Category: Kudos

Matt Whited, Associate Professor of Chemistry, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to conduct a “Chemistry Early Career Investigator Workshop” (NSF#1762479). This two-day event near NSF headquarters, organized with Gordana Dukovic at University of Colorado-Boulder, will provide early career chemists with opportunities to network with: each other, funded mid-career NSF researchers from a variety of institutions, and program officers from NSF CHE and other organizations supporting chemistry research.

Deborah Gross, Professor of Chemistry, and Tsegaye Nega, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, have received a “U.S.-Ethiopian University Linkages Seed Grant” from the American embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Working with colleagues at Addis Ababa University (AAU), Prof. Gross and Prof. Nega will develop an environmental-science course that will be taught simultaneously to both Carleton undergraduates and AAU master’s students.

This collaborative project “A Student-Centered Educational Collaboration Focusing on Sustainable Environments: Carleton College and Addis Ababa University Linkage” is an innovative effort to foster pedagogical connections between a liberal arts college and a foreign research university. Gross and Nega hope that the pilot project will serve as a basis for equipping a new generation of students (and professionals) to confront the interconnected ecological and social issues underpinning environmental crises, especially in developing countries like Ethiopia. The project will also cultivate future collaborations between Carleton and AAU, with individual classes, with academic departments and programs, or with off-campus study opportunities.

Anna Rafferty, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, was the recipient of a Schloss Dagstuhl – NSF Support Grant to attend and present her research at a seminar in Germany. Financed by National Science Foundation CNS-1257011, her grant covered travel and accommodations for the Machine Learning and Formal Methods seminar held August 27-September 1, 2017.

On August 11, Fred Rogers, Vice President and Treasurer, Paula Lackie, Academic Technologist, and Andy Christensen, Assistant Director of Disability Services, were named to the Fulbright Specialist Roster. 

Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg, Broom Professor of Social Demography and Anthropology and Director of Africana Studies, has been awarded a STIAS (Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study) Fellowship for her project “Rethinking Immigrant Integration in a Mass-Migration Era: Migrant Families in Comparative Perspective.” As a visiting scholar in residence in Stellenbosch, South Africa, Prof. Feldman-Savelsberg will study transnational family obligations and belonging.

Cam Davidson, Professor of Geology, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Tectonics grant (#1727991) for a collaborative four-year project on Alaskan geology with John Garver at Union College. Their project “Collaborative Research: RUI: Translation and Accretion of the Yakutat Microplate and Prince William Terrane, Alaska” will further their study of the geology of southern Alaska, and involves training of ~25 undergraduate students.

Clint Cowan, Professor and Chair of Geology, has been named the Visiting Faculty Director of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest’s “Sciences, Global Health and Interdisciplinary Studies” off-campus study program at Amsterdam’s Vrije Universiteit in fall 2018. Drawing on Prof. Cowan’s extensive experience with OCS programs (and five years at Koninklijke Shell Exploratie en Produktie Laboratorium in the Hague), his responsibilities will include teaching an interdisciplinary honors course and advising students’ independent research projects.

Andrea Mazzariello, Visiting Assistant Professor of Music, has won a prestigious McKnight Fellowship for Composers from the American Composers Forum. This one-year award will allow Prof. Mazzariello to compose new concert music for performance by leading contemporary music ensembles; to write new work for himself to play in a unique setup that involves keyboard, drums, voice, and electronics; and to compose new music with youth in and around Northfield. One of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country, the McKnight Foundation’s arts program has supported individual working artists in Minnesota since 1981, providing annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 10 different creative disciplines.

Cam Davidson, Professor of Geology and Director of Carleton’s Interdisciplinary Science and Math Initiative, has received support from The Keck Geology Consortium and the National Science Foundation (#1659322) for a major research project that aims to broaden the diversity of the geoscience workforce, especially among underrepresented groups, and to prepare students for careers in the geosciences. This funding will allow Prof. Davidson and a longtime collaborator at Union College to offer as many as sixteen undergraduate research experiences. With an emphasis on year-long research experiences, structured research curricula, and mentor training, the Consortium programs provide a distinctive model for undergraduate research. Involving fieldwork in Alaska, these experiences will include both “Gateway” projects designed for first- and second-year students that consist of a mix of field and laboratory work, exposure to the breadth of the discipline, and to career opportunities in the earth sciences; and “Advanced Research Program” projects that enable students to participate in a four-week summer project involving a mix of field and laboratory study, followed by an academic year-long project at their home campuses.

Kristin Bloomer, Associate Professor of Religion and Coordinator of South Asian Studies, has been awarded a Senior Research Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for her project “Kula Teyvam: Family Gods and Changing Places in Tamil Nadu.” The 9-month fellowship, granted to “superior Indologists in the humanities,” will allow Prof. Bloomer to conduct research on women in a patrilocal, patrilineal society in South India. In particular, Prof. Bloomer will examine the adaptation of certain Hindu rituals that allow gender-bending possibilities as women and men seek answers to questions about their intimate relations to place and one another: identity, loyalty, family, love, belonging, and home.