Four days, four federal grants for Kennesaw State

Kennesaw State University assistant chair Paola Sploletini of its Department of Software Engineering and Game Development. She was one of four KSU faculty members who received grants from the National Science Foundation over a recent four-day stretch. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED.

Kennesaw State University assistant chair Paola Sploletini of its Department of Software Engineering and Game Development. She was one of four KSU faculty members who received grants from the National Science Foundation over a recent four-day stretch. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED.

Kennesaw State University may want to send the National Science Foundation a nice Christmas card this year.

The federal agency awarded research grants to Kennesaw State on four consecutive days last month, a first for the Cobb County institution. The grants totaled nearly $840,000.

“Surreal,” is how Jonathan McMurry, associate vice president for research and professor of chemistry, described it.

The first grant, $118,840, went to Michael Van Dyke, an associate biochemistry professor.

The second grant, $160,453, went to Sigurdur Greipsson, associate biology professor, to remove lead from polluted soils by improving the use of high-biomass producing crops through chemical manipulations.

The third grant, $390,940, was awared to Paola Spoletini, assistant chair of KSU’s software engineering and game development, to develop better system software.

The fourth grant, $169,496, went to computer science professor Kai Qian, for his work to improve Secure Mobile Software Development.

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