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Volume 6, Issue 39
Dec 1, 2006
Circulation: 18,120
Editor: Beth Keithly

Friday FYI

Newsletter from the The Office of Global Strategies and International Relations - U. T. Dallas

University News

Hebrew University Leads Israeli Universities in EU Grants

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is the leading institution in Israel in receipt of research grants from the European Union, recently released figures show.

The figures were published in a booklet produced by ISERD, the Israeli Directorate of the European Union's Framework Program for Research and Technological Development. The directorate includes representatives of the Israel Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, the Ministry of Science Culture and Sport and the Council for Higher Education.

The framework programs of the EU provide grants to universities, research institutes and industry for promising projects of research and development. Israel has participated in these programs since 1996.

In the Sixth Framework Program, which covered the years from 2002-2006, the Hebrew University was awarded more funds than any other institution of higher learning in Israel. It was granted 26 million euros, amounting to nearly 25 percent of the total 112.5 million euros allocated to academia.

In the number of projects that were approved for funding during that period, the Hebrew University far exceeded any other university in Israel, with 102 participations by Hebrew University researchers.

Commenting on the predominance of the Hebrew University in winning the EU grants, Prof. Hillel Bercovier, vice president for research and development of the university, said, "The EU framework program funds have become the second largest source of research funds for the university after that of the Israel National Science Foundation. We look forward to even greater funding from this EU source in the Seventh Framework Program."

The Seventh Framework Program will provide its largest overall sum yet – 54 billion euros over seven years, beginning in 2007 – in grants for research and development.

On the eve of the launch of this new program, the Hebrew University and its long-time partner in several research projects, Georg-August University of Göttingen in Germany, convened a special program entitled "Science and Scientists as Bridge-Builders in the Middle East," which will be held in Brussels on November 28.

The program, which took place in the presence of several distinguished European Commission officials, will feature presentations by scientists from both universities on the subjects of research involving genomic alterations in cancer, neuroscience, multiple sclerosis and water purification. Also addressing the audience will be Prof. Bercovier of the Hebrew University and Prof. Dr. Kurt von Figura, president of the Georg-August University of Göttingen. Also speaking will be Prof. Hasan Dweik, acting president of the Palestinian Al-Quds University, whose institution is involved in cooperative research with the Hebrew University and Gottingen.

[ FYI Index ]

UT System Announces Additional Financial Commitments to Attract Top-Notch Faculty

With more than $2.5 billion already earmarked for science-related projects, The University of Texas System Board of Regents on Thursday, Nov. 16 authorized $25 million more to augment its system-wide, multi-billion-dollar initiative to boost competitiveness in science and technology.

The funds will be used to leverage other funding sources – such as federal and state grants and private gifts – to help recruit top-notch faculty by helping to pay for laboratory or other research facilities that are critical to their research productivity.
These new investments supplement the UT System Science and Technology Acquisition and Retention Program (STARs) – launched in 2005 – which enables campuses to recruit senior faculty with national prominence; improve the quality of new faculty and research capacity by expanding start-up packages for tenure-track faculty; and retain high-quality faculty who are entertaining offers from other research institutions or who could be lured away because of limited access to quality equipment and laboratories.

The authorization follows an unprecedented $2.56 billion investment the UT System Board of Regents pledged in August toward enhancing science, technology, engineering and health-related programs.

The allocation approved by the board includes:

$10 million from the Permanent University Fund (PUF) bond proceeds to be used to enhance institutional contributions toward recruiting top-notch faculty who would play integral roles in proposals prepared for the Emerging Technology Fund and the Texas Enterprise Fund, two valuable economic development resources for the state.

$10 million, also from PUF bond proceeds, to match funds from private gifts as part of the Regents' Research Scholars Program, a new program which seeks to recruit outstanding faculty to UT institutions.

$5 million from the Available University Fund, which would go toward recruiting world-class faculty who could take advantage of the supercomputer project known as Sun Constellation at UT Austin, which is being funded primarily through a new $59 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The supercomputer, which would be among the world's most powerful, would be the largest attached to the TeraGrid, a National Science Foundation network of high-performance computers. It will be assembled in the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the UT Austin J. J. Pickle Research Campus in North Austin.
The Competitiveness Initiative – linked to a new 10-year Strategic Plan for the UT System – is the largest single financial commitment in UT System's nearly 125 year history. Funding for the total $2.56 billion initiative includes state and federal appropriations, tuition revenue bonds, institution funds, Permanent University Fund allocations, and private funds or gifts from business, industry, foundations and individuals. Funds for recently approved tuition revenue bonds must still be appropriated by the Legislature in early 2007.

Serving the educational and health care needs of Texans for more than 125 years, the UT System is one of the nation's largest higher education systems with 15 campuses – including nine academic and six health institutions – and an annual operating budget of $10 billion (FY 2007). Student enrollment exceeded 190,000 in the 2006 academic year. The UT System confers one-third of the state's undergraduate degrees and educates three-fourths of Texas health care professionals. With more than 76,000 employees, the UT System is one of the largest employers in Texas.

[ FYI Index ]

Asset Manager Steve G. Stevanovich Donates $7 Million to Center for Financial Mathematics at University of Chicago

The University of Chicago's Center for Financial Mathematics, the only research center in the nation, if not the world, devoted to financial mathematics has received a $7 million gift from Steve G. Stevanovich, founder of an asset management firm with offices in North America, Europe and Asia.

The research center, founded in August 2006 at the University of Chicago, has been named the Stevanovich Center for Financial Mathematics. A spin-off of the University's master's degree program in financial mathematics, the Center will bring together scholars and finance professionals to address problems faced by the industry.

Raised in Chicago, Stevanovich received his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Chicago in 1985 and his MBA from Chicago's Graduate School of Business in 1990.

Part of the Stevanovich gift will be used to renovate the Mathematics/Statistics Building, a three-story red brick structure at 5727 S. University Ave., as the home of the new Stevanovich Center and for the University's financial mathematics program.
In coming years, the Stevanovich Center will offer a regular schedule of conferences and workshops for academicians and industry professionals, said Niels Nygaard, Professor in Mathematics and founding director of both the Stevanovich Center and the financial mathematics program.

The Center also plans to launch a trans-Atlantic collaboration with French universities that have special expertise in applied mathematics. Nygaard is working with Henri Berestycki, a regular visiting scholar from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) in Paris, to organize an annual financial mathematics conference with a French university. The University of Chicago's Paris Center would serve as the French venue.

The master's in financial mathematics program was founded 10 years ago under the leadership of Robert Zimmer, now President of the University, and Fefferman when they successively served as Chairman of the Mathematics Department in the 1990s.

Approximately 100 students are currently enrolled in the one-year program, which leads to a Master of Science degree in financial mathematics. The program's faculty is comprised of professors from the departments of Mathematics, Statistics and Economics and leading professionals in the financial industry.

The Stevanovich Center will provide students new research-based insights that equip them with the latest tools for successful careers in asset management, Nygaard said. Scholars and practitioners at the center will grapple with risk-management issues that pertain to the trade of stocks, bonds, commodities and other financial products. Hedge funds alone comprise a growing industry that tops $1 trillion annually, according to the Hedge Fund Association.

Many hedge funds attempt to guard against downturns in their trading markets by employing options, futures, and other strategies, but sometimes they fail. Nygaard said the University's financial mathematics faculty carefully examines the causes of hedge fund failures. Usually they find that the hedge fund managers have overlooked important elements of risk.

[ FYI Index ]

Princeton Names First Dean for Research, Restructures Support for Funding Efforts

In a move intended to improve its competitiveness for research funding, Princeton University has appointed longtime faculty member A.J. Stewart Smith as its first dean for research, and is restructuring its efforts to seek support from corporations and foundations.

Smith has served since July 2005 as chair of the University Research Board. In his new role as dean, he will oversee the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR), which currently reports to the director of development and will retain a dotted-line relationship to the development office. The Office of Research and Project Administration (ORPA) also will now report to Smith instead of the provost, to improve coordination with CFR and to enhance support for faculty applying for government-sponsored research grants. Finally, research units that currently report to the provost, including the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, will now report to Smith. The changes were approved Nov. 18 by the University's Board of Trustees. All are effective immediately except for the CFR change, which will be implemented in concert with the development office over the next several months.

Smith will continue to oversee the University Research Board, which consists of six faculty members, providing administrative oversight of organized research activities throughout the University, dealing with questions of policy in the acceptance and administration of research grants and contracts, and supervising the application of established policy in this area. The Office of Research and Project Administration is the administrative arm of the board.

The Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations works with University faculty members and administrators and with corporations and foundations to identify sources of support and facilitate funding for the University's academic initiatives, research programs and institutional priorities.

Smith is a leading researcher in high-energy particle physics and a nationally-known figure in science policy. After earning bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of British Columbia, he came to Princeton as a graduate student and received his Ph.D. in physics in 1966. He joined the faculty in 1967 and served as chair of the physics department from 1990 to 1998 and associate chair from 1979 to 1982. Since 1992, he has been the Class of 1909 Professor of Physics.

Over the years, Smith has carried out a succession of major experiments in particle physics at U.S. national laboratories. Since 1995, he has served as scientific team leader of an international collaboration of 600 scientists from 10 countries involved in a project based at the Stanford Linear Accelerator. A fellow of the American Physical Society, he has been a member of the experiments committee for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, Switzerland, and has served on boards for many other groups, including the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Academy of Sciences, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Research Council of Canada.

[ FYI Index ]

NIBIB Welcomes Four New Members to Advisory Council

Representatives of The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) announced the appointment of four new members to its Advisory Council. The Council serves as the principal advisory body to NIBIB, a component of the National Institutes of Health within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Council, which meets three times a year, provides recommendations on the conduct and support of biomedical imaging and bioengineering research and research training.

The new Advisory Council members are:

Rebecca Mary Bergman, B.S., is Vice President of Science and Technology at Medtronic, Inc. Bergman holds a B.S. degree in chemistry from Princeton University, and has completed graduate studies in chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Minnesota. She has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Minnesota where she has taught courses in biomedical engineering. Since joining Medtronic, Bergman has been a leader in the advancement of biologically oriented sciences in the company. She oversees Medtronic's Materials and Biosciences Center, the Technical Knowledge Center, innovation programs and other corporate technology initiatives. Previously, Bergman held scientific and research and development management positions of increasing responsibility within Medtronic. She has received several of the company's highest honors, including membership in the Bakken Society, an honorary society for Medtronic's most distinguished scientific and technical contributors.

Richard Lorne Ehman, M.D., is a member of the Mayo Clinic Board of Governors and is Professor of Radiology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Dr. Ehman has a medical degree from the University of Saskatchewan, and did fellowships at the University of California, San Francisco, and at the Mayo Clinic. Ehman, who holds more than 20 patents, is known for a number of MRI inventions which have made dramatic improvements in the technology and have become technique mainstays adopted throughout the industry. This includes methods for eliminating flow and motion related image artifact, synchronizing the scan to an individual person's respiration pattern, and measurement of the mechanical properties of tissue. Ehman's current research is on nuclear magnetic resonance phenomena, including investigation of new methods for high resolution magnetic resonance imaging of moving structures, techniques of ultrafast MR imaging, and methods for noninvasive assessment of the vascular system. Ehman was awarded the Gold Medal of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) in 1995 for his research contributions and was elected President of the society in 2002. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and the American College of Radiology. He served as a member of the Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Study Section of the NIH from 1995-99 and returned to serve as Chair of that study section from 2002-2004.

Katherine Whittaker Ferrara, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Davis. Following B.S. and M.S. degrees from California State University, Sacramento, Dr. Ferrara received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Davis. Ferrara was a principal member of the research staff at the Riverside Research Institute, New York, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at Cornell University Medical School. In addition, she was an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Ferrara is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectronics and Frequency Control. She has conducted research and written extensively on medical imaging and biomedical signal processing, particularly in the areas of ultrasonics and acoustics.

David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., former Surgeon General of the United States and Assistant Secretary for Health at DHHS, is currently Director of the Center of Excellence on Health Disparities and the Poussaint-Satcher-Cosby Chair in Mental Health at Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Satcher received his M.D. and Ph.D. (cytogenetics) from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Satcher was Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Administrator, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in Atlanta, Georgia from 1993 to 1998. Following the end of his term as Surgeon General, he became a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, DC. Prior to joining DHHS, he was President of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Satcher is a former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and Macy Faculty Fellow. He is the recipient of many honorary degrees and numerous distinguished honors, including top awards from the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians.

Members of the Advisory Council are drawn from the scientific communities, are appointed for 4-year terms, and represent all areas within the Institute's research mission.

[ FYI Index ]

New University Research Institute to Produce Clean Energy Technologies for a Greener Future

A new research institute being launched at The University of Nottingham is to bring together academics and industrial partners nationally and internationally to develop cutting–edge energy technologies that are both sustainable and affordable.

The Energy Technologies Research Institute will feature a multidisciplinary team of more than 100 engineers and physical and social scientists working on research projects totaling more than £8 million (US$15.7 million). The academics will work in collaboration with a range of industrial partners in the energy sector, including E.ON and Rolls Royce on projects funded by the UK research councils, the Department of Trade and Industry and the European Union.

The new institute will focus on six broad themes:

The new Energy Technologies Research Institute was officially launched by the Acting Vice-Chancellor of The University of Nottingham, Professor David Greenaway, at a special event in the Exchange Building on Jubilee Campus on Wednesday November 29.

[ FYI Index ]

UT Dallas Professor Receives Appointment To National Sickle Cell Disease Association

Dr. Betty Pace, director of the Sickle Cell Disease Research Center at The University of Texas at Dallas, is the new chief medical officer for the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America Inc.

Pace replaces Dr. Dorothy C. Moore, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and director of immunology and diagnostic immunology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

In her new role, Pace will speak on health, scientific and medical matters of public concern; chair the organization's Medical and Research Advisory Committee; and serve as advisor on program development, fund raising and public relations. As chairperson of the advisory committee, she will oversee content development of public and professional educational materials w and approve of medical literature and official statements.

Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disease that can cause serious health problems – some leading to death – among victims, most of whom are African-American or other individuals of African descent. It is estimated that eight percent of African-Americans are carriers of the sickle cell gene and are said to have sickle cell trait. Approximately two out of every 1,000 African-Americans suffer from the disease.

Pace received her medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin and completed a pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. After completing post doctoral training in medical genetics at the University of Washington with world-renowned hemoglobin researcher Dr. George Stamatoyannopoulos, she joined the faculty at the University of South Alabama. Pace was recruited to the University of Texas at Dallas in January 2003 and also serves as a professor in university's Department of Molecular and Cell Biology.

For the past 12 years, the Pace laboratory has primarily studied the developmental regulation of Her groundbreaking research won her recognition in 2003 as one of the country's "Brilliant 10" scientists – a national honor awarded annually by Popular Science Magazine to 10 leading scientists performing "mind bending" research.

Pace's most recent accomplishments include providing leadership as editor of a major textbook, Renaissance of Sickle Cell Disease Research in the Genome Era. More than 40 authors from government officials to researchers and community leaders contributed to the work.

[ FYI Index ]

Lawrence Sherman of Penn Appointed to Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency

Lawrence W. Sherman, director of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology and professor of criminology and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, has been named to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency by Gov. Edward Rendell.

In 2003, Sherman was appointed the first professor of criminology at Penn with a five-year term as chair of the criminology department. He has been a professor of sociology at Penn since 2000. He served as president of the American Academy of Political and Social Science in 2001-2005, and was the founding president of the Academy of Experimental Criminology in 1999-2001.

Since beginning his career as a civilian research analyst in the New York City Police Department as an Alfred P. Sloan Urban Fellow in 1971, he has collaborated with more than 30 police agencies around the world, evaluating policies designed to prevent crime, reduce domestic violence, get illegal guns off the streets, prevent police corruption and help victims of crime.

Sherman's research is the basis for Great Britain's $400 million crime-prevention program. He is currently collaborating with the Australian Federal Police on an evaluation of victim-centered restorative justice programs for juvenile violence and crime, and he serves as president of the International Society of Criminology in Paris.
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