Davalos Receives WVEPSCoR Grant

Dr. Julio Davalos, WVU Benedum Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been awarded $500,000 as part of a Research Challenge Grant from the West Virginia Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (WVEPSCoR).

Davalos will lead a multidisciplinary and multi-university team of researchers conducting research aimed at enhancing and upgrading transportation infrastructure in the United States and making it more secure against potential terrorist attacks.

"Terrorist attacks worldwide have shown the devastating effects that conventional and improvised explosives and weapons can have on infrastructure facilities, such as checkpoints, bridges, dams, tunnels and others," Davalos said. "There are no effective large-scale systems for protecting these types of facilities."

The grant will be used to help establish the Center for Transportation Security and Infrastructure Innovations, with participation by faculty from WVU and Marshall University, and support by several collaborating state and national industries, associations, agencies, national labs and centers.

In addition to Davalos, WVU faculty members involved in the project include, from Civil and Environmental Engineering: Karl Barth, associate professor; Chunfu Lin, research faculty; David Martinelli, professor and chair; and Indrajit Ray, research assistant professor. Others involved from WVU are Elemer Lang, associate professor of wood science; and Wu Zhang, research assistant professor from the Department of Chemical Engineering. Barbero, professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is also involved in the project.

"The support from WVEPSCoR will assist us in bringing together researchers from different disciplines to carry out cutting-edge research that will address the worldwide pressing needs for infrastructure security and innovations," Davalos said.

The grant, which can be renewed for up to five years, will also contribute to graduate education, technology transfer, workforce training, and economic development in the state.

06/21/2007