3 Science Grants

Lewis & Clark’s reputation in science research continues to grow, and funders are taking notice. This spring, three members of the science faculty received standout awards from leading funding agencies.

Greta Binford, assistant professor of biology, has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award. One of the foundation’s most prestigious awards, it supports early career activities of newer teacher-scholars who are considered most likely to become academic leaders of the 21st century.

Binford will receive $643,877 from NSF over a five-year period to develop her research program titled “Venom evolution in brown recluse spiders: a system for undergraduate training in integrative biology.”

Deborah Lycan, professor of biology, has received a $206,565 award from the National Institutes of Health for her project titled “Investigating the role of Ltv1 in ribosome biogenesis and export.” The grant, awarded under NIH’s Academic Research enhancement Award (AREA) Program, includes research stipends for two undergraduates during each summer of its three-year term.

Nikolaus Loening, assistant professor of chemistry, has received a Merck/American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Undergraduate Science Research Program award of $60,000 over three years. The primary purpose of the program, funded by the Merck Company Foundation and administered by AAAS, is to foster interdisciplinary research experiences for undergraduate students in chemistry and biology. The grant supports three primary projects led by Loening and Greg Hermann, assistant professor of biology; Greta Binford, assistant professor of biology, and Janis Lochner, Pamplin Professor of Science; and Louis Kuo, professor of chemistry, and Ken Clifton, associate professor of biology.