---
title: "Six UMB, UMCP Researchers Named MPower Professors"
date: 2023-11-17T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/six-umb-umcp-researchers-named-mpower-professors"
section: Articles
---
# Six UMB, UMCP Researchers Named MPower Professors

*November 17, 2023* — by [Maryland Today Staff](/author/maryland-today-staff)


> Professors Each Awarded $150,000 Over Three Years to Support Collaborative Work

*Founders Gateway JC 11082019 1262 1920x1080 — Six faculty members have been named MPower Professors for collaborative research that strengthens and serves the state of Maryland and its citizens.*

The University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: [MPowering the State (MPower)](https://mpower.maryland.edu/) has appointed six professors—three from the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and three from the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP)—as MPower Professors. The MPower Professorship recognizes, incentivizes and fosters collaborations between faculty who are working together on the most pressing issues of our time.

To be considered for the MPower Professorship, faculty must demonstrate collaboration on strategic research that would be unattainable or difficult to achieve by UMB or UMCP acting independently of one another and must embrace the mission of MPower: to collaboratively strengthen and serve the state of Maryland and its citizens.

MPower Professors will each receive $150,000, allocated over three years, to apply to their salary or to support supplemental research activities. These funds recognize, enable and support strong collaborations between faculty in the joint research enterprise between UMCP and UMB.

“Each of the six MPower Professors selected this year exemplifies a dedication to collaboration, innovation, and discovery,” said UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell. “They positively impact the lives of citizens in Maryland, across the country and around the world through their work to solve major challenges facing society.”

"Reaching across disciplines to tackle complex problems takes tireless commitment, dedication, and innovation. I’m so thankful to these six professors for demonstrating that we are stronger when we work together, and that addressing the grand challenges of our time requires thinking outside the box,” said UMCP President Darryll J. Pines.

The 2023 MPower Professors are developing advanced understanding of ways to improve programs and policies to support early parenting and child development; discovering emergent dynamic properties of complex systems at the interface of physics and biology; investigating interventions to improve substance use and other health outcomes locally and globally; maximizing the bioavailability of oral medications; researching ways to reduce aging-associated ailments such as cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes; and connecting engineering and clinical care to develop cutting-edge diagnostic and therapeutic methods for blinding and neurodegenerative diseases.

The 2023 MPower Professors are:


*Lisa Berlin*



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*Wolfgang Losert*



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*Jessica Magidson*



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*James Polli*



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*Steven Prior*



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*Osamah Saeedi*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Kinesiology](https://today.umd.edu/topic/kinesiology), [Physics](https://today.umd.edu/topic/physics), [Psychology](https://today.umd.edu/topic/psychology)


**Units:** [College of Behavioral and Social Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-behavioral-and-social-sciences), [College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-computer-mathematical-and-natural-sciences), [School of Public Health](https://today.umd.edu/topic/school-public-health)