December 2008
Sigma Xi Emeritus Member Newsletter
Emeritus Member eBlast is a monthly e-newsletter. We always welcome your contributions development@sigmaxi.org.
N.B.: Dates in parenthesis after Members' names denotes their year of induction into Sigma Xi.
IN THIS ISSUE
JOSEPH WHITTAKER ELECTED PRESIDENT OF SIGMA XI
JOSEPH A. WHITTAKER (1988) was elected the 73rd president of Sigma Xi at the Society's 2008 Annual Meeting and Student Research Conference in Washington, D.C. He will serve as president-elect beginning July 1, 2009. A Sigma Xi member since 1988, Whittaker is dean and professor of biology in the School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he oversees more than 100 faculty members involved in research, training and educational activities in five academic departments.
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SIGMA XI VISITING SCHOLAR COMPLETES NSF WORKSHOP REPORT
The goal of the Sigma Xi-National Science Foundation workshop was to help identify the unique contributions that international collaborations make in promoting excellence in scientific and engineering research and to use that information to develop monitoring and evaluation criteria for NSF programs. The final report is available in a PDF format through the link above. http://www.sigmaxi.org/programs/global/FollowupReportFinal.pdf
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MATHEMATICIAN RECEIVES SIGMA XI YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD
MASON A. PORTER (1997) says his interest in mathematics initially arose largely from what he considered visually appealing. He received Sigma Xi's 2008 Young Investigator Award at the Society's Annual Meeting. His research in nonlinear science and complex systems includes classical and quantum chaos, billiard systems, nonlinear waves, Bose-Einstein condensation, granular media and social networks.
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ANGIER, BOEHLERT ELECTED HONORARY SIGMA XI MEMBERS
Also at the Annual Meeting, New York Times science writer and author NATALIE ANGIER and former Congressman SHERWOOD "SHERRY" BOEHLERT were inducted as Sigma Xi's newest honorary members. The honor is bestowed for service to science or Sigma Xi. Angier is an author and Pulitzer Prize-winning science columnist for the New York Times. Her latest book is The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science (Houghton Mifflin, 2007), a guide to the fundamental concepts of modern science that researchers wish everybody understood about their work. Audubon New York called Boehlert "one of the greatest conservation leaders ever to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives." He served from 1982 to 2006 and chaired the House Science Committee. Congressional Quarterly named him one of the 50 Most Effective Lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
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IOWA STATE CHEMIST WINS 2008 MONIE FERST AWARD
Chemist JOHN D. CORBETT (1949) at Iowa State University received the 2008 Monie A. Ferst Award from the Georgia Institute of Technology Chapter. A symposium was held in October at Georgia Tech in his honor, focusing on the research accomplishments of his many former students, five of whom were speakers. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Corbett has been a staff researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Ames Laboratory and a faculty member in Iowa State's chemistry department since 1952.
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PRI's 'THE WORLD' AWARDED MAJOR NSF GRANT
In partnership with Sigma Xi, Public Radio International (PRI) will use a major National Science Foundation grant to support the creation of science content for its "The World" radio show, plus a new Virtual Science Café and an interactive Web site. PRI's "The World" is a one-hour, weekday multi-platform global news program hosted by Lisa Mullins. Having premiered in April 1996, it is now broadcast on-air and streamed online by 250 PRI affiliate stations, broadcasts that are heard by 2.3 million listeners nationwide. http://sigmaxi.org/about/news/2008PRI.shtml
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PETE CONRAD SPIRIT AWARD OPPORTUNITY
The Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards, which challenge high school students to design products using science and technology, are offering two new resources for its competitors.
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GIVING TO SIGMA XI IN 2008
In October you should have received an invitation to support the Society's annual fund campaign. In that letter, new Sigma Xi Executive Director JERRY BAKER outlined a simple plan to make Sigma Xi stronger. If you have not received your letter, please let us know at development@sigmaxi.org. And if you have not yet made your donation, you are invited to do so online at: https://www.sigmaxi.org/about/support/contform.html.
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SIGMA XI MEMBERS IN THE NEWS
MALCOLM R. BRAID (1977) taught biology at the University of Montevallo, Alabama, or 25 years, retiring in 2002. "Since then," he writes, "I had my 'medical year' in 2004 during which time I had an emergency appendectomy, a carpal tunnel surgery, an arteriogram, and LASIK surgery for both eyes. In 2005, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, so we dealt with surgery (lumpectomy and double mastectomy), nine chemo treatments, and 33 radiation treatments for my wife. She is fine now, thankfully. In between all this, I got into birding, and have had a number of adventures in a variety of places with new friends and some interesting and sometimes rare birds. This will be, as long as it is possible, my biological hobby now.
Braid has also worked with an optometry team from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry on six vision screening projects for the poor and homeless in various parts of the state. "I was trained to do the vision screening with eye chart for many, as well as using the auto-refractor. One group of homeless people had lost much, if not all, of what little they had owned in Hurricane Katrina. Many were from Cambodia, Laos, and Viet Nam who worked in the fishing industry in south Alabama. It was interesting that a few of the older men had eye injuries from the Viet Nam war. These projects were most rewarding, and seeing the smiles of appreciation on both children and adults when they received their glasses and could see well again, some for the first time in many years, was most gratifying."
Braid and fellow church members traveled to Thailand to help with a Water System Project for a Palaung hill tribe village. "We helped to paint a new 7,000-gallon water storage tank and to fill its filter with rocks, gravel, sand, and charcoal," he says. "We dug ditches for water lines, and installed a new wash station. This, too, was a most gratifying project in which we helped a village that had only a small intermittent stream for much of the year for their water source. It was unclean for various reasons, including the fact that elephants used this stream as an upstream bathroom! Now the village has clean, safe water."
A different project in which Braid and his wife participated involves the Shelby County Humane Shelter. "The relatively new director has established relationships with at least two shelters in New Hampshire whereby these shelters will accept our dogs for adoption. Since New Hampshire has strict laws governing spay and neuter programs with enforcement, they do not have enough dogs to adopt out. So our shelter funds teams of two people to drive a shelter van full of dogs to one of their shelters, and as of now over 700 dogs have found new homes there!"
In conclusion, Baird observes, "Since I retired, I have looked for adventurous projects that have significant benefit to others, as that has provided such a great reward."
CLARENCE S. CLAY (1948), professor emeritus of geophysics at the University of Wisconsin Madison, writes: "Since I retired from teaching geophysics, I decided to study climate history using my special interest in time series analysis. Richard Alley earned his Ph.D. in our department. Now he is a professor at Penn State and has written many papers and two books on climate changes. The 2004 issue of The Outcrop displays the temperature time series from Alley, called The Two Mile Time Machine. The Outcrop 2003 gives a fractal analysis of the same temperature data. The nearly horizontal result for times greater than 20,000 years suggest that the sun's insolation is the cause."
RICHARD WEIMAR (1985) writes: "I don't know if and/or where this fits in the Sigma Xi agenda, but I raise it for serious consideration. Last evening, November 9, 2008, "Sixty Minutes" had a segment on the dumping of great numbers of e-waste components (electronic components, e.g. cathode ray tubes containing lead, computer parts containing heavy metal, cell phones, etc.) from the U.S.A. in China, and the great environmental and people contamination caused by this dumping. Is there anything Sigma Xi might do to encourage, cause and influence the proper disposal and reclamation of these components in the U.S.A.? I would participate in such an effort."
THEODORE ROCKWELL (1944) of Chevy Chase, Maryland, was honored twice this fall for his contributions to technology and to literature. On September 4, in London, the World Nuclear Association (WNA) gave him a Pioneer's Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Peaceful Worldwide Use of Nuclear Energy. Former Ambassador John Ritch, WNA director general, praised Rockwell's "immensely valuable role in building the foundations and future of nuclear power." In October it was announced that Rockwell's book, "The Virtual Librarian: A Tale of Alternative Realities," was chosen as an award-winning finalist in the Visionary Fiction category of the National Best Books 2008 Awards sponsored by USA Book News. And on November 8, Rockwell was one of four panelists discussing the history and legacy of the Manhattan Project's wartime program to build an atomic bomb, prior to a performance of the opera "Dr. Atomic," at the venerable Metropolitan Opera. For more information, visit: http://members.authorsguild.net/tedrockwell/index.htm
FRANK R. TANGHERLINI (1956) of San Diego, associate professor of physics emeritus, writes:
"I have written on three previous occasions to Sigma Xi about the need for the U.S. to convert to the metric system, the first, a letter that was published in the American Scientist 1996, and more recently in the Emeritus news including a reply to an amusing objection of a poetic nature. The purpose of this communication is to suggest two other initiatives that I think members of Sigma Xi might wish to consider that, if carried out, would provide meaningful jobs, improve the economy and also address the water problem."
Tangherlini continues, "The first involves the idea of a water equalization program. President-elect Obama has talked about 'spreading the wealth.' Some of that 'wealth' takes the form of water. Presently we see every year huge floods, particularly in the Midwest. These have very costly consequences as well as loss of life. On the other hand, there are parts of the country that suffer droughts. I have therefore wondered whether it would not be possible to reduce the impact of these floods and droughts by setting up a system of reservoirs pump stations, and aqueducts that could pump some of the water from places where it is not needed, to places where it is needed. Admittedly it would be quite costly to construct such a water distribution system. But if well-engineered I imagine it would pay for itself over the years and save many lives as well. It could be a godsend to farmers in drought-stricken parts of the country. And constructing it and maintaining it would provide meaningful employment to many."
He admits that his second idea is scientifically more challenging. "Every year we see how the U.S., particularly in the south and Midwest, suffer devastating tornadoes. Although one has learned a great deal about them, very little has been done in the way of preventing them or destroying them after they have formed. The attitude against undertaking large scale research programs to tackle this problem reminds me a little of the attitude Columbus encountered when he proposed sailing across the Atlantic-a very negative one. So I propose that such a program be instituted with the long-range goal of prevention and/or destruction. Thus I would like to see Sigma Xi perhaps working with other scientific societies to get the government to set up and fund an Anti-Tornado Institute. It is possible that states that have been hit hard by tornadoes might be able to contribute in some way, and possibly even private corporations as well. The ultimate benefit of success in such an undertaking is obvious. I am sure readers of this idea will ask, "Well, what about hurricanes?" And my answer is that in science one usually tries to solve what appears to be the simpler problem first, e.g., the one-body problem, before tackling the two-body problem. However, there is no reason why there could not be some people in the Anti-Tornado Institute wrestling with the hurricane problem. In conclusion, I should emphasize that neither of the above ideas represent fields in which I have any technical knowledge; my own fields of research as I have indicated earlier are in relativity, cosmology, particle physics and a little history and philosophy of science. I am just proposing them as undertakings that I believe professionals in these areas should consider."
DEAN HO (2004) in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University has been named editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Association for Laboratory Automation.
R. SAMUEL BATY (1971) has written a World War II historical thriller titled "Footsteps to Forever" that has just been published by iuniverse. Footsteps is a story filled with suspense, romance and danger. In 1941, two American lieutenants, a young man and woman, are sent by President Roosevelt to Norway to rescue a renowned atomic physicist from behind German lines. An engineer by profession, Baty is a retired U. S. Air Force officer and a retired chief scientist. He lives in Albuquerque with his wife, Linda. Visit: http://www.sambatybooks.com/
For more news items about Sigma Xi members, visit: http://sigmaxi.org/about/news/mitn.shtml
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SIGMA XI AFFINITY PROGRAMS
Your Society offers a number of affinity programs that include stimulating opportunities for travel and reduced rates on auto insurance and car rentals, among other benefits. For more information, visit: http://www.sigmaxi.org/member/membersonly/index.shtml
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AUTOMATIC ANNUAL DUES RENEWAL
Many Sigma Xi members are opting for the convenience of automatic membership renewal. You can now have your annual dues paid automatically every year via credit card or bank draft. An e-mail notification of the dues deduction will be sent to you after your credit card or bank account has been charged. For more information, visit: http://www.sigmaxi.org/member/dues/autopay.shtml
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SPARKS DOCUMENT UPDATED
We've updated the "Sparks" collection of members' anecdotes about what initially sparked their interest in science or engineering. We plan to share these stories and perhaps create some new sparks for the next generation of researchers. Here is the latest version:
http://www.sigmaxi.org/member/newsletters/spark-ver4.pdf
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WHAT'S YOUR NEWS?
Let us hear from you! We always welcome your contributions to our eBlasts. development@sigmaxi.org
Interim Editor: Charles Blackburn
cblackburn@sigmaxi.org
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