News Release 114-158
For Immediate Release
September 1, 2016
News Release
Rep. Israel Announces more than $5 Million in National Science Foundation Funding for Long Island
Recipients include Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, SUNY Old Westbury, Applied Visions, Inc.
Melville, NY — Today, Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY-03) announced that the National Science Foundation will award more than $5 million in grants to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, SUNY Old Westbury, and Applied Visions, Inc. The grants will allow for key research in several distinct fields: genome research in plants, improving STEM education, and cybersecurity education.
“These National Science Foundation grants are proof positive of Long Island’s continued leadership as a center of innovation and research,” said Congressman Israel. “This investment will allow for key research across a variety of scientific fields and will help promote economic growth on Long Island. Congratulations to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, SUNY Old Westbury and Applied Visions, Inc. for their fine work to receive these grants.”
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor David Jackson, Ph.D., said that this grant will allow the lab to employ “a revolutionary genetic technique called CRISPR to understand how the thousands of genes in plant genomes work together, and also to generate new crop varieties with increased yield, to benefit agricultural sustainability.”
“Preparing the next generation of researchers, physicians and scientists is a critical need as our nation and world continue to grow more complex,” said Calvin O. Butts, III, President of SUNY Old Westbury. “With this funding, we will be able to test new, creative approaches for improving STEM learning and learning environments, focused on the learning occurring in our chemistry laboratories. By challenging students to work independently in a project-oriented environment, and to think critically as scientists, our faculty expect to identify new methods to ensure the students’ knowledge-based understanding grows.”
“We need to capture the interest of tomorrow’s cybersecurity professionals now, while they are still in middle school,” said Laurin Buchanan, CISSP, Principal Investigator at the Secure Decisions Division of Applied Visions. “We are collaborating with Stony Brook University on this NSF grant based on research funded by the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology division, which will enable us to evaluate an innovative approach to cybersecurity education using branching stories in a comic-book style. These ‘choose your own adventure’ stories provide opportunities to explore cause and effect, and the comic book style is engaging to middle school students.”
The National Science Foundation funds research and education in science and engineering and accounts for 20 percent of federal support to academic institutions for basic research.
The total grant money awarded is $5,075,206.00 with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory receiving $4,616,755.00 and SUNY Old Westbury receiving $296,189.00 and Applied Visions, Inc. receiving $162,262.00.
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Harrison Feuer
Speechwriter/New Media Director
Congressman Steve Israel (NY-03)
534 Broadhollow Road, Suite 302 | Melville, NY 11747
631.777.7391 phone
http://israel.house.gov
