Featured Awards – June 2015

‌Nina Goodey (Chemistry & Biochemistry, CSAM), Katherine Herbert (Computer Science, CSAM), John Siekierka (Chemistry & Biochemistry, CSAM), Marc Kasner (Chemistry & Biochemistry, CSAM), and Jennifer Krumins (Biology, CSAM) were awarded $50,847 by the National Science Foundation for the first year of the five-year program “Opening Pathways, Engaging, and Networking in Chemistry in Northern New Jersey (OPEN-NJ).” OPEN-NJ will award 51 $10,000 yearly scholarships to students admitted to the M.S. programs in Chemistry, Chemistry with a concentration in Biochemistry, and Pharmaceutical Biochemistry. The program will serve as a model for enabling Biology B.S. graduates to transition into M.S. degree programs in Chemistry and Biochemistry.‌‌ The OPEN-NJ program will work together synergistically with the NECST program, headed by Dr. Herbert, in the Department of Computer Science.

Mika Munakata and Erin Krupa (Mathematical Sciences, CSAM) and Jacalyn Willis (Professional Resources in Science and Mathematics, CSAM) were awarded $365,000 from the New Jersey Department of Education for the third and final year of “CUSP: Creative University-School Partnerships.” The purpose of this program is to increase the academic achievement of students in mathematics and science by enhancing the content knowledge and teaching skills of classroom teachers. The project will encompass the needs of the collaborating districts’ teachers of grades 5-8 mathematics as those needs relate to 1) the Common Core State Standards; 2) the local assessment results of those districts’ students on the NJ-ASK tests and classroom observations by supervisors, principals, and PRISM outreach staff.

Robert Prezant (Dean, CSAM) and Carlos Molina (Biology and Molecular Biology, CSAM) received a $72,694 subaward from Rutgers University for the second year of the NSF-funded project, “Garden State LSAMP Phase II,” which will maintain the program at MSU in addition to addressing several new aspects that serve the greater LSAMP mission.

Montserrat Soler (Anthropology, CHSS) received a $8,200 supplement to a subaward from the University of British Columbia for the Templeton Foundation-funded “Emergence of Prosocial Religions.” The project is a cross-cultural effort designed to answer the questions of how and why commitment to moralistic supernatural agents affects social behavior across disparate populations.