Fred S. Cannon, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, received the 1999 AWWA Research Division Best Paper Award from the American Water Works Association (AWWA) for his paper "Effect of Iron and Sulfur on Thermal Regeneration of GAC." AWWA is an international nonprofit scientific and educational society dedicated to the improvement of drinking-water quality and supply. Membership includes more than 4,000 utilities that supply water to roughly 180 million people in North America.
Irwin Feller, director of the Institute for Policy Research and Evaluation and professor of economics, has been appointed chairman of the advisory committee to the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate of the National Science Foundation.
Gabriela Gonzalez, assistant professor of physics, recently gave two invited presentations. In Austria, she spoke on "Detecting Gravitational Waves" at the University of Vienna; in Germany she presented "Stationarity Analysis of Gravitational Wave Detectors" at a meeting of the Data Analysis group of the Albert Einstein Institute of the Max Planck Society.
Saundra D. Johnson, director of the Minority Engineering Program in the College of Engineering, has been elected president for 1999/2001 of the National Association of Minority Engineering Program Administrators (NAMEPA). NAMEPA is a national network of educators and representatives from industry, government and nonprofit organizations who share a commitment to continued improvement of the recruitment, retention and graduation of African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans in engineering and related fields.
Jim Kerlin, deputy senior director of the Center for Academic Computing, has been honored with the National Educational Computing Association Leadership Award. He currently serves as a member of its board of directors and treasurer of the association.
Iam-Choon Khoo, professor of electrical engineering, presented an invited paper titled "Extremely Nonlinear Photosensitive Liquid Crystals" at the European Material Research Society Symposium, Strasbourg, France. He also was recently elected a fellow of the U.K. Institute of Physics.
Akhlesh Lakhtakia and Russell Messier, both professors of engineering science and mechanics, co-chaired the International Society of Optical Engineering's meeting, titled "On Engineered Nanostructural Films and Materials."
Ina Lubin, director of continuing education at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, was recently named to the Team Pennsylvania Ambassador Program. This partnership among Pennsylvania's top business, civic, cultural and academic leaders is aimed at promoting the Commonwealth domestically and internationally. Lubin was nominated because of her involvement with issues surrounding Pennsylvania's workforce and her community leadership experience.
Steven A. Melnick, associate professor of education at Penn State Harrisburg and the director of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, has been appointed by Gov. Tom Ridge to the first Charter School Appeals Board for the state. The board was mandated as part of legislation which permitted the creation of charter schools in the Commonwealth. The board will hear appeals from organizations whose requests to establish charter schools were turned down by local school boards. The board also will eventually hear appeals from charter school groups that have had their charters revoked or not renewed.
Robert E. Newnham, professor emeritus of solid state science at the Materials Research Laboratory, received the International Award of the European Ceramic Society at the Sixth Biannual Meeting in Brighton, England. The award is given to the ceramist who has done most to enhance understanding and collaboration within the international ceramic community.
The Nittany Lion Inn has been awarded a Pennsylvania Waste Watcher Award for its commercial recycling collection program. The award was presented by the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Public Recycling Office of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Waste Industries Association.
Penn State head football Coach Joe Paterno and his wife, Sue, were honored recently with the Hudson Institute's third annual American Dream Award for helping students achieve the American dream. The award is designed to recognize prominent individuals who have made significant contributions to domestic policy or American culture, and therefore have achieved the American dream. The couple has given Penn State more than $4 million to endow faculty positions and scholarships and support several building projects. In addition, they co-chaired The Campaign for the Library, which raised more than $12 million. The Hudson Institute, a nonprofit organization founded 1961, is an internationally recognized public policy research organization that develops solutions and forecasts trends for governments, businesses and the public.
The American Dairy Science Association presented its 1999 Distinguished Service Award to Stuart Patton, Evan Pugh professor emeritus of agriculture at Penn State and adjunct professor of the School of Medicine and School of Family Studies and Consumer Sciences, San Diego State University. Patton received the award for his outstanding contributions to the dairy industry. Patton's career has been devoted to the advancement of knowledge about milk and the mammary gland and to supporting the growth and development of dairy science.
Eva Pell, Steimer professor of agricultural sciences, lectured on "Ozone-induced Reduction in Net Photosynthesis" at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Rhovot, Israel, and on "Ozone-induced Accelerated Foliar Senescence" at the National Research Center for Environment and Health in Munich, Germany. Pell also was appointed to the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee of the Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board for a two-year term. Members of the committee advise the agency on scientific and technical aspects of air pollution issues.
Roger Penrose, the Francis R. and Helen M. Pentz distinguished professor of physics and mathematics and a member of the Penn State Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry, has been elected an honorary Fellow of Britain's Institute of Physics. Honorary Fellows are elected to recognize their work in physics or another science, or for service to the institute. The number of honorary Fellows cannot exceed 30. Penrose has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his contributions to science.
Nick Place, Susquehanna County extension director, presented a paper on "Domestic Impacts and Implications of the Polish-American Extension Project" at the annual meeting of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Robert N. Proctor, professor of the history of science, has won the Arthur Viseltear Prize for the History of Public Health in America, awarded annually by the Medical Care Section of the American Public Health Association. Proctor was awarded the prize in honor of his new book, The Nazi War on Cancer, published by Princeton University Press.
The Association for Health Services Research selected an article co-authored by Pamela Farley Short for its 1999 Article-of-the-Year Award. Short is professor of health policy and administration in the College of Health and Human Development and director of Penn State's Center for Health Policy Research. She co-authored the article "Single Women and the Dynamics of Medicaid," with Vicki A. Freedman.
Jerzy Ruzyllo, professor of electrical engineering, has been elected a fellow of the Electrochemical Society. Ruzyllo was selected for his professional contributions and service to the society. The Electrochemical Society is an international nonprofit educational organization concerned with a broad range of phenomena relating to electrochemical and solid state science and technology.
Robert J. Santoro, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Propulsion Engineering Research Center, presented an invited talk titled "Rocket Injector Challenges: Performance, Stability and Reliability at Low Cost," at the International Workshop on Research Status and Perspectives in Liquid Rocket Combustion Chamber Flow Dynamics, in Paris.
John C. Spychalski, professor of business logistics, gave an invited lecture on contemporary conditions and issues in American freight transport at Vaxjo University, Vaxjo, Sweden.
Spiro E. Stefanou, professor of agricultural economics, has been reappointed to serve two additional years as editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Stefanou's initial three-year appointment as editor began in 1996.
Gerhard F. Strasser, head of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures, co-organized the international symposium "Beyond the Book: The Emblem in Early Modern European Culture" at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, Germany. His own presentation was titled "The Interconnection between Emblematics and Mnemonics in 17th-Century Didactic Literature."
Abdullah Yavas, associate professor of business administration, has been appointed as a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Economic and Social Research. A member of The Smeal College real estate faculty, Yavas also has been invited to serve on the Board of Science of the International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.
Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky, professor of kinesiology and director of the Biomechanics Laboratory, gave six invited lectures on biomechanics of human motion at The Warsaw University of Technology and The Academies of the Exercise and Sport Science in Wroclaw, Katowice and Warsaw (Poland).