STORIES OF IMPACT

The award, given by the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech, provides Li with up to $2 million over five years to advance his work on fundamental challenges in the physical sciences. Li’s selection as part of this elite third cohort highlights the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences’ commitment to those with potential for long-term practical applications in chemistry and physics. Li will use the Investigator Award to develop new methods for thermal transport and resonance measurements in high magnetic fields to probe the electronic states of insulators. Magnetic fields generally turn the direction of moving electrons, with a well-known example in Michigan: the aurora, where Earth’s magnetic field acts on charged particles from the sun. Li’s proposed experiments will further determine whether, in some special insulators, the magnetic field may act directly on charge-less particles.

As part of Google's growing efforts to support excellent research in academia, we are pleased, effective January 22, 2026, to award The Regents of the University of Michigan an unrestricted gift of $527,227. We understand The Regents of the University of Michigan intends to use this gift to support the "SEISMIC 2.0 Assessment Initiative" currently led by Tim McKay. The overall goal of SEISMIC Phase Two is to promote greater adoption of assessment practices in large introductory STEM courses across a range of institutions and departments. To achieve this goal, Seismic will support STEM disciplinary teams in piloting revised assessments in STEM courses across the collaboration and evaluating their efficacy.

Tony G. Reames, Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice, associate professor, and director of the School for Environment and Sustainability Detroit Sustainability Clinic, has received a new $900,000 award from the Kresge Foundation to continue advancing the Clinic’s mission of equitable, community-driven sustainability in Detroit. The grant, titled “Expanding the U-M SEAS Detroit Sustainability Clinic,” builds on Kresge’s original $1 million investment in 2021 that launched the Clinic. This renewed support will expand project management capacity for community clients and increase research support capabilities. With this new funding, the Clinic will engage more deeply with Detroit neighborhoods, enabling students to work collaboratively with residents and community groups over multiple semesters. This place-based approach will ensure that one neighborhood within each of Detroit’s four quadrants benefits from sustained technical assistance from U-M SEAS faculty and students.

harlotte Chan, an assistant professor in the University of Michigan Department of Mathematics, is one of 20 early-career scientists and engineers who have been named 2025 Packard Fellows. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has awarded this cohort $875,000 each over five years to pursue their research. “I’m overwhelmed and very honored,” said Chan, who works in an area of math known as representation theory. “I still can’t believe it.” Representation theory provides a mathematical framework for understanding symmetry in the world around us, in both qualitative and quantitative terms, Chan said. This understanding can lead to powerful problem-solving tools, not just in math, but in many areas of science and engineering where symmetries appear.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded Sloan Research Fellowships to two computer engineers from the College of Engineering: Thatchaphol Saranurak and Andrew Owens. They are among 126 early-career researchers selected from institutions in the United States and Canada because their creativity, innovation and research accomplishments distinguish them as the next generation of leaders. A headshot of Andrew Owens Andrew Owens A headshot of Thatchaphol Saranurak Thatchaphol Saranurak Sloan Research Fellowships are one of the most competitive and prestigious awards available to early-career scholars, and they are seen as evidence of an institution’s success in attracting the most promising early-career researchers to its ranks.

A grant was made to to the University of Michigan’s Water Center for $532,000 and will use to update data and improve models to inform improvements for the health and water quality of Lake Erie.

Marsal School Associate Professor Jon Wargo is the 2023 recipient of the Early Literacy Teacher Educator of the Year Award. The award is given annually by the Early Childhood Education Assembly (ECEA) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) to a teacher educator in the area of early childhood focusing on language and literacy development.

Tom Lyon, Dow Professor of Sustainable Science, Technology, and Commerce, was recently awarded the World Sustainability Award from the MDPI Sustainability Foundation. The award, totaling $100,000 between him and his co-awardees, recognizes Lyon’s contribution to corporate sustainability.

Memories of disease could impact human lives down to the cellular level. That’s U-M researcher Claudia Loebel’s idea at least, and it landed her a fellowship from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

The University of Michigan is establishing a new Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) that will serve as a hub to support postdoctoral fellows across the university. U-M has more than 1,400 postdocs who work across all the schools and colleges and play a key part in the university’s research enterprise. The OPA will not only support these postdoctoral fellows as they prepare for their future careers, but will also guide and advise departments and programs about best-practice policies, processes, and services related to the employment and well-being of postdoctoral fellows.

President Joe Biden signed a historic executive order called Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All, which will direct federal agencies to focus on confronting longstanding environmental injustices, furthering the administration’s commitment to environmental justice. Kyle Whyte, the George Willis Pack Professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), a U.S. Science Envoy, and a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, served as an advisor on the development of the new environmental justice executive order and stood behind Biden in the Rose Garden at the signing.

UM’s Board of Regents approved naming the school the Marsal Family School of Education during its meeting Thursday, Feb. 16, in recognition of a new $50-million gift that will support initiatives to prepare and support a diverse population of teachers, build partnerships with schools and communities and conduct research in collaboration with education professionals.