Federal research grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus act, have begun to roll into the University, funding a slew of new projects and equipment.
So far, the University has received $12.3 million in stimulus for 34 research proposals. The majority of the grants come from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
Rich Linton, the vice president for research and graduate studies, said this has been an exceptional year for University research. He said in the first three months of the fiscal year — July 1 to Sep. 30 — the University was awarded $69.4 million in research grants overall, up from $43 million during the same time period last year.
Linton called the amount of grants “a bright spot and tribute to our faculty.”
The largest grant, for $1.1 million, was awarded by the NSF to University physicist Jim Brau to study gravitational radiation.
Brau said gravitational radiation, which manifests itself as vibrations in space, has never been directly observed, but it has been theorized and indirectly seen.
“Space is very rigid, but Einstein predicted it’s possible for it to vibrate,” Brau said.
To detect the radiation, researchers will use the massive Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), with installations in Washington and Louisiana. The LIGO measures minute distortions in light, which is funneled through two 90 degree arms, each 2.5 miles in length.
He said the only thing strong enough to cause such a vibration would be “a very large mass moving very quickly,” such as a supernova.
“If we start to see the signals, it will be the beginning of a whole new science,” Brau said.
The Lorry I. Lokey Laboratories also received a $750,000 grant for “Dual-Beam Focused Ion Beam” — a highly advanced electron microscope.
Kurt Langworthy, the nanofabrication and imaging facility director, said the instrument has a .8 nanometer resolution, a little less than one billionth of a meter. The ion beam allows researchers to cut away cross-sections of samples, as well as add material, such as platinum, to measure conductivity.
“Pretty much if you have the imagination, you can make anything you want,” Langworthy said.
The other grants cover a broad swath of science, from upgrading and expanding the Zebrafish International Resource Center to studying the effects of climate change on mosquito evolution.
Twenty-two percent of the stimulus money received by the state of Oregon went to education, for a total of $592 million. Of that, the Oregon University System received $35 million in grants.
According to a University press release, University scientists have applied for $99.4 million in research grants, about 12 percent of which have been approved so far.
The University also received $27 million in “fiscal stabilization funds,” which are intended to offset the effects of the economic recession. According to OUS reports, the grant and stabilization funds created 259 full-time equivalent jobs.
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