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Recent Grants
Recent grant acquisitions demonstrate confidence
in the scholarship of Earlham's faculty and the value of an Earlham
degree. Both in terms of dollar amounts awarded and in disciplines
involved, this short list indicates a diversity in types of requests
made and awards received.
• In the summer of 2007, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Mark Stocksdale garnered a grant of $99,998 from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA). Funding for this competitive grant proposal, Uptake
Specificity of Synthetic Phytosiderophore Analogs by Graminaceous
Plants,
is the first Earlham has received from the USDA. Over the course of the
two-year funding period, Mark will work in tandem with Dr. George Davis,
associate professor of biology at Bloomsburg University. The research
project will make significant use of undergraduate student researchers
at both schools.
• Enabled by a $360,000 grant from
the W.M.
Keck Foundation in February 2007, Earlham College will
soon harness its impressive powers in science to develop multidisciplinary
curriculum modules and student-faculty research projects focusing
on metals in the environment. A team of nine faculty members from five departments joined in developing
the project: Michael Deibel, project director and associate professor
of chemistry; Corinne Deibel, associate professor of chemistry; John Iverson,
professor of biology; Michael Jackson, professor of mathematics; David
Matlack, assistant professor of biology; Ronald Parker, assistant professor
of geosciences; Charles Peck, associate professor of computer science;
Margaret Streepey, assistant professor of geosciences; and Lori Watson,
assistant professor of chemistry. Students will participate in collecting,
analyzing and interpreting data that will be integrated into
ecological and risk assessments for selected contaminated sites,
one on Earlham's back campus and the other at nearby Springwood
Lake, within the boundaries of the city of Richmond.
• In April 2006, Assistant Professor of Biology Peter
Blair was awarded a $164,400 AREA grant from the National
Institutes of Health for a three-year
research project with potential bearing on the development
of a malaria vaccine. He will initiate a program that puts biology
and biochemistry majors on the trail of incorrectly predicted
gene models currently present in the Plasmodium yoelii malaria
genome. The
process will begin with bioinformatic and computational
analyses of established large-scale malaria data sets. Peter
and his students will examine existing computer models in the Plasmodium
yoelii genome,
trying to locate potential errors in gene predictions,
and ultimately validating these findings using modern molecular
methods.
• In February 2006, Earlham was awarded a three-year grant beginning January 2007 from the Lilly
Endowment to continue support for “Sustaining the Theological Exploration of Vocation at Earlham.” This $500,000 grant will fund 1)
teaching faculty who wish to develop courses relevant to the connection between faith and vocation, 2) Campus Ministry and
Career Development Office initiatives such as retreats, workshops, speakers, and a Student and Alumni Mentoring Program, and 3)
the Newlin Center for Quaker Thought and Practice for a variety of programming including Leadings, a pilot program to help
alumni return to disciplined and supported reflection on their sense of vocation at critical times in
their working lives.
• In the fall of 2005, NAFSA:
Association of International Educators and the U.S. Department
of Education awarded
a $2,000 Collaborative Training Grant to
the Great Lakes Colleges Association’s Japan Study program based at Earlham,
Sister-Cities of Richmond, and the
Indiana-Morioka Exchange program at Connersville High School.
The grant
provides for the development of a host family orientation program
designed to advance intercultural competence among volunteer host families in
Richmond and
Connersville, Ind., welcoming annual delegations of students and
teachers from Daito and Morioka, Japan.
• In July 2005, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus
Foundation awarded
Lori Watson, assistant professor of chemistry, a $30,000 start-up
grant for her project titled "Reactivity of unsaturated
bisimido, phosphinoimido, and phosphineoxoimido transition metal
complexes toward alkene metathesis, hydrogenation and C-X bond
activation." One of only 10 awards nationwide, the funds
will be used to support summer stipends for research students,
chemical supplies, and to offset some of the cost of student travel
to national conferences to present the results of this research.
• In June 2005, Earlham, Colorado and Kalamazoo colleges
jointly received a $300,000 grant from The
Teagle Foundation.
The project titled, “A Value-Added Assessment Collaborative — A
Catalyst for Cognizance and Change” was one of only 13 collaborative
projects funded. As part of Teagle’s Outcomes and Assessment
Initiative, the colleges will gather empirical data and anecdotal
evidence into a picture of educational outcomes at the three institutions.
In addition to administering the Collegiate Learning Assessment
test, Earlham, Colorado and Kalamazoo also will hold student focus
groups and convene data sharing conversations to determine, according
to the schools’ project summary, “the value added by
our institutions to our students’ intellectual and personal
growth.”
• In the summer 2005, Earlham’s Joseph
Moore Museum received support for its educational outreach program
from the Borman
Family Foundation and the Wayne County Foundation. The
outreach program, led by Carol Stocksdale, provides an important
supplement to elementary and middle school science education as
more than 1,600 school children and their teachers visit the museum
each year. Stocksdale also has designed a presentation that
she can take into the classroom for schools that cannot provide
transportation to the museum.
• In
May 2005, Earlham was one of only two colleges to receive a grant
through the Independent Colleges of Indiana Foundation
(ICIF) from
the Ball Brothers Foundation — Ball Venture Fund initiative.
The $30,000 grant that Earlham received provides funding for seed
money for an Islamic Studies Program. Earlham’s planned Islamic
Studies Program looks to capitalize on some important first steps
the College has taken to introduce students “to the rich
traditions of the Islamic world” by enhancing professional
development opportunities for certain core faculty, providing mini-grants
to support the infusion of Islamic subject matter into a variety
of on-going courses, and adding a number of topical speakers and
cultural activities to the annual calendar of events on campus.
This innovative approach is the first of its kind in the nation.
• In February 2003, the Merck
Company Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement
of Science (AAAS) jointly awarded Earlham College $60,000
to support interdisciplinary research with students in chemistry
and biology during the next three summers. Earlham was one
of only 15 colleges and universities in the nation to receive
one of the prestigious grants. Four chemists and four biologists
at Earlham joined forces in writing the successful proposal,
which describes interdisciplinary research projects and ancillary
activities for summer research students. The research projects
range from the effects of pesticides on frogs to protein biochemistry.
The Merck/AAAS grant pays summer stipends for students and
some of the research costs. The funds also support a research
conference to be held each fall at Earlham. |
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