The Faculty Innovator Award celebrates impact through engagement in commercialization partnerships, recognizing a faculty member whose extraordinarily high impact innovations from research are translated into transformative results that help promote economic development and social progress.

This year it was awarded posthumously to Richard Peterson, who passed away in February.

Dr. Peterson was arominent national expert in heat transfer, thermodynamics and combustion, and a leading researcher in miniature and microscale energy systems. He was a professor of mechanical engineering.

“Rich was a prolific inventor whose research will have a profound impact on lives well into the future. He submitted 34 invention disclosures in the past 15 years. Rich really believed in the potential impact his discoveries could have on millions of lives.”

Brian Wall
Director of the Office for Commercialization and Corporate Development

A resolution by the Board of Directors of the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) noted Dr. Peterson’s leadership as one of the core founders and as co-director of the Microproducts Breakthrough Institute, and President, CTO, and co-founder of ONAMI Gap Company Applied Exergy. His  many creative contributions to development of technology, included advances in grid energy storage.

Please view an on-line presentation with more details about Dr. Peterson’s career and about the criteria for the annual award.

“Rich was fiercely independent but passionate about his research making a positive impact.  He also cared deeply about teaching and leaves behind a legacy of engineers who will continue making impact. He will be sorely missed.”

Brian Paul
Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering,
Director of the Microproducts Breakthrough Institute

It’s not a usual day when one gets to hear Bill Gates plus two Cabinet Secretaries, yet I was so privileged at the convocation of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) in Washington, DC in late June.  The event was a celebration of the Morrill Act of 1862, the enabling legislation for the concept of Land Grant institutions.

I listened carefully throughout the day for hints at the speakers’ perspectives on - what else? – research.

Mr. Gates was quite enthusiastic in his advocacy of extending higher education to broader audiences via  – no surprise – technology.  He loves that universities already are putting courses on line for hundreds of thousands of students –  a first wave of future capabilities. He intimated that such use of technology begs the need for more advances in managing educational content, delivery and assessment.  I sat proudly thinking about how OSU is right where we should be on this wave, reaching out to the far corners of the state and the world, and developing better ways to do so.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack made an impassioned plea:  when you think of agriculture, think beyond food. Think, for instance, textiles. Think biofuels.  I appreciated his broadened perspective, which got Dean Arp (sitting next to me at the session) and me thinking about emerging OSU leadership in the intersection of ag sciences and material sciences. In both fields, OSU researchers already hold positions of preeminence.

The presence of  Secretary of Education Arne Duncan helped remind me that our researchers are superlative not only in their fields of study, but also in inspiring and training the next generations of researchers – and how that also is integral to our land-grant commitment.

One of my favorite presentations emphasized the role of Land Grant universities in building and sustaining our national strengths in physical sciences and engineering. Dr. Chuck Vest, President of the National Academy of Engineering, and past President of MIT, really inspired me to think about our strengths in these areas here at OSU.

The APLU convocation was a great confirmation of what so many of us here know: Land Grant Universities are a linchpin in the technological progress and leadership of our nation.  And they have been for a century and a half.  Our challenge is to continue to build on that legacy. I imagine our descendants celebrating the Morrill Act with the same enthusiasm at the tercentennial in the year 2162!

Rick Spinrad, Vice President for Research

On March 23rd, 2012, Rick Spinrad joined Bob Houtman, NSF Section Head- Ocean Sciences Division;  Sabah Randhawa, OSU Provost and Executive Vice President; Rob Munier, WHOI Vice President;  Marine Facilities and Operations; Mark Abbott, Dean, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; and John Byrne, OSU President Emeritus, CEOAS Past Dean; and others in Newport, Oregon to bid thanks and farewell to the Research Vessel Wecoma, and to welcome R/V Oceanus. The following is from Rick Spinrad’s remarks at the “retirement” event.
Let’s do some time-traveling.

It’s November 3rd , 1976,  6:04 in the evening. Less than 24 hours earlier, Gerald Ford and Bob Dole won Oregon, but lost the Presidential election to a toothy peanut farmer from Georgia. From a pier in Newport, Oregon, the still-shiny, brand new R/V Wecoma cast her lines and set out for a short cruise along the C-line to test gear in preparation for the upcoming long cruise off of Peru. The official ship’s log for that coastal jaunt is hardly a page-turner: they consumed 5278 gallons of fuel, 3600 gallons of fresh water, 25 gallons of lube oil (and although it was not recorded as such, an unknown volume of 95% laboratory-grade ethanol).

Improbably, the most noteworthy development was in the ship’s laundry; the log reads  ” The shipping ring on the laundry washer has broken. This item permitted partial use of washer in rolling ship operation. “  In other words, the agitator moved with the movement of the vessel. Gotta love that kind of resourcefulness.

The only research-relevant note in the log: “scientists have a very good procedure set up for launching and recovering the nephelometer under positive control.  I feel it is much more satisfactory than our close quarter R/V YAQUINA operation.”  So we knew the new ship would be an improvement over our older vessel.

How telling that was, in terms of the next 35 years of research that would be conducted aboard this wonderful vessel. The ship’s crew included Captain Linse, Chief Mate Tony Loskota, Cook Tom Kluttz (incidentally, my wife, Alanna, still uses Tom’s recipe for macaroons  – *provided below –  best in the world ) and AB John Keiper. The scientific crew was led by Ron Zaneveld and Hasong Pak, with a rowdy bunch of techs and students: Bob Kaupaun, Bob Bartz, Jim Kitchen …. and one long haired, banjo playing graduate student whose name was misspelled on the manifest as Rick Spinrod.

I had the pleasure of being on the Wecoma for 53 days, off the coasts of Oregon, Washington and Peru.

After 1976, and for the next 3½ decades, the R/V Wecoma served as host to an oceanographic hall of fame.  OSU’s researchers filled the bunks: Chief Scientists with the names of Smith, Huyer, Carey, Pearcy, Kulm, Caldwell, Schrader, Miller, Zaneveld, Dymond, Gordon, Pak, Keller, Heath, Small, Lilley, Paulson, Prahl, Collier, and no doubt many others, just up to the 1986 period when the ship was laid up for repairs. And that’s just the Beavers.  Consider this list of other Chief Scientists from that same period: Barber, Cox, Knauer, Lorenzen, Bruland, Wyrtki, Knox, Murray, Weiss, Martin, Hickey, Brown, Beardsley, Winant, Irish, Karl, Robison, Packard.  Believe me, this is impressive to people in the marine sciences.

Wecoma was witness to discoveries that changed the way we think about our world, including how upwelling drives coastal productivity and fisheries; the magic of El Nino; the sheer power of deep-sea vulcanology; and understanding the complex nature of how the interactions of the ocean and atmosphere affect our weather and climate.

Not to mention those Nobel-laureate-worthy discoveries of the real-time full water column monochromatic specific beam attenuation coefficients – conducted by the most preeminent optical oceanographic team in the universe: Spinrad and Zaneveld, (OK, Zaneveld and Spinrad!) If you want to know details,  let’s meet at the Beanery.

Seriously, the world is unquestionably a better place because of the service this ship, her crew, scientists and land-based staff have provided  - for longer than many of us have been alive.

The name Wecoma, I propose, might be an acronym for “With Every Cruise, One Meaningful Accomplishment.”

It’s not easy to say goodbye.  The “retirement” event was a pretty emotional moment for many of us.

Wecoma is a star.  She was a workhorse, a transport, a world-class lab, and, for many of us at some point in our lives – even if was after a night at Anna’s bar in Callao –  she was our home.

But this is also a wonderful time, as we welcome the R/V Oceanus into our OSU family.  We can only imagine the discoveries and revelations that this new vessel will help us attain. Understanding the mysteries of ocean acidification, the complex microbial networks that define the foodweb of the seas, the ever-more intricate definitions of the four-dimensional structures of ocean dynamics.  The OCEANUS will be our tour guide to the next generation of oceanography.

Recently I was enjoying a drink with an old friend of mine who said he couldn’t have been more delighted to see the Oceanus come to OSU.  He went on to add that our legacy of transdisciplinary research and scientific accomplishment couldn’t be better suited to Oceanus’s capabilities.  That friend is Bob Gagosian, the former Director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  We should feel good about that. I can’t wait to see what we do with our new ship!

The R/V WECOMA has sailed her last cruise for Oregon State University.  The last sample’s been drawn, the last station taken, the last watch retired.  The horizon will be her home, her legacy will be her name.  Research Vessel Wecoma, we wish you fair winds and following seas.

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bonus : recipe from the Wecoma

*Tom’s Macaroons

Stir together:

1-1/2 cup sugar
6 Tablespoons flour (matzoh flour works as well)
dash of salt
6 heaping cups shredded coconut

Beat until stiff :

6 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla

“Fluff in” sugar mixture with egg whites. Be sure to stir the ingredients carefully to keep the air in the egg whites.

Put oil on your hands and loosely roll the dough into balls.  The oil makes the dough slip off your fingers.  Don’t press too hard or handle too much.

Place on heavily sprayed cookie sheet , or use parchment paper.

Bake 350 degrees for about 15 minutes -  watch them carefully!

Makes 20

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bonus question:
What are the original meanings and origins of the words  “wecoma” and “oceanus”?

____

Role models are useful to inspire us. As I entered the study of science, I became aware of many who had forged the way.

I was  especially attracted to some because of any of a variety of attributes:  their commitment, contributions, genius,  energy, leadership.

These were individuals who came from a variety of different communities: politics, military, science, conservation.

One thing they had in common was a capability to fly above the fray, to recognize the not-so-obvious connections between society’s needs and scientific opportunities.

They also had an abiding optimism.  Most of those who have great influence on science are skeptical optimists.  They question everything, but know that in so doing they will seed progress.

Here are images of those who, early in my career, became what I call my Champions of Science.

They have remained so over the years.

I’m wondering if you can identify them. And whether you agree about their standing.

Who are your champions in your field? How have they influenced your work/your life?

I invite you to comment to this blog.

In an upcoming entry, we’ll post the names of those pictured here.

-Rick Spinrad
Vice President for Research
If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to this blog to enter the conversation and to receive notices of updates.

S3 was  established in 1970 by twelve members meeting  on Grand Bahamas Island and -  appropriately – signing the charter on the bottom of the sea with salt-water-proof ink! The founding members, associated with NASA’s APOLLO program, wished to share and promulgate the inspiration and achievements of  humankind’s  first voyage to the moon.

I used this opportunity to talk about a number of issues that are of significance to our OSU research activities: for example, support for risk-tolerance in management of basic research, the need for balance of basic and applied research, the segregation of research management and research performance.  The result was a vibrant discussion and an opportunity to hear different perspectives from industry and government.

While S3 is not positioned to effect change directly in publicly funded research, clearly the group provides advice and opinion in a variety of influential circles.  I found it encouraging that many of the ideas that we are currently incorporating in our OSU Research Agenda are strongly supported by these individuals.

-Rick Spinrad, Vice President for Research
Comments are welcome
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Edited recordings of much of the event are available at

http://oregonstate.edu/media/filter/ztgpr

Value

Mark Leid, Associate Dean for Scholarship of  OSU’s College of Pharmacy, said, “The event was really helpful, especially in learning how to tailor grants for NSF -  which is very different than what I usually do for NIH. I learned that the ‘broader impact’ piece for NSF is on equal footing with the science.  I realized we have to learn more about broader impact, and we need to gather the information about how much of that we already do.  The Directorate session I went to was lead by someone who is temporarily an NSF Program Officer, but primarily a university professor himself, so his perspective was helpful. ”

Some other take-home messages heard by OSU attendees are summarized below:

• NSF returns many proposals unread  – because of avoidable errors
  When developing a proposal, read and heed the instructions for submission
  • This year’s instructions may be new – don’t go by old information
  • Carefully follow those instructions
    

• “The best way to learn to write proposals for NSF is to review proposals for NSF”
  Consider becoming a reviewer. NSF needs thousands of them each year.
  

• Consider reviews as mentoring  –   Persistence is important
  Only 15%   of proposals to NSF are accepted their first time.
  Many more are successful upon resubmission – after the first review, and the suggestions are heeded.

• Think big
  In its merit review process, NSF values “creativity, originality, and transformative potential”  -  projects that change the fundamental way we think.

• Think broader impact.
  One of NSF’s two merit review criteria: ” What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?”
  Proposals must address this separately  within the Project Summary and Project Description.
  [Note: one OSU resource about opportunities broader impact is available from Pre-College Programs [download pdf]- an upcoming entry in this Blog will address this issue more fully]

Attendance

from OSU ( numbers of participants by College or other)

BUS 2     CAS 28      COS 35     COAS 7     COF 16     COE 18     CLA 14     PHARM 3     CoED 4     HHS 7
Centers 7    Library/IS 2     Admin 15

from Other Institutions

UO 8     PSU 11     WOU 6     OIT 5     EOU 1     OUS 1
Willamette 4   Lewis & Clark 3   U Portland 1   Linfield 2
Princeton 1     NCSU 1     UNev-Reno 1     USDA – ARS 1

Live streaming was accessed remotely by 53 computers, and several people submitted questions via the on-line chat.

Access to Information and Resources

Edited recordings of some of the sessions are available at
http://oregonstate.edu/media/filter/ztgpr

The Research Office continues to be a resource for assistance and consultation on proposal development and submission.

Thanks to Media Services for audio and visual support, and to Donna Williams of CH2MHill Alumni Center for event coordination

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“There is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats . . . “

Ratty to Mole, from The Wind in the Willows  by Kenneth Grahame

I was fortunate in early March to see one of our masters of communication, Dr. Bruce Mate, share his passion and intellect with a diverse audience.  Bruce is the Director of the Marine Mammal Institute in the College of Agricultural Sciences.  For over 20 years, he has led a week-long expedition to Baja California, where participants have an extraordinary opportunity to get up close and personal with gray whales.  While that alone is worth the trip, it’s also exciting to hear Bruce translate the seemingly esoteric issues of habitat preservation and trophic interactions into meaningful and personal revelations for the non-scientific cruise participants.

Over seven days,  I saw people go from mildly interested in environmental issues to seriously concerned about becoming personally involved in research.  Bruce sees this same transformation year after year.

This proves how valuable it can be for us, in research, to engage the public, and raise awareness among those who are not normally among us.

But, by the same token, those seven  days were ones in which Bruce was not conducting research per se.  That’s a big sacrifice.  How much time at the bench should we give up for time with the public?  Is this a model we should replicate in other areas?

Tough questions, but I know about 25 people who became a lot stronger supporters for our research than they had been  just one week before!

- Rick Spinrad, Vice President for Research

]]> http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/researchupdate/2011/03/24/the-message-about-research-giving-it-getting-it/feed/ 0 http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/researchupdate/2011/03/07/of-oceans/ http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/researchupdate/2011/03/07/of-oceans/#comments Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:05:00 +0000 spinradr http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/researchupdate/?p=199 Continue reading →]]> At the recent conference Song for the Blue Ocean, sponsored  by the  Spring Creek Project, it was especially pleasing to hear the high regard for OSU’s  marine science activities, and to hear and see the inspiring presentations by our own faculty and staff.

The event wove the best new science into the context of the best in literature, ethics, and art about the ocean. It was evident that OSU gives thoughtful, informed trans-disciplinary attention to our oceans and our earth, and that we offer the expertise to help further understanding and addressing of the immense challenges.

To introduce featured speaker Julia Whitty, I expressed appreciation of her  exemplary style of communicating about science, making important information not only accessible but also memorable and beautiful.

Here are three examples in which I have selected  particular (uncited) chunks of the peer-reviewed literature and some of Julia Whitty’s treatment of the same subject:

Here’s how we oceanographers described one of the most revolutionary discovers of ocean chemistry:
The surface ocean is everywhere saturated with respect to calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Yet increasing atmospheric CO2 reduces ocean pH and carbonate ion concentrations [COH2−] and thus the level of saturation.

Reduced saturation states are expected to affect marine calcifiers even though it has been estimated that all surface waters will remain saturated for centuries. When atmospheric CO2 reaches 550 ppmv, in year 2050 under the IS92a business-as-usual scenario, Southern Ocean surface waters begin to become undersaturated with respect to aragonite, a metastable form of CaCO3. These changes will threaten high-latitude aragonite secreting organisms including cold-water corals, which provide essential fish habitat, and shelled pteropods, an abundant food source for marine predators.

Here’s how Julia describes it:
“Increasing levels of carbon dioxide are incrementally acidifying the World Ocean, and experiments now suggest that the shells and skeletons of everything from phytoplankton to reef-building corals will begin to dissolve within 48 hours of exposure to the acidity expected by the year 2100.  One forecast predicts that the rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide will condemn coral reefs – the seas’ most biodiverse realms and food sources for one in six humans – to extinction within fifty years.  Jœrmungandr, the world serpent, is chewing the bones of her tail, one vertebra, one seashell at a time.”

Let’s try PHYSICS

The physical oceanographers:  Substituting the above given values in the conservation equation gives, for Vo and V, 1.09 Sv and 30.65 Sv respectively. This simple scheme illustrates the thermohaline nature of the fresh water redistribution where the northward mass transport in the upper layer is 29.04 Sv and the southward transport in the bottom layer is 30.11Sv.

Now Julia:

“The changeover between these two currents occurs near the northern reach of the Gulf Stream’s range, around Greenland, Iceland and Norway.  In these high latitudes, the warm surface waters shed their heat to the cold, windy Arctic air – incidentally warming Europe.  As the water cools, it also evaporates, resulting in fewer water molecules in relation to salt.  This cooler, saltier Gulf Stream, now too dense to remain afloat, dives down, a process known as the

meridional overturning circulation – a transformation as profound as that of a moon jellyfish polyp becoming a medusa.”

And finally, BIOLOGY
Whale-falls represent localized areas of extreme organic enrichment in an otherwise oligotrophic deep-sea environment.  These results indicate that whale-falls can favor the establishment of metabolically and phylogenetically diverse methanogen assemblages, resulting in an active near-seafloor methane cycle in the deep sea.

Julia:

“On the vast desert of the ocean floor, a whale fall is an unexpected oasis literally dropping out of the blue and providing a nutritional bonanza of a magnitude that might otherwise take thousands of years to accumulate from the background flow of small detritus from the surface. A 35-ton gray whale takes one and a half years to be stripped to the bone by the scalpels and stomachs of the deep.”

__

“What will the research opportunities be like out there as I finish my degree and move into the job market?”,  they asked. And “You’ve talked about the university’s obligation to bring the benefits of research out to the public – but what if I don’t see any commercial applications for my project?”

There was a concern:  “Equipment:  I am doing something that no one in my department has been involved in, and it’s been so hard to find the diagnostic tools equipment  I need.”

From our discussion, I learned of some areas that need administrative attention, and of issues that we must communicate about more effectively. I hope the GRAs learned some things  too.

It was of note to me that no one in the group raised questions about “compliance.”  I knew that the Grad School had recently conducted a survey, and  “compliance” did not rank among the issues on the minds of the GRA respondents . It isn’t surprising – when I was working on my advanced degrees at OSU, I also did not think about,  for example, the Institutional Review Board, or Animal Use policies.

But now as VP for Research, I strongly recommend that all students become aware of the regulations regarding human subjects, conflict of interest,  animal care and use  . . .  Even if they’re “just” conducting an innocuous survey, or doing “a little” work for their major professor’s start-up company, or “simply” using a pet in a pre-study, consideration of the compliance issues can help ensure the research is conducted smoothly.

I and others in the  Research Office are happy to meet with graduate students, individually or in groups. And we will conduct various informational sessions throughout the year. Let us know if you want to talk, or if there’s a topic you’d like to have addressed.

Thanks

- Rick Spinrad,  who went on to become OSU VP for Research
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