GrandChallenges
NEW LEVEL 2 TEAMS
LAUNCHED IN 2023
JUST TRANSITION TO GREEN ENERGY
SUSTAINABLE SPACE RESEARCH
CHILD HEALTH
GrandChallenges
INSTITUTE CENTER L3
EMERITUS
INTRODUCED IN 2023
The Accelerating Resilience Innovations in Drylands (ARID) Institute maximizes the resilience of drylands to climate change. ARID fosters transdisciplinary research, co-creates innovations with community and industry partners, and equitably trains the next generation to improve economic, human, and ecosystem health in New Mexico and beyond.
UNM RESEARCHERS, INNOVATORS, MENTORS...
Melvatha Chee, UNM Assistant Professor
Chee is Tsé Nahabiłnii, Kin Łichíi’nii, Hooghan Łání and Áshįįhí, originally from Lake Valley, New Mexico. As a Diné speaker, an assistant professor of linguistics and director of the Navajo Language Program at UNM, Chee has more than 20 years of experience working with her heritage language in a professional capacity. Chee’s research focuses – partly through the Grand Challenges Indigenous Child Development Concept Team – on the linguistic analysis of Navajo child speech and child-directed speech to learn how exposure to one’s heritage language a ects their wellbeing.
Charles “Chip” Shearer, UNM Research Professor
Shearer is a senior research scientist at the UNM Institute of Meteoritics (IOM) and a research professor within the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences. He leads a diverse interdisciplinary team of scientists conducting lunar research that is directly applicable to NASA’s Artemis Program to return humans to the moon’s surface. The collaboration with NASA partially stemmed from the success of the Sustainable Space Research Grand Challenge.
ORIGINAL LEVEL 2 TEAMS
SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS
SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES
SUCCESSFUL AGING
L2 GCTEAMS
L1
CONCEPT TEAMS NEWPATHWAYS
ARID.UNM.EDU
Katie Witkiewitz, UNM Distinguished Professor
Witkiewitz is a UNM distinguished professor of psychology and the director of the UNM Center on Alcohol, Substance Use And Addiction (CASAA). She was also the lead co-convener of the Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) Grand Challenge. Her research examines treatment of substance use disorder, with an emphasis on reducing human su ering, harm reduction, precision medicine, and supporting recovery.
Cassandra L. Boness, UNM Assistant Professor
Boness is a research assistant professor at CASAA. Her research focuses on reducing su ering and improving wellbeing in the lives of people who use substances, through better understanding the factors that cause and maintain use, as well as improving the ability to assess such factors. Her work is partially supported by the SUDs Grand Challenge team and a career development award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
L1: Development & Conceptualization
L2: Implementation
L3: Translation
*In 2022, UNM announced 10 new Level 1 Concept Teams
Derek Capitan, UNM Civil Engineering
Capitan is a senior at UNM majoring in civil engineering and is working in laboratories supporting the UNM METALS Superfund Research Program and the UNM Center for Water and the Environment. The two programs address community concerns regarding the possible impacts of abandoned uranium mines on agricultural lands. Capitan also participated in the Sustainable Water Resources Grand Challenge Undergraduate Fellowship.
GrandChallenges
BY THE NUMBERS
MSC05 3480 1 University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131
$2.3 Million INVESTED
350+ FACULTY & STAFF RESEARCHERS
1,500+ STUDENTS ENGAGED
128+ COMMUNITY PARTNERS
$100+ Million NEW FUNDS GENERATED SINCE 2019
EMPOWERING
OUR STATE OF MINDS
The UNM Grand Challenges Initiative unites researchers, educators, students, and community members in solving problems of critical importance to our state, our nation, and our world. If you would like to donate to the program visit grandchallenges.unm.edu/giving
Derek Capitan captured this photo near the Jackpile Mine of Laguna Pueblo, "representing the sacredness and security of water, as water is life.”