Spectrum - Volume 17 Issue 04 September 15, 1994 - Achievers

A non-profit publication of the Office of the University Relations of Virginia Tech,
including The Conductor , a special section of the Spectrum printed 4 times a year

Achievers

Spectrum Volume 17 Issue 4 - September 15, 1994

Wolfgang Glasser, associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Forestry and Wildlife Resources, presented a scientific paper, "Structural Materials from Naturally Occurring Polymers," at the 208th American Chemical Society national meeting in Washington, D.C., Aug. 21. Glasser discussed how biochemically engineered materials could be designed on the basis of naturally occurring polymers and thus be biodegradable. Last spring he was invited to review the curriculum at the University of Malaysia. Glasser also visited Thailand to participate in the "Royal Project on Food Processing" and to visit King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Thonburi in Bangkok, where he observed several different demonstration development projects on food processing, bio-gas and waste treatment technology, and food processing additives.

George Stern, the Earle B. Norris Research Professor Emeritus of Wood Construction, was honored by the faculty and administration of Vyatka State Technical University in Kirov, Russia. He was elected as an honorary council member for his collaborative activities on behalf of Virginia Tech with the Russian university.

Richard E. Sorensen,

dean, and Norrine Bailey Spencer, associate dean for undergraduate programs, Pamplin College of Business, offered a session at a conference, "TQM on Campus," in Memphis, Tennessee. Their presentation focused on the college's project on relations with undergraduates, a project which evolved from Virginia Tech's partnership with Westinghouse Corporation and on-campus meetings on TQM or total quality management in which both Sorensen and Spencer participated.

The American Planning Association and the American Institute of Certified Planners have presented a national planning award for comprehensive planning in a small jurisdiction to Loudon County. R. Michael Chandler , a community-resource development specialist in Virginia Tech's Public Service Programs, provided technical assistance during the plan's preparation. The award, which Chandler shares with Lane Kendig and the Loudoun County Planning Commission, Department of Planning, and Board of Supervisors, was presented at the National Planning Conference in San Francisco. It recognizes outstanding achievement and distinguished contributions to the field of planning.

Chandler has written several articles that have been published recently: "Making a Leadership Difference: The Virginia County Board Chairmen's Institute" for Virginia Review and "Local Governance 2000: Horizon Issues of Consequence" and "Putting `Vision' in Your Community" for Virginia Town & City . He also writes a regular column for the Planning Commissioners Journal , a national publication for America's municipal and county planning boards.

Michael Hensley , director of Virginia Tech's Economic Development Assistance Center (EDAC), led a seminar on "Using Telelearning in the Manufacturing Education Process" for centers and universities that had received funding from the National Institute for Standards and Technology and the National Technological University. The seminar highlighted EDAC's experience in telelearning through its teleconference series and included a discussion on approaches for incorporating telelearning into a comprehensive educational process for small manufacturing companies.

Ann Elizabeth Echols , doctoral candidate in vocational and technical education, presented a paper on "An Instructional Program Designed for the Transfer of Entrepreneurial Behaviors, Knowledge, and Small Business Entrepreneurship Education" at the Phase II Symposium and Second Annual Conference, "Sustaining Quality in Entrepreneurship Education," in San Antonio, Texas. The paper was based on research funded by Virginia Tech's Economic Development Assistance Center.

Frederick Krimgold , director of technology assistance and development for University Outreach and International Programs, presented a lecture at Brookings Institution on "Defense Conversion in Virginia: The TRP (Technology Reinvestment Project) Experience." The lecture was part of a seminar for Russian enterprise directors involved in defense conversion activities in their native country. TRP is a federal program coordinated by an agency in the U.S. Department of Defense to aid businesses and industry impacted by diminished defense spending.

Charlotte Reed , tourism-development specialist in the Public Service Programs unit of University Outreach and International Programs, was invited by the U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce to participate in a focus group on federal travel, tourism, and recreation development programs and services. Ideas developed by the group were incorporated into a report submitted to Vice President Al Gore.

Rona Vrooman, assistant professor in Public Service Programs, authored a recent issue of INFO- LINE , a series of practical booklets published by the American Society for Training and Development. The issue is titled "Group Process Tools."

Vrooman also presented a paper on "The Search for Common Ground" at the Association of Leadership Educators National Conference, which was held on the Virginia Tech campus. She has been awarded three grants to serve as a leadership-development team facilitator at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's Federal Executive Institute.

Michael Tentnowski , coordinator of business-development programs and the Virginia Economic Bridge Initiative for Virginia Tech's Economic Development Assistance Center, displayed the Virginia Procurement Pipeline at the Virginia Chamber of Commerce's First Annual Small Business Forum and Trade Fair in Williamsburg. While there, he was an invited participant on the Procurement Panel, which discussed procurement opportunities. He also displayed and demonstrated the Pipeline at the Virginia Business Opportunity Fair in Richmond. Developed by Public Service Programs in Virginia Tech's University Outreach and International Programs, the Pipeline is a database software program that provides information on products and services of about 1,500 Virginia businesses.

Joe Adams , economic development specialist in University Outreach and International Programs' Public Service Programs, has been named to a working group for Gov. George Allen's Opportunity Virginia, a program designed to develop a comprehensive strategic plan for economic development for Virginia. According to a letter written to Adams by Secretary of Commerce and Trade Robert T. Skunda, the governor "intends to market the commonwealth aggressively to develop new prospects and to actively encourage the expansion of existing business and creation of new enterprises." Adams will participate in a group that focuses on the international trade and development sector.

Donald J. Shoemaker, associate professor of sociology, has had his article "Male- Female Delinquency in the Philippines: A Comparative Analysis" published in Youth & Society . His article "Delinquency in the Philippines: A Description" was published in Philippine Sociological Review .

Klaus Hinkelmann of the statistics department presented two papers this summer, one before the Red River Chapter of the American Statistical Association and another at North Dakota State University, both in Fargo, N.D. He also presented a paper and chaired a session at the 17th International Biometrics Conference in Hamilton, Ontario, in August. Hinkelmann was elected vice president of the National Statistics Honor Society, Mu Sigma Rho.

Clint Coakley of the statistics department presented three papers recently. At the meeting of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, he presented "Finite Sample Efficiencies in Robust Regression." He presented a colloquium titled "On Robust Estimation in Linear Regression" to the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Western Michigan University. At the Symposium on Future Directions in Robust Methods and Data Analysis at Princeton, N.J., he presented "Tuning and Computation of S- Estimators for Regression."

Eric Smith of the statistics department was elected a member of the International Statistical Institute for his distinguished contributions to the development or application of statistical methods. He was also elected secretary of the International Environmetrics Society. He presented the paper "Model Diagnostics for Three Factor Models" at the SAS User's Group International Meeting in Dallas and received an honorable mention for the best paper in the statistics section of papers. In August, Smith presented the paper "Randomization Tests for Multivariate Hypotheses/" at the International Environmetrics Society in Burlington, Ontario, and chaired a session on risk assessment.

Charles Taylor , professor of political science, attended the World Congress of the International Political Science Association in August. He served as discussant on two panels: (1) Quantitative International Politics, and (2) Democratization in Eastern Europe.

Tomas Hudlicky of the chemistry department was a member of the International Organizing Committee for the 1994 Sino- American Symposium of Asymmetric Synthesis organized by the Chinese Chemical Society, the American Chemical Society, and the National Chung- Hsing University, which took place in Taichung, Republic of China (Taiwan). Hudlicky gave a plenary lecture titled "Biochemical Methods for Environmentally Benign Syntheses of Complex Molecules." He also lectured at the Tsing- Hua University and in Taipei. Hudlicky also presented seminars at the University of Geneva and the University of Lausanne and at the research institutes of Lonza, Sandoz, and Ciba- Geigy, all in Switzerland, and at the Technical University of Denmark in Copenhagen.

Laurence W. Carstensen of the geography department, Clifford A. Shaffer of computer science, Robert W. Morrill of geography, and Edward A. Fox of computer science received the Best Article Related to Teaching in a University or College Award from the National Council for Geographic Education's Journal of Geography . The article, "Geosim: A GIS- Based Simulation Laboratory for Introductory Geography," was chosen from the articles published in the journal between May/June 1992 and March/April 1994.

Several members of the statistics department participated at the Joint Statistical Meetings of the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and the Biometrics Society in Toronto, Canada, in August. Faculty members presenting papers were Jesse Arnold , "CUSUM Charts With Variable Sample Size and Variable Interval Size"; Jeffrey Birch , invited paper, "Ten Suggestions for Effectively Teaching Short Courses to Heterogeneous Groups"; Clint Coakley , "A New Version of the Sign Test in the Presence of Ties"; Ray Myers , two invited papers, "Benefits of Increasing Interaction Among Statisticians in Academia and Industry: What Academia and Industry need To Do" and "Designing Experiments in Stages"; and Keying Ye , "Control Schemes for the AR(1) Model Using Bayes' Estimator." Doctoral students presenting papers were Hoonja Lee , "A New Representation for Binary- Valued Time Series Data in the Frequency Domain;" Milan Mangeshkar , "Estimation of Partial Group Delay with Applications to Small Samples;" Kyoungah See , "A Procedure for Testing Components of Interaction in Three- Way Tables"; Shanthi Sethuraman , "Process Adjustment Strategies Using Variable Sampling Intervals"; and Shankar Srinivasan , "Distribution Assumptions Validating the Use of Generalized Least Squares Estimation." Klaus Hinkelmann served as chair of the session on "Statistical Applications in Genetics" and served as an instructor in the Writing Workshop for New Researchers.

Susan Hagen, Lynn Reed, and Eileen Shugart of the mathematics department attended a National Science Foundation- sponsored workshop on "Calculus and Mathematica" at Ohio State University to study the use of alternative teaching strategies and the effective use of cooperative learning, technology, and alternative assessments as well as ideals of calculus reform.

Tao Lin of the mathematics department presented a paper on "An adaptive finite element scheme for a Fredholm type integro- differential equation" in a special session on "Non- local foundary value problems and applications at the 14th International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation World Congress on Computational and Applied Mathematics in Atlanta. The paper was a joint work with Robert Rogers, also of mathematics. The main results were published in the conference proceedings.

Michael Renardy of the mathematics department presented an invited lecture on "Sideband Instabilities in Two- Layer Flows" at the International Conference on Nonlinear Dynamics and Pattern Formation in the Natural Environment at the Leeuwenhorst Congress Centre, Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands. Renardy also presented an invited lecture on his recent work on the stability of hyperbolic partial differential equations and viscoelastic flows at the International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation World Congress on Computational and Applied Mathematics in Atlanta.

Ken Hannsgen and Robert Wheeler of the mathematics department worked with Wolfgang Desch of the University of Graz, Graz, Austria, on a research project, "Stabilization and Control of Distributed Parameter Systems," sponsored by the NSF U.S.- Austrian Cooperative Science Program. The research concerns a representation formula that expresses the solution operator of a nonhomogeneous boundary value problem (that would arise when stabilizing mechanical systems involving viscoelastic materials by certain boundary feedbacks) in terms of a frequency dependent linear combination of solution operators of related problems with no boundary feedback. Desch will speak on the results at a conference in Italy in September, and the researchers are preparing the results for publication.

Charles Parry of the mathematics department gave a talk on "The Rank of the 2- Class Group of Bicyclic Biquadratic Fields" at the Canadian Number Theory Association Conference at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The talk concerned joint work with graduate students Mark McCall and Ramona Ranalli .

Robert Rogers of the mathematics department gave an invited presentation on "Hysteresis through relaxation and nonlocal regularization" at the EuroMech conference on "Microstructures and Phase Transitions in Solids" in Udine, Italy. He also presented "Nonlocal Superconductivity" at a research seminar in Pisa, Italy, and "Nonlocal Superconductivity," with Augusto Visintin, at a research seminar in Trento, Italy. He also presented "Relaxed, nonlocal energies, metastability and hysteresis" at the conference on "Nonlinearities of Hysteretic

Type" at the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach , Germany.

Yin Yan of the mathematics department conducted joint research at York University at Toronto, Canada, with professor Steve L. Hou in Optimal Control of Nonlinear Fluid Dynamics and its high- performance computation. The research is part of a joint project with John Burns of Virginia Tech's Interdisciplinary Center for Applied Mathematics and Center for Optimal Design and Control.

Linda Powers of the mathematics department attended the Third Conference on the Teaching of Calculus at the University of Michigan.

Robert F. Olin of the mathematics department and graduate student Xiaoguang Li gave a talk on "The calculus reform at Virginia Tech from a graduate student's perspective" at the Virginia Academy of Science meeting at James Madison University.

Robert Wheeler and Kenneth Hannsgen of the mathematics department were two of 94 people representing universities at the 1994 AFOSR Grantees/Contractors Workshop on Dynamics and Control at Wright- Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.

Yuriko Renardy of the mathematics department gave the plenary lecture in the division of fluid dynamics at the 49th annual meeting of the Japan Physical Society in Japan. The talk was on "Instabilities in Steady Two- Component Flows." She also gave invited lectures at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute and at Hokkaido University and was given a mini- symposium in her honor at the Kyoto Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences. Renardy is co- chair with Demetrios Papageorgiou of the New Jersey Institute of Technology of the 1995 Joint AMS- IMS- SIAM Summer Research Conferences in the Mathematical Sciences titled "Analysis of multi- fluid flows and interfacial instabilities."

Rosa Huang of the mathematics department presented a talk at the 6th International Conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics at Rutgers University.

Patrick M. Phipps, Virginia Cooperative Extension plant pathologist at the Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Suffolk, received the Excellence in Extension Award from the American Phytopathological Society in recognition of his "prescription" research. Phipps, the Extension specialist in plant pathology responsible for peanut, soybean, cotton, and allied crops, was cited for developing and conducting "one of the most effective Extension and applied research program in `prescription' disease management in the United States. In Virginia alone, the savings from the program is between $3 to $4 million annually.

Antonius B.A.M. Baudoin , associate professor of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science, received the Excellence in Teaching Award at the annual meeting of the American Phytopathological Society. Baudoin, who has a 100-percent teaching appointment in plant pathology, has developed and taught six undergraduate and graduate courses- - pest management: insect, diseases, and weeds; plant pathology, integrated pest management, principles of plant disease management, diseases of crop plants, and epidemiology of plant disease.

James Craig, professor of geological sciences, had a week- long visit for cooperative work with Alicia Arizmendi from the Universidad Nacional de Patagonia in Comodoro Rivadoria in Argentina in August. Arizmendi was Craig's host in Patagonia last November, and they are initiating joint research on ore deposits in Argentina. Craig also had a two- week visit from Susana Segal of the Secretariat of Mining of Argentina in August. The two have initiated joint research on some ore deposits in the Andes in Northwestern Argentina. Segal was at Virginia Tech to discuss that and to work specifically on the interpretation of ore textures.

Craig also has had two scientists from the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry of China arrive to work with him on a project funded by the National Science Foundation on the gold ores of the Jilong District of Hebei Province in China. The researchers from China will be at Virginia Tech two months, and another delegation visited earlier this month.

Craig has just had the second edition of his textbook Ore Microscopy and Ore Petrography published by Wiley Interscience. The coauthor is David Vaughan of the geology department of the University of Manchester in England. The first edition came out in 1981, was translated into Russian, and was used internationally until it went out of print in 1992. The new 1994 edition is enlarged and updated.

Linda Plaut , humanities, and Kent Holliday , music, played a recital of music for violin and piano at the Ringue Museum of Music History in Trondheim, Norway. The concert, which celebrated the opening of the museum's tourist season, included two world premieres: Holliday's Passacaglia for Violin and Piano and Victoria Bond's Weddings and Bar Mitzvahs . The program also included music by Liszt, Grieg, and Bacewicz. The concert will be repeated at Virginia Tech September 24.

Heather M. Hall , laboratory specialist in the chemistry department, was awarded national certification by the National Association of Scientific Materials Managers after completing 80 hours of instruction and courses and writing a paper on aspects of scientific materials management. There are only five certified managers in the country, and Hall was one of two women to receive the award this year. The certification process has been in place since 1990. Hall joined the organization in 1993 and has attended two of the annual meetings.

John Madis , safety coordinator and regulatory- compliance officer for the chemistry department, was an invited speaker at the 1994 meeting of the National Association of Scientific Materials Managers in Tampa, Fla. The talks were part of a three- year program on regulatory issues, with training certification to be part of the 1996 program. A founding member of the organization, Madis has served as vice president, president, and conference- site co- host of the 1979 Richmond meeting.

Philip S. Kronenberg , professor of public policy in the Center for Public Administration and Policy, presented a paper titled "Chaos and Re-Thinking the Public Policy Process" at the Chaos and Society Conference at the University of Quebec at Hull.

Kronenberg also chaired a panel and presented a paper titled "Institutional Capability and Technology-Driven National Development: Conundrums of Managing Complexity" at the 1994 International Conference of the Academy of Business Administration in London.

Nevin R. Frantz , professor of vocational and technical education, was selected as a 1994-95 Fulbright scholar by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars and the Finland U.S. Educational Commission. He was scheduled to spend two months at the Institute for Educational Research at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland researching the restructuring of vocational education in public schools to integrate job skills programs with preparation for further learning. He also will collaborate with members of Finland's Upsilon Chapter of Omicron Tau Theta, a graduate honorary professional society, on publishing research in American educational journals.