Twelve Cornell assistant professors have been awarded research grants by the Affinito-Stewart Grants Program.

The program, administered by the President’s Council of Cornell Women (PCCW), aims to increase the long-term retention of women on the Cornell faculty by supporting the completion of research important in the tenure process.

For the 2016 awards, 16 proposals were reviewed and rated by Cornell faculty members across the university and by the PCCW Grants Committee. Criteria for the review process were scholarly merit, research design, feasibility and likely relevance to promotion to tenure.

The council awarded a total of $101,615 in project funding to the 12 recipients. To honor the memory of former Cornell President Elizabeth Garrett, special mention was given this year to two grants that addressed cancer research, awarded to Pamela Chang and Gerlinde Van de Walle.

The 2016 recipients:

• Ludmilla Aristilde, assistant professor in Biological and Environmental Engineering, $8,820 for “Annotation of Molecular Structures in Natural Organic Matter.”
• Ilana Lauren Brito, assistant professor in Biomedical Engineering, $10,000 for “In Search of Probiotic Genes: Tracking Evolutionary Signatures of Co-evolution.”
• Pamela Chang, assistant professor in Microbiology and Immunology, $10,000 for “Regulation of the Host Immune System by Gut Microbial Metabolites.”
• Heather Huson, assistant professor in Animal Science, $10,000 for “Uncovering the Genes Regulating Athletic Performance in Alaskan Sled Dogs.”
• Athena Kirk, assistant professor in classics, $6,600 for “The Tally of Text: Catalogues and Inventories Across Greek Literature and Epigraphy.”
• Julilly Kohler-Hausmann, assistant professor in history, $5,150 for “The Politics of Abstention and Demobilization in America’s ‘Right Turn.’”
• Motoko Mukai, assistant professor in Food Science, $10,000 for “Reproductive Toxicity of Silver Nanoparticles.”
• Katja Nowack, assistant professor in physics, $8,445 for “Imaging Current in Quantum Materials with High Spatial Resolution.”
• Jeongmin Song, assistant professor in Microbiology and Immunology, $3,600 for “In Vivo Study to Define the Cause of Typhoid Encephalopathy.”
• Gerlinde Van de Walle, assistant professor in the Baker Institute for Animal Health, $10,000 for “Establishment of Xenograft Models of Mammary Cancer to Evaluate Potential of Epigenetic Drugs in Veterinary Oncology.”
• Elia Tait Wojno, assistant professor in the Baker Institute for Animal Health, $9,000 for “Regulation of Immune Responses during Parasitic Worm Infection.”
• Roseanna N. Zia, assistant professor and James C. and Rebecca Q. Morgan Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, $10,000 for “Computational Tools to Identify the Macroscopic and Microscopic Signatures of Gel Collapse: Interfaces and Pressure.”

Grants between $1,000 and $10,000 are given by the program each year. More than $1.1 million in research grants has been awarded to 237 women at Cornell since 1992.