PROTEIN ENGINEERING RESEARCH TO BENEFIT FROM GIFT
A Penn State faculty member and his wife have given more than $700,000 to the Eberly College of Science and the Department of Chemical Engineering in support of protein engineering research. The gift came from Evan Pugh professor of chemistry and holder of the Eberly Family chair in chemistry Stephen Benkovic and his wife, Patricia. Protein engineering uses the tools of molecular biology and chemical engineering to synthesize and isolate new proteins for a wide range of uses, including as therapeutics, biosensing, catalysis and as structural elements. Stephen Benkovic is world renowned for his preeminent scholarly contributions to molecular biology and biological chemistry. He is widely recognized for his work on DNA replication via polymerases, protein dynamics and catalysis, as well as for the development of new antibiotics by rational mechanistic means. For the full story by Mike Bezilla, visit http://www.psu.edu/ur/2001/bot21sept01benkovic.html.
MINORITY MBA STUDENT ASSOCIATION RECEIVES GRANT
The Minority MBA Student Association in Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration has been awarded an equipment grant through Hewlett-Packard Company's Philanthropy Program. The award includes an HP desktop computer, monitor and printer, as well as assistance in covering registration fees for national conferences. HP University Impact Awards are part of HP's initiative to increase the number of women and underrepresented graduates in the areas of engineering, computer science and business by awarding equipment grants to selected universities. Our minority MBA Student Association will utilize this equipment to enhance the climate for underrepresented students at Smeal College. Not only will the HP equipment facilitate fundraising activities toward minority scholarships, it also will encourage networking opportunities with prior minority MBA graduates, says Vernis Welmon, assistant to the dean for Diversity Enhancement in the Smeal College. For the full story by Steve Infanti, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/depth/september01/grant.html.
PENN STATE LAUNCHES SPEAKER SERIES ON E-BUSINESS
Penn State's eBusiness Research Center (eBRC) launches its Fall 2001 Distinguished Speaker Series at 6 p.m. on Thursday, September 27, in 104 Keller Building with two business leaders. Gary Benesko, Global Alliance Executive with IBM Global Services, will speak on the globalization of e-business. Nitin Nayak, of Enterprise Solutions Research, will then discuss collaborative commerce and dynamic e-business. The speaker series is dedicated to exploring how the Internet is changing business theory and practice. The event is free and open to the public. For more information on the speaker series, visit http://www.ebrc.psu.edu/speaker_series.html. eBRC is a joint effort of the School of Information Sciences and Technology and the Smeal College of Business Administration. For the full story, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/depth/september01/speaker.html.
WORK POLICIES MUST MOVE INTO THE NEW CENTURY
Coping with increasingly long work hours, finding adult and child daycare, missing that first step and rarely seeing one's spouse--all are issues facing today's American work force. While the problems of working families enjoyed a brief flurry of attention during last year's presidential campaign, attention has since dwindled. To put these issues back on the national agenda, the Sloan Foundation's Work-Family Policy Network this month released a Call to Action and a report focused on changing existing policies to alleviate these persisting family pressures. The Network calls on the administration, state and local governments, business and labor to each do its part to put a concerted approach in place. Integrating Work and Family Life: A Holistic Approach, co-authored by Robert Drago, professor of labor studies at Penn State, and others, suggests ways in which each party can help working families while achieving their own objectives. For the full story by A'ndrea Elyse Messer, visit http://www.psu.edu/ur/2001/workliferpt.html.
GODBEY TO RECEIVE ROOSEVELT RESERACH AWARD
Geoffrey C. Godbey, professor of leisure studies in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development, has been selected to receive the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Award for Excellence in Recreation and Park Research from the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). He will receive the award during the NRPA annual congress in Denver, Col., in early October. The award is given annually for contributions to recreation and park research that have significantly advanced the cause of the recreation movement. Godbey has conducted research on leisure, work, time use and tourism for more than 30 years. His recent studies have focused on constraints to leisure participation, the future use of forests for recreation, older people's use of local recreation and park services, the impact of ethnic change on outdoor recreation, relations between health and use of leisure and the impact of changing demographics on use of free time. For the full story by S. William Hessert, Jr., visit http://www.hhdev.psu.edu/news/pressrel/09_07_01.html.