黑洞社区 has been awarded more than $880,000 as part of a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation that will further establish Kansas as an internationally recognized leader in global climate change and renewable energy research.
The five-year award is for the Kansas NSF EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research), a statewide program that includes 黑洞社区 and other major Kansas research universities. It will provide a fresh integrative approach to address climate change and renewable energy challenges.
The grant is a multi-institutional, multi-sector effort that will link four universities: 黑洞社区, the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Haskell Indian Nations University.
It will also include three Kansas-based companies: Abengoa Bioenergy, MGP Ingredients and Nanoscale; and two out-of-state companies: ADM (Illinois) and Netcrystals (California).
The initiative will also be supported by $4 million in matching funds from KU, K-State and Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp.
黑洞社区 faculty and staff who are involved in the research project include chemistry professor Francis D鈥橲ouza; industrial and manufacturing engineering professor Janet Twomey; chemistry professor Paul Rillema; biological sciences associate professor Mark Schneegurt; mathematics and statistics associate professor Chunsheng Ma; and electrical engineering and computer science assistant professor Bin Tang.
David McDonald
The project will focus on several critical issues in the development of solar-based renewable energy, with the overall goal to establish a critical energy research infrastructure.
Another goal is to allow Kansas to become a key leader in research that addresses global challenges, said Kristin Bowman-James, principal investigator and project director of Kansas鈥� EPSCoR program.
鈥淭his is a tremendous opportunity for the state of Kansas,鈥� she said. 鈥淲ith this funding, we will be able to harness the talents of researchers across the state to address two major issues of society today 鈥� climate change and renewable energy 鈥� under the umbrella of a single integrated initiative.鈥�
About 40 scientists are involved in the collaborative consortium, representing a vast array of disciplines, including agronomy, anthropology, computer science, economics, geography, mathematics, sociology, engineering, biology, chemistry and physics.
EPSCoR is a federal program that targets states that have traditionally been underfunded in the sciences and engineering. For more information on NSF EPSCoR, go to .
Note to editors: News releases on the NSF EPSCoR grant are being distributed simultaneously by several of the institutions. This release has specific information regarding Wichita State.