Science benefits flow from stimulus
By Tom Beal
ARIZONA DAILY STAR 11/24/09
University of Arizona researchers snared more than $83 million of the $21.5 billion in stimulus funds designated for scientific research in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, said Leslie Tolbert, UA vice president for research.
At a briefing held Monday at the UA’s Bio5 Institute, Tolbert said the money had so far created or retained more than 157 jobs at the UA, in addition to buying expensive equipment for 125 projects, ranging from astronomy to anthropology.
In some cases, the money will create entire new programs, like the $13 million Center for Interface Science: Hybrid Solar-Electric Materials, headed by Neal Armstrong of the Chemistry and Optical Sciences departments.
Armstrong said he has already hired or retained 30 of the 50 graduate students, scientists and technicians who will work on the “next generation” of easily deployed, lightweight solar cells as part of the Department of Energy’s push to advance research into renewable energy.
Other projects were already in the pipeline. The Steward Observatory will receive $10 million in continuing support for its development of a near-infrared camera called NIRcam, for NASA’s Next Generation Space Telescope. NIRcam is headed by astronomer Marcia Rieke.
The anthropologist in the room, David Killick, said his National Science Foundation grant of nearly $270,000 will support the training of two graduate researchers in methods for determining the origin of turquoise, metal and glass objects found byarchaeologists using heavy stable isotopes of lead and strontium.
It’s not just jobs, Killick said, but training in specific skills that might keep the researchers employed.
During the briefing, organized by the office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., Killick said he was grateful for the stimulus grant but added, “We need not only a one-time injection but an upgrade in funding.”
Tolbert said after the briefing that the 157 jobs created so far are only the beginning but added that the research grants would not create as many jobs as earlier stimulus money directed to the UA through the state of Arizona, which funded things such as construction projects. That $60.8 million created more than 672 jobs, according to a report compiled by her office.
The scientific research grants, Tolbert said, will buy a lot of expensive equipment and allow for the hiring of scientists.
“We’re not talking minimum wage jobs,” said Giffords, who noted that much of the research done at the university will find application in the business world.
Contact reporter Tom Beal at 573-4158 or tbeal@azstarnet.com
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