Academic Affairs is offering compensation and course development support to faculty during Fall 2014 for redesign of established undergraduate classroom courses as hybrid courses. These funds are in support of participation in hybrid faculty learning community and development of new hybrid courses. Academic Affairs will allocate $2,000 per course to each participating faculty member who develops a hybrid course. Proposals due May 30. See Request for Proposals; if questions, contact cub.kahn@oregonstate.edu.
Advanced Materials Analysis and Characterization Program
Wage Grants for Student Sustainability Positions
The Student Sustainability Initiative (SSI) is accepting applications from OSU Corvallis campus departments to fund student positions for Summer 2014 and the 2014-2015 academic year. Preference will be given to proposals that clearly impact the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of the campus’ built environment, operations, policy, academics, and/or student engagement. The priority deadline is May 23. Apply at: http://oregonstate.edu/ssi/funding/wages
NSF-Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) Letters of Intent
The Office for Research Development is requesting letters of intent for the NSF MRI program. This program serves to increase access to shared scientific and engineering instruments for research and research training in our Nation’s institutions of higher education, and not-for-profit museums, science centers and scientific/engineering research organizations. Guidelines: http://oregonstate.edu/research/incentive/nsf-mri. Information: Mary Phillips, mary.phillips@oregonstate.edu Deadline: November 24, 2014
NSF-Scholarships in STEM-Letters of Intent
The Office for Research Development is requesting letters of intent for the NSF S-STEM program. This program makes grants to institutions of higher education to support scholarships for academically talented students demonstrating financial need, enabling them to enter the STEM workforce or STEM graduate school following completion of a degree in STEM disciplines. Guidelines: http://oregonstate.edu/research/incentive/nsf-sstem. Information: Mary Phillips, mary.phillips@oregonstate.edu Deadline: June 23, 2014
Oregon NASA Space Grant Scholarships
The Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium (OSGC) is offering scholarships for undergraduate students in the STEM fields and graduate students enrolled in an MAT program in STEM education. Scholarships are open to students attending OSGC member institutions. Application deadline is May 23, 2014. Information: http://spacegrant.oregonstate.edu/scholarships.
Organic Chemistry
by Monica Fong – used with permission
Originally posted in OSU PRiSM
You are the center of my world
like a carbon is the center
of a tetrahedral compound.
Its hybridization is sp3
which means noting to you
but everything to me.
Our relationship just happened
just like an alkyl halide breaking
and forming new bonds with a
nucleophile at the transition state
of an Sn2 reaction.
But that’s just the slow step,
the rate-determining step.
Increasing the concentrations
will, indeed,
increase the speed.
But this can only happen
if four different groups are
attached to a carbon center,
only then is it chiral…
Chiral, chirality, nonsuperimposable mirror images
just like two hands, our two hands,
one on top of the other,
it doesn’t fit, oh, but it does fit – perfectly.
Open Textbook Workshop for OSU Faculty
OSU Libraries and Press invite OSU faculty members to learn how open textbooks can benefit their students in the classroom and in the pocketbook. This two-hour workshop on May 21 from 2 to 4 p.m., will introduce the concept of open textbooks and how to find and incorporate them into courses. Participants will write a brief review of one open textbook after the workshop for a $200 stipend. For more details and registration information, see: http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/open-textbook-workshop
Tiny Amorphyx seeks to reshape the huge, mature business of manufacturing displays
CORVALLIS – Lots of startup companies have big ambitions, but Amorphyx’s are bigger than most.
The four-employee company wants to change the economics of manufacturing liquid-crystal displays. Amorphyx team members hope the process they are developing in an Oregon State University lab will be adopted by the world’s largest display manufacturers, who are eager to cut production costs for the screens used in televisions, signage and mobile devices.
But it’s a big job for a young entrant in a market full of Goliaths. Read more…
Article used with permission of author, Mike Francis, c/o The Oregonian
Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation – Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences
The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation announces the June 5th deadline for initial inquiries to the following program:
Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences – The Foundation encourages proposals that are judged likely to significantly advance the chemical sciences. Examples of areas of interest include (but are not limited to): the increase in public awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the chemical sciences; innovative approaches to chemistry education at all levels (K-12, undergraduate and graduate); and efforts to make chemistry careers more attractive. Aspects of proposals that are important are: broad applicability beyond the submitting institutions, specific and detailed descriptions of the chemistry associated with the proposal, and the uniqueness of the project.
Additional details are given at the Foundation Web site: www.dreyfus.org