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Contact: Christina Chapple
Date: 6/3/05
 
SOUTHEASTERN RECEIVES $359,257 IN REGENTS SUPPORT FUND GRANTS 
       HAMMOND – Seven Southeastern Louisiana University faculty members have received grants totaling $359,257 from the Louisiana Board of Regents.
       The Board of Regents Support Fund awards include a research grant focusing on ways of controlling the West Nile virus and the university’s first Awards to Louisiana Artists and Scholars (ATLAS) grant.
       Chemistry professors Jeffrey Temple and Michael Doughty will receive $89,408 to study “West Nile Virus Replication: RNA Polymerase Cloning, Mechanisms, and Inhibition.” Their proposal was one of 35 funded from among 179 proposals.
       Temple explained that West Nile virus uses RNA as its genetic material rather than DNA. “Typically, viruses enter into a host cell and use the host's replication enzymes to propagate themselves,” he said. “West Nile virus, however, makes its own replication machinery -- an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. After infection, West Nile virus uses the host's transcription and translation, or protein-making, machinery to make this polymerase, which then replicates the viral genetic material, repackages it, and sends it on its way to infect other cells.”
       Through the grant, Temple and Doughty, assisted by Southeastern undergraduate and graduate students, will study how the polymerase functions and, ultimately, how to inhibit its activity. 
        “The inhibition of the polymerase,” Temple added, “will keep the virus from replicating itself, eventually lead to its death, and, finally, its removal from the host.”
       Temple said the results of the three-year BOR-funded project will be used for a proposal to the National Institutes of Health or National Science Foundation for major funding to continue the project.
       Southeastern’s first ATLAS grant was awarded to English professor David Hanson. The ATLAS program supports major scholarly and artistic productions with the potential for national and regional impact. Hanson’s $45,625 grant was one of 14 selected for funding from among 50 proposals and was the only ATLAS grant awarded to a University of Louisiana System institution.
       Through a cooperative agreement with the United Kingdom’s Lancaster University, Hanson will use the funds to produce an electronic edition, “The Early Ruskin Manuscripts, 1826-1842.” The edition will make available for the first time the complete early writings of the British art and social critic John Ruskin. It will also assist Hanson’s participation in NINES, a project co-sponsored by scholarly organizations to build a publishing environment for integrated, peer-reviewed online scholarship in 19th century studies.
       Southeastern also will receive $75,027 in the “Education Enhancement” category for education professor Martha Thornhill’s proposal “Literacy and Learning: Reading in the Middle School Content Areas.” The proposal’s goal is to improve literacy skills and, ultimately, LEAP 21 and Iowa test scores.
Thornhill said the 13-month program will impact 96 teachers in the 14 school districts in East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington, West Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana parishes, and the cities of Bogalusa, Baker, and Zachary.
       Participating teachers, selected by the districts, will learn strategies for incorporating literacy across the curricula. They also will receive professional development opportunities through workshops and an online Southeastern graduate level education course, and will receive materials and supplies, including a set of four instructional DVDs and teacher’s manual. 
       Southeastern was awarded three grants totaling more than $137,000 in the undergraduate enhancement category. 
       College of Business professors will receive $56,571 to purchase 17 wireless tablet computers and presentation equipment. The state-of-the-art equipment will upgrade students’ communication and technology skills and assist faculty in classroom preparation and conference presentations. 
       The grant was awarded to Bobbye Davis, assistant dean of the College of Business, who collaborated with business colleagues Rakesh Duggal, Rick Simpson and Andrew Honoree, and Mike Asoodeh, assistant vice president for technology. 
       David Norwood, associate professor of physics, was awarded $55,026 to purchase equipment to enhance polymer characterization research for Southeastern undergraduates. 
       Norwood said the new equipment will directly impact research opportunities for undergraduate physics, chemistry, biology and math majors, as well as graduate students in the university’s multi-disciplinary program in Applied Science and Technology. The improved research capabilities, he said, will also enhance Southeastern’s connections to area universities with polymer research graduate programs and with local businesses tied to polymer and petrochemical industries.
       “It is our claim,” he said, “that we can help trade ‘brain drain’ for ‘brain gain’ by helping to keep talented students from Louisiana in Louisiana as well as drawing talented students from the outside.” 
       Chemistry faculty members Randy Belter, Debra Dolliver, and Sarah Weaver will receive $25,600 to purchase new computer software for eight gas chromatographs (GC) that were donated to the university by Kaiser Aluminum. The equipment, which will be used to analyze organize sample, will replace a 20-year-old GC system.
       “Thanks to Dr. Belter's efforts in securing the equipment donation and getting the grant for the software upgrade, the department now has equipment valued at approximately $230,000 that can used by faculty and students alike,” said Daniel McCarthy, interim dean of the College of Science and Technology. 
       In the traditional enhancement category, mathematics faculty members William Vautaw, Thomas Mark and Lucyna Kabza were awarded $12,000 for two years to strengthen the Department of Mathematics’ Colloquium Series, which invites prominent mathematicians to make presentations to students and to interact with department researchers.