NSF information regarding federal shutdown

The National Science Foundation has put out some information regarding its operations during a possible shutdown of the federal government.  If the government shuts down:

• As of midnight, the NSF website, FastLane, Research.gov, any NSF e-mail address and all telephones will be unavailable.

• NSF grants will not be obligated or disbursed during the funding hiatus.

• Current awardees may continue their operations with NSF funds that are already obligated.

The official NSF policy for shutdown procedures is available here: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2011/shutdown11001/shutdown11001.pdf.

Official, complete and more or less final version of the Research Appreciation Week schedule

Next week is Research Appreciation Week, comprising Student Research Day on Monday, Graduate Student Research Day on Tuesday, Faculty Research Day on Thursday, and Corporate Research and Innovation Day on Friday.  Faculty and students alike are invited to attend each day’s events.  All events except the Research Awards Luncheon on Thursday are open to the campus and the community.  Schedules for each day are right here (PDF). Featured speakers include:

• Dr. Michael Cundall, Director of the A&T Honors program;
• Dr. David Carroll, Director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest;
• Dr. Sally Kornbluth, Vice Dean for Research, Duke University School of Medicine;
• Dr. Terri Lomax, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies, N.C. State; and
• Mr. Meldon Hollis, Associate Director, White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

AAAS deadline for symposium ideas: April 26

News from the American Association for the Advancement of Science:

AAAS will hold its next Annual Meeting in Vancouver, BC, February 16-20, 2012.  Faculty members are urged to submit symposium proposals on the meeting’s theme, “Flattening the World: Building the 21st Century Knowledge Society.” The deadline is Tuesday, April 26, 23:59 PT.  Details on the theme and proposal submission instructions are available on the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting web site.

Chancellor Martin pushes for more JSNN funding

Chancellor Martin meets with Sen. Phil Berger, president pro tem of the N.C. Senate (to right of Martin), and Rep. Thom Tillis, speaker of the N.C. House (back to camera). With Martin are, left to right, civic leader and A&T alum Shirley Frye; Chancellor Linda Brady of UNCG; Pat Danahy, president of the Greensboro Partnership; and Ed Kitchen, vice president of the Bryan Foundation.

Chancellor Martin joined a delegation of some 60 business and academic leaders from Greensboro in a visit to the North Carolina General Assembly on Wednesday.  The group met with legislative leaders to advocate for the Greensboro Partnership’s top legislative priorities for the session.  Priority No. 1: Add $2 million to the annual budget of the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering.  That amount would bring the school to the full $6.9 million annual funding that was originally projected.