Institute for the Study of the Continents (INSTOC)

To honor the memory of Muawia Barazangi, we are seeking to raise funds for an endowment to exist in perpetuity to support research staff in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) at Cornell University.

Muawia Barazangi was a strong proponent for research staff -- noting that they are critical for Cornell’s success, but that they are under-resourced. Indeed, the number of research staff in EAS has grown in recent years and now exceeds 30, but there are no dedicated department funds to support these researchers.

To better support research staff in EAS, we propose to create an endowment (at least $100,000) to honor Muawia’s legacy and call it the Muawia Barazangi Scholarly Fund. As of this date, we have over $100k in pledges! Further gifts are welcome to grow the fund. Any size commitment is appreciated. You can make an online donation here (paypal, venmo or credit card) and here for other ways to donate (stocks, donor approved funds, check by mail).

The Muawia Barazangi Scholarly Fund fund will support research staff dependent upon soft money including postdoctoral scholars, Research Associates, Instructors, and Research Professors employed in Cornell EAS. Individual grants would be between $1000-$5000 to support professional activities or travel that are not otherwise supported. For example, funds could be requested for a small seed grant, travel to collaborate at another institutions (or bring a collaborator to Cornell), attend a professional development workshop, run an experiment, or support salary for 1-2 weeks so they can write a proposal. We note that researchers who are 100% supported by soft money cannot use their salary from NSF, NASA, or other grants to write new grants.

The proposals would be reviewed by a committee including the EAS Department Chair and INSTOC Director or their delegates. The total annual budget would approximately $4000-$5000 per year (depending on the size of the endowment and the payout) that could be distributed in multiple grants or a single grant, depending on the evaluation of proposals. There would be an annual deadline for proposals and applications will be accepted on a rolling basis, but we hope that not all funds would be distributed at once, so that there would be funds available for opportunities as they develop throughout the year.

Criteria for funding include:
-Scientific quality of the proposal
-Evidence that the proposed activities cannot be met with current funding
-Priority for people who had not been funded recently (repeat funding requests are allowed)
-Priority for funding to support salary to write proposals to NSF, NASA or other agencies
-Balance of disciplines (so the same research group or area does not monopolize funding)