Research Spotlight

Dean’s Research Council provides seed money for research

Thanks to a grant from the new Dean’s Research Council, Amy Pinkham is conducting research to determine whether doctors can predict if someone with schizophrenia will develop paranoia.

Pinkham, assistant professor of psychology, says initial research will enable her to collect enough data to apply for additional funds from the National Institute of Mental Health.

That’s exactly what the new council is supposed to do. Promising research needs seed money to attract funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and other major organizations that generally provide support only after preliminary research proves a project’s value.

Pinkham’s research eventually could enable doctors to closely monitor patients likely to develop paranoia or even to provide preventive treatment.

The Dean’s Research Council also is funding two other research projects during 2011.

Lisa Siraganian, assistant professor of English, will use her grant to travel to Los Angeles to research film archives and corporate documents. Siraganian is studying not only the introduction of Technicolor® by Disney and other motion picture companies, but also how American corporations have “inserted a major, transformative voice” into artistic and cultural debates.

“After I have completed this archival research, I will be able to make a much stronger case for getting other grants,” Siraganian says.

Yunkai Zhou, assistant professor of mathematics, welcomes the council’s support for his research on eigen-related problems.

Eigen-related problems “are central to a wide range of scientific and engineering disciplines,” Zhou explains. For example, the Google search engine decides the ranking of websites based on an eigenvector.

Zhou believes that his research will lead to practical applications in materials science, statistical computing and data mining.

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