February 8, 2022 Newsletter

February 8, 2022

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Research News

World’s Largest Science Society Honors Six Iowa State Researchers for Distinguished Work

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is honoring six Iowa State researchers for their work in biology, statistics and physics. The six have been elected to the association’s 2021 class of 564 new AAAS Fellows. They are being recognized “because of their efforts to advance science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished,” the association announced recently. Read more…

In-Person Iowa State University Research Day Returns in Spring 2022

For the first time since spring 2019, the Iowa State research community will reconvene live and in-person to celebrate and advance research at the university during Research Day 2022. This year’s event – the fifth in the past six years – takes place Wednesday, March 30, 2022, and features a reimagined format to encourage greater faculty participation, peer-to-peer learning, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Read more…

Iowa State Innovator Gaining National Interest For New ‘Healthy’ Fat Technology

An Iowa State meat scientist is a leading innovator in the search for new fats that offer more choices to health-conscious consumers. Rodrigo Tarté, assistant professor in the Department of Animal Science, is at the forefront of research to find alternatives for saturated animal fats that retain the original products’ desirable qualities of taste, texture, and appearance. A new technology Tarté helped to develop can simulate solid and semi-solid animal fats. Read more…

Cyclone Engineers Take to the Sky for Advanced Manufacturing Research

A team of Iowa State researchers recently experienced something that few ever will: a zero-gravity environment. The team, led by Hantang Qin, assistant professor in industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, and Shan Jiang, assistant professor in materials science and engineering, set out to test a novel 3D printing process during a zero-gravity test flight last month. Read more…

Announcements

2022 State Science + Technology Fair of Iowa Seeking STEM Volunteers

The 2022 State Science + Technology Fair of Iowa will be in person, and is currently recruiting experts in their field to participate in the “Lunch with a Scientist” program. The event is looking for experts in any STEM field to talk about their innovation-centered adventures with and inspire groups of sixth through 12th graders. This event will take place on Thursday, March 24th from 12 p.m. – 1 p.m. at Hilton Coliseum in Ames. Interested individuals can sign up to volunteer here.

Internal Funding Opportunities

Bridging the Divide Seed Grant Program

The Bridging the Divide seed grant program provides the foundation to holistically address wicked problems through new integrative collaborations among researchers in design, arts, humanities and social sciences with researchers in the STEM disciplines. Tenured or tenure-eligible faculty may apply for the Bridging the Divide seed program. Applicants must be full-time faculty members. The deadline for applications is February 25, 2022.

External Funding Opportunities

Dreyfus Program for Machine Learning in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering

The Dreyfus Program for Machine Learning in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering provides funding for innovative projects in any area of machine learning consistent with the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation’s broad objective to advance the chemical sciences and engineering. This program is open to any academic institutions in the U.S. that grant a bachelor’s or higher degree in the chemical sciences. Principal investigators are limited to one proposal annually. The deadline for applications is April 7, 2022.

Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program

Fulbright Scholar Awards include opportunities for professionals, artists, and scholars at all career-levels. Location and eligibility vary across all awards, and some awards may be restricted to certain career levels or types of scholars. Research unique opportunities within the U.S. Scholar program here. Find Iowa State guidelines for managing Fulbright awards and connect with featured Fulbrighters here. Applications are being accepted now until September.

Training and Development

Does My Study Require IRB Oversight?
February 23 — 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. — Virtual

In this session, participants will learn how to determine whether IRB oversight is required for a project. The session will also examine the various levels of IRB review. Register here.

PI Departure/Change and Revised Goldsheets
February 24 — 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. — Memorial Union Cardinal Room (In-person conditional)

In this session, OSPA, OIPTT, and SPA will present on tips and tricks to make life as a research administrator as easy as possible. Whether participants are dealing with research awards from federal agencies, industry, non-profits, universities, or independent sponsors, they will learn the steps research administrators and PIs should take as research at Iowa State draws to a close an when to transfer or close out awards. The session will also cover the revised GoldSheet process for awards that will stay with the university. Register here.

Voices in Research

“Firms don’t always have the incentive to shift to cleaner production technologies on their own; that is where policy can potentially have an impact. We usually think about shifts to less polluting ways as being very costly to the economy, but if you encourage this shift through R&D and new technology adoption, you can move to a cleaner production process without necessarily slowing economic growth.”

James Brown, professor, Finance

“We looked at this as a materials problem and one that’s easy to solve. Tell me what you want – what properties you want. I’m not going to give you a seed lubricant. I’ll give you a materials property. There are challenges in microelectronic fabrication, smart catalysts for energy, material supply chains, and materials for health care. The challenges are endless, and so are the opportunities for creativity.”

Martin Thuo, associate professor, Materials Science and Engineering

“Today’s classical computers encode information in bits with the value of 1 or 0 and this can be limiting. Quantum computing looks beyond 1s and 0s and uses qubits, which harness the power of subatomic particles that can exist in more than one state. I look forward to furthering my research as well as leading efforts that help grow the next generation of talent who will drive new and exciting discoveries in the field of quantum computing.”

Thomas Iadecola, assistant professor, Physics