Professor and alumnus get research grant

Marty Condon, professor of biology at Cornell College, has received a $15,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to provide research experience for teachers, and will take Darius Ballard ’07, who teaches high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Peru.

Condon specializes in research on tropical flies and has gotten numerous grants from the National Science Foundation. Ballard teaches biology and environmental studies at Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids.

The pair will continue Condon’s research on  plants, flies and the parasitic wasps that attack the flies.

The National Science Foundation offers the grants as a way to strengthen the science expertise of K-12 teachers in the United States and build collaboration between researchers and K-12 teachers.