Nine grants totaling nearly $36,000 have been awarded to individuals who applied for 2018–19 funding from the Professional Development Grants for Retirees program. The grants represent a wide range of faculty interests and projects, with proposals coming from retirees in mechanical engineering, medicine, education, design, the liberal arts and Libraries.

Several of the grant applications were from faculty invited to national or international conferences or conventions to present their work, with subjects ranging from information science to contemporary cast iron art. Other awards will support work—including book, video, and website development—in areas ranging from parent education, museum textile collections, and 19th century folklore to “A Campus Divided,” an exhibit about the University of Minnesota from 1930 to 1942.

One project receiving a second consecutive PDGR award employs undergraduate students in a sophisticated statistical analysis of the behavior of young HIV+ patients receiving therapy at the U and its potential for enhancing the outcomes of their therapy. The students are selected from the Undergraduate Research Science program, a recruitment effort to attract talented freshmen. Previous UMRA grant recipients have worked with students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. Thus, the retirees’ grant program is also enriching the education experiences of undergraduates at the University.

In all cases these projects enhance both the professional development of the grant recipients and the reputation of the University in the academic community.

It is important, therefore, to maintain this grants program as best we can. Although the University helps to support the program financially, the funding is not sufficient to maintain our current average of 11 awards per year on into the future. This may require that we augment the grant funding from our University of Minnesota Foundation account, wherein donations are dedicated to the PDGR.

To learn more about all of this year’s awards, please visit https://umra.umn.edu/news/2018-04-abstracts.

—Dick Poppele, PDGR Committee chair