The Earth Science Information Office (ESIO) has been providing maps and other cartographic information to the campus and citizens from across Massachusetts and the country since 1983. While ESIO is part of The Environmental Institute, it is entirely funded by product sales and external grants. The office sells wetland, topographical, and geological maps along with aerial photographs. ESIO is the United States Geological Survey (USGS) branch office for the region, and it is the sixteen state distribution center for National Wetland Inventory Maps. Read more.

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Trustees Approve University Investment in New Companies Based on University Technologies

The UMass President’s Office recently announced that the Board of Trustees have approved the creation of the UMass Co-Investment Fund whereby UMass may invest with qualified external venture capital firms in startups based on UMass technologies. The investment must be at the Series A round or earlier and will be capped at $500K per company for all investment rounds. The external investor takes the lead in the company formation and establishing the valuation of the new company. Contact Nick DeCristofaro, CVIP, with questions (413) 545-3606.

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Paul T. Kostecki Appointed Vice Provost for Research

Paul T. Kostecki, interim vice provost for research since 2003, has been permanently appointed to the position following a national search. As vice provost, Kostecki oversees all research-related activities on campus, including Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property, Grant and Contract Administration, Research Affairs, Research Liaison and Development, campus institutes and centers, Animal Care facilities, the Microanalysis Center, and the University of Massachusetts Press. Kostecki is also a faculty member in the Environmental Health Sciences Program and adjunct professor in Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences, and associate director of environmental research at the campus-based Northeastern Regional Environmental Public Health Center. The full press release is available here.

OGCA Welcomes New Proposal Development Administrator

Kimberley Broderick joins the Office of Grant and Contract Administration (OGCA) as a Proposal Development Administrator. She assists faculty in effectively using and finding funding opportunities in their Community of Science (COS) Funding Alert system. She also helps the campus learn how to make better use of the on-line grants management system (GAMS) and Grants.gov. Contact Kimberley for help with GAMS or in any of the above areas at (413) 545-5898.

Academic Liaison Enhances Interdisciplinary Initiatives

Barbara Pearson joins the Research Liaison and Development Office (RL&D) as Assistant Director for Academic Liaison. She assists faculty to promote UMass research excellence by helping design educational components of interdisciplinary research grants. She will also foster liaisons with other universities and represent the campus on regional and state educational development committees and boards. Contact Barbara for help with proposals or reports or to share ideas on interdisciplinary education initiatives at (413) 545-5023.

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Data Management Plans Are Competitive Edge in NSF Proposals

This spring, the campus hosted Dr. Chris Greer from the NSF’s Division of Biological Infrastructure to talk about digital data collection as part of the first annual Digital Quadrangle Series - a collaboration between the Office of Research, the libraries, the Graduate School and the Center for Teaching. He noted that the NSF is now requiring data management plans in proposals that will generate a significant amount of digital data for preservation. For those proposals that do not yet have a data management plan requirement, it was suggested that proposals which include a plan have a competitive edge. This new requirement is in response to the National Science Board’s Data Collections Task Force recognition of the growing importance of digital data collections for research and education, and their potential for broadening participation in research at all levels.

What are data management plans? Usually one-page descriptions of how project data will be preserved and made available for use by other researchers and the public. Plans include: (1) the types of data to be produced, (2) the standards that would be applied for data format and metadata content, and (3) access policies and provision. To learn more about the NSB’s recommendations for digital data collection, read their report Long-Lived Digital Data Collections Enabling Research and Education in the 21st Century.

Grants.gov Available Online

The Office of Grant and Contract Administration (OGCA) is gearing up for the Federal government's Grants.gov electronic proposal submission system. Over the next year, the Federal government will be phasing in the requirement that all proposals be submitted via Grants.gov. OGCA, along with their colleagues at institutions across the country, are working hard to learn the new system and to help investigators with its implementation. As with any new system, there will be bumps along the way, but the goal is for the system to be an easy, paperless submission portal for all applicants. Read more for details on how to use Grants.gov and who to contact.

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Research Leadership in Action Grants Awarded

Spring 2006 Research Leadership in Action (RLA) grants were announced June 1st by Vice Provost for Research Paul Kostecki. Awards totaling $51,450 were made to three proposals: Jeffrey Holmes and Eric Berlin, Music and Dance for "International Trumpet Guild Conference" $25,000; Fergus Clydesdale, Food Science for "Generally Recognized as Efficaceous (GRAE): A Possible Resolution for Health Claims" $5,000; Eve Darian-Smith, Legal Studies "Summer Institute on Rights and Regulation" $21,450.

Research Leadership in Action is a competitive grant program sponsored by the Vice Provost for Research that supports campus faculty who are interested in showcasing leadership in their field of research and scholarly activity. RLA funding is available in both the spring and fall. For more information visit the RLA website or contact Karen Hayes, Program Administrator (413) 545-9586.

NSM Biomedical Innovation Initiative Grants Awarded

Three multi-disciplinary research teams were awarded $75,000 grants as part of the new NSM Biomedical Innovation Initiative. A project led by Anthony Dinsmore, Physics, received a grant to study the Measurement of Curvature-Induced Forces on Membrane Proteins. Lila Gierasch, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and colleagues will study the serpin protein in Cellular Misfolding and Serpinopathies. The third project, led by Maria Santore, Polymer Science and Engineering, will study cell motion on surfaces that distinguish different cell types in a project titled Short-Term Cell Manipulation with NanoCluster Surface and External Fields: a Demonstration Contrasting Breast Cancerous Cell Lines. Dean George Langford, College of Natural Sciences and Math, established the grant program to encourage creative and collaborative thinking across disciplines to investigate problems of biomedical importance and generate new applications for external funds.

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Third Annual UMass President's S&T Initiatives Fund Awards

Two UMass Amherst teams received awards as part of this year's $1M President’s Office Science and Technology Initiatives Fund which is providing seed grants for promising initiatives that can enable research and economic development for the Commonwealth. The Massachusetts Center for Renewable Energy Science and Technology (MASS-CREST) with principal investigators Bryan Coughlin, Polymer Science and Engineering and Sankaran Thayumanavan, Chemistry was awarded $200 K. The Wireless Communications Center for Excellence with PI Ted Djaferis, Associate Dean of Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was awarded $200 K.

UMass Information Technology Council Grant Goes to Theater Department

The UMass Amherst Theater Department has been awarded an $8,000 President's Office Information Technology Council grant to develop Online Web-Based Learning (OWL) multi-media homework modules for the Introduction to Theater (TH100) course. Mark Dean, General Manager and adjunct Theater instructor will lead implementation in partnership with the Center for Educational Software Development (CESD) to create supporting web-based homework materials that will help students contextualize lecture and performance material while online, in their rooms. Proposed curriculum components include virtual tours of ancient Greek theaters and Shakespeare’s Globe playhouse, interactive theater design and story-boarding exercises, on-line quizzes, and short video clip presentations of the essential steps in theater production. The modules will become a live supporting piece of the TH100 syllabus in spring 2007.

UMass Commercialization Grants

President Jack Wilson announced four grants of $20,000 each to University researchers to accelerate the commercialization of technologies developed in UMass laboratories. Lloyd H. Semprevivo, Department of Veterinary and Animal Science, is the UMass Amherst recipient. Semprevivo is using his grant to develop a peptide mimic vaccine for fascioliasis, a parasitic worm affecting livestock and occasionally humans. The grants are funded out of the University licensing revenues from the CVIP Technology Development Fund. The awards provide UMass researchers with supplemental funding to advance previously disclosed technologies towards commercialization. Contact Michael Jaremchuk, Associate Director, CVIP (413) 545-3606 with questions regarding the award program.

Hewlett-Packard Technology for Teaching Award

Professor Tilman Wolf, Electrical and Computer Engineering, has received a highly competitive Technology for Teaching Award worth nearly $69,000 from the Hewlett-Packard Company. The award package, which includes 20 wireless Tablet PCs and funds to support implementation of the technology, will be used to teach an introductory course on digital circuits and their design. The Tablet PC’s inking capability will enable Wolf to create problems that involve schematic drawings of digital circuits and the wireless network will allow for instant feedback, evaluation and response. This real-time feedback will allow Wolf and his students to evaluate much more accurately whether or not the class understands the concepts covered in each lesson.

Wolf has been a campus leader in adopting Tablet technology for teaching and learning and is a member of the campus’ Tablet PC Community of Practice. For more information contact Tilman Wolf (413) 545-0757.

Campus Garners Two More Microsoft Grants

The Amherst campus recently received two more grants from Microsoft Corporation in support of research and education putting it in the top 5% of Microsoft's External Research & Programs grant winning institutions. Citing the dramatic success of the campus’ new Learning Commons in the W.E.B. Dubois Library, Microsoft Corp. announced on May 31st the campus was awarded an Unlimited Potential grant of nearly $600,000 in software to support an expansion of the facility. The software donation will help users learn a range of IT skills to compete more effectively in a global economy. Read the Press Release for more information.

The second grant came to W. Bruce Croft, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Department Chair. He was awarded $42,000 as one of 12 winners of Microsoft’s Accelerating Search in Academic Research request for proposals (RFP). The highly competitive RFP was issued to discover and fund academic research that will improve Internet search technologies, and data mining, discovery and analysis. Croft's project, "Discovering and Using Meta-Terms," will investigate automatic techniques for improving queries by adding more specific forms of words that have been discovered using the Web.

For more information on Microsoft Research grants and how to apply, contact Karen Hayes (413) 545-9586 in RL&D or go to the Microsoft website.

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June 16: Mass High Tech Pulse of Technology Event: Funding Frenzy. Where to go for early-stage financing. Newton Marriott, Newton, MA 7:30-9:30 A.M.

June 29-July 1: The Media Giraffe Project, a non-partisan, interdisciplinary research effort of the UMass Amherst journalism program will hold a three-day conference on the Amherst campus called "Democracy and Independence: Sharing News and Politics in a Connected World." Pulitzer Prize-winning web editor Jon Donley, columnist Helen Thomas and other leaders in media, politics, education and technology will examine the future and sustainability of journalism, democracy, and communities in the Internet age. This conference is sponsored in part by a grant from the Research Leadership in Action program. For more information on the conference and how to register, visit the conference website.

September 30: UMass Amherst Invention to Venture. Save the date for faculty, students, staff and the business community. See our next issue for more info.

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October 13: Faculty Research Grant/Healey Endowment Grant (FRG/HEG)

November 1: Research Leadership in Action

January 5, 2007: Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship Awards

April 6, 2007: Public Service Endowment Grant

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The campus is always pleased to welcome new faculty. Here is a sampling of their research interests from the College of Engineering (ENGR), Humanities and Fine Arts (HFA), and Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS). For a full list of faculty from all colleges and schools who are new to the campus this year, please click here.

Massimo Fischetti (ENGR) Electrical and Computer Engineering. Research Interests: Electronic transport in semiconductors. Monte Carlo simulations. Quantum transport. Physics of semiconductor devices.

Jane Fountain (SBS) Political Science. Director: Science, Technology and Society Initiative and the Center for Public Policy and Administration.

Jennifer Heuer (HFA) History. Research Interests: modern France, Europe, women’s and gender history.

Françoise Nicole Hamlin (HFA) History. Research Interests: U.S. Twentieth Century history, African American history and culture, American culture, African American women's history and culture, histories of race.

Daiheng Ni (ENGR) Civil and Environmental Engineering. Research Interests: Traffic Flow Theory and Simulation, Intelligent, Transportation Systems, Traffic Sensing and Information Technology, Transportation Logistics and Optimization.

Lisa Sanders (SBS) Psychology. Research Interests: Auditory processing in children and adults, measuring event-related brain potentials (brain waves) and using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to record changes in blood flow in the brain when humans do different cognitive and perceptual tasks.

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OGCA processed 107 proposals for a total of $14,339,461 in April and 145 proposals for a total of $17,543,345 in May. How does that stack up against last year and previous months? Have a look at the histograms to find out.

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Margaret Barton-Burke
School of Nursing
Sponsor: University of Mass - Medical School
Title: Breast Cancer Experiences: Black Women's Reflections Years after Diagnosis
Total Award: $20,000

Anthony Dinsmore
Physics
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Title: Force Maps, Aging, and Elasticity in Random, Non-Equilibrium Solids
Total Award: $345,000

Joseph Hamill
Exercise Science
Sponsor: International Society of Biomechanics
Title: Lumbo-Sacral Kinetics and Pelvis-Trunk Coordination in Athletes With and Without Low Back Pain
Total Award: $2,000

Francis Juanes
Natural Resources Conservation
Sponsor: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Title: Use of Passive Acoustics to Determine Spawning Time and Fecundity of Haddock
Total Award: $75,000

Halina Kusleika
Fine Arts Center
Sponsor: National Endowment for the Arts
Title: NEA Jazz Masters on Tour
Total Award: $6,000

Joya Misra
Sociology
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Title: The Cross-National Effects of Work-Family Policies on the Wage Penalty for Motherhood
Total Award: $95,000

Steven J. Sandler
Microbiology
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
Title: Localization of Recombination Sites in E. coli
Total Award: $266,413

Stephen Siegel
Mathematics and Statistics
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Title: Collaborative Research: Finite-State Verification for High-Performance Computing
Total Award: $182,089

John Eric Tobiason
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Sponsor: Aquarion Water Company of CT
Title: Control of Manganese, Natural Organic Matter and Disinfection By-Products for Mystic, CT
Total Award: $125,947

Elizabeth A. Williams
Educational Policy Research & Administration
Sponsor: MA Office of the Attorney General
Title: Safe Schools Initiative Pilot Project - Student and Staff Climate Surveys
Total Award: $15,000

Eric Winkler
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Sponsor: MA Division of Energy Resources
Title: Commonwealth of Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Partnership (MAEEP)-Outreach, Training and Assessments
Total Award: $100,000

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