IMAGINE SCHOOL OF NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS

Rethinking what is possible

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IMAGINE

School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

The School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics(SNSM) within the College of Arts and Sciences wasformed in fall 2008. SNSM is poised to utilize exist-ing strengths within the science and mathematicsdepartments by making strategic hires and encour-aging interdisciplinary collaboration through the re-search clusters.

Academic DepartmentsCell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular BiologyChemistryGeologyIntegrative BiologyMathematics and StatisticsPhysics

SNSM By the NumbersFaculty: 147Active Research Grants and Contracts: $44,215,976Peer-Review Publications (2009): 244Undergraduate Student Enrollment*: 6,170Graduate Student Enrollment*: 472*2009-10 Academic Year

IMAGINE is produced by the College of Arts and Sciences Officeof the Dean. To request additional copies, please call us at

813.974.6469.Publisher: Dean Eric M. Eisenberg

Editor in Chief: Michele DyeCopy Editors: Taghrid Alrajoula, Sandy Justice,

Kate Steeves and Amanda StoneWriters: Vickie Chachere, Michele Dye

and Amanda StoneDesign: Michele Dye

Rethinking what is “possi-BULL”Imagine preventing millions of deaths caused by malaria.

Imagine not paying electric bills because your home’snew solar windows are generating the electricity for yourhouse.

Imagine the world being better prepared if another dis-astrous oil spill plagues our oceans or land.

Imagine being able to detect bacteria or toxins in foodand water within hours—instead of days—allowing thepublic to know what is safe to consume, and what is not.

At the University of South Florida, we are rethinking what is “possi-BULL.” Our in-novative scientists are taking on these complex problems that plague our societyand are imagining numerous ways to fix these issues.

Through intensive, interdisciplinary research, our scientists are working togetherto improve the quality of life for everyone—from the children in Africa who aredying of malaria to the grandmother who is battling cancer. Many of our scientistshave been on the frontlines of the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill, and haveshown the many problems associated with cleaning up this massive oil spill as wellas the long-term effects on sea life.

Eric M. Eisenberg, Ph.D.Dean and ProfessorCollege of Arts and SciencesUniversity of South Florida

The College of Arts and Sciencesis on Facebook!www.facebook.com/USFCollege

Follow the College of Arts andSciences on Twitter!www.twitter.com/USF_College

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SNSM: Promoting research through interdisciplinary research clusters

MATERIALSSCIENCE

GLOBAL CHANGE SCIENCES

BIOMEDICALSCIENCES

COMPUTATIONAL THEORY

& PRACTICE

Science, Technology and Mathematics Education: Theprimary objective is to establish a research area ofstrength in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering andMathematics) education utilizing research faculty withinSNSM to develop exemplary materials, practices andevaluation/assessment strategies for science, technologyand mathematics education.

Computational Theory and Practice: Scientific computa-tion and data mining are pivotal features of 21st centuryscience and global sustainability in the development of“smart” devices, algorithmic approaches to problem solv-ing and a wide variety of related computational re-sources. This cluster of researchers develops bothfundamental algorithms and the theory of fundamentalalgorithms, in addition to applications for other disci-plines and for educational purposes at various levels.

Biomedical Sciences: The focus of this research area is tosynergize strengths in molecular biosciences within theSchool of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Workingwith the Moffitt Cancer Center, the James A. Haley Veter-ans Hospital, and the USF Colleges of Medicine, PublicHealth and Engineering, researchers will work toward ad-vancing our understanding of the molecular basis of dis-ease, develop novel therapeutics and produce newinnovations in biotechnology.

Materials Science: The nexus between advances in mate-rials research and potential benefits in our ability to com-municate, our health and well-being, protection of ourenvironment, our security, our standard of living and ex-tending the limits of our knowledge has been identifiedas a critical national need, and is internationally recog-nized as essential for improving the human condition.

Global Change Sciences: This research cluster will focuson solving fundamental questions related to rates of en-vironmental/climate change, both in the past and future,biodiversity, resource assessment and management andnatural hazards.

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY &MATH EDUCATION

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IMAGINEIn the wake of the oil spill, USF geologist PingWang traveled to northwest Florida and Ala-bama beaches to assess the condition of theworld-famous sands where crews were cleaningbeaches after Deepwater Horizon oil washedashore.

Wang reported that cleanup efforts still left be-hind tar balls and contaminated beaches. In ad-dition, he was the first to discover layers of oilburied 6 inches below the surface of the beachsand. Wang took along several graduate stu-dents who helped assess the clean-up process.

“We estimate that less than 25 percent of theoverall oil contamination, including both surfi-cial and buried oil was cleaned,” according toWang and Ph.D. student Tiffany Roberts in a re-port documenting the research, which wasfunded by the National Science Foundation.

The group observed BP crews cleaning thebeaches during a three-week period, notingthat relatively small amounts of new oil washedonshore after the cleanup efforts.

The incidences of “cleaned” beaches with wide-spread contamination was still evident and wasfound along tens of miles of Alabama andnorthern Florida beaches, Wang said. He notedthat heavily-used public beaches appeared tohave been cleaned up more carefully, yet inother areas the clean-up efforts were largely su-perficial, leaving widespread amounts of oilcrushed into small tar balls and mixed withclean, white sand.

Most of the buried oil was not cleaned by BPcrews, which Wang documented in photo-graphs showing oil up to 7 inches thick buriedas deep as 20-inches below the sand.

“Beach processes are dynamic and complex,”Wang said. “For example, a certain part of thebeach tends to be accretionary after a high-en-ergy event, in this case the distal passage of thefirst hurricane, Alex, of the 2010 season. The oilthat was deposited by the high waves associ-ated with Alex became quickly buried as thebeach recovered directly following the stormimpact, as the waves subsided.

“A typical post-storm beach recovery is the ac-cretion of the so-called beach berm. That iswhere the deepest burial of oil was found.”

The concern is buried oil will remain in theheavily-used beach environment longer be-cause it cannot be broken down by sunlight assurface oil is, the researchers said. More thor-ough beach cleaning efforts are needed beforebeaches affected by the spill can be declaredclean, they conclude.

“A comprehensive beach cleanup plan shouldbe designed based on a solid understanding ofthe various forms of oil contamination and theirspatial distributions alongshore and across-shore,” Wang wrote in his report. “Based onwhat we have observed in the field and whathas been posted on the BP website, the cleanupefforts are largely superficial.”

4.1 millionbarrels of oil gushed into the Gulfof Mexico, enough to fill 260Olympic swimming pools

3National Science FoundationRapid Response Grants werefunded to School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics faculty

As seen in National GeographicNational Geographic followed USF Geol-ogist Ping Wang as he surveyed theshocking amounts of oil left behind dur-ing the beach cleanup process.

Above: USF researchers used ultraviolet light to detect oil leftbehind from the cleanup. The oil glows yellow under UV light.Chris Combs/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Right: Ping Wang, who led the Pensacola Beach digs, standsamid beach-top tarballs and tar mats with team member Stod-dard Pickrel (background) on July 1. Chris Combs/NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC

Cleaning up the world’s worst oil spill

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Tracking ecosystems in wakeof oil spill

Susan Bell, chair of the De-partment of Integrative Biol-ogy, is investigating a morecomplex set of questionsabout beaches and their in-habitants: whether the inter-woven communities of plants,small crabs, clams, turtles,birds and other critters are afunctioning food web or if

feeding relationships become altered onbeaches impacted by the nation’s largest envi-ronmental disaster. Bell’s research efforts arefunded through a National Science FoundationRapid Research Grant. This summer, Bell, alongwith University of South Florida post-doctoralresearcher, Alex Tewfik, and students havescoured both urban and pristine beaches—fromthe Panhandle to the lower southwest Floridacoast, and up the Atlantic coast to North Car-olina—in an effort to understand the colonies ofcreatures that inhabit beaches and the fooditems consumed by the diverse group of ani-mals.

David Lewis, assistant professor in the Depart-ment of Integrative Biology, is working with col-leagues at the University of Florida to study thepotential impact of the oil spill on mangroveecosystems. This research will provide a baselineof ecosystem function and plant-soil relation-ships prior to the infusion energy and nutrientsubsidies that would result from crude oil depo-sition. Lewis and colleagues also will attempt todevelop remote sensing tools to rapidly detectdisturbed ecosystem function over muchbroader spatial scales than ground monitoringpermits.

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Nearly 61 people will die this year in theUnited States due to symptoms caused by Es-cherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli), according tothe Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion (CDC).

Counteracting this statistic, scientists at theUniversity of South Florida's AdvancedBiosensors Laboratory are currently workingwith the Portable Multi-use Automated Con-centration System (PMACS), a device createdby USF scientists, that allows bacteria detec-tion time to be cut down from days to hours.

USF microbiologist Daniel Lim, Ph.D., alongwith a team of 10, initially created PMACS inresponse to widespread fear of water contam-ination after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Now, theteam of scientists uses this technology to testfood products such as spinach or lettuce for E.coli.

"We take a large amount of spinach or lettuce,usually several pounds instead of a handful,and we'll place it into a large amount of waterand wash off and concentrate the bacteriathat might be on the spinach using a concen-tration device that we developed in our labo-ratory," Lim said.

The bacteria can then be removed from thesample and tested within hours.

With various recalls over the years, food-borne illnesses have had the potential tothreaten hundreds to thousands of people.

Early detection can save people before it istoo late.

"The value of that is that you've reduce thetime it takes to identify the bacteria whichmight mean that you don’t have to let thespinach go out to the public," Lim said.

Annually, E. coli causes 73,000 illnesses, 2,200hospitalizations and 61 deaths, according tothe CDC.

This time-saving technology even has receivednational recognition. Lim won the ChristopherColumbus Fellowship Foundation's 2004Homeland Security Award.

Aside from U.S. food-borne illnesses, there isalso a fear of either natural or deliberate con-tamination of food that the U.S. receives fromother countries, Lim said.

The USF Advanced Biosensors Laboratory hasbeen working to get a patent on PMACS andalso has been in contact with the U.S. Foodand Drug Administration.

The laboratory is funded by the U.S. Army, theNational Science Foundation and other federalagencies.

73,000illnesses are caused by E. coliO157:H7 each year

19 millionpounds of contaminated beef wererecalled in 2002

Patent-pending technologyThe Advanced Biosensors Laboratoryhas built an innovative, patent-pendingAutomated Concentration System whichis used to rapidly collect bacteria andviruses from large volumes of water.

Above: Daniel Lim and research assistant Sonia Magaña ana-lyze test results from one of the many biosensors used in theAdvanced Biosensors Laboratory to rapidly identify and de-tect bacteria and viruses from food, water and blood. JosephGamble/USF

Left: Daniel Lim injects test samples into a biosensor used forpathogen detection. Jason Marsh/USF

Detecting food-borne illnesses

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IMAGINE

The Antarctic is literally the last place anyonemight expect to look for a treatment for a trop-ical disease like malaria, but under a retreatingglacier is exactly where USF chemistry profes-sor Bill Baker found a bright red sea spongethat holds the latest hope for a new treatment.

Baker, along with researchers in USF’s Depart-ment of Global Health, tested compounds fromthe sponge and found them to be activeagainst both malaria and leishmaniasis, a para-sitic disease spread by sand flies that causesskin infections. Leishmaniasis is of particularconcern to U.S. troops serving in the MiddleEast, but also is prevalent in places like India,Bangladesh, Brazil and Sudan.

“Natural products are where drug discoverybegan,” said Baker, who has made a dozentrips to Antarctica in search of compounds thatcan cure diseases, including cancers. “This hasbeen going on for over a century and much ofthe proverbial low-hanging fruit has beenpicked. Everything in your backyard has beenstudied. You have to go out to where the biodi-versity is rich.”

For more than two decades, Baker, who cameto USF in 2001, has scoured the world’s oceansin search of new organisms that might producebiopharmaceuticals.

Their findings on the sponge compounds’ ef-fects on leishmaniasis were recently publishedin the Journal of Natural Products, the firststudy published from the collaboration of

Baker and Dennis Kyle of the Department ofGlobal Health. Of the 70,000 individual organ-isms extracted from the vast collection ofAntarctic and other life Baker and his col-leagues will study, it is expected at least 50 dif-ferent novel compounds will be identified aspotential disease fighters.

Earlier this year, graduate student AlanMaschek and Baker journeyed to Antarctica, afour to five day boat trip from Chile, to spendfour months in freezing temperatures collect-ing specimens and performing experiments atPalmer Station, Antarctica.

The group collected specimens during dives inbelow freezing Antarctic waters and tested ex-tracted compounds for anti-cancer properties.Maschek said the work is also an opportunityto learn more about Antarctica’s largely unex-plored sea life and ecosystem.

“That area of Antarctica is unique because it’sdominated underwater by algae and seaweeds,” Maschek said.

The benefits of any newly discovered drug aresubstantial. A child dies of malaria every 30seconds—and some 1 million people succumbto the disease each year. Leishmaniasis causesnearly 60,000 deaths each year, leaving thosewho survive it disfigured or with severe healthissues.

Diving for a cure

Undergraduate researchBill Baker has a number of studentsworking in his laboratory, including undergraduate students such as JackieSalm (pictured above).

Above: Jackie Salm, an undergraduate student works on sam-ples brought back from Antarctica. Michele Dye/USF

Right: Bill Baker and Dennis Kyle work to isolate disease-fight-ing compounds found within natural resources discovered onBaker’s research expeditions to Antarctica. JosephGamble/USF

200 millioncases of malaria occurred worldwide in 2008

6,500miles from Tampa, Fla., to Antarctica, where USF researcherscollect marine invertebrates andstudy at the Palmer Station

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In the hunt for new ways of creating renewableand clean energy, few technologies in recentyears have generated as much excitement asthe tiny, flexible solar cells developed by USFphysicist Xiaomei Jiang. These cells couldtransform how solar energy is generated: insee-thru glass windows capable of generatingelectricity as light, both natural and artificial,passes through the panels.

The University of South Florida ResearchFoundation licensed Jiang’s discoveries,processes and applications to New EnergySolar Corporation, a subsidiary of New EnergyTechnologies.

Jiang's invention was unveiled on campus inSeptember at a public demonstration of thenew SolarWindow™ technology, the first-of-itskind. This small-scale prototype is capable ofgenerating electricity.

Electricity generated by New Energy’s Solar-Window™ on prototypes of see-thru glass win-dows was showcased in USF’s Science Centerin an event hosted by New Energy Technolo-gies.

“The public demonstration of our novel Solar-Window™ technology is a very exciting mile-stone for all our stakeholders, including theresearch team, management, and shareholdersof New Energy,” said John A. Conklin, presi-dent and CEO of New Energy Technologies,Inc., a Maryland-based company.

“We’re eager to demonstrate how far we havecome in developing the first-ever technologyof its kind with the potential to radicallychange the way in which we power the esti-mated 80 million detached homes and 5 mil-lion commercial buildings in America, andthroughout the world.”

Electrical power is generated on see-thru glassthrough solar cell coatings which are sprayedonto the surfaces. This patent-pending processenables researchers to spray SolarWindow™coatings onto glass at room temperature, elim-inating expensive and often cumbersomehigh-temperature or high-vacuum productionmethods commonly used by current solarmanufacturers.

Not only could this invention impact globalsustainability, but it could further enhance USF.

“Royalties from a potential blockbuster prod-uct—think boffo licensing agreements likeGatorade for the University of Florida or can-cer drug Taxol for Florida State University—canbe game changers for universities seeking rev-enues to enhance their offerings and prestige,”wrote Robert Trigaux, the St. Petersburg Timesbusiness columnist.

USF in the international spotlightDr. Xiaomei Jiang’s invention was unveiledat USF in September to a crowded roomof reporters from the Tampa Bay area aswell as CNN, CNBC and Agence FrancePresse.

Above: Dr. Xiaomei Jiang, inventor of the SolarWindow, poseswith the SolarWindow model house. Michele Dye/USF

Left: Ph.D. student Jason Lewis demonstrates the solar cell gen-erating electricity to power a small fan. Michele Dye/USF

80 milliondetached homes in the U.S. thatcould benefit from the solar technology developed at USF

300%energy savings for SolarWindowusers over conventional rooftopsolar systems

Creating the world’s first see-thru solar cells

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Imagine having specially-trained mathematicsand science teachers in the Tampa Bay area.

Thanks to a multimillion-dollar grant from the National ScienceFoundation, USF will be able to award 30 fellowships to aspiringmathematics and science teachers who enroll in a one-year acceler-ated Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program to earn the creden-tials needed to teach mathematics or science in secondary schools.

In exchange for tuition and a stipend, fellows will commit to teach-ing science or mathematics in the Tampa Bay area after completingtheir master’s degree in teaching.

Jeffrey Ryan, chair of the Department of Geology, is collaboratingwith the USF College of Education on this project.

“There is a huge national shortage in trained science teachers, espe-cially in the geosciences, and the problem has been magnified bythe No Child Left Behind Act requirements that teachers be formallyqualified in their disciplines of specialty,” said Ryan, a co-principalinvestigator for this grant. “Our project is aimed at training middle-and high-school level teachers, and toward that end we're seekinginterested students who have successfully completed B.S. or M.S.degrees in the sciences and/or mathematics to enroll in and com-plete the Masters of Arts in Teaching program at USF.

“Noyce-trained teachers are then placed in high-needs schoolsaround the region, and they commit to teaching in those schools forseveral years as a condition of receiving Noyce support for their ed-ucation.”

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