Seven projects – each with at least one researcher from the Laboratory and one from New Mexico State University – were selected for funding under a new initiative designed to increase collaboration between the two institutions.
The projects will be funded over the next two years with each project receiving between $105,000 and $135,000. Funding for the initiative comes from the University of California under the auspices of a memorandum of agreement signed on Feb. 16, 2004.
“The collaborative research program between NMSU and the Lab represents a tremendous opportunity . . . not only to strengthen our science base, but also to position both institutions for major programs with our sponsors,” said Gerald Geernaert, director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP). “We are very excited.”
The projects fall into the areas of biosecurity, water security, social behavior modeling and information fusion. Researchers from a wide variety of disciplines – including astronomy, biology, computer science, engineering, management, mathematics and psychology – are involved with the projects that have received funding. The projects were selected from more than 30 proposals by a committee of representatives from both institutions.
“This is a whole new model of working together collaboratively,” said Don Birx, interim vice provost for research at NMSU. “We are taking seed money and giving it to interdisciplinary teams with projects that might lead to long-term programs.”
According to NMSU, in addition to providing “seed money” that can be leveraged into larger grants, the partnership is a way for the Lab to build the next generation of scientists since several NMSU students will be working at Los Alamos this summer on projects funded through the agreement.
The funded projects by topic area and their participants are listed as follows:
Biosecurity
1. From Low Protein Structure to Near Atomic Resolution Structure: The team will receive $122,000 to conduct research in protein structures. Charlie Strauss of Genomic Sequencing & Computational Biology (B-5) will work with Jing He, Enrico Pontelli and Desh Ranjan of NMSU.
2. Phylogenetic Predictions of the Capabilities of Novel Bio-threat Agents: Funding includes $130,000 to develop models for predicting the behavior of new pathogens. The models will be based on molecular sequence data. Murray Wolinsky of B-5 and P. Scott White of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology (B-1) will work with Brook Milligan, Donovan Bailey, Enrico Pontelli and Desh Ranjan from NMSU.
Water security
3. Water and Bio-security: Innovative Membranes for Water Treatment and Smart Sensors: The team will receive $135,000 to develop a new method for treating water that has been contaminated with pathogens. Fred Mueller of the Superconductivity Technology Center (MST-STC), Yuntian Theodore Zhu also of MST-STC and Babetta Marrone of B-1 will work with Shuguang Deng, Kevin Oshima, David Smith, Martha Mitchell and Paul Anderson from NMSU.
Social behavior modeling
4. Integrated EEG and Brain Mapping for Brain Machine Interface in Security Monitoring: Funding includes $135,000 to investigate the use of a brain-machine interface to augment human high-level discrimination abilities with automated monitoring. Krastan Blagoev of Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics (T-11) and John George of Biological & Quantum Physics (P-21) will work with James Kroger and Kwong Ng of NMSU.
5. Modeling and Analyzing Social Behavior: Applications toward National Security: The team will receive $135,000 to study national security applications of modeling and analyzing social behavior. Stephen Younger of Theoretical Division (T-DO), Mihaela Quirk of Energy and Infrastructure Analysis (D-4), Chad Olinger of Global Threat Reduction (N-GTR) and Karin Verspoor of Modeling, Algorithms, & Informatics (CCS-3) will work with Janice Black, Mike Coombs, Richard Oliver and Kenneth Hacker of NMSU.
Information fusion
6. Data Mining in the Terrabyte Forest: Funding includes $131,000 to study new ways to sort through the large amounts of data gathered through astronomy projects such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The goal is to automate data mining techniques for the next generation of astronomers. Tom Vestrand of Space and Atmospheric Sciences (ISR-1) will work with Jon Holtzman, Tom Harrison and Bernie McNamara of NMSU.
7. Signal Detection via Adapted Filter Banks and Geometric Dimensionality Reduction: The team will receive $105,000 for a project that could improve the use of remote sensing devices and wireless communications by developing new methods to eliminate distortion caused by a variety of factors. Christopher Brislawn of Modeling, Algorithms and Informatics (CCS-3) will work with Joseph Lakey and Charles Creusere of NMSU.
