Faculty

Research/Areas of Interest: Buddhist art and etoki (preaching with paintings); Buddhism and women; Japanese illustrated narrative hand-scrolls (emakimono); East Asian cultures

Research/Areas of Interest: Neural basis of vocal communication

Research/Areas of Interest: biopolymer engineering, biomaterials, material science, tissue engineering, bioengineering, cellular agriculture

Research/Areas of Interest: Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Literature History of Science History and Theory of the Novel Eighteenth-Century Aesthetics Philosophy and Literature

Research/Areas of Interest: Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Law

Research/Areas of Interest: Coastal Processes and Climate Change

Research/Areas of Interest: water systems analysis, urban water management, environmental justice and equity

Research/Areas of Interest: Performing arts in relation to mass atrocities (colonization, war, genocide, migration and diaspora); Music and dance in the formation of collective memory; Music and social justice; Soundscapes and the musical construction of place; Digital humanities and sound archives; Southeast Asian performing arts.

Research/Areas of Interest: Performance Studies; queer studies; South Asian studies

Research/Areas of Interest: Numerical Linear and Multilinear Algebra, Scientific Computing, Image Reconstruction and Restoration

Research/Areas of Interest: Ethics, Chinese philosophy

Research/Areas of Interest: Macroeconomics

Research/Areas of Interest: Development Economics, Applied Microeconomics

Research/Areas of Interest: World capital markets Exchange rate management Foreign direct investment Consequences of international capital controls Effects of international factors on United States labor market

Research/Areas of Interest: Adolescence and young adulthood; identity development; personality development; narrative identity; quantitative methods (including structural equation models)

Research/Areas of Interest: Psychopharmacology Addiction Developmental Neuroscience

Research/Areas of Interest: Geology and hydrology of arid lands, coastal environmental change, natural hazards

Research/Areas of Interest: Japanese Language

Research/Areas of Interest: engineering education research, learning and engagement in the university classroom, development of disciplinary practices, instructional design and technology development, instructional practices, organizational change, social practice theory

Research/Areas of Interest: Infectious diseases, global health, One Health, schistosomiasis, water infrastructure

Research/Areas of Interest: Planetary Chemical Analysis & Astrobiology - Over the past several decades it has become increasingly clear that there may be multiple worlds in our solar system besides Earth that either once had or may still have environments capable of supporting microbial life as we know it. Our current NASA supported research is focused on two aspects of the search for life in our solar system: 1. In the search for past or present life on Mars, our goal is to understand how biologically-produced molecules (biomarkers) are altered when exposed to solar UV irradiation in the presence of oxychlorines and their intermediate products, and if the resulting "fragmentation" patterns can be used, in conjunction with Molecular Assembly Theory, to identify the original biomarker and thus provide evidence for life on Mars. More > 2. We are developing microfluidic electroanalytical instrumentation, based on the Phoenix Mars lander Wet Chemistry Lab, to determine: (a) the habitability of the subsurface oceans of Saturn's moon Enceladus by analyzing the ejected ice particles collected by transits through the plumes. (b) the chemistry of the oxychlorines (oxidants) in the martian surface materials, both to understand their potential effects on potential microbial life, and their possible health effects on human explorers and habitats on Mars.

Research/Areas of Interest: Clinical neuroscience

Research/Areas of Interest: Bioorganic, Biophysical, & Chemical Biology. Peptides and their mimetics can target protein surfaces in ways small molecules rarely do, making peptide libraries attractive for screening for nontraditional modes of action. The Kritzer research group takes advantage of peptide and peptidomimetic libraries to bypass many of the disadvantages of small molecule screening. They also explore how modifications such as substitution of peptide bonds with isosteres, amide N-methylation, and head-to-tail cyclization affect the activities, specificities, and bioavailabilities of functional peptides. By combining powerful techniques from organic synthesis, biophysical chemistry, molecular biology and genetics, they are developing new molecules and new strategies to attack cancer, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases.

Research/Areas of Interest: Inorganic Chemistry. Kinetics and mechanism of oxygen and hydrogen peroxide activation by metal complexes.

Research/Areas of Interest: Bioorganic Chemistry and Chemical Biology The research interests of the Kumar laboratory are centered on the (1) use of chemistry to design molecules to interrogate and illuminate fundamental mechanisms in biology, or be used as therapeutics; and (2) use of biology to "evolve" and "select" molecules that can perform chemistry in non-biological and medicinal settings. These are some questions we are trying to answer: (i) Is it possible to design and mimic natural proteins and other biological macromolecules by use of building blocks that nature does not use – and whether such constructs can be endowed with properties that are not found in biology?; (ii) How did the first enzymes arise in the imagined Darwin's pond – is there a way to recreate this scenario and in the process develop a fundamentally new method to create enzymes?; (iii) Biology uses phase separation, that is, clustering of different compounds in confined locations – a process that is key in orchestrating the daily activities of a cell – can we find methods that can predictably dictate where molecules are located in a given environment and thereby direct the phenotype that is generated?; (iv) Can we rationally design small molecules and peptides that can function against antibiotic resistant bacteria that are threatening the most basic tenet of modern medicine?

Research/Areas of Interest: Cognitive Neuroscience, Language (semantics), Clinical cognitive neuroscience

Research/Areas of Interest: Applied Microeconomics

Research/Areas of Interest: Health equity, health services research, decision-making, and bioethics

Research/Areas of Interest: water, sanitation, hygiene, infectious diseases, developing countries, emergencies