OFFICE OF RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION NEWSLETTER | August 2006
(Volume VI, No. 2)
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OFFICE OF RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION NEWSLETTER | August 2006 |
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FY07 Federal Spending Bill Includes $325,000 for UM-St. Louis PPRC Project Federal funding for a UM-St. Louis project, "Examining Policy Options to Increase Minority Homeownership and Eradicate Urban Poverty," under the direction of Mark Tranel, Public Policy Research Center, has been secured in the Senate Transportation-Treasury-HUD spending bill, according to U.S. Senator Kit Bond. Bond, chairman of the Senate Transportation-Treasury-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee, said the project will be funded for the requested $325,000. The UMSL project is one of seven for which funds were secured in this FY2007 spending bill, which must be passed by the full Senate and reconciled with the House of Representatives' version before being signed into law. The other St. Louis projects include: $1 million to the Saint Louis University Advanced Neurosurgical Innovation Center to permit real-time bidirectional interaction between SLU emergency room physicians, trauma surgeons and neurosurgeons with medics/doctors at remote and/or rural facilities to optimize initial triage and surgical management of head trauma patients across the country; and $875,000 to the Mobile BioScience Education Unit, a joint project between St. Louis Science Center and MOBIO, for equipment, marketing and promotional materials. l
UMSL Biology Postdoc Receives NSF Fellowship Awarded to Few Researchers Global warming caused by increased carbon dioxide emissions is a problem of international significance. One approach to solving this problem is to develop fuel sources that do not rely upon fossil fuels that emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Hydrogen gas produced by microorganisms, along with solar, wind and geothermal energy sources, may help reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Hydrogen gas can be used to power fuel cells, which convert the hydrogen into electricity that we can use in our daily lives. Prototype cars based on fuel cells that run on hydrogen already exist, as do larger fuel cells that provide municipal power. An UMSL postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Philip Weyman, working on research related to hydrogen production, has been awarded a two-year National Science Foundation's Discovery Corps Postdoctoral Fellowship for "Preparing Inquiring Minds for a Hydrogen-Powered Future." About the Award The Discovery Corps Fellowship Program seeks new postdoctoral and professional development models that combine research expertise with service-oriented projects. Discovery Corps Fellows leverage their research expertise through projects that address areas of national need and affect society in important ways. Their projects enhance research capacity and infrastructure, contribute to workforce development and job creation and develop innovative linkages between chemistry and other fields. The NSF estimates awarding approximately 10 Fellowships per round. The award pays $100,000 per year for up to two years, including a stipend of $50,000 annually, a $10,000 institutional allowance in lieu of overhead, and project expenses. Project Goals Weyman, who works in Dr. Teresa Thiel's lab in UMSL's Department of Biology, identified two goals for his project: conducting research in the field of hydrogen production, and working with high school teachers and students to help teach scientific method and to raise awareness about this important environmental issue. Hydrogen Production Research According to Weyman, photobiological hydrogen production is desirable for a sustainable and pollution-free hydrogen source. He is currently researching hydrogen production by a group of bacteria known as cyanobacteria, organisms that may be ideal for hydrogen production because, along with other reasons, they are the only microorganisms capable of producing hydrogen gas using only the abundant resources of sunlight and water. This process of photosynthesis also takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, further ameliorating the carbon dioxide emission problem. However, cyanobacteria do not naturally produce hydrogen in large quantities because it is wasted energy as far as the cell is concerned. This research is designed to optimize the amount of hydrogen cyanobacteria can produce. Extending Scientific Research to the Next Generation While scientific and technological innovations are important in solving the global warming crisis, public education is perhaps the most important tool in the solution. A second objective of Weyman’s fellowship is to extend research in hydrogen production to the next generation of scientists. The education component of the fellowship is designed to (1) develop a module of inquiry exercises to be used in the high school classroom, and (2) train high school teachers in research techniques that they will share with their classes. The learning module will focus on the fundamental principles of global warming, hydrogen, and fuel cells, and will allow for direct student engagement in the process of scientific inquiry and research. Students will begin with hands-on classroom explorations of greenhouse gases and fuel cells and will eventually experiment with photobiological hydrogen production. These exercises will be co-taught in collaboration with the NSF-funded Missouri Science Teaching and Education Partnerships (MO-STEP) program. This program works with four school districts composed largely of students from underrepresented racial and economic groups and seeks to bridge the gaps between high school and university learning. MO-STEP pairs graduate and undergraduate fellows with faculty from high schools and universities to bring research-based projects into high school classrooms. The proposed activities will contribute additional research expertise and teaching capacity to MO-STEP and will add an additional feature by providing opportunities for teachers to participate in research as summer interns in a university laboratory. The teachers will gain career developing research experience in molecular biology and biochemistry techniques and will form lasting connections with the university that will increase involvement of novel research in high school education. These educational programs will encourage students to think about global warming and alternatives to fossil fuels, reinforce scientific method and traditional chemistry and environmental science curriculum, and introduce students to authentic scientific research. l
St. Louis to Host Joint USDA-DOE National Renewable Energy Conference WASHINGTON, DC -- Registration is now open for Advancing Renewable Energy: An American Rural Renaissance, a national renewable energy conference that will be hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on October 10-12, 2006, at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The conference will focus on achieving goals outlined in President Bush's Advanced Energy Initiative (AEI), which seeks to change the way we power our cars, homes and businesses through the use of alternative energy sources. "We must work together to keep America competitive by expanding sustainable, market-driven, domestic energy sources," USDA Secretary Mike Johanns said from Kazakhstan where he is conducting a trade mission. "The October conference will build upon the President's vision for overcoming our energy challenges and will create new opportunities in rural communities." Advancing Renewable Energy is designed to help create and strengthen partnerships and strategies necessary to accelerate commercialization of renewable energy industries and distribution systems, the crux of President Bush's AEI. The conference will specifically focus discussions on biomass, wind and solar research and commercialization. USDA and DOE expect the conference to identify critical pathways, and to make recommendations to help accelerate renewable energy technology development. The conference also will examine incentives to help reduce risk for investors and developers in the marketplace and will review challenges of developing new distribution systems. Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman said, "Never has reducing our dependence on foreign oil been a more pressing issue. We are hopeful this conference will identify major impediments and critical pathways to get more domestically grown, renewable energy sources out of the laboratory and into consumers' hands as soon as possible." According to John Gardner, Vice President for Research and Economic Development for the University of Missouri System, the consortium wants to provide an educational resource, but also use the conference to demonstrate the St. Louis region's and Missouri's interest and expertise in bioenergy. Attendance is open to the public. Anyone involved with, or interested in, renewable energy is encouraged to attend, including transportation, large- and small-scale farming, finance and investment officials, as well as academia, and federal, state, government and elected officials. All attendees must register for the conference, including press, who may attend without charge. For more information and to register for the conference, visit: http://www.AdvancingRenewableEnergy.com. l
Solae Begins Work on $40 Million CORTEX Headquarters Excerpted from the St. Louis Business Journal July 19, 2006 On the Web: http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2006/07/17/daily35.html The Solae Co. began construction Wednesday (July 19) on its new $40 million headquarters. The company plans to become an anchor tenant at the Center for Research Technology and Entrepreneurial eXchange (CORTEX). [The company's new headquarters will be located in CORTEX's second building.] In May, the soy ingredient producer announced it plans to leave its downtown headquarters to build a new facility in Midtown at the corner of Duncan and Boyle avenues. NOTE: CORTEX sponsors include the University of Missouri-St. Louis, BJC HealthCare, Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis University and Washington University. For more information on CORTEX, visit http://www.cortexstl.org.
Former Professor Gets One Year in Jail for Faking Data on Grant Applications By JOHN GRAVOIS Excerpted from the Chronicle of Higher Education July 14, 2006 Link: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i45/45a01003.htm (subscription required) A former medical professor at the University of Vermont has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for fabricating research data on federal grant applications. During the 1990s, the professor, Eric T. Poehlman, studied aging, menopause, and obesity — hot topics in medical research — and submitted 17 grant applications that were based on fabricated data, prosecutors said. Dr. Poehlman pleaded guilty in March 2005 to lying on an application that won him a $542,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health. As part of a settlement with federal prosecutors, he agreed to pay a $180,000 penalty and to be barred for life from receiving federal grants — the first time any researcher has been subjected to such a ban. In pronouncing sentence, Judge William K. Sessions III, of the U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vt., ordered Dr. Poehlman to serve two years of "supervised release" following his year and a day in prison. The judge opted not to impose the maximum sentence of five years. l
Scientists Spend Nearly Half Their Time on Administrative Tasks, Survey Finds A study sponsored by the Federal Demonstration Partnership, a coalition of university and federal officials dedicated to streamlining government research regulations, shows that the accumulation of small administrative tasks swallow up nearly half of scientists' research time. Key findings of the "Faculty Burden Survey" (completed by 9,200 faculty members and scheduled for release in August):
SOURCE: Federal Demonstration Partnership
The Most Inventive Towns in America By REED ALBERGOTTI Excerpted from the Wall Street Journal July 22, 2006 Link: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB115352188346314087-lMyQjAxMDE2NTIzNjUyMjYxWj.html (subscription required) This year, Russell May won a patent for a gadget that could help warn pilots about impending engine failure. Krishnan Ramu designed a more energy-efficient motor. Mark Froggatt came up with a device that helps companies pack more data into fiber-optic cables. These inventors share one thing in common: They live within 10 miles of one another in Blacksburg, Va. It's "a little bit like a miniature Silicon Valley but without the traffic," says Mr. Froggatt. Since Ben Franklin, the lone inventor has been an American icon. Even with today's complex technologies and giant corporations that spend billions on research, small-time inventors remain a potent force -- consistently accounting for about 15% of all U.S. patents in recent years, by some estimates. What is changing: their ZIP Codes. For our survey of the most inventive towns in America, we looked first at the number of utility patents granted to inventors in about 12,000 cities, using data compiled by research firm iPiQ, a consulting concern that analyzes intellectual property for companies. The idea was to look beyond big high-tech centers like Santa Clara, Calif., where Intel is based, and find places that are hubs for inventions by individuals or small businesses. As a proxy for this, iPiQ recommended using its historical database of U.S. patents to filter out companies that had previously been awarded substantial numbers of patents. It generally takes a little over two years to get a patent approved or rejected. Inventors usually pay an attorney to search the patent-office files for "prior art," to make sure their idea hasn't already been claimed. If the coast is clear, inventors can submit an application to the Patent Office. The whole process typically runs inventors around $10,000. But for $105, inventors can temporarily protect their idea -- for up to a year -- by sending in a basic description and drawing of the product. The bulk of patents are still concentrated in a small number of areas. The city of San Jose, Calif., for example, produced 3,911 patents last year, nearly as many as the entire state of Massachusetts, which had 4,267. The state of California accounts for about 15% of the patents issued in the U.S. Texas and New York together make up about 8%. On the other end of the spectrum is St. Charles, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis, saw 25 patents issued to individual inventors or small companies last year, a 43% increase over 2002. The town is home to a number of engineers, many of whom are former employees of aerospace company McDonnell Douglas and were let go during a wave of layoffs in the early 1990s or following McDonnell's 1997 merger with Boeing. Some have decided to start their own high-tech businesses locally, and the county has opened two "incubators" designed to nurture small businesses and entrepreneurs. l
Pilot Program Designed to Enhance Patent Expertise Among District Judges By J. MATTHEW BUCHANAN Of Counsel, Dunlap Codding & Rogers, P.C. From "Patent Law and Policy Blog" July 26, 2006 The House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property is set to markup H.R. 5418, a bill introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) to "establish a pilot program in certain United States district courts to encourage enhancement of expertise in patent cases among district judges." The Issa bill would establish an opt-in program under which volunteering district court judges would receive "education and professional development" related to patent matters. Judges who don't volunteer would be able to decline patent cases that are randomly assigned to them and, effectively, steer these cases to the volunteering patent experts. You can view and/or download a PDF of the Issa bill at http://www.promotetheprogress.com/ptpfiles/legislation/109hr5418_ih.pdf. The Issa bill has some momentum going into markup. It includes a relatively modest budget ($5M per year for 10 years) and doesn't attempt to sell itself as a guaranteed solution to any problem. The bill offers a fresh and simple approach to a real world problem - district court judges who lack patent expertise and those who bemoan the random assignment system when it places a nasty patent case on their docket. It could fail miserably, of course, if no one opts into the program. But, it's a pilot program, and that's all the bill attempts to create. One side benefit of establishing a judicial patent expertise program in the district courts, like the one proposed in the Issa bill, would be that there would finally be a "minor league" for judges to gain real experience that could be applied in the big leagues - the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Patent reform is essentially dead in this Congress. But, a relatively small bill that has a bit of momentum could see some action, and perhaps passage, as the 109th prepares to wrap things up. Representative Issa's pilot program could fit this bill. l
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| The Office of Research Administration supports and advocates research and technology transfer by faculty, graduate students and staff. The ORA provides services in conjunction with external and internal sources of funding for research, along with services related to commercializing discoveries through technology transfer. The goal of this newsletter is to inform the campus community of grants received, to highlight the accomplishments of our faculty, graduate students and staff, and to share with you a calendar of important events and deadlines. Please direct any comments or questions regarding the newsletter to Tamara Kratochvil (kratochvilt@umsl.edu). | University of Missouri- Office of Research Administration Fax: 314-516-6759 |