Two UF professors received more than half a million dollars for research, and they're leaving it up to the students to do the legwork.
The $643,000 grant, one of seven of its kind given by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will fund research on wood that can be used to make biofuel like ethanol and may result in developing crops to be used for creating energy.
College of Forest Resources and Conservation assistant professor Matias Kirst and associate professor Gary Peter have worked on the project since 2002. The grant will allow them to bring more focus to their research, Kirst said.
"It's a pretty difficult program to get money from; its nature is competitive because everyone is researching plants right now," he said.
The professors will analyze and organize data and advise the student researchers, he said, because their full-time teaching positions also do not allow them to research full time.
A team of two graduate students and two to four undergraduate students will conduct the research and experiments and meet with Kirst and Peter daily for advising.
"We'll coach the students through the experiments," Peter said, "but they'll be doing all the work."
Kirst said the grant will allow students to get involved, which will hopefully foster an interest in science.
"We have [students from] engineers who are great with computers to biological majors and even unrelated majors like journalism students who just want to see what science is all about," he said.
Evandro Novaes, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Forest Resources and Conservation, began working on the project in 2006 and plans to continue for the 2009-2010 year.
"It's important to keep money in the program," he said.
Mark McLellan, dean of research for UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, said he likes the idea that students are getting involved in the research and said Peter and Kirst are among UF's brightest researchers.
"It's up to the faculty to get students excited about science, and Kirst and Peter know how to do it," he said.
