Appointments
Penn State Intercom......September
20, 2001
2 health and human development
professors win appointments
to NIH study sections
Two professors in the College of Health and Human Development have been appointed to study sections within the National Institutes of Health's Center for Scientific Review.
Elizabeth J. Susman, Jean Phillips Shibley professor of biobehavioral health, has been appointed to Risk, Prevention and Health Behavior Study Section 1 within the Risk, Prevention and Health Behavior Integrated Research Group.
George P. Vogler, professor of biobehavioral health and associate director of the Center of Developmental and Health Genetics, has been appointed to Social Sciences, Nursing, Epidemiology and Methods Study Section within the Social Sciences, Nursing, Epidemiology and Methods Integrated Research Group.
Both appointments were effective immediately. Susman's appointment ends on June 30, 2003, while Vogler's ends on June 30, 2005.
Study sections review research grant applications that have been submitted for consideration to the National Institutes of Health. Each study section typically reviews 50 to 100 applications that have been assigned to an integrated research group based on each application's scientific focus. The study section to which Susman has been appointed reviews applications that identify risk factors or provide processes and models that address the manifestation, prevention, treatment or management of physical and mental diseases and disorders.
Vogler's study section reviews applications for multi-level/multi-contextual studies, behavioral genetics and heritability studies and behavioral epidemiologic studies which seek an understanding of the origins, multiple etiologies, natural histories and consequences of a wide range of behaviors, disorders, diseases, normal functioning and public health concerns.
Study section members are selected on the basis of their demonstrated competence and achievement in their scientific field as evidenced by the quality of their research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals and other scientific activities, achievements and honors.
Women in Engineering Program
names assistant director 
Mary Severs Sciabica has been named assistant director of the College of Engineering's Women in Engineering Program on the University Park campus.
As assistant director, Sciabica will coordinate the program, a yearlong orientation for first-year female engineering students that includes mentoring and networking programs, hands-on and academic-enrichment classes, and facilitated study groups.
She will assist with the program's Girl Scout Saturdays, a program that offers hands-on learning activities for Brownies and Girls Scouts, and Venture in Engineering Camp Tour, a summer engineering program for high school girls sponsored by the Colleges of Engineering and Earth and Mineral Sciences.
Before joining the University, Sciabica was a science educator at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Before that, she held several positions at the University, including supervisor of the early preservice teacher field experience, science education methods instructor and general chemistry laboratory lecturer.
Sciabica holds a bachelor of science degree in biology and a master of science degree in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in science education, both from Penn State.
Science division head
appointed at Berks-Lehigh Valley
Lou Milakofsky, professor of chemistry, has been named science division head of Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley.
A University faculty member since 1968, he served first at the Worthington Scranton campus and moved to the Berks campus in 1970. Milakofsky has published more than 30 articles in professional journals and has obtained a National Science Foundation grant. His research deals with fetal alcohol syndrome as the effects of nicotine on chicken embryos.
In this new position, he will be responsible for academic programs and planning for the science division, recruitment and evaluations, and consulting with other division heads.
Milakofsky earned his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Washington in 1967 and his bachelor's degree from Temple University in 1962.
Assistant director named
at children, youth consortium
Keith Aronson has been named assistant director of the Children, Youth and Families Consortium on the University Park campus.
He received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University and completed his internship and post-doctoral residency at Vanderbilt University.
Aronson brings to the consortium research interests in health and wellness, individual development, public health administration, health policy and service delivery. At the consortium, he will work with faculty to develop interdisciplinary networks, research projects and outreach activities focused on critical issues facing children, youth and families.
2 new appointments
announced in Smeal College
The Smeal College of Business Administration recently welcomed a new associate dean and a new director of the Farrell Center for Entrepreneurship.
Christopher von Schirach-Szmigiel joins the college as associate dean for executive education. He was a visiting professor at Stern Graduate Business School, New York University; Stockholm School of Economics (Handelshogskolan i Stockholm); and Kasetsart University, Bangkok. He also has served as director for strategic executive programs at Ericsson, Unilever, Audi-Volkswagen, Nordbanken, and program director for Ericsson Corporate Strategic Development Programs, Telia-Ericsson Strategic Partnership Program, Business Intelligence Program for IT and Telecom Industry in Ericsson.
Anthony Warren joins the college as the Farrell Clinical professor of entrepreneurship and the director of the Farrell Center for Entrepreneurship.Warren received a bachelor science degree and a doctoral degree in physics at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, followed by post-doctoral research in low temperature superconductivity undertaken at the Universities of Toronto and Illinois. In 1999, he co-founded Strategic Technologies LLC, a boutique investment bank undertaking transactions for corporations with significant intellectual property assets.