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.]
PETROLEUM ENGINEERING PROFESSOR RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL AWARD
Mukul M. Sharma, petroleum engineering professor, received the 2009 Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal, the major technical award from the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Sharma was recognized for his many contributions to the development of unconventional gas resources and to the management of water in mature oilfields.
News and Information
NIH RESTRUCTURES APPLICATION FORMAT
The National Institutes of Health will require the use of restructured application forms with new instructions and shorter page limits for due dates on or after Jan. 25, 2010, due to changes resulting from the Enhancing Peer Review initiative. These changes will affect all competing applications, including new, renewal, revision and resubmission applications.
NIH has established online resources to help the research community learn about the new format.
NSF TO RE-ESTABLISH “APPLY” OPTION TO GRANTS.GOV NO LATER THAN DEC. 1, 2009
In response to OMB memorandum (M-09-14) issued March 9, 2009, the National Science Foundation provided alternative grant submission capabilities via FastLane to address the increased volume of applications resulting from the Recovery Act. NSF plans to re-establish the option for grantees to apply for NSF funding opportunities on Grants.gov no later than Dec. 1, 2009. NSF continues to make all of its funding opportunities available on Grants.gov FIND.
CHANGE MADE TO VISITING RESEARCHER/SCHOLAR PROGRAM
On Nov. 2, 2009, the Visiting Researcher/Scholar Program was incorporated into Phase 2 of the Human Resource Management System (HRMS), under the Affiliated Worker module. The HRMS document will serve as the nominating instrument, while a curriculum vitae and appropriate agreement will continue to be required as backup documentation. Please consult with your departmental human resources manager for internal procedures on visiting scholar nominations and access to HRMS.
Learn more about HRMS. For more information about the visiting researcher/scholar program contact liza@austin.utexas.edu, 471-2877.
OSP WILL BE CLOSED FOR WINTER BREAK
The Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) and the Sponsored Projects Award Administration (SPAA) will be closed for Winter break from Dec. 22, 2009-Jan. 1, 2010. Researchers must work with OSP to submit proposals and finalize award actions prior to the close of business on Dec. 21, 2009.
A skeleton crew will not be available during the break. All inquiries can be sent to osp@austin.utexas.edu. The OSP mailbox and OSP voicemail will be checked on limited days during the Winter Break and someone will respond only to emergency requests.
CHECK OUT NEW RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY DATABASE
The University is in the process of 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.]
New York Times
Nov. 10, 2009
HEADLINE: Fearing a Flu Vaccine, and Wanting More of It
(In a column in Science Times, Dr. Perri Klass asked why some people desperately want a swine flu vaccine shot while others wouldn’t touch it. She sought historical examples from David Oshinsky, professor of history.)
Wondering what history might have to say about this incongruous state of affairs, I called David M. Oshinsky, a professor of history at the University of Texas who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Polio: An American Story” (Oxford, 2005). Dr. Oshinsky compared the current vaccination campaign with two previous situations.
In 1947, a man newly arrived in New York City from Mexico died of smallpox. The authorities “lined up the entire city” and vaccinated everyone, even those who had already been vaccinated, Dr. Oshinsky said. “The entire city was revaccinated,” he added, “and there was no real resistance. People had a sense of risk versus reward and listened to public health officials.”
Then there were the polio vaccine trials of 1954, in which parents volunteered more than a million children to receive either an experimental vaccine or a placebo. And while they trusted the medical profession much more than parents do now, there was another factor, Dr. Oshinsky said: “They also had lived through virulent epidemics. That to me is probably the biggest issue of all. You’re dealing with parents who’ve never seen a smallpox epidemic, a polio epidemic.”
Research Opportunities
Important university research deadlines:
Awards and Grants
Limited Submissions
AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT
The University of Texas at Austin Stimulus Package Web page is online.
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
RandD on Human Biospecimen Integrity
Deadline: Dec. 14, 2009
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Integrated Research, Education, and Extension Competitive Grants Program
National Integrated Food Safety Initiative
Deadline: Jan. 19, 2010
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Centers for International Business Education Program(Opens pdf)
Deadline: Dec. 8, 2009
Field-Initiated Projects (for disability and rehabilitation research and development projects in topic areas proposed by the grantees)
Deadline: Jan. 6, 2010
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
National Centers for Biomedical Computing
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Dec. 9, 2009; Application, Jan. 8, 2010
Leveraging Existing Health care Networks to Transform Effectiveness Research
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-MH-10-030.html
Deadline: Letter of Intent, Dec. 11, 2009; Application, Jan. 12, 2010
National Institute of Nursing Research Career Transition Award
Deadline: Feb. 12, 2010
AIDS-Science Track Award for Research Transition
Deadline: Sept. 7, 2010
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Organization of Projects on Environmental Research in the Arctic
Deadline: Dec. 11, 2009
Computational Mathematics
Deadline: Dec. 15, 2009
Tectonics
Deadline: Jan. 6, 2010
ARTS, HUMANITIES AND CULTURE
George Washington University
Mellon Pre-doctoral Fellowship in Contemporary History, 2010-2011
Deadline: Jan. 18, 2010
National Endowment for the Humanities
Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities
Deadline: Feb. 17, 2010
Library Company of Philadelphia And The Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Visiting Research Fellowships in Colonial and U.S. History and Culture for 2010-2011
Deadline: March 1, 2010
OTHER FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation
Innovation and Young Investigator Grants (pediatric cancer research)
Deadline: Dec. 15, 2009
NARSAD, The World’s Leading Charity Dedicated to Mental Health Research
Young Investigator (in neurobiological research)
Deadline: Jan. 25, 2010
Research Project
[Let the Research Alert know about your research projects.]
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Lexical/Segmental Influence on Tone Accuracy in Mandarin-speaking Children
FACULTY: Tracie Harrison, assistant professor, Adult Health Nursing, School of Nursing, principal investigator
AGENCY: National Institutes of Health
Amount: $334,672
RESEARCHERS: Barbara Davis, professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, principal investigator, and Jie Yang, graduate students, co-principal investigator
AGENCY: National Science Foundation
AMOUNT: $10,087
Mandarin Chinese is a tone language, using tones in addition to segments (vowels and consonants) to discriminate word meanings. Under the direction of Dr. Barbara Davis, Jie Yang will conduct a longitudinal study of the acquisition of tones by Mandarin-learning children between 12 and 24 months of age. The relationships between tonal, segmental and lexical accuracy in spontaneously produced words will be examined quantitatively over time in each individual child and for the group of children.
The studies are designed to test the hypothesis that tone production accuracy is associated with vocabulary growth. Phonological implementation of tone is one aspect of a dynamic system that can be observed emerging in the individual child, in which early motor, perceptual and cognitive capacities interact with a growing lexicon. The three capacities are considered as interacting aspects of a complex system, none of which is responsible alone for emerging phonology in young children in the formative stages of language development.
The proposed research will fill a gap in the knowledge of child language acquisition by providing a detailed, quantitative study of the development of tone production in children learning a language that requires lexical use of pitch.
The results of this study have the potential to inform clinical practices in dealing with developmental speech disorders related to tone production or perception in children who speak a tone language, as well as expressive prosody disorders in children who speak intonation languages.
