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Volume 6, Issue 49
April 4, 2007
Circulation: 18,120
Editor: Beth Keithly

Friday FYI

Newsletter from the The Office of Global Strategies and International Relations - U. T. Dallas

University News

Nobel Laureate Paul Lauterbur, Developer of MRI, Dies at Age 77

Paul C. Lauterbur, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2003 for his pioneering work in the development of magnetic resonance imaging, died March 27 at his home in Urbana. The cause of death was kidney disease. Lauterbur was 77 years old.

A member of the faculty at the University of Illinois since 1985, Lauterbur shared the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with Sir Peter Mansfield of the University of Nottingham in England.

Lauterbur was among the first scientists to use nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the study of molecules, solutions and solids. In the early 1970s he began applying the same technology to biological organisms. As in other NMR experiments, Lauterbur put his subjects--he first used a clam--inside a powerful magnetic field and collected the resulting radio signals that were emitted by atomic nuclei within the tissues. He discovered that using a static magnetic field and varying the intensity of a second magnetic field across his subjects yielded clearer signals, allowing better imaging of different tissues.

Mansfield, a physicist, improved the utilization of magnetic gradients and showed how the resulting signals could be mathematically analyzed.

Lauterbur, who was born May 6, 1929, in Sidney, Ohio, earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh in 1962 and a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1951 from Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland.

He was a professor in the department of chemistry at the State University of New York at Stony Brook from 1963 to 1985, when he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois College of Medicine. In his 22 years at the U of I, Lauterbur also had appointments or affiliations with the Center for Advanced Study, the department of physiology and biophysics, the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Lauterbur received the following honors and awards: Technology Award of the Eduard Rhein Foundation (2003); National Academy of Sciences Award for Chemistry in Service to Society (2001); Kyoto Prize from the Inamori Foundation of Japan in recognition of lifelong research accomplishments in advanced technology (1994); Order of Lincoln Medallion, the state of Illinois' highest award (1992); Franklin Institute's Bower Award for Achievement in Science (1990) and the Albert Lasker Clinical Research Award (1984). Lauterbur was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the American Physical Society.

He is survived by his wife, U of I physiology professor Joan Dawson; a daughter, Elise Lauterbur, a student at Oberlin College; a son and daughter from his first marriage: Daniel Lauterbur, of Perry, Mich., and Sharyn Lauterbur-DiGeronimo, of Selden, N.Y. Lauterbur's first wife, Rose Mary Caputo, lives in East Setauket, N.Y.

[ FYI Index ]

Ashley Named Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for Texas A&M System

Dr. Frank B. Ashley III was named vice chancellor for academic affairs for The Texas A&M University System March 30 by the System's Board of Regents. He will begin work on May 15 reporting to the chancellor, Michael D. McKinney, M.D.

Dr. Ashley currently serves as interim provost and vice president for academic and student affairs at Texas A&M University-Commerce, where he was previously dean of the College of Education and a professor of health kinesiology and sports studies.

For 18 years, Ashley served in various positions at Texas A&M University in College Station, including interim assistant provost for enrollment (2002-2004), director of admissions (2000-2003), and associate dean for undergraduate studies and teacher education in the College of Education (1996-2000). He began his career at A&M as a faculty member in the Department of Health and Kinesiology, where he started the sport management program. He served one year as project director of the Regents' Initiative for Education.

As vice chancellor for academic affairs for the A&M System, Ashley will coordinate academic and student affairs program development, implementation and accountability, including performance-based funding. His duties include overseeing the academic program development process for System universities from inception to approval by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; working with academic councils, graduate deans, enrollment managers and others to lead collaborative degree programs at System universities; and working with the Texas Education Agency on programmatic efforts to improve the K-12 education system. He also will work to expand enrollment of community college transfer students to System universities and lead development of comprehensive distance education initiatives.

Ashley earned a bachelor's degree in health, physical education and safety from Louisiana College in 1975, a master's in health, physical education and recreation from the University of Alabama in 1976, and a doctor of education degree in physical education from the University of Alabama in 1986.

He has chaired and served on numerous committees at the state, regional and national levels. He currently serves on a task force for access to higher education for low income students for the College Board, and is past chair of the board's Southwest Regional Committee. He currently serves on the Texas Education Agency's Development Education Subcommittee of its P-16 Education Council. He served as senior fellow for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's university health research institutions (UHRI) program, and as a reader/reviewer for the National Merit Corporation's National Achievement Scholarship Finalist program.

Ashley is past president of the North American Society for Sport Management, for which he organized numerous conferences. He has taught courses internationally as a faculty member of the U.S. Sports Academy, and has written numerous articles about sport management, aerobic and many types of dance, and related topics in professional journals, several of which he has served as contributing editor and editorial board member. He is a popular speaker, having delivered numerous presentations and speeches the world over.

At Texas A&M, Ashley served on and chaired numerous committees, including the University Minority Recruitment Committee and the Provost's Admissions Advisory Committee. He was a longtime mentor to students through A&M's Mentors Program. In Brazos County, he directed community services as a board member of the local American Red Cross, and in Commerce, he currently serves as a school board trustee for the Commerce Independent School District.

Ashley's numerous awards include a Distinguished Teaching Award from Texas A&M University's Association of Former Students, a Diversity Award from Texas A&M's provost and dean of faculties, and a Distinguished Alumni Award from Louisiana College, where he also was named Teacher of the Year.

[ FYI Index ]

Gary Sera Named Interim Director of Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX)

Mr. Gary F. Sera was named interim director of the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) March 30 by The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents. He will begin work immediately, reporting to Dr. G. Kemble Bennett, vice chancellor of engineering for the A&M System and dean of engineering at Texas A&M University.

Sera has been employed with TEEX since 1993, most recently as division director of the Technology and Economic Development Division (TED), which conducts a wide range of training and technical assistance programs for communities and companies in the areas of manufacturing, technology transfer and emergency response planning.

As interim director of TEEX, Sera will serve as the agency's chief executive officer, responsible for its operation, which includes coordinating the planning and development of all programs. His duties will be to administer the business and financial management of the agency, prepare annual budgets for activities and construction, and operate and allocate resources. In 2006, TEEX served 221,500 people from all 50 states and 57 countries through training and technical assistance. The agency has seven divisions and an annual budget of $79.2 million.

Sera also will represent the agency to state and national organizations involved in vocational and technical training programs, and through interaction with other agencies, educational institutions and public and private sector organizations.

Sera currently chairs the executive council of the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center (TMAC), a consortium including six universities and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves Texas manufacturers with training and technical assistance.

From 1992 to 2006, Sera served as director of the Mid-Continent Technology Transfer Center, a center sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) focusing on the delivery of technology commercialization services. Acting in a consulting role to Texas A&M's Vice President for Research, he helped develop and establish what is now the A&M System's Office of Technology Commercialization.

In 1992, Sera established a graduate assistant program at TEEX, through which students in Texas A&M University's Mays Business School perform work under contract with NASA, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the private sector.

In the 1980s, Sera was employed as manager of manufacturing engineering for the Santa Barbara Research Center of Hughes Aircraft Company, where he was responsible for facility management and engineering processes for product lines serving defense-related products. He previously worked as an industrial engineer for McGaw Laboratories of American Hospital Supply and Shiley Laboratories.

Sera earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1974 from California State University and a master's degree in industrial engineering in 1977 from the University of Arizona.

[ FYI Index ]

UT Metroplex Institutions to Collaborate on Biomedical Research

Researchers from the three University of Texas campuses in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area are combining their expertise in biomedical science, engineering and physical sciences on projects aimed at solving real-world medical problems.

Thirteen interdisciplinary research teams of faculty from UT Southwestern Medical Center, UT Arlington and UT Dallas have received grants totaling about $1.3 million to pursue collaborative projects, with the goal of stimulating efforts at the interface between biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, computer science and mathematics.

Each team includes faculty from UT Southwestern and either UT Arlington or UT Dallas. Funding for the projects comes from state and philanthropic sources.

Teams receive up to $100,000 for their respective projects, which program leaders say will allow the researchers to attract additional external funding from conventional sources, such as federal agencies.

A large committee comprising representatives from each institution chose the projects from among more than 80 submissions.

Funded projects involving faculty from UT Southwestern and UT Arlington are:

Funded projects involving faculty from UT Southwestern and UT Dallas are:

[ FYI Index ]

University of Nottingham Vet School Opened by HRH The Princess Royal

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, officially opened The University of Nottingham's new School of Veterinary Medicine and Science on April 3.

The Princess Royal met staff and toured state-of-the-art facilities at the first new vet school to open in Britain in 50 years, at The University of Nottingham's Sutton Bonington Campus.

Would-be vets in their first year of study — who enrolled at the Vet School in September 2006 — demonstrated some of their new skills to The Princess Royal, talked about the veterinary program and also about their aspirations for the future. The Princess Royal unveiled a plaque marking her visit in the Atrium of the Vet School's main teaching building.

The University of Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine and Science is the first to open in the UK since the mid-1950s. There are only six others in the UK — at London, Bristol, Cambridge, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities.

Nottingham Vet School offers two courses — a five-year program and a unique six-year program, designed with a Foundation Year for students who have high academic achievement in non-science or vocational subjects. 

All the students benefit from existing on-site agricultural facilities at Sutton Bonington, including dairy, sheep, poultry and pig units, as well as the adjacent facilities of the Veterinary Laboratories Agency.  In addition the school has a dedicated small-holding together with a stables and a ménage facility for student horses.

[ FYI Index ]

Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology Begins at Harvard

The Harvard Corporation has approved, with the support of the deans of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the Harvard Medical School (HMS), the establishment of a new Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, the first academic department in Harvard's 371-year history to be based in more than one of the University's Schools. The new department will bring together researchers from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Medical School.

The establishment of academic departments bringing together faculty from different Schools within Harvard — and specifically the creation of a Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology — was a key recommendation of the University Planning Committee for Science and Engineering. That body was created last year to assess science and engineering research and education at Harvard and propose ways for the University to take advantage of opportunities in multidisciplinary areas of science and engineering.

The creation of the new department was approved Monday by the Harvard Corporation, which less than four months ago asked the president and provost to prepare a proposal for the creation of the department. The planning over the last four months for the new cross-School department was overseen this spring by the deans of the faculties of Arts and Sciences and Medicine, and the provost. FAS Dean Jeremy R. Knowles, the Amory Houghton Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, praised the Corporation for moving forward so quickly.

In order to help integrate fully the often disparate worlds of scientific research within FAS, HMS, and the affiliated hospitals, the Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology will have two chairs — Doug Melton, the Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences in FAS, and David Scadden, Gerald and Darlene Jordan Professor of Medicine at HMS and Massachusetts General Hospital. Melton and Scadden, founding co-directors of the three-year-old Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), stress that the new academic department will complement and strengthen, rather than supplant, HSCI.

The department will be housed in Harvard's new science complex in Allston, which is expected to be completed in about two years, and the governance of the department will be overseen by the recently created Harvard University Science and Engineering Committee (HUSEC) — which is chaired by the provost and includes both the HMS and FAS deans.

Harvard Medical School Dean Joseph B. Martin, Caroline Shields Walker Professor of Neurobiology and Clinical Neuroscience, noted that while individual inter-faculty collaborations are not new to Harvard, the institutionalization of them in a new academic department offers "unprecedented" opportunities.

The new department will initially have 13 to 16 members, with a search under way for three new junior faculty hires. Some of its members will have their entire research enterprises in Allston, while some researchers will split their labs between Allston and one or another of the affiliated hospitals.

[ FYI Index ]

New Global Partnership to Increase Number of Black Scientists in South Africa

Faculty from Vanderbilt University and South Africa's University of Cape Town (UCT) are working together to recruit and train more black scientists in South Africa.

Like African Americans in the United States, black Africans are underrepresented in the physical sciences, particularly in astronomy and space science.

Vanderbilt astronomer Keivan Stassun and physicists James Dickerson and David Ernst were among a group from the university that traveled to Cape Town in March. After a three-day meeting there, Stassun and Dickerson have begun work on exchanging ideas, research and students with their South African colleagues. The universities also have agreed to jointly build an automated telescope facility near Cape Town at the South African Astronomical Observatory.

Stassun and Dickerson's work is part of a larger partnership between the two universities coordinated by the Vanderbilt International Office (VIO).

Under the agreement, Vanderbilt and UCT will be core partners in research and education initiatives benefiting students, faculty and staff. Both universities plan for this new partnership to extend beyond the typical student exchange program to include opportunities for collaborative research and study across several academic disciplines.

Chancellor Gordon Gee also traveled to Cape Town last month to meet with UCT Vice Chancellor and Principal Njabulo S Ndebele and other university leaders.

Vanderbilt currently has a program with historically black Fisk University to increase the number of minority students pursuing doctoral degrees in the physical sciences. The program is on track to make Fisk and Vanderbilt the nation's leading producers of minority physics and astronomy Ph.D.s in the United States. UCT has a similar program with historically black University of the Western Cape.

Stassun, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, is co-director of the Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-Ph.D. Bridge program and the Fisk Astronomy and Space Science Training program. He also is leading Vanderbilt's participation in the astronomy research collaborations with UCT. He said workers have begun drawing up plans to build the new automated telescope facility near Cape Town that will allow the universities to search for planets around other stars.

He also plans for students from Fisk and Vanderbilt to make the trip from Nashville to Cape Town this summer and during the 2007 fall semester.

Dickerson, assistant professor of physics, and UCT physicists David Britton and Margit Harting are in talks to collaborate on research to produce novel nanocomposite metallic metals. Other research partnerships in the areas of nanoscience and materials physics also are in the works.

The South African government has made astronomy its primary area of science investment and has constructed the South African Astronomical Observatory, which houses the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) – the largest single-optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. Funding from South Africa's government and grants awarded through the Vanderbilt Initiative in Data-Intensive Astrophysics (VIDA) are being used to build the universities' joint automated telescope facility near Cape Town.

The Vanderbilt International Office coordinated the partnership with UCT. VIO is an integral part of the university's international strategy, which includes offering a curriculum that embraces global perspectives, providing students with linguistic and cultural education to help them thrive in the global community, and fostering international research and teaching opportunities for faculty.

There will be opportunities for partnerships in any of UCT's seven schools: Commerce, Engineering and the Built Environment, Health Sciences, Higher Education Development, Humanities, Law and Science.

VIO has established a new grants program to provide seed funding to establish selective international research collaborations and exchanges. All full-time faculty, staff and graduate and professional students are eligible to participate in the exchanges, but the Vanderbilt project director and grant applicant must be a tenured or tenure-track faculty member, or the equivalent at Blair School of Music.

[ FYI Index ]

Project Management: Panama Canal Authority Selects UT Dallas to Train Executives and Staff

The University of Texas at Dallas School of Management has won a contract to provide project management training for executives, project managers and support personnel who are working on a $5.3 billion construction project to expand the Panama Canal. The Authority Canal Panama (ACP) is undertaking a major expansion project to modernize the 92-year-old aging waterway by widening and deepening the canal. When completed, the canal is expected to improve world trade and spur economic growth in Panama.

Professors from the School of Management's Project Management program are currently training approximately 145 ACP employees in Panama March 12 – July 20. UT Dallas is partnering with CH2M Hill, a construction management company that is providing construction project training. The training includes a two-day session for 17 executives; two, two-week sessions for 30 project managers; and three, two-week sessions for engineers, project leaders and other staff. The training focuses on educating executives and project managers about the importance of a standardized project management system, how to apply it to the expansion project and educate their teams.

"This will be a great opportunity for us to gain more exposure in the international arena for project management training and education," said Jim Joiner, project manager for the contract and director of the UT Dallas Project Management program. Joiner will conduct the training along with program faculty member Dr. Tom Sheives and executive project managers from CH2M Hill.

Dr. David Springate, associate dean for executive education at UT Dallas, said winning the ACP contract, which is worth nearly $450,000 to the university, demonstrates the recognized quality of the university's Project Management program, its leaders and their ability to develop and disseminate knowledge geared toward helping shape management practices in a global economy.

"We are honored and excited about the opportunity to help deliver quality training for executives and staff working on the Panama Canal project. This opportunity brings more international recognition to the excellence our Project Management program offers," Springate said. "We are committed to helping develop leaders and establish business practices that strengthen not only local economics, but ultimately help impact the future of global business."

Construction on the Panama Canal expansion project is scheduled for completion by August, 2014, the 100th anniversary of the opening of the canal.

UT Dallas' Project Management program is a leader in providing application-oriented education for professionals with significant project, program or general management responsibilities. The 10-year-old program is taught by world-class faculty with a blend of industrial project management, consulting and teaching experience.

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Thirty-Two Mile Cable Installed for First Deep-Sea Observatory

Oceanographers have completed an important step in constructing the first deep-sea observatory off the continental United States. Workers in the multi-institution effort laid 32 miles (52 kilometers) of cable along the Monterey Bay sea floor that will provide electrical power to scientific instruments, video cameras, and robots 3,000 feet (900 meters) below the ocean surface. The link will also carry data from the instruments back to shore, for use by scientists and engineers from around the world.

The Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS) observatory, due to be completed later this year, will provide ocean scientists with 24-hour-a-day access to instruments and experiments in the deep sea. The project is managed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Currently, almost all oceanographic instruments in the deep sea rely on batteries for power and store their data on hard disks or memory chips until they are brought back to the surface. With a continuous and uninterrupted power supply, instruments attached to the MARS observatory could remain on the sea floor for months or years.

If something goes wrong with the instruments, scientists will know immediately, and will be able to recover or reprogram them as necessary.

Slightly thicker than a garden hose, the MARS cable is buried about 3 feet below the sea floor along most of its route, so it will not be disturbed by boat anchors or fishing gear.

The cable itself contains a copper electrical conductor and strands of optical fiber. The copper conductor will transmit up to 10 kilowatts of power from a shore station at Moss Landing, Calif., to instruments on the sea floor. The optical fiber will carry up to 2 gigabits per second of data from these instruments back to researchers on shore, allowing scientists to monitor and control instruments 24 hours a day, and to have an unprecedented view of how environmental conditions in the deep sea change over time.

At the seaward end of the MARS cable is a large steel frame about 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall and 15 feet (4.6 meters) on each side. This "trawl-resistant frame" will protect the electronic "guts" of the MARS observatory, which will serve as a computer network hub and electrical substation in the deep sea. The researchers hope to install these electronic components into the trawl-resistant frame in the fall of 2007.

After the electronics package is installed and tested, scientists from around the world will be able to attach their instruments to the observatory using underwater extension cords. These instruments will be carried down from the surface and plugged into the science node using MBARI's remotely operated vehicles.

MARS also will serve as a testing ground for technology that will be used on more ambitious deep-sea observatories. As planned, such observatories will use thousands of kilometers of undersea cables to hook up dozens of seismographs and oceanographic monitoring stations. They will provide scientists with new views of sea floor life, and a new understanding of the global tectonic processes that spawn earthquakes and tsunamis.

The MARS project was initiated in 2002 with $8 million in grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and $1.75 million from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. NSF also contributed an additional $2 million to meet permitting and homeland security requirements. Components for the observatory are being designed and built by MBARI, the University of Washington, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Nautronics Maripro, and Alcatel.

[ FYI Index ]

Congress Commends MIT E8 Math Team

A major mathematical feat by a team of 18 scientists, including two from MIT, has received a commendation from Congress, one week after the work made international headlines after being unveiled at MIT.

On Tuesday, March 27, Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) read a statement to Congress about the work, which involved mapping one of the largest and most complicated structures in mathematics. If written out on paper, the calculation describing this structure, known as E8, would cover an area the size of Manhattan.

The work is important because it could lead to new discoveries in mathematics, physics and other fields. In addition, the innovative large-scale computing that was key to the work likely spells the future for how longstanding math problems will be solved in the 21st century.

On March 19 MIT's David Vogan, a professor in the Department of Mathematics and member of the research team, unveiled the team's results in a talk at MIT to a standing-room-only crowd. Vogan's MIT colleague on the E8 team is Dan Ciubotaru, the CLE Moore Instructor in the Department of Mathematics.

In his statement, which will be included in the Congressional Record, McNerney concluded: "The participants are to be commended for their work that has expanded the limits of human knowledge and brings hitherto unknown beauty and power to grace our human condition."

McNerney, who has a Ph.D. in mathematics, represents the district that is home to the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM). The E8 project was funded by the National Science Foundation through AIM.

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