FACULTY AWARDS

Research Grants and Awards

African American Studies

Johari Jabir, assistant professor of African American studies, received the Who’s Who in Humanities Academia Award.

Anthropology

In September 2008, Brian Bauer, professor of anthropology, was granted $16,500 from National Geographic for research on shrine worship among the Incas. The grant will help support excavations of the Yurac Rumi shrine in the Vilcabamba region of Peru, one of the last and most important shrines to be worshiped by the Inca nobility.

Joel Palka, associate professor of anthropology and Latin American and Latino studies, was awarded a $21,000 grant from National Geographic for a historical archaeology project at Lake Mensabak, Chiapas, Guatemala. He will study pilgrimage, religion and material culture of the unconquered Maya at the site through archaeology and ethnography.

Anna Roosevelt, professor of anthropology, was awarded a $50,000 Cargill Foundation Grant for archaeological research in Santarém, Pará, Brazil.

Chemistry

A nitrogen-containing ring-shaped structure that chemists call an "N-heterocycle" is part of almost all the top 200 brand-name drugs, but the synthesis reactions required to make these drugs take a long time and produce toxic waste byproducts. A University of Illinois at Chicago research group, led by Tom Driver, assistant professor of chemistry, may have found a faster, cleaner, "greener" way to perform these chemical reactions by using different chemicals to create a more streamlined reaction, and in September 2008 the National Institutes of Health awarded the team a five-year, $1.48 million grant to prove its effectiveness.

Yoshitaka Ishii, assistant professor of chemistry, received a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to purchase a nuclear magnetic resonance machine.

In August 2008, Lawrence Miller, assistant professor of chemistry, received a four-year, $1.16 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for his research on mapping protein structure. Seeing what's going on inside living cells at the molecular level may reveal biological mechanisms and ultimately lead to more effective medicines. To image proteins, scientists must tag them with a reporter—a special protein or organic molecule with certain properties, like florescence. While these reporters make seeing multiple proteins easy, seeing single proteins still remains difficult due to white noise created from other florescent molecules in the cell. Miller is working on ways to improve the imaging of single proteins, and will use this grant to build a time-resolved microscope and test different types of reporters.

In June 2009, the Chicago Transformation Teacher Institute (CTTI) proposal, led by Donald Wink, professor of chemistry, was awarded a grant of $4.9 million by the National Science Foundation. The Institute involves a partnership between five Chicago-based institutions of higher education and the Chicago Public Schools, providing mathematics and science leadership development for the CPS high schools through a strengthening of that partnership and support of the district's High School Transformation Project. Teacher-led work will improve the selection, refinement, and implementation of effective mathematics curricula throughout high school and rigorous 12th-grade capstone and AP curricula. Wink was also part of a five-person panel that testified in Washington before the House Committee on Science and Technology's Research and Science Education in July 2009 on efforts by the public and private sectors to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics education both inside and outside the classroom, specifically in Chicago.

Classics and Mediterranean Studies

Pietro Bortone, assistant professor of classics and Mediterranean studies, was awarded the Hugh LeMay Research Fellowship from Rhodes University in South Africa for the Summer of 2009.

Communication

Steve Jones, professor of communication, is co-principal investigator on the study, “Preparedness and Emergency Response Using Simulated Environments (PERUSE),” which will be awarded $1.6 million over the next five years by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the fall of 2008 Rebecca Lind, associate professor of communication and assistant vice chancellor for research, was awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Research Integrity to study research misconduct policies.

Criminology, Law and Justice

In March 2009, the National Institute of Justice awarded the University of Illinois at Chicago a $2 million grant to evaluate the current state of American policing. A team of top researchers from around the country, led by Dennis Rosenbaum, professor of criminology, law and justice, will examine approximately 25 law enforcement agencies to determine what contributes to success or "good policing" among individual officers, supervisors and organizations. “The study should yield a deeper understanding of the life and work of police officers and police supervisors in the United States,” said Rosenbaum.

Earth and Environmental Sciences

Neil C. Sturchio, professor and head of earth and environmental sciences, is a co-principal investigator on the project, “Validation of Chlorine and Oxygen Isotope Ratio Analysis to Differentiate Perchlorate Sources and to Document Perchlorate Biodegradation,” which received the Department of Defense Environmental Security Technology Program’s 2008 Project of the Year Award.

Addressing Obesity in Teens

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Listen to a podcast from Frank Chaloupka about his recent $16 million grant to research youth health and obesity

“In recent years we’ve started to pay more attention to diet, physical activity and obesity,” says Chaloupka. “There are numerous long-term health consequences associated with the rise in obesity in kids and significant health care costs associated with that.” ImpacTEEN researchers will evaluate food advertising on television, the foods provided by schools, the physical activity supported by schools and the opportunities for physical activity in communities. “Policy makers at all levels — at the federal level, state level, local level, in schools and other organizations — are really trying to do different things, taking different approaches to try to address these issues,” Chaloupka said. “With this project we can add to the evidence about what works to impact kids’ diets, activity levels and ultimately their weight outcomes.”

Economics

Frank Chaloupka, UIC distinguished professor of economics and director of the Health Policy Center at the UIC Institute for Health Research and Policy, is the principal investigator of a UIC ImpacTEEN project study that was awarded a $16 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in December 2008. The study seeks to provide comprehensive research that helps legislators and policymakers develop effective policy and make informed decisions about funding programs to change youth health behaviors and reverse the rising rates of obesity. “We can add to the evidence about what works to impact kids’ diets,” he said.

Bob Kaestner, professor of economics, is the co-principal investigator on the study, “Specific Aspects of Quality that Support Children’s School Readiness in Community-Based and School-Based Early Childhood Programs,” funded by the U.S. Department of Education for $600,000.

Bob Kaestner and Rachel A. Gordon, associate professor of sociology, are co-principal investigators on the project, “Nutritional Assistance in Child Care and at Home: Correlates of Program Participation and Associations with Child Outcomes,” which was granted $40,000 by a subcontract from the University of Chicago, funds originating from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

John Tauras, associate professor of economics, is principal investigator of the study, “State Tobacco Control Funding and Smoking Cessation,” which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for $99,000 from August 2008 through July 2010.

English

Sunil Agnani, assistant professor of English and history, was named a Newberry Library Scholar in Residence for 2008-2009.

Natasha Barnes, associate professor of English and African American studies, was awarded a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at the University of Colorado, Boulder for the fall of 2009.

Lennard Davis, professor of English and disabilities studies, was named Honorary Visiting Professor of Humanities at Westminster University of London.

Ann Feldman, professor of English, received $50,000 from the McCormick Foundation for support of the UIC Chicago Civic Leadership Certificate Program.

Chris Messenger, professor of English, received a Unites States Fulbright Grant Group Award along with Eric Arnesen, professor of history and African American studies, for programming in “Teaching American Culture: Unity and Diversity,” which trains foreign teachers of American culture in an intensive summer seminar at UIC.

Mary Anne Mohanraj, clinical assistant professor of English, received a Breaking Barriers Award for leadership in the Asian American Creative Arts from the Chicago Foundation for Women Asian American Leadership Council.

History

Margaret Strobel, professor emerita of history and gender and women’s studies, received the Write Women Back into History Award from the National Women’s History Project in September 2008.

Leon Fink, professor of history and director of the graduate program History of Work, Race and Gender in the Urban World, was awarded a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship for his work on labor movements in the modern world. He was chosen along with 190 other artists, scholars and scientists from a pool of over 2,600 applicants. Combining political with legal, labor and literary perspectives, Fink is studying reforms in the international governance of sea labor that led to changing attitudes on workers’ rights and welfare for a project titled, “Sweatshops at Sea: Regulating Labor in the Atlantic World, 1800-2000.”

Latin American and Latino Studies

Nilda Flores-Gonzalez, associate professor of Latin American and Latino studies and sociology, received a Ford Foundation Award for a conference and book on gender and immigrant labor.

Passing the Danzón Test

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Listen to a sample of the rigoletito, the music that accompanies the danzón.

"During my first night conducting fieldwork at Veracruz’s main square, I was asked to dance with a very good dancer who I had seen dance the night before at another event, and I thought that maybe the people there wanted to know if—this guy who was asking all these questions—knew what I was talking about. By avoiding fancy "chilango" (from Mexico City) embellishments, I managed to make my dance look like the more traditional "veracruzano" style. It is amazing how everyone’s attitude toward me changed once they realized I was able to do the danzón." The February 2009 edition of e-AtLAS provides more details about Alejandro L. Madrid and his Fulbright research.

Alejandro L. Madrid, assistant professor of Latin American and Latino studies, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for the 2008-2009 academic year for his research examining transnational relations between Cuba and Mexico through a cultural study of the danzón, a dance of Cuban origin that combines European and African elements. Of danzón, Madrid said, “It is interesting that in both Cuban and Mexican societies, danzón is closely linked to notions of local belonging; what makes it even more interesting to me is that in both cases there is a kind of purification of the genre in relation to its music styles as well as how the body should move to the beat of the music.” Madrid’s first evening of research was an interesting experience.

Learning Sciences Research Institute

In a National Science Foundation-funded project involving exercises from The Cryptoclub, Janet Beissinger, co-author of The Cryptoclub and research associate professor in the UIC Learning Sciences Research Institute and the department of mathematics, statistics and computer science, discovered the power of code-cracking in teaching mathematics. In April 2009, Beissinger, Bonnie Saunders, clinical associate professor of mathematics, Daria Tsoupikova, assistant professor of electronic visualization, and Susan Goldman, LAS distinguished professor of psychology and education, won a five-year, $2.5 million NSF grant, made possible by President Obama’s stimulus, to develop The Cryptoclub as an after-school activity, complete with more sophisticated computer games that can be accessed by anyone online. The project will involve working with high school and middle school students in Chicago. "The Cryptoclub builds on the mathematics middle school students are learning—but put in settings students find intriguing," said Beissinger. "It's a hook that captures their interest and engages them in mathematics in ways different from traditional school experiences.” Do you think you could crack the codes these kids are working on?

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science

In February 2009, Izzet Coskun and Alina Marian, assistant professors of mathematics, statistics and computer science, were among the 118 scholars named 2009 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellows. Both work in the area of algebraic geometry which focuses on properties of solutions of polynomial equation systems and how it relates to fields such as evolutionary biology, statistics, physics—notably string theory—and computer science. “One of the most amazing aspects of mathematics research is that other scientists often find beautiful and unexpected applications of mathematical theories,” said Coskun. He and Marian are among seven mathematicians in the department’s algebraic geometry group, one of the strongest in the country. “Both are very talented researchers on the forefront of their field,” said David Marker, head of the department. “I’m delighted to see them receive the recognition they so richly deserve.” The award, which includes a two-year, $50,000 grant, is often cited as an indicator of future distinction in science, mathematics and economics.

Philosophy

Colin Klein, assistant professor of philosophy, received an Irish Research Council Development Grant.

Tony Laden, associate professor of philosophy, was awarded a $40,000 grant from the Spencer Foundation for the project, “Reframing Civic Education: Beyond the Civics Classroom.”

Physics

Olga Barannikova, assistant professor of physics, and David Hofman, associate professor of physics, were awarded two grants from the U.S. Department of Energy totaling $987,000 for research on high energy nuclear physics.

Christoph Grein, professor in the department of physics, received a NASA Inventions and Contributions Board Award.

In January 2009, Robert Klie, assistant professor of physics, received a 2009 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award, one of the most competitive awards to honor young faculty members in the early stages of their research and education careers. The prestigious award, along with a $400,000 grant, was in recognition of Klie's research on cobalt oxides, a class of ceramic materials that could be used in next-generation magnetic storage devices in computer hard drives, or in coatings that could be applied to automobile engine blocks and tailpipes where heat could be converted into electricity. Klie’s award will be used primarily to hire graduate and undergraduate assistants to carry out laboratory experiments aimed at unlocking the secrets of what makes cobalt oxides work at the atomic level, and how to scale-up production for useful application.

Sivalingam Sivananthan and Christoph Grein, professors of physics, along with Yong Chang, research assistant professor of physics, were awarded a three-year, $710,457 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Psychology

Robin Mermelstein, professor of psychology, is the principal investigator of a five-year study that will examine the way online smoking cessation programs affect young adult smokers' ability to quit. The study will be funded for $2.9 million by the National Cancer Institute.

Mitchell Roitman and Stewart Shankman, assistant professors of psychology, are two of three UIC researchers selected to receive a 2008 Young Investigator Award from The National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, a leading charity in mental health research. The award was announced during July of 2008. They are among 220 early-career scientists from around the world who will each receive $60,000 over the next two years to advance their research on psychiatric disorders. Roitman will use the drug ketamine on rats to mimic the symptoms of schizophrenia and record levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which plays a role in normal goal-directed behavior as well as drug abuse. Shankman will use functional magnetic resonance imaging to study whether a reduced sensitivity to reward is specific to depression and whether an increased sensitivity to threat is specific to anxiety. The study seeks to explore the roles these tendencies play in depression and anxiety.

Kara Morgan Short, assistant professor of psychology and Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, won the 2009 Harold N. Glassman Dissertation Award in the Social Sciences.

In August 2008, Associate Professor of Psychology Jennifer Wiley was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers. The Humboldt Fellowship Program is an internationally competitive award that supports highly qualified scientists and scholars of all nationalities and all disciplines so that they may carry out proposals for long-term research projects in Germany. This fellowship facilitated Wiley’s travel to both the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition in Berlin as well as to Ludwig-Maximillian University in Munich, where she spent her spring semester conducting research on collaboration, expertise and effective problem solving.

Slavic and Baltic Languages and Literatures

Julia Vaingurt, assistant professor of Slavic and Baltic languages and literatures, received the following fellowships and grants: Harvard University Davis Center Fellowship, 2009-2010; UIC Institute for the Humanities Fellowship, 2009-2010, declined; and an NEH Summer Institute Grant, Summer 2009.

Sociology

Richard E. Barrett, associate professor of sociology, was granted $470,000 from the Cancer Education and Career Development Program, part of the National Cancer Institute, to act as a curriculum coordinator, preparing courses for the graduate-level concentration in Health Disparities.

Anna Guevarra, assistant professor of sociology, and Nilda Flores-Gonzalez, associate professor of Latin American and Latino studies and sociology, were co-investigators on the project, “Labor Disruptions and Alternative Employment Strategies among Immigrant Women in the U.S.” The project was funded by the Ford Foundation for $150,000 for the period of July 1, 2008 through August 31, 2009.

Sydney Halpern, professor in the department of sociology, is the lead investigator on the study, “Human Hepatitis Experiments in the United States, 1942-1972,” funded by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health for $235,000.

Maria Krysan, associate professor in the department of sociology and in the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, is the co-principal investigator on the project, “Rethinking Race and Affirmative Action in the U.S., Brazil and South Africa,” funded by the Ford Foundation for $350,000.

James Norr, assistant professor emeritus of sociology, received a Fulbright Scholar grant for the implementation of effective, nationwide HIV prevention programs led by schools, hospitals and churches in Malawi. The goal of his study is to distinguish organizational characteristics that facilitate or impede the programs' ability to expand beyond a regional service. "Discovering the best practices of a program is a routine but necessary research activity," said Norr, who has been engaged in the development and evaluation of HIV/AIDS prevention programs for nearly 20 years. "However, the process of scaling up to establish and maintain validated programs nationwide is much less defined due to a lack of previous research,” he said.

Department of Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese

Professor of Linguistics and Head of the Department of Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, Luís López-Carretero, was the recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for the summer of 2009.

Kimberly Potowski, associate professor of Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, was awarded a $20,000 grant from the American Council of Learned Societies to research heritage speakers of Eastern European languages in the United States.