The Ben and Elaine Whiteley Endowment for Materials Research, established in 2007, provides support for materials research in the College of Science. In particular, it provides fellowship support for students to work full time during the Summer in a research laboratory, working on materials research related topics.

Application procedure

Students submit an application to the chair of the chemistry or physics department by March 15. The chairs of the chemistry and physics departments will select one or two recipients and announce the decision before March 31. Students should submit the following material:

• Personal statement: short statement of advocacy why you should be awarded a fellowship

• Curriculum Vitae

• Research proposal: short description of research plans for Summer

• Letter of support from adviser

• Copy of transcript

Previous recipients

Year       Recipient             Adviser  Work area

2011      Whitney Shepherd            Oksana Ostroverkhova    Organic semiconductors

2011      Adeniyi Adenuga               Vince Remcho    Carbon nanotubes

2010      Jason Francis      Janet Tate           Electronic materials

2010      Tosapol Maluangnont     Mike Lerner        Graphite chemistry

 

http://physics.oregonstate.edu/Whiteley-Materials-Fund

 

 

This is to inform you that there is a new link to the NSF – IGERT guidance for preparation of Letters of Intent  to the Research Office. The Incentive Programs web site has been upgraded.

Please forward this new link to faculty that may be interested in the NSF – IGERT program.

http://oregonstate.edu/research/incentive/integrative-graduate-education-and-research-traineeship-nsf-igert-program

As a reminder letters of intent are due in the Research Office by Monday, March 5, 2012.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you,

Debbie

Debbie Delmore
Coordinator of Special Programs
Research Office
Oregon State University
A312 Kerr Administration Building
Corvallis, OR  97331-2140
541-737-8390
Fax: 541-737-9041
debbie.delmore@oregonstate.edu
http://oregonstate.edu/research/

 

Undergraduate of the Quarter - Winter 2012
Undergraduate of the Quarter – Winter 2012

Corey Wright is a senior undergraduate student in the Chemistry Department at Oregon State University and has been selected a Winter 2012 Chem Major of the Term.  Corey grew up in Dallas, OR on a small farm.  His interest in chemistry started during high school and he has had a long standing desire to become a medical doctor.  He hopes to enroll in medical school in Fall 2013.  Corey has excelled in his courses with his favorite chemistry classes to date being “Organic chemistry lab with Emile” and Quantum Theory with Professor Wei Kong.   This unusual combination of favorite courses likely contributed to his current research project which is a collaboration between emeritus faculty members Joe Nibler (a physical chemist) and Jim White (an organic chemist).   In his spare time, Corey likes to play soccer and music as well as interact with new international students.  He has been to Mozambique twice to do charitable work – once with an orphanage and once with street boys.  Corey feels he is blessed to have the education and opportunities he has had at OSU and we are honored to have such high achieving students amongst our ranks!

Please join the Institute for Natural Resources, Gail’s friends and colleagues as they celebrate her life.

Friday, February 24, 2012

2:00pm

LaSells Stewart Center – Construction and Engineering Hall

Gail Achterman, one of Oregon’s foremost experts in natural resources, environmental law and policy and transportation, died on Jan. 28, 2012, of pancreatic cancer. She was 62 years old. She had recently retired as director of the Institute for Natural Resources at Oregon State University and as Chair of the Oregon Transportation Commission. Gail was born in Portland on Aug. 1, 1949, to Walter and Patricia Achterman. She graduated from South Salem High and received her A.B. degree in economics with honors from Stanford University, where she was a three-sport athlete -basketball, track and swim-ming. Long after she graduated, the Stanford Athletic Department awarded a letter jacket to Gail and many other women in recognition of the role they played in women’s athletics. Gail went on to earn both her law degree and master’s degree in Natural Resource Policy and Management from the University of Michigan. She began her career working in Washington D.C. for the Solicitor for the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 1978, she returned to her beloved Oregon and joined the law firm that became Stoel Rives, LLP. As an associate and then a partner at Stoel Rives, she specialized in natural resource and environmental law, with a focus on public land law, natural resource acquisition, development and permitting. From 1987 to 1991, Gail worked as assistant to the governor of Oregon for natural resources. In 2000, she became the executive director of Deschutes Resources Conservancy in Bend. In 2003, she became director of the Institute for Natural Resources at Oregon State University. After leaving INR in 2011, she started her legacy project, Willamette Strategies, with the goal of promoting a shared understanding and vision of our relationship to the Willamette Valley. In lieu of flowers, the family sug-gests contributions to the Japanese Garden Society of Portland, Hoyt Arboretum Friends, the Deschutes River Conservancy, the Oregon State University Foundation for the Institute for Natural Resources or the Gail Achterman Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation.Excerpt from The Oregonian on published January 31, 2012

Gail Achterman

Defense Health Program

Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2012

The Fiscal Year 2012 (FY12) Defense Appropriations Act provides $50 million (M) to the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP). The vision of the PRMRP is to improve the health and well-being of all military service members, veterans, and beneficiaries. The PRMRP challenges the scientific and clinical communities to address one of the FY12 congressionally directed topic areas with original ideas that foster new directions in basic science and translational research; novel product development leading to improved therapeutic or diagnostic tools; or clinical trials that address an immediate clinical need. This program is administered by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command through the Office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP).

Congressionally Directed Topic Areas: The FY12 PRMRP will solicit research applications for the following 22 topics areas: Arthritis, Composite Tissue Transplantation, Dystonia, Drug Abuse, Epilepsy, Food Allergies, Fragile X Syndrome, Hereditary Angioedema, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Interstitial Cystitis, Listeria Vaccine for Infectious Disease, Lupus, Malaria, Nanomedicine for Drug Delivery Science, Neuroblastoma, Osteoporosis and Related Bone Disease, Paget’s Disease, Polycystic Kidney Disease, Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis, Scleroderma, Tinnitus, and Tuberculosis.

Military Relevance: Relevance to the health care needs of the military service members, veterans, and beneficiaries is a key feature of each FY12 PRMRP award mechanism.

The PRMRP is providing information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop applications. FY 12 PRMRP program announcements and general application instructions for the following award mechanisms are anticipated to be posted on Grants.gov in February and March 2012. Application deadlines will be available when the Program Announcements are released. This pre-announcement should not be construed as an obligation by the government.

Clinical Trial

Assistant Professor level or above (or equivalent) Supports the rapid implementation of clinical trials of novel interventions with the potential to have a significant impact on patient care in the topic area of interest Clinical trial is expected to be initiated within 12 months of award date Maximum of $2.2 million for direct costs (plus indirect costs) Maximum period of performance is 5 years

Discovery Award

All Investigators

Supports the exploration of a highly innovative new concept or untested theory Projects involving human subjects or specimens will not be supported unless they are exempt under Title 32, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 219, Section 101(b)(32 CFR 219.101[b]) Maximum of $125,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs) Maximum period of performance is 18 months

Investigator-Initiated Research

Assistant Professor level or above (or equivalent) Supports research that will make an original and important contribution to the field of research or patient care in the topic area of interest Partnering Principal Investigator option available Clinical trials will not be funded Preproposal submission is required; application submission is by invitation only Maximum of $750,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs) Maximum period of performance is 3 years

Technology/Therapeutic Development

Assistant Professor level or above (or equivalent) Supports the development of new diagnostics or therapies that have the potential to make a strong impact on patient care in the topic area of interest Product-oriented Device Drug Clinical guidance/guidelines Clinical trials will not be funded Maximum of $1.5 million for direct costs (plus indirect costs) Maximum period of performance is 3 years All applications must conform to the final program announcements and application instructions that will be available for electronic downloading from the Grants.gov website. The application package containing the required forms for each award mechanism will also be found on Grants.gov in late February or early March. A listing of all USAMRMC funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420.

A pre-application is required and must be submitted through the CDMRP eReceipt website (http://cdmrp.org) prior to the pre-application deadline (available when the Program Announcements are released in late February or early March). Applications must be submitted through the federal government’s single-entry portal, Grants.gov. Additional submission deadlines are not available until the program announcements are released.

Requests for email notification of the program announcements release may be sent to help@cdmrp.org. For more information about the PRMRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (http://cdmrp.army.mil).

If you would like to request a different recipient to these messages please reply back with the corrected information.

 

Point of Contact:

CDMRP Public Affairs

301-619-9783

 

 

 

Photonics: Although iron pyrite, otherwise known as iron sulfide or fool’s gold, was tossed aside by miners more than a century ago, it may prove to be worth its weight in gold as a thin-film solar cell material. Researchers at Oregon State University have found that iron pyrite, which contains two of the most abundant elements on Earth, is an excellent absorber of solar energy and can be made into extremely thin layers. Unfortunately, the substantial heat required to create solar cells causes the pyrite to decompose. So the researchers tried an inverse design approach. “We identified the failure mechanism of pyrite, formulated a few design rules that preserved the favorable aspects of pyrite, and identified [iron silicon sulfide] and [iron germanium sulfide] as new absorber candidates,” said Douglas Keszler, coauthor of a paper published in Advanced Energy Materials. But much more work remains to be done. It could take at least 10 more years to fine-tune a marketable alternative to traditional solar cell materials.

http://blogs.physicstoday.org/newspicks/2012/02/fools-gold-could-shine-in-sola.html

Please forward this DRAFT Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) Open Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to faculty that may be interested.

ARPA-E is seeking comments on the draft Open FOA.

ARPA-E released a draft funding opportunity announcement in FedConnect today.

https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/PublicPages/PublicSearch/Public_Opportunities.aspx?doc=DE-FOA-0000559&amp%3bamp%3bagency=DOE

Opportunity: ARPA-E Draft Open Funding Opportunity Announcement
Description

 

On or about March 2, 2012, the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E)

intends to issue an Open Funding Opportunity Announcement (Open FOA or FOA). The

objective of the Open FOA is to identify high-risk, high-reward concepts for energy-related

technologies that may enhance our nation’s energy and economic security. This FOA will

be open to any energy-related technology that, if successful, will have a transformational

and disruptive effect on the energy sector. ARPA-E is seeking your comments on the draft

Open FOA. To obtain a copy of the draft Open FOA please go to the ARPA-E website at

https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov. An overview of the application process is provided in Section

I.B of the draft FOA, and a draft list of Technical Categories and Subcategories is provided in

Section I.E of the draft FOA. Please submit your written comments by email to

ARPA-E-OpenFOA@hq.doe.gov by 5 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, February 29, 2012.

ARPA-E will not review or consider comments submitted by other means. All feedback

provided will be taken into consideration, but ARPA-E will not respond to individual

submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses. Neither this Announcement nor

the draft Open FOA constitutes the formal request for this funding opportunity announcement.

The Federal Government will not pay for the provision of any information, nor will it

compensate any respondents for the development of such information.

 

 

 

 

 

The Graduate School is hosting Hugh Kearns from Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia to present five workshops on February 20th to February 22nd, 2012.

Hugh Kearns is best known as a lecturer and researcher with international expertise in the area of self-management. He draws on the latest research in psychology and education and applies this to high performing groups such as Ph.D. students, academic staff, medical professionals and senior executives. He has lectured regularly at universities across Australia, the UK, Ireland and the U.S. He has received a national teaching award in recognition of his innovative approach and outstanding outcomes.

Three of these workshops are designed for only Ph.D. candidates at any point in their candidature

  • The 7 Secrets of highly successful doctoral candidates (offered twice)
  • Turbocharging Your Writing

The other two workshops are designed for all graduate students:

  • Presenting Your Research with Confidence
  • Using Idea Maps/Mind Maps in Your Research

Mr. Kearns is also offering one workshop for PhD advisors on February 20th, 1:30 pm – 4:00 pm:

  • Creating the 7 Secrets for PhD advisors

Attached are five flyers with descriptions of the workshops.  Emails have been sent to graduate students.  Please share this email with your faculty advisors. Please print and post the flyers in your common areas for everyone to notice.  Thank you for spreading the word.  For registration, please go to https://s01.123signup.com/servlet/SignUpMember?PG=1534345182300&P=15343451911423979100 as soon as possible as seating is limited.   Thank you.

Creating The 7 Secrets for PhD Advisors

Presenting Your Research With Confidence

The 7 Secrets for PhD students

Turbocharge Your Writing

Using Idea Maps-Mind Maps in Your Research

 

On behalf of the Division Director of the Division of Materials Research, Dr. Ian Robertson, I would like to ask you to respond to the request below if your research is at the interface of Materials Research and Chemistry.

In response to the 2011 Committee of Visitors report on the Division of Materials Research, the Advisory Committee of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate at the National Science Foundation has charged a subcommittee with looking at future instrumentation and facility needs in the materials research community. As member of the chemistry community, we ask you to respond to this request only if your research is at the interface of Materials Research and Chemistry.

If your research meets this criterion, the subcommittee seeks your input.  With this email I invite and encourage you to participate in the upcoming public webinar on this topic.  The webinar is Wednesday Feb. 8 at 3:30-5 pm Eastern.  Please see the below link for a full explanation and for instructions how to register for the webinar.  It is important to register at least one day in advance.   Please circulate to anyone who may be interested, especially the heads of your instrument facilities or anyone with particular interest in instrumentation and instrumentation development in the area of materials chemistry.  Your input is essential as it will help shape the direction of future programs and investments in these areas.

http://www.nsf.gov/attachments/122291/public/materials_2022_Jan_17_2012.pdf

If you cannot make the webinar, I encourage you to send your questions to materials2022@nsf.gov before March 5, 2012