Template for P&N Research Groups/Networks

A month ago at our last faculty meeting of the Spring semester, Patricia suggested a new way to present faculty research interests on the new website -- by research interest groups or networks. Compared to a list of interests of individual faculty, the advantages are:

1. It reflects the dynamic, interdisciplinary collaborations among our faculty and with other units on campus.
2. It attracts prospective graduate students
   

There are, of course, a lot of details to be fleshed out before this can be implemented in HTML. One critical question is how to direct interested students to an "Apply Here" page. While there is a lot of appeal in the idea that students can apply to "join the group", so to speak, upon further discussion with the Chairs and the DGS's it looks like the best approach at this time is to link them to the "Graduate Studies" page, where they can find general information about the P&N and specific requirements for each program or groups that admits students.

So back to the "Research" page, Patricia suggested that we take a two step process in making the groups.

1. Nomination of the groups/networks. Faculty, as individuals or as groups, can nominate research interest groups that reflects their current research directions. See the template below. Information about each group will be temporarily posted on our internal mock up website, until the new site is up.
   
2. Self-nomination, or joining the group. As the groups are establishing themselves, individual faculty will self-nominate to any groups that they wish to join, as many or few as they wish.
   

To get started with the first step, please fill in the following template and email me (gary.feng@duke.edu) at your earliest convenience, before July 1. Please note that the information can be changed later. At this point of the process it's more important to know how many groups we are anticipating and what they might be. For a mock up of what a group page might look like (just an idea), see http://dukepn.googlepages.com/researchgroup1

===== Template for P&N Research Groups/Networks =====

** Please note:
** 1. information should be in plain text; any formating will
** not be preserved. Please send images as attachments.
** 2. email the info to garyfeng@duke.edu

Name:
descriptive, better be less than 5 words

Preferred acronym:

Logo/icon:
a thumbnail image that will be used as a graphical id of the group.

Very Brief Description:
30 words max, for displaying on the front page.

Description:
~200-word description of the group, with or without subsections.

Image(s):
your favorite images of studies, results, group pictures, etc.

Members:
please list separately: faculty (from PN), affiliated members (from other campus units), post docs, visiting/research personnels, and graduate students

*note: this will include the initial members. Anybody can join any group after the group is established.

Links:
Links to members' FDS pages will be automatically created. Please include additional links to lab pages, facilities, and other resources.