Can
$30,000 replace millions of coal-burning cooking stoves, reduce
climate-changing emissions, and improve health for millions of people in rural
India?
Probably
not, but it does provide the seed funding for a half-dozen Duke University faculty
to begin that quest. An
interdisciplinary project to examine the health, environmental, and climate
impacts of household energy choices in India, led by Subhrendu Pattanayak, associate
professor of public policy and environmental economics, is one of five projects
recently selected to receive funds through the Provost’s PFIRST competition
held earlier this spring.
PFIRST,
for Problem-Focused Interdisciplinary Research-Scholarship Teams, was designed
to award seed funds to support faculty-led collaborations that address problem-focused
research areas from multiple perspectives.
The four other funded proposals address
environmental health, mental health, regulation, and communication around risky
behavior.
“Understanding linkages between climate
change, water resources and health in Ethiopia” is co-led by Avner Vengosh, professor
of geochemistry, and Marc Jeuland, assistant professor of public policy and global
health. A team of eight faculty will examine surface water supply and
groundwater quality in Ethiopia and evaluate health effects for people who rely
on that water supply.
“Rethinking Regulation: Democratic Norms,
Organizational Culture, and the State,” led by Ed Balleisen, associate professor
of history, looks at the purposes and strategies of regulatory governance
around the world. Also supported in part by the Kenan Institute for Ethics,
“Rethinking Regulation” engages faculty from the Schools of law, business, environment
and medicine, as well as the social sciences and philosophy. The project team hopes
to develop better frameworks for regulatory decision-making and inform smarter
design of regulatory institutions and policy.
Haiti Lab co-directors Deborah Jenson, a professor
of French and romance studies, and Laurent Dubois, professor of romance studies
and history, are leading a project to instigate cross-cultural and
cross-disciplinary debates, collaborations and strategies around treatment of
mental health in Haiti in the aftermath of last year’s earthquake.
Rochelle Schwartz-Bloom, professor of pharmacology
and cancer biology and director of the Duke Center for Science Education, is leading
a team of six faculty who will begin a three-part project to change the
communications that women receive about the safety of consuming alcohol during
pregnancy. The group also plans to conduct focus groups to pilot a new non-alcoholic
soft drink that could be marketed to pregnant women.
“These are really outstanding projects in
this first round of PFIRST funding,” said Susan Roth, vice provost for
Interdisciplinary Studies, who was part of the selection team. “It is clear
that faculty are energized by working in teams and learning how others approach
a common problem. We look forward to seeing how these projects develop over
time.”
The
projects are awarded seed funding for one year.
Periodic updates on the projects will be available on the
Interdisciplinary Studies website at www.interdisciplinary.duke.edu.