September 18, 2007

LINCOLN RECEIVES $209 THOUSAND GRANT
FROM NSF FOR ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH

LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, PA ~ President Ivory V. Nelson has announced that Lincoln University has been awarded a five-year $209,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to introduce African American students to ecological research and to encourage them to pursue graduate studies through a mentoring program.

“We are very pleased to receive this grant from the National Science Foundation,” President Nelson said.  “This research has tremendous implications for the future health of our nation.”

According to Dr. David Royer, principal investigator of the grant and professor and chair of the Biology Department, “The project will focus on five topics: invasive species, harmful algal blooms, microbial metabolism in an impacted carbon cycle, embryo development in stressful environments, and fish ecology in low oxygen environments.”

Dr. Royer will collaborate with Dr. David Kirchman of the College of Marine and Earth Studies at the University of Delaware.  Drs. Susan Stafford and Anna Hull of the Biology Department at Lincoln will serve as research mentors.

“The intellectual merit of this project is that it will provide a structured program at Lincoln University to better prepare students for graduate study in biology,” Dr. Royer said.

The students will be chosen from among the undergraduate biology and environmental science majors.  Students will be chosen for the program based on interest, academic achievement, recommendations from the faculty, and willingness to commit to the program.

Students will be supported for a period of 18 months, during which time they will conduct research at Lincoln University and the College of Marine Studies at the University of Delaware.

Dr. Royer said the program includes a research methods course, an extensive research experience, a seminar course, a journal club, and the opportunity to present and publish research results.

Founded in 1854, Lincoln University is a premier, historically Black University that combines the best elements of a liberal arts and sciences-based undergraduate core curriculum and selected graduate programs to meet the needs of those living in a highly technological and global society.  The University is nationally recognized as a major producer of African Americans with undergraduate degrees in the physical sciences (biology, chemistry and physics); computer and informational sciences; biological and life sciences.  Lincoln has an enrollment of 2,423 undergraduate and graduate students.

Lincoln University of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
1570 Baltimore Pike, P.O. Box 179, Lincoln University, PA 19352 \ (484) 365-8000