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Penn
Staters Abhay Ashtekar, holder of the Eberly Family chair in physics and director of the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry, was invited to present lectures at three international events this summer. He delivered two plenary lectures in Warsaw, Poland. He delivered "Meeting Challenges of Quantum Gravity" during the E.T. Newman Fest and "Semi-Classical Issues in Quantum Gravity " at the Workshop on Canonical and Quantum Gravity held at the Banach Institute. At the Tri-annual International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation in Durban, South Africa, Ashtekar presented the plenary lecture, titled "Quantum Geometry and Gravity: Recent Advances"; an invited review lecture titled "Isolated Horizons and Their Applications" during the session on Complex Methods, Twistors and Connection Variables; and an invited lecture titled "Semi-classical Issues in Loop Quantum Gravity" in the session on Quantum General Relativity. Craig A. Grimes, associate professor of electrical engineering, presented a key lecture titled "Magnetism-based sensors" at Complex Mediums III, a conference organized as part of the 46th annual meeting of the International Society for Optical Engineering in San Diego, Calif. Garo Goodrow, exhibits designer in information and communication technologies, received a Gold Award from the Agricultural Communicators in Education. His exhibit, "When Smoking is Not a Choice," received first prize out of 440 entries in this year's program. Goodrow received the award at the group's international meeting in Toronto. Austin J. Jaffe, Philip H. Sieg Professor of Business Administration, with doctoral student Lynn M. Fisher, presented an invited paper titled "Determinants of International Homeownership Rates" at the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association International Conference in Cancun, Mexico. Jaffe made a panel presentation at the conference titled "Best Practices in Real Estate Education" and served on the program committee. Jaffe also served as the coordinator and moderator of the 2001 ERES Doctoral Program at the recent European Real Estate Society Conference in Alicante, Spain. Along with Fisher, he presented a paper titled "Explaining Economic Growth in Eastern Europe." Jaffe served on panels dealing with trends in real estate education and the future of real estate services. Sridhar Komarneni, professor of clay mineralogy in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and Materials Research Institute, gave a keynote lecture on "Synthetic Clays for the Selective Uptake and Fixation of Toxic Metals" and served as chair for the session titled "Clays and Sorbents II" at the International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technologies in Singapore. He also gave an invited lecture titled "Low Temperature Nanophase and Nanocomposite Materials" at Universiti Putra Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, professor of engineering science and mechanics, chaired the three-conference program on Nanoengineered Materials and Molecular Manufacturing at the 46th annual meeting of the International Society for Optical Engineering in San Diego, Calif. He also was the senior chair of the conference titled "Complex Mediums II: Beyond Linear Isotropic Dielectrics." He presented a paper titled "Microscopic model for static and dynamic loading of chiral-sculptured thin films." Russell Messier, professor of engineering science and mechanics, presented a critical review lecture titled "Thin film morphology at low adatom mobility" at Complex Mediums III, a conference organized as part of the 46th annual meeting of the International Society for Optical Engineering in San Diego, Calif. Graduate student Robert Knepper was co-author. Rebecca M. Peterson, instructor of biology in the Eberly College of Science, has been selected to Project Kaleidoscope's Faculty for the 21st Century -- Class of 2001. Project Kaleidoscope works to build networks of individuals and institutions across the country with a common commitment to transform undergraduate science, mathematics, engineering and technology education. The Penn Stater magazine received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers in the 2001 EdPress Awards competition, bringing the total number of national awards received this year to seven. The award was given in the Visual Story category for "More Than Real," the photo essay of Katarin Parizek's work, in the March/April 2000 issue. The Penn State Alumni Association
received two awards for its life member packet containing the life member
card, certificate and booklet outlining benefits, programs and services
offered by the association. The life member packet received an Award of
Excellence in the category of Customer Communications in the 2001 APEX
Awards for Publication Excellence and an Award of Distinction in the Marketing/ Barbara J. Rolls, holder of the Helen A. Guthrie chair in nutrition and director of the Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior in the College of Health and Human Development, received the 2001 International Award for Modern Nutrition from the Association of Swiss Milk Producers at a ceremony in Brig, Switzerland. Rolls was being recognized for her cutting-edge research on how humans manage to select and consume an appropriate balance of nutrients while choosing from the vast array of available foods. Omicron Tau, the University's chapter of Kappa Omicron Nu, a professional honor society whose membership is limited to students and graduates of family and consumer science programs, won three awards during the organization's recent biennial conclave. The chapter received the 2000-01 Chapter of Excellence Award, which recognizes a chapter for its excellence in programming and chapter management. The chapter also received a program award for its leadership development and focused diversity programs in 1999-2000 and another program award for its commitment to writing in 2000-01. The awards were presented during Kappa Omicron Nu's Leadership Conclave and Undergraduate Research Conference, which took place in Orlando, Fla. |