Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - The Scholarly Activity Improvement Fund (SAIF) promotes scholarly activity among faculty, librarians, and academic staff at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Category A funds support research activities, scholarship, and creative endeavors whereas category B supports the writing and submission of grant proposals to external agencies.

Proposals are reviewed by the Academic and Institutional Research Committee (AIRC) and ranked based on clarity, objectives, integrity, and worth. The recommended rankings are passed to the UWP vice chancellor for final approval. A maximum award from the SAIF fund is not to exceed $4,000. For category A and B there is a total of $60,000 available university wide. Below are the 2004-2005 SAIF recipients and their project titles.

Dr. John Tembei, assistant professor of animal science, and Dr. Rami Reddy, assistant professor of agricultural business, received $4,000 for "Maturity Effects in Milk Futures Contracts."

Roxane Gunser, business and accounting, received $3,000 for "A Primer on Socially Responsible Investing."

Louis Nzegwu, business administration, received $3,800 for his "Study to Examine Non-response Assessment in Marketing Research: Current Practices and Suggestions for Improvement."

Sarah Arkins, communications technology, received $4,000 for her program entitled, "Who We Are."

Robert Kerr, department of social sciences, received $4,000 for "Crossing the Boundary: Windsor, Ontario, as Detroit's Entertainment District."

J Elmo Rawling, department of social sciences, received $4,000 for "Ancient Dust Deposits in the Northern Great Plains: Implications for Future Climate Change."

Elizabeth Gates, assistant professor psychology, received $3,000 for "College Students' Beliefs about Abortion: The Relationship Between Knowledge of Abortion and Attitudes."

Theron Parsons, associate professor psychology, received $4,000 for "Teens at Risk: Assessment of Risk and Protective Factors for GBLT Teens in Southwest Wisconsin."

Chetna Narayan, associate professor psychology, received $4,000 for "Attitudes Towards Older Men and Women: An Examination of Ageism."

Dr. Gang Feng, assistant professor electrical engineering, received $3,000 for the project entitled, "The Impact of Sensor Deployment on Protocol Design in Sensor Networks."

Xiaomin Kou, assistant professor electrical engineering, received $4,000 for "Fault-Tolerant Study of Cascade Multilevel Inverters."

Abulkhair Masoom, chair of the general engineering department, and Dr. Christina Curras, assistant professor civil engineering emphasis geotechnical, received $4,000 for the project entitled, "Proposals to Support the Establishment of a Minority Engineering Education Center."

Dr. Mark Meyers, assistant professor civil engineering emphasis geotechnical, received $4,000 for multiple projects proposed in category B.

Dr. Michael Penn, associate professor environmental engineering, received $4,000 for "Quantifying Environmental Impacts from Outdoor Wood Furnaces."

Wei Li, assistant professor engineering physics, received $4,000 for the "Quantum Effect of Nanoscale Double-Well Structure and Its Applications in Optical Devices."

John Berg of the Karrmann Library received $3,000 for "Early German Immigration from the Minnesota River Valley."