Researchers at Princeton and four historically Black colleges and universities have begun working jointly on 10 new projects funded by the Princeton Alliance for Collaborative Research and Innovation (PACRI).

The projects proposed by Princeton faculty members and colleagues at Howard University, Jackson State University, Prairie View A&M University and the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore represent a second round of projects that PACRI has funded since the program began in 2022. It was developed in partnership with UNCF (United Negro College Fund).

From the natural sciences to social sciences to the humanities and to engineering, the projects address some of the most challenging issues of our time, from cybersecurity to climate change to public health and to elections. The projects draw on the diverse expertise and perspectives of the research teams.

The first-round PACRI projects continue in their second year. The new cohort of projects began in July. Their topics, listing the faculty members leading the work, are listed below.

 

Howard University

 

Presenting East African Manuscript Cultures: A Collaboration between the Howard CfAS and the Princeton PEMM Project

 

Krista Johnson, Howard University, Center for African Studies

Wendy Laura Belcher, Princeton University, Comparative Literature

 

Jackson State University

 

Green Solvent-Based Processing and Passivation of Metal Halide Perovskites for Solar Cell Application

 

Qilin Dai, Jackson State University, Chemistry, Physics and Atmospheric Sciences

Antoine Kahn, Princeton University, Electrical and Computer Engineering

 

The 2024 National Black Election Study

 

Byron D’Andra Orey, Jackson State University, Political Science

LaFleur Stephens-Dougan, Princeton University, Politics

 

Sustaining Black History through a Regenerative Future: The Margaret Walker Center at JSU

 

Robert Luckett, Jackson State University, Margaret Walker Center

Talya Thomas, Jackson State University, Urban and Regional Planning

Guy Nordenson, Princeton University, Architecture

Paul Lewis, Princeton University, Architecture

 

Optical Preparation and Read-out of Nanosystems Used for Quantum Information Applications

 

Serguei V. Goupalov, Jackson State University, Physics

Gregory D. Scholes, Princeton University, Chemistry

Nathalie de Leon, Princeton University, Electrical and Computer Engineering

 

Prairie View A&M University

 

Unraveling and Modeling Non-Monotonicities for Blend-In Sustainable Aviation Fuels

 

Lealon Martin, Prairie View A&M University, Chemical Engineering

Michael E Mueller, Princeton University, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

 

Computer Vision for Underwater Exploration

 

Suxia Cui, Prairie View A&M University, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Justin Foreman, Prairie View A&M University, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Olga Russakovsky, Princeton University, Computer Science

 

Unpacking the Dynamics of Co-Racial Voting

 

Melanye Price, Prairie View A&M University, Political Science

Ismail K. White, Princeton University, Politics and School of Public and International Affairs

 

The Impact of Proteins and Dietary Fibers on the Microbiome: Is Digestibility the Understudied Driver of Metabolic Dysregulation?

 

Javad Barouei, Prairie View A&M University, Agriculture, Nutrition, and Human Ecology

Joshua Rabinowitz, Princeton University, Chemistry, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, and Ludwig Princeton Branch

 

University of Maryland Eastern Shore

 

Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Exosomes in Inflammatory Modulation and Bone Healing

 

Jiabing Fan, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Pharmaceutical Sciences

Lanju Mei, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Engineering and Aviation Sciences

Tian-Ming Fu, Princeton University, Electrical and Computer Engineering