Falk College Office of Research Development

The Falk College Office of Research Development helps foster a vibrant research community within the College and facilitates collaborative scholarly research inclusive of undergraduate and graduate students.

Falk College faculty members engage in a wide variety of research activities that improve the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, and the community, locally, nationally, and globally. Their fields of expertise include exercise science, food studies, human development and family science, marriage and family therapy, nutrition, public health, social work, sport analytics and sport management.

Funds from federal and state grants/contracts, foundations, the University, and Falk College support faculty research projects. Faculty members collaborate across all schools and colleges and contribute to research institutes, centers and working groups. While the College is diverse in its disciplinary fields and areas of research interest among its faculty, all are committed to studying change and potential for change across a broad array of human needs, aspirations, and institutions; that is, to the study of human dynamics in its widest sense.

The Falk College Office of Research Development assists in:

  • identifying funding sponsors and collaborators
  • internal and external proposal development (including strategy, narrative review, and budgeting) and post award support
  • navigating the University sponsored-project system

In collaboration with academic departments and centers or institutes, we sponsor activities including seminars and colloquia highlighting innovative faculty research. Annually, Falk College awards small seed grants for tenure-track assistant professors to support the development of junior faculty’s research programs.

Falk faculty are encouraged to access the Falk College Office of Research Development Faculty manual via SU Answers.

Recent Faculty Funded Research

High-altitude Environments and Spleen Function in Humans

Sherpa highland natives in Nepal are known worldwide for their extraordinary physical abilities at high altitude. They are derived from Tibetan populations that may have experienced natural selection over thousands of years in response to hypobaric hypoxia (i.e., low oxygen…

Doctoral Dissertation Research: Oxygen Transport Phenotypes and the Different Evolutionary Trajectories of Andean Versus Tibetan Highland Native Populations

The Andes region of South America and the Himalayas region of Asia both have populations of humans who have resided at high-altitude (3,000-5000m) for thousands of years. These populations are well-adapted to the hypoxic conditions of the mountains, but curious…

Patterns of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Drug Use, Abuse, and Dependence

Sara Vasilenko (HDFS) PI and Xiafei Wang (SWK) co-PIPatterns of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Drug Use, Abuse, and Dependence Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with substance use, abuse, and dependence, making them an important public health concern. However, it’s…

Investigating the Role of Fish oil in Altering the Genetic Markers in Sperm of Obese Mice

Latha Ramalingam (NFS-NSD) PI, Investigating the Role of Fish oil in Altering the Genetic Markers in Sperm of Obese Mice Maternal obesity has been a primary focus in the study of early-life nutrition and children’s health. The effect of paternal…

Investigating the Complex Pathway from Environmental Adversity during Childhood (9-11 years of age) to Young Adult (age 18-20) Social Functioning and Behavior

Stefanie Pilkay (SWK) PI and Xiafei Wang (SWK) co-PI, Investigating the Complex Pathway from Environmental Adversity during Childhood (9-11 years of age) to Young Adult (age 18-20) Social Functioning and Behavior Based on a sample from the Syracuse Lead Study,…

Collaborator, Is Our Living Environment Safe? Longitudinal Changes of Neighborhood Crime, Maternal Parenting Stress, and Immigration in Fragile Family

Fei Pei (SPM) PI and Steve Dorus (BIO), Collaborator, Is Our Living Environment Safe? Longitudinal Changes of Neighborhood A robust body of previous studies discussed the cross-sectional relationships between various types of neighborhood factors and individual behaviors. However, research on…

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