Category: Recent Grants

Ryan Terrien, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, will be working with Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on an NASA-funded NEID  spectrometer Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) Survey program. Prof. Terrien will support the execution and analysis of the instrument precision and performance – in particular, the wavelength calibration methods – in order to optimize the GTO survey sensitivity.

Gao Hong, Director of the Chinese Music Ensemble and Senior Lecturer in Chinese Musical Instruments, was awarded a 2022 Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. She will compose a pipa concerto that she will premiere with the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis during the orchestra’s seventieth season, and present outreach for Minnesotans young and old.

Marty Baylor, Associate Professor of Physics, is the recipient of an American Physical Society (APS) Innovative Fund (IF) award for her national EDI Fellows Program. This project will improve physics teachers’ ability to address equity, diversity, and inclusion topics in the classroom. Many physics educators are hesitant to engage in critical conversations due to a lack of facilitation skills, fear of burdening minoritized students, and/or fear of causing harm due to lack of expertise. Baylor’s EDI Fellows Program will train a cohort of physicists to work with critical conversation specialists in presenting interactive workshops for physics educators that address fear and build capacity to engage in EDI conversations at the high school, college, and graduate levels.

Ryan Terrien, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, is the recipient of a NASA Extreme Precision Radial Velocity (EPRV) grant for “Linking solar magnetic activity and radial velocity variability with ultra-high resolution laser heterodyne spectroscopy.” In collaboration with Penn State U and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), this project aims to, through the use of a specialized spectroscopic tool, improve the understanding of magnetic activity-induced radial velocity variations and inform techniques for the mitigation of stellar activity for exoplanet detection.

Sarah Meerts, Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology, has been awarded a National Institute of Health (NIH) Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) grant for her project “Neurobiology of female sexual health.” Prof. Meerts’ research employs a novel model of experience-enhanced sexual behavior in female rats to better understand neural and peripheral factors underlying sexual health. Outcomes of the research will inform treatments for female sexual dysfunction. The grant enhances research opportunities for undergraduate researchers, including those from underrepresented populations, and supports an educational associate in each year of the project.

Rika Anderson, Assistant Professor of Biology, is a recipient of a Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) Scialog Signatures of Life in the Universe (SLU) collaborative award for “Long term controls on the scope of Earth’s biosphere.” With Noah Planavsky and graduate students at Yale University, Prof. Anderson and an educational associate hope to enhance understanding of the scope of earth’s biosphere and evolution of biosignatures on early Earth-like exoplanets. Research Corporation’s SLU program considers this project as highly innovative with potential to transform its field of research and address critical global issues.

Ryan Terrien, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Grant (AAG) (#2108569) for the project “Collaborative Research: Understanding exoplanets orbiting fully convective stars with the Habitable-zone Planet Finder.” This research, in collaboration with U California-Irvine, Pennsylvania State U, and U Texas at Austin, contributes to the search for planets around nearby low-mass stars, supports outreach and educational activities that engage with the public’s interest in exoplanet discovery, and funds undergraduate and graduate research from underrepresented minority populations.

Rika Anderson, Assistant Professor of Biology, is the recipient of a National Science Foundation (NSF) award for her project “CAREER: Temporal dynamics of microbial and viral function and adaptation in hydrothermal vents.” Her work will expand knowledge of how microbes and viruses from hydrothermal vents adapt and evolve over time, in hopes of providing insights into the early evolution of life on Earth and into the ways microorganisms respond to anthropogenic disturbances like deep-sea mining and climate change over time. Additionally, Prof. Anderson’s research engages undergraduate partners at all stages of the research process. CAREER grants are NSF’s most prestigious award to early-career faculty.

Ryan Terrien, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, will support the NASA-funded NEID spectrometer Data Reduction Pipeline (DRP). With a contract from the University of Arizona, over the summers of 2021 and 2022, Prof. Terrien will develop and implement software, and conduct tests for the NEID wavelength calibration subsystem and supporting modules.

Joe Chihade, Professor of Chemistry, received an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Undergraduate Research Award to purchase reagents and supplies used by David Wilson, one of his student researchers, during summer 2021.