2008 Woodie Awards
Five faculty receive biology grant
Lionel Njeukam
Issue date: 12/1/05 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
Five UTC professors have received a grant from the National Biological Information Infrastructure for a research project to improve quality of life in Hamilton County. The project deals with water issues and water problems in the Chattanooga area.
According to the UTC office of grants and program review, last September the NBII, an organization which gathers information from several academic partners in the United States and abroad, granted $132,545 to five professors: David Aborn, Gary Litchford, Mark Schorr, Henry Spratt and Thomas Wilson.
Wilson said because of that money, they have been working on the fresh-water ecosystem and fresh-water animal ecosystem, essentially within Hamilton County.
They have a pool of money to divide into several projects, he added. For instance, some of them have been working on mussels from southeast Tennessee.
According to Angie Johnson in the grant office, "Many municipalities are unaware of the extent to which relatively undisturbed urban ecosystems can improve the quality of life for their citizens."
Aborn said, "The project will show Chattanooga the value of keeping green space intact."
For instance, "Trees can provide shade, and shade means you can spend less money on air conditioning," he said.
According to the grant office, Schorr and Wilson will utilize studies conducted by Schorr and his students to assess the water quality, habitat and aquatic macro fauna in the North Chickamauga Creek.
Suzanne Peterson, a UTC environmental science graduate student, has been selected to work on the project.
She said, "NBII objectives focus on data distribution across a wide range of organizations. Therefore, my prior experiences within the nonprofit environmental community contributed to my selection as a graduate research assistant."
Peterson said her main contribution consists of providing digitization, documentation and application support for all datasets used in NBII projects.
She said, "My specific duties include the creation of 'geospatial' files, writing 'metadata' and general support for geospatial applications."
However, she is not the only one helping the five professors in their research project. Wilson said that Andrew Carroll, a UTC alumnus who is now working for the Tennessee Aquarium, is also participating in the project.
Aborn said, "All this work involves [geographic information systems] and Carroll is very good in GIS data base."
According to the UTC office of grants and program review, last September the NBII, an organization which gathers information from several academic partners in the United States and abroad, granted $132,545 to five professors: David Aborn, Gary Litchford, Mark Schorr, Henry Spratt and Thomas Wilson.
Wilson said because of that money, they have been working on the fresh-water ecosystem and fresh-water animal ecosystem, essentially within Hamilton County.
They have a pool of money to divide into several projects, he added. For instance, some of them have been working on mussels from southeast Tennessee.
According to Angie Johnson in the grant office, "Many municipalities are unaware of the extent to which relatively undisturbed urban ecosystems can improve the quality of life for their citizens."
Aborn said, "The project will show Chattanooga the value of keeping green space intact."
For instance, "Trees can provide shade, and shade means you can spend less money on air conditioning," he said.
According to the grant office, Schorr and Wilson will utilize studies conducted by Schorr and his students to assess the water quality, habitat and aquatic macro fauna in the North Chickamauga Creek.
Suzanne Peterson, a UTC environmental science graduate student, has been selected to work on the project.
She said, "NBII objectives focus on data distribution across a wide range of organizations. Therefore, my prior experiences within the nonprofit environmental community contributed to my selection as a graduate research assistant."
Peterson said her main contribution consists of providing digitization, documentation and application support for all datasets used in NBII projects.
She said, "My specific duties include the creation of 'geospatial' files, writing 'metadata' and general support for geospatial applications."
However, she is not the only one helping the five professors in their research project. Wilson said that Andrew Carroll, a UTC alumnus who is now working for the Tennessee Aquarium, is also participating in the project.
Aborn said, "All this work involves [geographic information systems] and Carroll is very good in GIS data base."
