National Science Foundation Grants

HWS Awarded $1M in NSF Grants

Grants from the National Science Foundation will support a collaborative research project that explores the ways cities shape animal evolution by studying eastern gray squirrels and an atmospheric science project that will result in the most expansive and comprehensive lake-effect snow database in existence for the Great Lakes. Together the grants total nearly $1 million.

Urban Evolution: As the lead institution for the urban evolution project, the Colleges received $426,452 of a total $1.5 million grant, with the remainder being split between collaborating researchers from Yale University and the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry. HWS Associate Professor of Biology Brad Cosentino will serve as principal researcher for the project, which will also involve HWS student researchers.

Cosentino will explore how urbanization affects evolution by attempting to discover why melanic gray squirrels declined in rural forests but persist in cities. “We typically think of cities as places where nature and wildlife are absent, but some species do well in urban areas — and there’s evidence that life in cities evolves very rapidly in response to dramatic environmental change,” explains Cosentino.

Researchers will measure the degree to which melanism changes between cities and the surrounding forests using 10 cities in the U.S. and Canada. They will conduct visual surveys of coat color, perform live-trapping for genomic analyses and conduct some experimental work in Geneva, N.Y. and Syracuse, N.Y. to understand the mechanisms of urban evolution. The project will also engage K–12 students and thousands of citizen scientists in recording observations of squirrel coat colors and measuring evolution in schoolyard and backyard settings.

Lake-Effect Snow: The Colleges will receive $514,733 for a three-year atmospheric science project, that will support Professor of Geoscience Neil Laird (principal investigator), Associate Professor of Geoscience Nicholas Metz (co-principal investigator) and student researchers as they address lingering questions around the weather interactions that regularly impact lake-effect storms.

As Laird and Metz explain in their proposal, “Lake-effect snowstorms have large impacts on people and communities in the Great Lakes region, as well as areas beyond the typical lake-effect snowbelts, and there remain several unanswered scientific questions regarding multi-scale interactions that regularly affect these storms.”

Featuring “a wide range of educational and training activities” for students, the project will explore the relationship between lake-effect storms and varying jetstream wind patterns, while “providing valuable insight into complex lake-effect weather systems that are difficult to forecast, as well as the snowfall produced by these storms.”

Associate Professor of Geoscience Nicholas Metz and Professor of Geoscience Neil Laird are creating the most comprehensive lakeeffect snow database in existence for the Great Lakes.

As part of his work, Cosentino will look at the coat colors of squirrels, relying on the observations of thousands of K–12 students and citizen scientists. >> Associate Professor of Biology Brad Consentino, pictured here in his lab in Eaton Hall, is investigating how cities shape animal evolution.

Overheard That road trip changed me just like Selma’s protests changed America. But as we all know the journey to I know what it’s like not to have the funds that justice isn’t over. you need and that are The REV. CHARLES CLOUGHEN JR. ’64 on his travel to Selma, Ala., in the wake of Bloody Sunday and witnessing the violence against marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. essential for obtaining an education. Because of others, I was able to go to school. We wanted to create this scholarship I realize that I daydream a little bit while I move through the world … There’s a part of my brain The brain and the internet have similar network It’s an honor to have for a good student who needs financial support and who has an interest in politics or law. JOSEPH “JOE” WATERS ’59 , on creating the Leslie T. and Joseph D. Waters ’59 Annual Conservative Scholarship to support an academically qualifying and financially deserving — the visual part — that is paying attention while other things are happening. Class of ’64 Endowed Professor of Art and Architecture NICHOLAS RUTH discussing the real-world inspiration for portraits he created of cell towers, street signs and billboards, in Now This, a documentary film about the awardwinning printmaker. architecture. Both have short network distances between any two components. #RBG in the Blackwell sisterhood. BILLIE JEAN KING , professional tennis legend, pioneer and advocate for women’s equity in athletics, student pursuing a major or minor in political science. My DREAM JOB is my current job – it’s pretty amazing to say that at the age of 35. As with social networks, where any individual is just a few friendship links away from anyone and the first athlete to receive the Elizabeth Blackwell Award, on the awarding of the Blackwell to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in February LIZ COST ’07 , who was recently named vice president of marketing at Sony Music Nashville else, most parts of the brain are I’m confident that in our most difficult times … in the midst of our own struggles and failures, it’s how we overcome those moments with just a few hops from almost any other part. Associate Professor of Psychological Science bravery that we really shine. DANIEL GRAHAM , author of An Internet In Your Head, to be published by Columbia University Press in May 2021 RACHEL HENDERSON ’06 , senior vice president of corporate and social good at Fenton, during the Founder’s Day virtual panel