Collaborations – Midstates Consortium for Math and Science

The purpose of the Short Term Collaboration (STC) is to encourage and support collaborations involving two or more individuals at different Consortium campuses. Projects might involve sharing information, instrumentation and facilities or expertise among the faculty members of the Consortium. The STC grants fund faculty and students in a particular area to visit a member campus for many reasons including consultation on curriculum, collaboration on research projects, participation as an outside examiner in a senior thesis exam, demonstration of a laboratory technique suitable for an undergraduate laboratory or advising faculty or departments on proposal writing or project assessment. The STC also allows faculty to visit another Consortium institution with highly sophisticated research equipment to have a sample tested, learn a new technique, or visit a field station or library.

The STC program will fund an average of three visits per year per institution, including travel, hotel and meal expenses for no more than three days. Awards for $1,500 or less will be approved by the Director and communicate the results to the applicant within one week of receiving the application. The Executive Board will review proposals for $1,500 to $7,000. These awards can be used as seed money or matching funds for other proposals. Contact the Director about writing a letter of support describing these funds that you can attach to the proposal.

Request a Short Term Collaboration

Recent Short Term Consultations

Because of the coronavirus pandemic short term consultations were temporarily suspended in 2020. They resumed again in Autumn, 2022.
February and May 2015: Brent Krueger from Hope College and several students visited the labs of Victoria Prince and Robert Ho at The University of Chicago several times to share expertise in zebrafish husbandry and the imaging of zebrafish.
August 2014: James Demas from St. Olaf College visited Washington University in St. Louis to consult with Dr. Daniel Kerschensteiner, an assistant professor in the Ophthamology Department to begin a collaboration investigating the role of a particular class of bipolar cells in information processing/sensory encoding within the mouse retina.
Nov 28, 2013: Professor Marianna Csornyei (Math, University of Chicago) visited Professors Paul Humke and Bruce Hanson (Math, St. Olaf College) to discuss a specific problem involving Lipschitz functions. Professor Csornyei will also give a talk in at the St. Olaf College research seminar.
June 4-5, 2013: Dr. Jean Quashnock (Physics, Carthage College) visited Dr. Douglas Martin (Physics, Lawrence University). Carthage College will be adding a quantum optics lab with the expansion and renovation of its Science Center in the next couple of years. The visit included Lawrence University’s two quantum optics labs and benefited from Prof. Martin’s experience in using ALPhA for research with undergrads.
July 31, 2013: Professor Brian Borovsky (Physics, St. Olaf College) and Professor Erin Flater (Physics, Luther College) met at St. Olaf to present summer findings of their research groups and discuss research plans for the future
Jan 14-16 and 29-31, 2013: Dr. Amy Kolan (Physics, St. Olaf College) visited Dr. Leo Kadenoff (Physics, University of Chicago) to finish a manuscript and to plan new research. She also met with Sig Nagel and Heinrich Jaeger to discuss a student project.
July 31-Aug 1 and Aug 22-24, 2013: Dr. Kristi Gould (Biology, Lawrence University) visited Jennifer Templeton (Biology, Knox College) to begin preliminary measurements of avian brain areas and to train a student to carry out these measurements. Dr. Templeton also visited Dr. Gould at the end of the summer to train Gould and her students in to experiments examining canine understanding of human behavior.
Aug 21-24, 2012: Dr. Amy Kolan (Physics, St. Olaf College) met with Dr. Leo Kadenoff (Physics, University of Chicago) to finish up a talk from ongoing collaboration to be presented on October 6, titled, “The Renormalization Group: Past and Present.”
March 14-16, 2012 Amy Kolan from St. Olaf College Physics department met with Leo Kadanoff, Physics, University of Chicago to discuss the ongoing project on renormalization group calculations and to discuss a pedagogical project that teaches students programming and robotics.
Sept. 22-25, 2011 Maryuri Roca, Chemistry at Lawrence University went to the 12th Annual Conference on Case Study Teaching.
On Sept. 23 and 24, 2011 Laura Peterson from Environmental Studies and Chemistry at Luther College consulted with Brock Spencer from Beloit College Chemistry on Environmental Chemistry courses and a possible field site in Italy. She also gave a talk on bio-geo-chemistry climotology.
Sept. 15-17, 2011 Nicholas Kooyers, a PhD candidate from Washington University gave a lecture to Sara Emerson’s Plant Animal Interactions class and met with students and faculty. This gave him a perspective on they taught classes and gave him the opportunity to see if Lawrence was a good fit for him as he is applying for a position there.
Aug. 8-10, 2011 Tom Clayton from Knox Chemistry took some of his students to Augustana College where Dell Jensen, Chemistry showed them how to use equipment to characterize nove liquid crystalline samples symthesized at Knox.
May-July 2011: Gustavus Adolphus College is planning for the addition of new space to their science facilities. They sent faculty members to several institutions to consult on the planning process, the space usage, and learn about different architectural firms. On 5/26/2011 Julie Bartly, Geology, Scott Bur, Chemistry, and Jeff Dahlseid, Bio & Chem visited Jerry Lokensgard in the Chemistry Department at Lawrence University. On 6/13/2011 Scott Bur, Chemistry, Joel Carlin, Biology, and Brandy Russell, Chemistry visited Olga Rinco, Chemistry, and Kevin Kraus, Biology at Luther College. On 7/22/2011 Margaret Bloch Qazi, Biology, Mark Bjelland, Gegraphy, and Anna Versluis, Geography visited Charles Umbanhowar, Biology, St. Olaf College. The final visit was 7/27/2011 where Colleen Jack, Biology, and Dwight Stoll, Chemistry went to Grinnell College and consulted with Jim Swartz from the
Chemistry Department.
Elaine Marzluff and Mary Crawford requested funding to support a visit of Elaine Marzluff to Knox Collge to work on preparing an assessment plan for the physical chemistry laboratory. This is part of an ongoing collaboration to develop new laboratory materials in physical chemistry, and will be incorporated into a proposal in preparation for the NSF TUES (Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM) program. This consultation took place May 13-14, 2011 and was successful. Elaine M. Marzluff, Mary A. Crawford and Helen Reynolds. “Study of the Kinetics of an SN1 Reaction by Conductance Measurement” accepted for publication in Journal of Chemical Education, May 27, 2011.
This publication is the result of a collaboration between Mary Crawford (Knox College) and Elaine Marzluff (Grinnell College) to update and enhance our physical chemistry laboratories. Here we report on the adoption/adaption by Knox of a laboratory using computer data acquisition that Elaine has done at Grinnell College for many years. This collaboration was funded by the Midstates Consortium for Math and Science. Helen Reynolds is a Knox Undergraduate who worked on the adaptation of the lab for use at Knox College.
January 7, 2011 Paul Overroode, Biology, Macalester College gave a talk and consulted with Kim Dickson from Lawrence University Chemistry department regarding an NIH grant proposal.
The weekend of April 16-18, 2010, Mary Crawford from Knox Chemistry and Elaine Marzluff from Grinnell Chemistry met to work on preparing a grant to develop new laboratory materials in physical chemistry for NSF TUES (Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM).
On April 16, Kristy Gould and a student made their first trip to Colorado College for training in stereology using Colorado College’s neuroscience facility.
Dan Choffness from the Carthage College Biology department went to Lawrence’s Chemistry department where Stefan Debbert and Juan Navea showed him how to use the Gas Chrmatography-Mass Spectometry instrumentation.
On February 12, 2010 Scott Burr from the Chemistry Department at Gustavus Adolphus asked David Lopatto, Psychology, Grinnell College, to consult on 4 projects; Chemistry Dept. 10 year review, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Program 10 year review, an HHMI grant and a CCLI grant.
Marion Fass from the Beloit College Biology department shared her expertise on SENCER with Dell Jensen of the Agustana Chemistry Department on February 4, 2010.
On May 27, 2009 Dan Choffnes from Carthage College Biology met with Jerry Lokensgard in the Chemistry department at Lawrence University. The main purpose of the trip was to analyze three chemicals and training on the GC-MS.
May 15-16, 2009, Mary Crawford from Knox College Chemistry and Elaine Marzluff from Grinnell College Chemistry met for a second time to finish up their collaborative NSF-CCLI proposal.
On May 5-6, 2009 Steve Remillard traveled from Hope College to Washington University to do SEM anaylysis on superconducting samples. Tyrone Daulton of the Physics department was his host. The day and a half visit turned out to be valuable as three of the samples proved to be important.
Keith Kuwata from Macalester Chemistry Department met with Brent Krueger in the Hope College Chemistry department October 15-16, 2008 for the purpose of writing an NSF-MRI proposal to be submitted in January of 2009. The two created a proposal on FastLane, met with Tracey Nalley, Hope’s Director of Sponsored Research, to strategize about the proposal, met with Paul Van Allsburg, assigned to each other a section of the proposal text, considered ways that the proposal could satisfy NSF’s broader impacts criterion, had a conference call with another senior personnel, Dani Kohen of Carleton College, and wrote a first rough draft of 1/3 of the 15 page narrative.Dec. 10-12, 2008 Brent went to Macalester to complete the proposal.
Dr. Tim Pennings of the Hope College Math department and his welsh corgi, Elvis, spent the week of Sept. 22-26, 2008 speaking at eight colleges/universities, of which five were Midstate Consortium institutions. While playing with Elvis at the beach one day Tim noticed that Elvis demonstrated mathematical principles in retrieving a ball from Lake Michigan. Tim began to take measurements and wrote about his findings. He and Elvis have received many awards.They began the tour Monday at Carthage College. Tuesday they spoke at Beloit College where a local TV station reported on the talk and interviewed Tim. CNN picked up on the story and broadcast it throughout the country. Next on the Consortium tour were Gustavus Adolphus and St. Olaf. The Consortium tour concluded on Friday at Knox College. Elvis, and of course Tim too, received many rave reviews. Students and faculty alike always enjoy their visits.
Dr. Jennifer Hampton of Hope College and her students traveled to Luther College from June 29-July 2, 2008 to visit Dr. Erin Flater and the Nanotribology laboratory there. During teh Short Term Consultation between Dr. Hampton and Dr. Flater, they used the atomic force microscope (AFM) in teh Luther College Nanotribology lab to explore the surface structure and frictional properties of electrodeposited metal thin films.
May 2-3, 2008, Ian Harrington and Erin Stoffel took students Jim Clinton, Peter Bowling, and Julie Gass to the MidBrains Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference at Macalester College.
Mary Crawford from Knox College Chemistry department met with Elaine Marzluff from the Chemistry department at Grinnell College. Mary also met with other faculty from the Chemistry department and received a tour of the department which led to a lot of discussion about pedagogy and planning. Elaine and Mary shared ideas about the physical chemistry curriculum and plan to write a CCLI grant entitled “Transforming the Physical Chemistry Curriculum”. The Midstates grant afforded Elaine and Mary the opportunity to exchange ideas about the physical chemistry curriculum and plan for educational grants for their institutions. Another meeting is planned for the fall.
Maria-Luisa Alegre from the University of Chicago visited Luther College on April 17, 2008 and gave a presentation on Transplant Immunology. Maria-Luisa also met with her host Jodi Enos-Berlage and Marian Kaehler where they discussed programs and opportunities available at both institutions. Marisa met with several Luther undergraduates to discuss research interests and opportunities as well as graduate school.
April 2-5, 2008 Dr. Brianna Gross of Washington University gave the Biology department colloquium at Luther, speaking on the origin and evolution of homoploid hybrid sunflower species. Brianna attended a non-majors ecology trip to Seed Savers Exchange, met with her host Dr. Eric Baack to discuss recent work in the evolution of genome structure, had lunch with Caleb Mattison the sustainability intern, and met with Dr. Elizabeth Lynch to discuss the ongoing field trials of desease-resistant elms on Luther College land.
On March 5-6, 2008 Wes Pearson of St. Olaf’s Chemistry Department hosted John Frederick from the Department of Geophysical Sciences of the University of Chicago. John met with students at St. Olaf concerning the design of measurements to define the mechanisms by which the green roof will alter teh demand for energy in the interior of the new building. If a proposal made to NSF by St. olaf is approved then these measurements, when combined with some numerical models provided by John, will define the energy budget of the green roof and contrast it with that of a manmade surface. John also presented a seminar entitled “Energy Balance of the Earth’s Surface: Contrasts between Natural and Urban Environments” to the Science faculty.
Fall semester 2007, Dr. Ben Newton of Beloit College Math and Computer Science, began to organize a new seminar series for calculus students at Beloit. The purpose of the seminar series is to expose students in introductory math classes to a wider range of topics, hopefully inducing then to pursue further study in math and science. In speaking with Dr. Pedro Teixeira from Knox College Mathematics at the New Faculty workshop in July 2007, they found that both departments faced similar challenges attracting students. Ben thought that Pedro would be interested in how the program has fared thus far so a short term consultation was scheduled for Nov. 27-28, 2007. Pedro gave two talks while on Beloit’s campus and much conversation ensued. Both felt that their conversations were very useful.
On August 22, 2007, David Lopatto, in Psychology at Grinnell College met with Mary Walczak and other St. Olaf Chemistry and Biology faculty to talk about strategies for assessing their new course sequence, Integrated Chemistry and Biology. This three-term (fall, interim, spring) course sequence integrates the typical first year chemistry sequence with the first semester biology sequence.
In the fall of 2007, Andrew Knudsen of the Geology Department at Lawrence University traveled to The University of Chicago to visit Ian Steele of the Geology Department. Andrew used their Electron Microprobe (EMP) to investigate the chemical relationships of heavy metals in contaminated soils from the banks of the Milwaukee River in Riverside Park, Milwaukee, WI.
For about a week in July 2007, Ed Hansen from Hope College’s Geological and Environmental Sciences Program took a group of students to The University of Chicago where they used a scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive analytical capacity to characterize samples for several student research projects. Ian Steele from The Universtiy of Chicago’s Department of Geophysical Sciences, trained the students on the use of the microscope and then made himself available for consultation during the analysis.
Lawrence geology faculty member Marcia Bjørnerud and her student, Noah Planavsky, took stromatolite samples to Washington University to conduct geochemical analyses with Dr. Zhan Peng.
Linda Collins, Department of Statistics, University of Chicago and Shonda Kuiper, Department of Math and Computer Science, Grinnell College, have consulted twice about their NSF-funded curriculum development project.