GOVERNMENT

WASHINGTON, DC -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded high performance network connections to 19 additional universities, a research museum, and two research institutes, bringing the total of institutions assisted through such grants to 221. Since 1995 the NSF High Performance Network Connections (HPNC) program has given scientists and engineers better access to research facilities across the U.S., including those maintained by NSF through its Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure program (PACI). HPNC and PACI are part of the NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE). The new awardees will join in connecting to a national grid of research networks that operate at speeds up to 2.4 billion bits per second. “These awards will go to a strikingly diverse set of institutions to enable a wide range of basic scientific research,” said HPNC program director Greg Monaco. Among the latest recipients are two universities (Wichita State University, Emporia State University) in EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) states -- those that have historically received fewer federal research funds. Other awardees (Fond du Lac Tribal College, Clark Atlanta University) are classified as Minority Serving Institutions (MSI). “In addition to the EPSCoR and minority-serving institutions, we will connect the New York City’s American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and Massachusett’s Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute -institutions at the forefront of research in the fields of genomics and oceanography," Monaco said. "In addition, the extensive research data sets of AMNH will be accessible worldwide." The two-year awards average $150,000, which will be matched at least equally by each recipient. Awardees may use the funds to connect with the vBNS (very high performance Backbone Network System) or the Internet2 consortium's Abilene. The latest institutions to be connected by the HPNC program are: American Museum of Natural History (New York) Bowling Green University (Ohio) Bradley University (Illinois) Clark Atlanta University (Georgia) Cleveland State University (Ohio) DePaul University (Illinois) Emporia State University (Kansas) Fond du Lac Tribal College (Minnesota) Gallaudet University (District of Columbia) Hauptman-Woodward Institute (New York) Illinois Institute of Technology Marist College (New York) Mount Holyoke College (Massachusetts) Pace University (New York) Saint Louis University (Missouri) Southern Illinois University State University of New York at Albany Temple University (Pennsylvania) University of Colorado Health Sciences Center University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth Wichita State University (Kansas) Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (Massachusetts)