IUCRC PI Community Meetings

The Quarterly IUCRC PI Community Meetings serve as a virtual forum for the IUCRC community to come together, share best-practices, and ultimately strengthen the program and Centers. We know that this type of peer-to-peer learning has been successful in the past and we want to continue to leverage the collective wisdom of our community through these virtual gatherings. Each quarter, we will host a 1-hour virtual session featuring 2-3 Center personnel in an informal, panel-type Q&A format that focuses on a specific topic(s) of broad interest to the community. 

Q3 – 2023 Best practices for recruiting and retaining IAB members: A view from the other side

Essentially “all things IAB” – how to find members, get them to sign on, be an active participant in Center projects, and keep them committed to the Center even during changing/difficult times. As I mentioned – we typically have Center PIs participate in these webinars – so we are especially excited to hear about this topic from your perspective.

The panelists:  

  • Dr. Kumar Bhaskaran, Global Innovation and Technology Scout, IBM Cloud Infrastructure, CRAFT IAB
  • Mr. Greg Bunting, Managing Director and former IAB, CenTiRe
  • Dr. Helen Hou, Distinguished Scientist, Genentech; CIMSEPP IAB
  • Dr. Matt Zustiak,Director, Cell Culture Development, Thermo Fisher Scientific; AMBIC IAB  

Q2 – 2023 Building and Using a Research Roadmap

We will focus our discussion on how your centers are gathering needs/input from you IAB, merging that with your Center capabilities – and then using that information to guide both your tactical and strategic decision-making. ALL of our centers approach this differently – so I think this will be a rich and robust discussion.

The panelists: Todd Abraham, NSF/Venturewell Evaluator for multiple centers

Luis Concha, Managing Director for CHEST, University of Cincinnati

Christopher Niezrecki, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UMass Lowell, Center Director of WindSTAR

Andrea Palmeri, Managing Director of ES2, Binghamton University

Q1 – 2023 Member momentum: Recruiting, engaging, and retaining you IAB

We have four IUCRC leaders who have graciously agreed to share insight from their Centers with our community:

Dr. Jose Almirall, Program Officer, Division of Chemistry, MPS/NSF; former Center Director of CARFS

Dr. Erik Hagberg, Technical Director, Process Chemistry & Sustainable Materials, ADM; former IAB Chair of CB2

Dr. Sarah Harcum, Professor of Bioengineering at Clemson University; Site Director at Clemson of AMBIC

Dr. Chris Welch, Director, Indiana Consortium for Analytical Science; Marketing Director and Industry Liaison of CBM

Q4 – 2022 Leveraging NSF workforce development supplements to strengthen your Center

In this session we learned about different supplemental funding mechanisms that are available for the centers. We also had the opportunity to learn how the centers MAST and C-UAS have used supplements.

Q3 – 2022 Building a Robust Project Portfolio

This topic is “Building a Robust Project Portfolio”. We will discuss topics such as: how to build a project proposal process that maximizes both IAB and faculty input; collaborating within and across sites; getting broader engagement by faculty in your Center.

We have four IUCRC leaders who have graciously agreed to share insight from their Centers with our community:

  • Dr. John Emmert, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Cincinnati, Center Director of CHEST
  • Dr. Jason Locklin, Professor of Chemistry and BioChemical Engineering, University of Georgia, Site Director of CB2
  • Dr. Lindsey McGowen, Senior Research Scientist, North Carolina State University, Center Evaluator for 5 active IUCRCs
  • Dr. Thomas Monecke, Professor of Geology and Geological Engineering at Colorado School of Mines, Center Director of CASERM

Q2 – 2022 Meeting – Recruiting, retaining, engaging and empowering your IAB

Q2 – 2022 Meeting

We discussed “Recruiting, retaining, engaging and empowering your IAB” in our tomorrow’s session. We have four IUCRC leaders who have graciously agreed to share insight from their Centers with our community:

  • Dr. Elizabeth Dickey, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, Center co-Director of CDP
  • Dr. Gisela Lin, University of California, Irvine, Center Deputy Director of CADMIM
  • Dr. Antonio Ramirez, Professor of Welding Engineering at Ohio State University, Center Director of MA2JIC
  • Dr. Stephanie Schuckers, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Clarkson University, Center Director of CITeR

Q1 – 2022 Meeting – Lessons learned during the Pandemic – what worked, what didn’t and how we are moving forward

This first quarterly session focused on “Lessons learned during the Pandemic – what worked, what didn’t and how we are moving forward”. We have three IUCRC leaders who have graciously agreed to share insight from their Centers with our community:

  • Dr. Michael Betenbaugh, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, Center Director of AMBIC
  • Dr. Michael Khonsari, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Louisiana State University, Center Director of CISIA
  • Dr. Jannick Rolland, Professor of Optical Engineering at University of Rochester, Center Director of CeFO