Valpo Faculty Members Receive University Research Professor Grants

Christopher Drapeau, Ph.D., and Todd Hillwig, Ph.D., will serve as University Research Professors at Valpo for the 2020–2021 academic year. The grants recognize and encourage scholarly accomplishments and will afford Drapeau and Hillwig the opportunity to continue creative and original work through one semester of full-time leave with pay or two consecutive semesters with a half-time schedule, plus a $4,000 stipend.

Drapeau, assistant professor of education, is working to produce three publications, two of which will report the results of two separate studies examining the national prevalence of school psychology training in the identification, assessment, and treatment of sleep problems in the K-12 school setting. The third publication, a book, will serve as a seminal sleep education and training text for K-12 school professionals and will be co-authored with pediatric sleep researcher Michelle Perfect, Ph.D. (University of Arizona).

Drapeau, who joined the faculty in 2017, has authored and co-authored several journal articles including his recently published works “Establishing a research agenda for child and adolescent safety planning” in Children’s Health Care and “Screening for suicide risk in adult sleep patients” in Sleep Medicine Reviews.

Hillwig, professor of physics and astronomy, will research how white dwarf binaries help us understand the universe. He has been identifying and characterizing close binary stars inside planetary nebulae for more than a decade, and this opportunity will allow him to continue and expand upon that research.

This year, Hillwig celebrated 15 years at Valparaiso University. During his tenure at the University, he has held a variety of positions, including chair of the department of physics and astronomy. He was also awarded the Philip and Miriam Kapfer Endowed Faculty Research Award in 2010.

The Creative Work and Research Committee selects University Research Professors on the basis of their proposal’s originality and significance and the applicant’s capacity to execute the program of study.