Experts in language promotion, structural biology and extinction receive KU Research Achievement Awards

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas researchers expanding knowledge of language acquisition, protein structures and extinction have received this year’s Steven F. Warren Research Achievement Award and the KU Research Staff & Postdoctoral Achievement Awards.

The annual awards recognize outstanding unclassified academic staff, unclassified professional staff and postdoctoral fellows whose research significantly influenced their fields and expanded intellectual or societal insights. This year’s recipients:

• Kathryn Bigelow, associate research professor, Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, Steven F. Warren Research Achievement Award
• Scott Lovell, director, Protein Structure and X-Ray Crystallography Laboratory, Research Staff Achievement Award
• James Saulsbury, postdoctoral researcher, KU Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum and ecology & evolutionary biology, Postdoctoral Achievement Award.

The three will be recognized at a ceremony this spring along with recipients of other major KU research awards.

The Office of Research established the Steven F. Warren Research Achievement Award in 2006 to honor unclassified academic staff researchers. Winners receive $10,000 in research funds. The KU Research Staff & Postdoctoral Achievement Awards were established in 2018, with honorees receiving $5,000 for approved research or professional development activities.

Kathryn Bigelow

Bigelow is an associate research professor at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, a community-based translational research center under the KU Life Span Institute. Her work focuses on developing and evaluating technology and practices that support children’s language skills and social-emotional development. 

Her efforts touch numerous disciplines, which is evident by the wide range of agencies that have funded her work. Bigelow has received grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. She has also been funded by state governments and private foundations. Bigelow has been a principal investigator or co-PI on 20 projects and has published over 40 articles, co-edited three books and is the lead author on the Teaching Pyramid Infant-Toddler Observation Scale (TPITOS), one of the few tools that measures the quality of classroom environments as they relate to social-emotional development.

Bigelow is committed to translating her research into practice. While TPITOS is primarily aimed at educators, Bigelow has developed tools that can be employed easily by parents and caregivers. One tool is called Promoting Communication Tools for Advancing Language in Kids, an intervention that supports parents and caregivers in their interactions with infants and toddlers.

Another tool co-created by Bigelow is Talk Around Town. This mobile app uses the GPS on a parent or caregiver’s phone to deliver location-specific prompts with ways to increase language-learning opportunities for infants and toddlers.

Bigelow earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State University and a doctorate from the University of Kansas.

Scott Lovell

Lovell is the director of the Protein Structure and X-Ray Crystallography Laboratory, which is a core lab that determines the three-dimensional structures of proteins for academic and private-sector researchers. He has been the director since 2008. 

Lovell’s collaborative mindset has led to a highly prolific career. He has contributed to the work of more than 100 different researchers and experimentally determined over 700 protein structures during the past 15 years. Lovell has written more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and served as either a co-investigator or principal investigator on 13 different federally funded projects totaling over $6 million.

One example of Lovell’s collaborations includes a 12-year partnership with William Groutas, distinguished professor of chemistry & biochemistry at Wichita State University, and Kyeong-Ok Chang, professor in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University. Together they have used structural biology to guide the design of inhibitors that target proteins called proteases, which are a key component in viral propagation. Identifying how inhibitors interact with proteases has helped develop potential antiviral treatments for diseases, such as noroviruses and coronaviruses.

Beyond directly helping colleagues with their work, Lovell has contributed to the education of future scientists. He has trained more than 20 postdoctoral researchers and 60 graduate students on X-ray crystallography and protein analysis.

Lovell earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a doctorate in organic chemistry from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.

James Saulsbury

Saulsbury is a postdoctoral researcher in the KU Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum and the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. His work sheds light on how species adapt or succumb to extinction, especially in the context of environmental change. 

Saulsbury is an early career researcher whose published work in the field of paleobiology include contributions on topics such as the evolution of skeletons in marine invertebrates, long-term changes in the global center of species diversity, reconstructions of the biology and ecology of extinct animals, and the population dynamics leading to extinction. Saulsbury’s research contributions have also earned him a position as associate editor of Paleobiology, an esteemed peer-reviewed publication, as well as invitations to speak at institutions such as the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

While scientists typically evaluate patterns in the fossil record at the level of species, Saulsbury’s recent work attempts to go deeper by explaining and predicting paleontological phenomena from processes affecting populations of individuals. He recently led a study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in which he showed younger species are more likely to go extinct. While it was previously thought this would only be possible if there were intrinsic differences in species’ ability to resist extinction, Saulsbury showed how it happens through simple population dynamics: Species originate at low abundance and either go extinct or become abundant enough to resist future extinction.

In addition to research, Saulsbury also helps educate the next generation of scientists. He has taught several biology courses and started a new journal club in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, which helps graduate students stay up-to-date on the most recent findings in their fields.

Saulsbury earned a bachelor’s degree in integrative biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a doctorate in earth & environmental sciences from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.