James S. McDonnell Foundation Announces 2016 Grants for The 21st Century Science Initiative Awards

$17.4 Million in Grants Continue the Commitment to Founder’s Vision

ST. LOUIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#complexity–The Officers and Directors of the James S. McDonnell Foundation today
announced more than $17.4 million in grants in their ongoing program,
the 21st
Century Science Initiative
.

Founded in 1950 by the late aerospace pioneer and founder of what would
become the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, James S. McDonnell believed
that science and technology gives mankind the power to shape knowledge
for the future while improving our lives. “Mr. Mac’s” vision continues
to be realized through the research these grants are supporting. Since
the inception of the program in 2000, more than $280 million in funding
has been awarded.

In 2016, the 21st Century Science Initiative funded new
research in two programs areas. Scholar Awards in the program area Understanding
Human Cognition
were provided to researchers identified by their
peers as likely to continue to make important theoretical or conceptual
contributions advancing our understanding of how neurological function
enables cognition and behavior. Studying Complex Systems supports
scholarship and research directed toward the development of theoretical
and mathematical tools that can be applied to the study of complex,
adaptive, nonlinear systems. The JSMF Postdoctoral Fellowship
Awards in Studying Complex Systems provides students
completing doctoral training an opportunity to broaden their research
experience and acquire additional skills in this multi-disciplinary
field.

“Support of research and applications of research findings to important
problems remains a pivotal role for private philanthropy and for the
McDonnell Foundation. The foundation is committed to the ideal that
having a diversity of private and public funders helps ensure that the
most creative work will obtain needed support,” said McDonnell
Foundation President, Dr. Susan Fitzpatrick.

The McDonnell Foundation’s 2016 21st Century Science
Initiative Awards are:

Scholar Awards: Understanding Human
Cognition

 

Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Principal Investigator: Jan Drugowitsch, $600,000 over 8 years.
The approximate computations underlying decisions based on
perceptual evidence
 

Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

Principal Investigator: Brian Edlow, $600,000 over 8 years.
Brainstem modulation of human consciousness
 

Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey

Principal Investigator: Kanaka Rajan, $600,000 over 8 years.
Integrative theory of memory and cognitive processes
 

Stanford University, Stanford, California

Principal Investigator: Lisa Giocomo, $600,000 over 8 years.
Components and computations for building adaptive cognitive maps of
space
 

Stanford University, Stanford, California

Principal Investigator: Daniel Yamins, $600,000 over 8 years.
Building richer computational models of visual cognition
 

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

Principal Investigator: Ayelet Landau, $600,000 over 8 years.
Rhythmic sampling: A domain-general principle in the architecture of
attention
 

The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, Texas

Principal Investigator: Gagan Wig, $600,000 over 8 years.
A complex networks approach for understanding age-related cognitive
decline
 

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas,
Dallas, Texas

Principal Investigator: Genevieve Konopka, $600,000 over 8 years.
Elucidating the molecular evolution of human cognition

Collaborative Activity Awards:
Understanding Human Cognition

 

Boston University

Project Manager: Stefan Hofmann, $1,374,417 over 3 years.

From Defensive Responses to Clinical Interventions: Understanding
the Mechanisms of Anxiety

 

Emory University

Principal Investigator: Paul García, $1,407,908 over 3 years.
Probing the overlap between sleep and anesthesia to enhance human
cognition (Phase 2)
 

Iowa State University

Project Manager: Shana Carpenter, $4,635,718 over 5 years.
Implementing Principles from the Science of Learning within
Educational Practice
 

Scholar Awards: Studying Complex Systems

 

Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

Principal Investigator: Yun Kang, $450,000 over 4 years
Complex adaptive systems of social insect colonies: Emergence of
scaling, social dynamics and evolution cooperation
 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Principal Investigator: Jӧrn Dunkel, $450,000 over 6 years
Evolution of topological features in complex biological systems
 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Principal Investigator: Jeremy England, $450,000 over 6 years
Self-organization in driven many-body assemblies: Predictive
principles from non-equilibrium statistical thermodynamics
 

National University of Singapore, Singapore

Principal Investigator: Ryan Chisholm, $450,000 over 5 years
Modeling complex ecological communities: From small islands to
tropical forests
 

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

Principal Investigator: Nadav Kashtan, $450,000 over 6 years
Life on leafs: Complex microbial cities on plant leaf surfaces
 

University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska

Principal Investigator: John DeLong, $450,000 over 6 years
Understanding the consequences of body size evolution in ecological
communities
 

University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, Wisconsin

Principal Investigator: Sushmita Roy, $450,000 over 6 years
Using an evolutionary framework to study robustness and predictive
power of data-driven molecular regulatory networks
 

Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards: Studying
Complex Systems

 

Sergey Belan, Doctoral Institution: Moscow Institute of Physics
and Technology

 

Karna Gowda, Doctoral Institution: Northwestern University

 

Helen McCreery, Doctoral Institution: University of Colorado
Boulder

 

Jasmine Nirody, Doctoral Institution: University of California,
Berkeley

 

Mor Nitzan, Doctoral Institution: The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem

 

Grant Rotskoff, Doctoral Institution: University of California,
Berkeley

 

Lauren Shoemaker, Doctoral Institution: University of Colorado
Boulder

 

Talia Tamarin, Doctoral Institution: Weizmann Institute of
Science

 

David Zeevi, Doctoral Institution: Weizmann Institute of Science

 

Xianyuan Zhan, Doctoral Institution: Purdue University

Contacts

James S. McDonnell Foundation
Susan Fitzpatrick, Ph.D., 314-721-1532
susan@jsmf.org,
or www.jsmf.org
Twitter:
@jsmf

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