Featured Awards – July 2018

Yang Deng • Earth and Environmental Studies
Meiyin Wu • Passaic River Institute
MRI: Acquisition of a Dynamic Imaging Particle Analyzer for Characterization of Particulate Matters in Engineered and Natural Water Systems at Montclair State University
National Science Foundation
$192,212
This award from NSF will allow Dr. Deng and Dr. Wu to acquire a Dynamic Imaging Particle Analyzer (DIPA) (FlowCAM 8400) that will provide a real-time and non-invasive approach to imaging, counting, and characterizing particles and cells in water, fundamentally different from traditional particle imaging ways. It will enable new research and research training opportunities in multiple programs at MSU, particularly environmental engineering, environmental science, ecology, biology, and chemistry. Data generated from the instrument will advance fundamental research associated with particle matters and algal cells in engineered and natural water systems.

Reva Jaffe-Walter • Counseling and Educational Leadership
Improving the Experiences and Outcomes of Immigrant Youth: an Examination of the INPS
William T. Grant Foundation
$24,578
In year two of this subaward from New York University, Dr. Jaffe-Walter will continue to lead qualitative research and conduct observations, interviews, and focus groups in case study schools. She will train researchers who will support qualitative data collection. In addition, she will lead the qualitative team in coding and data analysis. When data collection and analysis is complete, she will draft publications and reports.

Rodica Martin • Physics and Astronomy
RUI: Survey of Magneto-Optical Materials for Faraday Isolators in Future Gravitational-wave Detectors
National Science Foundation
$90,000
Dr. Rodica Martin’s project will address basic research needed for the design of Faraday isolators for future gravitational-wave detectors. A systematic survey of magneto-optical materials in the wavelength range of 1000 nm – 2400 nm will be performed to identify high-performance, low-absorption candidates. She will be joined by undergraduate and master’s degree students at Montclair State University, as well as other senior researchers in the field.

Jamaal Matthews • Educational Foundations
CAREER: How Urban Adolescents Come to Think of Themselves as Mathematicians – Year 5
National Science Foundation
$147,553
This supplemental award, given by the National Science Foundation, will continue to support Dr. Matthews’ studies how African American and Latino middle and high school students construct their sense of self-identity with and in mathematics and the role that teachers play in helping to shape those self-opinions. In conjunction with this project, Matthews has developed and implemented a mentorship program in Newark, NJ based on this research. This mentorship program (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SmBNruQ4ZM) aims to support character development skills and a value of mathematics among young males of color.

Teo Paoletti • Mathematical Sciences
Developing Middle School Students’ Understandings of Coordinate Systems (Mid-CoS) Project
Spencer Foundation
$50,000
Dr. Paoletti’s project will focus on developing a viable approach to promoting middle-school students’ graphing understandings in ways that are potentially transferable to STEM fields and creating curricular materials that have the potential to support students in developing such graphing understandings. His team plans to accomplish these goals by using a design-based research methodology focusing on iterative cycles of designing, enacting, analyzing, and redesigning instructional materials by creating and refining a series of tasks that elicit and extend middle-school students’ meanings for graphs. They will situate these tasks in the existing curricula of a participating school, implement these tasks in a classroom to examine and document any shifts in students’ meanings and reasoning, and study the classroom implementation for features that supported or inhibited student learning.

Amy Tuininga • PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies
Iain Kerr • School of Business
Yeng Deng • Earth and Environmental Studies
Green Teams: Creating a Process for Sustainable Technology Product Development
VentureWell
$31,000
With the grant awarded from VentureWell, Dr. Amy Tuininga and her team plan to expand an existing transdisciplinary team-based program, to include more entrepreneurship, innovation design, and information about patenting and commercialization. This expansion will occur in collaboration with Montclair State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship and two organizations, Earth Friendly Products and Hydrogen House Project. The Green Teams employ hands-on learning in real world situations to address sustainability challenges through design of sustainable technology solutions and build classroom-to-career opportunities for students through an internship program.

Jennifer Urban • Family Science and Human Development
Growing Relational Virtues in Parents and Children
John Templeton Foundation
$54,916
This subaward from University of California, Berkeley to Dr. Urban will cover the work of an evaluation team that will be focused on two in-person “convenings” that will bring together staff of community organizations, and advisory committee with expertise in character virtue research, and evaluation advisors with expertise in evaluation and program development linking research and practice. The team will specifically cover the first convening and the follow-up evaluation support for participating programs as they finalize program designs, identify research foundations, and develop and implement evaluation plans.