Penn State has launched a new Web site as part of its ongoing efforts to inform citizens about how federal economic stimulus funds are supporting research across the University. To date, Penn State has received more than $71 million in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), aimed at creating and retaining jobs, and making sure the nation has the human and technological resources for long-term economic and scientific growth. (more)
Technological advances in DNA sequencing make it possible to determine how living things are related by analyzing the ways in which their genes have been rearranged on chromosomes. However, inferring these evolutionary relationships from rearrangement events requires massive computing impossible even on the most advanced computing systems available today. (more)
Glaciers, water under the glaciers, seismic activity and robotic rovers are all part of three National Science Foundation Polar Program grants awarded to Sridhar Anandakrishnan, professor of geosciences, Penn State. The grants, which total nearly a million dollars, are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. (more)
Dinosaurs may be the focus of much Cretaceous fossil hunting, but a Penn State researcher and his colleagues are hot on the trail of fossil plants in Patagonia, Argentina, thanks to a $1.57 million grant from the National Science Foundation as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (more)
Penn State will receive two Department of Energy (DOE) grants that place the University at the center of the nation's effort to become energy independent and develop clean energy sources, according to an announcement made today (Oct. 16) by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter. The first grant provides $2 million to establish the Mid Atlantic Clean Energy Applications Center to promote adoption of clean energy technology by industry and government in the six Mid Atlantic states. The second grant provides $3.5 million to establish the Mid Atlantic Solar Resource and Training Center, aimed at developing the solar energy industry in the Mid Atlantic region through technical assistance and workforce development. (more)
How high blood pressure develops and the effects it has on the body are the focus of a two-part study under way at Penn State and Johns Hopkins University that will look at hypertension in the human body and in the laboratory. (more)
To date, Penn State researchers have won $51 million in federal stimulus funds to support initiatives that have the potential to create and retain jobs and encourage economic development. The University received the funds through a series of competitive grants from federal agencies as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). At least eight academic colleges and administrative units were participating in 98 projects funded entirely or in part by ARRA grants, according to Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School Eva J. Pell. (more)
Safeguarding business applications and infrastructure from cyber threats is the aim of "Collaborative Research: Towards Self-Protecting Data Centers: A Systematic Approach," a project recently funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Peng Liu, associate professor of information sciences and technology, was one of three researchers who received more than $1 million thanks to the stimulus bill passed by the U.S. Congress earlier this year. The award was made to Liu: Sushil Jajodia; George Mason University and Meng Yu, Western Illinois University. The award totals more than $1 million for three years. Penn State's portion is $500,000. (more)
Previous research has shown that siblings are powerful influences on each other's development and well being, yet sibling conflict and rivalry -- which parents say is their top stressor at home -- has largely been ignored by researchers. A pilot prevention program targeting fifth graders and their younger siblings, called "Siblings are Special," aims to enhance the quality of sibling and family relationships and thereby decrease risky behavior and use of drugs among youth as they move into middle school. The pilot program recently received $1.45 million from the National Institute on Drug Abuse as part of the National Institutes of Health's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. (more)
Jeffrey Catchmark sees the quest to unlock the mysteries of lignocellulose synthesis and assembly as one of the most important research pursuits of the next century. And the associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences is on a mission to find the key. Co-director of the university's new Center for Lignocellulose Structure and Formation, Catchmark is determined to help answer the long-standing question of how our civilization can produce food, fuel and fiber more efficiently and sustainably. (more)
