Junior Faculty Diversity Grant Awards
Dear fellow members of the Columbia community,
President Bollinger and I recently announced a new University commitment of $33 million to continue the expansion of our faculty diversity efforts. Columbia is poised for new investments in the recruitment of outstanding faculty from underrepresented groups to more closely reflect the composition of the national pool of qualified candidates. We will also provide further support for grants to junior faculty who contribute to the diversity goals of the University, designed to contribute to their career success, and additional investments in PhD pipeline efforts.
This new initiative will broaden our focus to include support for LGBTQ scholarship, and for enhancing our climate of inclusiveness through scholarly conferences that give prominence to issues of race, gender, and sexuality.
The Provost’s Grants Program for Junior Faculty Who Contribute to the Diversity Goals of the University is a key component of Columbia’s ongoing commitment. I am very pleased to announce the funded projects for the 2014-2015 academic year. All applications were reviewed by a committee of faculty from both the Morningside and Medical Center campuses.
This year’s projects cover a wide range of disciplines and topics, from molecular physics to historic preservation. The full lists of funded projects from the Spring 2015 and Fall 2014 grant cycles are below.
These two most recent rounds of funding follow three prior rounds of support from this program. All told, the program has supported fifty-three projects across the university. For more, access information on the program and the previous rounds of funded projects.
Please join Dennis A. Mitchell, Senior Associate Provost for Faculty Diversity and Inclusion, and me in congratulating the recipients of these grants.
John H. Coatsworth
Provost
List of Awardees - Spring 2015
Assistant Professor of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Preservation and sustainability: Establishing new indicators of success
Assistant Professor of Surgical Sciences (in Surgery)
College of Physicians and Surgeons
Probing human islet alpha cell biology with single-cell gene expression
Assistant Professor of Business
Graduate School of Business
Accounting research and teaching projects
Associate Professor of Law
School of Law
The two directions of arbitrage
Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Elucidating the contribution of thixotropy on the flow curve and critical shear rate of fresh cement mortars
Russell and Bettina Knapp Associate Professor of American Jewish History
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Voices of the new Russian-Jewish diaspora: International dimensions of the contemporary Russian migration
Assistant Professor of Surgery
College of Physicians and Surgeons
Breast cancer among thyroid cancer survivors
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
A new approach to point-free space
Assistant Professor of Business
Graduate School of Business
Research on portfolio preferences and mutual funds
Associate Professor of Psychology
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Evaluating the Bridge Program as a test-case for how to increase underrepresented minority participation in science
Assistant Professor of Medicine
College of Physicians and Surgeons
The effects of inhaled glucocorticoids on central skeleton structure and strength in postmenopausal Latina women
Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Online algorithms for service systems
Assistant Professor of Physics
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
High-precision laser systems for an ultracold molecular clock
List of Awardees - Fall 2014
Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management
Mailman School of Public Health
Do stronger gun violence prevention laws promote healthier communities? Exploring the relationship between health outcomes and firearms legislation funding, implementation, and enforcement
Assistant Professor of Nursing
School of Nursing
Feasibility and acceptability of an online maternity education platform
Assistant Professor of Political Sciences
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The spotlight’s harsh glare: Rethinking publicity and international order
Assistant Professor of Social Work
School of Social Work
Black Face to Ferguson: A mixed methodological examination of media racism, media activism, and health
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Columbia University Medical Center
College of Physicians and Surgeons
Hispanic adolescent and parent discordance about reproductive health trials
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
College of Physicians and Surgeons
The impact of physical activity level on environmental and epigenetic mechanisms in asthma
Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Queues with synchronization in cloud computing
Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Mechanics
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Modeling chemical driven fractured rocks by integrating 3D printing digenesis and multiscale computations
Associate Professor of Psychology
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Critical periods for intergenerational fear transmission in humans
Assistant Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology and Neuroscience (in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain)
College of Physicians and Surgeons
The role of ubiquitination in neurotransmitter release
Esther Aboodi Assistant Professor of Cardiology (in Medicine)
College of Physicians and Surgeons
Understanding gender differences in atrial fibrillation using a novel transgenic mouse model
Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pathology and Cell Biology
College of Physicians and Surgeons
The role of selective macroautopsy in neurodegeneration