Olivia DrakeAdam Jensen, research associate for the Astronomy Department, received a $68,012 grant from the Space Telescope Institute, AURA, for his research on “Definitive ISM Abundances through Low-mass X-ray Binaries as Lighthouses.” This research program will use 13 orbits of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observing time along with archival data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory to better understand the composition of the interstellar dust in our galaxy. One HST observation was executed in June, with additional observations to follow this fall. The project is funded through May 31, 2012.
Laura Grabel, the Lauren B. Dachs Professor of Science and Society, professor of biology, received a $28,750 grant from the Connecticut Stem Cell Initiative for a “Human Embryonic Stem Cell Core” outreach component. The grant is subcontracted with the University of Connecticut Health Center. Outreach activities include running a seminar program for Connecticut colleges and universities, and holding a workshop every summer at the UConn Health Center.
The Green Street Arts Center received a $5,000 grant from Pratt & Whitney to support the After School Program in 2011.
The Brown Foundation awarded $10,000 to the Women’s Ice Hockey Program and Wesleyan Fund for Excellence - Cardinal Scholarship for fiscal year 2011.
Ann Burke, professor of biology, received a $5,700 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, to support a symposium on “Evolution and Development in the Lateral Plate Mesoderm.” This symposium was part of the program of the Ninth International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology held July 26-31 in Punta del Esta, Uruguay. The funds supported the housing and registration costs for six invited speakers. The symposium brought together paleontologists, developmental and evolutionary biologists to discuss major morphological innovations occurring in the lateral plate mesoderm.
Erika Fowler, assistant professor of government, received a $25,000 grant from the Sunlight Foundation to develop a public database that tracks all advertising by source in the 2010 US Senate and US House Campaigns. The grant will be awarded through June 30, 2011.
Connie Leidy, assistant professor of mathematics, received a $18,900 grant from the National Science Foundation for a workshop on “Knot Concordance and Homology Cobordism.” The grant, awarded July 6, supported a conference held July 19-23 at Wesleyan.
Olivia DrakeBrian Northrop, assistant professor of chemistry, received a $100,000 American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund grant for his project titled “Dynamic Assembly of Porous Boronate Ester Macromolecules.” The grant will be applied July 1 through Aug. 31, 2012.
The Center for the Arts received six grants worth a total of $30,300 from the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) to support five visiting dance engagements and a jazz performance in 2011-12. NEFA is supporting Vincent Mantsoe; the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange’s “The Matter of Origins;” Eiko & Koma; Viver Brazill; the San Francisco-based hula company Halau ’o Keikiali’i; and jazz musician Charles Lloyd.
Robert Lane, associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, received a grant worth $1,796,029 from the National Institutes of Health to support his research on “Mutually Exclusive Odorant Receptor Regulation. The grant supports the study through April 30, 2015.
The Green Street Arts Center received a grant from the Wallis Foundation to support its Afterschool Musical Mentors program. The $15,000 award was funded May 14
Wesleyan’s Prison Education Program at Cheshire Correctional Institution received a $5,000 gift from the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. The award date was May 2.