Science & Technology

Chemist Jay Ponder, in Arts & Sciences, received a $152,775 supplemental award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for protein-ion binding research.

Many North American migratory birds are shrinking in size as temperatures have warmed over the past 40 years. But those with very big brains, relative to their body size, did not shrink as much as smaller-brained birds, according to biologists in Arts & Sciences. The study in Ecology Letters is the first to identify a direct link between cognition and animal response to human-made climate change.

Courtney Reichhardt in Arts & Sciences received a $110,000 postdoc-to-faculty transition award from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to continue researching the disease.

Tae Seok Moon at the McKelvey School of Engineering has taken a big step forward in his quest to design a modular, genetically engineered kill switch that integrates into any genetically engineered microbe, causing it to self-destruct under certain defined conditions. 

Kater Murch in Arts & Sciences and collaborators at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis won a $750,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research. 

Engineering senior Vaishali Shah has been awarded the prestigious Brooke Owens Fellowship, which supports those interested in a career in the aerospace industry.

Cotton fabric is natural, renewable, biodegradable and at least theoretically sustainable. With her patented RECLEM process, WashU fashion associate professor Mary Ruppert-Stroescu hopes to revolutionize how recycled fabrics are processed and used to create new garments.

Research from the lab of Ulugbek Kamilov at the McKelvey School of Engineering begins to unravel the inner workings of deep learning algorithms used in imaging.

Mark McDaniel in Arts & Sciences received a $30,008 grant from the U.S. Department of Education for a collaborative education research project.

Randall Martin, at the McKelvey School of Engineering, was awarded a three-year NASA grant to analyze fine particulate matter data, work that will help in air quality management.