Research Wins
Vanessa Brown, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Vanessa M. Brown, PhD, assistant professor of psychology, recently received a five-year $3.9 million NIH grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to further her research of new evaluation tools and treatment for anxiety disorders.
The NIMH Biobehavioral Research Awards for Innovative New Scientists (BRAINS) R01 award is intended to support the research and career advancement of outstanding, exceptionally productive scientists who are in the early, formative stages of their careers.
Professor Brown, who studies reinforcement learning and decision-making in internalizing disorders, will use an interdisciplinary approach to investigate drivers of avoidance behavior in anxiety. This grant aims to validate a novel computational model of avoidance using neural and behavioral data, use this model to test differences in avoidance behavior in people with anxiety, and assess whether perturbing behavior in line with this model can change real-world avoidance behavior in anxiety.
The long-term goal of Dr. Brown’s research is to advance understanding and treatment of psychopathology to reduce suffering from mental illness.
Luiz Santos
Associate Professor of Physics
Luiz Santos, PhD, associate professor of physics, is a theorist who specializes in condensed matter physics and studies the interactions of quantum materials — such as atoms, photons and electrons — that do not behave according to the laws of classical physics. He recently received two grants recognizing his work at the forefront of quantum materials research.
The first is a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award, titled “Developing New Paradigms for Hybrid Light-Matter Quantum Materials,” which recognizes early-career researchers with ambitious scientific ideas in their field.
The five-year, $620,000 award will support his ongoing research as well as education outreach with local high schools to advance scientific literacy, inspire future scientists, and expand public engagement with quantum science.
The second award, from the Department of Energy for “Theory of Topological and Competing Orders in Quantum Materials,” continues his prior work identifying novel states of matter with non-trivial topological order. These materials play an important role in developing next-generation quantum technologies such as quantum computing.
