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Update

The Research Office Newsletter

Featuring OSU research and scholarship in all disciplines, and the services of the Research Office

Volume 4, Issue 9 May , 2004
	"Sudden oak death" is a disease that also threatens rhodies. See press release, plus more photos by Pat Breen and all about Landscape Plants

Taking Philosophy 'to the Streets'

Whether the headlines are about abortion, the pledge of allegiance, marriage, or war, Assistant Professor of Philosophy Joseph Orosco believes that his discipline can help people consider current, controversial topics.

"I've been accused recently of residing in the 'Ivory Tower,'" he says. "Yet in the middle of very vital public controversies, philosophy can be relevant. Our department has a major emphasis on 'ethical inquiry,' which concerns how we think and discuss and act upon moral issues. And we have an Applied Ethics program— we search beneath the headlines."

Orosco's own focus is on social-political philosophy. "This goes beyond individual ethics, to how we as a society 'arrange' justice," he says. "It has to do with our values, in a sphere broader than either law or religion. Ethics are public; it's about all of us."

For instance, as the local policy on the legalization of same-sex marriages was first highlighted in local and national media, Orosco offered a scholarly perspective on the issue.

In the Corvallis Gazette Times[ link], March 23rd, he stated, "We can also understand this as a moral controversy from the standpoint of justice as fairness . . . The goal for all of us should be to make our society more virtuous in terms of justice. . .."

Orosco explains, "For that topic, I draw from the philosophy of John Rawls, which is basic to any political philosophy," says Orosco. "Rawls had a 'thought exercise' that can be eye-opening. Basically, it challenges us to think about any law as if it applied to ourselves, and then decide whether we would want to be governed by it. Why would someone choose to accept rules that permit discrimination, if there's a chance you will find yourself to be the object of that unequal treatment?"

Orosco has focused on deliberative and participatory democracy in 20th century American philosophy. Using not only academic philosophers as his mentors, his current studies include Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez, particularly their methods of non-violence. At OSU and at national conferences, he has taught, written, and made presentations, relating their ideas to contemporary topics. For instance, considering the war on terrorism, Orosco says, "Based on a speech that King gave during the Vietnam War era, he would say that the way to contain the problem of terrorism is to change conditions in the world, to bring about a situation with less poverty, less frustration, and more democracy. Then people would be less motivated to use violent means."

Considering the violent protests against the World Trade Organization in 1999, Orosco looked to Chavez's work. "Protestors thought that violence could be justified for 'good' political ends," Orosco says. "But Chavez said that people misunderstand the actual effects of violence. His opinion was that a democratic and just society cannot be brought about through violence. He was looking for a society in which people could take control of their own lives and be able to work cooperatively."

Orosco finds that taking philosophy "to the streets" does not always win him popularity, but that's not the goal. "I hope to add to our public language for talking about ethics and values, so that we can better learn how to treat each other fairly. And so our political institutions can reflect those understandings," he says.

link to As I See It column

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Incoming Director of Technology Transfer

Craig Sheward has accepted the position of Director of Technology Transfer, and will join the Research Office in June.

He brings extensive experience in successful, high dollar value technology transfer programs, business development, and entrepreneurial company formation.
Sheward is coming from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, where he has been the Senior Licensing Executive in the Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development. Previously, he had a similar position at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, focusing on the Microelectronics, Photonics and Materials Centers.
He has managed a varied portfolio of inventions and software codes. This has included intellectual property evaluation, patent/copyright protection, due diligence, negotiation of licenses, financial valuation and marketing/strategy development.

Bill Hostetler, retired Director, says “I’m pleased that we’ll have Craig to take over the reigns. I feel confident he will take this office to the next level in serving the faculty and the university.”

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Tips from Inside the Funding Agencies

Each year, several OSU faculty serve as reviewers, consultants, committee members, and other positions for national funding agencies. This is the first of a series to share their observations that can be useful to OSU colleagues, about funding searches, proposal submission, follow-up, agency assignments, and related topics.

Note that the interviewees in this series are not herein representing the agency, nor are their perspectives the only ones possible about their topic.

Participating in the nation's research agenda

Bill Winner, of the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, has been in Washington DC since April, 2003, on assignment to the National Science Foundation. He began as a consultant, and is now appointed with an an Intergovernmental Personnel Agreement that allows him to keep his OSU faculty position while being paid by the NSF.

His work involves guiding the review of proposals by ad hoc readers and panel members, synthesizing reviews and exercising judgment to recommend proposals for awards, managing existing awards, and managing the budgets for the programs.

Update asked him for tips for OSU faculty seeking funding. Here are his responses:

• At the NSF, the funding rates for programs that span divisions, directorates, or the NSF, or link several federal funding agencies, are supported at a higher rate than those found for core programs.
• Consider submitting proposals to programs such as Research Coordinated Networks, Nanotech, and Arabidopsis 2010, where the new money in the NSF can be found.
• Doctoral Dissertation Improvement grant proposals are funded at a high rate,a nd you do not need to hold an NSF grant to apply.
• If you have an NSF grant, file supplement proposals to support teachers, students, and post-docs from underrepresented groups; undergraduate students; or others who can contribute to your missions for research and broader impacts. Award recommendations for supplemental proposals can be made directly by program directors and do not require outside review. In general, submit requests for supplements after January, but before April.
• Submit proposals for conferences that can be recommended by program directors without outside review. Discussion with Program Directors about conferences, before submitting proposals, is important. Although there are no deadlines, submissions before April have a better chance of funding than do those submitted later in the fiscal year.
• Proposals that address broader impacts with new, innovative approaches are highly favored and—science being equal on two proposals— the one with the stronger impacts statements will be selected. Avoid broader impact statements that are limited to the claims of training students and post-docs or advancing your field of science.
• Providing a list of suggested reviewers is strongly suggested and much appreciated by Program Directors.

He also offers these thoughts about working for an agency:

• I highly recommend that OSU faculty members consider spending time working in programs and projects that take you away from campus for an extended period. Working at the NSF is an excellent example of the kind of position offered by many federal agencies that encourage professors to participate in forming the research agenda for the nation.
• The NSF encourages those serving on rotation to return to their research projects on a regular basis. The NSF will pay expenses for return to your university for up to 50 days each year. The NSF administration wants faculty members to remain engaged with their universities and research programs when serving.

At NSF, Winner is Director for the Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology Program. He also represents the BIO/IBN Division on activities across the NSF. He can be contacted at wwinner@nsf.gov

If you, or colleagues in your unit, have had such assignments, we would appreciate hearing about them. Please contact Update.

Related: see a previous article Funding Fundamentals

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Visionary Founder, Team Effort: Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory

The Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory (SARL) is the new name for the former Food Toxicology and Nutrition Laboratory, located one mile east of Corvallis on Highway 34. This facility is one of the cores of the Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center and the Environmental Health Sciences Center.

The lab's founder, Russel Sinnhuber, was among the first scientists to recognize the potential of the rainbow trout as a sensitive, low-cost, non-mammalian model for cancer research. His work with this model assisted in the discovery of the food contaminant aflatoxin as a major risk factor for human liver cancer. Sinnhuber and others were also investigating nutritional requirements of trout and other salmonid fish. These interests were supported by the construction, in the 1960s, of a unique trout hatchery/histopathology complex.

Sinnhuber in 1942, photo from : the Astoria Seafoods Laboratory, The first 60 Years, ed. Pam Rogers, copyright 1998

Sinnhuber passed away in 2003. In the rationale for the renaming to honor him, the lab included this testimonial:

"At the outset, Sinnhuber recognized that no . . . individual could make substantial headway with [the given] set of problems. He assembled a team that included chemists, pathologists, biochemists, and food scientists. Over the years, many . . . made contributions, [and] the program has evolved because of the teamwork philosophy Sinnhuber instilled."

This program has made profound contributions to the departments of Food Science and Technology, and Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, and to the Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center, Environmental Health Sciences Center, and the Linus Pauling Institute.

One example of the current research conducted at the SARL is by George Bailey. He was recruited to OSU by Dr. Sinnhuber, and worked with him for many years. Bailey's work has shown that a metabolite of chlorophyll can be a potent anti-cancer agent in the trout model. This research, now in human clinical trials in China, has the goal of preventing liver cancer in humans.

Webpage about SARL

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Realtime and Bandwidth: Sharing More Data

Your grant proposal would sure look good if it included plans for collaboration with colleagues at other institutions. But the old-fashioned methods won't do. Do you have the capability to interface in a state-of the-art way, sharing data in real time with others around the globe?

As an OSU faculty member, you'll be able to provide an unqualified "yes" sooner than you think, according to Curt Pederson, Vice Provost for OSU Information Services [IS]. Whether you're an artist wanting to show work on high-definition TV to New York, or a health researcher wanting to evaluate some physical movement in real time with a partner in Tokyo, or you're needing to send a great deal of data to a federal funder. . . "We will have the bandwidth," Pederson says.

"Today many of our faculty are already pushing the envelope. And needs are growing daily," Pederson says. For instance, researchers in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences collect and share real-time satellite images of the earth's surfaces (link to MODIS). Data from a full pass could take two hours to download over a home cable modem. With OSU's already advanced infrastructure, it's available in seconds to collaborators at other institutions."

"To do this, we lease circuits from the telephone company. But they're limited, in how much data can be sent at a time. To meet the need for bigger, faster capability, for more projects, we're excited about our current fiber construction project ," says Pederson.

A few years ago, he couldn't say the same. When Cherri Pancake of NACSE/Engineering approached IS about a grant related to wave research, Pederson says, "We were landlocked from the goldmine of fiber optic cables we needed to support this and other emerging research needs. And we couldn't afford to get cable from campus to the outside - it would be up to $565,000 a month.'"

"But now, as we speak, construction trucks are stringing cable from campus to Albany, to I-5. I'm hoping it will be ready this summer," he says."The total cost is less than a month of service to the local telecommunications provider! And we will have nearly unlimited transport capability for research traffic."

Pederson loves telling the story of success despite huge obstacles.

Pederson says the biggest difficulty was playing "Mother May I," going through "hoops" at the state and local level for over a year. "No one had seen this type of 'deal' before," he says. "But thanks to Jon Dolan, associate director, and Shay Dakan, director of Network Services, we made it. "

He adds, "It is strategic, cost-effective, and important to research. I'm grateful to our legal counsel, contracting, Network services, and others. It's sort of 'blue sky' now - it will be fun to see how our facilities will be used collaboratively. "

For more information: see fiberproject and NOANET

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Presidential Award for Scientists and Engineers

Mahfuzur R. Sarker, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, was selected for a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). PECASE is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government to the nation's scientists and engineers who are beginning their independent careers, to recognize "exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge."

In 2002, Sarker's grant proposal, "The Molecular Basis for Clostridium perfringens Spore Heat Resistance" was funded by the US Department of Agriculture, National Research Initiative (USDA-NRI). This work on spore heat resistance was recognized as cutting-edge Pathogenic Microbiology that will improve our understanding in controlling and preventing the food poisoning caused by bacteria that form spores.

Clostridium perfringens spores image copyright M. Sarker

His proposal ranked first in the Food Safety Program of USDA-NRI. Program director Etta Saltos nominated him for the PECASE award, which resulted in his three-year USDA grant being extended to five years.

link to PECASE award site

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Information Technology for Your Teaching and Research

The Research Office and Information Services have partnered to connect OSU faculty to a resource about information technology (IT) related to teaching, scholarship, and research. With the new subscription to the Center for Applied Research (ECAR), you can access research and analysis about information technology.

Its website states: "[On ] large-scale information technology projects, in many cases it is not the technical aspects . . . that are the most problematic. Outsourcing, network security, e-procurement, and e-learning are . . .complex issues."

Current choices on the site include:

• Bioinformatics, which applies principles of IT to complex life sciences data
• A program in which "blended courses," which supply face-to-face instruction with online learning, increase student learning while lowering attrition rates compared to fully online courses
• Faculty uses of course-management systems

ECAR's website is at www.educause.edu/ecar/research/research.asp . In order to obtain access to the secure reports, register with an OSU email address.
1. On the the website, on the left frame, select Create Profile.
2. Register for an EDUCAUSE username and password.
3. Wait for an email response from ECAR.
4. Click on the link in the email and enter your preferred login name.
5. Wait for an email response. It will include an initial password.
For access problems or questions, contact IS Computer Consulting, 737-3474.

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Lights, Camera, Action: OSU on TV

Taping of OSU research, in the form of a TV magazine, began in April, for the ResearchChannel. In the first in two half-hour programs, six different research projects are showcased, grouped thematically.

The Pacific Northwest: Disaster Zone will air in June, with these features:

• OSU has the largest tsunami research facility in the world, with Harry Yeh
• Top forestry school works to lessen wildfire risk and deal with aftermath, with Stephen Fitzgerald
• Buildings can withstand earthquakes and winds, with Stephen Dickenson

Improving Human Health

• Using fitness to offset osteoporosis, with Christine Snow
• Mining drugs from the sea, with Bill Gerwick
• Movement studies in disability, with Jeff McCubbin

Larry Pribyl, OSU's Executive Producer for this project, says,"We are sorting through previously recorded programs from campus video producers. We'll add introductions to some, to tie them in together, and offer those starting this summer on the ResearchChannel."
Faculty interested in having their work considered for new programs can contact Pribyl.

Background about OSU and the ResearchChannel

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Taking a Joke

In case you avoided the April Fools issue of Update, the Research Office Newsletter, be alerted that your colleagues didn't. We received a plethora of responses from around campus, including:

"I am shocked and appalled that you would use university resources to publish this bogus newsletter.
Just kidding. Thought it was GREAT."

"Thank you for . . . reminding the campus that it is important to laugh at ourselves. Academics and Universities can be way too serious."

"Your latest issue . . .was superfluous, integrated, top-notch and cutting-room floor."

"We usually take ourselves too seriously—maybe because no one else does!"

The anonymous editor was heard to remark, "You should have seen the material before the censors got to it!"

Update was also informed that we offered April Fool's jokes only, with too many warnings to qualify as pranks; and that we are actually part of a grand tradition, as evidenced by a web listing of the Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time - some by the media, some by scientists.

We also received the following, submitted anonymously by Joe Beckman:

C-offee C-affeine Researchers taking excessively long coffee breaks at the Linus Pauling Institute have discovered there may be a more crucial form of Vitamin C. As noted by Linus Pauling himself, ascorbic acid itself does not contain an amino group and does not meet the definition of a true “vital amine.” However, caffeine has such an amino group, and after surviving the cool damp weather of Corvallis, researchers have discovered the essential nature for frequent oral supplementation to preserve crucial brain functions and social activities. These results are highly contentious within the institute as other investigators argue that essential micronutrients within chocolate are even more efficacious. Substantial experimentation remains to be accomplished to establish minimal daily requirements, which are currently being revised upwards.

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Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance

Workshops

The Office of Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance is continuing a series of educational and training workshops for staff and faculty during the spring term.

Topics include proposal budgets, NSF FastLane, research compliance, cost sharing, records management, and locating funding. For a full listing, contact Toshie Gordon, toshie.gordon@oregonstate.edu

Help Wanted: Graduate or Professional Student Member

The OSU Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviews all research involving human participants, to ensure adequate protection for welfare, rights, and privacy. The board is currently seeking graduate and professional students interested in serving as a member for one year.

For more information or an application, contact Laura Lincoln IRB@oregonstate.edu , phone 737-3437. Applications must be received by 5 pm, May 24, 2004.

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Interview in the Empty Elevator

The elevator was temporarily out-of-service.
We welcome suggestion of people we should catch between floors, who may have a message for the OSU community. Please contact Update.

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Links to Resources

Reading List: Books by Faculty and Staff

Each fall, the Provost celebrates all books published, and patents obtained by faculty over the past year. The list will be shared in an upcoming Research Office Newsletter.
Please send information about your new books to the Research Office.
link to Recent Books by Faculty and Staff

Funding Resources

OSU and external programs and other opportunities for faculty.
Link to IRIS external funding database and alert service

Shared OSU Facilities and Services - Resource List

Access research resources across disciplines on campus. Please let us know if you have facilities to add to this list.

Online OSU Newsletters and Magazines

News and feature publications abound around campus. Link to a list of those available online, about everything from academics to cultural events.

Scholarship and Research across Campus

The broad, deep, and diverse research and scholarship activities of OSU faculty across campus are summarized at Research Summaries

Update, The Research Office Newsletter

This newsletter is produced approximately monthly and announced via email to all OSU faculty and staff. Link to archived issues. Please send any news, announcements, or comments to jana.zvibleman@oregonstate.edu

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