Some grants behind the research dollars

By Jim Barlow, Office of Public and Media Relations

Let's bowl with numbers. We'll start big and work our way to some individual pins.

In fiscal 2007, the University of Oregon received $85.3 million in externally funded grants, contracts and other awards. Of that, $55.4 million -- 65 percent of the total -- came from federal funds. Of that subtotal, $28.2 million came from the U.S. Department of Education, $21.4 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, primarily the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and $12.8 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

There were 488 awards to 225 researchers. Funds go to principal investigators -- the lucky scientists who spend hours filling out the paperwork, usually on deadline while juggling research, teaching classes and/or administering finals. Principal investigators ultimately are accountable for the funds.

These numbers came straight from the UO's Fiscal 2006-2007 annual report on grants and contracts.

Now let's look at little pieces beyond the report.

But before I start, I am knowingly mixing fiscal years. Many of the projects below received funding in the last half of calendar year 2007, which would be in the first half of Fiscal 2008. My goal is to give you a thumbnail view of what makes up the totals of any year, from deep down in the trenches, or labs, where the work is done.

All grants mentioned here are from the National Science Foundation, just one agency from which the UO garners federal grants. The translations of the research are my own and done loosely in some cases. If you see errors, let me know and I'll repair the damage.

* Stephen Fickas of computer and information science and McKay Sohlberg of communication disorders and sciences, in July, received a three-year grant of $799,999 -- a whole dollar under $800,000. Someone must have been counting dollars and needed to buy coffee. Fickas and Sohlberg will work on a project called "Software Pharmacies: Design of Personalized Assistive Devices for People with Cognitive Impairments." Their goal is to help at least some of the one million adults diagnosed each year in the U.S. with cognitive problems. The idea is to help them overcome the isolation caused by their illnesses by providing them with innovative tools tailored to their specific needs. An important aspect is that the UO researchers plan to make products fit a price range that increases their accessibility to those who need them. Fickas and Sohlberg are not new to this line of work. Read about their CogLink success.

* Allen Malony is using a software development grant of $731,000 to, as Malony puts it, "integrate, harden and deploy an open, portable and robust performance-tools environment for the NSF-funded high-performance computing technology." His group, including other faculty and a small group of undergraduate and graduate students, will improve and fine tune a collection of high-tech software programs, and design a training program for performance technology and engineering. This effort will be piloted and refined at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and integrated with TeraGrid Education, Outreach, Training over time. "Its objectives will be to educate application developers and students in sound performance evaluation methods, to teach them best practices for engineering high-performance code solutions based on expert tuning strategies, and to train them to use the performance tools effectively."

Hey, I didn't say the explanations would be easy to digest. Have you ever tried to simplify what computer experts do? I'm just trying to nail a 7-10 split as I bowl through this.

* A five-year grant of $599,999 (another dollar lost to coffee?) went to biologist John Postlethwait, a co-winner of the 2007 Discovery Award given annually by the Medical Research Foundation, an affiliate of the OHSU Foundation. Postlethwait's long-term objective of his new project, according to his grant's abstract, is to learn how vertebrates evolved from non-vertebrate chordates. Chordates range from fish to thousands of mammals to us humans. Postlethwait and colleagues will work with specific chordates and genomic tools in search of developmental mechanisms that vertebrates evolved to develop certain features. An outreach component will be used "to educate schoolchildren about the role of larvaceans in ecology and the science of evolutionary biology," catering particularly to under-represented groups including minority undergraduates. Larvaceans, according to Encyclopedia Britannica online, are transparent, larva-like organisms that live in the open sea. The U-shaped body consists of a trunk and tail. The body secretes a structure larger than itself, within which the animal moves freely.

* Stephen James (Jim) Remington, physics, in August, received a three-year $570,000 grant to research the photo-switching capability of mTFPO.7, a fluorescent protein similar in sequence and structure to red and yellow versions of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) that was first discovered in Pacific Northwest jellyfish. GFP is used as a visible tag for proteins of interest or as a marker for gene expression. Remington's research under this grant, he says," will provide insight into the nature of transient light/dark switching processes." His lab's most recent discovery was highlighted in a news release in April 2007. The grant also calls for the development of new teaching approaches for high school and university lab courses.

* With a $451,864 two-year grant from the NSF, biologist Patrick Phillips is studying the variation of mating systems that drive different patterns of genetic variations within plant and animal populations. He focuses his work on the roundworm, using theoretical modeling to study how changing levels of mutations affect sexual reproduction. It is hoped that his findings will offer insights that will be useful for management of endangered species of plants and animals.

* Richard Linton, the UO's vice president for research and graduate studies, heads a three-year $434,765 grant from the NSF's Partnerships for Innovation Program to launch the Oregon Technology Entrepreneurship Consortium. This project was described in a September news release.

*Andrzej Proskurowski, professor and head of the department of computer and information science, received a $423,604 two-year grant to "invigorate computer science education through internalization." Dubbed "il8n" per the word internationalization as used by software developers, Proskurowski's group proposes "to establish an ambitious Pacific Rim community of computer science departments, high-tech industries and international programs to explore a new model of computer science education that focuses on the knowledge, skills and competencies necessary for professional success and leadership in a flat world," according to the project summary. The idea is to fuse computer science education with international perspectives -- a global world -- in general, but initially tied to the UO's Pacific Rim ties and expertise.

* Diane Hawley, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, has received the first installment of a $416,273 grant for her research on RNA polymerase binding in yeast. The research is expected to shed light on important mechanisms in replication and transcription driven by these enzymes that are crucial for protein synthesis and other genetic messaging duties. A highlight of Hawley's research is using her lab as an important training ground for undergraduates.

* Computer scientist Jun Li, in January, received a five-year $400,000 grant that boosts his efforts to seek out, destroy and recover from Internet worms. This award came from the prestigious NSF's Faculty Early Career Development Program and was covered in a news release.

* In April, Thomas R. Dyke, professor of physical chemistry and chemical physics, received a $402,965 grant toward the purchase of a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer for use in a variety of projects, including RNA-metal adducts (complexes formed when chemicals bind to biological molecules such as DNA or proteins), conjugated ionomers (a family of polymers), gold nanoparticles, photodegradable polymers, carbon-rich network materials and supramolecular complexes. The new equipment allows molecular weights of large molecules to be determined accurately and sheds new light on their structures. The equipment will be accessible to other users through the Center for Advanced Materials Characterization.

Those were the Top 10 of 2007, although one grant that fits above is the just announced grant to Jan Hodder and the Institute of Marine Biology, director of and home to, respectively, the newly created COSEE Pacific Partnerships, a collaboration of regional facilities dedicated to enhancing ocean-education.

At least 20 other UO faculty members are principal investigators on NSF grants (either new or continuing funding) of at least $100,000 in 2007. They and their grant amounts are: Pat Bartlein (geography), $160.305; Jeffrey Cina (chemistry), $139,968; Michael Haley (chemistry), grants of $154,000 and $115,000; Alan Rempel (geological sciences), $123,779; Sarah Douglas (computer and information science), $175,451; Jennifer Ablow (psychology), $169,274; Marcin Bownik (mathematics), $119,638; William Cresko (biology), $149,982; Geraldine Richmond (chemistry), $354,000; David Sokoloff (physics), $149,996; Michael Anderson (psychology), $227,131; Anthony Hornof (computer and information science), $173,610; David Tyler (physics), $351,000; Miriam Deutsch (physics), $324,675; Richard Castenholz (biology), $243,225; N. Christopher Phillips, $180,000; Yannis Smaragdakis (computer and information science), $186,894; and Eugene Humphreys (geological sciences), $289,104. (Some of these amounts reflect grant totals, although amounts initially dispersed in 2007 may be less).