WKU News & Events

March 29, 2002

WKU Projects Receive Research
Enhancement Grants

Bowling Green, Ky. - Six Western Kentucky University faculty members have received awards totaling more than $120,000 in the Kentucky NSF EPSCoR Research Enhancement Grants competition.

Of the seven full $25,000 awards made to universities in Kentucky, researchers in Western's College of Science and Engineering received three of them. The Research Enhancement Grants provide valuable seed money to support and encourage science and technology research and often supplement existing grants to move the state's research agenda forward.

The National Science Foundation established the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) in the late 1970s to balance the geographical distribution of federal research funds.

The goal of the Kentucky NSF EPSCoR Research Enhancement Grant Program is to encourage talented faculty to remain in the Kentucky education system and to strengthen undergraduate teaching and research in the areas of science and technology.

WKU faculty members receiving awards are:

Dr. Michael Carini, Physics and Astronomy, "Photometric Monitoring of BI Lacertae Objects," $10,173.

Dr. Bonnie Furman, Biology, "Resurgence of Elk (Cervus Elaphus) in Kentucky: PCR-Based Standards for Long-Term Population Monitoring and Use in Law Enforcement," $25,000.

Dr. Sigrid Jacobshagen, Biology, "Circadian Output Pathways Studies in Chlamydomonas," $13,439.

Dr. Doug McElroy, Biology, "Spectral Sensitivity and Tuning of ERG b- and d- Waves in Lake Malawi Cichlid Fishes," $25,000.

Dr. Ralph Salvatore, Chemistry, "Cesium Base Promoted Chemoselective P-Alkylations for the Generally Efficient Synthesis of Substituted Phosphines," $25,000.

Dr. Young-Seok Shon, Chemistry, "Synthesis and Technological Applications of Functionalized Dendritic Nanocapsule," $22,450.

For more information on the grants program, click on http://www.ccs.uky.edu/epscor/funding.html

For more on the statewide EPSCoR program, click on http://www.kyepscor.org/

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