The Vice President for Research is pleased to announce the 2020-2021 recipients of the SPARC Graduate Research Grant. These 43 graduate students from eight academic units worked with faculty advisors to prepare and submit competitive proposals, earning valuable grant-writing experience, as well as funds to support their research and scholarly projects.
2020-2021 SPARC Graduate Research Grant Recipients
| Recipient Name | Department or Program | Proposal Title |
| Sakiru Abiodun | Chemistry | Structure and Thermal Stability of Inorganic Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals through High Resolution Microscopy |
| Kidochukwu Atube | Chemical Engineering | Development of Phosphatidylserine Presenting Particles for Targeting Macrophages in Tissue Regeneration |
| Jacob Barber | Exercise Science | Molecular Foundations of Lipoprotein Response to Exercise |
| Alexander Barth | Biological Sciences | Establishing community-based science monitoring of zooplankton communities’ response to harmful algae |
| Hannah Burzynski | Biomedical Sciences | Immune Challenges Exacerbate Neuroinflammatory Responses in a Rat Model of Gulf War Illness |
| Tasha Childs | Social Work | Exploring Mental Health Supports during COVID-19 School Reopening: A Qualitative Study |
| Karlen Correa | Environmental Health Sciences | Transcriptome sequencing of Vibrio vulnificus exposed to wastewater treatment plant effluent |
| Jennifer Crooks-Monastra | Teaching and Learning | Planning and Teaching for Student Learning in Mathematics: How Graduate Student Instructors Develop and Implement Instruction |
| B. Celia Cui | Pharmaceutical Sciences | Mathematically guided hypothesis testing for DEAD-Box RNA helicase 3-dependent mechanismof RNA localization to stress granules |
| Sarah Davis | Pharmaceutical Sciences | Effects of HIV-1 Tat protein on the extracellular dopamine dynamics in the inducible Tat transgenic mice using fast cyclic voltammetry |
| Xiaokai Ding | Pharmaceutical Sciences | Therapeutic Targeting of CDK8/19 in Triple Negative Breast Cancer |
| Anna Ehrhorn | Communications Sciences and Disorders | Orthographic Awareness and Phonological Awareness in Children with Speech Sound Disorder |
| Shirelle Hallum | Health Promotion, Education and Behavior | Using innovative technologies to advocate for pedestrian infrastructure and address health inequities |
| Christian Holmes | Social Work | Exploring Foster Parent Cultural Competence Practice in Transethnic-racial Placements |
| Kazi Islam | Civil Engineering | Characterization of Subgrade Soil Behavior for Flexible Pavement Design |
| OmerFaruk Karadavut | Electrical Engineering | Machine Learning Assisted High-Resolution CdZnTeSe Semiconductor Based Gamma-ray Spectrometer for Continuous Monitoring of Nuclear Waste Storage Tank |
| Bezawit Kase | Epidemiology | Dietary Index for Gut Microbiota and Associations with Colorectal Cancer and Breast Cancer Risk |
| Manikanda Raja Keerthi Raja | Biological Sciences | Understanding Interleukin-1alpha Mediated Immune Suppression in HER2-positive Breast Cancer |
| Hyunsu Kim | Hospitality Management | Post-Disaster Recovery Strategies in Tourism Destinations |
| Allison Kimsey | Chemistry | Mechanistic Insights into an Iron-Responsive Repressor from S. pombe |
| Erin Kishman | Exercise Science | Salivary Insulin, Cortisol, and Estrogen in the First Year Postpartum |
| Nik Lampe | Sociology | Healthy Aging Beyond Sex and Gender Binaries |
| Gabrielle Leith | Chemistry | Tuning the Electronic Structure of Covalent-Organic Frameworks |
| Corey Martin | Chemistry | Photochromic Layered Materials for Energy Storage Applications |
| Samantha Martin | Linguistics | “La Violencia de Género Es una Pandemia”: The Circulation of Feminist Discourses in Chile During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| John McCullough | Linguistics | Guides, rides, and tides: Language as index of authority and authenticity by Gullah tour companies |
| Andrei Medved | Mathematics | Data-driven Constitutive Modeling of Complex Fluids |
| Tianyue Mi | Health Prom., Educ. & Behavior | The impact of intersectional stigma on mental and physical health outcomes among HIV-infected Sexual and Gender Minority population |
| Melissa Mull | Social Work | The Role of State Medicaid Programs in Regulating the Quality of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment in the United States |
| Megha Oza | Environmental Health Sciences | Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocyte associated Markers for Colorectal Cancer Prognosis and Significance |
| Brittany Pope | Exercise Science | A Role for Mitochondria in Stress Susceptibility |
| Mary Quattlebaum | Clinical-Community Psychology | Building Family Resilience to Improve Adolescent Eating Behaviors and Well-Being Among African American Families" |
| Sreehari Rajan-Kattil | Mechanical Engineering | Experiments and Finite Element-Based Modeling of Three-Tab Shingles Failure Under High Wind Loads |
| Katherine Rentschler | Biomedical Sciences | A Study of Brain Kynurenic Acid Elevation and Sleep Disturbances |
| Angelina Rubina | Linguistics | Heritage language Russian in the United States: Grammar acquisition of definiteness and specificity |
| Lesley Smith | Linguistics | The Effects of Explicit and Implicit Feedback on Processing French L2 Word Order |
| Yuzhu Sun | Comparative Literature | Imagining Peking: English Representations of Urban and Rural China, 1920-1945 |
| Jake Swanson | Biological Sciences | How do changes in lake color affect phytoplankton community composition? |
| Catherine Thomas | Theatre MFA | Producing Immersive Theatre in the Age of COVID-19 |
| Thomas Toomey | Counselor Education | Examining the Effects of an Adapted Therapy for LGBTQ+ Clients on Their Psychological Well-Being |
| Zixin Wang | Chemistry | Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanozymes with Peroxidase-Mimicking Behaviors |
| Jie Wang | Electrical Engineering | Magnetic softness tuned γ-Fe2O3 superparamagnetic nanoparticles by shallow doping with highly efficient heat induction |
| Marilyn Wende | Health Promotion, Education and Behavior | Neighborhood socioeconomic status, green space, and walkability and risk for fracture among postmenopausal women: The Women’s Health Initiative |