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Grants and Research

Research is one of the cornerstones of every academic institution. The Brooklyn College faculty have been actively involved in research for decades and continue to be at the forefront of their fields.

We are pleased to present news of our faculty’s success in receiving grants and fellowships from such sources as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Program and the Guggenheim Foundation as well as from private corporations interested in establishing a partnership with the college to advance scientific research. A brief synopsis of the research and the grant is provided below. You can also connect to the profile page of each  faculty member whose work is featured here.

Faculty: Kai Shum, Physics
Project Title: Optical Investigation of UD930 Materials and Related Compounds
Project Period: June 1, 2009 - May 31, 2010
Total Award: $123,000
Abstract: OmniPV, a private company based in California, has been collaborating with Dr. Shum for more than a year. Their successful collaboration on Shum's project—to develop a new generation of solar cells—has lead to a second year of funding, discussion of creating a New York-based operation, and collaborating on grants applications to federal and state agencies.
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Faculty: James Nishiura, Biology
Project Title: Genetic Analysis of Mosquito Metamorphosis
Project Period: July 20, 2009 - June 30, 2013
Total Award: $471,000
Abstract: Mosquitoes are not merely pests; they can transmit the agents that cause such deadly and seriously debilitating diseases as malaria, dengue fever and West Nile encephalitis. The long-term goal of this research is to understand the molecular mechanisms that control mosquito larval growth and metamorphosis in order to identify potential targets that can be exploited to better control the number of blood-sucking, disease-carrying mosquitoes. We propose to test, by knockdown of gene expression, the hypothesis that the genes broad and methoprene tolerant are central to mosquito development, and are in the pathway by which some insecticides block mosquito development. 

Faculty: Charlene Forest, Biology
Project Title: Cloning and Analysis of a Gamete Fusion Gene
Project Period: June 1 - October 31, 2009
Total Award: $26,084
Abstract:  Forest received an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act supplement to her current NIH award to support undergraduate students and local educators in her lab.  The research done in her lab will lead to understanding the molecular basis of gamete fusion in a simple model system, which may lead to new approaches for the treatment of human infertility (some types of infertility in mammals may be caused by the failure of sperm-egg fusion) as well as new types of contraceptives (molecules that impair fusion can exhibit contraceptive activity). 

Faculty: Aaron Kozbelt, Psychology and Scott D. Dexter, Computer and Information Science
Project Title: Dynamic Cognitive Analyses of Creativity, Expertise and Aesthetics in Software Development
Project Period: August 1, 2009 - July 31, 2012
Total Award: $698,992
Abstract: This project compares three groups of programmers—open-source software contributors, proprietary programmers and novice coders—on three sets of variables: 1) aesthetic judgment criteria of software, 2) verbal protocol measures of cognitive processes occurring during creative problem solving while revising code, and 3) ontogenetic quality trajectories as code is revised. This work has the strong potential to yield new psychological models of creativity by shedding light on the dynamic problem-solving and evaluative processes that drive the ontogenesis of creative products. The comparison of two different groups of experts is also a novelty, certainly within the field of software design, and is atypical of cognitive studies of expertise more generally. This research also promises to help answer broader questions on the nature of creativity and to contribute to ongoing debates in computer science, software engineering, organizational behavior, cognitive psychology and aesthetics, on how to promote innovation, on the kinds of mental processes contributing to creativity, and on the basic nature of quality of creative artifacts, such as software.