Biology Professor Bernadette Connors, Ph.D., has been awarded a research grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The two-year, $166,042 grant (award #1950018) will enable her to take a year-long sabbatical to work at the Bioinformatics Lab at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst. Connors said she will be working with world-renowned computational biologist Li-jun Ma, Ph.D.
“I will be spending next year’s sabbatical with her and her research team to understand how to analyze genomic data with different sequencing technologies,” said Connors. “I will synthesize that work such that when I come back to Dominican College I can utilize that technology with our students and our undergraduate researchers.”
In addition to furthering her research of microbial communities in Hudson River Valley freshwater streams, Connors said the grant will fund new equipment for Dominican College’s laboratories and provide stipends for two undergraduate research students at the College. The grant from NSF’s Division of Environmental Biology is awarded to scientists who have accrued meaningful data about environmental issues and challenges faced in the U.S., but who need financial support to synthesize their work.