Building sustainable, durable bridges and interdisciplinary collaborations with Minority Serving Institutions
The Materials Research Institute (MRI) is part of a collaborative effort led by the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and in collaboration with the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI), the Institute of Energy and the Environment (IEE), the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS), the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), and the Cancer Institute (CU), to offer the Inter-Institutional Program for Diversifying Research (IPDR). The IPDR is a new interdisciplinary seed grant program aimed at developing new or leveraging existent strategic partnerships and alliances with Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). The goal of the IPDR is to perform collaborative work that advances research development capability as well as student and faculty training needed to support such research collaborations.
The MRI-specific IPDR is Inter-Institutional Partnerships for Diversifying Materials Research by Enhancing Collaboration, Innovation, Outreach and Networking (DIMENSION). The following are grant projects funded by MRI after a peer-review process:
Researchers from Penn State:
(PI) Allison Beese, Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
(co-PI) Andrea Arguelles, Assistant Professor, Engineering Science and Mechanics
Researchers from Clark Atlanta University:
Ishrat Khan, Professor, Department of Chemistry
Researchers from Penn State:
(PI) Enrique Gomez, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering
(co-PI) Charles T. Anderson, Co-Director, Center for Biorenewables; Professor of Biology
(co-PI) Esther Gomez, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering
Researchers from Clark Atlanta University:
(co-PI) Michael Williams, Interim Chair of the Department of Physics
Researchers from Penn State:
(PI) Reginald Hamilton, Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics
(co-PI) Catherine Cohan, Assistant Research Professor, Equity and Inclusion Grants and Programs Evaluation
(co-PI) Stephanie Preston, Associate Dean for Graduate Educational Equity
Researchers from Southern University and A&M College
(co-PI) Patrick F. Mensah, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs