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DCbrief - Sept. 4, 2008 - IN THE NEWS: Vanderbilt University Office of Federal Relations
DCbrief ArchiveHigher Ed Inflation Index Hits 3.6%
By Scott Jaschik | Inside Higher Ed | Sept. 4, 2008
Former Professor Is Convicted of Sharing Sensitive Research
By Allie Grasgreen | Chronicle of Higher Education | Sept. 4, 2008
NIH Awards First EUREKA Grants for Exceptionally Innovative Research
From the National Institutes of Health | Sept. 3, 2008
NSF Funds New Center to Bring Together Biologists, Mathematicians
From the National Science Foundation | Sept. 3, 2008
NEW TODAY:
Drilling Down on McCain, Obama Energy Plans
By Martin LaMonica | CNet | Sept. 3, 2008
Higher Ed Inflation Index Hits 3.6%
By Scott Jaschik | Inside Higher Ed | Sept. 4, 2008
The Higher Education Price Index reached 3.6 percent for the 2008 fiscal year, up slightly from 3.4 percent the previous year, the Commonfund Institute is announcing today. The index is based on costs facing colleges and is designed to give a more accurate assessment of the inflationary pressures on academe than does the Consumer Price Index (3.7 percent for the same time frame). The index’s gain may appear small to campus money managers who have been watching certain costs, especially for utilities, skyrocket in recent months, but the timing of the calculations means that those increases aren’t counted in the new data.
*** (This is the complete news item.)
Former Professor Is Convicted of Sharing Sensitive Research
By Allie Grasgreen | Chronicle of Higher Education | Sept. 4, 2008
In a case that could have implications for universities that conduct militarily sensitive research, a former professor who worked as a consultant on a defense research project was convicted on Wednesday of violating national-security laws. After a week-long trial in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, Tenn., the jury found J. Reece Roth, a retired professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, guilty on 18 counts of conspiracy, fraud, and multiple violations of the Arms Export Control Act, a federal law that prohibits disclosing sensitive technology to foreign countries. He could be sentenced to up to 160 years in prison and more than $1.5 million in fines. Roth was accused of passing sensitive information to two research assistants who were foreign nationals, and of illegally carrying the information on his laptop computer and disclosing some of it in lectures abroad. MORE (subscription required)
NIH Awards First EUREKA Grants for Exceptionally Innovative Research
From the National Institutes of Health | Sept. 3, 2008
The National Institutes of Health has awarded $42.2 million to fund 38 exceptionally innovative research projects that could have an extraordinarily significant impact on many areas of science. The grants, the first made in a new program called EUREKA (for Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration), help investigators test novel, often unconventional hypotheses or tackle major methodological or technical challenges. EUREKA researchers will receive direct costs of approximately $200,000 per year for up to four years, subject to the availability of appropriations. [According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, "The Eureka awards are one way the NIH has been trying to respond to criticism that its ultracompetitive grant-making process favors established researchers and relatively safe projects that are sure to deliver results."] MORE
NSF Funds New Center to Bring Together Biologists, Mathematicians
From the National Science Foundation | Sept. 3, 2008
Biologists and mathematicians from around the world will take part in a new institute dedicated to bringing top researchers together to find creative solutions to pressing problems in both scientific fields. Known as the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, the center is funded by a $16 million award from the National Science Foundation and is located at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Mathematical biology is a growing field that applies the power of mathematics and modeling to the questions at multiple scales of space and time faced by biologists. MORE
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