Patients with severe mental illnesses (SMI), including schizophrenia spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder, have a greater risk of Alzheimer’s dementia before age 70 due to accelerated brain aging.

 A University of Maryland Grand Challenges Grant supported project led by Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice Gary LaFree is examining the link between rising sea surface temperatures and political violence. 

Dr. Rachel Rosenberg Goldstein (School of Public Health) and Dr.

A project led by Prof. Min Wang in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology within the University of Maryland's College of Education is examining the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES), statistical learning (an intrinsic cognitive skill to detect probabilistic cues from environment), and reading development using a rigorous, two-wave longitudinal design among native Chinese-speaking children spanning ages 8–9 years.

A Grand Challenges Grant supported project led by Prof. Ali Hurtado in the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health is building a unique community collaboration to support youth mental health in Honduras.

A University of Maryland Grand Challenges Grant funded research project led by Dr. Augustin Vintzileos of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center is investigating the relationship between atmospheric conditions and the virulence of COVID-19, with the aim of developing a prototype forecasting system for infectious disease. 

Influenza viruses cause seasonal outbreaks—and less frequently, pandemics—in people that put a strain on healthcare systems, and they can also cause outbreaks in animals with significant economic consequences to agriculture. The origin of all influenza viruses is wild aquatic waterfowl (e.g., ducks and geese), where the viruses are found in the gut and shed in the feces. The viruses may then find their way into poultry populations, where infection is either in the gut or the respiratory tract. 

A cross-disciplinary team supported by a University of Maryland Grand Challenges Grant and led by Professor Daniel P. Lathrop seeks to address critical environmental challenges by mapping and mitigating methane emissions, water losses, and heat waste on UMD’s College Park campus and across the state.

Climate change, and how to mitigate and adapt to it, is one of the grandest challenges currently facing our society. Land use will play a critical role in climate mitigation efforts. Many socio-economic models project unprecedented biofuel crop expansion, coupled with carbon capture and sequestration, in order to achieve 2 degrees warming targets. Unlike the first-generation of biofuel crops that displaced food crops and led to increased food prices, new second-generation biofuel crops, such as switchgrass, are able to grow on marginal lands.

The Racial and Social Justice Research-Practice Partnership Collaborative (RSJC), funded by a University of Maryland Grand Challenges Grant awarded to Principal Investigator (PI) Dr. Christine Neumerski and co-PIs Dr. Segun Eubanks and Dr. Jean Snell in the Center for Educational Innovation and Improvement and Dr. Apolonia Calderon in the School of Public Policy, spent its inaugural year building a partnership among project PIs, UMD researchers Dr. Awilda Rodriguez, Dr. Tracy Sweet, and Dr.