Research Briefs WVU made $177 million go a long way during 2010. In its biggest year for research funding ever—$26 million more than the previous year—nationally significant projects continued to grow at WVU. Here are just a few of them.
Golden Eagles in West Virginia
The New Moo n Race
Earl Scime, chair of WVU’s Department of Physics, and a team of students are embarking on an experiment that is part of a larger quest to develop hydrogen fusion energy—a quest that’s on the level of the moon race, he says. If they are successful, WVU gets a chance to take a role in developing this energy. His group will build an ultraviolet laser experiment that is intended to measure fuel inside the chamber of the largest fusion experiment in the United States, located in La Jolla, California.
Thanks to WVU research, we know the Mountain State is the winter home to one of the largest groups of golden eagles east of the Mississippi. Todd Katzner, a wildlife and fisheries resources research assistant professor, is helping to ensure their continued survival by charting the path and flight elevation of the eagles’ migration. The area they call home in winter is now in the midst of a windenergy boom, so Katzner hopes to mitigate the risk the eagles face from deadly encounters with wind turbine blades. “The goal is to develop a risk map, which would be able to predict high- and low-risk spots for building wind turbines,” Katzner said.
To the
RESCUE
In an explosion, the hopes of miners may rest on an angel sent from WVU. Hota GangaRao, director of the WVU College of Engineering and Mineral Resources’ Constructed Facilities Center, and his WVU colleagues tested the Guardian Angel safety shelter designed to protect coal miners in a blast. They began developing the shelter after the 2006 Sago mine disaster that killed 12. “Without question, this will help save lives,” GangaRao said. 46 44
2011
West Virginia University Alumni Magazine