With $527K Google.org Support, SEISMIC 2.0 Drives the Future of Equitable STEM Learning

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.

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.