The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is a powerhouse of research, discovery, and creativity. That is reflected in the grants our faculty receive as they work to advance scholarship in their areas of study. Help congratulate the following faculty, staff, and students on their recent research grant awards. 

October

  • Michael Flatte, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Contract-Subgrant, Research (Basic), Collaborative Research: Development of atomic resolution spin dynamics imaging scanning tunneling microscopy (SDI-STM), sponsored by Ohio State University (prime: US Department of Energy, Office of Science) - $948,486
  • Lauren Gil Hayes, graduate teaching assistant, Department of Social Work; New Grant, Fellowship, Health Policy Research Scholars, sponsored by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - $124,000

September

  • David Schwebel, vice president for research, Tom Folland, assistant professor, John Prineas, professor, & Ravi Uppu, assistant professor, OVPR and Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Grant, Equipment, Heterogeneous Nanoscale Materials Collaborative for Quantum Technologies at the University of Iowa, sponsored by US Department of Defense, Department of the Air Force, Air Force Office of Scientific Research - $1,498,989
  • Elizabeth Walker, associate professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders; New Contract-Subgrant, Research (Basic), Neural Dynamics underlying Sensory Processing in Children with Mild-to-Severe Hearing Loss, sponsored by Father Flanagan’s Boys Home (prime: US Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health) - $140,465
  • Yasar Onel, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Contract-Subcontract, Research (Basic), Activities Related to the US CMS HCAL Subsystem, sponsored by Fermi Forward Discovery Group, LLC (prime: US Department of Energy) - $31,055
  • Gary Small, professor, Department of Chemistry; New Grant, Research (Basic), Chemometric Tools for Airborne Remote Sensing, sponsored by Spectral Systems Integration, LLC - $78,952
  • David Hartley, assistant research scientist/engineer, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Grant, Other, Collaborative Research: Conference: GEM Workshop, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $427,771
  • Ece Demir Lira, assistant professor, & Isaac Petersen, associate professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; New Grant, Research (Basic), Identifying Relations between Premature Birth, Parental Factors, and the Neural Basis of Numerical Development, sponsored by US Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health - $1,772,666
  • Simal Gerot, graduate fellow, Department of Political Science; New Contract-Subgrant, Research (Basic), News Habits and Emotional Well-Being: Investigating Political News Consumption and Mental Health, sponsored by American Political Science Association (prime: US National Science Foundation) - $14,749
  • Boxiang Wang, associate professor, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science; New Contract-Subgrant, Research (Basic), DMS/NIGMS 2: Novel Statistical Methods, Algorithms, and Pipelines for Learning Omics Data with Complex Heterogeneity, sponsored by New York University (prime: US Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health) - $47,028
  • Kai Hwang, associate professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; New Grant, Clinical Trial, Other, Investigating mediodorsal thalamus representations underlying human cognitive flexibility, sponsored by US Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health - $4,171,267

August

  • Daniel Drimbe, assistant professor, Department of Mathematics; New Grant, Research (Basic), Rigidity results for von Neumann algebras and equivalence relations, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $247,985
  • Scott Shaw, professor, & Scott Daly, associate professor, Department of Chemistry; New Grant, Research (Basic), Collaborative Research: Redox Electrolyte Co-design for Enhanced Solubility and Stability (RECESS), sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $335,956
  • Sanvesh Srivastava, associate professor, Department of Statistics Actuarial Science; New Grant, Research (Basic), Collaborative Research: Array-Variate Models for Longitudinal Data: Scalable Mixed and Autoregressive Approaches, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $119,994
  • Emily Thomas, clinical associate professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; New Contract, Other, VA IPA Micah Williams, sponsored by US Department of Veteran Affairs, Veterans Rural Health Resource Center, Iowa City VA Health Care System - $52,475
  • Michael Flatte, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Contract-Subgrant, Research (Basic), DMREF: Collaborative Research: Systematic Discovery of Materials Platforms for Spin-Light Quantum Interfaces, sponsored by Brown University (prime: US National Science Foundation) - $25,358
  • Daniel Drimbe, assistant professor, Department of Mathematics; New Grant, Other, Rigidity results for von Neumann algebras and equivalence relations, sponsored by Simons Foundation - $42,000
  • Hao Fang, associate professor, Department of Mathematics; New Grant, Other, Canonical metrics in conformal and complex geometry, sponsored by Simons Foundation - $42,000
  • Grace Maurer, graduate research assistant, Department of Health, Sport, and Human Physiology; New Grant, Fellowship, Endothelin-1 signaling in microvascular responses to insulin and the role of physical activity and sedentary behavior in women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus, sponsored by US Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health - $159,794.
  • Greogry Friestad, associate professor, Department of Chemistry; New Grant, Research (Basic), Expanding the Synthetic Applications of Enol Esters and Their Epoxide Derivatives, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $450,000
  • Casey DeRoo, associate professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Grant, Research (Basic), 24-ASTRO24-0014 – Designing Compact X-ray Optics for Pulsar-informed Navigation, sponsored by US National Aeronautics & Space Administration - $150,000
  • Yea Won Sung, assistant professor, Department of Biology; New Grant, Research (Basic), Roles of Macrophages in Cisplatin-induced Hearing Loss, sponsored by US Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health - $739,338

July

  • Frauke Bleher, professor, Department of Mathematics; New Grant, Research (Basic), Collaborative Research: FRGMS: Small root discriminants in number theory and cryptography, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $242,337
  • Raul Curto, professor, Department of Mathematics; New Grant, Conference Grant, Travel Support for IWOTA 2025, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $15,000
  • Garrett Morris, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science; New Grant, Research (Basic), SHF: MEDIUM: Extensible LCF-style Theorem Proving with Dependent Rows, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $1,199,815
  • Ionut Chifan, professor, Department of Mathematics; New Grant, Research (Basic), Rigidity Theory of von Neumann Algebras and its Connections to C*-Algebras, Geometric Group Theory, and Continuous Model Theory, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $257,995
  • David Nataf, assistant professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Grant, Research (Basic), Correcting for the Effects of the Optical/Near-Infrared Interstellar Extinction Toward the Roman Galactic Exoplanet Survey Fields, sponsored by Space Telescope Science Institute - $25,000
  • Paul Dilley, associate professor, Department of Religious Studies; New Contract-Subgrant, Other, Hidden Stories: New Approaches to the Local and Global History of the Book, sponsored by University of Toronto (prime: Mellon Foundation) - $5,471
  • Gregory Howes, professor, & Frederick Skiff, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Grant, Research (Basic), Plasma Seismology: Fully Exploiting Velocity Distributions to Recover Spatial Electric Field Structure, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $449,999
  • John Goree, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Grant, Research (Basic), Collaborative Research: ECLIPSE-CHIPS: Avoiding contamination by controlling charging and transport of particles in plasmas under modulation and afterglow conditions, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $405,000
  • Jae Myung Kim, postdoctoral research scholar, & Kara Whitaker, associate professor, Department of Health, Sport, and Human Physiology; New Grant, Equipment, Optimal Step Counts for Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes Risk Reduction: The Pregnancy 24/7 Cohort Data Analysis, sponsored by Iowa Fraternal Order of the Eagles - $2,500
  • Michelle Voss, professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; New Grant, Research (Basic), Integrating Self-Report, Sensor Tracking, and Neuroimaging Biomarkers of Cerebrovascular Health, sponsored by University of Texas at Dallas - $26,432
  • Allison Jaynes, associate professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Grant, Research (Basic), Collaborative Research: GEM: Plasmapause control of outer radiation belt electron enhancements, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $51,126
  • Lucas Carr, associate professor, Department of Health, Sport, and Human Physiology; New Grant, Equipment, Purchasing Resting Metabolic Rate Measurement Equipment for the Community Health Collaborative, sponsored by Iowa Fraternal Order of the Eagles - $2,000
  • Bradley Cramer, professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences; New Grant, Research (Basic), Collaborative Research: GEO OSE Track 1: Toward an Open Science Geologic Time Scale, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $151,544
  • Ned Bowden, professor, & Johna Leddy, professor, Department of Chemistry; New Grant, Research (Basic), Synthesis and Electrical Properties of Conjugated Polymers Based on Nitrogen and Sulfur, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $660,000
  • Bin He, associate professor, Department of Biology; New Grant, Research (Basic), Genetic Basis and Evolution of the Transcriptional Response to Oxidative Stress in Diverse Yeasts, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $900,000
  • Naomi Rodgers, assistant professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders; New Grant, Research (Career Development), Promoting Communication Well-Being with Stutter-Affirming Therapy: A Pilot Clinical Trial in the Schools, sponsored by US Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health - $891,836

June

  • Chase LaSpisa, graduate teaching assistant, Department of Political Science; New Grant, Fellowship, The Role of Fossil-Fuel Resources in Norway’s Maritime Foreign Policy in the Arctic, sponsored by US Department of State, Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs, J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board - $19,767
  • Denis Candido, assistant professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Contract-Subgrant, Enhanced Quantum Sensing with entangled NV-center qubits, sponsored by Iowa State University (prime: US National Aeronautics & Space Administration) - $5,000
  • Johna Leddy, professor, Department of Chemistry; New Grant, Research (Basic), Magnetoelectrocatalysis: Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER), sponsored by US Department of Defense, Army Research Laboratory - $60,000
  • Adare Smith, graduate fellow, Department of English; New Grant, Fellowship, American Requiem: Remembering the Renaissance Through 18th Century Race and Religion in British America, sponsored by McNeil Center for Early American Studies - $32,000
  • Jeremy Faden, application developer, & David Miles, associate professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Contract-Subcontract, Conference Grant, UI Support for Developing Heliophysics Standards and Cross-science Collaborations Workshop, sponsored by ADNET Systems, Inc. (prime: US National Aeronautics & Space Administration) - $14,724
  • Mei-ling Joiner, assistant research scientist/engineer, Department of Biology; New Contract-Subcontract, Research (Basic), Genetic basis of the evolution of insect hearing, sponsored by University of Keele (prime: The Royal Society) - $5,740
  • Christopher Veeh, associate professor, Department of Social Work; New Contract-Subgrant, Research (Applied), Adaptation of the STAIR-NT Intervention to Respond to Psychological Health Conditions for First Responders with a History of Traumatic Brain Injury, sponsored by Florida State University (prime: US Department of Defense, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program) - $25,054
  • Mark Berardi, assistant research scientist, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders; New Contract-subgrant, Research (Basic), Neurobiological and psychobiological signatures of vocal effort in early career teachers, sponsored by University Hospital Bonn (prime: US Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health) - $92,427
  • Kara Whitaker, associate professor, Department of Health, Sport, and Human Physiology; New Grant, Equipment, Examining the comparability of two sleep monitoring devices, sponsored by Iowa Fraternal Order of the Eagles - $3,380

May

  • David Nataf, assistant professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Grant, Research (Basic), A Three-dimensional Extinction Map for Microlensing Planet Discovery and Characterization, sponsored by US National Aeronautics & Space Administration - $310,987
  • Sophia Musoki, graduate teaching assistant, Department of Geographic and Sustainability Science; New Grant, Research (Basic), 2023-2024 Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) Racial Justice Research and Pedagogy Fellowships, sponsored by Association for the Study of Food and Society - $3,500
  • William Kurth, research scientist/engineer, Department of Physics and Astronomy; Competitive Renewal Subcontract, Research (Basic), REASON Phase E (Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON): Preliminary Design NASA Solar System Exploration Program (Phase E)), sponsored by University of Texas, Institute for Geophysics (prime: US National Aeronautics & Space Administration) - $777,769
  • Chaeyeon Lee, graduate teaching assistant, Department of Philosophy; New Grant, Other, 2025 Iowa Lyceum (2025 PLATO Application), sponsored by Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization - $1,000
  • Manoela Lima Oliveira, postdoctoral research scholar, Department of Health, Sport, and Human Physiology; New Grant, Fellowship, 1478093 The Role of Dietary Quality and Gut Microbial Diversity in Functional Vascular Impairments after Early Life Adversity, sponsored by American Heart Association - $152,836

April

  • Shawn Goodman, associate professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders; New Contract-Subgrant, Research (Basic), Next Generation OAEs, sponsored by Northwestern University (prime: US Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health) - $796,452
  • Douglas Houston, professor, Department of Biology; New Grant, Research (Basic), DSHB: Innovations in open sharing of antibodies for research, sponsored by US Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health - $2,188,873
  • Jane Nachtman, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Grant, Fellowship, Study of the Neutrino Magnetic Moment with the NOvA Near Detector, sponsored by Universities Research Association, Inc. - $6,000
  • Bob McMurray, professor, Ethan Kutlu, assistant professor, & Leah Zimmerman, clinical assistant professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; New Grant, Research (Basic), Categorization Consistency: A Fundamental Dimension of Induvial Variation in Speech Perception, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $794,490

March

  • Colin Case, assistant professor, Department of Political Science; New Grant, Research (Basic), Predicting Partnerships: Congressional Campaign Positioning and Legislative Collaboration, sponsored by Institute for Humane Studies - $18,390
  • Michael Flatte, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Contract-Subgrant, Research (Basic), Entanglement-Assisted Quantum Sensing for Molecular Structure and Dynamics, sponsored by Ohio State University (prime sponsor: US National Science Foundation) - $80,000
  • John Goree, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Contract-Subgrant, Research (Basic), Charging of Dust in the Afterglow of a Magnetized Plasma, sponsored by Appalachian State University (prime sponsor: US Department of Energy) - $31,633
  • Jasper Halekas, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Contract-Subcontract, Research (Basic), HelioSwarm Phase B, sponsored by University of New Hampshire (prime sponsor: US National Aeronautics & Space Administration) - $6,597
  • Julianna Pacheco, professor, Department of Political Science; New Grant, Fellowship - Faculty, The Deadly Effects of Partisanship, sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York - $200,000

February

  • Scott Daly, associate professor, Department of Chemistry; New Grant, Research (Basic), Enabling Large-Scale Separation of Lanthanide Isotopes for Radiopharmaceuticals, sponsored by Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust - $373,254
  • John Prineas, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Contract-Subcontract, Research (Applied), Two Photon Absorption in MCT (Phase II and Option), sponsored by EPIR, Inc (prime sponsor: US Department of Defense, Department of the Navy) - $74,828
  • Katheryn Rothenberg, assistant professor, Department of Biology; New Grant, Research (Basic), Dissecting Rap1 GTPase signaling as a key regulator of collective cell migration, sponsored by Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust - $382,644
  • Dustin Swarm, postdoctoral research scholar, Department of Physics and Astronomy; New Grant, Research (Basic), Designing and Fabricating Multilayer Optics to Enable a Future 511 keV Focusing Imager, sponsored by US National Aeronautics & Space Administration - $244,618

January

  • Bijaya Adhikari, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science; New Grant, Research (Basic), CAREER: Online Algorithms for Real-time Interventions against Healthcare Associated Infections, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $599,783
  • Dorit Kliemann, assistant professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; New Grant, Research (Basic), The causal role of the medial prefrontal cortex in human social cognition, sponsored by NIH - $3,105,656
  • Stephanie Miracle, assistant professor, Dance; New Grant, Fellowship - Faculty, Meandering River (App for Art Projects Grants for Artist), sponsored by Iowa Economic Development Authority - $6,000

December

  • Aditi Bhattacherjee, assistant professor, Department of Chemistry; New Grant, Research (Basic), CAREER: Time-Resolved X-ray Spectroscopy of Excited State Dynamics and Branching Underlying Photoinduced Metal-Halogen Bond Activation, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $432,005
  • Chih-Chia Chen, assistant professor, Department of Health and Human Physiology; New Grant, Research (Basic), Evaluating the Impact of Unified Badminton Programs on the Physical Health, Social Integration, and Quality of Life Among Special Olympics Athletes, sponsored by Badminton World Federation - $5,300
  • Scott Daly, associate professor, Department of Chemistry; New Grant, Research (Basic), CO2 CAPTURE AND REDUCTION WITH REACTIVE PINCER LIGANDS AND EARTH ABUNDANT METALS, sponsored by American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund - $217,899
  • Guanpeng Li, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science; New Grant, Research (Basic), CAREER: Modeling and Mitigating Error Propagation in High-Performance Computing Applications, sponsored by US National Science Foundation - $346,217