$2.5 million granted to physics professor

On Sept. 4, the UND Physics Department was given a grant of $2.5 million to assist in the development of a new program in the department.

"The funds are going to be used to establish a new international Ph.D. program on computational materials science," said Dr. Juana Moreno, the recipient of the grant.

The application process behind this was really important. The process started in July of 2006. This proposal required that there would be a pre-proposal that was due by Oct. 30, 2006.

Dr. Moreno teamed up with Mark Jarrell of the University of Cincinnati to work on the pre-proposal. It was not until January 2007 that they found out they were asked to move on in the process to and submit a full proposal.

"We were very happy at that time: from 516 preliminary proposals, only 71 got invited," she said. They worked to complete their proposal on time, with a deadline of Feb. 28. Both colleges involved were very supportive of this process and proposal.

It was not until about the middle of June that anything was announced. Both Dr. Moreno and Jarrell were unofficially notified. On Sept. 4, the PIRE (Partnerships for International Research and Education) granted UND and UC the awarded $2.5 million. Being one of twenty selected is an honor, she says.

They will have to use the funds according to that budget they put together in the proposal. "This award will pay the salary of up to 10 graduate research assistants. Students will travel to visit our international collaborators in Germany and Switzerland," she said.

Additionally, there will be "summer workshops to discuss future and ongoing research and the development of online courses," she said.

Moreno and three other researchers will get one month of summer salary during the five years of this grant award money. This will be a hands-on opportunity for students to study with their international partners and assist in new research studies.

The doctoral students will also get the advantage of exploring physical properties of high technology. This will aid in their future in research and development, and will also expose them to higher performance computing capabilities.