[LA-SiGMA-funded] LASiGMA NSF Site Visit

[Scott L Whittenburg]

Lamar,
Thanks.  Another suggestion I would make is that we strongly encourage our faculty to have HBCUs students as the student we support from LASIGMA.  In other words, at UNO we have budgeted an undergraduate to each of the PIs, but I believe we are currently supporting UNO undergrads with those funds.  We could encourage our faculty to support Xavier (or other HBCU) students instead.  Then publications and presentations from UNO would also have Xavier listed.
Scott

From: lasigma-funded-bounces at loni.org [mailto:lasigma-funded-bounces at loni.org] On Behalf Of Lamartine Meda
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 11:17 AM
To: 'Michael Khonsari'; lasigma-funded at loni.org
Subject: [LA-SiGMA-funded] LASiGMA NSF Site Visit

Randy:

The Xavier team can help LASiGMA involving more students in meaningful collaborative research as suggested by the NSF RSV panel (see quote below).
"Stronger participation of students and faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and community colleges in more meaningful collaborative activities would enhance LA-SiGMA's impact."

Suggestions:

1.      I have a collaborative research program funded NSF-DMR which focuses on "nanomaterials" that is doing what NSF is asking us to do. Please click on this link http://www.xula.edu/prem/students.php and see the attachments which contain publications and presentations given by students in the past two years. So, we can do the same with LASiGMA. However, we need to recruit students and offer them scholarships or I may be able to move current students (if they want to switch) to LASiGMA projects. But, we can't pay these students hourly, which is the current structure. To have the high quality of students in LASiGMA that I have in PREM (see link above), we need to offer them scholarships otherwise they won't come to Xavier.



Let's offer UG students "scholarships and/or stipends."



2.      Also, "meaningful research" means access to resources such as library and electronic access to journals, which most HBCU is lacking. My EAC board pointed that out as a concern. (Ramu served on the board last year.) Let's make faculty from HBCU adjunct at Tulane, UNO, LATECH, and/or LSU and we can teach the students how to do "Meaningful Research"

Lamar-



Best regards,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lamartine Meda, Ph.D.
PREM Director
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Office: NCF 301 A
Phone: 504-520-5324
Lab: 504-520-6203
Fax: 504-520-7942
Email: Lmeda at xula.edu<mailto:Lmeda at xula.edu>
www.xula.edu/PREM<http://www.xula.edu/prem/students.php>

Mailing address:
Xavier University of LA
Department of Chemistry
1 Drexel Drive
New Orleans, LA 70125
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