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Walter and Lalita Research Fund Announce Funded Projects

����Ƶ recently received a $1 million gift from Dr. Walter and Lalita Janke to establish the Walter and Lalita Janke Innovations in Sustainability Science Research Fund.

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����Ƶ recently received a $1 million gift from Dr. Walter and Lalita Janke to establish the , which will support faculty research that advances knowledge and applications relevant for improving environmental sustainability.

The fund is administered by the Center for Environmental Studies at ����Ƶ and promotes an annual competitive research grant program for ����Ƶ researchers. In this inaugural year, $70,000 in direct costs was offered to support advancing knowledge and applications in the following domains: renewable energy and energy efficiency, conservation biology, urban area sea-level rise impacts and responses, energy-wildlife interactions, and wetlands biogeochemistry.                                                                                  

The funded projects will provide support and training for student researchers; promote inter-disciplinary collaborations; develop momentum for additional external research funding proposals; and generate high-quality, publishable scientific papers.

The five funded projects for 2016 are:

• Myeongsub (Mike) Kim, Ph.D., assistant professor in ����Ƶ’s Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering, will receive $50,000 for “Microfluidics for Methane Production and Carbon Storage in Deep Underground Reservoirs.”
• Jessica Dell, a graduate student, and adviser Brian Benscoter, Ph.D., both in ����Ƶ’s Department of Biological Sciences, will receive $5,000 for “Do Shrubs Compromise the Resilience of Peatland Carbon Storage in the Florida Everglades?”
• Hongbo Su, Ph.D., assistant professor in ����Ƶ’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering, will receive $5,000 for “Monitoring soil and water salinity for South Florida by the integration of remote sensing observations and in situ measurements.”
• Matthew Sirianni, graduate student, and adviser Xavier Comas, Ph.D.,both in ����Ƶ’s Department of Geosciences will receive $5,000 for “The effect of increased salinity in peat soils from the Everglades: Implications for biogenic gas production and release under a sea level rise scenario.”
• Tiffany Roberts Briggs, Ph.D., assistant professor in ����Ƶ’s Department of Geosciences, will receive $5,000 for “Evaluating the relationship between beach morphodynamics and critical sea turtle nesting habitat in South Florida: Determining the potential implications of storm activity and sea-level rise.”

For more information on the Center for Environmental Studies at ����Ƶ, visit .

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