2011 Awardees

Mary Jane Angelo’s scholarship draws on her background in biological sciences coupled with experience as an environmental lawyer. Her research explores the intersection of law and science, particularly focusing on how ...

Cory Armstrong’s overall research philosophy is that mass media serve an important role in the development of social norms and behaviors and are used as a tool for learning behavior. Therefore, ...

Juliana Barr’s research bridges three of the most vibrant fields in American history, that of early America, American Indians, and women. Her first book, Peace Came in the Form of a ...

Jonathan Bloch’s research involves the study of fossil mammals from the Paleogene (65 to 25 million years ago) in order to address paleoecological, phylogenetic, and biogeographic questions surrounding the first ...

David R. Borchelt’s laboratory is built around the goal of improving understanding of the mechanisms by which the neurodegenerative disease processes diminish the function of neural networks and ultimately cause ...

Jeannine Brady’s research is focused primarily on Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans), the major etiological agent of human dental caries. This oral pathogen is an important subject of study in its own ...

George Casella is active in many aspects of statistics, having contributed to theoretical statistics in the areas of decision theory and statistical confidence to environmental statistics. More recently, he has concentrated ...

Virginia Dodd’s scholarly interests lie in the areas of social marketing, high-risk drinking, injury prevention, and oral health. Dodd is also a nationally recognized expert in applying social marketing theory ...

Steven C. Ghivizzani’s work focuses on the development of gene-based treatments for musculoskeletal disorders. He has been working to adapt gene transfer technologies as drug delivery systems to achieve prolonged, localized ...

Fred Gmitter’s research program in citrus breeding, genetics, and genomics has made great strides in the past five years. During this time, he has led the International Citrus Genome Consortium (ICGC), ...

Cynthia Griffin’s recent research has focused on teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge for teaching mathematics, their classroom practices, and the influence of these factors on students’ mathematics learning. Griffin is building an ...

David Janicke’s main area of interest is translational research intended to promote the dissemination of obesity interventions for individuals in underserved settings, with a primary focus on children. Unique aspects of ...

The overarching theme of James Jawitz’s research program is water resource sustainability, which emphasizes securing sufficient water resources for urban and agricultural users while also ensuring protection for natural hydrologic ...

Huabei Jiang works in the field of near-infrared diffuse optical tomography (DOT), an emerging biomedical imaging modality that can quantitatively image molecular signatures in tissue noninvasively. He is playing a pivotal ...

Christiaan Leeuwenburgh’s research interests are aging and mitochondrial biology. Aging is thought to result from increased formations of reactive oxygen species and free radicals, mainly produced by the mitochondria, which can ...

Hendrik Luesch studies the discovery and development of natural products compounds from marine sources for the treatment of cancer, neurological disorders, and other diseases. Luesch’s research incorporates collection of marine organisms, ...

The focus of Barbara Lutz’s research is the health care and service needs of persons who are living in the community with chronic disabling conditions. Lutz’s current research focuses on the ...

James Marois’ most recent accomplishments have been made in the research areas of epidemiology and control of soybean rust, management and etiology of hardlock of cotton disease, and development of ...

Kenneth M. Merz, Jr. studies computational chemistry approaches aimed at the design of novel drugs or focused on predicting the folding of proteins into complex three-dimensional shapes. Merz developed innovative linear-scaling ...

Rafael Mu ñoz-Carpena’s research focuses on the development and evaluation of hydrological monitoring and modeling tools to improve water quality and mitigate the impingement of agriculture on natural systems. Muñoz-Carpena conducts his ...

The research program of Natàlia Peres has contributed significantly to the understanding and control of diseases of strawberries, ornamentals, and citrus in recent years. Peres’ most important contribution has been the ...

Michael Perfit’s research is primarily focused on the last, great, unexplored portions of Earth that lie deep beneath the world’s oceans, often at depths greater than 2,500 meters where frequent ...

Mario Poceski studies the religious history of China. He explores the broader issues about the dominant patterns and key characteristics of Chinese religious life. Poceski’s latest book, Introducing Chinese Religions (Routledge ...

Margaret Portillo’s research explores planning processes employed by designers through qualitative and mixed methods research. Her recent co-authored book, Design Thinking for Interiors, brings interior design theory and research to life ...

Eric Potsdam’s linguistic research is in the overlapping domains of descriptive and theoretical syntax. While almost every child unconsciously controls his or her language by the age of six to eight, ...

David Sappington analyzes the design of reward structures to motivate actors to undertake actions that may not be inherently in their own self interest. Such design can entail particular subtleties in ...

Desmond Schatz has been involved in Type 1 diabetes research since the mid 80s. His research relates to the prediction, natural history, genetics, immunopathogenesis, prevention, and reversal of the disease, ...

Susan Sinnott investigates the properties and processing of materials using state-of-the-art computational methods in materials science and engineering. Her research interests include the development of computational methods that enable the sophisticated ...

Benjamin Smith’s current research agenda addresses three related, but distinct, lines of inquiry: democratization and regime change, oil wealth and politics, and the historical roots of contemporary conflicts over ethnic ...

Franky So’s industrial research experience allowed him to establish a high impact research program covering a broad area of organic electronics and nano-electronics. Organic electronics has emerged as an important field ...

Maurice Swanson’s research interests are related to RNA processing, RNA-mediated disease, muscular dystrophy, and mouse models for neurological and neuromuscular disorders. Microsatellite instability is associated with nearly 30 hereditary disorders. Disease ...

Sergio Vega’s research examines the way in which utopian constructs of the imaginary function as models to interpret the world. Earthly paradise as a myth of creation has been a ...

Janet Yamamoto’s current research goals are to develop a second-generation Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) vaccine, to design an effective HIV-1 vaccine for humans, and to establish a curative therapy for ...