Division of Research
2022 Research Achievement Awardees
Early Career Achievement Awards
Margaret Hanson Bublitz
Psychiatry and Human Behavior; Medicine
Margaret Hanson Bublitz researches the pathways linking psychological stress before and during pregnancy to adverse perinatal health, and mind-body interventions to reduce stress and mitigate risk for adverse obstetric outcomes. She has published some of the first investigations of childhood maltreatment history on cortisol trajectories over pregnancy. Her next study on a phone-delivered mindfulness intervention, designed to reduce risk of developing hypertensive disorders during pregnancy, recently received R01 funding from the National Institutes of Health. Professor Bublitz is a practicing clinical psychologist and has been a leader in integrating behavioral health into primary care and OBGYN departments at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative.
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Eric Nathan
Music
Eric Nathan composes instrumental and vocal music. By experimenting with musical structures, visual choreography, and new performance techniques, his compositions manipulate the experience of live performance. His recent compositions include Missing Words and Some Favored Nook. He has been commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation at the Library of Congress, and the New England Philharmonic, which he is conducting as its composer-in-residence for the 2021-22 academic year. Professor Nathan has received a Guggenheim fellowship, the Walter Damrosch Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, and a 2022 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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Brenda Rubenstein
Chemistry
Brenda Rubenstein conducts research in theoretical and computational chemistry. For her trailblazing work in quantum theory and alternative computing, Rubenstein has been awarded a Sloan Fellowship, a Camille Dreyfus Fellowship, and the Air Force Young Investigator Award, and she was recently named to Scientific American’s 2021 Brilliant 10 list of promising young scientists. She is committed to increasing diversity in STEM and is chair of the Chemistry Department Diversity and Inclusion Action Committee. Rubenstein established the Rhode Island Advocate program to mentor students from disadvantaged high schools, preparing them to participate in science research projects and compete at local and international science fairs.
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Andrew Zullo
Health Services, Policy and Practice
Andrew Zullo conducts research on optimal medication and vaccine use to improve health and minimize adverse effects among older adults. His work has been highly influential in supporting clinical practice and informing pharmaceutical firms’ evidence-based decision making. He has published more than 105 peer-reviewed articles and received millions in grant funding over the past four years. Professor Zullo received the New Investigator Award from the American Geriatrics Society and the Plein Memorial Lecture Award from the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. He is also the outgoing Chair of the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology Geriatrics Special Interest Group.
Mid-Career Research Achievement Awards
David Badre
Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences
David Badre is a leader in the neuroscience of cognitive control, which impacts how the brain translates goals and plans into concrete behaviors. His research has yielded influential insights into how the prefrontal cortex supports our ability to guide memory retrieval and perform complex tasks involving multiple goals. His work has been recognized by a Sloan Fellowship, James S. McDonnell Fellowship, and a Cognitive Neuroscience Society Young Investigator Award. Professor Badre was a finalist for the PROSE Award from the Association of American Publishers for his 2020 book, “On Task.” He chairs the Cognition and Perception study section of the National Institutes of Health.
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Gaurav Choudhary
Medicine
Gaurav Choudhary is a physician-scientist conducting basic, clinical, and epidemiological research on pulmonary vascular disease and right ventricular dysfunction. His clinical and epidemiological work on pulmonary hypertension has been influential in redefining the diagnostic criteria for this condition, while his basic science research has identified novel therapeutic targets. He currently serves as director of cardiovascular research at the Warren Alpert Medical School and Lifespan Cardiovascular Institute, and as associate chief of staff for research at the VA Providence Health Care system. He leads a research and clinical program in pulmonary hypertension funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health at the VA Providence.
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Hongjie Dong
Applied Mathematics
Hongjie Dong researches partial differential equations, which are mathematical equations that describe the fundamental laws of physics and engineering, among other sciences. He is considered a leading expert in this field and has developed novel tools to analyze elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations with important applications to the study of the theory of composite materials, fluid dynamics, and the kinetic theory. He is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Early Career award and a prestigious Simons Foundation Fellowship. From 2014-2017, Dong was the director of undergraduate studies in the Brown University Division of Applied Mathematics.
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Tara Nummedal
History; Italian Studies
Tara Nummedal is a historian of science and gender in early modern Europe. Her 2019 book, “Anna Zieglerin and the Lion’s Blood: Alchemy and End Times in Reformation Germany,” examines the politics of alchemy in the Holy Roman Empire through the story of a young female alchemist. In 2020, she co-edited the first born-digital book under Brown’s Digital Publications initiative, “Furnace and Fugue: A Digital Edition of Michael Maier’s ‘Atalanta fugiens’ (1618) with Scholarly Commentary.” Nummedal is the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim fellowship, a Burkhardt Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, and a fellowship from the National Endowment of Humanities.