Kansas State University

Fall 2015 Faculty Development Awards and University Small Research Grants announced

Submitted by Sarah Hancock

Faculty Development Awards and University Small Research Grants, or FDAs and USRGs, are awarded each fall and spring by the Office of the Vice President for Research.

Faculty Development Awards support travel expenses to present research, scholarly or creative work or a performance at an international meeting or to visit an external funder or sponsor. University Small Research Grants are seed grants to support small research projects, scholarly activity, and other creative efforts, and can cover student hourly assistance, small equipment, materials, services, computing or travel to a research site.

New faculty and faculty from disciplines with minimal outside support are given priority for both awards, as are trips or projects that enhance awardees' abilities to compete for extramural funding. Faculty Development Awards and University Small Research Grant funding comes from recovery of sponsored research overhead.

In the fall 2015 round, 39 Faculty Development Award proposals were submitted for a total amount requested of $87,326.47. University Small Research Grants proposals numbered 26, for a total amount requested of $108,725.81.

Fall 2015 Faculty Development Awards and University Small Research Grants awards totaled $84,736.56. Congratulations to all awardees.

Faculty Development Awards

• Andrew Casto, Department of Art, solo exhibition and lecture at Salvo Lanteri Gallery in Milan, Italy, $4,133.52.
• Harlan Weaver, Department of Women's Studies, "Shelter promises: Encounters in the ruff," European Society for Literature, Science and the Arts, Stockholm, Sweden, $3,951.
• Sam Bell, Department of Political Science, "Territory, power, and conflict," Jan Tinbergen European Peace Science Conference, Milan, Italy, $3,212.23.
• Julia Day, Department of Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design, EBC Annex 66: 3rd Expert Meeting of the Working Phase, Vienna, Austria, $2,709.62.
• Brent Chamberlain, Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional & Community Planning, "Using landscape visualization to inform streetscape design," Digital Landscape Architecture 2016, Istanbul, Turkey, $2,544.
• Juan Du, Department of Statistics, "Spatial functional modeling of weather change impact on corn yield in Kansas," 3rd Conference of the International Society for NonParametric Statistics, Avignon, France, $2,512
• Jin Wang, Department of Economics, "Do birds of a feather flock together? Platform's quality screening and end-users' choices," International Conference of Industrial Economics and Empirical Industrial Organization Workshop, Hangzhou and Shanghai, China, $2,480.
• Weixing Song, Department of Statistics, "Statistical inferences with Laplace measurement errors," International Conference on the Frontier of Statistics, Beijing, China, $2,458.
• Xiaochen Zhang, A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, "Effects of self-affirmation on publics' perception of crisis," International Communication Association, Fukuoka, Japan, $2,332.85.
• Nancy Muturi, A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, "Motivation for Obesity Reduction among Adolescents in Low-income Communities in Three U.S. States" and "Students' Perceptions about Diversity Issues in Public Relations," International Communication Association, Fukuoka, Japan, $2,187.70.
• Colene Lind, Department of Communication Studies, "How citizens use language to signal commitments in environmental decision-making," International Communication Association, Fukuoka, Japan, $2,185.
• Chad Miller, Department of Horticulture, Forestry and Recreation Resources, "Effects of pre-plant bulb soaks and basal root trimming on growth and development of three amaryllis (Hippeastrum) cultivars," International Society for Horticultural Science Flower Bulb and Herbaceous Perennial Symposium, Kunming, China, $2,000.
• Joseph Sanders, Department of English, "How historians actually work: Theorizing children's nonfiction," China-U.S. Children's Literature Symposium, Qingdao, China, $1,893.99.
• Dustin Headley, Department of Interior Architecture & Product Design, "How do we sketch with someone 1,000 miles away," "Investigating the digital/analog/cognitive collision through codified CNC mill watercolor painting," and "Research to practice," Architectural Science Association, Melbourne, Australia, $1,000.
• Julie Pentz, School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, "Tap To Togetherness: Building family relationships through tap dance," Ghana, Africa, $1,000.
• Bradford Wiles, School of Family Studies and Human Services, "Bringing engaged, applied, developmental research on child development to Ghana, Africa, $1,000.
• David Auckly, Department of Mathematics, "Equivariant hyperbolic corks," Fields Institute, Toronto, Canada, $747.

University Small Research Grants

• Alice Boyle, Division of Biology, "Dispersal and migratory connectivity of a declining grassland songbird," $5,331.
• Gretchen Sassenrath, Department of Agronomy, "Sustainable production practices for claypan soils in Southeast Kansas," $5,194.
• Jooyoun Kim, Department of Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design, "Breathable omniphobic nanoweb fabrication via electrospinning and plasma process," $5,000.
• Ruth Gurgel, School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, "'We can't afford to be colorblind: 'Culturally relevant pedagogy in music education," $4,883.
• Briana Nelson Goff, School of Family Studies and Human Services, "A 10-year follow-up study of 50 army couples," $4,500.
• Fransesco Orsi, Department of Geography, "Population density and the availability of green areas: Exploring spacial patterns in the 10 largest U.S. cities," $4,300.
• Kristin Malek, Department of Hospitality Management, "Fair and festival food safety," $4,259.40.
• Alissandra Stoyan, Department of Political Science, "The effect of constituent assembly reform processes on democracy in contemporary Latin America," $4,189.
• Jason Scuilla, Department of Art, International Artist in Residence, two solo exhibitions, and lecture in Venice, Italy, $3,750.
• Laura Valentin-Rivera, Department of Modern Languages, "Understanding the writing practices of Spanish heritage learners," $2,836.25
• Maureen Gorman, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, "Pilot studies of iron uptake mechanisms in insects," $2,147.

Many thanks to staff in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for their work administering these vital funding programs and to members of the review panel: Joel Anderson, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs; Marne Arthaud-Day, College of Business Administration; Marcellus Caldas, Office of International Programs; Adriana Gonzalez, K-State Libraries; Sarah Hancock, Office of the Vice President for Research; Dustin Headley, College of Architecture, Planning & Design; Timothy Keane, College of Architecture, Planning & Design; Michael Krysko, College of Arts & Sciences; Karen Large, College of Arts & Sciences; Mary Lou Marino, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs; Emily McLaurin, College of Arts & Sciences; Mervi Pakaste, College of Arts & Sciences; Julie Pentz, College of Arts & Sciences; Dana Reinert, K-State Olathe; Gurpreet Singh, College of Engineering; and Stephen Welch, College of Agriculture.