Success Stories

To strengthen innovation and research across the state, Mississippi has launched the Mississippi Emerging Research Institutions Council (MERIC). This new initiative brings together colleges and universities that are committed to research excellence but face unique challenges in gaining recognition, acquiring funding, and building infrastructure.

UAH researcher wins $299K EPSCoR fellowship to advance composite materials for breakthrough ground, air, space applications

Dr. Nathan Spulak, an assistant professor at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), has been awarded a $299,000 National Science Foundation EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement fellowship to enhance safety for earth, air and space vehicles and habitation structures by examining the characteristics of composite materials.

Regina Toolin, PhD, Associate Professor of STEM Education at the University of Vermont (UVM) and member of the SOCKS Education and Workforce Development Team, was named a recipient of the 2025 Joseph A. Abruscato Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship, recognizing her as an exemplar who achieves the ideals of the teacher-scholar recognition as a researcher and educator from UVM's College of Education and Social Services (CESS).

Northern Kentucky University Assistant Professor Dr. Brittany Smith, former KY INBRE Start-Up Award recipient, has received an R00 in the amount of $249,000 from the NIH National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) for her project entitled, “Executive function in opioid-exposed offspring and subsequent molecular signatures.”

Dr. Venkataramana Gadhamshetty, South Dakota Mines professor of civil and environmental engineering, was recently appointed as editor-in-chief of Environmental Engineering Science, a premier peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the advancements in environmental engineering and science.

The Rhode Island IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (RI-INBRE) program will continue training the next generation of leaders in the region’s biomedical and biotechnology industries for the next three years after receiving a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Gary O. Rankin, Ph.D., vice dean for basic sciences, professor and chair of biomedical sciences at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, was one of 10 individuals named to the WV Executive magazine 2025 Health Care Hall of Fame.

Eleven undergraduate students and student teams statewide traveled to Pierre, S.D., to showcase research projects at the 28th annual South Dakota Student Research Poster Session at the Capitol Rotunda on Friday, February 21, 2025.

Starting in 2021, a team of three members of Western Kentucky University’s Department of Physics & Astronomy faculty, including Dr. Gordon Emslie, Dr. Ali Er, and Dr. Ivan Novikov, have been working on a NASA KY EPSCoR Research Award of $900,000 entitled “Solar Activity and Space Weather.”

NH BioMade researcher Rebecca Thomson launched her own company, NovaGyn LLC, to focus on creating better biomaterials for pelvic reconstruction surgery and has received $292,752 from NIH in initial funding. NH BioMade faculty members Douglas Van Citters and Katherine Hixon serve on the NovaGyn Scientific Advisory Board.