A Northwestern University-led research team has received a$5 million grant over five years from the National Science Foundation(NSF)to develop new methods to help mitigate the effects of climate change on the Great Lakes and its surrounding natural ecosystems.By partnering with Indigenous and Native American scientists,conservation agencies and government agencies,the team will focus on manoomin(the Ojibwe word for wild rice),a critical—yet declining—part of the Great Lakes ecosystem and asacred food that connects Native communities to the land.The project is one of five new Coastlines and People(CoPe)Hubs,announced last week by NSF.It marks the first CoPe Hub for the Great Lakes region.In addition to Northwestern,the academic team includes members from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities,Purdue University,Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Wisconsin.The team spent two years establishing relationships and learning from Bad River,Lac du Flambeau,Fond du Lac and Mille Lacs tribes,with assistance and guidance from the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission and Indigenous faculty at Northwestern.“This hub represents asignificant investment by the NSF in seeding technology,practices and programs for Great Lakes climate resilience,”said Josiah Hester,the principal investigator of the grant,who is Native Hawaiian.“It is an acknowledgement that we urgently need to partner with Indigenous scientists,who can draw on their ancestors’sustainability practices and knowledge in our efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change.”Hester is an adjunct assistant professor of computer science,computer engineering and electrical engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering.After spending several years at Northwestern,he joined the faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology this month.Hester will be joined by four co-principal investigators,including Kimberly Marion Suiseeya,an assistant professor of political science at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. 查看详细>>

At the start of the first-ever Chicago Biomedical Innovation Alliance(CBIA)workshop,Adam Glaser,the planning and strategies leader at architecture and design firm Perkins+Will,asked asimple question:Will collaboration work?Looking at the audience—which included representatives from more than 50 organizations and 14 sponsors—it was clear that collaboration not only will work,but it also will play an integral role in the development and success of Chicago’s first biomedical innovation districts.The initiative took root at aconference hosted by Perkins+Will in June 2018,followed two months later by ameeting at Northwestern University to discuss how to move the initiative forward.The idea of aworkshop emerged from those discussions,and acommittee was formed to organize the event.In early 2019,the CBIA was created with amore ambitious mission:accelerate transformative scientific discoveries to improve global healthcare.The CBIA now serves as the point of contact for learning about Chicago‘s innovation assets,their capabilities,programs and funding opportunities.The idea for the CBIA began taking shape in June 2018,with stakeholders meeting two months later to discuss the feasibility of the collective.Officially launched in 2019,the Alliance is aconsortium of nine nonprofit organizations dedicated to accelerating transformative scientific discoveries to improve global healthcare.It serves as the point of contact for learning about Chicago‘s innovation assets,their capabilities,programs and funding opportunities. 查看详细>>

I am writing today about an issue that is receiving increased attention by all major federal agencies that sponsor research at Northwestern and at our peer institutions:foreign influence in academic research.While Northwestern strongly supports international collaboration and values its partnerships with universities and other organizations worldwide,it is important that all faculty members understand the current regulatory landscape informing the research enterprise,and the actions that you should take in light of this reality.Recently,the federal government and federal sponsors have expressed concerns about improper foreign influence in U.S.academic research.Examples of this include aletter sent by Francis Collins,director of the NIH,alerting the research community to“threats”from foreign entities,and the FY19 National Defense Authorization Act,which includes aprovision alluding to the restriction of federal funding to institutions doing business with certain Chinese telecommunications companies. 查看详细>>

BrewBike,a student-run coffee company founded at Northwestern University,has closed an$800,000 seed round and will use the funds to expand operations in the Chicago area and to other universities.Since its launch in the fall of 2016,BrewBike has sold more than 35,000 cups of its signature cold brew and generated more than$150,000 in sales.The company got its start(and its name)from abike serving cold brew coffee on Northwestern’s campus.Guided by founder and then-freshman Lucas Philips,the company later opened amicro-retail shop in the School of Education and Social Policy’s Annenberg Hall and launched cold brew subscriptions for on-campus Greek organizations.“Before BrewBike,college students either had to drink bad coffee in the cafeteria or stand in long lines at Starbucks,”said BrewBike founder and chief growth officer Lucas Phillips,who will begin his senior year at Northwestern this fall.“BrewBike solves that problem by bringing coffee to college campuses in the most convenient ways,every day. 查看详细>>