Post by University of California, Berkeley

In a bid to offset recent sudden shifts in traditional funding mechanisms, the W. M. Keck Foundation has committed grants totaling $1.4M to seven pairs of faculty mentors and their Ph.D. student mentees at Berkeley. The foundation invited the university to apply to its one-time Bridge Funding Initiative in order to rapidly deploy funding to early- and mid-career faculty and their graduate students who were especially vulnerable to changes in the federal funding landscape. Berkeley's seven faculty scholars and their Ph.D fellows will carry out their research with the support of the Keck Foundation: • Dr. Trevor Keenan and Jackie Reu: Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Dynamics • Dr. Daniel Stolper and Zsolt Marka: Global Cooling and Animal Diversification • Dr. Albert Ruhi and Jasmine Rios: Resurrection Ecology and Climate Resilience • Dr. Jennifer Bergner and Morgan Kennebeck: Noble Gas Trapping in the Early Solar System • Dr. Molly Ohainle and Bridgett Rios: Primate Lentiviruses and Zoonotic Adaptation • Dr. Peter Sudmant and Michael Singer: Bat Immune Systems and Pandemic Prevention • Dr. Dipti Nayak and Madison Williams: Methanovirus Lifecycle Choices "At a moment of uncertainty in the broader funding landscape, support from the Keck Foundation is especially meaningful," notes Katherine Yelick, vice chancellor for research. "It allows our faculty and their graduate student collaborators to sustain momentum on high-risk, high-impact work that might otherwise be disrupted." Learn more about the Foundation, the initiative, and each of the researchers and their projects at https://bit.ly/4vpM2cO #UCBerkeley #KeckFoundation