Each year, the Office of the Vice President for Research offers a competitive research grant program for graduate students from all areas of study. This academic year, 56 students from 9 different academic units have been awarded SPARC grants. The 2015-2016 SPARC recipients, listed below, will use their SPARC funds to engage in research and scholarly projects over a 15-month period.
Through the SPARC program, graduate students have a unique opportunity not only to gain funding for their scholarly projects, but also to grow their experience in developing competitive grant proposals. Students who apply for SPARC prepare detailed budgets, write a narrative description detailing their plans and research methodology, compile supporting documentation and seek the support of their faculty advisors. This process closely reflects many of the steps they will take throughout their research careers, giving them an edge on the competition.
2015-2016 SPARC Recipients
| Recipient Name | Department or Program | Proposal Title |
| Jada Ach | English | Affective Ecologies in the Work of Jack London |
| Benjamin Belgrad | Marine Science | Understanding the flexibility and competitive advantages of animal personalities |
| Brandon Boesch | Philosophy | Scientific representation and human action |
| Keith Brazendale | Exercise Science | A Pilot Study Investigating the Etiology of Accelerated Weight Gain of Children During Summer vs. School Year |
| William Brixius | Experimental Psychology | Modulation of Reading Speed |
| Anusha Chaparala | Drug Discovery and Biomedical Science | Exploring the Mechanism of Macrophage-specific Targeting by Panaxynol, a Derivative of American Ginseng |
| Chia-Chun Chiang | Finance | How Statutory Reserve Regulation Influences Life insurers’ asset allocations in a low-interest-rate environment |
| Ormonde Cragun | Management | Succession planning infrastructure |
| Danielle Fahey | Linguistics | Asymmetric Binarity as a Cognitive Universal: The Rhythm of Syntactic Structure |
| Deeonna Farr | Health Promotion, Education & Behavior | The Impact of False Positive Mammography Results on Breast Cancer Screening Intention in Black Women |
| Kathleen Franke | School Psychology | Pursuing Happiness: An Investigation of Positive Mental Health in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder |
| Erik Frankforter | Mechanical Engineering | Wave Trapping and Acoustic Metamaterials Concepts for Fiber Optics Sensing |
| Clay Fuller | Political Science | Authoritarian Liberalism: How Autocracies Survive in the Modern Global Economy |
| Megan Gee | Chemistry & Biochemistry | Solvent Effect on Ligand Dynamics in Colloidal QD systems |
| Gerad Gentry | Philosophy | The Imagination as a First Principle of Knowledge |
| Victoria Henbest | Communication Sciences & Disorders | Is a systematic analysis of spelling a valid measure of orthographic and phonological awareness skills in 1st grade students? |
| Michael Hendley | Biomedical Engineering | Biomaterial Scaffolds for Adipose Tissue Engineering |
| Hope Holt | Biomedical Engineering | Alteration of P-glycoprotein Expression in the Presence of Amyloid-beta and Other Compounds |
| Chun Hsieh | Chemistry & Biochemistry | Leveraging P450 Enzymes for Renewable Bioenergy Production |
| Wei Hu | Comparative Literature | Images of Exceptional Women and Chinese Modernity |
| Chen-Ling Hung | Geography | Storm Hydrographs in Two Subwatersheds of the Rocky Branch Watershed |
| Laura Jenkins | Chemistry & Biochemistry | Type III TGFb receptor regulation of Wnt/bcatenin signaling in ovarian cancer. |
| Samuel King | History | High-Class Chop Suey: The Making of Chinese Fine Dining in Chicago, 1893-1917 |
| Tyler Lewis | Mathematics | Representation Type of 0-Modality Codimension Two Singularities |
| Minghui Li | Pharmaceutical Sciences | The Impact of Medicare Payment Policy Change on the Risks Associated with Use of Erythropoiesis Stimulating Agents |
| Jiaxin Liang | Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences | TIMP3 as a pivot in the regulation of colon cancer metastasis |
| Karina Liles | Computer Science & Engineering | Meeting Students Educational Needs by Engaging Students in Multiplication Practice with Social Robot |
| Xiao Lin | Computer Science & Engineering | Computational Tool for Identifying Branching Types in Hyphal Growth Models |
| Junxiu Liu | Epidemiology & Biostatistics | Body Mass Index Trajectories in the First Year and Its Association with the Risk of Being Overweight or Obese at Six Years of Age in Children |
| Chao Lu | Mechanical Engineering | A Novel Wavelet-Based Approach for Spent Nuclear Fuel Rod Failure Detection in Dry Cask Storage |
| Xiaonan Ma | Epidemiology & Biostatistics | Food Shopping Patterns and Associations with Obesity |
| Kyunghee Ma | Social Work | Acculturation Stress and Depression among International Graduate Students from China and India at the University of South Carolina |
| Alexandria McCombs | Geography | Agricultural Land Use Change Effects on Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide in the US Great Plains |
| Lauren McGuire | Educational Psychology | Assessing Stability Of CBCLDSM Profiles |
| Kristen McLaurin | Experimental Psychology | Progression of Temporal Processing Deficits in Aging HIV-1 Transgenic Rats |
| Seyyedali Mirshahghassemi | Environmental Health Sciences | Evaluation of Polymer-Coated Magnetic Nanoparticles for Oil Separation from Oil-Water Mixture in Natural Waters |
| Daniela Negraia | Sociology | Comparing the health and happiness of parents and nonparents – The role of adult’s education |
| Elizabeth Nelson | Geography | Algerians Communities in France: Place, Social Networks, and Integration |
| Stephen O'Hara | History | Televising the Future: Science Fiction Television, the State, and Cold War Popular Culture, 1950-1970 |
| Anais Parada | Anthropology | Wearing Indigeneity: Crafting Local Identities and Selling Global Commodities |
| Yujia Peng | Electrical Engineering | Miniaturized Frequency Reconfigurable Wireless Power Harvesting Systems on Engineered Substrate Enabled with Patterned Permalloy Thin Film |
| Ligia Reyes | Health Promotion, Education & Behavior | Understanding Mothers’ Food Choices on Behalf of Children Under Five in Rural Panama |
| Caleb Schlachter | Chemistry & Biochemistry | Structural and Functional Studies of Aspergillus fumigatus 2-Methylcitrate Synthase |
| Gary Sellick | History | A Fleeting Glimpse of Freedom: The Evolution of British Emancipation during the Revolutionary War |
| Maria Sevoyan | Epidemiology & Biostatistics | Causal Effect of Colchicine Therapy on Renal Amyloidosis in Patients with Familial Mediterranean Fever |
| Mithil Soni | Biological Sciences | Role of miR-489 in Autophagy and Cancer Stem Cell Regulation |
| Tracey Swartz | Marketing | The Chief Marketing Officer: Resume Builders or Endangered Species |
| Scott Taylor, Jr. | Hospitality Management | Pop Up Restaurants and Dining Experiences |
| Natalie Umling | Geological Sciences | A Record of Deglacial Ocean Ventilation from Foraminiferal Radiocarbon in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific |
| Elise Van Meerssche | Biological Sciences | The effect of the phytoplankton toxin domoic acid on benthic microalgal communities |
| Lauren Wolf | Biomedical Engineering | RAGE Expression and Inflammation with Amyloid-beta Exposure in Alzheimer's Disease |
| Wuzhao Yan | Electrical Engineering | Lebesgue Sampling-based Prognostics with Application to Li-ion Batteries |
| Hassan Zamir, MD | Library and Information Science | Anatomy of a Social Media Movement: Diffusion, Sentiment and Network Analysis |
| Qingfeng Zhang | Chemistry & Biochemistry | Plasmonic Scissors for Aromatic Side-Chain Cleavage |
| Yingsha Zhang | Hospitality Management | How does the Spatial Structure of General Tourism Demand Affect the Spatial Structure
of Theme Park Attractiveness? |
| Jie Zhou | Epidemiology & Biostatistics | Joint Model of the CVD Mortality and Nonlinear Longitudinal Effect of Physical Activity |