Leadership from the North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, known as ND EPSCoR, and NDSU’s new graduate dean visited nine tribal colleges and primary undergraduate institutions during summer 2016. The schools partner with ND EPSCoR.
The group included Kelly Rusch, NDSU vice-president for research and creative activity and ND EPSCoR project director; Jean Ostrom-Blonigen, project administrator; Scott Hanson; tribal colleges liaison manager, and Claudia Tomany, dean of the NDSU College of Graduate and Interdisciplinary Studies.
They took campus tours and were shown research activities in such areas as synthesizing novel polymers from biomass, impact of climate change on juneberry pollination and yield, robotics, oil spill impacts on agriculture economy, evaluating how climate impacts aquatic organisms and water quality and bio-based composite synthesis using wheat bran.
Discussions also were held with campus administrators and faculty, researchers and students who participate in the two research center programs sponsored by ND EPSCoR’s National Science Foundation grant – the Center for Sustainable Materials Science and Center for Regional Climate Studies.
Campus site visits included Cankdeska Cikana Community College, Dickinson State University, Mayville State University, Minot State University, Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, Sitting Bull College, Turtle Mountain Community College, United Tribes Technical College and Valley City State University.
ND EPSCoR is a federally and state funded program designed to help university researchers compete more effectively for federal, regional and private research grants in the sciences, engineering and mathematics.
As a student-focused, land-grant, research university, we serve our citizens.