FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11/11/99
Contact: Pam Besel [email protected] 740-368-3933 or
Karen Learner '00
OHIO WESLEYAN SCIENCE DEPARTMENT RECEIVES GRANT FROM NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
DELAWARE, OHIO ó Four Ohio Wesleyan faculty members received a grant in the amount of $799,338 for their research on the degradation of bird feathers. This grant, which is the largest research grant ever awarded at Ohio Wesleyan, is one of eight grants that was awarded nationwide. Jed Burtt, department of zoology; David Lever, department of chemistry; Jerry Goldstein, department of botany/microbiology; and Jann Ichida, department of botany/microbiology, received the grant from the program on Collaborative Research at Undergraduate Institutions (CRUI), which is funded by the National Science Foundation.
The grant, which is distributed throughout four years, will support the work and research of nine students during the summer, four students during the academic year, who will serve as mentors to freshmen honor students, and four summer faculty positions. The grant will also support student travel to scientific meetings where students will present their work.
Burtt said that the importance of the research is the breadth of collaboration involved on the project and the level of student participation. Students have the opportunity to work out in the field right alongside Burtt and Ichida.
The $799,338 grant is the second grant received by the faculty members and will allow the faculty and students to continue their research on a bacteria in chickens which breaks up bird feathers. The first grant, awarded in 1995, was one of the first grants given out by the CRUI, which began in 1994. Eleven grants in total were given nationwide in 1995.
In a letter addressed to Burtt, William Gordon, program coordinator for the CRUI, wrote, "...Competition for funding is extremely intense these days, and the success of your proposal is a mark of high esteem for your work by your peers in the scientific community."
Research on feather degradation has extended beyond the Ohio Wesleyan campus. Secondary school teachers in Delaware are getting their students involved in the project as well as an OWU alumna in Pennslyvania, who learned about the research project through the OWU magazine and contacted Burtt, has her honors high school students involved in the project.
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