Spectrum - Volume 18 Issue 12 November 9, 1995 - Achievers

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Achievers

Spectrum Volume 18 Issue 12 - November 9, 1995

Michael D. Olsen, a professor in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, received the 1995 Meek Award from the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (CHRIE). This award is given annually to a CHRIE member in recognition of the individual's lifetime contributions and outstanding service to hospitality education. Olsen was cited for his research articles--the most-published author in two of the four major journals in the field; his current associate editorship of the International Journal of Hospitality Management published in Oxford, England; the five books he has authored, co-authored, or edited; and for being the second most cited author in the field. Olsen has held several leadership positions with CHRIE, including the presidency; has been a visiting scholar at hospitality schools in Europe and Asia; and was the founding department head of the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

Ilja A. Luciak, associate professor of political science, had his book, The Sandinista Legacy: Lessons From a Political Economy of Transition, published by the University Press of Florida. While a guest professor at Universitat Innsbruck , Austria, over the past summer, he presented his book at the Institute of Latin American Studies and the Institute of Advanced Studies in Vienna.

A group of Virginia Tech senior graduate teaching assistants made up of Angela DiDomenico, Frank Taylor, and John Hoggard has been selected to give a special panel discussion at the 5th National Conference on the education and employment of graduate teaching assistants. The proposals were selected from a blind review process, and theirs received the highest ranking. The conference, "The Professional Apprenticeship: TAs in the 21st Century," will be held in Denver this November, and the GTA's will discuss their work in the mathematics department. In addition, each received a PEW fellowship from the PEW charitable trust to attend the meeting.

Ed Fox of the computer-science department presented "Electronic librarians, intelligent network agents, and information catalogues" as invited speaker for Reconnecting Science and Humanities in Digital Libraries, a symposium sponsored by the University of Kentucky and the British Library in Lexington, Ky.

Dennis Kafura of the computer-science department was co-chairman of a workshop on Design Patterns for Concurrent, Distributed and Parallel Systems at OOPSLA'95 in Austin Texas

John M. Carroll, professor of computer science and psychology and head of the computer-science department, and Clifford A. Shaffer , associate professor of computer science, were invited participants in the National Science Foundation's "Education Technology Workshop" in Vienna, Va. The workshop was charged with articulating a research agenda for a new program within NSF. Carroll served on the work group focusing on uses of computer networks to integrate school, home, industry, and community. Shaffer served on the workgroup focusing on classroom uses of computer networks.

Carroll also presented a paper at the Association for Computing Machinery's Symposium on Designing Interactive Systems, held at the University of Michigan. The paper was titled "Building a history of the Blacksburg Electronic Village." Other authors were Mary Beth Rosson (computer science), Andrew Cohill (information systems), and Jock Schorger (curriculum and instruction). Carroll participated in a panel session on learner-centered design, arguing the position "No documentation without education!" Carroll also delivered the keynote address at the British Computer Society's Human-Computer Interaction '95 Conference in Huddersfield, U.K. The address was titled "History as tool and application: The journey from HCI'91."

Ritajean Robinson , buyer specialist in the Purchasing Department, has received a Certified Professional Public Buyer (CPPB) certificate issued by the Universal Public Purchasing Certification Council, National Institute of Governmental Purchasing. Robinson has worked in the Purchasing Department for approximately 10 years. She began her career as a clerk typist and was promoted to buyer specialist approximately three years ago.

Lisa Norris of the English department has had her story "Prisoner of War" published in the Summer 1995 issue of Westview and her poem "My Friend's Parted Lips" published in the Fall 1995 issue of Parnassus Literary Review.

Simone Poirier-Bures of the English department has had her book, That Shining Place , published by Oberon Press, an excerpt, "Crete, 1966," published in the summer 1995 issue of The Dalhousie Review , and her stories "Gift" and "He's The One" published in the spring and fall issues of Eureka Literary Magazine.

Jeff Mann of the English department has had his poem "Tomato Stakes" published in the Spring 1995 issue of Antietam Review. Mann, instructor of English, and Tonia Moxley , a graduate teaching assistant, participated in the Appalachian Writers Workshop held at Hindman, Ky., in August.

Ann Cheney of the English department has had her poem "Hospital" published in the Fall 1995 issue of Another Chicago Magazine and her article "Deadheads, Dylan Fans, and Pearl Jammers: Rock Studies in the South" published in the journal Popular Culture in Libraries . Cheney chaired a panel, "Contemporary Rock and Film Studies" and read a paper, "Pink Floyd and American Culture," for the American Culture Association in the South Conference in Richmond in October.

J.D. Stahl of the English department has had his translation, "The Limits of Literacy Criticism of Children's and Young Adult Literature," of the work by Hans-Heino Ewers published in the June 1995 issue of The Lion and the Unicorn .

Mark Gifford, assistant professor of philosophy, delivered a paper titled "A Fallacy in Aristotle's Ethics?" at the Twenty-Fourth Annual Conference of the Israeli Society for the Promotion of Classical Studies at the University of Haifa.

Deborah Mayo, associate professor of philosophy, has a book, Error and the Growth of Experimental Knowledge , forthcoming from The University of Chicago Press in its Series in Conceptual Foundations of Science .

Joseph Pitt, professor of philosophy and head of the philosophy department, gave an invited paper, "The Wages of Sin; King Arthur and Civil Society," at Clemson University.

Valerie Gray Hardcastle, assistant professor of philosophy, has a book, Locating Consciousness , forthcoming from John Benjamins Press in their Advances in Consciousness Research Series. She has a two-part series of articles forthcoming in Philosophical Psychology : "Discovering the Moment of Consciousness? I: Bridging Techniques at Work" and "Discovering the Moment of Consciousness? II: An ERP Analysis of Priming Using Novel Visual Stimuli."

John Cairns Jr., university distinguished professor of environmental biology emeritus, has been appointed a member of the Certification Review Board of the Academy of Board Certified Environmental Professionals. This organization certifies environmental professionals in all professions from law to various fields of science and engineering.

Cairns was a member of the 17-person advisory board that put together the three-volume Encyclopedia of Environmental Biology published by Academic Press. The three volumes totaled 2,100 pages. Cairns also was one of the organizers of the recently published Houghton Mifflin Publishers' The Encyclopedia of The Environment.

John Christman, associate professor of philosophy, has been invited to speak at a conference called "Consumers, Spectators of Citizens: The Audience of Politics, Mass Media, and the Arts" at the University of South Carolina. Christman recently published the book The Myth of Property with Oxford University Press. He also gave a talk, "Public Funding for the Arts in a Liberal Culture," at the Thirteenth Annual International Congress of Aesthetics in Lahti, Finland.

Gary Hardcastle, assistant professor of philosophy and science studies, recently published "S.S. Stevens and the Origins of Operationalism" in the journal Philosophy of Science.

Richard M. Burian, director of the Center for the Study of Science in Society, and Jean Gayon, chair of the philosophy department at the University of Burgundy, co-organized an international symposium in honor of Marjorie Grene , honorary distinguished professor and adjunct professor of philosophy and science studies. The symposium, held at the University of Burgundy, was devoted to "Conceptions of Science: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow." It featured symposiasts from eight countries, four from Virginia Tech: Grene, "The Life of Science and the Science of Life"; Roger Ariew of philosophy, "Pierre Duhem and the German Spirit"; Joseph Pitt of philosophy, "Seeing Nature: The Emergence of Scientific Observation"; and Burian, "`Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution' (Th. Dobzhansky)." Ariew and Pitt also served on the program committee.

Burian gave three presentations in Europe this past summer. He presented "Coutagne, Delage, and the Reception of Weismann in France" at the second meeting of a new French Society for History and Philosophy of Biology. "The Role of Technique: Some Transformations Wrought by Use of RNAse and Staining Techniques, 1938-1952" was one of six papers in a symposium organized by the Free University of Brussels at a meeting of the International Society for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology in Leuven, Belgium. "On Conflicts Between Genetic and Developmental Viewpoints-and their Resolution in Molecular Biology" was an invited address at the 10th International Congress of Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science in Florence.

Burian also has published "Ontological Progress in Science," with co-author J.D. Trout, in The Canadian Journal of Philosophy ; "Comments on Hans-Jorg Rheinberger's `From Experimental Systems to Cultures of Experimentation'" in Concepts, Theories, and Rationality in the Biological Sciences: The Second Pittsburgh-Konstanz Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science.

Rachel Holloway of the communication-studies department is one of 12 authors recognized as contributors to the award-winning book, Eisenhower's War of Words , edited by Martin J. Medhurst. The book has been selected as a winner of the 1995 Marie Hochmuth Nichols Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Public Address by the Speech Communication Association.

Sam Riley of the communication-studies department offered a workshop for graduate students and new faculty members on "Avoiding the Delivery of Verbal Chloroform: How to Do a Skillful Conference Presentation" at the annual National Convention of the American Journalism Historians Association in Tulsa, Okla.

Ed Sewell of the communication-studies department presented two papers at the International Humour Conference in Birmingham, England. One was on editorial cartoon images of Pope John Paul II and the other on the effect of varying levels of language intensity on joke appreciation. He also chaired a panel on international comics and cartoons with participants from Romania, South Africa, and the United States.

Sewell also attended the annual meeting of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists and is the only "academic" who is an associate member and attends annual meetings of the professional association of Canadian and U.S. editorial cartoonists. Cartoonists from Ireland, Israel, Palestine, South Africa, Hong Kong, and the Philippines attended.

Jacqueline Bixler, associate professor of foreign languages, presented a paper on the theater of Mexican playwright Hector Azar at the Third Annual Congress on Latin American Theatre in Puebla, Mexico, in July. She later was a member of a special panel on "Emilio Carballido Abroad," which formed part of a national homage being paid to Carballido throughout Mexico as he celebrates his 45th year of playwriting. The roundtable was presented in both Mexico City and Queretaro, Mexico.

Bixler recently published two essays: "Signs of Absence in Pavlovsky's `Theatre of Memory'" in Latin American Theatre Review and "From Indecency to Ideology: Sociosemiotic Subversion in Secret Obscenities " in an edited collection of play translations and essays on Chilean dramatist Marco Antonio de la Parra. She also had an essay on Carballido's play Photograph on the Beach in a collection of essays and Mexican plays published in German translation in Berlin.