President’s Award for Research, Innovation and Scholarly Impact

July 7, 2026

Dear Wolf Pack Family,

I hope you are having a restorative summer and are feeling refreshed as we look ahead to the start of the fall semester in August.

I am proud to announce the awardees of the inaugural President’s Award for Research, Innovation and Scholarly Impact. This program represents a unique investment in pivotal research, scholarship and creative activities that have the potential to transform our campus and our understanding of the world around us. The bold visions set forth by these awarded projects reflect the intellectual and creative ingenuity that defines our University, and I am confident their work will yield discoveries and insights with lasting impact for Nevada and beyond.

The 13 recipients received a total of approximately $700,000 in awards and were chosen from 82 proposals, a remarkable response that speaks to the depth and breadth of research and scholarly excellence across our campus. Proposals underwent a rigorous, two-step review process with reviewer representation from across campus, including the Faculty Senate and Staff Employees' Council. Each proposal reflected significant effort, thought and commitment to professional, intellectual and scholarly advancement within their respective fields, and I am grateful to every applicant for sharing the vision and rigor of their work with us. 

The President’s Award for Research, Innovation and Scholarly Impact was established to invest in bold ideas with the potential for sustained impact, future extramural support, or broader institutional adoption as our nationally recognized University continues to make a transformational impact on the world around us. 

Please join me in congratulating these awardees of the 2026 President’s Award:

Convergence Awards

Convergence Awards support multidisciplinary teams of investigators from distinct disciplinary areas pursuing high-impact research or creative activity addressing nationally significant challenges or strategically important opportunities for Nevada. Convergence projects are positioned to compete for major federal, foundation, or multi-institutional funding and to establish the University of Nevada, Reno as a recognized leader in emerging areas of research and innovation of national importance.

• Sesh Commuri, College of Engineering, Electrical and Biomedical Engineering
  • Project: AI-Enabled Colposcopy: Improving Diagnostic Precision for Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia
• Ankita Shukla, College of Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering
  • Project: AI-Piloted Critical Mineral Recovery from Spent Batteries via Molten-Salt Electroreduction

Catalyst Awards

These awards support projects that require targeted investments to move promising ideas from concept to implementation. Funded projects demonstrate how a time-limited, presidential investment enable meaningful advancement in instructional practice, scholarly or creative activity, or community-engaged work. These awards are intended to generate preliminary results, establish new collaborations, or position projects for competitive external funding.

• Emily Berthelot, College of Liberal Arts, Criminal Justice
  • Project: Measuring Fear of Institutional Authority: Development and Validation of Micro-Level Scales of Fear of Police and Immigration Enforcement
• Heather Burkin, School of Medicine, Pharmacology
  • Project: Bio-printed Models of the Human Preterm Laboring Uterus
• Lyndsey Darrow, School of Public Health, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Environmental Health
  • Project: Physiological Response to Heat and Wildfire Smoke in Pregnancy
• Edward Ester, College of Science, Psychology
  • Project: Causal Neurostimulation of Cortical Traveling Waves: TMS Pilot Data and Capacity Building at the University of Nevada
• Dylan Kosma, CABNR, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
  • Project: Buzzed Seeds: Wolf Pack-Branded Wildland Restoration Seed Mix for Pollinators
• Russ Renzas, College of Engineering, Electrical and Biomedical Engineering
  • Project: Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturing Education & Workforce Development
• Timur Tscherbul, College of Science, Physics
  • Project: Catalyzing Quantum Information Science at UNR: Benchmarking Next-Generation Architectures for Chemical Reaction Dynamics
• Sergey Varganov, College of Science, Chemistry
  • Project: Modeling Electron Spin Dynamics for Quantum Information Science Using Agentic AI
• Bijun Wang, College of Engineering, Chemical and Materials Engineering
  • Project: Streamsync: Multimodal Home Uroflowmetry and Wearable Monitoring for Phenotyping Voiding Etiology in Men with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
• Yu Yang, College of Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Project: Wildfire-Catalyzed Polymerization Reactions: A Hidden (“Dark”) Impact of Fire
• Kim Gross, Athletics
  • Project: Student-Athlete Services Peer Academic Mentorship Program for Student-Athletes: Enhancing Academic Success and Campus Integration 

Congratulations to all of these remarkable recipients who demonstrate the tremendous excellence that is the work of the people of our University. The statewide, national and worldwide competitiveness that is demonstrated on our campus by our faculty and staff has made this an era of incredible societal impact and well-deserved recognition.

Applications for the President’s Award for Research, Innovation and Scholarly Impact will be accepted again next spring. More information will be sent to faculty and staff during the spring semester. 

Questions regarding the President’s Award should be directed to Carrie Bushá, Director of Research Development in Research & Innovation, at researchdevelopment@unr.edu. Find out more about the President’s Award, including criteria and application requirements on the Research & Innovation webpage. 

Go Pack!

Sincere regards,

Brian Sandoval
President