D. Craig Allred, M.D., professor of pathology & immunology, received a five-year, $525,939 subaward of a Department of Defense grant through Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for research titled “Cell Polarity Regulation During Breast Cancer Progression: Novel Pathways for Diagnosis and Treatment.” …
Sachiko Amari, Ph.D., research professor in the Laboratory for Space Sciences in the Depart-ment of Physics and in the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, both in Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $450,000 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for research titled “Noble Gases and Heavy Elements in Presolar Grains.” …
Matthew Arthur, director of incident communications solutions, has been named a director-at-large on the board of the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education (ACUTA). ACUTA is an international, nonprofit educational association serving colleges and universities ranging from small community colleges to large institutions in all 50 U.S. states, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Michela Becchi, graduate research assistant in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, has won a $5,000 SNORT Scholarship from Sourcefire Inc. SNORT is a network security tool and the most popular intrusion prevention system used among IT and security professionals worldwide. Becchi began to study the SNORT engine and rule-sets as part of her research and at her internships at NEC Labs and Intel Corp. …
Pratim Biswas, Ph.D., the Stifel and Quinette Jens Professor of Environmental Engineering Science, has received a $52,644 subaward from the University of Cincinnati through a grant funded by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences for research titled “Diesel, Allergens and Gene Interaction and Child Atopy.” …
Christina L. Boyd, graduate student in political science in Arts & Sciences, and Andrew D. Martin, Ph.D., professor of political science and of law, have received a one-year, $11,154 dissertation grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Placing Federal District Courts in the Judicial Hierarchy.” …
Bruce A. Carlson, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $203,183 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Mechanisms of Signal Diversity in Communication.” Also receiving the grant was Carl D. Hopkins, Ph.D., of Cornell University. …
Andrea Goldschmidt, graduate student in clinical psychology, has received the American Psychological Foundation’s Elizabeth Munsterberg Koppitz Travel Stipend of $4,000. Goldschmidt may use the stipend to attend either the 2008 Elizabeth Munsterberg Koppitz Workshop in Boston or the 2009 Elizabeth Munsterberg Koppitz Workshop in Toronto and to present her research at child psychology conferences of her choice. …
Nicholas W. Griffin, research assistant in the Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences, Alan R. Templeton, Ph.D., the Charles Rebstock Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences, and Tiffany M. Knight, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology, have received a two-year, $11,870 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Impacts of Invasive Species: Population Consequences of Altering Inbreeding Depression and Mating Systems in Native Plants.” …
C. Charles Gu, Ph.D., assistant professor of biostatistics, has received a two-year, $143,000 grant from the American Heart Association for research titled “New Analytical Resources for Genetic Studies of Hypertensive Heart Disease.” …
Elizabeth S. Haswell, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $480,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Mechanosensitive Channels and Organelle Morphology.” …
Chris Todd Hittinger, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Genetics, has been named the Maclyn McCarty Fellow of the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation. The foundation supports research in the basic biomedical sciences. …
Tuan-Hua David Ho, Ph.D., professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has been elected president of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB), the most influential plant biology professional society in the world with more than 5,000 members. ASPB publishes two major journals, Plant Cell and Plant Physiology, ranked highest and third-highest in impact among more than 130 plant biology journals for original research articles. ASPB also is a major advocate for agricultural biotechnology, biofuel research, science outreach and basic plant research such as plant genomic studies. Ho will serve as president-elect, president and immediate past-president for one year each starting in October. …
Tao Ju, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science and engineering, has received a three-year, $780,976 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Building Geometic Databases for Anatomy-Based Spatial Queries.” Also receiving the grant were Ioannis A. Kakadiaris, Ph.D., of the University of Houston and James P. Carson, Ph.D., of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. …
Amy McQueen, Ph.D., research assistant professor of medicine, received a five-year, $728,000 grant from the American Cancer Society for research titled “Defensive Processes in Colorectal Cancer Screening Decisions.” …
Nicole Miller, graduate student in biology in Arts & Sciences, has received a $1,000 grant from the Webster Groves Nature Study Society to study plant-pollinator interactions and endemism in a glade system. …
Arye Nehorai, Ph.D., the Eugene and Martha Lohman Professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, has received a three-year, $363,222 grant from the Office of Naval Research for research titled “MIMO Radar Processing with Realistic Clutter Modeling.” …
Mohan Kumar Neithalath, Ph.D., professor of mathematics in Arts & Sciences, has received a one-year, $32,619 grant from the National Security Agency for research titled “Vector Bundles on Hypersurfaces.” …
David T. Rasmussen, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $239,916 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Paleontology and Primate Evolution in the Late Oligocene of Kenya.” …
Robert E. Schmidt, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology & immunology and of molecular microbiology, received a three-year, $228,000 subcontract from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to St. Boniface Research Center, Manitoba, Canada, for research titled “Mechanism of Distal Axonal Degeneration in Diabetic Sensory Neuropathy.” …
Mitchell S. Sommers, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences, has received a one-year, $72,833 grant from the Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer Research Foundation for research titled “Improving Cochlear Implants for Older Adults.” …
Radhakrishna Sureshkumar, Ph.D., professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering, has received a three-year, $192,745 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Understanding Pressure Drop-flow Rate Relationships in Inertialess Viscoelastic Flows: Effects of Flow Instability and Stress-conformation Hysteresis.” …
Fiona Turett, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, was one of only 19 students nationwide to be named a 2008-09 Astronaut Scholar. Turett was nominated by faculty in the School of Engineering & Applied Science for the award, which carries a $10,000 scholarship as well as participation in the Astronaut Scholar Annual Meeting and Technical Conference. The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation was created by the Mercury 7 astronauts to help the United States retain its world leadership in science and technology by providing scholarships for college students who exhibit motivation, imagination and exceptional performance in the science or engineering field of their major. …
Linda Van Dillen, Ph.D., associate professor of physical therapy and orthopaedic surgery, was appointed to the Foundation for Physical Therapy’s Scientific Review Committee. The committee reviews all doctoral scholarship and research grant applications for foundation funding. …
Amy Waterman, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, received a 2008 Bronze Telly Award for her kidney transplant education program, “Explore Transplant.” This four-part video series discussing surgery and living with a kidney transplant was designed to help more patients overcome their fears about kidney transplantation. …
Younan Xia, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering, has received a three-year, $402,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Shape-Controlled Synthesis of Noble-Metal Nanostructures and Applications.” …
Weixiong Zhang, Ph.D., professor of computer science and engineering, and Ralph S. Quatrano, Ph.D., the Spencer T. Olin Professor and dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences, have received a three-year, $373,067 grant from the National Science Foundation for research titled “Computational Approaches to Transcriptome Modeling and Applications of Plant Stress Regulation.” …
Haibo Zhao, M.D., Ph.D., instructor in pathology & immunology, received a three-year, $228,000 grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases for research titled “The Role of Plekhm1 in Osteoclast Function.”