Awards
Penn State Intercom......May 10, 2001

Penn College professor
gets Fulbright Scholarship

The U.S. State Department has awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to S. Layne Russell, an attorney and assistant professor of legal studies at Pennsylvania College of Technology, who will use the opportunity to explore a "new legal era" in Slovenia, a country that broke away from the former communist Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991.

Russell, who has been granted a sabbatical leave from Penn College, will be based at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

At the host institution he will help initiate a peer-mediation project for students, lecture in constitutional and mass-communications law, and participate in conferences and seminars with legal experts in the Slovenian community.

Upon returning home, Russell expects to help develop a collaborative project between Penn College's School of Business and Computer Technologies and the University of Ljubljana for the study of mass-communication laws.

Arnold named director
of mathematics institute

Douglas Arnold, distinguished professor of mathematics, has been named director of the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications at the University of Minnesota. He will succeed Walter Miller, who has been director of the institute since 1997. He will take a leave of absence from his faculty duties at Penn State beginning in the fall, to assume the direction of the institute.

Established in 1982 with the support of the National Science Foundation, the institute ranks among the leading centers for the mathematical sciences in the world. Its mission is to identify problems and areas of mathematical-sciences research related to challenges faced by other sciences and industry; to demonstrate the impact of mathematics and statistics on other disciplines; and to encourage the engagement of mathematical scientists with those areas of application.

Arnold was elected chair of the institute's Board of Governors in November and he had a long association with the institute, including two years in residence and experience on the Computational Programs and Resources Advisory Committee before joining the Board of Governors.

Arnold joined the Penn State faculty in 1989. During his tenure he has helped to develop and manage the Penn State MathNet -- the departmental computer network serving the research, teaching and administrative computing needs of faculty, staff and students. He served as associate chair for computing from 1991 to 1994 and as interim department head in 1995. He works as co-director of the University's Center for Computational Mathematics and Analysis, associate director of the Institute for High Performance Computer Applications and as a member of the University's Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry. He received the George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching at Penn State in 1996, the Teresa Cohen Service Award from the Department of Mathematics in 1998 and the Eberly College of Science Distinguished Service Award in 2000.

Arnold's research interests center around mechanics, numerical analysis, partial differential equations and the interplay between those areas. His contributions to the design and analysis of algorithms for differential equations are widely recognized.

Endowment names 2
Harbaugh Faculty Scholars

C. Paola Ferreri, assistant professor of fisheries management, and Spiro Stefanou, professor of agricultural economics, have been named Harbaugh Faculty Scholars by the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Alumnus Earl K. Harbaugh and his wife, Kay, donated $100,000 to endow the college's Harbaugh Scholars Program for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Their aim is to help faculty develop innovative teaching and learning processes.

Ferreri and Stefanou are the first recipients of the honor, which includes a $3,500 financial award.

Ferreri will use her award to get the new fisheries option in the Wildlife and Fisheries Science curriculum off to a good start. The option will be introduced this fall. Ferreri also plans to buy several water chemistry and temperature monitoring meters for students to use in hands-on field studies and to use part of the award to attend a workshop on innovative teaching techniques.

Stefanou plans to use his award to continue building and refining a case library to support teaching food product innovation management, in collaboration with Lamartine Hood, professor of agricultural sciences, and Barry Zoumas, Alan R. Warehime professor of agribusiness.

The case library project brings industry expertise into the learning environment through the use of narratives based on experts' problem-solving experiences.

Faculty, staff honored
by Harrisburg campus

Omid Ansary, professor of engineering, was presented two awards at the annual Penn State Harrisburg Faculty and Staff Recognition Program.

Ansary earned the Award for Excellence in Research and the Award for Excellence in Faculty Service. Ansary has been a frequent volunteer in efforts which have improved the educational climate of the college. Along with his research commitment, he served for five years on the College Faculty Senate, including a term as its president. Ansary also has been a member or chair of faculty committees for academic program development; selection of new faculty, administrators or staff; for the selection of award winners; and for promotion and tenure.

Cynthia Leach, staff assistant in the School of Humanities, was presented the Award for Excellence in Staff Service. Margaret Jaster, assistant professor of humanities and literature, earned the Award for Excellence in Teaching and Valerie Duhig, public information coordinator, was named winner of the Kathryn Towns Women's History Award.

National Science Foundation
awards go to 3 in
Computer Science, Engineering

Three faculty members from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering have won National Science Foundation Career Awards.

The Career Awards program helps scientists and engineers to develop their research and teaching simultaneously as their careers get under way.

The faculty members are Guohong Cao, assistant professor of computer science and engineering; Mahmut Kandemir, assistant professor of computer science and engineering; and Vijaykrishnan Narayanan, assistant professor of computer science and engineering.

Cao received a five-year award totaling $267,000 for his project, "Designing Adaptive Resource Management Schemes to Support Integrated Services in Mobile Computing Systems." Cao's research will focus on integrating services such as data, voice and video in mobile devices, as well as their impact on bandwidth and power consumption.

Kandemir received a five-year award totaling $250,000 for his project, "An Energy-Aware Optimizing Compiler Framework." Kandemir's work investigates a new avenue in optimizing compilers in the design of software and hardware. Old strategies focused solely on performance. However, as electronic devices become more powerful, smaller and more mobile, designers must take intoaccount energy consumption as well as performance. Kandemir's work takes an energy/performance-aware approach.

Narayanan received a five-year grant totaling $268,000 to investigate "Energy-Efficient Architectures and Their Interaction with Software: A Java Perspective." Narayanan is developing fast and accurate high-level energy estimation tools and researching their use in designing new software and architectural techniques for energy efficient Java execution. He also is developing an educational plan to provide a strong foundation in interaction of hardware and software systems and hardware system design for undergraduate and graduate students.

Administrator and staff
honored by Continuing Ed

Sara Parks, director of the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Recreation Management in the College of Health and Human Development, has received the Shirley Hendrick Continuing Education Award for Outstanding Academic Leadership from the Division of Continuing Education.

The award recognizes an academic administrator whose visionary accomplishments have contributed significantly to the success of Continuing Education efforts.

Parks served as associate dean for outreach, cooperative extension and international programs in the College of Health and Human Development from 1988 to 2000, when she was appointed director of the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Recreation Management.

Parks was lauded for adopting new educational formats and delivery mechanisms as well as for her focus on interdisciplinary outreach projects, such as the Rural Women's Health Initiative, which is a partnership of three colleges: Health and Human Development, Medicine and Agricultural Sciences.

During the annual awards program, Continuing Education staff members also were honored for their contributions and commitment to Outreach and Continuing Education.

Michael Ostroski, director of Conferences and Institutes, was awarded the Continuing Education Outstanding Leadership Award.

The following staff members also were honored:

* Melanie Doebler, program developer, Outreach Office of Program Development, received the Newcomer Award.

* The Outreach Technology team of Tracy Gross, computer support specialist, and Donna Yorukoglu, information technology specialist, Office of Information Systems; and Jeanine Emigh, staff assistant, and Jeanne Williams, former program development specialist, Outreach Office of Program Development, received the Best Quality Award.

* Robinne Weiss, instructor, Shaver's Creek Environmental Center, received the Creativity and Innovation Award.

* Jane Reese, staff assistant, Intensive English Communication Program, received the Customer Service Award.

* Learning About LifeLink: A Model Transition Program, coordinated by Kathleen S. Karchner, conference planner, and Janet R. Patterson, senior conference planner, Conferences and Institutes, Division of Continuing Education, won the Exemplary Program Award.

* Jeri Childers, assistant director, Outreach Office of Program Development, received the Making Life Better Award.

* Deborah Klevans, director, Outreach Office of Program Development, received the Mentor Award.

* Patricia Rhees, program aide, Outreach Office of Client Development, received the Outstanding Employee Award.

* Dan Kennedy, assistant director, Outreach Office of Marketing Research, received the Outstanding Motivator Award.

* James Runner, instructor, Intensive English Communication Program, and Katheryn Woodley, assistant professor, Management Development Programs and Services, received the Outstanding Teacher Award.

* Penn State Great Valley professional development staff: Lee Dougherty, acting director of technology; Patty McFadden, office manager; and staff assistants Jean Callazzo, Jeannette Giesecke, Linda Paterno, Shelly Gabries, Ruth Bondurant and Colin Dougherty, received the Team Award.

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