Six Troy University faculty and staff members have been honored with the Chancellor’s Award of Distinction in Sponsored Programs for their successful grant-writing efforts in 2017.
The presentations were made during the University’s 26th annual Sponsored Programs Recognition Luncheon held last month on the Troy Campus.
Dr. Chris Boyd of TROY’s Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, and Dr. Xutong Niu of the Department of Mathematics and Geomatics, were honored for their project “Living Shoreline Suitability Model Transfer to Selected Water Bodies with the Gulf of Mexico: A GIS and Remote Sensing Based Approach.” The project, funded through a $519,853 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Restore Act Science Program, seeks to identify where living shorelines are the most appropriate erosion control solution to protect shorelines at various sites along the Gulf of Mexico. Living shorelines are an infrastructure technique that makes use of native vegetation alone or in combination with off-shore structures to stabilize shorelines, providing a natural alternative to the use of stone or bulkheads.
Mary Griffin, TRIO director, was recognized for securing $1.161 million in funding over five years from the U.S. Department of Education for the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, which is designed to increase the attainment of Ph.D. degrees by students from underrepresented segments of society.
Dr. Govind Menon, director of TROY’s School of Science and Technology and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Physics, and Dr. Jacqueline Jones, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, were recognized for receiving funding for their 5-year project aimed at diversifying the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce within Alabama’s Black Belt Region. The Greater Alabama Black Belt Region Alliance was funded through a $379,400 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program in partnership with Auburn University. Students at partner institutions will receive benefits including scholarships, peer mentoring, free tutoring, research internships, travel to research conferences, collegiate success preparation, study abroad opportunities and access to enrichment initiatives and academic workshops.
Mark Salmon, director of the University’s Physical Plant, was recognized for a project that will extend trails along the perimeter of the Janice Hawkins Cultural Arts Park on the Troy Campus. The project was funded through a $200,000 grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.
In all, 189 faculty and staff members were recognized during the luncheon for grant-writing efforts pursuing more than $30 million.
“We’ve come a long way from when we gathered for that first luncheon 25 years ago,” Dr. Hawkins said. “That day, we commended 33 of our colleagues for receiving $1.2 million in funding. Today, we celebrate the tremendous growth of our Sponsored Programs efforts, but it isn’t all about the dollar figures. Life is about relationships, and it is through these Sponsored Program efforts to develop those partnerships that the impact of Troy University continues to grow and be felt in the communities we serve.”
