Intellectual and Developmental Disability News
Award to fund research on brain-computer interface control of communication device
LAWRENCE — University of Kansas neuroscientist Jonathan Brumberg has been awarded a $25,000 New Century Scholars Research Grant by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation to develop and test a brain-computer interface (BCI) that will directly control commercially available augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices for individuals with profound speech and motor disorders.
New director named for Fragile X project
Shelley Bredin-Oja has been named the full-time project coordinator for Fragile X longitudinal research directed by Steve Warren, effective April 1. Bredin-Oja earned her Ph.D. at KU in 2012 in speech-language-hearing and worked in Marc Fey’s Language Intervention Lab at KUMC until February 2015 when she became a part-time associate researcher with Warren.
Strategic hire to enhance KU autism research program
Matthew Mosconi, a psychologist, and neuroscientist who studies autism spectrum disorders, will join the University of Kansas as an associate professor in the Clinical Child Psychology Program and associate scientist in the Life Span Institute on August 18.
Researchers win grants on employment of people with disabilities
LAWRENCE — Researchers from three programs affiliated with the University of Kansas Life Span Institute were awarded Empower Kansas grants earlier this month in Parsons by UnitedHealthcare, one of the three managed-care organizations that provide services to Medicaid consumers in Kansas.
Fred Merrill, long-time benefactor and friend of LSI dies
Fred Merrill, who with his wife, Virginia, established the Merrill Advanced Studies Center at LSI in 1990, died Oct. 20 in Mission Hills, Kan.