Dr. Mary Beth Kolozsvary, associate professor of environmental studies and environmental science, received a $8,675 grant from Capital Region PRISM/Cornell Cooperative Extension for continuing research with students to survey natural areas in Colonie for invasive plant species, record them in iMapInvasives, recommend priority conservation actions, and conduct public outreach activities. Dr. Kolozsvary is also senior personnel on a recently awarded collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation. Led by Ohio Wesleyan University, the grant will support four projects developed by teams of faculty-researchers who will create online teaching tools that advance field ecology and data science.
Michael Jarcho, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology, was awarded a $12,489 grant from the Bender Scientific Fund of the Community Foundation of the Greater Capital Region. These funds will be used to support his work with students investigating the effectiveness of voluntary exercise at curbing the consequences of chronic social stress in a mouse model. In addition, these funds will support a new line of research looking at how diet might play a role in mitigating or exacerbating the effects of chronic social stress. Previous work in Dr. Jarcho’s lab has been supported by COTFD funds and CURCA Summer Scholars.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy Tony Manela, Ph.D., received a two-year award of $84,248 from Biola University as part of the Gratitude to God project funded by the John Templeton Foundation. That initiative will explore the nature of gratitude to God from psychological, theological, and philosophical perspectives. Dr. Manela’s award will support philosophical inquiry into conceptual issues surrounding the nature of gratitude and belief. Specifically, he will investigate how, and to what extent, non-believes (religious people in periods of doubt, agnostics, and atheists) are capable of gratitude to God.
Ausra Park, Ph.D., associate professor of international relations, has been awarded an Estonian National Scholarship for International Researchers and Academics for her comparative, longitudinal study on Women as National Chief Executives in post-communist Europe to start in the summer of 2021. This scholarship is financed by Estonian government (Ministry of Education and Research, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of the Interior) and the European Union’s Regional Development Fund. Dr. Park will be affiliated with the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu.
Dr. Katherine Meierdiercks, professor of environmental studies and environmental science, received support from the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science (CUAHSI) through their Let’s Talk About Water program. The sponsored event -- “Water Science through Storytelling: Film Screening & Panel Discussion” -- was a collaboration between Siena College and the Hudson River Watershed Alliance and highlighted how storytelling can be used to engage diverse audiences in watershed science and conservation. It involved a screening of Jon Bowermaster’s film, A Living River, and a post-screening panel discussion.
Assistant Professors of Mathematics Scott Greenhalgh, Ph.D. and Kursad Tosun, Ph.D. were awarded a one-year grant from the Mathematical Association of America’s National Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program. The award will enable underrepresented students to investigate the (inevitable?) zombie apocalypse from a public health and evolutionary biology viewpoint, specifically through the use of mathematical modeling.
Dr. Rose Finn, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, has received a two-year grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for her collaborative project, “Probing Gas Consumption and Stripping along the Cosmic Web.” The primary science objective of this proposal is to understand how galaxies are altered as they move through the cosmic web and enter the densest regions.
Dr. Krysta Dennis, Producer of Creative Arts, and Dr. Ruth Kassel, Associate Director of the Center for Academic Community Engagement, have received a grant from the Michele L. Vennard Hospitality Grant Program of the Albany County Convention and Visitors’ Bureau Fund, a fund of the Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region. The grant supports Siena’s Living Museum Project, an interdisciplinary program made up of students and faculty from Creative Arts, History, and Computer Science that work with local historic sites to create experiences that will engage new audiences in reimagining history and connecting the unique history of the partner sites with contemporary issues and the surrounding local community.
James Teresco, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science, has been awarded a grant through the National Science Foundation's XSEDE program (Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment) for an allocation of time on the Stampede2 supercomputer at TACC (Texas Advanced Computing Center) at the University of Texas at Austin. Stampede2 is #35 on the Top 500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers, with 285,600 processing cores, and is the third most powerful supercomputer currently installed at a university in the United States. Students in CSIS-335, Parallel Processing and High Performance Computing, have access to this computing resource to be able to run parallel programs in a much larger environment than what is available at Siena, which allows them to learn and use state-of-the-industry technologies.