Announcement: Winners of 2018 President’s Global Innovation Fund Grants

May 10, 2018

Provost John H. Coatsworth has announced the sixth round of grants from the President’s Global Innovation Fund.

The Fund awards grants for faculty members to leverage and engage the nine Columbia Global Centers. The program supports projects within and across these sites, in order to increase global opportunities for research, teaching, and service. The 15 projects receiving awards this year were selected by a review committee of senior faculty drawn from both the Morningside and medical campuses.

The projects selected in this round all make use of the network of Columbia Global Centers and provide opportunities for faculty and students to address pressing global issues. Many are highly collaborative, with faculty members working across University departments and schools, and partnering with other academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and research consortia. Information on the program and the previous rounds of funded projects can be found here.

These awards follow five previous rounds of grants from the President’s Global Innovation Fund that have supported 72 projects. Collectively, these projects play an essential role in realizing the potential of the Columbia Global Centers to create new opportunities for faculty and students, and in defining in tangible ways what it means for Columbia to explore new frontiers of knowledge. The full list of funded projects can be found below. 

List of Awardees - Spring 2018

Addressing Gender-Based Violence: A Public Health and Law School Partnership in Kisumu, Kenya
Terry McGovern
Harriet and Robert Heilbrunn Professor of Population and Family Health at the Columbia University Medical Center
Chair, Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health
Mailman School of Public Health

Wafaa El-Sadr
University Professor; Dr. Mathilde Krim-amfAR Professor of Global Health (in Epidemiology)
Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health
Department of Medicine, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Director, ICAP


An Examination of Disaster Management and Recovery in Post-Disaster Chile
Malo Hutson
Associate Professor
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation 


Co-Creating an Urban Displacement Solutions Alliance
Neil Boothby
Professor of Population and Family Health at the Columbia University Medical Center
Mailman School of Public Health

Mary Mendenhall
Associate Professor of Practice
Department of International and Transcultural Studies
Teachers College

Nora Akawi
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation


Colonial Medicine, Literature and Contemporary Healthcare in India
Rishi Goyal
Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center
Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons


Fostering International Networks and Multidisciplinary Research to Promote an Understanding of the Health Effects of Biomass Exposure
Jeanine D'Armiento
Associate Professor of Medicine (in Anesthesiology)
Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons


Harnessing the science of e-learning to increase access to mental health care in Brazil
Annika Sweetland
Assistant Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences (in Psychiatry)
Mailman School of Public Health


Implementation Science and Global Health: Taking Knowledge to Action
Andrea Howard
Associate Professor of Epidemiology (in ICAP) at the Columbia University Medical Center
Mailman School of Public Health

Julie Kornfeld
Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Medical Center
Vice Dean for Education
Mailman School of Public Health


Initiative to Study Economic Policy in Jordan
Michael Best
Assistant Professor of Economics
Faculty of Arts and Sciences


Measuring Human Rights Violations and Mortality Amongst Migrants and Refugees in the Sahel Region
Craig Spencer
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Population and Family Health at the Columbia University Medical Center
Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Mailman School of Public Health


Mental Health and the Psychological Impact of War on Individuals, Families, and Communities in Yemen
Sarah Knuckey
Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann and Bernstein Associate Clinical Professor of Human Rights
School of Law

Lindsay Stark
Associate Professor of Population and Family Health at the Columbia University Medical Center
Mailman School of Public Health


Planning Collaborations on Novel Methods and Technologies to Diagnose, Monitor and Treat Diabetic Foot Syndrome
Andreas Hielscher
Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Radiology (Physics) and Electrical Engineering
Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Danielle Bajakian
Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Columbia University Medical Center
Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons


Proposal to convene a Meeting of key Sub-Saharan African pediatrics health care leaders and related governmental officials at the Columbia University Global Center in Nairobi, Kenya in August of 2018
Philip LaRussa
Professor of Pediatrics at the Columbia University Medical Center
Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Lawrence Stanberry
Reuben S. Carpentier Professor of Pediatrics
Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Wilmot James
Visiting Professor of Pediatrics
Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons


Student Geology Research in the Turkana Basin
Sidney Hemming
Professor and Chair, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Deputy Director for Education, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Stephen Cox
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory


Towards early detection and forecasting of hypoxic events, harmful algal bloom outbreaks and fish mortality events along the west coast of India
Joaquim Ignacio Goes
Lamont Research Professor
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Helga do Rosario Gomes
Research Scientist
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory


Water availability during extreme arid events in the Middle East in the past, pre-sent and future: connecting between science, policy, and urban design
Yael Kiro Feldman
Associate Research Scientist
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Steven L. Goldstein
Higgins Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Associate Director, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Yochanan Kushnir
Lamont Research Professor
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory