Assistant Professor Receives Research Grant

VALDOSTA -- Dr. Jia Lu, assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Astronomy and Geosciences, recently received a research grant from the American Society of Learned Council. The $106,000 award will fund Lu’s research titled “History of Road Construction in Chinese East Himalayas: An Integrated Study.”

The grant will provide two-year funding for the research materials, data and student assistance, and will allow Lu to travel to China for field work.

“The proposed research plans to fill the gap of existing literature by examining the history of infrastructure development and its multiple impacts in the Chinese fast-developing Eastern Himalayas,” Lu said. “The aim is to bridge traditional humanistic and social science methods with the cutting-edge technologies and quantitative analyses. The final analyses and results will be on-line for easy dissemination worldwide.”

Lu is a first-year assistant professor at Valdosta State University. She holds a Ph.D in City and Regional Planning from the Ohio State University.