Faculty and Staff Grants from August 2019

Congratulations to the following faculty and staff members who received grants and awards in August 2019:

Marie Berry, assistant professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, director of the Inclusive Global Leadership Initiative (IGLI) and public impact fellow

• Grant from the London School of Economics for "UKRI GCRF Gender, Justice and Security Hub"
• Project abstract: Scholarship on women in war often focuses on the devastating and disproportionate toll that conflict wreaks on the lives of women. Less studied are the openings and opportunities that frequently follow war. This project compares and evaluates women's empowerment interventions that followed war in 10 countries. At the core of this research is a simple question: Who benefits from postwar gender reforms?

Bonnie Clark, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

• Grant from the National Park Service for "IMRO ER for CRIS Database, WASO Reporting Requirements"
• Project abstract: This project will produce a database inventory that will immediately empower NPS decision-makers who are addressing threatened park resources due to environmental impacts, developmental pressures and other issues. To have ethnographic resources documented in the Ethnographic Resources database will make that information immediately useful in crises that require fully informed decision-making that is inclusive of our fiduciary responsibilities to tribes and other culturally associated groups.

Lynn Schofield Clark, professor and chair of the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Rebecca Arno, director of the Barton Institute for Philanthropy and Social Enterprise

• Grants from the Bohemian Foundation and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation for "Colorado Media Project"
• Project abstracts: The Colorado Media Project (CMP) works to meet the information needs of all Coloradans, crucial for full participation in the state's civic and democratic culture. CMP works to strengthen Colorado's diverse local news ecosystem, now struggling with the decline of traditional business models in local media. CMP will help local news organizations develop sustainability and scale; strives to be a connector, instigator and resource provider for collaboration among newsrooms; and seeks to broaden and deepen community support for local journalism.

Julie Sarama, professor and Kennedy Endowed Chair in Innovative Learning Technologies at the Morgridge College of Education

Douglas Clements, professor and Kennedy Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Learning at the Morgridge College of Education; and co-executive director of the Marsico Institute of Early Learning and Literacy

• Grant from the National Science Foundation for "Learning Trajectories as a Complete Early Mathematics Intervention: Achieving Efficacies of Economies at Scale"
• Project abstract: Early proficiency in mathematics is a powerful predictor of long-term academic success. This proposal is an Impact Study in the Teaching Strand focused on mathematics intervention geared toward kindergarten students. Using a web-based tool (Learning Trajectories [LT]2), this project seeks to study the [LT]2 model as implemented within the Jefferson County School District. This study has the potential to meaningfully advance our understanding of early mathematics interventions, both in terms of impact and cost-effectiveness.

Matt Gordon, professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science

• Grant for "Fragment vs. Concrete Composite Target Tests"
• Project abstract: This project will test ballistic resistance of concrete composite targets.

Kimberly Gorgens, clinical research professor, and Laura Meyer, clinical associate professor at the Graduate School of Professional Psychology

• Grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration for "University of Denver COST Program"
• Project abstract: GSPP will train doctoral students to specialize in Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and other Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment and prevention in an integrated, interdisciplinary setting in the Denver-Metro community. Students will take courses at GSPP and field placements with Denver Health and Salud Family Health Centers. Students will also learn about tele-behavioral health as a service provision tool and have field experience with such provision.

Jennifer Greenfield, associate professor at the Graduate School of Social Work

• Grant from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment for "Expert Analysis for Potential Colorado Paid Family and Medical Leave Program"
• Project abstract: This project will draw from existing research and analyses and will employ an economic estimation model to estimate implications of several paid leave program scenarios from programs in other states. It will offer recommendations about the ideal parameters to be included in a Colorado paid medical and family leave program.

Ashley Hamilton, assistant professor in the Department of Theatre at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

• Grant from the Colorado Department of Corrections for "DU Prison Arts Initiative Contract"
• Project abstract: The University of Denver Prison Arts Initiative (DU PAI) promotes access to high-quality therapeutic arts programs to incarcerated people in Colorado with the goal of empowering individuals to improve the quality of their lives and prepare them to make positive changes in their communities upon release. DU PAI's mission is to provide therapeutic, educational creative arts programming to incarcerated men and women in Colorado state prisons.

Leslie Hasche, associate professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the Graduate School of Social Work and advisory group member at the Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging

• Grant from STRIDE Community Health Center, subaward from the Health Resources Service Administration for "Achieving Statewide Impact: An Interdisciplinary Academic-Practice GWEP Collaboration"
• Project abstract: This grant will allow STRIDE, along with several other healthcare organizations to focus on enhancing training and resources for geriatric care providers and to improve care for seniors across Colorado over the next five years.

Shashank Kanade, assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics at the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

• Grant from the Simons Foundation for "Representation Theory, Tensor Categories and Number Theory"
• Project abstract: This project will be the next step in building algorithms for associativity isomorphisms. The researcher will build upon their research in: representation theory of vertex operator algebras, Tensor categories and combinatorics and number theory. Recently, some of the experts in the field have worked on the researcher's proposed conjectures (in concert with others), and some conjectures have been proven.

Andrew Linshaw, associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

• Grant from the Simons Foundation for "W-algebras and the Coset Construction"
• Project abstract: Vertex operator algebras (VOAs) are a fundamental class of algebraic structures and have applications in a diverse range of subjects. The coset construction is a standard way to construct new VOAs from existing ones. The W-algebras are among the most important examples of VOAs in both the physics and mathematics literature. Recently, the researcher has proven some conjectures in full generality. This project will seek to discover and prove similar coset realizations of other families of W-algebras. These projects will be carried out in collaboration with other researchers.

Gwen Vogel Mitchell, assistant professor at the Graduate School of Professional Psychology

Judith Fox, associate professor at the Graduate School of Professional Psychology and director of the International Disaster Psychology Program

Rohini Gupta, clinical assistant professor at the Graduate School of Professional Psychology, director of the Trauma and Disaster Recovery Clinic and co-director of the Colorado Resilience Collaborative

• Grant from International Rescue Committee Denver for "Direct Services for Survivors of Torture"
• Project abstract: Clinicians at the Trauma and Disaster Recovery Clinic (TDRC) will offer direct clinical services to approximately 20 clients per year. Direct services will include clinical intake and weekly psychotherapy sessions, along with a weekly psychotherapy support group. In addition, the clinic will offer workshops and trainings to the community based on identified needs by providers working with survivors of torture.

Shannon Murphy, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

• Grant from the National Science Foundation for "Travel Grant to the 26th International Congress of Entomology and Post-Conference Synthesis Workshop"
• Project abstract: The project will fund travel support for a diverse group of ecologists, evolutionary biologists and entomologists to attend the 26th International Congress of Entomology (ICE) in Helsinki, Finland. The ICE meeting is an exceptional opportunity for US-based ecologists to present their work to an international audience, meet new colleagues and develop international collaborations. The project will also support a workshop after the ICE for a subset of participants in order to create a synthesis paper that would be published in the 2021 Global Change issue of Current Opinion in Insect Science.

Ronnie Pavlov, associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

• Grant from the Simons Foundation for "Topics in Symbolic Dynamics"
• Project abstract: This project will support the researcher's mathematical collaborations through visiting/inviting researchers in their area of work on various problems in the area of symbolic dynamics, through attendance/presentations at various mathematical conferences. Thus, increasing the dissemination of this work and raising the public profile of the department through presentations at mathematical conferences and publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Chi Phuong Phan, program and community partnerships director at the Denver Bridge Project

• Grant from the Denver Office of Children's Affairs for "2A/Healthy Lifestyles Comprehensive/Multi-Year Grant"
• Project abstract: This funding will allow the Bridge Project to support its comprehensive model during the academic school year and summer for participants living in public housing neighborhoods. The focus will be on early literacy; science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); social emotional learning; college and career readiness; or youth in kindergarten through 12th grades.

Galena Rhoades, research associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

• Grant from the City and County of Denver for "MotherWise for TANF Eligible Pregnant Women and New Mothers"
• Project abstract: This grant will allow MotherWise to be offered to Denver City and County residents who are eligible for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). MotherWise is a program operating in the Denver-metro community that empowers women and their families to thrive during pregnancy and after a new baby is born. The program focuses on helping mothers identify what healthy relationships look like to them, develop communication skills they can use in all relationships and learn new information about parenting and early childhood development.

Joseph Russo, director of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center

John Shaffer, consultant to the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center

• Grant from the National Institute of Justice/Department of Justice, subaward from the Research Triangle Institute for "Criminal Justice Technology and Evaluation Consortium"
• Project abstract: One main pathway for drugs to enter an institution is the mailroom. Conspirators will mail drugs in various forms to inmates in hopes that they will go undetected and reach the intended recipient. Drug-infused mail can pose serious health risks to staff, especially those responsible for sifting through the large volumes of mail arriving at institutions each day. To combat this threat, many institutions are taking measures to protect mailroom staff. One novel approach diverts inmate mail to a location outside of the institution where it is digitized and returned electronically to the institution to be printed and distributed to the inmate. Working in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, which has recently implemented such a system, project staff will conduct an assessment of the viability of this approach.

Mark Siemens, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

• Grant from the National Science Foundation for "Collaborative Proposal: Multidimensional Tracking of Local Environment-Affected Transport Pathways in Perovskite Solar Cells"
• Project abstract: This project will experimentally measure both exciton and free carrier transport in perovskite thin-film solar cells in a tight feedback loop with synthesis so that new understanding of the microscopic carrier transport can enable new gains in device efficiency. The goal of this work is to provide new insight to the perovskite community on how subtle materials chemistry or device design changes can affect ultrafast carrier dynamics and ultimately improve device performance.

• Grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation for "Topological Fluids of Light for Room-Temperature Quantum Science and Computation"
• Project abstract: This project strives to measure the fundamental properties of, and identify control mechanisms for, topological photonic fluids (TPF) composed purely of linear light. The proposed work will result in a paradigm-shifting tool for room-temperature quantum science, engineering and design testing that uses inexpensive equipment and simple measurement, providing unprecedented accessibility to catalyze new possibilities in quantum information.

Yun-Bo Yi, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science

• Grant from the National Science Foundation for "GOALI: Mechanical Properties of Metal-Free Friction Materials and Their Effects on Thermal-Mechanical Instabilities"
• Project abstract: This project will investigate the mechanical properties of next generation metal-free friction materials and their effects on thermal-mechanical instabilities. Copper and other heavy metals in modern friction materials are essential due to their superb capacity of heat dissipation, but there have been concerns that remnants of these metals can cause environmental contamination. Graphite, carbon and ceramic are considered a potential replacement for metals in friction materials. However, implementation of these new materials may cause other issues, such as thermal-mechanical instabilities.