NC Space Grant 2018-19 New Investigators Announced
North Carolina Space Grant is pleased to announce the selection of five recipients the New Investigators Program grant awards for the 2018-19 academic year.
The New Investigators Program is designed to strengthen North Carolina’s aerospace-related research infrastructure by providing startup funding to early career university faculty who are conducting research that is directly aligned with NASA’s Strategic Framework.
Congratulations to the New Investigators:
Dr. Leila Bridgeman, Duke University
Project: Switched MPC for Communicating Vehicles
Dr. Rodward Hewlin, UNC Charlotte
Project: Development of a Compact Ionic Polymer Transducting Wall Shear Stress Sensor for High-Resolution Measurements in Unsteady Flows
Dr. Jun Liu, NC State University
Project: Fundamental Studies of the Thermal Spin-Transfer-Torque: Towards the Next Generation Nonvolatile Memory for Space Exploration
Dr. Rafael Loureiro, Winston-Salem State University
Project: OMNICROP – An integrated systems alternative to ideal crop site localization and cultivation chamber self-management utilizing machine learning; PHASE II: Martian Regolith crop viability prediction
Dr. Brian Sylcott, East Carolina University
Project: Characterizing Brain Activation During Concurrent Cognitive Tasks in the Presence of Optical Flow Simulation: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study
Each year, the competitive New Investigators Program is open to tenure-track faculty at active NC Space Grant affiliate-member institutions. Awardees must be in the first five years of their academic career, be qualified to serve as a principal investigator at their respective institutions and be U.S. citizens. Permanent residents, foreign nationals and resident aliens may apply for funding, but with budget restrictions.
NC Space Grant encourages proposals from women, members of underrepresented minority groups and persons with disabilities. Program applicants are limited to one proposal per application cycle and selected investigators receive only one New Investigator Program award during their careers.
