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
Eileen Shugart, teaching-assistant coordinator for the mathematics department, along with the department's senior Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTA's) Lesa Beverly, George Moss, and Nathan Smith, recently presented a panel session at the 6th National Conference on the Education and Employment of Graduate Teaching Assistants held in Minneapolis, Minn. They were joined on the panel by Gail Mackin, a former math senior GTA now on the faculty of Georgia Southern University. The title of the presentation was "The TA Experience: A Springboard to Future Professions." Both Mackin and Beverly were recipients of Teaching Leadership Awards sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, providing funding for their trip to the conference, and were honored at a special breakfast for award winners during the conference.
Jeffrey B. Birch of the Department of Statistics presented the invited paper "Model Robust Regression: Motivation, Results, and Applications" at the third annual U. S. Army Conference on Applied Statistics at George Mason University.
Elizabeth C. Calvera, instructor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, co-presented a program with Joyce Dittrich of Roanoke County on "Culture: How Foreign Is It?" at the annual meeting of the Foreign Language Association of Virginia in Richmond. Calvera also co-presented a paper with Jacqueline Bixler of foreign languages on "From Page to Stage: Pedagogical Strategies from Two Amateur Directors" at the third annual National Conference on Theater in Academe at Washington and Lee University in Lexington.
Marjorie Grene, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of California, Davis, and adjunct professor and honorary distinguished professor in the Department of Philosophy, traveled to France to recieve an honorary doctorate at the University of Burgandy. The recipients include one other American, one Swiss, one Hungarian, and two Germans. Grene was the only representative of the humanities and the only woman in the group.
Gary Hardcastle and Eric Watkins, both in the philosophy department, recently presented papers at the Virginia Philosophical Association annual meeting. Hardcastle's paper was entitled "The Present Status of Epistemic Naturalism," and Watkins's was "Kant's Justification of the Laws of Mechanics."
John Aughenbaugh, political science instructor and Center for Public Administration and Policy (CPAP) doctoral student, and Kevin Long, CPAP doctoral student, presented a paper entitled "The Ignorance of Conventional Wisdom: Institutional Reform as a Management Process" on a panel on Administration and Reform in the Legal System at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association.
Michael W. Hyer, a professor of engineering science and mechanics, has been elected president-elect of the American Society for Composites. Hyer is conducting several research projects in the field of composites, and also is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Composite Materials, the Journal of Composite Technology and Research, and Science and Engineering of Composite Materials. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a member of the American Academy of Mechanics and the Society for Advanced Materials and Process Engineering.
In October, Professor D.P.H. Hasselman of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering received the International Thermal Conductivity (ITC) Award. The ITC Conference presented the award in recognition of experimental and theoretical contributions Hasselman has made toward the understanding of thermophysical properties of materials, including thermal shock fracture, thermal conductivity, and thermal diffusivity. The ITC award, established in 1965, has been presented to only 21 researchers. Hasselman, who also was elected to chair the board of the ITC Conference, has received numerous honors since joining the Virginia Tech faculty in 1977. He was elected to the International Academy of Ceramics, an organization whose membership is limited to 100 members; he was named an ITC fellow; and he won the Humboldt Prize, awarded by the German Government, and the Joseph Jeppson Gold Medal, awarded by the American Ceramic Society. Hasselman's research focuses on mechanical and thermal properties and thermal stress fracture of structural materials for high-temperature applications.
The National Assocation of Purchasing Management (NAPM) has awarded the certification of Lifetime Certified Purchasing Manager (C.P.M.) to Sid Brewbaker and Annie Taylor of the Purchasing Department. This designation is awarded to persons who have extensive purchasing experience and have maintained a continuing program of educational development related to their profession.
The Department of Food Science and Technology sponsored the 11th Annual Virginia Dairy Quality Control Conference in September. The conference provided an update of the Virginia Dairy Foods Research Program. Susan Duncan, associate professor of food science and technology, discussed "Dairy Products: The Next Generation." Cameron Hackney, professor of food science and technology, presented a talk on "Fruit Juice Safety." Susan Sumner, associate professor of food science and technology, gave a presentation on "Writing Sanitation Operating Procedures."
Sumner and Hackney also presented a workshop on dairy processing in Newport News.
Sumner made two presentations, "Public Health Concerns with Cheese Manufacture" and "BSE in Milk" at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Milk meeting in Morgantown, W.Va.
Sumner also made a presentation entitled "Ethical Issues in Food Sciences" at the Bioethics Conference Sponsored by the Science Museum of Virginia at the Virginia Biotechnology Park in Richmond. Speakers were invited from medical facilities from across the country
Bruce Zoecklein, assistant professor and enology specialist in the Department of Food Science and Technology, has been invited to participate in a conference sponsored by Purdue University on wine processing. His presentation will be "The chemistry of wine color and flavor."
Zoecklein has also been invited to present a paper at the Mid-West Grape and Wine Conference in January. He will discuss his aroma and flavor precousor research in a presentation titled "Viticultural and Enological Factors Influencing Grape-Derived Aroma and Flavor."
Leslie Pendleton Graham, coordinator of student support services for Minority Engineering Programs, provided a presentation entitled "Non-Traditional Career Choice: Are School Counselors Shortchanging Girls" at the Virginia Counselors Association conference in Richmond, November 12-15. The contents of this presentation, based upon dissertation research findings, are being submitted for publication in a school-counseling journal.