Marc F. Bellemare
Applied Economics
College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences,
The economics of food systems
Marc Bellemare’s research is at the intersection of agricultural economics, food policy, international development, and applied econometrics. He has studied the poverty-reduction potential of agricultural value chains in low- and middle-income countries, the consequences of high and volatile food prices on welfare, and agricultural and food policy. In addition to making highly influential contributions to the economics of food systems, he has made significant contributions to the empirical methods used by economists and other social scientists.
Elizabeth Borer
Ecology, Evolution and Behavior
College of Biological Sciences
Developing a global understanding of ecosystem responses to human impacts
Elizabeth Borer combines mathematical theory with powerful empirical tests replicated at global scales to get at big ecological questions: What are the causes and consequences of global biodiversity loss? How are humans altering the basic functioning of the Earth’s ecosystems? What controls the spread of disease in natural ecosystems? She has transformed how we do ecological research through her leadership of a replicated experiment across 160 sites in 29 countries.
Julie R. Etterson
Biology
Swenson College of Science and Engineering
University of Minnesota Duluth
Understanding biotic response to climate change and taking restorative action with community partners
Julie Etterson has dedicated her career to advancing our understanding of biotic response to anthropogenic change. She uses the tools of ecological genetics to study adaptation of wild populations and to test management approaches that can be implemented today to transition natural communities as the environment changes around them. She also developed a national research seed bank that will be used to document and dissect mechanisms of evolution over the next 50 years.
Chris H. Kim
Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Science and Engineering
Quantum-inspired computers for solving computationally intractable problems
Chris Kim’s research interests lie at the intersection of emerging semiconductor devices, energy-efficient integrated circuits, and novel computing architectures. His group has been working closely with the microelectronics industry to develop core circuit technologies for enhancing the performance, energy-efficiency, security, and longevity of future electronic systems. Recently, he is investigating a new quantum-inspired computing paradigm where the natural relaxation process of physically coupled oscillators is harnessed to solve complex problems such as traveling salesman.
Alan C. Love
Philosophy
College of Liberal Arts
Between philosophy and biology: Interdisciplinarity in theory and practice
Philosophy and the study of living systems have been intertwined since antiquity. However, the formation of academic disciplines in the modern university has separated biology and philosophy in contemporary inquiry. Alan Love’s research seeks to bridge this divide through an account of concepts and scientific problems that provides a foundation for interdisciplinary research and demonstrates its capacity to advance knowledge by showing how it works in practice, while helping others to go and do likewise.
R. Lee Penn
Chemistry
College of Science and Engineering
Making and transforming nanoparticles in natural and engineered systems
Lee Penn is passionately committed to advancing sustainability, understanding how anthropogenic and natural chemicals and materials transform and move through the environment, preventing negative impacts of pollution, and developing methods to remediate polluted environments. Further, they aim to make materials for advanced technologies that are less toxic and use Earth abundant elements. Finally, they prioritize promoting welcoming and inclusive climates in science, technology, engineering, and math through education, advocacy, allyship, and outreach.
Claudia Scarlata
Physics and Astronomy
College of Science and Engineering
From the first galaxies to the Milky Way
Claudia Scarlata has made significant contributions to the understanding of the sources responsible for the reionization, the last major transformation of the Universe, only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Her work uses state of the art observing facilities to shed light on the physical processes regulating the growth of galaxies over cosmic time.
Irina Stepanov
Environmental Health Sciences
School of Public Health
Applying analytical biochemistry tools and building translational research capacity to drive cancer prevention and control
Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and its burden is expected to grow globally. Leveraging her background in analytical biochemistry, Irina Stepanov works on generating novel and systematic data on carcinogen exposures and biological effects in susceptible populations, and develops global capacity for such research. This work serves to inform evidence-based interventions and policies aimed at cancer prevention in populations bearing the disproportionate share of the global cancer morbidity and mortality.