Science research roundup: July and August 2022

Arts & Sciences researchers recently won awards from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, and others.

Xuehua Zhong, professor of biology, won a $2,143,167 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institutes of Health to study epigenetic regulation of genome integrity, environmental interaction, and inheritance. Zhong also received an $855,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for research on the mechanism of UVB-induced DNA methylation suppression and inheritance in plants.

Jennifer Wang, assistant professor of biology, won a $1,244,998 grant from the National Institutes of Health for a project investigating molecular mechanisms of centriolar triplet microtubule formation.

Bruce Carlson, professor of biology, was awarded $980,000 by the National Science Foundation to study neuronal plasticity and the evolvability of behavior.

Kun Wang, assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences, was awarded $503,856 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Sample Analysis Participating Scientist Program. The grant supports Wang’s investigation of moderately volatile element isotopic compositions of asteroid Bennu as well as their implications for the asteroid’s volatile depletion history. Read more from the Ampersand.

Jonathan Barnes, assistant professor of chemistry, won a $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate and expand efficient methods for synthesizing catenane-based polymers and networked materials. Read more about Barnes’ research in the Ampersand.

Richard D. Vierstra, the George and Charmaine Mallinckrodt Professor of Biology, received a $308,228 grant from the National Institutes of Health for his project titled “Autophagic Clearance of Proteasomes and CDC48 as Models for Amyloidogenic Protein Quality Control.”

Ari Stern, associate professor of mathematics and statistics, won a $237,648 grant from the National Science Foundation for research on “Structure-Preserving Hybrid Finite Element Methods.” Read more from the Ampersand.

Claire Masteller, assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences, won a $160,253 award from NASA’s Equity and Environmental Justice program. The award supports Masteller’s community feasibility study on urban flood modeling using a data-driven, community-centered approach in Centreville, IL.

Vladimir Birman, associate professor of chemistry, won a $110,000 award from the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund. The award supports Birman’s project titled “Self-Complementary Urea-Based Arrays.”

Henric Krawczynski, the Wayman Crow ​Professor of Physics and chair of the Department of Physics, was awarded $103,518 by NASA to conduct smoking gun tests of black hole accretion models based on Nustar, Nicer, IXPE, and XL-Calibur observations of CYG X-1.

Ryan Ogliore, assistant professor in the Department of Physics, won a $91,679 grant from NASA to support his search for contemporary stardust in sea sediments.

Michael Nowak, research professor of physics, received a $37,500 award from NASA for his project “Measuring HMXB Winds with NICER Observations of Cyg X-1 Near Orbital Phase 0.”

Sterling Blake Martin, a postdoctoral research associate working with assistant professor B. Duygu Özpolat in the Department of Biology, has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Center of Regenerative Medicine’s Training in Regenerative Medicine grant program.

Did we miss something? Contact Shawn Ballard, communications specialist in Arts & Sciences.