2012 Assembly of Delegates:
Area Groups, Industries, State and Federal Labs Director
Name: Bruce Bejcek
Present Position: Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
Organization: Western Michigan University
Chapter Affiliation: Kalamazoo
Biographical Information: As an organization Sigma Xi faces challenges that are not unique to many professional and non-professional societies today—declining membership and a lack of interest on the part of members to become engaged in the society’s activities. As with many problems the answers to reversing these trends will not be found in any one simple answer but possibly through several initiatives that try and find a way to make the society more relevant and pertinent to the daily and professional lives of members and non-members alike. The basic question is—what does membership in the society confer that makes it worthwhile to join and then participate? With members facing multiple challenges to not only performing science but also establishing and maintaining a career in science whether it is at the bench, in the classroom or some other form of endeavor Sigma Xi needs to begin to address the issues that we face. If we see ourselves as simply a society of science professionals that are interested in science we will continue to dwindle in membership. Sigma Xi does not need to abandon what it has done in the past but it does need to extend itself to make it a society that provides tangible and desirable benefits to its members. As a Director I will work towards developing benefits that the Societies members will find useful in throughout their careers. I have had a broad range of experiences, both scientific as well as in the general community and I look forward to serving the membership.
Sigma Xi and Other Activities (partial list):
Member since 1989, President Kalamazoo Chapter 1999-2000, Member, Policies and Procedures Committee for WMU-AAUP, 2009- present, Member AAUP AFACT and Finance Committees 2008 – present, Member, Grade and Program Dismissal Appeals Committee 2007- 2010, Secretary WMU-AAUP 2009, Member Executive Committee WMU AAUP 2007- 2009, Chair, Department Personnel Committee 2007-2008, Member, College Curriculum Committee 2007- 2009, Chair, Departmental Curriculum Committee 2007- 2009.
Community Activities (partial list): Member of the Board of Directors for Gryphon Place, 2010- present, Member of the Kalamazoo County Jury Board 2007- present, Member Portage 2025 Vision committee 2007, Vice President for Coaching, Portage Soccer Club, 2003- 2006, City of Portage Environmental Board member, 1997-1999
Biographical information: BS (2) Michigan State University 1977/1978 Microbiology, Fisheries and Wildlife Biology, PhD St. Louis University, 1986, Post-doctoral fellow, Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, 1986-1990, University of Minnesota 1990-1993, Assistant Professor 1996-2002, Associate Professor 2002-2008, Professor 2008-present , Western Michigan University. Published in Science, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Cancer Research, Journal of Pharmacological Sciences, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Experimental Cell research, Biotechniques, Nucleic Acids Research, Plasmid, Sensors Journal, Virology and Journal of Virology. Ad Hoc reviewer: Biotechniques, Carcinogenesis, Virology, FEBS Letters, Oncogene. Cancer Letters.
Name: Lawrence Duffy
Present Position: Interim Dean, Graduate School and Interdisciplinary Programs
Organization: University of Alaska Fairbanks
Chapter Affiliation: Alaska
Candidate Statement: Sigma Xi should remain committed to its grass roots approach to involving researchers and students in activities that allow for sharing of scientific research across disciplines and networking at the local level. A strong chapter focus should be central. I will work to maintain the connections and communication that previous director have established over the years.
Sigma Xi and Other Activities:
Secretary/ Treasurer (1988-90)
President, Alaska Chapter (1991-92)
Regional Sigma Xi Nominating committee (1998-2001)
Associate Regional Director, Sigma Xi (2000-03)
Other:
AIC President, (2005)
Ethics Committee, Council of Science Society Presidents (2006)
Executive Director, Arctic Division, AAAS (2004- Present )
Biographical Information:
Dr. Lawrence Duffy received his BS in chemistry from Fordham University in 1969, an MS in organic chemistry from the University of Alaska in 1971 and a PhD. in biochemistry from the University of Alaska in 1977. After several years of research at Boston University, the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, the University of Texas and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Duffy returned to the University of Alaska where he currently serves as Graduate School Dean and Director of the Resilience and Adaptation Program.
Dr. Duffy has broad research interests ranging from neurochemistry and biochemistry to environmental health. His studies demonstrate that chronic exposure can be measured biochemically in mammals not only showing damage to a resource, but also demonstrating recovery of ecosystems. His research also focuses on the development of biomarker and animal models as sentinel species. Dr. Duffy’s work on mercury in subsistence food is used by policy makers on the national level and allows him to involve students in research and discussion of environmental issues related to ethics and justice. Current research projects include developing a dog model as a sentinel species for the arctic and a mouse model to determine the effects of mercury and arsenic in neurogenesis.
Dr. Duffy has received the NIDCD Minority Mentoring Award, the UAF Chancellor’s Award for Diversity and the Usibelli Distinguished Research Award. He is a fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America and the American Institute of Chemistry. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Arctic Division, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Name: William Koch
Present Position: President/Senior Consultant
Organization: WFK Consulting LLC.
Chapter Affiliation: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Candidate's Statement: Scientific research is a vitally important, multidisciplinary human activity in the quest for continuing evolutionary and technological advancements, if not for outright survival. The members of Sigma Xi can and should be the prime advocates for a national /world agenda for forward-looking research focused on solutions to the major challenges facing humanity, including the environment, energy, clean water, human health, and food. We can be successful in this effort first by recognizing our tremendous potential in affecting positive outcomes and then by banding together to develop and implement a multi-pronged program to educate our fellow world citizens, to forge a plan of action, insisting on commitment and funding for success, and to monitor outcomes on these multiple challenges. Over the past 37 years, as an active researcher, leader of scientific research and proud member of Sigma Xi, I have served numerous national and global organizations in various leadership positions. If elected to the office of Director for the MI constituency group, I would bring these leadership abilities to advance Sigma Xi to its rightful role as the global focal point for multidisciplinary scientific research.
Sigma Xi and Other Activities: Sigma Xi: Elected to Membership, 1975; Currently Full Emeritus Member. Dr. Koch is a Fellow of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry. He has served on the Executive Committee and as President of the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (now the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute), as a member of the Governing Board of the Council for Chemical Research, as Chair of the Directors of Industrial Research Analytical Group, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). He also serves on the Committee of Distinguishers Advisors for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland - College Park.
Biographical Information: Education: Ph.D.- Analytical Chemistry, Iowa State University, 1975; B.S. Magna Cum Laude - Chemistry, Loyola University of Chicago, 1972. Employment: Dr. Koch is currently an independent consultant specializing in chemical metrology, analytical chemistry, reference standards and materials. He is also an instructor of general chemistry, and an assessor for ISO lab accreditations. He recently retired as the Chief Metrology Officer for the United States Pharmacopeia responsible for the organization's international research, development and testing laboratories. Prior to joining USP in 2007, Dr. Koch served for 32 years in the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, starting at NIST in 1975 as a NBS/NRC Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Electricity Division and retiring as the Deputy Director of the Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory and a member of the federal Senior Executive Service. His research interests included pH, electrolytic conductivity, ion selective electrodes, chromatography, and standards for in vitro diagnostics, clinical chemistry, environment and energy. Publications: Authored over 80 scientific publications and direct involvement in the certification of over 75 Standard Reference Materials, including: "A High Precision Titration of 4-Aminopyridine. A Value for the Faraday," Talanta, 22, 717 (1975); "The Development of Reference Materials for Acid Rain Research," Environment International, 10, 117-121 (1984); "Thermodynamic Properties of DCl in D2O Solution" J. Soln. Chem., 15, 675-692 (1986); "Frozen Human Serum Reference Material for Standardization of Sodium and Potassium Measurements in Serum or Plasma by Ion-Selective Electrode Analyzers", Clin. Chem. 38, 1459-1465 (1992); "Molality-based Primary Standards of Electrolytic Conductivity", Pure Appl. Chem. 7,1783-1793 (2001); "The US Pharmacopeia: interfacing chemical metrology with pharmaceutical and compendial science" Accred Qual Assur 16, January 2011.
Name: Stanley White
Present Position: Retired
Chapter Affiliation: Orange County
Candidate’s Statement: Look at the wording on Sigma Xi documents. Time and again they address “Science and Engineering.” Yes, we face declining numbers of scientists and engineers within our organization and we are constantly speaking of our dwindling number of scientist-members. But, where are our engineers, both old and new? Not too many decades ago the CV of nearly any engineer of standing proudly displayed his Sigma Xi membership. We have benefitted from many significant leadership contributions in the past from our outstanding members from the engineering community. At campus after campus (and ditto for industrial and government labs) the consensus today seems to be that Sigma Xi is for life scientists primarily, physical scientists to a somewhat lesser degree. Engineers? They don’t feel too welcome. Why? I don’t know, but we need to find out why and do something about it! The vast pool of Sigma Xi-eligible advanced-degree-holding engineers (with about 50,000 new graduate-degree engineers – 9,000 doctoral, 41,000 MS - minted annually in the US alone) is largely untapped. This is a challenge to be addressed by Sigma Xi at large, but I feel the most significant impact can be made through the government and industrial laboratory chapters and the area chapters. That puts the potential for making a significant step in reversing the decline in Sigma Xi membership squarely in our collective laps.
I'm convinced that you keep a chapter going the way you keep anything else going: you work at it. It needs constant attention, a recognizable spot high on a priority list, commitment, and thinking about what's next. I tend to liken many of life's processes to flying a plane. You have to know what you're doing, where you want to go and keep focused on the job at hand at all times. Maintain your appropriate altitude, heading and speed ... and ensure sufficient resources before even embarking on the journey. Everybody aboard must agree that there's only ONE pilot in command. Inattention, indecision, lack of preparedness and ... it's all over. (I first soloed in 1946. I'm still here.)
Since my background is from the industrial side of the house, I feel that I can help move us ahead there.
Previous professional positions: U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command, Atlantic Missile Range (AMR) project-worked on refining electronic distance-measurement techniques for improved navigation, and trained Army and USMC personnel in using the same equipment for guiding close air support for ground combat troops in Korea (‘50-’55); Allison Div. of General Motors, Indianapolis, R&D, analog-computer simulation, manufacturing and testing of aircraft jet-engines (‘55-’58); Autonetics Div. of North American Aviation (NAA), Downey, CA, engineer and engineering supervisor for R&D of inertial-guidance systems and instruments; Minuteman Missile, gyrodynamics and gyro compassing, missile flight control, from design through manufacturing, factory checkout and field-tech training (‘59-‘61); Purdue Univ. Instructor in Electrical Engineering (‘61-’63) and NAA consultant working on XB-70 startracker and Voyager Spacecraft trajectory analysis; North American Aviation Science-Engineering Research Fellow (‘63-‘65) working on parameter and state estimation for flight control systems; North American Aviation/North American Rockwell/Rockwell International/Boeing North American (BNA)- Research Group Leader, did Sidewinder seeker redesign for USAF BOMO program; Voyager Spacecraft Project Systems Engineer for Stabilization, Guidance, Navigation and Control under a JPL subcontract; designer on XB-70 flight control gust alleviator, Responsible Engineer for Apollo astronaut physiology-monitor development, director for digital-signal processing R&D (‘65-‘70); Manager, Inertial Instrument Research (‘70-‘71); Staff Engineer to the President of the new Rockwell Microelectronics Div. (‘71-‘73); Group Scientist for Microelectronics System Design, Inertial Platform Dynamics and Microelectronics Applications Research, Electronics Research Center (‘73-‘75); Manager of Signal Processing and Digital Systems Dept., led tactical missile digital flight control development (‘75-‘82); Senior Scientist for Advanced Technology, Sensors and Aircraft Engineering Systems Div. (‘83-‘88); Chief Scientist for Signal Processing and Controls Systems, Corporate Science & Engineering Staff (‘88-‘90); retired (‘90) after 31 years but retained as Scientific Advisor for a decade; founded Signal Processing and Controls Engineering Corp. (SPACECorp™ ), an aerospace engineering consultancy in ‘90. Clients included BNA, USAF, NASA, Honeywell Defense and Space, Scientific Drilling International Corp. , Interstate Electronics, Western Digital, Hycom, Retired again (‘03) after 13 years. Concurrently with the above, served over 30 years as Adjunct Prof. of Electrical & Computer Engineering at UCI and Aerospace Engineering at UCLA and as Group Leader of the joint Industry/UC Imaging Processing Research Project at UCI. Also served for 2 years as IEEE Distinguished Visiting Lecturer/Professor at 17 US universities and those in 12 foreign countries. Retired again in ‘05.
Sigma Xi Activities: Life Member; inducted into the Purdue University Chapter of Sigma Xi in 1965 and into the Autonetics Branch of RESA in 1966. Elected Treasurer of the Autonetics Club of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society of North America (did you catch that full title?), in 1974, served ‘till 1978. (The Autonetics Research Center nearly folded in 1979, taking the Sigma Xi Club with it.) Assumed dictatorial power and revitalized the moribund Autonetics Club by declaration in fall, 1987, after its decade of inactivity, elected President in January, 1988 and instituted bimonthly dinner/lecture meeting which have been held continuously (with the exception of an occasional summer break) since March, 1988. Merged with the fading Cal State Fullerton Club in September, 1990 to form the Orange County Club; advanced the Club to Chapter status in February, 1992. Reelected President. Began family medical leave in January, 2000, returned and reelected president in January, 2005. National Meeting delegate 10 times, served as Student Poster Session judge 5 times. Cosponsored the SoCal Science Café. Served on the national Development Committee. Helped launch the UCI Club by handling their new-member inductions until they achieved chapter status. Briefly served as Associate Director of the SW Region. Orange County Chapter goals: provide science outreach to the public, promote interdisciplinary science education among scientists, encourage science activity among school kids, assist all science teachers in any way possible, assist at local science museums and facilitate fellowship and social interaction among members of the science community. And we have successfully helped many unemployed members in their job searches.
Other Professional Activities: Inventor with 82 U.S. and many foreign patents on aerospace/electronics systems and devices; coauthored 3 engineering texts, wrote 12 sections for the 8th, 9th and 10th editions of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology and over 100 research articles, reports and monographs. Served as evaluator of “National Centers of Engineering Excellence” and as committee chair on “VLSIC for Communications and Signal Processing” for the NSF; working member on endless government, Electronics Industries Association and professional science and engineering committees; founded the Orange County IEEE Signal Processing Society; and chaired 7 major international engineering conferences. Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the New York Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE); elected a Royal Sorensen Fellow, a Fellow of the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering and Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA.) Received the Vladimir Karapetoff Award “for outstanding career developments in navigation and flight control,” the Leonardo da Vinci Medallion “for distinguished and sustained contributions in the field of advanced signal processing architectures, algorithms, devices and systems,” the IEEE Centennial Medal, Millennium Medal, Circuits and Systems Society Golden Jubilee Medal and Technical Achievement Award, the Signal Processing Society’s Distinguished Lecturer Award; the Purdue University Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award and First Annual Outstanding Electrical Engineer Award. Designated as Engineer of the Year multiple times by industry and professional organizations, International Director Emeritus of the Eta Kappa Nu Association and Life Member of Tau Beta Pi.
Education: BSEE, MSEE and PhD (EE, Aeronautical & Engineering Sciences), all from Purdue University, plus additional work in physics and aerospace engineering at UCLA. Earned professional engineering licenses from both IN and CA.
Back to top | Privacy Policy | Copyright ©2013. All Rights Reserved.
