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Winners of ACES+ 2017 Opportunity Awards announced

ACES+, the continuation of the Academic Careers in Engineering & Science (ACES) program, announced the recipients of the 2017 ADVANCE Opportunity Grant Awards.

Nine proposals representing academic disciplines–ranging from nursing to engineering to psychological sciences–have been awarded a total of $31,510.

“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.

ADVANCE Opportunity Grants are competitive annual awards selected by the Opportunity Grant Oversight Committee, who reviewed a total of 18 proposals in 2017.  Opportunity grants, first launched in 2004 under the NSF-ADVANCE grant ACES, provide small amounts of supplemental support to 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 2017 ADVANCE Opportunity Grant Award winners and information about their projects:

Jean Burns, Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences
Award: $3,200 to conduct research on isolating mechanisms in the soil that influence plant performance.

Lauren Calandruccio, Department of Psychological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences
Award: $2,500 to investigate the relationship between reading ability and speech perception in noise.

Haomin Gong, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, College of Arts and Sciences
Award: $1,800 to publish books on internet culture and ecocinema.

Lisa Huisman Koops, Department of Music, College of Arts and Sciences
Award: $2,680 to conduct research for musical parenting–musical practices, beliefs and perceptions of parents of children ages birth to 10.

Kiju Lee, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Case School of Engineering
Award: $5,000 for Orgami–novel design inspiration for the next generation of robotics.

Amy Przeworski, Department of Psychological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences
Award: $5,600 to examine the phenomenology of child hoarding.

Cheryl Toman, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, College of Arts and Science
Award: $3,200 to research women’s writings in literature and music in Mali.

Susanne Vees-Gulani, Department of Modern Languages and Literature, College of Arts and Sciences
Award: $2,200 to continue the research on the myth of Dresden: origins and manifestations of the Dresden bombing narrative and the PEGIDA movement.

Amy Zhang, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
Award: $5,330 to study the irritability, depression and their biomarkers in African-American breast cancer patients.