Information on the Use of Designated Fonts in NSF Proposals

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has published the new NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (NSF 07-140), which contains documents relating to the Foundation's proposal and award process. Part I is comprised of NSF's proposal preparation & submission guidelines, including the NSF Grant Proposal Guide, and Part II is comprised of the documents used to guide, manage, and monitor the award and administration of grants and cooperative agreements, including the new NSF Award & Administration Guide (previously known as the Grant Policy Manual).

The new publication supercedes all prior versions of the NSF Grant Proposal Guide and Grant Policy Manual, and can be accessed at: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf07140. The NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide applies to proposals submitted on or after June 1, 2007.

One of the important changes contained in the new guidelines is the use of designated fonts in proposals submitted to NSF. For more information about the designated fonts, visit the NSF's website at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/fontadvisory.pdf.

WVU Offers Summer Research Opportunities For Undergraduate Students

For many college students, summer means relaxing at the beach or the pool.

But for West Virginia University (WVU) student Katie Phillips, it’s a unique opportunity to apply what she’s learned in the classroom to cutting-edge research.

The forensic and investigative science and chemistry major is one of about two dozen students spending their break performing research in math, science and engineering through WVU’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, or SURE, that began in June and continues through July.

SURE, coordinated by the WVU Honors College, teams college students from around the state with WVU faculty mentors from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences; Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences; and College of Engineering and Mineral Resources for an intensive, eight-week research program.

Phillips, a senior from Centerville, Ohio, is paired with Suzanne Bell, director of WVU’s Forensic and Investigative Sciences Program in the Eberly College. Bell’s career includes working at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico State Police Crime Laboratory.

“I chose forensic and investigative science because it allows me to use science to help society and make our judicial system stronger,” said Phillips, whose career goal is to become a forensic toxicologist for a crime lab.

Her summer project focuses on the detection of explosives, their metabolites and degradation products in soil and other materials. She is part of a research team that is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the West Virginia Water Resources Institute to investigate the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area which used to be a target area in World War II.

“We have a portable instrument that we’d like to take out to Dolly Sods so that we can detect explosives in our soil samples while out on the field,” Phillips said. “It is my job to create a method of detection for this instrument using soil samples that I made with known concentrations of explosives. If I can find a method that works and is consistent, then next time we go to Dolly Sods, we can take the instrument with us, analyze the soil there and return to our lab at WVU with soil that we know has an explosive in it.”

Phillips said the SURE program has given her the opportunity to use many of the instruments that are used in an actual crime lab.

“Having experience on these instruments will benefit me when applying for internships and ultimately finding a job,” she said, “and being able to present this research at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences meeting in February will allow me to make contacts with professionals in my field.”

Bell is one of the principle investigators on the Dolly Sods explosives project. This is her second time working with SURE.

“Last year, I had three students,” she said, “and all presented their work at the national meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences last February in San Antonio. I have been impressed with the SURE program and what it offers to students.”

Meanwhile, senior William Reinike, a foreign languages and math major from Parkersburg, is working on computational fluid dynamics simulations to investigate the flow of natural gas through various kinds of concept valves.

The basic idea is to find the correct valve design to maximize mass flow and minimize pressure drop through the valve, explained his faculty mentor Mary Ann Clarke, an assistant professor of mathematics in the Eberly College.

The best valve designs will be fabricated and tested by the National Energy Technology Lab, she said, and later on, these valves will be implemented in natural gas powered turbines that make electricity. The new valves will reduce natural gas waste and improve turbine efficiency, making the process cleaner and more cost efficient.

“I have known Will for about a year, but it is summer funding through the SURE program that has really given us the time to work and research together,” Clarke said. “Will is making excellent progress, and he is learning some practical programming and mathematical tools that will serve him well after he graduates.

“I am so pleased with his progress that I have requested grant funding to continue his financial support in the fall semester,” she added. “He’s doing a great job.”

Rose Simis, a graduate assistant in the Honors College, said SURE provides talented students an exciting opportunity to gain real-world research experience while getting paid a $3,500 stipend for their time in the lab.

“They’re mostly WVU students, but students from all over are invited to apply,” she said.

In addition to hands-on research, SURE participants, along with 20 WVU sophomores and juniors in the WV Nano/LSAMP (Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation) program, have been attending a weekly, one-hour credit class where they learn about graduate school opportunities, research methods and ethics, scholarships and more. Class time also exposes SURE students to the research being performed by others in the program.

And just last week, students took a behind-the-scenes tour of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.–arranged by WVU alumna Dr. Trisha Kalbaugh, a postdoctoral fellow at The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

“The program is trying to encourage students to pursue research in graduate school,” Simis said. “Opportunities are out there if they want to stay in the lab.

“I think the huge benefit for students is it’s funded, so they don’t have to split their time between the lab and a job,” she said, “and just having the experience with a professor, making a poster and doing it with 23 other students. It’s a good baby step for other presentations they might want to make in the future. It really does help them grow as researchers to have this structure.”

SURE and WVNano/LSAMP students will present their research findings in the form of poster presentations at the SURE Research Symposium at 2 p.m. Thursday, July 26, on the third floor of the Life Sciences Building. The research showcase is open to the public.

SURE is supported by the West Virginia Experimental Project to Stimulate Competitive Research (WVEPSCoR) and funded by the West Virginia Research Challenge Fund. For more information, go to http://www.honors.wvu.edu/sure/.


Caption: John Kuhlman, left, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, discusses an experiment with WVU student Tristan Wolfe, center, and recent graduate Jason Gross during last year's Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE). Coordinated by the Honors College, SURE teams students from around the state with WVU faculty mentors for an intensive, eight-week research program. Photo by Janey Cink, WVU News and Information Services.

INBRE Internships at WVU Initiate Research Interest

This news release was issued July 3, 2007, by WVU's Health Sciences Center.


Most college students would gladly trade in their books for the beach once summer rolls around. But for many undergraduates from smaller West Virginia institutions, the so-called lazy days of summer are spent in the fast-paced laboratories of West Virginia University’s Health Sciences Center.

WVU is one of two schools housing interns through the West Virginia IDEA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), a grant project of the National Institutes of Health and the West Virginia Experimental Project to Stimulate Competitive Research (WVEPSCoR).

“INBRE makes research opportunities more accessible to students who don’t belong to a major research institution,” said Robert Griffith, Ph.D., associate professor of medicinal chemistry at the School of Pharmacy.

The INBRE grant allows students from the state’s smaller colleges to complete hands-on internships at either WVU or Marshall University, the state’s largest institutions.“When you perform a lab experiment as an undergrad, you don’t really see the science behind it,” said Jonathan Proto, a Wheeling Jesuit University senior. “In a research laboratory here, the theory behind each procedure becomes evident. It’s nice to see that the procedures I perform in my undergraduate labs are actually important.”

This hands-on approach is one of the main draws for student participation.

“Seeing the work we do in the labs provides a lot of validation for the techniques we use in undergraduate research,” said Sarah Reinhardt, a senior at Shepherd University.

WVU graduate students work with faculty to assist and train the interns with lab work and procedures.

“The students gain the confidence in their ability to conduct meaningful biomedical research,” said James Sheil, Ph.D., vice chairman of the department of microbiology, immunology and cell biology. “They learn that conducting biomedical research can be a realistic career choice.”

A few of the students were so impressed with the experience; they decided to return for a second year. Returning students, like Proto, claim they have put their INBRE obtained knowledge to use when returning to school last fall.

“I was able to bring my research back to Wheeling Jesuit and personalize it towards my senior biology thesis,” he said. “This program has definitely enhanced my performance as a researcher.”

Proto noted WVU’s partnership with INBRE “provides an opportunity for biomedical and cancer research which a smaller university is unable to provide. Even if a particular procedure isn’t being performed in the lab I work in, I can still learn about it from the other interns’ presentations.”

“Only the best students are accepted into the internship program,” Griffith said. “What we’re finding is that the best and the brightest students aren’t just at the top universities.”However, INBRE’s opportunities are not limited to students. Professors at smaller schools can apply for research grants and join in on collaborative research projects with WVU and Marshall faculty members.

Participants hail from Alderson-Broaddus, Bethany, Davis and Elkins, Glenville State, West Liberty State, and West Virginia Wesleyan colleges. Shepherd, Fairmont State and Wheeling Jesuit universities also send students to the program.

Other summer internships taking place in the WVU Health Sciences laboratories include the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Forensic Internship Program, Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center internships, Research Experience for Undergraduates, Summer Undergraduate Research Experience and WVNano SURE.


Caption: Jonathan Proto, a Wheeling Jesuit University senior, conducts an experiment as part of an INBRE internship at WVU.

Student Receives WVNano Award

Aaron Kessman, a new doctoral student in the West Virginia University (WVU) Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has received a $5,000 WVNano Graduate Bridge Award for the 2007-08 school year.

WVNano Graduate Bridge Awards are designed to facilitate a smooth transition into graduate programs in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines, and may be renewed for a second year.

Students in the program attend the WVNano Seminar Series, participate in research, attend regularly scheduled advising/mentoring meetings with a WVNano or department advisor, complete surveys and provide annual updated demographic and educational data while enrolled in the Ph.D. program.

Kessman is a native of Boston and received his B.S. in chemical engineering from Northeastern University in 2002. He was admitted directly into the mechanical engineering Ph.D. program. He will begin studying at WVU in July, after accumulating more than five years of applied research and development experience as an employee of 3M and Alkermes.

Kessman’s research interests include design of structural-functional protective coatings by nano-scale tailoring and control of topography, chemistry and morphology of surface characteristics and design of self-assembled structures, and nano-composites with controlled topography, porosity, and other micro-structural characteristics of bulk materials.

WVNano is an initiative to accelerate research and education in the nanosciences and engineering in West Virginia, and to provide support for scientific shared-user facilities, new faculty and small research projects. Partners in the National Science Foundation-sponsored program include West Virginia Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (WVEPSCoR), WVU, Marshall University and West Virginia State University.