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Fed findings fuel fundings
By TOM WOLFE
Of the Emerald
While the University expects vir
tually all faculty members to do
some kind of research, it presently
funds less than one per cent of the
projects being conducted.
The rest of the money comes
almost completely through federal
grants usually from the National
Science Foundation or the Na
tional Institutes of Health, accord
ing to Aaron Novick, graduate
school dean.
The federal research grants es
tablished at the University for this
year amount to about $9 million.
The University plans to spend only
about $50,000 on research pro
jects in comparison.
This funding pattern is not
peculiar to this university, Novick
says. “It’s pretty much the tradi
tion nationally,” he says. “In fund
ing formulas there just isn’t ade
quate recognition of the real cost
of graduate programs,” Novick
says.
Though the grants generally do
not cover faculty salaries they do
offset enormous costs of laborat
ory supplies and sophisticated
equipment. Many professors are
also able to employ themselves
through the summer with the typi
cal three-year grants they receive.
Asked if the University’s heavy
reliance on federal funding for re
search limits the breadth of re
search being done by encourag
ing professors to work in “safe
areas, Novick admitted this was a
danger.
“We strongly discourage that
sort of thing,” Novick states. “The
government hasn’t been restric
tive in issuing grants so far,” he
says, “but competition for the
grants is becoming increasingly
intense. During the 1960s it was
much easier to get a project
funded. Since then the pool of
mor^y available has stayed at
about the same in real dollars,
while the number of people seek
ing funding has grown signific
antly," says Novick.
Besides scientific arguments
for professors doing primary re
search at the University, Novick
says it "demonstrates you have a
faculty that understands the pro
cess by which knowledge is ac
quired — that it isn’t simply doc
trine but an interpretation of the
world constantly changing to help
us understand things better.
“Knowledge, especially in the
sciences, is extremely perisha
ble," Novick adds. “Requiring re
search assures that the faculty
keeps up to date.”
Pure sciences aren’t the only
areas to receive large amounts of
federal money, Novick notes. The
College of Education will spend
about $3 million this year doing
research in developmental sci
ences with grants mostly from the
National Institute of Education
and the Office of Education.
Other common funding sources
are the National Institute of Gen
eral Medical Sciences, the Energy
Research and Development Ad
ministration and the National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration.
In addition to federal funding for
research there is a measured
amount of private money from the
Rockefeller, Ford and Sloan
Foundations, DuPont, IBM,
Weyerhaeuser and others.
Typically, these are fellowhips,
Novick says, whereby a company
funds research by a young faculty
member, usually in chemistry or
physics before he receives fund
ing from another source.
Since most of the research pro
jects done at the University are
basic research in the primary sci
ences, “We don't make half the
headlines Oregon State Univer
sity (OSU) does.” (OSU conducts
many more short-term projects in
the applied sciences than does
the University of Oregon.)
Some have suggested that fed
eral money should assist only im
mediate problem-solving re
search projects. “This is a mis
take,” Novick says. “The solving
of current problems may depend
on basic knowledge we don’t have
yet.”
Grants vitalize 3 research efforts
The University receives several
million dollars annually in federal
grants to conduct scientific re
search. “We are virtually depen
dent upon the grants to carry out
faculty research projects,” says
Aaron Novick, graduate school
dean.
The National Science Founda
tion (NSF) is probably the greatest
donor of research grants for the
University. The following are three
of its most recent grants awarded
University professors.
• John Schellman, chemistry
professor and research associate
in the University's Institute of
Molecular Biology has received a
four-year grant of $232,000 to
help him continue a light-based
study of the structure and chemi
cal make-up of organic cells. NSF
has provided funding for the pro
ject since 1960.
In his investigation, Schellman
uses an instrument — “you might
call it a microspectroscope" —
which combines qualities of a mic
roscope and a spectroscope to lo
cate single cells invisible to the
human eye, shine polarized light
into them and analyze the light
which comes out.
The technique enables Schell
man to learn which light colors, or
wavelengths, are absorbed in the
cells and leads to information
about chemical and structural
characteristics of the cells
molecules.
“Lately we've worked with cells
from the eyes of frogs,” Schell
man says. “Since other resear
chers have determined the chem
ical make-up of the cells'
molecules, we are able to learn
something of the changes which
occur when light enters.”
According to Schellman, the
data could be helpful to resear
chers attempting to understand
the incredibly complex system
which records light from the envi
ronment and signals the brain to
call up images.
The research goes past study
ing visual cells, however. Schell
man is applying the polarized-light
analysis technique to cells from a
variety of living organisms.
First-year funding (through
June 1978) from the four-year
NSF grant is $55,000.
• University physicists Douglas
Lowndes and Yung Chung have
received a $46,000 grant from
NSF to study the behavior of elec
trons of various metals at ex
tremely low temperatures.
The funding started April 1 and
will continue through September
1978.
Chung, a research associate in
physics, is directing the research
while Lowndes is on sabbatical
leave at Katholieke University in
Nijmegan, the Netherlands.
• University professor Gerald
Smith (biology) has been awarded
an NSF grant of $159,890 for
three years to study the biological
process which turns genes on and
off.
“What we’re attempting to
learn," said Smith, a research as
sociate in the University’s Institute
of Molecular Biology, “is how and
why certain proteins, called rep
ressors, bind themselves to the
DNA molecule to make genes
stop expressing their biological
messages.”
According to Smith, the ques
tions of gene control could have
broad implications to man. For
example, understanding the pro
cess in humans might someday
help medical researchers “turn
off" genes directing the genera
tion of disease germs.
Genes are the same in all or
ganisms. However, scientists do
not yet know if the method of gene
expression is universal.
Smith is studying a type of virus
which invades bacteria cells. The
virus either takes over the cells
“machinery” to reproduce itself, or
represses its own genes to remain
dormant in the bacteria cells for
days, months or even years.
NSF funding for the project in
1977 is $51,583.