Featured Awards – January 2014

Tanya Blacic (Earth & Environmental Studies, CSAM) was awarded a $31,435 grant for “New US-South Korean Collaboration: 2-D Ocean Temperature from Seismic Oceanography Data” by the National Science Foundation. The project will initiate a new international collaboration with Dr. Changsoo Shin at Seoul National University in South Korea to apply his method of obtaining background sound speed models in the solid earth from marine seismic data to the ocean itself. Extracting ocean sound speed models from conventional seismic data will enable us to calculate high-resolution 2-D temperature images of the ocean which can lead to a better understanding of ocean mixing–a process that is not well understood or quantified yet forms a key input to all global climate models because the oceans exchange heat and gases with the atmosphere.

The Spencer Foundation awarded $155,008 to Helenrose Fives (not pictured) and Nicole Barnes (Educational Foundations, CEHS) for “Teachers with Expertise in Data Use: How Do They Engage in Data Driven Decision Making from Student Performance Data to Influence Instruction?” which will investigate whether (and under what conditions) fifth grade English Language Arts and Social Studies teachers with expertise in data use engage in a data based decision making process and what if any subprocesses and microprocesses they evoke to convert classroom student performance data into actionable knowledge for long-term and short-term instructional decisions.

‌Eric Forgoston and Lora Billings (Mathematical Sciences, CSAM) received a $10,000 supplement from the National Science Foundation to support two undergraduate students on their current project, “Understanding the Dynamics of Stochastic Disease Spread in Metapopulations,” which studies the dynamics of disease spread and extinction.

Valerie Sessa and Jennifer Bragger (Psychology, CHSS) were awarded $10,000 by the C. Charles Jackson Foundation in support of “Longitudinal assessment of students participating in leadership development programs.” The study will longitudinally assess college student leaders at five universities during their college years plus two years post-college. The research seeks to determine which students pursue leadership development opportunities, which opportunities they choose, what they are learning, how these opportunities build on each other, and the impact of the process on student leadership competencies, success in college, and post-college experiences and leadership activities.