CONGRESSMAN RUBÉN HINOJOSA ANNOUNCES $571,000 GRANT TO UTRGV FROM THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Rubén Hinojosa (TX-15) announced that the National Science Foundation has awarded a more than $571,000 grant to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, starting November 15, 2016 for an anticipated total of three years. The award will be received through the “IOS Animal Behavior: Sibling influences on vocal babbling and vocal development” project under the direction of Dr. Karl Berg.

Congressman Hinojosa stated, “I am pleased that Dr. Karl Berg and his research team at UTRGV were awarded this NSF grant. This funding will help the IOS Animal Behavior project identify how early cognitive and vocal development is affected by social influences. This project is another great example of the advanced work that continues to elevate UTRGV and the Rio Grande Valley on the national level. I am very proud to represent UTRGV and comment its highly skilled and dedicated research team.”

Dean of the College of Science at UTRGV, Dr. Parwinder Grewal, stated, “We are very excited about this new award to Dr. Karl Berg from the National Science Foundation.  NSF programs are highly competitive and only fund cutting-edge research.  We are very fortunate to have high caliber faculty here at UTRGV who can compete at the national level for significant funding from sources like the NSF.  This funding is also important for the Rio Grande Valley region which has some of the most diverse bird species in the US.”

The IOS Animal Behavior: Sibling influences on vocal babbling and vocal development project presents a unique opportunity to test if sibling social interactions foster learning processes indirectly, or directly, through provisioning of vocal templates to younger siblings, especially given the large variation in brood size. This will represent novel learning strategies in birds and transform our view of early psychological development.

For more information regarding the IOS Animal Behavior grant , click HERE.