Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) announces the 2025-26 Faculty Research Fellowship program—an initiative designed to expand research opportunities and engagement for faculty and students while strengthening EKU’s impact on the region and beyond.
“Research is the catalyst for innovation, student success and community impact,” said EKU President David McFaddin. “Our new research fellowship program is an investment in our people—faculty who lead by example, mentor the next generation and strengthen the university’s role as a driver of knowledge and opportunity across the Commonwealth.”
The fellowship program is part of EKU’s broader commitment to enhancing research in externally funded projects across all areas of the university. Fellows will serve in roles focused on outreach to raise awareness of available funding and support for research; mentorship and leadership among colleagues and funding committees; and visibility, serving as ambassadors to celebrate research success. Fellows will also help faculty and students navigate EKU’s research infrastructure.
“The goal of the initiative is to cultivate a stronger institutional research culture, foster professional growth and skill development and advance our institution’s research ecosystem,” said Dean of Graduate Education and Research Administration Dr. Ryan Baggett. “In year one, we will focus on the development of new processes and programming that will mark the start of a new era of research excellence at EKU.”
Three experienced researchers and EKU faculty members have been selected as the inaugural fellows for the 2025–26 academic year: Dr. Jason Fry, associate professor in the Department of Physics, Geosciences and Astronomy; Dr. Mike Lane, professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation, Exercise and Sport Science; and Dr. Jason Marion, professor of Environmental Health Science. In addition to the general responsibilities for the program, each fellow focuses on a specialty area to advance research at EKU—Fry on research-related professional development and mentoring, Lane on advancing student research and Marion on publication support and commercialization opportunities.
Fry’s research in the EKU Nuclear and Particle Physics Detector Lab centers around student learning and training. His students build, test and characterize equipment in the lab space at EKU to then conduct larger experiments at national labs, where they are active collaborators in national nuclear physics experiments. Fry has secured over $1 million in intended funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF) as either Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI. Additionally, Fry is a co-spokesperson on a NSF project for the next-generation neutron lifetime measurement, BL3.
Lane teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in exercise science, as well as conducts research on supplementation, load carriage and long-term athlete tracking. He has directed EKU Student Research and Creative Endeavors for the past two years. He also consults and coaches a variety of athletes and individuals.
Specializing in environmental health sciences and epidemiology, Marion’s research focuses on water quality, antibiotic resistance and public health. He has authored more than 30 publications and served as lead investigator or co-director on more than $1 million in externally funded research. His funding sources have included the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. Notably, he secured EKU’s first NSF Major Research Instrumentation award in 2023 and EKU’s first Small Business Technology Transfer Research award in 2024 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2021, Marion received the Global Health Innovation Prize for developing a novel method to quantify E. coli in water.
The Faculty Research Fellowship program’s primary focus is to support EKU’s faculty and student research initiatives. Marion noted, “Supporting EKU as a research fellow is rewarding because we contribute to connecting them with timely external resources which enables impactful research and student engagement not possible otherwise.”
Fry, Lane and Marion strengthen EKU’s mission through innovative research, student engagement, and nationally funded projects across the sciences and health fields.
Designed for impact and adaptability, the EKU Faculty Research Fellowship program is continuously evaluated to ensure relevance and effectiveness. By empowering faculty leaders, EKU lays the foundation for a more engaged, informed and innovative research community.
By A’Mya Kendrick
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