Trustees Luncheon Honors 2024 Faculty Research Awardees and Inclusive Excellence
Trustees, faculty award recipients, and university leaders gather for a commemorative luncheon recognizing Provost’s Grants Programs that support research championing inclusion and belonging.
The Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement hosted its seventh annual luncheon to honor the 2023-24 Junior and Mid-Career Awardees.
Funding Faculty Research
Each academic year, the Office of the Provost recognizes excellent faculty research that contributes to the diversity goals of the University. The Junior Faculty Grants Program, offered twice per year, aims to assist early-career untenured faculty who have demonstrated a commitment to diversity in their scholarship, teaching, or mentoring activities. The program awards up to $30,000 to support research assistance, computational resources, professional development, travel to scholarly meetings, or the procurement of research materials. Since the program’s inception in 2012, the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement has funded approximately 230 projects, significantly amplifying our University’s academic and intellectual diversity goals.
Similarly, the CUIMC Grant Program for Junior Faculty, is designed to advance the careers of exceptional junior faculty serving at the Irving Medical Campus. Proposals are invited once per year, with a maximum award of $25,000.
Additionally, the Mid-Career Faculty Grant supports tenured faculty whose scholarship, teaching, and mentoring champion inclusive excellence. Offered once per year, selected faculty receive up to $37,500 over three years to further their research. Last spring, the Office of the Provost proudly awarded four tenured faculty members this prestigious grant.
An Opportunity to Connect Across Disciplines
Initially conceived by Trustee Claire Shipman, this year’s luncheon included congratulatory remarks from University Provost Angela Olinto, Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement Dennis A. Mitchell, and Board of Trustees members Mark Gallogly, Keith Goggin, David Greenwald, and Jonathan Rosand. This year’s attendees represented fields as diverse as medicine, mechanical and environmental engineering, political science, social work, architecture, and film. This event fosters connections between faculty across Columbia’s campuses and often sparks enduring professional relationships.
Interested in applying? The request for proposals for the Fall 2024 Junior Faculty Awards Program is now open through October 17, 2024.
Visit the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement website or email [email protected] for more information.
Faculty Awardees in Their Own Words
FACULTY AWARDEE:
Rossana Calderon, MD MPH
Department of Medicine, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
What encouraged or inspired you to apply for this program? What impact has it had on your project's development?
I was very honored to have been selected to represent the Department of Medicine to apply for this award. This award helped me not only obtain key preliminary data, but also develop valuable tools (such as a transgenic animal model) for the advancement of my project. In consequence, the support of this award resulted in a successful NIH career development award application.
In your estimation, how does your project contribute to the University’s diversity goals?
Diabetes and obesity are pandemics that pose a great burden in healthcare worldwide. Racial and ethnic minority populations have higher rates of diabetes and obesity-related complications in the United States. As my project seeks to unravel a previously unknown pathway in the secretion of hormones that regulate glucose metabolism and weight, my findings could potentially benefit the management of these diseases in the future.
FACULTY AWARDEE:
Santiago Correa,
Biomedical Engineering, Columbia Engineering
What encouraged or inspired you to apply for this program? What impact has it had on your project's development?
As a junior faculty member, I am eager to grow my lab in new and ambitious directions, so this award was attractive to me since it was very open to unconventional ideas. Since receiving the award, we have pursued pilot studies that have generated promising data, which I have been incorporating into my most recent federal grants.
In your estimation, how does your project contribute to the University’s diversity goals?
My project contributes to diversity goals in a few ways. First, it directly supports the work of my postdoc, who comes from an underrepresented background. Second, if our research is successful, it stands to make more patients good candidates for cancer immunotherapy. Cancer, like many other diseases, disproportionately impacts individuals from less advantaged backgrounds, and so extending the benefits of new treatments like immunotherapy helps to ensure more equitable access to advanced healthcare.