WSU Awarded $7.1 Million
A $7.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration will accelerate a number of economic development efforts underway as part of WSU’s Innovation University initiative — efforts that aim to help create new manufacturing jobs.
The funding, which was awarded to WSU Ventures, will be used to strengthen existing Wichita State institutes, centers and laboratories that strive to develop new technologies. The grant will provide $3.9 million for equipment, as well as additional funding for export assistance, commercialization endeavors and workforce support.
“We view this award as a demonstration of the EDA’s confidence in Wichita State and our ability to develop and employ technologies that will transform the manufacturing and defense industry,” says WSU President John Bardo.
Ulrich Museum of Art Garners Award for Mural Restoration
The Ulrich Museum has received a third $150,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to complete the final stages of the $2.2 million restoration of Joan Miró’s monumental glass and marble mosaic, Personnages Oiseaux (Bird People).
The grant completes the financial campaign for the restoration. Private funding and two National Endowment for the Arts grants paid for the remainder of the project. “We are honored that our project was chosen because of its importance to Wichita and our nation,” says Bob Workman, museum director.
The five-year restoration began in July 2011 to prevent the structural collapse of Miró’s mural, after damage caused by 33 years of exposure to weather extremes. For the past four years, four conservators have worked to restore the mural.
Of 11 monumental murals Miró created worldwide, four reside in the United States. Of the four, WSU’s is the largest, one of only two outside NYC, and one of only two mosaics. It’s also the only predominately glass mosaic the artist ever made.
Blakeslee Finds Ancient Indian Settlement
Anthropology professor Don Blakeslee was studying a Spanish soldier’s account of an ambush during a 17th-century expedition led by Don Juan de Oñate into what is today the southern plains of the United States. When Blakeslee read the soldier’s description of the ambush site, he realized he might just know where it was — and subsequent archaeological work has proven his hunch right.
Back in 1601, Oñate and his soldiers stumbled upon what their notes describe as a “great settlement.” Known as Etzanoa, this Native American community stretched for five miles and housed 20,000 ancestors of the Wichita tribe near the confluence of two rivers.
One day, the heavily outnumbered Spaniards were ambushed by the Wichita. The firepower of their muskets and cannon eventually forced the Wichita to retreat behind large rocks near the junction of two rivers. Reading that, Blakeslee recalled visiting the area near where the Walnut and Arkansas rivers meet and seeing a rock-lined gully.
This past June, he led an excavation at the site. Evidence from the dig, he says, confirms that Etzanoa once straddled the banks of the Walnut near modern-day Arkansas City, Kan.
Welcome Aboard, Dean Dennis Livesay
Dennis Livesay has been named the new dean for WSU’s graduate school and will also serve the university as associate vice president of research and technology transfer, effective April 1, 2016. “The graduate school is the keystone at any research university,” says Tony Vizzini, WSU provost and senior vice president. “I am excited to have Dennis’ vision and leadership at such a critical time in the growth of our Innovation University.”
“The vision that President Bardo and the provost have laid out is forward looking and creates new opportunities for WSU, its students and the community,” Livesay says. “I am eager to work with everyone to make the graduate school a driver within this process.”
Livesay is a professor of bioinformatics and genomics and a provost faculty fellow in academic affairs at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where, as interim associate dean in the College of Computing and Informatics, he has led initiatives to improve the college’s graduate programs.
Engineering Innovation
Brenton Myers ’58 has pledged $175,000 to create the Brenton Myers Innovation in Engineering Education Award, a tangible boost in helping WSU engineering faculty in their quest to foster innovative, entrepreneurial students.
Myers worked with Royce Bowden, dean of WSU’s engineering college and the WSU Foundation to set up the faculty award. “What we want to do,” Myers says, “is show students how their technical training can be applied with an entrepreneurial mindset to develop new technology and designs.” Now retired, Myers spent most of his career working in airport planning and development.
