Way Klingler Fellowships are for full-time regular faculty at the associate or full professor rank who have potential for significant scholarship. In 2010, one Way Klingler fellowship in science and one in the humanities were awarded. The science fellow receives $50,000 annually for three years, and the humanities fellow receives $20,000 annually for three years. Funding for the science applicant is for research that requires higher-expense items, such as equipment, supplies and research staff. The humanities recipient can use the funding for critical research that requires time, access to information and travel.
After 30 years of researching the effects of microgravity on skeletal muscle structure and function, Dr. Robert Fitts, chair and professor of biological sciences, is hoping for a change of heart. Specifically, he鈥檚 changing the focus of his research to determine the best exercise programs for limiting heart disease and for facilitating recovery from it.
Thanks to his Way Klingler Fellowship in Science, Fitts will convert the emphasis of his lab from space biology to studies designed to understand the role of endurance and high-resistance exercise-training programs in the prevention of and rehabilitation from heart disease. Using organ and tissue studies, the work is designed to uncover the mechanisms of the exercise protection.
"Heart disease is a major health issue worldwide," said Fitts. "The incidence of this disease and death from it are greater than from any other disease. When you add that 50 percent of all diabetics die of heart disease, the enormity of the problem to human health is astronomical, as are the health care costs."
Dr. Pol Vandevelde, recipient of the Way Klingler Fellowship in Humanities, is developing a unified theory of knowledge, reconciling the Anglo-American and continental approaches as well as accounting for cultural and social influences in the way we "know" something.
Three themes are central to a theory of knowledge, according to Vandevelde 鈥� interpretation, meaning and what the subject of knowledge is.
"While there are many books on each of these issues, what is unique about my project is that it demonstrates the interconnections between them," said Vandevelde.
Having dealt with interpretation in a previous book and literary meaning in a book currently under review by a publisher, Vandevelde plans to complete a book on the theory of meaning during his fellowship. "I defend the view that meaning is a process, instead of a content," said Vandevelde.
