NeuroDojo

The big news

A few posts back, I hinted that there was some good news coming. Now, I can finally tell you what it was. Thanks to our College Dean, Mike Eastman, UTPA received a $1.3 million grant for undergraduate research from the Howard Hughes Medical Institution. The university even got mentioned specfically in the formal HHMI press release. (Edit: The success of this grant got noticed by the University of Texas Chancellor, who sent a congratulatory email to our president that is now making it down the line to me.)

I was involved somewhat in helping to prepare the grant application last summer (I mentioned it here), so I am hoping to reap some small benefit from it. Although a planned laboratory bus got mentioned in the press release, actually the bulk of what we'll be doing will be in the Biology and Chemistry Departments. We'll have undergraduate fellowships, a much needed seminar series, and undergraduate research symposium, and more.

I had a two-part response to hearing this news, when the Dean "leaked" it to me a little in advance. My first thought was, "Yes!" My second thought was, "How much more work am I going to have to do because of this?"

In the not so good news, the microelectrode puller request isn't going to happen, as the particular University fund I was hoping to tap into is supposed to be for equipment replacement rather than new purchases.

And several faculty in the Department had their requests for teaching release to do research turned down. I think this may be the first time anyone in the Department has had this request turned down. It's made for some very unhappy campers, and I can't blame them. It's a fast and efficient way to demoralize people.

In the better news department, I've submitted abstracts to give talks at two meetings. One in July at Western Nerve Net (the meeting I gave my first "pro" presentation at), and one in October at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting. The Society for Neuroscience abstract is always a bit frustrating, because it has to be sent in so far in advance. You often have to something based on your preliminary data, and hope that they productive experiments you do in the intervening summer don't change the story too much...