TO:
VIA:
FROM:
RE:
P.I. status for Sydney Bristow

Please authorize Dr. Sydney Bristow to serve as sole Principal Investigator on research proposals submitted through The University of Texas at Austin via the Center for Institutional Advancement
Dr. Bristow's University of Texas title (Research Scientist) does not automatically qualify her to serve as a PI. However, her job duties do require her to conduct independently funded programs just as professors in academic departments at the University, implicitly requiring her to obtain grant and contract funding. She is nominally in charge of our Outreach Laboratory and so functions much as a head of a research laboratory. It is commonplace for the head of a research lab in Natural Sciences to serve as PIs on grants and contracts. Finally, the research, information dissemination to colleges within the University, and other educational programs for which Dr. Bristow is responsible require outside funding to continue to function. As the only person thus employed at the University, she is uniquely situated to find extramural funds to conduct externally funded educational and scientific programs in the area of Institutional Advancement.
