Faculty and staff news
Dr. Stephen Addiss, Tucker-Boatwright Professor in the Humanities: Art, is the author of several new books. Haiku Humor (Weatherhill, assisted by Fumiko and Akira Yamamoto), combines traditional Japanese haiku in English and Japanese with droll woodblock print images. Zen Art Box (Shambhala, with John Daido Loori) presents 40 Zen images with individual commentaries as well as essays on Zen art. Tao Te Ching (Shambhala, with Stanley Lombardo) is an upscale edition of the book now used in UR's core classes, from a new publisher with additional ink paintings by Addiss. Mountains of the Heart (George Braziller) is a facsimile edition of the 1816 book of landscapes by Kameda Bosai, to which Addiss has added an introduction and commentaries on the art. In addition, his Zen Sourcebook (assisted by Stanley Lombardo and Judith Roitman) is now in press with Hackett Publications.
Dr. Nezih Altay, assistant professor of management in the Robins School of Business, and Porcher Taylor, associate professor of paralegal studies, published an article titled "The SOX-RFID Connection" in the October issue of Supply Chain Management Review, an executive-level publication for the supply chain management profession.
Dr. Con Beausang, associate professor of physics, is working with scientists across the country to develop a new gamma ray detector called GRETINA, the first stage in developing GRETA, which stands for gamma ray energy tracking array. The scientists plan to spend $50 million to produce GRETA, which will be 100 to 1,000 times more powerful than the United States' current gamma ray microscope, the Gammasphere.
GRETINA is under construction at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with completion expected in 2010. It will rotate among several national laboratories, helping the world's leading physicists study the structure and properties of atomic nuclei by analyzing the gamma rays they emit when they are excited.
Dr. Linda Boland, associate professor of biology, and biology major Michelle Drzewiecki, '09, presented research on "Modulation of Kv4 channel function by fatty acids" at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego in November. Other student co-authors included Anna Bisbe, '07, and Erin Casey, '09. The research was supported in part by a grant to Boland from the Thomas and Kate Jeffress Memorial Trust. The research also was supported by grants from HHMI (summer fellowship to Drzewiecki) and from the School of Arts & Sciences to Casey.
James Campbell, director of marketing for SCS, received a first place award in brochure design from Learning Resources Network Inc. LERN is an international association of lifelong learning programming, offering information and resources to providers of lifelong learning programs.
Sarah Falls, visual resources librarian in the Department of Art and Art History, presented a paper titled "The Thirst that Drives Creation: Artistic Consumption of Images in the Digital World" on Oct. 19 at the Southeast Conference of Art Colleges' annual conference in Charleston, W.Va.
Dr. Michelle Hamm, associate professor of chemistry, received a Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. Seven awards were granted in the fall by the Dreyfus Foundation. The award is based on accomplishments in scholarly research with undergraduates as well as a compelling commitment to teaching. A research grant accompanies the award.
Dr. Doug Hicks has been named to Style Weekly magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" list of young men and women who are transforming the city of Richmond.
Hicks teaches in both the Jepson School of Leadership Studies and religion department, and he is founder and executive director of the University's Center for Civic Engagement. His work at the CCE has included organizing an English as a Second Language program, in which students tutor University employees.
Dr. Amy Howard, director of the Center for Civic Engagement, put together a roundtable titled "Engaging the City: Campus Community Partnerships for Social Change" for the Society of American City and Regional Planning History Conference in Portland, Maine, Oct. 25-27. Howard presented "From the Ivory Tower to the Urban Streets: Community-Based Learning Programs and Lessons from the University of Richmond." Other panelists included representatives of the University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan-Dearborn and Bates College.
Lucretia McCulley, director of outreach and instruction services at Boatwright Library, presented "What College Freshmen Need to Know about the Library," at the 2007 Virginia Association of Independent Schools' annual conference Nov. 5. On Oct. 29, McCulley presented, "Who Do You Trust? Wikipedia and the Authority of Anonymous Strangers" at the PALINET library conference in Baltimore.
Dr. Terry Price and Dr. Thomas Wren have edited The Values of Presidential Leadership, which was published last fall. In this inaugural book in a new series, presidential scholars from the fields of communications, history, law, philosophy, political science and psychology explore the broader phenomenon of leadership.
Olivia Reinauer, social sciences librarian at Boatwright Library, co-presented the program, "IM Reference: Fast, Cheap and In Control," at the Virginia Library Association's annual conference.
Jim Rettig, University librarian and president-elect of the American Library Association, testified before Congress Oct. 24 on the need for the Library of Congress to resume its traditional cataloging role and expand funding for services to blind and handicapped citizens. "The diminution of the quality and quantity of Library of Congress cataloging has had an enormous financial impact on the nation's libraries," Rettig said. "Cataloging that the library previously provided must now be performed by multiple libraries, often doing duplicative work, thereby wasting tax dollars."
Rettig also expressed concerns about the need for more funding for the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, whose 750,000 clients will grow with the aging of the American population and wounded military veterans returning from war zones. For more information about Rettig's testimony, see www.ala.org/.
Dr. Lori Schuyler, chief of staff in the president's office, is author of The Weight of Their Votes: Southern Women and Political Leverage in the 1920s. Her book received an honorable mention for the 2007 Virginia Literary Award in the nonfiction category. The Southern Association for Women Historians awarded her the prize for the best book on the history of women in the South.