Jan. 7, 2003
Contact:
Todd Cohen, University Relations, (785) 864-8858; or Ranjit Arab, University Relations, (785) 864-8855.
SIDEBAR: KU's FY 2002 research highlights
Scientists from the state's three largest universities will be able to develop research in the burgeoning field of proteomics -- the study of cellular proteins and their structures, functions and interactions.
The five-year, $10.1 million Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant from the NIH awarded to KU researcher Robert P. Hanzlik, professor of medicinal chemistry, will enable promising young scientists from KU, Kansas State and Wichita State to pursue their research. The grant also received matching funds from the KU Center for Research and the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp.
KU researchers received grants totaling $3.5 million from the U.S. Department of Defense for two projects that will help combat bioterrorism.
Researchers in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at KU received $1.5 million to establish the Center for the Stabilization of Vaccines. The scientists will develop stronger vaccines that are less likely to lose their potency as a result of temperature variations, making it easier for vaccines to be sent to American soldiers and civilians in remote parts of the world.
Researchers at the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center at KU received $2 million to create a Bio-Threat Initiative. The initiative will expand on current high-tech Web software the scientists developed to simulate and predict the geographic spread of biological agents -- whether natural, accidental or deliberate -- and determine the human populations at risk. By using the elaborate prediction models, scientists will be able to help emergency officials respond faster to a potential outbreak or attack and minimize the damage.
Faculty and staff at KU received three National Endowment for the Humanities grants in 2002 totaling more than $169,000 for education programs. KU was the only university in Kansas to receive NEH funding. The grants helped establish research projects including a collaboration with the Olathe School District to develop a course on East Asian studies; a six-week seminar for 15 college and university teachers on selected poems by 20th-century Spanish and Latin American authors; and a series of workshops for 15 high school teachers in Washington, D.C., on Toni Morrison's novels and literary criticism.
Eight KU humanities faculty members also won fellowships from four other prestigious organizations: the American Council of Learned Societies; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation; and the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. The four ACLS fellowships are an unprecedented number for KU faculty. In fiscal year 2002, KU received the same number of ACLS fellowships as Harvard and Princeton, and only Notre Dame did better, with five. Only 87 scholars from a pool of 925 applicants won the awards for research periods of six months to one year.
Scientists at the KU Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center are participating in a $12.25 million collaboration to study a number of pressing environmental problems, such as climate change, the spread of invasive species and natural resource planning -- as well as to advance basic research in ecology and biodiversity.
As part of a program funded by the National Science Foundation called SEEK -- the Science Environment for Ecological Knowledge -- KU and consortium scientists across the nation will use Internet and information technology to develop a network that combines biodiversity information on the world's animals and plants with ecosystem, climate and other data.
Early in 2002, KU joined the Lawrence community in celebrating the life and work of African-American poet, Langston Hughes. A $40,500 NEH grant provided KU funding to develop a Web site that served both KU's international symposium, "Langston Hughes: Let America Be America Again," and a national poetry project. The symposium brought several high-profile speakers to KU's campus, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker and actor/activist Danny Glover. Several symposium events, including lectures by Walker and Glover, were free to the public.
The Biobehavioral Neurosciences in Communications Disorders Center became the KU Schiefelbusch Life Span Institute's 13th affiliated research center with the award of a five-year, $3.6 million grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, or NIDCD. The funding allows KU to provide administrative, scientific and technical infrastructure to support current and future research projects on communication disorders at the Lawrence campus and KU Medical Center. The KU research center will be one of only 15 nationally the federal agency has designated and funded.
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