Archive

September 29, 2005

University of Washington Notices

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES

CSSS Seed Grant Program

The Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CSSS) Seed Grants Program announces a new round of seed grants for the year 2005-6. The Seed Grants Program provides funding for promising research at the intersection of statistics and the social sciences. The goal is to stimulate scholarly initiative by encouraging faculty to explore new directions in research and scholarship that contributes at the cutting edge to the development of statistical methods for social scientific problems. Although we encourage collaborative research across disciplines — particularly between statisticians and social scientists — such collaboration is not a formal requirement of the program. We are particularly interested in projects that show a high probability of leading to extramural funding. Thus, the funds will typically be used to pursue pilot studies, feasibility studies, or preliminary research that initiates a larger line of research. A subsequent extramural grant that derives from seed grant funding would be administered through CSSS. Awards will be in the range of $10,000–$20,000, and typically include one-month summary salary for a principal investigator and one quarter salary for a research assistant. In the past, proposals have had a high rate of funding.

Eligibility: Faculty holding the following ranks at the time of the award are eligible to apply: professor, associate professor, assistant professor, research professor, research associate professor, and research assistant professor. Faculty with acting appointments may be eligible and should contact the Associate Director before submitting a proposal. Faculty who have received a CSSS award as PIs are ineligible to receive another until three years following the termination of the first. A PI may submit only one proposal per round. Co-PIs may submit more than one proposal, but no more than one of the proposals will be funded. A proposal that is not funded may be resubmitted in a later round only if it is substantially revised or if the review committee recommends resubmission.

Research Project Requirements: Research projects must use statistical methods to address a social scientific problem. Strong proposals will use innovative statistical methods to address cutting-edge social scientific research questions. Collaborative interdisciplinary research such as between a social scientist and a statistician is encouraged but not required. All personnel funded by the grant are expected to participate regularly in the CSSS Seminar Series, both by attending and by giving at least one seminar on the project topic. The proposal should indicate which member(s) of the research team will be the primary seminar participants.

External Support: Proposals that show promise for future extramural funding will be given preference. Indeed, PIs who plan to submit an extramural grant proposal based on their Seed Grant proposed project can increase their chances of receiving a Seed Grant Award by guaranteeing that they will submit an extramural proposal through CSSS immediately after the funding period. In such cases, the review committee may grant awards conditional on the PI submitting an external grant within a year of the funding period. In general, support will not be given merely to extend or supplement existing funded research projects. Instead, proposals should seek to initiate new research ideas. An extramural proposal that derives from a project funded by the Seed Grants Program is expected to be administered through CSSS.

Application Form: A cover page and detailed instructions for preparing the proposal can be found at: http://www.csss.washington.edu/SeedGrants/.

Deadline: The deadline for CSSS Seed Grant proposals is Oct. 25. Awards will be announced by Dec. 16. Submit proposals to Nick Ganoulis, Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences, C 23 Padelford Hall, University of Washington, Box 354320, Seattle, WA 98195.

Questions: Questions on preparing a proposal should be addressed to: Associate Professor Thomas S. Richardson, Associate Director of CSSS, Department of Statistics, Box 354322, 206-685-8488, tsr@stat.washington.edu.

ADAI grants

The Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute invites applications from UW faculty for its Small Grants Research Awards. Proposed research must be in alcohol or drug abuse-related fields. The maximum amount considered for funding is $20,000.

The next application deadline is 5 p.m. Oct. 17. Questions concerning the application process or suitability of a potential project should be directed to the Institute. Application guidelines are available on the ADAI Web site at http://depts.washington.edu/adai or by calling ADAI at 206-543-0937.

OTHER NEWS

Health & Safety Committee Elections

University Health and Safety Committees, mandated by the Department of Labor and Industries, are important in assuring that employee health and safety issues are identified and addressed throughout the University system. Committee members review and evaluate incident/accident reports, review and evaluate accident and illness prevention programs, and provide a forum for employee concerns about health and safety. The Committees work at the unit level, advising deans, vice presidents, and other administrative heads.

Elections for employee representatives to the 11 organizational Committees are beginning. These positions will be two-year terms, beginning Jan. 1, 2006. Staff, faculty, hourly, temporary, and student employees are eligible to participate in these elections. Watch for an announcement in your organizational unit/department calling for nominations. You may nominate yourself, the current elected representative, or a co-worker.

After the call for nominations, the ballot will be available for voting. Look for election announcements from your organizational unit/department. In many elections, these will be on the web. For areas that do not have web access, your election announcement should indicate an alternate voting method, as well as the start and closing dates of the two election phases.

After the organizational Committees are set for the next term, two representatives from each of the 11 Committees will be selected to sit on a Universitywide Health and Safety Committee, which helps provide a consistent approach throughout campus. If you wish to know more about the Health and Safety Committees, go to the Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) homepage, www.ehs.washington.edu, Safety Committees.

This is your chance to have a voice in improving the health and safety or your workplace. Be involved; vote!

Study participants wanted

Have you ever been told that you have borderline diabetes, pre-diabetes, gestational diabetes or high fasting blood sugar? Did you have diabetes only during pregnancy? Are you overweight or do you have high blood pressure?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you may have pre-diabetes and be eligible to volunteer for a study of an investigational new drug being conducted by the University of Washington/VA Puget Sound Health Care System Diabetes Research Group. This is not a treatment study.

The study will involve

• Six visits to the clinic over about three months, of which three will involve testing glucose metabolism.
  
• Taking study drug or placebo.
  
• Keeping a diary of meals and medications.

For more information, please call 206-768-5281.

Blood drives

Friday, Sept. 30, from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Health Sciences Lobby, 3rd Floor C-Wing.

Monday, Oct. 3, 10–11:45 a.m. and 12:30 — 4 p.m. by the George Washington statue near Meany Hall.

Friday, Oct. 7, from 10 a.m. to noon and 12:45–4 p.m. in the loading zone by Loew Hall.

Tuesday, Oct. 11 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Stevens Way.

General Examinations

Members of the graduate faculty are invited to attend the following examinations.  Chairpersons are denoted in parentheses.

• Rhiannon K. Biddick, Biochemistry, Ph.D. 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5. Health Sciences Ctr., J-412.   (Prof. Elton Young).
  
• Uhn Soo Cho, Biological Structure, Ph.D. 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12. Health Sciences Ctr., J-412.   (Prof. Wenqing Xu).
  
• Tammy Ping-Chun Chou, Materials Science and Engineering, Ph.D. 10:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 7. Wilcox Hall, 243.   (Prof. Guozhong Cao).
  
• Joy K. Crawford, Education, Ph.D. 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12. Miller Hall, 102-T.   (Prof. Diane Jones).
  
• Benjamin Joseph Gabriel Crotty, Classics, Ph.D. 3:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7. Denny Hall, 210.   (Prof. Ruby Blondell).
  
• Christina E. Franzen, Classics, Ph.D. 9 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 6. Denny Hall, 210.   (Prof. Sarah Stroup).
  
• Katherine S. Godin, Chemistry, Ph.D. 9 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11. Chemistry Bldg., 339.   (Prof. Gab Varani).
  
• Katherine Jean Hall, Communication – Department of, Ph.D. 9 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12. Communications Bldg., 102E.   (Prof. Roger Simpson).
  
• Dustin Lundring Hillard, Electrical Engineering, Ph.D. 11 a.m. Monday, Oct. 3. Electrical Engineering Bldg., 303.   (Prof. Mari Ostendorf).
  
• Sonia E. Isaacs, Classics, Ph.D. 3 p.m. Friday, Sep 30. Denny Hall, 210.   (Prof. Ruby Blondell).
  
• Elizabeth Edna Johnson, Materials Science and Engineering, Ph.D. 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4. Chemistry Bldg., 102.   (Prof. Buddy Ratner).
  
•  Stephanie K. Kampf, Civil And Environmental Engineering, Ph.D. 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13. More Hall, 218.   (Prof. Stephen Burges).
  
• Marilyn Schron Likosky, Classics, Ph.D. 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 13. Denny Hall, 210.   (Prof. James Clauss).
  
• Elizabeth Ann Marzolf, Education, Ph.D. 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5. Miller Hall, 201.   (Prof. Michael Knapp).
  
• Nilanjan Mitra, Civil And Environmental Engineering, Ph.D. 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4. More Hall, 218.   (Prof. Laura Lowes).
  
• Gang Peng, Business Administration, Ph.D. 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13. Mackenzie Hall, 367.   (Profs. Debarata Dey and Ming Fan).
  
• Gabriel Barton Reedy, Education, Ph.D. 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5. Miller Hall, 112-A.   (Prof. Stephen Kerr).
  
• Max T. Sizemore, Neurobiology and Behavior, Ph.D. 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 7. Health Sciences Ctr., BB-1165-H.   (Prof. David Perkel).
  
• Alyssa L. Smith, Chemistry, Ph.D. 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6. Chemistry Bldg., 239.   (Prof. Bruce Robinson).
  
• Valerie L. Soza, Biology, Ph.D. 09 a.m. Friday, Sep 30. Hitchcock Hall, 312.   (Prof. Richard Olmstead).
  
• Cynthia C. Sprenger, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Ph.D. 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7. Health Sciences Ctr., T-466K.   (Prof. Peter Nelson).
  
• Ken Takahashi, Atmospheric Sciences, Ph.D. 1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4. Atmospheric Sciences/Geophysics Bldg., 406.   (Prof. David Battisti).
  
• Ryan D. Torn, Atmospheric Sciences, Ph.D. 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11. Atmospheric Sciences/Geophysics Bldg., 406.   (Prof. Gregory Hakim).
  
• Carly H. Vynne, Biology, Ph.D. 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 7. Kincaid Hall, 502.   (Profs. Samuel Wasser and Martha Groom).
  
• Gang Wang, Biology, Ph.D. 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4. Physics Astronomy Bldg., A-042.   (Prof. John Wingfield).

Final Examinations

• Scott James Eichelberger, Atmospheric Sciences, Ph.D. 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6. Atmospheric Sciences-Geophysics Bldg., 310C.  “The Effects of Meridional Heating Gradients on the Atmospheric General Circulation and its Variability” (Prof. Dennis Hartmann).
  
• Melanie Frances Fitzpatrick, Earth and Space Sciences, Ph.D. 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12. Atmospheric Sciences, Geophysics Bldg., 310C.  “Sea Ice, Clouds and Climate: Determining the Shortwave Radiation Budget in the Southern Ocean” (Prof. Stephen Warren).
  
• Judith Alexandra North Henchy, History, Ph.D. 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4. Smith Hall, 320.  “Performing Modernity in the Writings of Nguyen An Ninh and Phan Van Hum” (Prof. Laurie Sears).
  
• Alvin Yu-Wen Huang, Chemical Engineering, Ph.D. 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11. Benson Hall, 109.  “The Effects of Non-DLVO forces in Colloidal Aggregation” (Prof. John Berg).
  
• Guy F. Medema, Earth and Space Sciences, Ph.D. 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 7. Johnson Hall, 154.  “Juan de Fuca Slab Geometry from Earthquake Wide-Angle Reflections, Evidence of a Subducted Pseudofault, and an Anomalous SP Converted Phase at the Mantle Wedge” (Profs. Robert Crosson and Kenneth Creager).
  
• Erin Ashley Miller, Physics, Ph.D. 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13. Physics/Astronomy Bldg., C-520.  “Structure and Mechanics of Solid Foam” (Prof. Gerald Seidler).
  
• Tara Starr Ramsey, Biology, Ph.D. 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4. Physics and Astronomy Bldg., C-520.  “Invasion of English Ivy (Hedera spp. Araliaceae) into Pacific Northwest Forests” (Prof. Roger del Moral).
  
• Mesut Saygili, Economics, Ph.D. 04 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3. Savery Hall, 302C.  “Essays on International Trade” (Prof. Kar-yiu Wong).
  
• Maximilian Andreas Schlosshauer-Selbach, Physics, Ph.D. 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12. Physics/Astronomy Bldg., C-520.  “The Quantum-to-Classical Transition: Decoherence and Beyond” (Prof. Arthur Fine).
  
• Scott Allan Strassels, Pharmacy – School of, Ph.D. 11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 13. Health Sciences Ctr., H-375 Conference Room.  “The Economics and Epidemiology of Pain in Persons Receiving Hospice Care” (Prof. Sean Sullivan).