2023-24 Sponsored Research in the College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences faculty are engaged in a multitude of research projects across our three divisions: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities. Within our college’s more than 50 departments and programs, millions of dollars in grant funding are at work uncovering answers to some of the world’s most pressing questions. Here’s a look at the funded projects our researchers investigated in the 2023-2024 academic year.
Monitoring Natural Hazards
College of Arts and Sciences researchers are studying the forces that have made the Earth what it is today—and what makes it a hazardous place. Their work can help us understand the geologic past so we can have more insight into future changes to the planet. Whether studying earthquake data, ice sheet loss in Greenland, or past volcanic events, these researchers are working to change how we perceive the hazards around us.
Research Snapshot
Amanda Stasiewicz
Environmental Studies: Wildfire hazards
Assistant Professor Amanda Stasiewicz received $107,537 from the US Department of Interior to study post-fire flood planning and mitigation. Her research focuses on four different areas of wildfire study: civilian wildfire evacuation decision-making, community resilience to public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) events, resident wildfire risk mitigation performance and adaptation challenges that impact wildfire insurance industry sustainability and risk profiles in the western US.
Diego Melgar
Earth Sciences: Tsunami loss
estimation
Associate Professor Diego Melgar received $261,123 from the National Science Foundation for research integrating earthquake modeling, real-time tsunami forecasting and climate change impacts to improve risk assessments. His collaborative efforts to address gaps in traditional tsunami risk practices have resulted in physics-based earthquake modeling for the Cascadia Subduction Zone, high-resolution topography for tsunami simulations, and updated building inventories.
Joe Dufek
Earth Sciences: Volcanic
plumes
Professor Joe Dufek received $392,230 from the National Science Foundation to examine the products of explosive volcanic eruptions, including studies linked to particle-laden turbulence and compressible fluid dynamics. This work has focused on aspects of volcanic conduit flow, pyroclastic density currents and volcanic plumes. Dufek’s research examines the dynamics of multiphase systems across diverse Earth and planetary science applications.
Dare Baldwin
Psychology: Earthquake early
warning systems
Professor Dare Baldwin received $87,802 from the US Department of Interior to study how individuals and families react to earthquake early warning systems with the goal of developing more effective education and communication around best practices for responding to earthquake alerts. The first phase of her research involved reviewing and analyzing user-posted social media videos of real-time responses to past earthquakes.
Improving Human Health
Many of the factors that affect our health take root in early childhood and follow us our entire lives. From the impact of sleep on developing infants to the link between artery stiffness and age-related memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, faculty across CAS are engaged in a broad range of research aimed at improving health and wellness across the entire human lifespan.
Research Snapshot
Shawn Lockery
Biology: Neuroscience and
behavior
Professor Shawn Lockery received $23,807,858 from the National Institutes of Health to investigate how the brain encodes and represents the subjective value of different options, such as rewards or choices, by studying the activity of specific neurons in the brain while individuals make decisions.
Brice Kuhl
Psychology: Perception and
memory
Professor Brice Kuhl received $2,776,053 from the National Institutes of Health to study how memories are encoded, retrieved, and organized in brain structures like the hippocampus. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging, his lab can see shifting blood levels in the brain and determine which areas are most active when a memory is being formed and recovered.
Maureen Zalewski
Psychology: Intergenerational
suicide risk
Professor Maureen Zalewski received $354,098 from the National Institutes of Health to lead a study in collaboration with researchers at the University of Pittsburgh. The study will sample mothers with emotional difficulties and a history of suicidal thoughts or behaviors to examine how their emotions impact the mental health and suicide risks of their 9- to 11-year-old children.
Diana Libuda
Biology: DNA repair during zygote development
Associate Professor Diana Libuda received $3,546,095 from the National Institutes of Health to study fertility, specifically how egg and sperm chromosomes recombine to repair DNA breaks to ensure fertility and maintain genomic integrity. She uses the microscopic roundworm C. elegans as a model organism to study the molecular mechanisms of DNA repair during sperm and egg development.
Harnessing Digital Technologies
We’re entering a new phase in the digital revolution, one in which scientists are stretching the capabilities of digital technologies to solve some of society’s largest and most complex problems. CAS researchers are at the forefront of this wave, working with powerful digital resources and artificial intelligence tools to address a broad range of social justice issues, from environmental degradation to health care for vulnerable populations.
Research Snapshot
Ram Durairajan
Computer Science: Data
infrastructure and resilience
Associate Professor Ram Durairajan received $451,152 from the National Science Foundation to develop a unified monitoring approach to enhancing the resiliency and security of multi-hazard workflows on heterogeneous infrastructures.
Jun Li
Computer Science: Security
monitoring and resilience
Professor Jun Li received $100,000 from Cisco Systems, Inc. to develop a new border gateway protocol security monitoring service. Jun conducts research in cyber security and privacy, computer networking, distributed systems, blockchain and cryptocurrency.
Daniel Lowd
Computer Science: Education
technology
Associate Professor Daniel Lowd received $1,109,778 from the National Science Foundation for his work with the INVITE Institute (Inclusive Intelligent Technologies for Education), which seeks to fundamentally reframe how AI-based educational technologies interact with learners.
Lara Ravitch
REEES: Open educational
resources
Senior Instructor Lara Ravitch received $4,631 from Open Oregon Educational Resources to provide open-resource ancillary materials and assessments for instructors using the most popular OER for first- and second-year Russian language instruction.