VANCOUVER — Several faculty members at Washington State University Vancouver recently received major research grants.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded Ruth Phillips, adjunct research professor of biology, $450,000 over three years for integration of the genetic and physical maps of rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon. Phillips is coordinating her research efforts with those of scientists in Canada and Norway to integrate and correlate results from genome projects on trout and salmon. Phillips’ research involves the evolution of duplicate genes, the role of chromosome rearrangements in speciation, and the evolution of sex chromosomes in these species.
Genetic and physical mapping of the genomes and isolation of genes for traits is important in the study of disease resistance in wild and hatchery fish. For more information about Phillips, visit http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/programs/sci/phillips.htm.
John Bishop, associate professor in biology, received a $428,000 National Science Foundation award over five years to continue his study of mechanisms controlling plant colonization on Mount St. Helens’ Pumice Plain. The award is shared with the U.S. Forest Service and University of Maryland to pursue the surprising finding that caterpillars dramatically slow colonization by a key “ecosystem engineer,” the alpine lupin. The caterpillars, which feed exclusively on this lupin, decrease seed production and can exterminate whole patches of lupin. The new work will also study the effect of an invasive beetle that slows colonization by willows, and how this ripples through the system to affect colonization by other organisms.
Bishop is also board president of the Mount St. Helens Institute, a non-profit educational partner to the National Volcanic Monument. For more information about Bishop, visit http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/bishop/home-long.html.
Washington Technology Center and Vancouver technology firm nLight Photonics awarded WSU Vancouver mechanical engineering professor Amir Jokar a $27,828 grant to analyze and improve the heat transfer of nLight diode laser products. Beginning with comprehensive computer-based modeling analysis of the heat transfer and fluid flow through nLight’s existing single-phase cooling subsystem, nLight, Jokar and graduate research assistant Joe Dix plan to create a more optimal cooling subsystem design.
Improving the cooling of these diodes will allow greater power levels and open up opportunities for numerous new applications in defense, industrial, medical and graphic arts markets, potentially bringing new jobs to Washington in the next two to five years. For more information on Amir Jokar, visit http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/jokar/.
