Vol 5 : Eberly College of Arts and Sciences: Spring 06

Eberly College

Magazine

Spring 2006

Dr. Suzanne Bell and Mentoring Women Chemists

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Administration Mary Ellen Mazey, Ph.D. Dean of the College Joan Gorham, Ed.D. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Fred King, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Rudolph P. Almasy, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Development Nicholas G. Evans, Ed.D. Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Asuntina S.Levelle, J.D. Assistant Dean for Financial Planning and Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Planning for the Future: A Letter from the Dean

2 4 5 6 7 8 10 12

Special Focus on Strategic Planning: Renewal of an Old Friend At Work and Play in the WVU Writing Center Stepping Stones to Success “Difficult” Conversations The Chemistry of Crime Tools for Discovery Physical Geography Manual for Appalachia Engaging in Outreach

14 Johannes Herber:A Scholar and a Gentleman 16 WVU Philosophers Ask THE QUESTION 18 Inspiring Greatness

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences West Virginia University PO Box 6286,201 Woodburn Hall Morgantown,WV 26506-6286 304-293-4611(t),304-293-6858(f) www.as.wvu.edu To make sure that you don’t miss the dean’s monthly email letter to alumni and friends o f the Eberly College,please keep us updated on new and changed email addresses. Send your information to News@as.wvu.edu. Thank you.

20 Subtleties of Hatred 21 Looking Back,Looking Forward 22 Around the College 24 Johan Arndt Eisland 26 Charitable Gifts and Retirement Security 27 Researchers Tackle Protein Misfolding 28 Dispatches from the Diaspora 29 A Student’s Eye View: Home is where your heart is

Jane Donovan Magazine Editor Michael Winser and Sarah Braswell Writers Heidi Specht Design Special thanks to Kevin Kinder BlueGold News.com West Virginia University is governed by the Board of Trustees of the University System of West Virginia: Dr.Brian E. Noland, Chancellor; Mary Clare Eros, Chair.

Planning for the future of WVU As WVU and the Eberly College engage in a major strategic planning initiative, we look to the past, celebrate the present, and anticipate the future. This issue of the Eberly College Magazine highlights a variety of the activities that showcase the College’s effective strategies for meeting WVU’s goals for the year 2010. Our high-quality students,outstanding faculty, improving physical environment, prolific research,and dedicated public service all indicate the calibre of people who are – and have always been – associated with the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University.

FROM THE DEAN

Planning for the Eberly College’s Future

A

Although I have been Dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences only a few short months,I am deeply impressed with the positive attitude and dedication of our faculty and students to the University’s academic mission. As I arrived on campus, the University had just completed a year-long strategic planning process, so I have spent these first few months as Dean working with the department chairs and program directors to create strategic plans at the college and unit levels.

I am pleased that the process has benefitted the College and its programs.

The vision statement of the Eberly College’s Strategic Plan states that the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, through its nationally and internationally recognized scholars and its loyal, caring staff, provides students with knowledge, skills,and values for a variety of careers, for advancement to graduate and professional programs, and life-long learning. In order to implement this vision for the College, we have adopted a mission statement: The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences enhances student learning with undergraduate and graduate experiences that involve innovative teaching, learning,and discovery; basic, applied, and creative scholarship; and professional service, outreach, and engagement.

The College is utilizing the five goals of the University’s Strategic Plan as we continue to pursue academic excellence.

The first goal states that WVU should “attract and graduate high quality students.” To this end, the College’s priorities are to expand our marketing efforts, enrich our curriculum, provide greater financial support to our graduate students, and enrich our programs with undergraduate and graduate research opportunities, study abroad, service learning, and internships. Articles in this issue of the College magazine on or by Johannes Herber, Rebecca Fitzsimmons,and T. J. O’Neill demonstrate the extraordinary caliber of our students.

The second major University strategic goal is to “Recruit and retain high-quality faculty committed to the land-grant mission.” In order for the College to implement this goal, we want to recruit and retain nationally and internationally recognized, diverse, student-centered faculty and staff. Our desire is to increase the number of endowed professorships in the College and to promote more interdisciplinary research and exchange. In fact, John Ernest, featured in this issue, came to WVU just this year as Eberly Distinguished Professor of American Literature.

The third goal of the University’s strategic plan is “Enhance the educational environment for student learning.” The Eberly College plans to continue our investment in infrastructure and technology. You will read in this issue about renovations

underway to Brooks, Oglebay, and Colson Halls. We also plan to increase the use of technology at all levels of teaching, and the University continues to build “smart classrooms “ which provide us with state-of-the-art technology capabilities in existing and newly-renovated classrooms. Outside of the classroom, we continue to enhance the learning environment through, among other initiatives,the excellent work of our Writing Center under the direction of Nathalie SinghCorcoran, featured in this issue.

The University’s fourth goal is to “Promote discovery and exchange of knowledge and ideas.” Our focus is on continuing to grow collaborative research efforts that garner external funding from national and state agencies and private sources.

We aim to increase our g raduate student enrollment and create new models for obtaining graduate degrees, such as completing a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 5 years.

Among the current College activities under this heading highlighted in this magazine is a new textbook on central Appalachian physical geography developed by professors Stephen Kite and Amy Hessl.

Finally, the University’s fifth goal is to “Improve West Virginia’s health, economy and quality of life.” To implement this goal, the College will focus on creating more community-based partnerships and more community/civic engagement opportunities Mary Ellen Mazey, Ph.D. Dean of the College linked to the curriculum. Of particular importance will be our outreach to K-12 teachers and students. In addition, we will continue to provide lectures, forums and other avenues of disseminating and enhancing the dialogue with the many constituencies we serve. Sharon Ryan’s article discusses an innovative project through which the Department of Philosophy is fostering interaction and intellectual interchange with the public.

As the Eberly College Magazine strives to illustrate, the students and faculty in arts and sciences continue to provide leadership in the implementation of the University’s land grant mission. I am fortunate to have such outstanding colleagues with whom to work to advance the University’s stature throughout the state, nation and world. Please join me in reading about and supporting their valued efforts.

Mary Ellen Mazey, Ph.D. Dean of the College

Arts & Sciences | 1 | Spring 2006

Renewal of an Old Friend

by Dr. Barbara Rasmussen, Director, Cultural Resource Management and Public History Programs

N

Nowadays, looking at stately Oglebay “all” brings to mind that childhood song, “Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.” The old reassuring mass and exterior of Oglebay will not be changing as a result of its ongoing and extensive renovation, although the building will become a thoroughly modern 21st century facility. The exterior, ground floor, and first floor will be restored to their historic 1918 character, remaining our golden old friend.

However, the rest of the building will change drastically in order for it to accommodate the needs of WVU’s new hightech forensic and investigative science program, one of the nation’s foremost centers for the study of techniques used in crime solving. Two new lecture halls will also be constructed at the rear of the building, connected to it by a skywalk and plaza. An old vault located in what was once a dean’s office will also live on in the building—as a bank robbery crime scene — and Oglebay will become fully accessible to persons with mobility limitations.

The building’s restoration is being undertaken with the goal of achieving a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) award for environmentally-friendly construction.

David Freese,AIA, project manager, explained that “there are basically four areas where the points for LEED certification come from.First,” he said,“we are reducing water use in the building through the use o f efficient fixtures and reducing typical site irrigation. Secondly, we are re-using and renovating the existing building shell and refinishing much of the original door and window trim.”

Freese said the project’s engineering firm has worked very hard at designing the building’s mechanical system to be more energy efficient. Perfido Weiskopf Architects and WVU are also specifying low-emitting materials to improve the indoor air quality.

“We will achieve the LEED Certified rating,” Freese said, “but we are shooting for the LEED silver rating.” A silver designation requires 33-38 “points,” while a certification requires only 26-32. LEED points are awarded in several areas, he explained, including siting, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources,indoor environmental quality, innovation and design. The severe site constraints at Oglebay may make it difficult to gain the higher rating, but the architect and engineers are working hard to find the ext ra points.

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As for that missing “H” on the cornice, it was targeted for some “preservation demolition” early in the restoration process last year. It was removed as part of a study of the façade’s structural integrity. Although the entablature looks like it is made of limestone, just like the columns that support it,that horizontal element is in fact made of terra cotta castings that were hand made and “hung” on the building to simulate the more costly limestone. This was a common construction technique in the 1920s, when Oglebay was built.

Unfortunately, the support for terra cotta building facades can weaken over time, posing potentially serious safety issues.

Professional inspectors for WVU discovered that Oglebay’s terra cotta entablature is weakening because the metal hangers that hold the components in place are rusting away.

Terra cotta façade elements are a vanished technology, so it will not be possible to replace them with original materials.

Some very good alternatives exist,however, including the real limestone that the terra cotta was emulating in the first place.

The final determination of materials for the restoration will be made in mid-summer 2006. Visitors will not be able to detect a difference when the process is completed.

The Beaux Arts design of the building will be meticulously preserved.

Surprisingly, the exterior of the building contains more glass than masonry. It draws the eye to its massive form with its stylized capitals, symmetry, and exuberant detail in the mortar and terra cotta trim. It is WVU’s only Beaux Arts structure. Along with the building itself, Oglebay Plaza will be restored and enlarged, thus assuring that the University community will always have its traditional, beloved gathering place.

Renewing Some Other Old Friends

As the “anchor”that holds the campus in place, Oglebay Hall looks out over the other historic buildings downtown. One of the many charms of the historic campus is that you can see important examples of major architectural styles by just turning your head. Woodburn Hall and Martin Hall are fine examples of the Second Empire style.

Elizabeth Moore Hall is a very stately Colonial Revival structure.

Purinton House, with its intricate wooden trim and expansive windows, fully expresses the Neo-Classical Revival style. Stewart Hall is executed in the Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style and is widely considered to be the best such example in West Virginia. And by the way, Stewart Hall recently made a unique contribution to the arts world. An unused wrought iron stair in a basement restroom was removed to accommodate the expansion of a nearby storage area, but the stair was not discarded or demolished. It was carted off to the Creative Arts Center to begin a new life in the world of modern sculpture.

It is not common to combine buildings of such varied architectural style in such close proximity, but at WVU it works. Our downtown campus is also our outdoor museum of architecture. The buildings lend a dignified permanence to the University that reassures us that as WVU grows into the twenty-first century, its beautiful old buildings will be there as well, reminding us of how far we have come, and how well we have cared for the institution since its very earliest days.

Architectural renderings of the renovated Brooks Hall

In addition to Oglebay Hall,two other Eberly College of Arts and Sciences buildings are being renovated on the downtown campus.

Brooks Hall will include a reconstruction of interior spaces and replacement of the windows and roof.

Featured improvements will include a pedestrian pathway from the PRT to the Life Sciences Building through a new first floor concourse, and a second pathway will improve accessibility via a connecting bridge from the top floor to the Woodburn promenade. Once completed, Brooks Hall will accommodate the department of Geology and Geography and five general purpose classrooms.

Colson Hall’s interior will be refurbished and the heating/air conditioning and electrical systems will be upgraded to meet today’s building and fire codes. Once completed,Colson Hall will house the Department of English.

At an estimated total cost of $50 million,Brooks,Oglebay, and Colson Hall renovations are well underway and on schedule to be completed by the summer of 2007.

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Pass the Ball and Hand Me a Pencil At Work and Play in the WVU Writing Center

by Dr. Nathalie Singh-Corcoran

The WVU Writing Center opened its doors on October 3,2005 in 44 Stansbury Hall,a space adjacent to the basketball court where Jerry West won much acclaim for his talents. As I write this piece, I can hear the sounds of a pick-up game. The players shout to one another as they dribble the ball. Their sneakers squeak across the court. I wonder what West would think of the marriage between basketball and a writing center. I believe the pair is fitting given my previous experiences in a writing center environment. At the University of Arizona—the institution where I earned my doctorate—the center was next to the basketball court where the Wildcats reigned for several decades. At that center I was an administrator, and the sounds I hear now are reminiscent of the sounds I heard over a year ago. I feel like I’m home.

I moved from Arizona to West Virginia in July 2005 to start the WVU Writing Center, a tutoring support service for students who need and want additional assistance. The services we offer are not only for students who struggle with writing; we also meet with more proficient writers who want to hone their craft. Our staff of mostly undergraduate peer tutors meets one-on-one with students who are working on writing projects of all kinds: term papers,outlines, law school essays,

scholarship applications, etc. Tutors help students at any stage in their writing process,whether they are brainstorming, drafting, revising,or polishing their texts.

The WVU Writing Center models itself after other tutoring centers across the country. Centers foster collaborative learning. To collaborate means to participate meaningfully in a joint intellectual effort. At its best,collaborative learning aids in problem finding and solving, in learning abstract ideas,in gaining critical thinking skills,and in gaining a deeper understanding of ourselves and others. In the ideal tutoring situation, the tutor and writer mutually benefit from their act of collaboration. Students reap the benefits of additional feedback while undergraduate peer tutors improve their own writing as the result of interacting with others and their texts.

Writing center tutors are readers responding to texts. We impress upon students that we offer feedback,but they ultimately need to take responsibility as writers for their own content and editing.

They have to sort through all of the feedback they get from their readers— peer tutors,teachers,friends, roommates, and/or family members—and decide what will work best for their texts. The center is not an editing or proofreading service; instead we teach students editing and

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proofreading strategies so that they can apply what they learn to their own writing.

The feedback that we offer focuses on each writer’s individual needs and abilities.

One main goal is to help writers locate strategies that aid them in critical writing and reading. In this way, the WVU Writing Center complements classroom instruction. We encourage students to play with their writing,to try out different strategies for composing. Because tutors are coaches instead of evaluators,students are often eager to take shots at new approaches for brainstorming, organizing ideas,experimenting with essay structures, and generally letting their ideas evolve.

I have been in writing centers for many years. I was an undergraduate peer tutor. I was a graduate student tutor and administrator. I now direct a center. I am here because I value the richness of the student-tutor relationship. I love the noise of the writing center. I love the passionate conversations about writing that we all have in this environment. I love the sounds of the pick-up game that is still going on outside my office door. The players challenge each other to become more skilled in the game just as students and tutors challenge one another to become better writers. So pass the ball and hand me a pencil. You can find me at the WVU Writing Center.

Stepping Stones to

Success

by Rebecca Fitzsimmons, Senior, Forensic and Investigative Science, Willowick, Ohio

Over the past four years at WVU, I’ve taken many steps down the pathway that will lead me to become a professional criminal investigator for the United States government.

I’ve tried to make the most of every opportunity that has been offered, in the classroom, the crime scene houses, the blood spatter analysis and fingerprint identification courses – but that final step, from college to career, is a big one.

The Forensic and Investigative Science program at West Virginia University requires that its students have an internship in the summer between their junior and senior year, an important and exceedingly helpful transitional event in our journey from student to professional.

During the summer of 2005,I satisfied this internship requirement with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS),a federal law enforcement agency that prevents and solves felony crimes worldwide which threaten the war-fighting capability of the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps.

I was placed at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where my primary responsibilities included assisting in felony investigations, participating in investigative leads, attending in-service training such as firearms familiarization, and assisting in comprehensive reviews of death investigations. I was also active at NCIS Headquarters in Washington D.C., where I attended many Death Review Boards, Courts Martial and other events.

During my time with NCIS, I learned a great deal about the criminal justice system, how the military handles criminal cases and how federal law enforcement agencies function. I worked on cases that ranged from homicides to identity theft.

Of particular interest was the Major Case Response Team (MCRT), which deals with evidence collection and crime scene investigation for NCIS, including in field offices around the world. Team members are trained in crime scene investigative techniques, such as fingerprint processing and trace evidence collection.I thoroughly enjoyed the MCRT meetings and was well prepared to take a scientific approach to death cases.

In addition to the investigative work, I also participated in a variety of other activities. My personal favorite was learning how to shoot a variety of firearms. I was able to shoot a Ruger

(.357), Smith and Wesson (.38 cal), MP5 (sub-machine gun), Mossberg pump-action shotgun and a Sig Sauer (9 mm semiauto pistol). I looked forward to every opportunity to go to the range. I developed a deep appreciation for the talent and discipline it takes to become a skilled marksman. In July, we traveled to the Baltimore Medical Examiner’s Office to view several autopsies. It was fascinating to watch the medical examiner conduct the examinations of the bodies, and I was further educated on shotgun distance determination.

The most glamorous thing I did at NCIS was when I aided in force protection with the Secret Service when President Bush spoke at the U. S. Naval Academy graduation. The level of detail involved in presidential protection was intriguing. My internship was one of the most valuable experiences of my undergraduate career. The Forensic and Investigative Science Program and other academic programs here at WVU recognize this fact and encourage real-life experiences which complement the educational process. My internship allowed me to make practical application of my forensic science background and polished my skills in doing so. The Forensic Science classes that I have taken here at WVU well prepared me for a successful internship. I found myself utilizing the information I learned from my classes on a daily basis in the management and processing of countless criminal cases. After this internship and my Eberly College education,I feel ready and able to take my next step into the professional world of criminal investigation.

Being part of the NCIS Internship Program granted me endless opportunities. Every day brought a new, exciting challenge. This internship broadened my horizons and thoroughly introduced me to federal law enforcement. I walked away this past summer with an understanding of how the criminal justice system operates and how the law affects actions taken by federal agencies. I thank WVU for helping me find such a wonderful internship, and I highly recommend that every undergraduate student pursue an internship within the scope of their major, as it will be the best learning experience they can acquire.

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“Difficult”

Conversations

Dr. John Ernest Eberly Family Distinguished Professor of American Literature Department of English

Some years ago, while teaching at another university, I encountered the student whom every teacher fears – and whom every teacher needs every few years or so. She seemed determined to challenge everything I said. I assigned a collection of readings that strayed considerably from the established list of books for such a course, and she complained that we were looking at “the same old canon.” I tried to explain how we would approach the subject of culture, and she responded,“Haven’t we heard enough about culture?” And so it went,throughout a very long and difficult semester.

Although some of what this student said in class was uninformed, and although sometimes she was difficult just for the sake of being difficult, she was also one of the best students in the class, and she was one of the most important students I’ve had in my ever-developing career as a teacher. The point was not whether she was right or wrong; the point was that I sometimes found myself unable to explain why I had chosen to approach the course in this way, why I was focusing on certain texts rather than others, why I used certain methods in the classroom,and even what exactly I was hoping to evaluate in the course assignments. Certainly, I could offer general answers to such questions, but I was aware that my answers went only so far. Why do I teach this way? The most honest answer, I was embarrassed to discover, was very simple: “This is how I do it, how I’ve always done it.”

Thanks to that student, I started a long process (which still goes on) of reexamining what I do in the classroom and why I do it.

Never again, I vowed, would I assign a text, create an assignment, show a video, invite a guest lecturer, or ask my students to do something unless I could explain,in some detail, my methods and my goals.

Of course,like most vows, this one is hard to keep on one’s own–and my “difficult” student has long since graduated.

When I was invited to join the faculty at West Virginia University, one of the great attractions was that I would be joining a department, a college, and a university that seemed

genuinely devoted to teaching. I was familiar with the university’s student-centered approach to education, and I was impressed by the faculty o f the Department of English. I knew I would be entering a community of accomplished scholars, but the interview process made it clear as well that I would also be entering a department devoted to excellence in teaching.

I’ve since discovered that WVU is a university that recognizes such excellence, and that this is a university that thinks very carefully about the kinds of achievements required for such recognition.

To help promote that larger mission, the English Department faculty have formed a group that meets for monthly conversations about teaching. Our goal is to raise challenging questions, to compare methods, to discuss goals – to explain to one another and to ourselves why we do what we do. After an initial meeting, we’ve started the process of choosing specific topics for each conversation, ranging from the appropriate balance of lecture and discussion to questions about our common sense of mission and the core goals for our program.

We talk about the assignments we require, why we require these rather than other assignments, and how we evaluate those assignments. We talk about how one course supports or prepares for another, and how to coordinate our efforts so as to ensure an ongoing process of education for our students. We talk, above all, about something that even the best assessment measures often miss: the difference between a course that seems successful and one that is successful.

While they are entirely collegial and supportive, these conversations can also be very challenging. There’s nothing like hearing about another teacher’s innovative methods, thoughtful assignments, and rigorous standards to get one’s blood flowing. When I leave the conversations, I often find myself wanting to be more like everyone else in the room. I also leave with the clear understanding that my courses are part of a larger process of education. With such conversations, I can never again be satisfied by saying that I teach the way I do because, well,I teach the way I do. In effect, my new colleagues have taken the place of my “difficult” student. This time around, though, I’m pleased to report, the process of selfexamination, though every bit as challenging, is much more enjoyable.

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Dr. Suzanne Bell (second from left) and her forensic chemistry graduate students

Analyze This! The Chemistry of Crime

by Sarah Braswell

From the winning smile and the great sense of humor, you’d never expect that Suzanne Bell works in a field that is deadly serious.

Amy Aylor

Melissa Ely

Becky Hanes

Jennifer Wiseman Mercer

Dr. Bell is a national leader in the field of forensic chemistry and a mentor to women who seek to pursue an education and career in a male-dominated field.

She is the leader of a research group at WVU that is comprised primarily of female graduate students.Of the six Ph.D. students in the forensic chemistry program, four are women.

Bell’s students are analyzing drugs and trace evidence. Amy Aylor focuses on the characterization of fingerprint residue components by determining how amino acids break down under high heat during a process known as pyrolysis.Melissa Ely uses the high-heat chemical breakdown process of pyrolysis on drugs in order to simulate the breakdown of chemicals inside the body for the purpose of metabolic testing.Becky Hanes is working on the creation of a microfluidic device to miniaturize color and crystal samples of controlled substances onto a portable chip. Jennifer Wiseman Mercer is developing testing for the GHV chemical in order to confirm whether it is used as a date rape drug.

Bell arrived at WVU in 2003 and is now an assistant professor in the Bennett Department of Chemistry in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.Her research group was formed in 2004.Prior to her arrival at WVU, Bell spent nine years as a chemistry professor at Eastern Washington University where she worked with the Washington State Patrol to develop an undergraduate BS degree in forensic chemistry. Before that,she worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) – and as a forensic chemist with the New Mexico State Police (NMSP) Crime Laboratory in her native state. As a result of her work experience, research in her group emphasizes core chemistry and practical application of analytical chemistry to forensic needs.

In 2005,Bell published the nation’s first and only forensic chemistry textbook, Forensic Chemistr y, which is being used in hundreds of college classrooms around the country.

Perhaps Suzanne Bell’s ever-present smile isn’t about the seriousness of forensic chemistry. It just might be her response to the achievements of her students.

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Tools for

Discovery

by Dr.Fred King Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies

Today’s modern scientific instrumentation has been made possible by discoveries, principally in the realm of physics and electronics, made through the use of earlier generations of instrumentation.

Professor George O'Doherty (right) and Research Associate Novruz Akhmedov (center) provide guidance to graduate student Dong Gao (left) as he introduces a sample into the 600MHz NMR spectrometer.

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Professor Aaron Timperman's student Matt Powell (foreground) injects a sample into the FTMS as Shane Schuetzner (background) of Protea Biosciences assists.

I

In The Discoverer s, Daniel Boorstein pointed out that just as improved timekeeping devices enabled yesterday’s explorers to discover the New World,so do modern instruments enable today’s scientists to discover new worlds. What is perhaps less well understood is the degree to which the tool and the discovery are interdependent.

Modern advances at the interface of biology, chemistry, and medicine rely on the ability to determine with ever greater detail and certainty the structure and function of complex biomolecules. Today these determinations are afforded principally through the use of two sophisticated tools: the mass spectrometer (MS) and the nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer (NMR).

Each of these tools is based on much earlier research in the field of physics,and are based on various Nobel Prize-winning concepts.

The origins of mass spectrometry date back to the discovery and characterization of the electron in the earliest years of the twentieth century, whereas the origins of NMR date to the middle part of the century when the nature of atomic nuclei was a relatively new topic for investigation. In both cases, the ability to provide increasing levels of sensitivity and information in the determination of molecular structure depends on the availability of ever larger magnetic fields. In this light the development of superconducting magnet technology in the latter part of the twentieth century enabled both of these instruments to evolve to the point of providing tremendous information regarding the chemistry of lif e.

The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences houses state-of-the-art facilities and instrumentation for both MS and NMR in the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry. As you might imagine, such state-

of-the-art tools are not inexpensive and their acquisition is the culmination of dedicated faculty work to secure the necessary funding from external sources.

The instrumentation at WVU was put in place with funding obtained from the National Science Foundation to provide critical infrastructure for a variety of research projects at WVU. Absent such funding,it would not have been possible for WVU faculty and student researchers to have access to and valuable experience with these central tools of modern molecular sciences.

The Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometer enables WVU scientists to determine with an extremely high degree of confidence the exact identity of a complex molecule such as a protein. The technique can also be used to determine the identity of the smaller building blocks that constitute the larger molecule as well as the way in which those building blocks are connected. The research of faculty members such as Aaron Timperman,associate professor of chemistry, would not be possible without the availability of this important tool.It has enabled him to develop a program aimed at developing new diagnostic techniques for use in clinical applications and to bring to town a small business,Protea, interested in commercializing these techniques.

The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer enables scientists to Arts & Sciences | 9 | Spring 2006

determine how the smaller building blocks of the molecule are arranged in threedimensional space. This is essential because so often biological function is not only associated with a molecule’s composition but also with its shape. Knowing where the active sites on a biological receptor lie and their chemical composition enables synthetic organic chemists to better design chemicals that serve as therapeutic agents for the treatment of disease. The work of George O’Doherty, associate professor of chemistr y, aimed at the development of new antifungal agents,depends on the use of NMR to characterize the new molecules synthesized in his laboratory and to verify their structure. In the area of developing new NMR techniques,WVU is particularly well known through the work of chemistry professor Terry Gullion. Dr. Gullion was a principal developer of a widely-used NMR technique that provides information regarding the relative spatial separation between carbon and nitrogen in a variety of molecules,including proteins.

It is worth noting that all of the research described above involves a cadre of undergraduate and graduate students who work daily with these state-of-the-art tools in making their own disco veries,both of the natural world in which we all live and of their own capacity to learn and generate new knowledge. Who knows which of them will be the next great Discoverer?

G & G Professors Develop New

Physical Geography W

of Morgantown, gets almost 2 times more average snowfall than Buffalo, New York. The mountains of this region influence the climate on a regular basis.”

West Virginia, a.k.a.the Mountain State,a.k.a.

Almost Heaven. From whitewater rivers to meandering country roads, from scenic overlooks to wooded valleys, and from immense rock formations to invaluable wetlands, this state offers some of the most diverse and unusual geography in the country. Many students coming to WVU end up seeing only a small portion of the state, and never discover the true meaning of “Wild and Wonderful.”

However, each semester more and more students begin to understand and appreciate our mountainous home, thanks in part to a new publication specifically tailored to the Appalachian region.

The new physical geography lab manual, written by the Eberly College’s own Dr. Steve Kite and Dr. Amy Hessl of the Department of Geology and Geography, begins by describing physical geography: “Physical Geography deals with the processes,agents, and organisms that create the Earth’s landscapes and provide the template in which all humans exist.”

Dr. Kite explains why this class has been so important. “This class makes students much more aware of the environment in which we are trying to survive. The environment in this region is unique.” He continues,“For instance,the Moorefield-Petersburg area is the driest area in the entire eastern United States, yet it is within miles of some of the wettest areas in the eastern U.S. Tucker County, just southeast

First taught during the Fall 2002 semester, the Physical Geography course used a lab manual published by a professor from Maryland’s Frostburg State University that was well suited to the region. But that book went out of print, and after 3 semesters of teaching the lab using the original manual,a new one became necessary. Kite and Hessl began developing the new manual for the class,and it was phased in, piece by piece, over several semesters. Physical Geography Lab Manual: Views from the Mountain State was officially published by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company this summer.

“It’s easy to find physical geography lab manuals, but, in general, they are focused on other regions. There is a lot g oing on in this part of the world with very different landscapes. We needed an up-to-date manual specifically for this area, with more locally-derived data sets,” said Dr. Kite.

Much more went into the manual than just lab exercises, though.Dr. Kite said that he kept several agendas in mind while creating it. First and foremost, the manual aims to help students gain a greater appreciation for and understanding of the Appalachian landscape, as well as all landscapes in general.

A second agenda aims at getting students to think in metric.

Despite the metric system being the language of modern science, many American college students tend to convert measurements and data back into their own system before they

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Manual Appalachia for

by Michael Alden Winser

The final lab in the 114-page manual,“Ice Mountain Case Study,” draws upon all that the students have learned during the semester by considering a complex and interesting area known as “Ice Mountain,” located in Hampshire County, WV. Owned by the Nature Conservancy, Ice Mountain is a boulder-strewn hillside that creates cold air flow allowing “Ice Age” plants to survive in a region that is much warmer than “northern” or high-elevation sites where these plants prosper today.

Amy Hessl

can really understand what those measurements and data mean. “We want students to intuitively realize that when the temperature outside is 30 degrees Celsius, you don’t need to wear a jacket,” Kite pointed out.

Another important aspect of the manual is warm-up exercises.

The manual is divided into labs which can consist of projects, exercises, and/or experiments forming a cohesive unit. Each lab in the manual has a preliminary exercise to be completed before attending class. This serves many functions, such as ensuring that the students have read the background materials beforehand and have all the basic skills behind them that they will need for the lab. It serves as a warm-up, to get the students interested and to have questions ready.

Due to the state’s geography, floods are a never-ending threat to its people and communities. With this in mind, Kite points out the most imp ortant result of taking this class, “These students may never professionally use what they learn in this class. However, there is a good chance that one day some of these students will end up on city councils and the like, where this knowledge of a bigger view will be called upon to make important decisions.”

Kite smiled. “This is also a good class to help you pick where you would want to go on vacation.”

For instance, the first lab exercise,“Maps, Globes, and Time Zones,” has a preliminary exercise that asks students to think about when a sports event will be on television if it starts at noon in Boston or California or even Beijing.

“We want the lab to function as a tutorial, not a class where the instructor has to lecture for an hour beforehand,” he said.

Steve Kite

Arts & Sciences | 11 | Spring 2006

The Eberly Family Professors in Outstanding Public Service

by Sarah Braswell

Professor Chris Plein

Outreach

Engaging in “There is no greater calling than to serve your fellow men. There is no greater contribution than to help the weak. There is no greater satisfaction than to have done it well.”

This quotation from Walter Reuther rings true for Christopher Plein and Daniel McNeil, who were recently named to Eberly Family Professorships in Outstanding Public Service.

Dr. Plein, assistant dean of the School of Applied Social Sciences in the Eberly College and chair of the Division of Public Administration, has long made public service a primary part of his work. “Since starting at West Virginia University in the mid1990s, I have sought to make public service a key aspect of my faculty contributions and have used these experiences to inform my research and teaching,” Plein said.

His contributions range from health and human services policy planning, development, and assessment, to promotion of outreach activities for community and economic development in West Virginia, to facilitation of University outreach and response to the needs of West Virginia’s communities.

In 1997, Plein was appointed by WVU President David C. Hardesty, Jr. to the University's Welfare Reform Study Panel. The panel’s investigations on the impact of federal welfare reform legislation on the state of West Virginia led to the formation of the WVU Interdisciplinary Research Task Force on Welfare Reform. As a member of the task force, Plein’s studies have focused on federal policy changes affecting those in and around the public assistance system in West Virginia. The Task Force’s research efforts, funded in excess of $350,000 by the WV Department of Health and Human Resources,include four major surveys of former welfare recipients, as well as work with welfare

caseworkers. In 2004, the WVU Press published the group’s findings in Welfare Reform in West Virginia, a book that garnered national recognition and interest, and in July 2005 their work was featured in a Washington Post article.

Plein also has made important contributions to health policy in West Virginia, serving on the state’s Health Advisory Committee, the Governor’s Working Group on Affordable Insurance,and, most significantly, on the Board of Directors for AccessWV, a new state-supported health insurance program for those with catastrophic or pre-existing health conditions.Plein has found volunteering on the board to be unique and fulfilling. “It certainly has been a learning experience,” he said, “one of a type that I would recommend to other academics who are responsible for teaching public policy and administ ration” Another effort with which Plein has been involved was the founding and sustaining of the West Virginia University Community Design Team. The team, composed of faculty from various disciplines, secured funding from the WVU Public Service Grant program to support the initiative. The team has visited more than 30 West Virginia communities in order to assist citizens with identifying issues, concerns, and needs of the community and creating plans of action to deal with them. Since its inception in 1996, the CDT has matured into a self-sustaining program now housed in the Division of Resource Management at WVU and assisted by the WVU Extension Service. Plein continues to serve on its steering committee and to participate in community visits.

Plein’s involvement in community outreach and development has not only informed his research, but also allowed him to

Arts & Sciences | 12 | Spring 2006

contribute the knowledge and expertise he shares with others through publications,papers, and presentations to officials in the areas of civic engagement and community design.

Most of all, Plein believes his interdisciplinary work with diverse groups of faculty from various disciplines has been the most rewarding and meaningful of his career. Between the Welfare Reform Task Force and the CDT p roject, he has collaborated with faculty from sociology, social work, political science, civil engineering, health sciences, parks and recreation, forestry, and landscape architecture, among others.“It’s my belief that each faculty member can make a greater overall contribution by encouraging his or her colleagues to engage in outreach and service,” he reported.

With so much experience, motivation, and enthusiasm for public service, there is no doubt that Chris Plein will continue to encourage his colleagues in the Eberly College to engage in service to the communities of West Virginia for years to come.

Dr. Daniel McNeil, professor of clinical psychology, reports that “my research becomes more sophisticated and my teaching more keen, when I have involved service as a part of the activity.” Like Plein, McNeil also strives for interdisciplinary cooperation in his service efforts.

McNeil has engaged in health and education activities in rural settings across the state. He has served on several rural health boards, including nine years with the Advisory Panel for SEARCH (Student/Resident Experiences and Rotations in Community Health), part of the WV Rural Health Education Partnerships program. His work on these boards helps underserved communities attract and retain health care professionals.

McNeil’s efforts on health issues led to his affiliation with the WVU School of Dentistry, through which he is involved in

studies that provide free oral and behavioral health evaluations for children and their parents in Webster and Nicholas Counties.

A former resident of Oklahoma, McNeil is interested in serving Native American communities; he has continued that involvement during his time at WVU. An active member of the Eberly College’s Native American Studies Program, he has provided workshops and consultations for Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, where he initiated studies on culturally-related anxiety in Native Americans. He is also involved with the North American Iroquois Veterans Association and for several years has organized groups of WVU students and faculty to visit and provide services at their annual Pow Wow. McNeil mentors graduate and undergraduate students at WVU, including those from Native American and other ethnic minority groups, as well as others who are participating in the University’s McNair Scholars Program.

McNeil has served in leadership roles in several professional organizations, has been on the editorial board of a number of professional journals, and reviews grant applications for the National Institutes of Health. He also devotes volunteer time to the Boy Scouts of America, youth soccer leagues, and is a cofounder of the Forks-of-Cheat Forest Nature Preserve.

Though McNeil is very active outside of the University, he also promotes public service through his position as professor and director of the Anxiety, Psychophysiology, and Pain Research Laboratory. He directed clinical training in the Psychology Department for six years, where he worked to enhance and expand services offered by the WVU Quin Curtis Center for Psychological Service, Training, and Research.

Daniel McNeil and Chris Plein exemplify the values of the Eberly College. Through their work in public service, they have helped and will continue not only to help others, but also to inspire their colleagues and students to serve the public.

Professor Dan McNeil

Arts & Sciences | 13 | Spring 2006

Johannes A

As loyal WVU alumni, when you think of Jo Herber, you probably think of him as #5 on the happily successful men’s basketball team, the first to make it to the Elite 8 round of the NCAA tournament since the days of the legendary Jerry West.

You know him as the versatile guard referred to by a Morgantown sportswriter as “Elmer,” the glue who holds the Blue and Gold cagers together when their game is threatening to fall apart. He is indeed that overachiever on the court who has played such a crucial role in the recent accomplishments of the Mountaineers.

But if you sit in Woodburn Hall, there is another Herber you have come to know and appreciate: Johannes Herber the student,a political science major who will graduate summa cum laude this May with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. As political science professor Allan Hammock tells it,“He has never gotten any grade lower than an A and eight o f his As are A+s. This is in classes that plow the intellectual fields of political science, philosophy, economics, international relations, astronomy, and British literature. No fluff here. No courses designed for ‘athletes’ only. From day one, you could tell he was highly motivated. He is very conscientious, very disciplined, and always prepared for class. Johannes is just a superb student in every regard.”

Herber was recently named as the Basketball Academic AllAmerican of the Year by ESPN The Magazine, selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the highest national award that recognizes both academic and athletic achievement. Herber is also this year’s recipient of the national Anson Mount Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award, given by Playboy Magazine. He is the first WVU student athlete to win either award. These latest honors sit alongside his recognition as 2006 Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and his double first team Academic All-American honors from CoSIDA, in 2005 and 2006. Herber was a 3rd team Academic All-American in 2004,his sophomore year at WVU, the youngest player honored that season.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Kinder, BlueGoldNews.com Arts & Sciences | 14 | Spring 2006

“I am amazed at how Johannes juggles his academic work with his basketball responsibilities,” continues Hammock, Herber’s academic mentor. His basketball mentor goes a step

Herber A Scholar and a Gentleman

by Jane Donovan

further: “He is no ordinary student athlete,” says head basketball coach John Beilein. “He is the ideal student athlete. The synergy of sport and scholarship has played out uniquely in Johannes’s life, in ways that are ideal, even for the purest of those who champion the true student-athlete.”

Herber’s accomplishments have not stopped at courtside and classroom. In October 2005, he was inducted into Mountain, WVU’s most prestigious honorary organization for undergraduate students. He tutors fellow student-athletes in German and political science. He was selected as one of eight WVU representatives to the National Model United Nations Conference in April, and he was recently inducted into Pi Sigma Alpha,the political science honorary. He participates in the “Community Reads” program in the elementary schools of Monongalia County, talking with children about the importance of doing well in school. He pays regular visits to young patients at WVU Children’s Hospital.

If that were insufficient, Herber returns to his native Germany every summer to play for – and last year to serve as captain of – the German National Basketball Team, which finished in 5th place at the 2005 World University Games. He has arrived on campus anywhere from two to five weeks after the fall semester began due to his commitments to the German team,making his academic achievements all the more impressive.

In Germany, Herber has embarked on an ambitious course o f action. He is a co-founder of the Spieler Initiative (Player Initiative), created during the summer of 2005 by members of the German National Basketball Team. SP.IN,as it is known,is a youth development program that expects to feed players into the German National Team. It provides individual mentoring for young players, sponsors a summer basketball camp, and raises funds to reward German club teams that provide opportunities for younger players. SP.IN is also playing a role in nascent efforts to establish a labor union for professional basketball players in Germany.

“Germany does not have a system like America’s NCAA in which student-athletes can combine athletics and studies in a posit ive and professional atmosphere,” Herber points out. “I want to help other young German players to actualize their potential so that the game of basketball can have the same formative impact on their lives as it has had on mine.”

“When I first started playing basketball at the age of 12, I could not have imagined the impact that this game would have on my life,” Herber smiles. “Basketball has served as a vehicle for me to travel the world, to get to know different cultures, and to represent my native Germany. My goal is to help develop the sport of basketball in Germany, and, after my playing days are over, to use my West Virginia University education in political science and my international experiences from basketball to build a career in the German diplomatic service.”

“Johannes has already functioned on an international level as student, athlete, and diplomat; and as a thoughtful young German at an American university, he has developed a broad perspective on world politics,” Coach Beilein notes. Hammock agrees.“I see him rising to the top in the service of his country. I also see him as a sp ecial friend of the United States,knowing, as he does, our country’s greatness (“I love the optimism of the American people,” he said to me) and its sho rtcomings (“I wish Americans had more knowledge of other countries.”).

“Herber is one of my all-time favorites at West Virginia,” says Charleston,WV sportswriter Kevin Kinder. “He should be on any Mountaineer all-time team. It may be a very long time before we see a player like him again.”

John Beilein well describes what makes this young man unique. “Johannes Herber models for his teammates, his classmates,and all of us who have the privilege of his companionship the persistence, dedication,and stellar work habits that lead to success, not only on the basketball court but also in life.”

Photo by Dale Sparks, All-Pro Photography

Arts & Sciences | 15 | Spring 2006

Dr. Allan Hammock and Herber

WVU Philosophers Ask

The Question

by Dr. Sharon Ryan Chair, Department of Philosophy

Tim Kryaninko,Anne Mutashi,Philosophy Chair Sharon Ryan,and Brittney Felix ask “THE QUESTION.”

Arts & Sciences | 16 | Spring 2006

Answer THE QUESTION at http://www.wvu.edu/~philosophy/thequestion.html

T

The Philosophy Department offers motorists something to think about this school term as they drive or sit in traffic on Beechurst Avenue in front of Stansbury Hall, the old WVU Field House. Fans leaving the Coliseum after a basketball victory, Morgantown residents making their way from downtown to Suncrest or Star City, and students jumping on the PRT have all come face to face with “THE QUESTION.”

Every week the Department hangs a poster asking a provocative philosophical question from the Stansbury pedestrian bridge. We also post the question on our website,along with an in-depth interview with a child philosopher who answers that question. THE QUESTION has been stimulating discussion throughout WVU, Morgantown,and beyond.

THE QUESTION project was initiated on October 21,2005 when WVU Philosophy Alumni – including Dr. Ted Drange, who traveled all the way from California – rolled into town for the Department’s 2nd Annual Alumni Reunion. I wanted to welcome our graduates with a philosophical puzzle to remind them of the good old days,so they were greeted with a version of the famous liar’s paradox, “This Sentence is False.”

A very positive response from our alumni stimulated Visiting Assistant Professor Andy Cullison and me to think about ways to extend this activity. We began focusing on questions,the kind of questions with which people wrestle in their everyday lives. My goal was to highlight our majo r, let people know what philosophers think about,and stimulate intellectual discourse in the Morgantown community. Our first two questions were,“Does God Exist?”and “Do We Have Free Will?”

Initially, we commissioned some local children to play a purely artistic role in THE QUESTION, designing and coloring the posters, but as children are wont to do, they grew curious about this project and wanted to answer the questions for themselves. Now, I conduct an in-depth interview with the child who illustrates and answers the question of the week.

Recent questions have included such conundrums as • When is war OK? • What is justice?

• Is the death penalty wrong?

• How should we treat animals?

• What is a friend?

• Are NASCAR drivers athletes?

• What is Wisdom?

• Is Hell fair?

• What is art?

For Valentine’s Day, a 5-year-old girl addressed, “What is love?” As the spring semester progresses, questions will include: • Should doctors help patients die?

• What makes you, you?

• Is it morally wrong to download music?

• What is the best form of government?

• What is democracy?

• Is science in conflict with religion?

• What is the meaning of life?

• What makes life worth living?

• Should morality influence the law?

• Is a good business an ethical business?

Working on THE QUESTION has b een profoundly enjoyable. It is often the case that philosophy is portrayed as a discipline that is focused on irrelevant questions.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Philosophers help our society and our nation think through difficult decisions such as when we go to war, remove (or not remove) patients from life support, how we interpret the Constitution, develop economic policies, decide whether to conduct stem cell research, make decisions about uses of technology. All of us act as philosophers when we decide how to live our lives and how to treat other people.

These questions matter and they are complex. By posing THE QUESTION every week, we are encouraging people to think, question,and talk openly and comfortably about these difficult,

Arts & Sciences | 17 | Spring 2006

complicated,crucial issues. From all the feedback I have received,it seems that many people in Morgantown and beyond are having a lot of fun discussing the weekly question with their friends and families.

I especially enjoy discussing philosophy with children. As any parent or school teacher can attest, children wonder about these matters and they are not afraid to explore all angles of a question.

Unfortunately, in the United States, philosophy is not available as an academic subject until college. This is a shame.

Children are generally very good at philosophy (as you can see from the stories on our website) and philosophy teaches and rewards students for thinking logically, reading carefully and analytically, for asking insightful questions, for thinking and writing clearly and creatively, and for taking responsibility for their ideas. These skills are essential for doing well at all levels of education and in life. I dream of a day when philosophy is a regular subject in K-12. I want to live in a world where all people, including young children,are encouraged to try out their ideas while simultaneously opening themselves up to challenges. I want to live in a world where all people,including young children,are encouraged to examine, with confidence and respect,the ideas of other people.

THE QUESTION project will wrap up this spring in an open forum hosted by the WVU Philosophy Department. The event will be a g reat opportunity for our students to practice their skills publicly, by presenting and discussing various answers to the questions asked over the course of the school year. I look forward to showcasing our undergraduate students and our outstanding undergraduate program. Philosophy may be one of the Eberly College’s smaller departments, but we are vibrant and student-centered. Our students get all the advantages of a small, liberal arts college in our program while also gaining all the advantages a large state university offers. Philosophy majors get the best of both worlds at WVU.

Inspiring

Greatness

by Sarah Braswell

T

Teaching is not merely about imparting facts and figures to students. Truly great teachers also share their passion f or the subject they teach with the hope of inspiring students to achieve greatness and to discover their own passions in life.

The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to recognize four incredible teachers who do just that with its annual Outstanding Teaching Award.

Associate Professor of History Katherine Aaslestad has taught her students that “challenging” does not mean “bad.” While most students dread even the assigned reading from the textbook, Dr. Aaslestad’s history students are reading extra books – and liking it.“I think the readings for the course are excellent,” wrote one student on a course e valuation for History 207- Revolutionary Europe.“I like the incorporation of books, so I could view history through the eyes of people that lived it,” wrote another.

“I fundamentally believe that history students need to read a range of texts and sources and analyze them in their written work and in class discussions,” Aaslestad said. She has found that the additional reading assignments of novels, plays, and memoirs, along with quizzes and classroom discussion about the material,are key in helping students to develop the critical and analytical skills that are so important to success in higher education and beyond.

Aaslestad’s enthusiasm for the subject matter she teaches, use of ancillary materials, and encouragement of open classroom discussions leave her students excited about history and willing to work harder – even if that means extra reading – in order to get more out of her classes. One student summed up the attitude of many when he said of Aaslestad’s History 221– Modern Germany Since 1800,“I’d recommend this class to anyone who is up to a challenge.”

learning to their other interests and to situations they have experienced in their own lives. “Seeing that many students love sports, I compare doing math to playing sports: while sport exercises our muscles, doing math problems exercises our brains.

During the semester, I often remind my students that we are not only learning the computational skills related to calculus, but we should also learn how to think before action, and to gain experience on how to approach a problem so that a successful solution will be the result,” he said.

Lai truly wants his students to succeed. As the coordinator for Calculus I, he designed and maintains a website for the classes. He also created an additional site,“Hong-Jian’s Tips for Calculus,” and, during the 2002-2004 terms, when he was the Calculus I course coordinator, offered extra office hours the night before exams in order to give students more opportunities to get help.

His students appreciate the extra effort he puts into his job and feel that it makes a difference in their own learning. “He had good and funny ways of explaining and relating to everyday life,” one student wrote about the course. Another commented,“He made class enjoyable and a great learning experience.”

Professor of Mathematics Hong-Jian Lai acknowledges that many students are less than excited to be taking his calculus courses, so he looks for ways to connect the math they are Arts & Sciences | 18 | Spring 2006

Geography Professor Brent McCusker believes in working with his students, not just teaching to them. He sums up his teaching philosophy with the phrase,“Learning is a process that is

facilitated by meaningful and engaging interaction and continuous improvement.” And because he works so closely with his students, he expects more out of them. There are no curved exams, no individual extra credit, and no photocopied lecture notes.

However, he also takes his students’ opinions and ideas into serious consideration when planning his courses. After students struggled with a single-test, single-paper format in Geography of the Middle East, he switched to using a forcredit study guide as he had in his Geography of Africa class.

He also asked for his students’ help in selecting textbooks for future semesters,having them read chapters out of all the possible texts and explaining what they liked and did not like in each.

McCusker’s supportive teaching style has even brought unsuspecting students into the Geography program. One student writes,“I have had the pleasure of attending Dr. McCusker’s classes for three semesters now, and he is a t rue inspiration. He has even helped me realize that I want to declare Geography as a second major. I value his insight and guidance tremendously. I assure you he will continue to inspire greatness.”

Assistant Professor of English Mary Ann Samyn believes that creative writing is not only about subject matter.

Instead, she insists that her job as a professor is to help students find their “essential material”that subject matter about which only they can write. This essential material,she says, is what gives poetry a sense of energy and urgency; and once students have discovered it, they can focus on the craft aspects of poetry, rather than letting themselves become bogged down by subject matter.

In order to inspire students to find their essential material, she utilizes a variety of classroom techniques, including freewriting, mapping poetic family trees, making masks, and drawing items from a “Lucky Dip” grab bag. Samyn encourages students to analyze and explore the results of these exercises, considering their own thoughts and feelings in the process. She also tries to ask questions of her students that force them to dig below the surface of their first attempts at writing to find something deeper and better.

Perhaps it is Samyn’s appreciation for and love of poetic language that inspires her students the most.“For me, certain words, certain marks of punctuation, certain forms of speech have a little shimmer, a special sugary edge,” said Samyn.“I hope my ‘claim to fame,’ if I indeed have one, is evidenced in my writing and teaching and in my insistence that students undertake their own pursuit of this shimmer.”

Warner Awarded Outstanding Contributions Award Dr. Timothy Warner, professor of geology and geography, received the American Association of Geographers’ Remote Sensing Specialty Group Outstanding Contributions Award for 2006. The award recognizes Association members who make significant contributions to the field of remote sensing. Duane Nellis, former Dean of the Eberly College, received the award in 1995. “I am really humbled because the Outstanding Contributions Award is the highest award given by geographers who specialize in remote sensing,” Warner said. He also received the 2006 Boeing Award for Best Paper in Image Analysis and Interpretation, given by the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Warner’s research focuses on the analysis of satellite imagery and light detection for ecological, geological, and urban applications. He holds a Ph.D. in remote sensing from Purdue University and joined the faculty of WVU in 1992.

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for WVU’s annual Homecoming celebration on Saturday, October 14. The Mountaineers will take on Big East rival Syracuse University, but not until after the Eberly College’s annual Homecoming Lectures and Brunch that morning. As the time grows closer, be sure to check the College website: www.as.wvu.edu for more information. If you do not receive the brochure advertising the College’s Homecoming activities and you would like to, please contact Brenda Riggle at Brenda.Riggle@mail.wvu.edu or by phone at 304-293-4611.

Arts & Sciences | 19 | Spring 2006

Subtleties of

Hatred

by Sarah Braswell

Antisemitism:it is a word that brings to mind images of Nazi Germany, of Anne Frank's Amsterdam,of blatant prejudice, violence, and hatred. To Robert Blobaum, it is a word that has become part of his everyday life.

For Dr. Blobaum,the study of antisemitism is not only an interest but the primary subject of his academic research. The Eberly Family Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of History in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences focuses on society and politics in early twentiethcentury Poland. He is the leader of a longterm research team studying antisemitism in modern Poland and in 2005, he published the group’s findings in Antisemitism and Its Opponents in Modern Poland (Cornell University Press).

It was this experience and expertise in the field of Polish antisemitism that led to Blobaum’s involvement in a trial in a place that no one, including Blobaum, would have ever expected: Toronto, Canada. The trial was unique in that it did not involve violence or even an obvious attack on the victims.The case focused on the publication of antisemitic statements about a group of people in a Polish language newspaper.

There was, however, yet another twist. The statements were not directed at the Jewish community;rather, they emerged from a squabble within the Polish community in Toronto that involved one Polish group attacking another.

Using veiled language, the owners of the newspaper suggested that another group of

Poles in the community might have had some Jewish ancestry and that they were not 100 percent Roman Catholic .“Their religious and national origins were being questioned,” Blobaum pointed out.“In this way, it is possible for someone to be antisemitic towards someone who is not Jewish.” Suggesting that someone has ancestry that makes them less than fully Polish has long been used as a tool in Poland’s past political disputes. Blobaum described it as “playing the Jewish card,” and explained that historically in Poland, it is the “kiss of death.”

When the plaintiffs’ lawyers heard of Blobaum’s work with the research team, they quickly contacted him to assist with their case. Only someone with a deep understanding of both the Polish language and the context of the statements within the newspaper would be able to confirm the intent and implications of the text.

“Some antisemitic language is coded.They don't come right out and say racially nasty things,” Blobaum explained.“Because it’s complicated in that way, it would be difficult for the judge and jury to see the antisemitism.” Blobaum translated the newspaper into English for the judge and jury and helped to identify the antisemitic statements within the documents.

Though all of his correspondence with the Canadian lawyers was through mail and email, Blobaum was prepared to travel to Toronto and testify in the trial if the need arose, but after he analyzed the articles and provided a lengthy opinion for the court, it was found that he had supplied compelling

Arts & Sciences | 20 | Spring 2006

evidence in favor of the plaintiffs and the case was settled out of court. He was asked,however, if he could be available to provide expert testimony in future cases.

Blobaum agreed to assist them again if at all possible.

Blobaum believes that Polish antisemitism is an important part of history that needs to be recognized and hopes that his involvement in research and in the trial will help to raise awareness.“Anyone who’s a historian of modern history needs to pick up this issue,” he said.“It is a problematic and ugly part – but it would be like studying American history without slavery.”

Looking back,

Looking forward

by Jane Donovan and Michael Winser

Mountaineer Field was a 35,000-seat stadium on WVU’s Downtown campus, where the Life Sciences Building and College of Business and Economics are now located when Patricia Rice, associate professor of Sociology and Anthropology, followed her husband, the late Political Science Professor George Rice, to Morgantown. Although most colleges and universities of the time forbade spouses from being employed in the same college or department,the Eberly College and WVU had no such rules, and thus gained a couple who would go on to long and distinguished careers in their respective departments, both under the Eberly College umbrella.

of the Year endorsement, but she identifies her proudest moment as receiving the College’s Eberly Family Professorship for Outstanding Teaching.

After retiring, Rice plans to itinerate between Morgantown and her flat in London, conveniently located near the Institute of Archaeology (which has the largest Archaeology library in the world), the Watson University Library, and the British Library,

“We were doing our graduate work at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, we visited WVU, and we found Morgantown to be a comfortable small town,” recalled Pat Rice. “We never looked back.”

A lot has changed at WVU since Pat Rice arrived in the early 1960s, but she has remained constant,at least until now.

When the spring semester ends in May, she will retire after more than 40 years as one of the University’s and College’s most beloved and highly-regarded instructors.

WVU’s first archaeology instructor commuted from the University of Pittsburgh, an arrangement that didn't last long. Rice volunteered to take up the position, but she needed time and additional training to prepare herself. She applied for and received a National Science Foundation grant to study at the Institute of Archaeology in England and to work on three excavations in France. Upon returning to WVU, she was fresh from the field and armed with the latest tools and techniques of archaeology. She was unable to take inexperienced students to an excavation site, so she brought a site to them, developing a small archaeology lab in which students could learn the basics o f excavation. Her first lab, built in 1982, was in the Old Forestry Building, but 12 years later, a much fuller lab is located in the basement of White Hall (formerly known as the Mineral Industries Building). Former WVU quarterback Oliver Luck constructed wooden bins in which to store the soil necessary to fashion the model excavations each year.

“The only way to teach archaeology is to have the students actually do it,” she pointed out. With the development of the Eberly College’s Undergraduate Enrichment Program,each year several of her students, well prepared by their hours in Rice’s lab, go out to excavations around the world to test and implement the skills developed under her guidance.

Pat Rice’s list of awards and distinctions is impressive,and includes two WVU Foundation Awards, the Carnegie WV Teacher of the Year, and the American Anthropological Association’s 2000 Teacher

Everything is in one place there,” she smiled.“It’s like Seventh Heaven.” She explains that academic journals are expensive and that the location will be the perfect place to continue her research.

Although her teaching responsibilities are coming to a close, she will continue researching and writing. She currently has five books in print and is w riting second editions of two of them,the fifth edition of another, and a sixth book will be published in the fall.

“I’ll be able to do it at my rate of speed,” she said.“I will no long er be tied to the University calendar.”

Rice has other plans,as well:“I’ll go traveling, too, to places I’ve not had time to visit. I would like to see Australia and New Guinea.

London will be wonderful, but I will miss the stud ents. I’ve taught two honors courses a year for more than 15 years,” she reminisced.

Bon voyage, Pat Rice. Thank you for all you’ve done for the Eberly College and WVU. Walt Auvil (BA 1978),a former student of Professor ,Rice is leading an effort to secure donations to establish a fund at WVU in her honor .

Please send contributions to the WVU Foundation,PO Box 1650, Morgantown WV 26507-1650.The words “Pat Rice”should appear on the memo line of your check.

Arts & Sciences | 21 | Spring 2006

EBERLY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Around

Twenty-nine Eberly College students presented their research findings at the 3rd Annual West Virginia Undergraduate Research Day at the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston on February 1. Eberly College programs represented at the event included chemistry, biology, communications,psychology, biochemistry, physics, forensic science, sociology, and social work. The event,which is open to students from all colleges and universities in WV, offers students and their professors the opportunity to speak directly with members of the State Legislature about the impact of their research and the importance of state funding for undergraduate education.

Crime Scene students and a firearms examiner, where they shot the vehicle with calibers from .22 to a 12-gauge shotgun slug so that the students could determine angles and trajectories.

Judith Gold Stitzel,the founder of WVU's Women's Studies program, isn’t letting any grass grow under her feet in retirement. Her essay, “Milk Money,” will be included in the forthcoming nonfiction anthology, After the Bell , edited by David Hassler and Maggie Anderson. Editor Anderson,a highly-regarded poet and professor of poetry at Kent State University, holds 3 WVU degrees (BA and MA in English and MSW in social work),and received the Eberly College’s Alumni Recognition Award in 2004.

Eric Bernotas, BA Liberal Arts,1994,competed for the United States in the 2006 Winter Olympics,in Turin,Italy. Bernotas finished 6th in the Skeleton.

Ben Saunders,biology major from Charleston WV, with his project on genetic diversity in American ginseng.

WVU’s Debate Team,sponsored by the Eberly College, hosted the JV and Novice National Championships in Morgantown March 3-5.

This year’s tournament,the largest in many years, featured 114 teams from 35 schools in 16 states and the District of Columbia.

Awards were presented in memory of John Jacobsohn and Peter Borsay, former WVU Debate Team coaches.Reaction to the tournament from debaters and coaches who attended was overwhelmingly positive, and WVU accepted their encouragement to host the tournament again in 2007. Dr. Neil Berch,associate professor of political science, is the current WVU coach.

Ethel Morgan Smith,associate professor of English,spent parts of January and February lecturing in Europe in response to an invitation from the U.S.Embassies in Germany and Belgium. She participated in an American Lecture Series for Black History Month.

Chad Proudfoot,a doctoral student in History, recently became Acting Chair of the West Virginia Capitol Building Commission,the state agency responsible for maintaining the Capitol Complex in Charleston.

Proudfoot was appointed by former Governor Bob Wise to the Commission in July 2002 and has served as its Vice Chair since 2003.

Two Morgantown residents have donated used cars to the Forensic and Investigative Science program. The autos will be used to give students hands-on experience in crime scene investigation techniques such as fingerprinting,blood splatter analysis, trace evidence, and accident/homicide scenarios. Carol Henry, the widow of WVU mathematics and computer science professor Mike Henry, donated her husband's 7-passenger van;the second donor, who wishes to remain anonymous,provided a 1985 Toyota Corolla. The gift of the Toyota allowed Michael Bell,WVU's Forensic Science Facilities Manager, to take an older Ford car out to the Mason-Dixon Rifle Range with

Ethel Morgan Smith

Physics professor Earl Scime and technician Philip Tucker sponsored a team of Morgantown-area middle school students (“The Roboteers”) who won the West Virginia First LEGO League robotics tournament. Competitors participated in 3 interviews and 3 robotics table competitions,in which they had 2 1/2 minutes to solve 9 robotics challenges using

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College

the

various robotic arms and 5 programs stored in their LEGO robot’s programmable brick.The Roboteers will be competing in First LEGO’s international contest in April in Atlanta.

Brian Ayotte, a third year graduate student in the Life Span Development program in the Department of Psychology was featured in the cover story of the January 2006 issue of gradPsych, the magazine for graduate student members of the American Psychological Association. The article concerns Ayotte's innovative approach to authorship issues in collaborative research,which are often difficult to decide.

Pete Karpyk,MA Communications 1982,was recently named to USAToday’s 8th annual All-USA Teacher Team. Karpyk is a native of Warren,Ohio, and has taught at Weir High in Weirton WV since 1977. An immigrant of Ukrainian descent,Karpyk arrived in the US at the age of 4,speaking no English. He now produces students who are so enthusiastic and knowledgeable that retired WVU Professor Robert Nakon automatically sat Karpyk’s graduates in the front row of his chemistry lectures. “I knew these kids were well-prepared,and I knew I could call on them,” Nakon said. Karpyk also serves as the science expert on “Kidz Newz,” a statewide television program. He was one of 20 teachers selected from across the country for this honor, which included a $500 prize.

Marshall S.Miller, a member of the Eberly College Advisory Board,was inducted into WVU’s Academy of Distinguished Alumni on February 11. Miller, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from WVU, is the founder and CEO of Marshall Miller and Associates,one of the nation’s leading engineering and geological consulting firms.

Dr. Leonardo Golubovic, professor of physics,was recently named as a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He was recognized for his theoretical work on unusual properties of novel materials,specifically the DNA-bio-membrane complexes that are used in gene therapy treatment for cancer, and for his influential theoretical predictions about the existence of previously unknown amorphous states of matter, which were subsequently discovered in liquid-crystalline materials. No more than one-half of one percent of the membership of APS is elected to the status of Fellow each year. Golubovic is WVU's fourth researcher to receive this prestigious award,joining Mark Koepke, Bernard Cooper, and Mohindar Seehra.

Coordinator of WVU's Creative Writing Program,participated in a benefit poetry reading held in Fairmont to help raise funds for college scholarships for dependents of West Virginia coal miners who were killed or seriously injured in mine accidents this year.

Two Eberly College professors have been selected for named

Jim Harms

professorships at WVU in recent weeks. Boyd Edwards was appointed by Provost Gerald Lang to WVU's first University Professorship, the Russell and Ruth Bolton Professorship for Outstanding Teaching. This honor is awarded to a faculty member from any discipline in the University, based on a continued record of outstanding teaching,significant contributions to higher education,disciplinary recognition,and experience in improving undergraduate instruction. Mark Koepke was one of three WVU faculty members honored with the new Robert C . Byrd Professorship Award. Funded through the WVU Research Corporation,the Byrd Professorship was established to acknowledge outstanding professional accomplishments and leadership of WVU faculty in the honoree's field of study, including technology development,technology transfer, and commercialization. Koepke was chosen for his research in the field of plasma physics,which has drawn national and international distinction.

Oreta Holbert Dawson,91, retired Professor of English,died February 2 in Parkersburg WV. A native of Gilmer County, she taught at WVU for 44 years. Robert J.Elkins,75,professor emeritus of foreign languages and long-serving chair of his department,died December 19,2005 in Morgantown. Elkins was born in Oregon,and served in the U.S.Air Force before entering his academic career.

On February 26,James Harms,Professor of English and Arts & Sciences | 23 | Spring 2006

Johan Arndt Eiesland: Norwegian Immigrant and WVU Professor

by Professor Trygve Breiteig

Johan Eiesland

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Thousands of WVU students have studied in the g rand auditorium and classrooms of Eiesland Hall, but few of them have known that the building was named for one of WVU’s early distinguished professors, Johan Arndt Eiesland (1867-1950). Eiesland Hall opened in 1954 as Music Hall, but now houses classes from many departments as well as the offices of the Eberly College’s Intensive English Program and Center for Women’s Studies. We are fortunate to feature excerpts from a new biography of Professor Eiesland by Dr. Trygve Breiteig of Adger University College in Kristiansand, Norway.

Johan Arndt Eiesland was born in Ny Hellesund, a fishing and trading village west of Kristiansand, on January 21, 1867. His father, Andreas Torufsen Eiesland, taught in the community’s school. Andreas and his wife, the former Agnete Trysnes, had two children, Ida and Johan, before Agnete died in 1867 at the age of 23. Four years later, Andreas married the widow Marie Reimert Langfeldt, but he, too, died young, in 1880, leaving 13year-old Johan with his sister and stepmother.

In August 1882, Johan became the youngest of 48 men who enrolled at Christiansand Stiftsseminar, a forerunner of Agder University College, in a two-year teacher training program.

Initially, he was an undistinguished and unfocused student. A July 1883 evaluation ranked him 14th in a class of 22, and his final examinations a year later showed little improvement. After finishing the program, at the age of 17, Eiesland successfully applied to the Kristiansand cathedral school, where his academic

Charitable

performance improved substantially. In the spring of 1886, he taught at Monsya, Ny Hellesund, as his father had, but still was not content. He moved to Scotland, where he worked as a real estate agent, but that work also did not satisfy him.

Eiesland emigrated to the United States in 1888, earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at the University of South Dakota in 1891, then taught math at a Lutheran academy in Minnesota for a year. He enrolled at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University in 1892. From 1895 to 1903 Eiesland taught mathematics and German at Thiel College, Greenville, PA, before returning to Johns Hopkins to complete his Ph.D., in 1899.

From 1903 to 1907 he taught at the U.S. Naval Academy, then accepted a position as professor and chair of mathematics at WVU in 1907, where he remained until his 1938 retirement.

Because WVU was founded as a land-grant university, professorship in mathematics initially included teaching responsibilities in military science, but a strong desire to separate the two disciplines soon developed. Dr. Henry Gould, a current WVU mathematics professor, writes that,“By 1906 the situation for Mathematics here was so unhappy that a national search was mounted to find a regular civilian mathematician of some stature to head the Department of Mathematics. From some 16 or so candidates, the Moses who was chosen to lead the Children of the Mountain State through the Wilderness was John Eiesland.”

Eiesland carried a heavy teaching load at WVU, but also published a well-regarded 1910 college textbook in advanced algebra, which was reissued in 1920 and 1928. He was an excellent teacher who inspired his students, ten of whom went on to earn doctoral degrees elsewhere. It was not until 1930 that WVU established a graduate school and Eiesland could introduce students more deeply into his research. In 1934,the

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first two students earned PhDs under his tutelage. Gould says that Eiesland “had a high reputation in classical geometry.

Local people here [at WVU] worshiped Johnny Eiesland: He understood Einstein’s Theory.”

The work of the well-known Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie (1842-1899) influenced Eiesland, especially Lie’s work on differential equations, geometry and transformation groups, and invariants by such, known as Lie groups. Eiesland also developed ideas on so-called “flat-sphere geometry,” which refers to the discovery by Lie in 1870 of contact transformations which map straight lines into spheres and principal tangent curves into curvature lines. Eiesland published extensively between 1898 and 1934, in several highlyrespected scholarly journals. In a notable article, “The group of motions of an Einstein space,” he presented the concept of groups of motions, and of transformation groups in the sense of Lie, indicating his interest in the relations between physics and mathematics of higher dimensional space. Surprisingly, Eiesland is not mentioned in any leading biographical dictionary of mathematicians, nor is he found in standard textbooks on differential geometry or geometrical methods. Despite

his substantial and acknowledged work, he has been somewhat overlooked by history.

Eiesland became involved in a political controversy during World War I. North Atlantic trade blockades during that conflict led to food shortages in his native country, neutral Norway. Despite extensive investment in agricultural production, Norway was able to produce only half as much grain as its citizens needed. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, grain importation became problematic, and Norway asked the U.S. for food aid.

Eiesland, who had strong opinions on Norway’s neutrality and lack of support for the Allies,criticized the Norwegian request in a New York Times article. He argued that Norway was asking for far more wheat than the country could consume, and expressed concern that Norway would end up with surpluses of American wheat that would be transferred through Sweden to Germany, America’s opponent in the war.

Eiesland’s article created a public dispute in a Norwegian newspaper with a former schoolmate,the poet Vilhelm Krag. Krag retaliated by scolding Norwegian emigrants for creating a brain drain in their home country. They had already cheated Norway by leaving; now that Norway needed them to support their homeland’s request for

food aid, most Norwegian-Americans remained silent. Only one had spoken out, Krag wrote,“His name should be remembered: John Eiesland. He is no less than professor and Head of Department of Mathematics, West Virginia University. So he is a big fellow, and he is writing in a big and influential paper by name The New York Times.” Krag reproduced Eiesland’s article, then accused the WVU professor of destroying Norway’s negotiating position, betraying his homeland.

Eiesland’s response argued that Krag did not understand America, and suggested that the lack of support from NorwegianAmericans may have had other causes: “One expected more courage from the old Viking race.” Even a Norwegian business leader of the time “didn’t find it worthy for Norway to ask the brave, warm-hearted American people to sell them food,and then feed the enemies of the U.S. with nickel,fish and so on.” Thousands of Americans, including many NorwegianAmericans, were then in France, “fighting for freedom for a better and more liberal Europe, which, in spite of the civilization they are so proud of, never has managed to learn how to live together. . . . Norway is much richer because they have the Norwegian-Americans. This is an asset of which the country can be proud.”

Johan Eiesland died in 1950. He left his papers, valuable journals, and books to West Virginia University. A building on the campus is named Eiesland Hall, in his honor, though it does not house the mathematics department. In the mathematics library, a corner is devoted to his memory. In 1994,his family established the John Arndt Eiesland Professorship of Mathematics Fund at WVU, which supports internationally, nationally, or regionally known mathematicians who teach and conduct research at WVU. Mathematical activities thus continue at West Virginia University in the track of John Arndt Eiesland from Ny Hellesund, Norway.

Eiesland Hall

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Gifts

Charitable Retirement

Security

by Deborah Miller, WVU Foundation

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Wondering if you've put enough aside for retirement? Most of us think that we probably have not.

There is a special way to provide both for retirement and for the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences (or a department or program) at the same time. This gift arrangement is called a deferred gift annuity.* It is also known informally as a charitable IRA. Thinking about retirement financial needs is important. While there are upper limits on how much can be contributed to an employmentrelated retirement plan,a deferred gift annuity can be set up for $25,000 or more. Most think about donating cash, but stocks, bonds, and mutual funds also work well.

The benefits of the deferred gift annuity are that you earn an income tax deduction now and decide when the income will begin. It can be at age 50,65, 75, or any other time when you will retire. The longer the gap between the time of your gift and the beginning of the payout, the higher the rate will be.

You cannot outlive this income. It is guaranteed for life.

After the income payout ends,the remaining fund can benefit the Eberly College or your department in whatever way you choose.

Here is how it worked for Jennifer, age 45. She donated appreciated stocks worth $25,000 to the WVU Foundation for a deferred gift annuity. She specified that the payout would begin when she becomes 68 years old.

With an income rate of 19.1% per year (beginning in 23 years), Jennifer's expected total lifetime income from the gift is $71,600. Her tax deduction of $14,100 helped lower her income taxes.

The best part,in Jennifer's view, is that her future gift to her department (once the income ends) is projected to be $301,500 - al l from a single gift o f $25,000!

Think about it. This is a way to guarantee more retirement income security, tax relief now, and a significant gift for the Eberly College,all rolled into one. What a great combination!

For more information, contact Deborah Miller, Director of Planned Giving, West Virginia University Foundation at 1-800-847-3856 or DMiller@wvuf.org * A deferred gift annuity is not available to residents of California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Washington, or Wisconsin.

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New Advisory Board members The Eberly College Advisory Board welcomed 4 new members during the 2005-2006 school term.

Johnathan Holifield was the star running back and captain of the 1986 Mountaineer football team.

After graduating from WVU with a BA in political science, he played for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League. He is executive vice president of the Council for World-Class Communities,in Benton Harbor MI. Holifield was honored by WVU's Political Science Department with its 2004 Distinguished Alumnus Award. He and his wife, Toni,live in St Joseph,Michigan.

Jennie C. Hunter-Cervera is President of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. She recently played a crucial role in establishing the Appalachian Center for Ethnobotanical Studies, a collaboration among the University of Maryland, Frostburg State University, and WVU that will integrate modern molecular biology with indigenous knowledge of the plants of Central Appalachia. She holds a BS in biology and an MS in microbiology from WVU and a Ph.D. in microbiology from Rutgers University. She was initiated into WVU's Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 2003.

Charles M.Love, III is a partner in the Charleston WV office of Bowles Rice McDavid Graff and Love and the immediate past president of the West Virginia State Bar and the West Virginia Bar Association. He previously served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the WV Housing Development Fund,and as a member and officer of the Board of Trustees of Herbert J.Thomas Memorial Hospital. Love holds a BA in history and a law degree from WVU. His wife, Sally, is the founder and president of the Snowshoe Institute, and their son, Peter, was WVU's 4th USAToday firstteam Academic All-American,in 2001.

Gail Boyd Woolwine is Elementary Mathematics Specialist for the Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools. She has written curriculum on after school remediation,intermediate number sense, fractions, and strategies and methods for elementary mathematics instruction. Woolwine holds a BA in political science from WVU, as well as a BS in early childhood education and an M.Ed.in curriculum and instruction from George Mason University. She is a former president of the National Capital Area Chapter of the WVU Alumni Association and served with her husband,Jim (BA political science, MPA public administration),as co-president of the Northern Virginia Parents Club. Their daughter Berkeley (BS psychology) is a 2005 graduate of the Eberly College.

Statistics Researchers Tackle

Protein Misfolding By: Michael Alden Winser

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Proteins (from the Greek protas, meaning “of primary importance”) are molecules consisting of long chains of amino acid molecules. They provide a number of functions and are essential to all forms of life. For instance, proteins can act as the structure of our body’s tissues, drive biochemical reactions through enzymatic action, and fight infections as the antibodies of our immune system.

The human body has more than 30,000 types of proteins. The function of these proteins is determined by both composition and shape, what scientists refer to as “sequence” and “folding.” Better knowledge about the complex process of protein folding is central to our ability to better understand the processes of life and what can go wrong with these processes.

Dr. James Harner, Professor and Chair of the Department of Statistics in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences,leads a team of researchers on a unique project titled “Circular Statistics and Rotational Entropy,” which aims at the latter question. He explains, “We are interested in protein misfolding—a factor in diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, mad cow disease,cystic fibrosis, and some types of cancer. Understanding the stability of proteins is the key to finding drugs that stabilize the normally folded structure.”

In this project, “entropy” deals with the uncertainty present in protein folding that influences the p rotein’s structure and can bring about misfolding. This work is conducted in collaboration with researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The Department of Statistics has received nearly one million dollars from NIOSH over the past few years in the form of grants and Interpersonnel Agreements.

A researcher at NIOSH posed a question to Dr. Harner 6 years ago, “Are the entropy estimates that are being used today optimal, or even appropriate?” Researchers at the time assumed a probability model that,in most cases, was not realistic. This began the current project,and now these researchers are world leaders in a field at the cutting edge of life sciences. “We are starting to get some really good results. For the first time, we

believe that we can tackle these complex macromolecules (proteins),” reported Harner.

However, the research presents a daunting computational problem. The researchers run a computer simulation tracking Dr. James Harner the internal motions of a protein that must model hundreds of data points simultaneously every picosecond. To give some perspective, a picosecond is one-trillionth of a second. This means that for just one single molecule in a single second there are hundreds of millions of data points being collected, and each of those data points may have hundreds or even thousands of dimensions.

The sheer volume of information can overwhelm supercomputer clusters. A supercomputer cluster involves hundreds of processors connected together via a high-speed network. To overcome this difficulty, the research is being undertaken utilizing a “grid” or “distributed” computing approach.

Many average computer users have received emails or seen advertisements to participate in distributed computing which commonly call for computer users to “donate” their computer’s idle time for scientific research. Perhaps the best known of these is the SETI project that monitors radio signals for signs of extraterrestrial life.

Modern personal computers (PCs) actually have processing speeds approaching those of a supercomputer. However, the majority of PC owners don’t use their machine for a large chunk of the day, for instance, when at work or asleep. With enough people and organizations donating their idle time, researchers can work with more data and do it faster than if they were using a supercomputer.

Harner explains that,in addition to furthering the study of protein misfolding, “this research will positively impact the statistical calculations used in molecular physics, chemistry and biochemistry, as well as lead to improvements in applied areas of molecular medicine, biology, and biotechnology.”

Dr. Harner, a native of Martinsburg WV, received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering from WVU in 1967, where he was mentored by Dr. Stanley Weardon, who established the Department of Statistics and Computer Science and later became the interim Dean of the Eberly College. Harner received his PhD from Cornell in 1972 and returned to WVU that year. He has been the Chair of the Department of Statistics since 1997.

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Dispatches from the Diaspora

An Image from Home

by Jean Teter

break. I met him there, took the exam,and got my degree. I will be forever indebted to him.

She was about nine years old,as I recall,an average-looking child,and quiet to the point of being nearly unresponsive.

She’d been brought to WVU’s Counseling Center after locking herself away from her family for hours at a time, refusing to come out or even to talk with anyone. Her bewildered parents had turned to the University for help.

The staff at the Center thought that I, a 23-year-old graduate student, might have the best chance of getting her to talk, so they put the two of us in a monitored playroom where I was to draw her out as best I could. Each time that she came, we “played” with a dollhouse and family figures:mom, dad,and children. I made small talk,asked a few questions,and scribbled notes,while a staff member watched through the oneway window, taking his own notes. That was many decades ago, but the little girl still nags at me sometimes,accusing me of desertion.

Toward the end of my senior year at WVU, I’d been approached by one of my psychology professors and asked if I intended to continue on for a graduate degree. If so, they would give me an assistantship with the department. The offer came as a complete surprise. I loved being at WVU and had majored in psychology because the subject intrigued me.

I had no career aspirations,though,and cash had been tight during my undergraduate years. Now they were offering me a chance to study for two more years, for free! I felt like the winner of a lottery that I hadn’t known existed.

So I continued at WVU, enjoying every minute of it. In late winter of my second year of graduate school, I married,and in June we left for California to pursue my husband’s job offer.

I’d finished my thesis by that time, but needed to take my comprehensive exam to complete requirements for a Master’s degree. To my surprise, my thesis advisor called late in the fall,explaining that I could take the exam at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas during the Christmas

We still visit West Virginia every year, to reconnect with family and friends. The Mountain State will always be home to me. Over the years, though,all my energy has been focused here in California,on family. I was a stay-at-home mom until my children were grown. Then,after my pastor called one day asking for help, I worked in the church office for 14 years.

Still, during all that time , from the back of my mind came that nagging question:You were given an outstanding education at WVU. How can you repay your home state and your University? I had, and still have, no answer.

I remained focused on family, eventually leaving the church job to help look after two grandsons,now 8 and 11. Since their parents work full-time, I take the boys to and from school, to medical appointments and sports practices. This is my sixth year, too, of volunteering at their school: in classrooms,on field trips,at fundraisers, and in the lunch room.

It is there, in the lunch room,that I’ve come to know dozens of children. I’m especially drawn to the ones who seem troubled,lonely, or angry. We often sit down to talk it out. I’ve dried tears,soothed ruffled feathers,and calmed frazzled nerves. I’ve told jokes,deflected anger, and suggested possible solutions to various problems. I’ve held hands, applied Bandaids,and retrieved lost items. No two days with the kids are ever alike.

I was never to know what had bothered that 9-year-old at the Counseling Center. When I left Morgantown,I later learned,she went back to locking herself away from her family. I felt bad about that. Maybe that’s why I’m so vigilant now at my grandsons’ school, keeping an eye open for the child who stands aloof. I let all the kids know that,if they want one, they have a friend, someone who’ll listen but who won’t hesitate to set them straight when they need it,someone who respects them and won’t give up on them,someone who cares – and who happens to be from West Virginia.

Dispatches from the Diaspora will be an occasional column written by WVU alumni who are living outside the boundaries of West Virginia, but who remain committed to WVU and the Eberly College and find c reative and thoughtful ways to stay connected.

Arts & Sciences | 28 | Spring 2006

A Student’s Eye View:

Home is where your heart is

by T.J. O’Neill

I don’t originally hail from the state of West Virginia, so one may question why it is that I consider this place my home. Certainly, I had many valuable experiences growing up in Richmond, Virginia, but I learned the most about life after reaching Morgantown.

As a senior in high school, WVU wasn’t even on my radar screen; in fact, I expected to enroll at a par ticular institution some 70 miles to the north of Morgantown which will remain nameless, as it should. After a visit to that other school, I realized that it offered the potential for several unhappy years, so I made an unscheduled visit to Morgantown. From minute one,I was taken away by the immense beauty of the countryside. Unfortunately, we “city folk” aren’t always privileged to behold such scenery. Once I arrived on campus, I immediately felt a complete sense of belonging. The people here genuinely cared about making each and every prospective student feel welcomed. I was warmly greeted by an individual who actually cared what my name was.She seemed absolutely thrilled about WVU, even though she could tell I wasn’t quite “there” yet. Of course, tour guides are supposed to sell the University, but something about her sales pitch was different. She conveyed not only the facts and figures of what WVU had to offer, but,more importantly, how great the people are here. It was a feat that few universities had been able to accomplish in my prior applications and campus visits.

Becoming a Mountaineer was an entrance into a new family, one that bases itself on pride, achievement and tolerance. It’s a family that I feel honored to consider myself part of.

A smaller portion of that family is most responsible for my academic successes.

Faculty and staff members of the Eberly College have afforded opportunities unimaginable to me during that first visit to campus. True to form,the College took a personal stake in my development as a student and,more importantly, as a person.

I owe a great deal to several distinguished individuals who call Woodburn Hall home.

Political Science professors Joe Hagan and

Jamie Jacobs embody the true essence of what a student-centered university should be.I am uncertain about where I would be without their understanding and guidance.

Donna MacIsaac and Jason Thomas cannot go unmentioned, as they have both been instrumental in planning for what comes after my May commencement. These are the

spy technique overview; it is much more substantive, demonstrating through a series of courses intelligence-gathering methods, the history of intelligence, political leadership psychology and international crisis simulation. As one of the first students to complete the program, I feel that the course work, though still in its

Dr. Joe Hagan and T.J.O’Neill

types of people that every student should have the privilege to encounter. They have made the transitions in my life much easier to handle and have laid the strong foundation for what I hope will be a long and successful career in public service.

The Eberly College is not only marked by great people but also by great programs. I am very fortunate to be a member of the Political Science Department and International Studies Program just as the new area of emphasis in Intelligence and National Security was being formulated.

Only recently announced as an official concentration within International Studies, the program allows students interested in potential careers with the CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency to learn the fundamentals of intelligence collection and analysis. This is not your typical James Bond Arts & Sciences | 29 | Spring 2006

infancy, has provided the necessary tools to allow its graduates to compete for some of the most highly-touted positions in the intelligence community.

As my days in the College come to a close, I feel entirely confident that I made the best decision of my young life in attending WVU. I have been extremely fortunate to have encountered some of the best people out there, people who made it their mission to help me succeed even when it was not the most convenient and always when I needed it most. Like members of a family, I have a fondness for them that will last a lifetime. West Virginia and her people have been nothing but good to me, making it very easy to call this place home. This is where I became a student, a professional, and a better human being.

Nonprofit Organization US Postage PAID Morgantown,WV 26506 Permit No. 34

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences 201 Woodburn Hall West Virginia University PO Box 6286 Morgantown,WV 26506-6286 Change Service Requested

Into the Future Help us take the Eberly College into the future— academically and intellectually. We continue our strong efforts to improve the student experience and the learning environment at WVU as well as move the College and the University onward toward our dreams and goals. We will be satisfied with nothing less than the finest education possible for our students.

Toward our goals, we have identified four major fund-raising needs for the coming year.

These are expensive, significant projects, but they will a ccomplish crucial goals.

• Establishment of a Professorship in Civil War Studies: $350,000 • Renovation of the Tomchin Planetarium in Hodges Hall: $150,000 • Endowment for WVU's award-winning undergraduate literary magazine, Calliope, $40,000 • Funds for a College-wide Ph.D. fellowship: $250,000 If you would like to discuss a major gift to fund or to help fund one of these projects, please contact Associate Dean for Development Rudolph P. Almasy at (304) 293-4611 or Rudy.Almasy@mail.wvu.edu