Dr. Mark Spraker’s research is supported by a grant that he received from the NASA Space Grant Consortium.

By successfully applying for this grant, Dr. Spraker has added NGCSU to the Georgia Consortium and has brought in excess of $30,000 to the campus in the last two years. The monies have been used to support his research collaboration with Dr. Sarah Formica and several undergraduate students in the X-ray Composition, Imaging, and Trace Element Research (XCITER) group. The XCITER group uses a molybdenum x-ray source with focusing x-ray optics to determine the elemental composition of samples.

Currently, Drs. Spraker and Formica are working with the biology department on a variety of cellular studies. The NASA money also supports personnel working in the NGCSU George E. Coleman planetarium and will contribute to the construction of a new radio telescope for undergraduate research.