Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 175, NO. 35 | Friday March 2, 2012
InDEX 2 · Quick Hits 4 · Opinion 5 · Lifestyle 8 · Classifieds 10 · Sudoku 12 · Sports
Seussical:
The Lorax
captures
the magic
of the
book.
Basket case:
Trojans lose their
eighth straight
game in a
58-80 fall to
Washington.
sports 12
lifestyle 5
opinion 4
weather
Mostly Sunny
hi 68
lo 50
today tomorrow
Mostly Sunny
hi 73
lo 54
Multidiscipinary
By Yasamin Azarakhsh
Daily Trojan
USC’s National Center for
Risk and Economic Analysis
of Terrorism Events held an
informational session to increase
awareness on campus and to
recruit potential researchers on
Thursday.
CREATE, operated jointly by the
Sol Price School of Public Policy and
Viterbi School of Engineering, is
the first of 12 Centers of Excellence,
sponsored by the Department of
Homeland Security, in the country.
With 30 research projects a
year, CREATE trains more than
100 students in homeland security
issues. It provides education
opportunities for graduate students
looking to specialize in homeland
security and to earn professional
certifications, CREATE Director
Stephen Hora said.
Some of their current projects
Center aims
to evaluate
security risks
Operated by the Price School
and Viterbi, CREATE oversees
30 research projects each year.
| see Create, page 3 |
By Annalise Mantz
Daily Trojan
A team of 10 USC students will compete at the White
House to win $100,000 from the U.S. Department of
Energy on Friday.
The team, made up of graduate student members of the
USC Student Energy Club, entered the DOE-sponsored
Better Buildings Case Competition in early February.
The competition centers on two student-created
proposals for making an office building and the Walter
Reed Army Medical Center, the U.S. Army’s flagship
medical center in Washington, D.C., more energy
efficient.
The team will see if four weeks of hard work will pay
off Friday, when they present their project in front of a
panel of energy experts in Washington.
Nineteen universities, including UCLA and UC
Berkeley, are participating in the challenge.
Because the competition involves elements of
architecture, engineering, finance and public policy, the
students on USC’s team come from a diverse group of
backgrounds.
Of the 10 team members, two are MBA students, one is
a public policy student, three are architects and four are
Students visit
White House
to compete
The USC Student Energy Club is one of 19 teams
in the Better Buildings Case Competition.
| see energy, page 3 |
White house
By Austin Byron
Daily Trojan
National Institutes of Health funding
for research at USC increased more than 10
percent over the 2011 fiscal year, primarily
because of new research facilities and
projects.
USC received $202 million in NIH
funding, and its funding ranks 11th among
all private higher education institutions,
according to the NIH.
NIH grants are used to support the
direct and indirect costs of research and are
awarded to USC for use by faculty members
and administration.
Elizabeth Fini, vice dean for research
at the Keck School of Medicine, said the
increase in NIH funding can be attributed
to the construction of the new research
facilities the university added over the last
year.
“We received 14 percent more funding
than last year when counting grants
from all sponsors,” Fini said. “This can
be attributed to the opening of four new
research buildings and the recruitment of
a new generation of researchers into these
new facilities, thus expanding the number
of research faculty who are competitive for
grants.”
Part of the new funding from the
NIH will be used for the construction
and development of the National Cancer
Institute Physical Science-Oncology Center
at USC, Fini said.
“Recently the National Cancer Institute
of the NIH designated USC as one of 12
Physical Science-Oncology Centers across
the country and funded the program with
a $16-million grant to be used over five
years,” Fini said. “The five-year grant will
allow [researchers] to focus on creating
a set of virtual cancer models based on
measurements from individual cancer
patients, [and] the models then would be
used to simulate cancer growth and predict
drug responses for each patient.”
Fini said that given the current budget
cuts in the federal government, NIH funding
for the 2012 fiscal year will not increase as
substantially as in 2011.
“We have some catching up to do,
and times are tough at NIH,” Fini said.
“Nevertheless, the Keck School has taken a
positive stance, [and] we are projecting a 1
to 3 percent increase [in funding] in parallel
with the 2012 NIH budget increase.”
Because of the predicted decrease in the
growth of funding from the NIH, Fini said
this year the university will try to increase
its research funding from other foundations
and corporations.
“We also receive funding from
foundations, such as the American Cancer
Society, Autism Speaks and Fight for Sight,”
Fini said. “Industry sponsorship is currently
a small part of our portfolio, but we see this
as an opportunity to expand and fill the gap
opened by difficult times at NIH.”
Kelsi Chesney, an undeclared freshman,
said the university’s increased funding
from the NIH shows the growth of USC as a
private research university.
“I’m excited that USC keeps securing
more funding from the NIH because it
shows that [the university] really cares
about its student and faculty research
projects,” Chesney said.
University increases health grants by 10 percent
USC receives the 11th-greatest
amount of funding among private
institutions of higher education.
Research
National Institutes of
Health Funding
at USC 2011
2010
2009
2008
$202,364,190
$195,318,935
$179,694,019
$165,539,780
Priyanka Patel | Daily Trojan
Speaking up
Alumna Geraldine Knatz, executive director for the Port of Los Angeles, speaks to attendees
of the USC Women’s Conference about working in a male-dominated field. The sold-out
conference brought together more than 1,600 women in venues across campus on Thursday.
Does USC marginalize
conservative students?
Point/Counterpoint
Source: National Institutes of Health Christina Ellis | Daily Trojan