September 2010 - Bnc-faculty-all-list

2011 Colombia-US Research Opportunity--Please respond by Thursday, September 30
by Allain, Monica M.C. 24 Sep '10

24 Sep '10

Dear BNC faculty, Two Colombia-US Research Institutes are in the planning stages to begin this Fall 2011 . This College of Engineering Initiative will focus on two interdisciplinary areas: on related to biotechnology and the other in Nanotechnology. The effort in nanotechnology is likely to focus on biodiversity, forest product nanotechnology, nanomedicine, energy, materials and electronics. This engagement opportunity, once details are agreed upon by both Colombia and Purdue, will provide roughly 30 fully funded doctoral students in the above nanotechnology research areas. These students are competitively selected from the best research institutions in Colombia by two funding agencies; Colfuturo, a privately funded foundation, and Colciencias, a government funding agency similar to NSF. A second leg of this engagement effort is to seek funding for workshops/symposia to enhance the research collaboration between the participating faculty from Colombia and Purdue. This program will advance in stages as we discuss and finalize the details with the funding agencies. However we would like to identify faculty in the nanotechnology research areas as soon as possible. Therefore if you are interested in learning more about this opportunity and learning how you can be a critical member of this global collaboration please contact me as soon as possible. Arvind Raman and I are working together to develop this program and we'd like to identify interested faculty by October 1, 2010. Best regards, ~ Monica M. Cortez Allain, Ph.D. ~ ************************************************************ Monica M. Cortez Allain, Ph.D. Managing Director Birck Nanotechnology Center 1205 W. State Street West Lafayette, IN 47907-2057 Phone: (765) 494-5138 Fax: (765) 496-8299 ************************************************************

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Info on Change in Retirement from TIAA/CREF to Fidelity, ON BEHALF OF DAVID JANES
by Starewich, Deborah S. 14 Sep '10

14 Sep '10

From: "David B. Janes" <janes(a)ecn.purdue.edu> Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 15:50:57 -0400 To: BNC Faculty <Bnc-faculty-all-list(a)ecn.purdue.edu>, John Weaver <jrweaver(a)purdue.edu>, Ron Reger <rreger(a)purdue.edu> Cc: Monica Allain <mallain(a)purdue.edu>, "janes(a)ecn.purdue.edu" <janes(a)ecn.purdue.edu> Subject: Info on Change in Retirement from TIAA/CREF to Fidelity BNC Colleagues, As you likely have already heard, as of 1/1/11, Purdue's retirement contribution (and our mandatory 4% contribution) will be managed by Fidelity, rather than TIAA/CREF. At yesterday's Univ. Senate meeting, we received some general information -- I have summarized a few highlights in the attached document. Overall, the change is intended to provide i) a broader range of investment choices, ii) lower fees and iii) more objective investment advice (including an on-campus Fidelity office). PU plans to start mailing out information packets next week, so please watch your snail mail. There will be action required on your part to specify your investment choices (unless you want the default investment options, which are target date investment funds (e.g. Vangard 2025)). Thanks, Dave PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE EMPLOYEES ON PERF

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Info on Change in Retirement from TIAA/CREF to Fidelity
by David B. Janes 14 Sep '10

14 Sep '10

BNC Colleagues, As you likely have already heard, as of 1/1/11, Purdue's retirement contribution (and our mandatory 4% contribution) will be managed by Fidelity, rather than TIAA/CREF. At yesterday's Univ. Senate meeting, we received some general information -- I have summarized a few highlights in the attached document. Overall, the change is intended to provide i) a broader range of investment choices, ii) lower fees and iii) more objective investment advice (including an on-campus Fidelity office). PU plans to start mailing out information packets next week, so please watch your snail mail. There will be action required on your part to specify your investment choices (unless you want the default investment options, which are target date investment funds (e.g. Vangard 2025)). John and Ron, please forward to TIAA/CREF eligible staff. Thanks, Dave

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Coral Reservation Abuse - ACTION REQUESTED - on behalf of John Weaver
by Jeff Goecker 03 Sep '10

03 Sep '10

BNC Faculty – I need your help on a situation that is impacting the ability of researchers to use the BNC equipment. We are beginning to reach epidemic proportions of people reserving equipment and not using the equipment – and not cancelling their reservations so that someone else can use that equipment. This practice causes false bottlenecks and leaves the equipment unused. In the first 8 weeks of this fiscal year, we have had 1165 incidents. An example is one user who has 20 unused and not canceled reservations on the MJB-3 aligner in 8 weeks – that’s 2 ½ unused reservations every week. This is a very highly used piece of equipment, and we are receiving complaints that this equipment is not available. This same user has 12 unused and not canceled reservations on the CHA evaporator – another critical piece of equipment. The CHA evaporator has had 82 unused and not canceled reservations in the last 8 weeks, more than 10 per week. Please ask your students to be more courteous to the other researchers in the BNC. The attached spreadsheet shows those users with at least 8 unused and not cancelled reservations in the past 8 weeks by Coral user name. I have also highlighted incidents where one user had at least 8 unused and not cancelled reservations on a particular piece of equipment. While it is understood that there are legitimate incidents where a user reserves a piece of equipment but cannot use it, this happening at a very high frequency is more likely abuse. Thanking you for your consideration, John John R. Weaver Facility Manager Birck Nanotechnology Center Purdue University (765) 494-5494 jrweaver(a)purdue.edu

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2010 IEEE Great Lakes Technology Symposium (Ann Arbor, Michigan, Sep 16-17, 2010) - REGISTRATION IS OPEN]]
by Starewich, Deborah S. 02 Sep '10

02 Sep '10

Forwarded on behalf of Jim Cooper. ________________________________ Deborah S. Starewich Administrative Assistant Birck Nanotechnology Center 1205 W. State Street West Lafayette, IN 47907-2057 765-494-3509 dstarewi(a)purdue.edu nano.purdue.edu

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