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Yerina Ranjit, assistant professor in the Department of Communication, and Noah Heringman, Curators' Distinguished Professor of English, both received Research Council Grants this year.
In April, the University of Missouri Division of Research, Innovation and Impact awarded the final round of Research Council grants for the 2023-24 academic year.
These internal grants of up to $15,000 supported 44 faculty projects and activities leading to book contracts, juried performances, art exhibits, peer-reviewed articles, the generation of pilot data for grant proposals and more. Since 2019, MU has invested more than $2 million in grants to advance 195 projects.
Assistant Professor Dan London, a hand and microvascular surgeon, received a $15,000 grant last year for his research program focused on patient-reported treatment results. The funding supported the hiring of clinical research assistants to help collect patient outcomes.
"Ultimately, it is how patients perceive they are doing that should determine whether a treatment outcome is successful or not," London says. "Research Council grants are a great mechanism to start pilot studies, with a great turnaround time. They provide seed funding to begin to get results to then use as supportive data when applying for larger foundation and federal grants."
Research Council grant applications will be accepted again during the fall semester. More details will be available soon. Please contact Internal Funding staff with questions.
Fourth round of funded projects
Chosen from Research Council grant proposals submitted in March 2024.
ARTS, HUMANITIES, SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
| Investigator | Project Title |
| David Crespy Professor, Playwriting, Acting, Dramatic Literature and Theatre History | Edward Albee Archival Research |
| Julia Gaines Professor, Percussion | Completion of Method Book and Video Series for Four-Mallet Marimba |
| Noah Heringman Curators' Distinguished Professor of English | The Letters of Johann Joachim Winckelmann |
| Michael Marlo Associate Professor, English | Linguistic Description of the Meru Dialect Cluster in Kenya |
| Yerina Ranjit Assistant Professor, Communication | Mobile Health and Access to HIV/STI Prevention Among LGBTQ+ Migrants in Italy: An Exploratory Study |
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS
| Investigator | Project Title |
| Xiao Heng Associate Professor, Biochemistry | Development of a Critical Module of a Self-Tunable mRNA Circuit to Control Cellular Protein Levels |
| Jacqueline Limberg Associate Professor, Nutrition and Exercise Physiology | Impact of Menopause on the Vascular Response to Hypoxia and the Role of β-Adrenergic Receptors |
| Kylee Rucinski Assistant Research Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery | Comprehensive Orthopaedic Surgery Pain Management Program |
Additional funded projects, 2023-24 academic year
ARTS, HUMANITIES, SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
| Investigator | Project Title |
| Claire Altman Associate Professor, Health Sciences | Climates of Exclusion and Immigrants' Occupational Health |
| Katina Bitsicas Assistant Professor, Digital Storytelling | Glyphosate Dreams |
| Tasha Childs Assistant Professor, Social Work | Exploring Teacher Motivators and Detractors to Participation in PK-12 Teacher Racial Bias Interventions |
| Aileen Garcia Assistant Professor, Human Development and Family Science; State Extension Specialist, Early Childhood Education, Development and Care | Applying the Job Demands-Resources Theory in Examining the Job Satisfaction of Home-Based Child Care Providers in Missouri |
| Bill Horner Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor, Government and Public Affairs | Tim Miller and the Politics of Performance |
| Jennie Ikuta Assistant Professor, Government and Public Affairs | White Losses: Moral Psychology and the Demands of Racial Justice |
| Stephen Karian Professor and Catherine Paine Middlebush Chair, English | English Digital Images for Oxford Pope Poems Edition |
| Antoinette Landor Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Science; Millsap Professor of Diversity and Multicultural Studies | Understanding Skin Lightening and the Range of Colorism Experiences in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Trudy Lewis Professor, English | FestZero: A Novel-in-Progress, Travel to Monteagle/Sewanee, Tennessee |
| Brian MacNeel Assistant Teaching Professor, Film Studies | Angel Hair |
| Laura Morett Assistant Professor, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences | Illuminating the Neural Substrates of Abnormal Gesture-Speech Integration and Social Communication in ASD: An fNIRS Pilot Study |
| Moshe Naveh-Benjamin Professor, Psychological Sciences | Temporal Dynamics in Young and Older Adults’ Encoding and Retrieving of Different Memory Representations |
| Hannah Paul Assistant Professor, Government and Public Affairs | Does Intergroup Empathy Bias Influence How Race Affects Support for Resettled Refugees? |
| Nancy West Professor, English | Moviemade Girl |
| Andrea Wycoff Assistant Professor, Clinical Psychiatry | Effects of Cannabis Use on Alcohol Processes in Adults Seeking Alcohol Treatment |
| Minseok Yang Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis | Demystifying Pathways to Principalships: Certification Acquisition, Job Application and Hiring Results of Principal Applicants |
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS
| Investigator | Project Title |
| Lesa Beamer Professor, Biochemistry | Obtaining Preliminary Data on Enzyme Structure for CryoEM Studies |
| Wesley Bernskoetter Professor of Chemistry | Catalysts for Sustainable Acrylate Chemicals |
| Anand Chandrasekhar Professor, Biological Sciences | To Eat or Not? Modulation of Motor Behavior in a Vertebrate Neural Circuit |
| Libby Cowgill Associate Professor, Anthropology; Director of Graduate Studies | Ancestral Effects on Human Thermoregulation |
| Mark Daniels Associate Professor, Surgery and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology | The Role of the Scaffold Molecule POSH in B Cells |
| Richard Ferrieri Research Professor, Chemistry | Validating a New Grafting Approach for Maize Using Radiotracer Imaging and Nuclear Counting Techniques at MURR |
| Diana Gil Pagés Associate Professor, Surgery, Bioengineering and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology | Development and Characterization of a Novel Murine Model of Canine Osteosarcoma to Study Performance of T Cell-Targeted Immuno-Therapeutics |
| Samniqueka Halsey Assistant Professor, Natural Resources | Identifying Tick-Borne Pathogen Prevalence Among Prairies in Central Missouri |
| Kun-Eek Kil Assistant Research Professor, Radiochemistry and Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry | Collaborative Research for the Development of Carbon-11 PET Radiotracers for Mu-Opioid Receptors |
| Kimberly Laffey Assistant Research Professor, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology | Differential Gene Expression Programs Activated by Early αβ TCR Signaling in Development and Leukemia |
| Jian Lin Associate Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering | 4D Printing of Personalized Left Atrial Appendage Occluders for Atrial Embolism Patients |
| Hyeong Suk Na Assistant Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering | Optimal Deployment of Capacitated Fast-Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles on a Directed Highway Network |
| Shramik Sengupta Associate Professor, Biological and Biomedical Engineering | Microfluidic Platform for On-Demand High Throughput Capture and Release of Circulating Tumor Cells |
| Neekun Sharma Assistant Research Professor, Endocrinology | The Role of Endothelial Cell Estrogen Receptor Alpha in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm |
| Patrick Shiu Professor, Biological Sciences | Identification of Silencing-Deficient Mutants in Neurospora |
| Emma Teixeiro-Pernas Associate Professor, Surgery and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology | Identifying Novel Factors That Control Long-Term Immunity Against Respiratory Infections |
| Steven Van Doren Professor, Biochemistry | Enzyme Controlling Synthesis of Oils and Biofuel in Crops: Validation of Structural Models |
| Carissa White Assistant Professor, Clinical Radiology | ScanBright: A Transformative Mobile App for Radiology Education |
| Yao Zhai Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering | Exploration of Optical Metamaterials for Sustainable Food-Energy-Water Nexus |
| Zipei Zhang Assistant Professor, Food Science | Development of Novel Biofilm Inactivation Adjuvants to Enhance Food Safety |