ECAS Center for Astrophysics awarded nearly half a million  in 2007 WVEPSCoR Research Challenge Grant

Morgantown, WV, June 12, 2007:University faculty member Maura McLaughlin from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences was the recent recipient of a 2007 Research Challenge Grants (RCG).

The award will provide seed money for new research endeavors at WVU. Grants can be renewed for up to five years, providing researchers demonstrate they are making progress each year. The grant is worth $1-2 million over the five-year period.

McLaughlin and co-principal investigator Duncan Lorimer, both assistant professors in the Department of Physics, will receive $490,730 for the creation of a Center for Astrophysics at WVU. Much of their work will make use of world-class facilities, in particular the Green Bank Telescope, at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, W.Va.

The researchers currently study pulsars, exotic stars which have a wide range of applications from testing Einstein's theory of general relativity to probing the interstellar medium of the galaxy.

Grant funds will be used to acquire new telescope hardware and greater computing power, as well as to hire additional personnel, including a senior research fellow and another astrophysics faculty member specializing in a different field of astrophysics.

“We are very excited as it will really allow us to get the new Center for Astrophysics off the ground,” McLaughlin said. “This will greatly expand the breadth of the Department of Physics over the next few years.”

She added, “Our searches with the Green Bank Telescope should allow us to find new pulsars which offer unique and exciting physics applications. We hope to discover the first pulsars in other galaxies and the first pulsar and black hole binary system. This research will strengthen the physics program and attract talented graduate students to WVU through our partnership with the NRAO.”

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