(This year’s Witmer and Meliora award recipients include University staff members who provide critical ‘behind the scenes’ support for researchers. Today: the AS&E Research Team.)

Prior to 2010, faculty in the humanities and humanistic social sciences did not receive dedicated staff preaward support when applying for grants.

There was no organized effort to deliver content to AS&E faculty and staff on successful proposal development and best practices, no centralized attempts to identify faculty for highly prestigious awards, no regular targeted emails to alert faculty to funding opportunities.

As recently as 2014, there wasn’t even a comprehensive AS&E website for research and research resources.

All that has changed, thanks to the proactive efforts of the AS&E Research Team, which is led by assistant deans Debra Haring and Cindy Gary, and also includes Dale Hess, senior information analyst, and Paula Losey, administrative assistant.

“The team has expanded the role of my office from one focusing largely on institutional policy to a multifaceted service organization dedicated to helping faculty maximize their success in all aspects of their research goals and aspirations,” wrote David Williams, AS&E dean for research, in nominating the team for the Meliora Award it recently received.

“This transformation is especially notable not only for the autonomy with which the team has proactively expanded the raison d’étre of the Research Office, but also for the very large number of new programs and tools the team has developed to realize this expansion.”

For example:

• A new AS&E research website highlights research and updated resources for PIs.
• The PumpPrimer seed grant program helps faculty develop more competitive grant proposals. Since 2014, 40 seed grants totaling nearly $1 million have been provided via PumpPrimer I and II and Research Mobility Grants, returning more than $8.8 million in extramural funding.
• A database for fellowships and awards contains more than 950 opportunities that do not regularly appear in federal databases, curated specifically for University of Rochester disciplines and research.
• Since joining the team in 2016 Hess has spearheaded the “massive exercise” of comparing AS&E departments to those at peer institutions, in order to fully understand the performance and overall health of the AS&E research enterprise.
• Gary and Haring lead or support 15-20 workshops and training sessions each year for faculty, pre-award staff, and students on successful proposal development; they also organize speaker visits from federal program managers.
• Workshops and meetings have supported interdisciplinary collaborations throughout the University, including the Center for Energy and Environment and two new initiatives in virtual/augmented reality and high energy density physics.

Recent and representative wins, some of which were exciting firsts for the University, include an NSF INCLUDES grant that draws on the Kearns Center Upward Bound program as a model for other universities; an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship for Joshua Dubler, an assistant professor of religion; a DOE Early Career Award for Michael Neidig, Wilmot Assistant Professor of Chemistry; an NSF Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation award for Qiang Lin, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering; and three new NSF REU (research experiences for undergraduates) programs.

AS&E funding awards have increased from $51.6 million in FY14 to $53.2 million in FY16 – a 3 percent increase in a tough funding environment. At the half year mark, AS&E award funding shows a 36 percent increase from $17.7 million in FY15 to $27.6 million in FY17.

“The AS&E research team is truly exceptional, and their efforts have reaped numerous rewards to the AS&E research mission,” says Wendi Heinzelman, dean of the Hajim School.

(Next week; Janet Cushing.)

Elise Kayson, a senior associate in neurology, who has been recognized by the Huntington Study Group with its Lifetime Achievement Award for her dedication to seeking treatments that make a difference and improving the quality of life and outcomes for families affected by the disease.

The Huntington Study Group (HSG) is a network of more than 400 investigators, coordinators, scientists, and Huntington’s disease experts spread across more than 100 research sites across the globe.  HSG brings together patients, families, academic and industry researchers, foundations, and government agencies to seek new treatments that improve the life of individuals with the disease.

“Elise’s tireless commitment to Huntington’s patients and their families and her 20 plus years of experience in pharmaceutical research has been essential to our efforts to develop new ways to treat this devastating disease,” said Ray Dorsey, chair of the HSG. “This award recognizes her dedication and critical role she plays in managing the complex research necessary to bring new drugs to market.”

Read more here.

University climate scientists use data science to understand what drives the global climate system—from deep in the ocean to high in the sky.

Tom Weber, who studies marine ecosystems, and Lee Murray, who studies atmospheric chemistry, both joined the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences as assistant professors this academic year.

Murray develops computer models of the dynamics and composition of the atmosphere, which he compares to NASA satellite data and other surface observations from around the world. He uses high-performance computing systems, including the University’s BlueHive cluster, to simulate and predict how air pollution and the climate system influence each other.

His recent focus has been on understanding atmospheric methane. Methane is both a major precursor for photochemical smog pollution and a powerful greenhouse gas. Historically unregulated, atmospheric methane levels have almost tripled since the Industrial Revolution.

Weber uses large data sets collected at sea and by NASA satellite sensors to create numerical models to understand the interactions between marine ecosystems, elemental cycles, and the climate—and the effects of perturbations to that system. He specifically studies the suite of processes that transfers carbon from the atmosphere to the deep ocean, where it is sequestered out of contact with the atmosphere.

Phytoplankton pull carbon from the atmosphere into their biomass through photosynthesis, and pack the carbon into organic particles. These carbon-rich particles eventually sink from the surface ocean and are broken down by bacteria, releasing carbon dioxide. One of Weber’s recent projects includes modeling how deep the carbon sinks before it breaks down.

“That matters because if it breaks down in the shallow ocean, approximately 100 to 1,000 meters, it is circulated back to the surface and into the atmosphere on short time scales,” he says.

“Humans are dumping way too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, warming the oceans, and perturbing the system much faster than natural variations ever have,” he says. “This is a problem given that humans and animals adapted to a particular climate system. If it changes over hundreds of thousands of years, they can adapt, but if things happen on much shorter time scales then there’s no time for ecosystems to adapt.”

Xiaoxuan Wang ’18, a computer science major, is working with Weber on a project that combines data science and environmental science to look at the daily concentration of chlorophyll—and therefore phytoplankton—in the Great Lakes from 2002 to 2016.

The project mirrors Weber’s work on ocean carbon cycles by using NASA satellite data. Freshwater and seawater reflect light differently, and generally algorithms to sort this data have been designed for ocean waters. However, Weber and Wang are working with new satellite data from the Great Lakes, which is, Weber says, “the first attempt to visualize plankton growths in the Great Lakes from space.”

Read more here.

Applications are now being accepted for spring 2017University Technology Development Fund awards of up to $100,000.

The deadline for pre-proposals is Tuesday, May 23.

Submissions should be sent to omar.bakht@rochester.edu. Eligible projects propose the development of a technology to a commercial endpoint. An invention disclosure must be filed with UR Ventures. Non-inventor developers can propose to develop technology that they did not invent. Click here for more details.

“Biomimetic and Anti-Fouling Interfaces,” a symposium on May 26, will feature four keynote speakers, a poster session, and lightning talks.

The Frontiers in Materials Science for the 21st Century Symposium, sponsored by the Rochester Advanced Materials Science Program, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Sloan Auditorium at Goergen Hall.

More information about the keynotes is available on the program website. Registration for the free event, open to the public, is recommended, and can be completed by selecting the link on the symposium website.

Graduate students and postdocs are encouraged to sign up for the poster session and lightning talks when registering. Contact gina.eagan@rochester.edu for further details.

Novel applications of technology to accelerate the development of new therapeutics for patients with rare neurological disorders will be discussed at a symposium from 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. May 12 at Saunders Research Building, Helen Wood Hall Auditorium (1W-304).

The Technology and Rare Neurological Diseases symposium will include regional and national leaders in rare diseases, health technologies, and clinical trials, demonstrating how to leverage new tools and technologies to enhance patient partnership, reduce the burden of participation in clinical research, and accelerate development of new therapeutics.

Featured speakers are Ira Shoulson, director of the Program for Regulatory Science & Medicine, Georgetown University, and Arthur Combs, chief medical officer at mc10, a wearable health technology and device company.

For more information and registration, click here. Register before May 12 to save $50.  Use Promo Code: TRNDS50.

James Corsetti, Optics, “Design of ZnS/ZnSe Gradient-Index Lenses in the Mid-Wave Infrared, and Design, Fabrication, and Thermal Metrology of Polymer Radial Gradient-Index Lenses.” 9 a.m. May 11, 2017. Goergen 109. Advisor: Duncan Moore.

Eryk Druszkiewicz, Electrical Engineering, “Digital Advances in Triggering and Data Acquisition Systems for Large Scale Dark Matter Search Experiments.” 9 a.m. May 11, 2017. Bausch & Lomb 372. Advisor: Frank Wolfs.

Today: Center for Integrated Research Computing (CIRC) annual poster session, featuring research activities enabled by computation and analytics. 10 a.m. to noon, Munnerlyn Atrium, Goergen Hall. Refreshments served.

Today: “Advancing Inter-professionalism and Caring for the Most Complex Patients: The Student Hotspotting Initiative,” presented by Stephanie Nothelle, post-doctoral fellow, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The initiative, sponsored by Primary Care Progress, Camden Coalition, and the Association of American Medical Colleges, is preparing the next generation of health care professionals to help care for the 5 percent of Americans are estimated to account for almost 50 percent of healthcare spending. Public Health Grand Rounds. Noon to 1:00 pm: Saunders Research Building, Helen Wood Hall Auditorium (1W-304).

Today: Overview of early career funding opportunities, presented by AS&E Dean’s Office. Resources and tips for successful proposal development and submission plus a panel discussion by faculty who have been awarded foundational/early career awards and who review for the NSF CAREER program. 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Douglass Commons, Room 401.

May 12: Technology & Rare Neurological Diseases Symposium, 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Helen Wood Hall Auditorium. Center for Human Experimental Therapeutics. Patients, patient advocates, clinical research policy and regulatory experts, and researchers from academia, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries will brainstorm ways to apply novel mobile health technologies to rare neurological diseases. Register here; learn more on the TRNDS website.

May 15: Deadline for submitting applications for population health pilot projects supported by the Department of Public Health Sciences. Learn more…

May 22: Deadline to apply for pilots awards from the Center for AIDS Research, including awards of up to $50,000 each focusing on: HIV-associated cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease; stress, trauma, and vulnerable populations; and HIV cure (click here for RFA) and awards of up to $25,000 focusing the National Institutes of Health HIV/AIDS High Priority Research Topics (click here for RFA).

May 22: Deadline to apply for research awards from the Center for Emerging and Innovative Sciences to collaborate with New York state companies on projects in ophthalmic and vision science, fiber optic communications, biomedical imaging, geospatial imaging, precision optics, consumer imaging and displays. Click here to learn more.

May 23: Deadline for preproposals for University Technology Development Fund awards. Submissions should be sent to omar.bakht@rochester.edu. Click here for more details.

May 26: “Biomimetic and Anti-Fouling Interfaces,” a Frontiers in Materials Science for the 21st Century Symposium, sponsored by the Rochester Advanced Materials Science Program. 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sloan Auditorium, Goergen Hall. More information at the program website. Contact gina.eagan@rochester.edu for further details.

May 30: Deadline to apply for awards of up to $10,000 from the Center for AIDS Research for collaborative clinical and translational pharmacology proposals involving University of Rochester and University at Buffalo faculty. Click here for RFA.

June 1: “Excellence Through Equity: Creating Schools that Serve All Children Well,” presented by Pedro Noguera, professor of education at UCLA. Followed by panel discussion. Hosted by Warner School’s Center for Urban Education Success. 6 p.m., Edward J. Cavalier Auditorium at East High School. Free and open to the public. Read more here.