STROBE Awards

Congratulations to Fort Lewis College, University of California Irvine, and Florida International University for being awarded and recognized in the NSF COVID-19 Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Challenge.

• Fort Lewis College received $25,000 from the National Science Foundation in the four-year STEM undergraduate category of awards.
• UC Irvine received $15,000 in the STEM Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Scholar category of awards.
• Florida International University received honorable mention.

Fort Lewis College, a Native American serving, non-tribal institution, awards more undergraduate degrees to Native American students than any other college in the U.S. Prior to COVID-19, first-to-second year retention rates among native students increased from 55% to 67% between 2015-2019; however, for the 2020 first-year cohort there was a 20% decline to 47%. The short-term impacts of COVID-19 revealed challenges in student academic preparedness. Many of the challenges have been exacerbated among Native American students, all of whom are pursuing STEM degrees, and at a stage where college readiness is critical. The Fort Lewis College Taking Action submission describes three evidence-based and system efforts (first-year launch course, foundational mathematics support, and holistic student support services) to increase student success, retention and ultimately in the long-term, conferral of STEM baccalaureate degrees.

At the University of California, Irvine (UCI), 20% of the student population is Hispanic, Latino, or Pacific Islanders. Surveys demonstrated that COVID exacerbated the already existing challenges for many of these students working as teaching assistants, especially with pivoting to remote learning. In support of these students, the UCI developed three different initiatives. Fellowships were provided for students to conduct contact tracing. A Summer Fellows program was also developed to train graduate students in inclusive pedagogy, with a focus on cultural competency, and innovative technologies. Assessment of the program demonstrated improved outcomes for undergraduate students from underrepresented populations taught by Fellows. In addition, UCI offered funding for summer research to graduate students from underrepresented populations who had a record of participation in DEI activities such as mentoring other students from underrepresented populations. Support for Graduate Inclusive Excellence Fellows continued in 2021 and is expected to continue in the future. All of these initiatives are undergoing iterative improvement through assessment and evaluation.

Kaitlyn Kukula received the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award and the Don Rabern Service Award from the Physics & Engineering Department at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. Kaitlyn has been training in research as an undergraduate student in Prof. Yiyan Li’s lab at FLC.

Ethan Anderson won the best poster award for “Fabrication of a physiologically relevant novel lung on a chip device to quantify extracellular matrix deposition” in Spring 2022 at Fort Lewis College. Ethan also received a Diversity Supplement from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for “Utilizing biodegradable porous silicon membranes as a novel design for lung-on-a-chip microfluidic devices to investigate extracellular matrix interactions.” Congratulations, Ethan!

Professor Dollar is now recognized as a 2022 Kavli Fellow, a joint endeavor by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and the Kavli Foundation. He presented his work on high intensity laser matter interactions at the 2022 Kavli Frontiers of Science U.S. Symposium. Attendance to the symposium is by invitation only, and attendees are selected from among award winners for early career scientists in the U.S. and abroad. Attendees include Sloan Fellows, Packard Fellows, MacArthur Genius Grantees, Pew Fellows, Searle Scholars, and Presidential Early Career Awardees for Scientists and Engineers. Since the inception of the program in 1989, over 5,000 distinguished young scientists have attended a Kavli symposium and are designated Kavli Fellows.

The Carol D. Soc Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Awards are administered by the Graduate Division in collaboration with the Graduate Council of the Academic Senate, funded by a generous bequest from the estate of Carol Soc, a former employee of the Graduate Division. The mentoring awards were a part of the Sarlo Awards Teaching for Excellence program, established in 1997 to honor outstanding faculty at outstanding Northern California colleges and Universities.

The European Commission will support a total of 1156 experienced post-doctoral researchers with €242 million to work at top universities, research centres, private organisations and small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe and the rest of the world. The European Research Executive Agency (REA) received 8356 applications for this call. The Commission will award €206 million to 1025 researchers through European Postdoctoral Fellowships, allowing them to carry out their projects in the EU or countries associated to Horizon Europe. The action provides support to excellent individual researchers to implement an original and personalized research project, while developing their skills through advanced training, international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility.

The University of Colorado President’s Teaching Scholars Program recognizes CU faculty who skillfully integrate teaching and research at an exceptional level. The title of President’s Teaching Scholar recognizes excellence in and commitment to learning and teaching, as well as active, substantial contributions to scholarly work. President Saliman solicits annual nominations of faculty across the four campuses for the designation, which is a lifetime appointment.

The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator Program, open to faculty from Stanford University, UC San Francisco, and UC Berkeley, funds innovative, visionary research with the goal of building engaged, collaborative scientific communities to help solve critical challenges in biomedicine.

The 86 awardees in our new cohort, who were chosen from nearly 700 applicants through a competitive process judged by nationally recognized external reviewers and a blue-ribbon Selection Advisory Committee, represent a diverse range of disciplines, including basic biological sciences, clinical biomedical sciences, physics, chemistry, engineering, computer and data sciences, statistics, and public health.

Q-FARM (Quantum Fundamentals, ARchitectures and Machines) is Stanford’s initiative in quantum science and engineering. The QFARM student fellowships are awarded to advanced graduate students working in quantum science and engineering. Fellowship criteria are excellence in their research, and demonstrated potential for building new links within the Stanford quantum community. Each awardee receives two years of funding.