University of Maryland Eastern Shore News February 17, 2016 UMES awarded student-driven EPA research grant The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is a recipient of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant being used to underwrite research to degrade herbicides and pesticides quickly and safely. Dr. Madan K. Kharel, an assistant professor of pharmaceutical science, is the faculty leader of a team of student-researchers that qualified for $15,000 through the EPA's "People, Prosperity and the Planet" program<http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/bd4379a92ceceeac8525735900400c27/1d0d2ee305b717d885257f5c004dcc82!OpenDocument>. The agency describes the grants program, commonly referred to as "P3" that began in 2004, as a "college competition for designing solutions for a sustainable future. (It) offers students ... hands-on experience that brings classroom learning to life." Assisting Kharel, the principal investigator, are Cui Fang, a first-year master's student in the pharmaceutical science program specializing in drug discovery and development, and second-year pharmacy (Pharm.D.) student Emmanuel Ofili. Also lending an assist are Dr. Marcos Cheney in the Department of Natural Sciences and Dr. Anjan Nan, a School of Pharmacy colleague. UMES was one of 35 colleges or universities to qualify for a 2016 grant, and one of two historically black institutions. The other was Texas Southern University. As an 1890 land-grant university, UMES has a long history of tackling problems encountered by those who depend on or work in agriculture. "Agro-chemicals (that kill invasive plants and insects) have been routinely used (on) farms to maintain good agricultural productivity," Kharel wrote in the grant application. "However, many of chemicals are resistant to degradation under the normal environmental conditions." "The routine release of such chemicals and their persistence in the environment have been posing a serious risk ... to public health and the environment," the UMES grant application says. "This project is dedicated to developing a system to facilitate the degradation of these agro-chemicals without causing additional negative environmental impact." According to the EPA, teams selected for "Phase 1" awards received grants of up to $15,000 to fund the development of their projects to be showcased at the National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington this spring. After the Expo, P3 teams will compete for additional awards of up to $75,000 "to further develop their designs and potentially bring them to the marketplace." "This year's P3 teams have created innovative research projects that tackle some of our most pressing environmental and public health challenges," said Dr. Thomas A. Burke, EPA's Science Advisor and Deputy Assistant Administrator of its Office of Research and Development. "These students have the opportunity to bring their exciting new ideas for innovation in sustainability to life, by expanding their learning experience beyond the classroom," Burke said. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-592-4820 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hbculibraryalliance1/ 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.