2019 Hellman Award Recipients

David Bamman, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Representation Learning for the Discovery of Musical Influence

Professor Bamman works on applying natural language processing and machine learning to empirical questions in the humanities and social sciences. In his Hellman-funded work, he plans to develop computational methods to uncover the layers of history in songs, reasoning about their content—both their musical structure and the text of their lyrics—in order to discover patterns of influence and allusion.

Courtney Dressing, Astronomy,
Characterizing Planetary Systems Orbiting Nearby Stars

Professor Dressing is an observational astronomer focused on detecting and characterizing planetary systems orbiting nearby stars. Her Hellman-funded research will set the foundations for future detections of life as well as advance understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve over time by investigating the properties of nearby planets.

Asma Kazmi, Art Practice, Beyond the Seas Blue

Professor Kazmi creates transdisciplinary, performative, relational works where people, media, and objects come together. Her Hellman-funded project involves researching the extraction of luminous ultramarine pigment from lapis lazuli, the stone from Afghanistan whose trade introduced the color blue to the world, and reproducing sections of Renaissance paintings. The project aims to rehabilitate and actualize the subdued agency of the material that inhabits the cultural artifacts of Europe.

David Limmer, Chemistry, Path Integral Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Hybrid Halide Perovskites

Professor Limmer’s research endeavors to advance theoretical descriptions of complex, condensed phase materials especially in instances where equilibrium ideas do not apply. His Hellman-funded research aims to develop a novel numerical technique which can provide advancement in the molecular understanding of hybrid halide perovskites, an emerging class of materials for optoelectronic applications.

Rikky Muller, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Networks of Neural Dust

Professor Muller’s research group focuses on emerging implantable medical devices and in developing low-power, wireless microelectronic and integrated systems for neurological applications. Her Hellman-funded research aims to develop new and revolutionary microsystems that directly interface with the brain, monitor and treat neurological disorders, and enable fundamental neuroscientific discovery.

Jason Okonofua, Psychology, Empathic Discipline & Respect in K-12 Schooling

Professor Okonofua’s research program examines social-psychological processes that contribute to inequality. His Hellman-funded project will research discipline within K-12 schooling with the goal of developing a program to increase teachers’ efficacy to provide quality teacher-student relationships and that lowers students’ risk of discipline problems, helping them to remain in and engage with the learning environment.

Simon Schleicher, Architecture, Robotic Fabrication and Construction in Architecture

Professor Schleicher is an architectural designer, researcher, and educator whose work brings together architecture, engineering, and biology. His Hellman-funded research aims to explore the unique possibilities of integrating an industrial robot in combination with real-time 3D scanning and data-driven 3D printing into architectural manufacturing and building processes.

Anna Livia Brand, Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, Claiborne on the Verge: The Black Mecca in 21^st Century America

Professor Brand’s research focuses on the intersection of race and space, specifically looking at historic black mecca neighborhoods and how they change through processes of gentrification and resistance. Her Hellman-funded project will build upon this research and aims to interrogate the ways that urban planning and design disciplines work to further racialized geographic inequality, difference and white privilege.

Rebecca Herman, History, Antarctica, Latin America, and the Global South

rofessor Herman’s research and writing examine modern Latin American history in a global context, with particular interests in race, development, political violence, and foreign relations. Her Hellman-funded research supports a book project that will offer a global history of Antarctica from the perspective of Latin America and the broader Global South.

Britt Koskella, Integrative Biology, The Impact of Agriculture on Microbiome-mediated Protection Against Pathogens

Professor Koskella is an evolutionary biologist seeking to understand how interactions among species generate and maintain much of the diversity seen on earth. Her Hellman-funded research aims to determine the importance of seed-mediated microbiome transmission in microbiome establishment and plant health and see how fertilization alters the microbiome-mediated protection of host plants. Results of this study will inform strategies regarding how to increase plant health and reduce dependence on fertilizers and/or chemical controls of pathogens.

Jonas Meckling, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, The Politics of Innovation: The Durability and Growth of Low-carbon RD&D Policy

Professor Meckling studies clean energy transitions and the political forces that drive them. His Hellman-funded research will examine RD&D (research, development and demonstration) policies for low-carbon technologies and will conduct cross-country comparisons of the political and institutional sources of low-carbon innovation policy.

Yi-Ren Ng, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Oz Vision: New Principles for Color Display, and An Experimental Platform for Neuroscience

Professor Ng’s research interests include imaging, graphics, vision, artificial intelligence and applied mathematics. Hellman funding will aid Professor Ng in the development of a new type of brain stimulation system, Oz Vision, which will hijack and make programmable the main information pipeline into the brain: the retina.

Caitlin Rosenthal, History, The Business of Business Education

Professor Rosenthal’s research focuses on the development of management practices, especially those based on data analysis. Her Hellman-funded project will explore the long history of for-profit education, with a special focus on the education of clerks, managers, and entrepreneurs, informed by studies of private commercial colleges and elite MBA programs.

Daniel Stolper, Earth and Planetary Science, The Past as the Key to Our Warm Future: Using the Rock Record to Predict Climate Change

Professor Stolper is a geochemist, and his research interests include a variety of problems related to the rock record, microbiology, and biogeochemical cycles in the present and past. His Hellman-funded project will study the rock record as a tool to translate past chemical, physical, and biological changes into a quantitative understanding of future climate.