Science research roundup: January 2020

Researchers from Arts & Sciences recently received awards from the Department of Energy, NASA, and the National Science Foundation.

Brian Rauch, research assistant professor of physics, received support from NASA for two projects. Rauch was awarded $808,806 for a project titled "CALET:  Extended Mission and Flight Data Analysis" and an additional $640,411 grant to support "Ultra-Heavy Cosmic-Ray Observations with SuperTIGER-2: Flight, Recovery and Data Analysis."

Lee Sobotka, professor of chemistry and physics, and Robert Charity, research professor of chemistry, were awarded $1,365,000 from the Department of Energy to support their studies of nuclear reactions and structure.

Nan Liu, research assistant professor in the Department of Physics, received a $493,885 grant from NASA for a project titled “Isotopic Characterization of Presolar Supernova Grains: Constraints on Dust Formation and Nucleosynthesis in Type II Supernovae.”

Philip Skemer, associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences, was awarded $152,520 by the National Science Foundation for the acquisition of a rock deformation apparatus to study rheology and microstructure.

Wouter Kool, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences, was named a “Rising Star” by the Association for Psychological Science (APS), the leading international organization dedicated to advancing scientific psychology across disciplinary and geographic borders. Kool’s research explores the interaction between cognitive control, decision-making, and reinforcement learning.

Xiang Tang, professor of mathematics and statistics, received a $39,999 grant from the National Science Foundation to support the "2020 Great Plains Operator Theory Symposium." 

Grace Ward, a graduate student of archaeology, under the direction of Tristram R. Kidder, Edward S. and Tedi Macias Professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology, was granted $28,350 by the National Science Foundation to support a dissertation project on the relationship between foraging strategy and social complexity.

Jhan Salazar, a graduate student in the Department of Biology, was recognized by the Colombian organization Color de Colombia as the “Afro-Colombian of the Year” in the youth category. The award celebrates Colombia’s rich diversity and aims to bring awareness to the accomplishments of the Afro-Colombian people, who are the smallest racial minority in Colombia.

Todd Kuffner, associate professor of mathematics and statistics, was awarded $15,000 by the National Science Foundation in support of a workshop on higher-order asymptotics and post-selection inference to be held at Washington University in St. Louis in June 2020.

Matthew Abel, graduate student of sociocultural anthropology, under the direction of Glenn Davis Stone, professor in the Department of Anthropology, was awarded a grant of $5,613 by the National Science Foundation to support doctoral dissertation research on the impacts of public policy on rural social organization.

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