In this Issue
Vice President's Message
• NYSTAR Visit
Good News and Coming Events
•
News
•
Events
Opportunities and Sponsor
Information
• Association
for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Dissertation Fellowships
• The Stony Brook University Chapter
of Sigma Xi is Accepting Applications for
Awards
• Proposals with Diversity Components Should
Contact the Center for Inclusive Education for Maximum Success
•
Upcoming Funding Opportunities
•
Interdisciplinary Seminars
•
Music for Meetings
• Elimination of
the Statutory Limitation on Payments to Consultants Under NSF Awards
• Change in Time of Submission/Receipt
of NIH Electronic Grant Applications to Grants.gov
• Updated Instructions
Regarding Inclusion of Publications as Appendix Materials
Essential Policies, Procedures
and Resources
• Rules and Regulation for RF Summer Employment Positions
• New Faculty and Staff Digest Online
For More Information
Vice President's Message
NYSTAR Visit
Tomorrow and Wednesday our campus will be hosting two senior
program officers from NYSTAR,
the New York Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research,
which manages most of the state’s science and technology-based
economic development programs. One of the most impressive aspects
of NYSTAR’s activity since its creation in 1999 has been its recognition
and responsiveness, in collaboration with the Governor’s Office
and the State Legislature, to the unfolding demands of its mission.
In the last few months, at least two studies have been published
on the general theme that research institutions’ role in economic
development is technology transfer and a whole lot more, one by
the National Academies and the other by a conference at the Industrial
Performance Center at MIT. NYSTAR has not only already embraced
that principle, it has developed a broad range of programs to maximize
that diversity of potential contributions to the economy of the
state. Its original, singular industry sector-focused program,
the Centers for Advanced Technology, has grown through the addition
of technology product commercialization, faculty recruitment, development
and retention, support of matching requirements for major federal
proposals, and support for science education.
This campus is fortunate to participate in several of these
programs, including the CAT program (Stony Brook has one of the
original seven CATs, the Center
for Biotechnology, and a few years
ago added a second, the Center
for Advanced Sensor Systems); the
Faculty Development Program, which currently supports Distinguished
Professor Iwao Ojima, Chemistry and the Institute
of Chemical Biology and Drug Development; the James D. Watson Young
Investigator Program, which currently supports Professor
Robert Rizzo,
Applied Mathematics and Statistics; and the STAR Center program
(the construction contract for Stony Brook’s STAR Center for Biomolecular
Diagnostics and Therapeutics will be bid before the end of this
year).
Although there was not room on their schedule on this visit
for a general meeting with faculty, please let us know if you
have questions about these programs, or any of the many other opportunities
NYSTAR makes available to researchers whose work shows promise of scientific
leadership and commercial potential, and we will get an answer or a contact
for follow-up. Although legislation enacted last year calls for significant
restructuring of the agency and some of its processes, and the addition
of new programs, its mission will continue to recognize the fundamental
importance of leading edge research to the state’s economic future and to
provide appropriate incentives and support for institutions like ours to
continue pursuing discovery and innovation.
Good News
and Coming Events
News
Please join us in rejoicing with
colleagues for achievements that have become known since the last issue.
Southampton Campus
Stony Brook and Long Island University reached a final agreement for SUNY
to purchase Southampton Campus for $35 million. Stony Brook will operate
the campus and plans to begin holding classes at the 82-acre site this September,
with an initial focus on interdisciplinary upper-division undergraduate
offerings on the environment and ecological sustainability.
Applied Mathematics and Statistics
The high-end computer graphics company NVIDIA has a Stony
Brook success story article on
the work of Robert Rizzo's research group. Using computational
methods, Robert Rizzo's group is working to screen potential small
molecule drugs for the HIV/AIDS virus. NVIDIA
is helping the group through a very generous donation of five powerful
stereo graphics cards which researchers use along with special
infrared glasses for 3D stereo visualization. 'Seeing' in stereo
or 3D helps researchers visualize how drugs interact with proteins
at the atomic level in great detail. In 2005 Rizzo received a NYSTAR
James D. Watson Investigator Award which is funding the research.
Materials Science and Engineering
Professor Devinder Mahajan has been selected as a member of the Russian
Academy of Natural Sciences-US Section (RANS), and received a Certificate
of Crown and Eagle Medal of Honor for contributions to “Petroleum
Engineering.”
Aisha Bishop, a graduate student, received a National Science Foundation
award to attend the 56th Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Students
in Lindau, Germany. She joins a select group of American doctoral students,
sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health
and Oak Ridge Associated Universities, who will hear lectures and participate
in less formal small group discussions with the Nobel Laureates, as well
as fellow young researchers from around the world.
Anthropology
The cover story of the April issue of Smithsonian Magazine, "Leaping
Lemurs! (and the Woman Who Loves Them" describes
Professor Patricia Wright's twenty years working with lemurs and
habitat conservation in Madagascar. Wright is a MacArthur Fellow
and Director of the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical
Environments.
Visiting Professor Richard Leakey and Meave Leakey are
working with Stony Brook to build a research institute in the remote
desert of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. A short article in the
March 3, 2006 Science tells of the venture and gives the Leakey's
due credit for their 40 years of groundbreaking fossil discoveries.
The goal is to build at least two year-round field facilities which
would allow greater access to the area and establish an educational
outreach program that would help to train and hire African postdoctoral
researchers and graduate students.
Calverton Incubator
Incubator tenant M-1 Energy Partners was featured in a recent Newsday article on
the company’s plans to develop a hybrid turbine-fuel cell technology to
capture, store and control the release of tidal energy. The company, which
has submitted an SBIR proposal to NSF, is working with faculty in Engineering
and Marine Sciences.
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Sean Connolly, who received his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
in June of 2004 at Stony Brook, has been selected to receive the Northeastern
Association of Graduate Schools’ Doctoral Dissertation Award for 2005-2006.
Connolly’s dissertation, advised by Jorge Benach, was entitled, “The Clearance
of Relapsing Fever Spirochetemia is Mediated by Complement-Independent Bactericidal
Antibodies.” Connolly is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Immunobiology
at Yale.
Physics and Astronomy
Kathryn Krycka was one of two graduate students who work at the National
Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) to present research results at the annual
meeting of the American Physical Society. On March 14 Krycka presented work
she had done with NSLS scientist and interim chair Çhi-Chang Kao and Professor
Sara Majetich, Carnegie Mellon, on cobalt-oxide nanoparticles, which will
help further understanding of the magnetic properties of nanoparticle systems.
Undergraduate Research
Stony Brook has been chosen for a second time as a site
for the Beckman Scholars Program, a prestigious undergraduate research award
program which provides support for six undergraduates over the next three
years. Stony Brook had previously received the Beckman Scholars Award in
1999. The 2006 proposal featured ten faculty: Robert Haltiwanger, Hermann
Schindelin and Steve Smith, Biochemistry & Cell Biology; Nancy Goroff,
Iwao Ojima, Daniel Raleigh, Carlos Simmerling and Peter Tonge,
Chemistry; and Daniel Bogenhagen and Caroline Kisker, Pharmacology.
Events
Provost's Lecture
Series
April 5: “Should the U.S. Withdraw from Iraq?”
Stan Goff, Veterans for Peace, is author of Full
Spectrum Disorder, a first-person
account of military maneuvers and an analysis of U.S. foreign policy. Seth
Forman is Research Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Center
for Regional Policy Studies at Stony Brook University. 7:30 p.m.
Student
Activities Center Auditorium.
Wine Center
April 13: “What is Chardonnay?”
Gilles Martin, Martha Clara Vineyards
Chardonnay is known as the world's
favorite white wine grape. But how can we discover its true nature? Join
winemaker Martin in a guided tasting–paired with appropriate foods–of Chardonnay
in its many guises, from sparkling to still, dry to sweet, fruity to oaky.
Thursday, April 13 (Please note: Date Change)
6:30–8:00 p.m., $55
To Register: Call Ginny Clancy at (631) 632-9404. Note: You must be 21
or over to participate in winetasting events. Reservations are required
for all sessions.
July 5–July 29 Science and Research Awareness Series: "Topics in Cell and
Molecular Biology as Related to Clinical Sciences"
Over the course of four weeks this lecture and workshop
series is designed to bring awareness to enthusiastic students
on different aspects of clinical sciences and modern cell and molecular
biology. The topics to be presented will try to bridge the gap
between basic and clinical sciences, introducing the aspect of
translational and applied research as applied to human health and
safety. Faculty members who are experts in their fields will assist
in the educational program. A $500 minimum donation is suggested.
For more information, a copy of the schedule and to download a registration
form please go here:
http://anes.anesthes.sunysb.edu/teaching/sas.html
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Opportunities and Sponsor Information
Association for the Study
of Higher Education (ASHE) Dissertation Fellowships
With support
from Lumina Foundation for Education, ASHE has awarded 26 dissertation
fellowships since 2003. This year, eight to ten dissertation fellowships
in the amount of $14,000 each will be awarded for dissertations
focusing on student access and success in education beyond high
school. The Fellowship program also includes an array of activities
designed to promote professional and academic development of Fellows
through an intergenerational community of scholars. For more information
and an application please visit:
http://www.ashe.ws/fellowship/aboutfellowship.htm
--Contributed by Peter Baigent, Vice President for Student Affairs and
Associate Provost for Enrollment and Retention Management
The Stony Brook University chapter of Sigma Xi is pleased to announce
that it is accepting applications for awards in:
Excellence in Research and Educationally-related Travel
No more than one nomination per laboratory will be accepted.
The Award for Excellence in Research is presented annually to recognize
highly qualified student research. For undergraduates, the award is noted
on the student's transcript. An abstract of the research plus two letters
of recommendation concerning the work are required, one from the student's
advisor and one from a faculty member familiar with the student's research.
The award includes election to membership in the Society and a one-year
waiver of dues. Application forms are attached and are available in the
offices listed below.
The Travel Award is to defray travel expenses to professional
meetings. The award can be for a past or future meeting. The prizes will
vary, but could be as much as $250. A travel budget must be submitted, along
with a brief justification of the value of the student's attendance at the
meeting, as well as two letters of recommendation, one from the student's
advisor and one from a faculty member familiar with the student's research.
Deadline/Submission
Completed application forms should be submitted by April 12, 2006
to one of the following chapter officers (email submissions will not be
accepted):
Dr. Nicholas Delihas, Department of Microbiology, 158 Life Sciences Bldg.,
Z=5222 Dr. Harvard Lyman, Department of Biochemistry, 472 Life Sciences
Bldg., Z=5215 Dr. R. Lawrence Swanson, Marine Sciences Research Ctr., 147
Dutchess Hall, Z=5000 Dr. Alan Tucker, Department of Applied Math and Statistics,
P138 Math. Bldg., Z=3600
Kindly disseminate this information in your area and inform your students.
--Contributed by The Stony Brook University chapter of Sigma Xi
Proposals with Diversity Components for Graduate Education
Should Contact the Center for Inclusive Education to Maximize
the Success of the Proposal
If you are considering writing a proposal to a Federal Agency or a Foundation
that requires a diversity component for graduate education please contact
Lucy Gluck as early as possible so that she can provide you with the data
and information that you need to make the strongest possible proposal. Lucy
can be contacted on Notes (Lucy
Gluck) or by phone (632 9988).
The Center for Inclusive Education is now in a position
to provide support and technical assistance in preparing proposals that
have a graduate diversity component to them. Lucy Gluck has worked with
David Ferguson for many years and is a skilled writer and proposal developer.
Lucy will have at her disposal all of the facts and figures on enrollment
and degree production by ethnicity. She knows about all of the successful
diversity efforts underway on campus and can supply appropriate prose describing
these for your proposal. All training grants, most Center grants and many
other types of awards now require a well developed diversity program as
part of the proposal. Martin Schoonen recently lead a team who won the first
NSF IGERT award to Stony Brook ($2.9M for graduate student support) and
worked with Lucy. As you may know, Stony Brook in the lead institution for
the NSF SUNY LS-AMP program and for the NSF SUNY AGEP program and Lucy has
been much involved in both of these.
--Contributed by Lawrence B. Martin, Dean of the Graduate School, Associate
Provost for Analysis and Planning
Upcoming
Funding Opportunities
For a complete list of
upcoming deadlines, please go to -
http://www.stonybrook.edu/research/fndopp/deadlcal.html
Interdisciplinary Seminars
Please remember that,
in an effort to encourage interdisciplinary research on campus, this
office will supply $100 toward a speaker's luncheon when your
department invites a Stony Brook colleague from an unrelated
discipline to give a seminar. Please contact Ann-Marie Scheidt
amscheidt@notes.cc.sunysb.edu to determine eligibility. You will
be asked to provide a copy of the seminar notice annotated with the
number of attendees and a brief description of any anticipated
collaborations with the speaker's department.
Music for Meetings
Please remember that
the OVPR would like to assist those of you who are planning a
research meeting on campus by providing musical interludes. If you
would like to have Stony Brook student musicians play at the
reception for your meeting it can be arranged by contacting
Ann-Marie Scheidt
amscheidt@notes.cc.sunysb.edu. OVPR will make a payment to the
Department of Music and the Department in turn pays the students.
You get to listen to some nice music.
Elimination of the Statutory Limitation on Payments to Consultants
under NSF Awards
In previous years, Acts making appropriations to the Foundation limited
the maximum rate of compensation paid to consultants (whether retained
by the Federal Government or by a grantee). The Appropriation Act applicable
to NSF for Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 does not contain a limitation on payments
to consultants under NSF awards and therefore, this constraint has been
eliminated for FY 2006 appropriated funds. Prior fiscal year funds are
still subject to the consultant pay limitation.
In order to implement this change, NSF plans to have
the Federal Demonstration Partnership Operating Procedures, Appendix
B, National Policy Requirements Matrix, modified to delete the relevant
statutory citation. Costs of consultants, including those who are members
of a particular profession or possess a special skill and who are not
officers or employees of the performing organization, are allowable when
reasonable in relation to the services rendered. Even though the limitation
on consultant payments has now been eliminated, payments should be comparable
to the normal or customary fees charged and received by the consultant
for comparable services, especially on non-government contracts and grants.
Further information on the allowability of consultant services costs
can be found in the NSF Grant Policy Manual Section 616 Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQs) regarding this change-
http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpm
as well as a listing of prior archived rates, are available on
the Policy Office website at-
http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/
Questions concerning the application of the rate to NSF awards
should be directed to the Policy Office, Division of Institution and
Award Support at (703) 292-8243 or via e-mail at policy@nsf.gov.
--Contributed by Jean Feldman, Head, Policy Office, Division of Institution
and Award Support, NSF
Change in Time of Submission/Receipt of NIH Electronic Grant
Applications to Grants.gov
The purpose of this Notice is to inform applicants of a change
in the time that electronic grant applications must be successfully received
by Grants.gov ( http://www.grants.gov/) in order to be considered “on
time.” Effective April 1, 2006, applications must be received no later
than 5:00 p.m. local time (of the applicant institution/organization)
on the submission date(s) described in a funding opportunity announcement.
Please note that the Grants.gov timestamp will continue to be expressed
in Eastern Time.
The rationale to use a 5:00 p.m. local time deadline takes into
consideration a number of factors, including spreading the workload
during peak submission times, creating a more equitable playing
field for applicant institutions/organizations in different regions of
the country, aligning NIH business processes with those of other Federal
agencies, and requests from applicant institutions/organizations.
This change applies to ALL electronic grant applications submitted to
NIH through Grants.gov, including those that have already changed to
electronic submission by April 1, 2006 (R13, R15, R36, S10, SBIR R43/R44,
and STTR R41/R42) and those that are scheduled to do so in the future
(e.g., R03, R21, R33, R21/R33, and R34 for the June 1, 2006 submission
date). Thus, it does not apply to S10 applications due March 22, 2006
but does apply to SBIR and STTR applications due April 1, 2006. The timeline
for the transition of all competing grant mechanisms is available at:
http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/strategy_timeline.htm.
Please note that the following offices continue to be available
for assistance in the electronic submission of grant applications to
NIH through Grants.gov:
Inquiries regarding this Notice should be directed to:
GrantsInfo
Office of Extramural Research
National Institutes of Health
Phone: 301-435-0714
TTY: 301-451-0088
Email: grantsinfo@nih.gov
Updated Instructions Regarding Inclusion of Publications as
Appendix Materials
The purpose of this Notice is to inform applicants of a change
in the approach and policy regarding the inclusion of publications as
Appendix materials in NIH grant applications. This policy applies to
all grant mechanisms for which publications are acceptable Appendix material,
regardless of which application form is used (e.g., PHS 398, SF424 (R&R),
PHS 416-1) or the mode of submission (paper or electronic). Effective
for applications intended for the May 10, 2006 submission date, the NIH
standard policy regarding the inclusion of publications as acceptable
Appendix material in grant applications is described below.
Publications, manuscripts ( accepted for publication), abstracts,
patents, or other printed materials directly relevant to the proposed
project. Do not include manuscripts submitted for publication. Applicants
should refer to instruction guides and specific Funding Opportunity Announcements
(FOAs) to determine the appropriate limit on the number of publications
that may be submitted for a particular program. Note that not all grant
mechanisms allow the inclusion of publications.
Publications in press: Include only a publication list with a
link to the on-line journal article or the NIH PubMed Central (PMC) submission
identification number. Do not include the entire article.
Manuscripts accepted for publication but not yet published: The entire
article may be submitted electronically as a PDF attachment.
Manuscripts published but an online journal link is not available: The
entire article may be submitted electronically as a PDF attachment. Note
at this time no changes are being made to the other Appendix components:
Surveys, questionnaires, data collection instruments, clinical protocols,
and informed consent documents.
No images may be included in the Appendix that are not also represented
within Items 2-5 of the Research Plan. Applicants are cautioned not to
use the Appendix to circumvent the page limitations of the Research Plan.
An application that does not observe the relevant policies and procedures
may be delayed in the review process. Applicants are reminded to review
specific FOAs for any additional program-specific guidance on Appendix
material and other application requirements. Application instructions
for the PHS 398, SF424 (R&R), and PHS 416-1 will be revised to reflect
this new policy for inclusion of publications in Appendix.
The purpose of this Notice is to inform applicants of a change
in the approach and policy regarding the inclusion of publications as
Appendix materials in NIH grant applications. This policy applies to
all grant mechanisms for which publications are acceptable Appendix material,
regardless of which application form is used (e.g., PHS 398, SF424 (R&R),
PHS 416-1) or the mode of submission (paper or electronic). Effective
for applications intended for the May 10, 2006 submission date, the NIH
standard policy regarding the inclusion of publications as acceptable
Appendix material in grant applications is described below.
Publications, manuscripts ( accepted for publication), abstracts,
patents, or other printed materials directly relevant to the proposed
project. Do not include manuscripts submitted for publication. Applicants
should refer to instruction guides and specific Funding Opportunity Announcements
(FOAs) to determine the appropriate limit on the number of publications
that may be submitted for a particular program. Note that not all grant
mechanisms allow the inclusion of publications.
Publications in press: Include only a publication list with a
link to the on-line journal article or the NIH PubMed Central (PMC) submission
identification number. Do not include the entire article.
Manuscripts accepted for publication but not yet published: The entire
article may be submitted electronically as a PDF attachment.
- Manuscripts published but an online journal link is not available:
- The entire article may be submitted electronically as a PDF attachment.
- Note at this time no changes are being made to the other Appendix components:
- Surveys, questionnaires, data collection instruments, clinical protocols,
and informed consent documents.
No images may be included in the Appendix that are not also represented
within Items 2-5 of the Research Plan. Applicants are cautioned not to
use the Appendix to circumvent the page limitations of the Research Plan.
An application that does not observe the relevant policies and procedures
may be delayed in the review process. Applicants are reminded to review
specific FOAs for any additional program-specific guidance on Appendix
material and other application requirements. Application instructions
for the PHS 398, SF424 (R&R), and PHS 416-1 will be revised to reflect
this new policy for inclusion of publications in Appendix materials.
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Essential Policies, Procedures and
Resources
Rules and Regulation for RF Summer Employment Positions
Vital Research Foundation rules and regulations regarding the temporary
summer employment of RF faculty and project aids in any capacity may be
viewed online at the HR Website at:
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/Admin/HRS.nsf/pages/HRS_Focus_SummerEmployment
Summer salary info for 9 month faculty is included in a link here.
The official begin date for summer employment Is May 22. These regulations
may directly affect your ability to hire and retain RF Faculty, Project
Aides, undergrads and graduate students over the summer semester. Please
check through all of the appropriate rules and regulations concerning this.
--Contributed by Rick Sadetsky (richard.sadetsky@stonybrook.edu),
Human Resource Services
New Faculty and Staff Digest Online
How do you learn quickly to navigate Stony Brook Campus? ... Set up e-mail
accounts, find out where to eat, enroll in Direct Deposit, locate child
care, volunteer opportunities, traditions, banking services, recreation
and entertainment - even train schedules? Where can Faculty find policies
and procedures for appointments, tenure and promotion; research and scholarly
activity; examinations and grading?
The Faculty & Staff Digest at http://www.stonybrook.edu/digest is
the 'Insider's Guide' that enables you to connect with our virtual
and expanding Campus community with links to dynamic Web pages listing
most services, departments, and organizations. The very "user friendly" Search
function immediately brings you to the topic of interest. The Editors
welcome suggestions, via the Comments section, so be sure to recommend
additional sites that you think will benefit your colleagues.
--Contributed by Margaret Tumolwiczs. DoIT
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For More Information
An abundance of
specific information for the research community is available on our
Website, where past issues of this bulletin can also be found.
Office of the Vice President for Research -
http://www.stonybrook.edu/research/
Monday Memo archive -
http://www.stonybrook.edu/research/monmemo/mmarchive.html
All past issues of Monday Memo are keyword searchable.
And if you are challenged by the embarrassment of riches in the
over 2,000 individual Web pages that comprise the Website, you may
find the alphabetical site index helpful. The index can be accessed
at
http://www.stonybrook.edu/research/sitemap.html.
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