MOUNTAIN FRONT RESERVOIRS CONTROL GREAT SALT LAKE
Major cycles in the size and depth of Utah's Great Salt Lake are known from as far back as the 19th century, but now a Penn State researcher suggests an explanation for the seemingly odd behavior of the lake. "In the 1980s, the Great Salt Lake was very high," said Dr. Christopher J. Duffy, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. "Twenty years earlier, in the 1960s, the lake was so low that there was talk of it drying up." The long-term fluctuations of the Great Salt Lake do not directly match the fluctuations of the rainfall and snowfall, since rain and snow in the Wasatch Mountains move rapidly downhill to the lake each season. To explain how the mountain-front stores the water, is to explain the cycles in the lake. For the complete story by A’ndrea Messer, go to: http://www.psu.edu/ur/2000/saltlake.html 

WEB-BASED LECTURES BRINGS EXPERTS TO SMEAL COLLEGE
Internationally known actuaries and insurance experts are being welcomed into university classrooms through an inter-active Web-based lecture series developed by Arnold F. Shapiro, professor of actuarial science and insurance and the Robert G. Schwartz Faculty Fellow in the Smeal College of Business Administration. The series features experts in finance, mathematics, actuarial science, and insurance. The first module in the series, "Mathematical Paradigms in Insurance and Finance," features Hans Buhlmann, one of the best known actuary in the world. It has received plaudits from both industry leaders and university faculty members. For a longer version of this story by Bill Campbell, go to http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/depth/nov00/webbased.html 

CIVIL ENGINEERING PROFESSOR RECEIVES DOE GRANT
Paul J. Tikalsky, associate professor of civil engineering, has received a $1.7 million grant from a consortium that includes the Department of Energy, General Motors, the American Foundrymen's Society, Process Recovery Corporation, Badger Mining, and other state foundry associations. The grant will fund a project titled "Development of Technical Data to Validate Performance of Foundry Byproducts in Control Low-Strength Material and Hot-Mix Asphalt." Tikalsky's research will focus on the technical barriers associated with recycling foundry byproducts. Currently, reuse of foundry sands and slags in engineered applications, such as highway and utility construction, is limited due to a lack of technical documentation. Tikalsky will develop specifications and performance data for reusing foundry byproducts in asphalt concrete and backfill materials. http://www.engr.psu.edu/news/ 

PENN STATE ANNOUNCES BIG TEN PARTNERSHIP
Three major Big Ten universities have forged a partnership to support university outreach and engagement. Penn State, Ohio State and the University of Wisconsin-Extension will sponsor a series of national conferences to share and explore best practices for institutions of higher education who conduct outreach and public service. James H. Ryan, vice president for Outreach and Cooperative Extension, said.. "Our universities are adopting new, community-focused models to fulfill our social responsibilities, communicate new research directly with the audiences who need it, and ensure that our scholarship is relevant to current challenges facing individuals, organizations, and communities." The first of the sponsored conferences will take place October 14-16 of next year. For the full story by Celena E. Kusch, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2000/psubig10.html For more, go to http://www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/OutreachScholarship2001. 

PETERSON TO STUDY PROTEINS RELATED TO BREAST CANCER
Blake Peterson, assistant professor of chemistry, has received a Concept Award from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command to study protein interactions involved in biochemical resistance of breast cancer to chemotherapy treatments. His project proposes to seek ways to inhibit interactions between coactivator proteins and estrogen receptors with synthetic molecules. These protein-protein interactions are thought to allow a majority of tumors to develop resistance to chemotherapy treatments with the anti-cancer drug tamoxifen. With his work, Peterson hopes to chemically synthesize and identify molecules that block interactions between coactivators and estrogen receptors, which would allow the strategy to be further tested in animal models of drug-resistant breast cancer. For more on this story by Steve Sampsell, go to http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Peterson11-2000.htm 

CORPORATE SPONSORS JOIN LOGISTICS RESEARCH CENTER
The Center for Logistics Research the Smeal College of Business Administration recently added Cisco Systems, Inc., Panasonic Logistics Company of America, and PricewaterhouseCoopers as corporate sponsors. "The goal of the Corporate Sponsorship program is to create comprehensive logistics research and education partnerships between the center and a limited number of member firms," says William L. Grenoble, executive director and Senior research associate for the Center. Sponsors promote the research objectives of the center through financial support, participation on a research advisory board, and through direct participation in research projects. For more business news, go to http://www.smeal.psu.edu. 

A QUESTION FOR DR. SPANIER: BRIAN HEALY ON PSU MYTHS
Editor's Note: Each Beaver Stadium Pictorial this season contains a column in which distinguished individuals pose questions about Penn State to President Graham Spanier. Today’s question is from Brian Healy, the Washington producer for the CBS News program SUNDAY MORNING, covering politics, religion and the arts. He has been at CBS since 1972. Healy is a 1967 journalism/communications graduate of Penn State.

HEALY: What is the biggest misconception about Penn State that you would like to do away with or dispel?

SPANIER: Perhaps that we are too big to care, too big to provide personal attention, or too big to achieve excellence in all that we do. I truly believe that Penn State has, throughout modern history, been able to make a large university work in a very personal way. We often speak of "the Penn State family," and it has been a priority of mine to "put people first."