2008 Alabama EPSCoR Annual Conference & Stakeholder Symposium
Welcome
Dr. Daryush ILA, adjunct professor at The University of Alabama and a long-time faculty member and administrator at Alabama A&M University, has been named executive director of the Alabama Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research program, known as EPSCoR.
IlA has worked with the Alabama EPSCoR program for nearly 20 years in various capacities, including assisting with the steering committee, coordinating the Alabama National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research program and serving more than six years as the state's Department of Defense EPSCoR director.
IlA is a graduate of MIT and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, with management training from MIT, Harvard, and Georgia Tech Research Institute and Science Application International Corporation.
"Dr. ILA's background and the network of professional contact that he has amassed will contribute greatly to his leadership and the continued success of EPSCoR," said Gregory G. Fitch, executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.
The mission of Alabama EPSCoR, headquartered at the University of Alabama, is to foster the growth of research capacity and capability in the state of Alabama in order to make the institutions of higher education more competitive for federal funding.
The state's research institutions participating in EPSCoR include UA, Alabama A&M University, Auburn University, UAB, UAH, the University of South Alabama and Tuskegee University.
Tuskegee Welcomes the President
Tuskegee University welcomed U.S. President George W. Bush to the NSF EPSCoR RII funded Center for Nanostructured Materials. The President toured the facility getting acquainted with the broad spectrum of areas connected with materials science.
Overall administration of the NSF EPSCoR RII program by the Alabama EPSCoR State Office has led to a number of achievements that inform assessment metrics and directly play to the goal of forming sustainable Centers of Excellence. Most notably, the Alabama Legislature appropriated an additional $500,000 for FY07 to support an EPSCoR Graduate Research Assistant Program at the RII Centers of Excellence.These assistantships will be used indirectly to attract quality faculty hires to the centers. The State Office has facilitated the development of a RII Strategic Plan with special attention to each center having its own strategic plan for sustainability. The NSF EPSCoR RII grant supports four Centers of Excellence.