With IBES funding, Marston and a team of Brown researchers made significant breakthroughs in quantum physics. 

“We demonstrated that theoretical predictions of non-trivial topology of inertio-gravity waves in the stratosphere can be seen in actual observations of those waves,” he said. “Such research may deepen our understanding of other wavelike phenomena in the climate system such as the Madden-Julian oscillation that affects climate globally.”

From this research, Marston said his team is in a better position to apply for other national grants. 

IBES funding allowed Jacobs to travel to South Africa and Cameroon to conduct research for her book project, which traces the history of the gray parrot since the 15th century. By incorporating economic, personal and environmental history, Jacobs explores the gray parrot’s ever-changing relationship with humans and the world around them. Since embarking on that journey, she has nearly completed a book about her findings and received multiple other research awards and fellowship offers.

Ibarra’s Catalyst Award supported his team’s research on weathering fluxes throughout the world, including work in the Philippines that refined previous measurements. “Previous work had not accounted for the big seasonal cycle that we see in the tropics associated with the Asian monsoon,” Ibarra said.

Since receiving the award, his group has published multiple papers and received additional grant funding from the Department of Energy.

Demuth’s award funded multiple site visits to Arctic communities in Russia and Alaska, which were critical to her first book, Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait.

“I was able to work in several archives and to interview a wide range of people, from Indigenous whalers during a gray whale hunt off the Russian coast of Chukotka to visiting reindeer farmers in Alaska,” she recalled, noting that her first book has made her competitive for other grants for her second book project.

Demuth appreciated how the awards support opportunities for scholars and with various environmental interests. 

Funded by a Catalyst Award, Kartzinel and postdoctoral researcher Bethan Littleford-Colquhoun leveraged CRISPR — a gene editing technology — to analyze wildlife diets faster than conventional methods. “We wanted to try a brand new technology to make this work involving forensic study of wildlife behaviors — something we can do in real-time,” Kartzinel said. 

He noted that Catalyst Awards differ from traditional funding sources, which can often limit creativity.