Jonathan Knutson

FARGO - The Red River Valley Research Corridor has launched a partnership with a leading national laboratory.

The announcement was made today in Fargo by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D.-N.D., who has championed the Research Corridor, which includes North Dakota State University and the University of North Dakota.

In the partnership, Research Corridor faculty and students will work with the Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory run by the University of Chicago.

Most of the research will involve sustainable energy, although other energy-related research will be done, too, said Alfred Sattelberger, associate lab director of energy sciences and engineering at Argonne National Lab.

Amy Dalrymple

"The area's research and educational opportunities will be enhanced with a new high-speed regional computer network known as the Northern Tier Network.

University officials and regional lawmakers gathered at North Dakota State University on Thursday to celebrate the state’s participation in the network that connects 13 states.

It will allow universities and other partners to transmit large amounts of data used in research.

North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, who spoke to the group via video link, said the network is essential to the Red River Valley Research Corridor.

"This unlocks significant opportunity," Dorgan said. "And this is just a start."

The network connects the northern states between Michigan and Washington and up to Alaska.

The Internet capabilities are 1,250 times faster than traditional cable Internet.

""It will provide us greater opportunities to fulfill our missions in education, research and outreach,"" said North Dakota State University President Joseph Chapman.

Examples include:

• At NDSU the network allows scientists to work with rural school districts using a $300,000 electron microscope that is controlled remotely.
• At the University of North Dakota, the new capabilities will allow the library to provide access to more audio and video files, such as high-quality videos from the UND Writer's Conference.
• The Institute for Regional Studies at NDSU will be able to make more digital materials available to the public. Already, the institute has digital information that is equivalent to about 60,000 copies of the Bible, director John Bye said.
• UND's Regional Weather Information Center will be able to use large amounts of data from collaborating agencies, such as state departments of transportation, for research on predicting road conditions in a snowstorm.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Amy Dalrymple at (701) 241-5590

Kelly Smith

Former West Fargo teacher Paul Tefft left retirement after less than two months for the same reason he stayed in the district for 37 years: getting kids ready for the future.

But this time, the former government teacher's focus is different, centered on entrepreneurship.

In a rare joint meeting Tuesday with both Fargo and West Fargo school districts, he explained why he needs their support.

"If we are going to be successful in the 21st century, then we have got to do a better job of finding entrepreneurial people," he said. "If we are all about kids and we are all about making kids better, then we have to give them an opportunity to succeed."
The solution, he proposed, is essentially youth entrepreneurship programs for eighth- and ninth-graders. It's today's teens, he said, who are critical to successful economic development in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

"It's going on in many major leading communities," added North Dakota Sen. Tony Grindberg, R-Fargo, the executive director of the North Dakota State University Research and Technology Park, which is heading up the project and hired Tefft as the project consultant.

While there are programs like DECA at Fargo and West Fargo high schools, Grindberg and Tefft say opportunities need to be available sooner.

Both school boards left Tuesday with the plan to approve joint resolutions at their next meetings that will approve the concept. But logistics still need to be worked out.

By the end of the summer, organizers hope to have developed timetables, curriculum and an exact budget for the program.

Grindberg estimated a two-year pilot program for the two districts could cost a minimum of $200,000 - funds coming from school districts, corporate or entrepreneur supporters.

The earliest students could see something in schools would be fall 2010. Then, if the pilot programs are successful, it could be expanded to Moorhead and surrounding schools.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Kelly Smith at (701) 241-5515

Larry R. Pederson has been named director of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering at North Dakota State University.

Pederson was most recently a laboratory fellow in the Energy and Environment Directorate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash.

The focus of Pederson's most recent research includes materials development for electrochemical applications including solid oxide fuel cells, electrochemical sensors and lithium batteries.

Pederson is a graduate of Bemidji (Minn.) State University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Teri Grosz has been promoted to human research protection program manager and Kristy Shirley to research compliance administrator for North Dakota State University's Institutional Review Board, part of NDSU's Office of the Vice President for Research, Creative Activities and Technology Transfer.

An NDSU graduate, Grosz has 14 years of experience in various analytical research labs in Fargo and Minneapolis. She previously served as NDSU's research compliance and training officer from 2001 to 2008.

She is a certified IRB professional and member of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research.

Shirley had served as NDSU's IRB program coordinator since 2006. Her previous experience includes quality management and research assistance at Prairie St. John's, Fargo. She is a graduate of NDSU and is a member of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research.

J. Shane Mercer

Given the bone-chilling temperatures, the weeks of constant daylight and wind gusts of up to 60 mph, Fargo geologists Allan Ashworth and Adam Lewis have surely picked one of the worst places on Earth to camp.

Of course, as Lewis says in a trailer for the documentary "Ice People," which opens Tuesday at the Fargo Film Festival, "We do not come to Antarctica because we are in love with Antarctica. We come to Antarctica because we want a mystery to solve and we want a challenge. And there’s one here."

"Ice People" follows two North Dakota State University geologists along with then-NDSU students Andrew Podoll and Kelly Gorz as they spent about eight weeks in fall 2006 in tents and in the field.

Emmy-Award winning filmmaker Anne Aghion filmed the crew as they dug holes, took samples, scouted out places to explore, conducted GPS mapping and even found a fossilized leaf.

They worked in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys, digging into - often quite literally - questions about ancient climate change on the frozen continent.

Despite all the science going on, however, this film isn't "NOVA."

"It's not a science documentary," Ashworth said.

He said the film looks at what it's like to exist and work in brutal, isolated conditions. In addition to following the NDSU crew, the film also looks in on individuals in McMurdo who provide services in support of scientific efforts.

"It's meant to take you to Antarctica," Aghion said in an interview from Paris, where she was working on two films.

One benefit to working in Antarctica is being able to work uninterrupted. Lewis said it's possible to "devote 100 percent of your brain power and thoughts" to work. And there's the beauty of that pristine, unaltered part of the world.

Podoll, now a geology graduate student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, points to the "surrealism of it all."

"Just seeing a landscape very few will see; working on science very, very few will work on," he said, adding, "You literally are in places that maybe only a handful of people have been in before."

But there are obvious negatives, too. The howling wind, living in tents, going for weeks without a shower and extreme isolation are all challenges. And, of course, there's the cold.

Further, Lewis has two young children, ages 3 and 6.

Philip Boudjouk, North Dakota State University's vice president for research, creative activities and technology transfer, has been named board chairman for the Coalition of EPSCoR States.

The nonprofit Coalition, a group of 27 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, is dedicated to increasing its research competitiveness and to promoting scientific and engineering research and education.

In North Dakota, EPSCoR provides funding for research infrastructure such as high performance computing equipment for research programs, funding for new researchers, financial support for undergraduate and graduate student research, funding to provide technology expertise to businesses in the state, and funding for research in conjunction with North Dakota’s tribal colleges.

A positive economic impact of $433 million has occurred in North Dakota due to the $188.4 million awarded to EPSCoR-supported researchers since 1986.

Amy Dalrymple

Fargo's Research and Technology Park received national attention and praise Thursday at a conference in Washington, D.C.

North Dakota State University President Joseph Chapman served as a keynote speaker for an Association of University Research Parks summit.

A U.S. Department of Commerce official who spoke at the event held the NDSU park up as an excellent example of technology-led economic development.

"What they've done here is really very forward-looking and very impressive to us," said Bill Kittredge, director of national programs and performance evaluations, in an interview after the event.

Kittredge said he's been using NDSU as an example of success in his speeches for more than a year.

"It shows you don't have to be Silicon Valley to be Silicon Valley," Kittredge said.

He cited the collaborations NDSU has with the University of North Dakota, with all levels of government and the private sector as examples of what the park does well.

Chapman's talk was on leveraging a globally competitive mindset.

U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., also spoke at the event on research and a high-tech economy.

Tony Grindberg, executive director of the park, said it was fun to share the story of NDSU with his colleagues nationwide and to be recognized by a national official.

"We were certainly giddy when he made those remarks," Grindberg said.