2022 Faculty Research Funds Announcement

The Faculty Research Fund program aims to support faculty in establishing or maintaining high-quality research programs and other creative achievements. Competitions are held annually and funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School through a review and nomination process by the Faculty Research Fund Committee. 

This year ten recipients received Faculty Research Fund awards through three programs: the Regular Faculty Research Award, the Summer Research Award, and the Scholarly Equipment and Materials Award.

Regular Faculty Research Awards

Assists members of the faculty in establishing or maintaining high-quality research programs that will extend the limits of existing knowledge and lead to a tangible final product (e.g., performance, showing, publication, grant proposal, etc.)

1. Marcus LiBrizzi, Professor, Arts and Letter, University of Maine at Machias. 鈥淭he Ghost Story in Brazil: Preserving Undocumented Cultural Narratives.鈥� 
2. Karissa Tilbury, Assistant Professor, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering. 鈥淒evelopment of In-Vitro Tumor Microenvironment Models for the Identification of Hierarchical Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) Imaging Studies.鈥� 

Summer Research Awards

Provides $8,000 awards for faculty summer salaries for a minimum of 1.5 months of research effort.

1. Hollie Adams, Assistant Professor, English. 鈥淢orley Callaghan and Canadian Literary Modernism.鈥澛�
2. Elizabeth DePoy, Professor, CCIDS and Social Work. 鈥淧rofessional Knowledge: Cultural Difference.鈥澛�
3. Gregory Gerbi, Assistant Professor, School of Marine Sciences. 鈥淥cean Dynamics of Coastal Maine.鈥�
4. Sepideh Ghanavati, Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information Science. 鈥淭owards Enhancing Developers’ Privacy Comprehension through Automated Classification of Privacy Behaviors in Software Applications.鈥�
5. Peter Stechlinski, Assistant Professor, Mathematics and Statistics. 鈥淣onsmooth Neural Networks and Machine Learning Algorithms.鈥澛�
6. Kristin Vekasi, Associate Professor, Political Science. 鈥淭he Politics of Supply Chain Security in the Indo-Pacific.鈥澛�

Scholarly Equipment and Materials

The Scholarly Materials and Equipment Award assists faculty in establishing or maintaining high-quality research programs by providing items of equipment and library collections.

1. Rebecca Schwartz-Mette, Associate Professor, Psychology. 鈥淒yadic Synchrony and Co-Regulation: Putative Vulnerability Markers for Socioemotional Maladjustment and Contagion.鈥�  
2. Yingchao Yang, Assistant Professor Mechanical Engineering, 鈥淎 Fume Hood to Enhance Lab Safety and Fulfill Research Objectives.鈥�

Grantees will have the opportunity to learn from each other and from previously funded RRF grant projects in a series of meetings and events offered throughout the next year.  

For more information about the program contact Executive Director of Research Development Jason Charland, jason.charland@maine.edu.