The Office of the Vice President for Research is pleased to share our monthly report listing new grant awards USC faculty researchers across the university system received between July 1 and July 31. Please note that some awards received toward the end of that period might have missed the reporting cut-off. In such cases, the award will be listed in the next monthly report. Our office is proud to share these successes with the university research community. Please join us in congratulating our excellent researchers on their new grant awards.
Summary of Large July 2026 New Grant Awards |
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PI Name |
PI College/Dept. |
Award Title |
Sponsor |
Total |
| Yang, Xueying |
Arnold School of Public Health Health Prom., Educ. & Behavior |
Multimodal AI to predict cognitive disorders among people with HIV | National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)/NIH | $5,081,595 |
| Googe, Heather |
College of Education Child Development Res. Center |
South Carolina Partnerships for Inclusion |
SC Department of Education (SCDE) |
$4,848,410 |
| Weist, Mark |
McCausland College of Arts and Sciences Psychology |
Carolinas School Behavioral Health Technical Assistance Center (CSBHTAC) | USC Educational Foundation/The Duke Endowment | $3,575,000 |
| Shi, Fanghui |
Arnold School of Public Health Health Prom., Educ. & Behavior |
Leveraging Sexually Transmitted Infection Data for Enhancing HIV Prevention and Treatment | National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID)/NIH | $2,235,000 |
| Lidge, Cody |
Joseph F. Rice School of Law Children's Law Center |
Court Liaison Program - FY26 | SC Department of Social Services (DSS) | $2,129,155 |
| Larson, Leila |
Arnold School of Public Health Health Prom., Educ. & Behavior |
Neurobehavioral impacts in adolescence from early life nutrition supplementation: 10-year follow-up to a cluster randomized trial in Bangladesh | National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)/NIH | $1,745,494 |
| Ellis, Allison |
University of SC Upstate UPS History, Political Sci., Phil. |
CHAMPS Beatty Center | USC Educational Foundation/The Duke Endowment | $1,353,520 |
| Hughes, Melanie |
University of SC Upstate UPS Achieve |
ACHIEVE 2026-27 | Upstate Workforce Board/DOL | $760,000 |
| Li, Wuchen |
McCausland College of Arts and Sciences Mathematics |
MFAI: Mathematical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence via Transport Information Geometry | National Science Foundation (NSF) | $750,000 |
| Wuest, Thorsten (Thor) |
Molinaroli College of Engineering & Computing Mechanical Engineering |
Enhancing spot weld quality in car body production using process-integrated AI-driven quality prediction and parameter adaptation - Mercedes Portion | Mercedes-Benz Vans, LLC | $683,781 |
July 2026 Awards by College
PI Name |
PI Dept. |
Award Title |
Sponsor |
Total |
| Workman, Lauren | Applied Research & Evaluation (CARE) | CaroNova’s Health System Workforce Accelerator Evaluation | CaroNova, Inc. | $16,809
|
| Vejerano, Eric Warren | Environmental Health Sciences | Formation of Persistent Free Radicals in Sunscreens During Light Exposure | National Science Foundation (NSF) | $619,916 |
| Nolan, Melissa | Epidemiology & Biostatistics | Exploring Novel Pathogen-Host Interactions in Fulminant Human Infections through Virome-capture Metagenomics (LEAD PI is University Public Corporation Osaka) | The International Science and Technology Center (ISTC)/NIAID/NIH | $100,000 |
| Perumal, Nandita | Epidemiology & Biostatistics | Faculty for the Future Program to Ms. Kalkidan Yibeltal ADMASSU | Schlumberger Foundation Inc | $49,973 |
| Larson, Leila | Health Prom., Educ. & Behavior | Neurobehavioral impacts in adolescence from early life nutrition supplementation: 10-year follow-up to a cluster randomized trial in Bangladesh | National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)/NIH | $1,745,494 |
| Shi, Fanghui | Health Prom., Educ. & Behavior | Leveraging Sexually Transmitted Infection Data for Enhancing HIV Prevention and Treatment Guidelines: A Big Data Approach Using the All of Us Research Program | National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID)/NIH | $2,235,000 |
| Yang, Xueying | Health Prom., Educ. & Behavior | Multimodal AI to predict cognitive disorders among people with HIV | National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)/NIH | $5,081,595 |
PI Name |
PI Dept. |
Award Title |
Sponsor |
Total |
| Googe, Heather | Child Development Res. Center | South Carolina Partnerships for Inclusion | SC Department of Education (SCDE) | $4,848,410
|
| McDonald, Melissa | Child Development Res. Center | SC CCR&R Disaster Relief & Recovery Supplemental Funds (2026 - 2027) | Division of Early Care and Education (DECE)/SCDSS | $275,000
|
| Plotner, Tony | Educational & Developmental Science | Project Invest: Maximizing Career Opportunities through Industry Recognized Credentials for College Students with Intellectual Disabilities: YEAR 3 | SC Developmental Disabilities Council/HHS | $41,205
|
PI Name |
PI Dept. |
Award Title |
Sponsor |
Total |
| Kiaris, Hippokratis | Drug Discovery & Biomed Sci. | Antibody Arrays for Peromyscus-specific Cytokines | SC Research Authority (SCRA) | $15,000
|
| Shtutman, Michael | Drug Discovery & Biomed Sci. | AVIT24 System for Next-Generation Sequencing and Spatial MultiOmics to Advance Genomics Research at USC. | National Institutes of Health (NIH) | $395,000
|
PI Name |
PI Dept. |
Award Title |
Sponsor |
Total |
| Billings, Deborah | Families in Society, Institute | Supporting Providers on a Path Toward Improving Maternal Health Care: Creating, Implementing, and Evaluating the Voices/Voces Toolkit | SC Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare/SCDHHS | $100,000
|
PI Name |
PI Dept. |
Award Title |
Sponsor |
Total |
| Savage, Jeffrey | Moore Sch - Div. of Research | CuffWay - VentureWell Application | National Collegiate Investors & Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) dba VentureWell | $20,000
|
| Von Nessen, Joseph | Moore Sch - Div. of Research | South Carolina Forestry Commission: 2026 Economic Impact Analysis | SC Forestry Commission | $35,000
|
PI Name |
PI Dept. |
Award Title |
Sponsor |
Total |
| Weissman, Sharon | Internal Medicine | Housing First Program for Persons with Disabilities | City of Columbia | $308,000
|
| Reagan, Lawrence | Pharm., Physiology & Neuroscience | IPA for Dr. Jim Fadel | WJB Dorn VA Medical Center/VA | $14,706
|
PI Name |
PI Dept. |
Award Title |
Sponsor |
Total |
| Lidge, Cody | Children's Law Center | Court Liaison Program - FY26 | SC Department of Social Services (DSS) | $2,129,155
|
| Tregle, Brandon | Law - Dean's Office | Focused Deterrence for Juvenile Violence Reduction Initiative: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Richland County | Arnold Ventures (Laura and John Arnold Foundation) | $47,850
|
| Walker, Jessalyn | Law - Dean's Office | Dallas Police Department Research and Evaluation Partnership | University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA)/City of Dallas through the Dallas Police Department | $11,101
|
| Walker, Jessalyn | Law - Dean's Office | San Antonio Police Department Research and Evaluation Partnership | University of Texas - San Antonio/San Antonio Police Department/City of San Antonio | $34,548
|
PI Name |
PI Dept. |
Award Title |
Sponsor |
Total |
| Strosnider, William | Baruch Coastal Laboratory | (PI - Briar Ownby-Connolly) Influence of stake material and density on intertidal oyster enhancement in a subtropical estuary (Briar Ownby-Connolly) Slocum-Lunz Foundation | Slocum-Lunz Foundation | $1,500
|
| LoPresti, Eric | Biological Sciences | Population demography of the last populations of the Yellowstone sand verbena (Abronia ammophila) | University of Wyoming/NPS | $5,000
|
| Li, Wuchen | Mathematics | MFAI: Mathematical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence via Transport Information Geometry | National Science Foundation (NSF) | $750,000
|
| Tollefsen, Christopher | Philosophy | Constitution Day 2026 | Jack Miller Center | $3,000
|
| Tollefsen, Christopher | Philosophy | America 250 and Its Promises: The American Founding and the Abiding Pursuit of its Ideals | Jack Miller Center | $10,000
|
| Petrov, Alexey | Physics & Astronomy | Effective Field Theories and Gluonic Degrees of Freedom in Nucleons and Nuclei | National Science Foundation (NSF) | $330,000
|
| McCary, Lindsay | Psychology | Strengthening Mental Health Services for Autistic Children and Youth: Training, Consultation, and Mentorship in South Carolina | USC Educational Foundation/The Duke Endowment | $630,000
|
| Weist, Mark | Psychology | Carolinas School Behavioral Health Technical Assistance Center (CSBHTAC) | USC Educational Foundation/The Duke Endowment | $3,575,000
|
| Ma, Ting Fung | Statistics | Collaborative Research: Generative Bootstrapping Methods for Massive Dependent Data | National Science Foundation (NSF) | $159,813
|
PI Name |
PI Dept. |
Award Title |
Sponsor |
Total |
| Williams, Christopher | Chemical Engineering | REU Site: Electrochemical and Chemical Energy Storage | National Science Foundation (NSF) | $472,104
|
| Gassman, Sarah | Civil & Environmental Eng. | Agency-Specific Calibration of LRFD Geotechnical Resistance Factors | SC Department of Transportation (SC DOT) | $373,318
|
| Huhns, Michael | Computer Science & Engineering | Multiagent-Based Simulation System for ICS-INFEST Integration | University of Maryland/ARLIS/DOD | $34,750
|
| Booth, Kristen | Electrical Engineering | Enhanced Electro-mechanical Powertrain Safety through Deterministic Online Model Assimilation | College of Charleston/NASA | $13,187
|
| De Backer, Wout | Mechanical Engineering | SCRA S4 Y2 - Building South Carolina's Space Workforce: A Statewide Competency Framework for CubeSat and Space Education | SC Research Authority (SCRA) | $50,000
|
| Hu, Ming | Mechanical Engineering | Collaborative Research: Understanding Ion Transport in Amorphous Superionic Conductors via Integrated Lattice Dynamics, Machine Learning, and Atomistic Simulations | National Science Foundation (NSF) | $300,000
|
| Ling, Yue (Stanley) | Mechanical Engineering | Collaborative Research: Unsteady Multiphase Dynamics of Droplet Impact and Fragmentation on Rotating Airfoils: Experiments and High-Fidelity Simulations | National Science Foundation (NSF) | $267,000
|
| Reynolds, Anthony | Mechanical Engineering | Joint Appointment with PNNL | Battelle Memorial Institute - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)/DOE | $5,600
|
| Wuest, Thorsten (Thor) | Mechanical Engineering | Enhancing spot weld quality in car body production using process-integrated AI-driven quality prediction and parameter adaptation - Mercedes Portion | Mercedes-Benz Vans, LLC | $683,781
|
PI Name |
PI Dept. |
Award Title |
Sponsor |
Total |
| Pettay, Daniel | BFT Natural Sciences | Bacterial source tracking for the Town of Bluffton in the May River, SC. | Town of Bluffton | $300,000
|
PI Name |
PI Dept. |
Award Title |
Sponsor |
Total |
| Hughes, Melanie | UPS Achieve | ACHIEVE 2026-27 | Upstate Workforce Board/DOL | $760,000
|
| Ellis, Allison | UPS History, Political Sci., Phil. | CHAMPS Beatty Center | USC Upstate Foundation/The Duke Endowment | $1,353,520
|
To request a PDF copy of this report, please contact Elizabeth Renedo at renedoe@mailbox.sc.edu