DID YOU KNOW? NEWSPAPER READERSHIP PROGRAM RECYCLES
Did you know...1.6 tons of newspaper are recycled each day at Penn State's University Park campus, producing enough material to cover the entire Beaver Stadium football field with newspapers 19.5 inches deep. It has also saved 15,385 trees and 2,710 cubic yards of landfill space. Last year, Penn State students, through the Newspaper Readership Program, read more than 1.8 million local, state and national newspapers. For more information on the University's Newspaper Readership Program, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/newspaper/
RESEARCH REVEALS HOW CELLS PROTECT AGAINST STRESS
Stress happens, and over the eons all species of living things have evolved all sorts of ways to cope. Penn State's Sarah Assmann, the University's Waller Professor of Plant Biology, is leading research which has revealed that organisms as diverse as humans and plants share a common set of stress-protection maneuvers that are choreographed by the metabolic machinery in their cells. "We have shown, in more detail than was known before, the chain of cellular events that begins with an environmental stress and ends with an organism's protective response to that stress," Assmann says. "We also have discovered some previously unknown steps in that process." Among the team's discoveries is that one cellular-processing step that originally was discovered in human cells also occurs in plant cells. "A human autoimmune disease and a disorder associated with breast cancer are known to result from a defect in this process, " adds Assmann. This research will be published in the August 15 issue of the journal Nature. For more on this story, go to http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Assmann8-2002-2.htm
BOOK EXPLORES THE LARGEST RIVER ON THE EAST COAST
As the largest river on the east coast of the United States, the rolling Susquehanna River is the indispensable tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, the nation's largest estuary. Gathering strength from scores of streams along its 444-mile journey, the river delivers half of the freshwater the bay requires to maintain its ecological balance. "Down the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake," published by Penn State Press, traces the course of the Susquehanna River through New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to the bay. For more information on the book, visit http://www.psupress.org/news/susquehanna.html. For more information on Penn State Press, visit http://www.psupress.org.
JIM AND DIANE RYAN TO RETIRE FROM ADMINISTRATIVE POSTS
Two key positions at Penn State will open simultaneously next year when the husband-wife team of Jim and Diane Ryan retires. Jim Ryan, vice president for outreach and cooperative extension, and Diane Ryan, executive director of the Penn State Alumni Association, have announced that they both plan to retire from the University in the summer of 2003. These leadership positions, in both the Alumni Association and outreach and cooperative extension, are the most exciting in the country and demand extraordinary commitment and energy, said the Ryans. We are at the point in our lives where we want time to explore our own interests and personal development while were still healthy and have each other. We can't do that and do justice to these critical positions. We both feel extremely fortunate to have had these roles with Penn State and we're proud to hand them over to those who will follow and continue the tradition of leadership and innovation. For more on this story, including the contributions of the Ryans to Penn State over the years, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2002/ryanretirements.html
ALTOONA CAMPUS COMMISSIONS FIRST MILITARY OFFICER
For the first time, Penn State Altoona commissioned a second lieutenant as part of the campus' Army Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program. 2LT Ben Wilson of Tyrone, Pa., was commissioned by Major Dwayne Hynes, ROTC program director, following his graduation from Penn State Altoona earlier this month. 2LT Wilson was assigned to active duty in the transportation corps. Following his completion of Officer Basic Course at Fort Eustis, Va., his first assignment will be in Seoul, Korea. The University hosts Army ROTC units at five Penn State campuses; Air Force and Navy ROTC join the Army with hubs at the University Park campus (Marine Corps officer candidates train through the Navy ROTC program). The programs are annually ranked among the nation's best ROTC units. For more on Army ROTC at Penn State, go to http://www.psu.edu/dept/armyrotc/ for information on Navy ROTC, go to http://navy.rotc.psu.edu/; and for more on Air Force ROTC, go to http://www.psu.edu/dept/acad_afrotc/.