Research grants awarded to SD university faculty

MADISON – The South Dakota Board of Regents says six faculty members at state public universities – including three at SDSU – have been awarded competitive research grants totaling more than $438,000.

Paul Turman, the regents' vice president for research, says the grants will advance individual projects and strengthen the state's capacity for research and technology development. He says the six winners were selected from 52 proposals.

Turman says this is the eighth year the state has given financial support for grants to improve competitive research in South Dakota's public universities.

This year's grants were awarded to faculty members at the University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. The grants support research into cancer therapy, severe weather, electrical engineering and the effect of climate change on fish.

Four of the six research projects are newly funded. Two of the grant awards, to South Dakota State University researchers Qiquan Qiao and Katie Bertrand, fund a second year of their research projects. The research grants allow universities to acquire equipment, hire staff, pay faculty, and support undergraduate and graduate students.

The reseachers’ work at SDSU includes:

• Katie Bertrand, natural resource management – Year 2 Continuation Proposal: Will climate change influence population dynamics of native fish in Great Plains streams? Enhancing a modular experimental stream system to increase competitiveness and research capacity at SDSU; $49,629

• Qiquan Qiao, electrical engineering – Year 2 Continuation Proposal: Novel Polymers for Highly Efficient Organic Solar Cells; $50,000

• Cheng Zhang, chemistry/biochemistry – Design and Synthesis of Electro-Optic Chromophores for Spatial Light Modulation; $99,425