News & Notes: 5 U. professors awarded research grants

The projects examine a range of topics. James Sturm, an electrical engineering professor, heads a team investigating new solar energy technology. John Groves, the chair of the chemistry department, is leading a study on a new method of water purification using chlorine dioxide.

Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Craig Arnold is researching a new microscope lens that bends light with sound waves, allowing it to focus 1,000 times faster than other lenses available on the market. Ilhan Aksay, a professor in the chemical and biological engineering department, won the grant for his team’s study of ways to improve ultracapacitors, which can store energy like batteries.

Molecular biology professors Thomas Shenk and Ileana Cristea, along with the chemistry department’s David MacMillan, lead a team of researchers devising a new kind of antiviral drugs using a family of proteins called sirtuins.

Professors from about 30 projects applied for these grants. The selection committee, headed by Dean for Research A. J. Stewart Smith, contained a number of faculty members from a variety of fields as well as two venture capitalists.