Science Research Roundup: November and December 2018

This month, Arts & Sciences researchers received awards and recognition from organizations including the American Association for the Advancement of Science and NASA.

Olga Pravdivtseva, research associate professor of physics, received a three-year, $1,192,000 grant from NASA to support research on I-Xe dating of alteration in CK and CV carbonaceous chondrites, which are a type of meteorite.

Joseph Jez, chair and professor of biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor, was among 11 faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis — the most in a decade-and-a-half — to be selected as new fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society. Jez is being recognized for his contributions to the field of biology, particularly for studies on the molecular basis of biological processes in plants, microbes, and nematodes.

John E. McCarthy, chair and professor of mathematics and statistics and Spencer T. Olin Professor of Mathematics, was elected as a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. The Fellows of the American Mathematical Society program recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics. McCarthy was recognized for his contributions to operator theory and functions of several complex variables. 

Carl Bender, Konneker Distinguished Professor of Physics Emeritus, has received a Humboldt Research Award. The award, granted by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, recognizes a researcher's entire achievements to date and is awarded to academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are  expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future.

Brett Wick, professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, and three colleagues received a Discover Award from the Australian Research Council. The award will fund collaborations on the topic of "Harmonic analysis: function spaces and partial differential equations." The project aims to solve a number of important problems at the frontier of harmonic analysis on metric measure spaces.

Lori Markson, associate professor and director of graduate studies, and Rebecca Schwarzlose, postdoctoral research associate, both in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, were awarded $49,000 from the Russell Sage Foundation for a research project titled "Conceptual understanding of skin color inheritance among American children and adults."

Keith Hengen, assistant professor of biology, was selected by the Allen Institute as a 2018 Next Generation Leader. Hengen is one of six early-career neuroscientists who will participate in a special advisory council for the Allen Institute for Brain Science, a division of the Allen Institute. Next Generation Leaders are selected each year through a competitive process that includes applications from around the world. This year, the six Next Generation Leaders come from universities and research institutes in the U.S., Canada, and Germany.

The Department of Political Science ranks second in the nation in a new study of faculty research productivity published by the American Political Science Association. The study used citations in Google Scholar to track the quantity, quality, and impact of political science research published by individual faculty at the nation’s top 47 political science departments as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

Did we miss something? Let us know.

For assistance with proposal writing, editing, coordination, and other related projects, please contact 
Crystal Gammon, grants and science writer in Arts & Sciences.