Contact: Jim Laird
STARKVILLE, Miss.--An innovative mini-grant program funded by the Office of Research and Economic Development at Mississippi State is bringing together researchers from around campus and across disciplines to foster cross-college collaboration, according to the university administrator overseeing the effort.
"We have a lot of good proposals and really good teams," said Ray Vaughn, associate vice president for research and Giles Distinguished Professor of computer science and engineering. "We are excited about the interest in the cross-college grant program and expect it to yield funded research proposals, which will make the initial cost well worth the investment."
A $2,000 grant to each of the 31 teams will support the initiation of new proposals, as well as help enhance multi-disciplinary collaboration of existing projects.
"As the state's flagship research institution, we are committed to growing our research portfolio for the benefit of every Mississippian," said Vice President for Research and Economic Development David Shaw. "We believe that investments like the cross-college research grants will help us achieve that goal by giving faculty members additional opportunities to share ideas and work together."
Participating teams, listed alphabetically by principal investigator with department information, proposal title and college, are:
--Carolyn Adams-Price, Psychology, "Stress Across Mid-to-Late Adulthood," College of Arts and Sciences;
--Stamatis Agiovlasitis, Kinesiology, "Collaboration between the Bio-Behavioral Laboratory and Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems," College of Education;
--Peter Allen, Wildlife and Fisheries, "Environmental Health Effects of Water Contaminants," College of Forest Resources;
--John Berry, Mechanical Engineering, "Brass Manufacturing," Bagley College of Engineering;
--Mark Bricka, Chemical Engineering, "Focus Group to Investigate the Environment, Human Health Impacts, and Disposal of Coal Fly Ash," Bagley College of Engineering;
--Kay Brocato, Leadership and Foundations, "Studio School Ramp-up Cross-Disciplinary Facilitation Project," College of Education;
--Daniel Carruth, Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, "Driver Behavior and Performance Working Group;"
--David Chevalier, Biological Sciences, "Understanding Heat Stress and Foliar Bleaching Mechanisms," College of Art and Sciences;
--Ron Cossman, Social Science Research Center, "The MSU Modeling Collaborative;"
--Islam El-Adaway, Civil and Environmental Engineering, "Education in Natural Hazard Management," Bagley College of Engineering;
--Yong Fu, Electrical and Computer Engineering, "Establishing Cross-College Partnership for 21st Century Smart Grid Research and Education," Bagley College of Engineering;
--Rebecca Goldberg, Counseling and Educational Psychology, "The Human-Animal Bond," College of Education;
--April Heiselt, Counseling and Educational Psychology, "Researching the Impact of an Online Counseling Library," College of Education;
--Nicholas Herrmann, Anthropology, "Taphonomic and Environmental Research Group," College of Arts and Sciences;
--Seong-Gon Kim, Physics and Astronomy, "Magnetic Materials for Nanoelectronics Research Group," College of Art and Sciences;
--Pan Li, Electrical and Computer Engineering, "Wireless Communication Working Group," Bagley College of Engineering;
--Tommy Morris, Electrical and Computer Engineering, "Mississippi State University Institute for the Prevention of Agroterrorism," Bagley College of Engineering;
--Nan Niu, Computer Science, "Information Foraging in Software Management," Bagley College of Engineering;
--Andy Perkins, Computer Science, "High Throughput Sequencing Cross-Disciplinary Research Group," Bagley College of Engineering;
--Tommy Phillips, Human Sciences, "Teen Pregnancy and Childbearing Research Group," College of Agriculture and Life Sciences;
--Mohamad Qatu, Mechanical Engineering, "Composite Materials and Structures," Bagley College of Engineering;
--Sam Riffell, Wildlife and Fisheries, "Sustainable Native Grass Based Biofuel Production Working Group," College of Forest Resources;
--Judy Schneider, Mechanical Engineering, "Materials Working Group," Bagley College of Engineering;
--Becky Smith, Economics, "Climate Literacy Partnership in the Southeast," College of Business;
--Jesse Tack, Agricultural Economics, "Interdisciplinary Modeling of Crop Yields," College of Agriculture and Life Sciences;
--Mary Love Tagert, Forest and Wildlife Research Center, "Water and Watershed Working Group," College of Forest Resources;
--Sheri Worthy, Human Sciences and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, "Understanding Consumer Vulnerability," College of Agriculture and Life Sciences;
--Carlton C. Young, MSU-Meridian, Division of Business, "Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Promote Wellness through Health Sciences;"
--Henry Wan, Basic Sciences, "Development of a Novel Computational Method for Influenza Vaccine Strain Selection," College of Veterinary Medicine;
--Stephanie Hill Ward, Animal and Dairy Sciences, "Dairy Focus Group," College of Agriculture and Life Sciences;
--Song Zhang, Computer Science, "Build an FIV-HIV Cat Model with Diffusion Tensor Imaging," Bagley College of Engineering.
For additional information about the cross-college grants, please contact Dr. Vaughn at (601) 325-3570 or vaughn@research.msstate.edu.