Boosting the University of North Dakota's growing reputation as the go-to place for student entrepreneurs, the Acton Foundation in Austin, Texas, has honored UND's Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship Jeffrey Stamp with its prestigious Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Award.

Stamp was nominated by students for the $1,000 award and trophy. It'll be presented to Stamp and other honorees this weekend in Austin. The winners were asked to nominate one of their top entrepreneurship students for a $1,000 Acton scholarship. Stamp nominated UND student and Minot, N.D., native Daniel Waind.

"Great teachers change lives by inspiring students to recognize their gifts and to learn how to use them to pursue a worthy dream--Jeff Stamp is one such great teacher," said Acton Foundation President Rick O'Donnell. "We want to recognize outstanding teachers who inspire students to become principled entrepreneurs. Principled entrepreneurs build great and lasting companies and nonprofits that create jobs, increase wealth, and improve our society."

All winners were nominated by students and judged by a panel of master entrepreneurship teachers at Acton. In nominating Stamp, who teaches entrepreneurship in the UND College of Business and Public Administration, one student said:

"Dr. Stamp has helped students to realize their potential and to think in new and exciting ways. He challenges students with classes that do not possess a traditional structure. These classes are demanding, but also create students who are driven and focused."

UND recently ranked #9 in the Princeton Review-Entrepreneur magazine's fifth annual listing of the top 50 graduate and undergraduate entrepreneurship programs in the nation. This was the third consecutive year that UND ranked nationally for its entrepreneurial offerings and the second time the undergraduate program in entrepreneurship has been rated in the top ten. Robert Franek, editorial director of Princeton Review Books, said UND and other high-ranking schools demonstrated a commitment to hands-on experiential learning that provides skills that translate into real-world businesses.

"It is a thrill to be part of this vibrant and growing program. Students have responded so well to the challenges we have placed in front of them," said Stamp. "North Dakota has always been about the pioneering spirit and it continues today. We enjoy such enthusiasm by the region's entrepreneurs and UND alumni who come back to the classroom and participate; it gives the next generation a real advantage in seeing their future."

The Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence is a nonprofit organization established in 1997 to serve both teachers and aspiring entrepreneurs. The Foundation's case-based entrepreneurship curriculum allows both teachers and aspiring entrepreneurs to step into the shoes of real entrepreneurs and learn how to make the tough calls required for success.

For more information on Prof. Stamp and entrepreneur education at UND, see http://www.universityrelations.und.edu/dimensions/may2005/7.html, http://www2.und.edu/our/news/story.php?id=2111 and http://www.business.und.edu/newsletter/archive/Spring2005Newsletter.pdf

Contacts: Jeffrey Stamp, assistant professor, UND College of Business and Public Administration, (701) 777-2135/3701, jeff.stamp@mail.business.und.edu or CK Schultz, Direct of External Relations, UND College of Business and Public Administration, (701) 777-2135/6937, ck.schultz@mail.business.und.edu or Holt Hackney, Hackney Communications, PR for Acton Foundation, hhackney@hackneypublications.com, (512) 48-8858, Ext. 115 or Juan Pedraza, writer/editor, UND Office of University Relations, (701) 777-6034, juanpedraza@mail.und.edu




The College of Engineering and Architecture has announced the 2007-08 winners of the Teacher and Researcher of the Year Awards. The awards are presented annually.

Robert Nelson, professor of electrical and computer engineering, received the Teacher of the Year Award. He has worked at NDSU since 1989. He earned a bachelor's degree from Northland College in Ashland, Wis., a master's degree from Washington State University in Pullman and a doctorate from NDSU.

Nelson also received the Teacher of the Year Award from the College of Engineering and Architecture in 2001, an Apple Polisher Award from the Bison Ambassadors in 1994, the Preferred Professor Award from the NDSU Mortar Board in 1994, the Senior Challenge Inspirational Award from the Development Foundation in 1991 and 1992 and the Outstanding Academic Adviser for the NDSU College of Engineering and Architecture from the NDSU Mortar Board in 1990.

His research interests include the theoretical underpinnings and practical applications of electromagnetic fields.

Chad Ulven, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, received the Researcher of the Year Award. He joined the faculty at NDSU in 2005. He earned a bachelor's degree at NDSU and a master's degree and doctorate at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

His research interests include polymer and polymer matrix composite materials, agri-based polymer matrix composites, polymer matrix composites processing technologies, response of polymer matrix composites to dynamic loading and adverse environments and smart materials technologies.




Sivaguru Jayaraman, NDSU Assistant Professor of Chemistry was awarded a Department of Energy EPSCoR Infrastructure Improvement Program seed grant in 2006, "Imprinting Molecular Chirality to Point Chirality In Solution In Light Induced Transformations". Siva used this seed grant to develop methods and data that he utilized in his winning proposal for the prestigious NSF CAREER award program for new investigators.

Dr. Jayaraman's National Science Foundation, CAREER award is titled "Imprinting Molecular Chirality In Solution During Photo-Transformations," NSF Award No. CHE-0748525 ($575,000, 01/16/2008 -- 12/31/2012).




The Sustainable Energy Research, Infrastructure and Supporting Education Initiative was included in the 2004-08 NSF EPSCoR Research RII program. Helped by this sponsorship, SUNRISE developed into a multi-disciplinary faculty-led group of 20 faculty researchers at both ND research universities with over $6.4 million in research projects, 46 journal articles, 60 technical presentations, and 32 trained students/yr. By leveraging NSF EPSCoR funding with funds from federal (DOE, DARPA, FAA), state, foundation, and commercial sources, the SUNRISE research group has established a comprehensive program to invent, investigate, develop, and commercialize fuels, chemicals, and polymers from crop oils. Led by primary inventor Dr. Wayne Seames, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of North Dakota, graduate students working with soybean oil, canola oil, and jatropha oil have generated fuels that meet military and commercial specifications for jet fuel applications, a biodiesel for cold weather climates where current biodiesel products cannot be easily used, a series of petrochemical replacements, and monomers for biopolymers.

What does the research mean?
North Dakota is one of the world's major growing regions for oilseed crops, so this invention may have a significant impact on the economy of North Dakota as well as on the aviation industry. The new biojet fuel technology is cost competitive with current biodiesel plants, but both currently require government subsidies to compete with petroleum-based fuels. A primary goal of the SUNRISE program is to develop technologies that will bring production costs down by inventing new fuel products and valuable by-products plus reducing upfront oil extraction costs.

Transformational impacts.
SUNRISE is one of North Dakota's first, faculty-led, student-centered research groups that has the size and resources to compete for major NSF grants. The capabilities in SUNRISE include computational methods development that supports molecular level estimates of chemical reaction energies, nanoscale experimental materials development, detailed experimentation for reaction mechanism identification and kinetics quantification, lab-scale exploratory studies of potential chemical-based inventions, basic applied research of attractive new technologies, bench-scale optimization and evaluation of new sustainable energy processes, and pilot-scale validation of commercially relevant technologies. The first spin-off commercial venture, SUNRISE Renewables, represents a University-commercial partner joint venture tasked with commercializing biofuel and biopolymer technologies developed by SUNRISE researchers.




The Sustainable Energy Research Initiative (SUNRISE) is pleased to announce the inaugural SUNRISE LECTURE to be held on Friday, February 2nd at 12 noon in the Memorial Union Lecture Bowl. Our guest speaker is William Linak, Ph.D., from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Research Laboratory's Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division. Dr. Linak's topic is "Factors increasing the health effects from particulate matter emitted during the combustion of coal, fuel oil, and diesel fuel." The seminar is open to the general public.

For further information, please contact Wayne Seames, 777-2958.




Contribution to Discovery
The North Dakota SUNRISE research group has developed a turbine transportation fuel for aviation turbines and diesel engines from crop oils. Led by primary inventor Dr. Wayne Seames, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of North Dakota, graduate students working with soybean oil and canola oil have generated fuels that can tolerate the cold temperatures necessary for aviation and cold weather diesel applications. This biojet product is also more stable than traditional biodiesel fuels.

What does the research mean?
North Dakota is one of the world's major growing regions for oilseed crops, so this invention may have a significant impact on the economy of North Dakota as well as on the aviation industry. The new biojet fuel technology is cost competitive with current biodiesel plants, but both currently require government subsidies to compete with petroleum-based fuels, even at this summer's record high prices. The SUNRISE team's next goal is to develop technologies that will bring production costs down. For example, the current technology to extract oil from soybeans or canola was designed to produce cooking oil. Current research is looking at new technologies or modifications to the existing technologies that will reduce the cost of extracting the oil specifically for the biojet fuel application.

SUNRISE also has a significant educational mission. In addition to incorporating the research into courses in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, another educational aspect of SUNRISE is trying to educate the agricultural, financial communities and political leaders in North Dakota concerning biofuels. These constituencies are beginning to realize that the cost to harvest and ship agricultural-based fuels raw material to processing plants is substantial. This puts North Dakota, accustomed to growing agricultural products and shipping them out of state, in an unfamiliar position. In the context of economic development, a critical issue for North Dakota, a multi-product crop oil processing facility co-located with a biofuel manufacturing facility would result in a $7 impact to the local economy for every dollar of revenue generated. Furthermore, for every direct job created at the facility, an additional three indirect jobs are created in the community.

NSF Award Number EPS 0447697
Award Title Infrastructure Improvement Program ­ State Research Initiative
PI Name Wayne Seames
Institution Name University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND




United States Sen. Ken Conrad, N.D. (seated) got a crash course from University of North Dakota chemical engineering faculty on their research to develop a biojet fuel that will run at colder temperatures, cost less and be more environmentally friendly than the conventional jet fuel. The biojet fuel, derived from crop oils, such as soybeans, is about ready for testing by the Air Force. UND Environmental & Energy Research Center and UND chemical engineering students and faculty have worked closely together on the biojet fuel, which will be tested this spring at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Wayne Seames (right), a UND chemical engineering professor working on the project, said the biojet fuel is able to perform at 60 degrees below Celsius. The Air Force specification is 50 below. Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., toured UND's Chemical Engineering Department Feb. 23. "It's absolutely fascinating," Conrad said. "I am so impressed in what they are doing. There is a tremendous opportunity there." Seames used an example of a Boeing 777 flying from Denver to New York City to show the environmental benefits of the new biojet fuel. He said the plane using conventional jet fuel would send about 47,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The new biojet fuel also would send carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but no more than was taken out to create the fuel in the first place. The fuel, he said, is "C02 neutral." He said the researchers are also excited by the biojet fuel by-products and the potential for developing and marketing additional products.



The Sustainable Energy Research Initiative (SUNRISE) in coordination with the North Dakota EPSCoR program recently awarded four seed grants to faculty researchers at North Dakota's two research Universities. An element of the mission of SUNRISE's three year DOE EPSCoR infrastructure improvement program is to assist in developing UND/NDSU research capability related to sustainable energy. Proposals received for this competitive seed grant program were reviewed by a panel of external and internal experts in sustainable energy.

SUNRISE is pleased to award seed grants for the following projects:

Soizik Laguette, Assistant Professor, UND Earth System Science and Policy, "Spectral Characterization of Switchgrass for Biomass Energy and Biofuel Quality", $32,295.

Hossein Salehfar, Professor, UND Electrical Engineering, "Modeling of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell and Electrolyzer Using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Technique", $18,000.

Julia Zhao, Assistant Professor, UND Chemistry, "Development of TiO2 Nanocatalysts for Sustainable Energy", $50,000.

W.H. Katie Zhong, Associate Professor, NDSU Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, "Ultra-lightweight Polymer Composites for Wind Energy System -- Turbine Blade Structures", $49,770.

For further information, please contact Wayne Seames, 701-777-2958.