CISR funds competitive internal awards to support innovations in research and teaching at Michigan Tech.
Fiscal Year 2025 CISR Call for Proposals
The Center for Innovation in Sustainability and Resilience (CISR) is accepting applications for the Sustainable & Resilient Communities Early Career/New Research Directions Award.
These awards are designed to complement start-up packages for early-career faculty or to support established researchers who are pursuing new ideas or topics around sustainability and resilience themes. Funds are provided by the Tech Forward Initiative on Sustainability and Resilience. Award eligibility requires being an affiliate of CISR (open to anyone on campus) and contributing to the CISR research community through future external funding proposal submissions.
The application deadlines is April 1, 2025, but rolling submissions and inquiries are encouraged.
Award Details
Past Awardees
Learn about our past research and curriculum awardees.
Research
Dr. Yousef Darestani, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering, seeks to understand the impact of climate change and sea level rise on coastal infrastructure and communities in his research. In collaboration with CISR, the Michigan Transportation Institute, and researchers at Michigan Tech, Dr. Darestani will apply social, economic, and environmental sustainability indices to infrastructure life cycle analysis in this research project.
Dr. Soonkwan Hong, Business, studies food prosumption in the degrowth mode of living. During his fellowship, Dr. Hong identified suitable funding sources and opportunities with Dr. Chelsea Schelly and other colleagues.
Dr. Judith Perlinger, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering, models atmospheric and aqueous chemical concentrations and atmosphere-surface exchange fluxes in her research on chemical governance and sustainability. During her fellowship, Dr. Perlinger was subcontracted by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community for a Bureau of Indian Affairs Great Lakes Research Initiative.
Dr. Ana Dyreson, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, studies the performance of renewable technologies and the operation of future electric power systems with a focus on the impacts of climate change on those systems in the U.S. Great Lakes region. In her research, Dr. Dyreson uses energy analysis and grid-scale modeling. During this fellowship, Dr. Dyreson was involved in multiple projects including a proposal to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation on electrification and climate resilience.
Early Career and New Directions
Dr. Kathryn Perrine, Chemistry, works with a team of researchers studying carbon capture and conversion. This award will allow her team to build a custom-designed purge box to control the environment around research samples to measure the influence of gasses on the chemical mechanisms of direct CO2 capture and conversion for mineralization-sequestration technologies. This award will expand the team's capabilities to perform unique measurements at complex (gas/solution/metal) interfaces in materials chemistry to address climate change outlined in the U.S. infrastructure plan and decarbonization efforts.
Dr. Sriram Malladi, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, researches how to leverage environmental vibrations to enhance heat sink cooling, improving energy efficiency. This award enabled Dr. Malladi to gather seed data for a National Science Foundation proposal, which was awarded. Preliminary findings were published in the American Society of Mechanical Engineering conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures, and Intelligent Systems in September 2023.
Curriculum
Dr. Ana Dyreson, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, developed a graduate-level course to train students on solar resource assessment and modern solar energy technologies. This course aims for students to gain familiarity with various solar energy system designs, relevant software tools, and provides hands-on opportunities at the MI Solar Regional Test Center at APS Labs.
Dr. Laura Rouleau, Social Sciences, developed a spring break study away program to Detroit focused on urban sustainability and resilience. Students explored the social, cultural, political, economic, urban, and environmental histories of Detroit through historical research and application of ArcGIS methods.
Dr. Radheshyam Tewari, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, developed sustainability and resilience modules to be added to several existing departmental courses including Quality Engineering, Production Planning, Additive Manufacturing, and Lean Manufacturing, increasing the reach of sustainability and resilience content in course offerings.
Dr. Zhanping You, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering, is redeveloping an existing undergraduate Civil Engineering Materials course to include modules on sustainable materials and concepts of sustainability and resilience.
Dr. Sarah Scarlett, Social Sciences, along with PhD student Val Pulido, developed a module for use in a department course, The History of American Architecture. The new unit will integrate concepts of green building, analysis of historical technologies for heating and cooling, and historic preservation policies for rehabilitation and reuse.
Dr. Kathryn Hannum, Social Sciences, developed a spring break study abroad program to Yucatan, Mexico focusing on sustainable communities and tourism. Students engaged with local vendors and stakeholders to learn about changes and development of local communities visited throughout the program.
Dr. Kari Henquinet, Social Sciences, developed the Sustainable Development and Communities course, now a core requirement for the Sustainability, Science, and Society undergraduate major and the Sustainable Communities graduate program. The course addresses topics of global development with a focus on BIPOC American scholars and scholars from outside the U.S. and Western Europe.