecosystem change and fisheries resilience

  Olga Aroniadis, Department of Medicine, Ramin Parsey, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health and Department of Radiology, and Christine DeLorenzo, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health and Department of Biomedical Engineering: Pilot feasibility study probing the role of the microbiome as a mechanism of mediating signaling along the gut-brain axis in major depressive disorder

  Himanshu Gupta, Department of Computer Science, Prateek Prasanna, Department of Biomedical Informatics, and Aaron Sasson, Department of Surgery: Computational Methods to Minimize Bile-Duct Injuries in Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

  Marc Halterman, Department of Neurology, and Dima Kozakov, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics: NeuroTag: GFP-tagging the ER-stress proteome to address bottlenecks in stroke therapeutics discovery

  Jacob Houghton, Department of Radiology: Development and dosimetry of Pb-203/212 host:guest pretargeting

  Hwan Kim, Jorge Benach, and Ilia Rochlin, Department of Microbiology and Immunology: Characterize the ability of H. longicornis to acquire and transmit R. amblyommatis

  Jeffrey Lipshultz and Robert B. (Barney) Grubbs, Department of Chemistry: Upgrading of Simple and Macromolecular Alcohols via Catalytic Alkoxyl Radical β-Scission

  Sima Mofakham, Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Charles Mikell, Department of Neurosurgery, and Petar Djuric, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: A Real-Time, Objective Measure of Consciousness

  Robert Scott Powers, Kenneth Shroyer, and Natalia Marchenko, Department of Pathology, and Thomas MacCarthy, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics: Integrating single-cell and spatial genomics with computational  modeling to elucidate the K17-GATA6 genetic regulatory network in pancreatic cancer

  Clinton Rubin, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Addolorate (Dada) Pisconti, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and Holly Colognato and Styliani-Anna (Stella) E. Tsirka, Department of Pharmacological Sciences: Low Intensity Vibration Mitigates Muscle/Bone/Brain Failure in a Mouse Model of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

  Jun Wang, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Sandeep Mallipattu, Department of Medicine: Advanced Single-Cell Proteomic Study of Kidney Diseases

  Tzu-Chieh Wei,  C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics and Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Xianfeng (David) Gu, Department of Computer Science and Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics: Quantum Algorithms for Conformal Geometry with Speedup for Medical Imaging Processing and Other Applications

  Stanislaus Wong and Iwao Ojima, Department of Chemistry, and Dima Kozakov, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics: Development of Nanoscale Metal Oxide Platforms for Theranostics

• Summer 2022 Seed Grant Awards

  Below are the winners of the Summer 2022 Seed Grant Program competition. Faculty were asked to submit an abstract and brief proposal, including a timeline that demonstrated how this seed funding would help to develop a highly competitive proposal for extramural funding. Forty-eight applications were received from the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the School of Health Professions, the School of Medicine,  the School of Nursing, and the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. The following projects were selected for funding with an award start date of August 15, 2022.

  Nurit Ballas, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology: The molecular and cellular aberrations in human astrocytes derived from female RTT patient iPSCs
  

  Elizabeth Boon, Department of Chemistry: NO/NosP signaling as an early warning system for NO detoxification in P. aeruginosa
  

  Rezaul Chowdhury, Department of Computer Science: Efficient Algorithms and a Compiler for Parallel Nonlinear Stencil Computations
  

  Sean Clouston, Department of Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine, and Terry Button, Department of Biomedical Engineering: Artificial Intelligence-Based Lifestyle Intervention to Maintain Health in Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment and High Blood Pressure
  

  Grigori Enikolopov, Department of Anesthesiology, Natalia Peunova, Department of Anesthesiology and Center for Developmental Genetics, and Dimitris Samaras, Department of Computer Science: Evaluating cilia motion coordination using machine learning 
  

  Bettina Fries, Department of Medicine, and Gabor Balaszi, Department of Biomedical Engineering: Investigation of in vivo derived Candida glabrata population

  Shubham Jain,  Anshul Gandhi, and Samir Das, Department of Computer Science: Enabling Live Video Analytics for Mobile Cameras
  

  Ali Khosronejad, Department of Civil Engineering, and Dimitris Samaras, Department of Computer Science: Data-driven physics-based reduced-order models for effective design of offshore wind farms

  Qingyun Li, Department of Geosciences, and Xinwei Mao, Department of Civil Engineering: Characterization of Microbial Induced Carbonate Precipitates formed through Denitrification
  

  Fang Luo and Ji Liu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, David Gu, Department of Computer Science, and Shikui Chen, Department of Mechanical Engineering: Multifaceted Math Integration Platform for Energy Network Innovation

  Erich Mackow, Department of Microbiology and Immunology: Developing Reverse Genetic Systems for Powassan Virus and Hantavirus

  Ryan Parsons, Department of Psychology: Neural circuit activity underlying sex differences in fear expression
  

  Troy Rasbury, Department of Geosciences, and Vitaly Citovisky, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology: Boron Transport Mechanisms in Plants

  Russell Rozensky and Lisa M. Endee, School of Health Professions, and Christine DeLorenzo, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health: Stony Brook University Evaluation of Sleep, Depression, Fatigue among Stony Brook Students

  Emre Salman and Milutin Stanacevic, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Energy-Efficient Design Methodologies for ReRAM-based Deep Neural Network Accelerators on the Edge
  

  Esther Speer, Department of Pediatrics, and Sandeep Mallipattu, Department of Medicine: Novel therapeutic approach in a murine model of neonatal sepsis-induced acute kidney injury

  Adrianus Van Der Velden, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and Charles Vorkas, Department of Medicine: Role of Inflammatory Monocytes in the Granulomatous Response to Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

  Lonnie Wollmuth,  Markus Riessland, and Joshua Plotkin, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior: Impact of genetic risk factors for Parkinson's Disease on the membrane properties of human stem cell-derived dopamine neurons

  Anil Yazici, Department of Civil Engineering, Donovan Finn, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, and Clara Tran, Stony Brook University Libraries: Transforming Libraries into Community Resilience Hubs: A Pilot Project in New York's Long Island Region

• Fall 2021 Seed Grant Awards

  Below are the winners of the Fall 2021 Seed Grant Program competition. Faculty were asked to submit an abstract and brief proposal, including a timeline that demonstrated how this seed funding would help to develop a highly competitive proposal for extramural funding. Seventy-seven applications were received from the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the School of Health Technology and Management, the School of Medicine,  the School of Nursing, the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, and the School of Social Welfare. The following projects were selected for funding with an award start date of January 1, 2022.

  Eric Brouzes, Department of Biomedical Engineering: Platform for High Spatial and Transcriptomic Resolution

  Yong Chen, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences: Analyzing the historical Hudson River Biological Monitoring Program to develop an integrated program for long-term monitoring of Hudson River ecosystem dynamics

  Matthew Dawber, Cyrus Dreyer, and Marivi Fernandez-Serra, Department of Physics and Astronomy: Towards designer superlattice potentials in 2D material-ferroelectric oxide composites: Developing ordered nanoscale domains

  Bruce Demple, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, and John Haley, Department of Pathology: A new generation of molecular probes to assess cellular DNA repair pathways

  Carly Gomes, Department of Pediatrics, and Howard Sirotkin, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior: Modulating NMDA receptors to minimize neuronal injury in neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy

  Jason Jones, Department of Sociology: Predicting the Self with Machine Translation

  Min-Jeong Kim, Nikhil Palekar, and Sara Weisenbach, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health: Imaging of Neuroinflammation in Older Adults with Persistent Post-COVID Cognitive Impairment

  Jordan Kodner, Ellen Broselow, and Robert Hoberman, Department of Linguistics, and Owen Rambow, Department of Linguistics and Institute for Advanced Computational Science: Arabic Morphology in Theory, Learning, and Practice

  Ed Luk, Benjamin Martin, and David Matus, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology: A pipeline to develop antibody-based tools to visualize and manipulate molecules in living systems

  Arianna Maffei and Mary Kritzer, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior: Defining the electrophysiological characteristics of functional subdivisions of the subthalamic nucleus: Implications for deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease

  Carrie McDonough, Department of Civil Engineering, Bruce Demple, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, and Arjun Venkatesan, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences: "Forever Chemicals" Close to Home: Assessing Human Exposure, Metabolism, and Toxicity for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Consumer Products

  Yingtian Pan and Congwu Du, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Styliani-Anna E. Tsirka, Department of Pharmacological Sciences: AI-enhanced Multimodality Optical Platform to Image Tumor Microenvironment in Awake Brain

  Prateek Prasanna, Department of Biomedical Informatics, and Kartik Mani, Department of Radiation Oncology: Quantitative Image-based Response Prediction in Patients Receiving Radiation for Primary Brain Cancer or Intracranial Metastases

  Howard Sirotkin and Lonnie Wollmuth, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior: Developing Prime Editing to Model Autism

  Yongjun Zhang, Department of Sociology and the Institute for Advanced Computational Science, and Siwei Cheng, New York University: Human Mobility and Segregation in the U.S.

• Spring 2021 Seed Grant Awards

  Below are the winners of the Spring 2021 Seed Grant Program competition. Faculty were asked to submit an abstract and brief proposal, including a timeline that demonstrated how this seed funding would help to develop a highly competitive proposal for extramural funding. 58 applications were received from the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the School of Communication and Journalism, the School of Health Technology and Management, the School of Medicine, the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, and the School of Social Welfare. The following projects were selected for funding with an award start date of April 1, 2021.

  Nilanjan Chakraborty, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Haibin Ling, Xiaojun Bi, and I. V. Ramakrishnan, Department of Computer Science, and Brooke Ellison, School of Health Technology and Management: Robotic-Arm Augmented Wheelchair for Enabling Independent Living of People with Quadriplegia

  Melissa Bessaha and Miguel Munoz-Laboy, School of Social Welfare: Building a Network of Community Organizations and Local Health Agencies to Prevent Loneliness Among Recent Migrant Youth and Emerging Adults 

  Steven Skiena, Department of Computer Science, and Sean Clouston, Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine and Program in Public Health: AI Video Analysis to Identify CTE and Dementia Symptoms

  Imin Kao, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Fazel Khan, Department of Orthopaedics, and Brendan F. Boyce, Department of Pathology: Innovative Technology using Raman Spectroscopy for In-vivo Assessment of Soft Tissue Sarcomas Margin Status During Surgery

  Gabor Balazsi, Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Erich R. Mackow, Department of Microbiology and Immunology & Center for Infectious Diseases: Automatic sense-defense system against SARS-CoV-2 and other RNA viruses

  Xin Qian and Adrian Howansky, Departments of Radiation Oncology and Radiology,  Zhigang Xu and Samuel Ryu, Department of Radiation Oncology, and Wei Zhao, Department of Radiology: Real-time HDR brachytherapy source tracking and dose verification in vivo using a 4D tomosynthesis imaging system

  Ruobing Li, School of Journalism, Lijiang Shen, Department of Communication Arts and Sciences,  Pennsylvania State University: The Role and Influence of Mass Media on COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy 

  Daniel P. Raleigh, Department of Chemistry, Carlos Simmerling, and  Ken Dill, Department of Chemistry and the Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology: Controlling the stability of amyloid fibers to modulate human disease and to design novel bio-inspired materials 

  Natalia Marchenko, Department of Pathology, and Wadie Bahou, Department of Medicine: BLVRB is the metabolic driver in breast cancer

  Hwan Kim and Jorge Benach, Department of Microbiology and Immunology: Exploring virulence potential of Rickettsia amblyommatis for Spotted Fever pathogenesis

  Weisen Shen and William Holt, Department of Geosciences, and Isaiah Nengo, Department of Anthropology and the Turkana Basin Institute: A seismic nodal array investigation to the Turkana Basin, Kenya

• Spring 2020 Seed Grant Awards

  Below are the winners of the Spring 2020 Seed Grant Program competition. Faculty were asked to submit an abstract and brief proposal, including a timeline that demonstrated how this seed funding would help to develop a highly competitive proposal for extramural funding. 72 applications were received from the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the School of Health Technology and Management, the School of Nursing, and the School of Medicine. The following projects were selected for funding with an award start date of August 1, 2021.

  Maya Shelly, Department of Neurology and Behavior: Molecular mechanisms that initiate principle dendrite polarization during embryonic neuronal development

  Alexander Orlov and Anatoly Frenkel, Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering: Observing and modelling new ceramics materials that can breathe out uniform and tunable nanoparticles

  Shan Lin,  Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Scott Smolka, Department of Computer Science, and Marina Charitou, School of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism: A Smart Artificial Pancreas for Patients with Diabetes

  Mengkun Liu, Dmitri Kharzeev, Jennifer Cano and Xu Du, Department of Physics and Astronomy: Building Quantum transducers at GHz to IR frequencies using topological materials

  Heather Lynch, Department of Ecology and Evolution, and Monica Bugallo, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Moving beyond mark-recapture: Advanced Bayesian inference for inferring demographic rates from unmarked individuals

  Brooke Ellison, School of Health Technology and Management, Xiaojun Bi, Department of Computer Science, Mikhail Gouzman, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Kimberly Noel, Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine: Next Generation Orally-Activated Multi-Modal Assistive Technologies for People with Severe Disabilities 

  Jonathan Rudick, Robert B. Grubbs, and Scott Laughlin, Department of Chemistry, Daniel Knopf, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences: Biomimetic Polymers and Coatings to Combat Freezing and Icing

  Erich Mackow and Jorge Benach, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Center for Infectious Diseases: Determinants of Powassan Virus Pathogenesis in Human Brain Endothelial Cells

• Fall 2019 Seed Grant Awards

  Below are the winners of the Fall 2019 Seed Grant Program Competition. Faculty were asked to submit an abstract, a five-page proposal as well a timeline showing how this seed funding would help to develop a highly competitive proposal for extramural funding. 76 applications were received spanning the School of Medicine, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, College of Engineering, and the College of Arts and Sciences. The following projects were selected for funding with an award start date of December 30, 2019. 

  Stanislaus Wong, Ping Liu, Chemistry, Anatoly Frenkel and Dilip Gersappe, Materials Science and Chemical Engineering with their proposal: Multi-Scale, Structure-Reactivity Modeling of Nanowire-Based Single Site Catalysts for Small-Molecule Reactions

  Helen Hsieh, Department of Surgery and Lonnie Wollmuth, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior with her proposal: The Impact of Gut-Brain Interactions on Brain Development in Premature Infants

  Lauren Richmond and Suparna Rajaram, Department of Psychology with their proposal: Investigation of the Protective Effect of Social Connections on the Neurobiological Underpinnings of Memory in Aging

  Roy Price, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and Gregory Henkes, Department of Geosciences with their proposal: A Proxy for Life Detection on Other Planetary Bodies: Calcium Carbonate Clumped Isotope Geochemistry from Serpentinizing Environments

  Petar Djuric, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Charles Mikell and Sima Mofakham, Department of Neurosurgery with their proposal: Exploring the Latent Structure of Consciousness

  Fusheng Wang, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Richard Rosenthal, Psychiatry and Behavior Health, Wei Hou and Elinor Schoenfeld, Preventive Medicine with their proposal: Al Based Opioid Overdose Prevention

  Gordon Taylor and Steven Beaupre, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences with their proposal: Do Microplastic Contaminants Distort our Understanding of the Ocean's Carbon Cycle?

• Spring 2019 Seed Grant Awards

  Below are the winners of the Spring 2019 Seed Grant Program Competition. Faculty were asked to submit an abstract, a five-page proposal as well a timeline showing how this seed funding would help to develop a highly competitive proposal for extramural funding. 56 applications were received spanning the School of Medicine, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, College of Engineering, and the College of Arts and Sciences. The following projects were selected for funding with an award start date of June 3, 2019.

  Alfredo Fontanini and Giancarlo La Camera, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior with their proposal: Cortical clusters formation underlying the neural coding of expectation

  Jeffrey Ge, Mechanical Engineering, Daniel Birk, Department of Neurosurgery; Nilanjan Chakraborty and Shikui Chen, Department of Mechanical Engineering; David Rubenstein, Department of Biomedical Engineering; and T. A. Venkatesh, Department of Materials and Chemical Science Chemistry with their proposal: Towards a Bionic Spine: Kinodynamic Holistic Spine Modeling and Development of Novel Implants for Spinal Restoration

  Gabrielle Russo, Department of Anthropology and Isaiah Nengo, Turkana Basin Institute with their proposal: Paleontological reconnaissance at Napenagila South: a new potentially early Miocene primate site in West Turkana, Turkana Basin, Kenya

  Stacey Scott, Kristin Bernard, Department of Psychology, and Krishna R. Veeramah, Department of Ecology & Evolution with their proposal: Integrating Epigenomics with Life Stress Measurement to Predict Accelerated Aging

  Flaminia Talos, Department of Urology and Pathology and Daifeng Wang, Department of Biomedical Informatics with their proposal: A new bladder cancer model based on tissue reprogramming and gene targeting

  Stella Tsirka Department of Pharmacological Sciences and John Haley, Department of Pathology with their proposal: Feasibility Studies for small molecule inhibitors targeting Neuropilin-1 in glioma

  Laura Wehrmann, School of Marine and Atmospheric with her proposal: First insights into the biogeochemical cycling of (bioessential) trace metals in the proglacial zones of Arctic glaciers (Coastal Svalbard, Norway)

  Tzu-Chieh Wei and Dominik Schneble, Department of Physics and Astronomy with their proposal: Harnessing a Novel Ultracold-Atom Platform for Quantum Simulations and Information Processing

• Fall 2018 Seed Grant Awards

  Below are the winners of the Fall 2018 Seed Grant Program competition.The following projects were selected for funding with an award start date of  December 14, 2018.

  H. Resit Akcakaya, Ecology and Evolution and Liliana Davalos, Ecology and Evolution: The Very Extended Phenotype: connecting genetics and evolution to ecological function

  Surita Bhatia, Chemistry and Elizabeth Boon, Chemistry: Scalable Nanostructured Coatings for Prevention of Microbial Biofilm Formation

  Holly Colognato, Pharmacology and Maricedes Acosta Martinez, Physiology and Biophysics: Exploration of late pregnancy extracellular vesicles as regulators of oligodendrocyte biology

  Anshul Gandhi, Computer Science and Erez Zadok, Computer Science: Exploiting Analytical Models to Realize the Full Performance and Parallelization Potential of Modern Storage Architectures for Big Data Applications

  Martin Kaczocha, Anesthesiology and Michelino Puopolo, Anesthesiology: Leukotriene B4: A Novel Target for Postoperative Pain Control

  David Komatsu Orthopaedics, Yi-Xian Qin, Biomedical Engineering, and Sardar MZ Uddin, Orthopaedics: Enhancement of Bone Regeneration through Apoptosis Modulation

  Greg Zelinsky, Psychology, Dimitrios Samaras, Computer Science, Kenneth Shroyer, Pathology, and Joel Saltz, Bioinformatics: Predicting the attention trajectories of digital pathologists: Towards understanding the variability in cancer diagnosis