Volume 2, Issue 1 BioSEI 2009-2010:
RFP Now Open
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
CENTER
University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez
PO Box 9001
Mayagüez, PR 00681-9001
Phone: 787-831-2065
Fax: 787-831-2060
E-mail: cid@uprm.edu
Contact:
Yuri Rojas— Director
y_rojas@math.uprm.edu
http://cid.uprm.edu
http://blogs.uprm.edu/cid
Meet Our Researchers:
Catherine Mazak (English)
Graduated from: Michigan State Uni-
versity
Started Working for UPRM: August
2005
Recent Project: Advancing English
Language Learning for Food and Agri-
cultural Science Majors, funded by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture His-
panic Serving Institutions Education
Grant Program ($240,000)
Research Interests: “I study English
as a second language (ESL) learning,
especially literacy development
(reading and writing). I approach my
research from a socio-cultural perspec-
tive, which means that I’m interested in
how language learning is situated in a
particular social, economic, historical,
and political context. To me, Puerto
Rico is one of the most interesting and
exciting places to study English lan-
guage learning because of the long po-
Office of the Director Moves
Following a similar and recent move by our Office of External Resources
(ORE, for its Spanish acronym), the R&D Center Director’s Office has
moved to its new home, Room JD-2 of the Administration Building, where
until two years ago the Conference Room was located.
litical history of English in Puerto Rico.
I hope my research helps create better
English teachers, materials, and educa-
tional policies here.”
Current Project: “My current project
is funded by the USDA. What does
English have to do with agriculture?
Well, people learn language better if
the language they are learning is about
something they already know a lot
about. So this project uses agricultural
themes and materials to teach English
to agriculture students. In June we ran
an intensive English program from 30
incoming freshman who had placed
into the pre-basic English level. By the
end of the 3 weeks, students were de-
livering presentations in English and
writing in English on their own blogs.
Those same 30 students will continue
together through Basic I and II (3101-
3102). It was a beautiful thing to see
how the students in the summer insti-
August-September 2008
The Research and
Development (R&D) Cen-
ter and the Colleges of Arts
and Sciences, Agricultural
Sciences and Engineering
of the University of Puerto
Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM)
announce the continuation
of its Bio Science and En-
gineering Initiative
(BioSEI) aimed to develop
a coherent and interdisci-
plinary research program in
Bio Science and Engineer-
ing at UPRM.
This program will
Mío CID / My R&D
provide the funding and
academic means to prepare
our faculty, researchers and
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
students for the develop-
ment of highly competitive
research projects in the
field of Bio Science and
Engineering at UPRM. The
program is requesting inno-
vative and interdisciplinary
tute grew to be friends as they shared R&DC Statement of Values
their first experience together at Cole-
gio. The level of confidence and trust Last May 15, 2008 the
that they have in each other should help Research &Development
them feel comfortable taking the risks Center Board of Directors
necessary to speak English.” gave its final approval to
the following Statement
What do you like most about
UPRM? “The students!”
of Values for the way its
personnel conducts busi-
ness:
Inside this issue:
Carvajal Funds “Democratization” Project
Research Administration Academy: Fall 2008
Quick Quiz
$5M for Nanotech Center
The Perfect (MRI) Score
Meet Our Personnel: Human Resources
Meet Our Researchers: Catherine Mazak
research proposals to start
projects in this exciting
field.
We expect to fund
three to five research pro-
jects of up to $90,000 each
during the 18-month period
The new Bio Processes Pilot
starting January 1, 2009
Plant, could be a collaboration
and ending June 30, 2010.
They must be interdiscipli-
nary in nature, incorporate
• Letter of Intent due:
undergraduate and graduate
September 19, 2008
students, and promote col-
laborations with the private
• Final proposals due:
sector, among other re-
October 23, 2008
quirements.
The three thematic • Expected announce-
ment of awards: De-
areas are: Biotechnology
(including Agricultural), cember 2008
Information Technology For further informa-
related to Life Sciences, tion, please contact the
and Bioengineering. R&D Center (Attn. Dr.
The timeline is as fol- Marisol Vera, X-5250;
email: mvera@uprm.edu)
lows:
or visit its webpage: http://
cid.uprm.edu/.
VALUES
To conduct our work with
integrity, responsibility
and sense of urgency, and
Integrity
with a strong commitment
to the institution, the com-
Responsibility munity and the environ-
ment.
Commitment
NEW INDIRECT COST RATE !!!
2
The Department of Health and Human
2 Services (DHHS) and the UPR reached
2 an agreement on the new Facilities and
Administration (indirect cost) rates for
3
UPRM, in effect immediately:
3
On-Campus: 50.0%
4
Off-Campus: 26.0%
4
Carvajal Foundation Funds
“Knowledge Democratization” Project
The Carvajal Foundation,
named in honor of philanthropist
Francisco Carvajal, recently
signed a Memorandum of Under-
standing with the University of
Puerto Rico to fund a five-year
project at UPRM to study and deal
with the connections between so-
cial inequality and access to uni-
versity education. The project’s
aim is to generate a serious re-
search on this very fundamental
topic, but also to make an impact
on the lives of students coming
from marginalized communities in
Puerto Rico, including residential pro-
jects (residenciales públicos).
During its first year, the project in-
Research Administration Academy:
Fall 2008 Calendar
Pre-Award Sequence
CID 101: Proposal Preparation at UPRM
August 14, 2008
CID 102: Budget Preparation
September 11, 2008
CID 103: Successful Proposals Panel
October 9, 2008
Quick R&DC Quiz
QUESTIONS
1. What does IRB stand for? What is
its name in Spanish?
2. What are the functions of the IRB?
ANSWERS
1. IRB stands for “Institutional Re-
view Board”. The Spanish version
Page 2
aguez projects who are in Junior
High School, and some High
school students.
Dr. Rima Brusi, from the Depart-
ment of Social Sciences, is the
Principal Investigator. The Co-PIs
are Dr. David González,
(Industrial Engineering), and Dr.
R&DC Board members at the November 2nd, 2007 meeting. Sandra Dika (Office of Institu-
tional Research and Planning).
The total amount of funds granted
by Carvajal Foundation to UPRM
is $449,150.
cludes research activities, as well as The three PIs are shown on the back
dissemination, and the development of row of the photo. On the front row are
a first “research and policy paper”. Francisco Carvajal, two members of his
There will also be activities geared family and UPR President Antonio
towards some sixty children from May- García-Padilla, Esq.
CID 104: Electronic Submission of Pro- September 18, 2008
posals CID 203: AmEx Corporate Card
November 6, 2008
Aug 21, Oct 23 & Dec 4, 2008
CID 204: Human Resources Issues
October 30, 2008
Post-Award Sequence
CID 201: I got funded...now what?:
CID 205: Accounting Issues
Budget Issues November 20, 2008
August 28, 2008
CID 202: Purchasing & Receiving Issues
is Comité para la Pro- IRB has been established. It
tección de Seres Hu- is the entity responsible for
manos en la Investiga- the approval of revision pro-
ción (CPSHI). tocols. It can also request
that changes be made in the
2. In accordance with the
protocol, or it can deny its
Letter of Assurance
approval.
that UPRM issued re-
garding the use of hu-
man subjects in re-
search activities, an
M Í O C I D / MY R & D
NSF Grants UPRM $5 Million
for Nanotechnology Center
The National Science Foundation
has recently awarded $5 million to our
institution for the establishment of a
nanotechnology center focused on re-
search and education of biomedical and
energy-driven systems and applications.
This five-year project, set to start on Sep-
tember 1st, is led by doctors Carlos Ri-
naldi, Arturo Hernández, Oscar Perales,
Jeannette Santos and O. Marcelo Suárez,
who is the Principal Investigator, and
receives funds from the CREST (Centers
of Research Excellence in Science and
Technology) program administered by
NSF Directorate for Education and Hu-
man Resources.
This Nanotechnology Center for
Biomedical and Energy-Driven Systems
and Applications (NCBEDSA) seeks to
UPRM goes three for three for the second time in
NSF-MRI proposals approved
For the second straight year, NSF has
approved all three UPRM proposals submit-
ted to the Major Research Instrumentation
(MRI) program. The six awardees are:
• Acquisition of NIR Chemical Imaging
Spectrometer to Study Novel Organic
Composites (Rodolfo Romanach—
Chemistry)
• Acquisition of a Cryogen-Free Physi-
cal Property Measurement System for
Meet Our Personnel:
Human Resources Office
The Human Resources Office has
four employees. Shown in the picture
are, in the front row, from left to right:
Leticia ‘Letty’ Gallardo (HR Analyst
III), Nérida ‘Nery’ Montalvo
(Administrative Secretary III) and
Ileana Latorre (Administrative Assis-
tant II); Jay Jaxon (Supervisor) appears
in the back.
The duties of this office include
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1
secure national competitiveness of our Hernández, Nelson Cardona, Raph-
institution in the area of materials engi- ael Raptis)
neering research and nanotechnology.
IRG4: Nanoengineered composite materi-
To achieve this goal, the NCBEDSA als for energy efficient devices and
was structured in four interdisciplinary applications (O. Marcelo Suárez,
research groups (IRGs) and an interdisci- Nelson Sepúlveda, Agnes Padovani,
plinary education group (IEG). Guillermo Serrano, David Suleiman)
IEG: Jeanette Santos, Sandra Dika and
Jacquelina Álvarez
IRG1: Multifunctional nanoparticles for
magnetically actuated siRNA deliv-
ery (Carlos Rinaldi, Madeline Tor-
res, Eduardo Juan)
The IEG’s activities will not only
impact society segments (encompassing
IRG2: Quantum dot systems for cancer middle and high schools as well as teach-
therapy (Oscar Perales, Luis Rivera, ers and public school counselors) but also
Maharaj Tomar, Surinder Singh) the whole scholar echelon from under-
graduates and graduate students to par-
IRG3: Nanoporous materials for separa-
ticipating faculty.
tions and catalysis (Arturo
Research and Education at UPRM • Acquisition of 15 High-rate GPS Units
(Yang Li—Eng Sci & Materials) for Developing a Broadband Earth-
quake Observation System in Puerto
• Development of a Meteorological Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
Radar Network for Puerto Rico's West
(Guoquan Wang—Geology)
Coast (José Colom—Elec&Comp Eng)
• Development of an Autonomous
• Acquisition of Processing and Testing
Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for Ben-
Equipment for the Integration of Mate-
thic Research and Training (Roy
rials Science and Engineering Re-
search at the UPRM (Nelson Armstrong—Marine Sciences)
Sepúlveda—Elec & Comp Eng)
identifying and helping in hiring staff
for research projects, acting as liaison
between researchers and administrative
offices regarding additional compensa-
tions, and helping in all matters related
with health plan, attendance records,
licenses and retirement issues. All spe-
cial appointments and additional com-
pensations from R&DC external
sources are handled through this office.
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