Moving your research forward in a new setting:

PUI

NAGT Cutting Edge Workshop 2008friehauf@kutztown.edu

and kimenking@vassar.edu

Photo of birds nest with baby robin

Situation

• You’ve worked at a top tier R-1 research institution for the last 4-8 years.

• You are at the cutting edge frontier of your science!

Situation

• You just unpacked your belongings in a rental house in a new town hundreds of miles from anyone you know.

Situation

• It’s August 1• You have 25

days to prepare the two courses you’ll teach this fall at East Pennsyltucky State University

• You’ll teach two more in the spring.

Photo of office withunpacked boxes

Situation

• It’s August 1• You have

less than three years to establish a thriving research program

Photo of tombstone(i.e., publish or perishmost PUIs require at leasta couple publicationsfor tenure)

Situation• This is

East Pennsyltucky State University – a small PUI

• You have no graduate students Photo of alone in desert

Situation

• This is East Pennsyltucky State University

• You have minimal analytical instrumentation

Photo of old, alchemist

The Chymist by David Teniers the Younger

Situation• This is

East Pennsyltucky State University

• There are three geoscientists in your department, so there is minimal academic overlap

Photo of fruit bowl with one apple, one orange, and one banana

You are intellectually isolated

Situation

• Even if this is East Pennsyltucky State University, you’re not totally broke because you have $10,000 startup money.

Photo of wad of cashMost schools these daysgive you at least this much – more depending on wealthand emphasis on research

Situation

• Being a PUI, your department strongly encourages you to involve undergraduate students in your research.

• They know nothing.

Photo of undergraduatestudents

Case study - Kirsten

• Kirsten’s research – paleolimnology of western lakes (Vassar’s not in the West!) and hydrological modeling (not conducive to undergraduate involvement!)

• Solution – use knowledge of hydrology, aquatic chemistry, dataloggers to study a campus stream. Work with colleagues in biology, chemistry, earth science, environmental studies, geography, urban studies

Casperkill Past

Brook TroutCoyoteTurkeyHeronFalconsMinkNut Trees

Casperkill Present

Flooding

Nutrients

Road Salt

E. coli

Poor water quality due to lousy land-use planning

Question: How and at what scale does urbanization impact

streams? • Benthic

macroinvertebrates • Water and sediment

chemistry• Flow

• Riparian buffer assessment

• GIS

• Community survey

Leverage grants and existing resources

• Mellon consortium grant• Vassar Environmental Research

Institute• NYS-Water Resources Institute• NSF-Major Research Instrumentation

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Mix up teaching and research

• Use research results to develop class exercises

• Have students in classes do work that contributes to research

• Write CCLI, MRI, REU proposals to benefit both aspects of your academic life

Case study - KurtThree pronged approach1. Local projects for quick results2. Collaboration for

bigger science3. Building analytical

resources

Local projects• Mid-Atlantic

iron oxide deposits

• Worked with State Survey

• CUR

• Groundwater flow in karst

• Worked with local industry

• donations

Collaboration forbigger science

• University of Arizona• Spence Titley + Stacie Gibbins• Industry-funded

Building analyticalresources

Brainstorm• What complicating factors for

research did Kirsten and Kurt face when they started work at a PUI?

• What strategies did Kirsten and Kurt employ?

• What would you have done?

Summarize points on white board

Problem: limited funding

• Start with a small, local project

• Build on small successes

• Local = easy logistics, especially if involve undergraduate student researchers

Photo of student working on local project

Problem: limited funding• Small grants pay for

basic preliminary groundwork necessary for bigger grant proposals

• University grants• State grants

Screen capture image of grant database search

Problem: limited funding

• Community-based projects

• Collaborate with state and local agencies for resourcesand access to sites!

• Be part of a big study and then spin off your own angle

Photo of student working on community project

Problem: limited facilities

• Maintain contacts with your PhD institution

• State institutions may have instrumentation

• Collaborate with other universities in state system

Photo of ion beam instrument

Problem: limited facilities• Learn to apply

something completely new to a problem with which you’re already familiar

Photo of GRP / geophysics

Problem: intellectual isolation

• Organize multidisciplinary research group with other faculty

• You may have access to more facilities than you knew!

ChemistryBiology

Geology

Problem: intellectual isolation

• Organize intellectual publication writing club with other faculty (including faculty in other disciplines!)

Photo of writing club at the diner for Friday lunch meeting

Problem: intellectual isolation

• Organize intellectual publication writing club with other faculty (including faculty in other disciplines!)

Problem: intellectual isolation• Do small projects just

for fun with faculty in completely unrelated disciplines (e.g., English, history, anthropology)

• You do not need to be a Schwarzennegger-like research “Terminator” in many PUIs.

Photo of “Shakespeare and Schist” advertisement

Your turn – variant #1• This is the profile of the faculty and

instrumentation at a small public PUI:

• Department (you are one of these): – Meteorologist– Sedimentologist/Stratigrapher/

Paleontologist– Structural Geologist/Geophysicist– Mineralogist/Petrologist– Hydrogeologist/Geomorphologist

Your turn – variant #1• Facilities

– Optical microscopes– XRD– Atomic absorption spectrometer– Workstation computers– Minitrolls, water level tape, Horiba U-10, and

Marsh-McBirney current meter– Rock saws– Weather station (temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction,

wind chill, dew point, heat index, barometric pressure and rainfall data )

• Start-up money– $15,000

Your turn – variant #1• Location (choose one)

– Suburban Virginia– Rural Maine– heart of Los Angeles

• Assignment:– Outline a research project that you

could do in collaboration with at least one faculty member in your department

– Where will you get funding?– How will you get access permission?– How will you publish this and when?

Your turn – variant #2• You’re department consists of three

people sitting at your table with you. Introduce yourself to them, including your research specialization.

• Assignment:– Outline a community-related research

project that you could do in collaboration with your peers in a small PUI setting (either in a small town or big city)