Funding History

This project, conducted in collaboration with the Ho Tung Visualization Lab (directed by Joseph Eakin), combines methods from archaeology, computer-generated imagery, and astronomy to test how astronomical alignments structured ceremonial behavior and shaped the ways people moved through and experienced monumental space.

Karen Harpp, professor of earth and environmental sciences and peace and conflict studies, and Val Finlayson, assistant research scientist in the Department of Geology at the University of Maryland, have received an award for $30,000 for their pilot project, “A Reconnaissance Study of Tungsten Isotopic Ratios in the Galápagos Mantle Plume.”

Dr. Catherine Cardelús, Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies, and Jeremy Quirós Navarro, PhD student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut, received a $19,000 award to study a newly discovered phenomenon of multi-mammal latrines in the rainforest canopy.

Bineyam Taye, an Associate Professor of Biology at Colgate University, in collaboration with Emily R. Davenport, an Assistant Professor of Biology at Pennsylvania State University, has received a grant of $100,500 for their project titled "Protozoan and Microbiome Interactions with Their Host: The Missing Evidence".

Ana Jiménez, associate professor of biology, and Geoff Holm, professor of biology, have received an award of $120,000 for their project "Cellular metabolism and virus replication: Effects of age, breed size, and cellular metabolic phenotype in oncolytic virus susceptibility in dogs."

Anzela Niraula, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences, in collaboration with Jacques Robert, professor in microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester, has been awarded a Picker ISI grant for a project to enhance understanding of the biological changes in the metamorphic brain.

Beth Parks, Professor of Physics, together with colleagues Silver Onyango of Mbarara University of Science and Technology (Uganda) and Crystal North (MGH/Harvard), have received an award for $7,120 for their project. This project aims to reduce harm caused by high particulate levels from cooking over wood fires.

Cosmin Ilie, assistant professor of physics, in collaboration with Katherine Freese (University of Texas), Andreea Petric (the Space Telescope Science Institute), and Jillian Paulin (University of Pennsylvania), has been awarded $84,500 funding for a project to investigate the nature of the elusive dark matter particle by using observations of the first stars and galaxies in the universe.

Kelly Isham, assistant professor of mathematics, in collaboration with Kartik Lakhotia (Intel) and Laura Monroe (Los Alamos National Laboratory), was awarded $31,250 for a project to investigate large-scale computer networks, with the goal of designing the next generation of HPCs.

Paul Harnik, assistant professor of earth and environmental geosciences, Rebecca Metzler, professor of physics, and Damhnait McHugh, professor of biology, have received a $100,000 award for their project to examine the response of calcifying organisms to anthropogenic climate change.