innovation-2014

HARRY REID SILVER STATE RESEARCH AWARDArray ofAccomplishmentIn an era of specialization,SHAHRAM LATIFI has pursueda diversity of interests.BY CHARLES E. REINEKEPHOTOGRAPHY BYAARON MAYESBack in 2004, the Swiss-born philosopher and critic Alain de Bottonpenned a memorable phrase that rings especially true for engineers:“We delight in complexity,” de Botton wrote, “to which genius haslent an appearance of simplicity.”Thus it is in the world of Shahram Latifi, a professor of electricaland computer engineering at UNLV, whose work exploreshow a dizzying array of his discipline’s most complex areas —digital networks and data compression, parallel processing anddistributed computing, advanced image processing and remotesensing — can be used to craft elegant solutions to problemsfraught with complication.As Bijan Salimi, a prominent Nevada engineer recently put it,“the depth and breadth of his knowledge in his field are trulyremarkable.” It’s an assessment shared by many, including thecommittee of scholars that earlier this year conferred upon Latifithe 2014 Harry Reid Silver State Research Award. The award,UNLV’s most prestigious research honor, singles out facultymembers whose work achieves a rare trifecta of attainments: Itsignificantly advances the recipient’s academic field, addressesreal-world needs and concerns, and contributes to Nevada’s economicgrowth and development.research.unlv.edu INNOVATION / 9

INNOVATING AGAINST ILLNESSUnique platinum-containingchemotherapy compounds,created by Bryan Spangelo and hisUNLV research team, offer hope forimprovement in cancer treatment.18 / INNOVATION2014

SEED MONEY UNLV’s Faculty OpportunityAwards provide funding for researchers lookingto advance ideas that will attract larger grantdollars to university programs.research.unlv.edu INNOVATION / 21

FACULTY OPPORTUNITY AWARDSMost successful Faculty Opportunity Award (FOA)recipients receive from $5,000 to $20,000 each. Forthe university, these investments yield impressivereturns, according to Thomas Piechota, vice presidentfor Research and Economic Development. Duringfiscal years 2012 and 2013, for example, theprogram’s $600,000 awarded generated almost $4million in external funding, a return of $5.70 for every dollar invested, he notes. “We believe in investing in research at UNLV,” says Piechota “These FacultyOpportunity Awards are generating real results in the form of proposals forexternal funding as well as publication of research findings and developmentof intellectual property with commercialization potential. We have some verygifted researchers who need a modest investment in order to gather data orinformation; in turn, this can produce huge returns in the form of scholarship,grants, and industry-sponsored research for UNLV.” Below are four examplesof projects that recently received Faculty Opportunity Awards.OTHERWORLDLYINVESTIGATIONSData from NASA’s MarsExploration Program ishelping Elisabeth Hausrathunderstand how soil andwater might have onceinteracted on the surfaceof our solar system’smost-Earthlike neighbor.ELISABETH HAUSRATHGEOSCIENCEELISABETH (LIBBY) HAUSRATH GREW UPin the desert, a circumstance that made it easyfor her to appreciate how water, our planet’smost important chemical compound,profoundly affects even the most moisturechallengedof locales.For Hausrath, now an assistant professor ofgeoscience at UNLV, that appreciationeventually led to a doctorate focused onaqueous geochemistry from Penn State.Because her studies there happened to coincidewith the Mars Rover landing — an event thatproved the now desertous Red Planet mayhave once been wet — she quite naturallybegan to think about slipping the surly bondsof Earth (figuratively) to conduct her research.Today, due in part to her UNLV FacultyOpportunity Award, Hausrath is working tointerpret data from NASA’s Mars ExplorationProgram to investigate how soil and watermight have once interacted on the surface ofour solar system’s most-Earthlike neighbor.“My research program aims to betterunderstand chemical weathering and soilformation on Earth and on Mars,” she says.“The Mars Exploration Program results inincreasing amounts of fascinating data fromMars. Our goal is to help interpret andunderstand these data and their implicationsfor Mars as a potentially habitable planet.”Funding from the Faculty OpportunityAward, Hausrath says, was key to laying thescientific groundwork necessary for attractingthe extramural support that such timeintensiveresearch demands.“In order to get larger, multi-year grants, it isreally helpful to have preliminary data — atleast a few results showing that an idea ispromising — and that the proposed researchapproach is appropriate,” she says. She currentlyhas two multi-year proposals pending withNASA resulting from the FOA award and isvery hopeful that they will be funded.The internal award has also allowed her topublish more widely in her field and to morefully support students working in her laboratory.One particularly fruitful area for Hausrathand her team involves analyses of clay minerals.Because these minerals — also known ashydrous aluminium phyllosilicates — form inthe presence of water, they are of intenseinterest to scientists studying habitability.“Our research on transitions in clay-mineralchemistry, particularly the work of Ph.D.student Seth Gainey and master’s studentMichael Steiner, is yielding fascinating resultsthat may help us better interpret the potentialhabitability of clay-mineral-containing Martianenvironments,” Hausrath says. “This project isproviding new insights that could lead tofurther studies conducted at UNLV or otherinstitutions.”Her work has implications closer to home aswell, she adds, ticking off a list of investigationsthat have also generated enthusiasm amongthe funding agencies supporting her work.R. MARSH STARKS22 / INNOVATION2014

JUSTICE FOR JUDGESRebecca Gill is leading aproject that will examinehow performanceassessments of judges areconducted and how genderor racial bias may influencesuch evaluations.“Prior to the Faculty Opportunity Award,Sylvia and I had already conducted a smallscalepilot study of judicial performanceevaluations in Clark County,” Gill says.“However, we ran into quite a bit of pushbackbecause of the unique situation of performanceevaluations here in Nevada. That study foundthat rankings for female judges are significantlylower than similarly situated male judges. Ireally needed a broader pilot studydemonstrating the generalizability of ourpreliminary findings to performanceevaluations in other states.”Gill says the FOA allowed her to conduct abroader pilot study and to hire a researchassistant to help with the labor-intensiveprocess of collecting the expanded pilot data tosupport a grant proposal. In the summer of2013, she submitted her proposal to the NSF’sLaw and Social Science Program, which seeksto advance scientific theory and understandingof the connections between law or legalprocesses and human behavior.“Without help from UNLV,” she says, “Iwould not have been able to conduct thebroader pilot study, which was essential. Informationcollected in the pilot was used to establishthe feasibility of this project, as well as itstheoretical and practical importance to theNSF’s Law and Social Science Program’s mission.”The expanded pilot study was also thesource of the data used in two scholarly publications,one of which she co-authored with herFOA research assistant, Kenneth Retzl.NSF funding in place, Gill says that she isnow working with two full-time researchassistants to collect data for the AmericanJudicial Performance Evaluation Database,24 / INNOVATIONwhich will contain information for all thestates that use judicial performance evaluationsto judge the judges’ qualifications andeffectiveness. Such a catalog of evaluations,Gill’s research indicates, will help shed light onpersistent disparities — such as those noted inher pilot study — in the way judges andprospective judges are scored.As part of her NSF grant, she will alsowrite a best practices handbook fordesigning and implementing selection andevaluation programs.Beyond her current study, she is interestedin expanding her research to study theselection, evaluation, and retention of otherpublic officials, including local and statepoliticians as well as public prosecutors, policechiefs, and the like.She acknowledges that for those invested inthe evaluation status quo, her plans might notbe an easy sell. But there are signs of progress.“Those who are strongly supportive of thecurrent system of judicial performanceevaluation have revisited some previouslyunexamined assumptions of the fairness andvalidity of the instruments currently in use,”Gill says. Fiat justitia.JANET DUFEKKINESIOLOGY AND NUTRITION SCIENCESINJURY FROM FALLING IS A REAL CONCERNfor hospital patients, particularly older adults.But pediatric patients are at risk, too, anunfortunate reality UNLV’s Janet Dufek isworking to better understand.Dufek, a professor in the department ofkinesiology and nutrition sciences, has teamedup with Nancy Ryan-Wenger, director of nursingresearch at Nationwide Children’s Hospital inColumbus, Ohio, to examine incident reportsdetailing falls among children in pediatric-carefacilities. Their goal is to examine both why fallsoccur and how best to quickly and accuratelyevaluate the damage done.“Dr. Ryan-Wenger and I became mutuallyinterested in combining our academicstrengths and interests,” Dufek says. “Hers is inpediatrics and standards of care, mine inapplying mechanics to the problem ofdetermining magnitude of injury following afall in a hospital or clinic. I became interestedin testing new approaches to identify andreduce pediatric patient falls and how todevelop a risk model to evaluate the likelihoodof serious injury following a fall.”With the assistance of a UNLV FacultyOpportunity Award, Dufek says she andRyan-Wenger were able to amass thepreliminary data they needed to convinceoutside funding agencies that theirinvestigation was worthy of support.“The primary purpose of this pilot studywas to obtain data in support of an externalgrant application being prepared andsubmitted,” she says, noting that the researchteam has already received a $10,000 grantfrom the American Nurses Foundation and ispreparing a grant proposal for an AcademicResearch Enhancement Award from theNational Institutes of Health. “Obtainingexternal funding would likely have beenimpossible without the faculty award supportused to generate the pilot data.”She adds that the FOA was crucial to hercollaboration with Ryan-Wenger. Dufek, afellow with UNLV’s Collaborative Researchand Education (CoRE) program, is an advocateHURTFUL FALLSJanet Dufek is examiningwhy pediatric patients falland how to better evaluatethe damage done.2014GILL, TIAN: AARON MAYES; DUFEK: R. MARSH STARKS

Yu Kuang:Dangerous Tumors,ExpeditedAssessmentsYU KUANG, AN ASSISTANT PROFESSORin the School of Allied Health Sciences, is focusedon the early detection of cancer and image-guidedcancer treatment. His recent workexplores whether testing for genetic markersassociated with tumors, coupled with new approachesto quantitative magnetic resourceimaging (MRI) analysis, might lead to moreeffective treatments for sarcomas, malignanttumors that form in bone, cartilage, fat, muscle,or vascular tissue.Patients diagnosed with sarcoma usuallyundergo what health care providers call “neoadjuvant”therapy — typically chemotherapy— to shrink their tumors before surgery.Reducing tumor size prior to operating, oncologistshave found, not only makes surgerymore effective but also enhances patients’long-term survival rates.A drawback of this approach is that determiningwhether neoadjuvant therapy hasdone its job can only happen via tumor-tissueanalysis following surgery. This means thatpatients don’t learn if they’ve benefitted untilafter leaving the operating room, an unfortunatereality that ensures some patientswill endure the toxic effects of chemotherapywithout any therapeutic advantage. For thesepatients, the harm in superfluous chemo isnot just in the unnecessary discomfort it inflicts.Precious time has been wasted — timethat could have been spent on potentially lifesavingtreatment alternatives.Kuang has teamed up with the Children’sSpecialty Center of Nevada and Nevada ImagingCenters to develop an earlier, non-invasivemethod for predicting success or failureof neoadjuvant chemotherapy. His method involvescombining an analysis of tumor markersin mitochondrial DNA from blood drawsand diffusion MRI data. The goal, Kuang says,is to identify the early changes of genetic biomarkerlevels in the blood and the imagingfeatures in the MRI scan that can help cliniciansmore effectively ascertain how well sarcomashave responded to pre-operative chemotherapy.By determining patients’ response to thetreatment early in the course of chemotherapy,Kuang’s team expects this research willultimately enable oncologists to optimizetreatment protocols for individual patients,improving quality of life and enhancing disease-freesurvival for patients with sarcoma.If successful, Kuang’s next step will likelyinvolve multi-institutional clinical trials.These will seek to determine how this combinedbiological- and imaging-biomarkermethod might be used to guide future chemotherapytreatments.Kuang is also actively involved in multiinstitutionalcollaborative work related toprostate cancer. Earlier this year, he teamedup with Sandi A. Kwee, a physician and associateprofessor at the John A. Burns Schoolof Medicine at the University of Hawaii, to developa positron emission tomography (PET)image guided prostate cancer radiation therapymethod. PET scan is an imaging test thathelps reveal how patients’ tissues and organsare functioning via a radioactive drug (radiotracer).In this collaboration, the radiotracerKuang and Kwee are using is a new U.S. Foodand Drug Administration-approved investigationaldrug that could allow for better targetingof radiation treatments used against intermediate-and high-risk prostate cancer.The collaborative relationship is expectedto lead to a multicenter clinical trial initiativebetween UNLV and University of Hawaii, atrial that could bring this potentially gamechangingapproach to prostate cancer patientsin Southern Nevada.ACCELERATED ANSWERS A diagnostic tool developed in part by UNLV’s Yu Kuang promises to speed physicians’ability to assess the effectiveness of neoadjuvant therapy in sarcoma patients. If successful, the approach couldlead to new, more effective ways to combat these potentially deadly malignancies.research.unlv.eduINNOVATION / 27

Susan VanBeuge:For Ailing Seniors,Coordinated SolutionsPEOPLE OFTEN FACE MULTIPLE CHRONICailments during their senior years, clusters ofconditions that demand a collaborative approachto treatment. But today there are few, ifany, training opportunities aimed at preparingthe next generation of practitioners and specialistsfor the challenges of providing the collaborative,interprofessional elder care that is sodesperately needed.Susan VanBeuge is changing that.VanBeuge is an assistant professor in theSchool of Nursing who is co-principal investigatorwith Georgia Dounis, an associate professorof clinical sciences in UNLV’s School of DentalMedicine, and Sue Schuerman, an assistant professorin the School of Allied Health Sciences.The UNLV team is a sub-awardee of the NevadaGeriatric Education Consortium, a state-wideinitiative aimed at improving the health caredelivered to older adults.The UNLV objectives include developing aType 2 diabetes management training programfor interprofessional faculty with emphasis oncommunication, prevention of co-morbidities,and cultural sensitivity.At its core, VanBeuge’s program aims to developa series of provider training for seniorhealth issues to include Type 2 diabetes andAlzheimer’s disease. The UNLV team, for example,has developed a one-day training programfocused on Type 2 diabetes and offered it statewideto health care providers and faculty whowork with professional students. The programincludes video-recorded encounters with “standardized”patients — individuals trained to simulatethe needs of real patients — and hands-ontraining with high-fidelity manikins.The program focused on Type 2 diabetesbecause of its multiple symptoms, prevalenceamong older adults, and the need for multiplehealth care professionals to involve themselvesin treatment and management of thecondition.During the training, each participant receiveda chart detailing a standardized patient’smedical and social history, physicalattributes, clinical findings, and chief complaint.Teams had 15 minutes to completethe examination. During the encounter, eachgroup assessed their patient’s physical status,formulated treatment goals and interventionoptions, noted potential outcomes, and identifiedopportunities for coordination of care.They also developed a plan for how responsibilityfor that care would transpire.The teams next participated in a debriefingsession with the project’s instructors (whowere observing the interactions in real timeon video monitors). Finally, instructors led agroup discussion and encouraged self-assessmentsfrom participants.Thus far, the five-year grant, now in its fourthyear, has seen close to 100 participants completethe course. Early findings were published afterthe study’s second year. Participants at that timetold the researchers that they had gained a betterunderstanding of inter-professional teambuilding, a stronger ability to communicate effectivelywith team members, and greater confidencein recognizing that meeting the needs ofgeriatric patients often requires an interprofessionalresponse.The project has been featured in the Journalof Interdisciplinary Healthcare and hasbeen presented during multiple national clinicalconferences. The team recently receivedadditional funding to include Alzheimer’s diseaseand dementia to the course training forthe coming year.COLLABORATIVE CARE Managing Type 2 diabetesand Alzheimer’s disease is one of senior care’sgreatest challenges. UNLV’s Susan VanBeuge leads ateam that is teaching a more coordinated approach.research.unlv.eduINNOVATION / 31

In PrintFaculty authors explore our place in the universe, Gandhiand his mentors, a small city’s civil rights struggle, and more.By Todd Peterson34 / INNOVATION2014

BOOKSCosmic Dawn: The Search forthe First Stars and GalaxiesGeorge RheeSpringer, 2013If George Rhee wasn’t already a scientist,he could play one on TV.With a shock of red-brown hair andno-nonsense glasses, Rhee certainly looks thepart. He also speaks in the sort of deliberate,thoughtful tones one would expect fromsomeone who thinks big thoughts about bigsubjects. In his case, it’s the biggest subject ofthem all: the whole of the cosmos.From his office in UNLV’s Bigelow PhysicsBuilding, the astronomy and physics professorrecently sat down to discuss his new book,Cosmic Dawn, a volume that serves as botha brief history of cosmology (the study of theuniverse) and a primer on what he sees ascoming advances in astronomy.Cosmic Dawn, he says, has been a decadelongendeavor. The project, which he joinedat a writing partner’s behest, became a soloendeavor when his colleague abandoned thebook. Rhee worked on the manuscript for atime, but ultimately set it aside. Ten yearslater, a chance meeting with a publishingprofessional convinced him that it wasworth reviving.As one might expect, Rhee foundthat cosmology had changed over theintervening years. Aside from some ofthe basic information he’d written, hefound himself starting from square one. “Iwouldn’t even say it was a revision,” Rheesays. “It was a whole new book.”The difficult job of reworking the manu-George Rhee,astronomyand physicsprofessorGALAXY: NASA/JPL - CALTECH; RHEE: R. MARSH STARKSresearch.unlv.edu INNOVATION / 35

AARON MAYESGandhi’s Teachers:Henry David ThoreauSatish SharmaGujarat Vidyapith, 2013Satish Sharma says some of his earliestmemories are related to the idea ofnonviolence.“I have always favored pacifist tendenciesand orientations, and practiced them,” saysSharma, a UNLV social work professor.With this orientation, it was only a matterof time before he became interested in thelife of Mohandas Gandhi, the father of Indianindependence and a worldwide model forpacifism and nonviolent civil disobedience.Satish Sharma,social workprofessorSharma recently completed Gandhi’sTeachers: Henry David Thoreau, the lastof a four-volume series on thinkers whoinfluenced Gandhi.In his collected writings and speeches,Gandhi noted several modern thinkerswho had influenced his ideas. They includeRajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta, an Indianphilosopher; Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy;English intellectual John Ruskin; and Americantranscendentalist Henry David Thoreau.By drawing a straight line from Gandhito these other men and showing how theIndian leader’s philosophy developed,Sharma hopes to get people thinking aboutGandhian principles.“Ultimately,the worldis to beguided notby politicalleaders,but byvisionaries.Ideas aremuchstrongerthanpolicies andplanning.Ideas makethe world goaround. Andonly if theyare peacefulideas arethey going towork.”research.unlv.edu INNOVATION / 37

BOOKS“You have to pay attention to peace andpacifism,” Sharma says. “You have to believethat without peace and pacifism your lives aregoing to be miserable, and nations’ lives aregoing to be miserable, too.”We can see this on a daily basis, he says,as more people and nations take combativeroutes to end their differences.“That may solve the problems partiallyin the short term,” Sharma says. “But in thelong run, those problems keep on emergingagain and again.” Real change comes throughdiscussion, not through aggression, he says.The Gandhi’s Teachers series will addto this discussion. Although much hasalready been written about Gandhi and theother men individually, Sharma says therewasn’t significant work connecting Gandhi’sthinking to those who influenced him.After obtaining degrees at PanjabUniversity and later at the University of Iowaand Ohio State, Sharma continued studyingEastern and Western pacifists, whicheventually led to this series.He began the series in 1999. Of the fourmen, Sharma says, Mehta was the one mostmentioned by Gandhi. Despite that fact,Sharma explains, he was the least known, bothin India and among international scholars.That prompted Sharma to explore Mehta’sinfluence in the first volume of the series.After completing the Mehta volume, Sharmamoved on to Tolstoy, then Ruskin and Thoreau.It has kept him busy for a decade and a half.“You devote 15 years of your life only if youare totally committed to something,” he says.While his research on Thoreau didn’treveal any particular surprises, there werechallenges reconciling Thoreau’s embraceof direct action to end slavery with Gandhi’snonviolence, Sharma says. Thoreau, forexample, was willing to accept violence incertain situations, specifically John Brown’sbungled attempt to incite a slave insurgencyin Virginia.Sharma devotes an entire chapter toThoreau’s writing and statements aboutBrown, the abolitionist militant whose 1859attack on a federal arsenal at Harpers Ferrydramatically heightened tensions in a nationalready deeply divided by slavery. Thoreauwrote several essays defending Brown andhis use of violence.Gandhi found this troubling, as doesSharma. “[Thoreau’s] subscription to violenceunder certain circumstances did disappointme,” Sharma says.Still, he adds, Thoreau’s admirable traitsare legion. Sharma was “deeply impressed”by Thoreau’s simplicity, humility, frugality,will power, and forbearance, all virtues thatmirror Gandhi’s fundamental values.Elsewhere in Thoreau, Sharma detailsprominent aspects of the American writer’scontributions, perhaps chief among them,Thoreau’s 1849 essay “Resistance to CivilGovernment” (or “Civil Disobedience”).Gandhi encountered the essay in 1907,after launching the Satyagraha, “soul force,”movement in South Africa on behalf of thatcountry’s Indian immigrants.Sharma says exploring the ideas of Gandhi’sspiritual and intellectual influences was notan obvious choice for scholarly attention.But exploring the antecedents of Gandhi’sthinking is critical to fully appreciate thelasting influence of his ideas.“Ultimately, the world is to be guidednot by political leaders, but by visionaries.Ideas are much stronger than policiesand planning,” says Sharma. “Ideas makethe world go around. And only if they arepeaceful ideas are they going to work.”Pacifism is personal for Sharma. Evenwhile excitedly discussing his latest project— Sharma is currently at work on a booklengthstudy of Quakerism and its effects onGandhian thought — he radiates calm andpeacefulness. A similar peaceful capacityis available to all of us, he says. We simplyneed to learn how to use it.Teachers such as Gandhi and Thoreaucan help.“People know how to obtain peace ona daily basis. They can do the same thingfor the nation,” Sharma says. “This series ismore like awakening the conscience of thepeople. That is what I’m trying to do.”A City Within a City: The BlackFreedom Struggle in GrandRapids, MichiganTodd E. RobinsonTemple University Press, 2013Ferreting out history’s “truths” oftenrequires looking beyond standard,accepted narratives and focusinginstead on telling details that more fullyrepresent the whole. Such is the case withTodd E. Robinson’s A City Within a City:The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids,Michigan.Robinson, an associate professor of historyat UNLV, says he learned early on that fewscholars were interested in how the civilrightsstruggle played out in “second-tier”cities like Grand Rapids. “I observed that mostof the narratives of the black freedom strugglefocused on the experiences of blacks living inprimary cities such as Chicago, Detroit, NewYork, and Los Angeles,” he says. Robinsonworked to change that while a doctoralstudent at the University of Michigan, wherehis dissertation work eventually led to A CityWithin a City.He says he decided on Grand Rapidsfor a couple reasons. First, there was theaforementioned dearth of information onmidsized cities. Second, he says, the sizeand scope of Grand Rapids was similarto his hometown of Springfield, Mass. “Ifelt strongly that there was a rich narrativeworthy of national attention which could addto the larger understanding,” he says.City Within a City begins by describingthe influx of African-American migrantworkers to Grand Rapids in the early 1900sup until World War II, a fascinating storyof pride and perseverance among womenand men determined to claim their shareof the American dream. It then transitionsinto the main thrust of Robinson’s work:How, after the war, black citizens’ increasingdemands for equality ran headlong into awhite establishment determined to maintaina discriminatory status quo.He identifies “managerial racism,” as a38 / INNOVATION2014

Todd Robinson, associateprofessor of historyAARON MAYESkey component in impeding racial progress,a means by which Grand Rapids’ white cityfathers, chiefly through business associations,succeeded in starving predominantlyblack neighborhoods of crucial economicdevelopment opportunities.Robinson next describes how the blackcommunity organized to overcome this andother barriers. He details the formation oforganizations such as the Grand Rapids NationalAssociation for the Advancement ofColored People (GRNAACP) and the GrandRapids Urban League (GRUL); the strugglefor employment and housing; and the hardshipsfaced by black students. He enlivensthese stories with first-person reporting andsecondary sources which, when taken together,provide a picture of the black freedomstruggle more nuanced — and complicated— than the popular narrative suggests.“The traditional view of the civil rightsmovement that circulates through Americanmemory is hotly contested in academia,”Robinson says. “What most might consider thetraditional civil rights movement — framedin the South between the years of 1954 to1968, and presented from an organizationalapproach centered on the actions of men towin political rights — offers only a parochialunderstanding of the civil rights movement.”While the familiar story of Martin LutherKing Jr. may be readily accessible, he adds, “Itconceals as much as it reveals,” he says. “Analyzingthe past of secondary cities will provideinvaluable lessons for understanding the tragedyand triumphs of the black experience duringthat time period and even today.”Robinson adds that he would like to see hisstudy blossom into research on other, similarcities that would “provide comparativeinsights, examine the place of managerialracism in other communities, and analyze“Analyzingthe pastof secondarycitieswill provideinvaluablelessonsfor understandingthe tragedyandtriumphsof theblackexperienceduring thattime periodand eventoday.”research.unlv.edu INNOVATION / 39

“If I hadto say whatthe bookwas about,I’d sayit’s aboutredemption.And inorder to havesomething toredeem,it can’tjust besomethingtrite. It hasto be thereal deal.”the complex intersection between schooling,housing, jobs, and race in these smallerlocales,” he says.This interest led him, in part, to Las Vegas.Part of our city’s attraction to him, Robinsonsays, is a scholarly interest in its AfricanAmerican community.“The Las Vegas African Americancommunity remains virtually hidden inscholarly literature and certainly so withina comparative light,” he adds. “We do notknow if the struggle for equality in Las Vegasresembles that of Los Angeles, Grand Rapids,or if it presents an entirely new set of issues.”To that end, he’s working on several newworks, including contributions to the “NuclearTest Site Oral History Project” and “Documentingthe African American Experience in Las VegasProject,” the final manuscript of which will“use the narratives of black test-site workers toexamine the intersection of the Cold War andcivil rights history in Las Vegas.” He was also recentlynamed director of the African AmericanStudies Program at UNLV.He hopes readers come away from readinga City Within a City with the understandingthat the fight for civil rights and blackequality did not take place within a vacuum,nor is it anywhere close to finished.“Somewhere along the way it seemsthe history of racism was distilled fromAmerican memory,” Robinson says. “In fact,I woke up one morning and found out thatapparently America was past racism —America had entered its post-racial era.”But for anyone willing to examine andadmit our history in late 2014, nothing couldbe further from the truth.“The incidents in Benton Harbor, Mich.,Sanford, Fla., Staten Island, N.Y., andFerguson, Mo., not only provide us withindividual examples of why race matters,but [show us] a system and a philosophythat continues to cause these situations toarise,” Robinson says. “To ignore the factthat racism is deeply engrained in the fabricand infrastructure of American societyis dangerous, and it ensures that racialinequality will persist to divide America.”The Book of Important MomentsRichard WileyDzanc Books, 2013Richard Wiley says a voice spoke to himas he composed his most recent novel,The Book of Important Moments.Set in Nigeria beginning in the late 1990s,Important Moments is Wiley’s seventh novel.The narrative covers a period of nearly 35years, though the author’s use of time shiftsand flashbacks illuminate episodes in waysthat considerably broaden its time span.The novel is part mystery, part drama, partexplosive action: Much of it is told throughthe voice in Wiley’s head, that of BabatundeOkorodudu, an albino Nigerian businessman.Wiley describes Babatunde’s speechas “electric and frantic and frenetic,” aninsistent voice that came to him quickly. Itwas so real, Wiley says, that the first draft ofthe novel was written entirely as Babatundemight have narrated it. That version, Wileysays, “was intense, to say the least.”Wiley understands intense writing. His1986 debut novel, Soldiers in Hiding, awrenching account of the emotional devastationproduced by war, won the esteemed1987 PEN/Faulkner Award. Wiley joinedthe UNLV faculty two years later, helping tolaunch the school’s creative writing program.In the 25 years since, he has written fivemore novels. He has also cofounded UNLV’snationally respected creative writing MFAprogram and played a key role in foundingthe Black Mountain Institute, a “literarythink tank,” in Wiley’s words, where writersand scholars meet to listen to speakers anddiscuss contemporary issues.These accomplishments notwithstanding,Wiley still cites “writing well” as one of hisprimary motivations. For him, this meanstaking a hard look at even his own work.After reviewing the first draft of ImportantMoments, for example, Wiley knew he wastrying to do too much. Reading it, he says,was like forcing readers to eat “a gallon of icecream at one time.”Given the forceful impact of the publishedversion, it’s hard to imagine how much40 / INNOVATION2014

R. MARSH STARKSRichard Wiley, creative writingprofessor and artistic director,Black Mountain Institutemore intense the rejected draft might havebeen. Important Moments opens with theequivalent of electroshock therapy: a graphicscene in which Babatunde sexually assaultsan 18-year-old girl named Ruth.It was a difficult scene to write, Wiley says,one that required numerous adjustments. Heneeded something that would shock readers,but not so much that they’d put down thebook. It was all part of a larger goal, he adds.“If I had to say what the book was about,I’d say it’s about redemption. And in orderto have something to redeem, it can’t just besomething trite. It has to be the real deal.”In short, he says of Babatunde, “I wanted tomake readers hate him.”Simply creating a despicable character, ofcourse, wouldn’t make for much of an interestingstory. Instead, says Wiley, he wantedto build reader hatred and then tear it down.“I wanted Babatunde to do something thatwas unforgivable, something really bad. Andthen I wanted readers to, despite themselves,lose the hate for him for a minute — and ifnot like him, at least be crazy about findingout what’s going to happen to him, to be interestedin him.”In that regard, Wiley succeeds and thensome. Babatunde never quite becomes sympathetic,but his gripping story and personaltraumas blunt his harder edges, making it achallenge not to feel at least the stirrings ofempathy. Other characters are equally welldrawn, with Wiley deftly deploying dark humorto complicate readers’ preconceptionsabout the nature of heartbreak and calamity.The book’s narrative structure is inventiveand propulsive. Readers who think they havelatched on to the novel’s direction may findthemselves consistently surprised.Like a play, Wiley’s novel is divided intothree acts, each building on the preceding action.But unlike traditional drama, the story’sdetails unfold piecemeal, as readers uncoverthe stories within the story, along with characters’unique relationships to one another.In the first act, for example, Wiley movesfrom the harrowing opening scene to a fewyears in the future and then to the distantpast. From that point, the story hopscotchesacross place and time, with multiple perspectivesgiving readers glimpses of how thesecharacters — Babatunde, in particular —came to be the people they are.When developing supporting membersof Important Moments’ cast, Wiley borrowedfrom one of his favorite sources: his ownwork. Lars Larsson — a man whose motherhas just been murdered in a gas stationparking lot — has, along with his father andhis grandfather, previously appeared in ashort stories Wiley has authored.“I like sticking around characters andseeing who they are and what they do,” he says.Wiley adds that he’s been carrying theseed of this story in his head for quite awhile. During what he terms “the middleyears of adulthood,” he spent five yearsin Africa. Among other places, he spenttime in Nigeria, where he developed afascination with the role of albinos inNigerian society.“I’d always had it in my head that I woulddeal with [that relationship] fictionally, sothis is how it came out,” he says.And what does he consider the mostimportant moment in Important Moments?Wiley won’t be pinned down.“We always like to read the most importantpart of a book,” he says. “So I thought,‘Why not make every part important?’”research.unlv.edu INNOVATION / 41

UNLV life sciences professorAllen Gibbs and his researchteam use fruit flies to studyobesity. They have generatedpopulations of fruit flies thatcarry nearly twice the amountof normal fat; they are examininghow the fat cells in thesepopulations function. Picturedhere are fat cells in a normal fly,magnified 60x with a confocalmicroscope. The nuclei of thecells are pictured in purple, andthe fibers that support the cellsare visualized in green.Division of Research and Economic Development2014 ANNUAL REPORT ON UNLV RESEARCH ACTIVITYThe UNLV Division of Research and Economic Developmentreports annual data characterizing institutional research activityin order to evaluate campus research productivity and to facilitatebenchmarking to promote future growth.Various performance measures indicate that FY2014 was aproductive year for UNLV researchers.Research expenditures — funding spent by UNLV researchersduring the last fiscal year — increased 12 percent to just over$31 million. (Research expenditures are the gold standard formeasurement of research productivity.) Total sponsored programexpenditures, a broader measure reflecting the full scope of UNLV’sgrants and contracts activity, were up 8 percent to $48 million.Total sponsored program awards — funds available for useby researchers but not yet expended — increased by 38 percentto nearly $60 million, the largest amount of award funding since2010. Sponsored program proposals, meanwhile, increased by 41percent for a total of $286 million. Health Sciences, Engineering,and Sciences all posted substantial gains in funding. Both thecolleges of Education and Hotel Administration also showedawards increases.“This is a testament to the dedication of our faculty, staff, andstudents, who are committed to research that advances their fields,impacts the community, and supports economic development,” saidTom Piechota, Vice President for Research and Economic Development.Other metrics for research and economic development activityalso showed gains in FY2014. Research disclosures and patentfilings, both important measures of economic development activity,each increased over the previous fiscal year thanks, in part, to thegaming innovation program that generated numerous patents.Another measure of university research activity is the numberof doctoral degrees conferred, as doctoral programs require a strongresearch component culminating in the doctoral dissertation. Adecrease in doctoral degrees conferred in 2013-14 reflects closure ofseveral graduate programs during the recession. However, increasesin doctoral conferrals are anticipated in coming years given thatdoctoral headcount has begun to rebound.Additionally, Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals wereup by 23 percent, an increase produced in large part by growth inthe number of biomedical IRB approvals. The IRB is a committeedesignated to approve, monitor, and review biomedical and social/behavioral research involving human subjects in order to protectthe rights and welfare of the research subjects.42 / INNOVATION2014

SPONSORED PROGRAM ACTIVITYExpendituresSponsored Programs*ResearchFY08 $74,568,354 $46,765,293FY09 $59,359,059 $36,156,589FY10 $62,414,679 $35,913,552FY11 $50,210,861 $32,581,329FY12 $42,924,520 $27,072,642FY13 $44,593,471 $27,649,163FY14 $48,144,405 $31,027,377*Sponsored programs include research, instructionand training, and other sponsored activity (i.e., publicservice, student services, etc.). Financial aid funding,which was previously reported in sponsored programdata, is no longer included here. It has been removedbeginning in FY2008.$80$70$60$50$40$30$20$10Expenditures FY08-FY14, in millionsFY 08 FY 09 FY 10 FY 11 FY 12 FY 13 FY 14SPONSORED PROGRAMS*RESEARCHAwardsSponsored Programs*ResearchFY08 $61,139,758 $39,844,720FY09 $59,874,418 $40,097,479FY10 $65,222,872 $38,381,001FY11 $56,090,962 $40,398,054FY12 $40,772,216 $22,565,629FY13 $43,204,579 $26,585,099FY14 $59,636,152 $41,477,222*Sponsored programs include research, instructionand training, and other sponsored activity (i.e., publicservice, student services, etc.). Financial aid funding,which was previously reported in sponsored programdata, is no longer included here. It has been removedbeginning in FY2008.$70$60$50$40$30$20$10Awards FY08-FY14, in millionsFY 08 FY 09 FY 10 FY 11 FY 12 FY 13 FY 14SPONSORED PROGRAMS* RESEARCHProposalsFY08 $228,366,587FY09 $326,594,089FY10 $323,327,776FY11 $210,857,602FY12 $281,270,704FY13 $203,337,011FY14 $286,087,223$350$300$250$200$150$100Proposals FY08-FY14, in millionsFY 08 FY 09 FY 10 FY 11 FY12 FY 13 FY 14research.unlv.edu INNOVATION / 43

RESEARCH BRIEFSUNLV AWARD DATA, FY14Funding byCollege/UnitAwardsAmountDiv Health Sciences 67 15,269,848Engineering 122 13,836,444Student Life* 27 12,352,815Sciences 74 10,390,364VPRED 8 2,959,494Education 24 1,482,536Liberal Arts 11 848,129Hotel Administration 6 747,208Harry Reid Center 7 534,661Provost 5 442,737Business 5 226,540Urban Affairs 9 203,544President’s Office 1 155,080Library 1 100,000VP Finance 3 46,910Fine Arts 6 34,357VPEO 1 5,485Total 377 $59,636,152Federal Agency Awards AmountHealth & Human Services 28 11,553,418Education* 20 10,978,736Energy 8 2,600,000NSF 19 2,021,274Defense 7 1,248,366Agriculture 3 1,221,516Housing & Urban Dev 1 650,000Transportation 11 622,044NASA 3 515,399Justice 2 364,534Interior 5 232,895Homeland Security 1 50,000Total 108 $32,058,182*Financial aid funds (e.g., Pell grants and MillenniumScholarships) are no longer included in these amounts.Using a special dye, lifescience professor AllenGibbs and his team explore thebreakdown and transport of nutrientsto the various tissues of the fruit fly body.Here, the small spots are droplets of fat thatchange from green to yellow to red as they areprocessed by the fruit fly’s gut. The image ismagnified 20x with a confocal microscope.SPONSORED PROGRAM FUNDING BY SOURCE, FY14Sources of Funding Awards AmountFunding by Source Local: 1 %Federal 108 32,058,182Federal Pass Through 164 17,295,145State 41 8,098,629Industry/Foundations 51 1,524,526State: 14 %Industry/Foundations: 2 %Federal: 54 %Local 13 659,670Total 377 $59,636,152Federal Passthrough: 29 %DOCTORAL DEGREES CONFERRED, AY08/09-13/14Academic YearNumber Conferred2008-09 1342009-10 1402010-11 1502011-12 1532012-13 1562013-14 124DOCTORAL DEGREES CONFERRED, AY08/09-13/141601401201008060402002008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-1444 / INNOVATION2014

RESEARCH DISCLOSURES/PATENTS FILED, FY08-1440DisclosuresPatentsFY2008FY2009Submitted1314Filed1083530FY2010FY2011FY2012FY20133691843514252015FY2014 37 28105NUMBER OF RESEARCH DISCLOSURES SUBMITTEDVS. PATENT APPLICATIONS FILED, FY08-140FY 08 FY 09 FY 10 FY 11 FY 12 FY 13 FY 14DISCLOSURES SUBMITTEDPATENTS FILEDAGREEMENTS AND LICENSING REVENUE, FY08-14NUMBER OF AGREEMENTS EXECUTED, FY08-14Fiscal Year Nondisclosure Options MTAs, IIAs, Total TotalAgreements & License MOUs, & Other LicensingAgreements Agreements RevenueFY2008 0 0 0 0FY2009 0 0 0 0FY2010 1 1 0 2FY2011 3 2 1 6FY2012 5 0 0 5FY2013 9 6 1 16 $32,281FY2014 33 9 8 50 $81,1555040302010MTA — Material Transfer AgreementIIA — Inter-Institutional AgreementMOU — Memorandum of Understanding0FY 08 FY 09 FY 10 FY 11 FY 12 FY 13 FY 14NON DISCLOSURE AGREEMENTOPTIONS & LICENSE AGREEMENTSMTAs, IIAs, MOUs, & OTHER AGREEMEENTSINSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD APPROVALS, FY08-14Biomedical Social/ Behavioral TotalFY08 61 235 296FY09 75 254 329FY10 91 228 319FY11 93 230 323FY12 75 214 289FY13 77 184 261FY14 122 200 322NUMBER OF INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD APPROVALS, FY08-1435030025020015010050FY08 FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14BIOMEDICAL SOCIAL/BEHAVIORAL TOTALresearch.unlv.edu INNOVATION / 45

University of Nevada, Las VegasUNLV InnovationBox 4510874505 S. Maryland ParkwayLas Vegas, NV 89154-1087NonprofitUS PostagePaidLas Vegas NVPermit No. 200

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