Faculty Research Awards
The Sam Fox School’s Faculty Research Awards enable faculty to pursue innovative new projects or to advance ongoing creative activity and research. All Sam Fox School tenured faculty, tenure-track faculty, and full-time senior lecturers are eligible to apply. Faculty having relinquished tenure for phased retirement are ineligible for this award. Research awards are available in amounts ranging from $1,000-$10,000. Recipients will be asked to present their project outcomes to the Sam Fox School community in the form of a public presentation.
2026-27 Award Recipients
Senior Lecturer Matthew Allen for archival research and oral history interviews on the impact of digital technology on architecture in China.
Assistant Professor Wyly Brown to fabricate, install, test, and exhibit four vertical bamboo-structured solar-tree prototypes in Germany.
Senior Lecturer Sage Dawson for the production of a solo exhibition at the University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery featuring a series of large-scale block-printed textiles and paper lattices.
Assistant Professor Rayshad Dorsey to conduct preliminary research for “Vacancy as Return: Rural-Urban Memoryscapes, Black Domesticity, and Community Agency.”
Associate Professor Pablo Moyano Fernández for large-scale prototyping of MICRO House, an innnovative concrete casting system building on prior research in cast-inplace, tilt-up, and precast concrete construction.
Assistant Professor Michelle Hauk to produce high-quality architectural drawings and physical models for her book project, “Dwelling with Water: Technology, Design, and the Architecture of Everyday Life in Twentieth-Century Japan.”
Assistant Professor Bei Hu to advance work in AI-based wearable technologies that enable caregivers to read and understand emotional states of patients with limited ability to communicate.
Associate Professor Aggie Toppins to produce her second book, "Design Provocations.”
Associate Professor Constance Vale to further develop her “Autonomous Cities: Architectures of Mobility in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” research project.
Featured news
The projects spanning AI-based wearable technology, art exhibitions, building materials, architectural history, autonomous mobility, and more will take place during the 2026-27 academic year.
Featured news
Funded areas span social engagement, placemaking, artificial intelligence, wearable technology, and more.
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Five faculty members have received research awards to encourage the pursuit of innovative new projects and further their ongoing work.
Featured news
The Sam Fox School has awarded six faculty 2021-22 Creative Activity Research Grants, which encourage innovative new projects or the advancement of ongoing creative activity and research.
2025-26
Chandler Ahrens, associate professor
Heather Bennett, senior lecturer
Tiffany Calvert, associate professor
Jennifer Colten, senior lecturer
Bei Hu, assistant professor
Kelley Van Dyck Murphy, assistant professor
Zahra Safaverdi, assistant professor
Constance Vale, associate professor
2024-25
Chris Dingwall, assistant professor
Meghan Kirkwood, associate professor
Kelley Van Dyck Murphy, assistant professor
Arny Nadler, associate professor
Aggie Toppins, associate professor
2023-24
Monika Weiss, professor
Wyly Brown, assistant professor
Kelley Van Dyck Murphy and Heidi Kolk, assistant professors
Jonathan Stitelman, senior lecturer
Jonathan Hanahan, associate professor
2022-23
Douglas Dowd, professor
Patty Heyda, associate professor
Meghan Kirkwood, assistant professor
Aggie Toppins, associate professor
Constance Vale, assistant professor
Kelley Van Dyck Murphy, assistant professor
2021-22
Aggie Toppins, associate professor
Shreyas R Krishnan, assistant professor
Pablo Moyano Fernandez, assistant professor
Wyly Brown, assistant professor
Linda C. Samuels, associate professor
Derek Hoeferlin, associate professor
News announcement
2020-21
Jonathan Hanahan, assistant professor
Igor Marjanović, JoAnne Stolaroff Cotsen Professor
Eric Mumford, Rebecca and John Voyles Professor of Architecture, and Shantel Blakely, assistant professor
Tim Portlock, professor
Denise Ward-Brown, professor
News announcement
2019-20
Petra Kempf, assistant professor
Derek Hoeferlin, associate professor
Meghan Kirkwood, assistant professor
Constance Vale, assistant professor
Kelley Van Dyck Murphy, assistant professor
News announcement
2018-19
Patty Heyda, associate professor
Lisa Bulawsky, professor
Tom Reed, senior lecturer
Mary Ruppert-Stroescu, associate professor
Tim Portlock, associate professor
Penina Acayo Laker, assistant professor
News announcement
2017-18
Chandler Ahrens, assistant professor
Chrissi Cowhey, assistant professor
Douglas B. Dowd, professor
Pablo Moyano, senior lecturer
Linda C. Samuels, associate professor
News announcement
2016-17
Ken Botnick, professor
Jennifer Colten, senior lecturer
Catalina Freixas, assistant professor
Jonathan Hanahan, assistant professor
Buzz Spector, professor
Stan Strembicki, professor
2015-16
Rod Barnett, professor, and Jacqueline Margetts, senior lecturer
Derek Hoeferlin, assistant professor
Stephen Leet, professor
Denise Ward-Brown, associate professor
News announcement
2014-15
Chandler Ahrens, assistant professor
Lisa Bulawsky, associate professor
Jennifer Colten, senior lecturer
Patty Heyda, assistant professor
Igor Marjanovic, associate professor
News announcement
2013-14
Catalina Freixas, assistant professor, and Pablo Moyano, senior lecturer
Kees Lokman, assistant professor
Lindsey Stouffer, senior lecturer
News announcement
2012-13
Ron Fondaw, professor
Patty Heyda, assistant professor; Natalie Yates, assistant professor; and Christine Yogiaman, assistant professor
Igor Marjanovic, associate professor
Eric Mumford, professor
Monika Weiss, assistant professor
News announcement
2011-12
Lauren Adams, assistant professor
Joan Hall, Kenneth E. Hudson Professor of Art
Robert McCarter, Ruth and Norman Moore Professor of Architecture
Christine Yogiaman, assistant professor
News announcement
2010-11
Ken Botnick, professor
DB Dowd, professor
Derek Hoeferlin, senior lecturer
Jenny Lovell, assistant professor
Arny Nadler, associate professor
News announcement
2009-10
Denise Ward-Brown, associate professor
News announcement
2008-09
Lisa Bulawsky, associate professor
Michael Byron, professor
Jenny Lovell, assistant professor
Jen Maigret, assistant professor
Heather Woofter, assistant professor
News announcement
2007-08
DB Dowd, professor
Zeuler Lima, assistant professor
Igor Marjanovic, assistant professor
Arny Nadler, assistant professor
Franklin Oros, associate professor
The Faculty Research Awards are funded by the Ralph J. Nagel Deanship Endowment.