The Office of the Vice President for Research is pleased to announce the new slate of 2020-2021 SPARC Graduate Research Grant recipients. These 43 graduate students, representing eight academic units, will receive up to $5,000 to complete their meritorious research, creative and scholarly projects in subject areas that range from immersive theater to public health and from energy storage to post-disaster tourism recovery.
Through the SPARC program, graduate students have the opportunity to both gain funding for selected projects and experience drafting and submitting award proposals, budgets and other documentation for review by a panel of faculty from across the university. This valuable experience is designed to help graduate students prepare for a future in research, which often involves applying for funding through similar processes.
Please join the Office of the Vice President for Research in congratulating these promising graduate student scholars.
2020-2021 SPARC Graduate Research Grant Recipients
| Recipient Name | Department or Program | Proposal Title |
| Sakiru Abiodun | Chemistry | Structure and Thermal Stability of Inorganic Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals through High Resolution Microscopy |
| Kidochukwu Atube | Chemical Engineering | Development of Phosphatidylserine Presenting Particles for Targeting Macrophages in Tissue Regeneration |
| Jacob Barber | Exercise Science | Molecular Foundations of Lipoprotein Response to Exercise |
| Alexander Barth | Biological Sciences | Establishing community-based science monitoring of zooplankton communities’ response to harmful algae |
| Hannah Burzynski | Biomedical Sciences | Immune Challenges Exacerbate Neuroinflammatory Responses in a Rat Model of Gulf War Illness |
| Tasha Childs | Social Work | Exploring Mental Health Supports during COVID-19 School Reopening: A Qualitative Study |
| Karlen Correa | Environmental Health Sciences | Transcriptome sequencing of Vibrio vulnificusexposed to wastewater treatment plant effluent |
| Jennifer Crooks-Monastra | Teaching and Learning | Planning and Teaching for Student Learning in Mathematics: How Graduate Student Instructors Develop and Implement Instruction |
| Biyun Cui | Pharmaceutical Sciences | Mathematically guided hypothesis testing for DEAD-Box RNA helicase 3-dependent mechanismof RNA localization to stress granules |
| Sarah Davis | Pharmaceutical Sciences | Effects of HIV-1 Tat protein on the extracellular dopamine dynamics in the inducible Tat transgenic mice using fast cyclic voltammetry |
| Xiaokai Ding | Pharmaceutical Sciences | Therapeutic Targeting of CDK8/19 in Triple Negative Breast Cancer |
| Anna Ehrhorn | Communications Sciences and Disorders | Orthographic Awareness and Phonological Awareness in Children with Speech Sound Disorder |
| Shirelle Hallum | Health Promotion, Education and Behavior | Using innovative technologies to advocate for pedestrian infrastructure and address health inequities |
| Christian Holmes | Social Work | Exploring Foster Parent Cultural Competence Practice in Transethnic-racial Placements |
| Kazi Islam | Civil Engineering | Characterization of Subgrade Soil Behavior for Flexible Pavement Design |
| OmerFaruk Karadavut | Electrical Engineering | Machine Learning Assisted High-Resolution CdZnTeSe Semiconductor Based Gamma-ray Spectrometer for Continuous Monitoring of Nuclear Waste Storage Tank |
| Bezawit Kase | Epidemiology | Dietary Index for Gut Microbiota and Associations with Colorectal Cancer and Breast Cancer Risk |
| Manikanda Raja Keerthi Raja | Biological Sciences | Understanding Interleukin-1alpha Mediated Immune Suppression in HER2-positive Breast Cancer |
| Hyunsu Kim | Hospitality Management | Post-Disaster Recovery Strategies in Tourism Destinations |
| Allison Kimsey | Chemistry | Mechanistic Insights into an Iron-Responsive Repressor from S. pombe |
| Erin Kishman | Exercise Science | Salivary Insulin, Cortisol, and Estrogen in the First Year Postpartum |
| Nik Lampe | Sociology | Healthy Aging Beyond Sex and Gender Binaries |
| Gabrielle Leith | Chemistry | Tuning the Electronic Structure of Covalent-Organic Frameworks |
| Corey Martin | Chemistry | Photochromic Layered Materials for Energy Storage Applications |
| Samantha Martin | Linguistics | “La Violencia de Género Es una Pandemia”: The Circulation of Feminist Discourses in Chile During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| John McCullough | Linguistics | Guides, rides, and tides: Language as index of authority and authenticity by Gullah tour companies |
| Andrei Medved | Mathematics | Data-driven Constitutive Modeling of Complex Fluids |
| Tianyue Mi | Health Prom., Educ. & Behavior | The impact of intersectional stigma on mental and physical health outcomes among HIV-infected Sexual and Gender Minority population |
| Melissa Mull | Social Work | The Role of State Medicaid Programs in Regulating the Quality of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment in the United States |
| Megha Oza | Environmental Health Sciences | Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocyte associated Markers for Colorectal Cancer Prognosis and Significance |
| Brittany Pope | Exercise Science | A Role for Mitochondria in Stress Susceptibility |
| Mary Quattlebaum | Clinical-Community Psychology | Building Family Resilience to Improve Adolescent Eating Behaviors and Well-Being Among African American Families" |
| Sreehari Rajan-Kattil | Mechanical Engineering | Experiments and Finite Element-Based Modeling of Three-Tab Shingles Failure Under High Wind Loads |
| Katherine Rentschler | Biomedical Sciences | A Study of Brain Kynurenic Acid Elevation and Sleep Disturbances |
| Angelina Rubina | Linguistics | Heritage language Russian in the United States: Grammar acquisition of definiteness and specificity |
| Lesley Smith | Linguistics | The Effects of Explicit and Implicit Feedback on Processing French L2 Word Order |
| Yuzhu Sun | Comparative Literature | Imagining Peking: English Representations of Urban and Rural China, 1920-1945 |
| Jake Swanson | Biological Sciences | How do changes in lake color affect phytoplankton community composition? |
| Catherine Thomas | Theatre MFA | Producing Immersive Theatre in the Age of COVID-19 |
| Thomas Toomey | Counselor Education | Examining the Effects of an Adapted Therapy for LGBTQ+ Clients on Their Psychological Well-Being |
| Zixin Wang | Chemistry | Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanozymes with Peroxidase-Mimicking Behaviors |
| Jie Wang | Electrical Engineering | Magnetic softness tuned γ-Fe2O3 superparamagnetic nanoparticles by shallow doping with highly efficient heat induction |
| Marilyn Wende | Health Promotion, Education and Behavior | Neighborhood socioeconomic status, green space, and walkability and risk for fracture among postmenopausal women: The Women’s Health Initiative |