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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 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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• 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.
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Earlham
College · 801 National Road West · Richmond,
Indiana 47374-4095 |