The semester is in full swing and post spring break we are happy to announce that the hiring of faculty for the interdisciplinary positions that were created across campus last year is nearly completed.  Similarly, the Division is working with the focal research areas to identify liaisons to guide the initial groups as they develop their teams and look for funding opportunities. Finally, the Division is offering additional support to develop interdisciplinary research and creative teams through a recent call for Faculty Opportunity Awards (FOA).  The first round of proposals for Collaborative Interdisciplinary Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Awards are expected by April 2, 2023 and review will begin shortly thereafter. We anticipate that there will be a second round of proposals at a later to be determined date.

The Division of research would like to highlight the recent award made to Drs. Kurt Regner and Eduardo Robleto from the School of Life Sciences on their NSF grant. They will work with 30 undergraduate students over the next three years continuing a program that has successfully been in place since 2007.  The REU program has been instrumental in helping develop pipelines of undergraduate students through research and it complements the work done by the Office of Undergraduate Research and their missions and goals.

I encourage you to also read the profile on Dr. Janis McKay chronicles her musical career from a young girl who wasn’t interested in playing the bassoon to becoming a world-wide expert in her field.

As always, I thank all of you for your support as we develop and grow the Division and if you have any comments or suggestions my door is always open.

Dave