Professor Mark Levandoski Awarded Major National Science Foundation Research Grant

Jun 30, 2022

Professor of Chemistry Mark Levandoski conducting Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) research work in 2016 with Yangyi Liu ’18, (seated at computer), who majored in biological chemistry and English with a neuroscience concentration at Grinnell, and is currently in the fourth year of his doctoral program at Yale.

Professor of Chemistry Mark Levandoski has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Re-Entry to Active Research program grant of $123,674 (CHE-2204419) to help him reengage in his academic research after a four-year period serving as one of the College’s associate deans and interim registrar.

Levandoski’s research expertise focuses on the molecular pharmacology of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which play a key role in nicotine addiction as well as neurological conditions such as Parkinson's disease and attention disorders. NSF funding will help him to expand his skillset and apply new techniques to understanding the mechanism of the receptors by learning a computational research approach called molecular dynamics.

The grant will help support Levandoski’s travel to the lab of Stockholm University Professor Erik Lindahl, a Swedish neuroscience collaborator, so that Levandoski can get hands-on experience. Grinnell students also will benefit from being able to work with Levandoski in his campus research lab, and from his introduction of cutting-edge techniques like computational modeling, molecular dynamics simulations, and cryo-electron microscopy topics into his upper-level biophysical chemistry course.

“I am thrilled by this opportunity to launch a new direction in my research program, to involve students directly in addressing important scientific research questions, and to foster international collaboration,” Levandoski said.

Levandoski earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago, a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University for three years before joining the Grinnell faculty.

The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that works to promote the progress of science by supporting research and education in all fields of science and engineering. Re-Entry to Active Research (RARE) grants are given to highly meritorious individuals who are returning from a hiatus from active research. By providing re-entry points to active academic research, the RARE program reinvests in the nation’s most highly trained scientists and engineers.