HEARD ON CAMPUS: SPEAKERS AT WATERBURY FORUM, SALA GROUNDBREAKING
"The greatest idea people in America are not writing great novels or making great movies in Hollywood. They are on Madison Avenue trying to figure out how to sell us pimple cream."

Sut Jhally, professor of communications at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, speaking last week at the Waterbury Forum lecture on critical thought and democracy, sponsored by the College of Education. For more information, visit http://www.ed.psu.edu/news/jhally.asp

"I was recently talking with an alumnus who said '40 years ago, we were saying that in only a few years, we'd have a new building.'"

Richard Durst, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture, speaking last week at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA) Building. For more information, visit http://www.artsandarchitecture.psu.edu/news/SALAgroundbreaking.html

 

$10 MILLION STUCKEMAN GIFT TARGETS NEW HOME FOR SALA
Penn State's plans to construct a new home for its School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA) are now becoming reality, thanks to a $10 million gift from a Pittsburgh couple, H. Campbell "Cal" Stuckeman and his late wife, Eleanor Stuckeman. Cal Stuckeman, a 1937 Penn State graduate and a registered architect, is retired president and chairman of The Precise Corporation, a manufacturer of machine tools and measuring devices. Eleanor Stuckeman participated in planning for their gift before she passed away in January 2002. The University's Board of Trustees will be asked to recognize the donors' generosity and vision by naming the facility the Stuckeman Family Building, according to President Graham B. Spanier. Ground-breaking ceremonies were held Saturday (March 29); construction is scheduled for completion by August 2004. For the full story by Mike Bezilla, visit http://www.psu.edu/ur/2003/stuckemangift03.html

 

DOOMED MATTER NEAR BLACK HOLE GETS SECOND LEASE ON LIFE
Supermassive black holes, notorious for ripping apart and swallowing stars, might also help seed interstellar space with the elements necessary for life and spur the creation of new stars. A group of Penn State and Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists has measured high-speed winds from the cores of two quasar galaxies and found that as much as a billion suns' worth of such materials as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and iron blow out into space over the course of a quasar's lifetime. Different from high-speed jets shooting off subatomic particles, the newly identified gusts arise from the disk of matter orbiting the black hole, once thought to be a one-way ticket into the black hole. The results were presented this week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Canada. High-resolution images of the quasars studied in this research are at http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Chartas3-2003.htm For the full story by Christopher Wanjek at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, visit http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Chartas3-2003.htm

 

STUDY SHOWS NEW GEL CAN HELP ROSACEA SUFFERERS
A new topical gel may offer hope to the 14 million Americans with rosacea, a chronic skin condition marked by periods of facial flushing, redness, lesions and pustules. Results from two trials reported by principal investigator, Diane Thiboutot, an associate professor of dermatology in Penn State's College of Medicine, showed that azelaic acid 15 percent gel (AzA gel) significantly reduced redness and the number of bumps and pimples in patients with moderate facial rosacea. Thiboutot presented the results at a recent meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology. "Currently there are some patients whose rosacea doesn't respond well to available therapies," Thiboutot said. "The approval of AzA gel offers an additional alternative for these patients." Rosacea most often affects fair-skinned adults in their 30s. Because it is found primarily on the face, rosacea can have psychological and social effects on sufferers who become anxious or embarrassed about their appearance. For the full story, visit http://www.hmc.psu.edu/news/pr/2003/index.htm#March

 

SPANIER, INGOLD WIN PENN STATE INTRAMURAL RACQUETBALL TITLE
Penn State President Graham B. Spanier and Fredina Ingold, director of athletics at Penn State Altoona, won their third consecutive intramural racquetball championship during a competition held on Saturday (March 29) at Rec Hall on the University Park campus. Spanier and Ingold defeated Jesse and Aliza Richman, 15-6 and 15-3, to take the title. For the full story from The Daily Collegian, visit

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2003/03/03-31-03tdc/03-31-03dsports-01.asp