Achievements
Please see below for faculty, student, and alumni accomplishments:
Submit achievements announcements with the CAS achievement form.
Grants and Research
Kelly Jones (economics) received a grant for $26,552 from the Manhattan Strategy Group and the Department of Labor for her project about improving FMLA coverage in underserved communities. June 2021
Onaje Woodbine (philosophy and religion) received a grant for $40,000 from The Louisville Institute for his project “Take Back What the Devil Stole: An African American Prophet's Encounters in the Spirit World”. June 2021
Michael Alonzo (environmental science) received a grant for $37,914 from NASA for his work improving models of forest ecosystem structure and function through fusion of 3D data derived from stereo imagery and lidar. June 2021
Laura Cutler (Center for Israel Studies) received a $25,000 from The Israel Institute, Inc for a teaching expansion grant for 2021-22. June 2021
Monica Jackson (math & statistics) received a $125,000 grant from the National Security Agency (NSA) for the Summer Program in Research and Learning Program (SPIRAL at American). June 2021
Nicole Kramer (health studies) received a $6,260 grant from the Society for Research in Child Development for her Covid Forward study. June 2021
Daniel Fong (biology) received a $15,165 award from Cave Conservancy of the Virginias for his project titled “Potential Metabolic Adaptation to Groundwater Warming Among Subterranean Aquatic Crustacean Species” May 2021
Brian Yates (psychology) received $64,735 to evaluate the Emergency Assistance Programs (EAP) of Freedom House, which aids human rights defenders, survivors of religious persecution, and political prisoners. A special focus of Yates's evaluation is EAP’s Dignity for All: LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex) Assistance Program. May 2021
Monica Jackson (mathematics & statistics) received a $29,824 grant from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) for “The Summer Program In Research And Learning SPIRAL at American University” April 2021
Michael Robinson (mathematics & statistics) received a $20,500 grant from Battelle Memorial Institute and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for his project “HyperThesis DARPA Modeling Adversarial Activity (MAA)” April 2021
Kathryn Walters-Conte (physics) received a $50,000 grant from Howard Hughes Medical Institute for her work on the HHMI Driving Change D.C. Learning Grant 2021. April 2021
David Vine (anthropology) received a $8,000 grant from the Charles G. Koch Foundation for The United States of War book release and impact and dissemination efforts. March 2021
Gregory Lane (economics) received a $16,727 grant from London School of Economics for “The Potential for E-Commerce Platforms to unlock high growth for firms in Africa” March 2021
Sauleh Siddiqui (environmental science) received a $108,130 grant from National Science Foundation (NSF) March 2021
Adam McKay (physics) received a $27,756 grant from the University of Maryland for the project “Insights into Cometary Nucleus Heterogeneity and Evolution via Orbital Trends” March 2021
Nathalie Japkowicz (computer science) received a $70,000 grant from SRI International for "Multi-Stage Multi-Task Memory Transfer: Analysis of Hierarchical Eigentasks and Change-Point Detection in SRI Lifelong Learning Machine" February 2021
Hanning Chen (Chemistry) received $75,000 from George Washington University for “Nanomechanics and Electronic Structure of Organic Photovoltaics in Real Application Conditions by Advanced Scanning Probe Microscopy” February 2021
Silvina Guidoni (physics) and a global team of researchers virtually continued on their work from the NASA Goddard Heliophysics Hackweek 2020 to publish their results about machine learning at the prestigious NeurIPS 2020 conference. February 2021
Philip Johnson (physics) received $153,129.41, representing an incremental fund of $420,518 that is expected to go through 2/29/2024, from NASA for his project called "Research on the Causes and Consequences of Ionospheric Outflow." February 2021
Andrew Demshuk (history) and the AU History Department have been accepted to the Leibniz Research Alliance “Value of the Past” (Wert der Vergangenheit). They will now be partnering with a network of nine other scholarly institutions around the world to take part in joint research activities, workshops, and publications related to critical questions surrounding historical legacies about the politics of space. January 2021
Valentina Aquila (environmental science) was awarded $19,096, with expected funding of $296,026 over three years, from the Michigan Technological University, prime funding from NASA, for her project entitled "Tracking Volcanic Volatiles From Magma Reservoir to the Atmosphere: Identifying Precursors and Optimizing Models and Satellite Observations for Future Major Eruptions." January 2021
Stefano Costanzi (chemistry) received an award of $140,000 from The Henry L. Stimson Center for his project called "Cheminformatics Tool to Bolster the Control of Chemical Warfare Agents and Precursors." January 2021
Zois Boukouvalas (mathematics & statistics) was granted $160,000 from Energetics Technology Center, with prime funding from the Office of Naval Research, for his project called "Human Assisted Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing Approaches for Energetics." January 2021
Daniel Kerr (history) received an award of $100,000 from the Henry Luce Foundation for his project called "Food Security in DC during COVID-19" with the purpose of supporting the activities of the Humanities Truck during the coronavirus pandemic. January 2021
Appointments and Honors
David Vine (anthropology) was named a finalist for the LA Times History Book Prize for his book “The United States of War: A Global History of America's Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State” March 2021
Publications, Exhibitions, and Productions
E. Andrew Taylor (arts) published a new book The Artful Manager: Field Notes on the Business of Arts and Culture. June 2021
Douglas Fox and Whirang Cho (chemistry) collaborated on the publication, “Mechanical enhancement of cellulose nanofibril (CNF) films through the addition of water-soluble polymers” in Carbohydrate Polymers. May 2021
Douglas Fox (chemistry) wrote the article, "Influence of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) on permeation through intestinal monolayer and mucus model in vitro" in Carbohydrate Polymers. April 2021
Douglas Fox (chemistry) wrote the article, "Fluorescently Labeled Cellulose Nanofibers for Environmental Health and Safety Studies" in Nanomaterials. April 2021
Melissa Scholes Young (literature) wrote "Thank You, Rush Limbaugh, For My Feminism" in Ms. Magazine. February 2021
Laura Beers (history) authored "What Josh Hawley doesn't get about George Orwell" on CNN. January 2021.
In the Media
Melissa Scholes Young (Critical Race, Gender and Culture Studies Collaborative) was interviewed by AU alum Corinne Ahren for Ms. Magazine about her new novel The Hive. June 2021
Donald Earl Collins (Critical Race, Gender and Cultural Studies Collaborative) wrote an article for Aljazeera on the issue of second-class citizenship in academia. May 2021
Donald Earl Collins (CRGC) was interviewed by WTOP News about DC Emancipation Day, and the progress on racism in our city and country. May 2021
Donald Earl Collins (CRGC) was Interviewed about DC Emancipation Day, progress in DC/US on racism by WTOP April 2021
Theresa Runstedtler (history) was interviewed by Vox in a video about the boxing film that was banned around the world. March 2021
Nika Elder (art) spoke with USA Today about discussions around having a monument to Ruth Bader Ginsberg built. March 2021
Ernesto Castaneda-Tinoco (sociology) was featured in El Paso Matters about his lab's research into the susceptibility among latin people in El Paso to Covid-19. March 2021
AU Tutoring Corps was featured by WJLA-TV for their program having students tutor the children of AU staff/faculty during the Covid-19 pandemic. March 2021
Kyle Dargan (literature) talked to the New York Times magazine about the diminishing barriers between rap and poetry. March 2021
Kyle Dargan (literature) talked to the New York Times magazine about the power of words, repetition, rap, and poetry. March 2021
Kyle Dargan (literature) was in the Washington Post, sharing his recommendation for a book that captures the spirit of Washington, DC. March 2021
David Vine (anthropology) was featured by USA Today in an article about the US's global military presence. February 2021
David Vine (anthropology) was featured by USA Today in an article about the international reach of the US's counterterrorism efforts. February 2021
Mia Owens (history) was featured in an article by WJLA about becoming the first person to recieve the White House Historical Association fellowship that focuses on studying slavery, specifically the untold stories in DC. February 2021
Nathaniel Herr (psychology) was quoted in an article in abc57, by CNN, which spoke about the 200,000 digital tips sent to the FBI, many of which helped identify and arrest people after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. February 2021
Ernesto Castaneda-Tinoco (sociology) spoke with Colombia’s NTN24 during live coverage of the inauguration of President Joe Biden. January 2021
Ernesto Castaneda-Tinoco (sociology) spoke with Telemundo Nacional about the effect of the inauguration of President Joe Biden on dreamers in the US. January 2021
Ernesto Castaneda-Tinoco (sociology) spoke with Telemundo 44, DC about the local impact of the Biden government. January 2021
Michael Brenner (history) wrote “Pre-Nazi Germany tells us the fight to save American democracy is just beginning” for the Washington Post. January 2021