Recent Grantees

2026

Jeanne Alhusen, Nursing Research: "Sexual Violence and Reproductive Coercion Among College Students with Disabilities" (GMU, JMU, Radford)

Jason Allen, Kinesiology: "Therapeutic Modulation of the Oral Microbiome with Inorganic Nitrate for Better Cardiovascular Health in Postmenopausal Females" (JMU)

Jason Bates, Chemical Engineering: "Sustainable Epoxide Production Using Water and Electricity" (VT)

Giulio Celotto, Classics: "Sisterhood in Flavian Latin Epic" (W & M)

Michaela DuBay, Human Services: "Clinica Nuevo Dia: Proof-of-Concept Interprofessional Training Model for Culturally Responsive Autism Intervention with Spanish-Speaking Families in Rural Virginia" (JMU)

Wajih Ul Hassan, Computer Science: "Building Trustworthy Audit Systems via Hardware Security Primitives" (GMU)

Katie MacDonald, Architecture: "Robotic Construction, Machine Visioning, & Artificial Intelligence in Structural Design with Urban Wood" (JMU)

Petra Reinke, Materials Science and Engineering: "High Entropy and Compositionally Complex Alloys: Reaction Synergies in Oxidation" (JMU)

Amrisha Vaish, Psychology: "Trusting Humans and AI: Children's Expectations for Apologies After Epistemic Mistakes and Moral Wrongs" (JMU)

Rupa Valdez, Systems Engineering: "Understanding Autistic Adults’ Needs with Executive Functioning Support Apps" (GMU, ODU)

Amrit Venkatesh, Chemistry: "Probing Structure and Defects in Multivariate Metal Organic Frameworks using Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy" (VT)

Tianhao Wang, Computer Science: "Improving Safety in Large Language Model Responses Targeted at Youth" (GMU)

Qiaochu Zhang, Electrical and Computer Engineering: "ANCHOR: Analog–Cyber Sensing for Secure Energy Infrastructure" (GMU)

Shangtong Zhang, Computer Science: "Towards Closing the Last-Mile Gap in Formal Mathematics" (ODU)

2025

Kory Burns, Materials Science and Engineering: "Revealing Localized Exciton Confinement in Two-dimensional Semiconductors" (JMU)

Chen Chen, Computer Science: "AI-Cyber Convergence: A Self-Evolving Framework for Intelligent Security" (ODU)

Fernando Fioretto, Computer Science: "Towards Fair Decision Systems: Augmenting LLMs with Causal Graph Discovery" (GMU)

Trevin Glasgow, Public Health Services: "Virginia Firefighters for Lifelong Health (VA-FLH): A longitudinal analysis of the health and well-being of firefighters" (VCU)

Chris Highley, Biomedical Engineering: "Fiber-based Granular Hydrogels for Studying Cancer Mechanobiology" (VCU)

Sheng Li, Data Science: "Enhancing Temporal Reasoning Capabilities of LLMs with Fine-grained Structured Data" (VT)

Stephen McDonnell, Materials Science and Engineering: "Controlled Doping of 2D Materials" (JMU)

Beth Schueler, Leadership, Foundations, and Policy: "Understanding U.S. School Boards" (VT)

Mircea Stan, Electrical and Computer Engineering: "CMOS-CIM: Collaboration on CMOS+X Arrays for Compute-in-Memory" (GMU)

Nur Yildirim, Computer Science: "Developing Interaction Design Patterns and Guidelines for Mitigating Privacy Risks in Generative AI Applications" (VT)

2024

Alan Bergland, Biology: "Sex, Death and Dormancy in the Rock Pools of Belle Isle" (JMU)

Kory Burns, Materials Science and Engineering: "Engineering Site-selective Photon Emitters in Twisted Bilayer van der Waals Solids” (VT)

Seokhyun Chung, Systems and Information Engineering: "Achieving the Future of Worker Injury Risk Assessment: Personalized and Privacy-preserving" (VT)

Afsaneh Doryab, Systems and Information Engineering: "Enhancing Safety Specifications for Critical Systems through Human-in-the-Loop Interactive Deep Reinforcement Learning" (VT)

Seongkook Heo, Computer Science: "Development of Interactive Shape Physicalization Platform" (VT)

Seongkook Heo, Computer Science: "Large Language Model based Voice Interface for Older Adults" (VCU)

Jingjing Li, Commerce: "Building Machine Learning Resilience During Disasters" (GMU)

Sheng Li, Data Science: "Towards Safe and Trustworthy Deep Learning with Causal Reasoning" (VT)

Chang Lou, Computer Science: "Enforcing Safe Product Software Updates with Proactive Runtime Checking" (VT)

J.D. Quigley, Mathematics: "Collaborative Workshops in Topology" (GMU, JMU)

Majid Shafiee-Jood, Civil and Environmental Engineering: "Exploring Economic and Non-economic Incentives to Protect Non-tidal Wetlands" (VT)

Bon Trinh, Pathology: "An Integrated Computational and Experimental Approach for Cancer Drug Screening" (VT)

Baoxing Xu, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering: "Printing of Ultrathin Conductive Films on Liquid for 3D Wearable Electronics" (GMU)