Lemann Brazil Research Fund awardees announced

The Office of the Vice Provost for Research and the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs are pleased to announce the 2018 awardees of the Lemann Brazil Research Fund.

“We had the largest and most competitive applicant pool yet in the history of the Fund,” said Rick McCullough, vice provost for research and professor of materials science and engineering. “Decisions were difficult, but we were particularly impressed by the seven proposals selected, and we are excited to see these research projects move forward.”

Established in 2016 by a generous gift from the Lemann Foundation, the Lemann Brazil Research Fund supports Brazil-related research in all areas related to education, as well as research in any other disciplinary area undertaken with a Brazilian colleague.

This year’s awarded projects are:

• “Bridging Electrical Engineering and Machine Learning Education in Brazil” by Flavio Calmon, assistant professor, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, with collaborator José Cândido Silveira Santos Filho, Universidade Estadual de Campinas.
• “SEL Kernels for Brazil ECE:  A Low-Cost, Evidence-Based, and Scalable Approach to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in Brazilian Early Childhood Settings” by Stephanie Jones, professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), with co-investigators Dana McCoy, HGSE, and Alexandra Brentani, Faculdade de Medicina University of São Paulo, and collaborators Ana Luiza Colagrossi, Faculdade de Medicina, University of São Paulo, Rebecca Bailey and Jennifer Kahn, HGSE
• “Early Institutionalization Intervention Impact Project” by Charles Nelson, professor, Harvard Medical School and HGSE, with co-investigators Nathan A. Fox, University of Maryland, and Charles H. Zeanah, Tulane University School of Medicine, and collaborator Edson Amaro Jr., PENSI Institute.
• “Overcoming Barriers to Adoption of Effective Municipal Policies” by Gautam Rao, assistant professor, Department of Economics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), with co-investigators Jonas Hjort, Columbia University, Diana Moreira, University of California, Davis, and Juan Francisco Santini, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.
• “Parent-child Interaction and Child Language Development in Low-income Families in Brazil” by Meredith Rowe, associate professor, HGSE, with co-investigator Guilherme Vanoni Polanczyk, University of São Paulo.
• “Improving Literacy Outcomes in Brazil by Expanding Teachers’ Instructional Repertoires” by Catherine Snow, Patricia Albjerg Graham, professor, HGSE, with co-investigator Renan de Almeida Sargiani, University of São Paulo.
• “A Preschool Intervention in Brazil to Enhance Poor Children’s School Readiness” by Elizabeth Spelke, Marshall L. Berkman Professor, Department of Psychology, FAS, with co-investigators Chrissie Ferreira de Carvalho and Nara Cortes Andrade, Universidade Catolica de Salvador, and Jose Neander Silva Abreu, Federal University of Bahia.