2024 Research Grants and Information
Additional award, research and presentation information can be found on the CAS Accolades website.
Updated April 17, 2024
Anthropology
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
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
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
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
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.”
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.”
Physics and Materials Science
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
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
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
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).”