Fargo, N.D. – The Advance FORWARD project has awarded Jennifer Momsen, assistant professor of biological sciences at NDSU, a climate and gender research grant for her project, "Closing the achievement gap in STEM: Assessing the impact of a values affirmation task at NDSU."

Warren Christensen, assistant professor of physics; Erika Offerdahl, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry; Lisa Montplaisir, assistant professor of biological sciences; and Mila Kryjevskaia, assistant professor of physics, are co-principal investigators on the project.

The researchers will investigate the gender achievement gap at NDSU across a broad range of introductory science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses in biology, physics and biochemistry.

The FORWARD climate and gender grants are awarded to interdisciplinary research teams whose work addresses issues of gender in the academy. The goals of these grants are to develop interdisciplinary research teams, engage faculty members in research on gender and demonstrate the value of research on gender to a gendered institution.