Rutgers receives Five Department of Education Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need awards

Rutgers has received five grants for Ph.D. fellowships from the US Dept. of Education Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need or GAANN Program.

GAANN Grants will be awarded to the following departments:

1. Department of Physics and Astronomy – $174,208 for the period 08/15/2009 through 08/14/ 2010. This federal funding will provide for graduate fellowships to four graduate students over three years.

2. Rutgers Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology - $174,208. This proposed project will provide federal fellowship support for five students enrolled in the Doctoral Program in Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

3. BioMaps Institute for Quantitative Biology and Graduate Program in Computational Biology and Molecular Biophysics - Computational Biology and Molecular Biophysics - $174,208 for the period 08/15/2009 through 08/14/2010. This grant will provide six graduate students the opportunity to pursue doctoral work in Computational Biology and Molecular Physics. The field of quantitative biology in an area of urgent national need arising out of the extensive and detailed biological information obtained through the use of the use of molecular and structural biology, especially the successes of genome sequencing and the field of proteomics, or the large-scale study of proteins. Particular effort will be devoted to recruiting and mentoring women and underrepresented minorities.

4. Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering in the School of Engineering - Pharmaceutical Engineering . This federal funding provides fellowships to four graduate students at the doctoral level that are enrolled full time to pursue a PH.D. In chemical engineering. New Jersey has the largest number of multinational pharmaceutical manufacturers in the nation. The proposed program will enhance the capacity for research in New Jersey and the nation by providing the U.S. pharmaceutical industries with skilled researchers needed for pharmaceutical product and process development and design.

5. Department of Mathematics. This proposed project will provide federal fellowship support for four students enrolled in the Doctoral Program in Mathematics . (PI: Michael Saks).

Teen girls build future careers in Rutgers engineering program

The engineering class going on this summer on the third floor of the Allison Road classroom building on the Busch campus does not look like any other engineering class at Rutgers University.

In fact, it may not look like any other engineering class anywhere.

That is because everyone in the class is an adolescent girl.

This is not an actual college engineering class. The students are still in high school.

They are participating in a summerlong program called The Academy at Rutgers for Girls in Engineering and Technology or TARGET, designed to introduce girls as early as the sixth grade to engineering.

Full Story: Teen girls build future careers in Rutgers engineering program | mycentraljersey.com | MyCentralJersey.com

Where to Find a Multimillion-Dollar Business Idea - BusinessWeek

By Richard Mammone

A breakthrough business idea often comes from outside. The successful entrepreneur is one who finds it, refines it, and makes a business plan.

Universities are a rich source of ideas. They spend years improving the principles that underlie many of the products and services currently on the market today. They also come up with new ideas that can create entirely new industries in the future. Universities spend nearly $50 billion every year in federal and state funds, corporate and privately sponsored research contracts, and other financial sources solely on university research projects, according to a 2007 survey by the Association of University Technology Managers. The Bayh-Dole Act, passed in 1980, encourages universities to patent and license new technologies to generate additional revenues for the university and also for the greater good of society by disseminating new useful products and services.

Full Story: BusinessWeek

Drilling for clues in ancient sediments about how sea-level changes will affect us

The quest for answers starts with a 285-horsepower drilling rig that churns for hours on end, bringing up a variety of clues about past sea levels - evidence contained in fossils, in the chemistry of the water trapped in ancient sediment, and in the nature of the clay and sands themselves.

Kenneth G. Miller, a Rutgers University geologist, speaks loudly in order to be heard over the steady hum of the drill.

"This is what we think is going to be the home run for understanding how fast sea level can change in this area," he says of the project.

Full Story: Digging for answers | Philadelphia Inquirer | 07/13/2009

Rutgers Researchers Work to Rid New Brunswick of Bed Bugs

New Brunswick, New Jersey, the home of Rutgers University, has the highest population density per square mile for rental housing in the country. With so many people living together in such close proximity to each other it gives one of the country’s worst pests an ideal environment to live and thrive. This pest is bed bugs, the tiny insects that infest beds, couches and other furniture commonly used by humans. Dr. Changlu Wang, an entomology researcher at Rutgers, says that bed bug infestation has increased rapidly since he began doing his research, in 2005. In one high-rise apartment building he studied, infestations increased from 1 to 87 in a 26 month span. He attributes this to the high number of people living in such close quarters.

“Many families are low-income families living in multi-family houses. They don’t have the resources to properly clean their living quarters, which gives these pests the opportunity to spread from one bed to another,” says Wang.

Bed bugs feed off of human blood, much like leeches. They like to live in places where humans spend most of their time, namely beds and couches. They are not known to carry diseases, but they do cause significant physical and psychological harm. Bed bugs are so small that most people can’t feel when they are being bitten. They go on sleeping but in the morning they are covered in hundreds or even thousands of irritating sores. These pests also cause an economic loss because most families simply throw out infected furniture rather than spend the money to have exterminators called.

Most bed bug extermination techniques are chemical based. The most common chemical used is called pyiethroid which is very effective at exterminating pests, but is also very dangerous to humans. When chemical methods are used people typically cannot reenter the room or house for 24-48 hours, depending on the strength used. This is very inconvenient for families that are already crammed together in a tiny apartment.

Fortunately Dr. Wang and his colleagues have developed a different method for controlling these pests that does not use dangerous chemicals. They are experimenting with a device called an Interceptor that is effective at not only monitoring bed bug numbers, but exterminating them as well.

The device is made of two plastic bowls, one inside the other, that are placed underneath the legs of furniture. The bowls are filled with two different types of powders that are lethal to bed bugs. The small inner bowl is filled with diatomaceous earth and talcum powder, while the outer bowl is filled with ethylene glycol. Once placed underneath the legs the furniture is pushed away from walls and curtains so that bed bugs must crawl into the bowls to get on the furniture. The bugs get trapped in the bowls as they cannot climb up the smooth plastic walls and eventually die.

Dr. Wang and his team installed these Interceptors in thirteen bug-infested apartments in New Brunswick to test their effectiveness. After 10 weeks of monitoring these devices the researchers collected 1,103 dead bed bugs trapped in the bowls. Of the residents interviewed only 4 out of 10 complained of having bed bugs, yet the Interceptors and visual inspections found that every apartment had an infestation of some kind.

“We were very happy with the results of the testing and found that these devices were effective at monitoring and exterminating bed bugs. However the numbers that were killed were not close to those of traditional extermination methods. The Interceptors provide families with a safe and effective alternate to chemicals but they won’t completely eradicate the problem,” says Wang.

This is still an experimental form of extermination and needs some fine tuning in order to be commercially viable. But in a highly populated area like New Brunswick it can be an effective method.

“This research is very important because bed bugs cause people a lot of pain and discomfort,” says Wang.

“If we can find a way to eliminate these pests we can help give people peace of mind and save them money.”

New Findings On Parkinson's Disease And Effect On Patient Behavior

A new neuropsychological memory test is helping to uncover how Parkinson's disease can alter people's ability to learn about the consequences of the choices they make. The test was developed by Dr. Mark Gluck, professor of neuroscience at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers University, Newark, working with co-researchers at Rutgers, New York University, and in Hungary.

Full Story: New Findings On Parkinson's Disease And Effect On Patient Behavior