August 2009
Sigma Xi Student Member Newsletter
Welcome to your Sigma Xi Student Member eBlast. This communiqué depends on your news and views. So e-mail us now at development@sigmaxi.org. We always welcome your contributions.
N.B.: Dates in parenthesis after Members' names denotes their year of induction into Sigma Xi.
IN THIS ISSUE
DIGITAL ACCESS TO AMERICAN SCIENTIST
By now you should have received the e-mail giving you access to your digital copy of the September-October American Scientist magazine. You can choose to view American Scientist's digital edition through your browser, download the PDF or both. Read it now or save it for later. This and future issues will also be available on on our Web site www.americanscientist.org -- you just have to be sure to be logged on to access to the PDF. We hope you enjoy the new digital edition of American Scientist.
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR OF AMERICAN SCIENTIST
You may notice something different about the cover of your September-October American Scientist. Our talented art staff has updated what in magazine jargon is known as the masthead. Not to worry, though: You'll find the remainder of the issue quite familiar. The change does not portend a shift from American Scientist's approach to presenting science in as interesting, clear and comprehensive fashion as possible. More than anything, we are, after almost 20 years, bowing to the realities of digital typography. The same basic typeface has spelled out American Scientist since 1970. In those days, of course, computers had nothing to do with it. The Palatino type was set by hand using lead, adhesive peel-offs or a phototypositor. In 1990, the magazine joined the desktop publishing revolution, and the face changed a little. Unfortunately, the company that produced it quickly went under. Since then we've been working from the same two original copies. How's that for digital endurance? Today our old face is part of a disappearing standard. Benton Modern brings us into the 21st century.-DAVID SCHOONMAKER, Editor, American Scientist
SIGMA XI GRANT APPLICATION DEADLINE OCTOBER 15
Grants-in Aid of Research of up to $1,000 are available to undergraduate and graduate students in all areas of the sciences and engineering. Designated funds from the National Academy of Sciences allow for grants of up to $5,000 for astronomy research and $2,500 for vision related research. For more information, visit: http://sigmaxi.org/about/news/giarOct.shtml
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2009 SIGMA XI INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE
The 2009 Sigma Xi International Research Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, (near Houston) November 13-14 will bring together undergraduate and graduate students as well as professional scientists from North America and abroad for a celebration of research accomplishments. Held each year in conjunction with the Society's Annual Meeting, the conference features a research poster competition, networking activities, panel discussions and other events. Poster presentations are accepted as space permits, so register and submit abstracts as soon as possible. For conference registration, abstract submission and other details, visit http://www.sigmaxi.org/meetings/annual/index.shtml
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SIGMA XI'S YEAR OF ENERGY 2009
From the development and implementation of alternative and renewable energy sources, to increased energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions, science and engineering have enormous roles to play in solving the world's energy crisis. And Sigma Xi is in a unique position to inform and guide government and industry in the development and promotion of affordable, reliable and sustainable energy. Our plans include white papers, blogs, science cafes, a student film competition and a themed Annual Meeting in Houston, Texas, November 12-15. Visit our energy site for more information: http://energy.sigmaxi.org
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SIGMA XI STUDENT SHORT FILM COMPETITION
September 18 is the deadline for the second annual Sigma Xi Student Short Film Competition. Entries must be no more than three minutes, and must relate to scientific aspects of the production, consumption, and/or distribution of energy. The competition offers up to $1,000 in cash prizes. Winning films will be shown at Sigma Xi's Annual Meeting. For complete guidelines, visit http://energy.sigmaxi.org/?page_id=239
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CALL FOR WHITE PAPERS ON ENERGY
Share your expertise by submitting a white paper of no more than 2,500 words that argues for a specific approach or solution to some aspect of the energy crisis. Possible topics include technologies to reduce energy demand, ecosystem impacts of renewable energy and basic science underlying energy conservation and energy technology. At the end of the year, Sigma Xi members will vote for the top papers, which we will deliver and promote to relevant policy-makers. White papers must be received by September 18. For author guidelines, visit: http://energy.sigmaxi.org/?page_id=245
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SIGMA XI NAMED SCIENCE ADVISOR FOR CONRAD COMPETITION
The Conrad Foundation has announced Sigma Xi as the official science advisor for the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards, a nationwide competition for high school students. Sigma Xi will provide scientific mentorship to teams competing in the annual awards program and judges for both the online and finalist stages. As the official science advisor, Sigma Xi will also award the winners of the 2010 Spirit of Innovation Awards with a one-year Sigma Xi Affiliate Circle Membership in recognition of their achievement. "The Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards bring the Sigma Xi philosophy to a new generation of innovators," said JEROME F. BAKER (1990), executive director of Sigma Xi. "With the help of the Conrad Foundation, we will have the opportunity to support young scientists and connect them with the people and the resources they will need for success."
The upcoming 2009-2010 competition will focus on projects in aerospace, nutrition, renewable energy and green buildings. High school teams vie for more than $100,000 in prize money and opportunities to pursue the commercialization of their products. They also participate in the annual Innovation Summit held at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. Phase one competition judges review and score concept proposals for up to five teams each online during the months of December and January, providing approximately 10 hours of invaluable volunteer scientific expertise to the competition. For more information, visit: http://www.conradawards.org. If you would like to be a phase one judge - please visit our Web site.
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JAMIE HYNEMAN, ADAM SAVAGE NAMED HONORARY MEMBERS
For their use of science and technology in testing popular myths and urban legends, JAMIE HYNEMAN and ADAM SAVAGE have been elected honorary life members of Sigma Xi. They are the hosts of the Mythbusters television series on the Discovery Channel. For more about them, visit: http://www.sigmaxi.org/about/news/2009honorary.shtml
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SIGMA XI AWARD NOMINATIONS DUE OCTOBER 1
October 1 is the nomination deadline for prestigious annual Sigma Xi awards that recognize excellence in research and communication. For award guidelines, a list of past recipients and other information, visit: http://www.sigmaxi.org/programs/prizes/index.shtml.
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LISTEN TO THE WORLD SCIENCE PODCAST
Every Friday, The World Science Podcast brings you the best science news from around the globe. This new program is part of an NSF-funded collaboration between Public Radio International and Sigma Xi. As part of the show, Sigma Xi's ELSA YOUNGSTEADT (2009) chats with host DAVID KOHN about the week's top headlines from our daily Science in the News e-newsletter, now in its 11th year. To listen in, visit: http://www.theworld.org/rss/science.xm
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JOIN THE DDT DEBATE IN THE WORLD SCIENCE FORUM
The World Science Podcast regularly hosts online discussions with scientists and experts. For August 7-14, the topic is DDT. The podcast will look at a controversy that erupted in Uganda when locals resisted a government plan to spray homes with the pesticide DDT. We'll also hear from entomologist May Berenbaum, who has written about the value and cultural significance of DDT. Come to the online discussion forum to weigh in and ask questions-Berenbaum will be checking in throughout the week to discuss and answer questions. Check back each week for a new podcast, and stay tuned for the next discussion! http://theworld.org/science
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SIGMA XI HOSTS ENGINEER-IN-TRAINING CAMP FOR STUDENTS
In June, Sigma Xi and the Shodor Education Foundation hosted a week-long "demonstration" experience for 20 eighth- through 11th-grade students at the Sigma Xi Center for hands-on exploration of engineering concepts, computational modeling and vocational opportunities. Student evaluations showed significant retention of concepts taught and reflected increased motivation to explore engineering careers. This demonstration project also allowed Sigma Xi chapters and interested at-large members that are interested in starting or expanding existing outreach programming for middle and high school students to observe proven techniques and lessons developed by Shodor over the past 10 years. Chapters that sent observers are now eligible to apply for Sigma Xi grants to start or enlarge their engineering focused high school outreach programs and have free access to Shodor's expertise. The Shodor Education Foundation (http://www.shodor.org) was founded and is led by ROBERT PANOFF (1987). For more information on future demonstration events, sending a chapter observer or applying for grants, please contact pcates@sigmaxi.org.
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HOUSE AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE PUBLISHES SURVEY RESPONSES
U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson has announced the publication of responses to the Committee's climate change survey. The Committee received more than 200 responses to the questionnaire. Sigma Xi was among 400 organizations invited to participate. Read more at:
http://www.sigmaxi.org/about/news/2009HouseSurvey.shtml
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SIGMA XI MEMBERS' SCIENCE BLOGS AND WEB SITES
We've posted the first round of science blogs. These diverse sites cover a wide range of topics, from learning and memory to evolution, microbes, physics, skepticism and science in Texas. Visit them at: http://www.sigmaxi.org/member/blogs/index.shtml. If you have a blog about science or technology that you'd like to include, send a brief summary (50 words) describing it and a link to it to: aporter@sigmaxi.org
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VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES & SIGMAXILEADERSHIP.ORG
Do you know of volunteer opportunities in your area? Let us know! We'll pass along the information in future eBlasts. Would you like to offer your experience and expertise to address the decline in science and mathematics proficiencies in North American students? One of Sigma Xi's three pillar initiatives is "Transformational Science Education" - which includes thriving partnerships with the National Science Teacher Association (serving the U.S. and Canada), the Pete Conrad Foundation's Spirit of Innovation Awards Competition and the Shodor Education Foundation to promote student achievement and vocational exploration. Volunteers are needed for a variety of science competition judging opportunities, tutorial and coaching openings, and even guest speaker spots all around the nation. Specific Leadership Opportunities listed by our national partners will be updated on the Web site starting June 15 on a monthly basis. Because of short term deadlines, other regional and local opportunities to serve will be matched to the profile you create and sent to you when your availability and interests meet the need of the requesting group. We invite you register your willingness to volunteer your time and expert, please register at http://sigmaxileadership.org. If you have a need for volunteers, you may also submit that request using http://sigmaxileadership.org/feedback form.
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SIGMA XI MEMBERS IN THE NEWS
Life member A. FRED SPILHAUS (1961), recently retired executive director of the American Geophysical Union and only one of eight Council of Scientific Society Executives (CESSE) Leadership Award recipients, was honored in Orlando at the CESSE annual meeting in July with the renaming of the coveted award to the A. Fred Spilhaus Leadership Award.
NANCY L. ELWESS (1999), associate professor of biological sciences at SUNY Plattsburgh, has been named by President Obama as a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. The award is designed to recognize the crucial role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science or engineering and who belong to minorities that are underrepresented in those fields.
MAGGIE FUSARI (1965) writes: "I retired in 2007 from UCSC, where I was the director of the Natural Reserves for the Santa Cruz campus of UC. I also taught field ecology and vertebrate biology for the departments of environmental studies and biology. Now I am serving in Peace Corps Mexico, at the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve. I am working on the database for vertebrate species and on developing a monitoring program for the reserve (with very little money and staff of course). I wonder if any members of Sigma Xi might consider Peace Corps service when they retire? They have many skills to offer, and Peace Corps has been recruiting heavily for experienced and mature people. I would be happy to communicate with anyone who is interested about my experiences." Contact her at: maggiefusari@gmail.com
DOUGLAS N. ARION (2003) says that one of his current major projects is managing the Galileoscope project for the International Year of Astronomy (www.galileoscope.org, www.astronomy2009.org). "This is a terrific program where we are producing tens of thousands of small, high quality telescopes that are being distributed worldwide - with the goal of giving a million people the opportunity to look at the sky through their own personal telescope. We hope to bring astronomy to everyone over the course of the year, and we hope that all Sigma Xi members will avail themselves of the chance to bring science to the public." Arion is Donald Hedberg Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, professor of physics and ice hockey head coach at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
(JOHN) RUI-HUA XIE (2004) was appointed by Xi'an Jiaotong University (Xi'an, China) as Distinguished Teng Fei Professor and by Hubei University (Wuhan, China) as Distinguished Guest Professor. He reports: "Recently, we have obtained exact extended traveling-wave and spatiotemporal soliton solutions to the generalized (3+1)-dimensional nonlinear Schroedinger equations for both the normal and the anomalous dispersion [Optics Letters, Vol.34, No.10, pp.1609-1611, May 15, 2009; Physical Review Letters, Vol.101, No.12, pp.123904, 2008]. The special issue "Structural, Electronic and Optical Properties of Nanostructures" he and colleagues edited was published in the Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience [Vol.6, No.2, pp.233-463, Feb.2009].
In 2008, as a sophomore at Lexington High School, MARK A. CHONOFSKY (2009) finished first place in the Massachusetts State Science Fair, winning a $50,000 scholarship to Wheaton College. In "The Phylogeny of Rotifera - A Bayesian Exploration of Metazoan Phylogeny," he used Bayesian and other methods to make and analyze a phylogenetic tree of several Metazoan phyla, demonstrating evolutionary relationships. In 2009, he had another first place finish, winning a $40,000 scholarship to Worcester Polytechnic Institute. In "Phylogeny of the Taxaceae Inferred from Phytochrome Sequences," he improved his understanding of phylogenetic and laboratory methods to sequence genes of 11 Taxaceae species to investigate and correct their evolutionary tree. He wrote specialized Python programs to perform Swofford-Olsen-Waddell-Hillis statistical and other Bayesian analyses, including Metropolis Coupled Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Maximum Likelihood and Parsimony Analysis. Chonofsky went on to present this work at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, receiving a best of category and first award in plant science. Through the MIT-Harvard Broad Institute outreach program, he earned a summer internship at the Harvard University Herbaria Laboratory of Sarah Mathews, studying plant evolution and taxonomy using DNA information. His research to date will be presented in July at the annual Botany Society of America conference.
PETER B. ROEMER (1984) has received the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine's (ISMRM) highest individual honor, the Gold Medal Award. He is co-founder and chief technology officer of ONI Medical Systems, Inc. of Wilmington, Massachusetts. Roemer was cited for "his pioneering contributions to magnetic resonance imaging radiofrequency receiver coil array technology which today represents a fundamental technology found in all modern MR systems. MRI as we know it today, both in terms of imaging speed and image quality would not exist without Roemer's contributions to the field."
ANDRZEJ BARTKE (1999) at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield has been awarded the largest National Institutes of Health grant ever received at the medical school to support research on the effects of growth hormone on aging and longevity.
A new scholarship has been established at Lamar University by Hashem Hashemian in honor of WENDELL C. BEAN (1962) in recognition of his dedication to higher education and passion for learning.
ROBERT B. PICKERING (1989), Collier-Read Deputy Director at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, has been named senior curator of the Gilcrease Museum and director of the Museum Science and Management Degree Program at Tulsa University. He reports for work August 1. A forensic anthropologist by training, Pickering earned a Ph.D. in physical anthropology from Northwestern University. Following tenures at the Field Museum in Chicago and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Pickering joined the historical center staff in 1999. He has written three books-The Use of Forensic Anthropology, Seeing the White Buffalo and Sitting Bull's Pipe.
PAULO CARVALHO (1997) has been appointed assistant professor in the department of pharmaceutical sciences at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland School of Pharmacy. He began his new position June 1. He comes to College of Notre Dame from the medicinal chemistry department at the University of Mississippi, where he served in several positions including visiting scholar, postdoctoral research associate and associate research scientist. Carvalho has also taught at two universities in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
M. R. C. GREENWOOD (1997) in the department of nutrition at the University of California at Davis has been named president of the University of Hawaii.
DUDLEY J. RAYNAL (1978) in the environmental and forest biology department at the State University of New York at Syracuse has received the 2009 Adirondack Achievement Award recognizing his work initiating one of the oldest acid rain monitoring stations in the United States at the Huntington Wildlife Forest, and for many research projects on Adirondack lakes, plants and forests.
RODNEY L. DREISBACH (1969) of Kent, Washington, has been named a new member of the Council of Management by NAFEMS, the International Association for the Engineering Analysis Community.
PAUL S. ANDERSON (1959) of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, has been honored by the University of Vermont with the Alumni Achievement Award for outstanding achievement that has been recognized at the local, state and national levels.
LESLY TEMESVARI (2002) in the Biological Sciences Department at Clemson University has been awarded the 2009 Sigma Xi annual Researcher of the Year award from the Clemson Chapter for her work in understanding the parasite Entamoeba histolytica.
W. ROBERT DAASCH (1995) of West Linn, Oregon, has been awarded the Outstanding Scientific Researcher Award from the Columbia-Willamette Chapter for his work in electrical and computer engineering.
ALEX M. RUZICKA (2000) in the Department of Geology at Portland State University has been awarded the Outstanding Scientific Researcher Award in earth sciences from the Columbia-Willamette Chapter for his work in geology.
CHARLES R. PETERSON (1979) in the Department of Biological Sciences at Idaho State University has been honored with the Jerome Bigelow Award for outstanding service to scientific research by the Idaho State University Chapter of Sigma Xi.
For more news items about Sigma Xi members, visit: http://sigmaxi.org/about/news/mitn.shtml
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ANNOUNCING NEW COLLECTION OF BRANDED CLOTHING
Don't miss our new collection of Sigma Xi and American Scientist clothing we have launched in association with NonprofitWebstores.com. From embroidered polo shirts to a variety of T-shirts with favorite American Scientist covers, our new online store offers a great selection of branded apparel. For details: http://nonprofitwebstores.com/shop?c=49248
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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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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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Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
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