About a dozen UF faculty members, with specialties ranging from traditional medicine to environmental sociology, have received a $6.5 million grant to study the psychological and environmental effects of the Gulf's latest oil spill.
UF is one of four universities involved in the research starting this summer. Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, Tulane University and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston are the others.
These are "four major universities along the coasts, strategically spaced, who are the leads on their various grants," said Dr. J. Glenn Morris, director of the UF Emerging Pathogens Institute and the grant's principal investigator.
The project is broken down into three parts, Morris said.
First, the study works to find the psychological impacts on individuals and their families. Second, it tries to determine what makes a community better able to deal with this kind of a disaster or its community resilience. Finally, it is to verify the safety of the seafood in the area, focusing on non-commercial fishers.
Another aspect of the analysis, Morris said, is the community outreach and education program.
