Jimmie Carol Oxley, Ph.D. - US grants

The goal of this project is to contribute to the development of a national science and engineering academic workforce that includes the full participation of women at all levels of faculty and academic leadership, particularly at the senior academic ranks, through the transformation of institutional practices, policies, climate, and culture.
The University of Rhode Island (URI) proposes to use the ADVANCE Institutional Transformation initiative to increase the number and facilitate the career advancement of women STEM faculty, and improve the institutional climate for women scientists. Through a 5-year, multi-level approach, URI will: 1) increase the number of ranked women faculty in the STEM departments, 2) provide existing STEM faculty with career development and training opportunities, 3) improve social support services for faculty, 4) systematically educate and promote awareness of women-in-science issues at the individual, departmental, and administrative levels, and 5) develop and utilize a broadly applicable collaborative organizational change model.
The ADVANCE program at URI features a Pre-Faculty Fellows Program, in which qualified doctorates will conduct research (with options for teaching) while being mentored and trained for a 1 - 3 year period, with the intent that they will fill tenure-track STEM faculty positions as they become available. Congruent with this program will be an infrastructure of enhanced support and training, which will also be offered to other STEM faculty. This includes a yearlong series of career workshops, a mentor training program, a topical lunch series, a social networking program, and visiting speakers. The ADVANCE Incentive Fund, eventually fully supported by URI, will provide awards to research endeavors that include women faculty collaborators, especially Pre-Faculty Fellows and junior faculty, and departmental or individual efforts that promote relevant climate or policy changes. In addition, proactive efforts will be made to provide quality support services for balancing work and family, including trailing spouse placement assistance and coordination with an ongoing childcare assistance program.
Overseeing the multiple efforts at URI will be an Advisory Committee, a Program Coordinator, a Leadership Team, and auxiliary faculty and staff who have demonstrated a commitment to these issues. Support from top administrators and a permanent ADVANCE Resource Center office with many sponsored campus activities will provide the foundation for a visible, influential presence on campus.
Developing a database through a comprehensive self-study will be the first step in a 5-year process of evaluation, action, and reporting, that will culminate in an organizational model for change potentially applicable to other institutions. The theoretical underpinning of the proposed program is the Transtheoretical Model of Change, one of the most influential stage-change models currently in use. Its fundamental premise is that organizational and behavioral change must be welcomed before it is to be successful. At the departmental and administrative levels at URI, meetings, workshops, and speakers aimed at diversity education and awareness will be implemented, using a collaborative framework.
The efforts from the ADVANCE initiative will benefit all faculty at URI, will serve as a model for progressive action in Rhode Island and the Northeast, and will be a step towards the inclusion of expanded perspectives in science nationwide.

With this award supported by the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI), the Chemistry Research Instrumentation (CRIF), and EPSCoR programs, Professor Brenton DeBoef from University of Rhode Island and colleagues William Euler, Jimmie Oxley, Brett Lucht and Geoffrey Bothun will acquire a 400 MHz NMR spectrometer. This spectrometer will allow research in a variety of fields such as those that accelerate chemical reactions of significant economic importance, as well as allow study of biologically relevant species. In general, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is one of the most powerful tools available to chemists for the elucidation of the structure of molecules. It is used to identify unknown substances, to characterize specific arrangements of atoms within molecules, and to study the dynamics of interactions between molecules in solution or in the solid state. Access to state-of-the-art NMR spectrometers is essential to chemists who are carrying out frontier research. The results from these NMR studies will have an impact in synthetic organic/inorganic chemistry, materials chemistry and biochemistry. This instrument will be an integral part of teaching as well as research performed by undergraduate and graduate students. Additional broader impacts of the proposed instrument will be realized by the hands-on training of advanced chemistry students in the use of state-of-the-art instrumentation, the continued growth of chemistry-related research and education at URI, and the outreach between URI Chemistry and its community, including the hosting of an annual, state-wide High School Chemistry contest, and an annual Chemistry Camp for junior high girls.

The award is aimed at enhancing research and education at all levels, especially in areas such as (a) understanding regioselective oxidative cross-coupling via C?H activation; (b) studying cryptophane-derived molecular probes for hyperpolarized Xenon-129 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); (c) discovering new and sensitive methods for the detection of explosives using fluorescence spectroscopy; (d) developing a better understanding of reactions in lithium batteries; (e) investigating organocatalytic ring-opening polymerization (ROP) processes; (f) studying Clostridium pasteurianum adaptation during crude glycerol fermentation; (g) investigating interactions between engineered nanoparticles and biological membranes; and (h) synthesizing organic macrocycles.

This award supports fundamental research on a novel sensing modality, namely, microwave photonic velocimetry (MPV). In shock wave experimentation, velocimetry is the measurement of the speed of a shock wave as it develops, propagates, and fades. This provides critical information on shock wave behavior. The goal of this project is to support the measurement of the velocity of ultrafast shock waves, traveling at speeds in the order of several tens of km/s, in-situ and in real-time. This will enable the study of energetic materials, and eventually lead to much safer industrial workplaces where explosions may pose a hazard. Robust and accurate velocimetry that can measure ultrafast shock waves is an outstanding technical challenge that limits our understanding of shock wave physics and chemistry. If successful, the MPV technology will fill this void by substantially expanding our knowledge of materials' ability to detonate under a wide variety of physical conditions (temperature, pressure, concentration, etc.). Thus, breakthroughs in MPV as pursued in this project, will have significant societal benefits in preventing disasters and improving safety in hazardous environments. In particular, MPV is anticipated to be an enabling tool in the safe handling and storage of non-ideal (borderline) explosives. These are materials that are conventionally rated as safe, but may become a deadly threat in workplaces under certain conditions.

Specific research objectives include understanding and characterizing the MPV concept, investigating novel signal processing methodologies, and validating this novel sensing modality using large-scale, outdoor detonation tests. The direct outcome is the fundamental knowledge, implementation, and demonstration of the MPV concept. Key innovations include: 1) the innovative use of interactions between microwave and optical waves, enabling the creation of a precise, robust, and low-cost velocimetery, 2) the innovative integration of optical frequency comb technologies in the MPV system to precisely separate elements measured in the frequency-domain, 3) the novel MPV probe with integrated graded index fiber (GIF) collimator, which significantly enhances MPV's performance, 4) a novel signal processing algorithm that intelligently reconstructs the velocity history profiles of explosion events, and 5) enhanced multiplexing capability allowing for simultaneous, multi-probe shock wave velocity measurement.