Faculty/Staff News of Note
February 2005
Gary Walker, lecturer in computer science, had a reviewed paper published in Inroads. Inroads is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education bulletin. His paper was titled "Experimentation in the Computer Programming Lab."
Darren Williams just returned from Hawaii where he spent a week collaborating with geobiologist Eric Gaidos of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. While there, he gave two invited talks. The first, "The Detection of Extrasolar Earth-like Planets, and their Oceans" was presented to the departments of Astronomy, Geology, and Oceanography. The second, "Why Snowball Earth?: Susceptibility of Earth-like Planets to Global Refrigeration" was presented to the Astrobiology Winter School for sixty graduate students in astrobiology-related fields from around the country.
Dawn Blasko, associate professor of psychology, had her paper, "Attentional Interference in Judgments of Musical Timbre: Individual Differences in Working Memory," published in the January 2005 issue of Journal of General Psychology: Experimental, Physiological, and Comparative Psychology in the issue. The paper was coauthored by Michael Hall of James Madison University.
Michael Christofferson, assistant professor of history, presented his paper, "The Concept of Totalitarianism in France: A Comparative Perspective," at the international conference, Cold War France and America: New Perspectives, held February 3-5 at Florida State University.
Archie Loss, professor of English and American studies, served as guest editor of the fall issue of the SCA Journal, the publication of the Society for Commercial Archaeology of the Department of Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University. The purpose of the society is to recognize the unique historical significance of the twentieth century's commercially built environment and cultural landscapes of North America, with emphasis on the impact of the automobile and the commercial process that accompanied it. Loss is a member of the national board of SCA and also serves on its publications committee.
Congratulations to Luciana Aronne, lecturer in chemistry, and her husband, Brian Ross, on the birth of their second child, Alexander. Born on Thursday, February 10, he weighed eight pounds, ten ounces and was twenty-one inches long. Mom and new baby are doing well.
On January 8, Dr. Daniel Barnard, lecturer in music and director of the Logan Music Series, participated in a panel titled "Cultural Diversity Through Musical Outreach" at the annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters in New York City.
Charles Burchard, instructor in computer science, coached Penn State Behrend's student competitors at the regional Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Programming Contest November 5-6.
Dr. Lawrence Downey, assistant professor of mathematics, attended the Infinite Dimensional Analysis Conference at Kent State University February 11-12.
Tracy Halmi, lecturer in chemistry, and Jerry Magraw, senior lab technician, visited ninth- and tenth-grade classes at Collegiate Academy in Erie on February 11 to present their prize for winning the 2004 National Chemistry Week Scavenger Hunt. In conducting chemistry demonstrations and experiments, Halmi and Magraw got the students excited about chemistry and about Penn State Behrend, too.
Dr. Eva Kuttenberg, assistant professor of German, recently published the article "The Hidden Face of Narcissus: Suicide as Poetic Speech in Margarethe von Trotta's Early Films." It appeared in the Women in German Yearbook 20: Feminist Studies in German Literature and Culture, edited by Ruth-Ellen Boetcher Joeres and Marjorie Gelus. The Yearbook was published by the University of Nebraska Press. In spring 2004, Kuttenberg's article "Teaching Foreign Cultural Literacy with Margarethe von Trotta's Das Versprechen," appeared in Die Unterrichtspraxis. Teaching German 36.2.
Web-based Right-to-Know training developed by David Lesher, property protection guard with Police and Safety Services, and student employee Doug Hilderhoff will be used for employee training by Environmental Health and Safety in the Office of Physical Plant at University Park. This Web-based training, which replaces a thirty-year-old system that uses videotapes, will eventually be available University-wide.
Dr. Ido Millet, associate professor of MIS, presented an invited session titled "Reporting Insights and Techniques" at the 16th Annual DataFlex International Software Developers (DISD) User Group Summit, held February 10-12 at Carson City, Nevada.
A book by Dr. Jeffrey Pinto titled "The Wiley Guide to Managing Projects" was recently published by Wiley. The book was co-edited with Peter Morris of University College London. Pinto holds the Andrew Morrow and Elizabeth Lee Black Chair of Management Technology in the Black School of Business.
Dr. Daniel Barnard, lecturer in music and director of the Logan Music Series, hosted a panel on "Long-term Curatorial Strategies for Incorporating World Music into a Chamber Series" at the annual conference of Chamber Music America. He also participated in a second panel on Arts in Education. The conference was held January 14-15 in New York City.
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