Featured Awards – March 2017

Gerard Costa • Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental
Health, CEHS
Kaitlin Mulcahy • Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health, CEHS
The Coordinating Center at Montclair State University (CC-MSU) – Supplement
NJ Department of Health, Governor’s Council for Medical Research and Treatment of Autism
$437,078
Through collaborative, multidisciplinary and reflective leadership, the Coordinating Center at Montclair State University (CC-MSU) provides research sites with support, opportunities for sharing and collaboration and ways to streamline practices to increase efficiency and to meet relevant research outcomes for persons affected by ASD. The CC-MSU includes a Principal Investigator with experience in both collaborative leadership and treatment of ASD, and also includes university partners with expertise in research and evaluation, information technology, organizational development, biostatistics, administration, and ASD clinical research and treatment. In addition, the CC-MSU benefits from the wide range of expertise within the research, training, administrative, and academic support structures at the pedagogically excellent and experientially diverse Montclair State University.‌‌‌‌

Yang Deng • Earth and Environmental Studies, CSAM
Low-cost Adsorbent Coated (LAC) Wood Mulches for Mitigation of New Jersey (NJ) Agricultural Stormwater Pollution
US Department of Agriculture
$75,000
This project will design innovative, viable, and simple maintenance filter strips with environmentally friendly low-cost adsorbent coated (LAC)-wood mulches for alleviation of agricultural runoff pollutants , particularly three USDA-highlighted New Jersey (NJ) agricultural stormwater pollutants: phosphorus, pathogens and total suspended solids.

‌Laura Lakusta • Psychology, CHSS
RUI: Interactions between language and cognition in the early acquisition of spatial language
National Science Foundation
$500,000

Dr. Lakusta’s project will propose and execute a model for testing spatial language acquisition by using multiple methodologies in cross-sectional studies from infancy through early childhood, testing how core concepts, linguistic input, and environmental experience interact to shape the early acquisition of complex semantic structures.

Sarah Lowe • Psychology, CHSS
GuLF Study: Support for Mental Health Analyses
National Institutes of Health
$37,371
This subaward from Social and Scientific Systems will investigate potential short- and long-term health effects associated with the clean-up activities following the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. In collaboration with the NIH-sponsored Gulf Long-Term Follow-Up Study (GuLF STUDY) investigative team, Dr. Sarah Lowe will provide expert consultation and will collaborate on the conduct, interpretation, and reporting of analyses of study data focused primarily on the characterization of mental health outcomes observed among workers and volunteers who were involved in clean-up activities.