2012 News and Events Archive

AlwaysOn Award for Cambrian Innovation
Cambrian Innovation, an EPA SBIR awardee, was selected as one of 200 Going Green Silicon Valley Global winners. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Two STAR Grantees Receive Awards at AAAR Conference
At the 2012 American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) conference two STAR Grantees from EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research received the Kenneth T. Whitby Award and the Benjamin Y. H. Liu Awards. (CFDA: 66.509)
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SBIR Seed Funding Helps Create Jobs
EPA's SBIR program issues small funding contracts through an annual research competition which opens in March. The small companies in turn use this seed funding to advance their research and leverage that investment to bring in other sources of funding such as venture capital. (CFDA: 66.509)
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A Lower Primary Ozone Standard Would Save Lives
STAR researchers published their findings in Environmental Health Perspectives on the potential health impacts of meeting the current National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) and recommended standards for ozone. (CFDA: 66.509)
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SBIR recipient, Cambrian Innovations wins 2012 Artemis Top 50 Award
Cambrian Innovations, recipient of a 2006 Phase 1 and a 2011 Phase 2 research contract under EPA’s Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program has been selected for the 2012 Artemis Top 50 Water Tech Listing. (CFDA: 66.509)
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STAR Nano Researcher Wins Clarke Prize
Dr. Pedro Alvarez, the recipient of several EPA STAR research grants, has won the 2012 National Water Research Institute’s (NWRI) Clarke Prize for excellence in water research. (CFDA: 66.509)
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BPA May Lower Essential Hormones in Pregnant Women and Baby Boys
Supported in part by research at the EPA/NIEHS Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health at the University of California, Berkeley, a new study appears to link the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA), to changes in thyroidal hormonal levels in pregnant women and infant boys. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Rice Consumption May Expose Children to Arsenic
Supported in part by research at the EPA/NIEHS Dartmouth Children's Center, a new study suggests that rice consumption can expose U.S. children to arsenic. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Phthalates in Plastics Raise Risk of Asthma in Children
STAR researchers at Columbia University's Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Research Center have found that children exposed to phthalates have elevated risk of asthma-related airway inflammation. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Boys More Vulnerable to Memory Impairment from Insecticide Chlorpyrifos than Girls
STAR researcher Megan Horton at the Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Research Center at Columbia University has published research results showing that after prenatal exposure to the insecticide chrlorpyrifos (CPF), boys at age seven had greater memory impairment than girls with similar exposures, leading to an overall lower IQ. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Manufactured Nanoparticles May Impact Crop Yield and Food Quality
STAR researchers at the University of California Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology, have published an article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showing that manufactured nanoparticles in agricultural soil can accumulate in plants and can  affect plant growth and food quality. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Small Business in Topsfield, Mass. Receives $300,000 Grant to Develop Air Quality Monitoring Equipment
A business in Topsfield, Mass. was among seven businesses nationwide to win a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop and commercialize technology that helps protect the environment. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Frogs More Vulnerable to Disease as Climate Changes
Science to Achieve Results (STAR) researcher Jason Rohr has published findings in Nature Climate Change that may link the declining amphibian population around the world to climate change. (CFDA: 66.509)
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EPA Awards $2 Million to Small Businesses to Support Environmental Innovation, Protect Health
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded seven contracts totaling more than $2 million to small businesses across the nation to develop new technologies to keep the environment clean and healthy. (CFDA: 66.509)
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EPA Announces Funded Research to Improve Air Quality, Protect Health
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded five grants totaling almost $2 million to academic institutions for research on innovative processes to further improve air quality in the U.S. and help track the effectiveness of pollution control measures.
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Cattle feedlots release synthetic growth hormone metabolites at levels causing endocrine disruption in fish
STAR researchers Dr. David Sedlak (University of California - Berkeley) and Dr. Edward Kolodziej (University of Nevada - Reno) have published 2 new journal articles this year, one that shows toxic levels of trenbolone metabolites can reach fish in surface waters at levels that can cause reproductive defects and another describing the new and more accurate analytical procedures that they have developed. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Why is methane such a powerful heat trapper in our atmosphere?
U.S. EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grantee Neil Donahue has been featured in a recent National Public Radio (NPR) story for his work in atmospheric chemistry. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Elderly at risk to heat and temperature fluctuations
EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grantees at Harvard School of Public Health have shown that heat and fluctuation in temperatures due to climate change will hurt one of our most vulnerable populations, the elderly. (CFDA: 66.509)
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NCER Welcomes Dr. James H. Johnson Jr.
Dr. James H. Johnson Jr., has been appointed as the Director of EPA's National Center for Environmental Research within the Office of Research and Development. We are proud to have his leadership, which will help maximize our extramural research efforts in exposure, effects, risk assessment, and risk management. (CFDA: 66.509)
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EPA Awards $2 Million to Small Businesses
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program recently awarded $2 million to 25 companies in support of technology development toward sustainable solutions for the environment. (CFDA: 66.509)
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EPA Awards More Than $1 Million to College Teams for Innovative Environmental Solutions
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded more than $1 million in grants to 15 university and college teams from across the country who participated in the 8th Annual National Sustainable Design Expo on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for their innovative environmental solutions. (CFDA: 66.509)
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EPA SBIR Recipient Bridger Photonics Wins SBA Tibbets Award
Bridger Photonics, recipient of a 2009 Phase 1 and a 2010 Phase 2 research contract under EPA’s Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)  program, won the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Tibbetts Award last week for its innovative work in carbon dioxide emission detection. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Prenatal Exposure to CPF Possibly Linked to IQ and Memory deficits in Children
The U.S. EPA funded Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Research Center at Columbia University has published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showing that even moderate prenatal exposure to the insecticide chrlorpyrifos (CPF) may cause long-term changes in brain structure of a child. (CFDA: 66.509)
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High School student wins EPA sustainability award
Thabit Pulak, a sophomore at Richardson High School in Richardson, Texas, was named the recipient of EPA’s Patrick Hurd Sustainability Award for his Home-Based Arsenic Bio-Sand Water Filter science fair project. Thabit competed in this year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. The award enables the winning student and a chaperone to participate in and display the student's project at EPA's National Sustainable Design Expo featuring the P3: People, Prosperity, and the Planet (P3) Student Design Competition for Sustainability in 2013. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers (with NIEHS)
EPA and NIEHS have issued a joint solicitation under their Children's Environmental Health Research program for: (1) the expanded use of epidemiological and clinical data from studies of prospective parents, pregnant women and children; (2)the application of novel findings and approaches in areas of basic or mechanistic research e.g., imaging, epigenetics and comparative biology to developmental human studies; (3) development and use of new or improved biomarkers, environmental measurements (indoors and outdoors) and exposure factors and models to best characterize exposure, potential health effects at various lifestages, and predict longer-term clinical consequences; (4) the training of new investigators to address emerging issues in children's environmental health with state of the art tools and methodologies; and (5) the active participation of identified stakeholders and the broader community in the research process and translation and application of research findings. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Prenatal Exposure to Combustion-Related Pollutants Linked to Symptoms of Anxiety, Depression, and Attention Problems in Young Children
STAR researchers at  Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health have published results which associate prenatal exposure to air pollutants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) with  behavioral problems in children. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Measurements and Modeling for Quantifying Air Quality and Climatic Impacts of Residential Biomass or Coal Combustion for Cooking, Heating, and Lighting
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications proposing research on quantifying, via field measurements and modeling, the improvements in climate and ambient and indoor air quality, and the subsequent impacts on health and welfare, resulting from ongoing, planned, or potential interventions in cooking, heating, or lighting practices. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Small Business Innovation Research Phase I
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) invites small business firms to submit research proposals under this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Solicitation. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Food Products Containing Organic Brown Rice Syrup may be an Unsuspected Source of Dietary Arsenic
Researchers at the EPA/NIEHS Dartmouth Children's Center have found that rice-related ingredients such as organic brown rice syrup in food products are a potential source of arsenic in diets.
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PFCs May Cause Lowered Immune Response
EPA STAR researcher Philippe Grandjean (and others) have published a paper in JAMA which shows evidence that suggests that  children’s exposure to perflourinated compunds can lower the effectiveness of childhood vaccines by lowering their ability to make antibodies for tetanus and diptheria later in life. (CFDA: 66.509)
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STAR Researchers Find Air Pollution Exposure Raises the Risk of Stroke
Researchers at Harvard have determined that risk of stroke rises within hours of exposure to ambient air pollution and is most strongly associated with automotive emissions. (CFDA: 66.509)
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STAR Researchers Find Phthalate Exposure Related to Obesity
Mt Sinai researchers have published a paper in the journal Environmental Research called Associations between phthalate metabolite urinary concentrations and body size measures in New York City children.
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Research Grants Awarded to Assist Small Public Water Systems
EPA has awarded $4M in STAR research grants to strengthen public health protection from contaminants in drinking water.  This research will assist small Public Water Systems in meeting the treatment and management challenges of multiple and competing drinking water regulations by identifying affordable innovative technologies and approaches.
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EPA STAR Researchers Receive 2011 Hagaan Smit Prize from Elsevier for Paper on Particulate Concentrations Near Highways
Y. F. Zhu, W. C. Hinds, S. Kim, S. Shen and C. Sioutas, authors of “Study of ultrafine particles near a major highway with heavy-duty diesel traffic”. Atmos. Environ., 36, 4323-4335, 2002, have received the 2011 Haagen-Smit Prize from Elsevier.
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John Froines Continues EPA STAR’s Rich Tradition of State Recognition as the Sixth EPA STAR Researcher to Receive the Prestigious Haagen Smit Award
The California Air Resources Board  (ARB) recognizes three individuals each year with the Haagen Smit award for their achievements in policy, research, technology development of breakthrough technologies through a lifelong commitment to protecting California’s environment and public health by improving air quality.
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Performance and Effectiveness of Green Infrastructure Stormwater Management Approaches in the Urban Context: A Philadelphia Case Study
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications proposing to conduct research on and demonstration of the performance and effectiveness of green infrastructure (GI) practices at the urban watershed-level. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Development and Use of Adverse Outcome Pathways that Predict Adverse Developmental Neurotoxicity
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications proposing research that will identify and/or provide a better understanding of adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) that lead to developmental neurotoxicity (DNT). (CFDA: 66.509)
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Fall 2013 EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowships for Graduate Environmental Study
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is offering Graduate Fellowships for master’s and doctoral level students in environmental fields of study. (CFDA: 66.514)
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Centers for Water Research on National Priorities Related to a Systems View of Nutrient Management
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program is seeking applications to establish Centers to conduct water research and demonstration projects that are innovative and sustainable using a systems approach for nutrient management in the Nation’s waters. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Fall 2013 EPA Greater Research Opportunities (GRO) Fellowships For Undergraduate Environmental Study
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Greater Research Opportunities (GRO) Fellowships program, is offering undergraduate fellowships for bachelor level students in environmental fields of study. (CFDA: 66.509)
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10th Annual P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of the P3-People, Prosperity and the Planet Award Program, is seeking applications proposing to research, develop, and design solutions to real world challenges involving the overall sustainability of human society. (CFDA: 66.509)
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New Grant Competition Opens: Anthropogenic Influences on Organic Aerosol Formation and Regional Climate Implications
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications proposing work to use measurements to improve understanding of the formation of organic compounds from a mixture of anthropogenic and biogenic emissions and their climatically relevant properties. (CFDA: 66.509)
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Sustainable Chesapeake: A Community-Based Approach to Stormwater Management Using Green Infrastructure
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications proposing trans-disciplinary, integrated research that will advance scientific and practical understandings of how to promote and sustain effective, community-based stormwater management for reducing water-borne pollution entering Chesapeake Bay.
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