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Four MSU profs receive National Science Foundation fellowships totaling $1.5 million

Four Montana State University professors received National Science Foundation totaling $1.5 million for their contributions to research, education and outreach.

The awards will cover salaries for three years, research expenses and graduate student work.

By MSU News Service

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/05/07/news/fellowshipsbzbigs.txt

"Our faculty is simply incredible, competing successfully with the nation’s best researchers and providing superb education on campus," said MSU President Geoff Gamble.

Linda Young of the College of Agriculture and Sarah Codd of the College of Engineering received NSF’s Advance fellowships.

James Becker and Joe Seymour, both from engineering, received NSF’s Career awards.

Young’s $379,000 award recognizes her work in economics. "I will use the NSF award to continue my research on international food aid and the impact of potential food-aid rules in the World Trade Organization," she said.

She is looking how selling food aid in developing countries’ markets impacts domestic prices and local production. The award also enables her to teach an undergraduate political science course on economic globalization.

Codd received $387,000 for her work as co-director of MSU’s Magnetic Resonance Microscopy Laboratory. The lab explores uses of high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in engineering applications.

"This award will allow me to continue a study of the molecular dynamics in colonies of bacteria, called biofilms," Codd said. "Biofilms are responsible for oral plaque and the persistent infections in catheters, medical implants and lungs. The use of novel MRI microscopy techniques will allow some of the vital questions surrounding the function of biofilms to be answered."

She co-directs the lab with Seymour, whose $400,000 Career award recognizes his work in magnetic resonance microscopy.

Seymour studies "the fundamental physical and chemical forces involved when small particles like cells move in restricted spaces," he said, and the award will fund a Ph.D. student to help with the research.

"Research of this type has broad application to areas as seemingly diverse as designing better medical devices … to designing bioremediation schemes to clean up contaminants."

Becker’s $400,000 award will fund five years of research and teaching on the need for low-cost power sources for millimeter wave and submillimeter wave frequencies. Such low-cost sources are needed to take advantage of this portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, often considered the most difficult to harness.

"such sources will find use in a variety of scientific, commercial and military applications," Becker said.

The educational portion of the project involves a collaboration with Salish Kootenai College to encourage more diversity among engineering students.

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