Economics
Prof. Pinar Keskin

From Addiction to Aggression: The Spillover Effects of Opioid Policies on Intimate Partner Violence Faculty

Pinar Keskin

Funding Source: NIH (R21DA058849) – This study explores the intersection of the opioid epidemic and intimate partner violence (IPV), focusing on the impact of a key opioid-targeted intervention: the abuse-deterrent reformulation of OxyContin. While opioid misuse has long been linked … Continue reading From Addiction to Aggression: The Spillover Effects of Opioid Policies on Intimate Partner Violence Faculty

Astronomy, Physics
Prof. Erin Teich conducting research with her student Jennifer Doyle.

The Emergence of Collective Intelligence: Understanding Human Behavior through AI Agents Faculty

Erin Teich

Funding Source: The International Human Frontier Science Program Organization, RGEC33/2024 – Most of us would probably agree with the old adage that “two heads are better than one.” Indeed, many heads are often even better: The greatest achievements in human … Continue reading The Emergence of Collective Intelligence: Understanding Human Behavior through AI Agents Faculty

Biological Sciences

Investigations of protein-protein interactions between the cardiac voltage-gated K+ channel proteins hERG and KvLQT1 Faculty

Louise Darling

Funding Source: American Heart Association AIREA (Academic Institution Research Enhancement Award) 23AIREA1051613 – We study two proteins, hERG and KvLQT1, found in heart muscle cells. These two proteins form ion channels, tunnels through the cell membrane that allow ions to … Continue reading Investigations of protein-protein interactions between the cardiac voltage-gated K+ channel proteins hERG and KvLQT1 Faculty

Economics
Patrick McEwan, Luella LaMer Slaner Professor in Latin American Studies and Professor of Economics at Wellesley College

Targeted education transfers reduced long-run ethnic inequality in Chile Faculty

Patrick McEwan

Funding Source: Spencer Foundation Small Grant – Since 1991, Chile has provided renewable cash grants to indigenous students from lower-income households, conditional on enrollment in primary, secondary, or tertiary grades. We estimate intent-to-treat effects of grants on indigenous adults, leveraging … Continue reading Targeted education transfers reduced long-run ethnic inequality in Chile Faculty

Biochemistry, Chemistry

Multi-Target Design and Analysis of DNA-Binding Antimicrobial Peptides

Mala Radhakrishnan

Funding Source: NIH R15 AREA 1R15GM151679-01 – Antimicrobial peptides are small protein molecules that kill bacteria, and they may be promising alternatives to traditional antibiotics, which can easily succumb to bacterial resistance. As part of an ongoing collaboration, members of … Continue reading Multi-Target Design and Analysis of DNA-Binding Antimicrobial Peptides

Computer Science, Philosophy

Pathways to Ethics of Technology in the Liberal Arts Curriculum

Eni Mustafaraj

Funding Source: NSF, Ethical & Responsible Research; Funding Agency Grant Number: 2220772; Internal Research Management Application Number: 1205 – This project will focus on how to educate the next generation of data scientists and software engineers to implement their technical … Continue reading Pathways to Ethics of Technology in the Liberal Arts Curriculum

Computer Science

AI-Assisted Programming: Equipping Social and Natural Scientists for the Future of Research Computer Science and Physics

Carolyn Anderson

Funding Source: NSF #2326174 – In the past two years, artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT, have revolutionized the software industry. These models could be particularly valuable in the natural and social scientists by enabling scientists who are not … Continue reading AI-Assisted Programming: Equipping Social and Natural Scientists for the Future of Research Computer Science and Physics

Physics
Wellesley students conducting in situ structural characterization of perovskites.

Exploring the Structure and Stability of Perovskite Semiconductors

Rebecca Belisle

Funding Source: Office of Science Visiting Faculty Program – With tunable direct-bandgaps, high defect tolerance, and low embodied energy, metal halide perovskites have emerged as game-changing materials for low-cost and high-efficiency multijunction solar cells to meet our current and emerging … Continue reading Exploring the Structure and Stability of Perovskite Semiconductors

Biological Sciences
Dr. Vanja Klepac-Ceraj

Diversity of human milk oligosaccharide metabolizing genes in two infant cohorts

Vanja Klepac-Ceraj

Funding Source: National Institutes of Health 1R15AI160139-01A1 – Despite affecting nearly 20% of infants in the United States, there is no cure for atopic dermatitis/eczema. Some parents feed their infants human milk in an effort to protect the infant from … Continue reading Diversity of human milk oligosaccharide metabolizing genes in two infant cohorts

Biological Sciences

A multi-scale approach to characterizing developing executive functions

Vanja Klepac-Ceraj

Funding Source: Wellcome Leap 1kD – Brain structure and function are sensitive and responsive to environmental conditions and individual experiences such as nutrition, gut microbiome, household environment and levels of stress. The main goals of this multi-scale, and multi-modal study … Continue reading A multi-scale approach to characterizing developing executive functions

Mathematics
Life Expectancy vs. Income in the United States. Source: Harvard's The Equality of Opportunity Project.

The Mathematics of Inequality: A Transdisciplinary Study of the Social, Economic, and Demographic Dimensions of Inequality

Oscar Fernandez

Funding Source: Guggenheim Foundation – Research on social inequality is naturally discipline-based: inequality researchers tend to focus on the inequality types of most interest to their discipline (e.g., income inequality to economics, life span inequality to demography). This has the … Continue reading The Mathematics of Inequality: A Transdisciplinary Study of the Social, Economic, and Demographic Dimensions of Inequality

Neuroscience

RUI: State-dependent modulation of visuomotor reflexes across Drosophila species Neuroscience Faculty

Sara Wasserman

Funding Source: NSF (Division of Integrative Organismal Systems) – Award #: 2016188 – The overall goal of the current work in the lab is to explore how the brain integrates internal and external environments to modify the perception of visual … Continue reading RUI: State-dependent modulation of visuomotor reflexes across Drosophila species Neuroscience Faculty

Geosciences

Assessing the Seismic Potential of Eastern Massachusetts using Lacustrine Earthquake Records

Katrin Monecke

Funding Source: Department of the Interior/US Geological Survey Award #G20AP00064 – New England and adjacent areas have experienced damaging earthquakes in the historic past, yet the recurrence intervals of these events remain largely unknown. Instrumental and historic data are not … Continue reading Assessing the Seismic Potential of Eastern Massachusetts using Lacustrine Earthquake Records

Biological Sciences

The molecular basis underlying the evolution of phenotypic plasticity Faculty

Yui Suzuki

Funding Source: National Science Foundation Award #2002354 – Phenotypic plasticity refers to the ability of an organism to generate distinct morphological, behavioral or metabolic changes in response to environmental changes. Laboratory and theoretical research has shown that phenotypic plasticity may … Continue reading The molecular basis underlying the evolution of phenotypic plasticity Faculty

Peace and Justice Studies

New Directions for Feminist Peace Research – Gender, Violence, and Global Health: Mapping Intersections

Catia Confortini

Funding Source: Fulbright Award – My Fulbright semester at Tampere University, Finland is inscribed in an ongoing collaboration with the Tampere Peace Research Institute (TAPRI), which pushes forward the intersections between feminism and Peace Research. I will work primarily on … Continue reading New Directions for Feminist Peace Research – Gender, Violence, and Global Health: Mapping Intersections

Italian Studies

The Rediscovered Garden: Towards a Critical Edition of Giorgio Bassani’s ‘The Garden of the Finzi-Contini’

Sergio Parussa

Funding Source: American Philosophical Society (APS), Franklin Research Grant – The general aim of my research project is to write a critical and annotated edition of Giorgio Bassani’s novel “The Garden of the Finzi-Contini’s” based on the recently rediscovered manuscript … Continue reading The Rediscovered Garden: Towards a Critical Edition of Giorgio Bassani’s ‘The Garden of the Finzi-Contini’

French

The Princess of Clèves by Marie-Madeleine de Lafayette: A Bilingual and Critical Edition for the Digital Age

Hélène Bilis

Funding Source: National Endowment for the Humanities–Digital Publications Grant – La Princesse de Clèves is an essential work for understanding the history of the novel as a dominant genre, for charting the rise of complex psychological characters in western literature, and … Continue reading The Princess of Clèves by Marie-Madeleine de Lafayette: A Bilingual and Critical Edition for the Digital Age

Neuroscience

Mechanisms of Steroid Action in Brain and the Role of Estrogens in Energy Homeostasis

Marc Tetel

Funding Source: Otsuka Pharmaceuticals and NIH R01 DK61935 – The ovarian hormones, estradiol and progesterone, bind to their receptors in the brain and throughout the body to influence behavior and physiology. Our work focuses on how receptors for these hormones … Continue reading Mechanisms of Steroid Action in Brain and the Role of Estrogens in Energy Homeostasis

Biological Sciences

Regulation of body size sensing and developmental timing in insects

Yui Suzuki

Funding Source: Award NSF-IOS 1354608 (National Science Foundation, Integrative Organismal Systems) – Developmental plasticity has dramatic effects on the survival and reproductive fitness of organisms. In many organisms, including humans, changes in developmental physiology initiate dramatic alterations in growth and … Continue reading Regulation of body size sensing and developmental timing in insects

Neuroscience

The role of glutamate transporters in C. Elegans behavior and lifespan

Deborah Bauer

Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian brain and its synaptic levels are tightly regulated by glutamate transporters, located primarily on glia. In the nematode, C. Elegans, the major excitatory neurotransmitter is acetylcholine, but glutamate neurotransmission remains critical … Continue reading The role of glutamate transporters in C. Elegans behavior and lifespan

Anthropology

Betrayed: Politics, Pyramid Schemes, and Bolivian Vernaculars of Fraud

Susan Ellison

Funding Source: National Science Foundation (NSF), American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellow / National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) International and Area Studies, and Wenner-Gren Foundation Post-Ph.D. Research Grant – What does fraud—as a political, legal, and moral category—reveal … Continue reading Betrayed: Politics, Pyramid Schemes, and Bolivian Vernaculars of Fraud

Biological Sciences

Sternal transformation and axial patterning at the Synapsid / Mammal transition

Emily Buchholtz

My current research project addresses the anatomical transformation of the shoulder girdle that occurred during the evolutionary transition from synapsid reptiles to mammals. The sternum integrates the head, neck, chest, and limbs, and plays a key role in establishing patterning … Continue reading Sternal transformation and axial patterning at the Synapsid / Mammal transition