The University of Southern California (USC) Office of Research and Innovation (OORI) has announced 10 new awardees named under the Zumberge Preliminary Studies Research Award.
Coordinated by OORI sub-unit Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII), the Zumberge Preliminary Studies Research Award provides researchers with funds to plan and conduct circumscribed research projects that will generate preliminary data to enhance the competitiveness of their future proposals submitted to external sponsors. The Zumberge Preliminary Studies Research Award consists of three subprograms: (1) Large Program Award; (2) STEM Program Award; and (3) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in Research Award. The 2024 cycle of applications saw numerous submissions coming from schools across the university, with awardees representing USC entities including Rossier School of Education, School of Pharmacy, USC Libraries, Viterbi School of Engineering, and Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. OORI and RII have continuously worked to build-out and expand the support available through the internal funding programs and are thrilled to see the increase in widespread interest and participation of faculty across USC’s schools and departments in the internal programs.
“We have witnessed immense growth of interest in our internal funding programs, with increased applications overall, and involvement from schools and entities across the entire university,” said Dr. Steven Moldin, Associate Vice President of Research Strategy and Innovation, “we want to continue on this path, providing the support and resources that our faculty need to be successful in their external funding applications, and look forward to continuing to build-out our internal funding program offerings.”
The 2024 Zumberge Preliminary Studies Research Award recipients are as follows:
- Huriya Jabbar, PhD, Associate Professor of Education Policy – USC Rossier School of Education – Zumberge Track: DEI in Research Award
- Proposal Title: How do Mixed-Income Neighborhood Initiatives Reduce Educational Inequality for Low-Income Black Youth?
- Paul Seidler, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences – USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences – Zumberge Track: DEI in Research Award
- Proposal Title: Structure-based investigation of neurotransmitters as modifiers of tau aggregation
- Andrzej Rutkowski, Acting Head, LIPA Library and Visualization Specialist, USC Libraries Library for International & Public Affairs – USC Libraries – Zumberge Track: Large Program Award
- Proposal Title: Before the Bulldozers: Bunker Hill in the New Deal Era
- Zhenglu Li, PhD, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science – USC Viterbi School of Engineering – Zumberge Track: STEM Program Award
- Proposal Title: Correlated Electron-Phonon Coupling from First-Principles GW Perturbation Theory
- Susumu Takahashi, PhD, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Physics and Astronomy – USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences – Zumberge Track: Large Program Award
- Proposal Title: Development of Bright and Stable Diamond Quantum Emitters for Quantum Sensing Applications
- Serghei Mangul, PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Quantitative and Computational Biology, Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy – USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences – Zumberge Track: Large Program Award
- Proposal Title: Developing reliable and scalable methods for deep immune phenotyping in public transcriptomics databases across diverse populations
- Yasser Khan, PhD, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering – USC Viterbi School of Engineering – Zumberge Track: STEM Program Award
- Proposal Title: Skin-line wearable sensor development for diagnostic ECG and MRI at 0.55 T
- Willie Neiswanger, PhD, Assistant Professor of Computer Science – USC Viterbi School of Engineering – Zumberge Track: STEM Program Award
- Proposal Title: Foundation Models for Materials Physics to Accelerate the Development of Solid-State Batteries
- Houda Alachkar, PharmD, PhD, Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy, Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy – USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences – Zumberge Track: Large Program Award
- Proposal Title: APOC2-CD36 deregulation presents a metabolic vulnerability in Acute Myeloid Leukemia
- Swabha Swayamdipta, PhD, WiSE Gabilan Assistant Professor of Computer Science – USC Viterbi School of Engineering – Zumberge Track: DEI in Research Award
- Proposal Title: Understanding Attitudes towards Homelessness through an Expert-Guided AI Social Engine