4-VA at Mason Collaborative Research Grants Awarded

Eight George Mason University researchers have received collaborative research grants from 4-VA for the 2019-20 academic year. Over the course of these grants, these faculty members and their teams of student researchers will work with their colleagues at other Virginia partner schools on projects that range from training student workers to supporting dementia patients in a memory intervention program to studying species resilience in tropical rainforests.

“These research grants are a key element of our 4-VA mission,” said associate provost Janette Kenner Muir, campus coordinator for 4-VA at Mason. “Through this program, we identify vital promising research possibilities and provide the seed money to get them off the ground.”

One critical component of the collaborative research projects is a focus on the partnerships formed between Mason faculty and the other 4-VA partner institutions—James Madison, Old Dominion, Virginia Commonwealth, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia. This aligns with the 4-VA mission “to promote collaborations that leverage the strengths of each partner university and improve efficiencies in higher education across the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

The Mason grant recipients and project titles awarded for the 2019-20 cycle:

• Melissa Broeckelman-Post (College of Humanities And Social Sciences), Communication Across the Curriculum: Creating Faculty Resources for Building Communication Skills in the Discipline
• Robin Couch (College of Science), Developing a Blood Test to Support Treatment of Surgically Induced Type I Diabetes
• David Luther (College of Science), Species Richness Resilience to Habitat Fragmentation and Restoration in Tropical Rainforests
• Jeffrey Moran (Volgenau School of Engineering), Toward T-Shaped Graduates: A Joint Capstone Program at the Nexus of Mechanical Engineering
• Vivian G. Motti (Volgenau School of Engineering), Human-Centric Privacy-Preserving Controls for Smart Home Devices
• Catherine J. Tompkins (College of Health and Human Services), The Implementation and Evaluation of a Student Ambassador Program for a Music and Memory Intervention
• Benoit Van Aken (College of Science), Molecular Biology Methods for Understanding Aerobic Granulation in Wastewater Treatment Systems
• Monique van Hoek (College of Science), Secreted Proteins of Francisella: A New Understanding

Established in 2010 upon the recommendation of the Governor’s Higher Education Commission and the Governor’s Commission on Economic Development and Job Creation, 4-VA is a partnership amongst six universities in the commonwealth. Each year, 4-VA grants are offered in four broad areas—collaborative research, course redesign, shared courses and degree completion. 

For more information, visit 4va.gmu.edu or www.facebook.com/4VAMason.