November 2019
Research and Sponsored Programs Update
SPOTLIGHT ON STUDENT RESEARCH
This month we’re giving thanks for Fresno State’s remarkable faculty mentors and their student researchers, including senior Micah Olivas and junior Alyssa Rivera, who are seeking ways to treat cancer and other diseases.

The biochemistry majors were among 496 undergraduate students nationwide awarded the 2019 Goldwater Scholarship for showing exceptional promise of becoming the next generation of natural sciences, mathematics and engineering research leaders. Only six students from the 23-campus California State University system received the honor. Olivas is working with Dr. Laurent Dejean to research how small particulate matter in Valley air causes cell stress in the lungs, while Rivera is studying how natural products can serve as potential anti-cancer treatments with Dr. Qiao-Hong Chen .

Rivera's extraordinary year continued at the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) conference in Honolulu earlier this month, where she received a prestigious Presentation Award .

Congratulations are also in order for Vianney Chavez ( Mechanical Engineering ), who was named this year’s Valley Industry Partnership for Cooperative Education’s “Shining Star” for her work at CertainTeed with engineering manager and Fresno State alumnus Scott Kuenzinger.

For more student highlights, check out the “First-Gen Student Researchers at Fresno State” Twitter account @1GenResearchFS. The first featured profiles included students from political science (Beverly Perez-Alvarez), English (Nohemi Samudio Gamis), psychology (Britany Warner), psychology and Chicano and Latin American Studies (Yovani Munoz) and women’s studies (Juan J. Esparza).

Lastly, mark your calendar for Weds., April 15, 2020! We encourage all students to participate in the 41st Central California Research Symposium at the Henry Madden Library . All fields of research are considered for presentation to exchange further ideas among investigators and the general public. Look for the Call for Abstracts next month.

NOVEMBER 2019 MONTHLY AWARD REPORT
Katherine Waselkov ( Biology ) and Anil Shrestha ( VERC / JCAST ) received a 3-year joint grant to study Palmer amaranth — a problematic weed species. The University of Illinois serves as the lead on the grant from the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative under the United States Department of Agriculture .

Fred Nelson ( Liberal Studies ) received a four-year, $94,636 award from NSF (via CSU East Bay ) for his project, “Aligning the Science Teacher Education Pathway: A Networked Improvement Community.”

Jumpstart Fresno ( Jan and Bud Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning ) received new private and federal grant funding for 2019-20 in the amount of $169,692.

Andrea Polegato ( Modern and Classical Languages ) received an $8,103 grant from the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco to strengthen the presence of Italian Studies on campus and in the local community.

Virginia Boris ( John D. Welty Center for Educational Policy and Leadership ) received a $27,000 grant from the Twin Rivers Unified School District to build the capacity of principals to support their schools’ Internal Coherence Leadership Team.
TWEET OF THE MONTH
UPCOMING FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is offering researchers at CSU campuses an exclusive opportunity to study the use of tablets by inmates for external communication, videos, music, gaming, and coursework (non-credit earning and credit-earning) in their correctional institutions with a budget up to $600,000 over two fiscal years. Deadline: Jan. 31, 2020. Contact our office for more information.

National Endowment for the Humanities - Digital Humanities Advancement Grants. Supports development and implementation of digital initiatives in all areas of the humanities. Replaces Digital Humanities Startup and Implementation Grants. Choose between Level I (up to $50,000), Level II (up to $100,000), and Level III awards (up to $325,000 with optional match up to $50,000). Deadline: Jan 15, 2020.

The NOAA Planet Stewardship Community is an 18-month opportunity to receive one-on-one guidance designing, implementing, and evaluating a hands-on action-based environmental stewardship project that conserves, restores, or protects human communities and natural resources from environmental challenges monitored by NOAA. Educators accepted into the Stewardship Community receive one-on-one guidance in writing for a Federal funding opportunity. Apply by Dec. 1, 2019.

The National Science Foundation seeks applications for the Campus Cyberinfrastructure program , which invests in coordinated campus-level networking and cyberinfrastructure improvements, innovation, integration, and engineering for science applications and distributed research projects. Deadline: Jan. 21, 2020.

The USDA’s Agriculture Innovation Center Program makes grants to Agriculture Innovation Centers that provide technical and business development assistance to agricultural producers seeking to engage in making or producing value-added agricultural products. Deadline: March 20, 2020.
COMPLIANCE CORNER
The DMPTool is a free, open-source, online application that helps researchers create data management plans. These plans, or DMPs, are now required by many funding agencies as part of the grant proposal submission process. The DMPTool provides a click-through wizard for creating a DMP that complies with funder requirements. It also has direct links to funder websites, help text for answering questions, and resources for best practices surrounding data management. Click here for more information.
RESEARCH SUPPORT SERVICES
Our office is dedicated to supporting faculty in their research and scholarship endeavors. We provide a broad array of services and expertise, but for faculty who are new to Fresno State or new to grants and and contracts, it can be difficult to know where to start. Our staff will be happy to come to your department and provide an overview of the services we offer and strategies for moving forward. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to have your grant manager make a brief presentation at your next department meeting. 
SPOTLIGHT ON CLIMATE CHANGE
The California Strategic Growth Council is funding Round 3 of its Climate Change Research Program. Awarded research projects will demonstrate how State investments can advance California’s climate change goals while building innovative, outcome-driven partnerships between the State, the research community, and other research partners. Deadline: Feb. 12, 2020.

Climate Change and Water Webcast: Friday, Dec. 6, 2019. Discover existing climate change-related research work, identify potential collaborators for future projects, and build multi-institution research teams for a global impact during this 1-hour webcast hosted by the CSU Office of the Chancellor and the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWFK). Register online here.
AROUND CAMPUS
Fresno State has signed a new partnership agreement with Punjab Agricultural University (India) designed to share research and learning from each other’s expertise in common areas of agricultural issues, including water management, irrigation technology, ag mechanization and the improvement of high-value crops. “This union opens the door to unprecedented opportunities to join forces and collaborate on pursuing transformational solutions,” said Dr. Saúl Jimenez-Sandoval , Fresno State’s provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. 

From FresnoStateNews.com : Center for Irrigation Technology director Dr. Charles Hillyer arrived on campus from Texas on Sept. 23, but his familiarity with the Central Valley goes back to 2005 while working as a graduate research assistant at Oregon State University .

Youngwook Kim (Electrical and Computer Engineering) has developed a way to detect voices even over long distances or through barriers using Doppler radar with deep convolutional neural networks . His research was showcased on IEEE Explore Innovation Spotlight earlier this month.

Linguistic experts from around the world joined together at Fresno State for the international Western Conference on Linguistics from Nov. 15-17. The three-day conference was hosted by the Department of Linguistics and held at the University Business Center . 

Yesenia Silva and Hayam Megally ( Central Valley Health Policy Institute ) were invited to attend the 2019 Oral Health Progress and Equity Network National Convening , funded by the DentaQuest Partnership .
IN THE NEWS
NIH submission policies in a nutshell : The agency has consolidated submission-related questions, addressing issues such as system issues, late submissions and severe weather – on a single web page.

Why Undergraduate Research Matters in College : Undergraduate research opportunities extend across disciplines, taking many forms and offering benefits regardless of major, experts say, noting that such work helps students develop a variety of skills that employers value (U.S. News & World Report).
THE LAST WORD
“I strongly believe that the CSU is the best place in the world for undergraduate research . As research faculty in the CSU we should be proud of this and own our CSU credentials, because not only are we teaching classes and doing excellent research, but we are doing it as we are shaping the lives of young students who largely come from backgrounds that are disadvantaged compared to their peers at the 'top' schools."

— Dr. Jeffrey Gustafson , Professor of Chemistry, San Diego State University
Please be sure to share with us important news or updates on your research, scholarly, or creative activities. Include  NEWSLETTER  in the subject line and send to  [email protected]

This newsletter is compiled and published by the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs . Part of the Division of Research and Graduate Studies , RSP helps faculty and staff apply for and secure external grant funds.
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