News & Media

UW System funds 12 faculty projects through Applied Research grant programs

Every year, WiSys collaborates with UW System Administration to offer three faculty grant programs: the Applied Research Grant (ARG), Applied Research-WiSys Technology Grant (AR-WiTAG) and Prototype Development Fund (PDF). This year, 12 projects were funded, totaling more than $515,000.

WiSys saw an increase in number of grant proposals this year, as well as diversity. Funded projects range from research focused on sustainable and clean technology, polymer science and drug discovery, agricultural science and occupational noise, among others.

2016 Grant Recipients & Their Projects:

  • Brian Barry, UW-Platteville: Homogeneous Electrocatalytic Reduction of Carbon Dioxide Using Earth Abundant Metals (ARG)
  • Min Liu DeGruson, UW-Stout: Development of Bio-based Antimicrobial Food Packaging by Incorporating Antimicrobial Molecule-Nanoparticle Systems in Starch (ARG)
  • Jonathan Gutow, UW Oshkosh: Experimental testing of computationally designed inhibitors of rhinovirus infectivity (ARG)
  • Mohammad Rabbani, UW-Platteville: Preparation of Metal-Organic-Frameworks (MOFs)-based Nanoporous Membranes for Carbon Dioxide Separation Application (ARG)
  • Shangping Xu, UW-Milwaukee: Development of ceramic-based water filtration materials for the removal of arsenic and virus (ARG)
  • Matthew Vonk, UW-River Falls: Scientifically Authentic Video-based Experiments [SAVE] (ARG)
  • Jim Hamilton, UW-Platteville: Development of Optimized Economical Metal Oxide Nanowire and Chalcogenide Quantum Dots for Displays, Solar and Water Splitting: Processing, Fabrication and Purification Technologies (AR-WiTAG)
  • David Lewis, UW-Eau Claire: Novel chiral organocatalysts for synthetic organic reactions (AR-WiTAG)
  • Wei Li, UW-Platteville: Development of a Semiconductor Quantum Dot Computer Aided Design Simulator (AR-WiTAG)
  • Robert McGaff, UW-La Crosse: Design and construction of a prototype flow reactor for oxidations of alcohols and olefins (AR-WiTAG)
  • Sabrina Mueller-Spitz, UW Oshkosh: Short Circuiting Bacterial Communication to Prevent Plant Disease (AR-WiTAG)
  • Aric Opdahl, UW-La Crosse: Thermostable attachment of capture probes to SPR sensors, for use in temperature gradient SPR measurements (AR-WiTAG)

Funding differs for each project to allow faculty and staff to utilize their expertise and apply their scholarship to support economic development in Wisconsin. On top of that, this year's funded projects also had impact on job creation, industry collaborations and scientific publications.

To learn more about WiSys' grant programs, click here.