Published: October 20, 2009 09:10 pm         

Newsmakers: Oct. 21, 2009

TERRE HAUTE — Rose-Hulman faculty newsmakers:

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Civil Engineering Professor Jim Hanson and Humanities & Social Sciences Professor Pat Brophy were co-authors of a research paper that received the Best Zone Paper Award at the American Society of Engineering Education’s 2009 Annual Conference.

The paper examined the reasonableness of results, and asserted that engineering students can hone skills and replicate intentional practices that will improve their depth of understanding.

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Rose-Hulman Chemical Engineering Professor Hossein Hariri has been honored for his three years of service as director and executive committee member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineering’s Fuels and Petrochemical Division.

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Rose-Hulman Mathematics Professors Yosi Shibberu and Allen Holder attended a workshop on “Network Biology: Understanding Metabolic and Protein Interactions” at the Mathematical Biosciences Institute at The Ohio State University. Holder gave an invited talk on the role of operations research in the study of biological networks.

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Several members of Rose-Hulman’s Physics and Optical Engineering faculty have been featured in international, national and regional academic conferences, and media interviews. Assistant Professor Renat Letfullin has been invited to arrange and to chair the session on “Multidisciplinary Education in Nanoscience: from Nanophotonics to Nanomedicine” at the 2010 International Conference on Education, Training and Informatics this spring in Orlando.

He will also be a session chair at the 20th Argonne National Symposium later this fall.

Also, Letfullin was awarded a $49,832 grant from St. Louis University to examine “Undergraduate Multidisciplinary Curriculum in Nanomedicine,” and will join PHOE Advisory Board Member Thomas George in giving a radio interview for Radio Health Journal, an award-winning program broadcast on approximately 450 stations nationally. Letfullin and George will discuss the future of nanomedicine, covering topics related to how the characteristics of nano-sized particles make them valuable in medicine.

Assistant Professor Richard Lepkowicz attended a kickoff meeting in Washington, D.C., for the DARPA program on GRIN optics.

Professor Rob Bunch and Lepkowicz will be doing optical design in collaboration with University of Rochester, Naval Research laboratory and Case Western Reserve University to develop new lightweight optical systems for imaging systems and solar concentrators.

Professor Sudipa Kirtley has been requested by Wiley Publishing to prepare instructor’s PowerPoint files for 20 chapters in the latest edition of an Introductory Physics textbook, written by Halliday and Resnick. She also conducted two physics workshops at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College on “Expanding Your Horizons” for Wabash Valley middle school female students.

Professor Mike Moloney will give an invited talk at the Acoustical Society of America’s meeting, and Professor Rick Ditteon gave an invited talk on “How Astronomers Make Those Amazing Images” at the Terre Haute Swope Art Gallery brown bag series on Oct. 7.

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Rose-Hulman’s Department of Chemical Engineering has received a donation of surplus equipment from Eli Lilly and Company — thanks to the efforts of alumni Mike Markowski (a visiting part-time faculty member) and Steve Gillman (member of the department’s advisory board). Professors Atanas Serbezov and Ron Artigue worked with Lilly to obtain this donation, worth approximately $40,000.

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Rose-Hulman Visiting Assistant Mathematics Professor Alberto Condori was invited to give a talk at Indiana University’s Analysis Seminar. The title of the talk was “On the Sum of Superoptimal Singular Values.”

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Rose-Hulman Professor of American Literature Patricia Carlson attended a National Science Foundation Board of Advisors’ meeting for the Calibrated Peer Review Project. She gave a presentation on using the software to evaluate oral presentations for engineering education.

Professor Heinz Luegenbiehl presented a paper on “Autonomy Unbound: An Unanticipated Consequence of Biotechnology” at the Humanities & Technology Association Conference. Professor Andreas Michel presented a paper on “Democracy, Technology, Secularization” and was president of the conference.