Research excellence fund awards CMU faculty $600,000
Eight CMU professors received more than $600,000 the first week of February
for research projects.
The money was awarded by the State of Michigan’s Research Excellence Fund.
CMU has received money from this fund since 1985, said Jim Hageman, graduate
studies director and research assistant vice president.
“It’s given to universities all over the state,” he said. “It’s
aimed at enhancing the quality of research across Michigan.”
A committee consisting of CMU faculty, selected which professors receive the
money. Professors must submit an application to be considered for the funds,
and 15 applications were submitted this year, Hageman said.
“This is intellectual work,” he said. “If we’re going to
give education to students at the forefront of what’s going on, faculty
need to be involved in that work. It’s part of the educational process.”
Several faculty members on campus received money.
Michael Shields, economics department chair and professor; Yongil Jeon, economics
assistant professor; and David Whale, educational administration and community
leadership assistant professor, will study the efficiency of Michigan’s
public schools and how the surrounding community effects that efficiency.
“There’s a lot of discussion about efficiency of schools, but it’s
done without understanding what efficiency is,” Shields said. “It’s
important in the political debate. You get more for less if a school is efficient.”
Shields and his co-workers already began the first steps of the study. They
are planning to study the efficiency of schools in the Upper Peninsula.
“An efficiency study is conceptually very easy,” Shields said. “You
think of an ideal school consisting of the best characteristics of existing
schools. Then you look at actual schools and how they deviate from that ideal.”
After they measure how certain schools approach that ideal the group will study
how the surrounding community effects that efficiency.
The first steps of the study include data gathering and constructing a measure
of efficiency. The second step involves taking measures and doing analysis and
the third step involves communicating the findings with hopes of effecting school
policy.
“Research projects tend to be continuing and we’d like to get other
funds to continue our work,” Shields said.
Gary Dunbar, psychology professor, director of the Brain Research Lab and co-director
of the neuroscience program, will establish a center for Brain Research and
Integrative Neuroscience.
The center will be located in the new Health Professions Building and is expected
to be fully functional in three years, he said.
“It will provide an infrastructure with basic equipment for brain research,”
Dunbar said, whose research focuses on Huntington’s Disease. “We’ll
hire two new faculty who will work for the center. They’ll be hired in
the psychology department and will teach psychology and neuroscience.”
One new faculty member, Justin Oh, has already been hired and will begin July
1, 2001.
The center is important because it will help CMU compete with other schools,
Dunbar said.
“In order to compete for grant money and journal space, we need to find
a niche. We can’t expect to compete with other schools for resources. In
order to make our mark, we need to find a focus that we can work together on.
It will allow us to make a significant inroad into this area of research.”
Receiving the funds are important to the community, Dunbar said.
“One of the biggest supports we have is the community who has neurological
disorders,” he said. “We have several support groups for families
effected by Huntington’s Disease. They see this type of research as their
biggest hope.”
The funds are also important to Dunbar, personally.
“I look at it as the start of my career,” he said. “It is really
a big start to my research at CMU.”
Elizabeth Wheeler Alm, biology assistant professor, will study beach contamination;
Barkley Sive, chemistry assistant professor and David Shivley, geography professor,
will study air quality in Detroit; and Elizabeth Meadows, psychology associate
professor will study psychological disorders.
