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Director’s Message September 2019

Director’s Message September 2019

Dear Friends & Colleagues,

WE’RE AN INSTITUTE!

I am pleased to announce that the Institute for Modeling Collaboration and Innovation (IMCI) has been granted Tier III status at the University of Idaho effective September 1. IMCI builds on the success of the Center for Modeling Complex Interactions (CMCI), originally funded by a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant from the National Institutes of Health.  Level III allows us to expand our modeling efforts beyond our original biomedical mission.

Our personnel and budgetary management now resided in the Office of Research and Economic Development.   IMCI continue to focus on interdisciplinary, collaborative research with modeling as a unifying feature. As you know, modeling improves research at every stage: making predictions, generating hypotheses, exploring scenarios, and guiding empirical work.

CMCI DOESN’T GO AWAY

CMCI is not going away; it is taking its place under the IMCI umbrella along with other grants and initiatives.  We are currently preparing a resubmission of the CMCI Phase II proposal. Because we were funded off-cycle in Phase I, our initial Phase II proposal was submitted early, so we are well positioned financially to remain fully functional during this resubmission cycle.

POSTDOCTORAL RESOURCES EXPANDING

The Postdoctoral Fellows in the Modeling Core have broad expertise including molecular modeling, genomics, mathematical modeling, population genetics, and machine learning. We will soon be adding expertise in geospatial modeling and statistical modeling.  On Monday, a new postdoc Hui (William) Wang joined IMCI and will be working on the EPSCoR GEM3 project. Please make William welcome to our community.

THANK YOU, UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP

I want to acknowledge the University leadership for their strong support of CMCI/IMCI. Vice President for Research & Economic Development Janet Nelson, Provost and Executive Vice President John Wiencek, and President Scott Green have all been extremely positive and supportive during our transition. Dean of the College of Science Ginger Carney has been especially generous in allowing CoS personnel to continue to support us through this changeover.   Finally, I want to say that I am enthusiastic and optimistic as President Green assumes leadership and to assure him that I remain ready to support his efforts and the University of Idaho.

Let’s have a great semester!

Go Vandals!
Holly

P.S. TAKE THE SURVEY

PS If you haven’t already, please fill complete the CMCI Participation Survey. It should only take you a minute and will help us know how to better serve our CMCI / IMCI participants.

About Us

CMCI Participation Survey

How has CMCI helped you? What do you currently need help with?

Please tell us! This survey in intended for all University of Idaho CMCI participants, including students. It will only take a minute to complete and your answers are confidential.

{Sorry! This survey was available only through September 6, 2019. HOWEVER, if you have ideas, suggestions, or feel like sharing your CMCI (and/or now IMCI) experiences, good or bad, please email imci@uidaho.edu or come to a Brown Bag Lunch to share your thoughts.}

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Office of Research and Economic Development to Host Open House

Office of Research and Economic Development to Host Open House
photo credit: Jeremy Tamsen

Travel through Morrill Hall at the spring Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED) Open House from 3-5 p.m. Thursday, April 4, in Moscow. Faculty, students and staff will have the chance to meet ORED staff and learn about the multitude of services offered at the University of Idaho. There will be an opportunity to mingle with the offices of Sponsored Programs, Technology Transfer, Economic Development, Research and Faculty Development, Research Assurances, campus veterinarian, staff of the Integrated Research and Innovation Center, the Center for Advanced Energy Studies, Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, Aquaculture Research Institute, Idaho Geological Survey, Idaho Water Resources Research Institute, Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, Northwest Knowledge Network and the Center for Modeling Complex Interactions. Enjoy tours of every floor, attendee favors, delectable desserts and a chance at raffle prizes. Join for an informative and fun afternoon on a journey through ORED.

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Director’s Message November 2018

Director’s Message November 2018

Dear Friends & Colleagues,

I have a few informational items to bring to your attention:

WHEN SHOULD YOU CITE CMCI P20GM104420?

Future funding requires we document our impact. Therefore, it’s critically important that you cite the grant when appropriate:

  • Your work was conceived or carried out as part of a CMCI Working Group.
  • The research is funded by a CMCI Project Grant, Pilot Grant or MAG.
  • You used major equipment purchased by the grant and/or resources provided by CMCI.
  • One or more authors is funded entirely by the CMCI grant.
  • One or more authors is funded partially by the CMCI grant specifically for this work.
  • Authors do not have funding specifically for this work and the manuscript is closely related to the CMCI grant.

The exact text for the grant citation can be found here on the website.

FYI: SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL THROUGH CMCI

Do you plan on submitting a proposal that includes a modeling component? If so CMCI may be a great resource to you and your research team. Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Email me with a brief description of the proposal to ensure that it falls under our mission.
  2. Once confirmed, forward my approval and the funding announcement to Michele Mattoon.   Do this as early as possible in the proposal planning process. The earlier you do this, the more we can help you.
  3. Create the proposal in EIPRS, selecting “CMCI” as the department submitting the proposal and adding Michele Mattoon as an editor.
  4. Contact Michele for assistance with the budget and budget justification and other aspects of the submission.
  5. Contact me if you need other help or advice with the scientific aspects of proposal.
ACTION ITEMS: AVAILABLE RESOURCES

The university has several resources available for finding research support and learning about other resources available at UI. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you do the following:

ACTION ITEM: WEBSITE UPDATE

Have you seen our updated website? If not, check it out at http://www.cmciuidaho.org/. Please contact Lydia if you would like to update your profile or if you would like to be included in our online directory. This will become especially important as we move toward listing available modelers cross-referenced with research projects looking for modelers.

REMINDER: COLLABORATORIUM SCHEDULING

Lastly, please be aware that the Collaboratorium is being used more and more and is often booked back-to-back. As you are coming and going from your working group and other meetings, remember to be respectful of the meetings before and after your scheduled time slot. Don’t enter the room until the previous group is finished; try to finish your own meetings a few minutes early.

Let’s keep having fun doing research together!

Cheers,
Holly Wichman
CMCI Director

About Us

Pioneering Women

Paving the Path

University of Idaho educator went from being the first woman in her department to a distinguished professor and leader

This article was written by Justyna Tomtas and published in the Lewiston Tribune on Friday, Oct. 26, 2018. Read the original article here.

When Holly Wichman was an assistant professor at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, she cut out a job posting, put it in her desk drawer and looked at it every day.

She’d eventually work up the courage to call the University of Idaho and send along her resume for a position within the department of biological sciences.

Wichman was hired as the first woman in a tenure-track position in that department in 1988, where she currently still works.

It was a tough transition for Wichman, who said she felt isolated in her new role.

There was only one other woman in the building at the time and the other members in the department liked to keep to themselves.

“It was tough and the chairman later told me that he wanted to make sure the first woman they hired was tough enough to handle it,” she said.

Wichman survived the hard years with the help of an off-campus mentor who she collaborated with.

She went from working on tranposable elements in mammals to being an evolutionary biologist.

Since she joined UI in 1988, Wichman is now a university distinguished professor, the director of the Center for Modeling Complex Interactions and she played a pivotal role in establishing the Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, otherwise known as IBEST.

In 2015, she was honored by the higher education magazine INSIGHT Into Diversity as one of its 100 Inspiring Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

She later received the 2016 Athena Woman of the Year Award which is given “to women who have demonstrated clear and sustained dedication to women’s professional enhancement at the University of Idaho.”

Both awards surprised Wichman. She didn’t know colleagues had nominated her for either.

“The university has been very good with me in terms of allowing me to do what I want with my career,” Wichman said. “It’s been a great place for me.”

Wichman also spends time making sculptures of viruses. She has about 20 of them that she exhibits at various shows.

Her career is fulfilling, but so is being a grandmother, she said.

In her spare time, she likes going huckleberry picking.

“I just feel very lucky to have my career here and I’ve worked with really wonderful people,” Wichman said.

She encourages other women who are gunning for a position in a male-dominated field to follow their dreams.

“Hold your head up and just do it,” she said. “there’s not very many careers left where women haven’t made some inroads.”

Wichman’s department has since grown more inclusive and collaborative, she said. The ratio of those in tenure-track positions now includes 10 women and 19 men.

“The department has done an amazing job of sort of coming up to speed on this and I know many departments that are not at the level that we are,” Wichman said. “I think they’ve done an amazing job.”

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