Faculty/Staff News of Note
January 2007
James Warren, associate professor of biology, and Amy Williams, biology lab coordinator, led ten members of Scrub Club, a student interest group for the health professions, on a Habitat for Humanity work day in Union City last month.
Cathy Sargent Mester, senior lecturer in communication, and Robert Tauber, professor of education emeritus, have published a second edition of their book Acting Lessons for Teachers: Using Performance Skills in the Classroom (Greenwood, 1995). It includes new sections on instructional technology and classroom management, and testimonials written by award-winning educators, including James Kurre, associate professor of economics.
Christine Mangone, lecturer in theatre, ended her THEA 208: Theatre in Diverse Cultures workshop with a “Celebrating Diversity” performance at the Studio Theatre. Over the semester her students studied plays by African American, Chicano/a, and Asian American playwrights; for the performance they presented scenes from August Wilson’s Fences, Richard Wright’s Native Son, Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman, David Henry Hwang's M.Butterfly, Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit, and others. Over 100 students attended the event, which was sponsored by the Mary Behrend Cultural Fund.
Shannon Sweeney, assistant professor of engineering, gave two presentations this fall in Chicago. The first, “Suspension Components with Internal Mechanical Resonator” was give to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) 2006 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress. The second, “Collaborative Product Realization of an Innovative Structural Damper and Application,” was co-written with Robert Michael, lecturer in engineering, and presented two weeks later to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 2006 International Mechanical Engineering Congress
Scott Stevens, assistant professor of mathematics, has submitted a three-year proposal requesting $151,905 from the National Science Foundation, for “RUI: Modeling Intracranial Fluid Dynamics with Applications to Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension.”
John Fizel, professor of economics and chair of the Penn State iMBA, has been named the recipient of the University’s 2007 Graduate Program Chair Leadership Award. The award will be formally presented at the faculty/staff awards ceremony in State College on March 26.
Darren Williams, associate professor of physics and astronomy, has been named to the prestigious Harlow Shapely Visiting Lectureship Program sponsored by the American Astronomical Society.
James Kurre, associate professor of economics, gave a presentation last week to the Erie Chapter of the National Association of Purchasing Managers. Titled “The Erie Economy, Past and Future,” the talk was an overview of Erie’s economic history, discussed likely changes to its industrial structure, and offered employment forecasts for the coming year created by Todd Nesbit, assistant professor of economics.
Paul Ashcraft, lecturer in physics, presented “Integrals for Pre-Service Elementary Teachers: Approximating Seasonal Solar Radiation Differences” at the American Association of Physics Teachers’ winter meeting held earlier this month in Seattle, Washington.
Three School of Science faculty have submitted recent proposals to the National Science Foundation:
Joseph Previte, associate professor of mathematics, in collaboration with University of Maryland, “RUI Collaborative Research: Closing the Loop Between Sensory Feedback and the Locomotor CPG,” $94,041.
Darren Williams, associate professor of physics and astronomy, “Dynamical Stability of Massive Satellite Systems,” $129,683.
Yi-Hong Wang, assistant professor of biology, “Genetic Analysis of Identical Mutant Phenotypes Produced by Different Sense/Antisense Constructs in Tomato Plants,” $258,376 .
Dipo Onipede, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Melanie Ford, lecturer in engineering, submitted a grant proposal to Penn State’s Equal Opportunity Planning Committee requesting $3,100 to support the Women in Engineering program for the 2007-08 academic year.
Yi-Hong Wang, assistant professor of biology, presented “Flower Mutants in Tomatoes: Characterization and Gene Identification” at the Plant and Animal Genome XV Conference held last week in San Diego.
Michael Brown, assistant professor of management, had the article “Ethical Leadership: A Review and Future Directions” published in the December 2006 issue of The Leadership Quarterly. The article offers an overview of emerging research on ethical leadership and proposes ideas that scholars can investigate in the future.
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