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Two professors are awarded National Science Foundation grants
The National Science Foundation has awarded grants to two University professors. Dr. Ping Li, associate professor of psychology, received a three-year grant of $373,063 to study the complex ways adult speakers organize words in their minds. Li will study the "mental dictionary" that organizes words in the mind in complex ways, including their grammatical and semantic functions. "An ordinary adult speaker has active control of tens of thousands of words in any given language," Li says. The NSF grant for Li's project, "Self-organization and the Acquisition, Representation and Processing of Language," includes support for Li's summer research, as well as for one post-doctoral associate, two graduate students and two undergraduate students each year. Dr. Philip Rubin, associate professor of physics, was also awarded a three-year grant from the NSF to investigate the behavior of the universe during the few fractions of a second after the Big Bang. The $138,099 grant for Rubin's project, "Research in Undergraduate Institutions: Rare Decay Studies at the University of Richmond" includes summer support for Rubin as well as for eight undergraduate students for summer research over the course of the grant. Also included is support for equipment, supplies and travel. Rubin's project involves collaborations with the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News and CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland and elsewhere. In other faculty news, Dr. Marshall Geiger, professor of accounting, has been named an honorary professor of business and law at Deakin University in Australia. The honorific title is for a two-year term; Geiger will remain a full-time professor at Richmond but will travel to Australia to lecture. Karen Newman, dean of the Robins School of Business, says, "This is a very rare honor, given to very few people. It's a great honor for him, and great exposure for the University." The business school also is lauding the accomplishments of Michael W. Harlow, a junior in the Robins School of Business. Harlow, who is majoring in business administration and minoring in psychology, has received a $1,000 Geico Direct Achievement Award for 2002. The Geico awards are made to encourage student achievement in major fields related to the operation of an insurance company. Harlow wrote in his required essay that he strives to be "a life changer, whether it is by teaching people a new skill, showing them a better way of doing things, or offering them a product or service that will make their lives better." |
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