News

February 2017 Maintenance
On Wednesday, February 1, 2017, from 8am - 4pm CDT, MSI staff will perform scheduled maintenance and upgrades to the network and various MSI systems. During this month's scheduled maintenance period, MSI will apply updates to prevent jobs from using more memory or CPU resources than what the job was allocated. In the past, jobs that exceeded their allocation would sometimes use up all of the memory on a node, which would cause other jobs and even entire nodes to crash.
Help to Map Biodiversity With the Bell Museum
The Bell Museum of Natural History has launched a citizen-science project through Zooniverse.org to help build the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas. Participants can transcribe data from handwritten specimen labels, and they will be added to the digital Atlas. Visit the zooniverse.org website to participate.
MSI PI Candice Hirsch Receives DuPont Young Professors Award
Assistant Professor Candice Hirsch, an MSI PI in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, has been named one of eight 2016 DuPont Young Professors. This award, which provides funding to support work in areas of interest to the company, recognizes outstanding young faculty members in the fields of plant biology, biotechnology, materials science, photovoltaics, and chemical engineering.
Study on the Medicinal Benefits of Tumeric
Tumeric has recently received attention as a “miracle spice,” capable of curing many medical woes. The spice has long been used in traditional medicine in some parts of the world. However, a research study published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry indicates that tumeric has no medicinal benefits. MSI PI Michael Walters (Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development (ITDD)) is the lead author on this study.
U Researchers Part of New Manufacturing Institute
MSI PI Shri Ramaswamy  (Head, Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering) is part of the RAPID Institute, a new national manufacturing consortium. The goal of the Institute (RAPID = Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment) is to improve the productivity and efficiency of chemical and other manufacturing by reducing the number of process steps. Professor Ramaswamy is one of the lead researchers in the national pulp and paper team.
Triclosan Ban
MSI PI Bill Arnold (Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering) has spent years studying the effects of triclosan, an anti-bacterial chemical used in household products. He showed that the chemical, which is a hormone disruptor, was building up in Minnesota lakes. His research contributed to a decision by state lawmakers to ban the use of the substance in Minnesota; that ban takes effect in 2017. Minnesota was the first state to take this step, and other government agencies followed suit. 
January 2017 Maintenance
On Wednesday, January 4, 2017, from 8am - 4pm CDT, MSI staff will perform scheduled maintenance and upgrades to the network and various MSI systems. January maintenance will affect the following systems: NoMachine Mesabi Windows Application Servers Systems status is always available on our Status page. If you have any questions, please email help@msi.umn.edu.

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