FULLERTON : CSUF Professors Get $445,000 in Grants

Cal State Fullerton professors have garnered more than $445,000 in grants to support a host of projects ranging from fertilization research to migrant education to marine science education, university officials said.

A $196,000 National Science Foundation grant has gone to biological science professor Charles C. Lambert and chemistry professor Christina Ann Good for the study of the reproductive chemistry of a variety of small marine animals that are ancestors of all vertebrates. The researchers hope to determine what causes eggs of the organisms, which belong to the ascidian class, to release an enzyme that blocks multiple fertilization.

Chemistry and biochemistry professor Maria C. Linder has received a $100,138 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease to study the link between cancer and copper in mammals.

Electrical engineering professor Hwang Chung got a $100,000 contract from Rockwell International to develop ways for a special computer to be used for space observation. He also received a $4,400 grant to improve a motor used in the separation of aluminum cans from solid waste. That grant was from Raytheon Service Co. of Delaware, which runs one of the biggest solid-waste recovery plants in the United States.

Chicano studies professor Isaac Cardenas received a $40,783 grant for Project BEST, a summer school program for children of migrant farm workers from Orange and San Diego counties. The three-week residential program at Cal State Fullerton is aimed at developing basic academic skills and increased self-esteem, and also makes an effort to involve parents in their children’s education, Cardenas said.

Biological sciences professor Michael H. Horn received a $3,828 grant from the University of California Sea Grant program to send 10 marine scientists to a special international symposium at which plant-eating marine animals and the ocean food chain will be discussed. Attending from Cal State Fullerton will be biological sciences professor Judith S. Kandel, postdoctoral researcher Jill Scharold and Horn, who helped organize the program. The conference will be in December in Monterey.