A UC Davis theoretical physicist studying the quantum nature of matter and a mathematician investigating the complexity of large datasets are the recipients of grants totaling more than $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program.

Funded by a three-year $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Distinguished Professor George R. Mangun, director of the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, is launching a project to better understand the cognitive mechanisms behind realistic voluntary attention, or attention directed by an individual’s free will. The project will be conducted in collaboration with engineering colleagues at the University of Florida.

An artificial intelligence model has successfully identified coronaviruses capable of infecting humans, out of the thousands of viruses that circulate in wild animals. The model, developed by a team of biologists, mathematicians and physicists at UC Davis, could be used in surveillance for new pandemic threats. The work was published in Scientific Reports.

A mathematician, a linguist, a chemist and a physicist are among this year’s cohort to receive Incentives for Large Grant Awards from the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis. The Incentives for Large Grant Awards program provides faculty with up to $80,000 in support over two years to pursue large grants over $1 million. “Large proposals require a significant investment of time and resources,” according to the Strategic Initiatives team behind the Incentives for Large Grant Awards program. “Often, our faculty are unable to pursue large grants because there is simply insufficient time to devote to proposal development and submission.” The Incentives for Large Grant Awards program aims to ease that difficulty.