Featured Awards – September 2016

‌Charles Du (Biology, CSAM) received a $170,715 subaward from Rutgers University for the third year of the NSF-funded project A sequence-indexed reverse genetics resource for maize: a set of lines with single Ds-GFP insertions spread throughout the genome. Building on the results of a previously funded NSF project, the team aims to produce a sequence-indexed reverse genetics resource for maize that will let researchers fully exploit the maize genome sequence. Throughout the grant, MSU will support a research associate and some undergraduate student research assistants.
The availability of a mutant line in which a single known gene has been disrupted gives biologists a powerful tool in understanding the action of that gene. Thus, sequence-indexed collections of single insertions are critical resources for elucidating gene function in organisms with sequenced genomes and are deemed essential by the community to fully exploit the maize genome sequence.
This work will complete the production of a reverse genetics resource based on the transposon Ds that will enable the community to generate such a single gene disruption library for maize. It has recently become feasible to combine high-throughput sequencing with multi-dimensional pooling strategies to sequence and index hundreds of new insertions at a time.
Forty percent of the world’s corn is grown in the U.S. This study will ultimately help corn breeders release high-yield, good quality and environmentally friendly new corn varieties for American farmers.

Jaime Grinberg (Educational Foundations, CEHS) was awarded $2,500 by the Academic Engagement Network to host Israeli TV correspondent Nadav Eyal, who will present his documentary Hate, which focuses on contemporary anti-Semitic and racist groups and individuals in Europe.

Michael Hannon and Angela Sheely-Moore (Counseling and Educational Leadership, CEHS) were awarded $570 by the Association for Counselor Education & Supervision for Professional Development Needs of Urban School Counselors: A Replication Pilot Study, which will investigate the ongoing professional development and supervision needs of urban school counselors in New Jersey.

Pankaj Lal (Earth and Environmental Studies, CSAM) was awarded $97,542 by the National Science Foundation for the third year of CAREER: Geographic Suitability, Socioeconomic Uncertainty, and Environmental Consequences: Exploring Place-based Opportunities for Bioenergy Sustainability. This project will explore place based solutions for cellulosic bioenergy sustainability, through a unique approach that coordinates three strands of research: fuzzy logic theory based geospatial suitability, stated preference survey and stochastic analyses based socioeconomic uncertainty, and life cycle assessment based environmental analyses. Two dominant cellulosic bioenergy feedstocks, namely switchgrass in Midwestern US and pine in Southern US, will be studied.

Sarah Lowe (Psychology, CHSS) received a $12,326 subaward from Harvard University for the National Institutes of Health-funded Identifying Risk Factors for PTSD by Pooled Analysis of Current Prospective Studies. The purpose of the project is to create a consortium of principal investigators to combine their individual- and item-level data towards carrying out a pooled secondary analysis to synthesize information about the predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder.

Mika Munakata and Ashuwin Vaidya (Mathematical Sciences, CSAM) were awarded $299,701 by the National Science Foundation for Engaged Learning through Creativity in Mathematics and Science. This three-year project will develop, implement, assess, revise, and transfer an innovative model of STEM undergraduate education that highlights creativity in STEM at Montclair State University.

Jing Peng (Computer Science, CSAM) and Anna Feldman (Linguistics, CHSS) were awarded $145,170 by the US Department of Defense for Dynamic Data-Driven Fusion and Scene Understanding for Real Time Queries over Live Streaming Video. The project will develop a system that operates in real time (or near real time) and can detect and characterize short-term events (recognized in a single or few consecutive frames of video) and long-term activities (composed of one or more correlated events) that can occur in a timespan of seconds, minutes or hours. The resulting system will be a platform that enables dynamic data processing, exploitation, and management.

The National Science Foundation awarded $497,057 to Stefan Robila (Computer Science, CSAM), David Trubatch (Mathematical Sciences, CSAM) and Charles Du (Biology, CSAM) for MRI: Acquisition of a High Performance Computing Environment for Advancement of Computational Science Research and Education. Through this award, MSU will acquire a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster that will support a wide range of research and educational activities, led by investigators from all academic departments in the College of Science and Mathematics at Montclair State University, as well as faculty from other units of the University. Projects and investigations enabled and supported by the acquisition cover extensive areas of computational science and include: development and testing of novel approaches for spectral image processing; realistic simulation of magnetic fluid flows to model magnetic drug targeting and other biomedical applications; functional genomics analysis of DNA sequence data; computational identification of ligands that bind to proteins; simulation of chemical reaction pathways important in the chemistry of air pollution; development of simulated censorship systems as a test bed for censorship circumvention; automatic machine recognition of idiomatic and deceptive language; inference of subsurface ocean waves from seismic data; modeling and simulation shoreline evolution; modeling, simulation and control of stochastic dynamics.

David Trubatch (Mathematical Sciences, CSAM) was awarded $98,248 by the National Science Foundation for Collaborative Research: RUI: Three-Dimensional Multiphysics Simulation of Multi-phase Flows with Magnetic Fluids. This collaborative project with Cooper Union will develop and test a code for fully three-dimensional simulation of multi-fluid flows that include magnetic forces and other physical effects.

‌Dirk Vanderklein (Biology, CSAM), Julie Dalley (Research Academy for University Learning), Joshua Galster (Earth and Environmental Sciences, CSAM), and Nina Goodey (Chemistry and Biochemistry, CSAM) were awarded $300,000 by the National Science Foundation for the first year of STEM Pioneers: A 3-year pilot study to increase science literacy and STEM enrollment among first-year first-generation students. The project will address the gap between best practices and diverse student populations by integrating academic, community, institutional, and social support structures and analyzing how this approach may mitigate known factors of barriers-to-entry, such as lack of academic/cultural capital, social support, and institutional navigation.‌‌‌‌‌