Opportunities
Juniata
Many of Chris Grant’s research funding centers on tracing the effect of fracking, the fracturing mining technique that remains controversial in Pennsylvania, on water quality and fish populations. He uses electrofishing, which emits a mild electrical charge that stuns fish so they can be examined alive, to collect samples for his research.
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When Grant arrives at the stream, he pulls on waders and temporarily stuns fish with electrofishing equipment, weighing, measuring and sometimes performing a biopsy before they spring back to life, flopping as they’re returned to the water. Grant fills vials with water to be sampled, and tramps back to his car. One sample collected—24 to go. With research funding scarce, some grantseekers think it would be easier to take Grant’s laborious slog through the dense undergrowth rather than apply for grant funding from agencies like the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities or private foundations. Yet Juniata faculty are applying for extramural funding at a higher rate than ever before. In 2002, only nine faculty members submitted proposals for funding to outside sources. In 2013, that number is 28—a very recent increase, as seen in 2011’s total of faculty proposals sent: 31. Grant feels little intimidation in either challenge—hiking toward his forest research sites or tackling the boulderstrewn steps that grants agencies also require. Aside from the irony of his name, Grant’s perseverance is probably why he’s been awarded eight of the eight proposals he’s sent to funders since he came to Juniata in 2008. He’s had luck with grantors like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Colcom Foundation and the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds. His current project involves measuring the accumulation of mercury in area streams that have been affected by Marcellus Shale drilling. And, because hydraulic fracturing—the process by which natural gas is extracted from beneath the earth’s surface, also known as fracking—has such widespread effects, Grant is able to collaborate with other scientists to initiate wider examinations of Pennsylvania watersheds. Some of those scientists happen to still be undergraduates at Juniata. While electrofishing with his students this past summer, Grant discovered a fish that was not previously known to exist in central Pennsylvania and he’s named it the “Juniata redbelly dace” in honor of his grant’s success. But, that research—and the resulting hands-on experiences for students—would not have taken place without grant funding to pay the students, support Grant, and reimburse expenses like transportation to the sites and supplies.