Feed of Latest U-M Research News
Humanities and Arts
U-M has received more than $200M in stimulus funds through October 2009
In data assembled by the U-M's Division of Research Development and Administration, the U-M has received funding for 342 projects through October, 2009 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The total dollar value of these projects is $206.4M. To date, the five largest grants support solar energy research, diabetes research, an ongoing study of health and retirement issues in the U.S., the creation of a database to support genetic research in the behavioral and health sciences, and a study of pulmonary fibrosis. [Download table of project awards by U-M schools, colleges and other major units...]
Talking about movies: Tarantino’s film history
According to Frank Beaver, a film historian and critic, and professor emeritus of Screen Arts and Cultures at the University of Michigan, director Quentin Tarantino's latest film, "Inglourious Basterds," is brutally violent at the same time it joyfully recalls movies of the past. [Read more...]
U-M scholar’s “Tchaikovsky” offers biography and musical analysis
Roland John Wiley, a professor in the U-M School of Music, Theatre and Dance, recently published a biography of the composer Tchaikovsky. wiley has been interested in Russian music and Tchaikovsky in particular at least since his graduate school days in the 1970s. [Read more...]
The Things They Carried
U-M professor examines the items people bring to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall and their reasons for doing so, reported in an article in the Fall 2009 issue of LSA Magazine. [Read more...]
The Unwitting Lexicologist
Professor Sarah Thompson never suspected her life's work would be to record an endangered native language before it is lost forever. Here is her story, as reported in the Fall 2009 issue of LSA Magazine. [Read more...]
Underwater Archaeology
Exploring the bottom of Lake Huron for signs of ancient human life
The bottom of Lake Huron is filled with more than shipwrecks—there are also clues left behind from ancient man. LSA Professor of Anthropology John O’Shea found archaeological evidence of a 9,000-year-old hunting culture in the depths of Lake Huron, in collaboration with U-M Professor Guy R. Meadows, Director of U-M’s Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories. [Read more...]
A Very Loud Number
In this blog post, U-M Vice President for Research discusses the broader meaning of the $1B milestone in research spending: "By now, many have heard that the University of Michigan broke the $1,000,000,000 threshold for research expenditures in Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09). Indeed, by National Science Foundation accounting, U-M has moved into third place for research expenditures by U.S. universities in 2008 (the latest year for which such numbers are available). Only the University of California at San Francisco and the University of Wisconsin rank higher." [Read more...]
Celebrations to mark the opening of new wing at U-M’s Kelsey Museum
As an undergraduate in the 1930s, Edwin Meader saw rare artifacts, pottery and sculpture, excavated by U-M scholars in the Mediterranean and Near East, being delivered to what was then called the Museum of Classical Archaeology (later the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology) and said to himself "these things deserve a better place." In 2003, a gift of $8.5 million from the late Edwin and Mary Meader created that better place, funding construction of a new 20,000 square-foot wing. Named in honor of Mary's grandfather, the William E. Upjohn Exhibit Wing will open to the public with a celebration from 2-5 p.m., Nov. 1. U-M Provost Teresa Sullivan, Terrence J. McDonald, dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and Sharon Herbert, director of the Kelsey Museum, will begin the celebration with a dedication and ribbon cutting at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Maynard Street entrance to the new wing. A public reception and self-guided tours will follow the ceremony.
U-M hosts week-long exploration of role of body in making art
In the latest incarnation of innovative arts exploration, the University of Michigan's Arts on Earth presents "Arts & Bodies," a week-long series of performances, talks and happenings that aim to provoke a rethinking of the vital connection among the arts, education and societal values. The series of programs begins Nov. 1. All events are free and open to the public. "With the many economic problems affecting people, we think it's timely to explore ways the arts can help us gain some perspective," said Theresa Reid, executive director of Arts on Earth, a university-wide initiative in creative work and learning directed by the deans of arts and engineering on U-M's North Campus. [Read more...]
Zell Lurie Institute awards student entrepreneurs more than $50,000 in grants
The Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business has announced the recipients of the Fall 2009 Eugene Applebaum Dare to Dream Grant Program, where students apply for funding to advance their innovative, high-potential business concepts toward launch. The 30 grant recipients submitted projects that range from a light sport aircraft design and manufacturing firm to an online fundraising platform for performers to a stationary bicycle that generates electricity. [Read more...]