Named 41st among the Most Innovative Universities by U.S. News and World Report in its latest annual Best Colleges rankings, Marquette University is committed to fostering a thriving academic research and scholarship community. In fact, Research in Action has been a key theme in Beyond Boundaries, the university’s strategic plan, and Research was identified in 2021 as a Strategic Priority for Marquette.
“When we launched the Research in Action theme of Beyond Boundaries, we set ambitious goals designed to spark research and scholarship and to foster innovation across disciplines,” Hossenlopp says. “In that time, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in research and development expenditures, and we’ve been able to identify and grow areas that are the strength of our talented research faculty. In addition, we’ve worked to break down silos on campus and bring together cross-disciplinary partnerships, both internally and externally, to foster innovative solutions.”
Early in his presidency, President Michael R. Lovell set an ambitious goal for the university to double its research expenditures — something Marquette is on pace to do. 2022 alone has been a banner year for research activity among Marquette faculty. Here are just some of the ways Marquette faculty are leading the way:
Fast facts:
- Under President Lovell’s leadership, there has been a 70% increase in federally funded research expenditures over the past seven years due to the outstanding work of our faculty.
- Marquette faculty members published more than 500 journal articles and book chapters last year and 25 books were published by Marquette faculty last year.
- Marquette has achieved its third consecutive year of record federally supported research and development expenditures.
- Marquette has also focused on corporate engagement with faculty researchers and has made significant strides in the technology transfer space, now boasting several university-based startups, as well as 97 pending patent applications and 38 issued patents representing 67 technologies.
Elite federal research grants:
Marquette faculty members in 2022 were awarded major federal research grants from the National Institutes of Health—including four of the agency’s prestigious R01 grants — the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense.
- Sandra Hunter, professor of exercise science, and Dr. Christopher Sundberg, assistant professor of exercise science, both in the College of Health Sciences, were awarded a $3.02 million R01 grant from the NIH’s National Institution on Aging to study the limitations of exercise in people diagnosed with pre-diabetes.
- Bing Yu, associate professor in the Marquette University and Medical College of Wisconsin Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, received a $1.54 million R01 research grant from the NIH through the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to develop an imaging tool that would more accurately detect positive tumor margins during breast conserving surgeries.
- Brian Schmit, Hammes Family Professor in the Marquette University and Medical College of Wisconsin Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, received a $3.34 million R01 research grant from the NIH to improve walking, balance and community mobility in people with multiple sclerosis.
- Joseph Clark, assistant professor of chemistry in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, has received a $1.8 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the NIH for his research to modernize the synthesis of selectively deuterated small molecules. Recently, deuterated small molecules have emerged as novel drug leads, creating a demand for new techniques for precision deuteration in drug synthesis.
- Jennifer Evans, associate professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Health Sciences, was awarded an R01 research grant from the NIH, with an expected value of about $1.8 million over five years, to study the differences in how men and women are impacted by seasonal affective disorder, a disturbance that disproportionately affects women.
- Keke Chen, Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute Associate Professor of Computer Science in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, received a $600,000 grant from the NSF to study confidential computing solutions within scientific collaborations.
- Tony Gamble, associate professor of biological sciences in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, received a $1.17 million grant from the NSF to study sex chromosome evolution in lizards and snakes.
- Chelsea Cook, assistant professor of biological sciences in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, received a $754,826 grant from the NSF to study the behavioral and physiological response of animals to manage daily and seasonal environmental fluctuations such as temperature changes.
- Marquette received a two-year, $3.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense for an interdisciplinary program, “Novel Technologies to Mitigate Water Contamination for Resilient Infrastructure,” to develop novel, sustainable technologies to protect the environment and to provide clean drinking water.
Prestigious awards:
- Cedric Burrows, associate professor of English, received the 2021 National Council of Teachers of English David H. Russell Distinguished Research Award. The 2021 NCTE Awards recognize the profession’s leaders for their commitment and dedication to advancing literacy, the field of education or their organization. This prestigious award recognizes the groundbreaking work of Burrows’ Rhetorical Crossover: The Black Presence in White Culture.
Fulbright Scholar awards for international research:
Three faculty members from Marquette University have received Fulbright Scholar awards to conduct research and teaching opportunities overseas. The recipients are Dr. Laura Matthew, associate professor of history, and Dr. Jessica Rich, associate professor of political sciences, both of the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. James Pokrywczynski, associate professor of strategic communication in the Diederich College of Communication.
- Matthew’s Fulbright Scholar award will take her to Guatemala, where she will continue work on a book-length manuscript, “Those Who Survived: Trade and Mobility on Mesoamerica’s Mar del Sur.”
- Rich will conduct research in Brazil on when and how social movements matter for sustaining policy change.
- Pokrywczynski will use his Fulbright opportunity to continue his sports marketing research on name, image and likeness rights opportunities. His focus looks at both the perspective of athletes’ opportunities, as well as the impact of their sponsorship roles for companies and product brands.
A picture is worth a thousand words:
“Picture This: A Research & Scholarship Photo Contest” is a new campuswide initiative led by the College of Health Sciences to showcase through visually striking photographs the depth and breadth of research and scholarship conducted at Marquette.
“Marquette University continues to pave the way as an innovative leader in the world of research. I’m proud of the outstanding work being accomplished by students and facility to advance the university’s strategic initiatives around research and innovation,” Hossenlopp says.
Stay up to date on Marquette research activity, including new grants and publications, on Marquette Today.
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