The Office of Undergraduate Research is pleased to announce the recipients of the fall semester Faculty Research Assistants funding. Awarded in the fall and spring semesters, Faculty Research Assistants funding provides $1,750 to each recipient, to cover compensation and supplies for an undergraduate research assistant. We are pleased to have awarded 22 faculty members for the fall 2020 semester. We congratulate these faculty recipients and commend them for their support of undergraduate research.
Frank Loeffler
College of Arts & Sciences, Microbiology
“International Research Coordination Network for Creating Transdisciplinary Nodes of Food-Energy-Water to Support Sustainable Urban Systems (FEWSUS)”
Michael Blum
College of Arts & Sciences, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
“Determining the evolutionary implications of climate change”
Andreas Nebenfuehr
College of Arts & Sciences, Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology
“Fluorescent markers to study cell polarity in pollen grains”
Joseph Williams
College of Arts & Sciences, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
“Comparing breeding system traits of Micronesian island plants with mainland relatives”
Vasileios Maroulas
College of Arts & Sciences, Mathematics
“Machine Learning in Chemistry”
Edward Schilling
College of Arts & Sciences, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
“Analysis of Rare Plant Species Using Molecular Barcoding Approaches”
Vitaly Ganusov
College of Arts & Sciences, Microbiology
“Mathematical modeling of virus spread in plants: from local infection site systemically”
Shayla Nunnally
College of Arts & Sciences, Political Science
“Recognizing the Under-Recognized Historical Achievements and Talent in Black High Schools in the Jim Crow Southern and Border States”
Leah Christiani
College of Arts & Sciences, Political Science
“Identity Appeals in Congressional Advertising”
Barbara Murphy
College of Arts & Sciences, School of Music, School of Music
“Expanding the Diversity of Musical Examples Used in Music Theory Classes”
Karen Boyd
College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies
“In Their Words – An Activist’s Walking Tour of Montgomery 1960”
Frances Harper
College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, Theory & Practice in Education
“Black and Latinx Parents Leading Reform and Advancing Racial Justice in Elementary Mathematics”
James Martinez
College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies
“School Administrator Self-Efficacy During School Re-Opening during COVID-19 Pandemic”
Richard Gerhold
College of Veterinary Medicine, Parasitology
“Investigating Prevalence in P. tenuis in Intermediate Host in East Tennessee”
Wendy Tate
Haslam College of Business, Supply Chain Management
“International Research Coordination Network for Creating Transdisciplinary Nodes of Food-Energy-Water to Support Sustainable Urban Systems (FEWSUS)”
Yazhen Xiao
Haslam College of Business, Marketing Department
“How will Alexa make your home smarter?”
Margaret Staton
Herbert College of Agriculture, Entomology and Plant Pathology
“Alternative splicing as a key transcriptional regulatory mechanism in dormant buds and flowers from apricot and peach”
Jie Zhuang
Herbert College of Agriculture, Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science
“International Research Coordination Network for Creating Transdisciplinary Nodes of Food-Energy-Water to Support Sustainable Urban Systems (FEWSUS)”
Denita Hadziabdic-Guerry
Herbert College of Agriculture, Entomology and Plant Pathology
“Conservation and Diversity Study of Endemic Tree, Mountain Stewartia (Stewartia ovata)”
Doris D’Souza
Herbert College of Agriculture, Food Science
“Oil and Vinegar to Enhance Green Salad Safety”
Vermont Dia
Herbert College of Agriculture, Food Science
“Exploring the co-products from hempseed oil processing”
Mingzhou Jin
Tickle College of Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Tennessee
“International Research Coordination Network for Creating Transdisciplinary Nodes of Food-Energy-Water to Support Sustainable Urban Systems (FEWSUS)”
| Faculty Member Name | College | Home Department | Project Title |
| Julia Jaekel | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences | Child and Family Studies | Reconstructing a century-long record of plant-microbiome interactions |
| Clea McNeely | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences | Department of Public Health | School attendance policies: Exploring an unexamined source of racial disparities in school discipline |
| Ling Zhao | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences | Nutrition | On the Development of a Mind-controlled Wheelchair |
| Karen Boyd | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences | Educational Leadership and Policy Studies | Experience 1960 Montgomery, Alabama |
| James Martinez | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences | Educational Leadership and Policy Studies | Mathematics Teacher Retention Initiative |
| Sally Horn | College of Arts & Sciences, Social Sciences | Geography | New Indicators of Climate and Environmental Change from Non-Pollen Palynomorphs in Lake Sediments |
| Michelle Brown | College of Arts & Sciences, Social Sciences | Sociology | Reversing in-person visitation bans in the Era of Mass Incarceration |
| Xiaopeng Zhao | College of Engineering | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | On the Development of a Mind-controlled Wheelchair |
| Ondrej Chvala | College of Engineering | Nuclear Engineering | Sustaining neutronic and chemical balance of molten salt reactors |
| Thomas K. Davis FAIA | College of Architecture & Design | Architecture | A Teachers Village for Nashville: Making the Case |
| Michael Blum | College of Arts & Sciences, Natural Sciences | Ecology & Evolutionary Biology | Do plant-microbe partnerships last forever? Insights from ‘ancient’ plant microbiomes |
| Susan Kalisz | College of Arts & Sciences, Natural Sciences | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Does age-related variation in male and female trait expression optimize lifetime reproductive success in a self-compatible annual plant? |
| Christy Leppanen | College of Arts & Sciences, Natural Sciences | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Outcomes of hybridization by a biological control agent for hemlock woolly adelgid |
| Kimberly Sheldon | College of Arts & Sciences, Natural Sciences | Ecology & Evolutionary Biology | Nobody likes change: The role of temperature variability during beetle development in mediating impacts of future temperature stress |
| Edward Schilling | College of Arts & Sciences, Natural Sciences | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Molecular Barcoding of Tennessee Plants for Plant Conservation Studies |
| Benjamin Keck | College of Arts & Sciences, Natural Sciences | General Biology/Ecology & Evolutionary Biology | Evaluation of Microplastic Occurrence in Fishes of the Upper Tennessee River |
| Jennifer Schweitzer | College of Arts & Sciences, Natural Sciences | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Does disturbance alter plant polyploidy? |
| Faculty Member Name (First) | Faculty Member Name (Last) | College | Home Department | Project title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peter | Krawczel | Herbert College of Agriculture | Animal Science | Sweating the details: Behavioral indicators of the onset of heat stress in pre-weaned dairy calves |
| Barbara | Murphy | College of Arts & Sciences | School of Music | The Use of the Chunking Method in the Music Aural Skills Curriculum |
| Louise | Seamster | College of Arts & Sciences | Sociology | Campus Alert! Are Colleges and Universities Complying with The Clery Act? |
| Vitaly | Ganusov | College of Arts & Sciences | Microbiology | Overcoming natural selection of bad science with the method of multiple working hypotheses |
| Stephen | Collins-Elliott | College of Arts & Sciences | Classics | Gardens of the Hesperides: The Rural Archaeology of the Loukkos Valley |
| Robert | Lieberthal | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences | Public Health | Identifying suspicious patterns in Medicare Part D prescription data |
| Eric | Wade | College of Engineering | MABE | Fault Tolerancing and Usability of a Closed-Loop Robot System for Reading Comprehension Skill Development |
| Faculty Member Name (First) | Faculty Member Name (Last) | College | Home Department | Project title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doris | D’Souza | College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources | Food Science | Foodborne Aichi Virus Spread: Not-So-Lightly! |
| Thomas K. | Davis | College of Architecture & Design | School of Architecture | Retrofitting Urbanism in Nashville’s Metro Center Office / Industrial Park |
| Cary | Staples | College of Arts & Sciences | Art | Virtural Worlds + Virtural Learning |
| Jana | Morgan | College of Arts & Sciences | Political Science | Racial Exclusion and Democratic Citizenship |
| Bradley | Thomson | College of Arts & Sciences | Earth and Planetary Sciences | Assessing the Habitability of Mars using Measurements of Impact Craters |
| DaJung | Woo | College of Communication and Information | School of Communication Studies | Dialectical Tensions in Expertise Evaluation in Cross-Functional Collaborations |
| Eric | Wade | College of Engineering | MABE | Development of a Human Robot Framework for Speech Practice in Children with Complex Communicaiton Needs |
| Faculty Member Name (First) | Faculty Member Name (Last) | College | Home Department | Project title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Megan | Bryson | College of Arts & Sciences, Humanities | Religious Studies | Esoteric Buddhist Networks in East Asia |
| James | Chyz | Haslam College of Business | Accounting and Information Management | Non-GAAP Performance Metrics and the Strategic Allocation of Purchase Price to Intangible Assets |
| Gregor | Kalas | College of Architecture & Design | Architecture | Documenting the Reuse of Antiquities in late Antique Egypt and Rome |
| Keerthi | Krishnan | College of Arts & Sciences, Natural Sciences | BCMB | Spying on Mice to Decode Learned Maternal Behavior |
| Shuai | Li | College of Engineering | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Visibility Enhancement for Autonomous Construction Machines Based on Scene Prediction |
| Kelley | Strohacker | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences | Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies | Increasing Leisure-Time Walking Activity in Obese Aduslts Using Intra-Individualized Text Message Prompt: A Feasibility Study |
| Raja | Swamy | College of Arts & Sciences, Social Sciences | Anthropology | Compiling a Dataset on Houston’s Industrial Land Use Practices, with a Focus on Environmental Disparities and Disaster Vulnerability |
| Faculty Member Name (First) | Faculty Member Name (Last) | College | Home Department | Project title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joel | Anderson | College of Nursing | College of Nursing | Leveraging Twitter to Understand Family Perspectives of Dementia Care |
| David | Cihak | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences | Theory & Practice in Teacher Education | |
| Cary | Staples | College of Arts & Sciences | Art | Virtual Reality Prototype |
| Michelle | Commander | College of Arts & Sciences | English | Theatrical Speculations: The Re-Narrativation of Slavery in the Inter-War Plays of Zora Neale Jurston and Langston Hughes |
| Scott | Crouter | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences | Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies | Novel Approaches for Predicting Free-Living Physical Activity |
| Thomas | Davis | College of Architecture & Design | Architecture | A Conceptual Study for a Teachers Village in Nashville |
| Camille | Hall | College of Social Work | College of Social Work | Multicultural Competence: A Comparative Analysis of International and National Perspectives |
| Michael | Mason | College of Social Work | Center for Behavioral Health Research | Treating Cannabis Use Disorder Among Young Adults: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial of Text Delivered Peer Network Counseling |
| Kandace | Hollenbach | College of Arts & Sciences | Anthropology | Analyzing the Prehistoric Anderson Site using Sediment and Botanical Samples |
| Lisa | Muller | College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources | Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries | Seasonal Movements, Landscape Use, and Home Ranges of Reintroduced Elk in the Cumberland Mountains, Tennessee |
| Spencer | Olmstead | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences | Child and Family Studies | Sex, Commitment, and Relationship Configuration Preferences among Emerging Adults |
| Daniel | Simberloff | College of Arts & Sciences | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Engaging the Public in Invasive Species Programs: A Case Study of Media Representation Involving the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Ecological Interactions between Native Ants and an Invasive Forest Insect, the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid |
| Charles | Sims | Haslam College of Business | Economics | To Quantify the Economic Value of Protected Open Space in the Cumberland Region |
| Eric | Wade | College of Engineering | Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Social Robotics for Children with Complex Communication Needs |
| Faculty Member Name (First) | Faculty Member Name (Last) | College | Home Department | Project title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sue | Hamilton | College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources | Plant Sciences | Development of ‘Best Practices’ for University Garden Plant Collection Database Designs |
| William | Klingeman | College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources | Plant Sciences | “Potential of Two Predatory Beetle Species as a Monitoring Tool for Walnut Twig Beetle Detection” |
| Denita | Hadziabdic Guerry | College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources | Entomology and Plant Pathology | “Pathogenicity and Co-Infection Potential of Two Plant Pathogenic Fungi that May Contribute to Severity of Thousand Cankers Disease in Walnut” |
| Brian | Ambroziak | College of Architecture & Design | School of Architecture | “Disembodied Circle: A Twelve-Step Field Manual” |
| Thomas K. | Davis | College of Architecture & Design | School of Architecture | NASHVILLE’S CHARLOTTE AVENUE HEALTHY CORRIDOR URBAN DESIGN STUDY |
| Francisco | Barrera Olivares | College of Arts & Sciences | Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology | Pleiomorphic membrane peptides |
| Stephen | Blackwell | College of Arts & Sciences | Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures | A Swing Through Vladimir Nabokov’s Trees (A Comprehensive Study) |
| Jessica | Grieser | College of Arts & Sciences | English | Talking Place, Speaking Race: African Americans, English, and the Language of a Changing Local Identity. |
| Paul | Harrill | College of Arts & Sciences | School of Art | Untitled Film Project |
| Kandace | Hollenbach | College of Arts & Sciences | Anthropology | Analysis of Plant Remains from Late Precontact Contexts at the Topper Site, Aiken County, South Carolina |
| Keerthi | Krishnan | College of Arts & Sciences | Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology | Discovering brain circuitry underlying a fine motor behavior in a female mouse model of Rett Syndrome |
| Robert | Washington-Allen | College of Arts & Sciences | Geography | Cross-scale Analysis of Historical Patterns of Land Cover Change as a Driver for the Observed Decline in Bobwhite Quail Abundance |
| Lars | Dzikus | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences | Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies | An Exploratory Study About the Experiences of Female Interscholastic Head Coaches in East Tennessee |
| Katie | Kavanagh | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences | Nutrition | Online survey to assess maternal accuracy of infant spit-up quantification |
| Kelley | Strohacker | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences | Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies | Towards Adapting Flexible Nonlinear Periodization for Untrained Adults: Exploring perceptions of aerobic exercise readiness and workload demand |
| Ondrej | Chvala | College of Engineering | Nuclear Engineering | A Safe and Economical Nuclear Plant to Remediate the Woes of Weapons-grade Plutonium |