Dean's Faculty Update
2007-2008 IFAS Research Innovation Grants
Date: October 4th, 2007
From: Mark R. McLellan, Dean
To All IFAS Faculty:
The Florida Agricultural Experiment Station is pleased to announce $500,000 in research grant awards through the 2007-2008 IFAS Research Innovation Grants Program. The following principle investigators and their collaborators have been selected to receive these grants:
- Dr. Cortney Ohs – Indian River Research & Ed. Center
- Dr. Gurpal Toor – Center for Landscape Conservation & Ecology
- Dr. Lena Ma – Soil & Water Science
- Dr. Jason Smith – School of Forest Res. & Conservation
- Dr. Michael Scharf – Entomology & Nematology
- Dr. Maria Gallo — Dept of Agronomy
- Dr. Rosemary Barnett – Dept of Family, Youth & Community Sciences
- Dr. Lisa House – Dept of Food Resource Economics
- Dr. Xin Zhao – Dept. of Horticultural Sciences
- Dr. Garciela Lorca – Dept of Microbiology & Cell Science
As you recall, we asked our unit leaders to do the first screening of applications down to just one proposal to submit from each unit. Twenty six applications were forwarded to the Office of the Dean for Research. We, like the unit leaders, evaluated all 26 proposals based on the targets and criteria identified in the RFP. It was no simple job however we are pleased to announce the above awardees. The innovation program this year will support $500,728 in funded work. $458,728 in newly funded projects and $42,000 in continued funding commitments from last year. Additionally, $129,900 were raised by principle investigators in matching funds for the selected projects.
TO REQUEST TRANSFER of FUNDS: ALL principal investigators with IRB issues in their proposal MUST submit their project to IRB for review and approval. Funds will not be transferred until PIs submits written confirmation of IRB submission to the FAES business office in these cases. Confirmation of IRB approval should be also submitted when received. All PIs and appropriate unit fiscal officers should contact Judy Kite (jfki@ufl.edu) in the FAES business office to arrange for transfer of funds and to confirm in writing IRB submission.
Principal investigator Awardees and their co-PIs came from the following units:
- Indian River Research & Education Center
- Gulf Coast Research & Education Center
- Department of Soil & Water Sciences
- Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering
- School of Forest Resources & Conservation
- Department of Entomology & Nematology
- Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences
- Department of Microbiology & Cell Science
- Department of Food Resource Economics
- Department of Horticultural Sciences
- Department of Agronomy
- Department of Environmental Horticulture
- Center for Landscape Conservation & Ecology
- UF Survey Research Center, College of Business
- USFS Southern Inst. Of Forest Genetics
- Chesapeake-PERL Inc.
Our sincere thanks to the following 26 unit leaders that took on the burden of reviewing and selecting their unit’s best proposals. We know this was a difficult task and to all we express our thanks:
- Dorota Haman – Ag & Bio Engineering
- Chris Waddill – South West Florida REC (Immokalee)
- Chris Waddill – Everglades REC (Belle Glade)
- Edward Osborne – Ag Ed & Communication
- Jerry Bennett – Dept. of Agronomy
- Geoffrey Dahl – Dept. of Animal Science
- John Capinera – Dept. of Entomology & Nematology
- Harold Browning – Citrus REC (Lake Alfred)
- Nayda Torres – Family, Youth and Com. Sci.
- Jeff Mullahey – West Florida REC (Milton/Jay)
- Peter Stoffella – Indian River REC (Ft. Pierce)
- Charlie Sims – Dept. of Food Science & Human Nutrition
- Jack Rechcigl – Gulf Coast REC (Balm)
- Tom Spreen – Dept. of Food & Res. Econ.
- Charlie Sims – Food Sci. & Human Nutr.
- John Arthington – Range Cattle REC (Ona)
- Tim White – School of Forest Res. & Conser.
- Dan Cantliffe – Dept. of Horticultural Sciences
- Eric Triplett – Microbiology & Cell Sciences.
- Raghavan Charudattan – Dept. of Plant Pathology.
- Charlie Courtney – College of Veterinary Medicine
- John Hayes – Wildlife Ecology & Cons.
- Ramon Littell - Statistics
- Ramesh Reddy – Dept. of Soil & Water Sciences
- Terril Nell – Center for Landscape Conservation & Ecology
- Jasmeet Judge – Center for Remote Sensing
The following ten projects have been selected for funding by the Experiment Station:
- PROJECT TITLE: The Missing Link in Arsenic Transfer from Soil to Plant by Arsenic Hyperaccumulator Pteris Vittata L: Plant and Microbial Molecular Perspective
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
- Lena Ma, Soil & Water Science
- Max Teplitski, Soil & Water Science
- Bala Rathinasabapathi, Horticultural Sciences
- Charles Guy, Environmental Horticulture
- PROJECT TITLE: Map Based Cloning of AvrFr1 from Cronartium quercuum fsp. Fusiforme
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
- Jason Smith – School of Forestry Res. & Consv.
- John Davis - School of Forestry Res. & Consv.
- PROJECT TITLE: Biomass Conversion Using Termite Ligno-Cellulases: A commercialization pilot study using recombinant enzyme technology
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
- Michael Scharf – Dept of Entomology & Nematology
- Xuguo Zhou – Dept of Entomology & Nematology
- Aurelein Tartar – Dept of Entomology & Nematology
- Drion Boucias – Dept of Entomology & Nematology
- William Farmerie – Interdiciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research
- Marsha Wheeler – Entomology & Nematology
- PROJECT TITLE: Marker Discovery for the genetic transformation of plant mitochondrial genomes
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
- Maria Gallo – Dept of Agronomy
- Christine Chase – Dept. of Horticultural Sciences
- PROJECT TITLE: Devl. Of Asset/Deficit Profiles to Aid Retention of Rural Youth in their Agriculturally Relevant Communities
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
- Rosemary Barnett – Family Youth & Community Sciences
- Mark Brennan – Family Youth & Community Sciences
- PROJECT TITLE: Adoption of new food products: An Experimental Investigation of the Impact of Word of Mouth Advertising and Social Networks
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
- Lisa House – Food and Resource Economics
- Carmen Carrion-Flores - Food and Resource Economics
- PROJECT TITLE: Phenotypic components and molecular basis for grafting vigor in tomato
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
- Xin Zhao – Horticultural Sciences
- Jeremy Edwards – Gulf Coast REC
- Eric Simonne - Horticultural Sciences
- J.W. Scott – Gulf Coast REC
- PROJECT TITLE: Lactobacilli as live vaccines: Identification of new regulators and establishment of an animal model for the tight and temporal expression of epitopes in vivo
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
- Graciela Lorca – Microbiology & Cell Science
- Joseph Larkin –Microbiology & Cell Science
- PROJECT TITLE: Copepods: Dev. Of mass production and toxicity assessment protocols
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
- Cortney Ohs – Indian River REC
- P Chris Wilson - Indian River REC
- PROJECT TITLE: Linking Terrestrial Nutrients to Red Tide Incidences in the Tampa Bay
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
- Gurpal Toor – Gulf Coast REC
- Amy Shober - Gulf Coast REC
- Sabine Grunwald - Soil & Water Science
- Geoff Denny - Gulf Coast REC
- Chris Martinez – Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Mark R. McLellan
Dean for Research, IFAS
Director, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station
