In this issue

Research highlights  |  Leadership news  |  New awards  |  Unsung hero
 Faculty kudos  |  Research development  |  Nuts & bolts  |  Events

Thank you for the warm welcome as I assume the role of interim vice chancellor for research. Since starting the job two weeks ago, I have been asked, “Are you excited for KU research?” My answer is simple and emphatic: “Yes!”  

From my vantage point, there is tremendous emphasis nationally and at the state level on the need for research, scholarship and economic development. Some of this is spurred by the passage of the CHIPS & Science Act and the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act, as well as other federal investments that KU is well poised to pursue.  

At KU, I have served as an objective leader for Jayhawks Rising for the last two years. Research & Discovery is one of three mission-based institutional priorities in the strategic plan. Within this, there are four objectives that demonstrate KU’s commitments to grow research, recognize and retain top researchers, communicate the impact of research to society, and promote entrepreneurship. Please pause for a moment to appreciate the priorities summarized in these objectives. To me, they demonstrate that the research mission of the university recognizes the importance of the faculty and staff conducting the research as well as the impact of the research itself.  

During a recent faculty discussion, a colleague and dear friend shared her cancer treatment story. She acknowledged that the drugs that helped save her life were improved by University Distinguished Professor Emeritus Val Stella, who was in the room. When I think about KU research, I see my brilliant colleagues and students working hard — and I see the impact of their creative work and scholarship.  

I’m excited. I hope you are, too.  

Belinda Sturm 
Interim Vice Chancellor for Research 

One frequently cited study estimated that it takes an average of 17 years for research knowledge to make its way out of the lab and into the clinic. A new center funded by the National Institutes of Health will help KU Medical Center researchers bridge the gap.

Numbers alone can’t tell a story. That’s the foundation of a project now based at KU that takes volumes of raw federal and state expenditure data and distills that information for everyone — including policymakers, service providers and individuals with developmental disabilities and their families — to help them make the most informed decisions.

Alex Platt, associate professor of law, used archival material to show Baldwin Bane, a federal civil servant, played a critical role in the founding of securities regulation and deserves broader recognition.

KU researchers have launched a website to document cases of land return to sovereign tribes, provide resources for those interested in doing so and connect researchers, advocates and others interested in land return.

Tera Fazzino, associate director of the Cofrin Logan Center for Addiction Research and Treatment and associate professor of psychology, is researching how companies made processed food more addictive than foods that occur in nature. She hopes her work will influence policy aimed at improving public health.

Monarch Watch, an international program at the University of Kansas dedicated to the conservation and study of monarch butterflies, has a new director. Kristen Baum, well known for her work on monarchs and pollinators, began this month as director of Monarch Watch, as well as a senior scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research and professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. Baum comes to KU from the College of Arts & Sciences at Oklahoma State University.

KU researchers are examining reading disability interventions, exploring pathways for para educators to become teachers, creating scalable remote authentication for information security, integrating water productivity and sustainability in multi-crop systems, and more — all with the aid of external funding awarded in October.

Scott Campbell | Facilities Manager | Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research

It’s well known that following KU football wins, fans occasionally remove one of the goalposts from David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium and toss it into Potter Lake. What might not cross peoples’ minds are the staff members involved in retrieving the goalpost. Scott Campbell is one such employee, who worked with Facilities Services and the Douglas County Sheriff’s dive team to retrieve the goalpost from the lake after a recent victory.

Campbell has been at KU for 25 years and is retiring in January. He has served in a number of roles in the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research, including as associate researcher and associate director of outreach and public service. He is currently the facilities manager.

“Scott knows a great deal of history about the Kansas Biological Survey and the biota of the state of Kansas. That has proven very valuable for decision making,” said Sara Baer, director of the Survey and professor of ecology & evolutionary biology. “He also cares deeply about the Kansas Biological Survey, including our mission, the research we conduct and the people we reach.”

Campbell has contributed significantly to the university’s research mission. He served as principal investigator on multiple projects, including a more than 20-year-long ecological study of the endangered Topeka shiner. He has also helped connect other departments to the Kansas Biological Survey. Students and faculty from the School of Engineering and the School of Architecture & Design have worked with Campbell on numerous public-facing projects at the KU Field Station and other facilities.

“When Sara Baer was about to join us, Scott came up with the great strategy of utilizing spaces in the Smissman Labs for her research, and it has been extremely helpful. He constantly comes up with creative solutions to space issues,” said Kirsten Bosnak, communications coordinator for the Survey.

Campbell also helped develop and implement the research center’s first reservoir assessment program. This initiative mapped more than 60 reservoirs across Kansas for the first time. During the process he also engaged the public and important interested parties, such as lawmakers, so they could fully appreciate the complex issues posed by sedimentation in many of our state’s water supply reservoirs.

Colleagues said that beyond his many accomplishments, the way Campbell handles his work sets him apart.

“Scott tends to the responsibilities of his job as if this place and the people within the facilities are an extension of his family,” Baer said. “He feels responsible for the functionality of the infrastructure and for the safety of all users, but people’s happiness is equally important to Scott and motivates his performance.”

INTERNAL FUNDING

The KU Office of Research wants to help you find out. If you're vying for external funding to fuel your research, consider applying for the KU Research Grant Opportunity (aka KU Research GO) program to help optimize the competitiveness of your proposal.

KU Research GO is a KU Office of Research-funded program dedicated to expanding the university’s research enterprise by supporting work needed to prepare competitive proposals for external funding opportunities with application deadlines in the near future. The office has set aside $250,000 for this program for fiscal year 2023.

Please note that the Kansas Consortium Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence, based at KU, is offering awards through a similarly structured program to support national security research. Learn more about the ICCAE Research Awards

Amount: Up to $30K | Deadline: Jan. 24

RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION

In concert with the entire Lawrence and Edwards campuses, the KU Office of Research will be closed over the winter break as outlined below. In order to be proactive in meeting the research community’s needs, we have established deadlines that will help ensure we are providing necessary services while allowing staff to use the winter break leave they have earned.
 
All proposal documents with deadlines between Dec. 23 and Jan. 3 must be to Pre-Award by Monday, Dec. 18 to provide sufficient time for proposals to be submitted by Dec. 22. We request 2 – 3 weeks for proposal preparation and 5 days for proposal review, so please let us know if you’re aware of an early January proposal deadline. Please reach out to your Office of Research contact as soon as possible for other general questions regarding December or early January business.

Winter break hours
Closed: Tuesday, Dec. 26
Reopen: Tuesday, Jan. 2
 
We appreciate your assistance and wish you a restful, re-energizing break!

GENERAL

The final phase of the Office of Research, Center for Research Computing and KU IT project to replace the university’s Research File Storage (ResFS) is now planned to begin Friday, Dec. 15.

The project team has made significant progress preparing to move to new ResFS hardware. All files and shares have been replicated successfully to the new storage system, where testing has shown significantly higher performance than on the previous platform. To allow time for additional testing to ensure a seamless user experience, the cutover that was scheduled to begin Friday, Nov. 17 has been rescheduled to mid-December.

Beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15, all access, connections and processes that involve data stored on ResFS and the research cluster will be suspended temporarily; any open sessions will be terminated while this upgrade is performed. We anticipate that the upgrade will take approximately 72 hours, but we will confirm via email when the cutover is complete and full network access is restored.

Please consult the to-do list at the link below for action steps and reminders.

Questions? Comments? Content suggestions?
Mindie Paget  |  Office of Research  |  mpaget@ku.edu

KU Office of Research
2385 Irving Hill Road
Lawrence, KS 66045
KU is an EO/AA institution.