Faculty at Western Washington University’s Advanced Materials Science and Engineering Center have been awarded a three-year $970,000 National Science Foundation grant to continue their research into producing the next generation of solar panels.
Western Washington University Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Ken Rines has been awarded $35,000 from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement for use into dark energy and galaxy cluster research.
Supports Service Learning in Region’s Higher Education Campuses
The Corporation for National and Community Service has awarded a $500,000 Learn and Serve grant to Washington Campus Compact, based at Western Washington University.
The grant will support the Northwest Sustainability Initiative to increase habitat restoration and green-energy practices through service-learning opportunities by faculty and students in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields at higher education campuses in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
Western Washington University Associate Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience Janet Finlay has been awarded $372,735 from the National Institutes of Health to support her research into the neurobiology of schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a psychiatric illness associated with delusions, hallucinations, cognitive deficits, and poor social functioning. Current treatments for the disease include antipsychotic medications; however, cognitive deficits caused by schizophrenia are difficult to treat.
The Corporation for National and Community Service has awarded two AmeriCorps grants totaling $1.3 million to Washington Campus Compact, based at Western Washington University.
One grant, for $585,000, will support The Retention Project program at higher education campuses in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The second grant, for $775,000, will support Students in Service, a part-time AmeriCorps program.
Western Washington University Assistant Professor of Chemistry Clint Spiegel has been awarded a three-year, $390,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to research potential treatments for hemophilia A, a hereditary genetic blood disorder that affects millions of people around the world.
Western Washington University’s effort to be more active with its Federal relations agenda is reaping benefits, as the activities of Western’s administration and the leadership of the Associated Students have yielded positive results in Washington, D.C.
Western Washington University Assistant Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience Jacqueline Rose has been awarded $391,896 from the National Institutes of Health for use in her research into how experience creates change in the brain.
Western Washington University’s Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies will this summer send three students abroad on 10-month international learning projects as part of its Adventure Learning Grant Program.
The most recent grant recipients are Susannah Arnhart, daughter of Kirk Arnhart and Sherry Bess of Seattle; Kelsey Beckmeyer, daughter of Jim and Debbie Dumont of Walla Walla; and North Campbell, son of Kathy and Craig Campbell of Port Orchard.
The Verizon Foundation is helping to support the start of a new Community Language and Literacy Center established at West View Elementary School in Burlington by the school in partnership with Western Washington University’s Woodring School of Education.
The Verizon Foundation is providing $15,000 for the center. In addition, Skagit State Bank is providing $500.
The Center for Instructional Innovation & Assessment at Western Washington University has announced the availability of a limited number of summer grants for WWU faculty members who wish to use online tools such as tutorials, simulations and discussions to enhance their existing courses.
Summer teaching grants provide time for full-time faculty members to engage in projects that will result in significant enhancement of instruction. The following faculty members have been awarded summer teaching grants for 2010:
Liz Mogford (Sociology) recently was awarded a $5,000 Summer Research Grant from Research and Sponsored Programs to examine the cross-cultural conceptions of health and well being by extending the qualitative health mapping tool developed by WWU's Critical Junctures Institute to a rural Maasai village site in Kenya. Mogford is a fellow with the Center for Service-Learning's International Faculty Fellows Program and will be traveling to Kenya with other WWU faculty members and students this summer.
Faculty development awards of up to $1,500 (individual) and $2,500 (departmental) are available for the improvement of teaching, scholarship or creative activity or service.
Proposals should include a description of the activity, a budget showing contributions to the project from all sources and the amount requested. The total requested must include shipping, handling and tax expenses. Concurrent applications for departmental and individual awards for the same project will not be considered.
Clint Spiegel (Chemistry) recently was awarded a grant for $44,661 by the Research Corporation to continue his work on the structure and function of the bacterial ribosome. Understanding the molecular basis of ribosome function is important for understanding how genetic information is expressed and has direct implications in the development of novel antibiotic approaches.
John Gilbertson (Chemistry) recently received a Single Investigator Cottrell College Science Award for $44,965 from the Research Corporation to continue his work on developing environmentally friendly small molecules that mimic the biologically important enzyme nitrogenase. These target molecules are important in studying the production of ammonia (a necessary nutrient in growing crops that is responsible for feeding more than 40 percent of the world's population).
The fall quarter competition for International Seed Grants is now open.
The Center for International Studies offers the seed grants to assist Western Washington University faculty members in developing a new course or in revising an existing course that will feature international and/or comparative material and perspectives.
Two grants of $1,500 each will be awarded fall quarter for projects to be conducted during the winter or spring quarters of 2010. Funded project reports will be due 60 days after completion of project.
Oliver de la Paz (English) has been awarded a $1,500 award from the Grants for Artist Projects program of Artist Trust. The award is for purchasing a laptop computer to aid the creation of a poetry book manuscript titled "Grace Equations." The poems, biographical and theological in nature, are deep-rooted observations that wrestle with the speaker's new identity as a father in a world filled with strife.
The Alcoa Foundation has awarded a $15,000 grant to support a community partnership involving Western Washington University's Woodring College of Education, Sterling Meadows Mercy Intercommunity Housing and Shuksan Middle and Squalicum High schools.
Summer Teaching Grants are available to provide time for full-time faculty members to engage in projects that will result in significant enhancement of instruction. To be eligible for one of these grants, faculty applicants must be employed full-time by WWU for the 2009-2010 academic year and have a contract or a formal agreement of full employment with the university for the academic year following the grant period. Priority will be given to tenured and tenure-track faculty members.
Proposals are now being solicited for the 2010 WWU Summer Research/Creative Activity Grants. Successful applicants receive $5,000 paid as summer salary. Proposals must be submitted to department chairs by Oct. 6, to deans by Oct. 12 and be received in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs with the chairs' and deans' recommendations and rankings by Oct. 21, with notification of awards by Nov. 9.
Money is available for faculty development grants.
Proposals directed at the enhancement of teaching will have the highest priority, because there is often support for scholarship/creative activities or service from other sources, such as individual departments and Research and Sponsored Programs.
A Western Washington University sociology professor is studying the impact of military service on health.
"We're looking at people who served in the '80s and '90s," WWU professor Jay Teachman said. "Now these sort of form a baseline for the people serving in Iraq and Afghanistan for a better idea of what military service does."
Teachman has been awarded a $75,000 grant from the National Science Foundation American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
