Lucas Endowment Reaches $1 Million

Faculty at The University of Southern Mississippi now have one million reasons to excel. The Aubrey Keith and Ella Ginn Lucas Faculty Excellence Endowment has exceeded $1 million. Established by The University of Southern Mississippi Foundation, the Phil Harden Foundation and the Chisholm Foundation with additional gifts from countless alumni and friends of the university, the endowment provides support for faculty excellence at Southern Miss.

Honoring the legacy of Dr. Aubrey K. Lucas, who served as president of Southern Miss for 21 years, the Lucas Endowment continues the work of a man whose life mission has been the advocacy of academic excellence.

Faculty Excellence Grants, awarded annually by the endowment, range from $25 to $5000, and fund a wide variety of projects. The endowment provides support for books, audiovisual materials, salary, research, travel, laboratory expenses, documents, wages and other resources. To date nearly $590,000 has been awarded in Faculty Excellence Grants.

“This is exciting news for our research enterprise,” said Cecil Burge, Southern Miss’ Vice President for Research. “Much of our success hinges on being able to find “startup” or “seed” funds for new projects and new investigators. The Lucas Endowment can now play an even more significant role in the growth of faculty research and scholarship.”

Ten Faculty Excellence Grants, totaling more than $34,000 were awarded this year. Recipients, thier academic disciplines and projects include:

• Yanlin Guo, Biological Sciences, $3,800 to study differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells to smooth muscle cells;
• Gary Krebs, Human Performance and Recreation, $3,800 for the utilization of Dartfish Technology: A tool used for enhancing the analysis of human motion;
• Virgin Zeigler-Hill, Psychology, $2,896 for a project titled "Fragile High Self-Esteem and Psychological Adjustment;"
• Youping Deng, Biological Sciences, $3,800 for lipid profiling of breast cancer;
• Dana Fennell, Antrhopology and Sociology, $2,115 for a project titled "Talking About Health: People's Perceptions of Complementary and Alternative Medicine;"
• Mac Alford, Biological Sciences, $3,213.60 to study ferns and fern allies in Mississippi;
• Alvin Holder, Chemistry and Biochemistry, $3,800 to study the development of some novel photodynamic therapeutic agents;
• Steve Yuen, Technology Education, $3,800 to integrate podcasting/vodcasting technology and a mobile web course into the Instructional Technology Curriculum;
• David Cochran, Geography and Geology, $3,692 to study hurricane hazards, human response, and vulnerability among coastal peoples in the Mosqutia region of Eastern Honduras;
• David Echevarria, Psychology, $3,800 for a project titled "Stress, Alcohol Consumption and Cognitive Impairments: Thier Interactions and Related Biological Underpinnings."

"I have been fortunate to receive the Aubrey K. and Ella G. Lucas awards on two occasions," said Dr. Gary Krebs, Clinical Associate and Professor in the Human Performance and Recreation department. "Both projects integrated computer software into my classes. The last award provided funds to purchase additional Dartfish software licenses. To better understand how the human body moves, tools (Dartfish software) that enhance our ability to analyze, apply and evaluate are critical to learning in human performance."

In addition to the Faculty Excellence Grants, the Lucas Endowment funds annual Faculty Excellence Awards including The Lucas Endowment Award for University-wide Excellence in Teaching and The Lucas Endowment Award for University-wide Excellence in Service. The Lucas Endowment Awards for Excellence in Teaching and for Excellence in Service are also awarded annually to one of the five academic colleges. The Lucas Endowment Award for Excellence in Librarianship is awarded every other year. Each year $6000 to $7000 is given for Faculty Excellence Awards.

Dr. Gary Krebs, left, associate professor in the School of Human Performance and Recreation, demonstrates the motion analysis software Dartfish to one of his graduate students. As a recipient of a 2007 Lucas Faculty Excellence Grant, Krebs uses the program to study digital video of athletic performance in undergraduate biomechanics labs and graduate sport skills analysis classes. (Southern Miss Photo by Steve Rouse)