2009 Salomon Awards

Rosa M. Cho, Assistant Professor, Education: $15,000
Maternal Incarceration and Children’s Outcomes

Until now, analysis of the effect of maternal incarceration on children has been limited to existing studies that are narrow in scope, size and reach. Empirical literature offers little insight into the effects of the schooling environment, receipt of social welfare services, and the intervention of child protective services on their well-being. Employing a range of social science disciplines, from economics to psychology and sociology, Cho will examine a large, longitudinal population-based sample to provide information on both the short-term and long-term effects of maternal incarceration.

Kfir Eliaz, Associate Professor, Economics : $15,000
Decision making Under Ambiguity: Unknown probabilities vs. Unknown Outcomes

Almost all major decisions are reached with incomplete information. However, the research that grounds decision theory has relied solely on uncertain probabilities about certain outcomes. Eliaz will first aim to provide experimental evidence that individuals’ attitude towards ambiguity is sensitive to the domain of ambiguity. Moreover, an individual may be ambiguity averse when only probabilities are unknown but ambiguity loving when only outcomes are unknown. Then Eliaz will propose alternative models that accommodate these possible reversals in individuals’ attitude towards ambiguity. His findings will reach beyond economics into other fields that study decision-making and uncertainty, including psychology, cognitive language sciences, and neuroscience.

Paja Faudree, Assistant Professor, Anthropology: $15,000
The Ruins of Babel: Linguistic Difference, Social Movements, and Violence

Dr. Faudree identifies a ‘systematic linguistic blind spot’ — inattention to the practical consequences of language diversity — in both popular and scholarly writing on ethnic violence and cross-cultural social movements.  As a remedy, Faudree will combine archival, oral historical, and ethnographic research to illuminate how language difference has been a factor in political violence and popular protest in Oaxaca from the Mexican Revolution of 1910 to the national teachers’ strike of 2006. The research will offer a fresh perspective on the practical politics by which social movements coalesce and social conflicts unfold. 

Ömür Harmanşah, Assistant Professor, Artemis A.W. and Martha Sharp Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World and Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies: $15,000
Southern Beysehir Lake Basin Archaeological Research Project: First Field Season

Despite the growing scholarship on "places" and their meanings, little has been done to explore them on the ground. Harmanşah will investigate what ‘took place’ at the sites of  carved rock reliefs and spring sanctuaries in Central Turkey that date from the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages (ca. 1500-830 BC). Juxtaposing survey strategies of settlement archaeology, geomorphological analysis of changing landscapes, and the ethnographic and ethnohistorical research on the more recent past, he will explore everyday human activities that create fragile but culturally meaningful localities.

Margot I. Jackson, Assistant Professor, Sociology; Affiliate, Population Studies and Training Center, Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences : $15,000
Nativity Differences in Health Trajectories During Adolescence and the Transition to Adulthood: Patterns, Determinants and Consequences in the United States

Roughly 20% of U.S. youth are first- or second-generation, meaning they were born abroad or have at least one foreign-born parent. How this group fares will reflect in patterns of social inequality and health, as well as in the composition and performance of the educational and health care systems. Current research suffers from two important limitations: a focus on infancy and a reliance on cross-sectional data that cannot identify long-term patterns and changes in those patterns over time. Jackson will analyze longitudinal data to identify nativity differences in adolescent health trajectories, as well as their socioeconomic determinants and consequences.

Eunsuk Kim, Assistant Professor, Chemistry: $15,000
Development of Biomimetic Catalysts for Carbon Dioxide Conversion

In a timely response to the urgent need for alternative fuel sources and carbon reduction, Kim’s project will attempt to synthesize CO2-reducing mechanisms found in nature. While research has established how enzymes work to reduce carbon in nature, this is the first time this process will be replicated.  New inorganic catalysts to convert carbon to useful fuels, such as methane or methanol, will be developed, along with revolutionary ways to reduce carbon in our environment.

Jessaca Leinaweaver, Assistant Professor, Anthropology: $13,500
Transnational circulations: Peruvian migrants and adoptees in Spain

While many social scientists study the issues of labor migration, refugees and trafficking in terms of nation states, this project will focus through the unique lens of kinship. Leinaweaver will compare the lives of two populations of Peruvians in Spain: labor migrants and adopted children. Spain is a top foreign recipient of both Peruvian children in adoption and Peruvian migrant labor. The research will explore how the presence of one such 'migrant' affects the integration and existence of another. Her work will lay a qualitative foundation for the concept of international adoption as a kind of migration.

Jason K. Sello, Assistant Professor, Chemistry: $15,000
Development of New Chemical Methods for the Analysis of Metabolites in Biological Samples

The goal of this project is to develop new chemical technologies that will facilitate characterization of metabolites. Given the universality of most low-molecular weight metabolites across all kingdoms of life, it is anticipated that the project’s methods will have a broad impact on research in the life sciences and in diagnostic medicine. Prof. Sello will use these technologies to engineer Streptomyces bacteria for the production of useful antibiotics. These bacteria are best known as producers of half of the 10,000 antibiotics discovered in the past sixty years; they produce two-thirds of the antibiotics used in clinical medicine as antimicrobial drugs, anticancer agents, and immunosuppressants.  The proposed work will place Brown University at the forefront of metabolic engineering and analysis, burgeoning areas of biotechnology and medicine.

Jessica H. Whiteside, Assistant Professor, Geological Sciences: $15,000
Tropical Climate Forcing and Biotic Provinciality in Triassic-Jurassic Pangea

Based on an analysis of the distribution of terrestrial biotic communities on the supercontinent of Pangea, which lacked significant geographic barriers, biotic provinciality develops due to climatic zonation, including patterns of variability, and ecological barriers.  This project aims to collect and analyze core samples from the Triassic (220 Ma) Deep River basin, the Dan River Basin and the Newark Basin in order to examine the correlation between climate proxies and biotic provinces of tetrapods within narrow swaths of time constrained by existing paleomagnetic stratigraphy and cyclostratigraphy.  Data and conclusions from this project will form the basis for several research proposals to extramural programs, and will contribute to the development of a tropical continental paleoclimate research program in the Department of Geological Sciences at Brown.

Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar, Assistant Professor, History: $15,000
Ruined Histories: Archaeology, Islam and the Making of Gandhara Art in Divided South Asia

This project engages contemporary questions around Islam's relationship to non-Islamic material culture by investigating the colonial and postcolonial history of a World Heritage Gandharan Buddhist site, Takht-e-Bahi, in a Muslim region on the northwestern frontier of Pakistan. It examines transformations in the meaning of the ruins through the discursive and institutional interventions of archaeology ‘on the ground’, and how they shaped relationships of Muslims to the site. The Salomon Grant will enable Zamindar to draw upon her well-established personal and research networks in Pakistan to conduct potentially path-breaking research where few, if any, American scholars are able to go at present.

Rashid Zia, Assistant Professor, Engineering: $15,000
Direct Laser-Writing of Epitaxial Graphene

This Salomon project explores a new fabrication technique which leverages the electromagnetic resonances to synthesize graphene – an electronic material of tremendous potential.  In collaboration with the Molecular Beam Epitaxy Laboratory of Professor Rod Beresford, this project investigates a selective laser irradiation technique to grow patterned, large area graphene devices on insulating CMOS compatible substrates.