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May 2024 Grants and Awards

Enhancing Grapevine Nutrient Management for Sustainable Growth in the Mid-Atlantic Region

Principal Investigator:
Dana D. Acimovic
Research Associate
Alson H. Smith, Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$13,776

Sponsor:
Virginia Agricultural Council

2024 Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars

Principal Investigator:
S A. Ahmed
Professor
College of Veterinary Medicine

Total Anticipated:
$23,100

Sponsor:
Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc.

Implantable 3D-Printed Plant Sensors: Continuous Assessment of Nutrient Measurements in Corn Fields

Principal Investigator:
Azahar Ali
Assistant Professor
School of Animal Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$20,500

Sponsor:
Virginia Corn Board

Probing Early Dust Formation in the Universe via Stripped-En

Principal Investigator:
Christopher J. Ashall
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$14,969

Sponsor:
Space Telescope Science Institute

Women's Health in Ultramarathon Runners: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study

Principal Investigator:
James N. Casey
Assistant Professor
OB GYN
Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine Departments

Total Anticipated:
$3,814.24

Sponsor:
Wilderness Medical Society

Enantioselective Syntheses of Organoboron Compounds VIA Transition-Metal Catalysis

Principal Investigator:
Ming Chen
Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$685,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Exotic Woodboring Beetle Survey 2024

Principal Investigator:
Eric R. Day
Manager, Insect ID Lab
Department of Entomology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$2,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

2024 Investigation into the Control of Wireworms in Potatoes

Principal Investigator:
Helene B. Doughty
Extension Agent
Southeast District Cooperative Extension
Director of Cooperative Extension

Total Anticipated:
$3,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Irish Potato Board

Exploring How Artificial Intelligence Engineers Perceive and Develop Translational Ethical Competency

Principal Investigator:
Hoda M. Eldardiry
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$349,360

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

2024-2025 Fellowship - M. Ray

Principal Investigator:
Scott L. England
Associate Professor
Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$5,500

Sponsor:
Virginia Space Grant Consortium

Weed Management in Corn 2024

Principal Investigator:
Michael L. Flessner
Associate Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$21,738

Sponsor:
Virginia Corn Board

Weed Management in Soybean 2024

Principal Investigator:
Michael L. Flessner
Associate Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$27,500

Sponsor:
Virginia Soybean Board

Assessing Bat Acoustic Sampling for Maine 2024

Principal Investigator:
William M. Ford
Associate Professor
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment

Total Anticipated:
$13,062

Sponsor:
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

Renewable Energy Integration: Building Resiliency and Robustness through Data-Driven Modeling

Principal Investigator:
Serkan Gugercin
Professor
Department of Mathematics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$299,900

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Sit-and-Wait Pathogens: Consequences of Heterogeneity in Pathogen Exposure Dynamics for Environmentally Persistent Pathogens

Principal Investigator:
Joseph R. Hoyt
Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$2,838,849

Sponsor:
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Long Range Interactions with Cosmic Neutrino Background : Implications for Long-Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Program at DUNE

Principal Investigator:
Patrick Huber
Professor
Department of Physics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$4,400

Sponsor:
Universities Research Association Inc.

Use of Hybrid Tools to Model Risks of Advanced Nuclear Power Reactor Technologies Under a Changing Climate

Principal Investigator:
Jennifer L. Irish
Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$74,781

Sponsor:
United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with University of Maryland

Dietary Manipulation of Satellite Cell Bioactivities to Promote Repair and Hypertrophy

Principal Investigator:
Sally E. Johnson
Professor
School of Animal Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$650,000

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Survey of Freshwater Mussels at the 613 Bridge Crossing of Beaverdam Creek, Wise County, Virginia

Principal Investigator:
Jess W. Jones
Associate Professor
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment

Total Anticipated:
$8,466

Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Transportation

Ecological Impact Assessment and Mitigation Plan for Shoreline Stabilization at National Aeronautics and Space Administration'S Wallops Island Flight Facility

Principal Investigator:
Sarah M. Karpanty
Professor
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment

Total Anticipated:
$1,741,937

Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources

Fostering Collaborative Partnerships with the Eastern Shore Community College to Enhance Migratory Shorebird Conservation in the Virginia Barrier Island System

Principal Investigator:
Sarah M. Karpanty
Professor
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment

Total Anticipated:
$500

Sponsor:
Virginia Society of Ornithology

Development and Expansion of Disease Management Decision-Making Tools Across Multiple Soybean Regions

Principal Investigator:
David B. Langston
Professor
Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$14,816

Sponsor:
University of Kentucky Research Foundation

Investigating a New Corn Disease in Virginia

Principal Investigator:
David B. Langston
Professor
Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$19,155

Sponsor:
Virginia Corn Board

New Routes to Cloud Patterns Formation: Pseudoparabolic Ginzburg-Landau Oscillators and Data-driven Equation Discovery

Principal Investigator:
Honghu Liu
Associate Professor
Department of Mathematics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$198,875

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Interstitial Fluid Flow in Alzheimer's Disease Progression

Principal Investigator:
Jennifer M. Munson
Professor
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC

Total Anticipated:
$1,354,657

Sponsor:
National Institue on Aging

Eastern Virginia Agricultural Research and Extension Center Soybean Research Support

Principal Investigator:
Joseph C. Oakes
Superintendent
Eastern Virginia Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$12,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Soybean Board

Evaluation of the Effect of Protein Hydrolysate Biostimulants on the Growth, Nitrogen Content and Yield of Corn

Principal Investigator:
Guillaume Pilot
Associate Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$10,829

Sponsor:
Virginia Corn Board

Testing the Effect of Protein Hydrolysate Biostimulants on the Yield of Soybeans

Principal Investigator:
Guillaume Pilot
Associate Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$10,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Soybean Board

Utilizing Cover Crops to Offset Fertilizer Inputs for Corn in Virginia

Principal Investigator:
Mark S. Reiter
Professor and Director
Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$26,504

Sponsor:
Virginia Corn Board

Use of Natural Language Processing to Extract Risk Indicators for Immunologic Disease from the Text of Electronic Health Records (UNIITE)

Principal Investigator:
Nicholas L. Rider
Professor
Virginia Tech Carilion Healthcare Science
Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine

Total Anticipated:
$152,763

Sponsor:
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Virginia Behavioral Health Language Needs Assessment

Principal Investigator:
Cecily J. Rodriguez
Adjunct Professor
School of Public and International Affairs
College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$70,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services

Development of Disease Resistant Soybean Germplasm

Principal Investigator:
Mohammad A. Saghai-Maroof
Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$32,500

Sponsor:
Virginia Soybean Board

Enhance Cybersecurity Through Remote Plethysmography Targeting Diverse Population

Principal Investigator:
Abhijit Sarkar
Senior Research Associate
Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Total Anticipated:
$50,000

Sponsor:
Commonwealth Cyber Initiative

Virginia Space Grant Consortium Graduate Research Fellowship - B. Barbour

Principal Investigator:
Kevin K. Schroeder
Research Assistant Professor
Virginia Tech National Security Institute

Total Anticipated:
$5,500

Sponsor:
Virginia Space Grant Consortium

2024 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts - Academic Linkage

Principal Investigator:
Kevin A. Shinpaugh
Collegiate Professor
Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$6,500

Sponsor:
National Institute of Aerospace

Identifying Corn Xylem Fluid Nutrients Important for Microbial Phytopathogen Growth

Principal Investigator:
Ann M. Stevens
Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$17,240

Sponsor:
Virginia Corn Board

Understanding the Role of Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes in Multi-scale Porous Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics

Principal Investigator:
Carolina Tallon Galdeano
Assistant Professor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$3,500

Sponsor:
Virginia Space Grant Consortium

Understanding the Biosynthesis of Volatile Phenylpropenes with Multifaceted Values

Principal Investigator:
Dorothea B. Tholl
Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$650,000

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

International Conference of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria and Biocontrol 2024

Principal Investigator:
Boris A. Vinatzer
Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$25,820

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Image-Guided Histotripsy System for Complete, Uniform, and Non-Invasive Ablation of Heterogeneous Osteosarcoma Tumors

Principal Investigator:
Eli Vlaisavljevich
Associate Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$2,515,292

Sponsor:
National Cancer Institute

Stormwater Handbook Construction Best Management Practice Standard Detail Update

Principal Investigator:
Mark A. Widdowson
Professor and Department Head
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$25,200

Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

The Magic School Bus and the Reanimation of American Science

Principal Investigator:
Matthew Wisnioski
Associate Professor
Department of Science, Technology, and Society
College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$147,638

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Willebeek-LeMair Fellowship 2024

Principal Investigator:
Craig A. Woolsey
Professor
Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$5,500

Sponsor:
Virginia Space Grant Consortium

2024 Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace Principal Investigators' Meeting

Principal Investigator:
Danfeng Yao
Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$50,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Underwater Repair of Infrastructure Steels Using Additive Friction Stir Deposition

Principal Investigator:
Hang Yu
Associate Professor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$250,000

Sponsor:
United States Army Corps of Engineers

Building Airborne Inoculum Surveillance Networks for Improved

Principal Investigator:
Yuan Zeng
Assistant Professor
Southern Piedmont Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$21,115

Sponsor:
Virginia Soybean Board

Development of Improved Soybean Varieties and Germplasm Adapted to Virginia

Principal Investigator:
Bo Zhang
Associate Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$75,421

Sponsor:
Virginia Soybean Board

Advance the Soybean Breeding Scheme by Integrating Traditional Selection and Modern Prediction Methods

Principal Investigator:
Bo Zhang
Associate Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$63,818

Sponsor:
Virginia Soybean Board

Wrap up: Development of Soybean Varieties and Germplasm with High Protein Digestibility Using both Genome Editing and Traditional Breeding Methodologies

Principal Investigator:
Bo Zhang
Associate Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$18,792

Sponsor:
Virginia Soybean Board