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Research Prizes and Honors
[Have you or a colleague won a research-related prize or honor? Let the Research Alert know.]
Engineering Professor Wins C&C Prize in Japan
 Bob Metcalfe, Internet pioneer and professor of innovation at the Cockrell School of Engineering, has been recognized with an international award for his contributions to the development of the Internet.
Metcalfe, an icon of entrepreneurial engineering and inventor of today's local-area networking standard, Ethernet, was recognized Nov. 28 in Tokyo with the C&C Prize. The award, established in 1985, is the highest honor given by the NEC C&C Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Japan and established to foster growth in the electronics industry by supporting research and development and pioneering work related to the integration of computers and communications technologies. The C&C Prize carries with it a cash award of 10 million yen (about $130,000).
News and Information
St. David’s Foundation Supports School of Nursing Research Center
 The School of Nursing will use a $3 million gift to permanently endow the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research in Underserved Populations (CHPR).
The interdisciplinary center will be renamed for St. David’s.
“We are very pleased that this gift from the St. David’s Foundation will allow the center to continue to support the important and innovative health-related research of faculty from many departments at The University of Texas at Austin,” said Alexa Stuifbergen, dean of the School of Nursing.
The School of Nursing marked the endowment with a Dec. 8, 2011 celebration. Stuifbergen was joined by State Sen. Kirk Watson, left, and Earl Maxwell, chief executive of the foundation.
New Community of Science Feature Helps Connect Researchers, Funding
A new facet of the Community of Science is available to UT Austin researchers.
Called Pivot, it brings together the right research opportunities, funding and people quickly and easily. It provides connections that strengthen research by exploring new avenues for funding and collaboration for faculty, staff researchers and graduate students.
Give it a try and let the Office of the Vice President for Research know what you think. Send feedback to: vp-research-sr@mail.utexas.edu with the subject line: Pivot. Feedback will be collected through the end of the month.
TACC expands data center for new supercomputer
 The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) is expanding the center’s current high performance computing (HPC) data center to house the new Stampede supercomputer, which will be built in late 2012 and go into full production to the national science community in January 2013.
UT Austin is funding the $56 million project in support of TACC's ongoing leadership and research activities in advanced computing for the national open science community. The project includes the expansion of the machine room and the raised floor area, a separate building to include the transformer yard, a location to house the chillers, compressors and cooling towers, a tank for thermal energy storage, and an additional seminar room for training. The money will also pay for the long-term upgrades to support the infrastructure of future projects.
“Stampede is larger than any other supercomputer we’ve deployed and we need more space to accommodate it,” said Dan Stanzione, deputy director, TACC. “We’re expanding the existing data center where we already have a significant footprint of 4,000 square feet, and we’re adding 11,000 square feet plus mechanical and support space.”
Quoted-UT Researchers in the News
 (Celeste Ward Gventer, a defense policy expert, is associate director of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the LBJ School. She was on the PBS Newshour to talk about renewed violent outbreaks in Afghanistan.)
JUDY WOODRUFF: ... do you think there's reason to believe there will be more attacks like this, Sunni on Shiite?
CELESTE WARD GVENTER: There may well be. And that would be very troubling, indeed.
But, again, the administration, I think, is on the right course by helping to internationalize the problem, for instance, through the Bonn conference a few days ago and continuing to make this a regional and international problem, which is really what it is, which often Americans tend to forget because we have been involved for so long. But it's critical that we view it as a regional and international problem requiring a regional and international solution.
Research Opportunities
Important University Research Deadlines
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
The University of Texas at Austin Stimulus Package Web page is online.
Funding Sources
Department of Commerce
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Measurement Science and Engineering Research Grant Programs
Deadline: Continuous
Department of Defense
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
iFAB Foundry
Deadline: Feb. 17, 2012
Department of Homeland Security
Whole Genome Approach to Microbial Forensics
Deadline: March 16, 2012
Department of the Interior
FY 2012 Environmental Studies Program
Deadline: Feb. 2, 2012
NASA
ARMD Research Opportunities in Aeronautics
Deadlines: Notice of Intent, Jan. 10, 2012; Application, Feb. 7, 2012
National Institutes of Health
Advanced Neural Prosthetics Research and Development
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Jan. 5, 2012; Application, Feb. 5, 2012
Palliative Care and End of Life in People Living with HIV/AIDS
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Feb. 22, 2012; Application, March 22, 2012
Mechanism for Time-Sensitive Research Opportunities in Environmental Health Sciences
Deadlines: Letters of Intent and Applications are accepted monthly through 2012. See grant overview for specific dates.
Research into the Impact of Economic Fluctuations on Alcohol Consumption, Drinking Patterns, and Prevention and Treatment Of Problem Drinking and Related Problems
Deadline: Feb. 16, 2012
National Science Foundation
Partnerships for Innovation
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Jan. 4, 2012; Proposal, March 1, 2012
Math and Science Partnership
Deadline: March 5, 2012
University of Texas at Austin
St. David's CHPR
Pilot Research Grants: Call for Proposals
Deadline: Jan. 31, 2012
Hogg Foundation for Mental Health
Harry E. and Bernice M. Moore Fellowship
Deadline: Jan. 31, 2012
Arts, Humanities and Culture
Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies
BIAAS Grant Program 2012
Deadline: March 31, 2012
Smithsonian
Fellowships in Museum Practice
Deadline: Feb. 15, 2012
Other Funding Opportunities
Gloeckner Foundation
Grants for Research and Educational Projects in Floriculture and Related Fields
Deadline: April 1, 2012
BD Biosciences
Immunology Research Grant Program
Deadline: March 5, 2012
Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region
CINAR Postdoctoral Scholar Position for 2012-2013
Deadline: Jan. 15, 2012
The National Academies
Keck Futures Initiative -- 2012 Communication Awards
Deadline: Feb. 10, 2012
Research Project
 RESEARCHER: Claus Wilke, associate professor, Section of Integrative Biology, principal investigator
AGENCY: National Science Foundation
AMOUNT: $58,052
This project will develop a theoretical framework to understand how the inherent variability of viral pathogens, and hence the evolution of escape from prevailing host immune responses, develops across levels of biological organization.
The goal is to integrate dynamics from viral quasispecies evolution within hosts, through host social transmission networks, to population level epidemics and viral evolution. The required theoretical framework will be derived via analytical approaches, bolstered by case studies; the resulting theory will be used to explore the integrative scale at which selection works, across a range of important acute and chronic viral pathogens.
Understanding dynamics across integrative scales or levels of organization, from the molecular level to the continental scale, is a key frontier of theoretical biology. Infectious diseases represent particularly fertile ground for exploring these ideas. What makes the problem challenging and fascinating is the adaptive feedback across scales -- from protein to pandemic and back -- through the pressures of natural selection.
The project will develop and disseminate theoretical tools to explore these dynamics and apply them to a range of important pathogens, from influenza to retroviruses.
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