For Immediate Release—Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Contact:

Mary E. McCrank

Media Relations Officer

(585) 245-5516

SUNY Geneseo announces 2006 summer research fellowships

GENESEO, N.Y.—The State University of New York at Geneseo has selected four faculty members to receive 2006 summer research fellowship awards for research into areas from across the liberal arts and science spectrums.

Nader Asgary, associate professor of business, and Savitri Iyer, associate professor of physics, were awarded Mid-Career Summer Research Fellowships, which support the research and creative projects of faculty who have been with the college at least six years. They will receive $4,000 apiece, funded by the Geneseo Foundation.

Koomi Kim, assistant professor of education, and Jani Lewis, assistant professor of biology, were awarded Presidential Summer Fellowships, which provide newer faculty with an opportunity to undertake research and other scholarly activities. They will receive $3,500 apiece, funded by an allocation from the President.

Asgary, who also serves as the director of the college's Center for International Business, will use the grant for a project titled, "Understanding Iran: Culture, Economy and Democracy." He will conduct research to explore and enhance the United State's understanding of the relationship between culture, economic development and democracy in Iran. He also will explore the factors that impact economic development in Iran, in particular the role and influence of cultural characteristics.

Iyer will use the grant for a project titled, "Bending of Light Near a Black Hole." Iyer will study the bending of light, also known as gravitational lensing, in different curved spacetimes. Bending of light near a strong gravitational source produces multiple images of distant stars and galaxies.

Kim will use the grant for a project titled "Universality of Goodman's Reading Model: Research and Theory in Reading Japanese Texts." This project will examine how Japanese readers transact with texts by implementing eye movement and miscue analysis. The study documents and analyzes how readers transact with a non-alphabetic writing system, namely Japanese.

Lewis will use the grant for a project titled "Analysis of Vulvar Carcinoma Cells for Changes in Gene Expression Resulting from Glucocortaid Treatment." This research is expected to generate information that can then be used to screen for tumors in biopsies of suspected vulvar carcinomas.

Recipients must devote two consecutive summer months to their projects.

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