Spectrum - Volume 17 Issue 08 October 13, 1994 - Achievers

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Achievers

Spectrum Volume 17 Issue 08 - October 13, 1994

Sally Harris , public relations coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences, won a second- place national award from the National Federation of Press Women for her short story "The Haircut."

Virginia Tech will be among the universities with the greatest representation in the country when three professional societies--History of Science Society (HSS), The Philosophy of Science Association (PSA), and the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S)--hold a joint meeting in New Orleans October 13- 16.

Richard Burian , director of the Center for the Study of Science in Society (CSSS), was chair of the program committee for the PSA. Graduate students and faculty from Virginia Tech will serve as session organizers for four sessions and symposiasts for three, deliver papers at 16, and serve as commentators at two and chair of nine sessions.

Participants in the meetings come from the Center for the Study of Science in Society (CSSS) and the departments of history, philosophy, and sociology. They are as follows:

In the PSA meeting, Valerie Hardcastle , philosophy, "Psychology and the Semantic View" (as part of a symposium on Philosophy of Psychology as Philosophy of Science); Steve Fuller , CSSS and the University of Durham, "Retrieving the Point of the Realism-Instrumentalism Debate: Mach vs. Planck on Science Education Policy"; Deborah G. Mayo , philosophy, "The New Experimentalism, Topical Hypotheses, and Learning From Error" (as part of a symposium on Statistics and Experimental Reasoning).

In the HSS meeting, graduate student Moira Rogers , CSSS, "The Mythic World of Reason: Popular Science in German Culture ca. 1687- 1740"; Peter Barker, CSSS and philosophy, "Kuhn and the Sociological Revolution" (as part of a symposium on Reconstructing Scientific Revolutions: Thomas Kuhn's Philosophy of Science, chaired and organized by Peter Barker ); and graduate student Ahmed Bouzid , CSSS, "The Prophet and the Knowledge of "Non- Believers."

In the 4S meeting, graduate students Shannon Hegg and Juan Lucena and Gary Lee Downey , CSSS, "Weeded Out: Critical Reflection in Engineering Education"; Downey , "Cyborg Theorizing" as part of a symposium on Reworking Agency: Working in Other Agents; Marianne de Laet , Utrecht University (visiting professor, CSSS), "Savage Visions: Visions of the Savage: Social Theory, Anthropology and Social Studies of Science" as part of a symposium on Reworking Agency: Working in Other Agents; graduate student Garrit Curfs , CSSS, "Science as Practice: An Alternative to Kuhn"; graduate student Juan Rogers , CSSS, "The Politics of Meaning in the Implementation of the Information Infrastructure" and discussant in a symposium on The Politics and Rhetoric of the Information Age; Ellsworth Furhman , sociology and CSSS, "Feyerabend, Multiculturalism and Agonistic Politics" (as part of a Feyerabend Memorial Symposium); graduate student Michael W. Seltzer , CSSS, "Atomic Testing and Population Genetics: The Atomic Energy Commission and the Classical "Balance Controversy, 1946- 1963"; graduate student Anne C. Fitzpatrick , CSSS, "Nowhere to Hide: Scientists, the AEC, and Civil Defense in the Early Cold War" (part of a symposium organized by Seltzer and Fitzpatrick on American Nuclear Policy and Domestic Culture, 1946- 1963); graduate student Karen Bishop , sociology, "Alternative Uses of Technology in the Workplace"; graduate student Douglas Taylor , CSSS, "The Manufacturing of Environment and Body Through the Lens of Class"; Deborah Mayo , philosophy, discussant in a symposium on Changing the Terms of the Biotechnology Debate; and graduate student Ahmed Bouzid , CSSS, "Abortion and Contraception: `Uni- 'vs. `Multi- 'Cultural Contexts."

James E. McGrath , professor of chemistry, presented an invited lecture titled "Synthesis and Characterization of New Phosphorus- Containing Macromolecules" at the second Ibero- American Polymer Symposium/fourth Latin American Polymer Symposium/sixth International Macromolecular Colloquium held in September by the Brazilian Polymer Association in Granado, Brazil. McGrath also visited the Federal Rio Grande Institute of the Sun in Brazil.

Craig Fields , associate professor of music, was named general director of Opera Roanoke as of July 1, 1994.

Bernard F. Dukore , university distinguished professor of theatre arts and humanities, has had the proceedings of the international Bernard Shaw conference held at Virginia Tech in 1992 published by Pennsylvania State University Press. 1992: Shaw and The Last Hundred Years is a hardcover book with the same title as the conference. It was edited by Dukore, who organized the conference. Included in the volume is a revised version of "Shaw and American Drama," which Dukore presented at the conference.

Robert H. Leonard, associate professor of theatre arts, has had Blind Desire , a play by the Road Company Ensemble under his direction, published in the anthology New Plays From The Southern Theater . Leonard served as a summer training faculty member for the Arts Extension Service at the University of Massachusetts and also developed and implemented new curriculum for training arts presenters in artist/community partnerships. He served on the steering committee for Rural Southern Voice for the Peace Summer 1994 Training Program to identify and begin to train performer conflict response teams.

Leonard served as project artistic director for "Understanding: The Struggle For Community," a two- week artistic residency project in Selma, Ala. The project was a collaboration between the Selma/Dallas County Council for the Arts and eight performance artists from the Southeast to create an innovative arts residency geared to serve the specific needs of Selma.

Wayne Moore, assistant professor of political science, was an invited participant in a summer seminar in jurisprudence and constitutional theory sponsored by the New York University School of Law.

Richard C. Rich , head of political science, has made a number of presentations on environmental risk communication and hazardous materials safety. He addressed a plenary session of the Hazardous Materials Transportation and Emergency Management National Conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and made a presentation to the staff of the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington. He also was an invited participant at the National Conference on Risk Communication sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and he consulted with the City of Albuquerque, N.M., on the integration of hazardous materials safety and land use planning. He also spoke to the South Florida Regional Planning Council in Miami concerning the role of risk communication in environmental management.

Several members of the statistics department at Virginia Tech participated in the Joint Statistical Meetings of the American Statistical Association and the Biometrics Society in Toronto, Canada, in August. Faculty member Panickos Palettas presented the poster Session "Novel Laboratory Instruction in Undergraduate Statistics Curricula" and organized and chaired the session "Nonparametric Bayesian Analysis."

Doctoral student Alexandra Kapatou presented the paper "Multivariate Nonparametric Control Charts for Short Production Runs."

Statistics doctoral student Alexandra Kapatou presented the paper "Multivariate Nonparametric Sequential Testing Using Small Samples" at the Eastern North American Region meetings of The Biometric Society in Cleveland.

Jill Kiecolt , associate professor of sociology, has been invited to serve as a consulting editor of the American Journal of Sociology , the oldest and one of the most widely read journals in sociology. It was started by the University of Chicago in 1895.

Joyce Rothschild , professor of sociology, served as guest editor of a special volume of Human Relations titled Gender and Organizational Life . The volume asks how the presence of women is altering organizational life and extends the understanding of the ways the changing gender composition of workplaces may be ushering in a more non- hierarchal and collaborative culture at work. In its 48th year of publication, Human Relations is one of the oldest journals in the field of organizational studies.

Ray Smoot, vice president for finance and treasurer, has been appointed by Virginia Gov. George Allen to the Regional Economic Development Advisory Council for District 3. The governor has formed these regional councils to advise state leaders as they form a new statewide strategic economic development planning process. The District 3 council serves the counties of Alleghany, Botetourt, Craig, Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, Pulaski, and Roanoke and the cities of Clifton Forge, Covington, Radford, Roanoke and Salem.

John Wicks , a College of Engineering Ph.D. candidate from Jackson, Miss., has been awarded a General Electric Foundation Fellowship for the 1994- 1995 academic year. The General Electric Foundation awards the fellowships to minorities and women graduate students in engineering, physical sciences, and business. The goal of the fellowship program is to encourage recipients to pursue academic careers. Each fellowship pays the recipient's tuition, fees and a stipend.

Wicks, who intends to teach at the university level, is an electrical-engineering major. Working with his major professor James R. Armstrong , Wicks is conducting research on the design of computer circuits.

Two Virginia Tech dairy faculty members were honored at this year's meeting of the Dairy Science Association. Receiving awards were Bennet G. Cassell , Virginia Cooperative Extension dairy scientist in genetics and management, and Ronald E. Pearson , professor of dairy science. Cassell received the Merck AgVet Dairy Management Research Award for his outstanding research in management of dairy cattle and dairy farms. Pearson received the J.L. Lush Award in Animal Breeding.

Chester L. Foy, weed science professor, chaired the Formulations Forum '94, the first symposium specifically devoted to review developments and issues in agricultural formulations. The Washington meeting drew more than 200 formulations and agricultural chemists from 32 countries and 170 companies. Foy also has served as president of the Weed Science Society of America and the International Weed Science Society.

Eustace Frederick, a 1952 graduate of the mining engineering program at Virginia Tech, is the recipient of the 1994 Professional Award for Coal Mining, Health, Safety and Research. He received the award at the 25th Institute on Mining Health, Safety and Research held at Virginia Tech.

Assistant professor Doris Kincade of the Department of Clothing and Textiles has been named to the "1994 Who's Who in Education."

Rinn Cloud, associate professor and assistant department head of the Department of Clothing and Textiles, has received the first Association of Administrators of Home Economics (AAHE) $1,500 scholarship attendance at the Experiment Station Committee on Organization and Policy/Academic Programs Committee on Organization and Policy Leadership Development Course 4. The leadership-development course is "designed for faculty members who aspire to develop and refine their leadership skills so they can more effectively contribute to their State Agricultural Experiment Station's research program and College of Agriculture's Academic Program." Cloud is the second faculty member of the College of Human Resources to received the training.

Dean Peggy S. Meszaros of the College of Human Resources was inducted as president of the American Home Economics Association at its annual meeting in San Diego. Among her first duties as president was to preside over the vote that changed the organization's name to the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. Rep. Jim Shuler, delegate 12th District, appointed Meszaros to his Higher Education Advisory Council, which will follow legislative bills and budget issues and offer counsel to Shuler.

Meszaros has also been selected by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools as a site visitor for the review of the College of Human Sciences and general administration of Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Michael J. Sporakowski, professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Family and Child Development, has been elected president- elect of the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR). His term will begin this November and he assume the duties of president in November 1995. Sporakowski has previously served NCFR as editor of Family Relations: Journal of Applied Family and Child Studies , vice president for publications, chairman of the Family Action Section, and president of the Southeastern and Virginia Councils on Family Relations. He is a member of the Enrichment and Education, and Family Therapy sections and holds the NCFR designation of Certified Family Life Educator.