OHIO announces 2024-25 Presidential Research Scholars

Ohio University has named five faculty members as the 2024-25 Presidential Research Scholars.

This year’s award winners are Matthew Cornish, Dustin Grooms, Loren Lybarger, Vishwajeet Puri and Ingo Trauschweiser.

Each year, the Presidential Research Scholars program recognizes faculty excellence in research, scholarship and creative activity. This program is targeted to OHIO faculty members who have garnered national and international reputations within their respective fields and who demonstrate clear promise for continued, significant productivity in their research/creative activity.

Each Presidential Research Scholar receives $6,000 to be used at the scholar’s discretion as an honorarium or to support their research or creative works.

This year, applications were sought for the category of Life and Biomedical Sciences and the category of Arts and Humanities. Two award recipients were chosen from Life and Biomedical Sciences (Grooms and Puri), and three were chosen from Arts and Humanities (Cornish, Lybarger and Trauschweiser).

Applications for the categories of Social and Behavioral Science and Physical Sciences and Engineering will be solicited in 2025.

For nomination and application deadlines and guidelines, visit www.ohio.edu/research/funding.

The 2024-25 Presidential Research Scholars

Dustin Grooms, Ph.D., AT, CSCS, is a professor of physical therapy in the College of Health Sciences and Professions and associate director of the Ohio Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute.

Grooms has pursued a research agenda centered around the interplay between the human nervous system, movement and musculoskeletal injury. His work has significantly impacted the fields that employ rehabilitation science, such as medicine, physical therapy and athletic training, by providing a deeper understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying musculoskeletal injuries and their rehabilitation. 

Vishwajeet Puri, Ph.D. is the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation Ralph S. Licklider, D.O. Endowed Professor in Diabetes in the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and the co-director of the Diabetes Institute.

Puri’s research is at the forefront of identifying molecular mechanisms and pathways involved in lipid metabolism and its impact on cardiometabolic diseases. By leveraging clinical studies, innovative mouse models, and collaborating with experts across different fields, his laboratory continues to make significant contributions to understanding and potentially treating conditions like obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. 

Matthew Cornish, DFA, is an associate professor of theater history in the School of Theater in the Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts.

As a theater historian who also works in the disciplines of performance studies, German studies and philosophy, Cornish makes contributions as a scholar and theorist. His work contributes to what is known about theater through archival research and critical analysis, while also intervening in how we conceive of drama and performance more generally. He is the author of the award-winning book, “Performing Unification: History and Nation in German Theater after 1989.”

Loren Lybarger, Ph.D., is a professor and chair of Classics and World Religions in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Lybarger is a religious studies specialist whose research has focused on how religion, nationalism, war, mass displacement, and state violence shape identities and demands for justice across generations. He has published two books examining these questions in relation to Palestinian experiences in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, "Identity and Religion in Palestine: The Struggle between Islamism and Secularism in the Occupied Territories," and in the United States, "Palestinian Chicago: Identity in Exile."

Ingo Trauschweiser, Ph.D., is a professor of history in the History Department in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Trauschweizer’s research focuses on strategy and policy, military institutions, civil-military relations, and the significance of war in American and European history and culture. His research aims to provide assessments of the past that allow us to ask probing questions in the present day, particularly on matters of national and international security and on war and peace. He is the author of the award-winning book, “The Cold War U.S Army: Building Deterrence for Limited War.”

For more information on the Presidential Research Scholars awards program, please visit the Presidential Research Scholars website.