Five teams awarded Space@Hopkins seed grants

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Published Oct 6, 2021

Each year Space@Hopkins awards seed grants to enable Johns Hopkins researchers to test and develop new ideas that enhance their ability to obtain external funding. For 2021 Space@Hopkins will fund five teams representing the Applied Physics Laboratory, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, and the Whiting School of Engineering.

The five projects awarded new seed grants are:

"Melanin in space: radiation shielding and stability of a melanin biomaterial outside the International Space Station".

  • PI: Radamés JB Cordero (JHSPH: Molecular Microbiology & Immunology)
  • Co-Is: Arturo Casadevall (JHSPH: Molecular Microbiology & Immunology); Susanna M. Thon (WSE: Electrical & Computer Engineering)

"Nanostructured Thermoelectric Ratchets for Extreme Cosmic Sensing".

  • PI: Howard E. Katz (WSE: Materials Science & Engineering)
  • Co-I: Thomas J. Kempa (KSAS: Chemistry)

"Simulation of multi-legged robot locomotor transitions to traverse rocky Martian terrain"

  • PI: Chen Li (WSE: Mechanical Engineering)
  • Co-I: Kevin Lewis (KSAS: Earth & Planetary Sciences)

"Bio-filtration and Enrichment Module for In Situ Planetary Analysis"

  • PI: Tessa Van Volkenburg (APL: Research & Exploratory Development)
  • Co-I: Kate Craft (APL: Space Exploration Sector)

"Space-borne measurements of air pollution within cities"

  • PI: Darryn Waugh (KSAS: Earth and Planetary Sciences)
  • Co-Is: William H. Swartz (APL: Space Exploration Sector); Kirsten Koehler (JHSPH: Environmental Health & Engineering); Peter DeCarlo (WSE: Environmental Health & Engineering)

Since 2016 Space@Hopkins has served as an umbrella organization to connect civilian space research across all Johns Hopkins divisions. All Space@Hopkins seed grants provide undergraduate research opportunities as a program requirement.

Applications for the next round of Space@Hopkins seed grants will open during the spring 2022 semester. For additional information, contact the Space@Hopkins Space Fellow, Carolina Núñez, at spacestudies@jhu.edu. Further information about Space@Hopkins can be found on its website​.