The Defense Threat Reduction Agency awarded $7.6 million to Joel Schnur, Monique van Hoek, and Barney Bishop (College of Science) to discover whether Komodo dragons, Monitor Lizards, and other reptiles in the crocodilian species have bacteria-fighting compounds in their blood that possibly could lead to new ways to fight infection.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded $3.2 million to Joseph Pancrazio (Volgenau School of Engineering), Theodore Dumas (Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study), Robert Smith (College of Humanities and Social Sciences), and Nathalia Peixoto (Volgenau School of Engineering) to develop and demonstrate a systematic process for screening new materials for implantable neural electrodes.
Marc Gopin (School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution) was awarded $2.7 million to work with international Islamic scholars and local Afghan imams to promote peace through Islam. Source of funding unspecified.
The Virginia Department of Education awarded $2.3 million to Michael Behrmann (College of Education and Human Development) to provide professional development training to Virginia special education teachers to improve services to students with disabilities and $1.4 million to produce and deliver accessible instructional materials for local educational agencies in Virginia that have students with disabilities.
The National Institute of Aging awarded $1.9 million to Kathy Richards (College of Health and Human Services), Nalaka Gooneratne (University of Pennsylvania), Stephen Moelter (University of the Sciences), Terri Weaver (University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing), and Amy Sawyer (Pennsylvania State University School of Nursing) to determine whether treatment of sleep apnea using continuous positive airway pressure, delays memory decline in elders with memory changes.
The National Science Foundation awarded $1.7 million to Claudio Cioffi-Revilla (Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study), Sean Luke (Volgenau School of Engineering), J. Daniel Rogers (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History), and Paul Schopf (College of Science) to better understand potential social effects of climate change using advanced computer simulation models, applied to sub-Saharan Africa and Northern Circumboreal regions.
The Virginia Office of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships awarded $1.7 million to Jonathan Gifford (School of Public Policy) to support research and education on policy issues associated with transportation public-private partnerships.
The Institute of Education Sciences awarded $1.6 million to Susanne Denham (College of Humanities and Social Sciences) to find out how preschool teachers help young children become emotionally competent and give them tools to assess emotional competence in the classroom.
