The National Science Foundation (NSF) has just awarded Alabama State University's Dr. Vineeth Vijayan -- an assistant professor in the University's engineering department -- a grant of $450,000.
He is the principal investigator of the grant project; Dr. Derrick Dean.is the co-principal
investigator.
Vijayan explained that the grant is one of the most prestigious research grants from
the engineering directorate of the NSF, as part of its "Research at Undergraduate
Institutions (RUI)" program within the agency’s chemical, bioengineering, environmental
and transport system.
"This NSF-RUI grant is one of the most competitive research grants awarded by the
National Science Foundation to undergraduate institutions in an effort to improve
the quality of their research and provide research-integrated undergraduate education,"
said Vijayan. "ASU should be very pleased with this award, in that within the past
five years, this is the first NSF-RUI grant awarded to a college or university in
the state of Alabama.”
Alabama State University's Dr. Vineeth Vijayan (contributed).
ABOUT ASU'S GRANT PROJECT
Dr. Vijayan shared that the grant project focuses on nanoparticle-modified polymeric
materials that have a wide utility for several biomedical applications, including
drug delivery and tissue engineering. The research involves the development of processes
that are safer to use than current ones and will utilize a combination of 3-D printing
of polymers with a greener method of plasma processing.
"The work we will conduct at Alabama State will investigate the capability of gold
and silica nanoparticle-modified polymers for bone-forming potential and by doing
so provide new insights into the relationship between the material properties of nanoparticle-modified
polymers and their biological responses, which will positively impact the clinical
success rate of hybrid materials for applications like bone tissue engineering," Vijayan
stated. "An important component of this project is the focus on training underrepresented
minority engineering students at Alabama State University, so they may increase the
diversity in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce
nationwide, which currently has a small ratio of minority-students."
News media contact: Kenneth Mullinax, 334-229-4104.
