Science research roundup: February 2021

This month, Arts & Sciences researchers received awards from the National Science Foundation, the American Psychological Foundation, and NASA.

Himadri Pakrasi, George William and Irene Koechig Freiberg Professor in the Department of Biology, leads a team awarded $1.7 million from the National Science Foundation to streamline the genome of a cyanobacterium with the goal of developing a green cellular factory for sustainable production of food, feed and fuels. Read more from The Source.

Kun Wang, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, received a $506,053 grant from the NASA Emerging Worlds Program for his project, "Experimental Studies of Volatile Fractionation in the Early Solar System." Read more from The Source.

Sachiko Amari, research professor of physics, won the 2021 Urey Award for groundbreaking and fundamental contributions to cosmochemistry, especially to the study of carbonaceous presolar grains and noble gases in meteorites. Her work has provided key new insights into the stellar nuclear processes responsible for the synthesis of the chemical elements and into the still mysterious nature of the primary carrier of noble gases in the earliest building blocks of planets. Read more from the Department of Physics.

Claire Masteller, assistant professor in Earth and planetary sciences, won a $149,417 grant from the US Army Research Office’s Early Career Program. The award supports Masteller’s experimental exploration of feedbacks between fluvial bedrock erosion processes and rock damage processes.

Bradley Jolliff, Scott Rudolph Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, was awarded $72,968 by NASA for work on "A Gas Distribution Manifold for the Opening of Vacuum Sealed Apollo 17 Drive Tube Core 73001."

Jeffrey Gillis-Davis, research associate professor of physics, received a $47,910 subaward from the University of Hawaii as part of a NASA-funded collaborative research effort on "Ostwald Ripening of Nanophases Particles."

Marta Stojanovic, a University Fellow in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, received the F. J. McGuigan Dissertation Award from the American Psychological Foundation (APF). The $2,000 award provides support for dissertation research that addresses any aspect of mental function and seeks to understand the mind from both a behavioral and neural perspective.

Did we miss something? Contact Shawn Ballardcommunications specialist in Arts & Sciences.