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July 2023 Grants and Awards

Near- and Mid-IR Observations to Probe Dust Formation in the Remarkably Nearby Stripped-Envelope Supernova 2023dbc

Principal Investigator:
Christopher J. Ashall

Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$6,701

Sponsor:
Space Telescope Science Institute

The Obesity EMBRACE Pilot: Empowering Moms and Basic Research via Active Community Engagement

Principal Investigator:
Brittany R. Howell

Assistant Professor
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC

Total Anticipated:
$46,690

Sponsor:
University of Virginia

Integrated Quantum Phononics on Thin-Film Lithium Niobate

Principal Investigator:
Linbo Shao

Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$5,000

Sponsor:
Oak Ridge Associated Universities Inc.

Biosynthetic Yeast Utilized for Higher Yields of Agriculture on Mars Mission

Principal Investigator:
Robert C. Wright

Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Systems Engineering
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$7,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Space Grant Consortium

Pre-Clinical Evaluation of Alpha-Cache; a Novel RNA Vaccine for an Emerging Orthobunyavirus

Principal Investigator:
Albert J. Auguste

Associate Professor
Department of Entomology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$4,668,636

Sponsor:
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Rural Environmental Health Training Program

Principal Investigator:
Julia M. Gohlke

Associate Professor
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine

Total Anticipated:
$472,217

Sponsor:
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Developing Low-Glycosidic Nitrile and Glycosidic Nitrile-Zero Malt Barley Varieties for the Eastern United States

Principal Investigator:
Nicholas Santantonio

Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$113,533

Sponsor:
Virginia Spirits Board

Virginia Tech Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program

Principal Investigator:
Edward J. Smith

Director, Virginia Tech Postbaccalaureate Research and Education Program Program
Director, Virginia Tech-Initiative for Maximizing Student Development Program
Professor
School of Animal Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$1,874,840

Sponsor:
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Health Economics Research With University of Virginia

Principal Investigator:
Susan E. Chen

Director, Graduate Program and Associate Professor
Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$317,738

Sponsor:
University of Virginia

Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers Phase II+ Virginia Tech: Center for Mining and Mineral Engineering (MME)

Principal Investigator:
Erik C. Westman

Professor
Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$750,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Biological Systems Engineering Undergraduate Hydro Analysis Group: Biological Systems Engineering and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality Office of Surface and Ground Water Supply Planning Collaboration 2023-2024

Principal Investigator:
Durelle T. Scott

Assistant Department Head for Undergraduate Studies an Professor
Department of Biological Systems Engineering
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$44,295

Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

Do Phylogeny and Meta-Omic Variation in Nodule Bacteriomes Determine Plant Traits Related to Legume Productivity?

Principal Investigator:
Mark A. Williams

Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$846,359

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Development of a First-in-Class Bifunctional Fusion Cytokine Therapy that Targets Tregs and Tissue Resident Tregs for the Treatment of Lupus and other Autoimmune Diseases

Principal Investigator:
Richard F. Helm

Director, Virginia Tech-Mass Spectrometry Incubator and Associate Professor
Department of Biochemistry
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$50,000

Sponsor:
University of Virginia

Virginia Nanotechnology Networked Infrastructure  

Principal Investigator:
Masoud Agah

Virginia Microelectronics Consortium Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$3,300,000

Sponsor:
Go Virginia Region 7

Advanced Chip Engineering Design and Fabrication: Real-time Optimization Of Transceiver Systems

Principal Investigator:
Jeffrey S. Walling

Associate Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$500,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Collaborative Research: CPS: Medium: Robust Sensing and Learning for Autonomous Driving Against Perceptual Illusion

Principal Investigator:
Wenjing Lou

W.C. English Endowed Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$500,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

DISES: Coupled Socio-Ecological Mobility in the Coastal Zone

Principal Investigator:
Anamaria Bukvic

Assistant Professor
Department of Geography
College of Natural Resources and Environment

Total Anticipated:
$592,027

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Ultrasound Directed Self-Assembly of Non-Periodic Patterns of Particles

Principal Investigator:
Bart Raeymaekers

Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$354,541

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Roanoke and Alleghany Health Districts Community Engagement - American Rescue Plan Act

Principal Investigator:
Mary E. Dunkenberger

Associate Director, Institute for Policy and Governance
Institute for Policy and Governance
School of Public and International Affairs

Total Anticipated:
$359,998

Sponsor:
Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts

Toward Ultrasound Brain Imaging via Machine-Learning-Extracted Skull Profile and Speed of Sound

Principal Investigator:
Aiguo Han

Assistant Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$373,805

Sponsor:
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

Collaborative Research: Research Initiation: Formation of the Foundations for Engineering Intuition in Structural Engineering with Mixed Reality

Principal Investigator:
Diana Bairaktarova

Associate Professor
Department of Engineering Education
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$25,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

CAREER: Design of Cellular Mechanical Metamaterials under Uncertainty with Physics-Informed and Data-Driven Machine Learning

Principal Investigator:
Pinar Acar

Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$549,365

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

2023-2024 Modeling System Support Services for VADEQ Office of Water Supply

Principal Investigator:
Durelle T. Scott

Assistant Department Head for Undergraduate Studies and Professor
Department of Biological Systems Engineering
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$19,542

Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

Anti-Nociceptive Actions of CART II in Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy

Principal Investigator:
Matthew Buczynski

Assistant Professor
School of Neuroscience
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$1,785,850

Sponsor:
National Cancer Institute

Mitigating Product Inhibition in Enzymes with Synthetic Glycosylation: Biodesulfurization of Petroleum Products

Principal Investigator:
Valerie Welborn

Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$1,100,00

Sponsor:
Petroleum Research Fund

CAREER: Unifying Scientific Knowledge with Machine Learning for Forward, Inverse, and Hybrid Modeling of Scientific Systems

Principal Investigator:
Anuj Karpatne

Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$595,738

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Precision Nanosurgery and Multimodal Intracellular Monitoring of Cellular Networks by Biomimic Nano-optoelectrode Arrays

Principal Investigator:
Wei Zhou

Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$742,914

Sponsor:
Air Force Office of Scientific Research

Precision Irrigation to Optimize Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Humid Regions: Modeling Agronomic Impacts and Grower Adoption in a Changing Climate

Principal Investigator:
Julie E. Shortridge

Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist
Department of Biological Systems Engineering
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$748,809

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

PlantTransform: TRTech-PGR: Genotype-independent Regeneration for Recalcitrant Species Through Induced Totipotent Plant Cells

Principal Investigator:
Bastiaan Bargmann

Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$1,200,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Long Term Research in Environmental Biology: Integrating Real-Time Open Data Pipelines and Forecasting to Quantify Ecosystem Predictability at Day to Decadal Scales

Principal Investigator:
Cayelan C. Carey

Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$450,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Naval Engineering Education Consortium: Autonomous, Multi-Sensor Scanning and 3D Model Generation for Ship Configuration Management

Principal Investigator:
John N. Gilbert

Research Assistant Professor
Virginia Tech National Security Institute

Total Anticipated:
$681,508

Sponsor:
United States Naval Surface Warfare Center

Equanimity in Education: A Functional Data Analysis Approach

Principal Investigator:
Pang Du

Associate Professor
Department of Statistics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$12,544

Sponsor:
University of Virginia

Development and Expansion of Disease Management Decision-Making Tools Across Multiple Soybean Regions

Principal Investigator:
David B. Langston

Professor
Tidewater Agriculture Research Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$15,000

Sponsor:
University of Kentucky Research Foundation

Sex Determination and the Sex-Determining Locus in Aedine Mosquitoes

Principal Investigator:
Zhijian Tu

University Distinguished Professor
Department of Biochemistry
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$3,751,168

Sponsor:
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Equipping Small Processors to Thrive in Larger Markets: A Hybrid Approach to Support Training Efficacy

Principal Investigator:
Alexis M. Hamilton

Assistant Professor
Department of Food Science and Technology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$393,133

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Bridge Inspection via Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence

Principal Investigator:
Joseph L. Gabbard

Professor
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$460,403

Sponsor:
New Mexico Department of Transportation

Placental Barrier Culture to Delineate the Mechanism of Hepatitis E Virus Infection at the Maternal and Fetal Interface

Principal Investigator:
Wen Li

Research Scientist
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine

Total Anticipated:
$160,000

Sponsor:
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Chesapeake Bay Implementation Grant Bioreactors to Remove Legacy Nitrogen

Principal Investigator:
Zachary Easton

Professor and Extension Specialist
Department of Biological Systems Engineering
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$50,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

PARTNERSHIP: Single Atom Catalyst-based Antimicrobial Films for Food Packaging Applications

Principal Investigator:
Yun Yin

Assistant Professor
Department of Food Science and Technology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$727,987

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Transport in Quantum Systems

Principal Investigator:
Alexander Elgart

Professor
Department of Mathematics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$200,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

EDGE FGT: RNAi-Based Tools to Unlock Functional Genomics of Obligate Oomycete Plant Pathogens

Principal Investigator:
John M. McDowell

Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$400,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

String Compactifications: From Geometry to Effective Field Theory

Principal Investigator:
Lara B. Anderson

Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$83,444

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Training Computer Science Teaching Assistants to Motivate Students

Principal Investigator:
Brett D. Jones

Professor
Office of Educational Research and Outreach
College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$399,592

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Fast-Charging, Wide-Temperature, Low-Cost, Durable Batteries Enabled by Cobalt- and Nickel-Free Cathodes and Cell Engineering

Principal Investigator:
Feng Lin

Leo and Melva Harris Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$2,395,000

Sponsor:
Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy

Living Cover Crops for Organic Vegetable Production

Principal Investigator:
Steven L. Rideout

Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$15,210

Sponsor:
Virginia Agricultural Council

Discovery of Novel Probiotic Lactobacillus Reuteri Strains to Improve Infant Health

Principal Investigator:
Xin Luo

Assistant Department Head, Graduate and Postgraduate Studies and Professor
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine

Total Anticipated:
$37,730

Sponsor:
University of Virginia