|
Welcome to 2005! As we kick off the New Year and
the spring semester we suspect that many of you are
planning for new endeavors. And new endeavors
require resources. So, we begin this year of
Research ACCESS with the spotlight on funding
opportunities. Also in this issue: new research
groups, new titles from UMass Press, new
partnerships, new recognition of outstanding faculty,
and new ways of seeing science. Whether your
research initiative is new or ongoing, the Research
Area can help.
As always, please contact us with your questions, article
suggestions and feedback.
|
|
2005 S&T RFP Issued |
 |
|
President Jack Wilson has renewed the UMass
Science and Technology (S&T) Initiatives Fund for
2005 in the amount of $1M. The S&T Fund provides
seed funding to campuses or groups of campuses in
order to help position them to develop and compete
for major new S&T initiatives in such areas as
research and development, commercialization and
business development, workforce development, and
international S&T alliances. These funds may be
used to support faculty release time, sabbaticals,
travel, hiring of staff or consultants, and other such
expenses associated with developing major new S&T
initiatives. Proposals are due by April 1st.
ILED can help with strategic planning and
development of your proposal. But, there are only
nine weeks left! Contact ILED soon to learn how we
can support your bid for S&T Initiative funds. 2005
S&T RFP details are available here.
|
|
|
Systems Biology SIG Convenes |
|
|
The first meeting of the newly formed Western
Massachusetts special interest group in bioinformatics
and computational biology (SysBio SIG) will be held
on Thursday, February 10th at UMass Amherst. The
objective of this academic-industry partnership and
outreach group is to discuss bioinformatics-related
topics of mutual interest to participants and to
support activities such as internships, research
collaborations, small business grants, and business
start-ups in the Pioneer Valley region.
The Computer Science department is the lead
organizer of the new SysBio SIG, which will receive
support from the Bio Economic Technology Alliance (BETA)
of the Regional
Technology Corporation (RTC) and the Office of
Industry Liaison and Economic Development
(ILED) at
UMass. The meeting will be held from 5:30 to 7pm in
room 151 of the
Computer Science Building at UMass Amherst. To
attend the meeting, RSVP by Monday, February 7 to
Judy Zember,
judy@rtccentral.com.
|
|
|
UMass Press Goes Google |
|
|
The University of
Massachusetts Press has reached agreement to
participate in the new Google Print
program, initiated by the Google search engine
company. Google Print is a book marketing program,
enabling publishers to promote their books on Google
and be included in Google search results. Google
scans the full text of participating publishers' titles so
that users can see books that match the topics that
they are searching. When a user clicks on a book
search result, he or she is taken to a Google-hosted
web page displaying a scanned image of the relevant
page from the book. Each page also contains
multiple "Buy This Book" links, allowing users to
purchase the book from online retailers or directly
from the publisher.
In a parallel development, Google has announced the
launch of a program entitled Google
Scholar, a new search service dedicated to
enabling discovery and access to the world's
scholarly information. Google Scholar will apply the
power of Google search technology to the task of
researching peer-reviewed journal articles and books,
but also papers, proceedings, theses, preprints,
abstracts, and technical reports from nearly every
discipline. At this stage, books in the Google Print
program do not figure in Google Scholar, but
eventually the two programs will be linked.
|
|
|
New Catalog from UMass Press |
|
|
The UMass Press has just released its catalog of new
titles for Spring/Summer 2005. An electronic version
can be found at its website --
www.umass.edu/umpress.
|
|
|
CCR Elects Westmoreland |
|
|
Chemical Engineering professor Phillip Westmoreland
has been elected to the governing board of the
Council for Chemical Research (CCR). The CCR
network
is comprised of individuals from industry, academia
and government laboratories who are deeply involved
in setting research directions in the U.S. and abroad.
Already, three UMass Amherst departments,
Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Polymer Science
and Engineering, are CCR members. In his new role,
Westmoreland increases the University's footprint
within the chemical research community's primary
leadership organization.
Let us know where you're involved! Contact
ILED at 545-2706.
|
|
|
UMass Bids for Engineering Research Center |
|
|
UMass Amherst in conjunction with Purdue and 7
other national universities has submitted a National
Science Foundation pre-proposal to establish an
Engineering Research Center (ERC) on Systems of
Systems (SoS). The UMass effort is led by Isenberg
School of Management professor and Virtual
Center for Supernetworks director Anna
Nagurney. The ERC proposal describes a five-year,
$17.75 M program, which names Purdue, UMass
Amherst, CalTech, and Penn State as the core ERC
institutions with support from Florida International
University, MIT, Stanford and Johns Hopkins. In
addition to Prof. Nagurney and her Isenberg
colleagues, faculty from the Computer Science
Department and the College of Engineering will be
included as senior researchers on the project. The
SoS Center's focus will be to improve the efficiency,
quality and reliability of large, complex systems like
those related to healthcare delivery, transportation,
supply chains and energy distribution. The proposed
ERC would be the first comprehensive effort to
understand the engineering of systems of systems as
an organized discipline. If won, this would be the
second ERC for UMass Amherst since 2003.
Support for the SoS ERC pre-proposal from regional
industry partners Court Square Data Group and
Baystate Medical Center was secured by the campus
Industry Liaison office. Industry partners will bring
specific issues of interest that will help guide the
research direction of the ERC. "These critical
partnerships were made possible through the early
and sustained efforts of the ILED staff," says Prof.
Nagurney. Contact ILED at 545-
2706 to learn more
about how to secure industry support for your
current and future research initiatives.
|
|
|
Visualize the Art of Science |
|
|
The same group that brought you startling images of microscopic beauty is
convening an expert panel to discuss how the
process of visualization is used by artists and
scientists to convey the wonderment of discovery to
a broad audience. On Wednesday, February 2 the
UMass VISUAL (Ventures in Science Using Art
Laboratory) program will host the public
symposium, "Resurrecting Leonardo: Reconnecting Art and Science for
Education." The event, co-sponsored by the
Vice Provost for Research, will feature scientists,
researchers and artists including Felice Frankel,
scientific photographer, MIT researcher and author of
Envisioning Science: The Design and Craft of the
Science Image and On the Surface of
Things: Images
of the Extraordinary in Science.
The symposium will be held from 1 to 4:30pm in 227
Herter Hall. This is a free event.
|
|
|
December Grants/Contracts Snapshot |
|
|
Each month ACCESS includes a selection of grants
and contracts awarded to faculty from across
campus in order to give you a sense of what's going
on in research at UMass Amherst. The following are a
sample from December.
Mitchell T. Mulholland
Anthropology - Archaeological Services
Sponsor: STV Inc
Title: Cohasset Village Railroad Roundhouse,
Turntable and Associated Features, Greenbush Line
Restoration Project
Total Award: $99,812
Igor A. Kaltashov
Chemistry
Sponsor: Amgen Inc
Title: Probing IgG Conformation by ESI MS
Total Award: $36,000
Gretchen B. Rossman
Educational Policy Research & Admin
Sponsor: Framingham State College
Title: Global Horizons FY 2005
Total Award: $20,000
Herbert O. Hultin
Food Science
Sponsor: Muscle Protein Foods Inc
Title: Recovery of High Value Food Ingredients from
Low Value Raw Materials
Total Award: $8000
Petrus L. Veneman
Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences
Sponsor: US Fish and Wildlife Service
Title: Provision of Natural Resources Habitat Analysis -
Update Wetland Status and Trend Plots in Maine,
VT, NH, MA, RI
Total Award: $65,543
Murugappan Muthukumar
Polymer Science and Engineering
Sponsor: AKZO Nobel Inc
Title: CUMIRP Part III: Unrestricted Research
Grant
Total Award: $75,000
|
| Research Offices & Services |
|
|
