Georgia State Starts Four Innovative Research Groups Through Fifth Round of Its Second Century Initiative

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“With the fifth round of the Second Century Initiative awards, Georgia State continues to strengthen multi-disciplinary research in areas of significance for the 21st century,” said Risa Palm, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

(PRWEB) July 14, 2014

Georgia State University is starting four new innovative and interdisciplinary research groups under the fifth round of its Second Century Initiative, aiming to bolster a higher level of research and academic performance.

The Second Century Initiative (2CI) calls for the recruitment of top-notch faculty members to the university, with the goal of building internationally recognized research strengths in areas of national significance.

“With the fifth round of the Second Century Initiative awards, Georgia State continues to strengthen multi-disciplinary research in areas of significance for the 21st century,” said Risa Palm, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “The program has permitted our university to hire very productive and innovative faculty, and these new awards will continue this trajectory. This program has been transformative and is a wonderful investment in faculty quality.”

The new clusters include:

Adult Literacy: This research group, which includes three new faculty members, will focus on basic research in adult literacy and its translation to applied areas of health, family and workplace literacy. With one in six U.S. adults reading at elementary levels, adult literacy is a serious issue that affects an individual’s health and employment, as well as the education of his or her children.

Building on the National Research Center for the Study of Adult Literacy (CSAL) at Georgia State, funded by a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the new cluster will involve the College of Education, School of Public Health and the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. CSAL’s director, Professor Daphne Greenberg in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education, will head the cluster.

Neurobiology of Language: This cluster, which includes three new faculty members, will address normal and abnormal language problems. For example, aphasia, a language disorder affecting more than 1 million people in the U.S., is commonly caused by stroke, a disease that is highly prevalent in the Southeastern United States and is the leading cause of long-term adult disability.

Collaborating departments and initiatives include the Communication Sciences and Disorders program, the Department of Psychology, the Neuroscience Institute, the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience and the Research on the Challenges of Acquiring Language and Literacy initiative.

Researchers in this cluster will collaborate with Emory University and the Marcus Stroke Center at Grady Memorial Hospital. Jacquelyn Laures-Gore of the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education and Rose Sevcik of the Department of Psychology will lead the group.

Digestive Biomarkers: This research area with three new faculty members will work on identifying biomarkers for digestive diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, colon cancer, metabolic syndrome, and gastric and liver diseases.

Participating departments and institutes include the departments of Chemistry, and Mathematics and Statistics, the Institute for Biomedical Science, and the Center for Diagnostics and Therapeutics. Didier Merlin, professor in the Institute for Biomedical Science, will lead the research group.

Tobacco Product Regulatory Science: Building on Georgia State’s long-standing expertise in research on tobacco use and interventions, this new group includes three new faculty members in the School of Public Health, College of Law and the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.

The group will perform research that will advance the scientific regulation of tobacco, helping to affect health policy surrounding the leading preventable cause of death in the United States and around the world. Such research will help governments develop policies that effectively address tobacco use, such as regulations aimed at the relatively new problem of e-cigarettes. Michael Eriksen, dean of the School of Public Health, heads the cluster.

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