Title : Directory of Awards - RIMI- FY92 Type : Dir of Awards NSF Org: EHR / HRD Date : March 22, 1993 File : dahrm921 1 Title: Directory of Awards - RIMI - FY92 Type: Dir of Awards Exposure: Public NSF Org: HRD Date: 03/22/93 Delete: none Replaces: none NEWS RELEASE NSF MAKES RESEARCH AWARDS TO MINORITY INSTITUTIONS Through the Research Improvement in Minority Institutions (RIMI) Program, the National Science Foundation continues to strengthen the research capabilities of colleges and universities with significant minority enrollments. In FY 1992, the agency's RIMI Program awarded 21 grants totalling $3.9 million to 16 different universities. Awardees were selected on the basis of a review process that involved ad hoc mail reviews as well as panel and administrative reviews and evaluations. Although the key factor in the review process was research merit, other facets were considered such as the soundness of the proposed research approach, and impact on minorities that are underrepresented in advanced fields of science and engineering. Those receiving awards are listed below: o The Department of Civil Engineering and the Department of Chemistry of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, will combine advanced immunoassay strategies for microorganism recognition with capable vapor sensors for on-line feedback in wastewater chlorination. A major result will be enhanced control of the balance between chemical pollution and biological pollution in water and wastewater treatment plants. This program will provide training for minority students in wastewater research techniques. o In the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, a research team at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, will continue its research in the analysis of electronic performance of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) circuits and will design, test and analyze circuits and implement on chip. Additionally the research, in which minority students will participate, will focus on damage of VLSI circuits by ionizing radiation. o A chemist and minority students in the Department of Chemistry at Hampton University located in Hampton, Virginia, will focus on the synthesis of a series of transition metal complexes that exhibit thermochromic (reversible change of color with change of temperature) behavior. Among the types of studies to be conducted on the products are ultraviolet, visible and infrared spectroscopy; x-ray crystallography; and variable temperature nuclear magnetic resonance. o A biochemist in the Chemistry Department at Tuskegee University located in Tuskegee, Alabama, will conduct research and will train minority students in biochemical research. The research will focus on the mechanisms in anemic adult rats that lead certain congenital anemias to produce levels of minor hemoglobins close to those seen shortly after birth. o A research team of engineers and minority students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, will conduct numerical modeling and other studies on solidification and continuous casting processes. The results of this research will help steel companies understand and optimize casting during solidification processes. o A research team in the Department of Biology at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, will lead a collaborative research program with researchers in the Department of Internal Medicine at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. The research will focus on the effects of sulfur blockers on a selected transition in yeast. Minority students will participate with other members of the team in research activities which include cloning, sequencing, characterization, purification, and morphological studies of genes. o A research team of engineers and minority students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, will conduct fatigue studies. They will test continuous fiber reinforced ceramic composites under fatigue at room and elevated temperatures in studying variations in fatigue phenomena with temperature. The effort is to thoroughly investigate the fatigue behavior of silicon nitride matrix reinforced with silicon carbide fibers. o Engineers and minority students at the Center for Excellence in Information Systems and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee, will study various problems of analysis and design of control systems subject to parametric uncertainty. o A scientist in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Texas at San Antonio will train minority students to use DNA sequence knowledge to identify subunit genes needed to reconstruct an acetylcholine (a compound that is released at some nerve endings) receptor from the human parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus. o Researchers in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso will train minority students to conduct research on an environment that has historically been subjected to contamination by heavy metals. They will examine the putative toxicological effects of these heavy metals on samples of the plants and animals characteristic of the heavily urbanized and industrialized El Paso/Cd. Juarez region in the northern Chihuahuan Desert. o Faculty members and minority students in the Department of Chemistry at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia will acquire a thermal analysis system. This system will support research conducted in the High Performance Polymers and Ceramics Center at the university. o A research team in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Howard University in Washington, D.C., will investigate four of the nine national needs for operating and planning efficient power systems. These have been identified by the Electric Power Research Institute and the National Science Foundation. The outreach component of the program will: i) provide pre-college minority students with a more systematic exposure to science and technology, ii) increase the research capabilities of minority college students, and iii) broaden the expertise of faculty participating in the research. o A scientist in the Department of Microbiology at CUNY/City College in New York City and a group of minority students will study DNA repair pathways, recovery processes, and enzymes important in complex cellular responses to biological damage similar to that produced by radiation. o Scientists in the Department of Biology and Geosciences at Texas A&I University in Kingsville, Texas, will examine a hypothesis of correlation between venomous predators (snakes) and venom-resistant prey. The proposed research program will include participation by faculty members and minority students. o Engineers in the Civil Engineering Department at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina, will conduct research that addresses the issue of predicting the probable subsidence resulting from underground excavation. The research team, which will include minority students, will focus on the constitutive properties of geological materials from excavations at the Yucca Mountain project with the aim of extending the findings to other sites. This project will play an important role in the data gathering and modelling aspects pertinent to the Yucca Mountain site. o A team of scientists and minority students in the Department of Political Science at the University of Texas at El Paso will collect data on informal economic sector activities (i.e., small enterprises, street vending, self-help housing construction, and businesses) in the El Paso - Ciudad Juarez area. The project will compare the effects of public policies on that sector also. o A research team in the Biology Department at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will establish a laser scanning confocal microscopy facility in the Department of Biology. This facility will enhance the research of the faculty and the training of minority students in research. o Engineers in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, will study the kinetics of the oxidation of phenols catalyzed by ultraviolet light. Phenols are classes of compounds that include 24 of the 129 priority pollutants listed by the Environmental Protection Agency. The results will aid environmental engineers in the development of photocatalytic oxidation techniques for water and wastewater treatment. The research team will include minority students who are majoring in engineering. o A team of researchers in the Department of Plant and Soil Science at Alabama A&M University located at the Normal Station of Huntsville, Alabama will study water quality, as well as physical, chemical and hydrologic properties of soil. Additionally, special emphasis will be placed on a mechanism proposed to increase entry of minority undergraduate students in environmental science specializations. o Researchers, including a group of minority students in the Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will develop a core facility for nucleic acid isolation and analysis in the Biology Department. o An engineer and a small group of minority students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of the District of Columbia will conduct research on the mechanical properties of blood vessels. Tests will include inflation, torsion, residual stress/strain determination, and strip tension. R:\NEWS.FY9