2008-09 Seed Grant Program Funded Abstracts & Final Reports
The purpose of this program is to provide the College of Agricultural Sciences faculty and field-based educators with the resources (research, extension, and instruction) to develop collaborative teams and/or preliminary information in new or expanding arenas of granting opportunity. These grants are intended to permit faculty to develop the linkages and data to enhance competitiveness for additional external funding. Funding for this program came from research, extension, and teaching sources.
The College received 68 grant proposals, from which 19 projects were funded for a total of $232,098. Successful investigators will submit a progress report of their project activities by November 15, 2009, and they have also agreed as a condition of these grants to develop a proposal for external funding in 2009-2010.
Ag & Extension Education
- Economic Impact and Teachable Moments Created through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance: Helping Rural Working Families Maximize Tax Benefits and Improve Financial Skills
Principal Investigator: Cathy Bowen - Examining Consumer Perceptions of Produce Safety: Is Local a Brand?
Principal Investigator: Joan Thomson
Ag Economics & Rural Sociology
- Natural Gas Development in the Marcellus Shale: Understanding Individual and Community Perceptions of Risk and Reward
Principal Investigator: Kathryn Brasier - Marcellus Shale Development, Water Resources, and Local Communities: Understanding Potential Impacts to Interrelated Human and Natural Resource Systems
Principal Investigator: Albert Luloff
Cooperative Extension
- Questing for Community Development and Family Fitness
Principal Investigator: Robert Veilleux
Crop & Soil Sciences
- Automated Molecular Spectroscopy for Soil-Water Interaction Research--Collaborative Development Studies to Support External Proposals
Principal Investigator: Douglas Archibald - Extent and Characteristics of Freshwater Subaqueous Soils in Pennsylvania Waterways with a Special Focus on Reservoir Systems
Principal Investigator: Patrick Drohan - Measuring and Mapping Plant and Insect Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes for Management of Ecosystem Services
Principal Investigator: David Mortensen
Entomology
- The Chemical Ecology of Malaria Transmission
Principal Investigator: Mark Mescher - Enhancing Management of Insect Pests in Pennsylvania Field Crops Through Monitoring, Forecasting, and the Use of Genotypically Diverse Cultivar Mixtures
Principal Investigator: John Tooker
Food Science
- Cancer Chemopreventive and Therapeutic Activities of the Mushroom Antioxidant, L-ergothioneine
Principal Investigator: Joshua Lambert - Development of a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP)-Based Typing System for Differentiation of Strains of Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. Lactis Used as Probiotics in Food
Principal Investigator: Robert Roberts - Developing Interdisciplinary and International Collaborations in Bioplastics for Green Plasticulture
Principal Investigator: Gregory Ziegler
Forest Resources
- Genomic Analysis of Interactions Between Ozone-Induced Stress and Insect Herbivory in Populus
Principal Investigator: John Carlson
Horticulture
- Quantifying Consumer Demand for Locally-Grown and Certified-Organic Apples
Principal Investigator: Kathleen Kelley
Plant Pathology
- Establishment of an Informatics Platform Supporting Plant Disease Diagnosticians in the Nation
Principal Investigator: Seogchan Kang
Poultry Science
- Analysis of Early Avian Follicular Development
Principal Investigator: Francisco Diaz
Veterinary & Biomedical Sciences
- Bioactive Natural Product Inhibitors of HIV-1 Tat
Principal Investigator: K. Sandeep Prabhu - Chemokine Receptor CCR10 in Skin and Mucosal Inflammation
Principal Investigator: Na Xiong
