Planning Grant: I/UCRC for Formation of new MAST Center Site at the University of Arkansas

1266060阿肯色大学；被提议的地点，阿肯色大学费耶特维尔分校，要求为一个计划会议提供资金，以建立膜科学、工程和技术（MAST）中心的合作地点，该中心目前由新泽西理工学院（牵头机构）和科罗拉多大学博尔德分校组成，作为研究合作伙伴。阿肯色大学网站加入目前的MAST中心将带来新的专业领域，并补充现有的专业知识。新基地的一个特别重点将是膜分离在可持续性和食品和饮料制造中的应用。阿肯色大学在食品科学和家禽科学方面的强大部门的存在将使MAST中心能够在这些新领域发展其研究项目。除了这些新领域，阿肯色大学的教师还拥有专业知识，可以补充膜形成、修饰、表征和性能等核心领域的现有实力。来自阿肯色大学的教职员工已经被确定，他们将有强烈的潜在兴趣参与MAST中心的研究。建立拟议的MAST基地将为膜和相关行业提供研究生和博士后的教育和培训。阿肯色桅杆中心的主任将与阿肯色研究联盟合作，向当地工业介绍桅杆中心。许多阿肯色州的公司已经确定可以直接受益于受过膜科学和技术培训的研究生和博士后研究人员。在拟议的研究项目现场，进一步的行业指导为研究生提供了一个独特的机会，除了研究项目所需的技术技能外，还可以磨练他们的沟通技巧，学习有效的团队合作。网站负责人计划与校园现有项目合作，吸引来自科学和工程领域代表性不足群体的学生到MAST中心；并且，膜分离技术的应用进展将被纳入分离、反应器设计和化学工程实验室的本科课程。

1266060 University of Arkansas; Ranil Wickramasinghe The proposed site, the University of Arkansas Fayetteville, requests funding for a planning meeting to establish a partner site of the Membrane Science, Engineering & Technology (MAST) Center that is currently comprised of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (lead institution) and the University of Colorado at Boulder, as a research partner. The addition of the University of Arkansas site to the current MAST Center will bring new areas of expertise and complement existing expertise. A particular focus of the new site will be the application of membrane based separations for sustainability and in the manufacture of food and beverages. The presence of strong departments in food science and poultry science at the University of Arkansas will enable the MAST Center to grow its research program in these new areas. In addition to these new areas, the faculty at the University of Arkansas has expertise that complements existing strength in the core areas of membrane formation, modification, characterization and performance. Faculty members from across the University of Arkansas have been identified who would have strong potential interest in participating as MAST Center researchers. Establishing the proposed MAST site would lead to the education and training of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows for the membrane and related industries. The director of the Arkansas MAST Center site will work with the Arkansas Research Alliance to introduce the MAST Center to local industry. Numerous Arkansas based companies have been identified that could directly benefit from graduate students and postdoctoral researcher who have been trained in membrane science and technology. Further industry mentorship of research projects at the proposed site provides a unique opportunity for graduate students to hone their communications skills and learn to work effectively in teams in addition to the technical skills required by the research projects. The site director plans to work with existing programs on campus to attract students from underrepresented groups in science and engineering to the MAST Center; and, advances in the applications of membrane separation technologies will be incorporated in the undergraduate courses in separations, reactor design and chemical engineering laboratories.