06/08/2026
By Anne Maglia
The Office of Research Development is pleased to announce the awardees of the Researchers and Scholars Investment (RSI) Fund for FY26.
The RSI Fund supports faculty in their professional trajectory, providing opportunities to test new ideas, implement initiatives, and strengthen their skills and craft. These funds are meant to provide immediate assistance for short-term projects and goals that will provide great benefit to the scholar, their team, and the university.
If you have any questions about specific projects or ideas for collaboration, please contact the PI directly or email RD@uml.edu.
Congratulations to the awardees:
• PI: Nishant Agarwal, Associate Professor, Physics and Applied Physics, Kennedy College of Sciences
o Project Title: Quantum probes of many-body correlations
o Award Amount: $5,000
• PI: Elizabeth Altman, Associate Professor, Management, Manning School of Business
o Project Title: Platform and Ecosystem-related Research Projects
o Award Amount: $5,000
• PI: Nripojyoti Biswas, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Francis College of Engineering
o Project Title: Bridging Physics and Machine Learning for Erosion Resilience in Coastal Geotechnical Systems
o Award Amount: $5,000
• PI: Joselyne Chenane, Associate Professor, School of Criminology and Justice Studies, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
o Project Title: Media Portrayal of the Police in Kenya During the 2024/2025 Gen-Z Protest: A Content Analysis
o Award Amount: $4,985
• PI: Nicholas Evans, Associate Professor, Political Science, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
o Project Title: Bridge Funding for Evans Labs fellows while awaiting supplemental funding
o Award Amount: $4,959
• PI: Sabrina Noel Feldeisen, Associate Professor, Public Health, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences
o Project Title: Urinary Titin to Assess Risk of Sarcopenia and Muscle Damage in Patients Using GLP-1
o Award Amount: $5,000
• PI: Sarah Gignoux-Wolfsohn, Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, Kennedy College of Sciences
o Project Title: Identifying beneficial microbes associated with coral reproduction for probiotic development
o Award Amount: $5,000
• PI: John Kaag, Professor, Philosophy, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
o Project Title: AI and the Psychological Fallout of Modernity
o Award Amount: $3,200
• PI: Claire Lee, Associate Professor, School of Criminology and Justice Studies, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
o Co-PI: Joselyne Chenane, Associate Professor, School of Criminology and Justice Studies, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
o Project Title: From Social Media to the Streets: A Comparative Analysis of Gen-Z Protests and Digital Mobilization
o Award Amount: $4,185
• PI: Alison McConwell, Assistant Professor, Philosophy, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
o Project Title: Evaluating Evolutionary Biology’s Social Impact
o Award Amount: $1,500
• PI: Keith Mitchell, Associate Professor, English, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
o Project Title: Standing on the Frontlines: African American Literature, Film, and the Afterlives of the Vietnam War
o Award Amount: $3,100
• PI: Yuko Oda, Associate Professor, Art and Design, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
o Project Title: Catalogue as Catalyst: A Professional Exhibition Catalogue for National and International Curator and Museum Outreach
o Award Amount: $5,000
• PI: Peter Tashman, Associate Professor, Management, Manning School of Business
o Project Title: Third-Party Assurance and selective corporate environmental disclosures
o Award Amount: $5,000
• PI: Lewis Tseng, Associate Professor, ECE, Francis College of Engineering
o Co-PI: Hsien-Yuan Hsu, Associate Professor, School of Education, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
o Project Title: River Hawk Resume Quest: LLM-based Gamification for Responsible Resume Development
o Award Amount: $4,900
• PI: Jenna Vinson, Associate Professor, English, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
o Project Title: Indexing a Scholarly Book about the Rhetoric of Vasectomy
o Award Amount: $4,700
• PI: Indrayani Waghmare, Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, Kennedy College of Sciences
o Project Title: Investigating role of membrane fluidity on extracellular Wnt distribution
o Award Amount: $5,000
• PI: Juheng Zhang, Professor, Operation and Information Systems, Manning School of Business
o Project Title: Combating AI-Generated Misinformation in Fintech ecosystems
o Award Amount: $5,000