Read the research blog Further Findings.
Research Prizes and Honors
[Have you or a colleague won a research-related prize or honor? Let the Research Alert know.]
CAFFARELLI RECEIVES STEELE PRIZE
Mathematics Professor Luis Caffarelli received the 2009 Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement yesterday from the American Mathematical Society (AMS).
The Steele Prize is one of the highest distinctions in mathematics.
The award citation describes Caffarelli as “one of the world’s greatest mathematicians studying nonlinear partial differential equations.”
Read more about Caffarelli and the Steele Prize.
News and Information
OSP SEEKS EARLY SUBMISSIONS FOR WELCH AND NIH AWARDS
The Office of Sponsored Projects expects higher than usual volumes for the Feb. 1, 2009 Welch Foundation deadline and the Feb. 5, 2009 National Institutes of Health deadline.
Please submit a Proposal Review Form as soon as possible via the Research Management System.
NIH URGES RESEARCHERS TO ESTABLISH EARLY STAGE INVESTIGATOR STATUS
Researchers who received their terminal research degree within the past 10 years and have not received a substantial research grant from the National Institutes of Health may be eligible to qualify as an Early Stage Investigator. Beginning with February 2009 NIH RO1 grant applications, the reviewers will focus more on the research and less on the track records for ESI applications. An ESI is a subset of the New Investigator category.
Learn more about the New and Early Stage Investigator Policies.
Researchers can update their profiles online.
UNIVERSITY CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY RESEARCH EXCELLENCE AWARDS
The Office of the Vice President for Research is seeking nominations for The University Co-operative Society’s Research Excellence Awards. Each dean or vice president may submit one nominee for each of the two categories of Research Excellence Awards. They are:
Career Research Excellence Award – For a researcher who has maintained a superior research program across many years. The award will be accompanied by a check in the amount of $10,000.
Best Research Paper Award – For a researcher who was the principal or sole author of a peer-reviewed scholarly paper reporting original research that was published during calendar year 2008 in recognized research outlets in his or her field of study. The award will be accompanied by a check in the amount of $5,000.
Please contact Liza Scarborough at liza@austin.utexas.edu or 471-2877 with questions. The nominations are due in the Office of the Vice President for Research Jan. 26, 2009.
HAMILTON BOOK AWARDS DEADLINE IS FEB. 2, 2009
The Office of the Vice President for Research is accepting submissions for The Hamilton Book Author Awards, underwritten by The University Co-operative Society.
Please submit your nominations according to the guidelines stated on the Hamilton Book Author Awards Web site.
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS AVAILABLE FOR SPRING 2009
The Office of the Vice President for Research is accepting applications for Spring 2009 Undergraduate Research Fellowships (URFs). The deadline is Feb. 9, 2009.
The program provides support for specific scholarly research projects conducted by full-time UT undergraduate students enrolled in any department.
More information is at Awards, Grants and Fellowships online.
QuotedUT Researchers in the News
[A sampling of recent quotes by university faculty members and researchers. To be included in this section, let the Research Alert know when you or a colleague have been quoted.]
The New York Times
Dec. 20, 2008
HEADLINE: From Munich To Mumbai
[Ami Pedahzur, an associate professor of government, published an op-ed piece in the New York Times.]
Now that India and the world are over the initial shock of the terrorist attacks last month in Mumbai, efforts to understand what happened and prevent future calamities are being hampered in ways familiar to Israelis like myself, who have lived through far too many such events: pointless efforts to place blame, and a failure to put the attacks in the proper historical context.
Los Angeles Times
Jan. 4, 2009
HEADLINE: THE CULTURE OF SCARCITY;
Will the current economic crisis lead us to embrace restraint and disdain excess?
[The full story for The Culture of Scarcity is online.]
What’s different this time around from previous recessionary periods? For one thing, as University of Texas professor Richard Pells points out, the mass culture of the 1930s and ’40s (when 75% of all Americans went to the movies at least once a week) has been balkanized and splintered into a thousand niche markets.
“We don’t have the sense of a shared common culture that we did in the ’30s or after World War II,” says Pells, author of “Radical Visions and American Dreams: Culture and Social Thought in the Depression Years.” “Movies were always, with radio, the common culture. There’s nothing comparable today.”
Research Opportunities
Important university research deadlines:
Awards and Grants
Limited Submissions
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Microbial Genomics: Functional Genomics of Microorganisms
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Feb. 5, 2009; Application, April 16, 2009
Plant Biology: Biochemistry
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Feb. 20, 2009; Application, April 27, 2009
Plant Biology: Growth and Development
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, March 2, 2009; Application, May 19, 2009
Plant Biosecurity
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, April 13, 2009; Application, June 26, 2009
Human Nutrition and Obesity
Deadline: June 15, 2009
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Integrated Radiochemistry Research Projects of Excellence
Deadlines: Pre-Application, Feb. 16, 2009; Application, April 2, 2009
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Health Services Research Projects
Deadline: March 9, 2009
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Caroline and Erwin Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon
[Fellowships for graduate or postgraduate research in any discipline]
Deadline: Feb. 13, 2009
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS AND THE HUMANITIES
Summer Seminars and Institutes
Deadline: March 3, 2009
Transatlantic Digitization Collaboration Grants
Deadline: March 26, 2009
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
Developmental Psychopharmacology
Deadlines: Feb. 16, 2009 and June 16, 2009
Early Career Award in Chemistry of Drug Abuse and Addiction
Deadlines: Feb. 16, 2009 and June 16, 2009
Collaborative Study of Suicidality and Mental Health in the U.S. Army
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, March 3, 2009; Application, April 3, 2009
Transdisciplinary Cancer Genomics Research: Post-Genome Wide Association Initiative
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, April 29, 2009; Application, May 29, 2009
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Ethics Education in Science and Engineering
Deadline: March 2, 2009
[This is a Limited Submission. Please contact Courtney Frazier Swaney at limitedsub@austin.utexas.edu or 471-6424.]
Human Origins Moving in New Directions
Deadline: March 13, 2009
Foundations of Data and Visual Analytics
Deadline: April 2, 2009
RIDGE 2000
Deadline: April 7, 2009
OTHER FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Avon Foundation
Breast Cancer Research Program (PDF)
Deadline: Feb. 2, 2009
Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences
Deadline: March 1, 2009
National Council for Eurasian and East European Research
Title VIII Ed A. Hewett Policy Fellowship
Deadline: March 13, 2009
Costume Society of America
Stella Blum Research Grant [for graduate or undergraduate students]
Deadline: May 1, 2009
Research Project
[Let the Research Alert know about your research projects.]
PLASMONIC LASER NANOSURGERY USING MOLECULARLY TARGETED GOLD NANOPARTICLES
RESEARCHER: Adela Ben-Yakar, associate professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, principal investigator
AGENCY: National Science Foundation
AMOUNT: $96,910
This proposal describes a research program that will explore a new method for high precision nanosurgery of living systems called plasmonic laser nanosurgery (PLN). In PLN, nanoparticles act like “nano-lenses” by focusing the laser energy to a small, confined region near their surface creating nanoscale cuts at the locations where they are attached. By attaching nanoparticles to targeted cellular structures, regions of tissue can be illuminated with a large laser spot, vaporizing only the targeted structures with a precision of 50 nm or less, while leaving all surrounding areas undamaged. This investigation is aimed at extending the capabilities of femtosecond (fs) laser nanosurgery beyond the diffraction limit of light (ë/10 resolution) while eliminating the need for precise and time-consuming laser focusing.
