UA Research
Innovative solutions for tomorrow's challenges
Cover: Environment & Natural Resources 2 Building (ENR2)
Welcome to Research, Discovery & Innovation at the University of Arizona
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niversity of Arizona research is on the move! Our researchers are delving into humanity's thorniest problems and, with their discoveries, are creating innovative solutions that improve our quality of life. The creativity, hard work and productivity
of our faculty are driving us forward. The UA is Arizona’s largest research university and its only land-grant institution. It is home to two medical schools, one in Tucson and the other in Phoenix, and is ranked among the top 25 public research universities nationwide. We also have been designated a Hispanic-Serving Institution, a federal designation that shows our commitment to diversity and inclusivity and opens our research enterprise to more opportunities and partnerships. In this publication you will see some of our most recent research successes across campus, including: •
Leading OSIRIS-REx, an $800 million NASA asteroid return mission
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Being selected to receive the largest National Institutes of Health grant in Arizona history for the All of Us Research Program
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Casting the mirror segments for the giant Magellan telescope, successor to Hubble
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Receiving a $30 million endowment for Biosphere 2, a unique facility dedicated to the research and understanding of global scientific issues
Our overarching strategy is to align our research initiatives with national needs and the Kimberly Ogden Interim Vice President for Research For more information on UA research accomplishments, visit https://research.arizona.edu/highlights
emerging Fourth Industrial Revolution — the convergence of the physical, biological and digital sciences. Of all the things that make the University of Arizona a one-of-a-kind treasure, our dedication to research, discovery and innovation is chief among them. We look forward to building on our research legacy and continuing our trajectory of success.
The University of Arizona Cancer Center is the only Comprehensive Cancer Center (the NCI’s highest designation) headquartered in Arizona.
TOP 25
The University of Arizona is the first university to lead a NASA mission to an asteroid and back.
The UA’s WEST Center was named the Arizona Technology Council and Arizona Commerce Authority’s 2017 Innovator of the Year.
The UA is the second largest university in the nation to be designated a HispanicServing Institution.
The University of Arizona is ranked #8 in the nation in NASA funding.
The UA runs or partners in running more than 20 unique telescopes around the world.
The University of Arizona is ranked #6 in the nation for physical sciences research expenditures. The UA was selected to receive a $60 million grant to take part in the All of Us Research Program — a historic effort to gather data from 1 million or more people living in the U.S. to accelerate research and improve health.
The UA collaborates with 270 industry partners for $120 million in research activity.
20 The UA’s College of Optical Sciences offers the largest optics program among U.S. institutions.
The University of Arizona is ranked in the top 25 by the National Science Foundation in research and development expenditures among public universities, with $622.2 million in total funding.
The University of Arizona is ranked in the top 20 in cultural arts research spending across three major cultural institutions: the Arizona State Museum, the Center for Creative Photography and the TOP University of Arizona Museum of Art.
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Transforming Health & Health Care
TRANSLATIONAL BIOMEDICINE
UA, Banner Receive Historic Funding in Precision Medicine
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he UA is leading a transformational partnership that will revolutionize the way we approach health care. The University of Arizona Health Sciences and Banner Health were awarded a $60
million grant from the National Institutes of Health to participate in a national precision medicine initiative, which will enroll 1 million or more U.S. participants to improve prevention and treatment of disease based on individual differences in lifestyle, environment, and genetics. The award, the largest NIH peer-reviewed grant in Arizona history, aims to leverage advances in genomics, emerging methods for managing and analyzing large data sets while protecting privacy, and health information technology to accelerate biomedical discoveries.
"The unique demographics of Arizona present unparalleled opportunities for research in precision health related to and in partnership with Hispanic, American Indian and aging populations and communities. We hope this major effort will benefit the citizens of Arizona and the Southwest in tangible and visible ways." – Dr. Akinlolu Ojo Principal Investigator, Banner – University Medicine
Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/ua-banner-receive-largest-nihaward-arizona-history
UA Gets $10.3M to Study Alzheimer's in Women The National Institute on Aging has awarded a five-year, $10.3 million program project grant to the UA to help find answers to some of the brain's biggest questions. Led by neuroscientist Roberta Diaz Brinton, the project will examine issues such as why more women than men get Alzheimer's disease. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/ua-gets-103m-study-alzheimers-women
UA Cancer Center Retains Status with $17.6M Award The National Cancer Institute (NCI) renewed the UA Cancer Center's status as a Comprehensive Cancer Center and awarded it a five-year, $17.6 million Cancer Center Support Grant, based on the strength, depth and breadth of basic laboratory, clinical, prevention, control and population-based research. The center is one of only 45 NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation — and the only one with headquarters in Arizona. The renewed designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center gives patients throughout Arizona and the Southwest access to the most comprehensive, research-driven cancer care and treatments. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/ua-cancer-center-retains-status-176m-award
UA Researchers Closer to Preventing Asthma Dr. Fernando Martinez and his colleagues have received a $27 million federal grant to lead a national clinical study with the aim of working toward a cure for asthma. The study, based at the UA Health Sciences' Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center, will enroll more than 1,000 babies, 6 to 18 months old, who are considered at high risk for developing asthma. High-risk factors include having a parent with asthma or a diagnosis of eczema, or both. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/ua-researchers-closer-preventing-asthma
Advancing Innovation in New Space
SPACE SYSTEMS
Bound for Bennu!
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he UA-led, $800 million OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is traveling to Bennu, a carbonaceous asteroid whose regolith may record the earliest history of our solar system. Bennu may contain the molecular
precursors to the origin of life and the Earth’s oceans. Bennu is also one of the most potentially hazardous asteroids, as it has a relatively high probability of impacting the Earth late in the 22nd century. OSIRIS-REx will determine Bennu’s physical and chemical properties — critical information to know in the event of an impact mitigation mission. It will be the first U.S. mission to return an asteroid sample back to Earth.
"I don't lose sleep worrying about whether we're going to get hit by an asteroid. But I do sometimes dream of the things we can do with asteroids as we find them and study them." – Tim Swindle Director, UA Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/bound-bennu-osirisrex-launchwas-perfect
NASA Selects Airborne Observatory for Funding NASA selected to fund the UA-led GUSTO mission from a pool of eight proposed missions competing for funding in the space agency's Explorer category. The $40 million endeavor is designed to send a balloon to near-space, carrying a telescope that will study the interstellar medium — the gas and dust between the stars, from which all stars and planets originate. Circling Antarctica in a balloon at an elevation between 110,000 and 120,000 feet, or 17 miles above a typical airliner's cruising altitude, the Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO), will study the interstellar medium in our Milky Way and beyond by observing the sky above most of the atmospheric water vapor that otherwise would obscure its view. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/nasa-selects-airborne-observatory-funding
It's a Bird … It's a Plane … It's the Tiniest Asteroid! Astronomers have obtained observations of the smallest asteroid ever characterized in detail. At 2 meters (6 feet) in diameter, the tiny space rock is small enough to be straddled by a person in a hypothetical space-themed sequel to the iconic bomb-riding scene in the movie Dr. Strangelove. Interestingly, the asteroid, named 2015 TC25, is also one of the brightest near-Earth asteroids ever discovered. Using data from four different telescopes, a team of astronomers led by Vishnu Reddy, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona's Lunar & Planetary Laboratory, reports that 2015 TC25 reflects about 60 percent of the sunlight that falls on it. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/its-bird-its-plane-its-tiniest-asteroid
Students Build Telescopes to Track Satellites A team of students built two telescopes from the ground up on campus to track satellites and space junk — part of the UA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) initiative. A large part of SSA involves tracking these objects around Earth for federal entities. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/students-build-telescopes-track-satellites
Harnessing Light for Our Economy
OPTICS AND IMAGING
UA Engineers Zero In on Ovarian Cancer
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ennifer Barton is identifying biomarkers and creating optical imaging tools to screen for a form of cancer often called a "silent killer" of women. Barton is leading a two-year, $1 million project funded by
the National Cancer Institute to identify imaging biomarkers of ovarian cancer, the most deadly gynecological cancer in the United States. Using three high-resolution optical imaging techniques — optical coherence tomography, fluorescence imaging and multiphoton microscopy — the researchers are obtaining in vivo images in animals' ovaries and fallopian tubes and analyzing physical and biochemical changes over time to create a map of the changes that happen during ovarian cancer. This work may enable the first effective screening system for ovarian cancer.
"Our goal is to identify biomarkers at the earliest possible stage of ovarian cancer to build a viable optical imaging technology that will enable early detection and save lives." – Dr. Jennifer Barton Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Optical Sciences, and Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/ua-engineers-zero-ovariancancer
Ready for a Super-Fast Internet? UA Scientists Are Fast at Work on It The UA College of Optical Sciences is leading an international consortium tasked with developing a technology that marries electronics with optics, removing barriers along the way to a blazingly fast internet. In 2008, the National Science Foundation gave a fiveyear, $18.5 million grant to establish an engineering research center that is based at the UA and united with other universities in a collaboration known as the Center for Integrated Access Networks (CIAN). The NSF recently approved funding for the second half of the project, totaling about $17 million. Each year, the center also receives roughly $2 million in support from corporate sponsors and an additional $1 million from other agencies. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/ready-for-a-super-fast-internet-ua-scientists-are-fast-at-work-on-it
Sound Over Silicon: Computing's Wave of the Future With $1.8 million in funding from the W.M. Keck Foundation and the UA, materials science and engineering professor Pierre Deymier is exploring how to build a quantum computer that uses sound instead of quantum particles such as electrons to process information. As computer parts grow tinier — billions of transistors are now packed onto silicon chips the size of a fingernail — silicon's performance shrinks, too, and the material can overheat. Engineers are in a race to perfect quantum computers, which store, transmit and process information in fundamentally different ways from their digital cousins and have exponentially greater computing capability. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/sound-over-silicon-computings-wave-future
The UA Is Helping to Revolutionize Internet Communication The University of Arizona is part of an industry, government and academia consortium that has been selected to receive $110 million in federal funding to advance U.S. leadership in photonic integrated circuits, technology expected to revolutionize internet communication and impact multiple commercial technology sectors across the nation. The American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics team was formed as a major component of the National Network of Manufacturing Innovation program. The NNMI is a cross-sector, national effort to secure U.S. leadership in emerging technologies that will create high-quality manufacturing jobs and enhance America’s global competitiveness. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/ua-part-national-team-receive-110m-launch-photonics-institute
Advancing Cyber Science, Systems & Security
DATA SCIENCE
NSF's iPlant Collaborative Rebrands to CyVerse
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he National Science Foundation's premier data management platform for the life sciences has been rebranded, shedding the project's original label of iPlant Collaborative and donning
the new name CyVerse. The rebrand emphasizes the project’s capacity to provide data management and computation services beyond plant sciences, for collaborations across scientific disciplines. The vision for the new CyVerse brand, "transforming science through data-driven discovery," invokes the transformative power of big data, computational technology and human intellect — all combined to enable scientific discovery. The iPlant Collaborative was launched in 2008 with a $50 million grant from the National Science Foundation to provide computational infrastructure for plant sciences. The project's early success led to a renewal grant in 2013, also worth $50 million, but with the expanded directive to serve all of life sciences' data management needs.
"The CyVerse name reflects and communicates our expanded mission of enabling data-driven discovery across all of the life sciences." – Parker Antin Professor, College of Medicine Associate Dean, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/nsfs-iplant-collaborativerebrands-cyverse
Leading the Effort for Smart Cities The UA is leading the way in smart city research with a number of new initiatives — including the creation of the Transportation Research Institute (TRI) and a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to help bring inexpensive, fast, secure internet service to underserved urban communities. TRI brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers to address the many challenges of a rapidly evolving “transportation ecosystem” using data science to connect smart cities and transportation. Meanwhile, the NSF has funded UA research that will work to bring computer processing power to the “cloud” with edge computing technology, giving city residents easier, affordable access to a faster internet. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/ua-establishes-transportation-research-institute
World’s Largest Robotic Field Scanner Now in Place at UA The world's largest robotic field scanner has been inaugurated at the University of Arizona's Maricopa Agricultural Center. Mounted on a 30-ton steel gantry moving along 200-meter steel rails over 1.5 acres of energy sorghum, the high-throughput phenotyping robot scanner senses and continuously images the growth and development of the crop, generating an extremely high-resolution, enormous data stream — about 5 terabytes per day. The scanner is part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/world-s-largest-robotic-field-scanner-now-place
UA Engineers Staying a Heartbeat Ahead of Hackers Researchers at the University of Arizona are pioneering technologies to enable Implantable Medical Devices to detect malware and help ensure they will continue functioning properly in a patient when their security is breached. Roman Lysecky, associate professor of electrical and computing engineering, is leading the project and is the recipient of a prestigious NSF Early Career Award. Learn more: https://news.engineering.arizona.edu/news/staying-heartbeat-ahead-hackers
Realizing the Power of Our Living Laboratory
WATER, ENERGY & ARID ENVIRONMENT
WEST Center Opens — bringing together industry, government and academia to address the nation’s growing water and energy crisis through research and technology
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he Water & Energy Sustainable Technology (WEST) Center is a new state-of-the-art facility that will enable UA researchers, public officials and business leaders to work together in developing new
technologies to help communities deal with water scarcity and water reuse. The WEST Center represents a working partnership between Pima County, Tucson Water, numerous industrial partners and the University of Arizona. Researchers from the UA’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and College of Engineering will be working on-site at the facility.
"The WEST Center is unique and provides a multi-faceted approach for addressing critical water resource issues from both an engineering and public health perspective. It’s a place where innovation thrives and ingenuity is harnessed, creating long term solutions to persistent water challenges." – Jeff Prevatt Research & Innovation Leader for Pima County Regional Water Reclamation District
Learn more: https://research.arizona.edu/press-releases/west-center-opens
UA to Head New $15M Center Focusing on Producing Biofuels and Bioproducts A new U.S Department of Agriculture center will strengthen Arizona’s bioeconomy by growing, studying and promoting the use of two plants that thrive in the arid Southwest: guayule and guar. Kimberly Ogden, a professor of chemical and environmental engineering, will head the Sustainable Bioeconomy for Arid Regions Center, or SBAR. The goals of the center include addressing the nation’s needs for biofuels and bioproducts, strengthening Arizona’s bioeconomy — the parts of the economy that use renewable biological resources such as crops or algae — and providing training for the next generation of scientists and engineers. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/ua-head-new-center-focusing-biofuels-and-bioproducts
$30M Gift Announced for UA's Biosphere 2 The University of Arizona has received a $30 million gift to support Biosphere 2, a one-of-a-kind facility where UA researchers are answering questions about environmental change, management of finite and dwindling natural resources, and policies to protect our fragile ecosystems. The gift comes from Edward P. Bass, one of the founders of Biosphere 2. Biosphere 2 houses the Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO), the world's largest laboratory experiment in earth sciences, along with a simulated rainforest to study how plants cope with high temperatures, an indoor ocean and a desert landscape. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/30-million-gift-positions-ua-biosphere-2
UA Forecasting Group Providing Precise Forecasts to Arizona Utilities The UA Power Forecasting Group (PFG) creates high-resolution weather models and power forecasts for electric utility companies in the Southwest. The PFG creates forecasts in multiple time frames from sub-hourly to hourly to seven days in advance for use by electric utility wholesale energy schedulers, grid operators, day-ahead energy marketers and real-time traders. With these functions, those using the forecast can improve energy market trading strategies, schedule more efficient generators, reduce costs, defer maintenance and optimize battery storage. Learn more: https://energy.arizona.edu/research/university-arizona-power-forecasting-group
Infusing Critical Thinking Across Disciplines
Arts, Culture & Society
UA College of Humanities Launches Center for Buddhist Studies
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ith Buddhist traditions becoming more familiar and practitioners growing more common in the U.S., the University of Arizona is drawing on existing faculty
expertise in East Asian studies and religious studies to promote academic research on the Buddhist tradition. The University of Arizona's new Center for Buddhist Studies creates a research hub to explore the religious, intellectual, social, cultural and textual traditions of the world’s fourth-largest faith.
"The kind of Center for Buddhist Studies we want to create is to make our voice heard in the field, to transform the field with a multidisciplinary approach, a more open-ended and open-minded approach.” – Jiang Wu Professor of East Asian Studies Associate Dean, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/college-humanities-launchescenter-buddhist-studies
Photo: Takeshi Inomata/University of Arizona
UA Archaeologists Uncover New Clues to Maya Collapse Archaeologists have long puzzled over what caused what is known as the Classic Maya collapse in the ninth century A.D., and an earlier collapse in the second century A.D. University of Arizona archaeologist Takeshi Inomata and his colleagues suggest that both collapses followed similar trajectories, with multiple waves of social instability, warfare and political crises leading to the rapid fall of many city centers. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/archaeologists-uncover-new-clues-maya-collapse
Happy Birthday, Ansel Adams, From Your UA Friends The University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography (CCP) celebrated the birthday of CCP co-founder and world-renowned photographer, Ansel Adams, with a member and community celebration that reached more than 800 people. The member event featured a print and archival object viewing and first look at Ansel Adams: Performing the Print. The public celebration featured a lecture by renowned photo journalist David Hume Kennerly, the public opening of the exhibition, and a photobooth. The late Ansel Adams was one of the most visible and widely praised American photographers of the 20th century, revered for his striking images and advocacy for the preservation of the nation's wilderness areas. The Ansel Adams Archive at the Center for Creative Photography holds more than 2,500 items, which include fine prints, negatives, correspondence publications and photographic equipment. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/photos/happy-birthday-ansel-adams-your-ua-friendsr
Project Maps Greek Ceramic Production Over Five Millennia UA associate professor Eleni Hasaki’s work highlights the critical importance of ceramics in Greek history and culture. Her new project aims to map centers of ceramics production across nearly 5,000 years of Greek history in a first-of-its-kind online database, designed to support archaeologists working in Greece today. The Web Atlas of Ceramic Kilns in Ancient Greece includes information on 600 Greek kiln locations, dating between 3000 B.C. and A.D. 1820. Learn more: https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/project-maps-greek-ceramic-production-over-five-millennia
Environment & Natural Resources 2 Building (ENR2) Completed in 2015, ENR2 is part of the University of Arizona's commitment to environmental sustainability and interdisciplinary research and studies that focus on earth science, environmental programs and natural resources.
The LEED platinum-certified building contains offices, classrooms, auditoriums and gathering rooms for public programs. It also has a café and a stunning central courtyard that foster circulation and gathering.
Photo: Jacob Chinn
Research, Discovery & Innovation PO Box 210066 Administration Building, Room 601 Tucson, AZ 85721-0066 Phone: 520.621.3513 Fax: 520.621.507
www.research.arizona.edu f @uarizonaresearch k @UAresearch @UAresearch