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.]
WINNERS OF THE THIRTEENTH ANNUAL HAMILTON BOOK AWARDS ANNOUNCED
The winners of this year’s University Co-op Robert W. Hamilton Book Awards were announced on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin. The Hamilton Award recognizes the highest literary achievement of published authors at The University of Texas at Austin. The awards are named in honor of Professor Robert W. Hamilton, former chairman of the University Co-op’s board of directors and the Minerva House Drysdale Regents Chair in Law at The University of Texas School of Law.
The $10,000 Grand Prize winners of the Hamilton Book Award were:
- Thomas O. McGarity, J.D. and Wendy E. Wagner, J.D., School of Law, for their book “Bending Science: How Special Interests Corrupt Public Health Research” published by Harvard University Press.
There were also 4 winners who took home $3,000 runner-up prizes:
- Jacqueline Jones, Ph.D., Department of History
“Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War” published by A. A. Knopf - Peter F. MacNeilage, Ph.D., Department of Psychology
“The Origin of Speech” published by Oxford University Press - Tracie M. Matysik, Ph.D., Department of History
“Reforming the Moral Subject: Ethics and Sexuality in Central Europe, 1890-1930” published by Cornell University Press - Karen L. Rascati, Ph.D., College of Pharmacy
“Essentials of Pharmacoeconomics” published by Lippincott Williams and Wilkins
The University Co-operative Society’s $10,000 Career Research Excellence Award went to:
- J. Tinsley Oden, Ph.D., Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, for maintaining a superior research program over many years at the university. Dr. Oden is one of the most respected scientists and academic administrators in the country, and he has enjoyed a spectacular career in the fields of engineering, computation and applied mathematics.
The winner of the $5,000 Best Research Paper Award was:
- Julian Vasquez Heilig, Ph.D., Department of Educational Administration, for “Accountability Texas-Style: The Progress and Learning of Urban Minority Students in a High-Stakes Testing Context,” published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, available online
The $3,000 University Co-op Fine Arts Award recipient was:
- Michelle Habeck, M.F.A., Department of Theatre and Dance, for outstanding achievement in lighting design.
WHINSTON NAMED DISTINGUISHED FELLOW AT INFORMS
Andrew Whinston, McCombs professor in the Department of Information, Risk, and Operations Management, was named a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). INFORMS is the largest professional society in the world for the field of operations research.
News and Information
CHECK OUT NEW RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY DATABASE
The university is evaluating a new research database called SciVal, which provides a service similar to that of the Community of Science. The system will remain open to UT free of charge through April 30, 2010. The information is live and current.
Send feedback about SciVal to: vp-research-sr@mail.utexas.edu
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.]
Associated Press
Oct. 27, 2009
HEADLINE: Government may say recession over but not job losses
(From an article about what it means to say the recession is technically over.)
James K. Galbraith, an economist at The University of Texas at Austin, suggests too much attention is given to when recessions technically begin and not enough to other measures of the economy.
“It’s just a word. A recession technically lasts during negative quarters. But that doesn’t mean you’re back to prosperity once you have positive growth. You’re back to prosperity when the unemployment rate is back around 4 percent,” Galbraith said. And that, he said, could take years.
Research Opportunities
Important university research deadlines:
Awards and Grants
Limited Submissions
AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT
Find the University of Texas at Austin Recovery Act Web page online.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Krell Institute/Department of Energy
National Nuclear Security Administration Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship Program
Deadline: Jan. 12, 2010
Krell Institute/Department of Energy
Computational Science Graduate Fellowship
Deadline: Jan. 14, 2010
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
U.S. Geological Survey
National Geological And Geophysical Data Preservation Program
Deadline: Nov. 23, 2009
NASA
Research Opportunities For Flight Experiments In Space Life Sciences: Biological Research In Canisters For Arabidopsis Thaliana
Deadline: Nov. 12, 2009
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
Substance Use and Abuse among U.S. Military Personnel, Veterans and their Families
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Nov. 23, 2009; Application, Dec. 22, 2009
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards for Individual Predoctoral Fellowships to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research
Deadline: Dec. 13, 2009
NHLBI (National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute) Centers for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Dec. 21, 2009; Application, Jan. 21, 2010
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Annual Solicitation for Research in Support of the National Space Weather Program
Deadline: Jan. 16, 2010
ARTS, HUMANITIES AND CULTURE
Smithsonian Institution
Latino Studies Fellowship Program
Deadline: Jan. 15, 2010
Council of American Overseas Research Centers
Multi-Country Fellowship Program (in humanities, social sciences, and allied natural sciences)
Deadline: Jan. 15, 2010
Bogliasco Foundation – Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities (in Italy)
Bogliasco Fellowships
Deadline: Jan. 15, 2010
The Frederick Douglass Institute Fellowship Program (for African and African-American Studies)
Postdoctoral Fellowship
Predoctoral Fellowship
Deadline: Jan. 31, 2010
OTHER FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
IBM
Herman Goldstine Postdoctoral Fellowship (in mathematical and computer sciences)
Deadline: Jan. 6, 2010
American Association for the Advancement of Science
2010 Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellows Program (summer program for students of all levels)
Deadline: Jan. 15, 2010
Charles Babbage Institute
2009-2010 Adelle and Erwin Tomash Graduate Fellowship (doctoral dissertation research in the history of computing)
Deadline: Jan. 15, 2010
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
Research Grants
Deadline: Feb. 3, 2010
Research Project
[Let the Research Alert know about your research projects.]
Blue Highways: Evaluating Middle Stone Age Riverine-Based Foraging, Mobility, and Technology along the Trunk Tributaries of the Blue Nile
RESEARCHERS: John Kappelman, professor, Department of Anthropology, principal investigator, and Lawrence Todd, Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology
AGENCY: National Science Foundation
AMOUNT: $329,999
Drs. John Kappelman and Lawrence Todd and a team of United States and Ethiopian scientists and students will conduct three years of archaeological, paleontological, and geological research in northwestern Ethiopia.
Through a series of controlled excavations, the project evaluates evidence that Middle Stone Age (MSA) humans living along the upper reaches of the Blue Nile River’s tributaries on the lowland slope of Ethiopia’s northwestern plateau were adapted to a riverine-based foraging lifestyle focused on the exploitation of highly predictable and abundant fish, mollusks and mammals that were seasonally concentrated around waterholes during the dry season.
Once local foods were depleted, longer distance foraging forays along the channel to new waterholes functioned as a dry season “pump” to siphon MSA populations out along the rivers. Not only would these “blue highways” have provided predictable foods and fresh water, but movements from one waterhole to another would have effected population movements northward along the Nile corridor.
Investigating archaeological sites in this never-before-studied region will add to the growing body of knowledge about MSA behaviors. Because the research area is located in the Horn of Africa, a region hypothesized to be one of the places where modern humans possibly originated, and within the Nile corridor, a potential migratory route, these new data will further test and refine models of modern human origins and migration.
