New Grant Programs Relating to Women in Higher Education

Here is this week’s news of grants that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.

Judit Puskas, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and professor of polymer science at the University of Akron, received a $100,000 grant from General Electric to further her research on a new technology to fight breast cancer. Dr. Puskas and her research team are developing a polymer breast implant that is safer and that can be embedded with medications to detect and destroy cancer cells. The targeted treatment may reduce the need for chemotherapy which can impact a woman’s entire system. About one quarter of the women who undergo breast implant surgery are cancer patients.

Dr. Puskas holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Budapest.

Raffaella De Vita, an assistant professor and director of the Mechanics of Soft Biological Systems Laboratory at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, received a five-year, $473,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study pelvic floor disorder, a disease that impacts some 28 million American women. In a majority of cases, the disorder results from pregnancy and vaginal birth that places stress and may cause damage to organs, muscles, and ligaments in the pelvic area.

Dr. De Vita is a graduate of the University of Naples. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

Scripps College, the highly rated women’s college in Claremont, California, received a three-year, $700,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support undergraduate research programs in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The college will create two programs, Research Fellow and Pre-Thesis Fellows, which will provide research opportunities for 46 undergraduate students each year.

Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro received a grant from the Tennessee chapter of the March of Dimes to support the development of a text-messaging campaign aimed at improving women’s health. The “Did u Know” campaign will seek to educate college women about the impact of their current lifestyle choices on their future health.