Five UAH researchers receive nearly $200,000 for upcoming projects

Dr. Azita Amiri, assistant professor of nursing, received funding for her study on indoor air through UAH's Research Infrastructure Fund Program.

Michael Mercier | UAH

Five faculty members and researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) have been awarded with $199,037 from the UAH Research Infrastructure Fund Program (RIF), an initiative of the Office for the Vice President for Research and Economic Development (OVPRED).

"I am delighted to be able to support the fine work of our faculty and to seed their research efforts that show promise for additional external funding," says Dr. Ray Vaughn, UAH’s Vice President for Research and Economic Development. "I’m very appreciative of the work that the selection panel did to make funding recommendations given the many competitive proposals we received."

The researchers awarded, their centers and/or departments, and their projects are as follows:

• Dr. Susan Alexander, College of Nursing, "A Cloud Computing Platform as Information Technology Infrastructure in Multidisciplinary Environmental Health Research"
• Dr. Azita Amiri, College of Nursing, "Modular Clean Room: Studying Indoor Air Chemical Mixtures and Their Exposure Modules"
• Dr. Surangi Jayawardena, Department of Chemistry, "Acquisition of an Inverted Fluorescence and Bright Field Microscope for New Shared User Mammalian Cell Culture Facility Situated in Material Science Building"
• Dr. Chang-kwon Kang, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, "From Aeronautics to Biomechanics: Enhancing and Broadening the Research Capabilities of the ATOM Lab"
• Dr. Jeffrey Weimer, Department of Chemistry, "Acquisition of a Research-Grade Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer"

These five were selected from among 16 proposals submitted for funding. Each was evaluated by the RIF Review Committee, which comprises an associate vice president for research, a senior faculty member from each academic college, two members of UAH’s research staff, and a member of the faculty senate. The awards were then made by Dr. Vaughn based on the Committee’s recommendations.

Proposals were evaluated primarily on the scholarly merit of the research, how well the research aligns with university strengths, how likely the research is to receive outside funding, and the enhancement of research infrastructure that would result from funding. Based on these criteria, the five research projects that were selected for funding by the RIF are set to enhance the academic environment at UAH by improving infrastructure for future researchers and enhancing the university’s strengths as a research institution