U-M physicist receives 2026 national Brown Investigator Award

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.