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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.]
Professor Elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies
 George Georgiou, a professor at The University of Texas at Austin whose technology developments in the engineering, medical, biochemical and cellular fields could help treat tens of thousands of patients with diseases such as cancer and osteoporosis, has been elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
Established in 1970, IOM is the health arm of the National Academies. Induction into the institute is considered one of the highest honors in health and medicine, reserved for outstanding professional accomplishment and commitment to service.
Georgiou, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering and the College of Natural Sciences, is only the third faculty member from the university and the second from the Cockrell School’s Biomedical Engineering Department and Chemical Engineering Department to be inducted into IOM.
Hamilton Award Winners Announced
 Classics Professor L. Michael White received the grand prize Hamilton Book Award for his book, "Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite." The prize comes with $10,000.
White and other UT Austin authors, researchers and artists were honored Oct. 19 at the 15th annual Hamilton Book Awards banquet. The awards and the banquet are sponsored by a grant from the University Co-op.
Book authors who received Hamilton Awards for $3,000 were:
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David Hillis, professor, Section of Integrative Biology, "Principles of Life" (textbook);
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Inga Markovits, professor, School of Law, "Justice in Lüritz: Experiencing Socialist Law in East Germany";
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Karl Miller, associate professor, Department of History, "Segregating Sound: Inventing Folk and Pop Music in the Age of Jim Crow";
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Richard Graham, professor emeritus, Department of History, "Feeding the City: From Street Market to Liberal Reform in Salvador, Brazil, 1780-1860."
  Astronomers Barbara McArthur, right, and Fritz Benedict, left, won the Best Research Paper Award for their paper, “New Observational Constraints on the upsilon Andromedae System with Data from the Hubble Space Telescope and Hobby-Ebberly Telescope.” McArthur and Benedict are research scientists at McDonald Observatory.
The Career Research Excellence Award was presented to Patrick Olivelle, professor in the Department of Asian Studies. He was recognized for his career in studies of ancient to medieval Indian cultural history, focusing especially on religious history.
Steven Dietz, professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, received the Creative Research Award. He is one of the most widely produced and published of contemporary playwrights.
News and Information
Marine Scientists Awarded $5.6 Million for Study of Critical Arctic Environment
A team of Arctic researchers led by the Marine Science Institute's Ken Dunton will embark on a comprehensive study of the Hanna Shoal ecosystem in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast with a $5.6 million grant from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
The oil industry is intensely interested in the Chukchi Sea and has plans to drill throughout the area.
"This important grant will help us continue studies we began in 2009, which demonstrated that an area known as the Hanna Shoal is an important biological ecosystem in the northern Chukchi Sea," said Dunton, a professor of marine science.
Quoted-UT Researchers in the News
 (In an article about growing coffee in the Chiapas region of Mexico, Shalene Jha, assistant professor in the Section of Integrative Biology, talked about the role of coffee in biodiversity.)
On a more technical level, shade coffee can maintain the genetic diversity of native trees, according to an article in the journal Current Biology, which investigated bird and bat species living in coffee forests. Lead author Shalene Jha of the University of Texas at Austin noted: “By supporting important seed dispersal processes, shade coffee farms maintain plant population gene flow across fragmented habitats.” Therefore, coffee farms play an unusual and important ecological role that is just now being fully understood.
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 Defense
Narrative Networks
Deadline: Nov. 22, 2011
Department of Energy
Production of Nanocrystalline Metal Powders
Deadline: Nov. 11, 2011
NASA
Hurricane Science Research Program
Deadlines: Notice of Intent, Nov. 15, 2012; Proposal, Jan. 6, 2012
National Institutes of Health
Epidemiology of Drug Abuse
Deadline: Feb. 5, 2012
Collaborative R01s for Clinical and Services Studies of Mental Disorders, AIDS and Alcohol Use Disorders
Deadline: Feb. 5, 2012
Collaborations with National Centers for Biomedical Computing
Deadline: Feb. 5, 2012
Development and Characterization of Animal Models for Aging Research
Deadline: Feb. 16, 2012
National Science Foundation
Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Grants
Deadline: Nov. 15, 2011
Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS): Core Programs
Deadlines: Large Projects, Nov. 28, 2011; Small Projects, Dec. 19, 2011; Medium Projects, Sept. 30, 2012
Innovation Corps Program
Deadlines: Dec. 15, 2011, March 15, 2012, June 15, 2012 and Sept. 15, 2012
Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace
Deadlines: Small Projects, Jan. 11, 2012; Medium Projects, Jan. 25, 2012; and Frontier Projects, Feb. 22, 2012
Biological Oceanography
Deadline: Feb. 15, 2012
Oceanographic Centers, Facilities and Equipment
Deadline: Feb. 15, 2012
Mathematical Biology
Deadline: Jan. 13, 2012
Geography and Spatial Sciences
Deadlines: Jan. 15, 2012 (regular research proposals) and Feb. 15, 2012 (Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement proposals)
Oceanographic Centers, Facilities and Equipment
Deadline: Feb. 15, 2012
Materials Processing and Manufacturing
Deadline: Feb. 15, 2012
Arts, Humanities and Culture
Charles Babbage Research Institute
The Adelle and Erwin Tomash Fellowship in the History of Information Technology
Deadline: Jan. 15, 2012
Council of American Overseas Research Centers
Multi-Country Fellowship Program
Deadline: Jan. 17, 2012
Other Funding Opportunities
Esther & Joseph Klingenstein Fund Inc.
Klingenstein Fellowship Awards in the Neurosciences
Deadline: Jan. 10, 2012
Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism
Postdoctoral Fellowships Positions
Deadline: Jan. 15, 2012
National Academies
Jefferson Fellowship
Deadline: Jan. 13, 2012
Embassy of France in the United States
Chateaubriand Fellowship
Deadline: Dec. 15, 2011
Research Project
Development of Ink-Jet Based Low Cost Roll-to-Roll Nanopatterning (i-R2R Nano) with Demonstration in Thin Film Photovoltaics
 RESEARCHERS: S.V. Sreenivasan, right, professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering; and co-principal investigators C. Grant Willson, professor, Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Edward Yu, professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Roger Bonnecaze, department chair and professor of chemical engineering
AGENCY: National Science Foundation
AMOUNT: $1.3 million
The overall research objective of this Scalable NanoManufacturing (SNM) award is to develop high speed, ink-jet based roll-to-roll nanopatterning (i-R2R Nano) for cost-sensitive applications such as thin film photovoltaics (PVs).
The specific objectives include:
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Investigation of top-down (nanoimprint) and bottom-up (nanoparticle or block co-polymer) R2R nanopatterning;
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Development of enabling technologies for high throughput R2R processes (more than 500 feet per minute) with a total patterning cost target of less than $2 per square meter;
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Optimization of broadband light trapping in nanostructured a-Si photovoltaics on flex substrates using aperiodic plasmonic structures to obtain significantly enhanced efficiencies.
The basic scientific contributions will include:
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Nano-fluidics, material rheology, multi-scale mechanics modeling, and real-time sensing/control for high-speed i-R2R systems and processes;
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Design of imprint materials, solvent based self-assembly materials, and interfaces for rapid pattern formation in top-down and bottom-up processes;
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Novel material integration and device design for optimum light trapping in thin film photovoltaics on flex substrates.
This interdisciplinary program will create fundamental knowledge in the areas of high-speed R2R nanopatterning with low material usage, and in the design of controlled nano-structures for high efficiency photovoltaics. Thin film photovoltaics are representative of the most demanding nano-scale requirements and cost constraints among the various potential applications of R2R nanopatterning. The outreach activities will promote innovation/entrepreneurship; and synergistic activities at the undergraduate level through the UT-Austin Equal Opportunity in Engineering T-REX program.
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