Wichita State News: Biological Sciences

Hand sanitizer versus soap and water

CBS News recently reported that sales of hand sanitizer jumped more than 40 percent since the H1N1 flu virus began spreading across the country.

Millions of people are reaching for a dollop at work, in restaurants, or anywhere on the go. FactFinder 12 Investigators wanted to know if all the fuss was justified.

With help from a Wichita State University germ expert, we put hand sanitizer to the test against good old soap and water.

"I like germs. They're so cool. It's amazing what they can do," said Microbiologist Fawn Beckman," as she prepared for an experiment.

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Wichita State awarded more than $880,000 by National Science Foundation

Wichita State University has been awarded more than $880,000 as part of a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation that will further establish Kansas as an internationally recognized leader in global climate change and renewable energy research.

The five-year award is for the Kansas NSF EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research), a statewide program that includes WSU and other major Kansas research universities. It will provide a fresh integrative approach to address climate change and renewable energy challenges.

The grant is a multi-institutional, multi-sector effort that will link four universities: WSU, the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Haskell Indian Nations University.

It will also include three Kansas-based companies: Abengoa Bioenergy, MGP Ingredients and Nanoscale; and two out-of-state companies: ADM (Illinois) and Netcrystals (California).

The initiative will also be supported by $4 million in matching funds from KU, K-State and Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp.

WSU faculty and staff who are involved in the research project include chemistry professor Francis D'Souza; industrial and manufacturing engineering professor Janet Twomey; chemistry professor Paul Rillema; biological sciences associate professor Mark Schneegurt; mathematics and statistics associate professor Chunsheng Ma; and electrical engineering and computer science assistant professor Bin Tang.

David McDonald

David McDonald, associate provost for research at WSU, said all the projects WSU is involved with revolve around exploring new sources of energy and investigating sustainability.

The project will focus on several critical issues in the development of solar-based renewable energy, with the overall goal to establish a critical energy research infrastructure.

Another goal is to allow Kansas to become a key leader in research that addresses global challenges, said Kristin Bowman-James, principal investigator and project director of Kansas' EPSCoR program.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for the state of Kansas," she said. "With this funding, we will be able to harness the talents of researchers across the state to address two major issues of society today – climate change and renewable energy – under the umbrella of a single integrated initiative."

About 40 scientists are involved in the collaborative consortium, representing a vast array of disciplines, including agronomy, anthropology, computer science, economics, geography, mathematics, sociology, engineering, biology, chemistry and physics.

EPSCoR is a federal program that targets states that have traditionally been underfunded in the sciences and engineering. For more information on NSF EPSCoR, go to http://www.nsfepscor.ku.edu/.

Note to editors: News releases on the NSF EPSCoR grant are being distributed simultaneously by several of the institutions. This release has specific information regarding Wichita State.

Grant to Wichita center will allow for more innovation, faster

Thursday afternoon, the Knight Foundation awarded more than $2 million to a research institute based in Wichita.

The Center for Innovation for Biomaterials in Orthopaedic Research (CIBOR) conducts research inside the National Institute for Aviation Research on the Wichita State Campus.

The Knight Foundation granted CIBOR $2.1 million dollars over the course of 5 years to help the center engineer better medical instruments from airplane materials.

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Visiting professor to speak as part of Watkins series

David Toft, an internationally recognized investigator in molecular endocrinology, will give a technical lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, in 218 Hubbard Hall as part of the Watkins Visiting Professorship.

The event is free and open to the public.

Toft has made numerous discoveries in the areas of steroid hormone receptors and molecular chaperones.

In 1973, he joined the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he is the Gordon H. and Violet Bartels Professor of Cell Biology.

The Watkins Visiting Professorship was created in 1974 from the Watkins Foundation, which provides the university's biology, chemistry, geology and physics departments with one visiting professor each year as part of the series.

WSU student wins Kansas Academy of Science award

Wichita State University biology undergraduate Machale Spencer tied for first place for best poster by an undergraduate at the 2008 Kansas Academy of Sciences annual meeting Saturday, March 29.

Machale's poster was titled "Combined Effects of Herbivory and Neighbor Plant Competition on Tall Thistle (Cirsium altissimum) Growth."

Fellow student James Crisler also presented a research poster at the event. Both presentations were part of WSU assistant biology professor Leland Russell's lab group.

James' poster, titled "Riparian Forests Characterization in the Great Plains Relative to Beaver (Castor canadensis) Foraging and Herbivory," received positive responses during the poster session. It is now on display on the fifth floor of Hubbard Hall across from Room 512.

WSU's Ninnescah Experimental Tract provided study sites for both projects.

World traveler Sarah Anderson lands at WSU

Two questions Sarah Anderson said she gets asked most frequently about living in Alaska are, "Wow really? Is it true that it's covered in snow year 'round?" and "Weren't you cold?"

Anderson, a Wichita State University senior, is one of the few students on campus, if not the only, who can say she has lived as far from Wichita as Anchorage, Alaska and Okinawa, Japan. Anderson's family moved around frequently because her father was in the Air Force.

Since being born in Riverside, Calif., Anderson has lived in two countries and seven states including Colorado, Arizona, Minnesota and now Kansas. She came to Wichita to be with her fiance, Ben Shipman, whom she plans to marry in the next few years.

Since becoming a Shocker, she has enjoyed Wichita State's campus and the people.

"There are a lot of great instructors at WSU who deserve recognition for their incredible passion in their fields," she said. "They really made class fun and full of life, and I was always looking forward to the next class period."

Anderson said a few of her favorite teachers include Ronald Matson, associate professor and chairman of the sociology department, Hussein Hamdeh, professor of physics, and Richard Spilman, associate professor of English.

Anderson is a lover of math and science, which explains her choice in a major of biology and a minor in chemistry. Beyond school work she considers herself an avid reader, and enjoys being out in nature and spending time with family, friends and her seven pets.

"I love animals. I have three cats, two gerbils, one rabbit and one chinchilla," she said. "My pets mean a great deal to me."

During the six months she spent in Alaska, she most enjoyed seeing the northern lights, being blanketed in a record winter snowfall of 111.5 inches and frequently spotting moose in her backyard.

"I love telling people about the places I've been," she said. "I'm so glad I grew up as an Air Force brat and was fortunate enough to travel."

Transitioning from place to place hasn't been too difficult for Anderson because she's done it many times, but the trip from Alaska to Kansas was possibly the most difficult move given it was her first time to travel alone.

When she arrived, she noticed two major differences: a lack of snow and a strong gust of wind.

"Kansas has some of the strangest windstorms I have ever seen, and it seems like it's always windy here," Anderson said. "I sure do miss the snowcapped mountains and trees."

Anderson is planning to complete her bachelor's degree in biology within the next year and afterward hopes to work as a veterinarian technician.

Lecture to focus on how environmental contaminants affect wildlife

Alligator expert Lou Guillette will give a public lecture, "Environmental Contaminants and Health: Lessons from Wildlife," at Wichita State.

Guillette is the distinguished professor of zoology at the University of Florida. His speech will be at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, in 209 Hubbard Hall.

That will be followed two days later by a technical lecture, "Contaminants and the Developing Reproductive System: From Populations to Genes," at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 8, in 231 Hubbard Hall.

Both events are free and open to the public.

At the University of Florida, Guillette studies the mechanisms by which environmental factors influence the evolution, development and functioning of the reproductive system in vertebrates.

The lectures are part of the Watkins Visiting Professorship, which was created in 1974 from the Watkins Foundation to provide WSU's biology, chemistry, geology and physics departments with one visiting professor each year.