Gabriel Duran received a BS in Geography and Environmental Systems and a BA in Biology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2020. He is now a Biology MSc student with a focus in biogeochemistry at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He is also a Research Assistant at the Woodwell Climate Research Center where he is supporting the arctic research team in the mapping of gas emission craters and retrogressive thaw slumps across Northern Siberia. He previously supported the soil carbon team in the analysis of thousands of soil samples from across the Midwest United States using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. He is co-leader of Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE) where he created the URGE curriculum alongside Dr. Vashan Wright and continues to support and facilitate URGE initiatives, including live events, BIPOC Listening sessions, URGE deliverables, conference planning, etc.

Dr. Phoebe Cohen is an Associate Professor in Geosciences at Williams College. Phoebe is a paleontologist who utilizes a wide variety of microscopic and microchemical techniques, combined with data from field-based stratigraphy and sedimentology, to reconstruct ancient organisms and ecosystems, mostly through the lens of microfossils. Much of her work focuses on the evolution of life in the Proterozoic, before the rise of animals. Phoebe received her undergraduate degree in Earth Systems Science at Cornell University and her PhD in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences school at Harvard University in 2010. Phoebe is very involved in justice, equity, diversity and inclusion work in the geosciences and is also actively involved in the Paleontological Society. In 2012, Phoebe was awarded the Geological Society of America Subaru Outstanding Woman in Science Award. Her research is funded by the NASA Astrobiology program, The American Chemical Society, and The National Science Foundation.

Upcoming Changes to the Biographical Sketch and Other Support Format Page for Due Dates on or after May 25, 2021

Notice Number: NOT-OD-21-073

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-21-073.html

Purpose

In an effort to support strong collaboration between Federal research agencies, NIH has made every effort to align the Biographical Sketch (Biosketch), Other Support format page and Application Form Instructions with the guidance issued by the Office of Science and Technology Policy Joint Committee on the Research Environment.

As a result, this Guide Notice informs the extramural community that NIH has updated its application forms and instructions to support the need for applicants and recipients to provide full transparency and disclosure of all research activities, foreign and domestic.

The updated forms and instructions will be required for use for applications and Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPR) submitted for due dates on or after May 25, 2021.

The revisions serve as updates to the Biosketch and Other Support format page templates used as attachments in our current Forms-F application packages and RPPRs. The forms updates do not change the policies for Biosketch or Other Support.

The changes are as follows:

Full details are provided in the Notice linked here: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-21-073.html

Should you have any questions, please contact the Office of Sponsored Programs.

***Repost from the Department of Undergraduate Research***

Decriminalizing (and Re-Humanizing) the ‘Squeegee Kid’

Sydney Fryer
Mentor: Dena Aufseeser, Geography and Environmental Systems

Squeegee Kids are young people between the ages of 10-25 that clean windshields in Baltimore city for a small fee. Their informal but infamous work has been seen as entrepreneurial, hazardous, or criminal over the years. This project uses discourse analysis to analyze and understand the dangerous rhetoric often used to describe these young people and the historical racism that has led to this rhetoric. It also seeks to allow these young people a chance to redefine themselves through a series of interviews. This is all in the hope that, through a more humanizing approach to understanding these ‘Squeegee Kids’, their work, and the reason for it, there can be a more humane discussion around their place in Baltimore city.

This work was funded, in part, through an Undergraduate Research Award from the UMBC Division of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, and a Social Science Undergraduate Research Award from the Center for Social Science Scholarship.

https://umbc.voicethread.com/myvoice/thread/17403608

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