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College of Arts and Sciences News
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College Doubles NSF Funding
Biological Sciences doctoral
student Tracie Ivy in the lab.
College of Arts and Sciences faculty were awarded close to $2 million in National Science Foundation (NSF) grants in 2004, almost double the amount awarded in 2003, and the College is poised to generate even more grant funding this year.  In only the first three months of the present academic year, College researchers have already been awarded $343,489 in NSF grants.  With several grants pending, and the grant application season just getting under way, the College office is expecting another record-breaking year for NSF grant awards.  According to Associate Dean Sam Catanzaro, "The NSF is the government agency given the mission to support and promote science, and it is one of the most respected scientific organizations in the world. Because NSF funding is so competitive, the growing success of CAS faculty in securing NSF funding highlights the quality of their work, and it constitutes significant recognition from their peers in the scientific community."

In 2004, NSF grants to the College spanned a variety of disciplines and all ranks of professors, including student awards.  For example, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry Jon Friesen was awarded an NSF grant for his work with cellular division and understanding cell growth in humans.  Associate Professor of Philosophy David Anderson was awarded a grant for his work on The Mind Project—a collaboration between students, teachers, and expert researchers that explores the mysteries of minds, computers, brains, and robots.  Anderson is developing interactive, on-line curriculum modules that introduce first- and second-year students to many different research methodologies used in the scientific study of minds and brains. 

Teaching initiatives garnered some of the largest NSF awards for College faculty.  For example, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Cynthia Moore was awarded a grant for her work with a project that trains and supports graduate students in science and mathematics to provide resources for middle and high school students and teachers.  Moore was also awarded a grant for a program designed to fund 10 graduate and 4 undergraduate fellows.

The National Science Foundation has also recognized students in the College of Arts and Sciences.  Tracie Ivy, Ph.D. candidate in Biological Sciences, was awarded close to $10,000 to fund her dissertation research with her director Professor Scott Sakaluk.  This Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (DDIG) supports Ivy’s project, Polyandry in Crickets: Disentangling the Genetic Benefits, which studies the evolution of female multiple mating in insects. The grant is one of only two NSF DDIG awards earned by a Ph.D. student at Illinois State in the last 20 years.
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