Rdc Newsletter June 09

Volume 2, Issue 4 June 2009

UPRM Cleanroom Inaugurated at R&DC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER

University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez PO Box 9000 Mayagüez, PR 00681-9000 Phone: 787-831-2065 Fax: 787-831-2060 E-mail: [email protected]

From left to right, Chancellor Jorge Iván Vélez-Arocho, Dean of Engineering Ramón Vásquez, NSF Division Director Rajinder Khosla, and UPRM researchers Rubén Díaz and Agnes Padovani stand in the new UPRM Cleanroom.

Meet Our Researchers: Aaron Cavosie (Geology) Graduated From: University of Wisconsin—Madison (PhD 2005) Started working at UPRM: 2005 Recent Projects: In the spring of 2009 Dr. Cavosie received funding from the National Science Foundation for a 3-year project to study how the evidence of giant, civilization-ending meteorite impact craters is preserved in the geologic record. Dr. Cavosie and his team of students will work in South Africa and Canada studying how remnants of the oldest (2 billion years) and largest (~300 km in diameter) meteorite impact craters on Earth are preserved as sediments when they erode with time. With the results of these studies, Cavosie and his students will look for evidence of even older impacts in older rocks from Australia and elsewhere. Research Areas: Petrology, mineralogy, and isotope geochemistry, geochronol-

ogy, accessory mineral research. Research Goals & Interests: Dr. Cavosie’s main research interests focus on the origin, growth, and evolution of Earth’s crust. Research on the origin of the crust (sometimes called ‘Early Earth’ studies) include how and when the first continents formed on Earth, the timing and origin of the formation of Earth’s oceans, and also the creation of environ-

ments conducive to the origin of life. Earth’s continents continue to grow and evolve in composition. Continental growth primarily occurs along continental margins by the accretion of island arcs at continent-ocean subduction zones. This process is active today in the many parts of the world, such as the South Pacific. Puerto Rico is also an island arc, but clearly has not (yet!) been added to a continent. Studying the exposed rocks in Puerto Rico thus provides insights into the composition of ‘proto-continental material’, and hence allows a better understanding of the processes of continental growth. In addition to studies of exposed rocks on the mainland, Dr. Cavosie and his students are also in the process of producing a new geologic map of Culebra based on geochemical analysis of the exposed rocks. These activities will help the community of Puerto Rico better understand and appreciate the geologic heritage of the island.

Mío CID / My R&D

http://cid.uprm.edu http://blogs.uprm.edu/cid

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER

Contact: Yuri Rojas— Director [email protected]

NEW!!! R&DC’s Proposal Development Unit As part of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Extramural Associate Research Development Award (EARDA), a new Proposal Development Unit (PDU) has been established at the R&DC, under the leadership of Dr. Marisol Vera and Prof. Yuri Rojas. This is a 5-year award and the proposal includes the institutionalization of the unit thereafter. The objective of the PDU is to assist investigators in seeking and securing external funding, with emphasis in NIH focus areas, by supporting the development of competitive proposals. The unit is currently in a development and implementation phase, but has started to promote and provide some limited services. Its facilities are located in

room 116 of the R&DC Main Building. In the near future, the PDU will provide: • • • • • • • •

P r e - s u b mi s s i o n proposal review Resubmission consultation and support Grant related trainings and workshops Dissemination of funding opportunities Custom funding information and searches Serve as an agency (NIH) liaison Sample of funded proposals Written UPRM institutional descriptions

The overall aim of the EARDA program is to develop and strengthen the research

Inside this issue:

Did you know?  NIH is the United States  leading medical re­ search agency  105 Nobel Prize winners  have been trained or  funded by NIH Extra­ mural Research Pro­ gram 

administration infrastructure in colleges and institutions with a traditionally significant to high ethnic minority student enrollment, thereby enhancing the capacity of these institutions for establishing rigorous research programs in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. For more information, please contact Proposal Specialist Arlene Heredia, who coordinates all PDU services since March 1st, 2009. Her e-mail is [email protected].

FINAL NOTICE

AFAMaC’s Fifth Year

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CITI Training

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Quick Quiz

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Our Fourth Director: Lueny Morell

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Law 101

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Meet Our Personnel: Information Systems

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Meet Our Researchers: Aaron Cavosie

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NCURA IN MAYAGÜEZ Fundamentals of Sponsored Research Administration (SPA I) July 29– 31, 2009

Deadline for Registration: June 29, 2009

Mathematics and Sciences’ AFAMaC Project Gets 5th Year Funding from PR Department of Education

Lueny Morell: R&DC’s Fourth Director

The Puerto Rico Department of Education approved, for the fifth straight year, the Alianza para el Fortalecimiento del Aprendizaje de Matemáticas y Ciencias (AFAMaC) Partnership for the Strengthening of Mathematics and Science Learning. The project’s goal is to provide training and support to mathematics and science elementary and middle school teachers from schools in several western region districts, such as Mayagüez, Moca and San Sebastián. The combined total amount of the award is $1.1 million.

Lueny Morell served as the fourth Director of the Research and Development Center, from July 2001 until August 2002. At the time a Professor at UPRM’s Department of Chemical Engineering, Lueny had also served in the institution’s Academic Senate and Administrative Board, as well as in the capacity of Special Assistant to the Chancellor and the Dean of Engineering in charge of strategic alliances, new educational initiatives and outcomes assessment.

The project provides funds for several one-week summer institutes as well as residential and non-residential workshops usually held during various

weekends of the academic year. These training sessions are available for around 100 teachers. Other activities include field trips, distribution of teaching and laboratory materials, and support visits in the schools. UPRM professors serve as instructors and implementation specialists. Dr. Luis Fernando Cáceres, from the Department of Mathematical Sciences, leads the Mathematics component; while Dr. José Roberto López, from the Department of Physics, does the same with the Science component.

During her tenure as R&D Center Director new partners were identified within Puerto Rico and in the US in both industry and government, the

CITI Program Acquired for Training As part of its efforts related to improving the research support services, the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez has acquired an annual subscription to the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI). Established in the University of Miami since the year 2000, this organization offers a web-based training program on the protection of human subjects in research. This way, the institution will count

What is the Ship American Act? ANSWER As with the Fly America and Buy American Acts, this law protects domestic industry by establishing a general preference for using domestic vessels. While much of the law is not relevant to the research enterprise, reading the law clearly provides a flavor of the importance of observing these regulations, Page 2

Board of Directors was first established and convened, the Center’s strategic plan was approved, a complete database of research interests,

Lueny Morell currently works as Hewlett-Packard’s Director of University Relations for Latin America. As a loyal and constant friend of UPRM, she also holds one of the industry positions in the Research and Development Center’s Board of Directors.

Law 101 Tax Incentive Procedure Announced by UPRM Chancellor with a system to facilitate and standardize compliance processes across the different dependencies involved. Among these are the Deanship of Academic Affairs, the Office of Graduate Studies, and (of course!) the Research and Development Center. CITI will also provide support in the revision and approval of protocols by the Institutional Review Board (IRB), or Comité para la Protección de los Seres Humanos en la Investigación (CPSHI), and the Insti-

tutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). Other benefits CITI has to offer are: role classification of research related personnel, curriculum designed to each research role, capacity to include additional training materials specific to UPRM, evidence of trainings approved by users, refresher courses at a predetermined frequency, and availability of the program in different languages, including Spanish.

Quick R&DC Quiz (from NCURA’s Regulations and Certifications Compendium-2007) QUESTION

capabilities, and contacts was posted on the website, Puerto Rico and UPRM were secured as hosts of the 2006 International Conference on Engineering Education (ICEE), and an MOU was signed with Southeast University of China.

which dictate the use of American entities for international commerce. It applies to all awards and whenever there is an intent to ship goods and personnel overseas. It requires that a shipper shall take such steps as may be necessary and practical to

assure that the personnel and/or at least 50% of the gross tonnage of equipment, materials and commodities are shipped on US-flag commercial vessels if available at fair and reasonable rates. Generally, shipment of agricultural products are exempted from the regulations.

M Í O C I D / MY R & D

UPRM Chancellor issued a memo on June 11, 2009 announcing the procedure UPRM scientific researchers must follow to request that Law 101 be applied to salaries earned by them as part of a competitive award. Said law establishes that qualified researchers could request a tax exemption of salaries earned as a Principal Investigator in a competitive proposal (such as an

R01) to a federal agency, such as the National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation. This incentive applies since tax year 2008. The Chancellor has created an institutional committee which will verify that the research is in compliance with the established parameters for the concession of the exemption.

A researcher who considers himself or herself eligible for the exemption must apply in writing on or before June 30, 2009 for Tax Year 2008. For further information, please contact Dr. Marisol Vera, R&DC Associate Director and coordinator of the institutional evaluation committee, at [email protected] or by phone at extension 5250.

Meet Our Personnel: Information Systems The Information Systems Office gives support to the R&D Center’s computerized systems infrastructure. This support is extended to its research projects, both in and out of the Center’s facilities. It provides support to users, maintains and repairs computers and its peripherals, and maintains the wired and wireless networks’ hardware. It also creates and maintains the main

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4

R&DC’s administrative databases. The Office has two full-time employees, Rafael Omar Ruiz (shown on the right in the photo), and Carlos Cardona (left). It also has two part-time hourly undergraduate students.

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