Contact: Jack Bailey
(304) 766-4109
Jbaile19@wvstateu.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Awarded $750,000 from the United States Department of Energy
INSTITUTE, W.Va. — West Virginia State University’s (WVSU) Energy and Environmental Science Institute has received $750,000 from the United States Department of Energy (DoE) to research bioenergy and climate change with the goal of enhancing crop improvement on reclaimed surface mine lands.
The competitive grant award will provide hands-on research and training for undergraduate students and establish a collaborative partnership for faculties with the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
“We are thankful to the United States Department of Energy for supporting the WVSU Energy and Environmental Science Institute through this grant award to support their cutting-edge research,” said WVSU President Ericke Cage. “This will give our students the opportunity to be involved in meaningful, hands-on research that has tremendous potential to impact the state and region.”
Principal Investigator Bagyalakshmi Muthan, who will serve as the lead research scientist on the project, said she hopes the research will ultimately attract industry and academic partners to the region, enhancing economic development and workforce opportunities.
“This research will advance knowledge in the field of plant biotechnology by characterizing previously unidentified mechanisms regulating oil biosynthesis in plants, and unlock new and creative avenues for enhancing molecular engineering of energy crops,” Muthan said.
The $750,000 award from the DOE to the WVSU Energy and Environmental Science Institute will be split among the partnership institutions on the project with $600,000 awarded to WVSU and $150,000 to Brookhaven National Laboratory.
WVSU launched the Energy and Environmental Science Institute in 2014 with the mission of enhancing the University’s capacity to participate in evolving opportunities in energy and environmental research, teaching and outreach.
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West Virginia State University is a public, land-grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi-generational institution, located in Institute, W.Va. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service, and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.