More than $10 million in grants generated since November
March 25, 2002
KALAMAZOO -- Western Michigan University generated more than $10 million in external funding during a four-month period that ended in February, according to a report presented to the WMU Board of Trustees at its March 22 meeting.
A total of $10,619,527 was received for the months of November and December 2001 and January and February 2002, bringing the total of grants received by the University since the July 1 start of the fiscal year to $28,738,979.
A number of grants exceeding $1 million were received during the period. They include the following.
A previously announced $2.1 million award from Varatech Inc. of Holland, Mich., to Dr. Michael Atkins, chairperson of the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, has provide 100 seats of SigmundPro and Sigmund 3d for Pro software which translates precise computer-aided designs into real world requirements of production;
A $1,595,464 award from European Pilot Selection & Training is being used by the College of Aviation to provide ab initio pilot training to EPST students at WMU's Battle Creek, Mich., aviation facilities. EPST screens, selects and arranges funding for prospective pilots headed for careers with European airlines.
A $1 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy to Dr. Clement Burns, associate professor of physics, will support his efforts to build a dedicated inelastic X-ray scattering beamline at the Argonne National Laboratory Advanced Photon Source.
The National Science Foundation awarded WMU researchers several grants for work focusing on the improvement of mathematics and science education. Dr. Christian R. Hirsch, professor of mathematics, received $502,878 to develop and evaluate student and teacher materials used in the
Core-Plus mathematics curriculum. WMU's Evaluation Center researchers Dr. Arlen R. Gullickson, chief of staff, and Dr. Jerry Horn, principal research associate, received grants for $445,664 and $117,982, respectively. Gullickson will use his funding to continue his work aimed at improving the nation's evaluation capacity in science and mathematics. Horn's grant will focus on student achievement and systemic reform in science and mathematics education.
Horn also received an award for $302,851 from Oklahoma State University to conduct a three-year program evaluation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Aerospace Education Services program.
Other grants received during the report period include:
A $527,018 award to David A. Guth, professor of blind rehabilitation, and Dr. John W. Gesink, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, from the Sendero Group LLC, to identify blind pedestrians' navigational needs, including the negotiation of complex intersections;
An award for $337,429 from the Michigan Department of Community Health to Dr. Sharon L. Anderson, director of the Center for Community Asset Building, to improve the educational achievement levels of students attending Benton Harbor (Mich.) Area Schools;
A grant for $270,124 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to Dr. Jan L. Bedrosian, professor of speech pathology and audiology, to continue her work studying conversational patterns of people with severe speech impediments who use alternative, text-based means to communicate; and
The previously announced renewal of a $237,475 grant from Seismic Micro-Technology Inc. to Dr. William A. Sauck, associate professor of geosciences, to provide educational software that processes and interprets seismology data and can produce two-and three-dimensional representations of the earth's subsurface.
Media contact: Marie Lee, 269 387-8400, marie.lee@wmich.edu