A PROMISE KEPT
University to assist low-income Arizonans through Sun Devil Promise program

ASU is opening wide its doors to low-income Arizonans, announcing on Nov. 29 the “Sun Devil Promise” to provide full funding to all Arizona freshmen from families with incomes under $25,000. The new program will pay for tuition, fees, books, room and board, for a total of about $13,000 a year in assistance. ASU is among the first universities in the nation to offer this type of assistance.

Two years ago ASU launched the ASU Advantage program to cover the full cost for students whose family income is at or below the federal poverty level of $18,850. More than 600 students have entered ASU under the program.

Last year, in addition to $385 million in federal aid, ASU gave nearly $100 million annually in scholarships and grants to thousands of students from virtually every income level. University need-based gift aid has increased 246 percent in the past three years.

The Sun Devil Promise is expected to make a university education accessible to hundreds more qualified low-income students. Forty-seven percent of Arizona children live in low-income homes, and about one-quarter are in households with incomes less than $25,000.

The Sun Devil Promise program is a key piece of President Michael Crow’s vision of ASU as a “New American University,” an accessible institution of high academic rank focused on excellence, access and impact.

The Sun Devil Promise will also tie together a number of programs designed to bring children from urban, rural and underserved suburban areas to campus to instill in them the dream of a university education. The outreach efforts include parent education programs, elementary and high school partnerships, summer bridge programs and financial aid outreach.

For more information on Sun Devil Promise, go to www.asu.edu/promise.

MEDICAL RESEARCH SOFTWARE WOWS SCIENTISTS (back to top)
A data-finding tool that promises to dramatically improve the efficiency of medical research has been developed by a small team of ASU researchers.

The computer software program called Collaborative Bio Curation, or CBioC, can analyze vast amounts of biomedical data to locate and extract specific information critical to research efforts. It's a fusion of computer science, information management, medical research methods and clinical practice that could lead to significant advances in the way scientific data searches are conducted, say CBioC developers Chitta Baral and Graciela Gonzalez.

CBioC can be compared to Wikipedia in its collaborative capabilities, and to Google in its search capabilities. The program is a Web browser application that is a search engine and collaboration tool of PubMed, the primary online repository of biomedical papers maintained by the National Library of Medicine.

Use of CBioC has been steadily increasing since it became available in December 2005, with researchers throughout the United States, Japan, Australia and Europe downloading the software. It also caught the attention of Science magazine, which featured CBioC in the NetWatch news section of its Web site.

The software program is available for free download at www.cbioc.org.

HERBERGER COLLEGE GAINS RARE ITALIAN ORGAN
ASU’s Herberger College School of Music became home to a rare Italian Baroque organ last fall, built by Domencio Traeri in 1742, which is featured during the current MainStage Organ Series concert season. ASU joins a select group of only three other American universities that have Baroque organs: Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, the University of California, Berkeley, and Cornell University.

The Traeri organ has a distinct sound. One of the recognizable differences between the German-made Fritts organ, which occupies Organ Hall at ASU, and the Traeri organ is that the Fritts is more intellectual and organized in orientation; the Traeri delivers a sound that is reflective of singing voices.

Before its arrival in Tempe, the Traeri organ was originally housed in a church near Modena, Italy that was bombed during World War II. Before the church was razed in 1950, the organ was bought by an Austrian, who kept the instrument safe in his attic for the next 50 years. Despite all the recent travel, the organ is completely intact, with just one of its 300 pipes needing to be replaced.

More information about the Traeri organ can be found at: http://music.asu.edu/e-Notes/spring2006/organ.htm.

ASU HAS METEORIC RISE IN NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLAR RANKINGS (back to top)
ASU has risen again in the national rankings for freshman National Merit Scholars, attracting a higher number of these bright students than almost any other public university in the United States, according to a newly released report.

With a record 188 National Merit Scholars in this year's freshman class, ASU ranks third among public universities and eighth among all schools, ahead of Yale, Princeton and Stanford. The ASU student body includes 606 National Merit Scholars overall, raising the level of class discussion and inquiry across the campuses.

National Merit Scholars score in the top one-half of 1 percent of all students who take the Preliminary SAT mid-way through high school. They must continue to show a consistent record of high academic performance from 9th through 12th grade, be recommended by their principals and complete a lengthy application.

For the past seven years, ASU has placed among the top 20 universities in the country. Fifteen years ago, ASU enrolled only six freshman National Merit Scholars.

The annual report by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation listed 387 public and private institutions that enrolled 8,319 scholars this year. The top 10 are Harvard, 294; University of Florida, 257; University of Texas at Austin, 250; Washington University in St. Louis, 241; University of Southern California, 206; Northwestern, 198; University of Chicago, 196; ASU, 188; Yale, 186; Princeton and Stanford, 153.

Mark Jacobs, Barrett Honors College dean, says the effect of having a large number of National Merit Scholars is felt across all four ASU campuses.

"These wonderful students enrich classroom discussions and contribute to the rising culture of intense intellectual engagement on campus," Jacobs says.

'A STYLE ALREADY WRIT LARGE'

Arizona Republic newspaper names Michael Crow its Arizonan of the Year

Though he has resided in Arizona for only five years, ASU President Michael Crow has made the entire state, if not the entire world, the stage for his actions.

His vision of ASU as the New American University has reshaped the university, and the Valley of the Sun as well. For these reasons, the Arizona Republic, the largest newspaper in the state, recently named Crow as its Arizonan of the Year for 2006.

In an editorial titled “A style already writ large,” the Republic praised Crow as “a risk-taker and entrepreneur who deals in ideas” who has “committed himself into reshaping a formerly sun-drenched ‘party’ school into what it should be: a meaningful engine of intellectual and economic progress.”

The newspaper lauded Crow’s work to tap Arizona’s economic potential, noting that he views ASU as the means by which the state will create an “intellectual and institutional framework” to enact its ambitions. It listed the creation of the Downtown Phoenix campus, ASU’s partnering with the University of Arizona and the Translational Genomics Research Institute to create the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, and the creation of the Biodesign Institute as evidence that the university is committed to bettering the surrounding community. It also praised Crow’s development of scholastic and research initiatives in Mexico and China as proof that he is “one of the state’s leading advocates for seizing the initiative on globalization.”

The editorial also asserted that Crow’s progress in realizing his transformation of ASU has been substantial. It pointed to ASU being named one of the 77 best universities in the Western Hemisphere by the Institute of Higher Education as an important indicator of how far the university has come under Crow. It also lauded the university’s focus on recruiting National Merit Scholars and Crow’s partnership with Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon in promoting a successful $184 million ballot proposition to fund the creation of ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus.

A complete version of the Arizona Republic editorial naming Crow Arizonan of the Year is online at http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1231sun1-31.html.

LONG ENGAGEMENT(back to top)
New Carnegie Foundation classification recognizes ASU's outreach programs

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has selected ASU for its new “Community Engagement” classification, recognizing the deep involvement of ASU faculty and students in activities that benefit the broader community.

ASU offers more than 1,030 outreach programs throughout the state, making a difference in the lives of Arizonans by providing needed educational, cultural, legal and health care services at hundreds of locations. The Carnegie Foundation cited ASU’s curricular engagement in addition to its outreach and partnerships.

Seventy-six U.S. colleges and universities received the new classification – 62 of them with substantial commitments in both categories.

The new classification was developed as part of an extensive overhaul of the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, and is in addition to ASU’s basic classification as a research university with very high research activity. Few research universities made the new list, indicating the uniqueness of ASU’s broad mission as the New American University.

Hundreds of faculty members across all four ASU campuses take their research and teaching into the community, leading to more relevant research, a vibrant educational experience for students and rich benefits for the people of Arizona. In addition to faculty activities, thousands of students across the ASU campuses participate regularly in organized community service.

ASU President Michael Crow noted that service initiatives, far from being ancillary, form the heart of what makes the university useful, and differentiates it from other institutions of higher learning.

“Public service has long been a defining characteristic of ASU,” says ASU President Michael Crow. “By institutionalizing social embeddedness, ASU has the opportunity to become a unique and leading model, inspiring campuses across the nation.”

SUPERCOMPUTING PROJECT ATTRACTS ASU RESEARCHERS (back to top)
ASU researchers are partners in an unprecedented supercomputing project that has been awarded a five-year, $59 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

The Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas-Austin is the lead institution for the project and will be assisted in the effort by the Fulton High-Performance Computing Initiative program in ASU's Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, as well as by the Cornell Theory Center at Cornell University and the computer technology company Sun Microsytems.

The project's goal is to deploy and support world-class high-performance systems with tremendous computing capacity and capability to enhance leading U.S. research programs. The supercomputer system is expected to achieve a peak performance in excess of 400 trillion floating point operations per second, providing more than 100 trillion bytes of memory and 1.7 quadrillion bytes of disk storage.

In its first year of operation, the Fulton-based computing center, which is directed by computer engineer Dan Stanzione, has been used by more than 300 researchers, including about 75 ASU faculty members from more than 15 academic departments. More than $22 million in research has been performed at its facilities in the past year, accounting for more than 10 percent of ASU's total research expenditures.

ISTB II WINS SILVER STAR FOR SUSTAINABILITY (back to top)
The Interdisciplinary Science + Technology Building II at the Tempe campus in September became the first ASU building to achieve a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver rating from the U.S. Green Building Council certification, much to the delight of its architects, Richard & Bauer, Architecture LLC., and ASU leaders.

The LEED rating system was introduced in 1998 by the building council to promote environmentally sustainable building. The system has four levels, certified, silver, gold and platinum.

According to L. Ray Tena, associate director of engineering for University Services at ASU, the rating means the building is energy efficient and is built to attain a higher level of sustainability than normal industry standards call for.

The building was designed with a superior LEED rating in mind. The architects designed the building to let as much natural light into the building as possible, while preventing the sun from heating it up. Special attention also was paid to air quality, energy-efficient lighting, use of recycled materials and water consumption.

Tena noted that the university was in the process of applying for a LEED rating for the Biodesign B and ISTB I buildings on campus.

SCREENING ROOM
"A Place in the Sun" video brings ASU experience home

ASU Magazine readers are being present with a one-of-a-kind DVD: "A Place in the Sun," a 15-minute capsule view of Arizona State University

The program gives alumni an updated look at the university and what it has to offer incoming students, the Phoenix metropolitan area, and the world as it strives to embody the ideals of the New American University.

The DVD was produced by the university’s University Student Initiatives group. Jim Rund, vice president of USI, said the department, which is charged with recruiting, enrolling and supporting Sun Devil students, wanted a new way to reach potential students and let them experience everything ASU has to offer.

“We felt we needed a new medium to capture ‘one university in many places,’ to capture the spirit, intent, goals and aspirations of the New American University,” Rund said in a podcast from the Office of the President last fall. “We looked to video to help capture that visually as well as provide the content we needed.”

The video, which is divided into chapters, features segments on ASU’s evolution over the past few years, its quest for academic excellence, the opportunities provided by attending the university, and student life on the four ASU campuses.

Alumni are encouraged to share the DVD with others. Christine Wilkinson, president of the Alumni Association, said, "Wanting to share what's great about your alma mater comes naturally to many people. The university has now created a powerful tool with which to do it," she said.

The production of the DVD had a special Sun Devil flavor, as True Story Films completed the project with help from alums Brett Tuttle ‘95 B.A. (producer), Cary Truelick '93 B.A. (director), Ben Scharffbillig '05 B.I.S. (camera/editing) and Alex Mitchell '94 B.A. (camera), among others.

A Place in the Sun” can also be viewed on the ASU Web site by visiting www.asu.edu/news/video/placeinthesun.html.

MONEY MATTERS (back to top)
ASU awarded $5 Million by Kauffman Foundation to unleash entrepreneurial spirit

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation awarded a $5 million grant to ASU in December 2006 to extend access to entrepreneurship education university-wide. The grant is part of a $200 million effort by the foundation to transform the way entrepreneurship education is taught in the nation's colleges and universities.

The Kauffman Campuses Initiative was launched in 2003 to foster the creation of interdisciplinary entrepreneurship education programs in American higher education that are available to all students regardless of major. The Kansas City-based foundation is a private, nonpartisan organization that works with partners to advance entrepreneurship in America and improve the education of children and youth.

ASU was one of only two schools chosen by the Kauffman Foundation for a $5 million grant, the other being the University of Wisconsin, Madison. ASU was selected based on a series of criteria, including the ability to create a culture of entrepreneurship that permeates the campus, the potential to create new representative models, and the ability to partner with other foundations and funders.

Julia Rosen, ASU assistant vice president for economic affairs, said the grant recognized the university’s intention to promote entrepreneurship in all disciplines.

"ASU is recognized for its broad, diverse and interdisciplinary entrepreneurial programs that go beyond business courses, establishing real-world venture creation opportunities for students in all disciplines," said Rosen. "We seek to empower aspiring and working artists, nurses, managers, public administrators, educators and engineers to invent and implement solutions that improve the quality of life for Arizonans and people throughout the world."

For more information on ASU and its Kauffman Campus initiative, visit the Web site http://entrepreneurship.asu.edu.

ANCIENT CHILD'S SKELETON KEY TO EVOLUTIONARY UNDERSTANDING (back to top)
Discovery of a nearly intact, 3.3 million-year-old juvenile skeleton is filling an important gap in understanding the evolution of a species thought to be among the earliest direct ancestors to humans, says William Kimbel, a paleoanthropologist with ASU's Institute of Human Origins. Kimbel is part of the team that studied the skeleton of an approximately 3-year-old female Australopithecus afarensis, the same species as the well-known “Lucy,” from Dikika, Ethiopia.

The researchers described their discovery and initial analysis of it in a September 2006 issue of the journal Nature. The skeleton was discovered by lead author Zeresenay Alemseged, director of the Dikika Research Project and a former postdoctoral researcher at ASU's Institute of Human Origins.

Alemseged has been carefully preparing the skeleton for the last five years, chipping away sandstone from the fragile bone fragments. The skeletal remains include the skull and jaws with teeth, and parts of the shoulders, spinal column, ribs, right arm, fingers, legs and left foot.

The research team’s findings are expected to provide insights into the growth and development cycle of Australopithecus afarensis, since the infant remains will be compared to the remarkably complete adult female “Lucy” skeleton.

J-SCHOOL OPENS NEW MEDIA LAB (back to top)
ASU is launching an innovation lab to develop multimedia products for news companies such as Gannett, and the university has hired a national leader in online news to direct the multidisciplinary project.

The New Media Innovation Lab opened on the Tempe campus in the fall with a group of 16 students majoring in journalism, computer engineering, graphic design and business. The lab is operated by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The idea for an innovation lab focusing on new media products was developed by Crow and Sue Clark-Johnson, president of the newspaper division of Gannett Co. Gannett executives will work closely with the innovation lab on the first series of research and development projects.

Tom Mohr, an industry leader who was president of Knight Ridder Digital in San Jose, is the lab's founding director.

STARRING ROLE
Davies to lead ASU's 'cosmic think tank'
What are the laws of nature, and why do they seem so peculiarly suited for the emergence of life? Why is nature mathematical? What is the relationship between mathematics and physics? These questions will be among research themes that internationally acclaimed theoretical physicist and cosmologist Paul Davies will address in establishing a "cosmic think tank" at ASU.

Davies, whose research is steeped in the branches of physics that deal with quantum gravity – an attempt to reconcile theories of the very large and the very small – also will take a scientific approach to confront the big questions at the interface of science and philosophy: Why is the universe so suited for life? Why are we here? How did the universe begin? Are we alone in the universe? What is the destiny of humankind?

This newest ASU research institute, yet unnamed, will be anchored in the college’s School of Earth and Space Exploration. The institute will bring people together from different disciplines to engage in brainstorming sessions on the deep conceptual issues that frame the scientific worldview.

Known for circumnavigating the globe as an author (he has penned 27 books, both popular and specialty works) and as a provocative speaker, Davies also was appointed College Professor this fall in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Previously, the native Londoner was a professor of natural philosophy (the old name for physics) in the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at Macquarie University in Sydney, where he applied his expertise in physics and cosmology to the search for life in the universe.

Davies has received international recognition through many prizes and awards. He received the prestigious Templeton Prize in 1995, the Kelvin Medal from the UK Institute of Physics in 2001, as well as two Australian Eureka Prizes and an Advance Australia Award. In the United States, he is the recipient of an American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award (2003) and the Trotter Prize from Texas A&M University.

ECO-EVOLUTION
University launches world's first School of Sustainability
ASU’s focus on encouraging sustainable development reached another milestone in October, when the university announced that it would establish a School of Sustainability, the first such school in the world.

The school is one outgrowth of ASU’s sustainability initiative, referred to as the Global Institute of Sustainability, which was initiated just two years ago with help from a $15 million planning investment from philanthropist Julie A. Wrigley.

The new school, which has already begun enrolling students, will offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in sustainability. Within five years, the school expects to have 450 undergraduate students and 50 students each in its master’s and doctoral degree programs. The ground-breaking curriculum for the school builds upon an existing base at ASU that includes 300 courses, 80 degree programs and 170 research projects that involve sustainability.

The school will tackle environmental, urban planning, public policy and other related questions from a variety of angles. Among the areas slated for research are investigations into water use and conservation, sustainable construction techniques and materials, the impact of rapid urbanization on undeveloped areas, transportation systems and alternative fuels, environmental health issues and the politics of ecology.

Many of the environmental challenges that Phoenix, located in one of the most complex natural environments in the world, faces today are ones that other cities in America and the rest of the world will confront in the next decade. Phoenix has doubled its population in the last 20 years to become the fifth-largest city in the United States. The population – and the area’s urban infrastructure – is expected to double again in the next 20 years.

ASU President Michael Crow, one of the driving forces behind the university’s sustainability efforts, asserts that the location of the university has been a catalyst for spearheading research in this area.

“Because this is the region doing so much building, we are the ones who have to figure out how to do it properly, and ASU has committed itself to being at the forefront of that effort,” Crow said.

COLLABORATION BRINGS GOOD MEDICINE
ASU, U of A celebrate opening of Phoenix's first medical college

ASU is collaborating with cross-state rival University of Arizona in the creation of the first college of medicine in the Phoenix area. The new college, which will be known as the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix program, is located in three renovated historic buildings just east of ASU’s new downtown Phoenix campus and a few blocks from ASU’s College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation. In addition to the medical school buildings, the campus will also house the Arizona Biomedical Collaborative building, the first building to be shared by the University of Arizona and ASU and also the first public building dedicated to research in Phoenix.

The medical college’s program features a four-year, personalized medicine curriculum, which will be taught to the first cohort of 24 first-year medical students next summer. Plans are to eventually increase that number to 150 students.

ASU faculty and staff have been integral to the formation of the college. ASU’s new Department of Biomedical Informatics will be located on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus; with its emphasis on melding vast quantities of medical data and research with individualized diagnoses and treatments, the department will support the college’s focus on personalized medicine. Faculty and other employees from the Biodesign Institute at ASU, the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation, the School of Life Sciences and the Center for Metabolic Biology are among those on the founding faculty at the College of Medicine’s Phoenix program. They will teach in a variety of areas, including embryology, developmental biology, molecular bases of medicine and physiology, as well as biomedical informatics.

For more information on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, visit www.phoenix.medicine.arizona.edu/About/News/Campus/.