Active NSF Awards Top $1 Million

“These NSF grant awards recognize the level of critical discovery being led by St. Lawrence faculty,” said President William L. Fox ’75. “Our faculty are increasingly pursuing research grants in both science and humanities, with a significant increase in the number of proposals being submitted, and more importantly, our success rate for awards is better than ever.”

The $282,390 award will allow St. Lawrence to expand its current and future research, teaching and training in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. The grant will provide the funding necessary to purchase a Nikon C2+ spectral imaging confocal microscope, which will help support the research of 11 faculty and science professionals in cell and developmental
biology and ecology and evolution.

The equipment will be made available to St. Lawrence faculty and students as well as faculty and students from the Associated Colleges of the St. Lawrence Valley, which, besides St. Lawrence, includes Clarkson University, SUNY Canton and SUNY Potsdam.

For several years, a team of St. Lawrence faculty and students have been conducting research on cerium oxide nanoparticles, a compound which could have positive effects for neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson’s disease. They have presented their findings in academic journals and at academic conferences.

Joseph Erlichman, professor and a previous R. Sheldon ’68 and Virginia H. Johnson Chair of Science, said the new microscope will further advance research of cerium oxide nanoparticles as well as other research projects.

“St. Lawrence is the only institution in northern New York that offers free access to microscopy resources to all Associated Colleges students and faculty,” Erlichman said. “Our current confocal microscope, purchased in 2001, is reaching the end of its serviceable life. The new microscope will impact over 200 St. Lawrence students annually through courses and faculty/student research projects, including over 40 SLU students immersed in confocal research methods training and/or upper-level research activities.”

The project, titled “MRI: Acquisition of Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope for Research and Training in the Biological Sciences,” comes under the direction of Erlichman as well as Ana Estevez, associate professor of biology and psychology who also holds the Sarah Johnson ’82 Professorship in the Sciences, Cintia Hongay assistant professor of biology at Clarkson University, Michael Temkin, associate professor of biology at St. Lawrence, and Jill Pflugheber, director of St. Lawrence’s Microscopy and Imaging Center (SLUMIC).

In August, the National Science Foundation awarded two separate grants for projects led by St. Lawrence University faculty, both involving research changes in climate. The first, awarded to Associate Professor Alexander Stewart, will study leaf waxes preserved in lake sediments as a way to determine past precipitation in order to better understand future changes in precipitation. The second was awarded to Jon Rosales, associate professor of environmental studies, and Jessica Chapman, associate professor of statistics, who will study remote Alaskan indigenous populations, where babies are named after storms to remember those events. Together, with the assistance of student interns, they will generate a storm map by combining birthdates with an analysis of driftwood accumulations in order to substantiate claims by villagers that storms have intensified over recent decades.

Last year, the National Science Foundation awarded St. Lawrence $618,524 to create the Liberal Arts Science (LAS) Scholars Program, led by Chapman, to assist underrepresented groups pursuing STEM-related majors and careers.