Nine faculty receive $365,324 in UAH internal research funds

Dr. Ray Vaughn says UAH invests about $1.5 million annually in internal grant programs.

Michael Mercier | UAH

Research by nine faculty members at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has been awarded a total of $365,324 in UAH Individual Investigator Distinguished Research (IIDR) program funds by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development.

The grant support stimulates individual investigator research efforts at the university. The funds were awarded competitively on the basis of scholarly and/or creative merit, the potential for accomplishing the stated goals of the project and the potential for attracting further support.

"This year, we set a record with about 75 IIDR proposals being submitted," says Dr. Ray Vaughn, UAH vice president for research and economic development. "Unfortunately, I can only obligate limited funds to this program, so we were only able to fund nine proposals."

The faculty at UAH continues to impress me with their innovative ideas, their strong work ethic, and their willingness to work as a team.

A selection panel made recommendations for the grants. "I'm very appreciative of the work of the review committee; this was not an easy task," says Dr. Vaughn.

"This year, I accepted those recommendations and will be funding the top-ranked proposals," he says.

"The faculty at UAH continues to impress me with their innovative ideas, their strong work ethic, and their willingness to work as a team," he says. "I think the Huntsville community is very fortunate to have these researchers here and in support of government, industry, and the community in general."

Faculty receiving grants, their departments and their proposal titles are:

• Dr. Vladimir Florinski, Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research (CSPAR), "Towards a Common Computer Modeling Framework in Space and Geosciences."
• Dr. Junpeng Guo, Electrical and Computer Engineering/Center for Advanced Optics, "Integrated Surface Plasmon Resonance Spectrometer Biosensor."
• Dr. Jacob Heerikhuisen, CSPAR, "Enhanced Collaboration with SwRI to Combine Heliospheric Modeling with Spacecraft Data."
• Dr. Luciano Matkin, Biological Science, "Reproductive Incompatibilities as a Tool for the Biological Control of Insect Pests."
• Dr. Eric Mendenhall, Biological Science, "Utilizing GeCKO to Determine Breast Cancer’s Genetic Achilles Heel."
• Dr. Sarma Rami, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, "Precipitation Formation in Western Cumulus Clouds."
• Dr. Seyed Sadeghi, Physics, "Biological Sensing Using Time Correlated Single-Photon Counting of Emission of Quantum Dots in the Presence of Metallic Nanoparticles."
• Dr. Kunning Xu, Propulsion Research Center, "Understanding Nanomaterial Formation with Microplasmas."

"We invest approximately $1.5 million in internal grant programs at UAH each year,"Dr. Vaughn says. "This is important in order to provide internal investment for our research faculty, which will hopefully provide a return on that investment in terms of our overall research reputation."

While he’s pleased with the results of this program, Dr. Vaughn says he wishes he could fund more and he hopes some of those not funded internally will develop into proposals for external research funding.