{"id":9074,"date":"2023-04-06T23:02:04","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T03:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=9074"},"modified":"2023-04-10T11:48:36","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T15:48:36","slug":"research-at-the-forefront-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/spring-2023\/research-at-the-forefront-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Research at the Forefront"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½ researchers are working across disciplines to help find answers and solutions to benefit all of us. <\/p>\n\n\n

Dinosaur Research for the ages <\/h1><\/div><\/div>
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David Fastovsky and his students on the Hermit Trail in the Grand Canyon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: Courtesy David Fastovsky<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

A New Understanding<\/h1>\n\n

In 1991, David Fastovsky and his colleagues showed that the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago was a sudden event, rather than a gradual decline as previously believed. The sudden extinction is now accepted by most paleontologists.<\/p>\n\n\nthe Full story<\/a>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½ paleontologist and professor of geosciences David Fastovsky changed our understanding of dinosaur extinction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1991, Fastovsky\u2019s research upended what was, at the time, conventional wisdom: that the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago was gradual. In fact, Fastovsky and his colleagues showed evidence that pointed to a more sudden extinction, startling even him. Most paleontologists eventually embraced Fastovsky\u2019s findings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fastovsky, who retired in December 2022, earned international attention in 2011 for his first-of-its-kind discovery of a 70-million-year-old nest containing the fossilized remains of 15 baby Protoceratops andrewsi<\/em> dinosaurs in Mongolia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In addition to editing academic journals and teaching wildly popular courses and field studies, he wrote a textbook, Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History<\/em>, that is now in its fourth edition. In retirement, he is working on the fifth edition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Powering Up Research with More Gigs <\/h1>The Full Story<\/a><\/div><\/div>
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º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½ joined the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, a consortium of research universities sharing a high-performance research computing infrastructure housed in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Researchers can plug in to the center via a 10-gigbits-per-second fiber optic network, 9,400% faster than the average internet speed in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Gaurav Khanna<\/p>\n\n\n\n

º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½\u2019s director of research computing Gaurav Khanna says participation in the consortium will accelerate research and reduce the need for physical space, materials, and personnel. Developing a new material, for example, says Khanna, who is also a physics professor, might require thousands of lab experiments. \u201cBut,\u201d he says, \u201cwith simulation through computing, you haven\u2019t spent a single penny on infrastructure or time.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½ joined five Massachusetts research universities in the consortium with a $1.2 million investment, funded by a grant spearheaded by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and smaller grants won by Khanna and his colleagues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe landscape of computing is changing,\u201d Khanna says. \u201cMore and more researchers are applying computing to their work, and this investment will give º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½ a seat at the table.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Applied History Lab: Examining the Past to Inform Public Policy in the Present <\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWe have begun to collect historical data that can help archaeologists craft a white paper to ensure that indigenous stakeholders have a seat at the table when governments and courts decide the fate of historic shipwrecks.\u201d <\/blockquote>Bridget Buxton, associate professor of history<\/cite><\/div><\/section><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Photo: Courtesy Bridget Buxton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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An Intersecting Life Cycle for Plastics and Textiles <\/h1>\n\n\n\n

An interdisciplinary faculty group is researching how to combine innovation in recycling, textiles, and sustainability to ensure the right plastics get put to the right use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe are thinking about how to build a circular economy for textiles. Since textiles shed plastic particles while being washed, we are hoping that we can take waste and put it in a new manufacturing cycle.\u201d<\/blockquote>Vinka Oyanedel-Craver, professor of civil and environmental engineering, associate dean of research for the College of Engineering, and director of the º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½ Plastics: Land to Sea COLAB (co-laboratories) initiative<\/cite><\/div><\/section><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The Full Story<\/a><\/div><\/div>
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For more on º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½ research, check out Momentum: Research & Innovation, the magazine of º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½\u2019s Division of Research and Economic Development.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos: Beau Jones<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½ researchers are working across disciplines to help find answers and solutions to benefit all of us. David Fastovsky and his students on the Hermit Trail in the Grand Canyon. Photo: Courtesy David Fastovsky º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½ paleontologist and professor of geosciences David Fastovsky changed our understanding of dinosaur extinction. In 1991, Fastovsky\u2019s research upended what was, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-2023","architecture-currents"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9074"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10436,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9074\/revisions\/10436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}