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.]
NANOSCIENTIST BARBARA WINS BRIGHT WILSON AWARD
Dr. Paul Barbara, the Richard J. V. Johnson Welch Regents Chair in Chemistry, is the recipient of this year’s Bright Wilson Award for Spectroscopy, “in recognition of his innovative use of ultrafast transient and single-molecule spectroscopy to elucidate the fundamental dynamical behavior of condensed phase chemical systems.”
Barbara, director of the Center for Nano and Molecular Science and Technology, became interested in ultrafast spectroscopy as a graduate student working in physical organic chemistry.
News and Information
MCCOMBS RANKED 10TH WORLDWIDE IN RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY
The McCombs School of Business is 10th worldwide in research productivity among business schools, according to a survey from the UT Dallas School of Management. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School ranked first. This is the fourth year in a row in which McCombs has ranked in the top 10 worldwide.
UT Dallas tracks faculty publications in 24 leading business journals across major business disciplines over a 5-year period. The current ranking covers the years 2004-2008.
The full list of business schools is 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 Washington Post
March 22, 2009
HEADLINE: Last Impressions;
When It’s All Going Down the Tube, What Stuff Sticks Around to the End?
[From an article about the last things people hold on to in hard times.]
What might be today’s equivalent of the family piano, that last thing to go in the proper home of the 19th century?
For much of that territory, we must look to writers.
“Beckett seems to me the writer of last things par excellence,” e-mails Alan Friedman, professor of English at the University of Texas. “In ‘Endgame,’ for example, seeds will never sprout again, and a series of announcements reveals that there are no more bicycles, pap, nature, gulls, tide, rugs, painkillers and coffins. At the end, the blind and immobilized Hamm throws away his gaff (the stick with which he has propelled himself), his toy dog (which has been a source of some comfort) and his whistle (used to summon his servant).”
Research Opportunities
Important university research deadlines:
Awards and Grants
Limited Submissions
AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT
University of Texas at Austin Stimulus Package Web page
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
Research to Address the Heterogeneity in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, April 12, 2009; Application, May 12, 2009
Biomedical Research Core Centers to Enhance Research Resources
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, April 18, 2009; Application, May 18, 2009
NIH Announces the Availability of Recovery Act Funds for Competitive Revision Applications
Deadline: April 21, 2009
Research and Research Infrastructure “Grand Opportunities”
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, April 27, 2009; Application, May 27, 2009
NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC AGENCY
Coastal and Marine Habitat Restoration Project Grants
Deadline: April 6, 2009
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Research Support Services for the Biotechnology High Performance Computing Software Applications Institute
Deadline: May 25, 2009
Basic Research Challenge Program (PDF)
Deadlines: White Paper, April 17, 2009; Full Proposal, June 6, 2009
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Head Start Graduate Student Research
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, April 30, 2009; Application, June 1, 2009
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
Outcomes Research in Orthotics and Prosthetics
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, June 24, 2009; Application, July 24, 2009
Replication, Fine-Mapping and Sequencing: Follow-Up on Genome-Wide Association Studies for Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Aug. 31, 2009; Application, Sept. 29, 2009
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Developmental and Learning Sciences
Deadline: July 15, 2009
Oceanographic Centers and Facilities
Deadlines: various beginning Aug. 15, 2009 for specified topics
Division of Social and Economic Sciences: Innovation and Organizational Sciences
Deadline: Sept. 3, 2009
Environmental Implications of Emerging Technologies
Deadline: Sept. 15, 2009
Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation: Service Enterprise Systems
Deadline: Oct. 1, 2009
NanoManufacturing
Deadline: Oct. 1, 2009
OTHER FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
The Baxter International Foundation
Renal Discoveries Extramural Grant Program
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, May 4, 2009; Application, Sept. 1, 2009
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Preterm Birth Initiative
Deadlines: Planning Grant/Letter of Intent, June 1, 2009; Invited Full Proposal, Dec. 1, 2010
Research Corporation for Science Advancement
Cottrell Scholar Awards
Deadline: Sept. 1, 2009
Research Project
[Let the Research Alert know about your research projects.]
ELECTRONIC SPIN TRANSITION OF IRON IN THE EARTH’S LOWER MANTLE
RESEARCHER: Jung-Fu Lin, assistant professor, Department of Geological Sciences, principal investigator
AGENCY: National Science Foundation
AMOUNT: $97,677
This proposal aims to study the nature of electronic spin transitions of iron in the Earth’s lower mantle mineral assemblage, including ferropericlase, perovskite, and post-perovskite, with emphasis on associated properties influencing the chemical and physical dynamics of the lower mantle.
Using a combination of laboratory and synchrotron-based facilities with high pressure-temperature diamond anvil cells, these experiments will probe physical properties most relevant to modeling the structure and geodynamics of the lower mantle including thermal equations of state, deformation and strength, sound velocities, and transport properties.
With an emphasis on the spin transitions, these studies aim broadly to understand properties of the lower-mantle minerals at various pressure-temperature-composition conditions, providing direct mineral physics results for input into understanding the state of the lower-mantle at a time when tomographic images and geophysical models of the lower mantle are rapidly advancing.
The expected results are fundamental to geophysics and geodynamics of the Earth and will provide new aspects of information to modeling satisfactorily the seismic, mineralogical, and geodynamic behavior of the lower mantle. The project will also develop new high-pressure techniques that will benefit researchers and students in the broad deep-mantle communities.
