UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee award inter-institutional research grants

Twelve hybrid teams of faculty from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) and the University of Wisconsin–Madison have been awarded the second batch of Intercampus Research Incentive grants, awards designed to foster inter-institutional collaboration.

The awards, announced today by UW-Milwaukee and UW–Madison, total $600,000 and will support projects such as testing new materials for improved lithium-ion batteries and investigating whether Lake Michigan is a sink or source for carbon dioxide. Each award, chosen from a pool of 60 proposed research programs, is in the range of $50,000 for one year.

The Intercampus Research Incentive Grants Program is an initiative to foster research projects and scholarship undertaken jointly by researchers at the two institutions. The program is funded by UW–Madison and UW-Milwaukee donors. Projects were selected by a committee of faculty and administrators from both institutions.

“Our researchers have outdone themselves,” says Martin Cadwallader, dean of the UW–Madison Graduate School. “We were so impressed by the quality and creativity of the collaborative proposals that we doubled the number we originally intended to fund.”

“Combining the research talents at both institutions can only help accelerate the rate of discovery,” says Johannes Britz, UWM interim provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs. “This new round of grants makes possible united inquiry into questions that will ultimately affect the quality of life for all people in our state. It makes sense to put our best minds together.”

Projects funded this year include:

• Nanoparticle-Daphnia Interactions: Identifying Biomarkers — Robert Hamers (Madison, chemistry), Joel Pedersen (Madison, soil science) and Rebecca Klaper (Milwaukee, freshwater sciences);
• Multifunctional Gold Nanorods for Targeted Cancer Theranostics — Shaoqin “Sarah” Gong (Madison, biomedical engineering), Weibo Cai (Madison, radiology and medical physics) and Doug Steeber (Milwaukee, biological sciences);
• Investigation of ABI-1 Function in Axon and Cell Migration — Christopher Quinn (Milwaukee, biological sciences) and Jeffrey Hardin (Madison, zoology);
• An EEG Triggered Robotic Stroke Rehabilitation Device — Ying-Chih Wang and Brooke Slavens (Milwaukee, occupational science and technology), Justin Williams (Madison, biomedical engineering), Vivek Prabhakaran (Madison, radiology), and Dorothy Edwards (Madison, kinesiology);
• A Novel Iron-Oxidizing Bacterium and Biocatalyst for Cathodic Reactions of Microbial Fuel Cells to Produce Bioenergy and Treat Wastewater — Zhen “Jason” He (Milwaukee, civil engineering and mechanics) and Evgenya Shelobolina (Madison, geoscience);
• Measuring and Modeling the Carbon Cycle of Lake Michigan — Galen A. McKinley (Madison, atmospheric and oceanic sciences) and Harvey Bootsma (Milwaukee, freshwater sciences);
• Effects of Sleep Deprivation on the Activity of Hippocampal Neurons and Cortico-Hippocampal Coordination — Kamran Diba (Milwaukee, psychology) and Chiara Cirelli, Giulio Tononi and Vladyslav Vyazovskiy (Madison, psychiatry);
• Integrating Policy and Science to Protect Beaches from Bacteria Contamination — Stephanie Tai (Madison, law) and Sandra McLellan (Milwaukee, freshwater sciences);
• R&D Electrochemical Microfluidics — J. Rudi Strickler, (Milwaukee, Freshwater Sciences) and Sundaram Ggunasekaran (Madison, biological systems engineering)
• Zebrafish Neurotoxicity Model for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome — Susan Smith (Madison, nutritional sciences) and Michael Carvan (Milwaukee, freshwater sciences);
• The Relationship between Magmatism and Tectonism — Dyanna M. Czeck (Milwaukee, geosciences) and Basil Tikoff (Madison, geology);
• Development of Novel Electrode Materials for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries — Ying Li and Junhong Chen (Milwaukee, mechanical engineering) and Marc Anderson (Madison, civil and environmental engineering).