Faculty Grants Awarded

Fourteen NMU faculty members have been awarded grants of up to $7,000 for various research projects through the Faculty Grants Program. The program provides financial support for faculty research projects, scholarly activities, papers for publication, and creative works.

William Bergmann (History) has been awarded $2,922 to conduct final research for his manuscript titled Commerce and Arms: The Federal Government, Native Americans, and the Old Northwest, 1783-1815. Bergmann plans to make the manuscript into a publishable book during the summer of 2006.

Dwight Brady (Communication and Performance Studies) has been awarded $7,000 for the production of a one-hour television documentary titled “Michigan’s Renewable Economy.” The documentary will illustrate how entrepreneurs, government officials and citizen groups are working to increase energy efficiency in Michigan through renewable resources.

Stephen Burn (English) has been awarded $4,687 in support of two book projects.  The first, titled Understanding Jonathan Franzen, is a study of one of the most acclaimed American novelists of recent years. The second, Millennial Fictions: The American Novel in the 1990s, is a longer study of the changing shape of American literature at the end of the 20th century.

Brian Cherry (Political Science and Public Administration) has been awarded $7,000 for a “municipal management survey.” Cherry plans to survey members of the International City Managers Association who are from United States communities with populations greater than 10,000. The purpose of this survey is to explore a number of important issues with regard to governance of communities across the United States.

Sujay Datta (Mathematics and Computer Science) has been awarded $7,000 to publish an edited volume of papers on statistics in biomedical science. It will focus on four major sub-areas: clinical trials, epidemiology, survival analysis, and bioinformatics. The book will serve a dual purpose of helping biomedical science experts learn the basic concepts of statistics and familiarizing statisticians with medical parlance.

Ronald Johnson (English) has been awarded $6,977 to draft part one of a novel titled The Last Rodeo. This project will explore the experiences and values of three generations of ranchers: the first generation, which came to maturity during WWII; the second generation, who came to maturity in the 1960s; and the third generation, who are now coming into maturity in our contemporary period. The individual sections of this project will be submitted to editors of journals as separate stories.

Jill Leonard (Biology) has been awarded $7,000 for her project titled “Assessment of coaster brook trout movements and spawning activities in the Hurricane River and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.” Leonard will evaluate abundance and strain of brook trout via electroshocking, trapping, and PIT telemetry.

Alec Lindsay (Biology) has been awarded $6,960 to develop an integrative and comprehensive research program centered on advancing the understanding of common loon population dynamics. The project is titled “DNA variation, immunogenetics and mercury: genetically assessing the conservation status of common loons.”

Beverly Matherne (English) has been awarded $5,470 to complete research for a bilingual book of linked prose poems on Antoine Laumet de Lamothe Cadillac, founder of Detroit and first governor of Louisiana. Matherne plans to travel to Detroit to research the Cadillac Papers that are kept on microfilm in the Detroit Public Library. She will also visit Cadillac’s native village in France for field research on natural settings, architectural features, and customs.

Frankie Ann McCormick (Chemistry) has been awarded $7,000 for a project titled “Nonlinear optical materials based on propellanes.” The goal of the project is to prepare a novel class of organic molecules that are expected to exhibit nonlinear optical (NLO) properties. Ultraviolet/visible spectroscopy and experimental dipole measurements will be used to determine the NLO response of these molecules.

Marcus Robyns (Academic Information Services/Archives) has been awarded $4,286 in support of a historical research project titled “Marquette Iron Range labor history.” It will study the labor movement on the Marquette Iron Range between 1895 and 1946. It will also examine a thesis made by Terry Reynolds of Michigan Technological University that suggests company paternalism and competition from cheaper open-pit mining operations on the Minnesota Iron Range combined to discourage union organizing.

William Tireman (Physics) has been awarded $7,000 for his project titled “Investigating the soils in Marquette and Alger Counties for radioactive contamination due to the burning of coal.” This project will quantify the abundances of uranium-238, uranium-235, and thorium-232 in the soil using gamma ray spectroscopy.

Phillip Watts (HPER) has been awarded $7,000 for a project that will measure the physiological responses and energy expenditure of children during a rock-climbing activity. Exercise heart rate, oxygen uptake and energy expenditure will be evaluated continuously during traverse climbing on a structure specifically designed for young climbers. This study will provide foundation data upon which further experimental research may be based.

Robert Whalen (English) has been awarded $7,000 in support of The Digital Temple, a comprehensive electronic edition of the English verse of 17th-century poet George Herbert. This project will take advantage of current technologies to provide scholars, teachers, and students access to Herbert’s work, which has limited availability in printed form.