USC Faculty Rewarded With Zumberge Grants
The Zumberge Fund, which awards more than half a million dollars each year, promotes research at USC through two types of awards: individual and interdisciplinary.
Individual awards help newer faculty launch their research careers, support research in areas with limited external funding opportunities and give senior faculty a chance to renew research efforts.
Interdisciplinary awards foster collaborative efforts among faculty from different disciplines that lead to ongoing projects. Four interdisciplinary grants of $50,000 were awarded.
Competition for the Zumberge Awards was intense this year, with close to 100 submissions, the greatest number in nearly a decade.
Individual Awards
Steven Anderson, Interactive Media Division, USC School of Cinema-Television.
“Open Source Scholarship: Innovations in Digital Research, Publication and Pedagogy.”
Bettine Birge, department of East Asian languages and cultures.
“Marriage and the Law in Mongol-Yuan China.”
Samantha Butler, department of biological sciences.
“Mechanisms of Axon Guidance in the Developing Spinal Cord.”
Meiling Cheng, USC School of Theatre.
“Beijing Xingwei: Time-Based Experimental Art in China.”
Sarah Gualtieri, department of history.
“Race and Identity Among Arab Immigrants in the United States.”
Alexandra Hammond-Isfahani, department of Spanish and Portuguese.
“White Negritude: Race, Writing and Brazilian Cultural Identity.”
Young-Kwon Hong, department of surgery.
“A Novel Anti-Lymphangiogenic Therapy Against Kaposi’s Sarcoma.”
Jane Iwamura, departments of religion and American studies.
“Altared States: A Cultural History of the Japanese American Home Shrine.”
Elsi Kaiser, department of linguistics.
“Investigating the Effects of Discourse Factors on Real-Time Pronoun Interpretation.”
Mohammad Pashmforoush, department of medicine.
“Defining the Molecular Pathways for Cardiac Conduction Cell Development.”
Judd Rice, department of biochemistry and molecular biology.
“Identification of Histone H3 Lysine 9 Methyl-Specific Binding Proteins.”
James Spindler, USC Gould School of Law.
“Do Mandatory Disclosure Rules Result in Better Information for the Marketplace?”
Bangyan Stiles, department of molecular pharmacology and toxicology.
“The Mechanisms of PTEN Regulated B-cell Regeneration.”
Antonia Szabari, departments of French and Italian, and comparative literature.
“Less Rightly Said: Scandalous Words in the French Reformation.”
Maria Villacres, department of pediatrics.
“Role of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms on T-cell Responses Following HIV Treatment.”
Song Guo Zheng, department of medicine.
“CD4+CD25+ Regulatory T-cells Generated Ex Vivo Cure Systematic Lupus Erythematousus.”
Interdisciplinary Awards
Amy Barrios, department of chemistry (principal investigator) and Nunzio Bottini, department of orthopaedics (co-investigator).
“Imaging Protein Tyrosine Phosphorylation In Vivo.”
Stephen Cronin, department of electrical engineering-electrophysics (principal investigator) and Chester Koh, department of urology, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles (co-investigator).
“Application of Nanotechnology to Direct the Growth of Engineered Bladder and Kidney Tissue from Stem Cells.”
George Salem, department of biokinesiology and physical therapy (principal investigator) and Giselle Petzinger, department of neurology (co-investigator).
“The Influence of Fixed and Changing Environmental Stimuli on Walking and Freezing Behavior in Persons with Parkinson’s Disease.”
Roger Zimmermann, Integrated Media Systems Center, USC Viterbi School of Engineering (principal investigator), Margaret McLaughlin, USC Annenberg School of Communication (co-investigator), Shri Narayanan, departments of electrical engineering, linguistics and computer science (co-investigator), and Carolee Winstein, department of biokinesiology and physical therapy (co-investigator).
“User-centric Patient/Clinician Distribution Platform With Tele-Rehabilitation Application Case Study.”
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USC in the News
for 2/10/2012 »-
The Wall Street Journal highlighted the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
KPCC-FM reported that this fall USC will offer Persian language courses for the first time. A $250,000 grant from the Farhang Foundation helped to establish the program. Bruce Zuckerman of the USC Dornsife College said he has many students interested in the Persian language, culture and region. “The Iranian region is one that has great impact on our lives today and has had great impact going back into ancient times,” he said. The story noted that USC and the Farhang Foundation hope to raise more money to create an Iranian studies minor. Payvand also featured the new courses.
American Songwriter ran a Q&A with Christopher Sampson of the USC Thornton School about the school’s Popular Music program, which Sampson founded. He noted that the program has been available as a major in Songwriting since 2009, and has incorporated a diverse range of musical genres. “We have now established a consistent track record of students having professional success to know that the program gets results,” Sampson said. He also highlighted the achievements of Songwriting faculty members Lamont Dozier, Andrea Stolpe and David Poe of the Thornton School.
The Economist featured research by Valter Longo of the USC Davis School finding that short periods of fasting could help cancer patients better tolerate chemotherapy, and may even make treatment more effective. The Globe and Mail (Canada) reported that cancerous tumors are essentially energy hogs. “They need to burn lots of energy just to stay alive,” Longo said. The study was also covered by Irish Independent (Ireland), Magyar Tavirati Iroda (Hungary), Anadolu Ajansi (Turkey), Son Haber (Netherlands), Vietnam+ (Vietnam), Turkish Radio and Television (Turkey) and Romania Libera (Romania).
L.A. Weekly featured research by USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, which has developed video games based around physical movement for people recovering from strokes or other injuries. The games develop strength in specific body parts. Traditional video games weren’t right for these patients, said the institute’s Belinda Lange. “Often, the fun parts of the game would only be unlocked after a series of other levels, which our patients often couldn’t achieve,” she said. The games are now being tested with physical therapists in three major clinics.
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