Mauro Ferrari * was appointed President and CEO of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute. Intended as a "home" for translational and clinical research, the Methodist Hospital Research Institute is perfect match with Ferrari, a visionary and internationally recognized expert in the development, refinement and application of biomedical nanotechnology, trained in Mathematics (University of Padova, Italy), Engineering (University of California, Berkeley) and Medicine (Ohio State University).

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Image credit GIANTmicrobes

A Peek Into Roman Stocker's Tiny World  

Roman Stocker * is the principal investigator of the Environmental Microfluidics Group at MIT Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory for Environmental Science and Engineering. An environmental fluid mechanician educated in Italy -- Stocker received his PhD in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Padova in 2003 -- he joined MIT's CEE faculty in 2005. Stocker has also worked at Perth, Australia, and claims other excellent international collaborations. Stocker Group's website allows a wonderful peek into his research interests and the "tiny world" that he passionately studies. On his desk, reportedly, four stuffed giant microbes.

Most recently, with an international team of researchers, Stocker recreated in the lab a microcosm of the ocean environment, and, using microfluidic technology, was able to "visualize the behavior of marine microorganisms" just like "ecologists have done with macro-organisms for a long time." Stocker recorded microbes within a tiny channel, swimming toward the chemical dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) released into the channel. The scientist's report of chemoattraction throughout the ocean's microbial food webs has important implications regarding  ocean chemical cycling processes and, most conspicuously, confirms that marine microorganisms'  behavior may ultimately have "a powerful influence on Earth's climate" -- affecting the heat balance of the atmosphere.

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* Roman Stocker is a member of ISSNAF

• Roman Stocker, MIT
• Filtration of submicrometer particles by pelagic tunicates, PNAS
• Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Coastal Engineering, MIT
• Tiny Marine Microbes Exert Influence on Global Climate, NSF

The Chinese rankings -- Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities, www.arwu.org -- released today -- August 13 -- amid familiar criticism of global ranking models, show  Harvard University topping the list for the eighth year in a row, with the University of California, Berkeley, second, and Stanford University third. The list of 500 institutions, compiled by Jiao Tong University's Centre for World-Class Universities, is available at www.arwu.org. Business as usual?

Meanwhile, the heat is on for rival THE (Britain's QS-Times Higher Education), whose revised model is forthcoming  -- EU  planned implementation for its own ranking project at the beginning of 2011.

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• ARWU 2010 --  How do Italian Universities Fare? Check here
• ARWU -- Italian Universities Rankings, ISSNAF News
• Seven Years' Wars: 2003-2009 ARWU (Academic Ranking of World Universities), ISSNAF News

Image credit sciencebasedmedicine.org

Summer Time Blues, the third Report in a series on Stimulus spending unveiled by senators Coburn and McCain on August 3, re-ignites debate over funding for science programs. A number of research on substance abuse and public health  studies, supported by NIH and NSF grants fell among the hundred projects listed as "wasteful spending." NIH director Francis Collins and supporters of science stimulus package argued back. An article by Louise Radnofsky, published in the WSJ, offers an overview of the discussion.

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* Cochran Eddie: Summertime Blues Lyrics 

Postilla -- Francis Collin's Balancing Acts. Meredith Wadman's report on Francis Collin's first year at the helm of NIH, published in Nature, highlights some of the most difficult choices that Collins is confronting vis a vis NIH grantees. Read here

Image credit chemlife.umd.edu

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The Award to Rita R. Colwell is an honor to ISSNAF

The Viterbi Museum at the University of Southern California Andrew and Erna Viterbi School of Engineering  "is a hidden jewel." The murals realized by Sandro Chia for the walls of the museum evoke memorable moments from Viterbi's public and private lives.

On August 18, 2010, Andrew J. Viterbi * will receive the IIC Lifetime Achievement Award by the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles -- a tribute and a ceremony under the auspices of the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles, in collaboration with the department of cultural affairs of the City of Los Angeles, and ISSNAF.

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* Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at UCSD
and a founding member of ISSNAF