Research – 2008 Spring Semester Research Award Program (SSRA)

The Institute for Security Studies invited proposals from the faculty and academic departments on November 6, 2007. The intent of this award program is to help establish UNLV as a source of scholarly thought in the realm of homeland security and add to the Institute for Security Studies' collection of original papers that illustrate the breadth and depth of the UNLV faculty and student scholarship. Funding for this award was used to buy out faculty time and provide funding for a graduate assistant.

The participants awarded funding are currently performing their work and their final reports which will be submitted to the ISS no later than May 30, 2008. This program is just one of the many ways the ISS works with UNLV researchers to expand knowledge in a number of fields associated with homeland security.

There were nine proposals submitted to the ISS in all, three of which received funding as recommended by a panel consisting of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Dr. Michael Bowers; Chair/Professor of Public Administration, Dr. Lee Bernick, and the Chair/Professor of Political Science, Dr. Mehran Tamadonfar. The proposals awarded funding were submitted by:

Dr. Shahram Latifi, Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His proposal was titled: "An Iris and Retina Multimodal Biometric System."
Full report (pdf)

Dr. Aly Said, Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His proposal was titled: "Assessment of Structural Vulnerability to Terrorist Attacks and Prevention of Progressive Collapse."

Dr. Ralf Sudowe, Assistant Professor of Health Physics, School of Allied Health Sciences. His proposal was titled: "Optimization of Sample Preparation Methods for Alpha Spectroscopy in Emergency Response."