Lectures
Penn State Intercom......November
15, 2001
Award-winning poet is
the next Forum speaker 
John Balaban, poet-in-residence and professor of English at North Carolina State University, will deliver the Penn State Forum lecture at noon Monday, Nov. 26, at The Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus. The topic of his presentation is "Venturing Out: Excursions into Vietnamese Literary Culture."
Balaban, an American poet and translator, was named the 2001-2004 National Artist of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. The award is presented every three years to a person who has excelled in the broad realm of the arts -- creative, graphic, performing, visual or fine arts.
The Penn State Forum is a lunchtime speaker series offered by the Faculty Staff Club and is sponsored in part by the Penn State Bookstore. It is open to the public. Tickets include lunch and are $10 for members and $12 for non-members.
Reservations can be made by mail or by stopping by the Faculty Staff Club office at 103 HUB-Robeson Center. Tickets will be on sale at the door on a first-come, first-served basis. Lunch begins at 11:30 a.m. followed by the speech and a question-and-answer session at noon. For more information call (814) 865-7590.
Effects of tourism
are topic for last Huddle
Duarte B. Morais, assistant professor of leisure studies, will discuss the positive and negative outcomes observed in tourism at 9 a.m. Nov. 17 in the faculty-staff room of The Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus.
Morais has investigated the development of tourism in rural areas of the United
States, Portugal, Mozambique and China.
The free presentation is the last lecture in the 2001 Huddle with the Faculty lecture series, an Alumni Association outreach program that features presentations by faculty before home football games.
For information, call Mary Jane Stout at (814) 865-5466.
Soil structure, quality,
indexing to be examined
Ana Bucher, a doctoral degree candidate in soil science, will give lecture from 3:35 to 4:25 p.m. Nov. 16 in 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building on the University Park campus.
The topic is "Impacts of Soil Management on Soil Community Structure, Soil Quality Remediation and Soil Quality Indexing."
The event host is the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.
For information, call (814) 863-1601.
Architecture lecture
focuses on 'plan of things'
Romolo Martemucci, associate professor of architecture and director of the "Sede di Roma" architecture program in Rome, will discuss "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Architecture and Then Some" at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 20, in 101 Engineering Unit D, University Park.
The lecture will explore the use of cartographic research in the historical plans of Ferrara, Italy, and focus on the idea of creating plans by thinking beyond the present.
This lecture is the third in a new interdisciplinary series, titled "Topical Tuesdays," which is sponsored by the Department of Architecture.
For information, check the Web at http://www.artsandarchitecture.psu.edu/news/cur_cal.html.
Literature, health among
topics for lectures
A tribute to Maya Angelou and discussions on women's health issues and oral history are among the noon events at the Penn State Downtown Center, 234 N. Third St., Harrisburg, this month.
On Nov. 20, members of the Harrisburg-based Nathaniel Gadsden Writers' Workshop will offer a tribute to Maya Angelou featuring readings of her poetry and prose. The program will include readings of original poetry and a panel discussion.
The Nov. 27 Women's Legislative Exchange Meeting will feature a discussion on women's health issues led by Ned Dempsey, special assistant and director of legislative affairs for Auditor General Robert P. Casey Jr.
"What Oral History Can Tell Us About Pennsylvania's Past" is Linda Shope's topic on Nov. 28. Shope is a historian and program administrator for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
The presentations are free to the public. For information, call (717) 783-0433.
Panel to target
communication strategies
A panel discussion on "Organizational Communication Strategies" will be presented from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 16, in 404 Old Main on the University Park campus.
Panelists are Gerry Browder, managing director, Smeal MBA Program; Ann Dodd, senior consultant, Center for Quality and Planning; and Gene Melander, associate vice provost emeritus and professor emeritus of quantitative business analysis.
The moderator is Louise Sandmeyer, executive director, Center for Quality and Planning.
Panelists will share examples from recent University initiatives where communication strategies were used to enhance the capability for collaboration within the Commonwealth College and to strengthen decision-making and support for Web strategies implementation.
Poet to speak at
Comparative Literature event
The Comparative Literature Luncheon, a weekly informal lunchtime gathering of students, faculty and other members of the University community, has announced that Robin Becker, professor of English, will speak on Nov. 26.
The events begin with lunch from 12:15 p.m. to 12:40 p.m. in 102 Kern Building on the University Park campus. Participants may bring their own lunch or buy something in Kern Cafeteria. Coffee and tea are provided. The speaker will begin at about 12:40 p.m.
The topic will be "Where Lyric Joins Narrative: A Poetry Reading and Discussion with Robin Becker."
The events are free to the public.
For information, e-mail Daniel Walden at dxw8@psu.edu.
Nanotechnology to be
examined during lecture
Ralph C. Merkle will speak about his research in nanotechnology at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28, in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium at the Penn State Berks campus.
Merkle chaired the fourth and fifth Foresight Conferences on Nanotechnology, and is on the Executive Editorial Board of the journal Nanotechnology.
The event is free to the public.
For information, call (610) 396-6068.