RIIHEA

The state awarded more than $1 million in grants Wednesday to six teams of Rhode Island researchers working on projects ranging from the possible use of the spice turmeric in cancer treatment to improved lithium batteries for automobiles.

In Hollywood, they’re known as the Brown Mafia, the steady stream of talented writers coming out of Brown University and making it in film and television. But it’s not just screen writers who are tasting success. Brown graduates are also scoring big when it comes to playwriting.

Amid all the dolorous economic news in Rhode Island comes word that Brown University still plans to spend a lot in the years ahead. That’s despite having lost $740 million of its then-$2.8 billion endowment in last year’s market meltdown. Clearly, Brown remains the big enchilada of private economic clout in the Ocean State.

PROVIDENCE — Edward J. Wing, Brown University’s dean of medicine and biological sciences, sees the university’s planned new medical school in the grandest of terms.

PROVIDENCE – Brown University has recruited a top administrator from Harvard University to revamp and expand the office tasked with developing, transferring and commercializing technologies developed by the school’s researchers.

John Savage, professor of computer science, is Brown’s first Jefferson Science Fellow and the first computer scientist to serve in that capacity. He will advise the State Department on cyber affairs. Credit: Brown University John Savage, a Brown University computer scientist who helped found the University’s Department of Computer Science, has been chosen to be a special adviser to the State Department on cyber affairs.

PROVIDENCE – Brown University plans to borrow $125 million in order to stockpile cash and pay for renovations, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.

Beppie Huidekoper, the school’s executive vice president for finance and administration, told Bloomberg the university plans to use $25 million for renovations, including a data center, and hold the remaining $100 million as a cash reserve.

Also seen in the New England Business Bulletin

Brown University is striking up a relationship with Draper Laboratory to become a major player in energy efficiency and smart grid research.