|
|
Statewide Research Committee Selects Bohach as New Director
April 29, 2009
Editors note: Bohach is pronounced Boe-hatch
Written by Bill Loftus
MOSCOW, Idaho – Greg Bohach, a biomedical and agricultural researcher, will lead a statewide organization initiated by the National Science Foundation to help the state’s scientists increase their access to competitive grants.
Idaho’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) is overseen by a committee of legislative, business, science and education leaders.
EPSCoR encourages close cooperation among the University of Idaho, Boise State University and Idaho State University.
Bohach serves as Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station director and associate dean of the University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
A 20-year member of the Idaho faculty, he also directs the National Institutes of Health-funded Idaho Host Pathogen Interaction Center of Biomedical Research Excellence focused on infectious diseases.
Bohach serves as Idaho director of the NIH Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program and has helped secure nearly $65 million in NIH funding for researchers throughout the state since 2000.
Jean’ne Shreeve, a University of Idaho professor of chemistry who served previously as vice president of research, was the Idaho EPSCoR director and led the project for two decades.
“EPSCoR is a wonderful, wonderful program. It’s helped this state so much by building stronger research programs, attracting better faculty and helping students by supplying opportunities to do research that wouldn’t have been there otherwise,” Shreeve said. “It is good for the economy because all of the money that comes in, about 50 percent of it goes to salaries and straight into the Idaho economy.”
The EPSCoR program receives matching state funds through the Higher Education Research Council. Since 1989, the EPSCoR project has received $66.1 million in direct funding from the National Science Foundation and more than $135 million in additional funding won by Idaho scientists involved in the program.
The $13.5 million in Idaho Higher Education Research Council matching funds for NSF EPSCoR yielded a return of $14 in federal funds for each state dollar invested.
The total amount of direct and follow-on funding to Idaho resulting from all federal agency EPSCoR programs is at least $300 million since 1989.
Doyle Jacklin, a partner in Riverbend Commerce in Post Falls, serves as the EPSCoR Committee’s statewide chairman. “I think we’re very lucky to have such a highly qualified scientist and such a quality individual who is willing to take on this critical leadership role,” Jacklin said.
“It was a very easy choice for the committee to make, and it was a unanimous choice for the representatives from Boise State, Idaho State and the other committee members,” Jacklin added.
“Greg will be taking over a highly successful program that has enjoyed outstanding leadership. He is certainly well up to moving that leadership forward,” said Laird Noh, vice chair of the statewide EPSCoR committee, a retired Idaho state senator and president of Noh Sheep Co. of Kimberly.
Bohach said he will continue to serve as Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station director, a role that will fit well with his new duties. “I travel the state frequently in that role, so it will be a natural fit to visit the Idaho State or Boise State campuses to learn more about their research and how EPSCoR can help,” Bohach said.
The federal project’s strong performance in the physical sciences will continue, Bohach said. He believes more opportunities exist to support the state’s researchers, adding, particularly those in the life sciences.
The Idaho EPSCoR program announced its largest grant last September, a $15 million project focused on water resources in a changing climate and designed to increase Idaho’s research capability to better understand potential effects of climate change. Researchers from Idaho State, Boise State and Idaho will cooperate to study potential climate change impacts on the Snake and Salmon river basins.
Bohach is an expert on Staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria responsible for mastitis in cattle and infections in humans, including the deadly toxic shock syndrome. His work with Seoul National University scientists led to efforts to develop a mastitis vaccine for milk cows.
His work with Staph and the plague bacteria, Yersinia pestis, also helped a University of Idaho team of senior scientists consisting of Carolyn Hovde Bohach, Scott A. Minnich and Bohach conduct vaccine research as part of the $50 million Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research, a collaborative grant with the University of Washington.
The team made significant advances in understanding how the body’s immune system can be stimulated to repel pathogens. In one study, the treatment proved highly efficient at treating pneumonic plague in laboratory animals. The team’s work was featured on the cover of two international journals in 2008.
# # #
About the University of Idaho
Founded in 1889, the University of Idaho is the state’s flagship higher-education institution and its principal graduate education and research university, bringing insight and innovation to the state, the nation and the world. University researchers attract nearly $100 million in research grants and contracts each year; the University of Idaho is the only institution in the state to earn the prestigious Carnegie Foundation ranking for high research activity. The university’s student population includes first-generation college students and ethnically diverse scholars. Offering more than 150 degree options in 10 colleges, the university combines the strengths of a large university with the intimacy of small learning communities. For information, visit www.uidaho.edu.
Media Contacts: Greg Bohach, Idaho EPSCoR director, (208) 885-7173, gbohach@uidaho.edu; Doyle Jacklin, Idaho EPSCoR Committee chairman, (208) 773-6745, doylej@riverbendcp.com; Bill Loftus, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences science writer, (208) 885-7694, bloftus@uidaho.edu
|
