Through a new seed funding opportunity supported by the OU Norman Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships, the OU Health Sciences Center Vice President for Research and the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture, two teams will each receive up to $30,000 to support interdisciplinary research at the intersection of health, well-being, and the built environment. This seed funding is intended to foster the creation and development of multidisciplinary research teams to tackle grand challenges at the intersection of these subjects and to increase the competitiveness of OU multidisciplinary research teams in gaining external funding.
Improving Nursing Home Dementia Care Outcomes Through Evidence-Based Building Design: Capturing Missed Opportunities is co-led by team leader and OU-HSC principal investigator Julie Gordon, DRPH, CPHQ, in the Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing, with OU Norman principal investigator Xiaobo Quan, Ph.D., in the Gibbs College of Architecture. Team members include Hongwan Li, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Hudson College of Public Health; Diana Sturdevant, Ph.D., APRN, assistant professor of research in the Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing; Kim Cassie, Ph.D., MSSW, assistant professor in the Anne and Henry Zarrow School of Social Work at OU-Tulsa; Javeed Kittur, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Gallogly College of Engineering; and Shakil Shimul, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Gibbs College of Architecture.
The Therapeutic Impacts of Virtual Reality Multi-Sensory Environments on Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Central Oklahoma is co-led by OU Norman principal investigator Negar Matin, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Gibbs College of Architecture, with OU-HSC principal investigator Anna Nguyen, Ph.D., RN, CPN, assistant professor in the Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing, and co-PI Yeji Yi, Ph.D., lecturer in the Gibbs College of Architecture. Team members include Steve Couch, M.D., neurodevelopmental pediatrician, and Kissy Heiskell, occupational therapist.
Congratulations to our Gibbs faculty members who received this grant!
Telesis, a journal produced by students in the University of Oklahoma Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture, has earned first place in the 2026 Douglas Haskell Award for Student Journals for its seventh volume, “Unfold.” This marks the fourth time the publication has earned recognition for excellence in student architectural journalism. It shares the honor with student journals from Columbia University, University of Michigan, and Cal Poly.
Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture congratulates Thinh "Henry" Duong, a master's student in the Division of Interior Design, for earning first place in the 2026 Robert Bruce Thompson Annual Student Light Fixture Design Competition.
Gibbs College of Architecture Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) Director and Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture, and Design (PLAD) faculty member Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., recently published a new book, Collective Yearning: Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli Art Museum.
