2004 Assembly of Delegates:
Northeast Regional Director

November 11-14, 2004
Le Centre Sheraton
Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Name: Linn Walker Hobbs

Present Position: Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, Professor of Nuclear Engineering
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Address: Room 13-4054
MIT
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
USA

Telephone: 617-253-6835
FAX: 617-252-1020
E-mail: hobbs@mit.edu

Chapter Affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Candidate's Statement: Though Sigma Xi was founded to play a role somewhat different from its present broader mission, its constituency (though recently declining) has changed surprisingly little, because-despite our culture's wholesale integration of the fruits of a century of scientific research-neither science nor the scientist has been integrated to the same degree into popular consciousness. Hence, we are obliged to still proselytize in order to attract young people to research careers, and even at MIT have had to invent aggressive vehicles to do so. For some years I have, with several colleagues, designed programs (now with NSF funding) to attract students in liberal arts curricula and institutions to scientific research through the vehicle of materials archaeology. This successful effort goes well beyond the usual "physics for poets" approach, in that it provides an understanding of how inextricably woven into the fabric of human culture and cultural evolution is the process of scientific enquiry and technological experimentation. Sigma Xi chapters at smaller liberal arts colleges (which abound in the northeast) and at universities where science and technology are not a principal focus could, I believe, play a significant potential role in enlisting the traditional strengths of their institutions towards our goal of recruiting a constituency of students well beyond those who indicate initial interest in science or engineering, through similar interdisciplinary vehicles.

Sigma Xi and Other Activities: I have served as secretary (1982-90) and president (1990 onwards) of MIT's chapter of Sigma Xi. The chapter consistently inducts several hundred new members annually.

Biographical Information: I am a materials scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I have been since 1981. My degrees are from Northwestern University (B.Sc. summa cum laude, 1966) in engineering science and materials and from Oxford University (D.Phil. 1972, science of materials) where I was a Marshall Scholar and NSF postdoctoral fellow. I was a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford (1972-76) and a research physicist with the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell (1973-76) before returning to an academic career in the U.S., first at Case Western Reserve University (1976-81) and then at MIT, where I held the John F. Elliott chair in materials (1992-99) and currently hold appointments as Professor of Materials Science and Professor of Nuclear Engineering. My research interests are quite broad: plasticity of solids, radiation effects in non-metals, nuclear waste storage media, high-temperature corrosion of metals and composites, atomic structure of glasses and topology of the amorphous state, biomineralization applied to orthopaedic prosthetic implants, and archaeological materials. At MIT, I have served as Associate Chair of the faculty, chaired most major faculty committees, and headed the graduate program in materials (300 graduate students). Professionally, I have served as president of the Microscopy Society of America (1987), councilor of the Materials Research Society (1983-85), fellow and current director (2003-06) of the American Ceramic Society, and president of the Oxford & Cambridge Society of New England (1990-92). I was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2001.

Name: J. Zachary Jacobson

Present Position: Senior Mathematician and Acting Director
Organization: Health Canada

Address: Applied Research and Analysis Directorate
Health Canada
Jeanne Mance Bldg, Tunney's Pasture
Mail stop 1905C
Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0K9
CANADA

Telephone: 613-946-9056
E-mail: zack@sigmaxi.org

Chapter Affiliation: Ottawa

Candidate's Statement: Declining membership remains our most urgent problem, pressing us to bring creative thought and leadership to bear on it. There are encouraging trends sugesting that recent strong efforts among our chapters may have relieved the problem somewhat in the Northeast; nevertheless membership and its overall decline represents a challenge to the Society's very existence. Beyond that, but also partly to meet the membership challenge, I favour an internationally active and aware Sigma Xi. At the local level, our strength is our chapters, and we must foster those. I feel our long term goal must be to shore up the chapters we have and to add new chapters wherever in the world it they will foster the science and its progress. During my previous term as NE Regional Director and as Member and Chair of the Committee on Regions, I proposed and supported governance changes which have strengthened the role of our chapters in the decision making processes of Sigma Xi and expanded our Society's outreach, particlarly toward Eastern Europe, to become more International, and to assist with our dwindling membership. As president of the Sigma Xi Fund of Canada, I have introduced new ways and means to use the Fund to strengthen Canadian chapters' programs and membership.

Sigma Xi and Other Activities: Sigma-Xi record: Member since 1984. Ottawa Program Chair, 87-93. Pres. Ottawa Chapter, 93-95; 2004-. Northeast Regional Director, 94-01. Member, Committee on Regions, 93-01 (Chair, 2000-01). President, Sigma Xi Fund of Canada, 2001-.

Biographical Information: Discipline-Mathematics and Cognitive Psychology. Current. Pos. , Acting Director and Senior Mathematician, Applied Research and Analysis Unit [Internal consulting to Health Canada on mathematics and behavioural science.] 2002 - . Personal data: b. Halifax. N.S., Feb. 7, 1943. m 69, Janet Diane Gordon. c Katherine Rachel Jacobson Lang (b Feb. 25, 73). Educ. Dalhousie, B.Sc. (physics, math) 64. University of Waterloo, M.A. (visual perception) 67; Ph.D., (cognitive psychology) 72. Prof. experience: Bureau of Management Consulting, cognitive science & mathematics consulting across the Government of Canada, 81-02. Queen's University, post-doc, 71-74; Ass't. Prof, Psychology, 94-77; Math & Statistics, 77-79. Alberta Treasury, Survey Methodologist, Alberta Bureau Statistics, 79-81, Alberta Treasury, Director, Research, Planning, Systems, 1981. Concurrent positions: Univ. of Alberta, adjunct prof. of Psychology, 80-81. Carleton University, adjunct prof of Psychology, 84 - . Active in Carleton Univ Cognitive Science program. Res: stochastic modeling infectious disease outbreaks, temporal physics, neural networks, speech perception, colour vision, cognitive visual masking, memory models. Mailing address: [as above]

Name: Albert David Notation

Present Position: Professor
Organization: Quinnipiac University

Address: Box 62
Dept. Chemistry & Physics
Quinnipiac University
Hamden, CT 06518
USA

Telephone: 203-582-5223
FAX: 203-582-8706
E-mail: albert.notation@quinnipiac.edu

Chapter Affiliation: Quinnipiac

Sigma Xi and Other Activities: Sigma Xi: Founding member, Quinnipiac Chapter, 1980. President, Quinnipiac Chapter 2000-; Program Chair, Quinnipiac Chapter, 1983-; Delegate, Sigma Xi Annual Meeting, 1989-97; Recording Secretary, NE Regional Assembly, 1993, 94, 96; Alternate, Sigma Xi Committee on Nominations, 1996. Associate Director of the Northeast Geographical Region 2000 to present.

Biographical Information: ALBERT DAVID NOTATION. Professor, Dept. Chemistry & Physics, Quinnipiac University, '80-present Discipline: Organic Chemistry. Subject Speciality: Endocrinology. Married, two children. Prof Exp:Training Fellow, USPHS, Dept. Biochemistry, Univ. Minnesota Med School, 1964-66; Asst Prof & Instr in USPHS Training Program, Dept. Biochemistry, Univ Minnesota Med School, 67-71; Asst Prof, Dept OBGYN, Univ Minnesota Med School, 71-77; Assoc Prof Chemistry, Quinnipiac College, 77-80; Prof Chemistry, Quinnipiac Univ, 80-; Chair, Dept, Chemistry & Physics, Quinnipiac Univ, 94- 2003; Radiation Protection Officer, Quinnipiac Univ, 77-. Educ: Univ Saskatchewan, MSc BE, 53-58; PhD, McMaster UNiv, 60-64. Mem: American Chemical Society (Section Chair); Chemical Institute of Canada; AAAS; Society for the Study of Reproduction; Endocrine Society; Sigma Xi (72-). Res: Recently I've been interested in non-estrogen metabolites of estradiol that could be might have significance in clinical diagnoses. I have a number of publications concerning steroid hormone metabolism, particularily steroid sulfate cleavage studies.