Faculty Fanfare

UNM Associate Professor of Computational Mathematics Mohammad Motamed is co-leading two federal grants that he hopes will see quantum computing revolutionize fields like cryptography, optimization, and materials science.   The grants from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy bring $500,000 to UNM, and are part of a larger interdisciplinary project involving collaborators […] Read More

UNM Engineering Professor José Cerrato will lead a $3.83 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Nursing Research to understand and mitigate the challenges that climate change poses to the health of New Mexicans.   The grant funds the Climate and Health Allied Network for Geospatial and Environmental Science (CHANGES) Exploratory […] Read More

UNM Political Science Professor Mala Htun has been elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary society and research center founded in 1780.   “I’ve known of the Academy for a long time, because I lived across the street from its forested grounds when I was a graduate student […] Read More

UNM Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Meeko Oishi gave a keynote speech at the 2024 NSF Cyber-Physical Systems Principal Investigators’ Meeting at Vanderbilt University in March.   The speech, which focused on the importance of designing for human heterogeneity in cyber-physical systems, was at a meeting of principal investigators of NSF awards that are part of […] Read More

UNM Assistant Professor of Computer Science Amanda Bienz has received an NSF CAREER Award to explore ways to enhance the performance of parallel applications on emerging supercomputers.   With the award, Bienz hopes to find the best ways to solve problems using supercomputers whose software capabilities need to evolve as quickly as the powerful hardware […] Read More

UNM Assistant Professor Melvatha Chee has received the Mary R. Haas Award from the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas for her work on the Diné language.   The award is presented to “a junior scholar for an unpublished manuscript that makes a significant, substantive contribution about Indigenous languages of […] Read More

UNM biology adjunct associate professor Martina Laidemitt is the lead author on a journal article that reveals the presence of compatible snail hosts to the pathogenic parasitic flatworm, Heterobilharzia americana in New Mexico – outside its normal habitat and on a new host.   The parasite, H. americana, regularly infects dogs, horses, and raccoons, and […] Read More

UNM University Libraries Open Educational Research (OER) Librarian Jennifer Jordan is the principal investigator for a $2.125 million federal Open Textbook Grant recently awarded to the university by the U.S. Department of Education. The money will go towards the creation of the New Mexico Open Educational Resources (NMOER) Consortium to help faculty in the state adopt, […] Read More

Two UNM economics professors are co-authors on a recently published journal article urging water economics to be taught as part of the larger economics curriculum. Alok K. Bohara, a professor and the founding director of the Nepal Study Center at UNM, and Jingjing Wang, an associate professor and the associate director of the Water Resources Program […] Read More

UNM Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou has been awarded a $300,000 National Science Foundation grant for work that could reshape public disaster response systems. Tsiropoulou’s work explores the challenges with public safety systems that occur during and after disasters, where victims, first responders, and emergency control centers must coordinate efforts for […] Read More

UNM Assistant Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies Xi Gong is a co-convener of the UNM Grand Challenges Level 2 team Child Health Team. The group’s work aims to develop and operationalize the systematic, data-driven approach needed to empower child maltreatment prevention in New Mexico.  “Child maltreatment is a multi-faceted issue, with health, public health, economic, […] Read More

UNM Institute of Meteoritics Senior Research Scientist Chip Shearer is a co-lead of the UNM Grand Challenges Level 2 Sustainable Space Research team, which aims to develop a hub of space science exploration at the university. The center of excellence will bring together existing and upcoming work at UNM, including on space exploration research and technology, […] Read More

UNM Professor of Geography & Environmental Studies Melinda Morgan is leading a network of researchers looking at water, food and energy and systems from interdisciplinary and community-based perspectives.   The Transformation Network is a National Science Foundation Sustainable Regional Systems Network program that is a partnership between eight Western U.S. universities with over 50 partner […] Read More

UNM Professor of Math Matt Blair received a Frontiers of Science Award at the inaugural International Congress on Basic Science in Beijing. The award stems from his co-authorship on a paper that appeared in Inventiones Mathematicae  and is entitled “Logarithmic improvements in Lp bounds for eigenfunctions of the critical exponent in the presence of nonpositive curvature.” […] Read More

UNM Associate Professor of History Tiffany Florvil has been selected as a 2023 – 2024 Radcliffe Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. She will continue her research on the life and legacy of Black German May Ayim.   Ayim was a spoken-word poet, an essayist, an intellectual, an activist, and an educator who co-founded the […] Read More

UNM Assistant Professor of Anthropology Kari Schleher was awarded a $349,999 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a pottery storage project that will safeguard important cultural objects. The NEH Sustaining Cultural Heritage grant will allow the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at UNM to better care for archaeological and ethnographic collections with new compact […] Read More

UNM Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Diana Dragomir has received a $750,000 NASA grant to continue her work studying exoplanets. Dragomir leads 60 astronomers to use the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) telescope, which surveys the sky for exoplanets orbiting stars in the Solar neighborhood. NASA launched TESS in 2018, and the work funded by […] Read More

 UNM Distinguished Professor of Sociology Sharon Erickson Nepstad has received a FulbrightSpecialist Award at the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora in Brazil, where she will offer workshops on academic writing and publishing.  Nepstad also will also meet with faculty to develop recommendations and strategies to increase their departmental ranking within Brazil’s public university system.  During her […] Read More

UNM Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Director of Center on Alcohol, Substance use, And Addiction (CASAA) Katie Witkiewitz and CASAA Research Professor Matthew Pearson are overseeing two major research projects related to chronic pain and opioid use.  Funding for both programs recently was renewed by the National Institutes of Health HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-Term) […] Read More

UNM Professor of Landscape Architecture Katya Crawford has published an essay celebrating the importance of landscape architecture design competitions in the LA+ Journal. The essay, “Let’s smoke, walk and enter competitions,” explores the thrill of competitions, whether entrants win or not. It points to well known landscape architecture projects that might not have been built if […] Read More

UNM Assistant Professor of English Nahir Otaño Gracia has been named as one of 10 Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders for 2023. Her work for the fellowship explores the construction of whiteness in medieval Arthurian texts. “Earning a Mellon Emerging Faculty leader award means the world to me because it validates my commitments to responsible and critical […] Read More

UNM Assistant Professor of Biology Alex Webster will lead a team of researchers across six universities that will study water quality and quantity in headwater stream networks. Research for the $2.5 million, two-year award from the Department of Energy’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Program will take place in five headwater stream networks across […] Read More

UNM assistant professor Myrriah Gómez has published a book exploring nuclear colonialism in New Mexico.    Gómez spent more than 10 years on the research behind Nuclear Nuevo México, which considers the effects of the nuclear industrial complex on Nuevomexicanas/os, Hispanic New Mexicans.   Gómez said she wrote the seed essay as a Master’s student […] Read More

UNM Associate Professor Stephanie Beene and a colleague at Oakland University have published a new paper exploring conspiracy theories presented by library patrons. The work, “Library workers on the front lines of conspiracy theories in the US: one nationwide survey,” was written by Beene, an Art, Architecture, and Planning Librarian in the College of University Libraries […] Read More

Two UNM researchers have published an article on microplastics toxicity that was selected as the June 2023 Extramural Paper of the Month by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.   The article, “Photoaging of polystyrene microspheres causes oxidative alterations to surface physicochemistry and enhances airway epithelial toxicity,” is a collaborative work between Drs. Eliane […] Read More

The University of New Mexico announces the recognition and promotion of six faculty to the rank of Distinguished Professor. The rank of Distinguished Professor is awarded to faculty who have demonstrated exceptional achievements and are nationally and internationally renowned scholars. This is the highest title that UNM bestows upon faculty.   The faculty promoted to Distinguished […] Read More