Boise State University, ID·Engineering
Support graduate fellows for three years of stipend and education costs as they carry out fundamental research aligned with technology and innovation goals in microelectronics.
Montana State University, MT·Physics
Track how a quasi-one-dimensional crystal changes from a metallic superconductor to a non-superconducting insulator as its charge-carrier density is varied. Single crystals will be measured for electrical, thermal and magnetic properties and for thermal expansion.
University of Minnesota, MN·Engineering
Develop exact solution methods for transportation network design under user equilibrium that combine high-point relaxations, value-function cuts and strong duality cuts to find provably optimal designs faster.
University of Oklahoma, OK·Biomedical Engineering
Develop a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensing approach, a light-based method that reads molecular fingerprints, to detect subtle blood-based changes signaling early ovarian tumor formation.
University of New Mexico, NM·Ecology & Evolution
Test whether gut microbes in wild banner-tailed kangaroo rats make essential amino acids and short-chain fatty acids that hosts absorb, using compound-specific isotope tracing and metatranscriptomics.
Ohio State University, OH·Chemistry
Synthesize polyanionic, dendritic pillar[6]arenes with stable pS or pR planar chirality and a nonpolar pocket shielded by anionic groups, and test their ability to bind chiral steroids differing in charge and number of stereocenters in water.
University of Alabama, AL·Materials Science
Measure and model how fast aliphatic and aromatic bio-derived solutes adsorb onto cellulose fibers during supercritical CO2 impregnation, using quartz crystal microbalance (QCM-D) measurements under varied process conditions.
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Earth & Environmental Science
Compile and standardize the location, age, rock type and thickness of rocks across northern Eurasia and add them to Macrostrat, an open database of Earth's crust.
Iowa State University, IA·Materials Science
Build a closed-loop AI platform that compares Bayesian optimization (choosing the most informative next test) with deep reinforcement learning (trial-and-reward learning) for designing the high-entropy carbide (Ti-Zr-Hf-Nb-Ta)C, using machine-learning force-field atomistic simulations.
Troy University, AL·Materials Science
Establish quantitative relationships between internal material architecture and water transport, swelling and mechanical stability in scaffold-confined soft polymer systems made from mixed recycled feedstocks.
Auburn University, AL·Ecology & Evolution
Identify transcriptomic, lipidomic, metabolomic, mitochondrial and whole-animal metabolic signatures of how Lampsilis straminea and Fusconaia cerina adjust to water temperature and sediment at different life stages in lab acclimation.
Yale University, CT·Education Research
Identify which teaching practices in SEA-PHAGES courses, where students discover bacteria-infecting viruses, build student trust, buy-in and persistence in STEM, using mixed-methods study of instructors and administrators.