Headlines
Articles
31 December: Carbonell Paper on Mad Cow Disease Draws
Attention
A paper by Ruben Carbonell, et al., demonstrating for the first time the removal
of endogenous infectious prion protein (mad cow disease agent) from whole blood
was published on December 22. It generated quite a bit of attention in the world
press (CNN, BBC, many others).
Click on the link below to read the manuscript, a commentary written in Lancet on the implications of the results of the paper, and copies of some of the press coverage that resulted.
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29 December: Ashby
Receives Bowman & Gordon Gray Professorship for Teaching Excellence
Dr. Valerie Ashby is one of four scholars at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill to be awarded Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term
Professorships. The professorships provide a salary supplement, a fund for
research support and a highly coveted sabbatical.
Ashby's chemistry research focuses on the design and synthesis of polymeric biomaterials. She has been a National Science Foundation (NSF) postdoctoral fellow and a visiting scientist at Eastman Chemical Company and IBM. She was honored in 2002 by the American Chemical Society as one of the top 12 young female chemists in the country. Ashby was named Iowa State University Teacher of the Year in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2001. She was nominated for that honor four times from 1997 to 2000. She also was named one of four Iowa State Master Teachers in 2001. Ashby, who came to Carolina in 2004, teaches organic chemistry to sophomores and juniors; this past fall she taught introductory chemistry to freshmen.
Her other awards include a 3M Young Faculty Award, a DuPont Young Faculty Award and an NSF Early Career Development Award.
The late Gordon Gray and the estate of Bowman Gray Jr., both UNC graduates, established the professorships in 1980 in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences. They are among the university's most prestigious awards for excellence in outstanding undergraduate teaching.
For more details click here.
19 December: DeSimone
Named AAAS Fellow
Dr. Joseph M. DeSimone has been elected
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He
was selected for his distinguished contributions to polymer synthesis and
processing, from fundamental aspects of chemical systems to environmentally
friendly ways to manufacture polymers. He is director of the NSF Science and
Technology Center for Environmentally Responsible Solvents and Processes and UNC
Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology and is W. R. Kenan,
Jr. distinguished professor of chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences at
UNC and of chemical engineering in the School of Engineering at NC State
University. DeSimone is an expert on environmentally friendly manufacturing,
especially of polymers. His research examines all aspects of polymer synthesis
and processing, from fundamental aspects of chemical systems to the most
efficient and environmentally friendly ways to manufacture polymers and polymer
products. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, DeSimone is a
co-founder and former chairman of Micell Technologies Inc., a company that
devised a new, environmentally friendly dry-cleaning method.
He also co-founded startups
Liquidia Technologies and BioStent,
a company that develops and commercializes polymeric drug eluting stents for
cardiovascular applications. He has written more than 200 refereed articles and
issued more than 100 patents.
New fellows will be presented with the society's gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin on Feb. 17, 2007, at the group's annual meeting in San Francisco.
AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society, and the publisher of the journal Science. Each year, the AAAS Council elects members whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished. Fellows are recognized for their efforts to advance science or its applications. They are nominated by their peers and undergo an extensive review process.
14 October: Rhonda Haithcock Elected to Employee Forum
Rhonda Haithcock, Accounting Technician for CERSP, has been elected to the
UNC-CH Employee Forum. The Employee Forum was founded in 1992 to increase
communication about issues of concern to University Employees. It provides a
vehicle for employees to meet, discuss matters of concern and bring those
concerns on a systematic basis to the administration for action and response.
According to Chancellor Moeser, the Forum has become "an essential component of University governance, similar to the Faculty Council."
Congratulations, Rhonda! Your colleagues have made an excellent choice in selecting you as their representative.
02 October: Anastas Receives Heinz Award
Dr. Paul Anastas, a member of CERSP's External Advisory Board and participant in our Innovation Workshop, has received one of five Heinz Awards for 2006.
For details http://www.heinzawards.net/articleDetail.asp?articleID=193
19 September: State-wide student summit at UNC-CH
Register now for the NC Climate Challenge Summit: Visit
www.climateaction.net/ncsummit
to register for the Challenge of the 21st Century! While UNC and many other
universities throughout the state have taken steps to become more sustainable,
there is much more that we, as a State, can do. This is why, on October 6th and
7th, UNC-Chapel Hill is hosting a Statewide Summit of North Carolina
universities to discuss what each campus can do to reduce its climate change
impact and plan campaigns to enact those changes. The summit will be at
UNC-Chapel Hill.
Friday night, UNC Communications professor and two-time president of the Sierra Club, Robbie Cox, will speak. Saturday will be filled with panels, presentations and workshops conducted by experts from around the state and south. These workshops will focus on how universities can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, how they can fund these initiatives and how students can most effectively enact these changes. Students will then have the opportunity to discuss the options and create campaigns to push for this change.
We are expecting 100 students from all across the State. Registration is only 10 dollars, which includes three meals on Saturday and all materials. You can register by going to our website www.climateaction.net/ncsummit .
09 September: Ashby Celebrates Her Birthday on 06 September 2006
07 September: NC A&T Ranks Third Nationally
BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine announced its August 28 issue the 2006 list of the
Top 50 Colleges for African Americans. Of the 10 highest-ranking schools for
2006, five are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs); five are
located in the South; and eight are private institutions. North Carolina A&T
State University moved up ten places from 13th in 2004 to third in
2006, trailing only Florida A&M and Howard University.
06 September: UNC 5th in U.S. News Rankings
For the fifth consecutive year, Carolina ranks as the nation's fifth-best
public university, according to
U.S. News & World Report.
The magazine's annual rankings also placed UNC as a national leader in student
accessibility.
Among public campuses, Berkeley ranked first, followed by the University of Virginia. The universities of California at Los Angeles and Michigan at Ann Arbor tied for third, followed by UNC at fifth. These five campuses have held the top five spots for a number of years.
Harvard and Princeton universities again tied for the overall top ranking, as they did a year earlier. Yale was third, the University of Pennsylvania was fourth, and Duke and Stanford tied for fifth.
Overall, Carolina tied for 27th — up two spots from last year — with Tufts and Wake Forest universities among both public and private campuses. Other top public campuses ranked between 20th (Berkeley) and 25th (UCLA and Michigan).
The new rankings appear in the magazine's 2006 "America's Best Colleges" guidebook, due on newsstands Aug. 22.
The U.S. News rankings formula weighs data including opinion survey responses about academic excellence from peer presidents, provosts or admissions officials; student retention rates; faculty resources; student selectivity; financial resources; graduation rates; and alumni giving.
UNC posted an 11-point gain — following last year's 21-point rise — in faculty resources. That 39th overall ranking was up from 50th in 2004 and was UNC's best showing in the past six years. U.S. News examined snapshots of class size (fewer than 20 students and 50 students or more), average faculty compensation in 2003-04 and 2004-05, proportion of faculty who are full time and with the highest degree in their field, and student-faculty ratio.
In 2004, 54 percent of UNC's course sections enrolled fewer than 20 students. That was second (topped only by the University of California at Berkeley at 58 percent) among UNC's top public peers and up from 51 percent in 2003. U.S. News considered an additional measure: Only 11 percent of UNC's course sections enrolled 50 or more students in 2004, down from 12 percent the previous year.
In student accessibility measurements, UNC ranked first among national public campuses and 10th overall in "Great Schools, Great Prices," based on a formula determining which schools offer best value by relating academic quality to the net cost of attendance for a student who receives the average level of financial aid.
Another category — least debt among students — listed UNC fifth among public campuses and eighth overall, with 24 percent of graduates posting an average debt of $11,751 in 2004. In 2003, that number was $11,519, down from $13,700 in 2000. Less than a quarter of Carolina's graduating students accumulate debt. By contrast, the nation's average student debt loan doubled to $18,900 in about a decade.
"Carolina is making excellent progress toward University priorities we have set ourselves," said Chancellor James Moeser. "Overall, our focus is on promoting excellence in all that we do in order to benefit the people of North Carolina and beyond. Our top priority is strengthening faculty recruitment, retention and development, and these U.S. News results show how last year's state appropriations and campus-based tuition revenue helped keep us competitive in faculty compensation with our national peers."
In other U.S. News rankings:
Kenan-Flagler Business School tied for fifth with Carnegie Mellon and New York universities, as well as the University of Texas at Austin, among undergraduate business degree programs. Kenan-Flagler tied for second among public campuses. In specialty areas, Kenan-Flagler tied for fourth with Berkeley for marketing and ranked fifth in management.
Carolina was included in a category called "programs to look for," highlighting outstanding examples of academic programs that lead to student success. Education experts, including staff of the Association of American Colleges of Universities, helped identify these programs.
Carolina was among 43 public and private campuses cited for their first-year experiences programs, which include first-year seminars and other programs bringing small groups of students together with faculty and staff on a regular basis. UNC was one of 22 public campuses selected for this list.
In another category of "programs to look for" involving undergraduate research/creative projects, Carolina was listed among a dozen public campuses and 36 universities overall. This category reflects opportunities for students to engage in independent or small-team work under the direction of a faculty mentor. Students conduct intensive and self-directed research or creative work that results in an original scholarly paper or other
28 August: UNC-Chapel Hill to Reduce Carbon Emissions
UNC and the town of Chapel Hill have become the world's first town-gown
participants to commit to a 60% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Click
here to read
the entire article.
21 August: Samulski Recognized by
Clemson U.
Prof.
Edward Samulski was recently recognized by his alma mater, Clemson
University for his outstanding career accomplishments. Click
here
to read the article.
18 August: 2006 NSF Fall Site Review
All events at Sonja Haynes Stone Center, South Rd. UNC-CH Campus.
Preliminary schedule
| October 09 6:00-8:00 PM social event with External Advisory Board, students and faculty |
| October 10 8:00 AM-5:00 PM NSF Site Review |
| October 11 8:00 AM-3:00 PM Feedback in AM with report preparation in PM |
Documents for NSF Site Review Team
11 August: Ashby Pacesetter in
Patents
An article on gender differences in patenting behavior in the August 3, 2006
issue of Chemical and Engineering News cites Prof. Valerie Ashby as a woman who
gets it right. Click here to read the
article.
31 July: Former EAB Member Griffiths
Nominated to National Science Board
José-Marie
Griffiths, dean of the School of Information and Library Science, has been
chosen by President George W. Bush to serve on the National Science Board.
The White House announced last month that Griffiths is among eight whose nominations were presented to the U.S. Senate for confirmation. Her term would continue until May 2012.
The 24-member National Science Board advises the president and Congress about national science and engineering policy and oversees the National Science Foundation, which awards research grants to universities and colleges.
“I am honored by this nomination and consider it a privilege to work with other members of the board at this critical time in the nation’s scientific competitiveness,” said Griffiths.
“The United States faces potential erosion of its scientific leadership as the number of American science and engineering graduates declines, and as research and development efforts move offshore.”
Griffiths’ research spans information science, technology and leadership. She has done groundbreaking work on the value and return on investment in information systems and services; researched the development of protocols and policies for resource sharing across organizations on local, state and regional levels, including both public and private institutions; reported on the influences of the digital revolution on the conduct of research; and studied success criteria and best practices for information technology in higher education.
Griffiths came to Carolina in 2004 from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was Doreen E. Boyce chair and professor in the School of Information Sciences.
She also directed the university’s Sara Fine Institute for Interpersonal Behavior and Technology and was an associate of the Learning Research and Development Center.
She has held two previous presidential appointments: to the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (2003 to 2005) and the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (1996 to 2002).
In 2005, she founded the Knowledge Trust, concerned with the role and preparation of 21st-century knowledge professionals.
26 June: CERSP Schools Rank High in
Minority BS Degrees
The University of Texas at Austin ranks 5th in the nation in producing
undergraduate degrees for minority groups, according to the June 1 edition of
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine. In addition, the university ranks
7th nationally among producers of undergraduates for Hispanics, 9th
for Asian Americans and 65th for American Indians. Among all minority groups NC
A&T State University is 69th, NC State is 81st, and UNC-CH is 99th.
UT-A Engineering ranks 5th overall, including 4th for Hispanics, 8th for Asian Americans, 22nd for American Indians and 37th for African Americans. Georgia Tech ranks 3rd overall, NC State 14th and NC A&T SU 25th.
For African Americans NCA&T State University, Georgia Tech and NC State rank 1-2-3 in the nation in baccalaureate engineering degrees. NCA&T SU ranks 4th nationally for all baccalaureate degrees; NC State is 57th and UNC-Chapel Hill is 76th.
Click here for details.
23 June: A First-hand Look at Military
Operations
Many of our PIs and students benefit from support of DARPA, ONR or other
military technology organizations. Click
here to read about a
first-hand view cexperienced by Allison Rosenberg, Associate Vice Chancellor For
Research, Federal Affairs at UNC-CH.
14 June: Dry Ice Forms Ultrahard Glass
Scientists have discovered a novel form of solid carbon dioxide. The new
material, which was made by applying extreme pressures to normal solid carbon
dioxide, resembles window glass on the atomic scale. Dubbed amorphous carbonia,
the substance could be important for understanding the interiors of gas-giant
planets in which carbon dioxide is squeezed at high pressures. It could also be
used to make ultrahard glass because it is expected to be very stiff, like
diamond (Nature 441 857).
Carbon is unlike the other elements in group IV of the
periodic table because it forms a gas -- carbon dioxide -- when reacted with
oxygen at room temperature. The other group IV elements, in contrast, form
solids when combined with oxygen. Silicon, for example, forms crystalline silica
(the mineral quartz) as well as amorphous silica glass (one of the main
constituents of ordinary window glass), in which the silicon and oxygen atoms
form a disordered network.
Although carbon dioxide can be solidified to form "dry ice", it only does
so when squeezed under high pressure or cooled to low temperature. Moreover, dry
ice is a molecular crystal, in which the crystal lattice consists of molecules
of carbon dioxide rather than of individual carbon or oxygen atoms. A team led
by Mario Santoro and Federico Gorelli of the University of Florence and the INFM
has now been able to make amorphous carbon dioxide for the first time, in which
the individual carbon and oxygen atoms for a continuous, disordered network
structure, as in silica.
The researchers made the new a-carbonia by squeezing normal solid carbon dioxide
to pressures of around 400,000 to 500,000 atmospheres (or 40 to 50 GPa).
Infrared and laser Raman spectroscopy, along with X-ray diffraction, confirmed
that the material was no longer made up of discrete molecules but had a
disordered network structure.
The new material could have implications for planetary physics because the
interiors of gas-giant planets, like Jupiter, contain carbon dioxide under
pressures of more than 40GPa. "Another important implication is that mixtures
of a-carbonia and a-silica could, in principle be used to make new amorphous
glasses that would be very hard and stiff and likely stable at room
temperature," adds Santoro. "Small amounts of these new glasses could be
of interest for technology applications like hard and resistant coatings for
micro-electronics, for example."
The team now plans to study a-carbonia at pressures higher than 80GPa to
investigate whether or not it transforms into an amorphous material with a
carbon coordination number greater than four, that is, each carbon is connected
to more than four oxygen atoms. "This is known to happen for a-SiO 2 and a-GeO
2 and is crucial for providing insights into the fundamental thermodynamics of
the whole class of network-forming systems to which a-carbonia belongs,"
explains Santoro.
Belle Dumé science writer at PhysicsWeb. This article was reproduced from
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/10/6/7.
06 June:
CO2-Based Dry-Cleaning Chain Launched in Germany
The German industrial gases giant Linde is launching a new chain of dry
cleaners, called Fred Butler, which will use a carbon dioxide-based washing
technique.
At a press conference in Frankfurt, the company declared its intention to
eventually capture a 20% share of the European dry-cleaning market, which it
says is worth about $1.3 billion annually in Germany and $10 billion across the
continent. It is converting 24 existing Hangers dry-cleaning stores to the Fred
Butler name and plans 10 more stores by the end of the year.
Most dry cleaning is accomplished with the solvent perchloroethylene. But Fred
Butler CEO Andreas Klensch said CO2 offers “the consumer and the
environment a real alternative to conventional methods.” The company just
became the first textile-cleaning company to win Europe’s coveted Nordic Swan
ecolabel.
In the Linde system, CO2 that has been recovered from other
industrial processes is liquefied under pressure. It is then combined with a
detergent booster developed by the specialty chemical maker Uniqema and added to
clothes in a rotating washing chamber. Dirt is separated by distillation, and
the CO2 is reused.
Although perchloroethylene is under environmental scrutiny—California, for
example, plans to ban it in dry-cleaning by 2020—the solvent still commands the
lion’s share of the dry-cleaning market, which is dominated by small-business
owners (C&EN, Nov.14, 2005, page 19).
By Michael McCoy
Chemical and Engineering News , May 29, 2006
10 May:
Velev Receives Camille Dreyfus Award
Dr. Orlin Velev, Associate Professor
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NC State University, has been
selected to receive a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. This is a major
national award that was established in 1969 to "support the teaching and
research careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences."
In 2001 Velev joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering faculty. In that same year he was one of only eleven faculty members from across the United States to receive a Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award.
His research interests include colloid science and engineering, assembly of nano- and microstructures with photonic, optical and electrical functionality and biosensors.
For his research activities, Velev received a Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities in 2002, a Faculty Early Career Development (Career) Award from the National Science Foundation in 2003, and a research grant from the U.S. Department of Defense under the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program in 2004. The Journal of Materials Chemistry recently featured his work as their cover article.
Velev received his doctorate in physical chemistry in 1996 from the University of Sofia, Bulgaria.
09 May:
Upcoming Green Events
Green Chemistry at the ICCE Planning on attending the 19th International
Conference on Chemical Education (ICCE)? If so, please consider presenting a
paper on green chemistry
during the Public Understanding of Chemistry Symposium. The ICCE will be held in
Seoul, South Korea, August 12-17, 2006. Abstracts are due by May 31, 2006.
Additional information on the conference may be found on the conference Web
site at
http://www.19icce.org/19thICCE/19ICCEindex.html.
Green Chemistry in Washington
The 10th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference "Designing for a
Sustainabile Future" is June 26-30 in Washington, DC. The Advance Registration
deadline is June 19. See the conference web site for more details, and to
register and reserve your housing online:
www.greenchem2006.org.
Green Chemistry at the BCCE "Building the Community of Green Chemistry
Educators" Symposium at the 19th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education
Purdue University; July 30 - August 3, 2006.
Registration opens later in May. For more information, see the conference web
site at http://www.chem.purdue.edu/bcce/.
Green Chemistry in Oxford The Gordon Research Conference on Green Chemistry is August 27-September 1 at Magdalen College in Oxford (UK). See the conference web page for more details and to register online: http://www.grc.uri.edu/programs/2006/green.htm.
GCI
For details regarding Green Chemistry Institute and its programs click here
www.greenchemistryinstitute.org.
07 May:
Spontak Receives Award for Cooperative Research
Dr. Richard J. Spontak,
professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and materials science and
engineering, has been selected, along with Dr. Steven D. Smith of Procter &
Gamble, to receive the 2006 American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of
Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Award for Cooperative
Research in Polymer Science and Engineering.
Sponsored by the Eastman Kodak Company, the award recognizes and encourages
cooperative research between industrial and academic or national laboratory
scientists. The award was presented at the spring 2006 ACS national meeting in
Atlanta.
Spontak has been on the faculty at NC State since 1992. He has received the
Alumni Outstanding Research Award, the Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research
Achievement Award, the Sigma Xi Research Award, an Alexander von Humboldt
Research Fellowship, the College of Engineering and Alumni Outstanding Teaching
Awards, the George H. Blessis Outstanding Advising Award and an Alumni
Distinguished Undergraduate Professorship. His areas of research interest are
polymer morphology and phase stability; multifunctional and nanostructured
polymers, blends and networks; and application of microscopy techniques to
polymer science and engineering. He earned his doctorate from the University of
California at Berkeley in 1988 in chemical engineering.
06 May:
Parsons Named Fellow of American Vacuum Society
Dr. Gregory N. Parsons,
professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State
University, has been named Fellow of the American Vacuum Society. Parsons was
selected for his “significant contributions in plasma enhanced chemical vapor
deposition and atomic layer deposition.”
A 1996 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award
recipient, Parsons is a specialist in chemical processing of electronic
materials. His research interests include very low temperature plasma-enhanced
chemical processes for formation of semiconducting thin films on plastics,
carbon nanotube structures, atomic layer deposition, biomimetic molecular
photovoltaics and molecular electronics.
Parsons received his Ph.D. in physics from NC State in 1990. He joined the NC
State faculty in 1992.
05 May:
Roberts Receives Alcoa Award
Professor George
Roberts has been selected to receive the 2006 Alcoa Distinguished
Engineering Research Award. This honor recognizes "continuing outstanding
research achievements over a period of at least five years at North Carolina
State University." George's record of accomplishment is superb and, like a
very fine wine, he seems to get better with age. George is now one of a very few
faculty who have won Outstanding Teaching Awards, Outstanding Advising Awards
(at the local, Blessis Award and national, AICHE Advising Award) and Outstanding
and Distinguished Research Awards.
Congratulations, George, on this outstanding recognition of your scholarship and
your commitment to excellence.
04 May:
Downing 2006 NOBCChE Award Finalist
Domonique Downing, one of Prof. Valerie Ashby's undergraduate student
researchers, has been selected as a finalist for the 2006 NOBCChE Undergraduate
Research Award Competition sponsored by Rohm and Haas Company. She will not only
travel to Los Angeles to give an oral presentation of her research paper at the
2006 NOBCChE Annual Conference in Los Angeles, CA., she is also invited to a
paid internship at Rohm and Haas for summer of 2006. During her internship she
will have the opportunity to work with and learn from top scientists and
engineers.
Prof. Valerie Ashby and Prof. Joe DeSimone collaborated to found the UNC chapter
of NOBCChE last year, and Prof. Ashby is faculty advisor of that chapter
03 May:
CERSP Welcomes New EAB Member Psathas
With our increasing interest in therapeutics and diagnostics, the CERSP
management team decided to add a new member to our External Advisory Board. That
new member, Dr. Petros Psathas of Johnson and Johnson, is an alumnus of CERSP,
having graduated from UT-Austin in 2001.
Dr. Psathas received a in BS Chemical Engineering from the University of Patras,
Greece, where he worked with world-renown professors Dr. D. Theodorou and Dr. A.
C. Payatakes. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering under the
supervision of Dr. K. P. Johnston at the University of Texas at Austin,
conducting research in the formation of colloidal systems in super-critical CO2.
From 2001-2005 he worked at Schering-Plough Research Institute in positions of
increasing responsibilities in different therapeutic areas such as allergic and
anti-inflammatory disorders (respiratory process development) and anti-infectives
(sterile product development). In January 2006 he joined the Pharmaceutical
Development department of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research &
Development (J&JPRD) in Raritan, NJ, as Assistant Director, initially focusing
on development and manufacturing of anti-infective sterile products.
01 May:
Supercritical Fluids in Biofuels
See attached for details of
May 2 seminar on this topic.
30 April:
Global Warming
As members of a CO2 center many of us receive questions about the greenhouse
effect and global warming. Click here for a brief primer on the subject.
07 April:
Morehead Wins Best Poster at NC LSAMP
One of our EXPERT students, Vincent Morehead (a junior), won first place overall
in the poster competition at the recent NC LSAMP conference at NC A&TSU.
Approximately 40 posters were presented across all categories. His poster was
titled "Towards energy-efficient industrial separations: Non-aqueous solvent
permeation profiles in ceramic membranes." He is advised by Dr. Geoff Bothun
and Prof. Shamsuddin Ilias.
Toddy Levy, another EXPERT junior, also presented a great poster titled
"Lipase structure in organic solvents examined by UV-vis spectroscopy."
13 March:
Green Chemistry Summer School
The American Chemical Society announces the opening of the application period
for the 2006 Summer School on Green Chemistry. This no-fee event will be held
June 22-26 in Washington, DC. Transportation and housing will be provided. The
program is open to graduate students and post-docs studying in the Americas; the
deadline for applications is April 15, 2006. Click
here for details
09 March:
Energy and Sustainability Conference
The 6th Annual National Conference on Science Policy and the Environment
identified the urgent need to transcend barriers to sustainable and secure
energy use, owing to the reality of global climate change as well as rising
energy prices and concern about future demand. A great deal of immediate
improvements could be made through conservation, energy efficiency, adoption of
existing technologies and translation of scientific knowledge into policy. There
is also a need for expanded investment in science, looking more broadly to
integrating different fields of science and technology that offer unrecognized
contributions to sustainable energy. Successful transformation of national
approaches to energy will require collaboration across traditional approaches
and fields. Many of these collaborations are occurring at all levels of
government and in a variety of private sector organizations.
Click here
for a summary of the conference .
21
February: Breakthrough on Mad Cow Disease?
A commercial venture--Pathogen Removal and Diagnostic Technologies Inc., PRDT,
of which Prof. Ruben Carbonell is cofounder and active researcher--has reported
clinical studies with 100% success rate in protecting against BSE ("mad cow
disease") in cattle. Results also offer promise for human treatment in this
and related blood-borne maladies. In the laboratory infectious prions are
removed below detection levels using a filter containing PRDT's proprietary
ligand. In 18-month clinical trials the treatment was 100% effective in
protecting animals against BSE vs. 14% infection rate in the control group. This
treatment has the potential to be a very significant breakthrough for human
health worldwide. Details here.
17 January: UNC ranked #1 public college value
UNC ranks first—for the fifth consecutive
year—among the best values at the top 100 U.S. public university campuses,
according to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. The magazine’s article,
“Best Values in Public Colleges”, said UNC emerged as the magazine’s top
campus after an analysis that first stressed academic quality, including the
percentage of the 2004-05 freshman class scoring 600 or higher on the verbal and
math components of the SAT, admission rates, freshman retention rates,
student-faculty ratios and four- and six-year graduation rates.
Then the magazine ranked each school based on cost and financial aid. The formula included analysis of the total cost for in-state students, the average cost for a student with need after subtracting grants, average cost for a student without need after eliminating non-need-based grants, average percentage of need met by need-based financial aid and the average debt a student accumulates before graduation. Out-of-state rankings considered total and average costs after accounting for aid.
UNC’s student retention and graduation rates are among the nation’s best and it ranks among the public research universities recording the highest rate of undergraduates studying abroad. The story praised UNC’s financial aid policies. “It’s the only school in our survey that meets 100% of each student’s financial need,” the magazine says.
North Carolina State University, the University of Texas-Austin, and the Georgia Institute of Technology ranked 27th, 28th and 29th, respectively. Below are excerpts from the report.
From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, February 2006 edition
|
Best Values in Public Colleges |
Talk about creative financing. The mortgage industry has nothing on public colleges and universities, which have used lottery tickets, T-shirts, baseball caps and private fundraisers to hold down costs and boost financial aid.
State budget crises pushed up average tuition and fees at four-year public colleges by 57% over the past five years, reports the College Board. At the same time, many colleges have cut financial aid, some by 20% to 40%.
But with an average annual tuition of $5,491, public colleges still beat the $21,235 tab you'd pay at a private school. And some of the best public colleges in the country now guarantee that students whose families earn less than $38,000 per year won't have to take out any loans. That includes the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which for the fifth straight time tops Kiplinger's list as the best value among the nation's public colleges and universities.
In addition, more states are luring top talent away from private colleges by giving a free ride to students with stellar SAT scores or a high school grade point average of 3.0 or higher. Fourteen states offer statewide merit scholarships, generally funded by lottery income, of which Georgia's HOPE scholarship is probably the best known.
Carolina green
In our exclusive survey, we identified the 100 schools that offer the best combination of high-quality academics and affordable costs. Top-ranked UNC has kept its price well below average -- charging about $4,600 for in-state tuition and fees in the 2005-06 academic year (and $12,029 per year when you add in room, board and books) -- while providing generous financial assistance. It's the only school in our survey that meets 100% of each student's financial need. (Need is the difference between a college's cost and the amount that formulas calculate a family can afford to pay.) It's more common for colleges to meet 80% of need or less.
Since our last survey in 2003, UNC has actually beefed up its financial aid. In fact, average debt per student at graduation has declined since our first comprehensive survey in 1998 ($11,519, versus $12,478 in 1998).
For the 2004 school year, UNC introduced its Carolina Covenant, under which it guaranteed to meet, without loans, 100% of the need for every accepted freshman whose family earns less than 150% of the federal poverty level. Since then, the universities of Virginia and Maryland, plus schools in a few other states, have introduced similar programs. In 2005, UNC expanded its covenant to include families earning 200% of the federal poverty level, or $37,700 for a family of four. That guarantee applies to students from any state. Almost 10% of the members of this year's freshman class are receiving aid under the covenant program, and almost half of those students are the first members of their families to get a college education.
One student who's benefiting is sophomore Nayeli Lozada, 20, who moved from Mexico City to Siler City, N.C., four years ago and graduated seventh in her high school class. Lozada says she always wanted to go to UNC, but even with a scholarship from her hometown, she didn't think she could afford Chapel Hill. Then she received an aid package worth about $14,000 a year, which allowed her to avoid taking out any loans.
Lozada was also part of a faculty mentoring program, which helped her "smooth out the transition and make the right choices." And because she didn't have to work full-time over the summer to pay for school, she was able to study Latin American political science at a university in Chile. She'd like to do research in Brazil next year, and to go to graduate school eventually to study international affairs. "People shouldn't be discouraged by the cost," says Lozada. "The help is there."
Making the grade
How can UNC afford to boost its aid while so many schools are cutting theirs? For one thing, legislators in North Carolina spared need-based aid when they were tightening the state's budget during the past few years. In addition, says UNC chancellor James Moeser, "We're fortunate to be the number-one university in sales of licensed products, such as T-shirts and baseball caps." Traditionally, 75% of trademark-licensing revenue, which totals about $3.5 million a year, has gone toward financial aid. In 2005, UNC shifted the remainder of licensing revenue from the athletic department to create 59 new merit scholarships of $2,500 each.
That has helped Chapel Hill attract one of the highest-caliber student bodies of any public college. Among students in the freshman class of 2004-05, 78% scored 600 or higher on the math component of the SAT exam, and 73% scored 600 or above on the verbal section. About 25% of students scored 700 or higher on the verbal or math exams.
For Christian Mibelli, a charismatic 19-year-old freshman who graduated in the top of his class in Weddington, N.C., a merit scholarship of $7,500 per year made a big difference in choosing UNC over Duke, Wake Forest and Davidson. Even with a scholarship, Duke was still a lot more expensive than UNC, and Mibelli was impressed with Chapel Hill: "Being at a school where everyone worked extremely hard to get in and wants to be here is an amazing experience."
Mibelli, who's interested in medicine and public policy, participates in student government, takes classes to become an emergency medical technician and volunteers at the university's N.C. Children's Hospital. "There are so many possibilities," he says.
Most students agree. At UNC, 95% of them return after their freshman year, compared with a retention rate of 80% to 90% for most schools. It's a place where school spirit isn't uncool -- especially when you're the reigning NCAA basketball champions.
Like many large universities near the top of our list, UNC is getting a lot more money from private donations. The Carolina First campaign raised more than $1.6 billion from July 1999 to December 2005 for faculty, research, scholarships and facilities. UCLA and the universities of Michigan, Virginia and Washington are in the midst of their own billion-dollar private fund-raising drives. And some of the smaller public colleges "are getting into that business," says Travis Reindl, of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
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