Cohen Announces More Than $1.5 Million for University of Memphis

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN-9) today announced the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded two new federal grants worth more than $682,000 for clinical research related to neurological disorders. The first grant is worth $382,813 and has been awarded to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The second grant -- worth $300,000 – will go to Translational Sciences of Overton Park Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee.

“The University of Memphis is a commended research institution that consistently expands the field of knowledge in areas as diverse as education and seismology,” said Congressman Cohen. “These new federal funds will allow the University of Memphis to continue to make substantial advances in its many areas of research.”

Sidney D’Mello, research assistant professor in the Institute for Intelligent Systems at the University of Memphis, will direct the “Beyond Boredom: Modeling and Promoting Engagement during Complex Learning” project. Dr. Robert Smalley, professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Memphis, will direct the “Collaborative Research: Great Earthquakes, Megathrust Phenomenology and Continental Dynamics in the Southern Andes” project.

The NSF is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to “promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the national defense.” In 2010, the NSF had an annual budget of $6.9 billion and funded approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America’s colleges and universities. In many fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing.