2021 | Change Agents | The University of Mississippi Research magazine

4% Mississippi State Agencies

UM RESEARCH

BY FUNDING SOURCE

Catalog FY2021

61% Federal Agencies

5% National Aeronautics and Space Administration

5% Department of Energy

4%

Department of Education

3%

Department of Health and Human Services

13% Total Other Federal Awards

(Other federal sources include: Corporation for National and Community Service, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Department of the Treasury, NASA, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Small Business Administration and U.S. Agency for International Development)

$51.6 million in new external funding awards

269 total new awards

approx. 947 students, staff and faculty on campus involved in externally funded research or scholarly projects

17 awards of more than $1 million

$354.22 million new external funding requests

36.82% FROM THE PREVIOUS FISCAL YEAR an all-time high of 555 proposals submitted in 2021

Greetings

The past year has been an exciting and challenging one for the UM research enterprise. Through the pandemic, our researchers pressed on to find solutions and answer questions on countless fronts. Our interdisciplinary research efforts have entered a new phase with this year’s launch of the Interdisciplinary Research at UM (IDRUM) program. IDRUM is designed to offer tiered support to interdisciplinary teams – regardless of the problem they are trying to solve. We have approximately 100 faculty and researchers actively involved with an IDRUM group and numerous significant proposals under review. These groups are diving into practical issues facing society today, including: water security, drug delivery, community resilience, and racism to name a few. This work is rapidly leading to impacts both locally and nationally, and we expect that momentum to push into 2022 and beyond. Citations for UM scholars have increased by 50% in the last five years and industry partnerships doubled in 2021. These achievements and relationships continue to place the University of Mississippi as a leader of scholarly research and industry engagement.

In the following pages, you will find highlights exemplifying how UM scholars and experts are changing lives and changing the world. These selections are just a mere sampling of the accomplishments we could highlight from our successful 2020-2021 year of research.

Josh Gladden, Vice Chancellor for Research and Sponsored Programs

Geologists Investigate Geological History of Nation’s Capital

Researchers and graduate students from the University of Mississippi’s Mississippi Mineral Resources Institute spent two weeks in the nation’s capital in August studying the Adams Mill fault to determine if it continues under several important landmarks. The team used several techniques and devices to image the subsurface at the various field sites throughout downtown Washington. A 2011 earthquake shook Washington, D.C., and better maps of the structural geological history of the area will help seismologists understand the potential risks. Data showing the locations and last movements of the geological faults in the D.C. area also is important for understanding the geological history of the area.

https://news.olemiss.edu/geologistsinvestigate-geological-history-of-nationscapital/

Wobbling the Foundations of the Universe

University of Mississippi researchers are playing a key role in a groundbreaking search for undiscovered forms of matter and energy that could open an exciting new era of physics. In April, researchers working at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois announced that their exploration of a tiny subatomic particle called a muon showed the fundamental particle behaving in a way not predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. A potential explanation for this discrepancy between the theory and experiment is the existence of undiscovered particles or forces. Breese Quinn, a professor of physics and astronomy, leads a group of UM physicists involved in the first results from the Muon g-2 experiment.

https://news.olemiss.edu/wobbling-the-foundations-of-theuniverse/

UM Receives $1M to Study Evidence-Based Policing, Reform

Actor Morgan Freeman and criminal justice and legal studies professor Linda Keena donated $1 million to establish the Center for Evidence-Based Policing and Reform at the University of Mississippi. The center, which will be the only one of its kind at a Mississippi university and one of a few in the nation, will position the university as a pioneer in this field, preparing police and other officers of the law with specialized training to promote effective, positive responses. The center also is seeking external funding to support cuttingedge research for evidence-based policing strategies, policies and practices. It will prioritize curriculum development around evidence-based policing to infuse into UM degree programs.

https://news.olemiss.edu/um-receives-1m-to-study-evidencebased-policing-reform/

QUINN

FREEMAN

KEENAN

Sociology Graduate Student Gets NSF Internship

A University of Mississippi sociology graduate student spent 10 weeks this summer assisting a National Science Foundation program in developing a communication strategy. Bay Springs native Yasmin McLaurin, who is pursuing a master’s degree in sociology, was selected to be an intern with the NSF through the Quality Education for Minorities Network. The network’s Talent Development and Innovation and Sciences

Summer Internship is designed to complement students’ academic abilities with experiences to develop professionally. The program also is intended to instill an appreciation for science, technology, education and mathematics-related projects, NSF-funded projects and careers in STEM fields.

https://news.olemiss.edu/ sociology-graduate-studentgets-national-sciencefoundation-internship/

Chemist Explores a Future Sunlight Driven Energy Infrastructure

University of Mississippi chemistry professor Jared Delcamp is researching how new types of metal catalysts, or materials that speed up chemical reactions to allow practical access to fuel, can be applied to turn the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into a usable fuel primarily using sunlight. Delcamp is the principal investigator on the National Science Foundation award that includes researchers from two other Southeastern Conference universities who are working toward designing more efficient, robust and selective catalysts that are practical. The researchers hope their exploration will lead to the production of solar fuels that consume the greenhouse gas in a carbon-neutral fashion.

https://news.olemiss. edu/chemistry-professorexamines-new-forms-offuel-from-sunlight/

Partnering for Safer Mississippi Drinking Water

A group of University of Mississippi researchers is working with the Mississippi State University Extension Service to conduct free lead-inwater testing in schools and child care facilities. The UM Lead in Drinking Water Team is assisting the extension service’s SipSafe program, a statewide effort funded through an Environmental Protection Agency grant to reduce lead exposure in children ages birth to 5 years by screening water in qualifying schools and child care facilities. Formed in 2017, the interdisciplinary UM research team takes a community-engaged, research-based approach to address lead in water-related health gaps in the state and has worked with more than 20 child care facilities in seven Mississippi Delta counties.

https://news.olemiss.edu/partneringfor-safer-mississippi-drinking-water/

Helping Crops Combat Climate Change

A University of Mississippi biologist’s research that examines challenges facing crop productivity caused by global climate change is gaining interest, including publication in the acclaimed Nature Communications journal. Yongjian Qiu, an assistant professor of biology, is studying a plant gene that could help solve a problem caused by warming global temperatures in which a plant stem grows too fast, damaging the plant’s biomass and leading to severe crop reductions. Increases in global temperatures due to climate change are expected to drastically reduce crop productivity, so understanding the mechanism of temperature signaling in plants has become important for devising strategies to sustain crop production in a changing climate.

https://news.olemiss.edu/helping-crops-combat-climatechange/

MCLAURIN

Searching Beyond Einstein

University of Mississippi physics professor Leo Stein is using a National Science Foundation award to further explore Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity and pursue unlocking the universe’s gravitational secrets. Stein’s Faculty

Early Career Development Program award is funding his research into making supercomputer simulations of merging black holes in beyond-general relativity theories possible and more common. He also will focus on increasing the agreement between gravitational-wave signals observed in nature and the predictions of Einstein’s theory. A goal of his research is to predict gravitational waves from black hole mergers in beyond-general relativity theories and to validate these predictions for the entire period.

https://news.olemiss.edu/searching-beyond-einstein/

CME Seniors Gain Practical Experience at Keith Huber Corp.

Improving the Well-Being of Mississippi Children

University of Mississippi educators are making use of a $1M grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to further fund an initiative in Mississippi preschool programs that promotes social and emotional learning in children and could boost their overall well-being. The grant is bolstering Growing Healthy Minds, Bodies and Communities, an innovative, standards-based preschool curriculum that combines yoga and mindfulness, gardening and nutrition, social-emotional competencies, physical activity, and anti-bullying and anti-bias to support the well-being of Mississippi’s children. Started in the Lafayette County and Oxford communities, the program has expanded to Leflore and Sunflower counties.

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Strengthening ties between the University of Mississippi and Mississippi manufacturing, 20 Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence students got a rare opportunity to solve real-world problems when they participated in an experiential learning course on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The students spent almost a week at Keith Huber Corp. in Gulfport, and the course involved dividing the students into three teams, with each team given a quality or operational problem to solve on the factory floor. The teams worked with Keith Huber team members, mentors and managers to solve the assigned problem, and the course finished with each team presenting its problem solutions to the industry’s executive team.

https://news.olemiss.edu/cme-seniors-gain-practical-experience-at-gulf-coast-industry/

STEIN

Going Green to Lessen Stormwater Flooding

With urban flooding causing about $9 billion in damages nationwide annually, University of Mississippi researchers are studying how green stormwater infrastructure might lessen the impacts of the stronger and angrier rains of the 21st century on these areas. So-called because it is designed to mimic nature and capture rainwater where it falls, green stormwater infrastructure reduces and treats stormwater at its source to avoid damaging properties downstream or downhill. It also captures and removes pollutants from that water. The researchers are working with six cities in the South on the project: Oxford; Biloxi; Calhoun, Georgia; Orange Beach, Alabama; Ruston, Louisiana; and Sevierville, Tennessee.

https://news.olemiss.edu/going-green-tolessen-stormwater-flooding/

Helping Farms Be in Harmony with Nature

University of Mississippi biology professor Jason Hoeksema is employing an Environmental Protection Agency grant to explore the potential benefits of holding runoff water on agricultural landscapes after crops are harvested. The move could reduce the pollution of downstream waterways, improve soil health and crop yields, provide crucial food and habitat for migratory birds, reduce pumping of groundwater, and retain soil in agricultural fields, among other benefits. The nearly $1 million grant from the EPA through its Farmer to Farmer grant funding program is based on four different farms in the Sunflower River watershed of the Mississippi Delta.

https://news.olemiss.edu/helping-farms-be-in-harmony-with-nature/

Three Students Selected for NSF Research Fellowships

Engineering Professor’s Invention Receives MDA Grant

A University of Mississippi engineering professor’s invention is part of a Mississippi Development Authority grant program that seeks to commercialize energy- and agriculture-related technologies.

Chemical engineering professor Paul Scovazzo and brother Anthony Scovazzo are patent holders for a humidity control system in air conditioners that could lead to more efficient AC systems and healthier indoor environments in both commercial and residential buildings. The brothers’ vacuum sweep dehumidification system was chosen as a project for the inaugural cohort of the Mississippi V-Quad Incubator Network by the Mississippi Development Authority and received a $5,000 development grant.

https://news.olemiss.edu/engineering-professors-inventionreceives-mda-grant/

Three University of Mississippi students were selected to receive National Science Foundation fellowships that recognize and support the research-based pursuit of master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering or mathematics fields. Jax Dallas of Caledonia; William Meador of Carbondale, Illinois; and Larry Stokes of Clarksdale received fellowships that include three years of financial support through the foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program. The three students are the first UM students to be offered the prestigious fellowship since 2015. Through the program, the student is required to work toward a master’s or doctoral degree in STEM education at an accredited U.S. institution.

https://news.olemiss.edu/three-students-selected-for-prestigious-nsf-researchfellowships/

MEADOR DALLAS STOKES

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

P. O. Box 1848 University, MS 38677-1848

Linking COVID-19 and Dark Personalities

While the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a global upheaval, some people might find a bit of enjoyment in all the disruption, according to one study from University of Mississippi psychology researchers. The group assessed the role of dark personality traits – narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy and sadism – in predicting responses to the pandemic, and found that sadistic people, who tend to be cruel toward others for pleasure or dominance, may experience more positive emotions in situations such as the pandemic because all the turmoil appears to negatively affect the quality of people’s daily lives. The study was led by Carrie Smith, UM assistant professor of psychology.

https://news.olemiss.edu/the-dark-doesnt-hide-it/

Professor Receives Harvard Radcliffe Honor

W. Ralph Eubanks, visiting professor of English and Southern studies and writer-in-residence at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, is spending the 2021-22 academic year at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute after being named the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Fellow. Joining an extraordinary group of artists, scientists, scholars and practitioners, Eubanks is drawing from personal history, archival research, blues culture and face-to-face interviews to draft a book revealing the American story at the heart of the Mississippi Delta. Eubanks’ most recent book is A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through a Real and Imagined Literary Landscape

https://news.olemiss.edu/ralph-eubanks-receives-harvardradcliffe-honor/

SMITH

EUBANKS