| News | . . . . | Arts | . . . . | Calendars | . . . . | Letters | . . . . | Links | . . . . | Deadlines | . . . . | Archive |
|
|
The Penn State Alumni Association has selected two engineering graduates as 1997 Alumni Fellows.
Henry R. Barracano, a 1948 graduate with a degree in electrical engineering and retired assistant to the senior vice president of engineering construction for the Arabian American Oil Co. (ARAMCO), and John B. Nelson, a 1955 industrial engineering graduate and retired senior vice president of LaSalle Partners in Washington, D.C., will be presented with the awards today.
Barracano has more than 40 years of experience in energy-related project management and construction. As an engineer and consultant, he has directed major projects involving power systems, infrastructure, pipelines and offshore platforms throughout the world. He joined ARAMCO in 1956 as a staff engineer for utilities and by 1983, had risen to the position of assistant to the senior vice president for engineering and construction. Since his retirement in 1983, he has served as an independent consultant.
He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a member of the Petroleum Club of Houston. He holds memberships in the Society of Penn State Electrical Engineers, the President's Club and the Penn State Alumni Association.
Nelson spent 18 years working for major American corporations, including Armstrong Cork, Reynolds Metals and IBM, after graduating from Penn State in 1955. In 1972, he joined LaSalle Partners, a real estate firm in Chicago. He opened the firm's Washington, D.C., office to redesign and develop Union Station in 1979. By the time he retired in 1990, he had become senior vice president and helped the company grow to a firm that provides a full range of real estate, pension investment and development services to corporations and institutions.
Nelson is a former member of the development committee of the Penn State Engineering Society and holds memberships in the President's Club and the Penn State Alumni Association. In 1990, he and his wife, Catherine, with gifts matched by the McGraw Foundation, endowed the John B. and Catherine B. Nelson/McGraw Foundation Endowed Scholarship in Industrial Engineering. The scholarship recognizes outstanding undergraduate students in industrial engineering at Penn State.
As part of the Alumni Fellows program, the award recipients will be speaking with students, meeting with department heads and faculty, and touring the college's facilities during their Penn State visit. The Alumni Fellow award is administered by the Alumni Association in cooperation with academic units. The Board of Trustees has designated the title of Alumni Fellow as permanent and lifelong.
Liesje Nieman, a junior in nutrition, helps collect food
in the Pollock Commons on the University Park campus as a Food Bank of State
College volunteer. The food bank receives thousands of pounds of food from
drives conducted by numerous groups and departments at the University. In
addition, University faculty, staff and students volunteer their time to
pack food orders and sort donations. Right now, the food bank is soliciting
instant potatoes, rice and money. Some of the money will help to buy turkeys
for the holidays. The money also will help keep the food bank operating
throughout the year.
Photo: Greg Grieco
The College of Health and Human Development has been awarded a $1 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to study the health and psychosocial factors in older African American twins.
Directed by Keith Whitfield, assistant professor of biobehavioral health, this five-year study will help to identify the sources of individual variation (proportion of genetic and environmental influences) in health among African American twin pairs aged 65 years and older. Knowledge of these individual differences is expected to significantly contribute to the understanding of aging in a population that has experienced a different variety of environmental influences than other racial/ethnic groups. Knowledge about African Americans may allow greater insight into the role of environment and genetics in aging and what influences really affect health among the greater populace.
Whitfield has brought together a team of researchers for the study, including Gerald McClearn, Evan Pugh professor of health and human development and biobehavioral health and director of the college's Center for Developmental and Health Genetics; Toni Miles, a professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio; and Robert Cairns, director of the Center for Developmental Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They will perform in-person interviews with African American twins and their siblings who reside in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia to assess cognition, mental health, physical health, personality and social variables in later life.
A new work for violin and piano, "Sonata for Violin and Piano: House Made of Dawn," by School of Music composition instructor Paul Barsom, will receive its world premiere on Nov. 30, at Central Missouri State University. Violinist Scott Yoo and pianist Mia Kim, international artists who commissioned the work, will perform the half-hour long piece.
A. Welford Castleman Jr., Evan Pugh professor of chemistry, recently delivered the opening plenary lecture during the Polish Chemical Society's celebration of the millennium of the city of Gdansk. His lecture was titled "Clusters: Probing the Properties and Dynamics of Intermediate States of Matter." Castleman also delivered a lecture titled "Elucidating Dynamical Events in Clusters Using Ultrafast Lasers" during his visit to the Academy of Science in Warsaw.
Stanley Curtis, professor of animal sciences, chaired a national task force that developed the report, "The Well-Being of Agricultural Animals," published recently by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology.
Mark Hayward, professor of sociology and Population Research Institute associate, presented the paper "The Race Gap in Chronic Disease: The Persistence of Social Disadvantage into Old Age" at the Tenth Meeting of the International Network on Health Expectancy (REVES-X ) in Tokyo. Co-authors of the paper were E.M. Crimmins of the University of Southern California and Yang Yu, PRI dual-degree graduate student in demography and sociology.
Penn State Shenango's Campus Executive Officer, Albert N. Skomra, retired effective Nov. 15, after 32 years with the University -- the last seven at the Shenango campus.
Under the direction of Skomra, Penn State Shenango has seen many positive
changes. New two-year associate degrees have been 
implemented at
the campus in the health and human development, physical therapist assistant
and occupational therapy assistant programs, and the four-year baccalaureate
degrees in health and human development and business administration programs
are being developed.
In addition to new programs, the campus has undergone major physical improvements. The renovation of the library, bookstore, learning center and pedestrian mall, which was one of Skomra's main goals when he was hired at Penn State Shenango, has changed the focal point of the campus and has made the Penn State presence in downtown Sharon stronger. Over the last several years, the campus has had many additional physical plant changes including the refurbishment of the gymnasium and the student union/cafeteria, the construction of a new maintenance building, and most recently, the acquisition and razing of the building next to the campus' auditorium.
The reorganization of the campus' development office and the acquisition of major gifts for student scholarships, was just another of Skomra's goals when coming to the Shenango campus. With the hiring of Steve Hessmann as director of University Relations, the campus has raised well over a half million dollars in addition to the $1.5 million bequest from William P. McDowell. Most recently, Skomra and Hessmann secured a $119,000 gift from William Shannon of Sharpsville, Pa., for the campus' first program specific endowed scholarship.
During his career with the University, Skomra served in several positions beginning in 1966 with the Fayette campus as an English faculty member. From 1984-1985, he held the position of acting campus executive officer. In 1985, Skomra was appointed associate head of the University's Department of English for the Commonwealth Educational System. Before coming to the Shenango campus, Skomra once again taught English, composition and poetry for the Fayette campus.
"I have had a long and gratifying career in education, especially with Penn State University. I am particularly pleased that my last assignment has been my most satisfying both personally and professionally," stated Skomra.
During his retirement, Skomra plans to stay active in higher education both in administration and teaching. Most specifically, he will return to his mining lore and literature research at the Fayette campus. He and his wife, Marg, also plan to spend more time with their four children and six grandchildren.
Richard Lenzi, director, business and financial services, Penn State Shenango, has been appointed the acting campus executive officer. Lenzi will serve the needs of the campus until a permanent CEO is appointed.
Joseph French has retired as emeritus professor of education after
33 years of service to the College of Education. French served as professor
of special education and educational psychology and head of the then-Department
of Special Education. He also served as professor-in-charge of the Educational
Psychology Program, and from 1976-1996, professor-in-charge of the School
Psychology Program. He has served on numerous college and university committees,
including the University Faculty Senate and the Graduate Council. And, for
32 years, he was director of the Center for Educational Diagnosis and Remediation.
At the state level, French was a gubernatorial appointee to the Pennsylvania Board of Psychology for three, four-year terms. He also served as chair of the Advisory Board for the National Resource Center for Pennsylvania, as a member of the State Special Education Advisory Committee, as chair of the Mental Health Association of Central Pennsylvania, and as president of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association.
French is a past president of the American Psychological Association's Division of School Psychology and the Association for the Gifted, a division of the Council for Exceptional Children.
He is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards and the Pennsylvania Psychological Association. In 1993, he received the Dorothy H. Hughes Memorial Award for "outstanding achievement in the field of education and school psychology," from New York University. And, in 1996, he received the award for distinguished contributions to the science and profession of psychology from the Pennsylvania Psychological Association.
He and his wife, Peg, an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre Arts will continue living in the State College area. In his retirement, French plans to continue running three miles a day and take canoeing trips with his children and grandchildren.
Donald W. Johnson, who came to Penn State in 1963 for one year, to complete a federally funded project, has retired after more than three decades of service.
After completing his one-year stint in 1964, Johnson joined the College of Education as an assistant professor in the educational psychology department focusing on technology. Hired as associate director of the University's Division of Instructional Systems in 1967, he later became director. Johnson maintained his academic position throughout his administrative posts. He always tried to teach one course a year and serve on graduate committees because he said he felt it was the most important thing the University did.
For the last three years, Johnson served as head of the Department of Adult Education, Instructional Systems and Workforce Education and Development. When he took the position, all three programs within the department were located in different buildings. Today, Johnson is pleased the department's programs are all in the Keller Building on the University Park campus, and all three programs are actively working together as one unit.
German Expressionist Plays, Volume 66 in The German Library (Continuum Press, New York, 1997) is a compilation of nine seminal Expressionist plays in English translation from Ernst Schürer, professor of German and Fellow of the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies.
Schürer's selection of plays, such as "Murderer the Women's Hope" by Oscar Kokoschka and "Sancta Susanna" by August Stramm, show how German Expressionism of the early 20th century had an enormous impact on all of the arts. As artists searched for new values in art and life, they saw their primary mission as the creation of a new individual. Already before World War I they were protesting against a complacent society and the war intensified their social criticism and protest. Their platform was the theatre and Expressionism had its main manifestation in drama. The volume also includes an introduction and bibliography.
Claudia A. Limbert has been named acting campus executive officer at Penn State DuBois. She will succeed Joseph C. Strasser, who was named dean of the Commonwealth College. Limbert will carry out the duties and responsibilities of the CEO until a permanent successor is named.
As acting CEO, Limbert will provide vision and leadership for the faculty and staff to help ensure that educational opportunities of the highest quality are available to the people of DuBois and the surrounding region. She will also oversee staff operations in five areas: academic affairs, student affairs, business services, university relations and continuing education.
"My goal as acting CEO will be for Penn State DuBois to realize the goals in all areas that Dr. Strasser has set for us," said Limbert. "We will work hard individually and as a team to make them happen."
During the past year, Limbert has seen two associate degree programs -- physical therapist assistance and occupational therapy -- receive initial accreditation from their national accrediting bodies while the electrical engineering technology and mechanical engineering technology programs were fully reaccredited. She has also guided the implementation of the new baccalaureate degree in human development and family studies program under the University's plan to make Penn State baccalaureate degree programs more accessible to students throughout the state. She also has instituted a Saturday program, extended evening course offerings, and led the team that wrote a winning grant proposal to renovate the Learning Center.
Limbert holds the academic rank of associate professor of English and women's studies and currently serves as the director of academic affairs at Penn State DuBois. She accepted that position in May 1996 following a yearlong internship as an Administrative Fellow in the office of Robert E. Dunham, then vice president and dean of the Commonwealth Educational System. Before that appointment, she taught at Penn State Shenango, where she was named Teacher of the Year and served as both Faculty Congress chair and campus ombudsperson. She continues to teach on a limited basis.
 | |
 A Veterans Day Ceremony was held on the Old Main lawn Tuesday,
Nov. 11. The ceremony, sponsored by the Penn State Veterans Organization,
featured ceremonial canons fired by the Third Pennsylvania Volunteer Light
Artillery Battery B, top, as well as music by Alistair Fraser, professor
of meteorology, right, and other members of the Nittany Highland Pipe Band,
a 21-gun salute and speeches by U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and Pennsylvania
Rep. Kerry Benninghoff. Above, Santorum, right, presented a plaque to Lt.
Col. William E. Haner of the Penn State Army R.O.T.C.Photos: Greg Grieco |
 |
Research by Roger C. Shouse, assistant professor of education,
suggests that a move back to traditional learning and an emphasis on academic
excellence would be of great benefit to students, and may outweigh even
increased funding for schools in its educational effectiveness.
Photo: Greg Grieco
By Paul Blaum
Public Information
To better serve young people, American high schools need to tighten up curricula, put less stock in feeding self-esteem and place more emphasis on traditional learning.
"Most high schools, particularly those in poor neighborhoods, can improve student performance by placing their academic mission at center stage and allowing their social mission to play a supporting role," said Roger C. Shouse, assistant professor of education.
"Schools with mostly lower-class students can potentially reap the greatest benefits from this change," Shouse said. "On the other hand, they face the steepest challenge in carrying out this change because the prevailing social norms in disadvantaged schools often run counter to serious academic activity and effort. These schools must often struggle to create new norms that stress real achievement."
In practical terms, this will result in fewer students being shuttled into "sidetrack" courses such as consumer math or business English as opposed to algebra or classic literature. It will also mean that enrollment standards will be raised for tough upper-level courses.
"Many have argued the unfairness of holding all schools to the same achievement goals at a time when fiscal resources are unequally distributed across socioeconomic levels," Shouse said. "Those same people overlook, however, another kind of deficit: that of emphasis on academic excellence."
Poor schools certainly could benefit from increased funding, but years of production studies, as well as recent empirical evidence, indicate the ineffectiveness of increased spending on material resources.
"Our evidence suggests that far more might be gained through a better marshaling of human resources at all levels of the school system," Shouse said. "Examples of this would be developing rigorous externally devised standards of academic achievement and transforming the teacher's role into that of a coach who works to help students attain those standards."
A number of recent trends and events indicate that American schooling may be risking its image as a useful and powerful social force. Schools have abandoned programs which produce people capable of effort and accomplishment and adopted those aimed at making everyone feel good about their education.
"In a celebrated case, an award-winning math teacher was fired for handing out too many Ds and Fs," Shouse said. "Though her principal's primary complaint centered on protecting student self-esteem, a majority of students -- including those who had received failing grades -- strongly protested her dismissal. The students understood the difference between the shininess and the actual value of the currency they receive in school."
In some cases, urban schools originally founded with strict academic standards have seen a sharp drop in scholastic standing over the past 25 years, yet the standards and expectations of coaches have remained uncompromising.
"Thus, one is thus not surprised to learn that students at these schools gravitate to where the standards of success are higher: the football field, the basketball court and to those few remaining classes and programs that respect them enough to push them toward academic excellence," said Shouse.
"Schools will improve in this country when they abandon feel-good strategies and put the stress back on what even students recognize as solid, marketable achievement," he said.
The College of Medicine, in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has licensed an anticancer immunotherapeutic drug to NeoPharm Inc., an Illinois-based biotechnology company. Researchers have developed the new protein that helps in the fight against brain cancer.
The new protein, IL13-PE38QQR, is a combination of interleukin 13, a protein found in the body, and a toxic bacterial protein, Pseudomonas exotoxin. The interleukin 13 penetrates a range of brain cancer cells. These cells are covered by receptor sites which accept the interleukin 13. However, when the interleukin 13 is combined with Pseudomonas exotoxin, it creates this new protein which kills the cancerous cells in the brain and does not harm the healthy cells. Investigators add that the work so far has been limited to a laboratory, but feel this work holds great hope for humans.
"There are several things that are important in fighting brain cancer. The treatment must be specific, the potency must be correct and the delivery system also is a key. We are very pleased to pioneer the transfer of such a new method of pharmaceutical therapy to industry," said Dr. Waldemar Debinski, assistant professor of surgery and director of tumor research. Debinski said this drug will be delivered through the skull by a needle and patients may be able to be awake during the procedure.
Dr. Raj K. Puri of the FDA is a co-inventor of the technology.
"This is designed primarily to fight brain cancer. However, I anticipate that it will be applicable to a range of different types of cancer," Debinski said. He hopes to begin human clinical trials within a year.
Debinski said it often can take about 10 years for such a drug to reach the public. However, based on his work so far, he believes the process may go faster, and the drug could reach patients within just a few years.
Annually, 200,000 sinus-related procedures are performed, costing about $2.4 billion. Researchers at The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center have found that for many of these more simple nasal surgeries, local anesthesia was more useful for patients than general anesthesia.
"We wanted to establish parameters for patients undergoing common nasal surgical procedures, and we found clearly that several benefits to the patients came from local anesthesia," said Dr. Fred Fedok, associate professor and chief, Section of Otolaryngology.
The two-year study involved 177 patients and showed significant differences in the types and duration of many side effects, including nausea, vomiting, bleeding and overall time spent in the hospital after the surgery.
Fedok said quicker recovery times and fewer complications for patients who receive local anesthetic mean less use of services and lower costs.
However, Fedok said, even with these results, the anesthesia technique for a given patient should be carefully considered on an individual basis.
