Seed for Success Acorn Awards

2024 Seed for Success Acorn Awardee List

• Underline: principal investigator
• * First-time Acorn Award recipient
• + No longer at Purdue
• ^ Regional Purdue campus faculty
• ^^ Non-Purdue faculty

Awardees

1. Angela Abbott, Blake Connolly, Wanda Stevens. Indiana NEP: SNAP-Ed Plan 2024-NEPA Direct Ed. United States Department of Agriculture. $5,003,773.00.

2. Muhammad Alam, Joerg Appenzeller. Strengthen and Expand Collaboration between Universities on Research and Education in Semiconductors (SECURES)-Research. National Science Foundation. $1,666,665.00.

3. Marshallrhea Baker*, Willie Reed. Vet Up! The National HCOP Academy for Veterinary Medicine. Health Resources and Services Administration. $3,225,879.00.

4. Stephen Beaudoin, Bryan Boudouris+, Zoltan Nagy, Gintaras Reklaitis, Brian Tackett. Modern Manufacturing of Energetics. U.S. Department of Defense. $2,300,000.00.

5. Aaron Bowman, Priyanka Baloni*, Jyothi Thimmapuram. Mechanisms of Manganese Neurotoxicity. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. $4,017,938.00.

6. James Braun. NSF Engines: Type 2: NSF Innovation Engine for Next-Generation Factory-Built Housing (NextHouse). National Science Foundation. $1,000,000.00.

7. Darcy Bullock. TPF-5(519): Expansion: Enhanced Traffic Signal Performance Measures. U.S. Department of Transportation. $1,020,000.00.

8. Jason Cannon, Uma Aryal, Jean-Christophe Rochet. Mechanisms of PhIP-Induced Dopaminergic Neurotoxicity. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. $1,563,395.00.

9. Jason Cannon, Daniel Foti, Julia Chester, Linda Lee, Ellen Wells. PFAS Induced Alterations in Reward Processing. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. $2,694,050.00.

10. Chad Carroll*, Deva Chan, Craig Goergen, Shihuan Kuang. Role of Serum Advanced Glycation End-Products in Altering Tendon Properties with Diabetes. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. $3,066,018.00.

11. Leifu Chang. CAREER: Probing Structural Dynamics and Regulatory Mechanisms of RNA-Guided CRISPR-Cas12 Endonucleases and their Analogues. National Science Foundation. $1,296,592.00.

12. Zhihong Chen, Joerg Appenzeller, Pramey Upadhyaya. DMREF: GOALI: Designing Materials for Next-Generation Spintronic Devices. National Science Foundation. $2,000,000.00.

13. Zhihong Chen, ME Commons Capital. U.S. Department of Defense. $6,287,001.00.

14. Zhihong Chen, University Network to Accelerate Lab-to-Fab. U.S. Department of Defense. $4,569,800.00.

15. Gaurav Chopra. Artificial Intelligence Based Iterative Experimental Platform to Accelerate Drug Discovery. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. $2,650,000.00.

16. Alex Chortos*, Mukerrem Cakmak. FMRG: Eco: Circular Manufacturing of Sustainable Bioplastics from Hemp-Derived Building Blocks. National Science Foundation. $2,985,348.00.

17. Kari Clase, Stephen Byrn, Zita Ekeocha^^. Enhance SSA Reg Framework and Local manufacturing via Pharma Workforce Development. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. $1,100,000.00.

18. Chittaranjan Das, Zhao-Qing Luo.Mechanism of Atypical Ubiquitination and Deubiquitination by Bacterial Effectors. National Institute of General Medical Sciences. $1,769,331.00.

19. Supriyo Datta, Sunil Bhave. An Integrated Optomechanical Mid-IR Detector Based on Soft-Clamped Ultrahigh-Q Resonators. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. $1,077,938.00.

20. Supriyo Datta. Hybrid MEMS-Photonic Integrated Circuit-Based Convolution Accelerator. Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific. $2,680,189.00.

21. Supriyo Datta, Zhihong Chen. OptNet: Optimization with p-bit Networks. Office of Naval Research. $4,500,000.00.

22. Daniel DeLaurentis, Stephen Beaudoin, Edward Berger, Nathan Hartman. WRT 1080- Research in support of the Defense Civilian Training Corps (DCTC) Program Development, Piloting, and Instrumentation. Department of Defense Systems Engineering Research Center. $4,455,594.00.

23. Kerrie Douglas, Peter Bermel, Tamara Moore, Jason Morphew*. Silicon Crossroads Workforce Development. U.S. Department of Defense. $7,500,000.00.

24. Brenna Ellison*, The Center for Food Conservation and Waste Reduction: Designing Cocreated Solutions to Improve Nutrition Security, Health Equity, and Environmental Sustainability. National Institute of Food and Agriculture. $1,500,000.00.

25. Songlin Fei, Daniel Aliaga, Bedrich Benes, Yingjie Chen, Rado Gazo, Ayman Habib, Joseph Hupy, Jinha Jung, Ningning (Nicole) Kong, Michael Saunders*, Guofan Shao, Song Zhang. Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI). Natural Resources Conservation Service. $8,957,033.00.

26. Daniel Flaherty. Inhibitors of Adaptive Efflux Mediated Resistance in Acinetobacter Baumannii. National Institute Allergy and Infectious Diseases. $1,748,870.00.

27. Jennifer Freeman, Linda Lee, Chongli Yuan. Comparative Neurotoxicity of PFAS. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. $3,281,440.00.

28. Roberto Gallardo*. READI 1.0 Evaluation. Indiana Economic Development Corporation. $1,699,759.00.

29. Jing Gao*, Fenglong Ma^^, Daniel Semenza^^, Jingbo Shang^^. Proto-OKN Theme 1: A Knowledge Graph Warehouse for Neighborhood Information. National Science Foundation. $1,500,000.00.

30. James Gibert*, Andres F. Arrieta*, John Evans, Gregory Shaver. Advance Concept Development: Energy Harvesting Technologies for Semi-Trailer Transportation Systems. Wabash National Corporation. $1,747,435.00.

31. Kevin Gibson, Felica Ahasteen-Bryant, Jacqueline McDermott, Kenneth Ridgway, Patrick Zollner, Stephanie Masta. The Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. $1,533,358.00.

32. Anne Gregory*^, Katie Bowers*^. Teach Dual Credit Indiana at PNW Grant Extension. Indiana Commission for Higher Education. $1,104,181.46.

33. Sumeet Gupta, Kaushik Roy, Peide Ye. FET: Medium: Scalable and Ultra-Low-Power Neural Accelerators Based on 2D Ferroelectric Semiconductors (SAFES). National Science Foundation. $1,200,000.00.

34. John Haddock. Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program 2023-24. Indiana Department of Transportation. $1,687,335.00.

35. Hana Hall*, Jean-Christophe Rochet. Role of R-loops in Transcriptional Stress, Genome Instability, and Chronic Immune Response in Alzheimer’s Disease. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. $2,423,039.00.

36. Michael Heinz, Ananth Grama. Effects of Sensorineural Hearing Loss on Robust Speech Coding. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. $3,119,440.00.

37. G. Kenitra Hendrix*, Craig Bowen*. National Animal Health Laboratory Network Support Funding. Animal Plant Health Inspection Service. $1,000,000.00.

38. Elizabett Hillery*. Collaborative Research: SCIPE: Cyberinfrastructure Professionals Innovating and Broadening the Adoption of Advanced Technologies (CI PIVOT). National Science Foundation. $3,749,415.00.

39. Niranjan Hirisave Shivaram*, Christopher Greene*. Attosecond Entangled Photon Generation for Attosecond Quantum Spectroscopy. W.M. Keck Foundation. $1,200,000.00.

40. Lori Hoagland,Luiz Fernando Brito, G. Jonathon Day*, Walter Leon-Salas, Maria Bello Bravo*, Gary Burniske, Rosa Cossio*, Sarah Renkert*, Jennifer Richardson, Adel Sayedahmed*, Jon Schoonmaker. UNSA NEXUS-PH III. Universidad Nacional de San Agustin. $3,973,663.00.

41. Kathleen Howell*, David Arnas Martinez*, Kenshiro Oguri*. Characterizing Highways and Automated Navigation in Cislunar Environment (CHANCE). Air Force Office of Scientific Research. $4,499,998.00.

42. Libai Huang, Jonathan Hood*, Christina Li. Collaborative Research: DMREF: Designing Coherence and Entanglement in Perovskite Quantum Dot Assemblies. National Science Foundation. $1,200,000.00.

43. Rong Huang. Targeting NNMT to Inhibit Obesity-Associated Breast Cancer Development and Progression. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity. $1,054,933.00.

44. Krishna Jayant. Massively Scalable 3D Electrophysiology and Two-Photon Imaging in Freely Moving Animals. National Institute of Mental Health.$1,304,216.00.

45. Wen Jiang. Structure of Amyloid Fibrils in Human and Neurodegenerative Diseases and Aging. National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke. $1,102,994.00.

46. Eugene Jones*. Indiana Defense Industrial Base (DIB) Capability Accelerator Program (IDCAP) 2.0 – Modernization. Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation. $1,000,000.00.

47. Panagiota Karava, Ilias Bilionis, Rebecca Ciez*, Tianyi Li*, Julia Rayz, Torsten Reimer. SCC-IRG Track 1: Smart Energy Assistants for Affordable Housing Communities. National Science Foundation. $1,599,996.00.

48. Andrea Kasinski, Hyunyoung Jeong, Phillip Low. Enhancing miRNA Therapeutics through Vehicle Free Delivery. National Cancer Institute. $1,930,000,00.

49. Andrea Kasinski, Nadia Lanman, Philip Low, Andrea Pires dos Santos. Ligand-Mediated, Vehicle-Free Delivery of Small RNAs. National Cancer Institute.$1,930,108.00.

50. Tae Yoon Kim. Mitosis in Confining Microenvironments. National Institute of General Medical Sciences. $1,005,534.00.

51. James Krogmeier. SPR-4863: High Speed Deflectometer Study. Indiana Department of Transportation. $1,302,494.00.

52. Casey Krusemark. Harnessing the In Vitro Selection for Activity-based Proteomics and Chemical Probe Development. National Institute of General Medical Sciences. $2,113,567.00.

53. Richard Kuhn. Antibody-based Protection Against Flaviviruses. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. $1,299,725.00.

54. Samuel Labi*, Darcy Bullock, Yiheng Feng*, Konstantina Gkritza, Kumares Sinha*, Andrew Tarko*. New Center for Connected and Automated Transportation, for Safety, Cybersecurity, and Equity (CCAT-SCE). U.S. Department of Transportation. $1,750,000.00.

55. Julia Laskin. Next-Generation Spatial-Omics: High-Throughput, Single-Molecule Proteomic Imaging with Subcellular Resolution. National Institute of Mental Health. $1,501,555.00.

56. Chi Hwan Lee, Bryan Boudouris+, Pete Kollbaum^^, Shin Ae Park*. Smart Soft Contact Lenses for Continuous 24-Hour Monitoring of Intraocular Pressure in Glaucoma Care. The National Eye Institute. $2,177,089.00.

57. Christina Li. Heterogeneous Directed Hydrogenation of Arenes and Olefins with Chemo- and Stereoselectivity. National Institute of General Medical Sciences. $1,865,324.00.

58. Tongcang Li. Nuclear Spin Detection and Control in 2D Materials. Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. $1,250,000.00.

59. Mark Lundstrom, Muhammad Alam, Joerg Appenzeller, Thomas Beechem*, Zhihong Chen, John Howarter*, Anand Raghunathan, Kaushik Roy, Ganesh Subbarayan-Shastri, John Sutherland, Tiwei Wei*, Xianfan Xu, Peide Ye. IMEC-Purdue Collaboration. Indiana Economic Development Corporation. $1,750,000.00.

60. Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth, Kathy Broniarczyk, Dave Topp. Extending the Reach of SBHP, FY 24, Y5 (NGB). National Guard Bureau. $1,895,001.00.

61. Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth, Kathy Broniarczyk, Sharon Christ, Dave Topp. Turning Training into Action: Translating Training of Behavioral Health Providers into Evidence-Based Practices. U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity. $1,294,062.00.

62. Nina Mahmoudian*, Mo Rastgaar*. A Cross-Domain Dynamic Gateway. Office of Naval Research. $1,304,994.00.

63. Georgia Malandraki, Bruce Craig. SimulScan: Simultaneous Functional and Dynamic MRI for Evaluating Swallowing Across Age and in Neurogenic Dysphagia. National Institute on Aging. $1,477,753.00.

64. Sanjeev Malushte*. Amit Varma. Geotechnical and Structural Document Review for LNG Facilities for FERC. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. $1,622,700.00.

65. Linda Mason*, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) - Program Year 2023-24. National Science Foundation. $2,407,000.00.

66. Kevin Massey*, Darren Crum*. PARI Westgate Workforce Development. Department of the Army. $2,640,500.00.

67. Richard Mattes, Steve Lindemann. Health Effects of Consuming Categories of Grain Food in Adults. Grain Foods Foundation. $1,500,000.00.

68. Scott McLuckey. Novel Ion Chemistry and Instrument Development for the Characterization of Proteins, Nucleic Acids, and Heterogeneous Bio-complexes via Tandem Mass Spectrometry. National Institute of General Medicine Sciences. $1,827,864.00.

69. Scott Meyer. Increased High Pressure Air Storage for Zucrow Laboratories. Rolls-Royce Corporation. $3,348,000.00.

70. Tamara Moore, Kerrie Douglas, Siddika Guzey, Morgan Hynes, Greg Strimel*. SCALE K-12 Silicon Crossroads ME Commons. U.S. Department of Defense. $2,500,00.00.

71. Partha Mukherjee. Center for Advances in Resilient Energy Storage (CARES). UL Research Institutes. $4,500,000.00.

72. Casey D. Mull*. FY2023 Military Teen Adventure Camps. National Institute of Food and Agriculture. $1,140,000.00.

73. Casey D. Mull*. Lilly Endowment - Strengthening Youth Programs. Lilly Endowment Inc. $3,000,000.00.

74. Ming Yu Ngai*. Excited-State Catalysis in Organic Synthesis – Change of Recipient Organization/Transfer. National Institute of General Medicine Sciences. $1,295,883.00.

75. Tyamo Okosun*^. Scaling Hydrogen-Direct Reduced Iron Pathways to Decarbonize Iron and Steelmaking. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. $1,152,104.00.

76. Andrew Otte, Kinam Park. Long-Acting Biodegradable Buprenorphine Depots. National Institute on Drug Abuse. $9,851,496.00.

77. Kinam Park, Andrew Otte. Injectable Naltrexone 2-Month Depot Formulations. National Institute on Drug Abuse. $2,768,235.00.

78. Laura Pyrak-Nolte, David Nolte. Center for Understanding Subsurface Signals and Permeability (CUSSP) Experimental Geochemistry/Geomechanics and Sensing Research and Development Support. U.S. Department of Energy. $1,296,000.00.

79. Taimoor Hasan Qazi*. Leveraging Cell-Instructive Hydrogels to Understand Microenvironmental Impact on Wound Healing Processes. National Institute of General Medical Sciences. $1,898,775.00.

80. Timothy Ratliff, Philip Low, Jiang Yang. Therapeutic Targeting of Bone Hydroxyapatite in Multiple Myeloma. Paula and Rodger Riney Foundation. $2,112,173.00.

81. Jenna Rickus, Inna Abramova*, Jasmine Begeske, Helen Bentley+, Nancy Boes*, Françoise Brosseau-Lapré*, Mary Ann Cahill*^+, Virak Chan, Sarah Eason, Jennifer Finders+, Kharon Grimmet, Teresa Hogg*^, Breanya Hogue*, Angela Holtsclaw, Holly Hullinger*^, Melanie Kuhn*, Chenell Loudermill, Kathleen Martin*, Catherine Mcbride*, Carolyn McCormick, Patricia Morita-Mullaney, Isabel Nunez*^, Grace Pigozzi*^, Megan Purcell*, David Purpura, Jennifer Renn, Brenda Sarmiento Quezada*, Ofelia Schepers*, Elizabeth Schlesinger-Devlin*, Jennifer Smith*, Christina Wessel-Powell, Wayne Wright. Purdue University Science of Reading Implementation Grant. Lilly Endowment, Inc. $1,500,000.00.

82. Natalia Rodriguez. Addressing Cervical Cancer Disparities Among People Experiencing Homelessness. National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. $1,382,625.00.

83. Michael Sangid. Growing Additive Manufacturing Maturity for Airbreathing Hypersonics. U.S. Department of Defense. $2,026,690.00.

84. Jonathan Schlebach*. Molecular Mechanisms of Membrane Protein Misfolding and Quality Control in Cellular Proteostasis. National Institute of General Medicine Sciences. $2,675,438.00.

85. Jonathan Schlebach*. Rational Optimization of Combinatorial Therapies for the Treatment of Rare Cystic Fibrosis Variants. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. $1,365,931.00.

86. Severin Schneebeli*. Robust Sequence-Defined Nanocages with Protein-Mimetic Cavities. National Institutes of Health. $1,832,411.00.

87. Kelly Schultz*. Characterizing the Feedback Loop Between Cells and the Pericellular Region During Cell-Material Interactions. National Institute of General Medical Sciences. $1,698,987.60.

88. Shweta Singh, Vaneet Aggarwal, Kari Clase, Zoltan Nagy, Gintaras Reklaitis, Xiaohui Carol Song. FMRG: Eco: Cyber Enabled Transformation to Circular Supply Chains for Sustainable Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Networks. National Science Foundation. $3,000,000.00.

89. Carson Slabaugh. Liquified Natural Gas for Aviation Propulsion. Air Force Research Laboratory. $3,500,000.00.

90. Steven Son, Diane Collard*, Jian Xie*. High Energy Density Battery Composed of Energetic Materials. Air Force of Scientific Research. $1,129,112.00.

91. Luz Sotelo*, Salil Bapat*, Michael Sealy*. FMRG: Eco: GOALI: CAS: Understanding the Sustainability Framework for Convergent In-Space Manufacturing. National Science Foundation. $1,062,941.00.

92. Alejandro Strachan, Gerhard Klimeck. Silicon Crossroads. Applied Research Institute. $1,000,000.00.

93. Shankar Thangamani*. Mechanisms of Candida auris Colonization in the Skin. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. $2,390,065.00.

94. Shiliang Tian*. Deciphering the Structures and Mechanisms of Metalloproteins Involved in Human Iron Homeostasis. National Institute of General Medicine Sciences. $1,897,223.00.

95. Michael Titus, Paul Mort*, Jeffrey Youngblood. Recycling of Refractory Alloy Powders via Surface Etching in Metal Additive Processes. Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program. $1,291,895.00.

96. Sydney Trask*. Behavioral, Circuit, and Molecular Mechanisms Underlying UCS Deflation. National Institute of Mental Health. $1,921,919.00.

97. Michael Tu^, Deborah Blades*^, Keyuan Jiang^. Continue, Sustain, and Expand the NCAE-C AI-Cybersecurity Workforce Certification Based Training Program CWCT. National Security Agency. $2,500,000.00.

98. Andrea Vacca, Lizhi Shang*, Gregory Shaver. High Energy-Efficient Hybrid Excavator Powered by Hydrogen Combustion Engine. U.S. Department of Energy, $2,492,978.00.

99. Amit Varma, Sanjeev Malushte. Steel Composition Qualification Study Phase 2. Los Alamos National Laboratory. $1,242,124.00.

100. Haiyan Wang. Peter Bermel, R. Edwin Garcia, Minghao Qi. DMREF: Magneto-Electro-Optically Coupled Hybrid Metamaterial Thin Film Platform for Photonic Integrated Circuits. National Science Foundation. $1,999,884.00.

101. Mark Ward, Luiz Fernando Brito, Mitchell Tuinstra, Fei Xue,* Raymond Yeh,* Ruqi Zhang.* Machine Learning for Predictive Breeding Technology. Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.$1,921,632.00.

102. Kevin Webb*. Super-Resolution Imaging and Sensing with Relative Motion in Structured Illumination and Multiply-Scattered Light. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. $1,255,785.00.

103. Tiwei Wei*, Justin Weibel. Confined Direct Two-Phase Jet Impingement Cooling with Topology Optimized Surface Engineering and Phase Separation using Additive Manufacturing. The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy. $1,881,315.00.

104. Holly Wood. Academic Community Partnership. North Central Health Services. $4,000,000.00.

105. Dongyan Xu, Antonio Bianchi, Z. Berkay Celik*, James Goppert, Inseok Hwang, Aravind Machiry, Jing Tian. FIREFLY: A Cyber-Physical Framework for Scalable CPS Modeling and Simulation. Air Force Research Laboratory. $6,500,090.00.

106. Dongyan Xu, Elisa Bertino, Z. Berkay Celik*, Ninghui Li, Yung-Hsiang Lu*, Ming Yin*. Theme 1: Institute for Artificial Cyber Threat Intelligence and OperatioN (ACTION). National Science Foundation.$2,939,602.00.

107. Yuehwern Yih. LASER Buy-in: Randomized Impact Evaluation of Citizen Security in Guatemala (Mod #26 7200AA18CA00009). Agency For International Development. 2,335,000.00.

108. Chongli Yuan, Jennifer Freeman, Fang Huang, Yang Yang. Mechanisms of Gene-Environment Interaction in Developmental Lead Exposure Leading to Alzheimer’s Disease Phenotypes. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. $1,022,378.00.

109. Amanda Zelechoski*^, Carly Baetz^*. Northwest Indiana Identification and Management of Pediatric Experiences of Trauma and Underlying Stress (NWI IMPETUS). Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. $2,999,623.00.

110. Tianyi Zhang*, Xiangyu Zhang. Proto-OKN Theme 1: Knowledge Graph Construction for Resilient, Trustworthy, and Secure Software Supply Chain. National Science Foundation. $1,499,989.00.

111. Xinghang Zhang, Guang Lin*, Haiyan Wang, Yexiang Xue. Accelerating Discovery and Diagnostics of Plasma-Wall Interactions using Machine Learning. U.S. Department of Energy. $2,482,020.00.

112. Zhong-Yin Zhang, Andrew Mesecar, Karson Putt. IUSM Alzheimer's Disease Drug Discovery Center. National Institute on Aging. $2,140,014.00.

113. Chenn Zhou^, Tyamo Okosun*^, Armin Silaen*^, Kyle Toth*^, Nicholas J. Walla*^. Development and Demonstration of an Industrial Hydrogen-Fired Steel Reheating Furnace. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. $8,861,243.00.

114. Qi Zhou. Aerosol Delivery of Combinational Therapeutics Targeting Deadly Lung Infections. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. $2,430,837.00.

115. Davide Ziviani, Riley Barta*, Rebecca Ciez*, Eckhard Groll. CoolScrew: Holistic Optimization of a High Temperature Heat Pump System with Internally Cooled Screw Compressors. U.S. Department of Energy. $2,038,100.00.

116. Davide Ziviani, Eckhard Groll, Steven Son. Holistic Optimization of Air-Conditioning Systems for Military Use with Low-GWP Refrigerants. Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program. $1,425,160.00.