This month, 23 Kansans joined 500+ other scientists, students, and leaders at the 28th National NSF EPSCoR Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. The gathering’s purpose was to share work made possible by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.
EPSCoR is one of NSF’s longest running and politically popular programs. Its goal is to create science opportunities in regions of the country lagging in scientific research investment. This includes Kansas along with 24 other states and three territories.
Given that Nebraska is just a few hours drive away, it is not surprising that so many faculty, staff, students, and state officials made the journey from Kansas to the conference.
The event featured dozens of talks on research and broader impact topics. Here are a few photos and memorable moments from the event.
National leader spotlights Kansas
NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, or Panch as he is known, gave a lively morning presentation about how EPSCoR is a multiplier for capacity building. While giving examples of place-based research, he called out K-State professor Bala Natarajan (who co-leads the ARISE project) for his smart grid research. Dr. Panch also flagged a new engineering research center spearheaded by the University of Kansas. (Photo credit: Madison Sobotka)
Kansans share best practices
Several Kansas NSF EPSCoR office members contributed to panel sessions, as follows:
- Education, Outreach and Diversity Director Claudia Bode moderated a panel on community engaged research with Program Coordinator Alej Martinez and colleagues from Nebraska, Wyoming and the Virgin Islands.
- Director Belinda Sturm shared best practices for EPSCoR offices with colleagues from Nebraska, Idaho, and Montana.
- Assistant Director Doug Byers shared insights about project evaluation with colleagues from Idaho, Montana, and Mississippi.
William Duncan, assistant research professor at the University of Kansas, also participated in a panel session about building creative partnerships in education, sharing his work with the Kansas Data Science Consortium.
Kansans present research posters
Three poster presenters shared research enabled by the EPSCoR-funded ARISE project, including:
- Adithya Melagoda (left), graduate student at Wichita State University on the ARISE project, presented “Equity and Priority-based Power System Restoration Method During Extreme Events.”
- Eliyasu Osman (middle), graduate student at Kansas State University on the ARISE project, presented “Energy and water insecurity across Kansas: An empirical examination of households across different social vulnerability segments.”
- HsiChuan (Andrew) Wang (right), postdoctoral researcher at the University of Kansas on the ARISE project, presented “Adaptive Governance in Emergency Response Network Evolution Over 20 Years.”
Two other poster presenters from Kansas shared research enabled by other NSF funding sources, including:
- Blair Schneider, associate researcher and science outreach manager at KU shared the BESST Program: High quality research experiences and programmatic development for undergraduates paired with enhanced mentor training for faculty
- Mirit Shamir, et. al, at Kansas State University, presented “First Year of the Microbial Innovations for Climate-Resilient Agriculture (MICRA) Project.”
Closing the gender gap
Professor Sko delivered a rousing science show, complete with robots, balloons, and smoke rings. She seeks to get young people excited about science and teaching science to close the gender gap. Check out her YouTube video ‘forlorn in the corn.’ (Photo credit: Madison Sobotka)
Championing planet Earth
Several presenters stressed the importance of conserving nature to safeguard society and biodiversity.
- Photographer Michal Forsberg shared his 10 years of timelapse images of Nebraska’s Platte River, a lifeblood for humans, birds, and animals.
- Edward Louis Jr., discoverer of 25 species of lemurs, shared his efforts to plant more than 8 million trees in Madagascar with support from the Arbor Day Foundation and the Madagascar Project.
- Nebraska native Cole Sartore shared the beautiful portraits that he and his father have taken of a whopping 16,000 species, many on the brink of extinction, for the National Geographic Photo Ark.
Zoo excursion
Two busloads of conference attendees got to learn about the research and conservation projects at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo, including KU Program Coordinator Alej Martinez (above), K-State Graduate Student Eliyasu Osman, and Kansas NSF EPSCoR Education, Outreach and Diversity Director Claudia Bode.
An unofficial mascot is born
To help education, outreach, and diversity staff find each other at the opening reception, Claudia Bode suggested having a mascot. This is how the ‘EPSCorgi’ was born. Then, Jodi Sangster from Nebraska EPSCoR kindly made cute corgi pins to hand out at the reception.
Next time, Claudia hopes to expand the theme to unofficial cookies (EPSCoreos), transportation (EPSCorvettes), and games (EPSCornhole).
