The Office of Sponsored Programs is still seeking nominees from Auburn to submit for the Hudson Alpha Prize for Outstanding Innovation in Life Sciences. The Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology funds this prize through a grant from the Alpha Foundation and awards this prize to a current faculty member, staff scientist or science team at one of Alabama's six research universities. The winner for the 2009 prize will receive a $20,000 monetary award and certificate. All nominations must be submitted to Marc Haon by Friday, January 23, 2009. For the nomination form and more information about the prize, please contact Marc at haonmar@auburn.edu or 844-5929.

A call for abstracts has been issued by The National Student Research Forum for the 50th annual forum. The deadline for submission is January 23, 2009. The NSRF is held annually on the University of Texas Medical Branch campus in Galveston, TX. The National Student Research Forum is organized and run by students for the discussion of student research papers in a scientific atmosphere.

For fifty years this forum has been a meeting place for student researchers to share their research, compete for awards and network with other likeminded students. The NSRF is proudly sponsored by the American Medical Association Foundation. The forum is open to all medical students, residents and graduate students participating in biomedical science research. For more information visit: www.utmb.edu/nsrf.

In poultry production, lighting is a very big deal. How many hours of “lights on” and “lights off” birds are given in a 24-hour period affects their activity level, physiological health, disease resistance and breast-meat yield.

As you might expect, broilers tend to be more active when the overhead lights in their houses are burning, and movement keeps birds “in shape.” Historically, poultry producers, perhaps assuming that more is better, raised their birds in 23 hours of bright light and one hour of darkness daily.

But AAES poultry scientist Roger Lien’s research at Auburn indicates that providing only one hour of darkness each 24-hour period turns chickens into couch potatoes—birds so immobile, or lazy, that in tests requiring them to climb up on a six-inch-high deck to reach the feeder, they eat far less than birds provided more darkness.

He has found that lighting programs that incorporate four to six hours of darkness can increase activity levels and improve production performance.

Can Vidalia onions by any other name taste as sweet? You bet, says Arnold Caylor.

Caylor heads the AAES’s North Alabama Horticulture Research Center in Cullman, where, in repeated trials, some of the very same onion varieties Georgia markets worldwide as Vidalias have produced an abundance of sweet, mild onions second to none.

Alabama produce farmers haven’t had much success with onions in the past, and the Cullman work shows that’s because the traditional late-February planting date is a couple of months too late. For high yields, growers need to plant late November to early December.

The research also has shown that while Georgia’s card-carrying Vidalia growers may plant their onions on bare ground, that doesn’t fly in north Alabama. If you want a good onion crop, you’ve got to plant on plastic.

Caylor is convinced that fresh onions, sold directly to local consumers, could provide a substantial source of income for fruit and vegetable producers. Onion production won’t make you rich, he says, but it can make you a living.

The NSF has announced continuation of the Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP) that began in FY1998 as part of the National Plant Genome Initiative (NPGI). Approximately 15-25 new awards are expected with funding of $16 million for new awards in FY2009. The overall goals of this program are to support basic research in plant genomics and to accelerate the acquisition and utilization of new knowledge and innovative approaches to elucidating fundamental biological processes in plants. The focus is on plants of economic importance and plant processes of potential economic value. The proposal is due on January 20, 2009. For general questions and the complete announcement contact Marc Haon at haonmar@auburn.edu or 844-5929.

Submissions for the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Faculty Development Grant Funding are due to the Office of the Vice President for Research on Friday, January 23, 2009. For more information about this grant click here. To submit application materials or for general questions, contact Marc Haon at 844-5929 or haonmar@auburn.edu.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission was created as an independent agency by Congress in 1974 to enable the nation to safely use radioactive materials for beneficial civilian purposes while ensuring that people and the environment are protected. The NRC regulates commercial nuclear power plants and other uses of nuclear materials, such as in nuclear medicine, through licensing, inspection and enforcement of its requirements. Funding under this opportunity includes support for education in nuclear science, engineering, and related disciplines to develop a workforce capable of the design, construction, operation, and regulation of nuclear facilities and the safe handling of nuclear materials.

• NSF - George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation Research (NEESR)
• NSF - RIDGE 2000
• NSF - Update on Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities (CRIF) Program
• NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowships (EAR-PF)
• Foundations of Data and Visual Analytics (FODAVA)
• Assembling the Tree of Life (ATOL)
• CubeSat-based Science Missions for Space Weather and Atmospheric Research