Cottrell College Science Awards
Cottrell College Science Awards support significant research that contributes to the advancement of science and to the professional and scholarly development of faculty at undergraduate institutions.
Cottrell Scholar Awards
Cottrell Scholar Awards are for beginning faculty members who are committed to excel at both research and teaching in astronomy, biochemistry, biophysics, chemistry, or physics.
An experiment in transformative research
Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) officially announces the creation of a new grants program to support early career academic researchers.
Scialog® is a multi-year program designed to accelerate the work of 21st-century science by funding individuals or multi-disciplinary teams to pursue transformative research, in dialog with their fellow grantees, on crucial issues of scientific inquiry. All Scialog awardees will come together once a year for the next three years at Biosphere 2, in Arizona, to share insights, discuss collaborative projects, and build a vibrant network of researchers focused on a critical scientific issue.
The program's first three-year round is called Scialog 2009: Solar Energy Conversion.
That's right -- RCSA, a small, private foundation with only a few million to spend ($3.2 million, to be precise), is moving boldly to support solar energy research, a field in which substantial government funding is available. Why are we doing this?
For the same reason, for example, that Dr. Roger Angel, a University of Arizona astronomer and one of the world's premier designers of large, technologically advanced, earth-based telescopes, turned to designing solar energy concentrators several years ago. Angel, a MacArthur fellow, told a reporter that building telescopes while Earth is facing a dire threat from global warming is like playing music on the deck of the Titanic.
Energy is the most important issue facing humanity in the 21st century, because everything else -- security, food, water, health, and prosperity -- depends upon progress in this area. And we know three things: 1) Our current use of fossil fuels is leading to deleterious effects on the environment, including global climate change; 2) There are limitations on the amount of fossil fuels available, and much of the remaining reserves are in countries with serious political and security problems, and; 3) The only way this crisis is going to be solved is by creating sustainable, renewable energy.
In short, the directors, officers and staff of RCSA believe we must lend our weight as a foundation to emphasize that this is the preeminent problem in the world today and that it must be addressed. We hope our action also conveys the message that it's everyone's responsibility to try to make what difference we can in order to ensure not only that our civilization continues to thrive but also advances to a sustainable future.
Fortunately, RCSA is in a position to contribute in a unique way. By focusing on early career researchers -- those who have just received tenure -- we're supporting a cohort that doesn't always have an easy time getting funding, yet who are in a position to take high risks because tenure confers the academic freedom to pursue bold new ideas. And these are researchers who have another 20 or 30 years ahead of them as active scientists; if they don't rise to face this challenge -- which likely requires meeting the energy needs of 10 billion people with 20 - 30 terawatts of power generated from sustainable resources as we approach the midpoint of the century -- who will?
Clearly, there's no way to get there unless we create fundamental scientific breakthroughs; Scialog represents one small experiment in how to create those breakthroughs. By emphasizing cross-boundary collaboration and long-term community building among those scientists in the best position to take risks, we hope to ignite a transformative spark that will alter existing paradigms and create pathways to new frontiers.
Igniting a transformative spark is precisely what RCSA has been doing for nearly a century. With Scialog, we hope to take our mission of science advancement to an even higher level. Our goal is nothing less than to help save the planet.
Dr. Richard Wiener, RCSA Program Officer
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Science Teaching as a Profession:
Why it Isn't How it Could Be
High-quality science education is an essential component of America’s long-term prosperity and security. No one knows this better than the men and women who teach high-school science. But until now no one has asked them to describe the challenges that diminish their professional status: their loss of autonomy in the classroom; having little say in school and school-district policies; inflexible government-mandated tests, which, increasingly are being used to judge not just their pupils’ but their own competence; lack of support staff, and too much “administrivia” wasting their time. In this book, education writer Sheila Tobias and high-school science chair Anne Baffert report from hundreds of teacher interviews and website postings, that there are ways for science teachers, in collaboration with scientists and willing school administrators, to reverse these trends.
Download: Science Teaching as a Profession
Scialog 2009: Solar Energy Conversion
RFP Online Now
Funding and building research teams to undertake groundbreaking studies in solar energy production.
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Arizona Partners in Science
Summer research opportunities for science high-school teachers in partnership with faculty members at Arizona universities.
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Six RCSA Awardees Win 2009 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowships
Congratulations to the Cottrell Scholars who are current recipients of the 2009 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowships. The award is given annually to 118 early career scientists and scholars. Full article.
Arizona Legislature Takes a Backward Step
Leading-edge science, technology and innovation have been at the foundation of our country's economic growth, and Arizona could be a primary beneficiary in the future. Full article.
Swarthmore Scientist wins APS Prize
Michael R. Brown, physics professor at Swarthmore College has won a prestigious, Research Corporation-sponsored prize from the American Physical Society. Full article.
Document Archive
Explore the Research Corporation for Science Advancement Archives containing documents from 1896.
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"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world."
Archimedes
RCSA History
An asteroid, discovered in 1955 at Indiana University's Goethe Link Observatory, was named Minor Planet (2026) Cottrell, in honor of RCSA's founder Frederick Gardner Cottrell.