eberly college of arts and sciences magazine: fall 2010
DESCRIPTION
This edition of the Eberly Magazine focuses on graduate education.TRANSCRIPT
Dear friends, This is my first official letter for Eberly magazine since joining the College as dean. It covers a topic that I am personally passionate about and one that is increasingly important to the University—graduate education.
The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences has 11 PhD programs and 23 master’s programs. We have the opportunity to significantly raise our production of graduate degrees. An increase in PhD graduates will be particularly important as the University strives to obtain Carnegie Very High Research status, a mark of excellence that we believe is attainable.
The stories in this edition give you a taste of what is currently happening at the graduate level. We are attracting talented students in the hard and social sciences and in our humanities programs. You will see the strong threads of teaching, research, and service running through the graduate education-themed edition, just as you did in each edition before it.
Currently our researchers collaborate with numerous disciplines and colleges at WVU as well as with government, private industry, and other institutions of higher education at home and around the world. Our faculty are doing cutting-edge, grant-funded research across disciplines and giving graduate students opportunities to participate and contribute to the academy.
In this edition you will find stories about discovery, research, teamwork, creativity, passion, and possibility. There is something to interest everyone, whether it is graduate student Stephanie Archer-Hartmann’s desire to contribute to the global high-tech economy, John Tudek’s forays to underground worlds of wonder, the inspirational writings of members and alumni of the Department of English’s MFA program, or the University’s recent receipt of a grant that will transform how we nurture and promote leaders in science.
Right now my most important priority is to ask questions, listen and to absorb the essence of Eberly. My first three months on the job have been a whirlwind of activity. Every day I learn more about West Virginia University and the important role of the Eberly College (on page 38, you can learn a little more about me).
In closing my first post, I would like to express sincere gratitude for the leadership and generous service that Rudy Almasy provided for the College, not only in his role as your leader during this past year (and at two other critically important times in the past), but also in his many other roles including professor, scholar, teacher, fund raiser, moral compass, and visionary. Rudy, the college staff, and the advisory committee have worked miracles to build a smooth transition for me. Success comes from that kind of team effort. I am very grateful to them and to all of you.
Sincerely,
Robert H. Jones, PhD Dean
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ContentsIN THIS ISSUE2 Around the College
6 Vox Populi6 High-Tech Mind, High-Tech Future
8 The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
10 Alchemy in the Chemistry Research Building
14 The Clean, Green Team: Advancing National Energy Security
18 Ten Years of Creative Writing at WVU
23 Taking on the Texting Generation: National Writing Project and Young Writers Holiday
28 Hidden Waters
30 New and Notable
30 ADVANCing Women in Science
36 The Golden Hour
38 Meet Dean Jones
41 Awards and Honors 41 Star Formation
42 Jim Nolan is on the CASE
44 What the Universe Holds
46 CAREER -making Research
48 Burke Wins Presidential Teaching Award
ADMINISTRATIONJames P. Clements, PhD, President, West Virginia UniversityMichele Wheatly, PhD, ProvostRobert Jones, PhD, DeanJoan Gorham, EdD, Associate Dean, Academic AffairsFred King, PhD, Associate Dean, Research and Graduate StudiesAsuntina Levelle, JD, Associate Dean, Financial Planning and ManagementKatherine Karraker, PhD, Assistant Dean for Undergraduate StudiesL. Christopher Plein, PhD, Assistant Dean, School of Applied Social Sciences Bonnie Fisher, Director of Development
EDITORIAL STAFFRebecca Herod, Executive EditorKathy Deweese, University EditorDustin Mazon, Web Designer
ART DIRECTIONAngela CaudillForrest ConroySue CristChris Schwer
CONTRIBUTING EDITORSJohn BoltJessica HammondAbby FreelandMackenzie MaysDianna MazzellaLauren PerettiAshley Wells
PHOTOGRAPHYDaniel Friend, Photography ManagerM.G. Ellis, PhotojournalistBrian Persinger, PhotojournalistAllison Toffle, PhotojournalistTaylor Jones, Photography Intern
COVER ARTBrian Persinger
EDITORIAL OFFICERebecca HerodDirector of Marketing and CommunicationsPO Box 6286Morgantown, WV 26506-6286E-mail: [email protected]
CHANGE OF ADDRESSWVU FoundationPO Box 1650Morgantown, WV 26507-1650E-mail: [email protected]
VISIT OUR WEBSITE ATeberly.wvu.edu
Look for the Entrepreneurship edition of Eberly in the spring. If you would like to access archival editions of the magazine, go to eberly.wvu.edu and select the Alumni link.
Correction: Page 30 of the 2010 summer edition “Eberly Tears into Service,” contained an error. The “Lady Luck” sculpture created by Burl Jones is 18.25”, not 8.25”. If you are interested in purchasing the limited edition sculpture, please contact: [email protected].
WVU is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution.
West Virginia University is governed by the West Virginia University Board of Governors and the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.
Matt Boyce works on core samples in the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
14
Stephanie Archer-Hartmann, doctoral candidate in the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry
6
Norman Cave in Greenbrier County, W.V., is part of the Bone-Norman Cave System, a 14-mile-long system.
26
2 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Around the College
Happy Birthday LASER: WVU Celebrates LaserFest
Do you know how many times a
day lasers are used? When you check
out at a store a laser reads the bar code
on your purchase; your DVD player,
iPod, and computer all use them, and
many surgeries are now done using the
pinpoint precision of lasers.
This year is the 50th anniversary of
the invention of the laser, an acronym
developed based on the name of the
process, light amplification by stimulated
emission of radiation. To mark the
occasion, West Virginia University
Society of Physics Students and the
Institute for Electrical and Electronics
Engineers Student Branch have partnered
to present LaserFest, a traveling laser
show for schools in rural West Virginia
and cities such as Charleston, West
Virginia, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The goal is to increase young students’
interest in science and laser technology.
The show consists of three sets of
laser shows accompanied by music from
the Beatles, Michael Jackson, and the
movie Slum Dog Millionaire.
The laser was constructed by WVU
engineering students. After the show,
physics students Dorothy Nelson and
Ethel Perez demonstrate how to make
a laser at home out of just a clothespin,
cheap laser pointer, a tiny mirror, a few
Legos, and a spring from a pen.
“I think a lot of kids are under the
impression that science is geeky and
nerdy and for the smart kids. This gives
them a chance to see how cool it really
is,” Nelson said.
Michael Vannatta, a student in the
C. Eugene Bennett Department of
Chemistry, has also been working with
WVU’s Extension Service to put on laser
shows for 4-H camps.
“The number-one goal is to get kids
excited about science,” Vannatta said.
Ian Hathaway, a 12-year-old who
attends South Middle School, attended
a LaserFest event. He said he uses lasers
as a cat toy. However, this presentation
widened his view of their capabilities.
“I’ve been intrigued by lasers. I’ve
seen videos about them on YouTube, and
they’re so interesting,” he said.
Linda Wessels, a Morgantown
resident, brought her 12-year-old son,
Cole Prescott, to a show because he is
interested in science. “I like having the
opportunity to expose him to things
he isn’t exposed to on a daily basis and
having him meet
and interact with
scientists,” she said.
LaserFest is
funded by a Physics
Sponsored Research
Grant obtained
by James Lewis,
professor of physics,
in the amount of
$8,000. For more
information about
LaserFest, please visit
www.laserfest.org.
The laser machine has three lasers, green, red, and blue, but can create any color imaginable. It moves at 30,000 points a second. So if a square is on the screen, the laser is drawing the shape of a square so quickly that the human eye doesn’t see the drawing action, only the square itself.
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Flash, Dance!It was a day like any other during the first week of classes.
Woodburn Tower chimed at the stroke of noon.
Then, it happened.
A flash mob of students, faculty, and alumni surprised
bystanders by putting on a dance performance to Lady Gaga’s
“Telephone.”
Russian language and literature professor Lisa DiBartolomeo
planned the event with her students. She got the idea from
TV show Glee and decided to turn it into an opportunity to
promote the Department of Foreign Languages.
“My main goal with the flash mob was to just draw
attention to the dynamics and fun within the Foreign Language
Department,” DiBartolomeo said. “It gave us a chance to show a
bit of our personality.”
Gathering about 60 participants and receiving permission
from President James P. Clements, DiBartolomeo called on
former students to choreograph the dance and help her promote
the event via an exclusive Facebook group.
West Virginia University graduate and former student of
DiBartolomeo, Bethany Fisher, created original choreography
and an instructional video for participants to study before their
single rehearsal the Sunday prior.
Fisher was impressed with the enthusiasm of the participants,
most with no professional dance background, and praised the
spirit of the mob.
“This fun event was great, and it really says a lot about the
WVU community and our school spirit,” Fisher said. “It was a
crazy event to start off the year.”
Clements also recognized the event.
“I thought it was awesome. And I’m proud of the
professor (DiBartolomeo) who put it together,” Clements said.
“Mountaineers have a lot of spirit and pride, and their passion
showed.”
DiBartolomeo was pleased with the outcome and was proud
to give her audience a taste of the fun side of Foreign Languages.
“Events like these show that we’re student centered and can
be academically oriented, but we don’t have to take ourselves
too seriously,” she said. “WVU students get the whole college
experience here. They can enjoy themselves while they learn,
and that’s great.”
See a video of the flash mob performance on WVU’s
YouTube site. Select the YouTube icon at the bottom of any
WVU webpage and search for Flash Mob: Department of
Foreign Languages.
excerpt by Mackenzie Mays from the Daily Athenaeum
WVU students perform a Bollywood-style dance routine to kick-off Diversity Week.
4 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Around the College
Developing Safe Cleanup Methods for Meth Labs
According to the federal Drug
Enforcement Agency, between 2003 and
2008 there were 621 methamphetamine
incidents, including labs, dumpsites or
chemical and glassware seizures in West
Virginia. Include national incidents over
the same five-year period and you have
67,185 incidents.
Remediation of these toxic meth
lab sites raises environmental issues; do
the dangerous particles remain in the
air? If that is the case, painting the walls
and cleaning the carpets doesn’t solve
the problem, but simply covers it up
temporarily.
Suzanne Bell, assistant professor of
forensic and analytical chemistry in the C.
Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry
at West Virginia University, is doing
research to help clean up in the aftermath
of these dangerous drug crimes.
Bell received the Characterization and
Validation of Ion Mobility Spectrometry
in Clandestine Laboratory Remediation
grant for $77,471. The research is a joint
grant effort with the Environmental
Protection Agency.
Bell and her research group will
investigate if the standard cleaning and
purifying procedures used to clean homes
and apartments previously used as meth
labs really work.
“It’s important to clean it up properly
because so many toxic chemicals are used
in the preparation of methamphetamine,
and demolition of the site is not always
possible or appropriate. The danger to
future occupants is chronic exposure to
residuals of these hazardous compounds,”
Bell said.
Bell and graduate students Rona
Nishikawa, Lucy Oldfield, Travis Doria,
and Holly McCall will simulate meth labs
to gauge the effect of the chemicals used
on living environments. They also hope to
visit former labs to gather samples. Field
sites provide the best research environment
because it is impossible to simulate an
entire meth lab in the academic laboratory.
Third-year doctoral candidate and
research team member Holly McCall
knew she wanted to work with Dr. Bell
when she applied to WVU.
“Her research is a nontraditional
application of analytical chemistry, which
we base in forensic science,” McCall said.
“Since the toxicity of metham-
phetamine in airborne particles remains
unknown, the health of those personnel in
charge of cleaning up clandestine labs and
the future inhabitants of the location are
at risk. It is our goal to determine whether
these locations can be safely remediated, ,”
McCall said.
The findings of this research will have
applications for all 50 states, as they deal
with the cleanup of these dangerous and
toxic drug labs.
Holly McCall, third-year doctoral candidate in chemistry
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WVU Press Releases Roll out the Carpet: 101 Seasons of West Virginia University Basketball
West Virginia University Press is pleased to announce the publication
of Roll out the Carpet: 101 Seasons of West Virginia University Basketball.
Roll out the Carpet is written by John Antonik, director of new media for
intercollegiate athletics at West Virginia University, with a foreword by
Rod Thorn and an afterword by Bob Huggins.
The book is the story of West Virginia University men’s basketball. This
comprehensive history chronicles over 100 seasons of the game, from the
early years of the Tri-State and Eastern conferences, to the golden era of
Hot Rod Hundley, Jerry West, and Rod Thorn, to the Mountaineers’ most
recent triumphs under coaches John Beilein and Bob Huggins.
For Mountaineers, it’s not just about winning a prize, trophy or title—
it’s about the work ethic, pride, and loyalty that embody the spirit of the
state. With unparalleled insider access, alumnus and longtime athletic
department official John Antonik details the vibrant history of the players,
coaches, and fans who
created the finest moments
of Mountaineer basketball.
These pages overflow with
accounts of nail-biting
tension leading to buzzer-
beating shots, thrilling
game-saving moments, and
rich, intimate details of the
superstar players and coaches
who built an institution of
gold and blue.
From the first game in
1904 against rival Pitt to
West Virginia’s glorious
return to the 2010 NCAA
Final Four, Roll out the
Carpet celebrates the tradition of Mountaineer basketball. With over 500
photographs—many of which have never been published before—and
articles of memorabilia from the WVU Athletic Department, University
archives, and personal collections, this book is a must-have for any WVU
men’s basketball fan.
Antonik is also the author of West Virginia University Football Vault:
The History of the Mountaineers.
Visit www.wvupress.com to purchase Roll out the Carpet and to learn
more about this book.
Watch a videocast with the author at:
wvupressonline.com/vidcast/roll_out_the_carpet.
Spin(tronics) MasterCommunications companies
are competing to squeeze the most
technologically advanced memory and
media features into the tiniest of devices, but
some design ideas for the smallest cell phones
and music players are not practical yet.
Sergei Urazhdin, assistant professor
in the Department of Physics at West
Virginia University, is conducting research
to better understand the scientific potential
of miniaturizing these devices and making
them more energy efficient.
He has received a National Science
Foundation (NSF) grant, titled
Development of Tunable Nanomagnetic
Microwave Oscillators and Circuits, valued
at nearly $341,000 over three years. The
grant will support research by Urazhdin and
two graduate students aimed at developing
miniature spintronic devices to replace
the electronic components used in today’s
communication technology. This study
extends research supported by the NSF
CAREER grant Urazhdin received in 2007.
Urazhdin is leader of the WVU
Spintronics Group in the WVNano
Initiative, West Virginia’s focal point
for nanoscale science, engineering, and
education research, workforce development,
and economic development. Spintronic
devices use the direction of the electron’s
spin to encode information, and Urazhdin’s
group works to develop these popular
electronic devices on a nanoscale. This
research is made possible in a large part by
access to WVNano’s research facilities.
Sergei Urazhdin
6 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
I am a West Virginian. I’m originally from
Glenville, a small town located in the cen-
ter of the state. In grade school I sang “The
West Virginia Hills,” before saying the Pledge
of Allegiance. It was in Glenville that I learned
the value of community and that nothing is
achieved without hard work. My husband
and I grew up a few miles from each other
and were high school sweethearts. We both
pursued undergraduate degrees in the sciences
at WVU, where he studied computer science
and I pursued chemistry. We married shortly
after graduation. Glenville was a great place
to grow up, and is a great place to live—like
most people living in small towns, I also saw
some of the problems, the most pressing be-
ing the lack of available high-tech jobs.
In high school, it was through summer
experiences provided by the West Virginia
Governor’s Honors Academy and internships
provided through the Mollohan Foundation,
that I got my first taste of the emerging high-
technology future that our state is aiming for.
Conversing with people who were very, very
good at what they did provided me with an
understanding of entirely new opportunities
in industry. I was surrounded by them—
academics, researchers, and the business
professionals who together were turning
great ideas into companies (and jobs) in West
Virginia. Additionally I was seeing how the
state’s industries were expanding into a more
technology-driven business model.
I continued my scientific training
by studying chemistry at West Virginia
University, in part, because of the research
I was exposed to at the Governor’s Honors
Academy. I realized I wanted to be challenged
by my education, and also wanted to contrib-
ute back into the state. As an undergraduate
fascinated with biotechnology, I started to
work with Dr. Lisa Holland, who would later
become my graduate advisor. It was through
her guidance, and the camaraderie of my lab
mates, that I developed a passion for studying
how biomolecules could be manipulated and
used to enhance and better understand medi-
cal testing.
The opportunity to do cutting-edge
research as an undergraduate, through both
internships and research at WVU, was part of
an invaluable experience. Through this work
I solidified what I wanted to do post-gradua-
tion—to further my education and continue
doing the research that I really enjoyed. I also
realized that WVU was well-equipped to
provide that education.
My research at WVU focuses on develop-
ing new and better ways to separate and
analyze biomolecules to better understand
and improve the treatment of disease. In the
last few years, I’ve worked on instruments and
methods to detect markers for cancer, includ-
ing steroids, antibodies, proteins, and glycans.
This research combines creative thought with
the fundamentals of scientific principles,
resulting in the kind of practical results that
inspire further study. The methods that are
created can then be further developed for use
in fields such as environmental and medical
testing, or in quality assurance.
To do this research, I use a method
known as capillary electrophoresis that sepa-
rates molecules based on their size and charge
that are placed in a very small glass tube held
under a high electric field. This method is
effective for the analysis of biomolecules
because it uses very small samples, separates
molecules quickly and efficiently, and, with
the use of commercial instrumentation, can
easily be automated. The methods I develop
can be further adapted for more portable
analyses through the use of small microfluidic
devices. I am currently working on a number
of new separation strategies using a class of
smart materials based on phospholipids that
spontaneously self assemble. In the lab we
use these materials in capillaries, automated
instrumentation, and microfluidic devices to
study a number of different types of biomol-
ecules in complex samples such as cancer cells,
plasma, and tissues.
During graduate school, I was sup-
ported through WVNano and the EPsCOR
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Math) programs, which provided a great
environment for me to develop as a research
scientist. This training provided me with the
expertise of some of the best minds in research
by Stephanie Archer-HartmanPhotos by Dan Friend
High-Tech Mind, High-Tech Future
6 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 7
in an interdisciplinary environment. Good
scientific communication was heavily empha-
sized in STEM, something that is often very
difficult, especially when your colleagues have
been trained in widely different fields. This is
a requirement to effectively participate in col-
laborative work. It’s through these programs
that I learned how critical good communica-
tion is in the sciences and how invaluable
the connections fostered by interdisciplinary
STEM research are.
I was recently awarded a national fellow-
ship through the United States Pharmacopeia;
only four were given this year. Through the
support of this fellowship, I will be working
on new ways to characterize glycosylation
of therapeutic antibodies. A number of new
treatments for chronic diseases and cancers
are developed from a class of drugs based
on recombinant antibodies, or rMAbs. The
usefulness of such drugs, however, is found
to be dependent on the type and amount of
sugars decorating these antibodies. My aim
is to develop new technologies that would
allow for quick and inexpensive methods of
monitoring new rMAb-based therapeutics as
they are being developed and produced for
wide-scale medical use.
STEM and WVNano provided me with
a glimpse into some of the highly innovative
research that is currently happening at WVU.
My training in the shared user facilities gave
me access to a class 10,000 clean room and
cutting-edge fabrication instrumentation.
Through these advancements WVU is prov-
ing itself to be a major player in research and
in the advancement of high-tech business in
West Virginia. These programs allow me to
witness the development of novel ideas and
have inspired me to consider the high-tech
industry in West Virginia. I am particularly
interested in transforming scientific discovery
into the groundwork needed to transition
into a successful company. It is also through
the support of the Eberly College of Arts and
Sciences and the Department of Chemistry
that I was able to travel to national confer-
ences to present the work that I, as part of
WVU, am doing.
I know I’ve received a top-notch educa-
tion. I’ve been trained, not only to understand
and perform new research, but how to turn
these ideas into jobs. I find even now, I’m not
done learning. I am a graduate student in the
C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemis-
try, with only one year left to learn as much as
I can before I graduate.
I am a West Virginian.
I am soon to be a WVU alumna.
I can’t wait to get to work.
Vox Populi
Stephanie Archer-Hartmann working in the Holland Research Group lab.
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The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
Recently I had a discussion at work with
friend with a pharmacology PhD who
is about ten years younger than me. We were
comparing notes about our graduate school
experiences. She was talking about using the
Internet as a tool to find academic articles and
software that would automatically keep track
of online literature sources for quickly building
reference lists.
I interjected with the fact that the
Internet was not widely available during
the late eighties and early nineties. In fact, I
observed that we were just getting access to
a rudimentary form of e-mail while I was
finishing my thesis. She seemed surprised by
this and asked without thinking, “but how did
you do your literature research?” I quipped
with comments about places called “libraries”
with “stacks” of hard-bound journal articles.
I can hope she was as amused by the turn in
conversation as I was. Then I started thinking
about my graduate school experience and
which types of experiences had changed with
the evolution in technology during the past 20
years, and which sorts of things haven’t.
The Internet has certainly changed
how literature and information searches
are conducted. But, there has also been a
significant improvement in the scientific
equipment we used to collect our data. As
an example, I once informally repeated a
few of the experiments from my thesis study
on modern equipment. Some data sets that
used to take ten to 15 hours per experiment
could be performed in a few minutes, with
improved accuracy and reliability. No more
going to the lab in the middle of the night
to change samples! There have been great
improvements in computer applications used
to process and share our data. PowerPoint and
web-based team sites have changed how teams
collaborate. Even with all of these technology
advances, the fundamentals of science and
independent learning have not changed.
Academic exposure to a breadth of
knowledge in the science of chemistry and
focused study in a specialized field were
only part of the picture of my education
experience at West Virginia University. Like
most graduate students in the Chemistry
Department, I served as a teaching assistant
for many years. My first assignment was
in the general chemistry laboratory course,
supervising about 20 undergraduates. Over
the semester, I learned to be patient while
helping students grasp new concepts and
how to walk the fine line between providing
too much assistance and not enough. I came
to understand that it was important to let
students explore and make mistakes, while
being ready to provide support and direction
when needed.
These teaching skills have proven useful
when interacting with junior scientists and
customers during my career. As a teaching
assistant, I also developed an understanding
of the importance of safety in the chemical
laboratory. Once a student was using his
mouth to pipette (a narrow tube into which
fluid is drawn by suction) concentrated acid
and I had to quickly intervene. The idea that
I was partly responsible for the personal safety
of the students and others working in the
laboratory began to crystallize for me that day,
and this focus on safety has been important
throughout my career.
I was first attracted to WVU when Dr.
Kung Wang, a synthetic organic chemist,
gave a seminar at the chemistry department
of Miami University in Ohio, where I was a
senior undergraduate student. When I had
completed my undergraduate degree in 1988,
I knew that I enjoyed science and wanted to
continue studies in chemistry. However, I did
not have a strong sense of a career path. In
fact, I did not even have a focus on a specific
discipline within chemistry and was not
sure if I were ready to commit to a doctoral
program. Most chemistry graduate programs
at large universities only offered a PhD at
that time, and a few small universities offered
only a terminal master’s degree. West Virginia
University offered the option for either or both
degrees.
I researched the Department of Chemistry
at WVU. It had an excellent reputation
and the flexibility that I could register as a
master’s degree candidate and switch to the
PhD program at a later time if I chose. Then
I visited the Morgantown campus, met the
professors and graduate students, and WVU
became my first choice for graduate school.
As a bonus, the University had a certain
reputation as a football powerhouse with
Major Harris as quarterback. Who could
resist? I certainly couldn’t, and loaded my
belongings for the move to Morgantown, not
able to begin to predict the personal, scientific,
and professional development that I was about
to undertake.
I registered at WVU expecting to
specialize in organic chemistry, but quickly
by Mark Mabry
8 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Mark and Stephanie Mabry
found that it was not really a good fit for
my interests. Next I began exploring the
disciplines of physical and analytical chemistry.
Chemical kinetics, the study of reaction rates
and mechanism, along with thermodynamics,
the study of energy and energy transfer, were
of interest. I tried a couple of different research
groups. I looked at a career in technical
writing. During the time spent deciding
on a field of study, I had the opportunity to
learn and develop a breadth of knowledge
in the chemical sciences that has led to my
continued growth as a scientist. I discovered
that molecular spectroscopy, the study of the
interaction of light with matter, was my real
passion, and I joined the research group of Dr.
Paul Jagodzinski. Our research used laser light
to study molecules in solution.
In graduate school, I learned it is not only
the interaction with your professor/advisor
that shapes your research and education, but
the influence of the other members of your
research group and other professors in the
department. In particular, Dr. Charles Jaffé,
Dr. Harry Finklea, Dr. Fred King, and Dr.
John Penn played a role in my development
as a scientist. Many of the casual conversations
I had with these mentors turned into
opportunities to develop critical thinking
skills and the ability to handle self-learning
and independent study. My relationships
with many of these professors lasted past my
graduation and continue today.
Graduate school at WVU was a great
place to begin learning about cultural diversity.
I moved to Morgantown from southwestern
Ohio and hadn’t had many opportunities
to interact with students from abroad.
The Chemistry Department had attracted
students from Eastern Europe, as well from
Asia, Africa, and other places around the
globe. Some of the best occasions for cultural
exchange occurred around shared meals.
One of the professors traditionally offered his
house to graduate students from China for
the traditional New Year’s celebration and I
had the opportunity to attend. I recall being
amazed by the variety of foods provided by
the students and that these were so different
from what you might expect to see in a typical
“Chinese” restaurant in the United States.
One of the senior graduate students
had recently returned from a trip home to
Shanghai and had returned with traditional
liquor. While I tasted it, the student described
many health properties associated with
drinking the vaguely soy flavored potion,
including virility. I started to inquire about the
ingredients, but it seemed like a better idea
to not ask. On a separate occasion, I invited
several friends over for chili only to learn the
students from Hungary couldn’t imagine
eating cornbread as corn was considered food
for swine. As part of a global pharmaceutical
company with a diverse workforce, I certainly
appreciate the sense of cultural awareness I
learned at WVU.
I have no doubt that two of the realities
I learned during graduate school are still
true today: 1. Graduate school is a form of
indentured servitude, and it is the student’s
responsibility to actively seek an education.
This can be a positive, yet difficult, experience
and builds the drive to succeed. 2. Selection
of a research advisor is nearly as important
as finding a compatible spouse. You may be
interacting with that individual to some degree
or another for the rest of your professional life. Mark Mabry graduated from West Virginia
University with a master’s degree in chemistry in 1992 with thesis work in molecular spectroscopy. He worked as an environmental chemist in Illinois until 1996. He then became an analytical research scien-tist with Rayonier, a chemical cellulose manufacturer in southeast Georgia. In 2000, Mabry relocated to Baltimore to take a position as a spectroscopy ap-plications specialist for Thermo Fisher Scientific.
He is currently a senior product development scientist for Pfizer Consumer Healthcare and has lived in Richmond, VA, since 2004. His work entails method development, validation, and tech-nology transfer for over-the-counter medications and medical devices. He is very involved with the local American Chemical Society and is Exposition Chair for the 2011 Southeast Regional ACS meeting.
In his spare time, Mabry is an avid sailor who enjoys racing on a nearby lake and sailing on the Chesapeake Bay with his friends and family. His wife, Stephanie (BS, ’92), is also an alumna of the WVU Department of Chemistry.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 9
10 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
by Jessica Hammond
in the
Chemistry Research BuildingPhotos by Brian Persinger
10 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 11
The basement of the Chemistry Research Building houses a secret group of alchemists who are charged with transmuting common substances into materials of great value. They aren’t practicing magic, but their contributions to the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry are as a good as gold.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 11
12 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
tools or equipment for their research, and
Adams takes care of making those as well.
“If it doesn’t work, I’ll fix it. Sometimes
professors come to me with a drawing or a
concept, and I make it,” he said.
Professor Jeffery Peterson uses an
Adams-made glass apparatus to keep the
chemicals in his lab under vacuum. He
works with air- and moisture-sensitive
molecules, so the vacuums Adams makes are
essential for successful results.
“Sherman is a very skilled individual. Not
many people can do what he’s doing. We are
very fortunate to have him,” said Peterson.
Adams has made Elizabeth Ward, a
third-year doctoral candidate in chemistry, a
glass tool that makes her experiments safer.
“It is a piece that goes into an oil bath
and prevents any splashing,” Ward said. “He
also repairs a lot of our glassware. He saves
us so much money and time,” she added.
In addition to being the creator and
fixer of most things glass, Sherman Adams
has taught more than 300 students the
how-to basics of glassblowing over the years.
He said it is a valuable skill for chemistry
and physics majors because if they go on to
become a researcher or professor they can fix
and create their own glass. This special skill-
set makes them more marketable.
Allen Burns, a scientific lab instrument
specialist, performs his magic with
different materials.
He uses a computerized numeric control
(CNC) machine to make equipment from
one piece of plexiglass, sheet metal, or
wood. The CNC is a computerized system
that can read a design created on a comput-
Sherman Adams, Allen Burns, and
Randy Eaglen support the research of
faculty and graduate students by creating
the specialized equipment needed for their
experiments.
Sherman Adams is a scientific glass
blower who has been perfecting his craft at
WVU for the last 31 years. When you enter
his office, a fire torch, oven, and shelves and
surfaces full of glass meet your eyes.
His duties include fixing broken glass
apparatus. He also creates all of the test
tubes for the introductory chemistry cours-
es. His skills have been recruited to support
various projects in the Department of En-
vironmental Protection, the WVU Health
Sciences Center, and the National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health.
Students and professors need specialized
Sherman Adams used a single tube of glass, about as long as a two-foot ruler and as thick as a roll of quarters, to make an elephant during our photo session. His talents with glass extend beyond science, into the world of art.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 13
er and then quickly create the device. Plexi-
glass and plastics are generally used because
they do not react with chemicals. Prior to
the 2008 purchase of the CNC, Burns used
a machine that required everything to be
made and cut by hand.
His favorite part of the job is working
with students because so many of them
come from different cultures and back-
grounds, and he likes learning about them.
In addition to creating research equip-
ment, he services the liquid nitrogen genera-
tors. These machines, on campus since 1969,
make liquid nitrogen from the air. WVU is
one of the only universities in the United
States that still makes liquid nitrogen.
“It is sold to other institutions and
provides an important revenue stream,” said
Chemistry Departmentchair Terry Gullion.
Randy Eaglen, another scientific lab
instrument specialist, specializes in work in
the woodshop, but he is truly a jack-of-all-
trades. He tackles electrical, plumbing, or
welding work.
“I’m never bored, that’s for sure. I don’t
do the same thing every day,” Eaglen said.
Gullion feels lucky to have such a strong
support staff. He said if WVU researchers
had to contract with outside companies for
glass repairs or pieces for their projects, they
would not be competitive for grants and
other research opportunities.
“Everything would take longer and be
more expensive if WVU had to travel for
their glass and machine repair and creation
needs. We would lose time and money.”
He went on to say that because of the
exploratory, cutting-edge nature of research
there are some things needed in a lab that
simply are not available commercially.
“The point of science is that it is novel
and original,” Gullion added. “If you can’t
buy it, but you have an idea, they can make
it for you.”
The alchemists in the basement are an
integral part of the scientific process.
Randy Eaglen made the table holding the computer that controls an atomic force microscope used by Elizabeth Yates, a third-year doctoral candidate.
Randy Eaglen
Sherman Adams
Elizabeth Yates Allen Burns
Allen Burns
Jeffrey Petersen, PhD
14 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
West Virginia is an energy state—it is an important energy producer and today is an innovator and leader. West Virginia University is training the next generation of engineers and scientists who will pioneer new strategies and technology platforms to make cleaner, more affordable, and reliable energy from fossil fuels and produce alternative energy sources.
Three professors in the Eberly College and their graduate students have been awarded grants from the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to provide a range of research and engineering services that are collectively valued at more than $465 million over five years.
By combining NETL’s expertise in fossil-energy technologies with the capabilities of Eberly faculty and graduate researchers, WVU is at the forefront of identifying and improving the use of fossil-energy resources and assisting the country’s transition to more energy-efficient technologies like fuel cells and fusion.
Advancing National Energy Security
TheThe
14 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
by Lauren Peretti
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 15
Harry Finklea, professor in the C.
Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry,
and his doctoral student Xiaoke Chen and
his postdoctoral associate, Yun Chen, are
working with NETL researchers to save
energy by combining heat and electrical
generation capabilities into one source of
generated energy, a fuel cell. The collabo-
ration includes Mechanical & Aerospace
Department faculty members Dr. Ismail
Celik and Dr. Nick Wu, and members of
their research groups.
Fuel cells provide a means of reducing
or even eliminating pollution of the envi-
ronment. A fuel cell is an electrochemical
device where a chemical reaction produces
energy that is converted directly into elec-
tricity. Once used primarily in space travel,
fuel cells are now being considered for use in
cars, homes, power plants, computers, smart
phones, appliances, and heating devices.
Finklea explained that a solid oxide fuel
cell is a special type of device that operates
at high temperatures up to 1,500 degrees
Fahrenheit. At this temperature, the solid
oxide fuel cell can use syngas, a fuel mixture
manufactured from coal or common liquid
fuels such as diesel. “We’re experimenting
with novel structures and compositions
of the cathode, the electrode at which
oxygen is reduced. This research could
lead to higher efficiency and lower cost for
the manufacture of solid oxide fuel cells,”
explained Finklea.
Chen earned a bachelor’s degree in phar-
macy from China in 2007 and is pursuing
a doctoral degree at WVU. New energy is a
hot topic, and Chen’s knowledge of analytic
chemistry is very applicable in this field.
“I get to team up with experts and
professors from other departments and
institutions who give me helpful advice,”
Chen said. “I gain valuable work experience
in a cross college environment working with
different people. It has helped me become a
better researcher in the relative area which I
plan to continue pursuing after graduation.”
Finklea and Chen conduct the major-
ity of their research at NETL’s facility in
Morgantown. There they can use a special
test bed that is capable of reaching the high
temperatures required for conversion and
use state-of-the-art facilities for character-
izing the solid oxide fuel cells.
The collaboration on this project
extends to the National Institute of Fuel-cell
Technology (NIFT), a multi-disciplinary
cluster of energy researchers from vari-
“We’re experimenting with novel structures and compositions of the cathode, the electrode at which oxygen is reduced. This research could lead to higher efficiency and lower cost for the manufacture of solid oxide fuel cells,” explained Finklea.
ous departments at WVU that strives to
make fuel cells an affordable, efficient, and
clean source of energy. Several professors in
WVU’s College of Engineering and Mineral
Resources have contributed, including
NIFT Director Ismail Celik, NIFT Associ-
ate Director Bruce Kang, Nick Wu, Xingbo
Liu, Edward Sabolsky, John Zondlo, and
Xueyan Song.
FINDING MARCELLUS SHALE DEPOSITS
Thanks to Tim Carr, Marshall Miller
Energy Professor of Geology and his doctoral
candidate Matt Boyce, it’s become easier than
ever for geologists to predict and find impor-
tant fossil energy sources.
Carr and Boyce are applying formu-
las to existing and extracted data, to find
reservoirs of Marcellus shale in one of the
world’s largest natural gas fields here in
the central Appalachian region. Thanks to
these unconventional resources, they are
supplying a number of nearby oil and gas
companies with predicted fuel source loca-
tions using geographic information systems
(GIS) to produce large mass infrastructures
of more than 2,900 regional wells.
“The goal of the research is to understand
where deposits are and why in order to make
better predictions, understand the formation
process, and analyze the history of the area to
more accurately look for other places where
gas is prominent. Then, companies go to these
places to extract it,” said Boyce.
Harry Finklea and Xiaoke Chen
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16 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Carr and Boyce are part of a network
of geologists who have uncovered hundreds
of years’ worth of gas, making important
contributions to energy conservation and
economic security, and now that the nation
is abundant in fuel sources, there is less of
a need to import.
“This is an infrastructure and eco-
nomic driver for West Virginia, Pennsyl-
vania, and the surrounding area, because
it provides alternative, unconventional
energy for things like public transportation
and power plants, and supplies new jobs,”
said Carr. “It also has a positive impact
on the environment as a low cost and low
carbon energy source.”
After earning bachelor’s and master’s
degrees in geology from the University of
Arkansas, Boyce followed Carr to WVU
in 2007 and began developing tools that
analyze core samples, measure physical
properties and critical rock data in a more
economical and efficient manner. Since his
graduation in August 2010,
master’s candidates in the
Department of Geology and
Geography, Anne Yanni and
Roy Sexton, have extended
Boyce’s work into northern
Pennsylvania.
Not only does predicting
the location of gas depend on existing data
at WVU, but the research has encouraged
cross-college collaboration with Mohindar
Seehra, Research Professor and Eberly
Family Distinguished Professor Emeritus
in the Department of Physics, and his
research associate, Vivek Singh.
“My role in this research was to quan-
tify the mineral composition of about 40
samples of core rock content from Marcel-
lus shale wells using x-ray diffraction and
data analysis software,” said Singh.
“This joint project is a good example
how expertise of different disciplines is
often needed to tackle important technical
problems,” said Seehra, who has previ-
ously worked with researchers from other
disciplines in the the C. Eugene Bennett
Department of Chemistry, Departments of
Chemical and Mechanical Engineering, and
Department of Orthopaedics at WVU.
APPLYING PLASMA PHYSICSEarl Scime, Eberly Distinguished Professor
and chair of the Department of Physics, is re-
searching fuels and fuel burning by-products for
the NETL’s Office of Fossil Energy with doctoral
student Mike Lindon. They are part of another
interdisciplinary collaboration with chemists
and chemical engineers at NETL and WVU to
discover new applications for plasma physics that
could reduce the environmental impact of fossil
fuel combustion.
Matt Boyce
16 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
“This is an infrastructure and economic driver for West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the surrounding area, because it provides alternative, unconventional energy for things like public transportation and power plants, and supplies new jobs,” said Carr.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 17
Scime and Lindon are using non-thermal
plasmas to drive chemical processes that generate
hydrogen and carbon monoxide from coal and
that can dissociate carbon dioxide into carbon
monoxide and oxygen. Normally these chemical
processes require very high temperatures to occur.
However, by putting the energy into specific
energies of the electrons in a plasma, less energy
is needed to drive the chemical reactions. Such
plasmas are called non-thermal plasmas.
“This research could lead to a cheaper and
more effective method of energy extraction that
uses plasmas to react chemical systems, which
will help further more advanced research in this
field,” said Lindon, who received a bachelor’s de-
gree in nuclear engineering from Purdue Univer-
sity and has worked at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory in the plasma physics division.
Lindon hopes that, with strong results,
NETL can advance the plasma physics lab
to provide future WVU students with more
chances to pursue a degree in the plasma sciences.
He also sees this research as an opportunity to
bridge the gap between the different approaches
of physicists and chemical engineers and move
ideas across multiple disciplines.
“Partnering with NETL has proved to be
a very good work environment that provides
the funding, resources, and freedom I need to
pursue research towards my doctoral degree,”
said Lindon. “I hope being at the forefront of this
research will allow me to continue working on
such innovative work in the future.”
The National Energy Technology Labora-
tory is a federally owned and operated laboratory
that funds research and development partner-
ships with industry, universities, and government
entities to support the Department of Energy’s
mission of advancing the national, economic,
and energy security of the United States. NETL
formed the Regional University Alliance for
Energy Technology Innovation (RUA) in
partnership with five nationally recognized uni-
versities, including Carnegie Mellon University,
Pennsylvania State University, University of Pitts-
burgh, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, and West Virginia University.
Advanced Energy InitiativeThe WVU Advanced Energy Initiative coordinates and promotes University-wide energy research in science, technology, and public policy.
The plan consists of three major focus areas:
•FossilEnergyFocus—deals with fossil energy resources, conversion, utilization, sequestration, and environmental management.
•SustainableEnergyFocus—addresses energy efficiency, conservation, and renewable energy sources.
•EnergyPolicyandRegulatoryAffairsFocus—providesanalysis of energy policy, carbon management, environmental, and infrastructure issues.
To learn more about the University’s Advanced Energy Initiative, and the many other research projects and partnerships associated with it, visit researchtrust.wvu.edu/energy.
Earl Scime and Mike Lindon
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body body of 18 SUMMER 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Buildingof
workThe MFA Program Celebrates
Ten Years of Success
Buildingbody aa
eberly.wvu.edu SUMMER 2 0 1 0 19
workWest Virginia University’s Master of
Fine Arts Program will celebrate its tenth
anniversary this year. The only MFA program
in Appalachia, it offers specializations in
fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Ten years ago Poet James Harms wrote
the proposal that started the program.
In 2002, the first three MFA students
graduated—Maryann Wolfe, Alvis Minor,
and Natalie Seabolt Dobson. They
transferred from the master’s program in
English, which formerly allowed students to
substitute a creative project for the scholarly
thesis requirement.
“The Department of English already
had such a wonderful group of writers
and an established master’s degree
program—so the MFA program was
the next logical and necessary step, said
Harms, professor of English and founding
director of the program.
WVU’s MFA faculty members include
Mark Brazaitis, James Harms, Mary Ann
Samyn, Ellesa Clay High, Kevin Oderman,
and Ethel Morgan Smith. They have
published more than 20 books between
them and have won many prestigious
prizes and honors including the PEN/
Revson Foundation Fellowship, National
Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship,
Fulbright Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation
Fellowship, Iowa Short Fiction Award,
George Garrett Fiction Award, and the
Bakeless Prize in Nonfiction, amongst others.
With no other MFA program offered in
the area, enrollment grew quickly.
“We have had students from as far as
Alaska and California; the reputation of
the program has really grown,” said Mark
Brazaitis, current director of the Creative
Writing Program.
Renée Nicholson was drawn to the
program after hearing Brazaitis read at the
West Virginia Writers Workshop in 2003.
“He read a short story titled, “The Priest’s
Daughter.” It’s from his first collection of
short stories and it completely blew me away.
I wanted to write stories like that; I knew
right then and there that Mark was someone
I wanted to work with,” she said.
“Mark totally shaped the way I write and
approach writing. He is a wonderful mentor.
A big part of the reason I was able to write
a draft of a novel is because Mark took so
much time to work with me,” she added.
After establishing a main character,
Brazaitis helped Nicholson understand
how to dramatically shape the narrative
around what happens to her and what she
most desires. He then helped her bring
out aspects of the narrative that might
have been lost otherwise.
“While I am a disciplined writer and
disciplined person, Mark helped me
to direct that discipline in a way that
allowed me to write a cohesive draft—
Renée Nicholson (in blue) finds inspiration for her writing in dance.
20 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
something I could really work with and
continue to shape,” she said.
“In the early going working on my novel,
I struggled with finding a strong, consistent
voice. I tried various things—first person,
present tense, first person past tense but the
recent past, and third person narrations, but
they weren’t working, she said.
“The one afternoon that I’ll never forget
is when he had written at the top of the first
page of the first chapter ‘This is the voice!’
I knew I had success, and was so excited
because I knew all the work of revision was
paying off,” she said proudly.
WVU’s MFA graduates have published
in hundreds of literary journals, including
prestigious venues such as: AGNI, Southern
Review, Gettysburg Review, Field, Prairie
Schooner, Tar River Poetry, Ninth Letter,
Northwest Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review,
The Journal, 32 Poems, Georgetown Review,
Controlled Burn, Colorado Review, PANK,
Malahat Review, Mid-American Review,
Paste, Chelsea, Washington Square, Laurel
Review, Slant, New Orleans Review, and in the
anthology Layers of Possibility: Healing Poetry.
Recent MFA students have won Intro
Prizes sponsored by the Association of
Writers and Writing Programs and the
GreenTower Press’s chapbook prize which
have published their book-length collections
of poetry and fiction.
Molly Brodak, a humanities and English
professor at Augusta State University in
Georgia was in the MFA program from
2005-2008. While attending WVU, she
published a chapbook of poems, Instructions
for a Painting.
“I chose WVU primarily because I
wanted to work with Mary Ann Samyn, who
is a stellar poet and teacher. I also liked the
beautiful location and relative isolation from
big-city distractions,” she said.
A year after graduation she won the
2009 Iowa Poetry Prize for her book, A Little
Middle of the Night.
Brodak credits the design of the MFA
program for her success.
“One great thing about the program is
that it is three years instead of two. I think
this really helped me focus on my thesis as a
book, not just a requirement for graduation,”
said Brodak.
In exchange for her tuition waver and a
living stipend, Brodak taught undergraduate
courses—this financial support is a popular
draw for the program.
“Getting a lot of teaching experience and
time to write and reflect during my years at
WVU was crucial to helping me find a job,”
she added.
Donald Hall, Jackson Family
Distinguished Chair and chair of the
Department of English would like to see the
program grow. He reports that the applicant
pool has increased 300-400 percent.
ExcerptfromRakedStages:ATwelveStepProgram by Renée Nicholson
1.HowIrememberRussia:agirlwithtwolowpigtails,dressedinapinkleotardandwhitesocksfoldedattheankles;herfeettuckedintowhite slippers, shuffling against the floor as shesprinkleditwithawateringcan.Herfacewasthedelicatepinkoftheinsidesofshells,soft, light, almost translucent. Her hair was dark,darkerthanmyown,polishedebony.Shewaspreparingtheroomforclass,wettingthe floor for traction.
A dirty light filtered through a filthy window. No one cared. The girls filed in and helped each other stretch. The girls had perfectturnout.Theirfaceswereserious;notsmiling, just concentrated. Their faces were scrubbed to a rosy shine.
WhatIalsorememberiscolor.Russiawasfullofpeacockbluesandbruisedpurplesandtarnished silver. The colors of an eerie feeling, likethesunhadturnedtoashbutneverset.
20 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Nicholson demonstrates the proper position to one of her dancers.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 21
On Beauty and West Virginia at the Blue Moose Caféby James Harms
The Monongahela flows north at the will of Mellons and Carnegies to join the Allegheny and the Ohio, to give away its name and what’s left of West Virginia coal and limestone toourbelovedPittsburgh,vanishingpointof minerals and rivers. And there’s a boy who comes here often whose face and scalp are a tattoo wing, as if a bird once worn as a hat has left behind its shadow. When it’s cold hecovershiswingwitharedknitcap,the face of Che Guevara embroidered ononeside.He’soldenoughtoknowhow his commitments have limited his life. I try to remain astonished, not condescending, though the truth is I could love her whose bad choices are a cost of fashion, who’s wearingthis moment the latest boots from New Zealand, and not him who simply cares more than I do about things neither of us can change. I met her at a Christmas party the yearbefore it all came apart, a sort ofpostmodern get-together, pepperoni rolls and paté, Budweiser and Krug.WetalkedaboutReynoldsPriceinthekitchen,smokingcigarettesoutthewindowabovethesink.She’dknownPriceatDuke,andasshetookthecigarettefrommyfingers,she leaned in a little, as if to heara secret. Of course she was lovely, and that’s the problem – her boots and her loveliness, an awareness ofher loveliness, which in West Virginia can lead to a sense of privilege,though such entitlement isn’texclusivetoAppalachia.Still,beauty as a form of currencyhas more value, one could argue,where the common coin is uncommonly rare, where so many are so damn poor. The snow blew in the window,soourhandsshookalittleaswepassedthecigarettebackandforth.IrememberfeelingawakeinmybodyinawayI’dneverknownwhenIturnedaway from her to answer a question. There was no one there, no one waiting for an answer, and no one anywherewhenIturnedback.
MakeThemHowlorBreatheFireby Mary Ann Samyn from Beauty Breaks In
I was strung up.I was my own angel.Repeat:Iwasmyownangel.Somethingbeepedtosignaltheendofmercy.Oh well—Weather swirled just beyond my shoulder. HadInotbeenonmykneesalready.Had I not grasped the concept.Godlikesfirmresolve.Idetestallmysins.Aboveall,ingratitude,thecolorofwhichpales,likemyskin.
Folkwaysby Molly Brodak
Distantangercloudstogether.As terrified ones tend to do.
Theafter,thevacuum—heat of imperceptible sadness gonebeforeit’sknown.
SoJupiterlugscometstoandfromthe sun and a woman in Managuafiresagunintothesky.
Somewhere,belly-white,a plume of dust replaces a building,likesomeunintelligibleword.
Still.Achime,ablushofwith what waste shall we rebuild?resurfaces. All is waste.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 21
22 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Currently, about ten percent of the 70-80
applicants to the program are accepted—so
between 22-30 students are in the program at
one time, and seven to nine are accepted into
each new class.
Hall says the size of the faculty limits
the number of students they can physically
accept into the program.
“Keeping the class size small is an
important part of our MFA experience. The
program cannot get much bigger unless we
hire more faculty members.”
Founding director Jim Harms adds, “It’s
both a blessing and a curse, because we are
filling such an important niche, we reached
capacity almost as soon as we began offering
the program.”
Hall continued, “We already have
an excellent track record for producing
award-winning writers, and I hope, as the
program matures, we will see more private
support for our graduate students and for
the creation of named professorships to
attract additional faculty.”
For more information about
the MFA in Creative Writing visit
creativewriting.wvu.edu.
Toreadmoreworksofshortfiction, poetry, and non-fiction by other students, alumni, and faculty involvedintheMFAprogramatWest Virginia University visit creativewriting.wvu.edu.
ANATOMY OF THE MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING
The Master of Fine Arts is the terminal
degree in creative writing. MFA students
at West Virginia University study within a
three-year academic/studio program that
combines an apprenticeship to the craft with
more traditionally academic elements. This
approach seeks to train students in ways
that reflect the realities of the writer/artist’s
evolving role in the academy.
Because writers, when hired to teach,
are often asked to handle a variety of courses
beyond the creative writing workshop, the
academic/studio format requires students
to take literature and pedagogy courses in
addition to writing workshops. The ultimate
goal is to produce writers who publish
literature and contribute to the culture; a
secondary goal is to offer practical skills
and opportunities to writers interested in
pursuing writing-related professions.
West Virginia University’s MFA is both
an academic and a professional degree. As part
of WVU’s comprehensive Center for Writing
Excellence, this degree allows students to
prepare for careers in teaching or professional
writing/editing. Our objective is to nurture
and mentor the many writers in the region
seeking professional training. We also intend
to attract student writers from all over the
country to West Virginia for the opportunity
to live and write in this culturally rich state
and to work with our faculty.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 23
changed dramatically since becoming involved
with the National Writing Project,” says
Stephanie Runion, an elementary school
teacher in Harrison County.
“I used to give a lot of neat writing
assignments that were fun and engaging, but
these assignments really didn’t teach my students
much about the actual process of writing.”
Since the project, Runion provides her
students with much more time to write
independently on topics of their choice, to
enhance the creative process. In addition to
helping in the classroom setting, the Project also
helps Runion connect with other teachers of
writing around the state.
“It is wonderful to have the opportunity
to collaborate and network with other teachers
who value writing and the importance of high-
quality writing instruction as much as I do,”
she adds.
Runion also says she gathered some new
ideas on ways to involve parents in their child’s
writing. Instead of focusing solely on writing
instruction within the school day, she is able
to include parents in their children’s writing
process at home. This really helps transform
students into strong, developed writers.
“The National Writing Project has helped
me grow as both a writer and a teacher of
writing,” she says.
For Carrie Beatty, an English teacher at
University High School in Morgantown, the
project influences her in two ways: both as a
student and as a consultant.
“As a student, the project showed me new
and creative ways to approach teaching the
standards. For example, the simple act of taking
notes doesn’t have to be boring,” she says.
The trick for Beatty is that the notes needed
to be different than notes in standard format.
“I made mine into a game board. Move ahead
two spaces for successfully writing using the giant
National Writing ProjectandYoungWriter’s Holiday
LOL, BFF, I<3 U, C U 2 nite. This is the
language of the American adolescent, efficient
shorthand that doesn’t follow the rules of
grammar or spelling. While it may be a concise
way to express oneself in a quick text or e-mail,
it will not serve teens well when they go on to
college or enter the job market.
The more popular texting and social media
become the more teachers struggle to impart
good writing skills to their students.
The National Writing Project poses a
solution to this problem: ways and techniques
to educate young writers about the importance
of quality, professional writing by engaging their
creativity and self-expression.
“My approach to teaching writing has
by Jessica Hammond
Photos by Taylor Jones
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 23
24 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
“I am an English teacher because I love to read,
write, and discuss literature and I want to share that
joy with students,” Beatty says.
“I believe in the goals of the NWP because
it has helped me to become a better teacher. I
can draw together my passion for literature, my
creativity, and the enjoyment of teaching, stir them
together and channel that into student-focused,
fun writing projects,” she adds.
“Isn’t that the goal of every teacher? Get
students excited about a subject and help them
to learn about that subject and about themselves
at the same time. The National Writing Project
helps to give teachers the tools to make this
possible. It offers teachers of any subject another
tool in their arsenal to cultivate learning.”
Keisha Kibler, a middle school English teacher
at West Preston Middle School, said the Project
can be beneficial for teachers of all experience levels.
“I developed a network of teachers that I’m
really close to—and they give me a lot of different
ideas and research to back up my philosophy of
teaching writing,” she adds.
In a partnership with the National Writing
Project, a program called the Young Writer’s
Holiday was developed to provide a creative outlet
the imagination,” she says.
These experiences allow Beatty to create
projects that incorporate writing and creativity
together in one unit.
“This is important because too many
times a teacher is expected to diversify his or her
instruction and yet meet the educational standards
set by the state with a ratio of 30 students to one
teacher,” she says.
“Those students’ writing abilities range
from mastery to barely able to write a coherent
paragraph. This past school year I taught three
classes: ninth grade English collaboratively with a
special education teacher, tenth grade English with
‘on level’ students, and eleventh grade English in a
collaborative setting,” she adds.
Beatty says she uses the creative notes
strategy to have students retell the main events
of a short story or novel. Her sophomores did
two new projects this year; they completed a
multigenre biography with a presentation, and
the three classes all contributed to a cookbook
where they submitted a recipe and a short story
that went along with the recipe. After the book
was completed, they brought in the dish to
share with the class.
fish prompt. Move back five spaces if you
complain about the coldness of the room,”
she adds.
These exercises made her more comfortable
using PowerPoint and other technologies.
Beatty also experienced the project as a
consultant. She says she really learned about the
craft of writing and about the different approaches
teachers can use.
“During a course at WVU with JoAnne
Dadisman, I learned about the multigenre project.
Basically it is a research paper flipped to the creative
side. Instead of telling, students can show about
their topic,” she says.
She was told to read a five-page essay on the
immigrants of Ireland in the coal camps of West
Virginia or read a five-page short story that includes
the same details and research-based events.
“Stories entertain and allow students to
express themselves in a way that a standard, formal
research paper does not. The multigenre approach
isn’t limited either. With that same topic a student
may include pictures, poems, perhaps a song, they
may write a newspaper article, an obituary for a
fallen miner, or a flyer announcing a festival that is
celebrated in the area; the genres are only limited to
24 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Alex Berge, third-year creative writing MFA candidate, assists during the Young Writers’ Holiday
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 25
for young writers. Students from across the state
gather in June for a day camp.
Kibler is the director of the Young Writer’s
Holiday. She says the three-day camp just
follows the trends and standards of the National
Writing Project.
“My favorite part of the Holiday is getting
to meet all the talented young writers from the
northwestern part of West Virginia, and listening
to their creative pieces,” Kibler says.
Kibler has been running the Holiday since it
started, four years ago.
Charity Gingerich, a third-year MFA student
at WVU, said this is her first time teaching at the
Young Writer’s Holiday. She feels the younger kids
are when they start writing, the better.
“The kids aren’t told what to write; they can
explore on their own. I have loved writing ever
since I could remember, and I’m glad they can
develop their love as well. I like working with these
kids because there is such openness about the joy of
writing,” says Gingerich.
Gingerich has taught English 101, the
University’s freshman-level composition course,
at WVU for the past two years. She also works
with Mary Ann Samyn in the dorms as part of the
Bolton grant at WVU.
Sita Sunil, a seventh grader from Suncrest
Middle School, says her teacher Ms. Muendel
suggested the Holiday to her.
Sunil hopes to be an environmental scientist
someday and she knows that will mean writing
reports. She says the Holiday really showed her
how she can think creatively while still following
the “rules” of writing.
Amy Purpura, a junior political science
major, was a helper for the Holiday. She is a tutor
at the WVU Writing Center, so helping college
students with their writing is what she’s used to.
She said it was a pleasant adjustment to helping
younger writers.
“From what I remember about English classes,
it’s a lot about the grammar. They already know
how to write. Now they can focus on what is good
quality writing,” she adds.
The other aspect Purpura enjoyed was the
friendships that formed between the participants.
They were able to make new friends with a
shared interest.
Walter Harms, an eighth grader at South
Middle School, says his dad, James Harms,
an English professor at WVU, told him
about the Holiday.
“I am having the time of my life, the
younger Harms said.
This is the fourth year for the Young
Writer’s Holiday, and Kibler is all ready in
the planning stages for next summer. For
information or to receive updates about the June
2011 Holiday, please contact Keisha Kibler at
eberly.wvu.edu SUMMER 2 0 1 0 25
History of the NWPTheNationalWritingProjectwasstarted in 1987 as a public school-universitypartnershiplinkingWVUwith Marion and Monongalia county schools.PrestonandWetzelcountiesare also now a part of the partnership.
Some275teacherconsultantshavebeentrainedtoworkwithteachersand administrators to promote writing and classroom research in 60 schools. A major emphasis includes training teachers on using computers in the classroom.
Eachyear,theNationalWritingProjectatWVUreceivesabout$45,000infederal grant funding, which depends on a dollar-for-dollar match. That match comes from the Eberly College ofArtsandSciences,theCollegeofHumanResourcesandEducation,and from Monongalia, Marion, and Wetzel counties. The majority of the funding provides stipends and tuition waivers for the ongoing professional development of area teachers.
TheWritingProjectisanoutreachpartnership between the WVU DepartmentofandSchoolsinWestVirginia. The program currently serves 200teachersinK-12classroomsintheNorthernWestVirginianetwork.
The National Writing Project at WVU follows a list of eight assumptions:
•Studentwritingcanbeimprovedbyimproving the teaching of writing.
•Thebestteacherofteachersisanother teacher.
•Programsdesignedtoimprovetheteaching of writing must involve teachers at all grade levels from all subject areas.
•Thewritingproblemcanbestbesolved through co-operatively planned university-school programs.
•Changecanbestbeaccomplishedbythosewhoworkintheschools,not by transient consultants or by prepackagedsystems.
•Meaningfulchangecanonlyoccurover time.
•Whatisknownaboutteachingwriting comes not only from research but from the practice of those who teach writing.
•Teachersofwritingmustwrite.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 25
by Lauren PerettiPhotos by Brian Persinger
26 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Underneath the surface of nearby rolling
hills and meandering streams is a hidden
world of natural drinking water and rare
species. They are buried in caves and springs
just waiting to be unearthed by geologists.
In these hidden karst aquifers is 40
percent of the United State’s drinking water
that forms some of the nation’s most dis-
tinctive landscapes, like the sinkhole plains
of Kentucky, the artesian waters of Texas,
the clear springs of Florida, and even the
complex caves of West Virginia.
Karst regions such as these house
valuable water resources, but are poorly
understood and easily polluted. Not only is
public health a concern when it comes to
karst water, but these sites are also home to
many endangered species and undiscovered
microbial communities.
In an effort to improve public health,
reduce contamination and identify fragile
ecosystems, Dorothy Vesper, associate pro-
fessor in the Department of Geology and
Geography, has joined two national research
grants each valued at about $100,000 that
explore local and global karst issues.
As part of a National Park Service grant,
Vesper, along with John Tudek, a doctoral
student studying karst geochemistry, is con-
solidating geographic information systems
(GIS) data and developing a conceptual
mapping model for karst groundwater
on some of the nation’s most popular and
nearby historic sites, natural areas and
Civil War battlefields, like Harper’s Ferry,
W.V., Antietam, MD., and the Chesapeake
& Ohio Canal National Historical Park
(CHOH).
“Karst water is a different kind of hy-
drology that changes the game of geological
research,” explained Tudek. “Not only are
karst systems hidden underground, but they
move contaminants so quickly and in unseen
ways that studying them is very important to
answering some big environmental and heath
questions.”
The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National
Historical Park extends nearly 185 miles
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 27
Dorothy Vesper (in blue) in the field with members of her research team.
28 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
along the Potomac River in Maryland and
the District of Columbia. Along the park’s
bike trail are isolated springs, caves and sensi-
tive karst sites that house 80 percent of Mary-
land’s endangered species. Understanding the
rarity of these sites requires a knowledge base
of karst species, ecosystems, and sensitivity to
environmental contamination, which is both
Vesper and Tudek’s area of expertise.
Beginning in fall 2010, Vesper and
Tudek began another two-year project with
the National Park Service focusing on the
endangered species at the C&O Park. They
survey potential karst sites to identify their
vulnerability and prioritize them based on
risk level and impact.
“Most visitors are unaware of how
important and fragile geologic, biologic,
and cultural resources are along the C&O
Canal,” said Vesper. “This project will guide
CHOH managers on how to best protect
the most vulnerable species living in their
ecosystems.”
Vesper and Tudek work with a multi-
disciplinary team to test the water, further
28 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Volcanic and Sedimentary Rock
KARST PROCESS
VolcanicRock
Disappearing Stream
Limestone Cave
Spring
Limestone
Acidic Rainwater
Carbon DioxideDissolves into Rainwater
Cracks inLimestone
Soil
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 29
identify the species present, and select the pri-
ority sites for study. They also use microbial
tracking and dye tracing to link source areas
to vulnerable locations downstream.
“It’s two of my favorite things coming
together,” said Tudek, who is somewhat
of a history buff and caving guru. “I get
to wander around Civil War battlefields
exploring history, and unanswered geologi-
cal aspects, like abnormal rock patterns,
and how cave structures form differently in
these mostly uncharted areas.”
Tudek grew up caving in New Jersey,
and is author of two self-published guide
books, which led him to be featured in
several New York City publications. He
earned a bachelor’s degree in English from
Rutgers University in 2004 and a master’s
degree in geology from WVU in 2010.
Previously, his research centered on hydro-
geologic investigations in the Davis Spring
Drainage Basin in Greenbrier County,
W.V., and he is looking forward to explor-
ing new territory with this grant.
Many of the techniques Vesper will use to
study karst in the United States will crossover
to research being conducted on the North
Shore of Puerto Rico, an area of land now
preserved, but once historically contaminated
by pharmaceutical companies. Beginning
in fall 2010, Vesper and one WVU gradu-
ate student will partner with Northeastern
University (NU) and the University of Puerto
Rico to consult on water quality clean up and
contamination movement.
The four-year National Institute of
Environmental Health (NIEH) Superfund,
called Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring
Contamination Threats (PROTECT),
brings together experts in engineering, public
health, and biomedical and environmental
sciences with a dual goal to reduce exposure
to environmental contamination and the
preterm birth rate in Puerto Rico, which is
nearly 20 percent.
“PROTECT will link human health
and medicine with the environment and
engineering sciences by addressing challenges
posed by environmental contamination in
Puerto Rico, as well as the U.S., like health
risks, toxicity, exposure predictions, contami-
nant transport and remediation,” said Vesper,
whose role as karst geochemistry consultant
centers on the transport of organic contami-
nants and green remediation techniques.
“This research will help develop new
technology for karst remediation and build
future partnerships for WVU students with
several institutions, like Northeastern Uni-
versity and the University of Puerto Rico,”
explained Vesper.
Vesper earned a bachelor’s degree in geol-
ogy from Juniata College in Huntingdon,
P.A., in 1986. She received a master’s degree
in environmental pollution control and a
doctoral degree in geosciences from Penn State
University in 1988 and 2002, respectively.
Between 1988 and 1998, she worked as a
geologist for Arthur D. Little, Inc., in Cam-
bridge, M.A., and a project hydrogeologist at
ERM-New England, Inc., in Boston.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 29
John Tudek in the Norman Cave system.
30 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
ADVANCing Women in Science
by Rebecca Herod
30 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Members of the ADVANCE grant submission team (from back row to front) include Michelle Withers, assistant professor of biology; Melissa Latimer, associate professor and chair of sociology and anthropology; Maura McLaughlin, assistant professor of physics; James Nolan, associate professor sociology and anthropology; Katie Stores, PhD, grant development officer; Leslie Tower, associate professor of social work and public administration; Marjorie Darrah, associate professor of mathematics; and Kasi Jackson, assistant professor of women’s studies.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 31
West Virginia University has received
a $3.2 million grant from the National
Science Foundation to help increase the
number of women in science, technology,
engineering and mathematic disciplines,
and to encourage these scientists with
advanced degrees to consider academia as
a viable and attractive career option.
The grant, one of only six given
this year, is awarded under the NSF’s
ADVANCE program, which is dedicated to
developing systemic approaches to increase
the representation and advancement of
women in academic STEM careers and
contributing to the development of a more
diverse science and engineering workforce.
It is the first ADVANCE grant the
University has received.
“This announcement marks a
significant day in the life of West Virginia
University as it underscores the University’s
commitment to being a global, diverse
research university with an even greater
emphasis on becoming more competitive
for federal research and education dollars,”
President James P. Clements said.
“This grant is central to our efforts to
promote participation and leadership by
women in STEM fields, which in turn is
essential to making WVU internationally
competitive in research and education. I
want to congratulate and thank all of the
faculty and staff members who worked
so hard to earn this great opportunity for
our University.”
The NSF grant will support creation
of the WVU Program for Retaining
Institutional Diversity and Equity—
otherwise known as WVU PRIDE—and
include establishment of the WVU
ADVANCE Center.
The WVU PRIDE program will be
a university-wide, multi-level project
to assess, engage and support change at
New &Notable
“This ADVANCE proposal was conceived in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and was developed in partnership with the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. However the intent is to improve the recruitment, retention, and advancement of STEM women wherever they reside in the academy and so we expect the initiative to affect women in Davis, Business and Economics and also in the basic sciences in the Health Sciences Center,” said Provost Michele Wheatly.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 31
Brandi Howard received her undergraduate degree in biology and is now in dental school at WVU. Stacey Anderson received her doctoral degree in biology in 2004.
the department level. The University’s
long-term goal is to ensure the success of
all faculty members by creating a diverse
scientific community within WVU that
supports constructive interactions leading
to professional and personal development.
“This ADVANCE proposal was
conceived in the Eberly College of Arts and
Sciences and was developed in partnership
with the College of Engineering and
Mineral Resources. However the intent is
to improve the recruitment, retention, and
advancement of STEM women wherever
they reside in the academy and so we
expect the initiative to affect women in
Davis, Business and Economics, and also
in the basic sciences in the Health Sciences
Center, said Provost Michele Wheatly.
“The bottom line is that this grant
heralds an institution-wide impetus
to become a more diverse academic
community, a prerequisite for any world-
class research university,” she said.
“Personally I am tickled pink to
chair the internal advisory board and
draw from my own experiences as a
STEM researcher to mentor other young
women faculty and students wherever I
have the opportunity. WVU owes a debt
of gratitude to the team that captured
this large grant. They did everything
right, spent two years building the case
and brought home a major win on first
submission. Bravo!”
WVU PRIDE has three specific goals:
• To make direct connections between
individuals and the policies and practices
of WVU.
• To engage faculty from departments
and disciplines throughout the
university in a process that promotes
collective engagement in institutional
transformation and the achievement of
gender-equity and diversity goals.
• To recruit, retain, and promote more
women science and engineering faculty,
beginning in the Eberly College of
Arts and Sciences and the College of
Engineering and Mineral Resources at
WVU, but eventually spreading through
the entire University where women are
engaged in STEM fields.
32 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Goldwater Scholar Kellen M. Calinger graduated summa cum laude in 2009 with a degree in biology.
New &Notable
“West Virginia University is poised for
significant changes, funneled by new
leadership that is committed to equity
and diversity,” said Melissa Latimer,
co-principal investigator on the grant
and the new interim director of the
WVU ADVANCE Center. “Strong
campus-level support for increasing
STEM diversity and improving the
work-life conditions for all WVU faculty
was evidenced throughout the proposal
development process.
“By receiving an NSF ADVANCE
award, we can combine these substantial
and competitive resources with our
current campus commitment in order to
profoundly and positively transform our
institution,” she added.
Those involved in the application and
successful receipt of the grant include:
James P. Clements; Michele Wheatly;
J. Kasi Jackson, assistant professor of
women’s studies; Professor Fred King,
associate dean of research and graduate
studies in the Eberly College of Arts
and Sciences; Melissa Latimer, associate
professor and chair of sociology and
anthropology; Leslie Tower, associate
professor social work and public
administration; Marjorie Darrah,
associate professor of mathematics;
Maura McLaughlin, assistant professor of
physics; James Nolan, associate professor
sociology and anthropology; Katie
Stores, PhD, grant development officer,
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences; and
Michelle Withers, assistant professor of
biology.
In addition to the internal stakeholders,
an external advisory board will assess
the effectiveness of the program. Jim
Hougland, professor of sociology at
the University of Kentucky, will act as
external reviewer. Members of the external
advisory board include faculty and
administrators from Auburn University,
Iowa State University, the National Energy
Technology Laboratory, Purdue University,
University of Oregon, University of Rhode
Island and Utah State University.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 33
Allison Owens is a tutor in the successful Peer Led Team Learning Program (PLTL) in the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry.
34 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
MakingitHappenOneGiftat a TimeWVUAlumnaKathyHall-deGraafwasonceaskedbyacoworkerhowitfelttobethe only woman in a room full of engineers.
“MyreplywasthatIcan’teverstoptothinkaboutthat,orI’dstarttodoubtmyself,”sheexplained.“Whenyouarepartofaminority,itcanmakeyoufeelself-consciousandafraidtotakechancesorcontributeyourideas.”
To help build a society where contributions are gender-blind, Kathy and her husband, BruceR.deGraaf,havedonated$25,000totheWVUFoundationtoestablishtheHall-deGraafEndowmentforWomeninScienceandEngineering(WiSE).
TheWiSEGivingCircleisanewcollaborativeefforttobringtogetherWVUalumnaewhowanttomakeadifferenceintheacademicfieldofsciencebyencouragingandmentoringyoungwomeninpursuitofprofessionalcareerswithintheSTEMdisciplines – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The group’s main goal will be to foster a positive impact on WVU and the community while financially supporting faculty initiatives and student scholarships.
The gift will support a variety of research initiatives to promote, champion and broaden the efforts of female faculty researchers and graduate and undergraduate studentsbyadvancingSTEMdisciplinesintheWVUcommunity.
“Ibelieveingivingback,and,asafemaleengineer,Iunderstandtheneedtoencouragewomentogointotechnicalfieldsanddeveloptheirfullpotential,”saidKathy about her support of the program.
Recipients’researchwillfallwithinoneormoreoftheWVUResearchInitiatives,including:energyandenvironmentalsciences;nanotechnologyandmaterialsciences;
6°DegreesofSeparationDiandraL.Leslie-Peleckyhasbeen appointed the first full-time, permanent director of WVNano, West Virginia’s focal point in nanoscale science, engineering and education. In addition to directing WVNano, she will be a tenured professorintheDepartmentofPhysicsintheEberlyCollege.
Leslie-Peleckysaidshewasattractedto the WVNano position because of the progress already made in the multidisciplinary approach and the growing collection of laboratory equipment at WVU that facilitates advanced research.
Her research has focused on using nanomagnets(magnetslessthanonethousandth the diameter of a human hair)toimprovemagneticresonanceimaging, chemotherapy and other cancer diagnostic and treatment processes.
LookformoreonDiandraLeslie-Peleckyinfutureeditionsof Eberly.
LearnaboutWVNanoat wvnano.wvu.edu.
34 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Bruce deGraff, Kathy Hall-deGraff and her parents, Drs. John E. and Judith C. Hall.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 35
TheWiSEGivingCirclebringstogetherWestVirginiaUniversityalumnaeandfriendswho want to impact the field of science by encouraging and mentoring young women intheirpursuitofprofessionalcareerswithintheSTEMdisciplines—science,technol-ogy, engineering, and math. This collaborative effort supports faculty initiatives and student scholarships.
TheWiSEGivingCirclewasdevelopedtostrengthenWVU’scommitmenttoinsti-tutionalchangeasacompaniontothefederalADVANCEGrantwhosepurposeis“IncreasingtheParticipationandAdvancementofWomeninAcademicScienceandEngineeringCareers.”ThegoaloftheADVANCEprogramistodevelopsystemicapproaches to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic STEMcareers,therebycontributingtothedevelopmentofamorediversescienceandengineeringworkforce.WhenyoujointheWiSEGivingCircle,youencourageandmentoryoungwomenpursuingprofessionalSTEMcareerswithintheEberlyCollegeofArtsandSciencesandtheCollegeofEngineeringandMineralResourcesandhelpachievetheobjectivesoftheADVANCEGrant.
CirclemembersformacollectivevoicethroughtheirannualmembershipinWiSEGiv-ingbymakingaminimumannualinvestmentof$1,000.Circlemembershopetoinspirewomen to actively participate within the world of science as professionals, students andknowledgeabledonors.Therearetwolevelsofmembershipforthegivingcircle.
•GoldMembership,whichrequiresacommitmentofatleast$1,000percalendaryear.
•BlueMembership,whichisaspecialratebasedonanincreasingscaleofsupportfor eligible alumnae who have received their first WVU undergraduate or graduate degree in the last ten years.
ByjoiningtheWiSEGivingCircle,membersareentitledtoonevoteindeterminingwhich projects or scholarships the circle will financially support. As a group, circle members will annually vote on the distribution of available funds for applicants meeting the objectives within the area of science, technology, and mathematics.
Additionally, by joining the circle, members will be invited to return to WVU for the WomeninScienceandEngineeringAnnualRetreat.Duringtheretreat,memberswillhaveexcitingopportunitiestomeetandnetworkwithfellowdonorsandawardrecipi-ents. This event will advance the education of members on the accomplishments and achievementsoftheUniversity’sfemaleSTEMfacultyandstudentscholars.Theretreatwill also provide an opportunity for the circle to conduct business.
Youcanmakeyourgifttodayusingtheenclosedbusinessreplyenvelope.
Formoreinformation,togiveonline,andforstoriesabouttheexcitingworkbeingdoneby women in the sciences at WVU, visit wisewomen.wvu.edu.
All About
New &Notable
biological, biotechnological, and biomedicalsciences;and/orbiometrics,security sensing, and related identification technologies.
Fundingopportunitieswillincluderesources for ongoing research efforts equipmentandinstrumentationforSTEMfacultyresearchlabs;researchfellowshipsforgraduatestudents;andresearchscholarships and enrichment opportunities for undergraduates that encourage young women to pursue science degrees. The dean of the Eberly College, along with theWiSEGivingCircle,willapprovetheresearch projects.
The endowment honors the donors andKathy’sparents:JohnE.Hall,PhD,professorofmicrobiology,andJudithC.Hall,PhD,assistantprofessorofmathematics at WVU, for their support and encouragement of their children’s education and career choices.
Kathy Hall-de Graaf is a Morgantown native and member of the Eberly College Advisory Committee. She studied music through the preparatory program of the WVU Division of Music, and earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., before returning to WVU to earn a master’s degree in computer science.
Bruce, a native of Santa Barbara, Calif., served in the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam before earning a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.
The couple met while working in software engineering in Silicon Valley, Calif., and later settled in Massachusetts. Currently, Kathy works at Juniper Networks developing software for networking devices, and is also an avid beekeeper and musician. Bruce works at General Electric developing software for train systems and enjoys astronomy and music.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 35
36 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
by Rebecca Herod Photos by Dan Friend
Picture this: Your best friend has been
injured in a car accident in a rural area.
You manage to safely and successfully
get her to the nearest rural hospital and
discover that a transfer to a major trauma
hospital is needed.
Within trauma medicine there is a
concept called “the golden hour” — patients
treated within the first hour of injury have
a mortality rate of 10 percent. That jumps
to 75 percent if the treatment occurs within
the first eight hours. Rural patients are
already at a disadvantage because of distance
and terrain, but poor communication
between staff at a rural hospital and staff at
the trauma center can also lead to increased
transfer times, and time is a critical factor in
patient survivability.
The Accreditation Council for
Graduate Medical Education identifies
communication as one of the six core
competencies that post-MD medical
training students must exhibit in order to
graduate. Recently a team of researchers at
WVU undertook an experiment to observe
the effects of a one-hour addendum to
the Rural Trauma Team Development
Course (RTTDC). The addendum focuses
on streamlining information transfer and
quality communication between Level 3,
4, and 5 rural hospitals and Level 1 and 2
trauma medical personnel.
The Rural Trauma Team Development
Course (RTTDC) teaches health care
providers at rural hospitals to identify
injuries requiring transfer within the first
15 minutes and effectively communicate
the key issues to the Level 1 or 2 center
when they call for transfer. The WVU
School of Medicine funds the course and
donates its faculty time.
A recent collaboration between faculty
in the Department of Communication
Studies and the School of Medicine has
resulted in improvements in the protocol
that successfully reduces transfer times
between rural facilities and larger trauma
centers by 40 minutes. The improvements
have been adopted as the new standard for
the American College of Surgeons (ACS),
an organization of over 73,000 physicians
around the world. This new standard trains
Level 3, 4, and 5 trauma personnel in
effective and affirming communication.
Matthew M. Martin, PhD.,
THE GOLDEN HOUR: IMPROVING CARE FOR RURAL TRAUMA PATIENTS
36 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Matthew M. Martin, E. Phillip Polack, MD, and Theodore A. Atvgis on the helipad of the Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center at West Virginia University Hospitals.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 37New &Notable
professor and chair of the Department
of Communication Studies, Theodore
A. Avtgis, PhD, associate professor of
communication studies and adjunct
associate professor of surgery, E. Phillips
Polack, MD, clinical professor of surgery
at WVU, and Daniel Rossi, DO, a former
surgical resident at WVU, found problems
encountered during the patient transfer
process from rural facilities to major trauma
centers included hostility, condescension,
and dismissive behavior. Conversely
receiving level 1 and 2 trauma centers
reported wasted time due to ineffective
communication and extraneous information
from the staff at the smaller facilities.
“Doctors and personnel at larger
trauma centers were engaging in behavior
that caused their counterparts at the rural
facilities to become angry, defensive, and
frustrated,” said Avtgis.
“They were second-guessing diagnoses
and asking a number of redundant
questions in ways that were adversely
affecting the teamwork and coordination
necessary to treat patients in effective and
timely ways. Level 1 and 2 trauma center
personnel were frustrated by the quality and
type of information provided by their rural
counterparts. The lack of mutual respect
was eroding effective communication and
information exchange.”
Avtgis and Martin attribute this type of
breakdown to the tendency for relational
and personality factors of the healthcare
team to adversely influence efficient and
effective information transfer. They say
that the same types of breakdowns can
happen in any organization.
“You can have the best and most
highly trained medical personnel out
there, but transfer is about logistics, it’s
about communication. That is why this
multidisciplinary approach gets results.
It combines excellent medical care with
excellent communication,” said Avtgis.
To address a breakdown, Polack
administered communication training,
designed by Martin and Avtgis, to
personnel in Level 3, 4, and 5 medical
facilities throughout West Virginia. The
training consists of a 30-minute lecture
on communication competence and 30
minutes of role playing with the participants.
The team found that the communication
training significantly reduced the amount of
time it took the smaller hospitals to decide
to transfer a patient, the time it took for a
transfer squad to arrive, and the number
of squads contacted before finding one to
transfer the patient.
Facilities with no RTTDC training had
a 77-minute transfer time, facilities with the
medical portion of the training showed a
67-minute transfer time. Those with both
the medical and the communication training
showed a 37-minute transfer time.
“Hospitals can spend enormous amounts
of money on technology to reduce transfer
times with limited success. By focusing on
concise and competent communication we
have an inexpensive and incredibly effective
training which based on our findings, yields
benefits for both the patient and healthcare
practitioners,” said Martin.
“West Virginia University is
consistently the benchmark of excellence
and an incubator for unique and effective
solutions in the area of rural medicine
and health communication. Adoption of
this new protocol by ACS is yet another
indication that the collaborative academic
work done at WVU saves lives and
improves communities.”
“You can have the best and most highly trained medical personnel out there, but transfer is about logistics, it’s about communication. That is why this multidisciplinary approach gets results. It combines excellent medical care with excellent communication,” said Avtgis.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 37
West Virginia University Hospitals’ Ruby Memorial Hospital.
38 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
The first thing you should know
about Robert Jones is that he loves
trees—trees of every type, age, and
size and in every season. His eyes
light up when he talks about them.
On a recent fall day he paused
during a meeting and pointed
out toward the banks of the
Monongahela River.
“Just look at how wonderful
those colors are—fantastic,” he
said.
His love affair with the study of
trees as a profession began in earnest on
another beautiful fall day during a field
experience in which he was studying the
rooting process of oak trees.
“I looked around at the beauty and
stillness of the forest and thought,
‘this is it. There is nothing in this
world better than this.’”
He found the other great love
of his life, his wife, Jeri, during his
college career too. Fortunately for
him, zoology majors at Clemson were
required to take one plant ecology
course. Bob’s schedule just happened
to coincide with the one and only
course Jeri ever took in plant biology.
They have been together ever
since.
It is rather amazing that a
man who has spent more than
30 years studying forest ecology
can still be awed and inspired by
a vista of fall foliage, but that kind of
wonder, passion, and excitement are
what make Bob Jones the man he is
and what make him a perfect fit for the
Dean Robert Jones welcomes Karenne Wood, an enrolled member of the Monacan Indian Nation and Ford Fellow in anthropology at the University of Virginia. Wood was the guest of honor at the annual Peace Tree Ceremony this October.
MEET DEAN JONES
38 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
“I feel like I’ve grabbed a tiger by the tail, but it’s a great ride.” — Dean Robert Jones
by Rebecca Herod Photos by Brian Persinger
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 39
6°DegreesofSeparation
BobJones’favoritebooksaretheFoundationSeriesbyIsaacAsimov. He loves the threads of science, psychology, history, and philosophy that run through the series. A collection of over 600books,games,audiorecordings,videos,andwallchartsarehousedintheWestVirginiaUniversityLibraries’AsimovCollection.Itisthelargestknowncollectionintheworld.
OnOctober26,WVUheldIsaacAsimovDay;itwasthefirstin a series of events that will explore science communication. MollySimis,aseniorbiologyandenvironmentalgeosciencesmajor,coordinatedIsaacAsimovDayandisplanninganaccompanying science communicators’ conference in April. AsimovDaywasapreviewoftheconference,whichwillworktoimprovethelinkbetweenscientistsandthecommunicatorswhostrivetoexplaintheirwork.TheAprileventwillincludeaFestivalofIdeasspeaker.Lookfordetailslaterthisspring.
FormoreinformationontheLibraries’AsimovCollectionvisit, www.libraries.wvu.edu/exhibits/asimov.
New &Notable
Eberly College.
When people meet the new dean,
they lean in to pay attention. He is
a soft-spoken man who spends more
time listening than he does talking.
He is measured and thoughtful in his
responses to questions and engaged
and inquisitive when asking them.
His quiet diligence, broad smile, and
collaborative attitude have quickly
garnered the respect and admiration
of staff and faculty.
Jones has been on the job as dean
of the Eberly College since August 31.
He spends 12 to 14 hours working.
When asked what he does in his spare
time he laughs.
Normally he can be found hiking
in the mountains or communing
with the trees he loves so much. In
the past two months, he was able to
visit Cooper’s Rock for one hike. He
doesn’t think he’ll have much “spare
time” for the next year or so, but he
doesn’t mind.
“I feel like I’ve grabbed a tiger
by the tail, but it’s a great ride. This
is the place I need to be right now.
This University and this College are a
perfect fit for me,” he said.
Jones came to WVU from the
biological sciences department of
Virginia Tech—a fact he hopes you
won’t hold against him during his
first WVU football season. There he
oversaw more than 100 faculty and
staff members, 90 graduate students
and 1,600 undergraduate students
pursuing careers in research, medicine,
biotechnology, conservation, and
environmental science.
He has spent the first several months
of his appointment becoming familiar
with the programs in the College, and
working with faculty, students, alumni,
and staff to match up the Eberly strategic
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 39
40 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences MagazineNew &Notable
plan with that of the University. He
is immersing himself in the culture
of the college and discovering the
best places to apply his energy to
help improve graduate education,
undergraduate student retention,
a reputation for world-class
scholarship, and research funding.
“Eberly has an excellent team
of faculty and staff in place, which
provides a good foundation for serving
our students and the public, he said.
“Now is the time to focus
on the quality of our product.
Higher education is an investment
and we need to ensure that our
undergraduate experience provides
real value for our students. We need
to offer graduate programs that
encourage applications from the
highest-caliber students,” he added.
One thing that has really
impressed him about the Eberly
College is how everyone pulls
together to get the job done. He
has made a commitment to address
salary inadequacies and move the
personnel closer to national averages.
“This College is consistently
doing more with less. Faculty and
staff here work extremely hard
and are frequently the innovators
of practices adopted by the entire
University. I have not experienced
this level of commitment to the work
at any other institution.”
He acknowledges that Eberly has
some highly productive faculty stars
who are doing cutting-edge research,
generating a number of high profile
grants, and attracting some of the
brightest graduate candidates the
University has seen in recent years.
“To retain these excellent faculty
members, and to continue to recruit
more as the university fills the 100
new positions promised by President
Clements, we must move towards parity
in salaries with competing institutions.”
Whether it is facility
improvements, like those currently
under way at White Hall, student
scholarship support, graduate
assistantships, research opportunity,
or named professorships and chairs,
Jones believes that private giving will
allow WVU to meet the challenges it
currently faces.
Dean Jones plans to reach out to
alumni to help shape and guide the
future of the College. He says they will
be instrumental in helping the College
achieve its goals.
“I want the Mountaineer family,
the Eberly College family, to identify
what they think is important as
we strive to reach the next level of
international prominence. Together
we have an opportunity to move the
institution forward so that the entire
world can see what we already know—
WVU is a world-class academic
research institution on par with any
‘big-name’ university out there.” Robert Jones graduated summa
cum laude with a bachelor’s of science degree in forest management in 1979 and a master’s degree in 1981 from Clemson University. In 1986 he received a doctorate in forest ecology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
After post-doctoral work at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, he joined the School of Forestry at Auburn University. In 1995, he moved to Virginia Tech, becoming department head in 2002.
At Virginia Tech, Jones led efforts to remodel general education programs, enhance first year experiences, and construct new academic buildings. He has taught study abroad, undergraduate, and graduate courses in ecology, and has earned five awards for teaching.
12
34
540 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Incollege,alonghairedJoneslovedEmerson,LakeandPalmer.His music tastes now run the gamut from classical to heavy metal;mostrecentlyhe’sbeenenjoying an album by the band PorcupineTree.
His favorite author is Charles Dickens,inwhose19th century writings he sees many parallels to current growth and development inChina.(FormerInterimDeanRudyAlmasyalsolistedDickensashisfavoriteauthor.)
Heandhiswife,Jeri,aveterinarian,have a dog named Chutney and two cats, Vitis and Gouda.
BobandJeriareFrancophiles;theyloveFrenchfoodandcultureandhavetraveledtoFranceseveral times.
Jones’academicresearchhastakenhimtoChinafivetimes.He hopes the relationships he has developed there will lead to exchanges for WVU students and their Chinese counterparts.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 41eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 41
Awards & Honors
By Lauren PerettiPhotos by M.G. Ellis
D.J. Pisano, assistant professor in the
Department of Physics, is exploring nearby, star-
bursting galaxies using the Robert C. Byrd Green
Bank Telescope in Green Bank, W.V., to study
star formation in its earliest stages.
He has received a National Radio
Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) student
observing support grant in collaboration with
astronomers at the University of Virginia and the
NRAO worth more than $27,000.
Pisano is measuring the physical conditions
of the star-forming gas in galaxies, ranging
from small dwarf galaxies and the Milky Way
to galaxies undergoing massive collisions, to
determine how many stars have formed, how
long the star formation is likely to continue, and
how the star formation is affecting the rest of
the galaxy.
“Our motivation is to better understand
how galaxies form and evolve so we have
a better idea of how the universe works,”
said Pisano, who is also an adjunct assistant
astronomer at the NRAO. “Similar studies have
been done, but not for such a large sample of
galaxies or with such capable instruments as the
Green Bank Telescope.”
Traditional methods for studying star
formation use visible emission lines, but
dust in galaxies can decrease their brightness,
often leading to an underestimate of the star
formation activity. Pisano is searching for the
radio recombination line (RRL) emission to
measure star formation, because similar to
the way you can listen to the radio even when
it’s foggy or cloudy, emission from RRLs is
unaffected by dust.
“This type of work is valuable for
training future scientists and engineers
whether they continue doing astronomical
research or not,” he added.
Physics graduate student Katie Rabidoux
is involved in all stages of the research,
including observations, data reduction, and
data analysis. She will also author the first
paper describing the results.
Pisano began working as a post-doctoral
researcher at the NRAO in Green Bank,
West Virginia, in 2009, and currently teaches
astronomy and astrophysics at WVU.
Previously, he worked at the Naval Research
Laboratory and the Australia Telescope
National Facility. He received a bachelor’s
degree from Yale in 1996 and a doctoral
degree from the University of Wisconsin-
Madison in 2001.
His research uses radio telescopes around
the world to study neutral hydrogen in the
Milky Way and other distant galaxies. He is
also studying high-velocity clouds around the
Milky Way using the Galactic All-Sky Survey,
a recently completed neutral hydrogen survey
of the southern sky using the Parkes radio
telescope in Australia.
STAR FORMATIOND.J. Pisano in the Tomchin Planetarium
42 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine42 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Jim Nolan admits his story is kind of
cinematic.
A Delaware cop takes drugs off the streets,
polices local neighborhoods, works toward a
PhD, makes it to the FBI and gives it up to
teach students at West Virginia University about
the realities of the criminal justice system.
Now he takes students into communities to
survey residents about local problems and into
prisons to live a moment in offenders’ shoes. He
always sees some form of transformation in the
students who realize during their studies that
the number of years in a prison sentence isn’t
the definition of justice.
It was Nolan’s own higher education
experience that showed him his calling, and it is
the act of passing on his knowledge to a decade
of students that has earned him the title of West
Virginia’s Professor of the Year by the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
and the Council for Advancement and Support
of Education.
For Nolan the award is like his current
career, an unexpected, pleasant event.
“I was a cop, and I was happy doing it,” he
said. “I was happy being a soldier in the war on
drugs. And I did it pretty well.
“I worked hard, and I did wiretap cases
and search warrants and thought that it was
working. But once I was in graduate school, I
realized it was like a joke what we were doing. It
was a wake-up call; I couldn’t go back.”
From that moment he left the drug unit
behind, entered community policing—a
more preventative approach to coping with
crime—and completed his formal education
that allowed him to become a professor. He has
a lower pay grade and a different title, but his
work is still about understanding crime.
“I can’t imagine doing anything else,”
he said. “In some ways though I’m doing
the same thing I always did. It’s not like I
was a cop and then I’m doing something
different. I’m still doing investigations. I’m
still working in the community. I’m still
dealing with the topic of policing.”
His list of contributions since he began
teaching at WVU are extensive. In 2000,
around the time he began at WVU, about
250 students had majors within the Division
of Sociology and Anthropology. Now more
Jim Nolan interacts with one of his students.
By Dianna MazzellaPhotos by M.G. Ellis
Jim Nolan is on the CASE
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 43
than 900 students call that department
their academic home, and most of them are
criminology majors.
He’s introduced courses that bring
students close to the issues, people, and
problems they will face in law enforcement
or as part of the criminal justice system.
One is Inside Out, a national curriculum
developed by faculty at Temple University,
where he received his PhD. His version
of the course brings college students to
the Pruntytown Correctional Center in
Grafton, W.V., to learn from inmates what
the criminal justice system is really like.
Another is The Justice Roundtable, which
works to alleviate problems identified in
Inside Out and find solutions related to
prisoner re-entry
into society.
“I can’t think
of education for its
own sake,” Nolan
said. “If it doesn’t
benefit society in
some way it’s virtually useless to me. One
thing I like about being at a land-grant
university is that idea, that mission.”
If you ask his students what makes him a
talented teacher, it is not just his creativity in
passing on material, but his attention.
Richie Rodriguez, a former student of
Nolan’s who graduated from WVU and now
works in a defense contracting firm, transferred
to the University as an upperclassman. He
arrived in Nolan’s class, knowing few people at
the University among groups of students who
had formed bonds in freshman year.
“His classroom environment makes getting
to know people unavoidable, and many of the
people I met in his classes remain good friends
of mine today,” Rodriguez said.
His attentiveness to students further helped
Rodriguez feel at home.
“He goes out of his way to get to know
each of his students on a more personal level,”
Rodriguez said. “He doesn’t just learn your
name and face. He knows where you’re from,
your family, your favorite teams, etc.
“All of this helps students become more
comfortable in the classroom setting, and
it also goes hand in hand with his teaching
style because he will call upon a student at
any time to get their insight on a subject. He
instills the drive for his students to not only
absorb the information he is giving them, but
to also question it and see if it’s still relevant
in today’s world.
Another of Nolan’s students Michael Lupi
Jr. wrote in 2009 that Nolan’s criminology
classes gave him more knowledge than all of his
other classes combined.
“He was teaching us information, but he
was also teaching us how to live a better life
with everyone being seen as equal, and I really
appreciated that,” Lupi said. “I took this class
one year ago and til this day, and probably
for the rest of my life, I remember certain
things I learned in that class about the proper
treatment of people.”
Joan Gorham, an associate dean in
the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences,
nominated Nolan for the professor of the
year award and calls him an “innovative and
energetic professor.”
“His teaching at WVU is informed by
both professional and academic experience,
and he provides both to his students,” she
said. “All of his courses, as much as possible,
take the students outside the classroom
to (in Jim’s words) ‘places where dialogue,
action, and reflection are likely to occur.’
He is genuine, passionate, engaging —
an extraordinary asset to West Virginia
University, and to the teaching profession.”
Through his second career, Nolan learned
his own lessons. As a police officer, he estimates
that he made more than 1,000 arrests, yet his
only significant prison experience was while
working a case in which the guards were found
to be smuggling drugs.
“Now I’m inside a prison, and it’s in a
much more positive light,” he said. “And
I’m getting to know people as human beings
rather than as potential suspects.”
He tries to impress on his students how
situations influence people’s actions and that
each person influences everyone else.
“If anyone’s failing, then we all fail,” he said.
Nolan, who says he’s not a particularly
skilled lecturer, believes this award is for his
department that has worked together for
students and allowed him the freedom and
given him the support to do what he’s done.
“I’m accepting it for the department,” he
said. “They have given me the opportunity to
do what I do.”
Eighteen of WVU’s professors have received
the award since it began in 1981. “We are
proud of Dr. Jim Nolan for being named one of
the best professors in the country and this year’s
best in West Virginia,” said WVU President
James P. Clements. “His award exemplifies
the quality of our faculty and the quality of
education offered at WVU.”
WVU’s Professor of the Year honorees
over the years are: Sophia Peterson, political
science (1987); Carl Rotter, physics (1988);
Judith Stitzel, English, women’s studies
(1989); Robert DiClerico, political science
(1990); Pat Rice, anthropology (1991); Jack
Hammersmith, history (1992); Richard
Turton, chemical engineering (1993); Gail
Galloway Adams, English (1994); Bernard
Allen, history (WVU Parkersburg, 1996);
Christine Martin, journalism (1998); James
Harms, English (1999); John “Jack” Renton,
geology (2001); Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, history
(2002); Laura Brady, English (2004); Carolyn
Atkins, speech pathology (2005); Ken Martis,
geography (2007); and Ruth Kershner,
community medicine (2009).
Awards & Honors
“In some ways though I’m doing the same thing I always did. It’s not like I was a cop and then I’m doing something different. I’m still doing investigations. I’m still working in the community. I’m still dealing with the topic of policing.”
— Jim Nolan
44 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
WHAT THE UNIVERSE HOLDSAstrophysicists at West Virginia
University, working with colleagues around
the world, may soon open a new window
into the universe through the direct detection
of gravitational waves, a key prediction of
Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
Maura McLaughlin, assistant professor
of physics in the Eberly College of Arts
and Sciences, is the principal investigator
on a $6.5 million grant from the National
Science Foundation’s Office of International
Science and Engineering and the Division
of Astronomical Sciences as part of the
Partnerships for International Research and
Education (PIRE) program.
“This landmark research grant is yet
another achievement by Dr. McLaughlin
and the faculty in our nationally renowned
Physics Department,” WVU President
by Rebecca Herod Photos by M.G. Ellis
James P. Clements said. “It speaks volumes
about the quality of our faculty and their
dedication to research and their students, as
well as to their commitment to excellence in
academic scholarship.”
The PIRE project will set in motion
the International Pulsar Timing Array
partnership between the North American
Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational
Waves (NANOGrav) and Australian,
European and Indian scientists, focusing a
coordinated effort with dedicated research
power on detection of gravitational waves.
Indirect evidence points to the existence
of these waves, but they have never been
directly detected.
“In their recent Decadal Survey of
Astronomy and Astrophysics, the National
Academies of Science named NANOGrav as
one of eight mid-scale astrophysics projects
recommended as high priorities for funding
in the next decade, placing WVU at the
cutting edge of astrophysics research,” said
Curt Peterson, vice president for research and
economic development.
And WVU Provost Michele Wheatly
said the award “is a significant grant, both
because of its size and its international
aspect. This further affirms the direction
the University is moving in its commitment
to research. It also comes on the heels of
a record year in which WVU saw an 18
percent increase in sponsored research to
more than $177.7 million.”
McLaughlin explained that direct
detection of gravitational waves is one of the
most transformational prospects of modern
physics, with the potential to revolutionize
our knowledge of the universe by enabling
studies of black holes within massive
galaxies and the space-time dynamics of
early stages of the universe.
“By combining data taken at the world’s
best facilities, with the highest-precision
detection techniques, with experts from
around the world, the PIRE team expects to
detect gravitational waves within five to ten
years,” McLaughlin estimates.
The award will establish an
international team for the detection and
study of low-frequency gravitational waves
using timing observations of millisecond
pulsars. The team will use radio telescopes
around the world, including the two
largest: the 105-m Green Bank Telescope
in Green Bank,WV, and the 305-m
Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico.
The Green Bank Telescope is operated
by the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory (NRAO), and the Arecibo
telescope is operated by the National
Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, both
under cooperative agreement with the
National Science Foundation.
“This program further elevates the
importance of our unparalleled radio
facilities in Green Bank, WV,” said
Frame from a 3D simulation of gravitational waves produced by merging black holes. The honeycomb structures are the contours of the strong gravitational field near the black holes.
C. Henze, NASA
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 45
Awards & Honors
Duncan Lorimer, associate professor
of physics at WVU and a co-principal
investigator on the grant.
The grant brings together a diverse
group of researchers from colleges and
universities across the United States. It
will be managed by McLaughlin and co-
principal investigators Lorimer; Fredrick
Jenet, associate professor of physics and
astronomy at the University of Texas,
Brownsville; Andrea Lommen, associate
professor of astrophysics at Franklin and
Marshall College; and Daniel Stinebring,
professor of physics and astronomy at
Oberlin College. Other senior investigators
involved in this project are James Cordes,
Cornell University; David Nice, Lafayette
College; Joanna Rankin, University of
Vermont; Scott Ransom, NRAO; and
Xavier Siemens, University of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee. The team also includes affiliates
Zaven Arzoumanian of the Universities
Space Research Association and NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center and Joseph
Lazio at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The team of international collaborators
and U.S. researchers and students will use
radio telescopes to observe signals from
dozens of pulsars over several years. This
will enable the team to directly test for
the existence of gravitational waves and,
after detection, measure their distribution,
polarization and spectrum and identify and
characterize their astrophysical sources.
Detecting gravitational waves using
pulsars is complementary to other
detection efforts using ground-based
detectors such as the Laser Interferometer
Gravitational Wave Observatory.
“Both international collaboration and
coordinated use of worldwide resources
are critical for detecting low-frequency
gravitational waves. Detection sensitivity
increases the longer the pulsars are
monitored, so observations over many years
are required,” Jenet said.
Pairs of pulsars widely separated in
the sky must be observed to maximize
sensitivity, requiring observing sites in both
hemispheres. Additionally, long, frequent
observations at several radio observing
frequencies are required for high precision
and must be done for as many millisecond
pulsars as possible. All of these factors
combine to place a substantial demand on
the world’s radio telescope time.
“One of the most exciting things about
this project is that we are exploring the
unknown. There will be a lot of discoveries
along the way,” Lommen said.
PIRE will support postdoctoral
researchers and graduate and undergraduate
students at nine U.S. institutions,
yearly international science meetings,
workshops, and research and observing
trips. Once established, a consortium-wide
memorandum of understanding for the
planned research/study abroad programs will
continue to provide valuable opportunities
for current and future generations of students
at these institutions.
“We are enthusiastic about the
international research experiences this project
will afford our students. These types of
experiences are vital in today’s worldwide
research enterprise,” said Stinebring.
The institutions that will be part of
the international partnership are Monash
University, Swinburne University and
Australia Telescope National Facility,
Australia; McGill University and
University of British Columbia, Canada;
L’Observatoire de Paris at Nançay/
Nançay Observatory, France; Max Planck
Institute for Radio Astronomy at the
University of Bonn, Germany; National
Center for Radio Astrophysics, India;
Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari,
Italy; Netherlands Institute for Radio
Astronomy, Netherlands; and University of
Manchester, United Kingdom.
For more information, visit
nanograv-pire.wvu.edu.
“In their recent Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the National Academies of Science named NANOGrav as one of eight mid-scale astrophysics projects recommended as high priorities for funding in the next decade, placing WVU at the cutting edge of astrophysics research.”
—Curt Peterson, vice president for research and economic development.
Maura McLaughlin, principal investigator for the $6.5 million PIRE grant.
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46 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Paul Cassak
by Lauren Peretti Photos by Chris Schwer and M. G.
CAREER-makingRESEARCH
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 47
Awards & Honors
From the vastness of space to the inner
workings of the smallest cells, West Virginia
University faculty are being recognized for
their approach to the practice and teaching of
cutting-edge research.
Paul Cassak and Feruz Ganikhanov, as-
sistant professors in the Department of Physics
at West Virginia University, have each received
National Science Foundation (NSF) CA-
REER Awards worth more than $941,000.
Cassak’s grant, entitled “CAREER: The
Effect of Shear Flow on the Scaling of Mag-
netic Reconnection and Solar Wind-Magne-
tospheric Coupling,” will provide solutions
to questions about magnetic reconnection,
an important component of space weather
research. He will help develop a predictive un-
derstanding of how solar wind energy enters
the magnetosphere and potentially minimize
its capability to destroy satellites, affect polar
routes of airplanes, and endanger astronauts.
“The sun ejects matter known as the
solar wind into space, which can interact
with the region of influence of the Earth’s
magnetic field, known as the magnetosphere.
Through magnetic reconnection, which
occurs in hot gases called plasmas, energy
from the solar wind can be transferred into
the magnetosphere through an event called
a substorm, where it can harm man-made
objects in space,” explains Cassak
To examine magnetic reconnection, Cas-
sak uses techniques like simulations, calcula-
tions, and analysis of observational data, in
various settings, including solar eruptions like
solar flares and coronal mass ejections, and
disruptive events in fusion devices.
Over the next five years, Cassak will
receive more than $426,000 to develop a
program of theoretical and computational
plasma physics. His results could assist the
interpretation of observations from existing
satellites, as well as future missions like the
Magnetospheric MultiScale Mission, a $700
million, multisatellite NASA mission to be
launched in 2014 that will study magnetic
reconnection in the Earth’s magnetosphere.
As part of the CAREER grant funding,
Cassak will also develop educational resources
to help recruit lower socioeconomic students
in West Virginia and women into the space
sciences. This will include outreach programs
about space weather using movies shown in
WVU’s Tomchin Planetarium and other plan-
etaria throughout the region and the country.
Cassak graduated magna cum laude with
a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and phys-
ics from the University of Arizona in 1998, a
master’s degree in physics from the University
of Wisconsin in 2001, and a doctoral degree
in physics from the University of Maryland
in 2006. In 2008, he was awarded the Fred
L. Scarf Award for outstanding dissertation
research in solar-planetary science. Prior to
joining WVU in 2008, he was a postdoctoral
researcher in the Department of Physics and
Astronomy at the University of Delaware.
Feruz Ganikhanov’s research, entitled
“CAREER: A Novel Approach to Nonlinear
Microscopy System and its Application to
Biological Media Characterization,” could
develop a diagnostics instrument to access the
processes of biological cell division, differ-
entiation, and more that could advance the
medical industry.
Over the next five years, he will receive
$515,000 to develop new experimental ap-
proaches to molecularly sensitive imaging and
microspectroscopy techniques. The ultimate
result will be a laser-based instrument capable
of detecting and tracking major biological cell
constituents derived from central molecular
vibrations, which has not yet been demon-
strated due to a lack of detection sensitivity.
With the help of the CAREER grant,
Ganikhanov will also facilitate collaborative
research between the University's research
groups and other institutions through a vari-
ety of activities, including participation in the
statewide Summer Undergraduate Research
Experience (SURE) program and hosting
a summer research camp for high school
students from underrepresented and minority
groups. Additionally, he will work to improve
an existing graduate course, develop a new
graduate course, and add laboratory modules
to an existing undergraduate course.
Ganikhanov earned bachelor’s and
master’s degrees in physics from M.V.
Lomonosov Moscow State University in
1985 and 1987, respectively. He received a
doctoral degree in laser physics from the R.V.
Khokhlov Nonlinear Optics Institute at M.V.
Lomonosov Moscow State University in
1991. He holds three U.S. and one interna-
tional patent. Two patents related to his non-
linear laser microscopy work were licensed
by leading manufacturers of light microscopy
equipment, who now offer laser-based micro-
scopes designed along the ideas outlined in
the patents as a commercial product.
Prior to joining WVU in 2006, he was
a research scientist in Harvard University’s
Department of Chemistry and at Wellman
Laboratories for Photomedicine researching
the area of nonlinear optical imaging with ap-
plications to biological media. He joined Bell
Labs/Lucent Technologies working in the
area of digital lasers for high bit rate commu-
nication systems, was a senior laser physicist
for Inrad, Inc., and spent his postdoctoral
years in the Quantum Electronics Laboratory
at Ecole Polytechnique in France and in the
ultrafast optics lab at Cornell University.
The National Science Foundation Fac-
ulty Early Career Development (CAREER)
Program offers the NSF's most prestigious
awards in support of junior faculty who
exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through
outstanding research, education, and the
integration of education and research.
eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 47
Feruz Ganikhanov
Cynthia Burke, who received her
master’s degree from West Virginia
University in mathematics, is a winner
of the 2010 Presidential Award for
Excellence in Mathematics and Science
Teaching.
This is the highest recognition
that a kindergarten through 12th-grade
mathematics or science teacher may
receive for outstanding teaching in the
United States.
Enacted by Congress in 1983, the
program authorizes the President to
bestow up to 108 awards each year. The
National Science Foundation administers
the award on behalf of the White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy.
President Obama and Vice President
Biden will present the award.
Burke was nominated to complete an
extensive application a year ago. In July 2009
she was told she was a state finalist, and in
June 2010 she received a notice that she and
103 others were receiving the award.
When Burke discovered that she had
won, her first reaction was how proud she
was to be in such good company. She also
stressed her love of teaching.
“I love seeing the enthusiasm in students
when they understand what you’ve been
trying to explain to them,” she said.
Burke has been teaching at Sherrad
Middle School in a town near Wheeling,
W.V. since 1976. She teaches seventh- and
eighth-grade math, which includes algebra
and geometry.
Joyce Cole, the principal of Sherrad
Middle, said Burke is an exceptional
teacher, and deserves this award. “We are
both honored and pleased to have such a
distinguished member of our faculty receive
this well-deserved award,” Cole said.
“Cindy Burke is a caring person who
is loyal to her school and students. She
is self-motivated and a teacher leader,”
Cole added. She also said Burke is an
innovative teacher who has unique and
effective methods of teaching.
“She is a proponent of problem-based
learning, enhancing student engagement
with differentiated instruction, and
believes all students can learn. She makes
even the most difficult math concept easy
to understand,” Cole said.
Cynthia’s daughter, Kathleen Burke,
is pursuing a doctorate in chemistry at
WVU. She said her mom stressed the
importance of an education ever since she
and her three brothers were young.
“One of my brothers is an
optometrist, one is a physical therapist,
and the other is in aerospace engineering.
She wanted me to know that it’s just as
important for women to have powerful,
successful jobs,” Burke said. “I’m very
grateful for what she instilled in me about
education,” she added.
As for her mom winning this award,
Kathleen Burke couldn’t be more proud. “I
can honestly say I hope I end up with this
woman’s work ethic,” she said. “She never
stops and is involved in so much.”
Burke Wins Presidential Teaching Award by Jessica Hammond
Photos by Brian Persinger
Awards & Honors
48
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