Student's Research SOARS to New Level

Summertime is often a busy time for students preparing for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. When properly leveraged, opportunities are abound for students to develop research skills and projects that will advance them to the next level. This is exactly what Eugene Cody has done.

Cody, an undergraduate American Indian Studies major at Haskell Indian Nations University (and enrolled member in the Hopi tribe), was recruited to participate in the summer of 2013 Haskell Environmental Research Studies (HERS) Institute. During this time he developed a research project examining the air quality associated with the burning of coal in the homes of the native Hopi people in northern Arizona and to identify solutions to the resulting problems (air quality, climate change, water use, and human health).

As a follow-on to his research project Cody and his cohort of HERS interns took a one-week field trip to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado where they conducted experiments in air quality testing. They followed up the research by presenting their findings to the NCAR community.


At the conclusion of the trip, Cody was invited to apply as a protégé to the Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS) program conducted through NCAR. "My time at NCAR was very fulfilling and I applied" he explained.

Cody was accepted as to the 2014 SOARS summer program and will spend ten weeks conducting original research at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) or at laboratories of other SOARS sponsors. By the end of the summer, protégés will prepare scientific papers and present their research at a colloquium. To help protégés succeed academically and professionally, SOARS offers each protégé up to five mentors: a research mentor, a writing mentor, a computing mentor, a coach, and a peer mentor. Research shows that this comprehensive, multi-dimensional mentoring is a key contributor to the continued success of SOARS protégés.

Cody's upcoming SOARS internship will take his air quality research to the next level. He will be working with the Institute for Mathematics Applied to Geosciences (IMAGe) at NCAR where his project will consist of using atmospheric inverse modeling to apply to carbon flux estimation problems.

Kansas NSF EPSCoR would like to congratulate Mr. Cody for the success he has leveraged from his opportunity at the HERS Institute.

Kansas Geographer Receives Fellowship to Co-author Book

Kansas University geography associate professor, Jay Johnson, is the recipient of a 2014 Collaborative Research Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). The fellowship promotes collaborative research in the humanities and social sciences and will result in him co-authoring a book with fellow geographer, Soren Larsen, associate professor at the University of Missouri.

Focusing on place-based struggles in British Columbia, New Zealand, and Kansas, the book will explore how the ongoing tensions between Indigenous groups and non-Indigenous communities and governments are transforming the places and politics of settler states in the twenty-first century.

Dr. Johnson is also the co-director of the Kansas NSF EPSCoR-funded Haskell Environmental Research Studies (HERS) summer internship program that provides research experiences to up to 15 tribal college undergraduate students each summer.

For more information visit http://geography.ku.edu/dr-jay-johnson-receives-acls-2014-collaborative-research-fellowship.

To learn more about the HERS summer internship program please go to http://www.hersinstitute.org/.

NSF CAREER Award Follows on KNE Funding

Xin Fu, an assistant professor in electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Kansas was honored this spring with an NSF Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. In 2012, Fu received a Kansas NSF EPSCoR (KNE) First Award to support her research in energy efficient computing. Following on this funding, she will use her new NSF award, titled New Foundations for Next-Generation Reliable Throughput Architecture Design, to aid in bolstering the effectiveness of computing for the demands of new technologies.

For more information on Dr. Fu's award please visit http://news.ku.edu/grant-could-aid-effort-bolster-computer-performance.

To learn more about KNE's First Award Program and other recipients, please visit http://www.nsfepscor.ku.edu/first-awards-yr3.html.

New DOE EPSCoR Funding Opportunity for Kansas

The Department of Energy Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DOE EPSCoR) has issued a funding opportunity announcement for Implementation Grants for energy-related research.  The State of Kansas has the opportunity to submit one proposal to this program. Please see the solicitation below for details on how to submit.

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Colleagues:

The State of Kansas has an opportunity to submit a single proposal to the Department of Energy EPSCoR program.

The Department of Energy has just announced a new Implementation Grant opportunity under the DoE EPSCoR program. The State of Kansas has the opportunity to submit one [1] proposal to this program for energy-related research. Please see the program announcement: http://science.energy.gov/~/media/grants/pdf/foas/2014/SC_FOA_0001087.pdf

Please see the following deadlines:

1. Letters of intent to be the Kansas submission due to the interim DoE EPSCoR Director by March 10, 2014. The LOI must address all aspects necessary for the LOI requested by the Department of Energy, and should be sent to: Guikema@ksu.edu 

2. The EPSCoR review team will evaluate the LOIs and select the proposal to go forward. The PIs will be notified as soon as possible following submission.

3. A letter of intent is due from the successful PI to DoE by March 22, 5:00 p.m. Eastern time.

4. A full proposal is due in Washington, with institutional commitments and signatures, at 11:59 a.m. Eastern time on April 15, 2014.

5. A successful submission MUST specify both the application to the Kansas Strategic Technology Plan [KANSAS B.E.S.T. for Innovation -- http://www.nsfepscor.ku.edu/pdf/KansasBEST_DesignDraft_10-28-12_HR.pdf] and the DoE strategic priorities [see the web sites referenced in the RFP].

6. Institutional registrations on Grants.gov and SAMS are REQUIRED, and these take about 45 days to accomplish. Work with your sponsored research office.

Best wishes –

James A. Guikema, Ph.D.
Interim Director, Kansas Department of Energy EPSCoR Program
Associate Vice President
Kansas State University

102 Fairchild Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506

785 – 532 - 6195

KNE First Awardee Finds Success

Kansas NSF EPSCoR First Awardee, Wai-Lun Chan, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at The University of Kansas, scored big with his work in renewable energy research. Chan was granted a First Award for his project Coherent Transport and Localization Dynamics of Excitons in Molecular Aggregates in 2013. In less than one year he has received NSF's prestigious CAREER award for this work in improving the efficiency of next-generation solar cells.

For more information on Chan's award please visit http://news.ku.edu/renewable-energy-research-education-project-receives-nsf-grant.

To learn more about KNE's First Award Program and other recipients, please visit http://www.nsfepscor.ku.edu/first-awards-yr4.html.

Funding Opportunity for 2014 First Awards Announced

Kansas NSF EPSCoR has released a request for proposals (RFP) for 2014 First Awards.  This opportunity is for early-career faculty in the areas of climate or energy research at the Regents universities in the state.


Download the RFP to see the full eligibility requirements and details for submission at http://www.nsfepscor.ku.edu/funding.html.

CCM Faculty Present Seminars in Vietnam

by Steve Watson

Vara Prasad, professor of agronomy, and Chuck Rice, university distinguished professor of agronomy, recently spent 10 days in Vietnam as part of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases to Combat Climate Change Borlaug Fellowship Program. This program is under the auspices of the Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service.

Their trip to Vietnam was to collaborate with university faculty and local producers on climate change and agricultural issues. Earlier this year, Loan Thanh Le, graduate student, from the University of Agriculture and Forestry in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, came to K-State's department of agronomy for three months to study with Prasad and Rice as part of this program.

Research into greenhouse gas emissions from the production of rice and biofuel feedstocks has become important to many countries around the world, including Vietnam. Many young faculty members in Vietnam are eager for collaborations such as this with faculty from the U.S., Prasad said.

While in Vietnam, Prasad and Rice presented two seminars at the university in Ho Chi Minh City, and visited producers in areas both north and south of the city. Agricultural producers in Vietnam are faced with problems of intense storms and flooding. Also, the intense rice farming of the region uses an enormous amount of nitrogen fertilizer, leading to potential greenhouse gas emissions from nitrous oxide. These emissions concerns are becoming very important in Vietnam, according to Le.

The fellowships are funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

GLOBAL RESEARCH ALLIANCE

The Global Research Alliance engages developing countries in research to more clearly understand and mitigate the impacts of agriculture on climate change. Eligible countries are Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines and Vietnam.