Award News
Congratulations to the following researchers, who were recently recognized through external awards:
- Eleven MSU faculty have received NSF Early CAREER Awards for 2018. It was reported earlier as nine awards, but as of June 1, the total is now 11! This is a record for MSU and speaks volumes about the caliber of our junior faculty. From physics and astronomy, to communications and computation, their work is vast and represents the broad array of disciplines at Michigan State. Learn more about this outstanding cohort and their research.
- Elizabeth LaPensée, assistant professor of Media & Information, and Writing, Rhetoric & American Cultures, has been recognized as one of only 25 winners in the Fine Art group to receive a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship Award. LaPensée proposed a virtual reality game called Along the River of Spacetime. This spacetime traveling journey to care for the rivers combines real-life 360-degree video and audio with interaction and art from an Indigenous design lens.
- Jack Liu has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Liu, the Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, was one of 213 new members, including some of the world’s most accomplished scholars, leaders, artists, and innovators. His work addresses unexpected relationships such as environmental impacts of divorce and telecoupling (distant socioeconomic-environmental interactions across the world), and it has been a part of the conservation success story of China’s iconic giant panda being downgraded from endangered to threatened.
I invite you to view Faculty Award News on the Research@MSU website to read more about your colleagues, and please send your award stories to research@msu.edu for inclusion.
Upcoming Award Nomination Deadlines
Awards, fellowships, and society memberships represent and recognize the distinction of both MSU faculty and the institution as a whole.
Please review the links below to the current AAU list of highly prestigious faculty awards, as compiled by the National Research Council, and determine which you, or your colleagues, might qualify for:
Select examples with upcoming deadlines include:
- The 2019 Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship process opens mid-summer. Application information.
- Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship applications open on July 1. Application information.
- Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellows process opens in September. Application information.
For assistance with award applications, letters of support, and more, please contact the Office of Research Facilitation and Dissemination grant writers at (517) 432-4499 or email Lauren Aerni-Flessner or Sobha Ramanand.
Honorary Degrees
It is always my pleasure to confer the Honorary Degrees at Commencement exercises. At Spring Commencement, we recognized five outstanding individuals, three of whom were nominated by MSU faculty, along with two invited speakers. The next deadline to submit nominations is September 4, 2018, and the process is explained on the OVPRGS website. We look forward to your submissions and thank you in advance.
Updates
Global Impact Initiative (GI2)
New faculty researcher recruitment continues to forge ahead as we near 80 new hires under GI2. The hiring process will continue over the summer months, and the final round of recruitment for GI2 is expected to wrap up this fall.
We welcome Anna Moore, who recently joined MSU to lead the new Precision Health initiative in the College of Human Medicine. Moore was previously a professor of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where she focused on new cancer therapies including the use of theranostics.
Innovation Celebration
The Innovation Celebration highlights ground-breaking technology from MSU labs and startup companies from across Michigan State University’s campus. Several faculty were honored at the event on April 19:
- The 2018 Innovation of the Year award goes to Donald Morelli, Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, for his research in thermoelectric technology.
- Innovators of the Year are Christoph Benning and John Ohlrogge, for their work in understanding how plants accumulate oil, via WRINKLED1 genetic research.
- The 2018 MSU Technology Transfer Achievement Award goes to Lawrence Drzal, University Distinguished Professor in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.
- MSU’s Corporate Connector of the Year is David Closs, the John H. McConnell Chair Professor of Business Administration in the Department of Supply Chain Management.
MSU Research Videos and Blogs
Videos
Be sure to subscribe to the MSU Research YouTube channel where faculty and invited research lecturers have been recorded for dissemination. Videos also include MSU faculty presentations to the Board of Trustees, investiture events, and various workshops and panel discussions.
A recent workshop hosted by Gabe Dotto of MSU Press included an overview and advice on How to Publish Your First Book. The feedback from this session was very positive and we think you’ll find great value in it.
Two student researchers, Joel Soler, Department of Psychology, and Clara Lepard, Integrative Biology (Zoology) presented their work at the MSU Board of Trustees meeting on April 13, 2018. They were both excellent representatives of their respective programs, and I congratulate them along with their mentors, Bob Montgomery and Lily Yan.
Blogs
Spartan Ideas is a collection of thoughts, ideas, and opinions independently written by members of the MSU community and curated by MSU Libraries. Please follow your colleagues online and contact the MSU Libraries if you would like your blog to be included in Spartan Ideas.
Events & Workshops
For the 2018-19 academic year, two major research-related conferences have already been planned. Be sure to save the dates; registration will open soon.
- MSU-FBI Academic Alliance Conference—Thursday, September 6, 2018
- Write Winning Grant Proposals Seminar—Thursday, January 3, 2019
Follow our calendar or join our email list for information on upcoming workshops and seminars related to funding and grant proposal assistance.