Four UCLA-led projects won a total of $1.7 million in research grants Monday for work that involves collaboration between University of California campuses.
UCLA professors won the grant from the UC Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives competition, which gives funding to researchers who are leading a project that involves a minimum of three campuses, or two campuses and one lab.
The contest awarded $23 million to a total of 18 proposals to be used over the next four years.
Steve Furlanetto, UCLA physics and astronomy professor, won a $300,000 grant for his project called “UC Cosmic Dawn Initiative.” The project seeks to develop a telescope that would observe the earliest galaxies and stars by looking at low-frequency radio waves, said Furlanetto.
The project involves researchers at UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley, Furlanetto said.
“This will be a collaboration between astronomers who work on the theory of what is supposed to be seen and the people who are building the telescopes,” Furlanetto said.
Theodore Robles, a professor of psychology at UCLA, won a $200,000 grant for the project he is leading titled the “Intercampus Consortium on Health Psychology.”
The consortium seeks to give graduate students mentoring and networking opportunities, along with the chance to collaborate on health psychology projects, Robles said. Another goal is to fund research on a person’s resilience, which is how an individual thrives or adapts in the face of adversity, said Robles.
“Across the UC, different campuses have professors who have expertise in different aspects of resilience, such as the biology of stress or factors in resilience in terrorist attacks,” Robles said. “This grant lets us take advantage of expertise across all ten campuses.”
Andrew Fuligni , a UCLA psychology professor, won a grant for his project titled “The Developmental Science of Adolescence.” Robin D.G. Kelley, a UCLA history professor, won a grant for his project called the “Consortium for Black Studies in California.” Fuligni and Kelley could not immediately be reached for comment.
Compiled by Kat Bocanegra Speed, Bruin contributor.