The Radio Astronomy Data Imaging and Analysis Lab (RADIAL) is a project of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) that aims to use radio astronomy as a means to develop a diverse STEM workforce.  Representing a partnership between 14 separate Minority Serving Institutions (MSI), NRAO, and the University of Wisconsin and led by Anja Fourie, RADIAL is launching a major effort to facilitate successful enrollment of undergraduate students at its MSI partners into graduate programs at the University of Wisconsin.  Funds from this grant will support numerous aspects of RADIAL’s efforts, including the creation of undergraduate certificate programs in Data Intensive Research in Radio Astronomy at its partner institutions; the creation of mentoring and training experiences for MSI students, including stipend support; guaranteed admission and funding to attend graduate programs at the University of Wisconsin for up to four students from participating MSIs; assignment of student liaison officers to represent students withing the alliance; the convening of annual science colloquium; and the creation of a task force to research, report, and ultimately train graduate programs on holistic graduate admissions processes.  Grant funds will be administered by Associated Universities Inc, acting as a fiscal agent for the project.

This grant supports a partnership between Spelman College and Michigan State University (MSU) to create an innovative educational pipeline that couples high quality instruction in cutting edge data science with particularized training in disciplinary sciences like mathematics and physics. Led by Monica Stephens Cooley (Spelman) and Andrew Christlieb (MSU), the five-year (“3+2”) program starts at Spelman and is aimed at undergraduate STEM majors who are interested in pursuing an advanced degree in STEM-focused data science.  Developed in coordination with MSU, the Spelman curriculum has been curated to equip Black women undergraduates with skills and training that will make them attractive candidates for admission to MSU’s highly competitive, two-year master’s degree program in data science. Grant funds will support the recruitment and training of an initial cohort of ten Spelman students over the next two years. In addition to the program’s educational merits, the participation of Spelman, both a women’s college and a Historically Black College, in the partnership represents an exciting new avenue for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM graduate education and could serve as a model for the important role Minority Serving Institutions have to play in increasing women’s and Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o graduate degree attainment in the sciences and engineering.

This grant supports a series of initiatives led by Catherine Propper at North Arizona University (NAU) to facilitate both the recruitment of Indigenous and Latina/o students into STEM graduate education programs at NAU and transform graduate education at NAU toward a more student-centered educational model that is oriented toward student success.  The primary effort will be the creation of a cohort-based bridge program between NAU and partners Diné College, a tribal college operated by the Navajo Nation, and NAU-Yuma, a Hispanic Serving Institution whose student body is drawn largely from the largely Latina/o population around Yuma, Arizona.  Using structured mentoring, course exchanges, retreats, and other curricular and programmatic efforts, the program will attempt to facilitate a pipeline bringing undergraduates from Diné and Yuma into STEM master’s degree programs at the NAU main campus.  Other planned efforts include revising graduate admissions processes in order to be more inclusive and to increase diversity across the institutions, ongoing faculty training in order to transform relationships and environments in labs and classrooms, and engaging family members in order to ensure a holistic approach to student success. 

This grant supports an initiative at Georgia State University (GSU) to create an innovative program designed to further the recruitment, persistence, and progression of Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o undergraduates into quantitative science graduate programs around the nation.  Created in partnership with the National Math Alliance, the “Math Path Program” is comprised of numerous components.  The program will include a structured math mentoring program that will automatically opt-in all first-year GSU math students.  First-year majors in math-heavy disciplines like statistics or physics will also be invited and encouraged to participate, with a particular focus on including Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o students. GSU will also launch a summer internship program, develop a series of mentored math teams for second-year students, work with the National Math Alliance to develop programming that facilitates the graduate application process, and create a graduate school “transition grant” that will defray site visits, moving costs, and other expenses for students who apply and attend STEM graduate programs.  Partnering with GSU in the effort are a series of graduate programs at Arizona State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, and Purdue University, who collectively offer a diverse variety of graduate programs where GSU students may choose to continue their education.

Founded in 2016 through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and housed at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Network Initiative for Conservation Science (NY-NICS) offers access to expert conservation science researchers and state-of-the-art instruments to cultural heritage institutions across the city.  Anchored in material science and chemistry, conservation science as a field is broadly engaged in applying contemporary imaging and analytic techniques to questions of the history of artistic practice, which can range from the adoption of new materials over time to the creative processes of individual artists. Led by Marco Leona, NY-NICS has spearheaded partnerships with 11 key NYC cultural institutions since its founding, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Frick Collection, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the New York Public Library. This grant joins the Mellon Foundation in its support for the continued operation and expansion of the NY-NICS, allowing it to hire additional staff, expand the network further, and grow its list of partnerships with a particular eye on important but less well-resourced cultural institutions in New York. 

This grant provides continuing support for a series of activities by SFFILM, the organization that hosts the annual SFFILM Festival, to nurture, develop, and champion films that explore scientific or technological themes and characters. Supported activities include the awarding of two $35,000 Sloan Science in Cinema Fellowships each year to promising feature film or episodic screenwriters who are exploring scientific or technological themes in their work. SFFILM also gives an annual award, the Sloan Science in Cinema Prize, to the best science-themed feature film submitted to the San Francisco Film Festival and promotes the winning film at the festival with a ceremony, screening, post-screening panel, and reception. SFFILM compiles the Sloan Stories of Science Sourcebook, which includes the best science stories and the most up-to-date scientific discoveries of the year and offers awards to two filmmakers who can develop original scripts based on these stories or ideas. Lastly, SFFILM partners with the Black List to identify promising science-themed scripts and bring them to the attention of developers, producers, and other film industry executives. Grant funds support these activities and associated operational costs for the next two years.

This grant continues a signature partnership with New York City’s acclaimed Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) to commission, develop, and produce science and technology plays. Over the next three years, MTC will commission between 15 and 18 new plays from both rising and established playwrights that explore scientific themes or feature scientists, engineers, inventors, or mathematicians as major characters. Commissions are selected twice yearly in consultation with an independent scientific advisory panel that serves as a year-round resource to help playwrights ensure scientific accuracy. In addition to the commissions, grant funds will support three to four readings or workshops for Foundation-commissioned plays per year, and one annual presentation of a Foundation-developed play before a public audience of over 100 people as part of the Ted Snowdon Reading Series.

This grant provides three additional years of support for a program at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama (CMU) that exposes top dramatic writing students to science and technology and awards prizes to student screenwriters who write science- or technology-themed scripts. The CMU program includes a fall symposium that brings scientists to the drama school to introduce students to recent developments in a variety of scientific disciplines; a year-long screenwriting workshop that meets weekly and focuses on the challenges and opportunities posed by incorporating science into dramatic or comedic narratives, a mentorship program that pairs film students with working scientists to help them depict science accurately in their work, an annual screenwriting competition that awards $45,000 total per year to the three best science-themed scripts submitted, and a yearly showcase in Los Angeles and New York to bring student filmmakers into contact with leading producers, directors, and distributors in the film and television industry.

The Sundance Film Institute hosts the Sundance Film Festival, the largest and most prestigious showcase of independent cinema in the U.S.  First held in 1978, the festival remains the first choice for both emerging and established independent filmmakers to premiere their work and an offers an unrivaled venue to showcase innovative filmmaking at the intersection of science and cinema. This grant supports a suite of awards and activities each year that have resulted in a widely recognized and fruitful 20-year partnership: the Sloan Commissioning Grant; the Sloan Episodic Fellowship; the Sloan Development Fellowship; the annual Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize (one of only six juried prizes at the Festival); a high-profile panel discussion with scientists and filmmakers; and a reception celebrating the Sloan winners at the Festival.

The Coolidge Corner Theatre is an independent cinema in Brookline, Massachusetts specializing in international, documentary, animated, and independent film selections. The Coolidge is also the leader of Science on Screen, a nationwide network of independent cinemas that invite scientific experts to screenings of popular or cult classic films to discuss with audiences the scientific or technological themes or issues the film raises. The series offers an unexpected, informative, and entirely fun entree into the relationship between science and film. Previous events used the zombie classic Night of the Living Dead as a springboard to discuss the role of the amygdala in cognitive processes and a screening of Fight Club as the beginning of the discussion of the roots of aggression. Grant funds will allow the Coolidge to make grants to 56 local theatres, bringing the total number of independent cinema houses that have participated in Science on Screen to well over 100. In addition, the Coolidge will promote the series through a new digital newsletter, a video for the National Week of Science on Screen, partnerships and sponsorships, and online marketing efforts.