Grants

Cynthia Lum, Professor, Criminology, Law and Society, and Director, Evidence-Based Crime Policy, and Christopher Koper, Associate Professor, Criminology, Law and Society, are conducting a multi-site randomized experiment with the Rochester (NY) and Seattle (WA) police departments to develop and test a structured and cost-effective investigation protocol for robbery -- one of the most common, yet least-solved violent crimes.

With a new, $2.9 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, researchers at Wake Forest University will test whether wearing a weighted vest can take the place of traditional resistance training to help maintain bone density and quality in older adults with obesity who are trying to lose weight. Previous research by this group showed that seniors who lifted weights while restricting calories lost less muscle and had stronger bones.

A University of Massachusetts Amherst cancer epidemiologist has received a $462,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to expand her research into the effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals on the breast density of college-age women. High breast density is a strong risk factor for breast cancer.

A professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has received a five-year $1.7 million award from a leading scientific research foundation to pursue cutting-edge work in the emerging field of quantum materials. David Mandrus, the Jerry and Kay Henry Endowed Professor, holds a joint appointment at UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In recognition of his work, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has named him an Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Materials Synthesis Investigator.

The British Heart Foundation announces its shortlist of four research projects competing for a single £30 million award, the Big Beat Challenge. Each team has been awarded £50,000 to develop their full applications.

12 scientists with novel approaches to fighting cancer have been named 2020 recipients of the Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award.

After showing that a 10-week therapeutic horseback riding intervention reduced irritability and hyperactivity while improving the social communication skills of youth diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus researcher and Children's Hospital Colorado psychologist, Dr. Robin Gabriels, has received a $2.5 million grant to investigate why the therapy works.

A new $2.5 million grant will help an interdisciplinary team of researchers analyze innovative approaches to improving urban sustainability. The team will study various approaches to bolstering local food production in Des Moines and the surrounding area and how those approaches could affect nutrition, waste and environmental impacts.

Rice recruits synthetic biologist Caroline Ajo-Franklin with a $6 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to bolster the university's cutting-edge Systems, Synthetic and Physical Biology program.