Ryan Hurley, assistant professor in the Whiting School of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Kit Bowen, the E. Emmet Reid Professor of Chemistry in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, were awarded Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) grants. DURIP enables university faculty to procure major equipment needed to perform cutting-edge foundational science research relevant to national defense.

Hurley will use his grant to obtain equipment needed to build an extreme-pressure triaxial compression apparatus. This will enable his research group to conduct in-situ studies of geomaterial deformation mechanisms. Bowen’s grant will support his work exploring the role of cluster reactivity in destroying chemical warfare agents.

The Department of Defense awarded a total of $59 million to 147 university researchers under DURIP. More than 500 proposals were submitted, resulting in a highly competitive selection process. DURIP is jointly administered by the Army Research Office, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Office of Naval Research through a merit competition.

Congratulations to the three HEMI Fellows who were recently named as 2018 Johns Hopkins Discovery Award recipients! Prof. Muyinatu Bell (Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering), Prof. Tamas Budavari (Dept. of Applied Mathematics & Statistics), and Prof. Tyrel McQueen (Department of Chemistry) are all a part of cross-disciplinary teams whose projects are poised to arrive at important discoveries or creative works. The expectation is that the recipients of Discovery Awards will spark new, synergistic interactions between investigators across the institution and lead to work of the highest quality and impact.

Below are the project titles and teams:

Photoacoustic Image Guidance of Gynecological Surgeries – Muyinatu Bell (Engineering) & Karen Wang (Medicine)

Averting an Autonomous Vehicle Winter – Johnathon Ehsani (Public Health), Tak Igusa (Engineering), Tamas Budavari (Engineering), Jon Vernick (Public Health) & Lingxin Hao (Arts & Sciences)

Uncovering Forbidden Fruit – Patricia McGuiggan (Engineering), Tamas Budavari (Engineering), Jennifer Jarvis (Libraries), Andrea Hall (Libraries) & Alex Szalay (Arts & Sciences)

Exotic Superconductors by Design – Jonah Erlebacher (Engineering) & Tyrel McQueen (Arts & Sciences)

In 2018, 30 Discovery Awards were given to interdisciplinary faculty teams across eight Johns Hopkins divisions. The winning project teams—chosen from 190 proposals—include 108 individuals representing 11 Johns Hopkins entities.

Congratulations to our 2017 Research and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (REAP) interns for completing their summer projects with HEMI!  Interns Edna Egal,  Steven Hu, Luna Warren and Lilia Yousefian each completed a project under the mentorship of a graduate student/postdoctoral fellow in one of the following JHU departments: Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Physics & Astronomy. Yesterday, the interns presented a summary of their projects to an audience containing members of HEMI, members of the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM), their mentors, and their friends and family.

REAP is an Army Educational Outreach Program that places talented high school students in research internships area colleges and universities. In REAP, a summer STEM program, students work on a hands-on research project under the direct supervision of a mentor, exposing them to the real world of research and allowing them to gain valuable mentorship and learn about education and career opportunities in STEM.  Each year, over 120 students participate in REAP nationwide at 42 participating universities.  Approximately 90% of the REAP interns pursue STEM studies at the post-secondary level.