Summer 2007 Issue of The Neuron Released

The West Virginia Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (WVEPSCoR) has released the summer 2007 issue of The Neuron, West Virginia's quarterly journal of science and research.

West Virginia Creative Community Convenes Statewide to Stress “New Economy” Issues and Opportunities

Members of West Virginia’s Creative Community—creators in biotech, high tech, performing arts, hospitality and intellectual property—met June 25, 2007, at the Clay Center’s Walker Theater to recognize founders and discuss issues regarding the state’s New Economy.

Speakers from throughout West Virginia representing online communications companies, entrepreneurial research and development, community technology innovations, biotech research, and performing arts presented in person or through video teleconferencing from Glenville, Hinton, Shepherdstown, and Wheeling.

The Creative Class team, a subcommittee of the West Virginia: A Vision Shared initiative, launched the first edition of its whitepaper, “Culture, Creativity and Innovation: West Virginia in the New Economy,” and a website.

“This marks a new era for West Virginia because of the unique opportunities before us,” said Jeff James, chair of the Creative Class team. “The point is to leverage the state’s strengths, to make us ready to enter the Conceptual Age. The question is going to be: what can we do that can’t be done faster and cheaper somewhere else?

“We are finding that those who have the ability to create artistic and emotional beauty, to detect patterns and opportunities, to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into novel invention,” James continued, “these are the people positioned for success in the Conceptual Age.”

Speakers included Larry Baker, vice-president of technology at Glenville State University; Dr. Lee Kraus, senior vice president, Information Research Corporation of Fairmont; Jeffrey Lusk, executive director of Hatfield-McCoy Trails, Lyburn; Dr. Elizabeth Murray, Marshall University professor and founder of Vandalia Research, Huntington; Dr. Keith Pauley, president and CEO of MATRIC, South Charleston; Jane Peters, Jefferson County Development Authority, Charles Town; George Rogers, president and managing partner of IQ Media, Fayetteville; Scooter Scudieri, performing artist, Berkeley Springs; Justin Siebert, president and CEO of Direct Online Marketing, Wheeling; and Spring Turner, executive director of the Chuck Mathena Center, Bluefield.


For more information or to download a copy of the white paper or the presentation, visit www.createwv.com.

WVU hosts Governor's School for Math and Science

With financial assistance from the West Virginia Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (WVEPSCoR), West Virginia University (WVU) is getting kids excited about learning during the West Virginia Governor’s School for Mathematics and Science (GSMS) in July.

Sixty students from nearly every county in the state will immerse themselves in classes and hands-on learning opportunities this summer at WVU--all while experiencing dorm-style living on campus at Stalnaker Hall, going on field trips and joining in social and recreational activities.


For more information, visit WVU's website at http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/news/page/5830/.

Mini-Symposium

Coal Based Fuel Cell Technology
Status, Needs and Future Applications

October 11-12, 2007
Morgantown, West Virginia

In the next two centuries, coal and synthetic gas produced from coal, i.e. syngas, will continue to play an important role in the U.S. energy market. Fuel cells are believed to have a greater potential in reducing green house gases while supplying clean and efficient source of power. If coal syngas can be used as a source of hydrogen for fuel cells at a competitive cost without jeopardizing the higher efficiency and the cleanness of fuel cells this would be a break-through in clean energy supply. It is a challenge to accomplish such a goal.

This mini-symposium will serve as a step forward in the direction of understanding some of the problems associated with the above stated goal of utilizing coal-syngas in fuel cells.

The symposium is being sponsored by the National Institute for Fuel Cell Technology at West Virginia University. The West Virginia Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (WVEPSCoR) is a co-sponsor.

Click here for more information, including a call papers.

Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position

A Workshop for Female PhDs & Post Docs


October 14–16, 2007

The George R. Brown School of Engineering
and
The Wiess School of Natural Sciences
Rice University

Airfare, hotel accommodations, and meals provided at no cost to workshop participants.

Application deadline: August 1, 2007

For more information, click here.

EPSCoR Program Review Workshop Set for July

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will host the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Program Review Workshop on July 23-25, 2007, in Golden, Colo.. The workshop is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The theme of this workshop is Renewable Energies for a Global Economy. As the global economy grows, so too does the world’s need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Now is the time to mobilize the abundant scientific and technological resources embodied in our national laboratories and universities to perform the fundamental research so critical to the development of renewable energy technologies. A primary goal of this workshop is to identify strategic, innovative partnerships to advance the nation as a world leader in this area of research and development.

The meeting is open to and encourages the participation of faculty, researchers, staff and students from colleges and universities; researchers and user-facility coordinators from national laboratories; EPSCoR representatives; and policy and industry leaders. Participants will learn tools for implementing successful state-national laboratory collaborative projects and creating student training opportunities. Although the theme is renewable energy, the workshop will span the range of EPSCoR’s interdisciplinary research areas—basic energy sciences, computational science, genomics, and defense programs, for example.

Principal investigators; state and facility directors; postdoctoral researchers; and undergraduate and graduate students involved with EPSCoR grants are invited to submit one abstract per project.

Abstract Deadline: July 16, 2007

All attendees and speakers should register for the workshop.

Lodging for the workshop is available at the Marriott Denver West Hotel in Golden, Colorado. To make reservations, please contact the hotel directly at 1-800-228-9290 and ask for the EPSCoR group rate.

Lodging Reservation (at group rate) Deadline: July 9, 2007

Conference Registration Deadline: July 13, 2007

Blount Appointed Head of NSF EPSCOR Office

Dr. Arden Bement, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), has announced the appointment of Dr. Henry N. Blount III as the head of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), effective May 29.

Blount joined the Mathematical and Physical Science Directorate (MPS) at NSF in 1984 as program director for chemical analysis from his position as professor and director of graduate studies in chemistry at the University of Delaware. During his tenure at NSF, Blount has served in numerous capacities including head of the chemistry division's Office of Special Projects; director of program operations in the Research Facilities Office, Office of the Director; acting deputy division director for chemistry; acting executive officer for chemistry; and most recently as head of the MPS Directorate’s Office of Multidisciplinary Activities. His leadership contributions have been recognized through numerous awards, including the Director’s Meritorious Service Award, the Director’s Award for Management Excellence and the Director’s Equal Opportunity Award.

Blount received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of North Carolina in 1963 and his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Georgia in 1969. Before joining NSF, he was on the faculty of the University of Delaware from 1970-84. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

DOE EPSCoR Travel Support Available

Travel support is available for the Department of Energy (DOE) EPSCoR State/National Laboratory Program Review Workshop, which will be held July 22-25 in Golden, Colo. The complete program announcement, including information about travel support, may be downloaded here.

WVU Awarded Nearly $2 Million in WVEPSCoR Grants

This news release was issued June 6, 2007, by WVU News and Information Services.

West Virginia University has been awarded nearly $2 million in grants this year for research initiatives from the West Virginia Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (WVEPSCoR).

University faculty members Julio F. Davalos, Arun Ross and Ever Barbero, all from the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, and Maura McLaughlin from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, were recent recipients of 2007 Research Challenge Grants (RCG).

The awards will provide seed money for new research endeavors at WVU. Grants can be renewed for up to five years, providing researchers demonstrate they are making progress each year. Each grant is worth $1-2 million over the five-year period.

“The four RCG awards provide significant opportunities for clusters of faculty at WVU to develop programs of excellence in science and technology that will be better positioned to compete for federal agency funding,” said Curt Peterson, WVU associate vice president for research and economic development. “The awards will help to further develop their intellectual property and innovative research into emerging new business opportunities important to economic development in West Virginia.

“In addition, it is anticipated that some of these grants will provide a springboard for the research clusters to compete for national research centers supported by a federal agency over a sustained period of time,” he noted. “Thus, these awards are contributing to the growth of the research enterprise at WVU that is expected to increase prosperity in the state.”

The research projects at WVU to be funded by the grants are:

Center for Astrophysics

McLaughlin and co-principal investigator Duncan Lorimer, both assistant professors in the Department of Physics, will receive $490,730 for the creation of a Center for Astrophysics at WVU. Much of their work will make use of world-class facilities, in particular the Green Bank Telescope, at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, W.Va.

The researchers currently study pulsars, exotic stars which have a wide range of applications from testing Einstein's theory of general relativity to probing the interstellar medium of the galaxy.

Grant funds will be used to acquire new telescope hardware and greater computing power, as well as to hire additional personnel, including a senior research fellow and another astrophysics faculty member specializing in a different field of astrophysics.

“We are very excited as it will really allow us to get the new Center for Astrophysics off the ground,” McLaughlin said. “This will greatly expand the breadth of the Department of Physics over the next few years.”

She added, “Our searches with the Green Bank Telescope should allow us to find new pulsars which offer unique and exciting physics applications. We hope to discover the first pulsars in other galaxies and the first pulsar and black hole binary system. This research will strengthen the physics program and attract talented graduate students to WVU through our partnership with the NRAO.”

Center for Transportation Security and Infrastructure Innovations

A multidisciplinary and multi-university team of researchers, led by Davalos, WVU Benedum Distinguished Teaching Professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will use its WVEPSCoR grant of $500,000 for research aimed at enhancing and upgrading transportation infrastructure in the United States and making it more secure against potential terrorist attacks.

The research will also contribute to graduate education, technology transfer, workforce training and economic development in the state.

The grant will be used to help establish the Center for Transportation Security and Infrastructure Innovations, with participation by faculty from WVU and Marshall University, and support by several collaborating state and national industries, associations, agencies, national labs and centers.

“Terrorist attacks worldwide have shown the devastating effects that conventional and improvised explosives and weapons can have on infrastructure facilities, such as checkpoints, bridges, dams, tunnels and others,” Davalos said. “There are no effective large-scale systems for protecting these types of facilities.”

One of the first goals of the center will be to develop innovative and cost-effective protective panels for ballistic and blast threats against civilian and military facilities, using a prototype particle-filled, fiber-reinforced polymer sandwich innovation developed by the researchers and their industrial collaborators.

A second objective is to develop innovations that will assist in upgrading the nation’s aging transportation infrastructure through the use of advanced assessment methods and retrofit technologies, materials, sensor technologies and instrumentation, as well as new systems and smart structures.

In addition to Davalos, WVU faculty members involved in the project include, from Civil and Environmental Engineering: Karl Barth, associate professor; Chunfu Lin, research faculty; David Martinelli, professor and chair; and Indrajit Ray, research assistant professor. Others involved from WVU are Elemer Lang, associate professor of wood science; and Wu Zhang, research assistant professor from the Department of Chemical Engineering. Barbero, professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is also involved in the project.

Marshall University faculty members working with the project are Richard Begley, associate director of the Nick J. Rahall Appalachian Transportation Institute, and Wael Zatar, associate professor of engineering.

“The support from WVEPSCoR will assist us in bringing together researchers from different disciplines to carry out cutting-edge research that will address the worldwide pressing needs for infrastructure security and innovations,” Davalos said.

Energy Materials Science and Engineering Program

Barbero received $499,840 for the establishment of an Energy Materials Science and Engineering Program at WVU.

“Today’s global energy challenges make this a critical area of investigation,” Barbero said. “Our aim is to develop improved materials to enhance the efficiency of energy generation and usage.”

The research is very much a team effort, Barbero said, involving several faculty members with expertise in materials science, both from the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources and from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

Co-principal investigators on the grant include Darran Cairns, Xingbo Liu and Nick Wu, all assistant professors of mechanical and aerospace engineering; and Martina Bachlechner, assistant professor of physics. Many other faculty members are also involved.

The research group is developing energy efficient materials for everything from fuel cells to turbines, batteries, window coatings, insulation and more. The WVEPSCoR grant will enable WVU to hire additional faculty in this area and to build the research infrastructure needed to build a nationally recognized program in energy materials.

“Our objective is to develop a self-sustaining research and graduate education program in energy materials and to work toward the establishment of a National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC),” said Barbero. “Industry support, intellectual property development and technology transfer activities will complement our efforts.”

Information Fusion Networks for Intelligence and Security

As society becomes more complex and technology more sophisticated, governments, businesses and organizations are collecting more and more data from a variety of sources, with the aim of enhancing intelligence and security.

However, comprehensive systems have not been developed for storing, analyzing and using the massive amounts of data that are being collected from multiple sources.

A diverse set of WVU researchers, led by Ross, an assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering, has received a WVEPSCoR grant for $470,000 to address this problem. National security is a key area of concern for this research effort.

In addition to Ross, WVU faculty members involved in this project are Donald Adjeroh and Elaine Eschen, both associate professors of computer science and electrical engineering; Edgar Fuller, assistant professor of mathematics; Cun-Quang Zang, associate professor of mathematics; Robert Duval, associate professor of political science; Jason Thomas, senior lecturer of political science; and Bonnie Morris, associate professor of accounting.

“This WVEPSCoR funding will enable us to bring together experts from diverse disciplines to address the very real and challenging problem of processing intelligence information collected from a variety of sources, thereby accurately identifying potential threats to national security,” Ross said.

Projects funded through the RCG program support the creation of research centers and foster economic development and work force advancement, said Jan Taylor, WVEPSCoR deputy director. All projects must be self-supporting at the end of the grant period.

For more information about WVEPSCoR’s programs or its Vision 2015 strategic plan for growing the state's research enterprise, call 304-558-4128 or visit http://www.wvepscor.org/.

For information about WVEPSCoR research at WVU, contact Peterson at 304-293-5913 or Curt.Peterson@mail.wvu.edu.

Researchers Get Startup Grant at MU

This article appeared in the June 6, 2007, edition of the Herald Dispatch (Huntington).


By Jean Tarbett Hardiman
The Herald-Dispatch


HUNTINGTON -- It helped in the early stages of Vandalia Research Corp., and it helped Progenesis Technologies get going.

Both are biotechnology companies founded through research at Marshall University, with some help from the West Virginia Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (WVEPSCoR).

And now, Marshall associate professors Eric Blough and Philippe Georgel hope a half million dollar grant from the WVEPSCoR program will give them just enough juice to turn their project into both a commercial enterprise and a way to help folks identify health problems earlier.

Blough and Georgel are co-principal investigators on the grant, which will help them with the development of a Cell Differentiation and Development Center. The focus at the center will be cardiovascular and cancer research.

The research will focus on mechanisms that cause diseases to progress, and how to identify diseases earlier for prevention purposes.

"We wanted to pick areas (in which we have expertise) but also areas important to Appalachia and West Virginia," Blough said. With the state ranking so high in deaths related to cardiovascular disease and various types of cancer, it's an area of research that could benefit people locally, he said.

"We're not trying to solve everything," he said. But the center "will bring new people in and help existing faculty already here. This has potential to generate new jobs in town and, long term, to develop new markers or new diagnostic tests for these diseases."

The project will get $500,000 the first year, and then more grants for five consecutive years, receiving $1 million to $1.2 million over the course of five years, said Jan Taylor, deputy director of the WVEPSCoR program.

Blough's and Georgel's project is one of five that received WVEPSCoR grants this year. The four others are at West Virginia University.

About $2.5 million is going out overall, and with that big of an investment, "the state has expectations of great things," Taylor said. "We understand that it takes a long time to turn intellectual property and research into economic development, but this is the state's way of priming the pump."

The Research Challenge Grant program was developed by the Legislature about five years ago, and WVEPSCoR started to administer it about three years ago, Taylor said. This is the second round that these grants have been given, Taylor said.

The Marshall spin-off Vandalia Research Corp. used its money in developing a company that produces custom DNA sequences and DNA products. It started with a couple of undergraduate students, who were assigned to create a machine that could mass-produce DNA sequences, though at the time they were working with water.

Progenesis Technologies, which was founded by two professors at Marshall and officially launched just last month, produces a biopolymer that could be used in a number of ways. Its possibilities are to preserve water in garden soil, to be used as a thickening agent in cosmetics and food, to be used in cleanup of radioactive material from bombs, or to slow the release of medication, such as insulin for diabetics, into the body.

To receive a grant, projects must be innovative and have potential for economic impact, Taylor said.

"The competition is very stiff," she said. WVEPSCoR sends out proposals for external review. Both the science and the management plans are evaluated, and their possibility for economic impact.

By the end of the fifth year, the researchers should be self-sufficient in running their operation, either by getting grants from elsewhere or from turning their research into a viable business, Taylor said.

WVEPSCoR Advisory Council makes the final decision about who gets a grant, she said.

The Cell Differentiation and Development Center will be located at Marshall's new Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology and Science Center, which opened last year.

"EPSCoR is a wonderful mechanism to develop university infrastructure and science," Blough said. "We're going to be doing what I hope is very important research but also educating undergraduate and graduate students in the area and performing other outreach and educational opportunities. It has many different facets besides the science."

WVEPSCoR Makes Research Challenge Awards for Innovation

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 4, 2007

Contact
Ginny Painter
Communications Program Manager
WVEPSCoR
304.558.4128 ext. 6
ginny.painter@wvepscor.org


The West Virginia Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (WVEPSCoR) recently awarded nearly $2.5 million in grants for research initiatives at West Virginia University and Marshall University. These Research Challenge Grants (RCG) will provide seed money for new research endeavors at the universities.

Projects funded through the RCG program support the creation of research centers and foster economic development and work force advancement. WVEPSCoR support for initiatives under this program cannot exceed five years in length, and all projects must be self-supporting at the end of the grant period.

"The primary goals of the Research Challenge Grants are to sponsor innovative research at our colleges and universities and improve the institutions' ability to be competitive for federal funding on the national level," said Dr. Paul L. Hill, WVEPSCoR executive director. "Even though this grant program is only a few years old, we are already beginning to see results. We have had the pleasure of announcing five startup companies resulting from university research funded by Research Challenge Grants. These companies bring with them the types of good jobs we need in West Virginia."

The RCG program is funded through state video lottery proceeds. A complete list of RCG recipients is attached. For more information about WVEPSCoR’s programs or its Vision 2015 strategic plan for growing the state's research enterprise, call (304) 558-4128 or visit http://www.wvepscor.org/.


2007 WVEPSCoR Research Challenge Grant Recipients


Marshall University
$500,000
Dr. Eric Blough and Dr. Philippe Georgel, Department of Biological Sciences

Development of a Cell Differentiation and Development Center focused on the epigenetic mechanisms underlying cell differentiation and development and the diseases that result from failure of these mechanisms, especially cancer and cardiovascular disease.


West Virginia University
$500,000
Dr. Julio Davalos, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Establishment of a Center for Transportation Security and Infrastructure Innovations to contribute to solutions to two worldwide needs for transportation infrastructure: (1) security against potential terrorist attacks; and (2) rehabilitation, maintenance, and new construction to improve performance and achieve better and longer service-life of highway materials. This project is in conjunction with the Nick J. Rahall II Appalachian Transportation Institute at Marshall University.


West Virginia University
$490,730
Dr. Maura McLaughlin, Department of Physics

Creation of a world-class Center for Astrophysics at West Virginia University in partnership with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank. Researchers will study pulsars, which have a wide range of applications--from testing Einstein's theory of general relativity to probing the interstellar medium of the galaxy to understanding the physics of superdense matter.


West Virginia University
$470,886
Dr. Arun Ross, Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Development of an Information Networks Research Group to develop identity management technology to process data for use by businesses and the intelligence community.


West Virginia University
$499,840
Dr. Ever Barbero, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Establishment of an Energy Materials Science and Engineering Program to research energy materials, including materials for energy conversion (fuel cells, batteries, solar-cells, thermo-electrics, and solid-state lighting), energy storage (hydrogen materials), energy utilization (turbine materials, boiler and tubing materials, thermal barrier coating), energy saving (reflective or thermal insulation materials/coating), energy efficiency and environment protection (sensing materials, corrosion/wear resistant coatings).

New Website for DOE EPSCoR Office

The U.S. Department of Energy EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) office has a new website with news items and statistical information.