Featured Awards – July 2014

Mark Chopping (Earth & Environmental Studies, CSAM) was awarded $39,086 by the National Aeronautic & Space Administration for “A high-resolution circumpolar delineation of the forest-tundra ecotone with implications for carbon balance.” The study will map and characterize the current Arctic forest-tundra transition zone and reveal its changes during the last several decades with multi-sensor satellite data and field observations.

Domenica Dominguez (Global Education Center) received $8,000 from the Institute of International Education (IIE), on behalf of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in support of three Syrian students studying at Montclair State. As a member of the IIE Syria Consortium for Higher Education in Crisis, Montclair State University supports these three students from Syria on full scholarship. This grant is meant to help fill the gaps in funding offered to Syrian students and will go directly to the students to help pay general living expenses, books, supplies, etc. while in pursuit of their degrees at Montclair State.

‌‌The NJ Family Policy Council awarded $44,936 to Joseph Donnelly (Health & Nutrition Sciences, CEHS) and Robert Horn (Exercise Science & Physical Education, CEHS) for “Abstinence Education Evaluation,” which will involve finishing the assessment of the abstinence education curriculum, completing the curriculum review, and lending ongoing technical assistance with title V programs as it reflects the evaluation and implementation of title V programs throughout New Jersey.

Eric Forgoston and Lora Billings (Mathematical Sciences, CSAM) received $299,987 from the National Science Foundation for “RUI: Transport of inertial particles in time-dependent and stochastic flows” which will use experimental and computed flow fields to identify critical transport features and integrate these features into control algorithms.

‌Donna Lorenzo (Health Careers Program, CSAM) received $250,000 from the US Department of Education for the third year of “Upward Bound.” This five-year project has total award of $1,250,000. The Upward Bound Project provides a six-week commuter summer session followed by an academic component comprised of 25 Saturday sessions. Emphasis is placed on identifying eligible students who are low income and first generation.  The project seeks to improve students’ academic proficiencies in all subject areas and in the state’s standardized instrument, the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) to enable graduation from high school. The Project’s curriculum is comprised of mathematics through calculus, laboratory sciences, foreign languages, language arts, SAT Review, and HSPA Review Courses in Language Arts and Mathematics. The services provided are academic tutoring, advice and assistance in secondary and post-secondary course selection, assistance in preparing for college, assistance in completing financial aid applications, general assistance in alternative education programs for secondary school dropouts, general assistance in entry into post-secondary education, and education and counseling services to improve financial and economic literacy.

Jamaal Matthews (Educational Foundations, CEHS) was awarded $133,808 by the National Science Foundation for the first year of the five-year project “How Urban Adolescents Come to Think of Themselves as Mathematicians,” which will study 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.

Carlos Molina (Biology & Molecular Biology, CSAM) and Marina Cunningham (Global Education Center) received $25,000 from Partners of the Americas Foundation in support of “A Reciprocal Approach to Promoting Study Abroad in STEM: Montclair State University, USA and Universidad Mayor Chile.” In this student-exchange program, faculty at the two institutions will develop and implement a collaborative course focused on biotechnology for five MSU and five UM undergraduate STEM students. The program will serve as a pilot for future exchanges between the two institutions and as a model for study abroad programs specifically designed for STEM students.

Alina Reznitskaya (Educational Foundations, CEHS) was awarded $271,230 for the third and final year of a grant from the US Department of Education/University of Ohio for “Dialogic Teaching: Professional Development in Classroom Discussion to Improve Students’ Argument Literacy.” The project’s objective is to produce a professional development program in dialogic teaching that will help foster teachers’ knowledge, skills, and expertise in how to conduct classroom discussions about text to promote students’ argument literacy.

Steven Shapiro (Library Services) and Marina Cunningham (Global Education Center) received a $20,000 award from the NJ Council for the Humanities for “Rescue in Budapest: The 70th Anniversary of Raoul Wallenberg’s Mission to Save the Last Jews of Europe.” The program will present a series of lectures, panels, and films that commemorate Raoul Wallenberg’s Mission to Budapest. Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish Diplomat, is credited with rescuing anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 Hungarian Jews in 1944. The project will examine the themes of humanitarian rescue, the Holocaust in Hungary, and the history and culture of Hungarian Jewry. Events scheduled include content from various humanities disciplines including history, culture, film studies, and music history.

Diana Thomas (Mathematical Sciences, CSAM) received a $10,859 subaward from the University of Alabama for the second year of the National Institute of Health-funded project “Short Course on the Mathematical Sciences in Obesity Research.” The goals of the short course are: to expose early investigators (doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows) from the mathematical sciences and obesity research areas to the language and methodology at the interface of both disciplines; facilitate collaborations between the two groups through effective contact; and guide early investigators interested in conducting research at the interface of the mathematical sciences and obesity on the next career steps.

Krystal Woolston and Bryan Murdock (Service-Learning and Community Engagement Program) were awarded $1,500 by the NJ Commission on National and Community Service in support of “September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance” which will engage the MSU campus community with various community-based organizations within the extended area of Montclair and will assist in the purchasing of supplies for park clean-ups as well as food supplies to create bagged lunches for homeless populations in the local communities.

The National Park Service awarded Meiyin Wu (Passaic River Institute, CSAM) a grant of $17,892 for “Passaic River Basin EcoExplorers Program for Paterson middle school students.” The program comprises three, two-week, all-day sessions for Paterson-resident middle school students and includes activities such as field studies, computer exercises, and, to a lesser extent, laboratory explorations. Students visit and study notable natural areas (e.g., the Great Falls) and environmental infrastructure (Newark’s water treatment plant) and learn about various areas of environmental science.