AY 2026–2027 Rutgers Research Council Awards Recipients
Research Council Awards Program
The Research Council Awards Program is an Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs (EVPAA)-funded research advancement initiative that offers grant opportunities to support Rutgers faculty across the four Chancellor-led units of the university. The program provides six annual grant opportunities designed to encourage scholarship addressing challenging disciplinary problems in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and creative arts.
The Research Council, composed of Rutgers faculty from across the campuses, has been providing internal awards to Rutgers faculty for more than 80 years. It remains the university’s only peer-to-peer funding program.
Seed Funding
The Research Council Awards Program offers seed funding in four key areas that support faculty scholarship in tackling challenging disciplinary problems in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and creative arts.
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The Individual Fulcrum Awards Program is tailored to individual researchers and those in the creative arts who are testing out new ideas to accelerate their scientific inquiry, program of research and scholarship, or creative production. This year's Individual Fulcrum awards total $160,415.
Award Winners
Victoria Abraira
Associate Professor, Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: A unified framework for understanding pain modulation during pregnancy and laborDorothy Ahn
Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: Identifying pronouns across languagesHector Blanco Fernandez
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: Landlords and Neighborhood Choice in the Housing Choice Voucher ProgramSumegha Garg
Professor, Department of Computer Science, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: A Memory Perspective on Large Language ModelsAshley Guo
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: Data Compression as an Entropy Probe for Molecular Self-AssemblyJoel Miller
Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice, School of Criminal Justice–Newark
Project Title: Smartphone-Mediated Remote Supervision (SMRS) in Community Corrections: A study of Implementation and AdoptionErin Sauer
Assistant Professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: Behavioral and Environmental Drivers of Immune Development in Cavity-Nesting BirdsChristopher Schuck
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemist and Chemistry Biology, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: Designing Predictive Descriptors for MXene Electrochemistry through Work Function and Electronic State CorrelationsJennifer Sun
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: Fungal Metabolites That Rewire Insect Senses: A New Path to Sustainable Pest ControlJennifer Tamas
Professor, Department of French, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: Behind Closed Doors: Historicizing “Conjugal Duty” in Early Modern France (1607-1701)Omar Vasquez Duque
Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Rutgers Law School–Camden
Project Title: Rethinking Privacy Regulation: User Ignorance, Preference Heterogeneity, and the Case for Personalized Defaults -
The Social Justice Research Award, supports academic research on social justice in all domains of intellectual, social, and environmental life. It provides awards to faculty conducting innovative and impactful research on social justice issues, research with community-based organizations whose mission focuses on advancing social justice, and/or research responsive to pressing social concerns. Funding for this year's Social Justice Research Awards totals $27,000.
Award Winners
Janice Gallagher
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, School of Arts and Sciences–Newark
Project Title: Enforced Disappearances in the United States: Lessons from Latin AmericaDurrell Washington
Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work, School of Social Work, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: Invisible Wounds and the Radicalizing Effect of Mistreatment: A Sibling-Centered Study on the Psychosocial Consequences of Juvenile Incarceration -
The Collaborative Multidisciplinary Award offers the opportunity for a group of faculty members across disciplines to work together on a new, shared problem or line of research. Since complex intellectual and social problems often require multiple perspectives and viewpoints to solve them, the program is designed to foster and reward creative and collaborative interdisciplinary work. This year, funding for the Collaborative Multidisciplinary Awards totals $62,870.
Award Winners
Gwenyth Lee
Assistant Professor, Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research - Global Health Institute–Rutgers Health
Project Title: Dietary drivers of the gut microbiome development among Kenyan adolescentsJames Shope
Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: Urban Heat Risk and Environmental Messaging for Camden City, New Jersey’s Latinx CommunityFei Zhang
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–Newark
Project Title: Programmable DNA-Boronic Acid Polymer Nanostructures for Responsive Assembly -
The Engaged Climate Action Award is designed to support faculty whose work addresses the global climate crisis and its solutions at a variety of scales. This year, funding for the Engaged Climate Action Award totals $30,000.
Award Winner
Santanu Malakar
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences–Camden
Project Title: Molecular Electron Transfer Mediators with an Active Catalytic Core for Electrochemical Nitrogen Reduction and Reductive Coupling of Carbon MonoxideLei Song
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: Reassessing thermal risk in a compound climatic context for global biodiversity
Subvention Award
The Subvention Program for the Publication of Scholarly Books provides partial subsidies to university and other highly regarded scholarly presses to cover a portion of the cost of publishing a scholarly book. Funding for this year's Subvention Awards totals $5,000.
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Kristin O'Brassill-Kulfan
Assistant Professor, Department of History, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: Public Histories From Below: Preserving, Interpreting, and Memorializing Poverty and Welfare in the USSummer Lindsey
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: The Paradox of Protection: How Civil War Shifts Tolerance of Violence Against Women
Manuscript Award
The Manuscript Review Award is designed to help faculty members publish authoritative, thought-provoking, field-changing books. The award reinforces the university’s commitment to research and scholarship. Awards include a formal manuscript review plus a three-hour workshop / seminar led by an external senior scholar. This year, funding for the Manuscript Review Awards totals $8,000
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Stacy Klein
Associate Professor, Department of English, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: Militancy and the Formations of Gender in Early English Literature, ca. 700-1100ADAnais Maurer
Assistant Professor, Department of French, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–New Brunswick
Project Title: The Empire and the Atom: Decolonial Perspectives on France's Nuclear Strike Capacity
Past Award Winners
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