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In this Issue
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Spring-Summer 2008 Professor Miller Working to Help Returning Combat Veterans Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dan Miller has recently begun a collaboration with the Stress and Motivated Behavior Institute (SMBI) at the University of Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey. The SMBI through its partnership with the Army Research Engineering Development Center (ARDEC) will fund Dr. Miller on an annual basis to support the research objectives of the SMBI. These objectives include providing ARDEC and the Department of Defense with neurobehavioral expertise; and organizing collaborative efforts toward understanding stress-related mental and physical illness. The grant benefits Carthage students directly through the funding of summer research assistants in Dr. Miller's laboratory. For more information, email Prof. Miller at dmiller@carthage.edu. Professor Mast Receives NSF Grant Professor of Geography, Joy Mast has been awarded a grant for her proposal  "Biogeography of Forest Change: Drought and Crown Fire in Ponderosa Pine Forests of the American Southwest." The grant will fund four Carthage students to assist full time in summer field work in New Mexico as well as work in Professor Mast's dendroecology lab during the school year. Professor Mast will also be funding four additional Carthage students for full-time field work in Arizona this summer on another National Science Foundation grant, "Biogeographical Impacts of Recent Bark Beetle Epidemics on Cavity-Nesting Birds in Arizona." International Year of Astronomy  Hedberg Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies and Professor of Physics, Doug Arion has been chosen to lead the telescope design team of the International Year of Astronomy Galileoscope Project. This project will distribute more than a million telescope kits to schoolchildren throughout the world. The IYA is an international effort to commemorates the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of a telescope to study the skies, and Kepler’s publication of Astronomia Nova. Microgravity Research In early April, Professor of Physics and Computer Science Kevin Crosby and students Caitlin  Pennington ('09), Brad Fritz ('10), Emily Sorensen ('10), Isa Fritz ('10), and Erin Martin ('09) boarded a modified C-9 aircraft at Ellington Field near the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and experienced the ride of their lives aboard NASA's "Weightless Wonder." The team was selected to participate in the NASA Systems Engineering Education Discovery Program, The SEED Program pairs NASA researchers with faculty-student teams tasked with designing and building experiments in support of NASA mission research priorities. The two days of flight culminated several months of work to design and build an experiment to study the efficiency of inertial filtration of lunar dust for use in future lunar habitats. The microgravity flights, used to train astronauts for working in a weightless environment, provided a total of 64 parabolas over the Gulf of Mexico. Each parabola provides roughly 30 seconds of weightessness or lunar gravity conditions. For more information, contact Kevin Crosby at kcrosby@carthage.eduKemper Center Observatory The City of Kenosha and Carthage College have entered into an  agreement that will completely renovate and refurbish the historic observatory atop the south tower at Kemper Center, two miles south of campus. This newly renovated facility will provide the College with astronomical research and teaching facilities, and will be used by College faculty to conduct public outreach activities such as star parties and observing sessions in support of the astronomy program at Carthage. Ometepe Medical Outreach Mission The Nicaragua trip continues to inspire Carthage students. The 2007 crew  led by Julio Rivera and Scott Hegrenes battled scabies, helped deliver a baby, saw numerous machete wounds, and spent a day at the Pacific Ocean at San Juan del Sur. At least 2 students from the trip (Laura Garcia-Rodriguez and Ben House) have been accepted to medical school.The 2008 trip was the largest ever. Professors Matt Zorn and Scott Hegrenes attempted to corral 49 travelers which included a film crew from Carthage’s Communication and Digital Media Department led by Professor Paul Chilsen. New experiences this year included tutoring students from the bilingual school in Merida. GIS Day On Wednesday Nov.14, 2007, 16 students in Dr. Wenjie Sun’s  “Introduction to Geographic Information Science (GIS)” class hosted the first GIS Day event at Carthage. GIS Day is a worldwide celebration to promote the awareness of one of the fastest growing and "hottest" technologies. There were live demos and posters showcasing various applications of GIS and "treasure hunting" with Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Students, faculty, and staff stopped by during lunch hour and participated in various interesting activities designed by the students. Carthage Programmers Compete On Saturday Nov. 3, 2007, a record three Carthage teams led by Prof. Wenjie Sun competed in the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) regional contest at UW Parkside and they worked out 3 (Brittany Chase, Nate Roberson and Lucas Stomberg), 2 (Kyle Roth and Lee Shaver), and 1 (Tom Behrens, Adam Muniz, and Zac Telschow) problem(s) respectively with rankings of 6, 9, and 10 among all 14 teams (including 3 from UW Madison) at the UWP site. According to Prof. Erlan Wheeler's bookkeeping, we matched our own record of 3 problems correctly solved. Alumni Notes Please send us your current whereabouts and accomplishments. Alumni notes can be sent to Kevin Crosby at kcrosby@carthage.edu
Simple Organic Professor of Chemistry, Tim Eckert won the College's 2007 Distinguished Teaching Award, presumably for his innovative use of evil twin technology in handling the more unsavory aspects of teaching (exams, grades, admonishments, etc.). |
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