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The lives and works of African American writers, poets, dramatists, filmmakers, activists, artists, musicians and steelworkers are among the topics that will be covered by an interdisciplinary research seminar June 22-28 at University Park.
The seminar, "African American Traditions," is being presented by Penn State's Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies, in collaboration with many other University offices.
One of the aims of this seminar is to find ways of translating advanced research in the arts and humanities so that it goes beyond boundaries of academic discussion and has an impact on everyday lives, values and aspirations. In addition to the presentation of scholarly papers and discussions, the seminar also will include a staged reading of "Brother's Keeper," a new play by Charles Dumas, associate professor of theatre arts at Penn State; a screening of two films with African American themes; and a performance by jazz scholar and saxophonist Barry Kernfeld and area musicians.
The seminar is focused on an interdisciplinary exchange of new and emerging work in the arts and humanities and its topics are organized along three broad outlines: the social thought on race and culture of W.E.B. DuBois and other African Americans in public life; the linkages of African and African American cultures; and African American art.
Individual topics include W.E.B. DuBois on race and culture; "double
consciousness" in African American literature; African American leadership
and progressive politics; West African griots (musicians/
entertainers) and the African American tradition; African metaphors in African
American art; and the struggles of African American steelworkers.
The seminar will be held at the Penn State Conference Center and Hotel.
For more information, contact Sue Reighard at the institute, (814) 865-0495 or via e-mail at iahs@psu.edu.
"Nutrition and Fitness for Healthy Aging" is the topic of a noon lecture on Thursday, May 8, at the Penn State Harrisburg Downtown Center.
William J. Evans, director of the Noll Physiological Research Center at University Park, will address the inactivity and poor dietary practices that are the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Evans will show how even small amounts of exercise practiced on a regular basis can have long-lasting effects. A question-and-answer period will follow the talk.
To register for this free presentation or for more information, call the center at (717) 783-0433.
Learn about air-bag sensor technology May 13
Joel A. Kubby from the Wilson Center for Research, Xerox Corp., will discuss micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) -- now found in air-bag crash sensors -- in a talk set for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, in 189 Materials Research Laboratory on the University Park campus.
In his talk, Kubby will review the promises and challenges in using this technology and will discuss Penn State's research and development program aimed at applying this technology within Xerox.
Kubby received his B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1980 and his Ph.D. in applied physics from Cornell University in 1985. From 1985 to 1987, he worked at Bell Labs in New Jersey in the area of scanning tunneling microscopy. In 1987, he joined Xerox.
Susan De Vos, associate scientist with the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will present a seminar titled "Living Arrangements and School Attendance Among Children 13 to 16 in Latin America." This seminar examines the relationship between school attendance and various family structures in 10 Latin American countries. The variation in this relationship across countries is intriguing and may relate to the differences in the meaning of consensual unions across parts of Latin America.
The seminar, sponsored by the Population Research Institute, will be held at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, May 13, in 406 Oswald Tower on the University Park campus. The public is invited to attend. Please contact Laura Zimmerman at (814) 865-0486 or lzimmer@pop.psu.edu for additional information.
Although winter keeps trying to make a comeback in much
of the state, spring is officially here. And with spring comes the inevitable
outdoor maintenance. Chris Yarger, left, and Tom Martin spent time recently
repairing wind damage on the roof of the Mushroom Research Center on the
University Park Campus. They and their co-workers at all University locations
will be busy in the coming weeks working hard to put back together what
the winter weather has attempted to take apart.
Photo: Greg Grieco
Penn State faculty and staff interested in collaborating with their colleagues at Penn State's key partner institutions in South Africa are invited to submit proposals for seed funding. Eligible partner institutions are the University of the Western Cape, the University of Cape Town, and the University of the Witwatersrand. Three awards ranging from $8,000 to $13,000 each are anticipated.
This funding is being made available to encourage faculty and staff to build on existing relationships by developing integrated projects combining two or more of the following components: curricular initiatives, human resource development, research collaboration and capacity building. Methods to achieve proposal objectives may include, but are not limited to, short-term academic exchanges and distance education initiatives.
Projects should be conceived so that the seed grant will be used to leverage external funding for a larger project with long-term sustainability entailing lasting benefits and/or positive institutional change at the participating universities. Participant support will be closely linked to the project objectives, which should strive to provide for a multiplier effect. Inclusion of Penn State faculty who have not had any international education experience at Penn State is encouraged.
Proposal deadline is Sept. 15, with a project implementation start date of January 1998. To request applications, please call Pam Gudeman at International Partnerships and Academic Linkages at (814) 865-0414.
Last fall, the College of Education, the Bellefonte Area and the State College Area school districts jointly applied to be a Holmes Local Partnership, a reconfigured continuation of the national Holmes Group.
The mission of the local partnership is "to improve the quality of prospective educators, practicing educators and the schools in which they serve, through the development of programs and models that serve local needs and contribute to the understanding of educator development and school reform."
The three partners will continue to develop activities, which extend back to the early 1990s and more recently have been pursued under Pennsylvania Goals 2000 funding. Pennsylvania Goals 2000 is a program set up by Gov. Tom Ridge that sets certain standards for education in the state to reach by the year 2000.
The partnership seeks to simultaneously and collaboratively reform the education of educators and schools based upon research and best practice.
To date, 75 partnerships of universities and schools and national organizations have become members of the Holmes Partnership in its first year. The Web site for the Holmes Partnership is http://www.udel.edu/holmes/
Penn State is seeking internal candidates for the position of associate dean for International Programs in the College of Agricultural Sciences. The candidate will be expected to develop dynamic, multidimensional international programs. The position is a half-time appointment with the remaining time devoted to teaching, research and/or extension responsibilities in one of the 12 academic units in the college. The associate dean is a member of the administrative team of the college and works cooperatively with the associate deans for research, extension and resident education. The associate dean for International Programs reports to the dean of the college.
The associate dean for International Programs will provide aggressive leadership and administer the college's international programs in research, teaching and extension. She/he will serve as spokesperson for the international programs of the college.
Specific responsibilities include: (1) providing aggressive leadership for the development, planning, coordination and management of international programs in cooperation with faculty, staff and administrators; (2) evaluating and communicating opportunities for international programs and assisting in their development, and maintaining liaison with appropriate federal and international agencies such as USDA, USAID, FAO/UN, World Bank, regional development banks and private foundations; (3) stimulating internationalization of the curriculum; (4) encouraging and assisting faculty and staff in securing external funding for international programs and developing international contacts and linkages;
(5) providing leadership in efforts to enhance the visibility of international programs of the college and to recognize and reward faculty and staff involvement in international activities; (6) representing the college on appropriate committees and to international programs in other colleges of the University, to the University Office of International Programs and the International Council, and serving on the board of directors of the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA); (7) supervising the Peace Corps recruitment program and providing liaison with the regional Peace Corps office; and (8) assisting with hosting of international visitors.
Candidates must have an earned doctorate in a field of study commonly associated with a college of agricultural sciences and hold a tenured academic position in her/his discipline, experience with international programs in agriculture, demonstrated leadership and administrative and management skills. The ability to work with people and communicate ideas effectively is critical. A commitment to the research, resident education and extension education missions of a land-grant university is essential, as is a demonstrated commitment to international programs.
Please send application (letter of application and curriculum vitae), nominations and inquiries to the following address: Charles W. Pitts, chair, Search Committee for Associate Dean for International Programs, Penn State, 201 Agricultural Administration Building, Box INT, University Park, Pa. 16802. Applications and nominations will be reviewed beginning June 2, and will be accepted until the position is filled.
Penn State is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.
Students in Gerald Lang's digital photography class use
state-of-the-art digital imaging equipment to capture and edit their photographs.
Photo: Greg Grieco
By Gabriel J. Welsch
College of Arts and Architecture
In a black room in Mitchell Building on the University Park campus lights flash, computer screens zip and drives click and hum. A thrum of activity centers at two points: large-format digital view cameras at each end of the room. Enthusiasm seems to overpower what could easily be viewed as daunting technological instruments.
Stepping over cords and ducking under light booms, typing at the keyboards, they could be agents at a command central for an organization, a high-tech surveillance team from a conspiracy movie. But they're not. They're students in a digital photography class, capturing images on this virtual answer to film -- a class made possible by the philanthropy of photographic giants Calumet Photographic Inc., Megavision Inc. and the Eastman Kodak Co.
Gerald Lang, professor of art, School of Visual Arts, has initiated a collaboration with a host of players to develop Penn State's new state-of-the-art digital imaging studio. Over the course of a year, Lang penned letters, made calls and traveled researching options and cultivating the relationships that eventually led to this digital imaging studio.
"I saw a student need," Lang said about his motivations to develop such a studio. "With the advent of digital imaging in the industry and the commercial world, our students needed this in order to be competitive in the marketplace. Penn State had nothing even remotely close, so I started looking for a way to bring the technology in and make it available to students."
Many of Lang's students also understood the need for digital imagery at Penn State. In fact, one of Lang's graduate students, Roberta Moore, was instrumental in finding space. Moore approached officials in University Photo/Graphics to see if it could provide a home for Lang's digital equipment and the students.
"It was a wonderful opportunity: a partnership between an academic division and a service unit rooted in a discipline both groups love -- photography," said Jackie Rosenfeld, director of marketing communications in University Photo Graphics. "To have Jerry Lang on site, with his students and state-of-the-art equipment, was seen by University Photo/Graphics folks as a once-in-a-professional-lifetime opportunity to learn about new directions in their field."
The opportunities now available through the digital photography studio are most apparent when contrasting traditional operational details. Time is an important factor in the new imaging studio. Each photograph taken is stored instantly, encoded as data and held in computer memory, so each photo is a "keeper," to be edited, replicated or adjusted as needed. In the studio, the image just taken is immediately available for evaluation on the computer screen. There is no need to make test photos that will need to be taken again. No film needs to be processed, no negatives printed, no darkroom or chemicals required. The time differential between making the photograph on film and seeing the image in print or transparency can be substantial. Because the digital imaging process eliminates that time factor, the development and refinement of photographic ideas can happen very quickly. Critical response to the images can happen at the same time the photographic idea is evolving. In teaching, research and the commercial world the implications are far-reaching.
Excited about the potential of the state-of-the-art, up-to-the-minute digital photography studio, Lang said, "The unique aspect of this photography class is that everyone is simultaneously in the studio. Photography is usually perceived as a very solitary art, one person out there with a camera or alone in the darkroom. Here, there's a collaboration on every photograph. It's the most social photography class I've ever taught."
As Lang's own work is renowned for its concern with antique processes, it seems odd that an expert antiquarian is working with digital photography. Although this technology is perhaps 80 years removed from his previous work, Lang said his interest arises from similar curiosity.
"I'm interested in digital imaging in the same way I'm interested in antique processes: what it's about, how is it different, how does it work, what is the creative process and how that creative process is influenced by the technology."
For now, Lang is working with curriculum he developed while on sabbatical last year, but his plans foresee outreach and service potential in areas of workshops, conferences, continuing education opportunities and collaborative educational ventures with the companies who made this new program possible.
David Donati has joined the Penn State Hazleton campus as its new public information and communications manager. In this position, reporting to the director of development and university relations, he will be responsible for public information, coordination of publications, advertising and promotion, and the University editor function at the campus. He also will work collaboratively with campuses in northeast Pennsylvania to coordinate advertising and promotion, and certain publications.
Donati had been an assistant to the vice president of marketing and business development at First Federal Savings, and at the same time, was in charge of public relations activities for the CAN DO industrial development organization. Other professional activities include work with 4M Broadcasting of Hazleton, where he was an assistant to the news director and a disc jockey.
Donati, a resident of Hazleton, is a graduate of Kings College where he majored in mass communications and English.
Michael J. Dooris has been named director of planning research
and assessment in the Center 
for Quality and Planning. In this position
he will work closely with the executive vice president and provost to identify
opportunities to better support University-level decision making through
institutional research. He also will support the planning and quality improvement
objectives of the center, in both administrative and academic areas. The
position will rely heavily on collaboration with the leadership of colleges,
the University Faculty Senate and other administrative offices and units
across the University.
Dooris has a bachelor's degree in economics from Penn State, an MBA from the University of Rhode Island and a Ph.D in higher education from Penn State. He has worked as a statistician with the U.S. Census Bureau and a consultant with Andersen Consulting. Since 1981, he has held several positions in planning and budgeting at Penn State and, since 1995, Dooris has been in the Office of the Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education, as director of academic assessment.
He is an active member of Penn State's graduate faculty in higher education and has published 20 chapters and articles, mostly dealing with higher education organizational issues. He has won both the outstanding graduate student paper award and the outstanding article award of the Society for College and University Planning.
Gene Foreman, deputy editor and vice president of The Inquirer newspaper in Philadelphia, has been named the College of Communication's first distinguished professional-in-residence. Foreman, who will retire in July 1998 after 25 years at The Inquirer, will join the faculty in August 1998. He will teach editing and organize programs for training professionals.
Foreman has been writing and editing newspapers for 40 years. After college graduation and service in the Army, he joined the Arkansas Gazette in April 1957. In 1962, he moved to The New York Times as a copy editor, but when the Times suspended publication in a printers' strike that lasted four months, he returned to Arkansas and go into newsroom management. In 1971, he returned to New York as executive news editor of Newsday.
Foreman was hired as managing editor/news at The Inquirer in 1973. He was appointed a company vice president in 1985, and his title was changed to executive editor in 1990, and to deputy editor in 1991.
Foreman was elected to the board of directors of the Associated Press Managing Editors three times and was APME's president in 1990. He has been a juror three times for the Pulitzer Prize competition.
He is a graduate of Arkansas State College, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in 1956 with a major in journalism.
Anatole Katok, professor of mathematics, has been named the new
Raymond N. Shibley 
professor of mathematics.
The professorship, which is awarded to a different faculty member every five years, was established in 1986 by Raymond N. Shibley, then a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Leboeuf, Leiby and MacRae. Katok is the third holder of the chair.
Katok's research covers a broad variety of subjects in the theory of dynamical systems, which serves as the mathematical foundation for the fields of nonlinear dynamics and the theory of chaos. He said he intends to use the bulk of the funds provided by the Shibley professorship to support the newly established Center for Dynamical Systems at Penn State.
Katok earned his diploma degree in mathematics in 1965 and his candidate degree in mathematics in 1968 at the Moscow State University in the former U.S.S.R. He worked in the Central Economics-Mathematics Institute of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Science in Moscow from 1968 until his emigration to the United States in 1978, when he accepted the positions of professor of mathematics and special chair in analysis at the University of Maryland. In 1984 he became professor of mathematics at the California Institute of Technology, then joined Penn State as professor of mathematics in 1990.
He has authored or coauthored more than 80 papers and three books. He has been actively involved in the leadership of two premiere national institutions in mathematics: the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute at the University of California at Berkeley and the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications at the University of Minnesota.
Thomas A. Litzinger, professor of mechanical engineering, has
been named the new director 
of Penn State's Leonhard Center
for the Enhancement of Engineering Education.
The Leonhard Center, based in the College of Engineering, aims to develop new and better ways to teach engineering by bringing together imaginative, talented engineering students, faculty, industrial partners and practicing engineers to implement improvements in engineering education. It was established in 1990 through an endowment gift from William E. Leonhard, retired chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Parson Corp., and a 1936 Penn State electrical engineering graduate.
Litzinger is widely respected for his teaching, research and accomplishments as director of ECSEL at Penn State. Under his leadership, ECSEL's joint efforts with departments include: the revision of the freshman engineering course and its adaptation to all campuses, the sail plane curriculum in aerospace engineering, vertical integration of case studies in chemical engineering, the integration of design into introductory circuits courses in electrical engineering and a national faculty development workshop at Penn State.
He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses. In recognition of the quality of his teaching he has received the Penn State Engineering Society's (PSES) Premier and Outstanding Teaching awards.
Litzinger's research involves chemical aspects of combustion related to internal combustion engines, gas turbines and rockets. He was a recipient of an NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award and a PSES Outstanding Research Award. He earned his B.S. in nuclear engineering from Penn State, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from RPI and Princeton University, respectively. He became a Penn State mechanical engineering faculty member in 1985, and was promoted to full professor in 1995. His appointment as the director of The Leonhard Center is effective July 1.
Paul Olivett has been named regional director of development for
the Florida region in the 
Division of Development and Alumni
Relations.
In his new position, he will be responsible for planning and implementing fund-raising programs in the state as part of the University's forthcoming capital campaign, and will report to Clay Edwards, director of the Office of Regional and University programs. His activities will include helping to identify prospective donors and recruiting and training campaign volunteers.
Olivett joined Penn State in 1995 as an associate director in the Office of Planned Giving and Endowments. While there, he worked with benefactors to the University to facilitate planned and major gifts. Before that, he spent two years with the Lancaster County chapter of the American Red Cross as the chapter's development officer.
He earned his bachelor's degree in English from Franklin and Marshall College in 1990 and is currently a master's degree candidate in Penn State's higher education program.
