The International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) was founded in 2007 at Washington University in St. Louis to foster research on energy, environment and sustainability that cannot be done by single investigators alone.
I-CARES nurtures collaboration within WUSTL and with regional and international partners in order to speed progress in addressing the great challenges facing our world.
As part of its mission, I-CARES awards seed funding to university faculty undertaking innovative and collaborative research in the broad areas of bioenergy and sustainability through an annual call for proposals.
The 2010 I-CARES research grants in the amount of nearly $300,000 have been awarded to 11 faculty from four schools: Arts & Sciences, the School of Engineering & Applied Science, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and the School of Medicine.
The recipients and their research projects are:
Gautam Dantas, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine, Center for Genome Sciences, “Development of a High-Throughput Functional Metagenomic Platform for Discovery of Novel Genetic Machinery From Soil Microbial Communities for Biomass Inhibitor Tolerance and Processing”;
Sophia Hayes, PhD, associate professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, “Optimization of Semiconductor Materials for Solar Energy Through Characterization of Nanoscopic Defects and Dopant Sites”;
Tuan-hua David Ho, PhD, professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, “Investigation of a Key Cellulolytic Enzyme, ßglucosidase, from a Woodrotting Fungus Chaetomella raphigera”;
Christof Jantzen, I-CARES professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, “Building Envelope Technology for Adaptive Re-Use Structures (BETAR)”;
Joseph M. Jez, PhD, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, “Molecular Evolution of Phytochelatin Transport for Heavy Metal Detoxification”;
Bruce Lindsey, dean, College of Architecture/Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design and the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Community Collaboration of Architecture & Urban Design, “Sustainable Urbanism Research & Design Center: Developing an International Research & Outreach Network”;
Jenny Lovell, assistant professor of architecture, “Hothouse — Building Envelope and User Engagement”;
Robert Pless, PhD, associate professor of computer science and engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, “Re-Purposing the Global Webcam Network as an Atmospheric/Environmental Observation Sensor”;
Itai Sened, PhD, professor of political science in Arts & Sciences, “Cross-Sector Cooperation for Achieving Breakthroughs in Sustainable Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Technologies”;
Jennifer R. Smith, PhD, associate professor of earth and planetary sciences and of environmental studies, both in Arts & Sciences, “Reconstructing Recent Environmental Change and Anthropogenic Impacts from Carbonate Spring Deposits in the Midwestern U.S.”; and
Venkat Subramanian, PhD, associate professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, “Optimal Design of Electrode Materials for Electrochemical Energy Storage.”