Faculty in the Geosciences Department have partnered with instrumentation leader Cameca to develop the newly re-designed Ultrachron Electron Microprobe, the only instrument of its kind in the world. The microprobe, which was developed through a grant from the National Science Foundation, will help scientists to more accurately date geological matter and more precisely identify trace elements in solid materials. The instrument is one of several that make up the Electron Microprobe/Scanning Electron Microscope Facility (EMSEMF) at UMass Amherst, which was dedicated during a ceremony on October 13th. Recent acquisitions and advances in technology are putting increased emphasis on the work that takes place in this facility. Read more.

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The Office of Research Affairs and the Department of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) have mapped compliance responsibility and accountability on campus to demystify the intricacies of compliance oversight. The resulting matrices and flowcharts illustrate oversight and enable staff to better answer researchers' questions about compliance.

Developed under the leadership of Donald Robertson, EHS Director, the compliance matrices and charts clarify the connections between the many administrative positions that have compliance responsibilities and demonstrate final institutional accountability. They also show the responsibilities and reporting structures of the five compliance committees. Clear from the illustrations is the vast network that is in place to support researchers’ understanding of compliance on campus. For more information about compliance responsibility, view the matrices and flowcharts. Email Hilary Woodcock, Research Compliance Coordinator, with questions or comments.

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Advanced Energy research at UMass Amherst is gaining momentum and national attention. To answer the question of, "What does UMass Amherst do in Energy?" the office of Research Liaison and Development has created a web portal that brings together information on energy research in one easily navigable site -- www. umass.edu/research/energy. There are four main sections of the portal: Harvest, Use, Conservation, Impacts. Each section connects the user to campus faculty whose energy-related research maps to this Advanced Energy continuum. In addition, sidebar lists of energy-focused research centers and institutes appear on each of the pages. The result is an interdisciplinary view of the work that is taking place at UMass Amherst in this increasingly important area.

Please visit the Advanced Energy portal. If you are conducting research related to energy but are not currently listed in the portal, contact Loren Walker (577-3725) in RL&D.

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The Technology Innovation Challenge announces the deadlines for its fall 2006 Executive Summary competition. Teams of students are encouraged to submit business ideas for the Technology Innovation Challenge (TIC) Executive Summary & Elevator Pitch Competition, which carries a prize of $5,000 to the winning team. Teams must submit intent to compete form by November 17. Executive Summaries are due to TIC by November 27. The competition is limited to technology-based businesses, and is open to science and technology students in cooperation with management students. The awards will be announced on December 5 at 4:30 P.M. in the Campus Center Ballroom. The challenge is a collaborative effort between the College of Engineering and the Isenberg School of Management. For more information and contact information, go to the TIC website.

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Mass Tech Transfer Center Investigation Awards
Deadline: November 20
MTTC has announced the fall 2006 round of its Technology Investigation awards. Ten awards of up to $40,000 will be made to qualified researchers and technology licensing officers to support the demonstration of the commercial viability of a technology. Funding could be used to develop a prototype or to gather initial data in order to show proof of concept or to obtain data that shows how the technology compares to existing technologies and what its competitive advantages are. For more information and to apply, download the application. Email Michelle Bernier with questions.

New Microsoft RFPs announced
Deadline: November 27
Tablet PC Technology in the Higher Education Classroom. The focus of the 2006 RFP is educational value and validity of Tablet PC technology. Projects should be related to the gathering of evidence and educational evaluation of classroom use of the technology. Microsoft Research anticipates granting 4 awards of a maximum of $100,000. Visit the 2006 RFP webpage for guidelines and details.

Deadline: January 5, 2007
eScience: Computational Challenges in Synthetic Biology. Proposals are invited that identify and address computational challenges in the field. Five or more grants of one year seed-funding will be awarded. Go to the RFP page of Microsoft's External Research and Programs website for more details. Email Microsoft with any questions about either RFP. For information on the Microsoft/UMass relationship or previous Microsoft grant winners, contact Karen Hayes (545-9586) in RL&D.

Massachusetts Water Resources Research Center RFP
Deadline: December 1
Applications for FY 2007 funding from the National Water Institute are open to faculty and graduate students. WRRC will award $25,000 to one faculty project and $5,000 to one graduate student project from a Massachusetts institute of higher education. Eligible projects include those working on new and innovative projects, regional or state water resource needs, and information transfer activities for water resource protection. Budgets must include a 2:1 non-federal match for each federal dollar. For more information, see the application announcement and guidelines. Contact the WRRC with questions and a courtesy message of intent to submit.

NCIIA Grant for Curriculum Development and E-Team Projects
Deadline: December 1
National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance grants support and strengthen invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship education through curricular development and the work of Advanced E-Teams. Grants are awarded in two major categories:

• Course and program grants are awarded to institutions for the purpose of strengthening existing curricular programs or building new programs in invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
• Advanced E-Team Grants provide E-Teams with the support they need to bring an innovative product or technology from idea to prototype, and eventually to market.

For submission information and an application, go to the NCIIA Grant for Curriculum Development and E-Team Projects website.

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Center for Excellence in Apoptosis Research (CEAR) Opens Doors
UMass Amherst partnered with the Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute (PVLSI) and Baystate Medical Center to launch the Center of Excellence in Apoptosis Research (CEAR) on October 25th in Springfield, MA. Made possible through a $3 million investment from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), the center will pursue new clinical treatments for diseases by studying and regulating apoptosis, the process of natural cell death. The partners hope that the research performed at this center will lead to better treatments for cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disorders, and autoimmune disease. Further, the Center could have a positive impact on medical innovation and economic development in the Pioneer Valley.

The establishment of CEAR highlights UMass Amherst's position as a leader in apoptosis research. The university is uniquely positioned to excel in this field because of its complementary strengths in life sciences, physical sciences and engineering. The Center is expected to attract talented new faculty to UMass Amherst as biomedical investigators. For more information about CEAR, contact Dr. Paul Friedmann, PVLSI executive director (413) 794-0674.

Nano Engineering Conference Draws UMass Amherst Expertise
UMass Amherst and UMass Lowell were among exhibitors at the National Nano Engineering Conference on November 9th and 10th in Boston. The focus was technical presentations and exhibits from companies leading the nanotechnology industry. The University joined a group of companies working to advance the field. The new Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing was the emphasis of the campus’s presentation at the conference.

Marla Michel, Director of Research Liaison and Development, comments on the value of attending such events, "Conferences and trade shows can play a role in how you market your initiative with the aim of raising the visibility of your research and attracting industrial partners."

Mike Wright, Managing Director of MassNanoTech, also says that a presence at these types of events is critical, "With growing research programs and business/academic contacts in nanotechnology at UMass Amherst, it's becoming important to have a physical presence at events aimed at industrial audiences. These give faculty a chance to present papers, students a chance to present posters, and industrial liaison staff a chance to make personal contacts with companies that may be interested in sponsoring research or licensing our inventions. It gives UMass Amherst a chance to be recognized for our strengths."

"The campus is working with various economic development agencies to determine how to strategically use these marketing vehicles. We don't have unlimited resources so we have to be very selective," Michel adds.

Need advice on how to package your interdisciplinary research for an external audience? Contact RL&D at 545-2706.

German Partner Institutions Fare Well in Excellence Initiative
UMass was pleased to see some of its partner universities in Baden-Württemberg, Germany recognized for their excellence in several academic categories. Under the recently launched German Excellence Initiative, which aims to restructure the German system of higher education, five of UMass's nine partner institutions in the German state attained some level of excellence in the first round. These numbers exceed those of any other German state. Frank Hugus, Director of the International Programs Office at UMass Amherst, says, "This level of excellence is a testimony to the quality of our partnership." The ratings come on the heels of the recent UMass/Baden Württemberg Science and Technology exchange that was held at the end of September. During this event, UMass Amherst hosted thirteen researchers from all the Baden-Württemberg universities to discuss areas of collaboration from chemistry and physics to the life sciences, engineering, and transportation networks. UMass and the Baden-Württemberg universities have a partnership that dates back more than 40 years.

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January 5, 2007: Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship Award
April 6, 2007: Public Service Endowment Grant

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This month ACCESS welcomes new faculty from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Louise Antony, Philosophy. Research interests: philosophy of mind and language; feminist theory.
Chris Bachelder, English. Research interests: fiction writing.
Jeremy Boyle, Art. Research interests: studio arts; 3D foundations.
Jeffrey Cox, Music. Research interests: administration, strategic planning, suzuki education.
David Fleming, English. Research interests: composition and rhetoric; rhetorical education in multicultural democracies.
Peter Graham, Philosophy. Research interests: ethics; metaphysics.
Lisa Green, Linguistics. Research interests: syntax; semantics; language acquisition; African American English.
Valentine Hacquard, Linguistics. Research interests: semantics.
Julie Candler Hayes, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Research interests: 17th and 18th century French philosophy and literature; contemporary literary theory; translation studies.
Joseph Levine, Philosophy. Research interests: philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, metaphysics.
Shona Macdonald, Art. Research interests: contemporary art theory and practice. Specifically, theories of memory, landscape and place; contemporary minimal music.
Joel Martin, History. Research interests: lives of New Englanders and Cherokees involved in an early mission; Native America; importance to California tribes.
Young Min Moon, Art. Research interests: studio practice; modern and contemporary art; contemporary Asian art; curatorial work; Asian Studies; Cultural Studies; and Film Studies.
Asha Nadkarni, English. Research interests: postcolonial literature and theory; transnational feminism; theories of development; nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature; and literatures and cultures of the South Asian diaspora.
Mario Ontiveros, Art History. Research interests: contemporary art with an emphasis on activist art practices; Chicana/o art; the Black Arts Movement; feminism and art; and critical theory.
Hoang Gia Phan, English. Research interests: eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American literature; African American literature; Asian American Literature; Marxism; postcolonial theory; and legal-literary studies.
Stephen Schreiber, Architecture and Design. Research interests: design education; professional practice; urban and architectural design; hazard mitigation.
Gaja Jarosz Snover, Linguistics. Research interests: phonological theory and formal characterization of variation in Optimality Theory; the role of probability in grammar and learning; language learnability; formal and computational modeling of language acquisition.
Shinya Suzuki, Asian Languages and Literatures.
Judith Williams, English. Research interests: African American, Afro-diasporic American and Latin American drama & performance; performance studies; race & speculative fiction.
Joel Wolfe, History. Research interests: modern Brazil; history of technology; inter-America relations.

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OGCA processed 140 proposals for a total of $11,500,463 in October. How does that stack up against last year and previous months? Have a look at the histograms to find out.

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Each month ACCESS includes a selection of grants and contracts awarded to faculty from across campus to provide a sense of what's going on in research at UMass Amherst. These listings reflect only a small fraction of the total sponsored activity for any given month. Since this is just a snapshot in time and grant/contract terms vary, actual award totals may be higher than the amounts listed.

John C. Carey
Student Development & Pupil Personnel Services
Sponsor: MA Dept of Education
Title: Proposal for Capacity Building in Promoting Statewide School Counseling Reform Year 2: Building Partnerships and Measuring Outcomes
Award: $57,200

Alice Y. Cheung
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Title: Collaborative: Functional Analysis of Arabidopsis Formins, A Family of Actin-Nucleating Proteins
Award: $155,682

Elizabeth A. Connor
Biology
Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Title: Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Initiative
Award: $400,000

Daniel R. Cooley
Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences
Sponsor: Coop State Res, Educ and Ext Service
Title: A Pest Management Program Using Reduced- Risk Pesticides, Eco-Apple Protocols, and Value Added Marketing for NY and New England Growers
Award: $423,105

Lixin Gao
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sponsor: Narus Inc
Title: BGP Analysis and Trouble-Shooting
Award: $25,000

Lila M. Gierasch
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
Title: NIH Director's Pioneer Award
Award: $785,000

Raymond J. La Raja
Political Science
Sponsor: JEHT Foundation
Title: Candidate Emergence for the Connecticut Legislature Before the Implementation of Clean Elections - Proposal A
Award: $154,168

David K. Loomis
Natural Resources Conservation
Sponsor: The Nature Conservancy
Title: Understanding Reef Users: A Descriptive/Conceptual Approach
Award: $81,264

Raghavan Manmatha
Computer Science
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Title: Cluster Acquisition for Computational Research into Large Scale Data Rich Problems
Award: $350,000

Barbara Anne Osborne
Veterinary and Animal Sciences
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
Title: Targeting Multiple Diseases Through Gamma Secretase
Award: $1,025,674

Hossein Pishro-Nik
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Title: Collaborative Research: Analysis and Design of Finite Wireless Ad-Hoc and Sensor Networks
Award: $299,888

David Schmidt
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Sponsor: Innovative Scientific Solutions Inc. Title: Ballistic Imaging for Dense Spray Diagnostics in Harsh Chemically Reacting Environments
Award: $25,000

Norman H. Sims
Communication
Sponsor: Educational Foundation of America
Title: Media Giraffe Project
Award: $120,000