One of several homeostatic systems controlled by the brain's hypothalamus region, body thermoregulation includes responses to fever, Griffin's specialty. The Career Award will further Griffin's investigation by allowing him to integrate new technology into the classroom and involve more undergraduate students in his research. The five-year award will have an immediate impact on Griffin's work in the laboratory, allowing him to employ several students over the summer. The project's goal is to examine paradigms predicting how sediments are cycled through estuaries. Assistant Professor of Chemistry Rob Hinkle 's research proposal also won the NSF's attention.
Molecules can have specific and defined geometric shapes.
He will use his Career Award to fund undergraduate and graduate research students and purchase lab equipment such as a gas chromatograph, which he uses to monitor and evaluate the success of reactions between compounds. Cindy Van Dover, Assistant Professor of Biology , will apply her Career Award to study biodiversity at hydrothermal vents a mile and a half below the ocean's surface. Volcanic activity often occurs at sites of sea-floor spreading, allowing seawater to react with hot volcanic rock. This reaction chemically alters the water so that bacteria and the animals that feed off them can prosper. Since her research is already funded by grants from the NSF and NASA, Van Dover will apply her award to including students in her work both in the lab and out at sea.