Scientific inquiry is creative and competitive. Increasingly, scientists must also be collaborative to compete successfully for resources and projects. Collaboration is especially key to the competitiveness of researchers in small states with limited means. At the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, students witness and practice the amicably competitive presentation of research, and faculty present preliminary research to peers, mentor students as public speakers and future scientists, recruit future graduate students, and establish collaborative relationships that lead to a more competitive Mississippi.

Last year, the UM Office of Research and Sponsored Programs encouraged UM faculty and staff to participate in MAS by sponsoring an MAS Travel Grants Competition, which reduced the cost of participation for24 students and 4 faculty staff (all who applied), accounted for 12 presentations, and increased UM’s overall participation by 150% over the previous year.

This year, the MAS Travel Grants program will once again be available for students and faculty wishing to attend the 2012 meeting.  Recognizing our status as the state’s flagship university, and the unique opportunity to hear Chancellor Jones deliver the prestigious Dodgen Lecture at this year’s meeting, we would like to see UM participation continue its upward trend, both in total numbers and relative to participation from our sister institutions in the state. (Of last year’s presentations, just over 6%, were from UM, compared to 2% in 2010).

Academic units, individual faculty members, or individual students may apply for these grants. There is no hard limit to the number of awards, or to the amount of each award. Plans are being made to once again charter a bus to travel from Oxford to Hattiesburg on Tuesday evening the 22^nd, and return Friday afternoon the 24^th. Individual students wishing to attend without a faculty sponsor are especially encouraged to ride this bus. We also envision faculty members taking small groups of students from their departments, or multidisciplinary groups of faculty and students attending together, but we are open to your creative ideas.

Travel Grants Competition Rules:

• If you plan to give a 15 minute research talk or present a research poster, go ahead and submit your abstracts online at http://msacad.org. (While the abstract deadline is not until midnight November 15, those who plan to present and have already submitted an abstract will be given preferential consideration in travel grant award decisions.)
• E-mail your request for a travel grant to vcrsp@olemiss.edu from an olemiss.edu address by midnight 5:00 p.m. Monday, November 14.
• In your request, please tell us:
  • Who you are (individual or department name, faculty/student, etc.)
    • If a student, please name and CC the faculty sponsor, if any, who will receive the funds.
    • If a student, please indicate whether you would like to, or are willing to, ride in the chartered bus.
    • If a student, please indicate whether you plan to share a hotel room with another student (and which one), or whether you are willing to be assigned a hotel roommate.
  • How much $ you are asking for, how it will be spent, and if/how it will be supplemented from other sources (e.g., personal funds or departmental accounts).
  • Why we should pick you (not some other person or group)
  • How many students you plan to bring to the meeting (if any)
  • How many abstracts you have submitted, or will submit by Nov. 15
  • Anything else we should know
• We will announce awards at noon Tuesday, November 15^th.

Those who present posters at MAS will be asked to also present posters at the annual Graduate Student Council posters competition in the Spring.

For more information about the MAS Meeting, including how to sign up and submit an abstract, see http://www.research.olemiss.edu/news/mississippi-academy-sciences-annual... .