Through advocacy and education, the 27-year old sisters deliver their message with doctoral level research to help women realize their value and worth are not based on their physical appearance. Lexie and Lindsay connect with girls and women across the country through speaking engagements, their website and their 13,000 followers on Facebook.

“From the moment we set out to share these positive messages, we have been overwhelmed with the excitement and support of people who say they are starving for this kind of uplifting and truthful information,” says Lexie Kite. “We know women are capable of much more than being looked at, and once they believe that message, they can move on to accomplishing so many happy and worthwhile pursuits.”

As kids, both Lexie and Lindsay struggled with their own image and were consumed with thoughts about their weight and appearance. While no one in their lives ever told them thinness and “ideal beauty” were the keys to happiness and success, they came to believe these messages from the magazines, TV shows and movies that surrounded them.

“As college freshman studying journalism, we learned about the power of media messages and how they shape perceptions of reality and how much money is invested into making girls and women believe that beauty and thinness are the ultimate goal,” says Lindsay Kite.  “We realized we had spent too much time believing lies about our appearance and worth, just like many of the women in our lives, and we decided to find a way to share this powerful information with the world.”

To strengthen their message, the sister’s earned master’s degrees in communications from the University of Utah studying media and body image, and then continued on with their doctorates researching harmful media messages. The sisters are looking forward to defending their dissertations this summer and finalizing their 10-year college education, so they can dedicate their full attention to Beauty Redefined.

For more information, visit http://www.beautyredefined.net/ or https://www.facebook.com/TakeBackBeauty.

The 167,000-square-foot Donna Garff Marriott Honors Residential Scholars Community, which opened its doors in August 2012, exceeded minimum efficiency standards by more than 30 percent, resulting in $55,000 annual energy savings.

“We worked hard to ensure tremendous energy savings without increasing our construction budget,” said Myron Willson, director of the University of Utah Office of Sustainability.

In 2009, the state of Utah required all new state buildings to meet the qualifications for LEED silver certification. The design/build team of Gramoll Construction, Jacoby Architects and Potter Lawson designed and constructed the living learning community. They helped the University of Utah find ways to exceed the minimum efficiency standards without impacting cost.

The plumbing fixtures yield a 44% reduction in water use, resulting in 2.4 million gallons of water saved annually. The building uses high-efficiency heating and cooling systems and a heat recovery system that captures heat from the exhaust system and reuses it. Occupancy sensors that control lighting were installed as well as Energy Star-rated appliances and LED and CFL lighting. Other sustainable aspects include use of local materials, natural day lighting and ventilation, materials made with high recycled content, location near a TRAX light rail stop to reduce automobile trips, bicycle storage and landscaping that includes on-site stormwater retention.

Additionally, an innovative Sustainable Campus Initiative Fund project helped boost the building from silver to gold. Student Jessica Batty, an honors student who just completed an MBA and master’s in architecture at the U, was awarded a $70,000 grant to implement an electricity-tracking dashboard system in the building as well as a “green” demonstration room.

“Constructing sustainable buildings is important to the university because it saves limited natural resources and results in long-term financial savings,” Willson said. “This new building is a perfect example of how we find ways to exceed sustainability standards without passing the cost to anyone.”

“This comes with major bragging rights — plus a $20,000 check,” says Cari Johnson, an associate professor and associate chair of geology and geophysics. “In the department’s very first try, we won.”

The five students on the winning U team are Mason Edwards, Marko Gorenc, Morgan Rosenberg, Tyler Szwarc and Alexandre Turner.

They were advised by Lauren Birgenheier and Lisa Stright, both assistant professors of geology and geophysics. Aksel Quintus-Bosz of Chevron and Matt Heumann of ConocoPhillips served as the team’s industry consultants.

“The team won the regional Rocky Mountain competition in Denver against seven other teams, which advanced them to the international finals in Pittsburgh,” says Birgenheier, who also is with the University of Utah Energy and Geoscience Institute. “This past weekend, they competed against 10 other teams  (five U.S. regional teams and five international teams).  They placed first in the final competition, beating University of Oklahoma.”

She says 107 teams with 535 students competed in the event. Each team had eight weeks to work up and present a detailed assessment of a parcel’s potential for hydrocarbon production using real seismic-imaging and well data, in this case from Australia’s Cooper-Eromanga Basin. The teams each made a 25-minute presentation to a panel of judges on their technical recommendations, followed by a question-and-answer session.

“This particular constellation of players seemed to have the talent and drive to try out for something this ambitious,” said director, Hasse Borup, Associate Professor and String Area Head who encouraged them to apply.  “This quartet is a symbiosis of four highly talented and accomplished string students, who has hit a very successful combination of ambition and ability. I am very proud of their achievements and desire to perform some of the greatest repertoire written at the highest level.”

During the seminar, the quartet will receive intensive coaching and mentoring with members of the Juilliard String Quartet, have a rehearsal studio, and perform in a public concert at Juilliard.  The Juilliard Quartet is the longest serving and most illustrious quartet, and the knowledge they stand to gain from this experience is irreplaceable and will shape them as musicians. Members Melissa Combe, Violin, Jakob Hofer, Violin, Sunny Johnson, Viola, and Lauren Posey, Cello are elated at the opportunity.  “Its like working with music celebrities,” said Combe, “we’ll come back a much better group.”

Started in 2008, the School of Music Graduate String Quartet program offers dedicated string players serious quartet experience and the chance to log extensive performance opportunities on and off campus as musical ambassadors for the U of U.  Combe, Hofer, Johnson, Posey have been playing together since August of 2012, and say this group “just works.”

The quartet has worked hard to secure funds for the trip, as they are responsible for their own accommodations, meals, and incidental expenses while in New York City.  But it will be well worth it. “Spending an entire week with such the Juilliard Quartet is amazing,” said Combe, “Usually you only get a one-time coaching, but an entire week will really help us get dig into the pieces we are working on.”

The quartet will return to Salt Lake City in time to work with renowned Emerson Quartet violinist Philip Setzer at the School of Music Chamber Music Workshop June 16-20.  The summer Chamber Music Workshop has a long history of bringing distinguished artists to campus and Setzer is at the top of the list.   Setzer will perform in concert June 18^th at 7:30pm in Libby Gardner Concert Hall.  Accompanied by Jason Hardink, piano and Hasse Borup, violin Setzer will perform works by Bartok, Ravel and Beethoven.

ABOUT THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC

The University of Utah School of Music offers a comprehensive program of music study on both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The School of Music educates professionally-oriented students across the musical spectrum through rigorous musical and academic experiences; serves the art of music through performance, composition, research and publication; and functions as the state’s center for intellectual, educational, and cultural musical activities. It has been an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Music since 1952.

For more information on the Chamber Music Workshop see the School of Music website at music.utah.edu For more on the Graduate Quartet see finearts.utah.edu.

That is just one finding in a new book – “Do Babies Matter? Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower” – by Mary Ann Mason and Marc Goulden at the University of California at Berkeley, and Nicholas H. Wolfinger from the University of Utah. The book builds on a decade of research and sheds new light on a well-known but as yet unsolved problem: women are far less likely than men to have careers in higher education.

The book looks at how family formation—marriage and children—affects the academic careers of men and women differently, exploring every stage in the academic life cycle.

“Our work shows that family formation plays a profound role in explaining why women don’t get ahead in academia,” says Wolfinger, associate professor of family and consumer studies and adjunct associate professor of sociology at Utah. “Fortunately, that is not the end of the story. We lay out changes that can bring hiring and promotion into line with the work-life balance young professionals more often get in other careers. If institutions of higher education want to attract and retain women faculty members — as well as graduate students — it can be done.”

Among the findings:

• Unmarried women without young children get tenure-track jobs at higher rates than do wives, mothers, or single, unmarried men.
• When the analysis is limited to the sciences, including the social sciences, a family with young children has a strong negative effect on women’s tenure rates.
• After completing graduate school, women are less likely to be married, less likely to be parents, and more likely to be divorced.
• Once women are employed as tenure-track faculty, they have higher divorce rates, lower marriage rates and fewer children. Women faculty are even less likely to have children than women Ph.D.s employed outside academia, an inequity the authors refer to as the “professor penalty.”
• Among tenured faculty twelve years after Ph.D. receipt, 70 percent of men are married with children, compared to only 44 percent of the women.
• Women are less likely to be promoted to full professor; children make no difference here, although marriage makes promotion more likely for both men and women.

In addition, the book sets out concrete strategies for transforming a university into a family-friendly environment at every career stage. These policies range from paid parental leave, to having an explicit policy for “dual hires”—meaning a job offer for spouse as well as the candidate—to child care grants for mothers to attend conferences. The authors note that some colleges and universities have adopted family-friendly policies, but progress has been “slow and uneven across the academic world.”

The book draws on over a decade of research using unprecedented data resources, including the Survey of Doctorate Recipients, a nationally representative panel survey of Ph.D.s in America, and multiple surveys of faculty and graduate students at the ten-campus University of California system. “Do Babies Matter?” was published by Rutgers University Press in May 2013. More about the book is available online at www.dobabiesmatter.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Nicholas H. Wolfinger is associate professor of family and consumer studies and adjunct associate professor of sociology at the University of Utah. He is the author of “Understanding the Divorce Cycle,” and co-editor of “Fragile Families and the Marriage Agenda.”

Mary Ann Mason is professor of the graduate school and faculty co-director of the Berkeley Law Earl Warren Institute for Law and Social Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. She was the first female dean of the Graduate Division at Berkeley. Mason is the author of “Mothers on the Fast Track: How the New Generation Can Balance Career and Family” and co-editor of “All Our Families: New Policies for the New Century, Second Edition.”

Marc Goulden is the director of data initiatives at the University of California at Berkeley.

A survey of 161 military personnel who were stationed in Iraq and evaluated for a possible traumatic brain injury – also known as TBI – showed that the risk for suicidal thoughts or behaviors increased not only in the short term, as measured during the past 12 months, but during the individual’s lifetime.

The risk of suicidal thoughts increased significantly with the number of TBIs, even when controlling for other psychological factors, the researchers say in a paper published online Wednesday, May 15 in JAMA Psychiatry, a specialty journal of the American Medical Association.

“Up to now, no one has been able to say if multiple TBIs, which are common among combat veterans, are associated with higher suicide risk or not,” says the study’s lead author, Craig J. Bryan, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah and associate director of the National Center for Veterans Studies. “This study suggests they are, and it provides valuable information for professionals treating wounded combat servicemen and women to help manage the risk of suicide.”

Results showed that one in five patients (21.7 percent) who had ever sustained more than one TBI reported suicidal ideation – thoughts about or preoccupation with suicide – at any time in the past. For patients who had received one TBI, 6.9 percent reported having suicidal thoughts, and zero percent for those with no TBIs. In evaluating the lifetime risk, patients were asked if they had ever experienced suicidal thoughts and behaviors up to the point they were assessed.

The increases were similar for suicidal thoughts during the previous year rather than at any time: 12 percent of those with multiple TBIs had entertained suicidal ideas during the past year, compared with 3.4 percent with one TBI and zero percent for no TBIs.

In this study, suicidal ideation was used as the indicator of suicide risk because too few patients reported a history of suicide plan or had made a suicide attempt for statistically valid conclusions to be made.

Researchers found that multiple TBIs also were associated with a significant increase in other psychological symptoms already tied to single traumatic head injuries, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, and the severity of the concussive symptoms. However, only the increase in depression severity predicted an increased suicide risk.

“That head injury and resulting psychological effects increase the risk of suicide is not new,” says Bryan. “But knowing that repetitive TBIs may make patients even more vulnerable provides new insight for attending to military personnel over the long-term, particularly when they are experiencing added emotional distress in their lives.”

How the Study was Conducted

During a six-month period in 2009, 161 patients who received a suspected brain injury while on duty in Iraq were referred to an outpatient TBI clinic at a combat support hospital there. Patients were predominantly male, average age of 27, with 6.5 years of military service.

Diagnosis of traumatic brain injury was made by a clinical psychologist specifically trained in the assessment, diagnosis and management of the condition. Only patients with mild or no TBI completed all assessments; patients with moderate to severe TBI were immediately evacuated from Iraq.

TBI was confirmed if at least one clinical event was newly presented or worsened following the injury: loss of consciousness or memory, alteration of mental state, some neurological decline or brain damage.

Patients were divided into three groups based the total number of TBIs during their entire lives – zero, single TBI and two or more – the most recent of which was typically within the days immediately preceding their evaluation and inclusion in the study.

Each individual was also given surveys as part of his or her evaluation and treatment. Using standard evaluation tools, patients were surveyed about their symptoms of depression, PTSD and concussions, and their suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

“An important feature of the study is that by being on the ground in Iraq, we were able to compile a unique data set on active military personnel and head injury,” Bryan says. “We collected data on a large number of service members within two days of impact.”

At the same time, because the results of this study are based on a single clinical sample –active military in a war zone within days of the injury – the researchers note that caution is advised before assuming that the results from this particular group will apply to every other group. Studies with larger sample sizes and conducted over longer periods of time will be needed.

Why TBI is of Concern for Military Personnel

As defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a traumatic brain injury is caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head, or a penetrating head injury that disrupts the normal function of the brain. Effects can be mild to severe. The majority of TBIs that occur each year are concussions or other mild forms.

TBI is considered a “signature injury” of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and is of particular concern because of the frequency of concussive injuries from explosions and other combat-related incidents. Estimated prevalence of TBI for those deployed in these two countries ranges from 8 percent to 20 percent, according to a 2008 study.

In addition, according to studies by the RAND Corp., suicide is the second-leading cause of death among U.S. military personnel, and the rate has risen steadily since the conflicts began in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prevalence of PTSD, depression and substance abuse have risen as well, especially among those in combat, and each has been shown to increase risk for suicidal behaviors.

“Being aware of the number of a patient’s head injuries and the interrelation with depression and other psychological symptoms may help us better understand, and thus moderate, the risk of suicide over time,” Bryan says. “Ultimately, we would like to know why people do not kill themselves. Despite facing similar issues and circumstances, some people recover. Understanding that is the real goal.”

ABOUT THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR VETERANS STUDIES:

The mission of the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah is to engage in research, education, outreach and advocacy to improve the lives of veterans, and better position these skilled, experienced and well-trained veterans for continued service that further advances American values, prosperity and security. Learn more about the center online at http://www.veterans.utah.edu. 

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH:

The University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City in the foothills of the Wasatch Range, is the flagship institution of higher learning in Utah. Founded in 1850, it serves more than 33,000 students from across the United States and the world. With more than 100 major subjects at the undergraduate level and more than 90 major fields of study at the graduate level, including law and medicine, the university prepares students to live and compete in the global workplace. Learn more about all the U has to offer online at http://www.utah.edu.

“I’m thrilled and honored to have received this recognition from my colleagues,” says Nash. “But I can understand that for most people it probably isn’t obvious just how satisfying it can be to have ‘ite’ added to your last name.”

The mineral was named for Nash by Salt Lake City mineral collector Joe Marty, a retired medical technologist at the University of Utah School of Medicine, and three other researchers who wrote a study describing and characterizing nashite.

“Since she has been so involved in describing these new minerals, the authors felt it was important for her to be recognized,” says Marty, who explores old mines and also discovered related “decavanadate” minerals named rakovanite, hughesite, postite and gunterite.

Marty discovered nashite in April 2010 on sandstone blocks in the St. Jude mine in the Slick Rock mining district of San Miguel County, Colo. But crystals of nashite good enough to be analyzed were not collected until February 2011, when Marty found them in the Little Eva mine in the Yellow Cat mining district of Grand County, Utah.

Nash is known for her study of the origin and chemistry of volcanic rocks, including those spewed by massive eruptions of the Yellowstone hotspot during the past 16 million years. She also has done extensive chemical analysis of the other vanadium minerals found by Marty.

Nashite – like the other vanadium minerals called decavanadates – comes from the Colorado-Utah uranium-vanadium or “uravan” mineral belt. But unlike most of the group’s other minerals, which are brilliant orange, nashite is transparent bluish-green with a light bluish-green streak.

That unusual color results from the fact that nashite is the first known decavanadate mineral to exhibit an unusual atomic arrangement known as an “intravalence charge transfer” between the mineral’s vanadium atoms.

Nashite’s chemical formula is Na₃Ca₂[(V⁴⁺V⁵⁺₉)O₂₈].24H₂O, and Nash says it can be referred to as sodium calcium vanadate.

Probing the Makeup of Newly Discovered Minerals

Since 1970, Nash has directed the University of Utah’s Electron Microprobe Laboratory, which uses a focused electron beam and X-ray spectroscopy to measure the amounts of specific elements within solid materials, and thus identify the chemical makeup of those materials.

The decavanadate minerals are “secondary minerals” because they form when oxygen in air reacts with vanadium ore bodies near the surface in old, damp mines. Nash helped analyze other decavanadates that Marty discovered before nashite,

They formed in a moist environment and contain water in their crystal structure, which means it was a challenge for Nash to analyze them because they tend to dry out and get damaged in the microprobe’s vacuum chamber.

There are about 5,000 kinds of minerals described by science, says Marty, who estimates he has about 2,000 of them among his collection of 10,000 specimens. Marty was a clinical assistant professor of pathology at the medical school until his retirement.    He said his interest in looking at biological samples under a microscope expanded to examining minerals around 1990, and he since has discovered about 30 new minerals – mostly vanadium and tellurium minerals.

After Marty proposed nashite’s name, it was approved last year by the International Mineralogical Association. Then, nashite’s chemical makeup, physical properties, crystal structure and other characteristics were outlined in a formal scientific paper published in February 2013 in the Canadian Mineralogist.

Co-authors of that study were Marty; Anthony Kampf, of the Natural History museum of Los Angeles County; John M. Hughes of the University of Vermont; and Frank Brown, professor of geology and geophysics and dean of the University of Utah College of Mines and Earth Sciences.

Marty previously named hughesite for Hughes, a geologist and former provost and senior vice president at Vermont.  Brown did the microprobe analysis of nashite because, “the rules don’t allow you to describe a mineral that is named after you,” Nash says.

Shyam Gopinath, an assistant professor at the David Eccles School of Business, worked with the University of Chicago’s Pradeep Chintagunta and the University of North Carolina’s Sriram Venkataraman on the study – “Blogs, advertising and local-market box-office performance” – which was recently accepted for publication in Management Science.

The research team looked at the box-office performance of 75 films—the top-grossing movies of 2004, representing more than 90 percent of the revenues generated by all movies that year—across 208 U.S. markets, measuring: the effects of pre- and post-release blog posts about the films; how many blogs were posted about a given film and whether those blog posts were positive or negative in tone; and the advertising amount allocated to promote those films.

The study’s noteworthy findings include:

• Different Responses across Demographics – Young consumers, Asians and Hispanics were the demographics most affected by blogs in their decision-making on whether or not to see a film, while Caucasians were most affected by advertising.
• Most Responsive Markets – Markets can be classified based on whether they respond more to blogs or paid advertising, and larger markets like Los Angeles, Chicago and Denver are highly responsive to blogs while having low responsiveness to advertising. Conversely, medium-sized markets like Salt Lake City and New Orleans respond more strongly to advertising than to blog volume.
• Key Drivers of Box Office Performance – Opening day box office returns are affected by how many blogs are written about a film, as well as advertising. Thirty days later, what the blogs say about a film—rather than the number of blog posts—and advertising are the key drivers of box office performance.
• Inefficient Marketing by Studios – Studios can take better advantage of the markets’ demographics and attendance habits; the study found that on opening day, studios only released in 53 percent of the markets most responsive to paid advertising, and only 44 percent of the markets most responsive to blogs.

Film studios advertise their movies the same way from coast to coast, in cities large and small, hoping to draw huge audiences for opening day; 90 percent of a movie’s revenue is generated on opening day and the following month.

“The results of this study show that studios are limiting the potential of their films’ box office success,” said Gopinath. “The inefficient, blanket approach in place at many studios fails to take into account the diverging media consumption preferences and diversity of audiences across the country. With a more targeted approach that tailors marketing and social media efforts to specific markets, studios can see greater return on investment from their nationwide outreach.”

About the David Eccles School of Business

From its beginnings in 1896 as part of the Economics and Sociology Department, what is now the David Eccles School of Business (http://www.business.utah.edu) educates nearly 3,500 students a year, and boasts more than 31,000 alumni. Students manage a university venture fund of $18.3 million, the largest of its kind in the nation. In January 2012, the school opened its new, $72 million Spencer F. Eccles Building, offering students a cutting-edge learning environment packed with state-of-the-art technology.

Honorees are selected after a thorough examination of their military service. The nominee must currently live in Utah and be able and willing to talk about his or her experiences in the armed forces. While all nominations will be considered, regardless of the time period and conditions under which the veteran served, special attention will be given to those who have been in harm’s way.

Nominations are reviewed by members of the university’s Veterans Day committee, which is comprised of veterans, military experts, university faculty and staff and members of the public. The 11 veterans selected will receive a commemorative medallion onstage at the main ceremony.

The deadline to submit nominations is May 31, 2013. A nomination form with detailed supporting materials should be e-mailed to robinson@cppa.utah.edu or mailed to the attention of Jennifer Robinson, chair, Veterans Day Committee, Center for Public Policy and Administration, 260 S. Central Campus Dr., Room 214, Salt Lake City, UT 84112.

Nomination forms are available at the Center for Public Policy and Administration Office and online at www.veteransday.utah.edu. Information about past honorees and photos of previous ceremonies can be found at www.veteransday.utah.edu.

“A Taste of Utah brings the farmers, makers and producers of local foods together with the end users of the goods they produce,” said Andrew Stone, program coordinator for Lifelong Learning. “Our hope is that this shared experience will bring people closer to these local products through a deeper understanding of the people, processes and places involved in the production.”

A Taste of Utah begins June 3 with an evening in Park City at High West Distillery for a tour and sampling of their various blends of whiskey and vodka. The second course held in July, takes participants to Cache County to experience fine food producers with a full-day of adventures including tours of Rockhill Family Creamery, Crumb Brothers and Slide Ridge Honey. The series comes to an end in August with an evening dedicated to Epic Beer and Millcreek Chocolates, where participants will learn the process of creating these popular local products.

In addition to A Taste of Utah series, Lifelong Learning provides more than 100 high-quality evening and weekend classes for adults that challenge, inform and entertain participants through learning and social interaction. New courses begin each week and include offerings in art, photography, business, dance, food and wine, home and garden, language, writing and more.

For a full listing of summer classes, visit http://continue.utah.edu/lifelong

University officials learned of the violations several weeks ago and have been working to determine the appropriate discipline.  Since then, the team’s coach has also resigned.

“The members of the team have taken responsibility for their mistakes and now must be held accountable,” said Barbara Snyder, Vice President for Student Affairs. “The rugby program has a rich history with a passionate following and I’m confident it will emerge stronger after this unfortunate chapter.”

University administrators will meet with team members and outline a Memorandum of Understanding which clearly defines expectations that must be followed in order for the program to continue.  Once the suspension is revoked this January, the team will then be on probationary status for two years.

Rugby at the University of Utah is a club sport managed through Campus Recreation Services not University Athletics.

The donation will help create a premier facility that promotes environmentally responsible construction and supports the college’s goal of obtaining certification as LEED platinum, a rating that no existing law school facility has yet attained. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a system for rating buildings for a range of sustainability features, including energy efficiency. The Alternative Vision Fund’s gift includes $500,000 in matching funds to encourage others to contribute to this effort to make the new law school building more sustainable.

“We are so grateful for the continued support of the Alternative Visions Fund, whose partner funds have a lengthy history of support for the College of Law’s Stegner Center,” said Interim Dean Bob Adler. “The architects at VCBO-Smith Group developed an incredible portfolio of additional sustainability features that inspired the Alternative Visions Fund to support our project.”

The College of Law’s new building incorporates a number of sustainable features into its design, including efficient irrigation, stormwater retention, site landscaping designed to accommodate low-water-use vegetation and easy access to mass transportation. The building also reduces energy consumption through enhanced exterior insulation, fixed exterior sunshades and insulating glass that emits low levels of heat.

In addition, the building incorporates energy-efficient systems, such as a “chilled beam” heating and air conditioning system, enhanced lighting controls that include occupancy and daylight sensors, and on-site and off-site solar power generation. The building also makes use of sustainable materials, such as LED lighting and recycled materials.

“By reducing energy use and water consumption in a cost-effective way, as well as meeting the university’s energy reduction target, this building should be eligible for LEED platinum status, a rating that no existing law school in the world has yet attained,” Adler said.

The new facility is expected to be ready for the 2015-16 academic year.

Using microwaves “is a fast way to make these particles that have a broad range of applications,” says Michael Free, a professor of metallurgical engineering. “We hope in the next five years there will be some commercial products from this, and we are continuing to pursue applications and improvements. It’s a good market, but we don’t know exactly where the market will go.”

Free and the study’s lead author, Prashant Sarswat, a research associate in metallurgical engineering, are publishing their study of the microwaved photovoltaic semiconductor – known as CZTS for copper, zinc, tin and sulfur – in the June 1 issue of the Journal of Crystal Growth.

In the study, they determined the optimum time required to produce the most uniform crystals of the CZTS semiconductor – 18 minutes in the microwave oven – and confirmed the material indeed was CZTS by using a variety of tests, such as X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and ultraviolet spectroscopy. They also built a small photovoltaic solar cell to confirm that the material works and demonstrate that smaller nanocrystals display “quantum confinement,” a property that makes them versatile for different uses.

“It’s not an easy material to make,” Sarswat says. “There are a lot of unwanted compounds that can form if it is not made properly.”

Sarswat says that compared with photovoltaic semiconductors that use highly toxic cadmium and arsenic, ingredients for CZTS photovoltaic material “are more environmentally friendly.”

Free adds: “The materials used for this are much lower cost and much more available than alternatives,” such as indium and gallium often used in semiconductors.

Making an Old Material More Quickly

Swiss researchers first invented CZTS in 1967 using another method. Other researchers discovered in 1998 that it could serve as a photovoltaic material. But until recently, “people haven’t explored this material very much,” Sarswat says. CZTS belongs to a family of materials named quaternary chalcogenides.

Without knowing it at first, Free and Sarswat have been in a race to develop the microwave method of making CZTS with a group of researchers at Oregon State University. Sarswat synthesized the material using microwaves in 2011. Free and Sarswat filed an invention disclosure on their method in January 2012, but the other group beat them into print with a study published in August 2012.

The method developed by Sarswat and Free has some unique features, including different “precursor” chemicals (acetate salts instead of chloride salts) used to start the process of making CZTS and a different solvent (oleylamine instead of ethylene glycol.)

Sarswat says many organic compounds are synthesized with microwaves, and Free notes microwaves sometimes are used in metallurgy to extract metal from ore for analysis. They say using microwaves to process materials is fast and often suppresses unwanted chemical “side reactions,” resulting in higher yields of the desired materials.

CZTS previously was made using various methods, but many took multiple steps and four to five hours to make a thin film of the material, known technically as a “p-type photovoltaic absorber,” which is the active layer in a solar cell to convert sunlight to electricity.

A more recent method known as “colloidal synthesis” – preparing the crystals as a suspension or “colloid” in a liquid by heating the ingredients in a large flask – reduced preparation time to 45 to 90 minutes.

Sarswat decided to try microwave production of CZTS when the University of Utah’s Department of Metallurgical Engineering decided to get a new microwave oven for the kitchen where students heat up their lunches and make coffee.

“Our department secretary had a microwave to throw away,” so Sarswat says he took it to replace one that had recently burned up during other lab experiments.

“The bottom line is you can use just a simple microwave oven to make the CZTS semiconductor,” Free says, adding: “Don’t do it at home. You have to be cautious when using these kinds of materials in a microwave.”

By controlling how long they microwave the ingredients, the metallurgists could control the size of the resulting nanocrystals and thus their possible uses. Formation of CZTS began after 8 minutes in the microwave, but the researchers found they came out most uniform in size after 18 minutes.

Uses for a Microwaved Semiconductor

To make CZTS, salts of the metals are dissolved in a solvent and then heated in a microwave, forming an “ink” containing suspended CZTS nanocrystals. The “ink” then can be painted onto a surface and combined with other coatings to form a solar cell.

“This [CZTS] is the filling that is the heart of solar cells,” says Free. “It is the absorber layer – the active layer – of the solar cell.”

He says the easy-to-make CZTS photovoltaic semiconductor can be used in more efficient, multilayer solar cell designs. In addition, CZTS has other potential uses, according to Sarswat and Free:

– Theromoelectric conversion of heat to electricity, including waste heat from automobiles and industry, or perhaps heat from the ground to power a military camp.

– Biosensors, made by painting the nanocrystal “ink” onto a surface and sensitizing the crystals with an organic molecule that allows them to detect small electrical currents that are created when an enzyme in the body becomes active. These biosensors may play a role in future tests to help diagnose cardiovascular disease, diabetes and kidney disease, Sarswat says.

– As circuit components in a wide variety of electronics, include devices to convert heat to electricity.

– To use solar energy to break down water to produce hydrogen for fuel cells.

The microwave method produced crystals ranging from 3 nanometers to 20 nanometers in size, and the optimum sought by researchers was between 7 nanometers and 12 nanometers, depending on the intended use for the crystals. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, or roughly one 25-millionth of an inch.

Larger crystals of CZTS make a good photovoltaic material. Sarswat says the study also demonstrated that smaller crystals of CZTS – those smaller than 5 nanometers – have what is called “quantum confinement,” a change in a material’s optical and electronic properties when the crystals becomes sufficiently small.

Quantum confinement means the nanocrystals can be “tuned” to emit light of specific, making such material potentially useful for a wide variety of uses, including more efficient LEDs or light-emitting diodes for lighting. Materials with quantum confinement are versatile because they have a “tunable bandgap,” an adjustable amount of energy required to activate a material to emit light or electricity.

Şekercioğlu, 37, an ornithologist and conservation biologist, is the first person to win the Whitley Gold Award twice from the Whitley Fund for Nature. He previously won in 2008 while working at Stanford University.

Şekercioğlu and seven winners of the 2013 Whitley Awards (the non-gold variety) accepted their honors Thursday night, May 2 during a ceremony at the Royal Geographic Society in London.

The ceremony with Princess Anne was brief, but during a reception with the award winners, Şekercioğlu said the princess “remembered me from the 2008 Whitley Gold Award and from her Buckingham Palace birthday party in 2010, and said, ‘Hi, we meet again. Congratulations.’”

“I gave her mulberry molasses and dried apricots from Turkey’s Aras River wetlands that the government is planning to drown under a dam,” he said. “They are threatened by a dam and we started the www.savearas.org campaign to save them. I told Princess Anne, ‘This is the best mulberry molasses in Turkey, but all these mulberry trees may be gone if we cannot save the Aras River bird paradise.’”

“We talked about dam projects and how they destroy rivers around the world,” Şekercioğlu said. “I explained how the apricots and mulberry molasses were straight from the Aras bird paradise, from the orchard of Aunt Zeynep, who sometimes cooks for us and whose house we have our guests stay in as a homestay. Princess Anne said, ‘Sounds like a great bed and breakfast,’ and said something about molasses and apricots being great for breakfast.”

Şekercioğlu, who moved to Utah in 2010, first won the Whitley Gold Award in 2008 for his work to safeguard bird-rich wetlands around northeast Turkey’s Kuyucuk Lake, home to 40,000 birds from 227 species. He won the new award for convincing Turkey’s government to create that nation’s first wildlife corridor for large carnivores such as wolves, brown bears and Caucasian lynx.

The Whitley Gold Award carries a 50,000-pound (about $78,000) grant for Şekercioğlu and 35,000-pound (about $54,000) awards for the seven winners of the 2013 Whitley Awards.

It is Şekercioğlu’s third award this year. Previously named a National Geographic Explorer, he is being honored this month as a National Geographic Risk Taker. Earlier this year, he won Turkey’s first Wetland Science Award,

A Whitley Fund for Nature news release with details about Şekercioğlu’s work is at:
http://whitleyaward.org/2013/05/whitley-gold-award-donated-by-the-friends-of-whitley-fund-for-nature-winner-cagan-sekercioglu-turkey/

A video about the Whitley Awards is at:
http://whitleyaward.org/2013/05/4352/

Details on Şekercioğlu’s campaign to save Turkey’s Aras River wetlands are at:
http://www.savearas.org/

The Rosenblatt Prize Committee, a group of distinguished faculty members, recommends selected candidates for the award. University of Utah President David W. Pershing made the final selection.

“Kathryn Stockton is counted among the top humanities scholars in North America and her brilliance in the classroom is widely recognized,” Pershing says. “Our students and campus are enriched by her talents, and it is a distinct honor to recognize her with the Rosenblatt Prize.”

ABOUT KATHRYN BOND STOCKTON

Stockton holds master’s and doctorate degrees from Brown University and a master’s of divinity from the Yale University Divinity School.  She has been a member of the University of Utah faculty since 1987 and was made Distinguished Professor of English in 2012. Her scholarship has been at the cutting edge of gender, sexuality, LGBT studies and cultural theory. She is the author of three books, dozens of articles, professional papers and presentations, including numerous invited lectures at conferences and symposia around the world before diverse academic audiences including law, public health, gender studies and pediatrics, as well as English and literature.

She has served as program director for gender studies at the U for more than 10 years, and she is given credit for transforming it from a modest and locally well-regarded women’s studies program into a center of scholarly inquiry that has achieved national prominence.

During her career, she has taught 20 different courses, from core undergraduate classes to graduate seminars in English and gender studies, and received dozens of awards, including the Ramona W. Cannon Award for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities, the National Organization for Women’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Crompton-Noll Prize from the Modern Language Association.

William Cohen, professor of English at the University of Maryland, notes that “she is a scholar of immense accomplishment and importance, whose work in several fields has had far-reaching influence.”

Stockton was invited to teach at the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University in 2011, where “four of the most exciting and influential thinkers in the world conduct six-week intensive summer sessions for advanced dissertation students and faculty,” says Diana Fuss, professor of English at Princeton University and senior fellow of the School. “There are perhaps few better markers of scholarly reputation than an invitation to teach” the summer course, says Fuss.

As for her acumen as a teacher, it is noted by nominators that “her course evaluation rankings hover near perfection.” Cohen continues that “she is a renowned teacher, the kind who opens whole new vistas of intellectual terrain to students and, in the process, changes their lives.” University of Utah colleague Lisa Diamond, associate professor of psychology, says that “her uncompromising academic rigor is combined with an intellectual exuberance and generosity that creates an electric educational environment,” for students as well as fellow faculty members.

The Rosenblatt endowment, from which the prize money is drawn, was established in 1983 by the Joseph and Evelyn Rosenblatt family to honor the civic leadership and generosity of Joseph’s parents, Nathan and Tillie Rosenblatt, who immigrated to Utah from Russia in the late 19^th century.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH:

 The University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City in the foothills of the Wasatch Range, is the flagship institution of higher learning in Utah. Founded in 1850, it serves more than 33,000 students from across the United States and the world. With more than 90 major subjects at the undergraduate level and more than 100 major fields of study at the graduate level, including law and medicine, the university prepares students to live and compete in the global workplace. Learn more about all the U has to offer online at www.utah.edu.

May 1, 2013 – This summer, construction on the Primary Children’s Medical Center Ambulatory Care Building will affect parking in the O-Zone Lot.  Jacobsen Construction will begin moving the perimeter fences on May 4^th, taking the remainder of the stalls in the O-Zone. This phase is expected to be completed by the time fall semester classes start on August 26^th, at which time the O-Zone stalls will be returned for use.

Starting in May and throughout the summer, O-Zone parking permit holders may park in the lots to the west of the O-Zone, including the Merrill Engineering lot. The O-Zone shuttle will continue to service the Merrill Engineering lot along Central Campus Drive via Exploration Way (see map to the right). A shuttle stop will also be added on Central Campus Drive at the Merrill Engineering lot.

Please be advised that the O-Zone parking lot continues to be a temporary parking solution at the University of Utah. As we learn what changes will be made to the O-Zone space after summer 2013, we will communicate with you and provide updates on the Facilities Management website, facilties.utah.edu.

Please consider these changes when planning for the future; you may want to seek other parking or commuting options. Commuter Services staff is available to discuss parking alternatives and public transportation options.

We continue to look for new and creative ways to manage parking issues. If you have questions, concerns or ideas for improving parking, please contact Commuter Services at comments@parking.utah.edu or call 801-581-6415.

The UCDP, found online at www.ucdp.utah.edu, will collect, store and disseminate data in an online environment rich in detail, with BEBR crunching the numbers, David Eccles School of Business IT providing backend support, and the DIGIT Lab at the U’s Department of Geography providing mapping functionality. Users will be able to explore various community metrics like economic status, educational achievement, health status and affordable housing opportunities via custom maps, tables, charts and more.

The information contained on the UCDP website—going live with limited functionality on April 26, with fuller functionality by year’s end—will be available to all citizens as well as large institutions, helping fulfill the project’s goal of “democratizing data.”

“Nobody is going to have the same breadth of information or the team expertise in mining data, as the Utah Community Data Project,” notes UCDP Director Pamela Perlich. “This is going to give people and organizations the tools to do the assessments they need in forming public policy or applying for grants, and all of the UCDP data will be academically defensible, transparent and have the benefit of BEBR’s technical expertise.”

The data available on the UCDP website will grow rapidly as more partners join the cause and make their numbers available. Already the UCDP has secured data from the Utah State Office of Education, the Utah Tax Commission, the Utah Department of Health, Salt Lake City Corporation and the Salt Lake City School District.

In the four years BEBR and DIGIT have been working to establish the UCDP, the organizations came to realize that few, if any, Utah organizations have the technical ability or institutional continuity to tackle such a wide-ranging and long-term project, particularly as recent economic conditions severely limited the ability of groups to do in-house data analysis. And while other states have similar community-data projects, the UCDP will be Utah’s first central repository for collecting, processing, warehousing and analyzing the many datasets critical for understanding the true needs of different populations and communities.

The creation and ongoing evolution of UCDP will prove invaluable for healthcare providers and researchers; city, county and state governments; school districts; housing authorities; urban planners; public and higher education administrators; nonprofit organizations; small-business owners and more.

Having the state’s most complete neighborhood data warehouse in one easy-to-access outlet like the UCDP will allow all manner of groups and individuals to access information they need at a fraction of the cost it would take for them to find and analyze the information themselves. And by housing it at the University of Utah, the work will be removed from an ever-shifting political environment to an academic one that prioritizes technical accuracy and public service.

To that end, Perlich and other members of the UCDP team plan to ultimately convene technical advisory and user groups to assist in both the content design and technical specifications.

About BEBR, David Eccles School of Business IT and the DIGIT Lab

The University of Utah has the expertise and institutional framework in place to produce and distribute these data products and other technical analyses. BEBR has an 80-year history of Utah-centric demographic, housing and economic research; more information can be found at www.bebr.utah.edu. The Information Technology department at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business combines state-of-the-art hardware and software with forward-thinking staff trained to get the most out of that technology in serving the University community, including students and organizations like the Bureau of Economic and Business Research. The DIGIT Lab is one of the premier geospatial and cartographic centers in the nation, with a 25-year history of its own; more information can be found at www.digit.utah.edu.

“The block U is a landmark seen across the valley,” said Brian Rasmussen, marketing director for the U. “When a group of students suggested the idea, we agreed it was the perfect way to share our message and honor this year’s graduates.”

The installation of the banner is being overseen by the university’s facilities department with the goal of minimizing any negative effects on the environment. The banner will be displayed until May 6.

The Imagine U campaign is part of the university’s new marketing strategy that helps define the University of Utah as a tier-one teaching and research institution offering a collaborative learning experience that prepares students to succeed in a competitive work environment.
For more information about Imagine U, visit http://umc.utah.edu/imagine-u

This year’s Unconventional Fuels Conference will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Varsity Room on level 6. The conference focuses on how computer modeling of unconventional fuel reservoirs impacts development and how economic and environmental factors could constrain development.

Media are encouraged to cover the conference, which is open to anyone for a $45 advance registration fee through April 30, then $55 through the day of the meeting.

Oil shale and oil sands are unconventional sources for crude oil that require extensive processing to release liquid hydrocarbons for fuel. In March, the U.S. Department of the Interior ruled that 680,000 acres of federal land in the western United States would be made available for research and development of oil shale and oil sands technologies. Nearly 130,000 acres of this land are in Utah.

“Given the abundance of unconventional fuels such as oil shale and oil sands in Utah, the push for development of the state’s energy resources by Gov. [Gary] Herbert, and the concern of many over the implications of large-scale development, this conference serves as a valuable platform for conveying information about unconventional fuels development to the general public,” says conference organizer Jennifer Spinti, a research associate professor of chemical engineering at the U.

This year’s conference features plenary speakers: at 1 p.m., Juan Palma, Utah director of the federal Bureau of Land Management and, at 8:45 a.m., Pierre Allix, unconventional resources program manager at Total S.A., a French integrated oil and gas company that is one of the world’s six publicly owned “supermajor” oil and gas companies. Other speakers include at 1:30 p.m., Neil Pogorelsky, prinicipal economist with HDR Decision Economics and a key contributor to the recently-released Uinta Basin transportation study; and at 2:15 p.m. Anne Mariah Tapp, land and public policy fellow with the Grand Canyon Trust.

Registration for the conference is $45 online until April 30, and $55 up until and including the day of the conference. Registration includes parking, admittance to all sessions, continental breakfast and a buffet lunch. Presentations by a panel of invited speakers will be followed by a moderated discussion.

Now in its eighth year, the Unconventional Fuels Conference is supported by the Institute for Clean and Secure Energy through the U.S. Department of Energy.

The institute’s mission is education through interdisciplinary research on high-temperature fuel processing for energy generation, and related environmental, health, policy and performance issues. The institute’s research programs include studies of conventional and unconventional fossil fuels, biomass fuels and low-quality fuels from waste streams such as tires, waste plastics and sewage sludge.

To learn more and register for the conference, please visit www.icse.utah.edu.

April 25, 2013 – General commencement ceremonies at the University of Utah will be held on Thursday, May 2 at 6:30 p.m. in the Jon M. Huntsman Center.

Scheduling the event in the evening begins a new tradition intended to make the ceremonies more readily accessible to students and their families. Commencement is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

“Commencement is the capstone of our students’ experience at the U,” says David W. Pershing, University of Utah president, “We want the ceremony to reflect that and for the celebration to be among the highlights they will remember as they begin the next stage of their lives.”

By the numbers

The class of 2013 is comprised of 8,007 graduates from 83 countries, 50 U.S. states and 27 Utah counties.
A total of 8,469 degrees will be conferred, more than the number of students as some receive more than one degree. There will be awarded 5,432 bachelor’s degrees; 2,126 master’s degrees; 632 doctorates; 147 juris doctorates; 75 doctors of medicine; and 57 doctors of pharmacy.

Of this year’s graduates, 4,324 are men and 3,683 are women. The average age of bachelor’s degree recipients is 27; the youngest undergraduate is 18, the oldest is 72. The average grade point average for this group is 3.3. The average age of students receiving graduate degrees is 32. The youngest student receiving a graduate degree is 21 and the oldest is 70.
The largest number of undergraduate degrees awarded were in the following 12 departments, respectively: psychology, exercise and sports science, mass communication, nursing, human development and family studies, economics, sociology, accounting, health promotion and education, biology, mechanical engineering and English.

Speakers

University of Utah President David W. Pershing will officiate at the commencement.

The featured speaker is author Elizabeth “Liz” Murray, whose inspiring life story has been told on film – “From Homeless to Harvard,” and in her book – “Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard.”

There are two student speakers. Mauricio Caceres, who grew up in Peru, is graduating magna cum laude in economics and mathematics and will pursue a graduate degree at Columbia University.  Lauryn Roth is graduating in biology and cum laude in environment and sustainability studies and will enter the University of Utah School of Medicine in the fall

Special awards

Honorary degrees will be presented to Thomas D. Rees, doctor of science; Apa Sherpa, doctor of humane letters, and Andrea Brantzeg Thomas, doctor of humanities.
The Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence, a $40,000 cash award and the most prestigious honor the university bestows on its faculty, will be announced May 2. A separate press release will be distributed immediately following the announcement.
The Distinguished Teaching Award recipients for this year are: Grant W. Cannon, professor of medicine; Carleton DeTar, professor of physics and astronomy; Carolan P. Ownby, professor of undergraduate studies LEAP Program; and Jon D. Rainier, professor of chemistry.

The Calvin S. and JeNeal N. Hatch Prize in Teaching goes to Kirtly P. Jones, professor of obstetrics and gynecology.
The Distinguished Scholarly and Creative Research Award recipients are: Katharine Coles, professor of English; David B. Kieda, professor and chair of physics and astronomy; and Bert Uchino, professor of psychology.
The Distinguished Innovation and Impact Award recipients are: Dale H. Clayton, professor of biology; and H. Ric Harnsberger, professor of radiology.

The Distinguished Faculty Service Award goes to Patricia A. Eisenman, professor of exercise and sport science.

Schedule for college convocations

Individual college convocations are scheduled on the following days, times and locations:

Wednesday, May 1, 2013:

• Social & Behavioral Science, graduate students: 5:00 p.m., Kingsbury Hall

Friday, May 3, 2013:

• Architecture + Planning: 2:00 p.m., Olpin Union Ballroom
• David Eccles School of Business: 7:00 p.m., Jon M. Huntsman Center
• Education: 3:30 p.m., Kingsbury Hall
• Engineering: 4:30 p.m., Jon M. Huntsman Center
• Fine Arts: 11:30 a.m., Kingsbury Hall
• Health: 9:00 a.m., Jon M. Huntsman Center
• Humanities: 11:30 a.m., Jon M. Huntsman Center
• Mines and Earth Sciences: 11:30 a.m., Film & Media Arts Auditorium
• Nursing: 5:30 p.m., Kingsbury Hall
• Pharmacy: 10:00 a.m., Olpin Union Ballroom
• Science: 1:30 p.m., Kingsbury Hall
• Social and Behavioral Science undergraduates: 2:00 p.m., Jon M. Huntsman Center
• Social Work: 9:00 a.m., Kingsbury Hall

Friday, May 10, 2013:

• S. J. Quinney College of Law: 10:00 a.m., Kingsbury Hall

Saturday, May 25, 2013:

• School of Medicine: 10 a.m., Kingsbury Hall.

Transportation and parking

Campus parking lots may be used at no charge during commencement and convocation
ceremonies. As campus parking is limited, visitors are encouraged to use the free U shuttle service  (shuttle locations are starred) to travel between commencement events. Shuttles run throughout campus and are scheduled every 10 minutes. The U campus is a TRAX free fare zone on May 2 and 3.

Those unable to attend commencement will be able to watch the live stream on the university’s website at www.utah.edu or watch the rebroadcast on KUED Channel 7 Saturday, May 4, 2013 at 5:30 p.m.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

The University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City in the foothills of the Wasatch Mountain range, is the flagship institution of higher learning in Utah. Founded in 1850, it serves over 33,000 students from across the United States and the world. With over 90 major subjects at the undergraduate level and more than 100 major fields of study at the graduate level, including law and medicine, the university prepares students to live and compete in the global workplace. Learn more about all the U has to offer online at http://www.utah.edu.

In its May 2013 issue, National Geographic magazine included Şekercioğlu – an ornithologist, conservation ecologist and director of the Turkish environmental organization KuzeyDoga – in the first article in its year-long series, “Risk Takers,” which profiles “explorers who press the limits.”

In its profile and interview with Şekercioğlu, the magazine cites him for his work “to document and prevent bird extinctions,” his criticism of government environmental policies in his native Turkey and the physical risks of his work.

“While surveying birds, I have been charged by a grizzly bear in Alaska and an elephant in Tanzania,” says Şekercioğlu (pronounced Shay-care-gee-oh-loo). “I’ve tangled with a poisonous puff adder in Uganda. I’ve been caught between the military and terrorists, mistaken for a spy, held at gunpoint, carjacked in Ethiopia and attacked by a machete-wielding mob in Costa Rica. Honestly, I’m often more afraid of people and traffic than I am of wildlife.”

Winners of this year’s Distinguished Innovation and Impact Award are Dale Clayton, Ph.D., a professor of biology, and Ric Harnsberger, M.D., a professor of radiology. Their contributions are vastly different – Clayton invented a device for killing head lice, while Harnsberger is revolutionizing the world of medical publishing. But what they have in common is a passion to help others by applying and commercializing their research.

“Faculty at the University of Utah have made enormous contributions to most fields of study, and there is a growing trend for faculty to commercialize their research, so it is extremely hard to select only a few to receive this award,” says Glenn Prestwich, a presidential professor of medicinal chemistry and founder of the Entrepreneurial Faculty Scholars, the group that selects the award winners.

Clayton’s story of how he invented the LouseBuster – a portable device that kills lice with heated air – illustrates the serendipity of basic research.

He has been fascinated by host-parasite interactions since he was a child. In particular, he studies the interactions between lice and pigeons. This research has broad – and often unexpected – applications, such as shedding light on early human evolution and why some species of parasites go extinct. Clayton came to the University of Utah in 1996 with this passion, and a series of mishaps led to his breakthrough invention.

Clayton’s research requires breeding lice on pigeons, but when he moved to Utah he discovered the lice were dying. Through persistence and imagination, Clayton discovered the lice were dying because of the dry climate in Utah, and he quickly realized he could use dry air to kill lice and make “clean” birds for experiments. About the same time, his children got head lice, which further fueled his motivation.

“The negative results of the lice dying in our dry climate proved to be more of a positive than a negative,” Clayton says. “That’s the beauty of academic research – you can follow your nose.”

Clayton and a team of student researchers first published their findings in the prestigious journal Pediatrics in 2006. Commercial development of the LouseBuster soon followed with support from the Utah Centers of Excellence Program. Through extensive testing, Clayton and his colleagues created all the necessary components to deliver the right amount of air at the right temperature, and for the right amount of time, to kill head lice and their eggs. The device was a big improvement on existing technologies – like specialized combs and shampoos – that can be time-consuming, toxic and which don’t kill eggs.

The LouseBuster was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2009 and patented in 2010. It is currently marketed in 35 states and 21 countries by Larada Sciences, Inc. a Utah company that Clayton co-founded to develop the technology.

“I am very proud of the LouseBuster, because it’s an invention that is helping a lot of people,” Clayton says. “So far, we have put hundreds of devices on the market and treated about 50,000 people.”

Harnsberger was before his time when he started working on a project that became Amirsys, an innovative medical reference company he spun out of the University of Utah. The company’s premier product, STATdx, is an industry leader that has been licensed to 98 percent of radiology residency programs in the United States and used by over 30,000 radiologists in their daily work.

He came to the University of Utah in 1978 to study and practice radiology, with a focus on the head and neck. Harnsberger has become a leading authority in this area, publishing over 200 articles and 10 books in the past 25 years. When working with publishers, he became frustrated with the book industry, how it operated and how slowly it moved, and he turned this frustration into a business opportunity.

Harnsberger launched Amirsys in 2001 as a digital publishing company, but it was far from a traditional enterprise. Forming the core of the company are a web-based, authoring system and a database that contains every chapter, radiology image or color graphic the company ever published. All expert content is created using templates and is digitally tagged for easy searching. Equally important is Harnsberger’s network of academic physician contributors that now number in the hundreds. The result is a powerful resource for medical professionals who want easy access to the best information available to make a diagnosis.

More than 10 years later, Harnsberger’s foresight and publishing innovations have paid off in the form of multiple e-products (STATdx, ImmunoQuery, RADPrimer and AnatomyOne) used at the point-of-care by physicians worldwide. All these products are driven by data-based, expert content covering topics spanning radiology, pathology and anatomy. Altogether, the products contain about 20,000 case studies and 300,000 images – or the equivalent of roughly 2,500 books.

“I am a classic accidental CEO,” Harnsberger says. “I never imagined I would manage a company that produced innovative healthcare information solutions, but my passion for sharing information and helping patients drove me in this direction.”

The winners of the Distinguished Innovation and Impact Award will be honored during the University of Utah commencement on May 2 at 6:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Learn more about commencement at www.commencement.utah.edu.

Following a comprehensive review of the program, university President David Pershing announced the position of vice president for technology venture development has been eliminated. Units and individuals formerly under that vice president will instead report to Vice President for Research Tom Parks in his capacity as president of the University of Utah Research Foundation.  Student programs will report to the Lassonde Institute.

Two new groups, an Internal Coordinating Council and External Advisory Board, will assist senior university leadership on enhancing policies, processes and opportunities related to technology commercialization and help ensure better coordination between the various groups working in this area.

Glenn Prestwich, presidential professor of medicinal chemistry and leader of the university’s Entrepreneurial Faculty Scholars group, will chair the Internal Coordinating Council. Richard K. Koehn, president and CEO of SentrX Animal Care Inc. and former University of Utah vice president for research, will chair the External Advisory Board.

“These changes are being made to better align current activities with the university’s goals regarding technology commercialization,” Pershing said. “I believe it is essential we establish an effective structure that will provide the support faculty, staff and students deserve while also ensuring that university technologies are being commercialized for the good of the state.”

The nearly 190,000 square foot center would not have been possible without financial support from a number of sources, including the generous lead naming gift from the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation along with major gifts from Kem and Carolyn Gardner and the University Federal Credit Union. Support for the Center also comes from a student-approved bond, University of Utah administration and non-student user fees. The state-of-the-art recreation facility will be the campus hub for fitness training, intramural sports and outdoor recreation. The Center will serve as the premier location for students, faculty and staff to gather and develop lifelong healthy habits.

“Every day thousands of students will visit the George S. Eccles Student Life Center to swim, run, climb or simply read or relax with friends,” said David W. Pershing, president of the University of Utah. “This amazing facility will become the vibrant center of a campus dedicated to the notion that education is about developing the whole person.”

Located just west of the George S. Eccles 2002 Legacy Bridge and adjacent to the Fort Douglas TRAX stop, the Center will connect student life with academic life and create a more engaged campus community. The Center will serve as more than just a recreation space, it will include a café and numerous study nooks, as well as three pools, five sport courts, 15,000 square feet of cardiovascular and weight lifting space, four fitness studios, a wellness studio and climbing walls.

“By approving the bond for this project, the students have voiced their support for the new Center and it will be a great addition to campus life,” said Neela Pack, former president, Associated Students of the University of Utah. “Now students will have somewhere to go between classes where they can get in a workout, study, or grab a quick bite to eat – all in one place.”

Research has shown that students who participate in campus recreation feel happier, have a stronger sense of well-being and feel more a part of campus life. Moreover, student participation in recreational programs is directly correlated with positive health habits and behaviors such as participating in community service.

“With recreational services open year-round, seven days a week, the George S. Eccles Student Life Center will promote a more interactive campus with activities that provide a healthy break from studying. It will build a stronger campus community through engagement and encourage positive life-long habits,” said Barbara H. Snyder, vice president for Student Affairs.

The George S. Eccles Student Life Center was designed by MHTN Architects and Hastings+Chivetta, and is projected to open in December 2014.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

The University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City in the foothills of the Wasatch Range, is the flagship institution of higher learning in Utah. Founded in 1850, it serves more than 33,000 students from across the United States and the world. With more than 90 major subjects at the undergraduate level and more than 100 major fields of study at the graduate level, including law and medicine, the university prepares students to live and compete in the global workplace. Learn more about all the U has to offer online at http://www.utah.edu.

Mapping out the locations of the aftershocks “helps us better delineate the extent of the collapse at Crandall canyon. It’s gotten bigger,” says Tex Kubacki, a University of Utah master’s student in mining engineering.

“We can see now that, prior to the collapse, the seismicity was occurring where the mining was taking place, and that after the collapse, the seismicity migrated to both ends of the collapse zone,” including the mine’s west end, he adds.

Kubacki was scheduled to present the findings Friday in Salt Lake City during the Seismological Society of America’s 2013 annual meeting.

Six coal miners died in the Aug. 6, 2007 mine collapse, and three rescuers died 10 days later. The mine’s owner initially blamed the collapse on an earthquake, but the University of Utah Seismograph Stations said it was the collapse itself, not an earthquake, that registered on seismometers.

A 2008 study by University of Utah seismologist Jim Pechmann found the epicenter of the collapse was near where the miners were working, and aftershocks showed the collapse area covered 50 acres, four times larger than originally thought, extending from crosscut 120 on the east to crosscut 143 on the west, where miners worked. A crosscut is a north-south tunnel intersecting the mine’s main east-west tunnels.

In the new study, the collapse area “looks like it goes farther west – to the full extent of the western end of the mine, Kubacki says.

Study co-author Michael “Kim” McCarter, a University of Utah professor of mining engineering, says the findings are tentative, but “might extend the collapse farther west.” He is puzzled because “some of that is in an area where no mining had occurred.”

Kubacki says one theory is that the seismic events at the west end and some of those at the eastern end of the mine may be caused by “faulting forming along a cone of collapse” centered over the mine.

Kubacki and McCarter conducted the new study with seismologists Keith Koper and Kris Pankow of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations. McCarter and Pankow also coauthored the 2008 study.

Before the new study, researchers knew of about 55 seismic events – down to magnitude 1.6 – near the mine before and after the collapse, which measured 3.9 on the local magnitude scale and 4.1 on the “moment” magnitude scale that better reflects energy release, Kubacki says.

The new study analyzed records of seismometers closest to the mine for evidence of tremors down to magnitudes minus-1, which Kubacki says is about one-tenth the energy released by a hand grenade. He found:

– Strong statistical evidence there were at least 759 seismic events before the mine collapse and 569 aftershocks.

– Weak evidence there were as many as 1,022 seismic events before the collapse and 1,167 aftershocks.

“We’ve discovered up to about 2,000 previously unknown events spanning from July 26 to Aug. 30, 2007,” Kubacki says, although some of the weak-evidence events may turn out not to be real or to be unrelated to the collapse.

The seismic events found in the new study show tremors clustered in three areas: the east end of the collapse area, the area where miners were working toward the mine’s west end, and – new in this study – at the mine’s west end, beyond where miners worked.

“We have three clusters to look at and try to come up with an explanation of why there were three,” McCarter says. “They are all related to the collapse.”

Some of the tremors in the eastern cluster are related to rescue attempts and a second collapse that killed three rescuers, but some remain unexplained, he adds.

Kubacki says most of the seismic activity before the collapse was due to mining, although scientists want to investigate whether any of those small jolts might have been signs of the impending collapse. So far, however, “there is nothing measured that would have said, ‘Here’s an event [mine collapse] that’s ready to happen,” McCarter says.

Kubacki came up with the new numbers of seismic events by analyzing the records of seismometers closest to Crandall Canyon (about 12 miles away). “We took the known seismic events already in the catalog and searched for events that looked the same,” he adds. “These new events kept popping up. There are tiny events that may show up on one station but not network-wide.”

“Any understanding we can get toward learning how and why mine collapses happen is going to be of interest to the mining community,” Kubacki says.

McCarter adds: “We are looking at the Crandall Canyon event because we have accurate logs and very extensive seismic data, and that provides a way of investigating the data to see if anything could be applied to other mines to improve safety.”

The Seismological Society of America meeting website, including study abstracts, is at:
http://seismosoc.org/meetings/2013/

Emilio Camu
Award for Contributions by Students

Emilio Camu is being recognized for his enthusiasm, passion and dedication to diversity and equity at the U. Camu, a third year undergraduate majoring in communications, produced the Asian American Student Association High School Conference, and is an active member in a variety of student organizations, including the Student Advisory Committee in Ethnic Studies, Associated Students of the University of Utah (ASUU) Diversity Board, Operation Smile Student Association, Venceremos Newspaper and the New U Student Experience Council. He is also involved in various community organizations that help bridge the gap between the U and the local community.

Geneva Thompson
Award for Contributions by Students in the Past Year

Geneva Thompson served as ASUU’s Student Body President for the 2012-13 school year. Working closely with the Senate Diversity Committee over the past year, Thompson focused on policies including campus-wide regulations for how students can report racial harassment, campus-wide surveys to gauge how secure students feel in talking about issues of race and diversity in their classrooms, and a fledgling diversity training for faculty and staff. All of her efforts have helped make the university a more welcoming place for underrepresented communities on and off campus.

Adrienne Cachelin, Ph.D.
Award for Sustained Contributions by University Staff and Faculty

Adrienne Cachelin, Ph.D., is an associate instructor for environmental studies at the College of Social and Behavioral Science as well as the College of Health. During her tenure at the U, Cachelin has been an advocate for inclusiveness in environmental education and social justice in and out of her classroom. She is involved in the local environmental community through partnerships with New Roots program, Comunidades Unidas and Bryant Middle School providing environmental education and literacy. Her environmental activism has been instrumental in bridging the gap between underserved communities and the university.

Native American Research Institute (NARI)
Sustained Contributions by University Units over Past Years

NARI is a 10-week summer internship program for American Indian or Alaska students interested in biomedical and health science research. Since 2010, the program has focused on fostering leadership and cultural competency among students, staff and faculty to improve education, health and welfare of tribal communities. Two students have been accepted to medical school, one is in the medical school application process and another is enrolled in a graduate health science program and works as a research assistant with a NARI research mentor. The remaining students are currently working towards their undergraduate degrees.

Each Equity and Diversity Award recipient was nominated via letters of recommendation submitted by colleagues, students and community members. The final selection was made by the awards committee of the Office for Equity and Diversity at the University of Utah.

For more information please visit www.diversity.utah.edu or call 801-581-4250.

“We detected seismic waves created by the oceans waves both hitting the East Coast and smashing into each other,” with the most intense seismic activity recorded when Sandy turned toward Long Island, New York and New Jersey, says Keith Koper, director of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations.

“We were able to track the hurricane by looking at the ‘microseisms’ [relatively small seismic waves] generated by Sandy,” says Oner Sufri, a University of Utah geology and geophysics doctoral student and first author of the study with Koper. “As the storm turned west-northwest, the seismometers lit up.”

Sufri was scheduled to present the preliminary, unpublished findings in Salt Lake City Thursday, April 18 during the Seismological Society of America’s annual meeting.

There is no magnitude scale for the microseisms generated by Sandy, but Koper says they range from roughly 2 to 3 on a quake magnitude scale. The conversion is difficult because earthquakes pack a quick punch, while storms unleash their energy for many hours.

The shaking was caused partly by waves hitting the East Coast, but much more by waves colliding with other waves in the ocean, setting up “standing waves” that reach the seafloor and transmit energy to it, Sufri and Koper say.

While many people may not realize it, earthquakes are not the only events that generate seismic waves. So do mining and mine collapses; storm winds, waves and tornadoes; traffic, construction and other urban activities; and meteors hitting Earth.

“They are not earthquakes; they are seismic waves,” says Koper, a seismologist and associate professor of geology and geophysics. “Seismic waves can be created by a range of causes. … We have beautiful seismic records of the meteor that hit Russia. That’s not an earthquake, but it created ground motion.”

While Sandy’s seismicity may be news to many, Koper says microseisms just as strong were detected before and after the superstorm from North Pacific and North Atlantic storms that never hit land but created “serious ocean wave action.”

Koper adds: “Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was recorded by a seismic array in California, and they could track the path of the storm remotely using seismometers.”

In a related study set for presentation on Friday at the seismology meeting, Koper and geophysics undergraduate student YeouHui Wong found preliminary evidence that seismometers near Utah’s Great Salt Lake are picking up seismic waves generated either by waves or winds on the lake.

Koper says researchers wonder if microseisms from storms and other causes might trigger tiny but real earthquakes, but “that hasn’t been investigated yet,” he says.

Earthscope Picks up Seismic Waves from Ocean Wave Collisions

The microseisms generated by Sandy were detected by Earthscope, a National Science Foundation-funded array of about 500 portable seismometers that were first placed in California in 2004 and have been leapfrogging eastward so that most now are located east of line running from Minnesota to east Texas, and west of a line from Lake Erie to Florida. Some remain scattered across the Midwest and West, with a heavier concentration in the Pacific Northwest.

Earthscope’s purpose is to use seismic waves from quakes and other sources to make images of Earth’s crust and upper mantle beneath North America – similar to how X-rays are used to make CT scans of the human body. To do it accurately, scientists must understand all sources of seismic waves.

Sufri says the new study included Earthscope data from Oct. 18 to Nov. 3, 2012, “which coincides with the passage of Hurricane Sandy, and we tried to understand microseisms that were generated.”

Sandy caused a damaging storm surge due to its size – almost 1,100 miles in diameter for tropical-storm-force winds – more than its intensity, which was 3 when it hit Cuba and 2 off the Northeast coast.

“The energy generated by Sandy is going to be used to image the crust and upper mantle under North America,” says Koper, noting that Earthscope uses years of seismic data to construct images. “We are using seismic waves created by ocean waves to make images of the continent.”

Normal ocean waves “decay with depth very quickly,” says Koper. But when Sandy turned, there was a sudden increase in waves hitting waves to create “standing waves” like those created when you throw two pebbles in a pond and the ripples intersect. “Pressure generated by standing waves remains significant at the seafloor,” he says.

“When Sandy made that turn to the northwest, although wind speeds didn’t get dramatically bigger, the seismic energy that was created got tremendously bigger because the ocean’s standing waves were larger from the wave-wave interaction,” he adds.

Not only did the seismic waves become more energetic, “but the periods got longer so, in a sense, the sound of those seismic waves got deeper – less treble, more bass – as the storm turned,” Koper says.

Seismic Tracking of Hurricanes

Seismologists can track Sandy and other big storms because seismometers detect three components of motion: one vertical and two horizontal. If most of the energy on a seismometer is detected with a north-south motion, it means the source of the energy is north or south of the device.

“If you have enough seismometers, you can get enough data to get arrows to point at the source,” Koper says.

He says the seismologists didn’t track Sandy in real time, but the seismographic data of the storm suggests it might be possible to help track storms in the future using their seismicity.

Sufri speculates that seismic tracking of storms might allow observations that satellites can miss, and perhaps could help researchers “understand how climate is changing and how it is affecting our oceans – are we seeing more intense storms and increasing numbers of storms?”

Koper says the Sandy study “is exploratory science where we are trying to learn fundamental things about how the atmosphere, oceans and solid Earth interact.”

Video of seismic activity from superstorm Sandy may be viewed and downloaded at:
https://vimeo.com/63694981

High-resolution version for broadcasters (no caption):
https://umcfileshare.utah.edu/uploads/download/706

Video caption: This University of Utah video shows how ocean wave action from superstorm Sandy in October, 2012 shook the United States, and how the shaking was detected by the Earthscope array of seismometers funded by the National Science Foundation. Blue color means low seismic activity; yellow, orange and red mean high seismic activity. Note how the seismometers twice flash briefly orange-red due to two earthquakes before Sandy appears near the bottom of the screen. As Sandy proceeds north, the seismometers show increasing activity and “point” to Sandy, indicating it is the source of the seismic events, which are “microseisms” and not real earthquakes. The seismometers then show maximum activity when Sandy turns west-northwest toward Long Island, New York City and New Jersey.

Video credit: Keith Koper, University of Utah Seismograph Stations.

The Seismological Society of America Salt Lake City meeting website, including study abstracts, is at: http://seismosoc.org/meetings/2013/

“It has been shown previously that community gardens can provide a variety of social and nutritional benefits to neighborhoods,” says Cathleen Zick, lead author of the study and professor of family and consumer studies at the University of Utah. “But until now, we did not have data to show a measurable health benefit for those who use the gardens.”

To gauge a health benefit, researchers used body mass index, or BMI, a calculation based on a person’s height and weight and which is widely used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems. In general, a normal BMI ranges from 18.5 to 24.9; a smaller number is better than a larger one.

Results showed that women community gardeners had an average BMI 1.84 lower than their neighbors, which translates to an 11 pound weight difference for a woman 5 feet 5 inches tall. For men, the BMI was lower by 2.36 for gardeners—a difference of 16 pounds for a man 5 feet 10 inches tall—compared to the neighborhood cohort. Gardeners were also less likely to be overweight or obese; 46 percent less for women gardeners, and 62 percent less for men gardeners.

Researchers also looked at the BMIs of individuals related to the gardeners, namely siblings and spouses.

When compared to same sex siblings, a similar advantage to unrelated neighbors was found. Women in the community gardening group had a BMI 1.88 lower than their sisters; for men, the difference was 1.33 lower for the gardeners compared to their brothers. Both differences were statistically significant.

For spouses of married gardeners, there was no difference in BMI or odds of being overweight or obese. That finding was not surprising, as researchers had expected that spouses would benefit from eating food produced in the garden, and perhaps from helping out with the gardening activities.

“These data are intriguing, although they were drawn from participants in a single community gardening organization in Salt Lake City and may not apply broadly until more research is done,” Zick notes. “However, as the percentage of Americans living in urban areas continues to grow, this initial study validates the idea that community gardens are a valuable neighborhood asset that can promote healthier living. That could be of interest to urban planners, public health officials and others focused on designing new neighborhoods and revitalizing old ones.”

How the study was conducted

The study used unique administrative data to examine—for the first time—the relationship between community gardening and a health outcome. Researchers compared community gardeners’ BMIs, and odds of being overweight or obese, with three control groups.

One group included unrelated people from the same geographic neighborhood. This group would share similar physical environments, like walkability and proximity to food shops and stores, as well as economic status.

The second group was same sex siblings, who would be expected to share genetic predispositions for weight and family influences on diet and exercise.

The third group was married spouses of the gardeners, because they would likely share lifestyle and food choices, including food grown in the community garden.

Gardeners were drawn from a pool of individuals active with Wasatch Community Gardens (WCG), a 20-year old non-profit organization located in Salt Lake City. WCG provides a network of urban gardens located throughout the local area, as well as classes, programs and events focused on gardening and eating locally. After gaining assurance from the gardeners that they had no concerns regarding WCG’s involvement with the study, WCG staff provided names and addresses of 423 adults who had gardened on one of the community plots for at least one year between 1995 and 2010.

Data for neighbors, siblings and spouses were drawn from administrative records using the Utah Population Database, a multi-faceted data resource used by health researchers. It includes a large set of Utah family histories, and links to publicly-available historical birth, marriage, and driver’s license records.

A total of 375 gardeners were linked to BMI information in the database; once linked, driver’s license records were used to build a sample of neighbors—individuals matched for age, gender and residential location, and Utah marriage, divorce and birth records to identify siblings and spouses. In the end, data on 198 gardeners and 67 spouses were included in the analyses, and height and weight information came from driver’s license records after they began community gardening.

“We know obesity is costly,” Zick concludes. “This study begins to shed light on the costs and benefits of the choices families make about eating and physical activity. Future research with controlled, randomized field studies across a range of communities are needed to further advance our understanding of the role gardening can play in healthy lives.”

ABOUT FAMILY AND CONSUMER STUDIES:

Family and Consumer Studies is an interdisciplinary department where faculty and students examine how the social, economic, political, and physical environments affect families, individuals, and consumers. The teaching, research, and service focuses on expanding the understanding of how welfare of individuals, and the families in which they live, are affected by external forces and internal forces. The department thereby emphasizes applied social science research and teaching with a strong public policy orientation.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH:

The University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City in the foothills of the Wasatch Range, is the flagship institution of higher learning in Utah. Founded in 1850, it serves more than 32,000 students from across the United States and the world. With more than 100 major subjects at the undergraduate level and more than 90 major fields of study at the graduate level, including law and medicine, the university prepares students to live and compete in the global workplace. Learn more about all the U has to offer online at http://www.utah.edu.

Bench-2-Bedside is a medical-device prototype and business-plan competition that just concluded its third season. Eighteen teams competed, and the top teams won more than $70,000 in cash and prizes to develop their ideas. Teams consisted of students from across campus – including medical, engineering and business students. Each team begins with only $500 and an idea. In six months, they create a working prototype and solid business plan.

“This program represents a paradigm shift in the way we educate tomorrow’s doctors, engineers and business leaders,” says John Langell, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., a surgeon and the director of the U’s Center for Medical Innovation, the parent organization for Bench-2-Bedside. “Instead of learning in a classroom, these students learn by forming interdisciplinary teams that create devices with real potential.”

Team Troclosure won the Grand Prize of $15,000, in addition to the $5,000 prize for Best Business Idea. The team invented a device to help surgeons suture the inside of the hole created when doing laparoscopic surgery. The device simplifies a process that usually requires extra time and equipment when a surgeon works through a small hole to secure a suture inside the abdominal wall. This device would have benefited an estimated 2.5 million patients who received laparoscopic surgery in the U.S. in 2012.

“They actually have something that is ready to license soon,” Langell says. “As a surgeon, this is something I want to use. This is a problem every day.”

Team Troclusure consists of bioengineering students Pablo Johnson, Mike Fogarty and Spencer Madsen. They used the experience to improve their understanding of how medical devices are invented and launched – however, they are also serious about selling their device. The team has already filed a patent, and they are hopeful they can license the technology to an established company.

The team plans to use the $20,000 they won to create a professional prototype – something more refined than the 3D printing they used for the competition – with the ultimate goal of making progress toward animal trials and approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

“It’s going to decrease complications for patients, it’s going to decrease operating-room time, and it’s going to keep surgeons from sticking themselves with needles,” says Johnson, who is also a medical student.

Other award winners had equally interesting prototypes, such as:

• TeddyCare won $5,000 for the new Engineering Arts and Entertainment Award. The new award hopes to promote interactive design and gaming. The team is developing multiple devices, including a teddy bear that can collect and transmit pulse-oximetry, thermometer and baby-monitor data to smartphones and other devices.
• Team Mechanical Leech was one of three runner-up teams that won $10,000. They developed a prototype that can replace live leeches to remove old, black blood with fresh, oxygenated blood during surgical procedures.
• Team HEAD Bit won $5,000 for the Best Engineering Award. HEAD stands for helical epidural access drill bit. They have a drill bit that minimizes tissue damage and increases cutting efficiency during brain surgeries.

Winning teams use the money to develop their devices, so Bench-2-Bedside is just the beginning for them, and any other team that wants to go beyond the prototype stage.

“Your dream doesn’t have to end here even if you didn’t win a big check,” says Matthew Sorensen, a medical student at the U and president of Bench-2-Bedside.

Bench-2-Bedside is made possible by substantial support from Zions Bank.

University of Utah departments that provide support include the Lassonde Entrepreneur Center and the Technology Venture Development office.

Learn more about Bench-2-Bedside at http://healthsciences.utah.edu/center-for-medical-innovation/students/bench-to-bedside.php. Learn more about medical innovation at the U at http://healthsciences.utah.edu/center-for-medical-innovation/index.php.

2013 Bench-2-Bedside Winners

• Best Overall Grand Prize ($15,000) – Troclosure – port closure device with a suture deployment mechanism for laparoscopic surgeries.
• Best Overall Runner-Up ($10,000) – Green Lite – developing a simple, single-use illuminating device that brightly illuminates vaginal and cervical tissues during a pelvic exam.
• Best Overall Runner-Up ($10,000) – Mechanical Leech – replaces the use of live leeches for skin grafts and other surgeries to remove old, black blood and allow fresh, oxygenated blood to take its place.
• Best Overall Runner-Up ($10,000) – Clearport – a replacement for current venous catheters that uses a single hub accessed through self-healing silicone ports.
• Best Entertainment Arts and Engineering Award ($5,000) – Teddy Care – developing medical devices for children, including teddy bears that collect and transmit pulse-oximetry, thermometer and baby-monitor data to smartphones and other devices.
• Best Medical Idea ($5,000) – Attach & Latch – a nipple protraction device for mothers who want to overcome difficulties with breastfeeding.
• Best Business Idea ($5,000) – Troclosure – (see description above).
• Best Engineering ($5,000) – HEAD Bit – a helical epidural access drill bit for use in brain surgery with minimal trauma to soft tissues.
• Consumers’ Choice ($3,000) – Doxy.me – provides telehealth and remote monitoring through a video conferencing solution that maintains patient privacy and is designed specifically for health-care providers.
• Best Design ($2,000) – HEAD Bit – (see description above).

The U beat its conference rivals by using more than 93 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, representing 31 percent of the school’s annual electricity usage. The U purchases a combination of renewable energy certificates  and utility green power products from 3Degrees and Rocky Mountain Power, which helps to reduce the environmental impacts associated with electricity use on campus. In addition, the school generates green power from an on-site renewable energy system.

The green power purchases were motivated by a student-led campaign to create a fund for clean energy purchases on behalf of the Associated Students of the University of Utah (ASUU). The fee went into effect in 2004 and now, every semester, each student contributes $1 toward the fund.

“The U is a leader in green power as a result of students who truly care about their future,” said Allison Boyer, director of the ASUU Sustainability Board. “They worked hard to initiate a fund for clean energy, and I want to thank the students and faculty who continue to support the fund.”

The EPA’s Green Power Partnership has tracked and recognized the collegiate athletic conferences with the highest combined green power purchases in the nation since 2006. The U consistently ranks in one of the top spots in the Pac-12 conference and is often recognized as one of the top 10 schools nationally for total green power purchases.

Green power is electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact hydropower.

“For many years and over multiple administrations the Department of Energy has estimated that the United States could generate more than 100 percent of our electricity from just wind,” said Christopher P. Hill, distinguished professor in biochemistry and chairman of the President’s Sustainability Advisory Board at the U. “If the costs of negative impacts from fossil fuel use were included, wind and other renewable sources would be hands-down the cheapest approach to large-scale energy production.

According to the EPA, the U’s green power use of more than 93 million kWh is equivalent to avoiding the the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from the electricity use of nearly 10,000 American homes annually, or the CO₂ emissions of nearly 14,000 vehicles per year. The 76 schools competing in the 2012-2013 challenge collectively purchased more than 2.2 billion kWh of green power.

For more information on the challenge, visit: http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/initiatives/cu_challenge.htm.