ACES+ announces 2014 Advance Opportunity Award winners

ACES+, the continuation of the Academic Careers in Engineering & Sciences program, announced the recipients of the 2014 ADVANCE Opportunity Awards. Ten proposals representing academic disciplines ranging from psychological sciences to biology to anthropology were awarded a total of $46,620.

“We’re thrilled to have the support of President Barbara R. Snyder and Provost Bud Baeslack to continue these awards,” said Lynn Singer, deputy provost and vice president for academic affairs, “and this year additional funding was provided from Professor Robert Miller, vice president of research.”

ADVANCE Opportunity grants are competitive annual awards selected by the Opportunity Grant Oversight Committee, who reviewed a total of 34 proposals in 2014.  Opportunity grants, first launched in 2004 under the National Science Foundation-ADVANCE grant ACES, provide small amounts of supplemental support of current or proposed projects and activities where funding is difficult to obtain through other sources. All Case Western Reserve University faculty members are eligible to apply.

According to the Office of the Provost, the following is a list of 2014 ADVANCE Opportunity Award winners and information about their projects:

  • Anita Aminoshariae, Endodontics, School of Dental Medicine
    Award: $5,000 to support lab fees for a pilot study to determine the roles of B-defensins in odontoblastic cell line differentiation.
  • Cathleen Carlin, Molecular Biology and Microbiology, School of Medicine
    Award: $5,770 to support the use of animal models to research the role of EGF receptor membrane sorting in tumor progression in EGFR-driven epithelial carcinomas.
  • Anastasia Dimitropoulos, Psychological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences
    Award: $1,585.74 to support individualized training in statistical parametric mapping software and for collaborators with a pilot multisite play study in Prader-Willi syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder.
  • Phillip Feng, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Case School of Engineering
    Award: $4,972 to support exploring and obtaining preliminary results for creating a new research direction in the rapidly emerging field of two-dimensional layered semiconductors and nano scale devices.
  • Angela Hein Ciccia, Psychological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences
    Award: $1,725 to support a telepractice study to assess early risk for autism in children living in poverty.
  • Hua Lou, Genetics and Genome Sciences, School of Medicine
    Award: $6,718 to support travel to a symposium, “The Ubiquitin System: from basic science to drug discovery,” and for the salary of a post-doctoral fellow to investigate strategies that cells use to control the level of gene expression in responses to environmental cues.
  • Janet McGrath, Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences
    Award: $5,000 to support conference and travel expenses to an executive training course on global health diplomacy at the Graduate Institute of Geneva.
  • Cheryl Toman, Modern Languages and Literatures, College of Arts and Sciences
    Award: $4,500 to support fieldwork necessary to complete publication of a book-length manuscript titled, Oralities and Rituals: Francophone Women’s Writing in Gabon.
  • Susanne Vees-Gulani, Modern Languages and Literature, College of Arts and Sciences
    Award: $4,810 to support research needed to complete publication of her second monography, The Myth of Dresden: Housing Conflict, Air War and Architecture in the Military History Museum in Dresden.
  • Gillian Weiss, History, College of Arts and Sciences
    Award: $6,539 to support fieldwork for the publication of a book project, Slavery and the Sun King: The History and Representation of Ottoman and Moroccan Galley Slaves in 17th Century France.