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The goal of the Grants for Exploratory Academic Research Program (GEAR) is to encourage faculty researchers at the three SC comprehensive research universities (CRUs), Clemson, MUSC, and the University of South Carolina Columbia to compete for research funding to support the research clusters associated with MADE in SC.
Proposals submitted in response to this solicitation:
- must be a collaboration between two investigators from Clemson, MUSC, and/or USC Columbia
- proposed research must be collaborative, demonstrate a connection between experiments and Modeling and Computation Core (MCC) efforts (theory, computation, simulation, etc.), and be clearly aligned with the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI).
- preferably, the collaboration is between a senior faculty member and a junior faculty member. Senior faculty members are those who are at the full professor level or who have been at the associate professor level for more than two years.
Full Proposal due Mon, Sept 30, 5 pm EST
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At-A-Glance
Award Type: Grant
Max Funding Amount Per Award: $60,000
Award Duration: 12 months
# of Awards: Depends on quality of proposals and availability of funds
Anticipated Start Date:
Jan 2020
Who May Apply
Proposals may be submitted by a PI from Clemson, MUSC, or UofSC Columbia. Current GEAR PIs and GEAR CRP PIs whose awards end before Jan 1, 2020 are eligible to apply and can serve as Co-PI.
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The goal of the GEAR Collaborative Research Program (GEAR CRP) is to encourage faculty researchers at South Carolina’s PUIs and three CRUs to build collaborative CRU/PUI academic research teams that will compete effectively for research funding. GEAR CRP grants will be awarded to build and enhance the network of scientists in the state that will conduct research related to MADE in SC.
Proposals submitted in response to the solicitation:
- must include two investigators with a senior faculty from a CRU and junior faculty from a PUI.
- Preference will be given to research proposals that are collaborative, demonstrate a connection between experiments and MADE in SC Modeling and Computation Core (MCC) efforts and clearly align with the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI).
Full Proposal due Mon, Sept 30, 5 pm EST
*See website for full eligibility description.
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At-A-Glance
Award Type: Grant
Max Funding Amount Per Award: $60,000
Award Duration: 12 months
# of Awards: Depends on quality of proposals and availability of funds
Anticipated Start Date:
Jan 2020
Who May Apply*
Faculty from any SC college or university may serve as a PI. Current GEAR PIs and GEAR CRP PIs whose awards end before Jan 1, 2020 are eligible to apply and can serve as Co-PI.
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 Turning Viruses from Parasites to Medical Cures, Qian Wang (Thrust 3: Biomaterials co-leader)
Science on Tap is open to the public and presented in lay terms.
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 DEPSCoR Webinar
NEXT Thursday, August 15
The Department of Defense is hosting a DEPSCoR Webinar to discuss the DoD EPSCoR Program and the recently released funding opportunity announcement. As announced in our last newsletter, the new FOA aims to create basic research collaborations between a pair of researchers. To address the program’s aim, DEPSCoR will focus on capacity building through human and technical resources and is seeking proposals that advance knowledge in fundamental science involving bold and ambitious research that may lead to extraordinary outcomes.
Approximately $3.6 million in total funding will be made available to fund approximately six awards up to $600,000 (total cost) each ($200,000 per year for three years).
Click here to register for the DEPSCoR Webinar on Thursday, August 15.
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MADE in SC Thrust 2 Research: Dissipative Particle Dynamics modeling of copolymer bottlebrushes
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Olga Kuksenok (professor), Sidong Tu (grad student), Chandan Choudhury (postdoc);
in collaboration with experimental studies in Igor Luzinov’s (professor) group
Goal/focus of the project: Focus on dynamics of phase separation in ternary system encompassing copolymer bottlebrushes, solvent, and polymer matrix. Characterize clustering of the bottlebrushes dependent on the affinity of species.
Molecular bottlebrushes, a special case of graft copolymers, are macromolecules with relatively long side chains anchored to the backbone at high grafting densities. An ability to control the bottlebrush architecture in a relatively straightforward manner during its synesis made them an attractive candidate for various potential applications. We focus on a bottlebrush with PFPE (Perfluoropolyether) sidechains, same as in the concurrent experimental studies in Luzinov’s group (see Figure 1). An advantage of using these sidechains is that PFPE is non-toxic and environmentally friendly. Experiments in Luzinov’s group show that addition of a small fraction of bottlebrushes to various polymer matrixes dramatically increases the oil repellency of the resulting films. During the membrane fabrication, multiple bottlebrushes cluster into the larger domains (bottom row in Fig. 1)
To understand the dynamics of this clustering, we developed a dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) approach to model the bottlebrushes with the same architecture immersed into various mixtures (Figure 2). Each DPD particle (or a bead) represents a collection of molecules interacting via soft potentials; hence the DPD approach is computationally inexpensive and larger systems are computationally accessible compared to molecular dynamic simulations. While the details of chemical specificity are not accounted for in this coarse-grained approach, the affinity between the polymer matrix and the bottlebrush can be taken into account by varying one of the interaction parameters of the model, allowing us to consider difference polymer matrixes. Our preliminary simulations show that the cluster morphology strongly depends on the affinity of both side chains and backbone to the polymer matrix. The bottom row in Fig.2 shows dynamic of clustering with time (the polymer matrix is not shown on the late-time image).
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The 26th NSF EPSCoR National Conference will welcome other EPSCoR jurisdictions around the country Oct 27-30 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. Register by Sept 20. 
NSF has provided 
