The Office for Research Development is requesting letters of intent for the Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE)program. The primary goal of PIRE is to support high quality projects in which advances in research and education could not occur without international collaboration. PIRE seeks to catalyze a higher level of international engagement in the U.S. science and engineering community. Guidelines: http://oregonstate.edu/research/incentive/nsf-pire. Information: Mary Phillips, Director, Office for Research Development, mary.phillips@oregonstate.edu. Deadline: Aug. 18.
Author Archives: Luanne Johnson
Advantage Accelerator “graduates” moving toward successful new businesses, jobs
Originally posted on News and Research Communications by David Stauth
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Four promising startup companies in fields ranging from social media to chemical manufacturing are among the first “graduating class” of the Oregon State University Advantage Accelerator, upon completion of a program designed to help lead them toward commercial success.
Organizers of the new program say it’s off to a promising start in efforts to bring more university research and community ideas to the commercial marketplace. This and other elements of the OSU Advantage form partnerships with industry and work to boost the Oregon economy, while providing invaluable experiences for OSU students involved in many aspects of the program.
“Our program has unfolded as well or better than we had hoped, and we now plan to increase the output,” said John Turner, co-director of the Advantage Accelerator. “Completion of this program means that companies have an increased chance to succeed and have a step-by-step plan to approach the future.”
“Based on our experience in the first year of this program, we’ve decided to conduct two cohort groups each year rather than one,” Turner said. “The coming year will result in about 15-20 new startup companies.”
Success in a tough and competitive commercial marketplace is not automatic, however, and not all companies have the will and strength to complete the rigorous program.
The first graduates have completed a “portfolio” of accomplishments, Turner said, that included training to attract investors, a validated business model, a schedule for future steps, and an initial product to show prospective customers, investors or manufacturers. A few clients are already attracting attention through the sale of products and generating profit.
The OSU Advantage Accelerator provides mentoring with industry and entrepreneurial experts, consulting sessions, access to seed grants and the OSU Venture Fund, meetings with active investors, workshops on various topics, networking events and many other activities.
One of the early participants in the program, Onboard Dynamics of Bend, Ore., plans to market technology that could ultimately revolutionize the way America drives. It has developed systems that compress natural gas right in the vehicle and take advantage of the enormous current supplies of low-cost natural gas. The innovation is able to cut automobile fuel costs to the gasoline-equivalent of less than $1 a gallon.
“An intern working with the Advantage Accelerator performed a lot of tasks relating to market analysis and startup activities that were incredibly helpful to the company,” said CEO Rita Hansen.
“We’re in an excellent position right now, having been formally selected by the Department of Energy for a $2.88 million award, and our initial target markets are the underserved, small, light-duty commercial fleets,” Hansen said. “We’re very bullish about widespread adoption by these fleets of our products.”
A few other companies that have completed the program include:
- Pikli, a student-based company based on social media that allows individuals to involve their friends and family in their shopping experiences;
- Waste2Watergy, which is commercializing a microbial fuel cell technology to reduce or eliminate significant wastewater costs and produce electricity from the resultant effluence; and
- Valliscor, a chemical manufacturing company that licensed technology developed at OSU to produce high-value chemicals for the pharmaceutical, agricultural, polymer and electronics industries.
“The OSU Advantage Accelerator program was very helpful and their mentorship was really first-rate,” said Rich Carter, professor and chair of the OSU Department of Chemistry, and CEO of Valliscor. “They helped us develop the necessary tools to become a functioning company, and whenever you needed advice all you had to do was pick up the phone.”
Carter said he’s “very optimistic” about the company going forward, which is already producing and selling its first products.
The OSU Advantage Accelerator is one component of the Oregon Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network, or Oregon RAIN. With support from the Oregon legislature, collaborators on the initiative include OSU, the University of Oregon, the cities of Eugene, Springfield, Corvallis and Albany, and other economic development organizations. All the participants are focused on creating new business, expanding existing business, creating jobs and helping to build the Oregon and national economy.
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About the Oregon State University Advantage: Oregon State is committed to innovation that leads to new businesses, jobs and economic growth for Oregon and the nation. That commitment now includes the Venture Accelerator, to move promising ideas out of the laboratory and into the marketplace; and the Industry Partnering Program, which helps improve the success of existing business and industry.
New Mexico State University College Track Faculty Position
College-track Faculty Position
CHEMISTRY FACULTY LECTURER POSITION
AT NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY
The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at New Mexico State University
(NMSU), Las Cruces, invites candidates with a Ph.D. in Chemistry or a closely
related area to apply for a full-time, nine-month non-tenure-track lecturer position
at the College Assistant Professor level (Position #718317) beginning either
January 2015 or August 2015. Primary teaching assignments will include general
chemistry and undergraduate-level organic chemistry, both lecture and
laboratory. Successful candidates must have demonstrated excellence in teaching
undergraduate lecture or laboratory courses and be committed to providing quality
undergraduate education. Applicants must submit three letters of reference, a
cover letter, CV, copy of transcripts with degree posted, statement of professional
goals and teaching philosophy, and evidence of teaching effectiveness.
NMSU is a public, land grant, minority-serving institution recognized by the
Carnegie Foundation as a RU/H (Research University with high research activity)
institution. For more information see: http://www.chemistry.nmsu.edu/
Applications should be submitted on-line at: https://jobs.nmsu.edu/
New Mexico State University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action
Employer; Minorities, Females, Veterans, and those with a Disability are
encouraged to apply. To begin Searching for Job Openings, please click “Search
Jobs” in the left navigation section
(Quicklink: http://jobs.nmsu.edu/postings/18404). To apply for Job Openings,
please create an account by clicking the “Create Account” link. If you need
assistance, please contact Human Resource Services at (575) 646-8000.
Review of applications will begin October 1, 2014. NMSU is an Equal
Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and encourages applications from
women and underrepresented minority candidates. All university positions are
contingent upon availability of funding. All offers of employment, oral and
written, are contingent on the university’s verification of credentials and other
information required by federal law, state law, and NMSU policies/procedures,
and may include the completion of a criminal history check.
SDO – Spring Term Grades
Good morning all,
Allow me to indulge in a moment of ‘Kveling’ – according to the sorority grades for Spring term, once again, Sigma Delta Omega achieved the highest GPA among sororities and fraternities. I lost count how many times they have ranked number one.
For those who are not familiar with the sorority, SDO is a women in science sorority affiliated with the College of Science. They support and provide academic help to all OSU students, engage in outreach programs, and are top philanthropy sorority at OSU. More information can be found at http://oregonstate.edu/cfsl/sigma-delta-omega or by contacting me.
Thanks for allowing me the moment.
Ariella C. Wolf, MBA/MSHA
BioHealth Sciences Advisor
Chen Xian Ng on Undergraduate Research
Who is your PI? – Sean Burrows
Do you have a Graduate Student/Post-Doc Mentor? – Kyle Almlie
How did you learn about the position? – I got into the research with Dr.Burrows by volunteering, which I got to know about from my adviser, to help set up his lab when he first became a faculty in OSU. I was interested in the research he was going to conduct (currently conducting) and I asked whether he needed any undergraduate researchers in his lab.
Why did you get into Undergraduate Research? – To gain knowledge and have first hand experience in the analytical and spectroscopy field of chemistry. Moreover, I had a some spare time left and did not wanted to waste it.
What advice might you have for other Undergraduate students thinking of pursuing research or just getting started? – Being an undergraduate researcher is very fun and rewarding. I get to do cool experiments on my own and also shadow the graduate students in conducting much higher level experiments. What I think they should expect is depending on the field of research, always remember the basics of general chemistry such as finding the moles and concentration of a substance . Also, don’t be too picky about what the research is about but just dive into it and gain the experience and knowledge regarding the research.
Success GTAs: What Are They and Why Do We Need Them
Instructors Margie Haak and Paula Weiss will give a seminar titled, “Success GTAs: What Are They and Why Do We Need Them” at the 2014 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, August 3-7 2014 at Grand Valley University in Michigan.
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In Fall term 2013 we created the Success GTA position as part of a larger university-wide pilot program focused on increasing student success in first-year courses that historically have high percentages of students earning grades of D or F, or withdrawing from the course (DFW rates). The fall term enrollment in our three different general chemistry courses (science majors, engineering majors, and majors other than physical sciences) range from 750 to 1200 students and each course has between 3 and 7 lecture sections.
The Success GTAs had several roles in the courses. They all taught at least one recitation or lab section in their assigned course, half the load of a regular GTA . In addition they were responsible for identifying and contacting students who were doing poorly in some aspect of the course: not registered for Mastering Chemistry or not completing the Mastering Chemistry assignments, exams scores well below the class median, not attending recitations or labs. They were also part of the CH 199 courses that were offered to provide extra support to students struggling in general chemistry.
We will present results showing the impact of the Success GTA interventions, discuss the training Success GTAs received prior to the start of fall term classes, and lessons learned from the first year of this program.
New assay to spot fake malaria drugs could save thousands of lives
By David Stauth, 541-737-0787
Contact: Vincent Remcho, 541-737-8181 or vincent.remcho@oregonstate.edu
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Chemists and students in science and engineering at Oregon State University have created a new type of chemical test, or assay, that’s inexpensive, simple, and can tell whether or not one of the primary drugs being used to treat malaria is genuine – an enormous and deadly problem in the developing world.
The World Health Organization has estimated that about 200,000 lives a year may be lost due to the use of counterfeit anti-malarial drugs. When commercialized, the new OSU technology may be able to help address that problem by testing drugs for efficacy at a cost of a few cents.
When broadly implemented, this might save thousands of lives every year around the world, and similar technology could also be developed for other types of medications and diseases, experts say.
Findings on the new technology were just published in Talanta, a professional journal.
“There are laboratory methods to analyze medications such as this, but they often are not available or widely used in the developing world where malaria kills thousands of people every year,” said Vincent Remcho, a professor of chemistry and Patricia Valian Reser Faculty Scholar in the OSU College of Science, a position which helped support this work.
“What we need are inexpensive, accurate assays that can detect adulterated pharmaceuticals in the field, simple enough that anyone can use them,” Remcho said. “Our technology should provide that.”
The system created at OSU looks about as simple, and is almost as cheap, as a sheet of paper. But it’s actually a highly sophisticated “colorimetric” assay that consumers could use to tell whether or not they are getting the medication they paid for – artesunate – which is by far the most important drug used to treat serious cases of malaria. The assay also verifies that an adequate level of the drug is present.
In some places in the developing world, more than 80 percent of outlets are selling counterfeit pharmaceuticals, researchers have found. One survey found that 38-53 percent of outlets in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam had no active drug in the product that was being sold. Artesunate, which can cost $1 to $2 per adult treatment, is considered an expensive drug by the standards of the developing world, making counterfeit drugs profitable since the disease is so prevalent.
Besides allowing thousands of needless deaths, the spread of counterfeit drugs with sub-therapeutic levels of artesunate can promote the development of new strains of multi-drug resistant malaria, with global impacts. Government officials could also use the new system as a rapid screening tool to help combat the larger problem of drug counterfeiting.
The new technology is an application of microfluidics, in this instance paper microfluidics, in which a film is impressed onto paper that can then detect the presence and level of the artesunate drug. A single pill can be crushed, dissolved in water, and when a drop of the solution is placed on the paper, it turns yellow if the drug is present. The intensity of the color indicates the level of the drug, which can be compared to a simple color chart.
OSU undergraduate and graduate students in chemistry and computer science working on this project in the Remcho lab took the system a step further, and created an app for an iPhone that could be used to measure the color, and tell with an even higher degree of accuracy both the presence and level of the drug.
The technology is similar to what can be accomplished with computers and expensive laboratory equipment, but is much simpler and less expensive. As a result, use of this approach may significantly expand in medicine, scientists said.
“This is conceptually similar to what we do with integrated circuit chips in computers, but we’re pushing fluids around instead of electrons, to reveal chemical information that’s useful to us,” Remcho said. “Chemical communication is how Mother Nature does it, and the long term applications of this approach really are mind-blowing.”
Colorimetric assays have already been developed for measurement of many biomarker targets of interest, Remcho said, and could be expanded for a wide range of other medical conditions, pharmaceutical and diagnostic tests, pathogen detection, environmental analysis and other uses.
With a proof of concept of the new technology complete, the researchers may work with the OSU Advantage to commercialize the technology, ultimately with global application. As an incubator for startup and early stage organizations, OSU Advantage connects business with faculty expertise and student talent to bring technology such as this to market.
Read the publication here.
Two (2) New Online Chemistry Courses
CH 582, Chemistry and Materials of Batteries and Super Capacitors. Students will learn about the current as well as developing technologies in this exciting field.
CH 584, Instruments and Online Interactions in the Sciences. This class is offered jointly with the College of Education and is intended for those planning to be teachers.
Both are 3 credit classes and are offered Fall term; contact kim.thackray@oregonstate.edu for more information or check out the Fall Schedule.
Search Advocate Sessions
Be prepared to work with search committees on the 2014-15 Provost’s Initiative searches–or any other searches—by completing this workshop covering strategies to enhance validity, fairness, and diversity in the search process. Instead of requiring the typical two-workshop series (totaling 10 hours), this summer we are streamlining the workshop to a single day ( 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., breakfast and lunch included). Register at the OSU Professional Development website http://oregonstate.edu/training/index.php for either July 30 or Aug. 6. September sessions are also available before classes begin, either Sept. 22 or Sept. 25. Questions? Contact Anne Gillies anne.gillies@oregonstate.edu <mailto:anne.gillies@oregonstate.edu> or 541-737-0865.
Design and Implementation of General Chemistry Support Course
Instructors Paula Weiss and Margie Haak will give a seminar titled, “Design and Implementation of General Chemistry Support Course” at the 2014 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, August 3-7, 2014 at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.
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We will discuss the design and implementation of a full-year support course to increase student success in General Chemistry. The course provides support for developing problem-solving skills, effective study skills for chemistry courses, math review, and additional exposure to the chemistry concepts covered in General Chemistry. In the classroom students are engaged in problem-solving with other students, with guidance from general chemistry faculty and graduate teaching assistants. This presentation will focus on lessons learned in our first year of offering the course and plans for future implementations.