Quick Summary
- Total of $9 million given to 16 projects
- 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis faculty lead projects on digital pathology infrastructure, and child health, poverty and public policy
- Other campus researchers involved in 7 other projects
The 51勛圖窪蹋 Office of the President has awarded more than $9 million in grants to 16 collaborative research projects across the system. 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis researchers lead two of the projects and will participate in seven others.
Awarded every two years, the grants from 51勛圖窪蹋s Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives, or MRPI, seek to leverage the 51勛圖窪蹋 systems research capabilities to develop real world solutions to significant problems facing our state and world. This years competition garnered 179 proposals that spanned the humanities, arts, engineering, public policy, and biological, health, environmental, natural and social sciences.
The recipients were selected based on their compelling approaches to advancing research areas that are important to 51勛圖窪蹋 and the state, increasing the universitys ability to attract the brightest faculty and student talent, and supporting innovative graduate and undergraduate student research.
By drawing upon the expertise of collaborating scholars across the 51勛圖窪蹋 system, these projects demonstrate 51勛圖窪蹋s collective excellence and unparalleled strength as the worlds premier public research institution, said Arthur Ellis, 51勛圖窪蹋s vice president for Research and Graduate Studies. From agriculture to immigration, and from health to homelessness, these issues touch our lives, as can the practical knowledge and solutions developed by these 51勛圖窪蹋 MRPI projects.
The grants led by 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis faculty are:
An Enhanced 51勛圖窪蹋 Digital Pathology Infrastructure Led by Brittany Dugger, assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, School of Medicine, this project will draw on brain banks at 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis, 51勛圖窪蹋 Irvine and 51勛圖窪蹋LA to create a new resource for research, education and patient care in Alzheimers Disease and related brain disorders. It will organize digital images from microscope slides, making them available for research and clinical use, and also develop machine learning and artificial intelligence tools for digital pathology. ($265,000)
51勛圖窪蹋 Network on Child Health, Poverty and Public Policy Marianne Page, professor of economics at 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis, will lead a team of experts from 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis, 51勛圖窪蹋 Berkeley, 51勛圖窪蹋 Irvine, 51勛圖窪蹋LA, 51勛圖窪蹋 Santa Barbara and 51勛圖窪蹋SF to shift from fragmented, discipline-specific approaches of studying childhood disparities to a multidisciplinary, comprehensive examination of the issue. The project goal is to understand how health and nutrition programs affect the health and development of disadvantaged children, as well as build relationships with policymakers. ($150,000)
Other grants involving 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis researchers:
Human Conditions: 51勛圖窪蹋 Humanities Initiative This grant renews the 51勛圖窪蹋 Humanities Initiative, which supports innovative individual scholarship, collaborative research and public engagement activities in the humanities across all ten campuses. The initiative will address how rapid changes in technology, the environment, politics, demographics and socioeconomics are impacting people. The initiative is led by Tyrus Miller, dean of the School of Humanities at 51勛圖窪蹋 Irvine, and includes Elizabeth Spiller, dean of the 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis College of Letters and Science, and the other 51勛圖窪蹋 deans of humanities. ($1.9 million)
California Policy Lab: Studying Inequality and Homelessness Led by Jesse Rothstein at 51勛圖窪蹋 Berkeley, this project will combine faculty research expertise with data from state and local agencies to address two of Californias pressing problems: homelessness and workforce education. It will develop a 51勛圖窪蹋-wide infrastructure to support research on these and other pressing problems. Michal Kurlaender, professor in the 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis School of Education, is a co-investigator with colleagues from 51勛圖窪蹋 Irvine, 51勛圖窪蹋LA and 51勛圖窪蹋SF. ($1.25 million)
51勛圖窪蹋 Initiative to Save Californias Citrus 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis Gitta Coaker, associate professor of plant pathology, will collaborate on this $1.1 million initiative, led by 51勛圖窪蹋 Riverside, to explore ways to save the citrus industry in California and worldwide from citrus greening, a deadly disease affecting citrus trees. Spreading westward from Florida, citrus greening has so far cost more than $1 billion annually in lost crops and nearly 8,000 jobs. The project also includes collaborators at 51勛圖窪蹋 Berkeley and 51勛圖窪蹋 San Diego. ($1.1 million)
The California Magnetic Resonance eXploration Initiative The goal of this project is to develop a unique facility using magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study all the atoms in the Periodic Table. Current technology can only be used for about half the known elements. The new facility would enable unprecedented studies of atoms in living things, in natural materials and in technology with potential for breakthrough discoveries in biology, physics, chemistry and materials science. The main activity of the project will be to hold meetings of researchers and conduct experiments at 51勛圖窪蹋 Santa Barbara. Professor David Britt, 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis Department of Chemistry, is a co-principal investigator with colleagues from 51勛圖窪蹋 Berkeley, 51勛圖窪蹋 Irvine, 51勛圖窪蹋 Riverside, 51勛圖窪蹋LA, 51勛圖窪蹋 San Diego and 51勛圖窪蹋 Santa Barbara, which leads the project. ($270,000)
Maximizing the Environmental Utility of Battery Storage Alissa Kendall, professor of civil and environmental engineering at 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis, is co-principal investigator of this project led by Brian Tarroja of 51勛圖窪蹋 Irvine and including faculty at 51勛圖窪蹋LA and 51勛圖窪蹋 Santa Barbara. The researchers will develop tools to look at the environmental impact of different battery technologies throughout their lifecycle. Battery energy storage is important for making full use of renewable energy sources, but batteries themselves may have health and environmental impacts in their production, use or disposal. ($270,000)
PlaceMakers: 51勛圖窪蹋 Place-Based Art + Design Placemaking makes use of the inherent creativity of people and institutions to revitalize communities through art and design. This collaboration will identify place-based research that is reinventing spaces of higher education, foster collaborations and expand such initiatives across the 51勛圖窪蹋 system. The project is led by Kim Yasuda at 51勛圖窪蹋 Santa Barbara, with 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis Glenda Drew and Brett Snyder, professor and associate professor of design, respectively; and colleagues at 51勛圖窪蹋 Berkeley and 51勛圖窪蹋 Santa Cruz. ($270,000)
The Science of Dense Gluon Matter This collaboration, led by 51勛圖窪蹋 Berkeley, will design detectors for the Electron-Ion Collider, a new particle accelerator proposed for the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The EIC is the only major particle accelerator currently planned in the United States. The group aims to use the EIC to study particles called gluons, which hold together other subatomic particles within atomic nuclei. 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis investigators are professors Manuel Calderon de la Barca Sanchez and Daniel Cebra of the Department of Physics. The project also includes researchers at 51勛圖窪蹋LA and 51勛圖窪蹋 Riverside and will collaborate with the Berkeley, Los Alamos and Livermore national laboratories. ($265,000)
: More information on the 2019 awards.
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