Center for Biofilm Engineering

News Update: 

March, 2007

Volume 10, Issue 3

__________________________________________

Research Highlights

New Industrial Associate Members

We are pleased to announce that two new companies, Bausch & Lomb and Reckitt Benckiser, have joined the Industrial Associate’s Program as our newest members.

Bausch & Lomb makes contact lens solutions and eye care products, as well as optical implants. The designated representative will be Patricia Walsh, formerly of Eastman Kodak. See Bausch & Lomb’s homepage at: http://www.bausch.com/en_US/default.aspx

Reckitt Benckiser makes a wide variety of household cleaning products for surface cleaning (Lysol), dishwashing (Calgon), and personal care. The primary representative will be Diane Boesenberg. See Reckitt Benckiser’s homepage at: http://www.reckitt.com/

Read more about membership information

_______

Technical Advisory Conference Showcase

Invited speakers and CBE researchers shared their latest methods, results and perspectives through our conference workshops, oral presentations and research posters.  Read more about the conference:
http://www.erc.montana.edu/Res-Lib99-SW/newsarchives/HTML/2007/TACW_2007.htm

_______

Prestigious NSF Award

Dr. Sarah Codd, a CBE collaborating faculty member and MSU assistant professor in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, has won a prestigious $400,000 Career Award from the National Science Foundation for her work in magnetic resonance microscopy, a technique that allows researchers to see the inner workings of devices as small as one-tenth of a millimeter in size.

Sarah Codd's work assists research on fuel cells, medical catheters and the cleanup of contaminated soil and water. The NSF Career Award is notable because it goes to a single person, whereas most NSF grants support teams of researchers. It is NSF's most prestigious award to support the early career development of teacher-scholars.

Read the full story at: http://www.erc.montana.edu/Res-Lib99-SW/newsarchives/HTML/2007/Codd_MSUNews.htm
 

_________________________________________

In the Media

One of the images from the MSU-CBE Bioglyphs art and science project was published in the book, “Exploring the World Ocean,” by Sean Chamberlin and Tommy Dickey.

See the book description at: http://www.erc.montana.edu/Res-Lib99-SW/newsarchives/HTML/2007/Book_bioglyphs.htm

_________________________________________

Education

W.G. Characklis Award 2007

Read more at: http://www.erc.montana.edu/CBEssentials-SW/education/CharacklisAward/ed-basics-wgc_2007.htm

_______

Morris Udall Native American Congressional Internship

Congratulations to Katie Hoyt, who has been awarded a Morris Udall Native American congressional internship to Washington DC this summer. Katie, a senior in Chemical and Biological Engineering, has been funded by an INBRE Undergraduate scholarship to work in the CBE on research with Peter Suci, Sarah Codd and Phil Stewart.

The Morris K. Udall Foundation funds 12 Native Americans or Alaska Natives each summer for a ten-week internship in Washington, DC. The Foundation awarded the 2007 internships on the basis of merit to Native Americans and Alaska Natives who:

*Are college juniors or seniors, recent graduates from tribal or four-year colleges, or graduate or law students;

*Have demonstrated an interest in fields related to tribal public policy, such as tribal governance, tribal law, Native American education, Native American health, Native American justice, natural resource protection, and Native American economic development.

Read more about the program at: http://www.udall.gov/udall.asp?Link=115

_______

MSU Excellence Awards

Forty-two of Montana State University's top seniors and their faculty or staff mentors were recognized Tuesday, February 13th, at the 25th annual Awards for Excellence Banquet. Honored students are nominated by faculty in their college or department. Saba Alniemi, biomedical science undergraduate was nominated by the College of Letters and Science for such an award. Saba is working on a project in the CBE’s Medical Biofilms Laboratory to examine the effects of bacteriophage on Staphylococcus aureus biofilms.

The MSU Alumni Association and the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce sponsor the banquet. Honored students are nominated by faculty in their college or department. Qualified seniors must have a 3.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale as well as demonstrated campus leadership and community service.

_________________________________________

Outreach

PEAK Enrichment Tour

Biofilm Workshop Extravaganza

Seventeen Helena middle-school students arrived at the CBE on Friday, February 23, 2007, to experience biofilm first hand. They were real sleuths and asked lots of questions to solve the problems that CBE graduate students presented to them. We enjoyed having these future MSU-scientists and they seemed to have a good time and to learn a lot, too.

Thanks to everyone that helped out with the Biofilm Workshop Extravaganza!

See pictures of the Extravaganza activities at: http://www.erc.montana.edu/Res-Lib99-SW/newsarchives/HTML/2007/PeakTour07.htm

 _________________________________________

CBE People in Action

Otto Stein presented "Constructed Wetlands for Water Quality Improvement," at the Workshop Instruction 2007 MSU Engineering Festival, Bozeman, MT, March 1, 2007.

Otto Stein as invited speaker presented "Temperature, Plants and Oxygen: How Does Season Affect Constructed Wetland Performance?", Institut de Recherche en Biologie Végétale, University of Montreal. Montreal, Canada, February 16, 2007.

Matthew Fields presented two posters entitled "Desulfovibrio vulgaris Responses to Hexavalent Chromium at the Community, Population, and Cellular Levels" and “Changes in Microbial Community Structure During Biostimulation for Uranium Reduction at Different Levels of Resolution” at the GTL and Genomics workshop, sponsored by the US. DOE, Rockville, MD, February 12-14, 2007.

_________________________________________

Web Watch

BiofilmsOnline.com

Visit www.BiofilmsOnline.com.
 

Subscribe to the monthly BiofilmsOnline.com newsletter.

_________________________________________

Newsletter Listserve

Subscribe or unsubscribe to the newsletter by following these instructions. The CBE News Update is a listserv newsletter.

View the monthly CBE News Update on our web site.

Access Newsletter Archives

__________________________________________