April 17, 2018
$125,000 NSF award funds study of rats in urban areas
Dr. Jonathan Richardson, assistant professor of biology, received a $125,310 award from the National Science Foundation to study the movement of rats in cities. As an NSF Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research fellow, he is among a select group of non-tenured faculty members chosen to develop their research through extended collaborative visits to premier academic research centers. His was the only project funded at a primarily undergraduate institution. Richardson and a PC student will spend the summers of 2018 and 2019 at Fordham University in New York City conducting research on his project, “Comparative Cityscape Genomics of Rats in Four Major Cities.” Using genetic data, they will compare the movement of rats in New York, Vancouver, New Orleans, and Salvador, Brazil, providing insights that officials will use to reduce urban rat populations and lower potential disease risks for people.
