Abstract painting. Musical improvisation. Dashes of color. A heavy bass line. For Russ Freeman, art and music are all about self-expression.

“I think it’s interesting the parallels you can draw between visual art and music,” said the guitarist who fronts The Rippingtons.

“I would think that when you’re writing a piece of music, you’ve got to decide on the instrumentation and that would be analogous to maybe a color palette in art. And when you want to decide a tempo for a piece of music, it would be kind of like the style you’re going to work in, whether it be a black-and-white, a painting, something with texture, or sculpture.

“All of these things are kind of related in a way; I think the creative mind is, at least I think, the processes work the same for me,” he said.

Freeman’s love of art has resurfaced. When he’s not painting landscapes, he said he’s drawn to digital illustration.

The Rippingtons

That renewed passion is reflected in The Rippingtons’ most recent disc, “Modern Art,” which came out in March. The CD cover again is Bill Mayer’s Jazz Cat, which has become the group’s mascot. This time the cool cat is sporting a beret and Daliesque moustache and is painting.

The title track kicks off the disc and features Freeman on acoustic guitar.

“I really love the timelessness of the classical guitar,” he said during a phone interview from his home in Boca Raton, Fla. “The electric guitar is great. Of course, my wife loves the classical way more than the electric.

Freeman and his wife, Yaredt Leon, wrote a couple of songs for the record.

“She writes in a different medium: She writes Spanish pop songs,” Freeman said. “And she writes lyrics most of the time, but she has a very good sense of melody, so I like working with her because she thinks totally different than I do.”

Freeman is known for writing memorable instrumentals.

“I’ve always been attracted to two really strong things and that’s melody and harmony; they’re my favorite things in music. And, of course, they’re the least popular things right now; now it’s all about rhythm and groove,” he said and laughed.

The Rippingtons will play a free 7:30 p.m. show Aug. 8 at the River Raisin Jazz Festival in St. Mary’s Park in Monroe, Mich.

The band has featured a rotating lineup since its formation in 1986. Jazz superstars David Benoit, Kenny G and Dave Koz are alumni of The Rippingtons.

“It doesn’t surprise me that people have had a lot of success out of our band because we look for the most talented and greatest musicians we can find,” Freeman said.

Jamming with Freeman these days are saxophonist Jeff Kashiwa, drummer Dave Karasony, bass player Rico Belled and keyboardist Bill Heller.

www.rippingtons.com

River Raisin Jazz Festival, St. Mary’s Park, Monroe, Mich.

Free

Saturday, Aug. 8

1 p.m. The River Raisin Big Band

2:30 p.m. University of Toledo Faculty Jazz Band

4 p.m. Paul DeVee & Friends

5:45 p.m. Cindy Bradley

7:30 p.m. The Rippingtons

Sunday, Aug. 9

1 p.m. Urban Transport

2:30 p.m. Elements of Sound

4 p.m. 50th Anniversary Motown Review

5:45 p.m. Dave McMurray

7:30 p.m. Alexander Zonjic with Jeff Lorber, Maysa, Motor City Horns

To view the Muddy Shuttle Mud Hens schedule for Aug. 2, 2009, click here.

Lisa Renee Ward, who operates the political blog Glass City Jungle and serves as Toledo Free Press fact checker, keeps a close eye on Toledo media. She tries to fairly document when she sees inconsistencies or inaccuracies. It was during such a mission on a recent Blade story about the ongoing slap-and-tickle between the Lucas County Republican Party (LCRP) and the Lucas County Board of Elections, as she compared finance forms filed by the LCRP, that she noticed an obvious discrepancy in the signatures attributed to LCRP treasurer James Damas.
After comparing several such signatures to Damas’ voter registration card, it seemed clear there were possible forgeries that should be investigated.
During our investigation, SwampBubbles operator Chris Myers discovered the same discrepancies and posted them July 22. By July 20, we had sent the signatures to the first of several handwriting experts, asking if there were enough discrepancies to warrant further investigation. As you will read here, there were.
I know that pursuing this story leads to more conflict, directly with LCRP Chairman Jon Stainbrook, and indirectly with The Blade, which has a recent history of serving as Stainbrook’s biographer during his tenure as a public figure. Given the public differences between these factions and Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller, a lot of careful thought went into the decision to approach the Ohio Secretary of State and the Lucas County Board of Elections. I know there will be people ready to accuse us of plotting a vendetta against Stainbrook, but at this point, there are no specific allegations being made. Something looks wrong, and we are requesting that more qualified people determine if that is the case.
At the end of the day, if we are to do our job and keep an eye on a political system that we need to trust more than ever, we must ask these difficult questions and hope the people who oversee the process will take these signature discrepancies seriously.
If they deem there is no wrongdoing, or no reason to investigate, that will be the news and that will be the end of it. I will not allow the news department to hype this into a Seneca County Courthouse saga.
If there is wrongdoing, it needs to be exposed, and the people who may have violated public trust need to be held accountable. That is not the newspaper’s job; that is for the Secretary of State and Lucas County Board of Elections to determine.

Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press. Contact him at tpounds@toledofreepress.com.

Related stories:

• PB Army marches to ‘Smoke’ stage

• Columbia Gas sponsorship supports Red Cross’ efforts

• Riverfront rocks ribs and music for the Red Cross

The Presidents of the United States of America are coming to the city to eat more than peaches — ribs and music are on the menu.
The classic early ’90s semi-punk rock ‘n’ roll band has toured the world and filled theaters with thousands of fans, but “guitbass” player Andrew McKeag said they’re stoked to headline Smoke on the Water.
“We love playing those kinds of gigs,” McKeag said. “You can go get a turkey leg and a light beer and wander around and check out the humanity of the place.”
The band started in 1993, when lead vocals and basitar player Chris Ballew started jamming with the then-”guitbass” and backup vocalist Dave Dederer. After seeing the two of them play gigs at various places in Seattle, Jason Finn joined the band as the drummer, McKeag said.
“They really started as a goofy thing,” McKeag said, who joined the band in 2004, replacing Dederer. “They even started off without a drummer and played goofy little shows. Then they hit the rock ‘n’ roll lottery early on.”

From left, Jason Finn, Chris Ballew and Andrew McKeag.

Their debut album, “The Presidents of the United States of America (PUSA),” was nominated for two Grammys, and they continued to rock crowds with singles such as “Peaches,” “Lump” and other crowd favorites — placing four songs and six albums on Billboard charts.
After having released three albums and recording the theme songs for the “Drew Carey Show” and the movie “My Date with President’s Daughter,” PUSA took a break because Ballew wanted to spend more time with his family, according to the biography on the band’s official Web site.
The guys got back together in 2000 for three years, after devoting time to personal side projects, but didn’t fully reform until 2004, when McKeag joined the band. Now they’re back on occasional tours and released their newest album “These are the Good Times People” in March of this year.
“It’s a good record. It fits in with our sound and sounds like a cross between the second and third records — it really seems to fit in well with the old songs,” McKeag said. “It’s been the band goal to make the three-string and two-string guitars and drums sound like one instrument not like three guys doing their own things. The whole vibe of this band is small, simple — basic and less are better.”
PUSA’s lyrics are zany and unusual, often sprouting from one event in Ballew’s life, McKeag said.
For example, Ballew wrote the hit song “Peaches” about attempting to talk to a girl he had a crush on when he was younger, but he failed to gather the courage to make it past the peach tree in her yard, according to the band’s Web site.
If Ballew draws inspiration from any band other than what lies inside his head, McKeag said he’d credit The Beatles.
The band members are all middle-aged with families now, with McKeag at 40, and balancing home life with the music scene can get difficult sometimes, McKeag said.
McKeag joined the band after just having been laid off from his job at a music museum in Seattle. He had a few show jobs after that, but now just tries to spend time with his family as much as he can when he’s not out on tour, he said.
His young son gets excited about McKeag’s rock ‘n’ roll side, as the 6-year-old has already picked up guitar and has gotten the “rock ‘n’ roll thing down,” including a little “Justin Timberlake dancing thing.”
McKeag said this job is allowing him to fulfill dreams he had as child.
“My mom told me, ‘When you were about 3 years old, you came up to me very seriously and said ‘Mom, I am trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up and I’m having trouble deciding,’” he said. “I couldn’t decide if I could be a motorcycle racer or a guitar player.”
Now, McKeag does both, racing motorcycles when he’s not writing music. McKeag said the band is just all about enjoying themselves.
“It’s just been a really lucky thing at 40 years old to go out and see the world,” he said. “Mostly we’re just normal dudes. We just have a unique job and other than that we are regular guys that take our kids to school and appreciate what we do for a living.”
McKeag said the guys are looking forward to Toledo because they enjoyed themselves the last time they played in the city. McKeag, amused by the title of the festival, said he had gotten an idea to surprise the crowd — something they’ll continue to open shows with for the next few stops. Thus, Smoke on the Water goers will witness a first-time “surprise” upon seeing PUSA.
Fans and festivalgoers ought to leave their problems at the gate and get ready to let loose and dance.
“One thing I really like about Presidents fans is that they don’t care about being cool. They love this band,” he said. “It’s a rock ‘n’ roll band and everyone leaves their attitudes at their door and they’re there to jump around and have a good time.”

They might be dads, family men, hard workers and in their 30s — but on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they’re rock ‘n’ rollers who cram into a tight room on a quiet street in Toledo with their drums, bass and guitar and jam so hard the bassist breaks his strings.
Having reassembled the band this spring, PB Army is ready to hit the road. But first they’ll bring their heavy rock to the docks for Smoke on the Water at 1 p.m. Aug. 1 to blast Toledoans with its hard-rock grooves.
Keith Bergman, Micah Shimborske and Nick Shallcross describe their band as “the hardest working band in half a ZIP code” because the trio has only played together for a few months and has already booked an 18-stop tour around the country. They also will release a single with an Atlanta band on vinyl when they go on tour in September.
Bergman plays drums and sings; Shimborske shreds the guitar, and Shallcross rocks the bass. Drawing on strange experiences and personal attitudes, the bandmates thrash together for a light-hearted but heavy-sounding tone. Their Web site describes their sound as “nerdy stoner pop whatever.”

From left, Micah Shimborske, Keith Bergman and Nick Shallcross are PB Army.

Bergman and Shimborske started PB Army in 2001 with a different bassist, toured mostly around eastern and southern states and released two albums, “Inebriates, Equivocators and Mockers of the Devil Himself” and “Spine for the Snapback.” They had to break up for a while because the initial bassist left the band in 2007.
“We had been in a joke band called Chicken Dog and I think we thought we were out of bands, but we went to a heavy rock festival and thought about how boring all the bands were, and it kind of grew out of that,” Bergman said. “We didn’t see what we wanted to see so we had to make it ourselves.”
After over a year-long hiatus, Shallcross joined as the new bassist. Bergman and Shimborske said PB Army is now better than ever. Though they still set the same goals as before, they’re old enough and realistic enough to enjoy what they do, and not expect to get rich and famous, Bergman said.
Their inspiration, Bergman said, doesn’t come from any particular band or sound, but he cited Black Flag, Black Sabbath and even Devo’s drive to go out and make music they love as motivation to approach the music scene and do booking, writing and advertising themselves.
The raging sounds of PB Army start from Shimborske’s guitar riffs, and Bergman’s lyrics emerge from his mind depending on how the instrumentals make him feel, he said. Drumming and singing simultaneously is not an easy task, he said, adding that he sometimes has to cut down on a drum fill he’d like to include so he can wedge the vocals into the song. However, the intense coordination skills don’t cut down on any energy.
The trio hopes to get popular enough just so they can tour Europe some day.
“We don’t have a lot of fans in the world, but the people who are into it are really dedicated,” Bergman said. “They like come out and stay late and yell a lot.”
Whether they’re entertaining their fans or on the road, PB Army values all the experiences they can get.
To save money on tour, they will crash on their fans’ floors in various towns, explore the quirks of all the towns they visit and particularly love stopping at little diners that offer up hometown cooking.
Sometimes, however, these circumstances land the guys in strange places.
Shimborske said one time in rural Tennessee, they agreed to stay with a man who drove them 20 miles out of the city and then had to sleep in the man’s grandmother’s bed, after moving her panties out of the way.
Despite some strange encounters, PB Army finds inspiration in the small towns and the people they meet.
“We like to go to those places that seem like they are disappearing,” Bergman said. “Any experience you have makes you more well-rounded, even if it’s going to a small town when they’re having their founder’s day parade or something goofy like that. It makes you a better writer.”
PB Army plans to release the third album sometime in the end of winter, after much rehearsing and writing when they return from their nation-wide tour, Bergman said.
Named after commercials for Pabst Blue Ribbon  beer (“PBR me”), Shimborske said they are “connoisseurs of economical drinking” and the name, though it’s silly, reveals that they can have a good time and don’t take themselves too seriously.

Columbia Gas of Ohio normally supplies Toledo homes with natural gas, but this weekend the company will fill Downtown with smoke.
The utility company is sponsoring Smoke on the Water — Ribs for the Red Cross to benefit the American Red Cross for the second year, marking its fifth year sponsoring Toledo-area rib events.
The festival will feature a wide range of music genres and ribs from 13 different vendors, but Communications and Community Relations Manager Chris Kozak said the event is all about the Red Cross. Tickets are $3.
“The interest is supporting the Red Cross, and by the end of the day I hope we don’t lose sight that this is a fundraiser for the Red Cross so they can do what they do in a time of need,” he said.
Though he would not say how much Columbia Gas donates to the Red Cross for this event, last year the event grossed about $120,000, drawing somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 rib eaters and music lovers.
“Last year, we raised nearly $20,000, and that went to disaster relief and to help people with scholarships to get trained in first aid,” said Tim Yenrick, executive director of the Red Cross.
“I think we are going to do better this year, although it really depends on the weather,” Yenrick said. “We sold out of rib vendor [slots], and because of media support and marketing support, we anticipate doing better this year than last.”
In one year, the Red Cross has helped 1,100 victims of disaster, trained more than 28,000 people in lifesaving skills and preparedness training and helped more than 300 families in the military.
Dan Zawisza, the entertainment chairman for the festival, booked all the bands that will serenade the rib fans. He said Friday night will please the country music crowd, Saturday night is for the rock ‘n’ rollers, headlined by The Presidents of the United States of America (PUSA), and Sunday is geared toward family crowds, he said.
“I’m kind of guilty,” Zawisza said. “I was digging the music scene in the early ‘90s so we decided to go with The Presidents of the United States of America.”
He added that PUSA fell within reasonable budget constraints, the band can draw a large crowd and they were very willing to come to Toledo.
Columbia Gas of Ohio doesn’t receive any monetary benefits from sponsoring Smoke on the Water, Kozak said.
He said he decided to get the company involved with the community because he and other Columbia Gas employees “see the value of being engaged locally.”
“This is our way to be a good corporate citizen and a good way to support Downtown Toledo,” Kozak, an occasional contributor to the Toledo Free Press Arts section, said.

Fri., July 31
Noon to 1:30 p.m.:
Toledo Jazz Orchestra Quartet
1 p.m. to 5 p.m.: Disc jockey
5  p.m. to 6:30 p.m.: Bandera
7 p.m. to 8:15   p.m.:
Rodney Parker & Liberty Beach
8:45-10 p.m.: Haywire

Sat., Aug. 1
1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.: PB Army
n3 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.:
Mayoral candidates
(Times were randomly selected)
3 p.m.: D. Michael Collins
3:15 p.m.: Keith Wilkowski
3:30 p.m.: Jim Moody
3:45 p.m.: Mike Bell
4 p.m.: Ben Konop
4:15 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.:
Empire Drift
5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.:
Stop Don’t Stop
6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.:
Pulled-pork eating contest
7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.: Buck69
8:45 p.m. to 10 p.m.:
Presidents of the United States
of America

Sun., Aug. 2
n 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.: Mojoe Boes
n 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.:
Empire Drift
n 4:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.:
Rib awards presentation
n 5:15 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.:
Chuck Wicks
Vendors
n AJ Doolittle’s, Lambertville
n Bad Bob’s BBQ, Rossford
n Big Moe’s BBQ, Kalamazoo, Mich.
n Black Kettle BarBeQue, Toledo
n Chicago BBQ Co., Burr Ridge, Ill.
n Famous Dave’s, Toledo
n Johnson’s BBQ, Chesapeake, Va.
n Po Mo’s, Toledo
n Sidelines, Toledo
n Texas Roadhouse, Holland
n Texas Thunder, Euless, Texas
n Tom’s BBQ and Grill, Toledo

Owens Community College is working with the Lucas County Workforce Development Agency to offer short-term training, classes and job placement services.
The Workforce Development Agency designated $1.9 million in federal stimulus funding to Owens for the program.
“Owens is proud to collaborate with Lucas County to provide more area residents with the necessary education and training to give them a competitive edge in today’s global economy,” said Christa Adams, president of Owens.
It is the largest grant or gift ever received in the college’s 44-year history, she said.
The college is expanding the space at its existing Learning Center at The Source in Downtown Toledo to accommodate the new classes and training programs, according to Michael Bankey, vice president of Workforce and Community Services at Owens. It will include five classrooms, two computer labs, a nursing lab and academic resources for hands-on learning.
The short-term training and job placement initiative will allow even more citizens to connect their training with potential employment, according to Bankey.
The classes and training programs will range from one-week sessions to the normal 16-week term for courses.
“About 100 people attended daily orientation sessions to learn about these new training programs this week at The Source,” said Eric Walker, director of the Workforce Development Agency.
Anyone interested in the programs should contact The Source to determine eligibility and view the schedule for the new classes and training sessions, Walker said.
Short-cycle training programs will include wind power installation and maintenance, photovoltaic installation, geothermal and solar water-heating installation and service, energy management and other hybrid technologies.
“By partnering with Owens, we will give displaced workers the training they need to secure opportunities in good-paying green jobs that are the key to our future,” said Lucas County Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak.
Health care programs for workers will include the nurse assistant program, home health care, medical billing and coding, EKG, pharmacy and phlebotomy technicians, as well as personal trainers.
The college is offering short-cycle, pre-apprenticeship training to prepare people for careers as electricians, pipefitters, boilermakers and other fields in the construction industry. Upon completion, participants will receive industry-recognized certification.
Some classes will begin in August, with others starting in September and October.
Owens will also partner with NetWork to provide job development and support services as part of the initiative. Network, a division of the Zepf Center, serves as the coordinator of the The Source for the Workforce Development Agency.
“This is a model for the type of investment we need to make in our work force, which is our strength,” Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop said. “Government should ensure that we equip our workers with the tools to prosper in the 21st century economy.”

Learn about India’s many cultures and fill up on Indian food at the Hindu Temple and Heritage Hall of Toledo for the 20th annual Festival of India.
On Aug. 7 through 9, the temple at 4336 King Road will celebrate Hindu traditions and Indian lifestyle, opening its doors to hundreds of curious Toledoans.
“It’s a way to get the whole Indian culture together and promote culture more,” said Pradeep Vij, festival chairman of this year’s “Jhalak, A glimpse of India.”
Hindu traditions allow everyone to attend any service, Vij said, so the public may come to religious services Aug. 7 and Aug. 9, but the day particularly focused on exhibiting Indian culture is Aug. 8. For no charge, guests can go on temple tours starting at noon, and watch a variety of cultural programs from 2 to 8 p.m. These include songs, dances and acts about heritage, with vibrant costume displays ranging from all regions in India, Vij said.
Also from noon until 8 p.m., three restaurants will serve Indian delicacies ranging from $6 or $7 per meal, and vendors will sell Indian movies, music, costumes and other regionally authentic Indian products, according to a news release.
On Aug. 7, the celebration will start with a religious ceremony from 6 to 7:15 p.m., followed directly by dinner and then cultural programs from 8 until 10:30 p.m.  Religious ceremonies starting at 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. will start the festival on Aug. 8 and Aug. 9 will end the festival with religious ceremonies from 9 a.m. until noon, then a catered lunch from noon to 1 p.m.
Each religious ceremony will be different or observes a particular tradition or regional aspect of the religion, he said, noting that the festival this year is labeled “a glimpse” of India.
“Hinduism is a way of life; it’s very relaxed,” Vij said, adding that he hopes festival goers will attend some services to understand the religion. “Hinduism teaches God can be in anyone and by not hurting and by respecting an individual you are praying.”
Hinduism’s original name is “Sanatan Dharm,” with “Sanatan” meaning eternal and “Dharm” meaning the “actions, thoughts and practices that promote physical and mental happiness in the world and ensure God realization,” according to the Hindu Temple of Toledo’s annual festival publication from 2006.

The skies in Findlay will come alive with more than 30 hot air balloons from Aug. 14 through 16 for the city’s 10th annual Flag City Balloon Fest.
The festival involves experienced balloon pilots from all over the country, who will compete against each other in a four- or five-mile radius to drop bean bags from thousands of feet in the air onto a marked spot on the ground.
Guests enter for free and watch the balloon competition in the sky while browsing food and arts vendors, viewing classic and sports car shows, military displays and climbing rock walls. Voices for Children, a legal advocacy group for children’s rights, will also set up inflated obstacle courses, kite flying activities, face painting and pony rides.
“My son is a pilot and I would go to these other events, and in 1999, there was so much hype about 2000 coming that I said we ought to have something like this in Findlay to celebrate the new millennium,” said Dan Clinger, who founded the festival in 2000.

Photo by David Spengler

Since then, he has found multiple sponsors, such as First Federal Bank and RCM Architects, to cover a $55,000 annual budget.
Though there is no cost for admission and parking, guests should bring cash for entering raffles, buying food or art and keeping the kids entertained, Clinger said. Most of the children’s activities will cost a small amount, but all the proceeds will benefit Voices for Children. Other raffles will benefit Cancer Patient Services or the United Way of Hancock County, which accumulated around $1,000 last year, he said.
Guests can also pay $20 for a tethered hot air balloon ride or around $40 for helicopter rides, Clinger said.
The festival will begin at 5 p.m. Aug. 14, and the balloons will take off at around 6 p.m. The next day, pilots will start about 7 a.m., and then prepare for another flight about 6 p.m. Aug. 16 will feature a morning flight at the same time.
Each pilot will compete for points that will earn them national credit and raise their rankings so they might be able to participate in the national Balloon Federation of America competitions in Battle Creek, Michigan in late August, Clinger said.
To navigate wind speeds and accurately land their bean bags on the marked spots, pilots have to raise and lower their balloons vertically to comply with the varying wind depending on altitude. Pilots can reach altitudes as high as 12,000 feet without requiring oxygen masks, Clinger said.
Costing as much as $40,000 to get started as a hot air balloon pilot, to purchase the basket and equipment, Clinger said this is an expensive hobby. That does not include the trailer balloon owners need to transport their massive equipment and the fabric for the balloon, which usually wears out after 400 to 500 hours of flying.
The festival will be located at Emory Adams Park, on the corner of 6th and Blanchard streets.

On the Web: visit www.flagcityballoonfest.com and click on links for more.

The Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) has awarded an $8.9 million grant to UT and BGSU to support additional research in photovoltaic science, the conversion of sunlight to electricity.
UT and BGSU are collaborating to develop solar power from photovoltaic research at both universities in response to the growing demand for alternative energy sources.
“The goal is to improve the efficiency of solar cells being developed in research at both universities,” said Robert Collins, a professor of physics and astronomy, who was the principal investigator for the grant proposal at UT.
“The proposal builds on existing faculty strengths at both UT and BGSU to broaden our capabilities in second-generation (thin film) and third-generation (molecular and nano-structured) photovoltaics,” Collins said.

James Walker (seated) discusses the relative atomic composition of solar cells with Professor Robert Collins, Adam Phillips and Randy Ellingsen in a photovoltaic analysis lab at UT.

The universities will use the funds to attract prominent new faculty for photonics, a subarea of photovoltaics that explores the atomic scale to determine how solar energy is absorbed from sunlight and converted into electricity on a molecular level.
“These faculty members will be world experts in photovoltaics,” said Collins.  “UT and BGSU hold leadership positions in many areas of scientific research in photovoltaics.”
The state approved the funds for the research grant and finalized the contract between the ODOD and UT with a subcontract to BGSU, according to ODOD officials.
The schools will advertise for the positions and plan to hire qualified faculty this fall, said Collins.
“We’re trying to attract intellectual talent to Northwest Ohio and hopefully retain those individuals in the region,” said Felix Castellano, a professor of chemistry who is involved in photovoltaic research with Paul Anzenbacher at BGSU.
Castellano and Anzenbacher are recommending that BGSU hire two additional researchers with its $1.7 million portion of the grant.
“The collaborative project is a regional effort to bring in new faculty and ultimately contribute to Northwest Ohio’s economic development,” Collins said.
He reported that $2.5 million of the grant will fund an endowed chair professor in photovoltaics through the UT Foundation.
Another $4 million will be used for research equipment and facilities. More lab space will be available due to the recently completed second phase of labs in the Clean and Alternative Energy Incubator at UT.
Another faculty member in this area and the associated equipment obtained with the grant would be useful to Toledo area industry partners on the grant, including Calyxo USA, Pilkington and Xunlight among several other Ohio-based companies, said Collins.
“The collaborative effort is important to promote local and state economic development in green technologies not only achieving energy security on a national but a global level as well,” Collins said.
“We have had a very successful history of working together productively,” said Castellano about the relationship between researchers at BGSU and UT.
The grant is expected to fund a three-year collaborative project, but the attracted faculty, equipment and facilities will have a lasting impact on UT’s academic and research programs in the photovoltaic field, Collins said.
“The grant will help solidify UT’s position as one of the top academic institutions in the world for research, development and demonstration of thin-film photovoltaic materials and devices,” Collins said.
“UT is No. 2 to MIT based on alternative energy research and technology being developed there,” said Mark Erickson, COO of Buckeye Silicon, a new firm that plans to open a silicon production facility for photovoltaic use at UT’s Center for Advanced Renewable Energy.
The $8.9 million grant was one of 10 awarded to collaborations of universities, private colleges and industry partners that received funds for 26 new research scholars with $143 million allocated through the Ohio Research Scholars Program in 2008.
The Ohio State University Research Foundation, leading a partnership with UT, Case Western Reserve and Ohio University, was awarded $10 million to establish a collaborative cluster in Advanced Energy Systems in the state.
UT previously received an $18.6 million grant in 2007 for the establishment of the Wright Center for Photovoltaic Innovation and Commercialization located in the Clean and Alternative Energy Incubator on the corner of Dorr Street and Westwood Avenue.