NEURO
HOME PAGE FACULTY COURSES RESEARCH
and GRANTS INFO
for STUDENTS
KECK
GRANT (Neuroscience
and the Humanities)
Faculty
Research and Grants
Allegheny College is fortunate to have a first-rate Foundations
and Grants Office that helps faculty identify funding sources for
projects, aids in proposal preparation, and provides assistance throughout
the duration of a grant. For the last five years the office has helped
bring in more than $7,000,000 in grants and in 1999/2000 alone brought
in over $2,000,000. Some recent grants from neuroscience faculty are
listed below.
Lee Coates, associate professor of biology and neuroscience
was recently awarded more than $98,000 by the National Institutes of
Health to fund a research project titled "Nasal CO2 Receptors and Sudden
Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)." This project investigates the role of
olfactory CO2 chemoreceptors in a ventilatory reflex that inhibits breathing
when CO2 is elevated in the nasal passages. Dr. Coates and his students
are investigating the changes that occur in this reflex during development,
using rats as an animal model.
Lee is also the director of
a recent W.M. Keck Foundation grant
($400,000) titled: "Ways of knowing and habits of mind: Exploring
the intersection between neuroscience and the humanities." The
grant will fund four new interdisciplinary courses: "Neuroscience and
Dance Movement," "Neuroscience of the Visual Arts," "Mind and Brain"
and "History of Neuroscience." In addition to funding the development
of the new curriculum, the grant will provide for technological equipment,
supplies for senior research projects, support for faculty and students
to attend professional conferences, and an outreach program that will
allow the College to more actively pursue presentations at other institutions
and regional schools.
Jeff Cross, professor of psychology and neuroscience is the
director of a recent grant from the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute. HHMI in conjunction with the National
Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, has provided
$600,000 to support the neuroscience program at Allegheny. Used to create
two new faculty positions in biology and psychology, this grant currently
funds a summer research program in neuroscience, laboratory equipment,
and a pre-college and career development program for minority students.
Alec Dale, professor of psychology and neuroscience was awarded
an NSF-ILI grant ($72,453) titled "Electrophysiology Research Workstations."
The grant enabled Alec to add laboratory experiments to his Health and
Psychophysiology course. With funds from the grant he was able to purchase
equipment to record brain waves, eye movements, muscle tension, skin
temperature, heart rate, respiration, and gastric waves during psychological
experiments.
Jim Palmer, associate professor of biology, environmental science,
neuroscience & director of Creek Connections has recieved recent grants
in support of Creek Connections' watershed and environmental education
program in western Pennsylvania. Grants have been received from: Frick
Educational Fund of the Buhl Foundation ($15,000); Grable Foundation
($110,000); The Nature Conservancy ($3,600); Anonymous Donor ($10,000);
Arthur Vining Davis Foundations ($150,000); PA Department of Environmental
Protection ($20,426).
Susan Rankin, associate professor of biology and neuroscience,
was recently awarded more than $300,000 from the National Science Foundation
to conduct research titled "Regulation of Reproduction in an Insect."
Rankin, collaborating with Allegheny students, is investigating reproduction
in earwigs. The research covers a variety of levels of biology and neuroscience
and will allow students to creatively propose their own hypotheses and
test them utilizing appropriate techniques that are of interest to them,
such as microsurgery, histology, physiology, biochemistry, development,
and immunology.
