Community College of Rhode Island Faculty Fellowship Program
The RI-INBRE Faculty Fellowship Program* (FFP) provides funds for Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) faculty interested in participating in a 10-week summer sabbatical, undertaking research or educational projects at the University of Rhode Island or Brown University. The research fields include cancer, environmental health sciences, neuroscience, and other biomedical-related fields. The anticipated outcome of this program is to increase the research activity of CCRI faculty, thus allowing them to relay advanced topics to their students.
*The program was formerly known as the Summer Research Sabbatical (SRS).
2023
The Faculty Fellowship Program project “Curriculum Development Grant” was awarded in 2023 to Dr. Christine Turenius-Bell, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Biology at the Community College of Rhode Island. Dr. Turenius Bell said “This fellowship allowed me to reflect more deeply on the potential of our students. Neuroscience is a scary word for many people. My goal in building these courses was to break down the content for our students so that they can see how amazing the nervous system is. It’s every kind of science – biology, chemistry, physics, engineering – all wrapped into one and I want students to experience it here at CCRI. I can’t wait for that first cohort of students!”
Summer Research Sabbatical (SRS)
2022 
Dr. Christopher Zoto, an Assistant Professor of Chemistry from CCRI was awarded the 2022 Summer Research Sabbatical (SRS) to conduct research with Dr. Fang Wang (ECD 2023-24) at the University of Rhode Island on the project “Biosensors for the Detection of Thiol-Containing Biomacromolecules via Cationic Aromatic Compounds.”
2021
Basile Panoutsopoulos, Associate Professor of Physics and Engineering, received the 2021 SRS. His interests in expanding resources and applications of Electrical Engineering and Mathematical Methods into Biomedical Engineering, brought him to his SRS mentor Dr. Walter Besio, Professor of Electrical, Computer & Biomedical Engineering at the University of Rhode Island.
2019-2020
Bruno Soffientino, Associate Professor of Biology at the Community College of Rhode Island was paired with his SRS mentor Dr. Rainer Lohmann, Professor of Oceanography, Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography. Their research investigated the microbial breakdown of medium-chain chlorinated paraffins in a microcosm experiment using marine sediments.
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