ADVANCE Center Announces First Round of Grants
The University of Maine’s ADVANCE Rising Tide Center has announced its first round of grants aimed at fostering the professional development of UMaine female faculty members in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines, along with social and behavioral science (SBS) disciplines.
Nine grants totaling a combined $76,455 were awarded to UMaine faculty members in a range of academic fields in one of four granting categories: research seed, leadership development, unit climate award, and climate research award. There were 16 grant applications.
The Rising Tide Center was founded in 2010 with a five-year, $3.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The goals of the center are to increase the number of female faculty members in the STEM and SBS disciplines, define the practices that attract and support the retention of female faculty, facilitate promotion through the academic ranks and to administrative positions, and provide professional satisfaction.
Susan Hunter, UMaine’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, is a biology professor who serves as the principal investigator on the project. Three other current faculty members co-authored the ADVANCE grant: Amy Fried, associate professor of political science; Susan Gardner, associate professor of higher education; and Karen Horton, associate professor of mechanical engineering technology. Jody Jellison, former professor of molecular plant pathology and director of the School of Biology and Ecology, was also a co-author.
Ellie Groden, professor of entomology, has replaced Jellison on the team and administers the Rising Tide grants program.
Three different types of grants were awarded by the center: research seed grants, research awards, and unit climate awards. Awarded projects include speaker series, guest lecturers, and interdisciplinary research with faculty collaborators both within and outside UMaine.
“We were happy with the proposals we received,” said Horton, the interim director of the ADVANCE Rising Tide Center. “We were pleased to have heard from a broad range of departments and tenure-stream faculty members at all ranks, from assistant to full professor, so that was very positive.”
The awarded grants are as follows:
- “Translational Medical Research in Sleep and Brain Injury.” Principal Investigator (PI): Marie J. Hayes, Professor of Psychology & Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
- “Effect of Nitrogen Source and Light Intensity on Nitrate Accumulations in Greenhouse Grown Leafy Vegetables.” PI: Marianne Sarrantonio, Associate Professor, Plant, Soil and Environmental Science
- External speaker visit by Dr. Joann Moody to discuss cognitive errors and how they influence gender bias in professional arenas. PIs: Kristin Sobolik and Virginia Nees-Hatlen, Associate Deans, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Distinguished Climate Scholars series, to bring five distinguished female scholars in the field of climate sciences to UMaine in the 2011-12 academic year. PIs: Jasmine Saros, Associate Professor, Climate Change Institute; Kristin Sobolik, Professor/Associate Dean, Climate Change Institute
- “Who Shatters the Glass Ceiling? Understanding Women’s Success in the Face of Sexism.” PI: Shannon McCoy, Assistant Professor, Psychology
- “Collaborative Research on the Lakes of East Greenland.” PI: Jasmine Saros, Associate Professor, Climate Change Institute and School of Biology and Ecology
- “Re-examining Resource Management Practices Among Contemporary Amazonian Societies.” PI: Constanza Ocampo-Raeder, Assistant Professor, Anthropology
- “Biologically Induced Weathering of Serpentinites on Earth and Mars.” PI: Amanda Albright Olsen, Assistant Professor, Earth Sciences
- Research at University of Malaysia and the Indian Institute of Technology, and the establishment of a student support club for mathematics, statistics and actuarial science at UMaine; PI: Pushpa L. Gupta, Professor, Mathematics and Statistics
For more information about the ADVANCE Rising Tide Center, go to http://www.umaine.edu/advancerisingtide/
Contact: Karen Horton, (207) 581-2136 or karen.horton@umit.maine.edu; Eleanor Groden, (207) 581-2984 or eleanor.groden@umit.maine.edu; Jessica Bloch (207) 581-3777 or jessica.bloch@umit.maine.edu