Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturers, 1999-2000
Each lecturer has designated his or her topic(s) for three different types of audiences. Where more than one level is shown, the lecture can be adjusted to the needs of the audience:
- P (Public)
Aimed at presenting scientific issues of general concern to a public audience. - G (General)
Intended for a normal Sigma Xi audience of both scientists and other scholars representing a broad range of disciplines. - S (Specialized)
Aimed at scientists and students in fields that are closely related to that of the lecturer.
Gibor Basri
Astronomy Department, MC 3411
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-3411
510-642-8198, FAX: 510-642-3411
E-mail: basri@soleil.berkeley.edu
Web: http://astro.berkeley.edu:80/~basri
Limited availability during Spring
The Birth of Stars and Planets (P,G)
The Hunt for Brown Dwarfs (G)
ET: Is There Anyone Out There? (P)
Gibor Basri is a professor in the Astronomy Department of the University of California at Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. His main research interests are in stellar activity, solar and low mass stars and brown dwarfs, and star formation. He is a regular user of the Lick and Keck Observatories, and space-borne telescopes such as IUE and the Hubbell Space Telescope. Dr. Basri recently held a Miller Research Professorship at Berkeley. He is a member of the American Astronomical Society, the National Society of Black Physicists, the International Astronomical Union, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
R. Byron Bird
Chemical Engineering Department
University of Wisconsin
1415 Engineering Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1691
608-262-5920 or 608-262-1092
608-238-6397 (Home)
FAX: 608-262-5434
E-mail: bird@chewi.che.wisc.edu
Web: http://www.engr.wisc.edu/che/ faculty/bird_byron.html
Polymer Fluid Dynamics (G,S)
Technical Japanese Translation (P,G)
Bernoulli Equations of Fluid Dynamics (S)
Byron Bird is the Vilas Professor Emeritus in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His research interests are in the areas of non-Newtonian fluid dynamics, macromolecular kinetic theory, and transport phenomena. He is the co-author of several books including: Molecular Theory of Gases and Liquids, Transport Phenomena,Dynamics of Polymeric Liquids, and Basic Technical Japanese. He was a Fulbright Lecturer in the Netherlands and Japan. Dr. Bird is a recipient of the National Medal of Science from President Reagan. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, Sigma Xi, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Bird is also a foreign member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Science and the Royal Belgian Academy of Sciences.
Diane Z. Chase
Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL 32816
407-823-2227, FAX: 407-823-3026
E-mail: chase@ucf.edu
Web: http://www.caracol.org
Unavailable: January 15–April 15
Visions of Empire: The Archaeology of Caracol, Belize (P,G,S)
Finding Unwoven Threads: Before and After the Classic Maya Collapse (P,G,S)
Diane Chase is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Central Florida and the co-director for the Caracol Archaeological Project in Belize. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research encompasses: Mesoamerican, anthropological, and forensic archaeology; osteology, mortuary analysis, ethnohistory, and hermeneutics. Dr. Chase is a member of the American Anthropological Association, Sigma Xi, the Sociedad Espaöola de Estudios Mayas, and the Society for American Archaeology. She has authored/edited many publications, including the books Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment and Maya Archaeology: Reconstructing an Ancient Civilization (in preparation).
Charles S. Craik
Dept. of Pharmaceutical Chemistry
University of California
513 Parnassus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94143-0446
415-476-8146, FAX: 415-502-8298
E-mail: craik@cgl.ucsf.edu
Web: http://www.sacs.ucsf.edu/home/CraikLab/
Limited availability: April–June
The World of Proteolytic Enzymes and their Inhibitors: From Life to Death (G)
Protein Engineering—After the Cloning is Over (G)
Science Strikes Back—Structure-based Drug Design (G)
Charles S. Craik is a professor in the departments of Pharmaceutical Chemistry; Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology; and Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California at San Francisco. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University. His research efforts focus primarily on the structure-function analysis of enzymes using genetic and biochemical methods. Specifically, these methods are revealing general strategies for protein and inhibitor design which in turn provides valuable reagents for addressing the role of these essential proteins in both normal and dysfunctional biological processes. He has served on the National Science Foundation Molecular Biochemistry Advisory Panel, and is a member of the editorial boards of DNA and Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry. He is also an associate editor for Protein Engineering. Dr. Craik is a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Society of Biological Chemists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and The Protein Society.
James H. Curry
Department of Applied Mathematics
University of Colorado, CB 526
Boulder, CO 80309-0526
303-492-6901 or 303-492-4668 (Staff)
FAX: 303-492-4066
E-mail: curry@newton.colorado.edu
Relaxing Chaos: The Chaotic Dynamics of Newton's Method (P,G)
Factoring Polynomials Iteratively: A Study in Chaotic Dynamics (P,G)
James H. Curry received his Ph.D. under the direction of Oscar E. Lanford, III from the University of California at Berkeley. After teaching for one year at Howard University he was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship with the Advanced Study Program of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. He subsequently held postdoctoral appointments at MIT, the IHES in France and University of Minnesota. His thesis work involved a generalization of a three-variable convection ordinary-differential equation model first studied by Professor E. N. Lorenz of MIT. Dr. Curry is a professor and associate chair of the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His research has focused on the application of qualitative methods in low order atmospheric models and on iterative methods for solving nonlinear equations. His point of view has been that most numerical methods can be viewed as dynamical systems.
Charles A. Doswell, III
National Severe Storms Laboratory
1313 Halley Circle
Norman, OK 73069
405-366-0439, FAX: 405-366-0427
E-mail: doswell@nssl.noaa.gov
Unavailable: mid-May–mid-June
Storm Chasing, in Fact and Fantasy (P,G)
Uncertainty in Weather Forecasting (G,S)
Recent Findings about Tornadogenesis (G,S)
Charles A. Doswell, III is a research meteorologist in the National Severe Storms Laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Oklahoma. His research interests involve severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, and more recently flash flood modeling and forecasting. A recipient of several awards, Dr. Doswell is the associate editor of Weather and Forecasting and editor of Severe Convective Storms Monograph for the American Meteorological Society. He is a member of the Executive Council of the AMS and serves on the Council of Fellows at the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS). Dr. Doswell is a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and member of the AMS; Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society; and the National Weather Association.
Ron J. Doyle
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Health Sciences Center
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292
502-852-5350, FAX: 852-7531
E-mail: rjdoyl01@gwise.louisville.edu
Epidemics, Emigration, and Immigration (G)
History, Misery, and Microbes (G)
Plagues and Painters (G)
Ron Doyle is professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. at Louisville and studied at the Roswell Park Memorial Institute, the Argonne National Laboratory, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and the University of Vermont. His research interests are centered on the regulation of bacterial autolysins and microbial adhesion mechanisms. He is the recipient of several teaching and research awards, as well as grants from the NSF, NIH, U.S. Army R&D Command, the American Heart Association, the U.S.-Israeli Science Foundation, and the U.S.-Mexican Science Foundation. He has served as an American Society for Microbiology Foundation Lecturer and is a current lecturer for the Kentucky Humanities Council. Dr. Doyle is an amateur historian, and focuses on the role of infectious agents in shaping human institutions.
Harold M. Edwards
Professor of Mathematics
New York University
251 Mercer Street
New York, NY 10012
212-998-3168 (office)
212-779-4513 (home)
FAX: 212-995-4121
E-mail: edwardsh@cims.nyu.edu
Unavailable: July–early September
How Public Key Cryptography Transformed Number Theory from the Purest of Pure Mathematics to the Hottest of Applied Mathematics (G)
How You Might Have Discovered the Law of Quadratic Reciprocity (If Euler Hadn't Discovered It First) (G)
Galois Theory via Computations with Polynomials and Integer Coefficients (S)
Harold M. Edwards is professor of mathematics at New York University. A native of Champaign, Illinois, he was educated at the Universities of Wisconsin, Columbia, and Harvard. His doctoral dissertation at Harvard, in 1961, was on differential topology, but his interests have since shifted to the history of mathematics, number theory, and algebra. He is the author of six books: Advanced Calculus, Riemann's Zeta Function, Fermat's Last Theorem,Galois Theory, Divisor Theory and Linear Algebra. He was awarded the Steele Prize of the American Mathematical Society for Expository Writing, and was a Guggenheim Fellow. He has given invited lectures at the national meetings of the Mathematical Association of America and the Deutsche Mathematische Vereinigung.
B. J.(Billy Joe) Evans
Fall: Department of Chemistry
Morehouse College
830 Westview Dr., SW
Atlanta, GA 30314 404-614-8557
E-mail: bevans@morehouse.edu
Spring: Department of Chemistry
University of Michigan
930 N. University Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1055
313-763-4228, FAX: 313-647-4865
E-mail: bjemag@umich.edu
The Culture, Technology and Solid State Chemistry of Magnetic Materials from 1000 b.c. to 2000 a.d. (G)
Contemporary Mentoring: Smoke for No Fire (P)
Unusual Aspects of the Solid State Chemistry of Magnetic Oxides (S)
Billy Joe Evans is spending the fall semester at Morehouse College and is a member of the chemistry faculty at the University of Michigan . He received his Ph.D. in solid state inorganic chemistry and crystal physics from the University of Chicago. His research interests include the electronic structure and properties of solids, particularly magnetic materials and solid state chemistry. He is keenly interested in teacher-learner interactions and the power of mentoring. He was a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson and Alfred P. Sloan Foundations and a special fellow of the Alexander Humboldt Foundation. He also received the American Chemical Society Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences. This year he was a recipient of a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring which cites extraordinary accomplishments in mentoring students from underrepresented groups.
Sylvester J. Gates, Jr.
Physics Department, Rm. 4125
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-4111
301-405-6025
E-mail: gatess@wam.umd.edu
Web: http://www.aps.org/praw/bouchet/94winner.html
Superstrings: Why Einstein Would Love Spaghetti in Fundamental Physics (P,G)
The University May Possess "Funny" Directions: An Introduction to Supersymmetry (P,G)
The Mathematics of Supersymmetry and Superfields (S)
Sylvester Gates is the first John S. Toll Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland at College Park. He received his Ph.D. from MIT for his studies of elementary particle physics and quantum field theory. Previously he served as physics professor and departmental chair at Howard University (while on leave from the University of Maryland). He is a member and Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP). Dr. Gates was the first recipient of the APS Bouchet Award and he was bestowed the Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award from MIT in 1997. His work was highlighted in several television programs on PBS and in a simulcast with C-Span and Internet cybercast of the Second Millennium Lecture by Prof. Stephen Hawking from the East Room of the White House.
Joan P. Hutchinson
Sept. 1–May 31
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Macalester College
St. Paul, MN 55105
612-696-6134
June 1–Aug. 31
P. O. Box 1782
Silverthorne, CO 80498
970-468-0977
E-mail: hutchinson@macalester.edu
Four Coloring Planar Maps: How, Why, and What For? (G)
A Mathematical Problem Arising from Chip Design and Testing (S)
Color and Mathematics: Some Concepts Illustrated with Fabrics, Maps, and Computer Images (P)
Joan Hutchinson is a professor of mathematics and computer science at Macalester College. She began her work in combinatorics and graph theory, earning her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of H. S. Wilf. Her work has focused primarily on problems of coloring maps and related graphs, and on drawing these graphs on different surfaces, such as the sphere, the torus, and a doubled sphere like the combined earth and moon. Her mathematical work has had relevance to areas of theoretical computer science, graph algorithms and graph drawing, and she currently works and teaches in both disciplines. She was the 1994 recipient of the Carl B. Allendoerfer Award for "Coloring ordinary maps, maps of empires, and maps of the moon" in Mathematics Magazine.
Lovell Allan Jones
Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Box 304
M. D.AndersonCancer Center
University of Texas
1515 Holcombe Blvd.
Houston, TX 77030
713-792-3316, FAX: 713-792-3575
E-mail: lajones@notes.mdacc.tmc.edu
Web: http://www.icc.bcm.tmc.edu
Diet, Hormones, Ethnicity, and Breast Cancer (G)
Estrogens and Breast Cancer (P)
Endocrine Disrupter and Cancer: Mechanism of Action (G,S)
Lovell Jones is a professor in the Departments of Gynecologic Oncology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Since 1988 he has served as Director of Experimental Gynecology/ Endocrinology. Dr. Jones has conducted extensive research into the relationship between hormones, diet, and endocrine responsive tumors. His current work involves determining the mechanism by which natural and environmental estrogenic agents may initiate cancers in hormonally responsive tissue. He is the editor of the text Minorities and Cancer and has chaired/co-chaired several major events addressing the underserved and cancer. Dr. Jones is a co-author of the Congressional Resolution, drafted by former U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen and former Congressman Mervyn Dymally designating the third week in April as National Minority Cancer Awareness Week.
Susan Landau
Computer Science Department
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
413-259-2018, FAX: 413-545-1249
E-mail: landau@cs.umass.edu
Cryptology, Technology, and Politics (P,G)
Primes, Codes, and the NSA (G)
Elegant Algorithms; Factoring and Radical Simplification (S)
Susan Landau is a research associate professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She received her Ph.D. from MIT. Dr. Landau has done extensive work in symbolic computation and algebraic algorithms. She is associate editor of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society; and a member of the Association for Computing Machinery, the Association for Women in Mathematics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She co-authored with Whitfield Diffie the book Privacy on the Line: The Politics of Wiretapping and Encryption. Dr. Landau is also the primary author of the 1994 Association for Computing Machinery report, "Codes, Keys, and Conflicts: Issues in U.S. Crypto Policy." This report was funded by the NSF and the participating panel consisted of senior members of the cryptography and security communities, including members of the government, industry, and academia.
Marcy F. Lawton
Department of Biological Sciences
Wilson Hall
University of Alabama at Huntsville
Huntsville, AL 35899
256-539-2906 or 256-890-6388
FAX: 256-536-2228
E-mail: mlawton@ro.com
Unavailable: June–August
The Mask of Theory and the Face of Nature: The Effects of Popular Culture on Biological Science (P)
Dame Kynd and the Bacon Boys: The Personification of Nature and the Birth of
Sociobiology (G)
Baby-faced Birds: Neoteny and the Evolution of Sociality (G)
Marcy Lawton earned her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago's interdisciplinary Committee on the Conceptual Foundations of Science. She has spent over 20 years pursuing interdisciplinary studies into the evolution of social behavior and ideas about the evolution of learning. Her pioneering work on neoteny in birds revealed the relationship between having a "baby face," receiving care, and learning from adults. Currently engaged in research into teacher-learning styles, Dr. Lawton is a member of the faculties of the University of Alabama at Huntsville, the Union Institute of Cincinnati, and the Monteverde Institute in Costa Rica. She and her family spend several months a year in Monteverde, Costa Rica.
Jerry D. Mahlman
American Meteorological Society–Sigma Xi Lecturer
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory/NOAA
Box 308, Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08542
609-452-6502, FAX: 609-987-5070
E-mail: jm@gfdl.gov
Human-Caused Climate Warming: Implications for Practically Everything (P,G)
Is there a Northern Hemisphere Ozone Hole in Your Future? (P,S)
Jerry Mahlman is the director of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a professor at Princeton University. His research delves into understanding the behavior of the stratosphere and troposphere which involves extensive mathematical modeling and diagnosis of the interactive chemical, radiative, dynamical, and transport aspects of the atmosphere, as well as their implications for climate and chemical change. He serves on the Board on Sustainable Development of the National Research Council, and is a member of the Dept. of Energy Advisory Council at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Mahlman is a recipient of the Presidential Distinguished Rank Award from the American Geophysical Union for his contribution to scientific research in global processes and the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal from the American Meteorological Society for his pioneering work in the understanding of stratospheric dynamics and transport.
Cora Bagley Marrett
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
and Provost
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
371 Whitemore Administration Bldg.
Amherst, MA 01003-8360
413-545-2554 or 413-545-6223
FAX: 413-545-2328
E-mail: cmarrett@provost.umass.edu
Knowledge of Societal Progress: A Social Science Excursion (S)
The Shaping of Research Priorities in the United States (G)
Research and Higher Education in South Africa (P)
Cora Bagley Marrett serves as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Holding a doctorate in sociology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, she served on the faculty there, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at Western Michigan University. Dr. Marrett held a resident fellowship at the National Academy of Sciences and holds a Ph.D. in humanities from Wake Forest University. Her involvement with science, engineering, and public policy includes membership on the Naval Research Advisory Committee, the Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, the Board of Governors of the Argonne National Laboratory, and the Board of Directors of the Social Science Research Council. She was the first assistant director for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation.
Cynthia R. McIntyre
Department of Physics and Astronomy
George Mason University
Room 303, Bldg., ST 1
4400 University Drive, M/S 3F3
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
703-993-1286, FAX: 703-993-1296
E-mail: cynthia@physics.gmu.edu
Low Dimensional Semiconductors: Physics and Applications (P,G,S)
Materials of Sports (P,G,S)
Electron-Phonon Interactions in Semiconductor Quantum Wells (P,G,S)
Cynthia R. McIntyre was awarded her Ph.D. in physics from MIT. She is an assistant professor of physics at George Mason University. Her research focuses on the electronic and optical properties of semiconductor hetero structures. Previously, she was awarded the National Research Council Research Associateship to conduct research on low-dimensional semiconductor systems at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at San Diego, she studied the electronic properties of semiconductor quantum wires. Dr. McIntyre serves as a general councillor on the governing board of the American Physical Society. In addition, she serves on the Advisory Com mittee of the Research Associateship Program of the National Research Council. She is the national coordinator and one of the original founders of the National Conference of Black Physics Students.
J. Bruce Overmier
Department of Psychology
Elliott Hall
University of Minnesota
75 East River Road
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0344
612-625-1835, FAX: 612-626-2079
E-mail: psyjbo@tc.umn.edu
Advances to Human Health through Psychological Research with Animals (P,G,S)
Thinking about Memory and being of Two Minds (P,G,S)
New Animal Model of Memorial Function and its Application (P,G,S)
Bruce Overmier is professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota and member of the graduate faculties of Psychology, Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and Psychoneuroimmunology and was a licensed psychologist for nearly 20 years. He has systematically promoted recognition of the mutual interdependence between basic and applied psychology and between the laboratory and clinic. Bruce has authored 150+ articles and chapters in his specialties of learning, memory, stress, gastric ulcer, and their biological substrates; these are based upon his research carried out with a range of animal models and human clients with specific dysfunction—often in international collaborations. He is a fellow of many of psychology's major national and international organizations, and has also served as a board member, officer, and journal editor.
Kevin Padian
Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Paleontology
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-3140
510-642-7434, FAX: 510-642-1822
E-mail: kpadian@socrates.berkeley.edu
Web: http://www.ucmp.berkeley. edu/ people/padian/webintro.html
How Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs (and How do We Know)? (P, G)
The Paleobiology of Dinosaurs (P, G)
The Evolution of Flight in Vertebrates (S, G)
Kevin Padian is professor of integrative biology and a curator in the Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. from Yale and is President of the National Center for Science Education and a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on various aspects of macroevolution and paleobiology, particularly of vertebrates. He is mainly interested in the origins of major adaptations, or how "great ideas" in evolution get started. He has studied and published extensively on the origins of vertebrate flight. His other interests include large transitions in vertebrate history, especially the Triassic-Jurassic boundary, when dinosaurs and other animals took over the terrestrial faunas. Dr. Padian is an editor and an author of The Beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs and the Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. Most of his field work is in the southwest U.S. He has also done work on fossil footprints and on the history of evolution and paleontology, particularly in the early Victorian Era.
Kennerly (Ken) S. Patrick
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Medical University of South Carolina
171 Ashley Avenue
Charleston, SC 29425-2303
803-792-8429, FAX: 803-792-0759
E-mail: Patrickk@musc.edu
Medicinal Chemistry of Methylphenidate (G,S)
Pharmacotherapy of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (P,G)
Ken Patrick is professor and acting chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. His research concerns the influence of drug bioavailability and metabolism on therapeutic and toxic response, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. He received his Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the University of Iowa. He was a postdoctoral fellow and research associate in neuropharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He then joined the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Tennessee at Memphis. Dr. Patrick is a reviewer for several medical journals, including the Journal of Neurochemistry, the Journal of Chromotography, and theInternational Journal of Chemical Kinetics. He has co-authored numerous publications and is the author of two chapters in the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Chemistry. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Sigma Xi.
Orrin H. Pilkey
James B. Duke Professor of Geology
Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences (NSOE)
Duke University, Box 90228
Durham, NC 27708
919-684-4238, FAX: 919-684-5833
E-mail: opilkey@geo.duke.edu
Shifting Shores and Rising Seas (P)
Evolution of Barrier Islands: A Global View (G,P)
On the Predictability of Beach Behavior (and Other Earth Surface Processes) for Practical Purposes (G)
Orrin H. Pilkey is the James B. Duke professor of geology and the director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Duke University. His program focuses on the study of shoreface sedimentary processes, beach nourishment, the impact of seawalls, and the validity of modeling of beach behavior. Over the years he has studied barrier islands on four continents. He is the recipient of the Shepard Medal for excellence in marine geology and is the co-editor and sometimes co-author of the 23-volume Living with the Shore books series. His recent books include Living by the Rules of the Sea and The Corps and the Shore. Dr. Pilkey has received numerous awards including the Francis Shepard Medal for excellence in marine geology, the American Geological Institute award for outstanding public communication, and was named the North Carolina Wildlife Federation Conservation educator of the year.
Vera S. Pless
Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (M/C 249)
University of Illinois at Chicago
851 S. Morgan, 507 SEO
Chicago, IL 60607-7045
312-413-2177, FAX: 312-996-1491
E-mail: VPless@uic.edu
Web: http://www.math.uic.edu/~pless/
Changing Technology, Changing Mathematics (P)
Introduction to Error-Correcting Codes (G)
Codes and Games (G,S)
Vera Pless is a professor of mathematics at the University of Illinois in Chicago and is the author of a widely used text, Introduction to the Theory of Error-Correcting Codes. She was a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology under the NSF Visiting Professorships for Women Program and a Lady Davis visiting professor at the Technion in Faifa, Israel. She also served as a visiting professor at Dartmouth College and the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Pless is the author of many papers on coding and is also interested in various areas of combinatorics. Along with her research, she is presently editing a Handbook on Coding and organizing a coding and cryptography conference at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications. In addition to her professional work she enjoys spending time with her three children and three grandchildren.
J. David Rogers
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
476 Davis Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1710
925-682-7601, FAX: 925-682-7605
E-mail: jdrogers@geolith.com
Reassessment of the St. Francis Dam Failure (P)
Development and Use of the First Atomic Bombs (P)
Sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic (P)
J. David Rogers is a geological engineer specializing in the analysis of failures involving earth systems. He returned to his alma mater in an adjunct capacity in 1994. An avid lecturer, teaching is his third career, following service as a naval intelligence officer and expert witness specializing in forensic evaluations. He has traveled worldwide and has written numerous articles which include the areas of: geotechnical engineering, seismicity, hydrology, engineering identification and mitigation techniques. He has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Geological Survey, and the Federal Highway Administration. Dr. Rogers is a recipient of the Rock Mechanics Award of the National Research Council/National Academy of Engineering, Burwell Award of the Geological Society of America, and the Jahns Distinguished Lectureship of the Association of Engineering Geologists and Geological Society of America.
Jerald L. Schnoor
Department of Civil Environmental Engineering
116 Engineering Research Facility
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
319-335-5649, FAX: 319-335-5585
E-mail: jerald-schnoor@uiowa.edu
Unavailable: Dec 15–Jan 15, March 15–20, Aug. 1–30
Eco-Logic: As Perspective on Global Change and Sustainable Development (P)
Phytoremediation: The Role of Plants in Cleaning Soils and Sediments (S)
East Central Europe: An Environment in Transition (G)
Jerry Schnoor is a chemical engineer and environmental engineering educator. His research and publications cover a wide range of environmental problems including: toxic chemical fate and transport, surface and groundwater contaminant modeling, and biogeochemistry of global change. He is the Foundation Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environ mental Engineering and co-director of the Center for Global and Regional Environ mental Research at the University of Iowa. His mathematical model for acid precipitation risk assessments was one of only three models applied to lakes in the eastern U.S. as part of the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program. Together with several students, Jerry Schnoor has pioneered the use of vegetation for cleaning hazardous waste sites, phytoremediation. His book, Environmental Modeling, has been adopted as a text by more than 50 graduate programs throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Ana M. Soto
Department of Anatomy and Cellular Biology
Tufts University School of Medicine
136 Harrison Avenue
Boston, MA 02111
617-636-6954, FAX: 617-636-6536
E-mail: asoto@infonet.tufts.edu
Limited availability: January–April
Control of Cell Proliferation: An Evolutionary Perspective (G,S)
Is There Anything Wrong with the Way We Study Cancer? (G,S)
Environmental Hormone Mimics and Human Health (P,G)
Ana M. Soto is an associate professor of cellular biology at Tufts University School of Medicine. She received her M.D. from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. Since her U.S. arrival in 1973, her research interest has been the control of cell proliferation in metazoan organisms. In particular, she studies the regulation of cell proliferation by sex steroids in breast and prostate cells, and possible health effects in humans due to hormone mimics exposure. Dr. Soto has served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Hormone Active Agents and other panels dealing with endo crine disruptors. In 1995 she shared the Marla Frazin award for breast cancer research with Dr. Carlos Sonnenschein. Drs. Soto and Sonnenschein are currently working on a book concerning the control of cell proliferation.
Daniel Jean Stanley
Smithsonian Senior Oceanographer
National Museum of Natural History, Rm. E-206
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20560
202-357-2310, FAX: 202-786-2832
E-mail: Stanley.daniel@nmnh.si.edu
Unavailable: April–May, latter half of December and February
Modern World Deltas: Origin and Man's Early Occupation (G,S)
Nile and Yangtze Deltas: Dams and Damnation (G,S)
Daniel Jean Stanley is a Smithsonian Senior Oceanographer at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., and an adjunct professor at several universities in North America, Europe, and China. His training is in geology, and his research has focused on Alpine and Mediterranean sedimentology and more recently, coastal geology of world deltas. His present work integrates Quaternary sea-level changes, modern delta evolution and geo-archaeology. He holds degrees from Cornell and Brown, and a D.Sc. from l'Ecole Nationale Superieure du Petrole et es Moteurs/Paris and Grenoble, France. He taught at Dalhousie University in Canada prior to his appointment at the Smithsonian 31 years ago. Dr. Stanley is an AAAS and GSA fellow, a frequent keynote speaker at international geological and environmental meetings, and has received the Francis Shephard Medal for excellence in marine geology. His avocations include diving on archaeological sites and gardening.
Xiao-Lun Wu
Dept. of Physics, 408 Allen Hall
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
413-624-0873, FAX: 412-624-9163
E-mail: xlwu@vms.cis.pitt.edu
Physics of Fluid Thin Films (P)
Fluid Flows in Freely Suspended Films (G)
Hydrodynamics and Turbulence in Two Dimensions (S)
Xiao-Lun Wu received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in physics and is an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh. His research focuses on the long-standing problem of the effect of spatial disorder on critical fluctuations of Ising-like systems, particularly fluid flow and turbulence in thin, free-standing liquid films as well as particle diffusion and thermal convection. Some of his recent research includes: hydrodynamics in free-standing liquid films, nucleation and chiral symmetry breaking under hydrodynamic flows, structure and dynamics in a glass forming system, internal modes of macromolecules and critical fluctuations in porous media. Dr. Wu has been an invited speaker at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Aspen Center for Physics, Ford Motor Company and numerous universities and society meetings. He is a member of the American Physical Society and the Materials Research Society.