Featured Awards – June 2014

Yasemin Besen-Cassino (Sociology, CHSS) received $15,000 from Sociologists for Women in Society to support the operation of the Book Review Office of Gender & Society at Montclair State University. Gender & Society is ranked #1 journal in the area of gender studies. This grant will provide yearly funding, extendable up to three years, for operational costs of the office. As a part of this grant, Dr. Besen-Cassino will be serving as the book review editor of Gender & Society for a three-year term, selecting books for review, selecting reviewers, editing book reviews, and preparing book reviews for publication. This grant also provides funding for an MSU student to serve as an editorial assistant.

Paul Bologna, John Gaynor, and Robert Meredith (Biology and Molecular Biology, CSAM) received $100,000 from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection for the third year of “Impacts of Invasive Sea Nettles (Chrysaora quinquecirrha) and Ctenophores on Planktonic Community Structure and Bloom Prediction of Sea Nettles Using Molecular Techniques.” The project aims to create a field-sample predictive model for Chrysaora blooms using real-time PCR to assess the distribution of gelatinous zooplankton and impacts on planktonic community structure, the distribution and density of settling Chrysaora polyps and development of resting podocysts, and the diet of Chrysaora through dissection and molecular analysis.‌‌

Julian Brash (Anthropology, CHSS) was awarded $125,000 by the National Science Foundation for “The High Line: Public Space in the Contemporary City” which will will examine the meanings and functions of public space in contemporary postindustrial cities of the United States and Western Europe. It will do so by focusing on the High Line, a newly built elevated park located on unused railway trestle on the west side of Manhattan in New York City that has been lauded as an exemplar of contemporary public space.

Mika Munakata and Erin Krupa (Mathematical Sciences, CSAM) and Jacalyn Willis (Professional Resources in Science and Mathematics, CSAM) were awarded $366,600 from the New Jersey Department of Education for the second year of a three-year “CUSP: Creative University-School Partnerships” Program. The purpose of this program is to increase the academic achievement of students in mathematics and science by enhancing the content knowledge and teaching skills of classroom teachers. The project will encompass the needs of the collaborating districts’ teachers of grades 5-8 mathematics as those needs relate to 1) the Common Core State Standards; 2) the local assessment results of those districts’ students on the NJ-ASK tests and classroom observations by supervisors, principals, and PRISM outreach staff.