2024 Research Grants and Information

Additional award, research and presentation information can be found on the CAS Accolades website.

^{Updated August 16, 2024}

Anthropology 

August - Dr. Lindsey Feldman, associate professor in the department of Anthropology, was awarded $29,835 from the Innovate Memphis for her project “Applied Anthro Fellow 2024-25."

March - Dr. Lindsey Feldman, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, was awarded $25,000 from the The Wenner-Gren Foundation for her project “Queer carceral care: An engaged ethnography on LGBTQ+ health and life after release from prison.”

Biological Sciences

August - Dr. Shawn Brown, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $26,043 from the Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board for his project “Impacts of charcoal rot (Macrophomina phaseolina) epidemiology on drought resistant soybean cellular metabolism and accompanying tissue microbiome for identifying alternative breeding targets under increasing environmental stress."

July - Dr. Duane McKenna, William Hill Professor of Biology in the department of Biological Sciences , was awarded $188,606 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project "Investigating chemosensory evolution in longhorned beetles using a comparative phylogenomic framework that integrates genomic, morphological, and biochemical data."

July - Dr. Jennifer Mandel, associate professor in the department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $149,999 from the Delta Regional Authority for her project "Growing Agricultural Diversity, Production & Prosperity in the Mid-South Mississippi Delta through Agri-STEM Career Development and Specialty Crop Production & Value-Added Processing."

July - Dr. Phillip Kohlmeier, assistant professor in the department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $53,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project "NSF GRFP Mitchell."

July - Dr. Shawn Brown, associate professor in the department of Biological Studies, was awarded $51,000 from the USDA Forest Service for his project "Monitoring Pathogen Buildup in White Oak Outplanted Restoration Sites."

June - Dr. James Adelman, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $2,700 from Tennessee Ornithological Society for his project “Does personality predict pathogen spread via suppressed sickness behaviors in a wild songbird?”

May - Dr. Bernie Daigle, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded an additional $2,000 from New York University for his project “Leveraging systems pharmacology to advance precision medicine for Gabapentin treatment of AUD.”

May - Dr. Thomas Sutter, professor and W. Harry Feinstone Chair of Excellence in Molecular Biology, was awarded an additional $362,500 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project “Cellular Determinants of AH Receptor Signaling.

Feb - Dr. Bernie Daigle, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $4,000 from New York University (NYU) for his project “Leveraging systems pharmacology to advance precision medicine for Gabapentin treatment of AUD.”

Dec - Dr. Emerson Bowers, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $3,250 from Graduate Women in Science for his project “Parental care of host and parasitic young: an experimental test.”

CERI

August - Dr. Thomas Goebel, associate professor in the Department for Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $50,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “Machine Learning Empowered Automaton of Seismic Monitoring Systems."

August - Dr. Chris Cramer, research professor for the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI), was awarded $68,027 from the US Geological Survey (USGS) for his project “Horizontal and Vertical Site Amplification and CEUS Crustal Attenuation Models: Joint Tomography for Site Response and Q: Collaborative Research with the University of Memphis and Tetra Tech Inc."

August - Dr. Thomas Goebel, assistant professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $299,809 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “How do faults respond to rapid stressing rate changes?: A study of induced earthquakes in geo-reservoirs and implications for aftershock triggering."

July - Dr. Thomas Goebel, associate professor in the department of Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI), was awarded $80,528 from National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project "CAREER: From slow to fast, micro to macro, single events to cascades: A multi-scale study of seismic event triggering in lab and nature."

July - Dr. Thomas Goebel, associate professor in the department of Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI), was awarded $21,042 from National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project "CAREER: From slow to fast, micro to macro, single events to cascades: A multi-scale study of seismic event triggering in lab and nature."

May - Dr. Thomas Goebel, assistant professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded an additional $27,457 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “CAREER: From slow to fast, micro to macro, single events to cascades: A multi-scale study of seismic event triggering in lab and nature.”

April - Dr. Robert Smalley, research professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $52,359 from the US Geological Survey (USGS) for his project “GPS Array for Mid-America - monitoring deformation in the New Madrid seismic zone.”

Feb - Dr. Mitchell Withers, associate professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI), was awarded $716,729 from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for his project “Operation of the Mid-America Integrated Seismic Network 2020-2024-CERI.”

Dec - Dr. Stephen Horton, research scientist in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $54,000 from the Arkansas Geological Survey for his project “Operation and Maintenance of the Arkansas Seismic Network.”

Dec - Dr. Thomas Goebel, assistant professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $19,540 from the National Science Foundation for his project “CAREER: From slow to fast, micro to macro, single events to cascades: A multi-scale study of seismic event triggering in lab and nature.”

CfIA

Dec - Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta, Hill Professor in the Department of Cybersecurity and Director in the Center for Information Assurance, was awarded $991,209.80 from the National Security Agency for his project “Cybersecurity education for Critical Infrastructure protection (in Community Development) through Regional Coalition.”

Oct - Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)/Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded $8M Dollars grant to the National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium NCPC (nationalcpc.org) of which the University of Memphis is a core member in 5 University Consortium.  As part of this grant, the University of Memphis’s Center for Information Assurance (CfIA) received $1M grant for 3 years to conduct a project titled “Cybersecurity Issues with Operational Technology and Distributed Energy Resources”.  Dr Mohd. Hasan Ali from Electrical and Computer Engineering, an Associate Director of the center will serve as the Principal Investigator (PI) and Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta of Computer Science, Hill Professor in the Department of Cybersecurity, the Center Director, as the Co-PI on this project. The overall goal of the project is to design and develop cybersecurity-related education and training for operation technology (OT) and distributed energy resources (DERs) in order to address the technical needs of future workforce and industry professionals in various sectors. Moreover, this project aims to develop an outreach program that will demonstrate in-person hands-on exercises and experiments. The hands-on activities will cover topics from security in OT and DER which will also be introduced in some related university classes for pilot testing. This is important for state and local professionals and employees in specific sectors to transition theory to practice dealing with cybersecurity challenges.

Chemistry

August - Dr. Qianyi Cheng, assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, was awarded $327,397 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her project “Data Mining and Machine Learning Guided QM/MM and QM-Cluster Modeling of Enzymatic Reactions."

May - Dr. Nathan DeYonker, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, was awarded $57,534 from the University of Arizona with the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “Examining Fundamental 3d Transition Metal Bonding: A Combined Spectroscopic and Theoretical Approach.”

Feb - Dr. Daniel Nascimento, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, was awarded $649,414 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “CAREER: Enabling the accurate simulation of multi-dimensional core-level spectroscopies in molecular complexes using time-dependent density functional theory.”

City and Regional Planning

Dec - Dr. Stephen Diko, assistant professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning, was awarded $45,373 from the Memphis and Shelby County Planning And Development with the US Environmental Protection Agency for his project “Climate Pollution Reduction Grant.”

Computer Science

July - Dr. XI Huang, assistant professor in the department of Computer Science, was awarded $50,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project "AI for Headache Diagnosis."

July - Dr. Brandon Booth, assistant professor in the department of Computer Science, was awarded $12,238 from National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project "NSF Student Travel Grant for 2024 ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI)."

July - Dr. Thomas Watson, associate professor in the department in Computer Science, was awarded $91,375 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project "CAREER: Structural Communication Complexity."
 
July - Dr. Lan Wang, Dunavant Professor (on temporary assignment at NSF as Program Director) in the department of Computer Science was awarded $88,000 from Peraton Labs Inc. for her project "Mission-Integrated Network Control (MINC)."

June - Dr. Santosh Kumar, director, NIH mDOT Center; director, MD2K Center of Excellence; and Lillian and Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence Professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $113,267 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project “mHealth Center for Discovery, Optimization & Translation of Temporally Precise Interventions (mDOT).” 

May - Dr. Kan Yang, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded an additional $945,685 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “CyberCorps: New Scholarships for Service (SFS) Program at the University of Memphis.”

March - Dr. Santosh Kumar, Director, NIH mDOT Center, Director, MD2K Center of Excellence, and Lillian and Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence Professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $1,019,403 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project “mHealth Center for Discovery, Optimization & Translation of Temporally Precise Interventions (mDOT).”

Feb - Dr. Deepak Venugopal, associate professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $255,058 from Georgia State University (GSU) with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) for his project “ASTRA- AI-based Strategy Discovery.”

Jan - Dr. Myounggyu Won, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $69,996 from Towson University with the National Security Agency for his project “Designing Comprehensive Curriculum for Autonomous Vehicle Security Education: An Integrated and Wholistic Approach.”

Dec - Dr. Deepak Venugopal, associate professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $50,000 from The Learning Academy LLC for his project “ASTRA: An AI-based tool to analyze math-learning strategies in big-data.”

Criminology and Criminal Justice

April - Dr. Timothy McCuddy, assistant professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, was awarded $7,694 from the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis (BCCM) with the Annie E Casey Foundation (AECF) for his project “BCCM Survey 2024.”

Earth Sciences

August - Dr. Gary Stinchcomb, assistant professor in the department of Earth Sciences, was awarded $10,500 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for her project “Collaborative Research: The influence of climate and tectonics on Miocene ecosystems and faunal evolution in the East African Rift, Kenya."

July - Dr. Gary Stinchcomb, assistant professor in the department of Earth Sciences, was awarded $431,158 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project "EA: Acquisition of a Micro X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer for Research and Education in Earth and Environmental Studies at the University of Memphis."

May - Dr. Rachel Lombardi, assistant professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, was awarded $15,548 from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for her project “Landslide Investigation in Tennessee River Gorge.”

May - Dr. Youngsang Kwon, associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, was awarded $39,837 from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for his project “Advancing Spatio-Temporal Groundwater Anomaly Mapping in US Principal Aquifers: Integrating High-Performance Computing and Machine Learning for Enhanced Resolution and Analysis.”

May - Dr. William Jackson, assistant professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, was awarded $41,223 from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for his project “Geology of the Life 7.5-minute quadrangle in Henderson and Chester counties, Tennessee.”

Institute for Intelligent Systems

March - Dr. Mohammed Yeasin, associate professor in Institute for Intelligent Systems, was awarded $21,127 from Pennsylvania State Univ (PSU) with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project “Machine Learning Prediction of 1-Year Mortality and Recurrence after Ischemic Stroke Using Enriched EHR data.”

Feb - Dr. John Sabatini, Distinguished Research Professor in the Institute for Intelligent Systems, was awarded $1,171,855 from the Institute of Educational Sciences (IES) with the U.S. Department of Education (US DoEd) for his project “Scenario-Based Assessment in the age of generative AI: Making space in the education market for alternative assessment paradigm,” and $47,000 from the Trustees of Boston College with the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement for his project “PIRLS26 Test Development – Subaward."

Dec - Dr. Bonny Banerjee, dual appointed assistant professor in the research-intensive Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was awarded $252,000 from Modus Operandi, Inc. with the U.S. Department of Defense for his project “Wearable Technologies for Physiological Monitoring Open Topic.”

Interprofessional Community Health Clinic

June - Dr. Susan Elswick, faculty director and principal investigator in the Interprofessional Community Health Clinic, was awarded $100,000 from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services for her project “Public Behavioral Health Workforce Recruitment and Outreach Initiative.”

Physics and Materials Science

May - Dr. Francisco Muller Sanchez, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Materials Science, was awarded $118,459 from the Space Telescope Science Institute for his project “Unveiling the Nature of CID-42. The Best Candidate for a Gravitational Wave Recoiling Supermassive Black Hole” and $82,841 from the Space Telescope Science Institute for his project “Probing SMBH/Galaxy Co-Evolution with Dual and Binary AGN.” 

April - Dr. Benjamin Keller, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Materials Science, was awarded $47,776 for his project “Space Telescope Science Institute.”

Dec - Dr. Shawn Pollard, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Material Science, was awarded $181,745 from the National Science Foundation for his project “ERI: Compositionally modulated ferrimagnets for spin-orbitronic devices.”

Dec - Dr. Firouzeh Sabri, professor and chair in the Department of Physics and Material Science, was awarded $12,000 from the National Science Foundation for her project “REU Site: Multidisciplinary Physics Research at the University of Memphis.”

Dec - Dr. Francisco Muller Sanchez, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Materials Science, was awarded $78,564 from the National Aeronautics and Space Admin for his project “GA-MER: Citizen science-based classification of galaxy mergers using the two-dimensional stellar kinematics of nearby galaxies observed with MaNGA.”

Political Science

March - Dr. Dursun Peksen, professor in the Department of Political Science, was awarded $238,262 from Arizona State University (ASU) with the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “Government-imposed Restrictions on International Economic Relations.” Dr. Bert Burraston, associate professor and department chair in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, was awarded $43,234 from the Methodist LeBonheur Community Outreach with the US Department of Justice (US DoJ) for his project “Evaluation of eSHIFT.”

Psychology

August - Dr. Kristoffer Berlin, professor, Clinical (Child, Adolescent, and Family Studies) in the department of Psychology was awarded $12,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project “Family Health Intervention to Improve Health Outcomes in Black Youth with Type 1 Diabetes: A Multi-Center Randomized Controlled Trial."

August - Dr. Nicholas Simon, associate professor in the department in Psychology, was awarded $173,417 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project “Circuit-specific catecholamine regulation of sensitivity to delayed punishment."

August - Dr. James Murphy, professor in the department in Psychology, was awarded $200,319 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project “A Qualitative Analysis of Social and Behavioral Processes Associated with Self-Change in Drinking in an Existing Cohort of Black and White Emerging Adults."

July - Dr. Xiangen Hu, professor, experimental (Cognitive), was awarded $170,003 from the American Institutes for Research for his project "AIR and University of Memphis AutoTutor Project."

July - Dr. Meghan McDevitt-Murphy, professor, clinical (psychotherapy) in the department of Psychology, was awarded $430,522 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for her project "Building the Memphis Opioid Workforce - Graduate Psychology Education II."
 
July - Dr. Rory Pfund, research assistant professor the department of Psychology, was awarded $69,000 from International Center for Responsible Gaming for his project "Modernized and Personalized Prevention of College Student Gambling Harm. Expansion 2024 - 2027" and $5,000 from International Center for Responsible Gaming for his project "Gambling Under the Influence of Cannabis: Using Ecological Momentary Assessment to Understand the Impact of Simultaneous Engagement."

July - Dr. James Murphy, professor in the department of Psychology, was awarded $34,794 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project "Behavioral economic and wellness-based approaches for reducing alcohol use and consequences among diverse community-dwelling emerging adults."

July - Dr. Kristoffer Berlin, professor, clinical (Child, Adolescent, and Family Studies) in the department of Psychology, was awarded $7,375 from Society of Pediatric Psychology  for his project "Values and Identities in Type 1 Amid Life Stress (VITALS) for Racially and Income Diverse Youth with Type 1 Diabetes and their Caregivers."

June - Dr. James Whelan, research professor (Clinical Health) in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $2,348,297 from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services for his project “Change the odds: a multi-platform approach to gambling treatment.”

May - Dr. James Murphy, professor in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $40,769 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project “A Mixed Methods Study to Enhance Alcohol Treatment Help-seeking and Engagement Among Gender Diverse Adults.”

May - Dr. Kristoffer Berlin, professor Clinical (Child, Adolescent, and Family Studies in the Department of Psychology, was awarded an additional $116,836 from Wayne State University with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project “Family mHealth Intervention to Improve Health Outcomes in Black Youth with Type 1 Diabetes: A Multi-Center Randomized Controlled Trial,” and $12,886 from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville with the National Institutes of Health for his project “Effect of time-based energy intake goals on weight loss during obesity treatment.”

March - Dr. Emily Srisarajivakul, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $2,500 from Universidad de Navarra (University of Navarra) for her project “Successful Strategies in Mental Health Prevention within an Educational Context.”

March - Dr. John Sabatini, Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $241,470 from MindTrust Labs LLC with the U.S. Department of Education (US DoEd) for his project “EdScape XR.”

Feb - Dr. Meghan McDevitt-Murphy, Clinical Professor in theDepartment of Psychology, was awarded $48,622 from the University of Virginia with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her project “The effectiveness of text-based messaging strategies for preventing subsequent problematic alcohol use among technical trainees in the U.S. Air Force.”

Feb - Dr. James Murphy, professor in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $313,138 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project “Behavioral economic and wellness-based approaches for reducing alcohol use and consequences among diverse community-dwelling emerging adults,” and $36,814 from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project “Testing the Effects of Contingency Management and Behavioral Economics on Buprenorphine-Naloxone Treatment Adherence Using a Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial (SMART) Design.”

Dec - Dr. Rory Pfund, research assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $45,881 from the International Center for Responsible Gaming for his project “A Meta-Analytic Research Domain of Psychological Treatments for Gambling Harm.”

Public and Nonprofit Administration

Feb - Dr. Erin Nelson, associate professor, associate director and MNM Coordinator in the Department of Public and Nonprofit Administration, was awarded $21,253 from the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital – ALSAC for her project “ALSAC Executive Leadership Course.”

Dec - Dr. Elizabeth Gillespie, assistant professor in the Department of Public and Nonprofit Administration, was awarded $1,695 from Advocates for Immigrant Rights for her project “Fundraising Contract.”

Social Work

August - Dr. Elena Delavega, professor in the Department of Social Work, was awarded $60,655 from the Church Health Center of Memphis for her project “Improving Behavioral Healthcare for the Latinx Community in Memphis."

August - Dr. Gregory Washington, professor in the School of Social Work and director of the Center for the Advancement and Youth Development (CAYD, was awarded $121,004 by the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for his project “Mobile University Services for Integrated Community Care (MUSICC)."

August - Dr. Susan Neely-Barnes, professor and director chair in the department of Social Work, was awarded $529,999 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for her project “Recruiting Interprofessional Scholars for Excellence in Childhood, Adolescence, & Young Adulthood" (RISE-CAY).

July - Dr. Susan Neely Barnes, Chair & Director in the department of Social Work, was awarded $479,856 from Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for her project "INTEGRATE (INterprofessional TEams GRounded in Apprenticeship, Telehealth, and Evidence)."

July - Dr. Susan Elswick, professor of Social Work, was awarded $150,000 from The Urban Child Institute for her project "School Mental Health Access to Resources through Teletherapy (SMART) Research, Training, and Treatment Center."

June - Dr. Susan Neely-Barnes, professor and director chair in the Department of Social Work, was awarded $636,438 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for her project “Memphis Social Work Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (MSW-SDS).”

March - Dr. Susan Elswick, associate professor, Department of Social Work and faculty director and principal investigator in the Interprofessional Community Health Clinic, was awarded $300,000 from Shelby County Schools (SCS) with the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for her project “MSCS Project AWARE” and $46,994 from the University of Tennessee - Knoxville (UTK) with the Tennessee Department of Education (TDoEd) for her project “Tennessee Department of Education (TDoEd).”

Dec - Dr. Minhae Cho, assistant professor in the Department of Social Work, was awarded $50,000 from the City of Memphis Police Department with the State of Tennessee for her project “Evaluation of VCIF project.”

Sociology

July - Dr. Wesley James, Pat E. Burlison professor in the department of Sociology, was awarded $20,822 from the Delta Health Alliance for his project "The Partnership to Optimize Women's Equity in Reproductive health (POWER)."

April - Dr. Wesley James, Pat E. Burlison Professor in the Department of Sociology, was awarded $225,000 from the City of Memphis Police Department (CMPD) with the US Department of Justice (US DoJ) for his project “Evaluation of Memphis Police Department Crisis Intervention Programs.”

Dec - Dr. Wesley James, Pat E. Burlison Professor in the Department of Sociology, was awarded $159,877 from the Delta Health Alliance with the National Institutes of Health for his project “The Partnership to Optimize Women's Equity in Reproductive health (POWER).”