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Education

SDSU Researchers Receive $120M In Funding During 2014-15 Year

Outside funding awarded to San Diego State University researchers rose 12 percent in the 2014-15 academic year to $120.6 million, the school announced Wednesday.

The total was $107.9 million in the previous year.

SDSU researchers received nearly 700 awards from 287 national, state, local and private sponsors, including the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, NASA, the California Department of Education and ExxonMobil Research and Engineering.

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"At a time when agencies are cutting back or at best maintaining funding at previous levels, SDSU faculty and staff have successfully competed with their colleagues at America's finest institutions by conducting excellent research and being resourceful, strategic and persistent," said Stephen Welter, vice president for research and dean of graduate affairs.

"All these awards enhance our students' academic experience by providing research opportunities at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels," Welter said.

Among the largest awards were:

• $3.5 million from NIH to Ralph-Axel Muller for research on autism in older adults

• $3.5 million from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute to John Elder for the Imperial County Asthma Project

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• $3.4 million from NIH to Mark Sussman and Christopher Glembotski for research to restore myocardial healing

• $1.9 million from the Institute of International Education to Mary Ann Lyman-Hager for the Language Resource Acquisition Center

• $1.7 million from the California Department of Rehabilitation to Caren Sax to help disabled children receiving Supplemental Security Income prepare for employment and education

According to SDSU, Muller is working to fill a research void in the impact of autism as people age. Research has primarily focused on children.

Elder is trying to get a better understanding of asthma, particularly among the Hispanic population, in a region where children are twice as likely to suffer from the condition than the U.S. average.

Sussman's and Glembotski's research looks into how stem cells can help ailing hearts repair themselves.