News

Dr. Patrick Clemins, Cyber Specialist for VT EPSCoR, along with Robert Davis of Stromatec, led a roundtable discussion on the SBIR/STTR and VT EPSCoR SBIR Phase 0 grant process at the 8th Annual Invention to Venture (I2V) Conference at the University of Vermont's Davis Center on the afternoon of April 4th, 2013. Attendees participated in one of nine roundtable discussions during three different sessions on topics such as how to build a business team, financial resources in Vermont, and intellectual property protection. Conversation at the SBIR/STTR/Phase 0 roundtable included how to find help in applying for an SBIR/STTR grant, the differences between SBIR/STTR grants and academic research grants such as those from NSF and NIH, how SBIR/STTR grants are reviewed, and the benefits of applying for a Vermont EPSCoR Phase 0 grant before submitting a proposal at the federal level.

A multi-year Post-Doctoral Research Associate position is available at the University of Vermont as part of a research study of Adaptation to Climate Change in the Lake Champlain Basin. We seek a post-doctoral associate with expertise in numerical hydrological modeling with computer programming expertise. The postdoctoral associate will work within an interdisciplinary team of faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and stake holders to address research questions about adaptation to climate change and develop an integrative assessment model. Additional information may be found at: http://www.uvm.edu/~epscor/new02/?q=node/30.

We invite you to join us for the VT EPSCoR Research on Adaptation to Climate Change in the Lake Champlain Basin (RACC) Annual State Meeting, a 1-day meeting comprised of scientific presentations, posters and networking opportunities.

Visitors from the National Science Foundation, Congressional Offices, State and Local Agencies, Researchers, Private Sector, Graduate and Undergraduate Students will be present to share progress and provide updates on the second year of the Adaptation to Climate Change in the Lake Champlain Basin: New Understanding through Complex Systems (RACC) project.

Joined today with Patric Climins, Cyber Specialist for Vermont's EPSCoR program. We are talking about Internet2 which is free to Vermont schools.

Patrick Clemins Cyber Specialist Vermont EPSCoR Vermont Internet2 SEGP: Imagine the Possibilities CONNECT. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science

Fifteen faculty, graduate students and post-doctoral associates working on the VT EPSCoR research Adaptation to Climate Change in the Lake Champlain Basin: New Understanding through Complex Systems (RACC) traveled to the National Science Foundation (NSF) on March 7, 2013 to visit with 15 Program Directors encompassing a wide range of directorates to learn about new NSF initiatives and funding mechanisms. The visit was designed to expose graduate students and post-doctoral associates to the National Science Foundation and acquaint the group members with funding opportunities as part of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) mentoring and career development efforts of VT EPSCoR.

Undergraduates Suzanne Ball (WFB '13) and Chelsea Mitchell (UVM '13) recently attended the 2013 Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) "Aquatic Sciences Meeting" in New Orleans, Louisiana. Suzanne is a fisheries biology major in the Rubenstein School, and Chelsea is a biological science major in the College of Arts and Sciences. Since last May, the two have been conducting research on a freshwater shrimp that resides in Lake Champlain with guidance from Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory Director, Dr. Jason Stockwell.

On March 21st, 2013 Vermont EPSCoR presented a seminar with Dr. Andrea Pearce of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at University of Vermont. Her talk was entitled:
Unraveling associations between cyanobacteria blooms and in-lake environmental conditions in Missisquoi Bay.

On March 16, 2013 Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hosted a conference to discuss how global warming is impacting Vermont. Sanders was joined by environmental experts who explored what can be done to reverse climate change. Author and environmental activist, Bill McKibben gave the keynote speech at the event. Sanders recently introduced bold climate change legislation which includes a tax on carbon and puts an end to subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.

VT EPSCoR and the Governor's Institutes of Vermont partnered to host the first-ever Advanced Math Winter Weekend for Girls on Feburay 15-17 at Marlboro College in Marlboro, Vermont.
Fourteen girls, including students through the Vermont Refugee Resettlement program participated.

The Governor's Institutes of Vermont (GIV) creates fun, accelerated learning residencies on college campuses for Vermont teenagers. Since 1983, nearly 10,000 students have embraced the unique opportunity to deepen their educations through GIV, and GIV has become one of the longest-running Governor's schools in the country.

In 2004, the Vermont State Math Coalition partnered with GIV to create the Mathematical Sciences Institute. In the Advanced Mathematics for Girls Institute, the attendees explored advanced mathematical concepts in a hands-on way. Students explored fascinating things with advanced math and examined how mathematical principles apply to the world.

GIV holds winter weekends and summer week-long programs. GIV institutes focus on arts, engineering, information technology, environmental science and technology, mathematics, Asian cultures, and current issues and Youth Activism. For more information see www.giv.org.

This winter we have been experiencing alternate periods of freezing and thawing. I thought my gardening was over for the year when the ground froze hard by Christmas, until heavy snow fell and insulated the ground. Air temperatures fell below minus 10 degrees at night, but under the snow my garden soil thawed again.

Then when temperatures rose to 50 degrees, the snow melted. On Jan. 15, I was able to dig under more of my rye cover crop and prepare a bed for planting peas in a couple of months. Four out of the last seven winters, I have had the delight of digging the soil on warm days in January.

UVM News
Interview: Asim Zia
UVM News
Asim Zia Civilization will, it seems, keeping burning fossil fuels for years. And the climate for the rich and poor will get warmer. Policy expert Asim Zia wonders where that path will lead and how the world's nations and people might do a better job ...

Google News

Members of the RACC Question 3 team met to collaborate on progress to date and share plans and strategies for the upcoming year. The multidisciplinary team is led by Chris Koliba and includes faculty, graduate students and post-doctoral associates.

In the midst of human-induced global climate change, powerful industrialized nations and rapidly industrializing nations are still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Even if we arrive at a Hubbert’s peak for oil extraction in the 21st century, the availability of technologically recoverable coal and natural gas will mean that fossil fuels continue to be burned for many years to come, and our civilization will have to deal with the consequences far into the future. Climate change will not discriminate between rich and poor nations, and yet the UN-driven process of negotiating a global climate governance regime has hit serious roadblocks.

The 2013 VT EPSCoR Annual State Meeting date of May 29, 2013 has been changed due to a scheduling conflict that we have just been made aware of concerning a major event taking place in Burlington.

To avoid key RACC members and stakeholders who may have to be at both events, we have elected to change the VT EPSCoR Annual Meeting date.

Please release May 29, 2013 from you calendar.

A new date will be announced shortly.

The Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering (VASE) is pleased to announce a program for small equipment grants to K-12 teachers. This program is part of the VASE STEM outreach activity. Additional information about VASE can be found at http://www.uvm.edu/~vase/.

Johnson State College accepting applications for $40000 science scholarship
vtdigger.org
... (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) support many of these studies. For more information and application guidelines, visit www.jsc.edu/START or contact Dr. Leslie Kanat at 802/635-1327 or les.kanat@jsc.edu (fax: 802/635-1461).

RACC Graduate Students Jody Stryker and Peter Isles along with Postdoctoral Associate Steven Scheiner, worked with Producer Victor Guadgno in January 2013, to begin learning communications techniques and conduct interviews with RACC faculty about their recently published scholarly articles in peer reviewed publications. The results of their efforts will be short videos of UVM faculty members Drs. Troy Austin, Carol Adair and Asim Zia talking about recent publications in their areas of expertise.

The project is an outcome from the NSF OLPA "Becoming the Messenger Workshop" VT EPSCoR hosted in March 2012. The VT EPSCoR Media Training Project aims to train and expose scientists to media production techniques, and at the same time, produce a high quality series of short videos related to critical scientific work in various areas of expertise conducted by Vermont researchers.

The videos will be available in February 2013.

On January 22, 2013, Dr. Declan McCabe, Associate Professor of Biology at Saint Michael’s College, hosted the second RACC High School Webinar on the topic of data and data analysis. Dr. McCabe discussed how to find sources of data online, how to groom and present your data using Excel, and how to use PowerPoint to create a scientific poster or oral presentation for the 2013 Symposium.

There’s a great need for computational science programs that prepare the current and next generation of
researchers, educators, and practitioners to effectively utilize digital services in support of science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics. Xsede helps facilitate the founding and expansion of such programs.