College of Science Kudos December 2023
December 01, 2023
Grants Funding
New grants awarded since spring 2023
Alistair Smith (professor and chair, Earth and Spatial Sciences) is part of a collaborative team from U of I, Boise State University, Idaho State University and the Coeur d’Alene and Shoshone Bannock Tribes that was awarded a $20 million National Science Foundation (NSF) EPSCoR track I grant titled “Idaho Community-Engaged Resilience for Energy-Water Systems (I-CREWS).” Learn more about this award.
Shirley Luckhart (professor, Biological Sciences and Entomology, Plant Pathology and Nematology) and University of Arizona professor Mike Riehle were awarded a $2.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue their studies to combat malaria transmission by mosquitos.
Kris Waynant (associate professor, Chemistry) is PI on a $645,273 NSF grant titled “Synthesis of Peptide-based Zwitterionic Cross-Linkers and Evaluation in Bioadaptable Hydrogels.”
Alistair Smith (professor and chair, Earth and Spatial Sciences) is co-PI on a multi-institutional NSF track 2 ($2.44 million to U of I) grant titled “Collaborative Research: RII Track-2 FEC: Where We Live: Local and Place Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Underserved Rural Communities.”
Meng Zhao (assistant professor, Earth and Spatial Sciences) received an Idaho NASA EPSCoR $50,000 award titled “Improving Streamflow Prediction Using Satellite and in situ Observations in the Snake River Basin.”
Grant Harley (associate professor, Earth and Spatial Sciences) received $156,000 for an NSF P4Climate project titled “High-resolution, Multi-species Reconstructions of Greater Yellowstone Region Paleoclimates Using Tree-Ring Anatomy.”
Zach Etienne (associate professor, Physics) is co-PI on a NASA grant for $271,726 (to U of I) titled “Electromagnetic Signals from Merging Supermassive Black Holes.”
Leonardo R. Werneck (postdoctoral fellow, Physics) received $78,298 as co-PI on a NASA LISA Preparatory Science Program (LPS) grant titled “Gravitational-Wave Signatures of Massive Black Hole Formation.”
Esteban Hernandez-Vargas (assistant professor, Mathematics and Statistical Science) received a $250,000 NSF grant titled “LEAPS-MPS Controllable Sets for Nonlinear Switched Models.”
Esteban Hernandez-Vargas (assistant professor, Mathematics and Statistical Science) and Tanya Miura (professor and chair, Biological Sciences) received an NIH R01 grant for $600,000 titled “Novel Hybrid Computational Models to Disentangle Complex Immune Responses.”
Esteban Hernandez-Vargas (assistant professor, Mathematics and Statistical Science) is PI on an NIH COBRE Pilot grant for $118,000 titled “Multiscale Modeling for Preparedness Against Contact-Dependent Infectious Disease Transmission.”
Carolyn Bohach (university distinguished professor, Animal, Veterinary and Food Sciences, and director, INBRE) and Barrie Robison (professor, Biological Sciences and director, IIDS) received an NIH INBRE equipment supplement grant for $204,266.
Eric Mittelstaedt (associate professor, Earth and Spatial Sciences) is co-PI on a $509,641 NSF grant titled “Quantifying the Role of Simultaneous LLSVPs and Continents in Earth's Cooling History with Coupled Thermo-Chemical Convection Simulations.”
Craig Miller (assistant professor, Biological Sciences), Tracey Peters (research scientist, IMCI) and Steve Krone (professor, Mathematics and Statistical Science) received an NIH IMCI COBRE supplement of $556,732.
You Qiang (professor, Physics) is co-PI on an Idaho National Lab LDRD program grant for $119,966 titled “Integrated Heterogeneous Structure of High-Entropy-Alloy/Reactor for High-Throughput Chemical Synthesis via In-Situ Carbon-Dioxide Hydrogenation.”
Barrie Robison (professor, Biological Sciences) and Terry Soule (professor and chair, Computer Science) received the state’s first NIH Science Education partnership award of $1.3 million titled “Eradicating Misconceptions about Viruses Using Multimodal Trace Data in an Intelligent Game-based Environment Across Educational Contexts.”
Selected Publications
Barrie Robison (professor, Biological Sciences) and Carolyn Bohach (university distinguished professor, Animal, Veterinary and Food Sciences, and director, INBRE) co-authored an article in Scientific Reports titled “Genomic surveillance identifies potential risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 transmission at a mid-sized university in a small rural town.”
Paul Rowley (associate professor, Biological Sciences) and Marty Ytreberg (professor, Physics) together with a group of current and former students published an article in PLOS Pathogens titled “Novel viruses of the family Partitiviridae discovered in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.”
Paul Rowley (associate professor, Biological Sciences) published an article with current and former students in FEMS Yeast Research titled “The prevalence of killer yeasts and double-stranded RNAs in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.”
In Case You Missed It
Congratulations to Leah Frye (B.S. Chemistry, ‘79) and Charlotte Hill (B.S. Bacteriology and Chemistry, ’76,‘77) who received the University of Idaho Alumni Hall of Fame Award.
Congratulations to Jerry Fairley (professor, Earth and Spatial Sciences) for being awarded the U of I Career Services Career Impact Award for his work ensuring that U of I geology majors are career-ready. Dr. Fairley was recognized at a reception in May.
Two former members of Paul Rowley's (associate professor, Biological Sciences) lab, Victor Zhong (B.S. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, ‘22) and Tanner Badigian (B.S. Biochemistry ’21), received NSF Graduate Research Fellowship awards. Both Victor and Tanner are prior recipients of the Hill Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
Frank Wroblewski, a Ph.D. candidate in Erika Rader’s (assistant professor, Earth and Spatial Sciences) lab, received a NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium fellowship for 2023-2024 for his work titled “Detecting lava flow glass with VNIR reflectance as a climate proxy.”
In May, the College of Science hosted over 100 students and teachers from northern Idaho for the Youth Water Summit. Students were treated to a keynote address by Karen Humes (professor, Earth and Spatial Sciences) and presented their water research projects for judges. Winners were awarded scholarships to the U of I. Learn more here.
Grant Harley (associate professor, Earth and Spatial Sciences), his current and former students, and collaborators were featured in an article in Earth Island Journal about their work to use tree-ring dating to document past climates in the West.
Claire Shelton, a junior majoring in medical sciences and animal and veterinary sciences, was one of 35 members chosen to run for a position on the 2023-24 National FFA Officer team. Officers were selected at the National FFA Convention in November.
Jason Frank, scientific instrument supervisor in the Department of Chemistry, was the U of I staff member of the month for August!
About the University of Idaho
The University of Idaho, home of the Vandals, is Idaho’s land-grant, national research university. From its residential campus in Moscow, U of I serves the state of Idaho through educational centers in Boise, Coeur d’Alene and Idaho Falls, nine research and Extension centers, plus Extension offices in 42 counties. Home to nearly 11,000 students statewide, U of I is a leader in student-centered learning and excels at interdisciplinary research, service to businesses and communities, and in advancing diversity, citizenship and global outreach. U of I competes in the Big Sky and Western Athletic conferences. Learn more at uidaho.edu.