Awards and Recognition

The 2022 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects, recently released by Shanghai Ranking, has recognized the University of Minnesota Twin Cities as one of the world’s leading research universities. Twelve subjects at the U of M were ranked in the top 25 globally, including ecology (ranked No. 2 in the world), management (No. 11), library and information science (No. 13), biotechnology (No. 14), mechanical engineering (No. 18), business administration and psychology (No. 19), statistics and veterinary science (No. 21), communication (No. 22), and economics and education (No. 24). Out of the 54 subjects ranked, 36 subjects at the U of M were recognized among the top 100 in the world.

David McMillan has been appointed to a two-year term as interim chancellor for the U of M Duluth. McMillan holds a terminal degree (JD), has demonstrated executive leadership experience and proven management capability, and possesses a strong business sense in multiple areas that are critical to an effective leader in higher education. He also has deep knowledge of and experience with the UMD campus, the Duluth region, and the University of Minnesota System, as well as an understanding of higher education challenges and opportunities. 

Three Department of Educational Psychology researchers, Panayiota Kendeou, Kristen McMaster, and Nidhi Kohli, have been awarded a five-year, $3.8 million Institute of Education Sciences (IES) grant to scale up their ELCII (Early Language Comprehension Individualized Instruction) technology. Initially developed with IES funding and the College of Education and Human Development’s Educational Technology Innovations, ELCII provides supplemental early instruction in language comprehension skills to prevent long-term negative reading outcomes. 

Panayiota Kendeou, Guy Bond Chair in Reading in the Department of Educational Psychology; Danielle Dupuis, director of the Research Methodology Consulting Center; and colleagues have been awarded a three-year, $1.9 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences. The project is called iCODE: Investigating and Scaffolding Students’ Code Comprehension Processes to Improve Learning, Engagement, and Retention. The researchers aim to develop an innovative educational technology that teaches coding to computer science (CS) and non-CS majors.

The University of Minnesota’s Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) has received its eighth round of funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI Language Resource Centers (LRC) program, totaling more than $750,000 over the next four years. The purpose of the competitive Title VI LRC grant program is to establish, strengthen and operate centers to improve the nation’s capacity for teaching foreign languages. CARLA is one of only 16 centers in the country funded by the prestigious program.

Michelle Phelps comments at Minnesota Public Radio about wealthier Minneapolis neighborhoods paying for increased police presence; Paul Vaaler is quoted at Axios Twin Cities about what 3M's healthcare spinoff could mean for Minnesota; Kyle Shelton is quoted in a story by the Washington Post about a study showing that poor, minority communities are more likely to have bad roads; Karen Ashe is quoted in a USA Today story about an investigation into a pivotal Alzheimer's study; Gunda Georg is quoted in a Minnesota Public Radio story about the U of M’s work on a male birth control pill; Cody Prouty and Vera Krischik are quoted in a Fox 9 story about Minnesota organizations working to save monarch butterflies; Elizabeth Wrigley-Field is quoted in The Atlantic story, “America Is Exceptional at Killing Americans Early”; Michael Osterholm is quoted in the New York Times about how to live with Covid; Brenda Child is interviewed at MPR News about Pope Francis’s apology to Indigenous communities in Canada; Peter Makovicky is interviewed at MPR News about research that sheds light on the evolution of carnivorous dinosaurs; Daniel Griffin writes in the New York Times, “Will These Ancient Trees Survive a Drying West?”; Tim Lindberg is quoted in the New York Times story, “House Moves to Protect Same-Sex Marriage From Supreme Court Reversal."

A University of Minnesota led team of researchers has received a $3.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to prepare for a human clinical trial of artificial, bioengineered blood vessels that grow with the patient. If successful, these new vessel grafts would prevent the need for repeated surgeries in children with congenital heart defects.

The Institute of Child Development’s Sylia Wilson and colleagues, including Damien Fair, have received a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The grant will total $1.7 million over the course of five years in support of Wilson's research titled “Neurobehavioral Mechanisms Linking Childhood Social Disadvantage With Substance Use Trajectories in Adolescence and Adulthood.” This grant follows her previous award of a $4.6 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

A University of Minnesota led team received a $1.4 million award from the W. M. Keck Foundation to study a new process that combines quantum physics and biochemistry. If successful, the research could lead to a major breakthrough in the quantum computing field. The project is one of two proposals the University of Minnesota submits each year to the Keck Foundation and is the first grant of its kind the University has received in 20 years.  

Mercedes Ramírez Fernández has been named as the next vice president for equity and diversity, effective Aug. 31. In this vital leadership role, Ramírez Fernández will work to advance a community and culture where a sense of belonging is strong, accessibility is valued, and equity and diversity are promoted. Dr. Ramírez Fernández has more than 20 years of experience in higher education administration. She is recognized for her leadership on issues of diversity and campus climate at several leading universities, and specializes in higher education curriculum, institutional models that support student success, strategic enrollment management, and assessment. She currently serves as the Richard Feldman Vice President for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer at the University of Rochester.