NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Infrastructure Improvement 2004
In 2004, Nebraska EPSCoR received a three-year, $9 million Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) grant from the National Science Foundation to continue development of research and education infrastructure. Dr. F. Fred Choobineh, P.E., Director of Nebraska EPSCoR is the Project Director. The grant includes cooperation and collaboration among Nebraska's four major research universities: Creighton (CU); the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL); the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC); and the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO).
Grant funds have been used to create the Metabolite Signaling Center (MSC) at UNL for studying molecular response to metabolites using primarily genomic technologies to better understand the influence of chemicals in food on human and animal growth and development, an emerging area of critical importance for Nebraska's economy. One goal of the research is development of agricultural products with value-added compositional changes that have beneficial effects on human health. The MSC is among the first centers in the country to focus on effects of plant metabolites on gene expression and development in the consuming organism. Using genomics technologies such as microarrays, genome sequences, cell-based bioassays, and whole animal physiological studies, MSC scientists examine the influence of dietary molecules on human biology. Dr. Steve Ladunga has been hired as a professor and bioinformatics director. With fifteen years of bioinformatics experience in industry and academia, Dr. Ladunga conducts his own research and collaborates with MSC faculty. Likewise, Dr. Ji-Young Lee's research is a welcome recent addition to MSC efforts to learn more about dietary molecules' effects on human physiology. Dr. Lee is an assistant professor of nutrition and health sciences. Her research focuses on better understanding cholesterol and fatty acids' effects on regulatory mechanisms of macrophages in order to reduce coronary heart disease. For information about some of this project's education and outreach efforts, see "Teens Experience Collegiate Science" and Metabolite Signaling Outreach Program.
Funds have been used also to create the Nebraska Center for Cell Biology (NCCB) at CU where researchers study the dynamic behavior of cells using sophisticated optical imaging instruments to develop expertise in applications of physics to cell biology and neuroscience. Additional information is available at www.biomedsci.creighton.edu and NCCB. The NCCB hosts an annual Modern Imaging & Biophysical Methods in Cell Biology & Neuroscience conference. Information is available at www.biomedsci.creighton.edu/2005symposium. The NCCB's outreach plan makes its advanced instruments accessible to remote users through Internet 2.
The grant supports planning for large-scale projects in nano-material science to create a nationally competitive, multi-disciplinary research team in a new class of electronics and sensors: passively cooled high power/high temperature devices. Because the NCCB's Reflectance Mode Scanning Confocal Microscope may provide unique images based on the optical response of various nanostructures, nano-material researchers work closely with the NCCB in imaging these structures to complement those currently available with light and electron microscopy and spectroscopy facilities of the established UNL Center for Material Research and Analysis.
Consistent with emergence of Omaha as a top information technology hub, establishing strong educational and research programs in Mobile Computing (MC) is a high priority for Nebraska. MC stimulates economic development by forming partnerships with local industries interested in high-quality wireless networks and mobile computing applications. Researchers in computer science and engineering at UNL and UNO are developing MC infrastructure (hardware, software, and personnel). The current grant supports a center that is being established at UNO to develop more secure and robust mobile/wireless computer networks.
Area leaders are:
1. Michael Fromm, UNL ( Metabolite Signaling );
2. Richard Hallworth, CU ( Cell Biology );
3. N.J. Ianno, UNL ( Nano-material Science );
4. Hesham Ali, UNO ( Mobile Computing ).
The grant initiated the Research and Development (R&D) Partnership program to help solve a specific problem identified by a Nebraska company where no scientific/academic solution is currently available, encouraging faculty from the state's major research universities to work on scientific and technology-based industry R&D projects. Nebraska EPSCoR anticipates awarding competitive grants annually in the amount of $25,000 each (to be matched by the industry partner). Stephen Reichenbach (UNL) and GC Image, LLC received the grant in 2005 for the project "Advanced Informatics for Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography." For further information, see Programs, or see Active RFPs to check the status of requests for proposals.
In addition to supporting R&D partnerships, the grant continues support for the Nebraska Engineering, Science, and Technology Internship Program (NESTIP), which recently completed its third year of continued success linking students with the private sector. The technology, engineering, science, and math students, who serve as interns, provide technical expertise to Nebraska companies. For additional information, see Programs.
Nebraska EPSCoR has created a competitive FIRST AWARD grant program to assist Nebraska faculty members who are early in their academic careers in initiating their research programs. For more information, see Programs.
The grant continues funding for Nebraska EPSCoR's commitment to recruiting students from underrepresented groups. See Minority Opportunities for further information on programs that Nebraska EPSCoR co-sponsors.
Infrastructure Improvement 2001
In 2001, Nebraska EPSCoR received a three-year Infrastructure Improvement grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant included cooperation and collaboration among research universities across the state (Creighton University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and University of Nebraska at Omaha) to build infrastructures designed to support development of informatics. The four areas of emphasis included:
1. Secure Distributed Information (SDI) Infrastructure group with group leaders Byrav Ramamurthy, Hong Jiang and David Swanson;
2. Next Generation Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) with group leader Fred Choobineh;
3. Informatics Center for the Life Sciences (ICLS) with group leaders Simon Sherman, Ruben Donis, Hesham Ali, and Richard Murphy;
4. Bioinformatics Research Laboratory (BRL) with group leaders Ruben Donis, Jitender Deogun, and Sally Mackenzie.
The grant also supported continuing outreach efforts to: researchers and students at smaller Nebraska colleges; members of groups that are underrepresented in the sciences through the GEM (Graduate Education for Minorities), Women in Science, and Tribal College programs; support of beginning investigators through the Type II grant program; and the Nebraska Engineering, Science, and Technology Internship Program (NESTIP), providing opportunities for transfer of academic research capabilities and technology development to the private sector through collaborative projects with students.
Infrastructure Improvement 1998
A three-year cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation, which began in February of 1998 centered around the NSF EPSCoR emphasis on developing infrastructure rather than supporting specific research clusters as in the previous agreement. The statewide EPSCoR Committee selected three targeted areas for infrastructure development including:
1. computational support for engineers and scientists at UNL to support general campus connectivity to the emerging Internet 2 project as well as enhancing the capacity for numerical analysis for computer scientists and engineers (group leaders were Kent Hendrickson, Sharad Seth and Dale Finkelson);
2. development of a complex systems simulations laboratory at UNO focusing on enhancing graphics and simulation research (group leader was John Flocken);
3. and developing infrastructure for peptide-based bioorganic chemistry at Creighton University focusing on analytical equipment (group leaders were Richard Murphy and J. Michael Conlon).
The UNL and UNO computational efforts were combined with the Great Plains Network project (also supported by NSF EPSCoR) to make these computer capabilities available to faculty on both campuses. The cooperative agreement also supported continuing efforts to increase research competitiveness through S&T planning, outreach and education, technology transfer, and faculty development.
Research
The National Science Foundation EPSCoR Program funded five research clusters in Nebraska beginning in July 1993. The first three research clusters (behavioral biology, materials research, and metallobiochemistry) were funded for three years (1993-96) followed by two additional years (1996-98) of reduced funding. Two new research clusters (bioremediation of xenobiotics and gene expression in plants) were funded for a two-year period (1996-98). In addition, NSF research support included Nebraska EPSCoR's "Type II" grants, funding beginning investigators.
For current information, see Current Projects.
|
