Pilot is in Tucson; his aircraft’s over Iraq battlefield

‘This allows me to go home to my family at night but still be able to help the soldiers in the field,’ says Staff Sgt. Nicollette Sebastian, a Predator sensor operator

BLAKE MORLOCK

Published: 08.30.2007

Tucson Citizen

Lt. Col. Tom Rempfer sits at the console and does what he’s done for more than 5,000 hours of his life. He flies.

What’s new to him is that he’ll never leave the ground in Arizona and pilot an aircraft perhaps 8,000 miles away.

Rempfer, a former fighter pilot, flies commercial jets. But now he’s with the Arizona Air National Guard flying MQ-1B Predator drones over Iraq and Afghanistan.

“There’s no seat-of-your-pants flying in this,” Rempfer said from the ground control station at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. “We take our time on this airplane.”

UA, Tucson becoming venom central

International forum bolsters UA’s poison center, research Male? Been drinking? Watch out for critters

ALAN FISCHER

Published: 08.30.2007

Tucson Citizen

Tucson is a hot spot for poisonous bites, stings and their treatments.

The area boasts the world-renowned Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, the new VIPER Institute for research, antivenin clinical trials, more poisonous critters than you can shake a rattle at, and Venom Week 2007, a conference that next week will attract 300 of the world’s leading experts on venomous creatures.

“We have a huge number of venomous creatures here. Our per-capita bite and sting rate is as high as it gets,” said Dr. Leslie Boyer, course director for the Venom Week 2007 conference. “Venom is to make lunch stand still and tenderize the meat.”

Published: 08.29.2007

Breault research gets recognition

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Raytheon Missile Systems has presented its Small Business Innovation Research Partner Award to Tucson-based Breault Research Organization.

The annual SBIR Partner award recognizes companies that excel in partnering with Raytheon.

Raytheon is collaborating with Breault on several small business contracts.

The Department of Defense’s SBIR program funds early-stage research and development projects at small technology companies.

Published: 08.27.2007

UA prof garners $1.2M for electronics project

By Jack Gillum

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

A University of Arizona professor will receive more than a million dollars over the next two years to develop a sustainable process for electronics manufacturing.

Anthony Muscat, an associate professor of chemical engineering, plans to find better ways for companies to create electronics by dramatically conserving water and decreasing materials costs.

The award — $625,000 for two years — is part of nearly $10 million in grants handed out by Science Foundation Arizona this month. Muscat said the group of companies he’ll be partnering with will match that, bringing the total to more than $1.2 million in cash and other resources.

“The engineering to take something and make it manufacturable is substantial,” said Muscat, who is entering his 10th year at the UA. “It motivates the students and gives us other research opportunities.”

Published: 08.17.2007

Land swap for research parks OK’d

By Rob O’Dell

A land swap between the University of Arizona and KB Home was completed Thursday, paving way for two huge research parks involving the university to be built on the South and Southeast sides.

The land swap is critical for the 573-acre UA Science and Technology Park off South Rita Road and a planned 350-acre project at East 36th Street and South Kino Parkway that would feature retail space, an upscale housing development and a 65-acre UA biosciences park.

The fate of the two projects has been on a roller coaster ride for two years as the tech park was bogged down in a fight over annexation into the city and a proposal to water a golf course there with drinking water.

Published: 08.17.2007

Arizona Daily Star

News & Notes

Science Foundation Arizona announced Thursday it is granting nearly $10 million to eight “outstanding research collaborations” throughout Arizona, including three local efforts:

-About $2.1 million was awarded to the Tucson-based Critical Path Institute and Oro Valley-based Ventana Medical Systems for development of a system to screen cancer diagnostics for use in targeting therapies.

-David Galbraith, UA professor of plant sciences and member of the Bio5 Institute, will receive about $2.2 million over two years for a collaboration with High Throughput Genomics to establish the Chemical Genomics and Translational Research Center.

-Anthony Muscat, associate UA professor of chemical engineering, will receive a two-year grant of $625,000 with a consortium including Semiconductor Research Corp. and Intel Corp. to develop a sustainable manufacturing process for electronics and photonics.

Green science works for South Tucson firm

Low-waste effort attracts military contracts

ALAN FISCHER

Published: 08.16.2007

The U.S. military has turned to a fast-growing South Tucson company for clean, “green” ways to protect its personnel from the dangers of biological and chemical threats.

Ventana Research Corp., operating from a 4,200-square-foot building at 2702 S. Fourth Ave. that once housed seafood restaurant Xochimilco, also plans to make these anti-contamination technologies available to benefit the general public, said University of Arizona graduate John Lombardi, Ventana’s co-founder, chief executive and principal investigator.

“We do no work on offensive applications,” said Erica Koerber, co-founder and chief operating officer. “We do defensive things that help people.”

Lombardi said he avoids using harmful materials in his chemical research for personal and philosophical reasons. He uses approved, commercially available chemicals, products that are generally regarded as safe by regulators.

CDEX meth gun moves to next phase of testing

Aug. 14, 2007

ITB

A hand-held “meth gun” to help detect traces of methamphetamine is being developed by CDEX Inc.

The company said it has increased the device’s sensitivity and added scan capability in preparation for a second round of testing this month. The increased sensitivity allows for identification of trace quantities

of methamphetamine on most surfaces including skin and clothing.

Law enforcement is expected to be the primary users of the device, called the ID2, which CDEX hopes to have in commercial production by the end of the year. Other users might be correctional and rehabilitation

facilities, schools and, possibly, some applications for the general public.

CDEX is a technology development company, currently concentrating its effortson developing devices to detect explosives and illegal drugs for homeland security and identifying substances in prescription medications for quality control and brand protection. CDEX is headquartered at 4555 S. Palo Verde Road, Suite 123.

Private money needed to attract top professors

UA aims for more donor-supported chairs

LA MONICA EVERETT-HAYNES lmhaynes@tucsoncitizen.com

Published: 08.13.2007

One way to keep faculty from whisking off to other schools is lacking at the University of Arizona.

It’s the donor-supported endowed chair, a stature often held above tenure.

Tenure is generally the preeminent perk for faculty because it can bring higher levels of pay, prestige and autonomy. It’s also harder to fire a tenured professor.

The common amount to start an endowed chair at universities across the country is $1 million, which includes UA.

Endowment pay often comes with the same perks tenure does, such as job security – but it also comes with pay from a permanent investment. Salary paid to tenured faculty by the state may or may not increase from one year to another.

Published: 08.10.2007

UA grads out to make solar affordable

By Shelley Shelton

If they get their way, an upstart group of University of Arizona grads will take away one of the biggest objections that business owners have to going solar — the cost.

Jake Stephens, 30, Mikel Chertudi, 28, Dan Tarico, 40, and Kate O’Toole, 24, formed the basis of GreenSun Energy Solutions LLC about a year ago when they were part of the entrepreneurship program at the UA’s Eller College of Management. They went full time with their concept after they all graduated in May.

At its most basic level, the company takes on the expense of acquiring and installing solar panels for commercial and nonprofit clients, then charges those clients for the electricity generated by those panels.