2023 Research Grants and Funding
The information below is a collection of Art & Sciences research awards from the Research & Innovation Impact Newsletters.
Center for Earthquake Research and Information
July - Dr. Robert Smalley, research professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $52,359 from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for his project “GPS Array for Mid-America - monitoring deformation in the New Madrid seismic zone.”
May - Dr. Eunseo Choi, associate professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $28,907 from the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) for his project “Viscoelastic numerical modeling of crustal deformation in the Korean Peninsula after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.”
Apr. - Dr. Thomas Goebel, assistant professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI), was awarded $182,055 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “CAREER: From slow to fast, micro to macro, single events to cascades: A multi-scale study of seismic event triggering in lab and nature.”
Mar - Dr. Mitchell Withers, associate research professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $716,729 from the U.S. Geological Survey for his project “Operation of the Mid-America Integrated Seismic Network 2020-2024--CERI Year 3.”
Jan. - Dr. Robert Smalley, research professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $93,079 from the US Geological Survey for his project “Determining GNSS strain rate and uncertainty in low strain rate regions: Application to the New Madrid Seismic Zone and Northeastern Oklahoma.”
Department of Biological Sciences
July - Dr. Emerson Keith Bowers, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $2,000 from the Animal Behavior Society (ABS) for his project “Influence of brood size on parental favoritism and sibling conflict.”
July - Dr. Leigh Boardman, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $109,564 from the University of Florida with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for her project “be-eDNA/eRNA: Advancing monitoring programs for honeybee pests and pathogens using novel eDNA and eRNA approaches.”
July - Dr. Bernie Daigle, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $114,157 from New York University (NYU) with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for his project “Advancing Precision Psychiatry for Military Service-Related PTSD by Enhancing Knowledge of Clinical Subtypes and their Endophenotypes.”
May - Dr. Shawn Brown, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $25,190 from Mississippi State University (MSU) with the Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board for his project “Impacts of charcoal rot (Macrophomina phaseolina) epidemiology on drought resistant soybean cellular metabolism and accompanying tissue microbiome for identifying alternative breeding targets under increasing environmental stress.”
May - Dr. Bernie Daigle, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $187,851 from Harvard University (HU) with the US Army Research Office for his project “Robust PTSD diagnosis through refinement of candidate biomarker panels.”
May - Dr. Duane McKenna, William Hill Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $135,821 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “Investigating chemosensory evolution in longhorned beetles using a comparative phylogenomic framework that integrates genomic, morphological, and biochemical data.”
Apr. - Dr. Shawn Brown, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $114,647 from the University of Missouri with the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “Exploring Coupled Physical, Biological and Chemical Processes that Control Lead Fate and Transport through Plastic Plumbing Materials.”
Jan - Dr. Thomas Sutter, professor and W. Harry Feinstone Chair of Excellence in the Department of Molecular Biology, was awarded $252,560 from the University of Pennsylvania with the National Institutes of Health for his project “Microbial Regulation of the keratinocyte AHR.”
Jan - Dr. James Adelman, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $114,708 from Virginia Tech with the National Institutes of Health for his project “Ecological and evolutionary causes and consequences of host heterogeneity induced by prior exposure.”
Department of Chemistry
July - Dr. Charles Garner, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry, was awarded $2,302.96 from SweetBio, Incorporated for his project “Developing a simple analysis for traces of carbodiimides.
July - Dr. Xiaohua Huang, Dunavant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, was awarded $415,516 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her project “Surface exosome integrin profiling to predict organotropic metastasis of breast cancer.”
Mar - Dr. Nathan DeYonker, assistant professor in the department of Chemistry, was awarded $179,831 from the National Science Foundation for his project “CAREER: A Model-Building Platform for Rational, Reproducible, and Rigorous Computational Enzymology.”
City and Regional Planning
Jan - Dr. Charles Santo, associate professor and department chair in the Department of City and Regional Planning, was awarded $52,580 from Iowa State University with the National Science Foundation for his project “DISES-RCN: Developing new strategies for urban-rural systems to overcome interconnected social, environmental, and technological challenges.”
Department of Computer Science
July - Dr. Xiaolei Huang, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $16,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “CRII: III: Metadata-guided Imbalance-Modeling for Robust Computational Healthcare.”
July - Dr. Thomas Watson awarded $90,098 from the National Science Foundation.
July - Dr. Lan Wang awarded $16,000 from the National Science Foundation.
May - Dr. Lan Wang, department chair and Dunavant Professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $41,039 from Peraton Labs Inc. with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for her project “Mission-Integrated Network Control (MINC).”
Apr. - Dr. Xiaolei Huang, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $174,960 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “CRII: III: Metadata-guided Imbalance-Modeling for Robust Computational Healthcare.” More details
Apr. - Dr. Santosh Kumar, director of the NIH Center of Excellence for Mobile Sensor Data-to-Knowledge (MD2K) and Lillian and Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence Professor in Computer Science, was awarded $95,706 from the University of Utah (UU) with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project “Affective Science and Smoking Cessation: Real Time World Assessment.”
Apr. - Dr. Myounggyu Won, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $14,993 from The University of South Florida Board of Trustees with the National Security Agency (NSA) for his project “USF 502 Project Subaward.”
Mar - Dr. Santosh Kumar, Director of the NIH Center of Excellence for Mobile Sensor Data-to-Knowledge (MD2K) and Lillian and Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence Professor in Computer Science, was awarded $114,342 from the National Institutes of Health for his project “mHealth Center for Discovery, Optimization & Translation of Temporally-Precise Interventions (mDOT)” and $79,304 from the University of Utah with the National Institutes of Health for his project “Affective Science and Smoking Cessation: Real Time World Assessment”
Mar - Dr. Lan Wang, chair and Dunavant Professor in the department of Computer Science, was awarded $35,047 from Peraton Labs Inc. with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for her project “Mission-Integrated Network Control.”
Feb. - Dr. Santosh Kumar, director of NIH Center of Excellence Mobile Sensor Data-to-Knowledge, and Lillian and Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence Professor in the Department of Computer Science was awarded $1,029,078 from the National Institutes of Health for his project “mHealth Center for Discovery, Optimization & Translation of Temporally-Precise Interventions.”
Feb. - Dr. Christos Papadopoulos, professor and Sparks Family Chair of Excellence in Global Research Leadership in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $559,647 from the National Science Foundation for his project “CICI: RSSD: LaSIC: Labeled Security Information Capture.”
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
July - Dr. James McCutcheon, associate professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, was awarded $9,600 from the City of Memphis Police Department (CMPD) with the U.S. Department of Justice (US DoJ) for his project “Evaluation of Sexual Assault Kit Testing.”
Feb. - Dr. Randolph Dupont, professor in the Department of Criminal Justice, was awarded $45,000 from the City of Memphis Police Department with the State of Tennessee for his project “City of Memphis Police CIS.”
Feb. - Dr. James McCutcheon, associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice, was awarded $11,227 from the City of Memphis Police Department with the U.S. Department of Justice for his project “Evaluation of Sexual Assault Kit Testing.”
Department of Earth Sciences
Apr. - Dr. Ryan Parish, associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, was awarded $22,544 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “Characterizing Poverty Point lithic networks during the Archaic Period in the Lower Mississippi River Valley through analytical chert sourcing.”
Apr. - Dr. Gary Stinchcomb, assistant professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, was awarded $37,060 from Murray State University with the U.S. Department of Energy (US DoE) for his project “Methane dynamics described through vegetation-soil interactions in bald cypress and other bottomland hardwood forests.”
Spring - The UofM is part of an Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center grant that was recently funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The project in EPA Region 4 is titled “Resource for Assistance and Community Training – Region 4 (REACT4EJ),” coordinated by RTI International, a nonprofit organization headquartered in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Dr. Chunrong Jia, professor of Environmental Health in the School of Public Health (SPH), will lead the project activities in Tennessee. The UofM team also includes Dr. Ashish Joshi (professor and dean of the SPH), Dr. Naser Titu (assistant professor of Environmental Health in the SPH) and Dr. Arleen Hill (professor and chair of Earth Sciences). The budget for the UofM will be $822,000 over the five-year project period.
Spring - Dan Larsen’s proposal to the US Geological Survey's EDMAP program has been funded for $28,141 (7/1/23 - 6/30/24). Support for the project with title: Geologic mapping of the Tecopa 7.5’ quadrangle, California: A Pleistocene lake, a river and a canyon allows Larsen and his team to complete mapping the Tecopa 7.5” quadrangle, refine the geologic history of the China Ranch basin and its relationship to the Pleistocene Lake Tecopa beds, and clarify Middle to Late Pleistocene lacustrine history of ancient Lake Tecopa and the series of post-Lake Tecopa lakes that extended into Amargosa Canyon. This mapping and lacustrine chronology addresses the question of how naturally dammed lakes breach their confinement and develop river systems.
International and Global Studies
Mar - Dr. William Thompson, associate professor of French and director of International and Global Studies in the department of World Languages and Literatures, was awarded $238,245 from the Tennessee Department of Education for his project “Governor's School for International Studies.”
Department of Physics and Materials Science
July - Dr. Dursun Peksen been awarded a grant in the amount of $795,576 from the National Science Foundation for his project “Government-imposed Restrictions on International Economic Relations.” Dursun will serve as the Co-PI with Timothy Peterson of Arizona State University. This project will put together a new cross-national dataset on international sanctions for the years spanning 1992-2022.
Mar - Dr. Francisco Muller-Sanchez, assistant professor in the department of Physics and Materials Science, was awarded $119,128 from Space Telescope Science Institute with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for his project “AGN Feeding and Feedback in NGC 4151.”
Department of Psychology
July - Dr. Xiangen Hu, experimental (Cognitive) professor in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $73,436.60 from the American Institutes for Research for his project “AIR and University of Memphis AutoTutor Project.”
July - Dr. James Murphy, professor in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $36,814 from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project “Testing the Effects of Contingency Management and Behavioral Economics on Buprenorphine-Naloxone Treatment Adherence Using a Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial (SMART) Design.”
June - Dr. James Whelan, Research Professor (Clinical Health) in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $1,970,290 from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services for his project “Change the odds: a multi-platform approach to gambling treatment.”
June - Dr. Meghan McDevitt-Murphy, clinical (Psychotherapy) professor in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $456,076 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for her project “Building the Memphis Opioid Workforce - Graduate Psychology Education II.”
Mar - Dr. James Murphy, professor in the department of Psychology, was awarded $372,300 from the National Institutes of Health for his project “Behavioral economic and wellness-based approaches for reducing alcohol use and consequences among diverse community-dwelling emerging adults.”
Feb. - Dr. James Murphy, professor in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $11,120.33 from the University of Kansas Center for Research with the National Institutes of Health for his project “Using Neuroeconomics to Characterize State-Based Increases and Decreases in Alcohol Value.”
Jan - Dr. John Sabatini, professor in the Department of Institute for Intelligent Systems, was awarded $24,122 from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst with the US Department of Education for his project “Adult Skill Assessment Program: Actionable Assessments for Adult Learners.”
Public and Nonprofit Administration
Jan - Dr. Erin Nelson, associate professor in the Department of Public Health and Nonprofit Administration, was awarded $12,211 from Momentum Non-Profit Partners aka Alliance for Nonprofit Excellence for her project “State of Nonprofit Sector Report.”
Department of Sociology
July - Dr. Wesley James, Pat E. Burlison Professor in the Department of Sociology, was awarded $2,161,986 from the Delta Health Alliance for his project “Evaluation of Health and Educational Interventions.”
Mar - Dr. Wesley James, Pat E. Burlison Professor in the department of Sociology, was awarded $20,000 from the Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis for his project “Evaluation for the Digital Literacy project.”
Institute of Intelligent Systems
May - Dr. John Sabatini, professor in the Department of Institute for Intelligent Systems, was awarded $200,000 from Trustees of Boston College for his project “PIRLS 2026 - Test Development.”
Apr. - Dr. John Sabatini, professor in the Department of Institute for Intelligent Systems, was awarded $59,407 from the U.S. Department of Education (US DoEd) for his project “Developing and implementing a technology-based, reading comprehension instruction system for adult literacy students.”
Mar - Dr. John Sabatini, professor in the department of Institute for Intelligent Systems, was awarded $9,500 from the Trustees of Boston College and the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement for his project “TIMSS/PIRLS Boston College Expert Committee (Part 2).”
Jan. - Dr. John Sabatini, professor in the Department of Institute for Intelligent Systems, was awarded $50,000 from the Trustees of Boston College with the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement for his project “TIMSS/PIRLS Boston College Expert Committee.”
School of Social Work
July - Dr. Susan Neely-Barnes, professor, director and chair of the School of Social Work, was awarded $475,374 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for her project “INTEGRATE (INterprofessional TEams GRounded in Apprenticeship, Telehealth, and Evidence).”
July - Dr. Susan Neely-Barnes professor, director and chair of the Department of Social Work, was awarded $646,001 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for her project “Memphis Social Work Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (MSW-SDS).”
July - Dr. Susan Elswick awarded $125,000 from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
Mar - Dr. Gregory Washington, director of the Center for the Advancement and Youth Development program advisor for the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change African American Male Initiative, and professor in the School of Social Work, was awarded $238,569 from the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration for his project “Mobile University Services for Integrated Community Care (MUSICC).”
Feb. - Dr. Elena Delavega, professor in the Department of Social Work, was awarded $60,000 from the Church Health Center of Memphis for her project “Improving Behavioral Healthcare for the Latinx Community in Memphis.”
Jan. - Dr. Susan Elswick, professor in the Department of Social Work, was awarded $46,800 from Porter-Leath Children's Center with the State of Tennessee for her project “Building Strong Brains Proposal.”
Jan - Dr. Susan Elswick, professor in the Department of Social Work, was awarded $17,400 from the United Way of Greater Memphis with the State of Tennessee for her project “ACES Building Stronger Brains Tennessee.”