News for and about the Internet2 community

["Painter, Virginia" <>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, Aug. 20, 2010

Contact:  Ginny Painter, Communications Director, Marshall University 
Research Corporation, 304-746-1964, 


Marshall University to receive more than $525,000 from grant to enable 
Internet2®


HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Students and researchers across the region will benefit 
from a $1,176,470 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to West Virginia's 
Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

The award, which was announced earlier today by U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller 
and West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, will enhance cyberinfrastructure 
across the state's higher education system over the next two years.

Marshall University will receive $525,874 from the grant to enable 
inter-campus Internet2® access for the state's predominantly undergraduate 
institutions, community and technical colleges, and the K-12 community.

Internet2 is an advanced networking consortium led by the research and 
education community. Marshall announced in January that it had joined the 
network, which connects nearly 70,000 research and educational institutions 
nationwide and interconnects with 80 international research networks. In 
addition to providing access to a number of significant emerging technologies 
not available within the limitations of previous networks, Internet2 links 
Marshall with people, equipment and information at partner institutions 
around the world.

This vital funding will allow Marshall University to establish the mechanisms 
that will help our partners and collaborators strategically position 
themselves to join us in cutting-edge opportunities not currently available 
on the commercial Internet," said Dr. Jan Fox, Marshall's senior vice 
president for information technology and chief information officer. "These 
enhanced capabilities will have particular significance not only for 
expanding science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs, research 
initiatives and clinical outreach, but also will bring significant economic 
development opportunities to the region."

Fox also acknowledged Marshall staff members who are working on the project, 
including Dr. Arnold R. Miller, assistant vice president for information 
technology; Allen Taylor, chief technology officer; and Michael Adkins, 
director of information technology infrastructure.

The grant was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 
2009. West Virginia EPSCoR is directed by the West Virginia Higher Education 
Policy Commission (HEPC). 

This award builds upon a three-year, $2.6 million grant HEPC received last 
year from the NSF to upgrade networks and enhance immersive visualization 
capabilities for researchers at Marshall, West Virginia University and West 
Virginia State University in collaboration with the University of Arkansas 
system. That grant is assisting the institutions with connection to 
high-performance computing networks and resources around the world, allowing 
researchers to collaborate in real time without geographic limitations. 

Marshall received a little over $1 million from the 2009 award. Rockefeller 
saw a mine safety demonstration earlier this year at Marshall's Virtual 
Interactive Simulation Environment (VISE) Lab-which received funding from 
this earlier grant.

For more information, contact Fox at 304-696-6706 or 
.

###

________________
Ginny Painter
Communications Director
Marshall University Research Corporation
100 Angus E. Peyton Drive
South Charleston, WV  25303
Phone 304.746.1964
Mobile 304.552.1287
Fax 304.746.8944