Inside Rensselaer, February 5, 2010: Rensselaer Receives More Than $10 Million in Recovery Act Funding

Rensselaer Receives More Than
$10 Million in Recovery Act Funding

Rensselaer has so far received more than $10 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

“An important goal of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding is to promote economic recovery by investing in technological advances that increase economic efficiency, and promoting U.S. competitiveness in science, health, and other key areas,” said Francine Berman, Rensselaer vice president for research.

This recovery act funding, granted competitively through the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other funding agencies, is expanding the research portfolio of Rensselaer and advancing the Institute’s goal of innovating solutions to the grand challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. To date 35 ARRA grants have been awarded to Rensselaer.

“An important goal of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding is to promote economic recovery by investing in technological advances that increase economic efficiency, and promoting U.S. competitiveness in science, health, and other key areas,” said Francine Berman, Rensselaer vice president for research. “These goals are in strong alignment with the Institute’s mission of applying ‘science to the common purposes of life.’ The ARRA funding will result in work of high impact and great societal benefit.”

The ARRA was signed into law in February 2009, and has resulted in the largest increase in basic research funding in American history. The recovery act funding, intended to stimulate the domestic economy and invest in the nation’s scientific and technological prowess, is benefiting a wide variety of academic and research programs at Rensselaer. This funding will result in the advancement of ongoing research programs, the start of new research programs, the hiring of researchers, the support of graduate students, and the purchase of equipment and instruments.

Following is a list of ARRA grants recently awarded to Rensselaer:

Peter Fox | Constellation Chair and professor of earth and environmental sciences
Deborah McGuinness | Constellation Chair and professor of computer science
NSF | $1.1 million
A Semantic eScience Framework: Facilitating Next-Generation Data Intensive Science

Boleslaw Szymanski | Professor of computer science
Lee Newberg | Research associate professor of computer science
Malik Magdon-Ismail | Associate professor of computer science
NSF | $241,714
Citizens Science: Enabling Computational Probabilistic Methods for Organism’s Transcriptional Regulatory Network Using Voluntary Computing Platforms

Mark Wentland | Professor of chemistry and chemical biology
NIH | $90,000
Aminobenzomorphan: Potential Cocaine Abuse Medications

Jie Lian | Assistant professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering
Department of Energy* | $650,000
Actinide Material for the 21st Century

George Xu | Professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering
NIH | $224,092
4-D Visible Human Modeling for Radiation Dosimetry

Kristin Bennett | Professor of mathematical sciences
Bulent Yener | Professor of computer science
NIH | $170,789
Discovering Hidden Groups Across Tuberculosis Patient and Pathogen Genotype Data #2

Susan Gilbert | Professor and department head of biology
NIH | $114,000
Mechanistic Analysis of Microtubule Based Motors

George Makhatadze | Professor of biology
NIH | $598,158
Role of Helix Formation in Mediating Protein-Protein Interactions

Jonathan Dordick | Howard P. Isermann ’42
Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Robert Linhardt | Ann and John H. Broadbent Jr. ’59 Senior Constellation Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering
NIH | $596,994
An Artificial Golgi: Controlled GAG Synthesis and Screening

Blanca Barquera | Assistant professor of biology
NIH | $73,337
Na+-Pumping NADH: Quinone Oxidoreductase of V. Cholerae

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Department of Education | $226,529
Federal Work Study Program

Jonathan Dordick | Howard P. Isermann ’42
Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
NSF* | $150,000
STTR Phase II: Development of a Lead Optimization Chip for Drug Discovery

George Makhatadze | Constellation Chair and professor of biology
NIH* | $144,256
Structural Studies of Triple-helical Proteins

Badrinath Roysam | Professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering
NIH* | $ 369,992
Functional Activity Mapping on Brain Works

Robert Linhardt | Ann and John H. Broadbent Jr. ’59 Senior Constellation Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering
NIH* | $ 300,000
Characterization of Anticoagulant Heparin and Related Polysaccharides

Partha Dutta | Professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering
U.S. Department of Energy* | $161,485
Photoluminescent Coatings for PV

Awards marked with “*” are subcontracts from prime ARRA grants awarded to other institutions.
Visit www.rpi.edu/news/arra for a complete list and current total of ARRA funding awarded to Rensselaer. This site also includes information on how to apply for ARRA funds. For general information on the ARRA, visit www.recovery.gov.

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Inside Rensselaer, Strategic Communications and External Relations
1000 Troy Building, 110 Eighth Street, Troy, N.Y. 12180 or to leibat@rpi.edu.

Inside Rensselaer
Volume 4, Number 2, February 5, 2010
©2010 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

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