{"id":18544,"date":"2013-07-23T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2013-07-23T18:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=18544"},"modified":"2020-09-04T12:12:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T22:12:48","slug":"nsf-grants-awarded-to-two-uh-manoa-professors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2013\/07\/23\/nsf-grants-awarded-to-two-uh-manoa-professors\/","title":{"rendered":"NSF<\/abbr> grants awarded to UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa professors"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"Kumar,<\/p>\n

The prestigious National Science Foundation<\/a> CAREER grants were awarded to University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa Assistant Professor Jason Kumar<\/strong> in physics<\/a>, Assistant Professor Jennifer Small<\/strong> in meteorology<\/a> and Associate Professor Yi Zuo<\/strong> in mechanical engineering<\/a>. They are considered early-career faculty with promising futures in research and science education.<\/p>\n

Jason Kumar<\/h2>\n

Kumar is examining new and emerging dark matter models to determine whether they can explain unexpected signals picked up during recent dark matter detection experiments.<\/p>\n

As part of UH<\/abrr> Mānoa’s QuarkNet program—a long-term, national collaboration among high school teachers, their students and particle physicists—Kumar has been working with teachers from Kahuku, Kamehameha, Maryknoll, Maui and Punahou high schools. He is helping them to identify and bring the most exciting current developments in high-energy physics into their classrooms.<\/p>\n

Kumar is quick to highlight the leading role that the university has played in a large number of high-profile particle physics experiments, including work at the KamLAND and Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatories.<\/p>\n

“Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> is one of the most isolated land-masses in the world, and many high school students have not spent much time on the mainland,” Kumar said. “I believe that a vital part of any effort to engage students in high-energy physics research is to demonstrate a connection to something they can participate in while they are here on Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.”<\/p>\n

Jennifer Small<\/h2>\n

Small is investigating the effects of aerosols on clouds and precipitation. She is using data from remote sensing studies, direct observation and global climate models to analyze aerosol-cloud interactions on a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Her project address the uncertainty about the overall climatic effects of fine particles in the air, both natural and man-made.<\/p>\n

“Aerosol-cloud interactions are among the most important and least understood factors affecting climate change,” Small said. “It’s the biggest question mark.”<\/p>\n

She plans to bring innovative multimedia teaching tools to her introductory climate courses at UH<\/abbr> Mānoa, including classroom assignments for students to produce podcasts relating atmospheric science content to personal, real-world experiences.<\/p>\n

Small will also organize Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>’ first Expanding Your Horizons conference in 2014.<\/p>\n

Yi Zuo<\/h2>\n

Zuo is studying the molecular mechanisms of lung surfactant, which is crucial to maintaining normal respiratory function in air sacs of the lung.<\/p>\n

His NSF<\/abbr> CAREER project goal is to help expand the use of clinical surfactants to treat various neonatal and adult respiratory diseases, including respiratory distress syndrome.<\/p>\n

Read the UH<\/abbr> Mānoa news release<\/a> for more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UH<\/abbr> Mānoa Assistant Professors Jason Kumar and Jennifer Small awarded National Science Foundation CAREER grants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[99,124,92,9],"class_list":["post-18544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-meteorology","tag-physics","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18544"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126520,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18544\/revisions\/126520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}