News & Updates
NSF Director Dr. Panchanathan references EPSCoR in “The Hill” OpEd
National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan recently wrote an OpEd that appeared in the April 1, 2021 issue of The Hill, a news media outlet based in Washington, DC. In the article entitled “We need to strengthen and accelerate US science and technology progress,” Panchanathan recounted many of the advances and innovations as a result of NSF funding over the past 70 years. Of the NSF EPSCoR Program, he wrote:
COVID-19 Rapid Test Under Development at KU moving closer to Commercial Readiness
An at-home COVID-19 test developed by researchers at the University of Kansas is moving toward commercial production.
University-licensed compound selected as candidate against COVID-19
Kansas State University is continuing to help in the fight with a licensed technology against coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
University of Delaware Professor Juan Perilla is featured in the New York Times: If You Squeeze the Coronavirus, Does It Shatter?
Of all the pandemic questions bedeviling scientists, the one that Juan Perilla is asking might be among the strangest: If a shrunk-down hand were to squeeze the coronavirus, would it squish, or would it shatter?
Two new monoclonal antibody outpatient treatments for COVID-19 target older people and those with additional medical conditions.
Two new monoclonal antibody treatments for outpatients with COVID-19 are being tested at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Known as BRII 196 and 198 and produced by Brii Biosciences, these investigational treatments are both monoclonal antibodies designed to block the ACE receptor, the protein that enables the virus to enter human cells, in the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
WVU Public Health professor aims to better understand the needs of pregnant women with substance use disorder through telehealth data
Dr. Brian Hendricks, a research assistant professor with the West Virginia University School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology, is trying to better understand the needs of a historically underserved population in West Virginia — pregnant women with substance use disorder. Hendricks plans to explore telehealth utilization rates, barriers to use and the potential advantages for pregnant women with substance use disorder.
UH Mānoa startup among national solar innovation semifinalists
A University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa startup is shining in a national competition designed to energize U.S. solar manufacturing. Hawaiʻi Innovation Lab is among 20 teams representing 12 states that have been selected to advance into the semifinals of the American-Made Solar Prize, a $3 million competition funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Each team won $50,000 and will continue to the next phase of competition.
UMaine students’ curriculum design projects highlight past, present of the ‘Everglades of the North’
Two University of Maine undergraduates are designing place-based education materials and K–12 curricula about the Grand Kankakee Marsh in Northern Indiana as part of a National Geographic Society grant.
For Young Children, Talking is Teaching – how do new realities of social distancing and wearing face masks impact a child’s environment of quality relationships and language-rich interactions
The research is clear – talking is teaching. Parental responses to infant babbling can influence a child’s language development. Infants whose caregivers respond to what they think their babies are saying show an increase in advanced language sounds. However, research suggests by the time children are 2 years old, there is already a six-month gap in language understanding between children from higher-income and lower-income families, and by age four, the average child in a lower-income family might have 30 million fewer words of cumulative experience than the average child in a high-income family.