Award for Excellence in Research & Innovation
2025 Excellence in Research and Innovation Awardees
Grants in Art
Jordan Fenton
Assistant Professor, Art History
Dr. Fenton received a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities grant to support the implementation of an internationally traveling art history exhibition, “New Masks Now: Artists Innovating Masquerade in Contemporary West Africa.” This grant will support the installation, community engagement, programming, and exhibition in venues across the globe.
Grants in Economic Development
Dr. Ande Durojaiye, Vice President and Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Applied Sciences (left) and Randi Thomas, Esq., Vice President, Aspire (right) received a $10M award from the Butler County Board of Commissioners for the establishment of the Butler County Advanced Manufacturing Training, Education, and Workforce Development Center. Through their tireless efforts, Vice President Thomas and Dr. Durojaiye have forged a partnership between 黑料社区 and the Butler Tech career-technical school that will develop an educated workforce and serve as a community economic growth catalyst. The effort is a robust collaboration between educational institutions, governments, and businesses that will leverage emerging technologies to provide high-quality education and training to prepare the advanced manufacturing workforce of the future.
Grants in Education
Sarah Woodruff
Director, Discovery Center
Dr. Woodruff received a $367,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to support Discovery Center evaluation team members, in conjunction with Nationwide Children’s Hospital, in designing data collection strategies and tools to evaluate the current state of PAX in Ohio. PAX is a set of evidence-based strategies, developed by the PAXIS Institute, to help children and young adults improve their behavior, well-being, and mental health.
Grants in Enginering
Hui Wang
Associate Professor, Chemical, Paper and Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Wang received a $769,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to support the development of beam-offset optical coherence tomography. This effort is focused on understanding the fundamental principles that impact capturing the least scattered photons while rejecting the multiple scattering photons that degrade image resolution, contrast, signal-noise ratio, and imaging depth.
Grants in Humanities
Hongmei Li
Associate Professor, Media, Journalism and Film
Dr. Li received a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, made possible through support from the Mellon Foundation. The work funded by this grant seeks to increase our understanding of the rich and diverse histories, lived experiences, and contributions of Asian Americans and diasporic Asians in the nation’s heartland with a focus on Asian histories in Ohio.
Grants in Natural Sciences
Gary Lorigan
Chair and University Distinguished Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Dr. Lorigan received a $1.9M grant from the National Institutes of Health to use biophysical methods, including the application of state-of-the-art pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, to probe the structural and dynamic properties of integral membrane proteins and membrane solubilizing polymers. This research will advance efforts to address Long-QT syndrome, atrial fibrillation, sudden infant death syndrome, cardiac arrhythmias, and congenital deafness.
Grants in Pedagogy
Brian Schultz
Associate Dean, External Relations and Partnerships, College of Education, Health, and Society
Dr. Schultz and the TEACh Cincinnati team received a $300,000 grant from the HCS Foundation. The funded work will support a Cincinnati-based TEACh coordinator, Cincinnati Public Schools liaisons, and programming. This award supports the nationally-recognized TEACh Cincinnati program which was a 2025 recipient of the “Increasing Educator Diversity: Promising Practice Award" from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
Grants in Public Service
Steve Large
Assistant Vice President for Health and Wellness
Dr. Large received a $980,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Higher Education to increase investment in education and prevention programs, treatment and support options, and response services in response to the increasing demand for mental health services. The efforts supported by this grant will increase awareness and knowledge of mental health resources, decrease barriers to care, increase access and availability of care, and create long-term sustainability for mental health services at 黑料社区.
Grants in Social Sciences
Allison Farrell
Assistant Professor, Psychology
Dr. Farrell received a $648,000 grant from the National Science Foundation which seeks to investigate how early life experiences predispose adults to emotional fluctuations in response to common daily stressors. The study uses advanced approaches to determine whether early life experiences change tendencies to engage in support-seeking, exercise, and substance use in response to stress resulting in changes to daily affective reactivity to stress.
Grants in Transdisciplinary
Chi-Hao Cheng
Chair and Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dr. Cheng received an $845,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to enable 黑料社区 to partner with Great Oaks Career Campuses, Cincinnati State, the workforce development boards of Brown, Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren Counties, and the Community Action Agency of Cincinnati to form a 5G node, one of only six in Ohio, to train the workforce for 5G and broadband technologies.
Grants in Commercialization
Lei Kerr
Professor, Chemical, Paper and Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Kerr was awarded a United States patent titled “Respiratory simulation system including an anatomical model of the human nasal cavity configured for in vitro inhalation studies and associated methods.” This technology improves patient safety and accuracy by performing in vitro inhalation toxicological screening and intranasal drug delivery studies using a 3D-printed anatomical model created from digital imaging of a patient’s nasal cavity.
Mark Scott
Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dr. Scott was awarded a United States patent titled “Non-Invasive Diagnostic Systems and Methods for Using the Same.” The invention provides a method of measuring electromagnetic interference to noninvasively identify component degradation or failure in power electronics circuitry. This technology addresses an unmet need using a low-cost, high-bandwidth method to perform in situ measurements.
Research Award Recipients
Grants in Transdisciplinary Research
Angela Curl, Associate Professor
Family Science & Social Work
Dr. Curl serves as PI on a $4.9M award through the US Department of Education for partnering with K-12 public schools within Hamilton, Northridge, and Dayton and providing scholarships and paid internships to increase the number of graduates entering the social work profession.
Grants in Pedagogy
Michelle Cosmah, Clinical Professor
Teaching Curriculum & Education and Inquiry
Dr. Cosmah serves as PI on a grant for $600,000 through the Ohio Department of Education to promote best practices and culturally relevant instruction in the training of tutors who work with our most at-risk learners locally, regionally, and statewide.
Grants in Social Sciences
Katy Abbott, Executive Director, Professor, Scripps Foundation
Sociology & Gerontology
Dr. Abbott serves as PI on a $270,000 award to pilot a non-pharmacologic intervention within 9 nursing home communities for people living with dementia to build staff emotional communication skills, forge stronger relationships, and provide more positive care experiences for care partners.
Grants in Outreach
Cricket Meehan, SBCOE Executive Director
Psychology
Dr. Meehan is the PI on a $2.5M award to implement a centralized system of care for school-based prevention and early intervention through collaborative external partnerships with Ohio’s K-12 schools, community organizations, academia, and state agencies.
Grants in Natural Sciences
Andrea Kravats, J & B Lewis Associate Professor
Chemistry and Biochemistry
This award is in recognition of a $1.7M grant through the National Institutes of Health. Through this funded project, Dr. Kravats will collaborate with undergraduate and graduate 黑料社区s to advance discoveries in the field of protein folding by coupling experimental results to computational studies.
Grants in Humanities
Scott Kenworthy, Professor
Comparative Religion
This award is in recognition of prestigious funding through the National Endowment for the Humanities for Dr. Kenworthy to access extensive new primary sources and to compile the first complete biography of the leader of the Orthodox Church during the Russian Revolution.
Grants in Education
Kate Kuvalanka, Professor
Family Science & Social Work
Dr. Kuvalanka serves as PI on a $470,000 grant through the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services for 黑料社区s within Miami’s bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in social work to receive specialized training in public child welfare in their field practicum and elective course work.
Grants in Economic Development
Randi Thomas, Esq., Vice President
ASPIRE
This award is in recognition of a $5M grant from the US Department of Commerce to provide job training services, workforce development programs, and small business development services through College@Elm.
Grants in Engineering
Justin Saul, Professor
Chemical, Paper and Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Saul serves as the lead PI on a $2.5M award through the National Institutes of Health to compare novel products created through tissue engineering to commercially available pharmacologic agents for the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women.
Award for Commercialization
Xiao-Wen Cheng, Associate Professor
Microbiology
Dr. Cheng invented an improved tool for use in biotechnology that will enable researchers and the biotech industry to produce larger amounts of protein more efficiently than by conventional methods. These improvements have the potential to enable the advancement of discoveries ranging from fundamental research to novel drug development.
The novelty of this invention is recognized by the issuance of a patent protecting Dr. Cheng’s discovery on June 13th, 2023.
Of note and in recognition of Dr. Cheng’s perseverance and long-standing commitment to this research, the original provisional patent application was submitted nearly 6 years before this in 2017.