Success Stories

University of New Hampshire scientists have received three grants totaling $1M that will support research addressing urgent questions in soil sustainability and, ultimately, resilient food production in New Hampshire and beyond. The projects range from using state-of-the-art instrumentation to determine components that help build soil organic matter, to increasing soil microbes' ability to increase the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer, to understanding how plants extracts beneficial nutrients from soil organic matter. Funding sources include USDA and NSF.

A new video from Gravity Media Pro highlights the research and impact of Consortium for Research on Environmental Water Systems (CREWS) project, five-year, $20M NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1. Hear directly from project researchers and students and learn more about the project.

Biodiversity and Rural Response to Climate Change Using Data Analysis (Barracuda) – made possible through an NSF four-year, $4M (RII Track-2 FEC) grant – has partnered with the Upward Bound program at the University of Maine.

Upward Bound, a US Department of Education grant, creates opportunities for high school students from lower income and first-generation college-going backgrounds to gain academic skills as well as soft skills needed to prepare and be successful in college. Barracuda’s workforce development component focuses on the development of an interdisciplinary data science curriculum to build data skills in various areas such as ecology, specifically looking at high school students as they enter an undergrad program.

Louisiana State University researchers have created a cellphone app to track the coronavirus and alert people who might have been exposed to COVID. The GeauxTrace app uses the signal strength from Bluetooth software, which is common on most cellphones, computers and other devices, to assess the distance between cellphones. Users who were in the vicinity of someone who recently tested positive for COVID are informed of the possible exposure.

Lu Peng, an LSU electrical and computer science professor, began developing the app in January with a group of undergraduate and graduate students. It's part of an $888,642 grant from the NIH.

Each day, many of the products we use, whether we know it or not, are produced from natural gas or crude oil using carbon- and energy-intensive processes. But what if we could make those same products using CO2, thereby drastically reducing or even eliminating our carbon footprint?

That is the ultimate goal of a project being conducted by researchers from LOUISIANA State University and the University of DELAWARE, thanks to a four-year, $4M grant from NSF EPSCoR.

NIH has renewed its support of the Chemical Biology of Infectious Disease Center (CBID) at the University of Kansas with a five-year, $11.35M NIGMS COBRE Phase II grant. “This Phase II award is to strengthen and expand the KU scientific community that focuses on better understanding and treatment strategies for infectious diseases with integrated chemical processes,” said P. Scott Hefty, professor of molecular biosciences, COBRE PI. “The CBID Center is intended to bridge infectious disease and medicinal chemistry expertise to better address the public health challenges.”

New Idaho EPSCoR faculty member, Dr. Matt Williamson, received a $399,820 NSF grant focusing on ecological restoration. Williamson, new GEM3 hire at Boise State, is part of a team that will examine Indigenous-Led Ecological Restoration in partnership with Tribes of the Blackfoot Confederacy. This research examines how Indigenous groups navigate institutional and environmental legacies to restore ecologically and culturally significant species. The project investigates the complex relationship between biological conservation and Indigenous Peoples that can lead to innovative conservation efforts that support Indigenous ecological and cultural goals.

A facility designed to study soil at depths greater than anywhere else in the world will be built by University of Idaho researchers with support from an $18.9M NSF grant.

The Deep Soil Ecotron will enable scientists to conduct experiments on columns of soil up to three meters deep (about 10 feet). Currently, to study soils, scientists often dig pits, which destroys the soil systems as they are uncovered. Also, most research involves just the top 30 centimeters (roughly one foot) of soil. There is a lot to be learned by going deeper, said Michael Strickland, the project’s lead principal investigator.

Aimee Jaramillo-Lambert, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Delaware, has been awarded a $2M, five-year research grant from NIH NIGMS. The funding comes from the Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) program, which specifically supports early-career research. Her research investigates exactly how each sperm and egg cell gets the correct number of chromosomes in meiosis and the role played by certain enzymes and proteins in the process. She also studies the shape of the chromosomes, especially in sperm cells, which determines some processes as well.

There’s a new imaging technique that can help clinicians better assess breast cancer, and researchers recently received a grant to help further enhance its capabilities. Terahertz imaging utilizes electromagnetic radiation technology to produce highly detailed images of biological tissue. In many cases, it outperforms X-ray and CT at showing if surgeons removed all cancerous breast tissue during lumpectomy.

Magda El-Shenawee, PhD, an electrical engineering professor at the University of ARKANSAS, recently won a $424,000 NIH grant from the NIH to assess and enhance this technique.