Science Research Roundup: October 2017

This month, Arts & Sciences faculty have been awarded grants from institutions including NASA and the National Geographic Society.

Jonathan Barnes, assistant professor of chemistry, was among 18 leading young researchers across the United States honored this month as a 2017 Packard Fellow. The Packard Foundation aims to provide early-career scientists with flexible funding and freedom to explore new frontiers in their field.

Henric Krawczynski, professor of physics, was awarded $616,000 from NASA for a research project titled "Exploring the hard X-ray polarization of Southern Hemisphere X-ray sources with a long-duration balloon flight of X-Calibur."

Kater Murch, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics, received $457,000 from the Office of Naval Research for the purchase of cryogenic research equipment.

Alian Wang, a research professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, was awarded $412,000 from NASA in support of research on "Planetary surface mineral phase transformation induced by electrostatic discharge (ESD) in near surface atmospheric processes."

Robert E. Criss, professor of earth and planetary sciences, has received this year’s Lewis C. Green Environmental Service Award in recognition of his long-term commitment to raising awareness of increased flooding risks and the dangers of floodplain development and inaccurate flood studies.

Brian Rauch, a research assistant professor in the Department of Physics, received $67,000 from NASA in support of research on extreme energy particle astrophysics with the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA-V).

Bronwen Konecky, who will join the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences as an assistant professor in January, received a $30,000 grant from the National Geographic Society toward a project titled "Climatic and environmental change in the High Andes as a backdrop to pre-Hispanic human activities: Paleoclimate investigations from a newly discovered archaeological site at Lake Sibinacocha, Peru."

William McKinnon, professor of earth and planetary sciences, received $25,000 from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory toward the Juice Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) Instrument.

Caitlin Rankin, an archaeology graduate student working with Tristram R. Kidder, the Edward S. and Tedi Macias Professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology, received a $20,000 award from the National Science Foundation toward her doctoral research on "Risk management in unpredictable environments."

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.