MSI PIs Named 2025-27 McKnight Land-Grant Professors
Six MSI PIs have been named McKnight Land-Grant Professors for 2025-27. These awards recognize promising junior faculty members.
The entire list of awardees can be found on the U of M Scholars Walk website: McKnight Land-Grant Professorship.
- Joan Beckman (Medicine)
- Professor Beckman uses MSI resources in support of studies of myeloproliferative neoplasms, three diseases characterized by excessive production of blood cellular components including red blood cells, platelets, and/or leukocytes.
- Emily Fairfax (Geography, Environment, and Society)
- Professor Fairfax uses a variety of methods, including remote sensing, drone surveying, sedimentary ancient DNA analysis, and physics-based modeling to understand how beaver ecosystem engineering alters biophysical properties on different spatiotemporal scales.
- Jessica Lamb (Chemistry)
- The Lamb group designs new organic molecules for both polymers and catalysts and studies how structural changes affect their properties, using MSI to get a better fundamental understanding of these small molecules and polymers. They also study reaction mechanisms and use MSI to probe different mechanistic steps.
- Daniel Stanton (Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior)
- Professor Stanton uses MSI for studies of lichens and bryophytes, whose reliance on atmospheric sources of water and nutrients means that their morphology and anatomy are often even more coupled to local environmental conditions than are vascular plants.
- Ju Sun (Computer Science and Engineering)
- Professor Sun’s research uses MSI resources for research at the intersection of machine/deep learning, computer vision, numerical optimization, and medical imaging.
- Natasha Wright (Mechanical Engineering)
- Professor Wright is using MSI for research that focuses on the design and optimization of forced convection enhanced evaporation systems for brine and industrial waste management.