Solar grant to TN educators

National Science Foundation funding of the Tennessee Solar Conversion and Storage Using Outreach, Research and Education (TN-SCORE) project has produced a $20MM grant shared by Oak Ridge National Lab, Tennessee Technology University, Tennessee State University, King College, Middle Tennessee State University, Fisk University, UT Space Institute, UT Knoxville, Vanderbilt University and East Tennessee State University. The MBJ has it.

NSF science-engineering progress indicators published

National Science Foundation has published its closely watched Science and Engineering Indicators for the United States. Read about it here.

VU Scientist

Holley-Bockelmann (left), assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Vanderbilt University, has, according to a VU release yesterday, received nearly $1.1 million over five years from the National Science Foundation to use computer simulations to study how “supermassive” black holes grow. VU also said that due to an infusion of ARRA Stimulus funds, the grant is the largest-to-date awarded in the field of astronomy via the NSF Faculty Early Career Development program, which honors extraordinary junior faculty. VU said Holley-Bockelmann has elected to direct a portion of the grant funds toward the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program – an effort to encourage minorities and women to pursue science careers. In the past five years, the Bridge program has attracted 31 underrepresented minority students with a retention rate of 97 percent, and may soon become the nation’s top source of PhD's in physics and astronomy awarded to underrepresented minorities. Last summer, VU announced the Bridge program had in the span of a few months received $3.7 million from several federal programs to support and expand its efforts.

UT Nautilus supercomputer

The UT Daily Beacon provides background on the $10MM NSF grant for the Nautilus supercomputer, which will be housed in a UT lab at Oak Ridge NL. Beacon story here.

ORNL Climate: Raining money

The KNS reports that Oak Ridge National Laboratory will get $215MM for advanced research from the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration for climate change-related studies, in addition to funding already flowing toward ORNL for that purpose from DOE, NSF and NASA. The combination of supercomputing resources and a high-calibre team of scientists-in-residence gives ORNL momentum.

Stimulating Science

National Science Foundation Stimulus funding is bolstering research at UT-Knoxville, Vanderbilt, MTSU, Sewanee and the U. Memphis. A "quality science" research effort in the field of chemistry is highlighted in this Times Free Press report.