1999 Catalyst

Old Dominion University College of Sciences

Volume 11 Fall 1999

Restoring A Lost Resource Loosening the Grip of the Storm Adventures in Research

From the Hip

The last time I wrote to you I had just completed my first year as Dean of the College of Sciences at Old Dominion University. I am pleased to tell you that my second year was even more fast-paced and rewarding than the first.

Undergraduate enrollments in the College of Sciences continue to increase. We now enroll more than 1,700 majors. Not surprisingly, the number of student credit hours taught by College of Sciences’ faculty continues to rise. Not only are we providing instruction to this growing number of majors but, at the same time, we provide freshman and sophomore level science and mathematics courses to large numbers of students pursuing majors outside the sciences. Graduate level enrollments remain stable across the college. The departments of Biological Sciences and Psychology continue to produce most of our doctoral graduates, while the departments of Biological Sciences and Computer Sciences lead the way in graduating master’s-level students.

I am also pleased to tell you that the amount of external grant support received by faculty in the College of Sciences continues to increase and has now reached an all-time high. We attract more grant funds than any other college at Old Dominion University.

Our steady increase in research support (direct costs) has been accompanied by an increase in the amount of indirect cost return coming to the university. These indirect cost returns help provide the research infrastructure needed to further expand our research and graduate training efforts.

Regardless of the parameters used to measure our progress, the College of Sciences continues to move forward at a rapid rate.

During the coming year we will seek to fill numerous faculty positions across the college, including several vacancies in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Due to retirements, this department has an opportunity to truly reshape itself in the years ahead. As we go about filling these positions, we are continuing our efforts to build interdisciplinary instructional and research bridges between departments and, in fact, across colleges. Accordingly, we anticipate that at least some of these positions will be used to enhance our growing research and instructional strengths in the areas of geochemistry and bio-geochemistry. Many of us feel that the college is on the verge of national prominence in these exciting, and rapidly growing, areas.

Let me also take a moment to update you on our continuing interactions with the Virginia Marine Science Museum. As I mentioned in last year’s letter, we have been working with individuals at the museum on a significant expansion project, one that

VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

holds enormous potential for both the museum and our College of Sciences. The museum is moving forward with its plans to construct a new marine mammal facility, the centerpiece of which will be a 1.5 million gallon marine mammal tank that will house both seals and dolphins found in Virginia waters. The facility will also house the museum’s very successful Stranding Center. The College of Sciences will be provided instructional and research space in the facility and, ultimately, will have an opportunity to expand its activities on property in the campus-like environment that will be created adjacent to the new marine mammal facility. We are excited about developing new programs in marine mammalogy and look forward to even greater collaborative interactions with the museum. Those of us who enjoy looking into the future envision a thriving marine sciences center housed next to, and working closely with, the Virginia Marine Science Museum. First you dream it, then you build it!

During this past year we conducted national searches to fill two key department chairmanships. I am pleased to tell you that we were able to attract two outstanding individuals to these positions.

The new chair of our Department of Mathematics and Statistics is Dr. David Keyes. David received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Harvard University and is now considered to be among the top computational scientists in the country. Our new chair of the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences is Dr. Jim Sanders. Jim received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina and has served as curator and director of The Academy of Natural Sciences Estuarine Research Center in Maryland. Jim is a well-known expert on the Chesapeake Bay and promises to dramatically increase our involvement in bay-related research and educational activities.

In order that you can share in our excitement surrounding the appointments of these individuals, I asked each of them to prepare a brief overview describing some of their plans for their department.

As I close my portion of the third edition of “From the Hip,” I would like to provide you with those overviews: Keyes describes himself,“…as a public relations leader for the department and want my outreach activities to include undergraduate students (majors and non-majors), departmental alumni, deans and chairs of client departments with heavy enrollments in math service courses, research organizations in the Hampton Roads community, and federal agency program managers.

One plan is a lecture series for undergraduates in which guest speakers highlight the role of mathematics in popular events and technologies. An annual newsletter for alumni and present members of the department and university will be instituted. Another idea is the development and circulation of a brochure of faculty research interests for the Hampton Roads community to help initiate research collaborations, multidisciplinary connections, and to gain financial support for students. I want the department to capitalize on the growth of information technology, too. I feel that mathematics and statistics is the ‘unsung hero’ of the information revolution and will increasingly be the source of algorithmic innovation, as today’s brute-force methods come up against large data sets. I am looking forward to initiating these new programs and plan to further build continued on page 41

Volume 11, Fall 1999 Dean Terry L. Hickey Editor Phyllis Brown Assistant Writers Bonnie Davis Lea Blubaugh Graphic Designer H. McCullough Copy Editor Elizabeth V. Harders Contributing Writers Rob Brumbaugh Jim Cox Perry Duncan Elaine Justice Harold Marshall Sheri Parker Catalyst is published annually by the Old

College of Sciences for students and friends.

To receive publication or to be added to our mailing list, please at Catalyst, Old Dominion University,

e-mail the editor at pbrown@odu.edu.

Text may be reprinted without permission unless a copyright is indicated; however, credit to Catalyst is appreciated.

Cover Photo: Bud Hurst, a volunteer for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, helps in the maintenance of oyster floats.

Old Dominion Hosts the Junior and Senior Academy Conferences - 1,000 high school students attend conferences.

page 2

“Hot Zone” Author Visits the College of Sciences - Biochemical catastrophe a possibility.

National Science Foundation Equipment Grant - Purchasing a highresolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer becomes a reality.

Alluisi Collection Donated to the Library - A legacy continues.

From Quarks to Nuclei - Nuclear physicists receive $1.3 million grant.

The College of Sciences Offers Degree Programs at New Virginia Beach Center - Computer science and psychology degrees starting fall 1999.

Features

8

8 Restoring a Lost Resource - Restoration of oyster reefs becomes a Hampton Roads project.

page 16

22 Loosening the Grip of the Storm - Part III - Sandbridge restoration complete.

write to the editor

(757) 683-3280, or

Porter’s Parlay - Students get a practical education for future successes.

20 Adventures in Research - The Fast Lane

Travel with our staff writer Bonnie Davis as she explores a research opportunity available for undergraduates at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.

a copy of this free

23529, or call

2

5

5

6

6

7

7

14 Oyster Gardening - Area residents plant oyster gardens.

16 A Career as a Naval Scientist...It’s a Challenge! - The road less traveled.

our alumni, faculty,

Norfolk, Virginia

2

page 8

Dominion University’s

College of Sciences,

Of Particular Interest

College Notes

24 Students 24 Outstanding Students 24 Outstanding Graduate Students 25 College Scholarship Award Recipients 25 Other Students in the News 26 Students on the Move Staff 30 Recently Retired Staff Member 30 Milestones

Faculty 30 New Faces in the College 32 Outstanding Faculty Member Honored 32 Two President’s Graduate Fellows Join the Sciences 33 Reflections 34 Departmental Notes

page 20

page 26

40 1998 Honor Roll of Donors

Of Particular Interest

Porter brings to Old Dominion a vigor and passion for teaching and sets high standards for himself as a teacher and mentor.

Porter’s Parlay In this corner we present the challenger...

“You will hate me, swear at me until the end,” Dr. Bryan Porter opens his introductions to his new audience, “Then you will say, ‘Oh, he knew what he was doing!’”

Porter, a relative newcomer to the Department of Psychology is a real gogetter by any standard. Majoring in psychology with a minor in sociology, he graduated summa cum laude from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1990.

By 1996, he had earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in experimental psychology from the University of Memphis. He joined Old Dominion University’s Department of Psychology in 1996 as an assistant professor. Porter

2 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

enjoys teaching and researching at Old Dominion because his creativity is rewarded, he says, and the environment is supportive.

Porter brings to Old Dominion a vigor and passion for teaching and sets high standards for himself as a teacher and mentor. One of his highest priorities is to improve his already stellar teaching abilities. He continually seeks to find the latest technique to increase student participation in his large lecture classes, and student retention of material over the semester. He implements regular feedback from students throughout the semester to obtain multiple assessments of his performance as an instructor. The Psych 201S syllabus sets the tone of his commitment to his students and begins, “Read this entire

syllabus carefully. It is my contract with you as a student in my class...” Next, he clearly states his objectives: 1. Students will appreciate the diversity in psycho-logical approaches to understanding behavior.

2. Students will think critically about contributions to understanding behavior.

3. Students will apply what they learn to today’s issues.

4. Students will enjoy studying psychology! (hopefully) The warm-up begins...

Fall semester 1998, some 200 students filed into the auditorium to take Porter’s Introduction to Psychology 201S class. These fresh new college students sported not only new backpacks and stylish clothes but had guarded

anticipation at what this class, this professor and this university would hold for them. As they eyed the youthful person at the front, they probably wondered if this is the teacher or another student. Next, as they began settling into a seat, their minds might have been filled with such questions as: Will 201 be easy? Will we have to do writing assignments? Can we get extra credit? Does he grade on the curve, give multiple choice or essay exams?

Some may even have the idea that psychology is just common sense, or all Freudian.

Some may wonder why it is considered a science at all!

Surveying the entering students, Porter smiles. He is well aware of all the anxieties and the questions. He looks forward to getting to know the students.

“You will hate me, swear at me until the end,” Dr. Bryan Porter opens his introductions to his new audience, “Then you will say, ‘Oh, he knew what he was doing!’”

While many psychology professors might rather teach only psychology majors, Porter welcomes large audiences who have little experience in the subject. Their youth is like an elixir to him. He contends, “Learning in a class is a two-way street.” He feels that by teaching the youngest of college students, he can stay forever young through absorbing their youthful energy, learning to speak their language and understanding their point of reference.

Porter firmly believes this helps make him a better communicator to them, and consequently, a more effective teacher.

Observe the technique...

While many believe that technique is everything, Porter trained himself to teach by watching others.

After five years of teaching, he says he is still perfecting his craft. He experiments with different techniques to enhance the learning environment. His philosophy of classroom teaching encompasses: •Using class material that is relevant and adaptive to real world and contemporary issues; •Providing examples of current research so students can experience the ongoing growth of the science of psychology;

•Giving opportunities for students to teach themselves and become more active in their learning throughout the course by collaborative learning activities, team assignments, conducting demonstrations of research projects, and giving presentations; •Being open to students for questioning and general discussions concerning psychology or their general education. Being available to students often and through Learning Communities, psychology clubs, student research participation opportunities, etc.

His techniques for creating an excellent learning environment are not restricted to his own expertise for he admits, “I will try anything – twice.” Porter believes that regular testing, at least weekly, ensures students will maintain a regular study schedule. This philosophy is derived from J. Michael’s (1991; The Behavior Analyst) work applying behavioral theory to study behavior.

Regular testing reduces the “scallop effect” associated with fixed-interval assessments. The longer the period between tests, the greater the scallop. Larger scallops mean that students are not studying regularly throughout a semester and not truly acquiring as much knowledge as they could from regular

studying. Therefore, Porter is an advocate for the distributed practice of studying for optimal results over massed practice (cramming).

Though grading is not one of Porter’s favorite responsibilities, he contends that essay questions are better to assess the acquired knowledge of a student by her/his responses to problems that require a critical analysis by the student. Fortunately for large lecture 201 students, he usually reserves this practice for upper-level students in smaller classes where essay exams or in-class opportunities for students to teach themselves would be more manageable.

The challenger steps up, ringside quiets, and the round begins...

“Many of your beliefs about yourself and those around you will be challenged,” Porter tosses to the crowd, “are you ready for that?” He continues, “One myth we will discuss relates to how couples form. A common belief is that ‘opposites attract’; however, studies show that ‘birds of a feather flock together.’ What this means is that couples who have more in common generally stay together longer,” Porter pauses, “Another myth parents sometimes perpetuate argues that high school students do better in school

if they have a job. The contention is that kids will ‘learn the value of a dollar and appreciate their education’, when they learn that the only job market open to them is one where the true value of working hard is undermined by tedious jobs serving impatient and/or irate customers with a payoff of minimum wage or less, and no tip.” The audience stirs in their seats intrigued by his words. They think, “He knows. He’s been there.”

While the enthusiastic professor explains his expectations of them and methods for their success in his class, the new students still sit unaware of the voyage they will share this semester. Porter delights in startling and challenging his students. “Students who take Introduction to Psychology, a social science general education course, fall into one of two categories: (1) the amateur psychologist, or (2) the biology dodger,” he notes. In either case, the students soon realize that though they may have many years of experience studying the ‘social’ portion of the psychology of attraction, or think that psychology is not a ‘real’ science, and therefore, a bargain of a social science credit, there is much yet to be discovered about psychology and to be learned through Porter’s guidance.

3

Of Particular Interest

At the end of the class, students file out of the auditorium. Some linger to ask questions. Others follow Porter back to his office, engaging him in additional discussions.

Despite the rapid progression into the course material that begins with biopsychology and finishes with applied psychology, class is not without its fun. One of Porter’s techniques involves using humor that helps and delights students as they unravel the flaws in human behavior.

Periodic reading assignments include special topic chapters from a secondary textbook entitled, How to Think Critically About Psychology. These readings are not directly linked to weekly topics but as topics unfold on subjects such as memory, learning and/or social psychology,

certain chapters dubbed Achilles Heel of Human Cognition, Rodney Dangerfield, and Birth Control by the Toaster Method are used to help students think critically about psychological research. With all fun aside, it is important to Porter that psychology is presented to students as a valid science

4 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

and not be forgotten in the humor. In fact, Porter believes that psychology is among the most difficult sciences because psychology is a science that attempts to understand our own self and our interactions with others –­ a task very difficult to manage objectively without subjective distortions. He admits that this makes studying psychology an ambitious venture.

The match ends...

At the end of the class, with Professor Porter remaining in the spotlight, these first-time, first-year contenders, the students, file out of the auditorium.

Some linger to ask questions. Others follow him back to his office engaging him in additional discussions. All have been dared to learn, motivated to read the text, and prodded to return for more.

Any residual apprehensions are soon forgotten as the first day turns into the first week and the semester gets quickly underway. By week two, Porter’s classroom challenges are routinely expected and enthusiastically received.

Remarks by students such as “He makes the class interesting and makes you want to attend every class,” and “I like the way he tests students with weekly quizzes. It keeps you on top of things,” exemplifies Porter’s effectiveness in the classroom. Although psychology does encompass Freudian

theory and challenges common sense as it seeks to understand people and how they relate to their environment, Porter’s students become willing contenders in a fair match that parlays practical education with future success for them in all personal and professional environments.

Old Dominion Hosts the Junior and Senior Academy Conferences The last week of May brought nearly 1,000 high school students from across the commonwealth to Old Dominion University for the annual Virginia Junior and Senior Academies of Science. At the Junior Academy Conference, several hundred presented research papers, competing for cash prizes and college scholarships. Perry Duncan, associate professor of psychology, was the local arrangements chair for both the Virginia Academic of Science (VAS) and the Virginia Junior Academy of Science.

Former astronaut, Dr. Kathryn Thornton, currently on the faculty of the University of Virginia, described some of her space exploration experiences to participants of the conferences.

The Senior Academy Conference had more than 300 registrants, most of whom were graduate and undergraduate sciences students and faculty from various Virginia colleges and universities. This conference was divided into 19 sections, ranging from aeronautical and aerospace science to psychology and statistics, with at least one paper presentation for each section. Students from all departments of the College of Sciences presented research papers. Some received a “Best Paper Award” in their discipline or honorable mentions.

A highlight of the conference was a symposium on pfiesteria, sponsored by the Old Dominion

University College of Sciences and the VAS Environmental Sciences Section. Professor Emeritus Harold Marshall of the Old Dominion Department of Biological Sciences, organized this symposium. A special session was held at the 1999 annual meeting of the Virginia Academy of Sciences regarding Virginia’s response to the toxin producing dinoflagellate pfiesteria piscicida and related species that occur in several Chesapeake Bay estuaries. Faculty from Old Dominion and Virginia Commonwealth University offered presentations, as did representatives from several state agencies. Marshall presented two papers regarding pfiesteria complex organisms in Virginia. Other faculty who presented papers were professors William Dunstan (ocean, earth and atmospheric sciences), Brian Dyer (biology) and Andrew Gordon (biology).

David Seaborn, a biology graduate student, also presented a paper.

“Hot Zone” Author Visits the College of Sciences

Richard Preston, recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on biochemical agents, presented “The Shadow of Biological Weapons” for the President’s Lecture in Science Series last April. He discussed the increasing threat posed by bioweapons in our world, an evolving global community. Preston believes the threat of biological weapons today is more likely to come in the form of terrorist actions than any single government using it to gain power.

“It was widely accepted that infectious disease had been pretty much beaten by the tools of modern science,” remarked Preston. “Today the study of virology, emerging diseases and, indeed, some of the most difficult problems of public health are problems that revolve around these emerging diseases.” HIV is the most important of these emerging diseases, according to Preston, and it was his research into HIV that prompted his interest in other viruses such as Ebola.

Preston’s Ebola virus thriller, The Hot Zone, spent 42 weeks on

the New York Times Best-Seller List after its release in 1995. His latest work, The Cobra Event, also depicts a biochemical catastrophe where a vegetarian terrorist unleashes a killer virus on Manhattan. Although fictional, the novel is based on years of research that led Preston to scientists at the highest levels of American and international intelligence who have been involved in developing and testing strategic bioweapons.

His work prompted President Bill Clinton to direct intelligence experts to evaluate the credibility of The Cobra Event after hearing about it.

5

Of Particular Interest

National Science Foundation Equipment Grant Research efforts in the College of Sciences got a lift recently with a grant of nearly $500,000 from the National Science Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation Program. The grant, plus the last year’s donation of $50,000 from Virginia Natural Gas, primarily was used to purchase a high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. The spectrometer can quantify minor and traceelement concentrations in water, sediment and biological samples.

A laser oblation system, which allows solid samples to be analyzed directly by the spectrometer, also was purchased.

Although the spectro-meter will be housed in the Alfriend Chemical Building, it will be used by faculty in chemistry, oceanography, biology and engineering. Four areas of ongoing research that will benefit

from the spectrometer at Old Dominion are: •Ecological studies of fish population and migration patterns using trace-element analysis of otoliths (ear bones) of fish; •Analysis of trace metals in estuarine, coastal and oceanic waters; •Biogeochemical cycling of sulfur and metalloid elements to examine the role of sulfur in climate regulation; and •Evaluation of the influence of biogeochemical processes on element mobilization and immobilization.

Grant principal investigators are: Drs. Gregory Cutter (oceanography), John Donat (chemistry and biochemistry), Cynthia Jones (biological sciences), Gary Schafran (civil and environmental engineering) and Simon Thorrold (biological sciences).

Research efforts in the College of Sciences got a lift recently with grants to help purchase a highresolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. The equipment arrived on July 9 and was lifted onto the 3rd floor of Alfriend Chemistry Building.

6 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

Alluisi Collection Donated to the Library One of the most renowned and eminent professors ever to enrich Old Dominion University with his vision and talent, now lives on through a gift to the university’s library. On Jan. 13, 1999, a reception was held in memory of Dr. Earl Alluisi, in appreciation for a collection of his books donated to the Patricia W. and J. Douglas Perry Library by his widow, Dr. Mary Jane Alluisi. As a pioneer in human factors psychology, Alluisi’s collection included a number of rare and historically important volumes in the field. At the reception, the library and the College of Sciences were able to express their gratitude to Dr. Alluisi for making this valuable collection available to students and faculty at Old Dominion.

However, Alluisi’s legacy is far greater than his book collection. Before coming to Old Dominion, Alluisi served in two wars – World War II and the Korean War. Between these wars, he earned his bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary and his master’s and doctorate from Ohio State University.

In 1974, he joined the faculty in the Old Dominion’s Department of Psychology as its first university professor. While here, he served as the director of the performance assessment laboratory and was instrumental in the establishment of the industrial /organizational psychology Ph.D. program. During his career, Alluisi authored more than 350 publications, research reports and presentations while actively serving his profession.

He was president of various organizations including the

Human Factors Society, Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Society of Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychologists and American Psychological Association’s Division of Military Psychology.

Alluisi’s versatility as a researcher, teacher and administrator is apparent in the variety of positions he held throughout his career.

After leaving Old Dominion in 1982, he took a position in Washington, D.C. in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Later, he joined the research staff of the Science and Technology Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses. He remained active until shortly before his death in 1993.

Now, his treasured collection has come home to Old Dominion where it will continue to make a contribution to the program he helped establish. Those in the department and college who remember him, and those to come who will benefit from using his books, pay tribute to Earl Alluisi’s memory and to his wife, who realized that, through this gift, her husband’s legacy would continue.

From Quarks to Nuclei

The College of Sciences Offers Degree Programs at New Virginia Beach Higher Education Center

In a time when large federal research awards in basic science have grown scarce, the nuclear physics experimentalists in Old Dominion University’s Department of Physics have received $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to continue experiments into the fundamental nature of nuclear matter. The grant renewal funds the group’s research program “From Quarks to Nuclei,” which explores the internal structure of protons and neutrons (collectively called nucleons).

Prominent in the international nuclear physics community, this group conducts its experiments principally with the medium-energy continuous electron beam accelerator at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, which is the most advanced accelerator in the world for research in this field. The group also has been extensively involved in experiments with the electron accelerators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bates Laboratory in Boston and at the University of Mainz in Germany.

Group members include professors Gail Dodge, Charles Hyde-Wright, Andreas Klein, Sebastian Kuhn, Paul Ulmer and Larry Weinstein. They will apply a portion of the award toward expanding their computer facilities to handle analysis of the massive flow of data from current and future experiments.

In a manifestation of Old Dominion University’s continuous movement toward progression and expansion, the new Virginia Beach Higher Education Center will begin to offer degree programs fall semester 1999. It will now be possible for students to complete their major requirements, earning an Old Dominion University degree, through this center. The College of Sciences will offer two degree programs at the new center: computer science and psychology. In all, the Virginia Beach Center will offer 16 bachelor’s and six master’s degree programs providing junior, senior and graduate level courses during the day, in the evening, and on weekends. Virginia Beach students can complete their general education requirements from another school, such as Tidewater Community College, transfer into Old Dominion University, and graduate without ever leaving Virginia Beach.

Old Dominion hopes the new center will serve the community well by enabling adults to accomplish their educational goals while furnishing Virginia’s most populated city with a considerable higher education facility.

The new facility is located on Princess Anne Road, adjacent to Tidewater Community College’s Virginia Beach campus. For more information, contact the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center at (757) 683-6389.

The new Old Dominion University Virginia Beach Higher Education Center, across from Tidewater Community College on Princess Anne Road, will offer students 16 bachelor’s and six master’s degrees.

7

Restoring A Lost Resource

Written by Robert D. Brumbaugh, Ph.D. (‘96)

Robert D. Brumbaugh graduated from Old Dominion University with a doctorate in oceanography and is currently a fisheries scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF).

Founded in 1967 and supported by more than 83,000 members worldwide, CBF is the largest private non-profit organization working to restore and protect the Chesapeake Bay. It has a staff of 130 working in offices and educational centers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. Each year, more than 36,000 people are educated on field trips offered by CBF.

8 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

A Look Across Time Imagine sailing across a clear, blue bay, navigating past reefs that reach to the water’s surface, and marveling at the abundance of fish and marine life surrounding your boat when you anchor for the night. If this sounds like a Caribbean vacation, complete with coral reefs and colorful tropical fish, guess again. Amazingly, this was the scene described in the journals of ship captains visiting the Chesapeake Bay just 400 years ago! It was oysters, rather than coral, that formed the reefs so large that they were described as hazards to navigation. The fish of the day was most likely American shad or sturgeon, which served as a mainstay for the Native American population, as well as early colonists.

Sadly, the Chesapeake Bay’s once abundant oyster population has fallen victim to overfishing, excessive sedimentation and oyster diseases. At its peak in the late 1800s, the oyster fishery yielded 20 million bushels per year. By harvesting oysters so quickly, however, people unwittingly destroyed the very reefs that oysters appear to require for their survival. With the destruction of the reefs, the remaining oysters were forced to live closer to the bay’s bottom, where they could be covered by silt, which clogs their gills and slows their growth. Adding to the pressures on an already-stressed oyster population, parasites have ravaged the bay’s

remaining oysters in recent decades.

Today, the Chesapeake Bay’s oyster population has dwindled to less than one percent of their level in 1870, when the region’s oyster fishery was at its peak. Unfortunately, this tragic loss of oysters has done more than simply devastate the region’s fishery. With the decline of oysters, the bay itself has suffered.

A Natural Water Filter How can these small mollusks, with their rough irregular shells, be so important to the Chesapeake Bay? Like other shellfish such as clams and mussels, oysters are filter feeders. Using tiny hairs called “cilia” on their gills, they draw large volumes of water into their shells and into their mouth. With this water comes microscopic plants called phytoplankton, or algae, as well as sediment particles that cloud the Chesapeake’s waters.

The algae is digested by the oysters, fueling their growth and annual spawning. The sediment is wrapped in mucous and spit out on the bay’s floor. Through this process, a single oyster can filter as much as 50 gallons of water in a single day. It has been estimated that in 1870, when the fishery was at its peak, oysters could filter the volume of the Chesapeake Bay in just four to six days!

Today, unfortunately, oysters would need more than a year to accomplish the same task.

Dr. Rob Brumbaugh prepares to take oysters to a sanctuary reef in the Elizabeth River.

One of the benefits of having such an efficient natural filter in the bay is clearer water, where light can reach the bottom at great depths. Colonial accounts indicate that the Chesapeake was once clear enough for a ship’s anchor to be visible in 40 feet of water. This clear water supported some 600,000 acres of underwater grass beds, enormous meadows which harbor some of the bay’s other delicacies like the blue crab. A sad side-effect of fewer oysters and a cloudier bay has been a drastic decline of this important habitat. Today, only around 10 percent of the Chesapeake’s underwater grass beds remain, struggling to survive in a bay where light disappears 18 inches below the surface. Most Chesapeake Bay area researchers now agree that without restoring healthy populations of oysters to the bay, efforts to improve water quality and to restore important habitats like grass beds will be greatly impeded.

A Partnership for a Back Yard Challenge Oysters have fared no better in the

Lafayette River, which courses through the heart of Norfolk, than they have throughout the rest of the Chesapeake Bay. At one time, the Lafayette River produced tremendous numbers of juvenile oysters, which are called “spat” or “seed” in the oyster business.

These young oysters were harvested and moved to other areas of the bay where they would be allowed to grow a larger, more marketable size. Today, however, oysters have all but disappeared from the Lafayette River. Sediment carried by storm water runoff has covered most of the Lafayette’s historic oyster grounds, and pollution now makes the few remaining oysters off-limits for human consumption.

The effort to restore oysters to the Lafayette has more behind it than a simple fondness for hors d’oeuvres. Although human actions have caused most of the harm to the Lafayette’s oysters, it also seems that without human intervention, the river’s oysters are unlikely to ever stage a comeback. Indeed, without a concerted effort to restore oysters, the river’s natural resilience

9

Restoring a Lost Resource The tug, Mary Hope, positions a barge load of oyster shells, which will be placed on the bottom of the Elizabeth River to form a sanctuary reef. The oyster shells were purchased with a federal grant and transported from oyster shucking houses on the Rappahannock River.

Photo provided by CBF.

10 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

might never truly recover.

In 1998, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) joined forces with the Norfolk Rotary Club, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) and Old Dominion University’s Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography (CCPO) to begin restoring the Lafayette River’s depleted oyster population. Recognizing that a healthy bay and a healthy economy are inextricably linked, the Norfolk Rotary Club raised $28,000 to put toward construction of two sanctuary reefs in the Lafayette River. Using the Rotarian’s funds as leverage, VMRC and CBF attracted additional state, federal and private funds necessary to complete the reef projects.

In this partnership, VMRC would build the two reefs and set them aside as oyster sanctuaries. CCPO would help to determine the best locations for the reefs, and CBF would stock the reefs with mature oysters to “jump start” a local population. Once stocked, the reefs would serve as “oyster factories,” producing juvenile oysters for nearby oyster grounds. Although this sounds easy enough, it’s more complicated than one might think. Such an effort requires a solid understanding of both oyster biology and the river’s own circulation patterns. It also requires a financial commitment from the community to raise the $100,000 necessary to restore even a small amount of shelly oyster habitat. However unlikely, this partnership between the academic, business and environmental sectors is proving to be just what the river needs.

into the water over their reef. Once fertilized, the microscopic eggs released by female oysters hatch and tiny larvae emerge.

These larvae will spend about two weeks drifting with the tidal currents feeding on algae and preparing to attach permanently to the bottom for the rest of their lives. Their preferred place to settle is, predictably, on the shells of other oysters. In response to the larvae’s affinity for oyster shells, sanctuary reefs are most often constructed from old shells. This ensures that the reefs can be colonized over time and speed the recovery of the oyster population.

Because the tiny oyster larvae are carried by the local currents for their first two weeks of life and are especially sensitive to fluctuating environmental conditions during that period, the exact placement of sanctuary reefs in rivers like the Lafayette is criti-

Sanctuary reef locations in the bay and its tributaries.

Map provided by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

The Restoration Approach Using historic accounts from the 1600s, VMRC began restoring the oyster population in 1993 by creating three-dimensional “reefs” using mountains of oyster shell.

The shell is typically barged from shucking houses around the bay and deposited on historic oyster grounds where oysters once thrived. In 1997, CBF established a program called the Oyster Corps to train citizens and students to grow hatchery-produced native oysters for stocking the state-managed sanctuary reefs, where they will accumulate and reproduce over time. To date, CBF’s volunteers have grown nearly 250,000 oysters for restoration projects in four Virginia tributaries to the Chesapeake.

Male and female oysters spawn directly

11

RESTORING A Lost Resource

Using historic accounts from the 1600s, VMRC began restoring the oyster population by creating three-dimensional “reefs” using mountains of oyster shell.

12 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

cal. Placing the reefs too far outside the river mouth might result in oyster offspring being carried away from the river. Placing the reefs too far upriver could expose the larvae to excessive fresh water or silty conditions that would prevent them from attaching to the bottom. Therefore, to maximize the likelihood for success, the CBF enlisted the aid of Drs. Larry Atkinson, Tom Royer and Arnoldo Valle-Levinson, physical oceanographers from CCPO, to help describe the river’s current patterns. Using the latest in high-tech sampling equipment, the team of oceanographers and their students set out in small boats to take measurements of current speed and direction, temperature and salinity (the salt content) of the river water. They ran profiles across the river at three locations and estimated the volume of water going by throughout the tidal cycle, which helps to estimate just how far larvae spawning on a reef nearby might travel. Instruments that record temperature and salinity were

also attached to a private dock to provide a seasonal picture of the river.

Using the information gathered by the Old Dominion scientists, CBF and VMRC selected two sites for new reefs in the Lafayette River: one inside the mouth of the river near Tanner Point at the Norfolk International Terminals, the other several miles upriver close to the Hampton Boulevard bridge near the Larchmont neighborhood. It is hoped that this spacing will allow larvae produced by oysters stocked on the reefs

by CBF volunteers to restore oyster grounds throughout the Lafayette. For a look at oyster gardening, see page 14 of this issue.

Survival Both people and oysters have a major role to play in the bay’s repopulation of oysters. To bring them back from near extinction in the bay, people with vision from different organizations and agencies are working together combining their talents

and energy. By our listening to the oyster’s own biology, it may in fact be possible to “Save the Bay” from the bottom up.

The College of Sciences salutes the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, the Norfolk Rotary Club and the countless individuals who have given their time, money and docks to see that this restoration project is successful.

Inset: James E. Lamb Jr. and Lynsey Ellis, students at Wilson High School in Portsmouth, Virginia, transplant oysters to the West Norfolk Bridge area during a field trip with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Cheryl Coronado, their biology teacher, got students involved as part of a large restoration project aimed at improving the oyster population in the Elizabeth River. Photo provided by Cheryl Coronado.

Those interested in joining the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, should call toll free at (888) SAVEBAY (728-3229), or contact the Norfolk office at (757) 622-1964. For oyster restoration updates, contact Rob Brumbaugh directly in the CBF Norfolk office.

Below: Pungoteague Creek, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, recently had a reef put in place.

Volunteers will begin stocking the reef next year with oysters grown in dockside “oyster gardens.”

Photo provided by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

catalyst 13

Oyster Gardening

Bob and Jean Schonk share their pier with a neighbor to maintain two “oyster gardens.”

Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) scientist Rob Brumbaugh knows that the Chesapeake Bay’s oysters need help, and lots of it, to stage a comeback. Many organizations and agencies, such as CBF, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) and Old Dominion University’s Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography (CCPO) are working to restore the bay’s beleaguered oyster populations by reconstructing reefs on historic oyster grounds. Through this activity, the habitat for both oysters and the myriad of bay creatures that live alongside the bivalves is improved. But to truly bring the reconstructed reefs to life requires the commitment and involvement of hundreds of dedicated citizens willing to lend a hand for this worthy cause. That’s why CBF has turned to private citizens and school students for help growing millions of hatchery-produced native oysters to transplant onto reconstructed reefs.

These individuals are dubbed “oyster gardeners,” and for their efforts they share in the trials and tribulations of this historic restoration effort.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

An “oyster garden” is a small floating cage about the size of an average coffee table. The float is attached to a dock or bulkhead and used to grow hatchery-produced oysters provided by CBF. Volunteers are taught how to construct their own float from precut sections of PVC pipe and wire mesh at workshops sponsored by CBF. At the workshops, volun-

14 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

teers also receive about 1,000 baby oysters produced in a commercial shellfish farm. The oysters are so small at this stage that they would fit in a coffee cup. After 12 months in the float, however, each oyster measures nearly three inches and is ready to fend for itself on the restored sanctuary reef. The oysters are also mature at this stage, and when large numbers are placed on a sanctuary reef, they can effectively “jump start” entire sections of river bottom.

Caring for the oyster garden means pulling it from the water for a thorough cleaning about once a month. Seaweed, sediment and “fouling” organisms such as barnacles and sea squirts can accumulate on the wire mesh and PVC, but are easily removed with a stiff scrub brush and garden hose. The oysters feed on the microscopic algae in the bay’s waters, and a clean float ensures that an ample supply of algae-laden water reaches the oysters contained in the float. More than a chore, however, cleaning the floats usually is a lesson in the bay’s biology. Crabs, shrimp and small fish are commonly found sharing the float with the farm-bred oysters, a testament to the value of restoring oysters to the bay’s tributaries.

People who want to lend a hand growing oysters can contact the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Norfolk office at (757) 622-1964 for information on upcoming workshops. For those who want to get started right away, preconstructed oyster floats can be purchased directly from Cape Henry General Merchandise

Company, 1440 North Great Neck Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23454. CBF supplies oysters to anyone who wishes to get involved in the restoration effort.

Lafayette River Restoration The gardening phase of the restoration effort could not occur without the participation of the residents who live along the shores of the Lafayette and volunteer to grow oysters for transplanting onto the restored reefs. One resident, Dr. Harry Taylor, has already grown thousands of oysters in his floating gardens.

In addition, he has actively recruited many others for the effort. Taylor feels that oyster gardening and the reef restoration effort is “the keystone to the reclamation of the oyster.”

Another resident and fund-raiser for the restoration effort through the Norfolk Rotary Club is Nancy Ackerman Cole. Not having her own dock, she recruited her next-door neighbors, Bob and Jean Schonk, to share with her the maintenance of two gardens. Cole says, “Even if you don’t have a pier, most people know someone who does!”

Still another resident and oyster grower, Dr. Crile Crisler, offered his dock for the mooring of scientific instruments used by CCPO researchers to measure variations in temperature and salinity in the Lafayette. Crisler became involved in the project because of his strong commitment to CBF. He believes the organization to be “an important and good organization,” and has demonstrated his support in a manner that does not go unappreciated.

Lynnhaven River Restoration One of the first places that reef restoration and oyster gardening were applied to the problem of dwindling oyster populations was the Lynnhaven River. Private citizens along that river are playing a vital role in the restoration effort there, as well. One family’s project became an organization called “Restore the Oyster” (RtO).

Cliff and Sue Love, along with their two sons, David and Michael, have recruited scores of volunteers for growing oysters throughout the region. Living along the Lynnhaven, the restoration effort holds a special importance to them as a family.

In 1998, more than 100,000 oysters grown by students and citizens were transplanted to a small sanctuary reef in the Lynnhaven. As a result, CBF has documented a 23-fold increase in new oysters on and around the reef. Large increases in the number of baby oysters attaching to the bottom was observed as much as a mile away from the reef – a tremendous result after just a short time! Brumbaugh reports that during spring and summer 1999, CBF was able to stock the Lynnhaven with an additional 60,000 oysters in time for the oyster’s spawning season. With a little help from Mother Nature, CBF hopes to document even greater settlement of new oysters next year.

Through the efforts of organizations like CBF, VMRC and CCPO, and with the dedication of scores of volunteers, progress is being made to restore the bay’s oysters. Slowly, but surely, there seems to be a course charted to return the bay to her former glory. This, above all, seems to be what keeps the many people involved in this important effort motivated.

This proactive and collaborative approach to a very real problem serves to remind us all that every person can, and does, make a difference.

STOP, Look and Think!

Residents can help maintain the area’s rivers, regardless of whether they own waterfront property, grow oysters, or not.

The Lafayette, Lynnhaven and Elizabeth rivers are urban watersheds and receive tremendous amounts of sediment and pollutants through storm water runoff. When it rains, the water that runs off sidewalks, driveways, parking lots and lawns runs into storm drains.

Ultimately, that water and the chemical residues and sediment that it carries, is piped directly into a river. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Hampton Roads municipalities work hard to educate residents how to minimize this form of pollution.

Recommendations include: •Never dump anything down a storm drain – they are direct conduits to the nearest waterway.

•Sweep up grass clippings and recycle them or put them in a mulch pile. Grass clippings dumped or washed into a waterway release nutrients that fuel excessive algae blooms in the bay.

•Find less toxic alternatives to household cleaning products its better for the bay, and for you!

•Have a soil test done before adding any fertilizer to your lawn.

“Oyster Gardens,” small floating cages like the one shown here, are being used to grow thousands of oysters for stocking sanctuary reefs around the Chesapeake Bay. School groups and private citizens can have a direct part in the restoration of oysters by tending these gardens. Photo provided by the CBF.

•Minimize erosion and runoff at the water’s edge by planting marsh grasses or shrubs. This provides habitat and absorbs nutrients that would otherwise flow into the bay.

15

A Career As A Naval Scientist …It’s A Challenge Written by Sheri B. Parker, Ph.D., LT, MSC, USNR (EVMS/ODU Biomedical Sciences Program Graduate 1997)

Officers currently stationed at the Naval Medical Research Center’s Diving and Environmental Physiology Department (from left to right): Lt. Matthew Swiergosz, Ph.D. (research psychologist); Lt. Cdr. David Keyser, Ph.D. (physiologist); Lt. Sheri Parker, Ph.D. (physiologist); Lt. David Dromsky, M.D. (diving medical officer); Lt. Cdr. Rene Hernandez, Ph.D. (physiologist).

A story is particularly powerful when its audience can relate. One familiar scenario: girl next door is swept away in a whirlwind and taken to a place beyond her imagination. There, she finds herself on a golden road where she begins a quest that leads her to a wizard who can grant her wish.

We all have a bit of Dorothy woven into our own characters, which is why The Wizard of Oz is esteemed an American classic. Consider the case of the college student: we are taken from our homes, put into a strange and almost surreal, mystical university environment and made to follow some path to gain a diploma, which is the key to fulfilling our destinies. Traditionally, one curriculum takes you to point A, another will land you at point B, and ne’er the twain shall meet. This needn’t be the case, though.

Sheri Parker, a recent Old Dominion graduate, realized the power and flexibility of her degree in the sciences. We join her as she looks back at her journey on one such yellow brick road...

16 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

The Problem With my last year of graduate school approaching and thesis deadlines upcoming, I found myself more worried about my future employment instead of concentrating on finishing my degree requirements. With all the years of student loans I had accumulated, I simply could not take a teaching position at a community college. With the average first year National Institutes of Health salary at $26K, I had reason to be concerned. I was desperate for other options!

The Solution As a resident of Norfolk, VA, throughout graduate school, I naturally was aware of the large naval base at the opposite end of Hampton Boulevard just minutes from Old Dominion University and Eastern Virginia Medical School. While participating in a local marathon, I had the opportunity to meet a naval biomedical researcher. I was surprised to learn that the Navy em-

ploys a myriad of individuals other than nuclear engineers, ship drivers and deck hands. Through this researcher, I was pointed in the direction of a recruiter, a Navy corpsman, with expertise in the differing specialties in naval research. I was further surprised and pleased to learn there are approximately 10 different specialties for conducting biomedical research in the medical service corps alone. Since I was interested in a career as a researcher, I was told that the research ranges from basic science to applied human combat situations. I was particularly impressed with the areas of specialized research, which include aerospace experimental psychology, aerospace physiology, biochemistry, physiology, microbiology and more. I was quick to inquire about the qualifications one would need. I was astounded to learn that some subspecialties require only a bachelor’s degree, while the research areas I was interested in require a master’s degree or Ph.D. I felt like a huge burden had been lifted from my shoulders.

I had found what I wanted!

The Commissioning Two months after defending my thesis, I attended Officer Indoctrination School in Newport, RI. Here I was bombarded with Naval rules and regulations, military etiquette, proper uniform attire and dress, leadership training and Navy protocol. My daily routine consisted of physical training, classroom activities and drill instruction.

I found myself primarily in the company of scientists, physicians, nurses and health care administrators. Many of the newly commissioned officers had little or no military background, like me. Because I was from Norfolk, the Navy capital of the world, I was regaled as an expert!

After six weeks of making my bed to military specifications (a ritual I had never indulged in before), I proceeded to my permanent duty station, the Naval Medical Research Center in Bethesda, MD. The mission of this research center is to research, develop, test and evaluate the health, safety and readiness of Navy and Marine Corps personnel in the effective performance of peacetime and contingency missions. The center provides basic and applied research in infectious diseases, tissue transplantation, diving and hyperbaric medicine, combat

casualty care, environmental medicine and human factor issues directly relating to military requirements and operational needs.

The Researcher As a physiologist, I am a part of the Diving and Environmental Physiology Department. The department is divided into three programs: oxygen toxicity, decompression and thermal stress. Our work spans from cell culture to large animal studies. The goal is to develop a means to decrease the risk to divers and safely improve mission flexibility and effectiveness. With this flexibility and effectiveness, bottom times and tolerance to cold environments will increase while decompression times decrease. In the last two years, our department has collectively contributed six new products to the fleet, published 55 papers, 21 technical reports, three book chapters, and has one approved patent with two more pending.

The research I personally am responsible for focuses on uncovering a reliable physiological indicator for central nervous system oxygen toxicity. Naval and special warfare divers utilize high-pressure oxygen to minimize the risk of decompression sickness and to avoid detection. Unfortunately, the use of

Frontal view of large chamber rated for 1,000 feet of seawater on air. This is the chamber used for Parker’s research.

17

A Career As A Naval Scientist

Once the human trials are complete and are as successful as we predict, it will allow Navy, Marine and special warfare divers to go deeper, stay longer, SAFER – a diver’s

100 percent oxygen at operational depths is severely limited by the onset of central nervous system toxicity in the form of a generalized tonic-clonic seizure. Currently, the U.S. Navy Diving Manual (1991) limits the exposure of 100 percent oxygen at 50 feet of seawater to 10 minutes. The development of a non-invasive means to assess oxygen toxicity would maximize mission capability, and enhance the safety of diving operations that require 100 percent oxygen. Our large animal model includes chronic instrumentation for measurement of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and cerebral blood flow (CBF).

We pressurize swine to 99, 132, or 165 feet of seawater utilizing an environmental chamber then switch the breathing medium to oxygen and monitor for toxicity.

The chamber we use for the swine works by simulating the increased environmental pressure. As the test animals descend below sea level, the pressure increases as a direct result of the weight of the water above it.

This pressure is cumulative. At sea level, atmospheric pressure is considered to be one atmosphere absolute (l ata) which is 14.7 pounds per square inch (psi). When the swine descends to 33 feet, the pressure increases to 2 ata or 44.1 psi. In other words, as depth increases, the pressure relationally increases. In order to simulate this increase in pressure for our animals, we increase the amount of gas placed in

the chamber. Gases normally expand to fill a container (i.e. the chamber). By placing more molecules into the chamber without changing the size of the container, the pressure increases. Therefore, by placing the animal in the chamber at atmospheric pressure and continually pumping more air molecules into it, the pressure increases inside the chamber to simulate being underwater at the test depths.

Our current results show that both mean MAP and CBF are valid predictive markers.

Transition to human trials will take place at the Naval Experimental Diving Unit in Panama City, FL, next year. Human testing initially can be done in dry chamber dives with current diagnostic means. The major challenge we face in preparing for human testing is having the technical means to monitor both CBF and MAP while the diver is actually swimming underwater opposed to a test animal in a compact dry chamber. Naval engineers currently are working on this with us. Once the human trials are complete and are as successful as we predict, it will allow Navy, Marine and special warfare divers to go deeper, stay longer, SAFER – a diver’s dream!

In my one year of service, I have been privileged to spend four days underway on a Navy destroyer, to give a poster at the Navy Surgeon General’s Conference and to present research at the Germany Navy Div-

ing Institute in Kiel, Germany. I presented my research again by poster in experimental biology this year. In short, I have been fortunate to begin my career with highly motivated people where the equipment is phenomenal and the work interesting, not to mention in an area of specialization that is not typically available in the civilian sector. Oh, did I mention the pay is good, too?

Additionally, every four to five years I will be able to rotate to another research facility thus avoiding the onset of monotony.

I am happy to report that as a newly commissioned scientist, my responsibility and accountability is far greater than that of a typical postdoctoral candidate. With only a year under my belt, I already manage two technicians, sit on various institutional committees, and write my own proposals. To me, becoming a commissioned naval officer was just, or maybe more, exciting then the day I received my diploma with the words “Doctorate of Philosophy” on it. Many can get a Ph.D., but not all can become naval officers and have the honor of serving their country.

The Prestige Only recently, I realized how esteemed my employment is to others when I was on a plane to San Francisco. A stockbroker from the Washington, D.C. area, making light conversation, asked my husband and

me what we did for a living. My husband answered that he is a captain in the Marines.

When the gentleman looked at me I said, “I am not on the front lines, but I do research for the Navy.” Looking from one of us to the other, the stockbroker then said, “Thank you. Thank you for your service. My family and I enjoy peace and freedom thanks to people like you.” Sensing that I was assuming he was really mainly referring to my husband, the one who wears the battle garb and has carried a weapon in his course of duty, the gentlemen looked seriously at me and said, “If it were not for research, military missions might neither be as safe nor as successful, so you play just as an important part!” Those words are still ringing in my ears along with the ones that Terry L. Hickey, dean of the College of Sciences at Old Dominion, said to me on graduation day as he shook my hand, “Congratulations on earning your Ph.D., Sheri!”

From the Editor: Modern day Dorothies, such as Sheri, have discovered that the golden road in the College of Sciences has many branches, all of which intertwine and meet in one place or another. The journey is richer, as is the reward, since we know from the beginning that education empowers. As is learned at the end of the tale, we are really our own wizards. No one has to chase rainbows or rely on red slippers. The answer is waiting for you in one of the many areas of science that Old Dominion offers. Remember, your degree is a skeleton key – one that will unlock countless doors.

The Opportunity I simply can not express in these few words, how much this opportunity with the Navy has meant to me. I can say that if you are up for the challenge and the excitement, and want the honor of serving your country you can learn more about the Navy by accessing their web site at www.navyjobs.com and let the journey begin! Tell them Sheri sent you.

If there was ever any doubt as to the possibilities, talk to a professor or meet with the Career Management Center’s science counselor, Ladd Flock. He can be reached at (757) 683-3282 or by e-mail at LFlock@odu.edu. He can show you science careers you never dreamed existed.

Whatever you do, don’t let the wicked witch of shortsightedness keep you from making your dreams come true.

19

Adventures In Research

Written by Bonnie Davis, Ph.D. student in biostatistics

The Fast Lane A slight drizzle blows and low gray clouds hang in the air.

At my side is a brilliant young doctor with fair skin and fiery hair. Driving through the compound, I notice huge structural mounds surrounded by several unassuming rectangular support buildings.

We step out of the car and pull our trenchcoats tighter.

In front of us looms the building we sought to enter. As a student of imagination, I weave an “X-Files” plot to fit the scene. I even visualize the typing of a caption at the bottom of the picture to read, “11:04 a.m., Jefferson Labs, Newport News, VA. Smiling to myself I think, “Agent Scully, tell me what you know about splitting the atom..” The title of this show would certainly be...

20 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

Actually, the brilliant doctor at my side is Dr. Gail Dodge, assistant professor in Old Dominion University’s Department of Physics.

We are visiting the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), better known as the Jefferson Labs. TJNAF was formerly CEBAF, an anagram for Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility. This $600 million scientific city exists solely to conduct research.

One might wonder, what kind of research requires a continuous electron beam? Certainly not brain surgery; I am talking about nuclear physics!

Anyone who has taken a science class should remember that everything is made of matter, which is composed of atoms. Each atom has a nucleus made of tightly packed protons and neutrons, which is orbited by electrons. Beyond that, physicists have discovered that each proton and neutron is made of three quarks, now thought to be the basic building block of nature.

As Dr. Dodge and I enter the building, we are reminded to put on hard hats. I am given a quick education about the dangers of radiation. Next, they get me to promise that I will not do anything to cause World War III. Then, we take the elevator down to Hall B. As I exit the elevator, I see what resembles a construction site, complete with giant scaffolding, exposed pipes and thick bunches of cables running underfoot. Glamour aside, Agent Scully (oops, I mean Dr. Dodge) and I get a good view of the ‘thing’ we have come to see – the detector – an immense spherical structure.

I learn that a pipe with a two-inch diameter carries the electron beam toward the detector. One million billion electrons per second are focused into a beam the width of a hair and accelerated nearly to the speed of light.

The beam is run around an underground track and bent by electromagnets. Each time the beam laps the track, it moves at an even faster rate. This acceleration can raise each electron’s energy up to four billion electron volts, the equivalent of about four one-thousandths of the kinetic energy of a mosquito. This may not sound like much, but consider the size of one mosquito compared to the size of one electron.

Then consider that there are a million billion electrons being beamed per second. Awesome!

Inside the detector, the electrons bombard a target, usually liquid hydrogen. When the electrons hit a nucleus the drift chamber, made up of thousands of wires in the innermost part of the detector, records the speed and direction of the scattered electrons and other subatomic particles flying out of the nucleus after collision. New particles are also created during the collision and these particles are detected as well. This information is relayed to computers in the counting room where scientists collect and analyze the data.

The information tells us the structure of the nucleus, and aids in answering how quarks interact within the nucleus.

It is here that I meet Chris Staub, an Old Dominion University undergraduate. Chris and various others like him have committed themselves to perfecting their talents and

Dr. Gail Dodge, assistant professor in Old Dominion University’s Department of Physics, and Bonnie Davis don hard hats at the beginning of their visit to the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF).

advancing the cause of science. Chris’ humble beginnings found him setting up lab equipment and arranging materials for class displays for the Department of Physics. From there, he was given the opportunity to go to the Jefferson Labs. Being an engineer, student, husband and father, Chris has managed to become the resident expert on the high-voltage system that serves as the nervous system of the detector beast.

Walking through the facility, the hum of electricity vibrates the air. Millions of cables, bundled and color coded, run under the chamber floor. Each wire had to be strung, connected and tested to ensure that the detectors pick up the subatomic particles bouncing around the drift chamber near the speed of light. At any time any one of these cables could break, leaving a hole in the data picture.

Chris must be able to track down the broken cable and repair it so that the data collected remain as accurate as possible. Much rides on Chris’ abilities.

I also meet Theo McGuckin, a former Old Dominion University undergraduate student.

He worked in Old Dominion’s experimental nuclear physics group on Jefferson Labs research for two years before his graduation. He now works as a full time technologist operating the accelerator. Theo reminds me that it is a CONTINUOUS electron beam accelerator.

This means that operators must work in shifts around the clock, seven days a week, 365 days a year, to keep the beam running at the proper quality level. Since Theo’s job brings him in contact with all the departments at Jefferson Labs, he has become a master with hardware and software as well as accelerator physics and computer interfaces. These acquired skills tie together Theo’s interests in physics and computer science. His responsibilities at Jefferson Labs enforce everything he learned as a student at Old Dominion University.

As we prepare to leave the facility, I reflect on the people I met and the unknown hundreds I will never meet who worked to make this facility a reality. I realize that only the best-trained minds in the world are capable of handling the building, maintenance and management of such a marvel of science.

I was proud to learn that, from the beginning,

Old Dominion University faculty and students helped to create this domain with the world’s most technologically advanced electron accelerator. It is impressive that more than 1,000 physicists from virtually everywhere in the world collaborated on this project. Old Dominion itself provided six experimentalists, five theorists and various graduate and undergraduate students that created and now keep this project running. Today, scientists from all over the world travel thousands of miles to perform experiments right here. I doubt if the region’s residents have a real appreciation for this awe-inspiring facility or for the integral research that is conducted here.

Still trying to digest all I was exposed to

If you are interested in learning more about the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, review their web page at www.jlab.org.

on this visit, I noticed someone had scrawled a freehand message on a bulletin board near the exit. It read, “I love my job at CEBAF.” I smile at the thought of a nuclear physicist doubling as a graffiti artist. Still flushed from the excitement of the visit, I return my hard hat and button my raincoat. As Dr. Dodge and I walk to the car, I think about Chris and Theo. They are two good examples of how any student can combine their schooling with their work to maximize the whole education experience.

They are also perfect examples that life in the fast lane is so much more than an adrenaline rush.

One of the six region 2 drift chambers built by Old Dominion for the CEBAF large acceptance spectrometer in Hall B of the Jefferson Labs. Photo provided by the Department of Physics, Old Dominion University.

21

Loosening the Grip of the Storm

With coastal population and development increasing, the potential for greater hurricane damage is likely. In 1994, these bulkheads at Sandbridge were little protection against Hurricane Gordon.

22 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

A well-groomed man wearing a gray suit and a somber expression interrupts the broadcast to tell us a hurricane is now making its way across our city. “Citizens are warned to stay indoors, away from windows. Pets should be inside.

Locate candles and flashlights in the event that you should lose power…” All goes black. The only sound is a roaring wind and the splintering of wood as a tree is ravaged close by. Prayers are said.

Cerebrally, we know that this city could be at any time any one of the five that makes up South Hampton Roads.

A Powerful Force Air is constantly moving and envelops the Earth weighing five quadrillion tons (that’s 5,000,000,000,000!). When this air accumulates over a temperate Atlantic Ocean in the summer and fall, it can heat up, picking up a vast amount of moisture, and begin swirling as wind speeds build. A powerful and deadly force can be formed: the hurricane. Often these major storm events lack predictable paths and can have winds that reach more than 150 miles per hour. These massive tempests can forge battlements of sea water up to 25 feet above normal high tide.

The 20th century thus far has witnessed 23 hurricanes with each causing an excess of $1 billion in damage. Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida in 1992 and wreaked damage of over $26.5 billion alone. With coastal population and development increasing, the potential for greater hurricane damage is likely. Over the past decade, tourism to Virginia Beach, the better-known Siamese sister of Sandbridge beach, has risen significantly, as has growth in the five cities that make up South Hampton Roads (Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach). In summary, all of the Hampton Roads areas could suffer greatly.

On average, five of these storms strike the U.S. coastline every three years, killing 50 to 100 people from Texas to Maine. Yet, Hampton Roads has been comparatively lucky. August

1998 brought Hurricane Bonnie, the most substantial storm to hit Hampton Roads since 1960.

Luckily, it moved on with manageable property damage and without loss of life. Our recent escape from major storm events has separated us from the very real threat of what each season, June through November, could bring.

Vulnerable Shorelines In the midst of all the facts, early warnings and suggested preparations rests South Hampton Roads’ most vulnerable spot, the Sandbridge section of Virginia Beach, where its low elevation and narrow width leave it dangerously susceptible to damage from hurricanes and northeasters. Sandbridge is especially defenseless to the effects of storms since it is at a nodal point in the ocean current cycle. This means that while most coastal areas accumulate excess sand in the off-storm season so there is no net loss when storms pull sand back out to sea, Sandbridge does not have this luxury.

Hence, the beach has been tragically receding at a remarkable six feet per year.

Virginia’s shorelines are not isolated in coastal recession. One recent newsworthy event, where humans combat the elements, is the $9.8 million project to move inland the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, a favorite attraction on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This lighthouse was constructed in 1870 at a thensafe distance of 1,500 feet from the shoreline.

Due to erosion, by 1935 the ocean had crept to within 100 feet of the lighthouse. In 1994, Hurricane Gordon came close enough to wrench away much of the remaining beach, despite human efforts aimed at lessening the effects of erosion. Like Sandbridge, the fate of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse could no longer be left to chance and nature.

Sandbridge Since the publication of the first article of this three-part series, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Norfolk District, together with the city of Virginia Beach, and the U. S. Department of Interior’s Mineral Management Service (MMS) finalized and executed its restorative efforts for the Sandbridge coastline. The twophase process consisted of (1) beach engineering design and feasibility studies, and (2) the dredging of sand to replenish sand resources.

Since the Sandbridge barrier reef rests in federal waters, a unified effort among local and federal governments was launched in response

Left: Within a three-month span, 1.1 million cubic yards of sand was placed on the beach at Sandbridge. The sand slurry (water and sand mixture) was siphoned out of a hopper dredge through a pipeline onto the beach.

Below: The new sand rose six feet above sea level, 35 feet in width and four-and-a-half miles long, stretching from South Pier to Dam Neck, before it was shaped and graded.

All photos provided by Brian Rheinhart, Norfolk Corp of Engineers.

to the outcry of Sandbridge and area residents.

Phillip Roehrs, coastal engineer for Virginia Beach’s Office of Beach Management, was the main contact for the MMS and Old Dominion’s alumni, John Rowland (who provided information for this series).

The city of Virginia Beach paid $8.1 million for environmental assessments, archeological detections, air quality studies, dredging and sand placement. Brian Rheinhart, project manager for the Norfolk Corps of Engineers, reports that within a three-month span 1.1 million cubic yards of sand was placed on the beach at Sandbridge. It rose six-feet above sea level, 35 feet in width and four-and-a-half miles long stretching from South Pier to Dam Neck. The sand was dredged in from off-shore at a borrow site three to five miles east of Sandbridge. Using a floating pump attached to a buoy, the sand slurry (water and sand mixture) was siphoned out of a hopper dredge through a pipeline onto the beach. Bulldozers were then used for shaping and grading of the dredged sand according to specifications of beach berm. Dunes were positioned using sea oats, various grasses and fences to help stabilize them.

Tightening Our Grip The city of Virginia Beach, not only concerned with Sandbridge’s erosion, was concerned that erosion could become a major problem for the Virginia Beach oceanfront, too. A significant face-lift and expansion of the boardwalk has been, and is still being, conducted. The newly widened concrete walkway with its separate bike path is multi-functional beyond attractiveness: •better accommodating of patrons enjoying restaurants, shops and/or lodging; •widening and lengthening the boardwalk;

•providing a safer environment by separating walkers from bikers; and •safeguarding resort structures from flooding and damage during major storm events.

This last function hopes to be accomplished by a seawall that was integrated into the newly reconstructed boardwalk, and by the placement of three-million cubic yards of sand stretching from Rudee Inlet to 29th Street.

With all these restoration efforts, erosion has, at least for the moment, been staved.

Nature, in its unrelenting cycle of growth and decay will undoubtedly raise its mighty hand again and wield a crushing blow to our coastline. The only question is when. As this issue goes to publication, Tropical Storm Dennis passed nearby. Brian Rheinhart reports the recent sand replenishment at Sandbridge worked. But when a hurricane does sweep across our cities, preparation will be key to sustaining no loss of life and minimizing property damage. Several organizations including the Red Cross (www.redcross.org/disaster/ safety/guide/hurricane), the National Weather Center (www.hurricane.weathercenter. com) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (www.noaa.gov) have easily accessible Internet sites with tips on preparing for, and advice for the aftermath of, hurricanes. Until that critical time, other projects like the restoration and protection of Sandbridge may be needed and considered to loosen the grip of the storm.

This is the third of a threearticle series focusing on the Sandbridge barrier. The first segment described the barrier’s dynamic geologic environment (Today’s Science, 1997, Vol. 9 No. 2). The second segment cited the vulnerability of the barrier to damaging changes from relentless marine energy-related processes (Catalyst, 1998, Vol. 10 No. 1). This final segment focuses on recent coastal beach protection projects.

Cooperative efforts to protect coastal southeastern Virginia are the result of public support, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Norfolk District, the Department of the Interior– Mineral Management Service, the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, Old Dominion University and the city of Virginia Beach.

For more information concerning coastal projects, contact either: John Rowland John_Rowland@mms.gov (703) 787-1297 or Brian K. Rheinhart Brian.K.Rheinhart@NAO02.

USACE.ARMY.MIL (757) 441-7768

23

Students

Outstanding Students These students were recognized at the Spring 1999 Awards Banquet: Frank Thomson III Outstanding Senior in Biology Christopher G. Hardy Outstanding Graduating Senior in Biochemistry American Institute of Chemists Award Matthew T. Brown Outstanding Graduating Senior in Chemistry Hampton Roads Section of the American Chemical Society Award Taylor W. Frith Outstanding Graduate in Computer Science Radford Mitchell Anne Watson Outstanding Graduating Geology Students Robert Bolling Outstanding Graduating Senior in Applied Mathematics Stephanie Holmes Outstanding Graduating Senior in Mathematics Education Steven Kibler Outstanding M.S. Graduating Student in Oceanography Brian Parsons Outstanding Ph.D. Graduating Student in Oceanography Shannon Cowell Outstanding Graduate in Physics Otey A. Arnold Elizabeth Guy Award to the Outstanding Psychology Student

24 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

Outstanding Graduate Students The College of Sciences recognized two outstanding graduate teaching assistants at the May college commencement ceremony. With these honors, each recipient receives a subscription to a science magazine of their choice, a $125 gift certificate from Barnes and Noble and $150 cash.

A doctoral student in industrial/organizational psychology (I/O), Jonathan E. Turner was named Outstanding Classroom Graduate Teaching Assistant.

Faculty recommendations rated him as an exceptional and very professional instructor. Student comments noted his good communication skills, well-organized presentations, availability to students, and his effective use of technology to enhance instruction. Turner feels there are two factors that contributed to his success as a student at Old Dominion. The first is the high quality of faculty in the psychology’s I/O program. The second is the thoroughness of the education he is receiving because the I/O program offers such a wide variety of areas within the discipline at both the theoretical and practical levels. Turner loves working with students and watching them mature in their knowledge of introductory psychology over a semester. He finds a particular challenge in finding and experimenting with new ways to present material.

Jamie Dresbach, a doctoral student in biology, was named Outstanding Laboratory Gradu-

ate Teaching Assistant. Faculty recommendations rated her as an excellent instructor. Student comments mentioned her thorough explanation of difficult concepts and willingness to help students understand these concepts. Her communication skills and patience were consistently mentioned as two of her most positive traits. Dresbach feels fortunate to have had extraordinary mentors while at Old Dominion.

She particularly appreciates Nancy Wade, associate professor of biology, who has shown her that the most important practice is the maintenance of high standards. Dresbach works hard to incorporate this same practice into her classes, too. She uses humor and personal anecdotes relevant to the material to help students visualize applications of the material outside of the laboratory setting. She realizes that she can’t excite every student about biology, but she doesn’t let that stop her from trying.

Other Awards: Edward Haskell, formerly an oceanography graduate student, won the 1999 Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award presented at the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools and UMI, a Bell & Howell Company.

His thesis is titled, “Modeling Plankton Community Structure Under Environmental Forcing on the Southeastern U. S. Continental Shelf.”

Karen Rossignol, oceanography doctoral student, received the Hampton Roads Maritime Award.

Satish Balay, doctoral student in computer science, was presented with the Argonne

National Laboratory Pacesetter Award for his extraordinary effort in supporting the development of a new generation oil reservoir simulator.

Liminita Todor, physics doctoral student, received the 1999 Luise Meyer-Schutzmeister Memorial Award by the Association for Women in Science Education Foundation.

College Scholarship Award Recipients The College of Sciences offers several awards each year to qualified students. The recipients of these awards for 1999-2000 are: Deborah Hutchinson Harvey L. Rodgers Virginia S. Bagley Award (Biological Sciences) Katharina Gauss Claire Virginia Dabel (Biological Sciences)

Timothy Callaway A. Kenneth Scribner Science Scholarship Angela Vogel C. S. Sherwood III Scholarship (Geology or Chemistry/Biochemistry)

Other Students in the News Kristine A. Gonzalez, a senior biological sciences major, has been named to the third team of the USA Today 1999 All-USA College Academic Team, the first time an Old Dominion student has been so honored. She was one of 80 students chosen from 983 applicants nominated by colleges and universities across the country. In her nomination essay, Gonzalez, who plans to pursue an academic pediatrician career in infectious disease, described a research project for which she determined the effectiveness of counseling on new mothers’ initiation and duration of breastfeeding, an important strategy for protecting infants against disease.

Christopher G. Hardy, a recent graduate in chemistry, is one of seven winners of a national award, the 1999 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) undergraduate poster competition book prize. His poster was entitled, “Separation of Queuosine-modified tRNA Isoacceptors.” His research was carried out at Old Dominion under the guidance of Professor Mark S. Elliott.

Adell Healy, a junior psychology major, was chosen Miss Norfolk 1999, a Miss Virginia and Miss America preliminary.

She won both the swimsuit and the Bettie Minette Cooper Talent Award. Healy is a certified EMT, a teacher and model, as well as a volunteer at both Sentara and the Children’s Hospital of the Kings Daughters.

Rosemarie Liu, a sophomore biological sciences major with a double minor in chemistry and music performance, was the first prize co-winner of the Fifth Annual College Concerto Competition. Held April 24 at

Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA, the concert was sponsored by the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival. During the festival in July, Liu was a featured violin soloist with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra.

Brian Maupin, a recent graduate in geology, won the Mandell Award as 1998-99 Outstanding Science Education Student. The award is based on methods class, practicum and student teaching.

25

Students

Students on The Move Outstanding students are not that unusual in the College of Sciences because the sciences demand their majors be consistently exemplary in and around the classroom.

The central theme that the following three students have in common is their desire to become medical doctors. Usually this major is demanding enough without adding extensive extra-curricular activities to the existing responsibilities; however, these students willingly attach even more time and energy constraints to their schedules.

26 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

“Old Dominion has proven that athletic success and academic integrity go hand in hand.”

Mily Kannarkat Pre-Med Student Athlete With the same energy and confidence that she uses to volley a tennis ball over the net for Old Dominion University, Mily Kannarkat aggressively pursues her scholastic goals as well. The discipline required to remain a competitive athlete has given Mily more than prestige; it has endowed her with the ability to concentrate on her goals, whether athletic, academic or personal, until she has achieved success.

Although Mily is well aware of the rigors involved and of the scarcity of women in her chosen medical field of orthopedics, she works to maintain not only her national tennis ranking but continues to pursue a difficult medical career.

Not long ago, there was a time when Mily had reservations about finding a university that would provide the forum for her to excel both academically and athletically, a place that would complement both her background and her aspirations.

Fortunately, she discovered Old Dominion University, “an institution which successfully incorporates the realm of academia with the sphere of athletics,” she contends.

Mily felt assured that the tennis program at Old Dominion would offer her both opportunity and challenge, especially since Old Dominion’s Tzipi Obsiler won the National Collegiate Clay Court Title in 1995, and in that same year earned a number one individual tennis ranking. Since that time, the Old Dominion tennis program has steadily advanced to the point that it could attract Mily, ranked as the top under-18 player by the Mid-Atlantic Tennis Association, and

#68

nationally. Her athletic performance while at Old Dominion has been as impressive as it was at First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach. In her first year with the Lady Monarchs, Mily was named to the second team All-CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) in women’s tennis and was named the most outstanding performer at the CAA Women’s Tournament. She also holds the distinction of being the highest-ranking U.S. citizen ever to play for Old Dominion University.

Outstanding though her athletic achievements may be, there is yet another side to Mily Kannarkat that sets her apart from the rest – the challenging pre-medicine curriculum upon which she has embarked and the impressive 3.98 grade point average that distinguishes her successes as a student. While a

near-perfect grade point average may be rare among freshmen, it comes as no surprise that Mily could accomplish this, too. She is, after all, a Brickell Scholar, ranked sixth out of 350 nationally. Nor is Mily herself completely surprised by her success; one of the aspects of Old Dominion University which Mily was most impressed with is the “duality of academics and athletics,” something she notices particularly in the College of Sciences. Mily, now a junior, has persevered in the Old Dominion tradition of attaining both academic and athletic excellence.

Although her academic record practically assures her admittance into the nation’s top medical schools, Mily feels both fortunate and relieved to know that through the Old Dominion University/Eastern Virginia Medical School joint program in medicine, she is guaranteed medical school admission into EVMS. Even more importantly, this guaranteed acceptance means that Mily can enjoy more freedom as an undergraduate to take courses that cater to her career interests, rather than to concentrate on those courses deemed essential for medical school acceptance.

All things aside, Mily recognizes the strenuous demands of her career path and acknowledges that the road before her will not always be a smooth one.

She thrives on the challenge of the game, on overcoming the daunting obstacles before her, and on making the insurmountable appear not only tangible, but entirely within her reach.

Sharifa Charlery Pre-Med Student 1998-99 Student Body President

Interview with Catalyst editor: Catalyst: How did you hear about Old Dominion University?

Sharifa: I learned about Norfolk and Old Dominion through my sister, who attended Norfolk State University. Until then, I had never heard anything about the university and was a bit skeptical about applying.

I sent off for information and after looking through the catalog, I decided to put Old Dominion on my top three list, along with Hampton University and The College of William and Mary.

What was it like coming to Old Dominion University?

Coming to Old Dominion was

a “you get what you pay for” experience. My first visit to the university came in the form of the Honors Preview, by which time my decision to come here was pretty certain. Being originally from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, I did not know any of the people in my preview session or at the univer-

sity; however, making friends was easy as people were very interested in knowing someone who would trade fun in the sun for school in Virginia.

How did you become interested in medicine?

I must be honest. My first love was law. I loved to debate and challenge issues. I felt my ability to persuade people could be best used in a courtroom.

My freshman year was spent taking general education courses, including chemistry as my natural science requirement.

During this year I decided the legal profession may be too ethically compromising for my personality.

Needing a new direction and learning about the physical therapy program at Old Dominion University, I decided to

major in exercise science. After watching numerous episodes of ER on television, I wanted to try my hand at becoming a physician’s assistant. Upon changing my major to biology; the first class I took in that discipline was anatomy and physiology with Dr. Ralph Stevens. Both parts of the course

27

Students took eight weeks in the summer with eight-hour class/lab days and six-hour study evenings. It is by far the best and most challenging course I have ever taken at Old Dominion.

Dr. Stevens pushes his students past their limits and demands that each do well in the course.

I learned that a couple of things contributed to my success in his class: If I could not answer his rounds of questions correctly, the guilt trip was enough to make me stay up an extra hour each night to better learn the material for the next time; His depth of knowledge motivated me to learn more; I wanted to know what he knew.

It was in this class that I developed my love for biology, especially for anatomy and physiology. I now plan to go to medical school and become a neonatologist.

As you managed your responsibilities as student body president with being a student, what was a typical day like for you?

This past year as student body president was tough and included classes in cell biology, organic chemistry, developmental biology, computer science, biology seminar while trying to complete a minor in counseling. A typical day was something like this: 7 a.m. Get up, dress, skip breakfast, and be at the computer lab by 8 a.m.

8-9:15 Finish a computer science assignment.

9:30-10:45 CS 149 class. Turn in assignment.

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monarch health care insurance presentation with Dr. Burnett, Dean of Students, and Jenni Foss, Director of Student Health Services.

28 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

12:45 Meeting ran over, skip lunch.

1-1:20 Meeting with a concerned student.

1:20-1:27 Write note to my secretary about final updates for today’s Senate agenda.

1:30-2:45 Cell biology.

2:50-3:10 Draft memo to student organizations.

3:15-5:15 Chair the Student Senate meeting.

5:20 Check watch. Student Ambassador meeting already in progress.

5:30 Rush to Student Ambassador meeting.

6-6:45 Back to my office to finish memo and plan for Thursday’s executive meeting.

7-8 National Pan-Hellenic Council meeting.

8:30-10:30 Trip to Bennigan’s with friends. Take developmental biology book to read, while being criticized by friends for bringing it.

11 p.m.-1 a.m. Finish reading for developmental biology. Start organic chemistry readings and problems.

1:30 Lights out. (Turning in early)

How did I take classes, find the time to be a member of my sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, be a student ambassador, chair the Student Senate and be president of the student body?

Great time management skills and little sleep!

Catalyst: What are your plans for this present year?

Sharifa: Now that I am 20 and starting my fifth year at the university, I will focus on completing my degree. I plan to still be involved in extracurricular activities but I want to be more dedicated to my studies; after all, I have to prepare for the MCATs to be admitted into a medical school in 2001!

“How did I take classes, find the time to be a member of my sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, be a student ambassador (grouped left, Sharifa is first in the third row from bottom), chair the Student Senate and be president of the student body?

Great time management skills and little sleep!”

Jason Shumadine Pre-Med Student Army Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (AROTC) Cadet If ever one was to say that a person was born knowing what they expected out of life, we would certainly be describing Jason Shumadine, a biology senior. Proud to be a life-long resident of Hampton Roads, the 21-year-old graduated with honors from Indian River High School and entered Old Dominion University with advanced placement credits in math, chemistry and political science.

Although he initially began his college career focusing on physical therapy, it became increasingly evident throughout his freshman year that he was meant to be nothing less than a medical doctor; so he changed his major to pre-medicine.

Career choices seemed to come easy for Jason, for he started the Army ROTC program in his freshman year, too. Jason remarked, “It is a great way to help cover college expenses but it is extremely physically demanding.” As a freshman and sophomore, physical training is

required every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Jason must also include three credits of AROTC classes per semester in addition to his general education and major requirements. AROTC holds its labs every Thursday afternoon where cadets must dress in uniform. The rigid agenda for the AROTC requirements can provide a scheduling challenge for cadets who are registering for other general education or major courses around the AROTC classes, physical training and labs.

Outside of the normal intense routine Jason came to know, at least one weekend each semester is spent on a Battalion Field Training Exercise that Jason describes as “fun”. He enjoys the war simulation in the woods.

Cadets are fitted with weapons, blanks and safety devices. They learn to master obstacle courses, perform land navigations and participate in leadership reaction courses.

Jason recalls that his junior year in AROTC was the most demanding. Physical training was increased from three to five days per week with more weekend training exercises each semester,

too. The additional weekend train- ing focused on land navigation and MIG qualifications.

Besides his relentless AROTC and course schedules, Jason spends his free time weight lifting, tutoring other students, volunteering at Norfolk General Hospital in the vascular and cardiology areas, and working for the Chesapeake YMCA. He maintains a 3.99 grade point average and is a member of the Golden Key National Honor Society, Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, Omicron Delta Kappa National Honor Society, Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society, Biology Tri-Beta Honor Society and Old Dominion’s Honors College.

When asked what the driving force is that disciplines him, he replied, “When I began to excel in high school, everyone else expected nothing less from me; then, I couldn’t accept anything less of myself.” Jason speaks fondly of his 10th grade high school biology teacher, Mrs. E. Moser, who he remembers as one tough teacher. Afraid that he couldn’t make it in her class, he began turning in his assignments early and trying to perform

above her level of expectation.

When Mrs. Moser complimented him in class one day, she provided the missing ingredient Jason needed – self-confidence. Jason remembers it well. “The positive reinforcement I received that day lit a fire in me to keep striving to do my best.” Jason continued to excel in the sciences throughout his years in high school.

His choice to pursue an area of science in college was a natural one.

He chose to attend Old Dominion University because it offered a pre-medicine curriculum and it would be more affordable for him to live at home. He attributes much of his ability to continue his AROTC and class obligations, study for the MCATs, and perform his volunteer and work responsibilities at the same time by using good time management skills.

For the future, Jason plans to graduate from Old Dominion in 2000, and then attend a Virginia medical school to become either a neurologist or a cardiologist.

His AROTC training and education will enable him to become an officer as well as a doctor.

He would like to retire from the Army at 46, come back to Hampton Roads, and open private practice.

29

STAFF

Recently Retired Staff Member

New Faces in the College

Milestones The following employees were honored for their years of service to Old Dominion University at the Service Awards Luncheon last November sponsored by the Department of Human Resources.

Peggy Kinard Department of Psychology Office Services Specialist 5 Years

The College of Sciences expresses its appreciation to Thurman Gardner, Science Shop supervisor, for his 30 years of service to the college and the University.

Gardner came to the College of Sciences as its first machinist in August 1969. Over the years, the shop grew to three full-time classified employees, a parttime glass blower and a student employee. Gardner is known throughout the College for his ability to create one-of-a-kind prototypes of scientific equipment. In his retirement, Gardner is expecting to play lots of golf, do volunteer work, and start a part-time business. His friends in the College will miss his expertise, his controlled demeanor and his humor.

30 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

Linda Mihilasky College of Sciences Executive Secretary Senior 5 Years John Hill Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Installation and Repair Supervisor 20 Years Delicia Malin Department of Physics Office Services Assistant 10 Years

The College of Sciences wants to welcome nine new faculty members, all with diverse backgrounds and disciplines. The Catalyst would like to take the opportunity to introduce these new additions to the Sciences family.

Mohamed Ahmed, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Computer Science A recent graduate of the University of Louisville, School of Engineering, Ahmed joins the computer science faculty with a doctorate in computer science and engineering.

He has been involved in several research projects, digital signal and image processing, artificial and biological neural systems, and genetic algorithms.

Kevin H. Johannesson, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Johannesson joins Old Dominion from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he was a research hydro-geochemist at the Center for Environmental Studies. He received his doctorate in 1993 from the University of Nevada, Reno; his M.S. from Boston College; and his B.S. from the University of New Hampshire.

His research concerns trace elements in groundwater. He is the author of 18 research papers.

Faculty

Mark Lee, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Psychology After two years as a human factors consultant engineer with NCR Retail Systems Group in Atlanta, GA, Lee has joined Old Dominion University. He earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. in engineering psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

An organizational psychologist with research interests in visual and auditory information processing, skill acquisition and human-computer interaction, Lee teaches courses in perception and human factors psychology at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

James G. Sanders, Ph.D. Professor and Chair Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Sanders will assume the chairmanship of the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences later this fall. He received his B.S. degree in zoology from Duke University and his Ph.D. in marine sciences from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Sanders conducted postdoctoral research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute before assuming his first faculty appointment at the University of Maryland’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. He went on to serve in a variety of research and administrative roles at the

Academy of Natural Sciences’ Estuarine Research Center and now serves that institution as its curator and director. He is the author of numerous research publications, has held and currently holds external research support, including large grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrative ­– Coastal Ocean Program, and serves on a variety of prestigious boards and national advisory and review committees.

Linda Stals, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Computer Science Stals received her doctorate from the Australian National University. Prior to coming to Old Dominion, she spent a year in a postdoctoral position at the University of Bath. Stals has authored several publications since completing her degrees and will be teaching courses in advanced computations.

William J. Resetarits Jr., Ph.D. Associate Professor Biological Sciences A recent addition to the faculty, William Resetarits joins Old Dominion after serving as an associate professional scientist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, Center for Aquatic Ecology. His responsibilities include teaching biometry and a community ecology course.

Resetarits’ research concerns the ecology of amphibians in the eastern coastal plain, and his work currently is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Sameh Yamany, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Computer Science A recent graduate of the University of Louisville, School of Engineering. Yamany joins the computer science faculty with a doctorate in computer science and engineering. His recent research includes the analysis of freeform 3-D surfaces in medical imaging with specific applications including brain surgery and orthodontics.

Nancy Xu, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Chemistry and Biochemistry A native of China, Xu received her Ph.D. in chemistry in 1992 from the University of Mississippi. She joins Old Dominion after a post- doctoral appointment at the University of Texas and another at Iowa State University. She is a bioanalytical chemist with research interests in the detection of motion of single molecules as well as the detection of single biological species and single biological events in skin cancer and AIDS.

Chen Zhu, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Zhu has come to Old Dominion after four years as a senior geochemist at HIS GeoTrans Inc. He did his postdoctoral work at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins in 1992, his M.S. at the University of Toronto and his B.S. at Chengdu Institute of Technology in China. His research concerns the geochemistry of hydrothermal and other groundwater systems. During his first year at Old Dominion, he has instructed students in mineralogy and hydrogeology and has been principal investigator of several research projects encompassing his main research interests of general hydrology and geochemistry.

31

Faculty

Two President’s Graduate Fellows Join the Sciences

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) bestowed its highest award for faculty upon Dr. Daniel Dauer, an eminent scholar and professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.

Outstanding Faculty Member Honored

32 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

The College of Sciences has always known that its faculty are a tremendous asset to the university. It comes as no surprise to us that the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) bestowed its highest award for faculty upon Dr. Daniel Dauer, an eminent scholar and professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. The Outstanding Faculty Award recognizes superior accomplishments in teaching, research and public service – three areas Dauer has maintained excellence in for years.

Dauer joined the department in 1975 and served as its chair from 1990-96. Presently, in addition to his faculty responsibilities, he is director of the Benthic Ecology Laboratory and an associate director of the Applied Marine Research Laboratory. During his many years of service to the College of Sciences, Dauer has received 75 grants totaling more than $10 million and has pub-

lished 52 articles in journals and periodicals. His public service has been demonstrated through his extensive work on the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay, working with the Environmental Protection Agency to provide information related to the preservation of the bay.

For years, the College of Sciences has encouraged and applauded the accomplishments of Dauer. Now, it is satisfying that SCHEV, too, has recognized Dauer as a tremendous asset to Virginia’s educational system.

Old Dominion offers the President’s Graduate Fellowship program to increase the number of minority and women faculty members who hold a terminal degree in critical academic areas.

With this program, the university provides financial support to highly promising minorities and women working toward their terminal degree. In exchange, the fellows agree to serve in a tenure-track faculty position at Old Dominion University for at least three years upon completion of all requirements for the degree.

This year, the College of Sciences would like to welcome two new faculty who completed the President’s Fellowship Program in 1999.

Alice S. Alexander, Assistant Professor Clinical Psychology Alice Alexander will join the Department of Psychology this fall. She is completing her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Rutgers University. She recently fulfilled a one-year internship at Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey. Although she came to Old Dominion full-time in August, Alexander began her affiliation with the university much earlier. During summer 1997 and 1998, she was a visiting instructor in the Department of Psychology and taught a popular course on adolescent development.

Alexander’s research interests also focus on adolescence, particularly the development of at-risk youth.

Jennifer Slate, Assistant Professor Environmental Biology Jennifer Slate joins the Department of Biological Sciences this fall semester after having completed post-doctoral research at the University of Michigan. She earned her Ph.D. in biology at the University of Louisville. Slate enjoys teaching at the university level, feeling that positive role models are essential to the education environment. She states, “Successful women and minority scientists who enjoy their careers serve as role models to women and minority students who may not picture themselves as someone who could be a scientist.” She plans to use her role as a professor to reach out to women and minority students in the sciences.

Reflections Since its establishment, Old Dominion University has been blessed to have the support, dedication and talents of fine individuals. Were it not for these people, both past and present, neither the College of Sciences nor the university would be as strong and viable as they are at this moment. Catalyst would like to take a moment to reflect upon the life and achievements of one of its former faculty who passed away recently.

Clifford L. Adams, Founder of the Physics Department 1918 - 1999 In 1958, when Clifford Adams was first introduced to the array of buildings that would become the campus of Old Dominion University, he was determined to establish a physics department. He recognized this as a crucial step in the university’s transformation from a two-year college to a four-year institution, and a firm statement of Old Dominion’s full independence from the College of William and Mary.

After founding the Department of Physics in 1960 and serving as its first chair, Adams continued to devote his career to the enhancement of both his home department and the College of Sciences. Believing that individual and group research needed to be fostered within the university, Adams led in organizing the Old Dominion University Research Foundation and served as its first executive director from 1966 to 1974. During 1973-74, he also held the position of associate provost for research and sponsored programs.

Not only did Adams devote his special talents to Old Dominion, he was actively involved in

higher education at the state level, too. He served as chair of the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia’s Research and Development Advisory Committee and was president of the Virginia chapter of the American Association of Physics Teachers.

Before his retirement in 1979, he returned to the department he loved most and served for a short time as its chair to help it through a period of transition. It was during that time that the Department of Physics received approval to offer the doctoral degree.

After his retirement as Professor of Physics Emeritus, he was active in the university’s organization of professors emeriti. Professor Adams was truly one of the pivotal figures in the development of Old Dominion University.

33

Departmental NOtes Terry L. Hickey, dean, was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi.

Biological Sciences Rebecca D. Bray, adjunct associate professor, presented the paper “Colonial Quillwort – A New Species of Isoetes from York County, Va.” at the Association of Southeastern Biologists meeting in Wilmington, NC. Joseph C. Daniel Jr., dean emeritus, and Peter J. Mikulka, professor of psychology, published “Discrimination Learning in the White Rhinoceros” in Vol. 58 of Applied Animal Behavior Science.

Daniel M. Dauer, eminent scholar, was selected by the U.S. delegation to serve on the Advisory Council of the International Polychaetological Association.

Dauer presented the paper “Hydrodynamics, Functional Morphology and Feeding Behavior in the Benthic Boundary Layer” at the 6th International Polychaete Conference in Curitiba, Brazil.

Andrew S. Gordon, chair and professor; and John R. Donat, associate professor of chemistry, published (with two co-authors) “Copper-responsive Production of High-affinity, Extracellular Copper-complexing Ligands from Chemostat Cultures of Marine Bacteria (Synechococcus WH 7803 and Vibrio alginolyticus)” in Vol. 2 of Research Development in Microbiology.

Cynthia M. Jones, professor, published (with one co-author) “Radiocarbon from Nuclear Fallout as Applied to the Age Validation of Black Drum, Pogonias Cromis” Vol. 96, No. 2 of the Fishery Bulletin.

34 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

Jones received the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, Australia; and the Old Dominion University Outstanding Researcher Award.

and “A Fire Maintained Community in Southeastern Virginia” at the University of Damascus, Syria.

Stefan Koenemann, doctoral student; and John R. Holsinger, eminent scholar, presented their paper “Phylogenetic Analysis of the Amphipod Crustacean Family Bogidellidae, S. Lat., and Revision of Taxa Above the Species Level” at the fourth International Crustacean Congress in Amsterdam.

Robert K. Rose, professor, presented the paper “Re-evaluating the Population Substructure Model” at the Euro-American Mammal Congress in Santiago de Campostela, Spain.

Harold G. Marshall, professor emeritus, published “Pfiesteria Piscicida: An Unwelcome Resident Reported in Chesapeake Bay Estuaries” in Vol. 9, No. 1 of Virginia Scientists.

Lytton L. Musselman, professor and eminent scholar, received his third Fulbright Fellowship; was appointed the Mary Payne Hogan Professor of Botany; was awarded the Virginia Nature Conservancy 1999 Partnership Award for the Blackwater Ecologic Preserve; and served as president of Chapter 200, Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Musselman presented “Effective Conservation with Site Planning” at the Fulbright House, Amman, Jordan, and “The Relationship Between Faculty Research and Undergraduate Teaching” at the American Embassy, Damascus, Syria. This second lecture has been translated into Arabic and is being distributed in Syria.

He presented “Conservation Site Planning” to the Department of Environmental Studies, Al Balqaa University, Salt, Jordan. He also presented “The Strangest Plant in the World”

Simon R. Thorrold, research associate professor, and Cynthia M. Jones published (with three co-authors) “Trace Element Signatures in Otoliths Record Natal River of Juvenile American Shad (Alosa sapidissima)” in Vol. 43, No. 8 of Limnology and Oceanography. Also, (with two co-authors) “Accurate Classification of Juvenile Weakfish (Cynoscion regalis) to Estuarine Nursery Areas Based on Chemical Signatures in Otoliths” in Vol. 173 of Marine Ecology Progress Series.

Thorrold and Jones published (with two co-authors) “Accurate Classification of Nursery Areas of Juvenile Weakfish (Cynoscion regalis) based on Chemical Signatures in Otoliths” in Vol. 173 of Marine Ecology Progress Series.

Lloyd Wolfinbarger Jr., professor, chaired the American Society

for Testing and Materials Task Group on Tissue Engineered Medical Products. This group will write the standards the Food and Drug Administration will use in formulating its decisions regarding regulation of medical implantable cardiovascular devices.

Chemistry and Biochemistry Robert L. Ake, associate professor, received the 1998 Hirschfeld Faculty Excellence Award for the high standards of teaching he has maintained throughout his career.

Kenneth G. Brown, professor and chair, received the Paul F. Holloway Non-Aerospace Technology Transfer Award from NASA-Langley as a member of the catalyst development team.

John B. Cooper was promoted to associate professor and awarded tenure.

John R. Donat, associate professor, was selected to serve a second term on the research proposal review panel for the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Sciences Division Chemical Oceanography Program, Washington, D.C. Donat and David J. Burdige,

thogonal Stagnation-Point Flow” to the Department of Mathematics at East Carolina University.

professor of oceanography, published (with one co-author) “Porewater Distributions of Dissolved Copper and Copper-complexing Ligands in Estuarine Sediments” in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.

Old Dominion students and professors presented the following papers to the American Societies for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting in San Francisco: •Christopher G. Hardy, Carrie L. Skrzynski and Rana C. Morris, graduate students, and Mark S. Elliott, associate professor, presented “Separation of Queuosine Modified tRNA isoacceptors” and “The Effect of the Queuosine Modification on Anticodon Loop Flexibility.”

•Kevin B. Howerton, graduate student, and Elliott presented “The Kinetic Characterization of Reverse Transcriptase Using Fluorescent Techniques.”

•Gary Z. Morris, graduate student; Roy L. Williams, professor; R. Morris, Elliott, and Stephen Beebe, graduate student, presented “Resveratrol: a Naturally Occurring Phytoestrogen as a Tool to Study Apoptosis.”

•R. Morris and Elliott presented “The IQ of tRNA: Regulation of Translation and Cell Growth by Modified Nucleosides.”

X. Nancy Xu, assistant professor, published (with one co-author) “Single-Molecule Assay of Tumor Markers in T-cell Apoptosis” in the proceedings of the First NASA/NCI Workshop at Caltech.

Computer Science Chester E. Grosch, professor, published (with one co-author) “Visualizing 3D Flow” in Vol. 18 of Institute of Electrical and

Hideaki Kaneko, professor, published (with one co-author) “A New Proof of a Fixed Point Theorem of Edelstein” and “Remarks on Contractive-Type Mappings” in Vol. 1 of Scienticae Mathematicae. He also published “On a Variational Principle of Ekeland” in Functional Analysis - Selected Topics, P. K. Jain, editor (Narosa Publishing House).

Electronics Engineers Computer Graphics and Applications.

David Hysom, graduate student; and Alex Pothen, associate professor, published “Efficient Parallel Computation of ILU Preconditioners” in Supercomputing 99, IEEE Press, 1999.

Gary Kumfert, graduate student; and Pothen published “An Object-oriented Collection of Minimum Degree Algorithms: Design, Implementation, and Experiences” in Computing in Object-oriented Parallel Environments, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 1505, D.~Caromel et al (eds.), Springer Verlag, 1998. With Florin Dobrian, graduate student, they also published “Object-oriented Design of a Sparse Symmetric Solver” in the same issue.

Mathematics and Statistics John A. Adam, professor, published (with two co-authors) a book chapter “The Mathematical Modeling of Cancer: A Review,” in Mathematical Models in Medical and Health Sciences Conference Proceedings (Vanderbilt University Press).

Adam published two papers in Mathematical Method Modeling

Application Science, “The Pekeris Waveguide: A Case Study in Classical Applied Mathematics” and “(A Note on) the Shape of the Erythrocyte.”

Adam presented “Waves in Tumor Progression Space” in the Mathematical Problems in the Modeling and Control of Tumor Immune System Interactions workshop at Mathematisches Forschunginstitut in Oberwolfach, Germany. He also presented “Model-building in Cancer Biology: Conceptual Models – Are They Useful?” at the Center for Mathematical Biology, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, England.

Charles H. Cooke, professor, and Iem Heng, doctoral student, published “Error Correcting Codes Associated with Complex Hadamard Matrices” in Vol. 11, No. 4 of Applied Mathematics Letters.

Cooke and Heng published “On the Nonexistence of Certain Generalized Hadamard Matrices Over Groups” in Australasian Journal of Combinatorics, May, 1999.

J. Mark Dorrepaal, associate professor, presented “Non- Or-

Kaneko and Richard D. Noren, associate professor, published a chapter, “Numerical Solutions of Hammerstein Equations,” in “Boundary Integral Methods Numerical and Mathematical Aspects” (Southampton, U. K.: Computational Mechanics Publications).

Kaneko and Noren published (with one co-author) “Singularity Preserving Galerkin Method for Hammerstein Equations with Logarithmic Kernel” in Vol. 9 of Advances in Computational Mathematics.

John Kroll, associate professor, published “On the Chaotic Evolution of Baroclinic Instability of Wave-wave Interactions with Topography” in Vol. 57 of Journal of Marine Research.

Wu Li, associate professor, published (with one co-author) “Global Error Bounds for Convex Multifunctions and Applications” in Vol. 23 of Mathematics of Operations Research.

Li published (with one co-author) “Uniform Lipschitz Continuity of Best 1p-approximations

by Polyhedral Sets” in Vol. 228 of Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications.

35

Departmental NOtes nual meeting of the Peninsula Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Hampton.

Morgan organized the symposium on combinatorial design at the International Conference on Combinatorics, Statistics, and related areas in Mysore, India. He presented “Latin Squares: a Brief History and a Generalization” to the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India. He also presented “Orthogonal Collections of Latin Squares” at the University of Karnataka, Dharwad, India.

Li, and John Swetits, professor, published “Regularized Newton Methods for Minimization of Convex Quadratic Splines with Singular Hessians” in “Reformulation: Nonsmooth, Piecewise Smooth, Semismooth and Smoothing Methods” (Kluwer Academic Publishers).

Li (with one co-author) presented his paper “Exact Order of Hoffman’s Error Bounds Convex Quadratic Inequalities Derived from Vector-Valued Chebysher Approximation” at an Error Bounds and Applications in Mathematical Programming workshop in Hong Kong.

Also, he presented (with one co-author) “Properties of Penalty Functions Derived from Regularized Gap Function for Variational Inequalities” at Nonlinear Programming and Variational Inequalities workshop in Hong Kong.

John P. Morgan, professor, was the keynote speaker at the an-

36 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences David J. Burdige published (with one co-author) “The Biogeochemical Cycling of Dissolved Organic Nitrogen in Estuarine Sediments” Vol. 43, No. 8 of Limnology Oceanography.

Burdige was elected to the Programs Committee of the Geochemical Society.

Burdige presented “Cycling of Dissolved Organic Matter in Marine Sediments” to the geochemistry department at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and to the marine and analytical chemistry department at Goteborg University, Sweden.

Gregory Cutter, professor, published a book review of “Biogeochemistry of Intertidal Sediments” in Vol. 60; “Estuarine

Cycling of Carbonyl Sulfide” in Vol. 61 (with co-authors Li Zhang, doctoral student, and Russell Walsh, postdoctoral researcher); and (with co-author Lynda Cutter, lab manager) “Metalloids in the High-Latitude North Atlantic Ocean” in Vol. 61 in Marine Chemistry.

Dennis A. Darby, professor, published “Mysterious IronNickel-Zinc Shperules” Vol. 35 of Canadian Journal of Earth Science.

Darby published (with three co-authors) “Comparing Sea-ice Sediment Load with Beaufort Sea Shelf Deposits: Is Entrainment Selective?” Vol. 68 of Journal of Sedimentary Research.

Fred C. Dobbs, assistant professor, presented (with three co-authors) “Diversity of Deepsea Hydrothermal Vent Archaea from Loihi Seamount, Hawaii” at the Society for Microbiology Meeting in Lexington, VA. It was published in Vol. 45 of Deep-Sea Research II. Dobbs was promoted to associate professor and awarded tenure.

Lisa A. Drake, postdoctoral associate; Keun-Hyung Choi, doctoral student; A.G. Edward Haskell, former graduate student; and Dobbs presented “Vertical Profiles of Virus-like Particles and Bacteria in the Water Column and Sediments of Chesapeake Bay, USA” at the Society for Microbiology Meeting in Lexington, VA. It was published in Vol. 16 of Aquatic Microbial Ecology.

Kevin H. Johannesson, assistant professor, published (with one co-author) “Origin of Middle Rare Earth Element Enrichments in Acid Waters of a Canadian High Arctic Lake” in Vol. 63, No.

1 of Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.

Carl F. Koch, professor emeritus of geological sciences, published “Taxonomic Barriers and the Distortion of the Fossil Record” in The Adequacy of the Fossil Record, edited by S. Donovan and C. Paul (John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.: London, 1998).

John R. McConaugha, associate professor; Cathy S. McConaugha, lab manager, presented “Omivory in Decapod Larvae: Implications for Growth and Recruitment” at the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Santa Fe, NM. J. McConaugha presented “Biochemical Measures of Age in the Blue Crab, Callinectes Sapidus” during the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee Workshop at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Joseph H. Rule, associate dean and professor, published a book chapter “Trace Metal Cation Adsorption in Soils: Selective Chemical Extractions and Biological Availability” in A. Dabrowski (ed.), Adsorption and its Application in Industry and Environmental Protection, Vol. II: Studies in Environmental Protection, Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis, Vol. 120, Elsevier Science, Amsterdam.

Rule published (with one coauthor) “Mercury Concentrations in Soils Adjacent to a Former Chlor-alkali Plant,” Journal of Environmental Quality, Vol. 27.

Rule published “Site Investigations for Inorganic Element Contamination Utilizing Selective Soil Extractions and Phytomonitors,” proceedings of Second International Conference on Element

Cycling in the Environment: Bioaccumulation-ToxicityRemediation.

G. Richard Whittecar, associate professor, was distinguished as a university professor by Old Dominion.

Chen Zhu, assistant professor, presented a paper “Estimate of Recharge from 14C Dating of Groundwater Ages and Numerical Flow and Transport Modeling” at the American Geophysical Union spring meeting in Boston; was co-convener of special session at the same meeting.

Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography Larry P. Atkinson, director, made an invited talk about “Interaction Between the Southeast U.S. Shelf and the Gulf Stream: Lessons Learned,” in Port Lincoln, Australia.

Glen F. Cota, research associate professor, published (with four co-authors) “Modification of NO, PO and NO/PO During the Flow Across the Bering and Chukchi Shelves: Implications for Use as Arctic Water Mass Tracers” in Vol. 104 of Journal of Geophysical Research.

Eileen E. Hofmann and John M. Klinck, professors; Ricardo A. Locarnini, research assistant professor; and Bettina Fach, research assistant, published (with one co-author) “Krill Transport in the Scotia Sea and Environs” in Vol. 10 of Antarctic Science.

Hofmann published (with eight co-authors) “Interannual Variability of the South Georgia

Marine Ecosystems: Biological and Physical Sources of Variation in the Abundance of Krill” in Vol. 7 of Fisheries Oceanography.

Hofmann published (with four co-authors) “An Iron-based Ecosystem Model of the Central Equatorial Pacific” in Vol. 104 (C1) of Journal of Geophysical Research.

Hofmann presented “Issues, Concerns and Progress Toward Linking JGOFS and GLOBEC Modeling Studies” at the Second IGBF Congress in Shonan Village, Japan.

Hofmann and Klinck published (with two co-authors) “Understanding the Success and Failure of Oyster Populations: The Importance of Sampled Variables and Sample Timing” in Vol. 17, No. 4 of Journal of Shellfish Research.

Hae Cheol Kim, research assistant, published (with three co-authors) “The Seasonal Variation of Primary Productivity in the Antarctic Coastal Ecosystems” in Vol. 3, No. 2 of The Sea Journal of the Korean Society of Oceanography.

Peninsula Continental Shelf During 1993” to the applied marine science faculty at Cheju National University, Cheju City, Korea.

Klinck and Hofmann (and four other co-authors) presented “Modeling Population Dynamics of Pacific Oyster Crassostrea gigas in Korea” at the National Shellfisheries Association meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Chunyan Li, research assistant professor, and Arnoldo Valle-Levinson, assistant professor, published “Tide Induced MassFlux in Shallow Estuaries” in Ocean Wave Measurement and Analysis, edited by B. L. Edge and J. M. Hemsley, Vol. 2.

Li presented “Estuarine-Coastal Exchange Processes: Theories and Observations” at the Institute of Oceanology in Qingdao, China.

Ricardo A. Locarnini published (with four co-authors) “Transport and Water Masses of the Antarctic Slope Front System in the Eastern Weddell Sea” in Ocean, Ice and Atmosphere: Interactions

at the Antarctic Continental Margin, Antarctic Research Service, edited by S. Jacobs and R. Weiss (American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.). In the same publication, he also published (with four co-authors) “Water Masses and Mixing Near the Antarctic Slope Front.”

Thomas C. Royer, professor, cotaught a two-day course entitled “Ocean Processes and Salmon Ecology” in Anchorage, AL. Royer presented a paper “Coastal Hydrographic Responses in the Northern Gulf of Alaska to the 1997-8 ENSO Event” at the seventh annual North Pacific Marine Science Organization in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Valle-Levinson published (with one co-author) “Observations on the Influence of Downwelling Wings on the Chesapeake Bay Outflow” in Physics of Estuaries and Coastal Seas, edited by J. Dronkers, M. Scheffers, A. A. Balkema and Rotterdam (1998).

Valle-Levinson and Glen H. Wheless, research associate

A.D. Kirwan Jr., professor, Chester E. Grosch, and John J. Holzkom II, research assistant, published “Particle-in-Cell Simulations of a Lens on an F-Plane” in Vol. 4 of Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics.

Klinck published (with one coauthor) “Estimate of Bottom and Surface Stress During a SpringNeap Tide Cycle by Dynamical Assimilation of Tide Gauge Observations in the Chesapeake Bay” in Vol. 103 of Journal of Geophysical Research.

Klinck presented “Hydrographic Changes on the West Antarctic

37

Departmental NOtes professor, published (with one co-author) “Enhanced Stratification in the Lower Chesapeake Bay Following Northeasterly Winds” in Vol. 18 of Continental Shelf Research.

Valle-Levinson made three presentations, with co-authors, at the Mexican Geophysical Union Meeting, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, on “Observaciones Oceanograficas en La Bahia de Yavaros, Sonora, Durante Mayo-Junio de 1998”; “Es La Bahia de Yavaros, Sonora un Estuario?”; and “Observaciones Con ADCP en El Sistema Lagunar Huizache-Caimanero.”

Valle-Levinson published (with two co-authors) “Hydrography and Geostrophy Around Easter Island” in Vol. 47 of Deep-Sea Research I.

Physics Mark D. Havey, professor, was named a fellow of the American Physical Society, a high honor that is restricted to no more than one-half of one percent of the society’s membership.

Gilbert R. Hoy published (with eight co-authors),“Timeintegrated Energy Domain Measurements with Synchrotron Radiation” in Vol. 113 of Hyperfine Interactions.

Hoy published (with one coauthor) “Mossbauer-Zeeman 57Fe Spectroscopy Using Nuclear Ground States Dressed with RF Photons” in Vol. 10 of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter.

Charles E. Hyde-Wright, associate professor, and Paul E. Ulmer and Lawrence B. Weinstein, assistant professors, published (with a host of co-authors) “Quasielastic 12C(e,e’p) Reaction

38 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

at High Momentum Transfer” in Vol. C59 of Physical Review.

Hyde-Wright, Andreas Klein, associate professor; Sebastian E. Kuhn, associate professor; and B. A. Raue, postdoctoral research associate, published (with a host of co-authors) “Measurements of the Proton and Deuteron Spin Structure Functions g1 and g2” in Vol. D58 of Physical Review.

Hyde-Wright, Klein, Kuhn and Raue published (with a host of co-authors) “Measurements of R = sL/sT for 0.03 < x < 0.1 and Fit to World Data” in Vol. B452 of Physical Review Letters.

Liming Qin, research associate professor, Ulmer and Weinstein published (with a host of co-authors) “Induced Proton Polarization for π° Electroproduction at Q2 = 0.126 GeV2/c2 Around the ∆(12232) Resonance” in Vol. C58 of Physical Review and (with a host of co-authors) “Comparison of Polarization Observables in Electron Scattering from the Proton and Deuteron” in Vol. 80 of Physical Review Letters.

Qin, Gail E. Dodge, assistant professor; Hyde-Wright, Klein, Raue, Kuhn and Weinstein published (with four co-authors) “Prototype Studies and Design Considerations for the CLAS Region 2 Drift Chambers” in Vol. A 411 of Nuclear Instruments and Methods.

Winston Roberts, associate professor, began a rotation as a program officer for the National Science Foundation in theoretical nuclear and particle physics.

Rocco Schiavilla was promoted to associate professor and awarded tenure.

Luminita Todor, doctoral stu-

dent, is the first Old Dominion University student to receive the Luise Meyer-Schutzmeister Memorial Award, a prestigious competitive national award for women in graduate study in physics.

master’s graduate, and Robin J. Lewis, professor, published “Reactions to an HIV-positive Man: Impact of his Sexual Orientation, Cause of Infection and Research Participants’ Gender” in Vol. 2, No. 4 of AIDS and Behavior.

Todor and Lucca Ciciani, doctoral student, were chosen to receive a SURA Graduate Fellowship for graduate study in nuclear physics.

William Fals-Stewart published (with two co-authors) “Procedures for Evaluating the Dyadic Adjustment of Drug-abusing Patients and Their Intimate Partners” in Vol. 16, No. 1 of Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

Ulmer and Weinstein published (with a host of co-authors) “Neutron Detection Efficiency for the Measurement of the 2H(e,e’n)1H Cross Section” in Vol. A 405 of Nuclear Instruments and Methods, and “Measurement of the Induced Proton Polarization Pn in the 12C(e,e’p) Reaction” in Vol. 80 of Physical Review Letters.

Weinstein published (with a host of co-authors) “Measurement of the Interference Structure Function RLT for the 12C(e,e’p) Reaction in the Quasielastic Region” in Vol. C 58 of Physical Review. Also, (with a host of co-authors) “Signatures for Short-Range Correlations in 16O Observed in the Reaction 16O(e,e’pp)14C” in Vol. 81 of Physical Review Letters.

Psychology Thomas F. Cash, professor, was honored as a university professor

by Old Dominion.

Donald D. Davis, professor, published “Change Management and Consulting in Chinese Organizations” in Vol. 49, No. 2 of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research.

Valerian J. Derlega, professor, and Anita Barbee published an edited book, HIV and Social Interaction (Sage Publications, 1998).

Derlega, Susan Sherburne,

Fals-Stewart published (with two co-authors) “Drug-Abusing Patients and Their Intimate Partners: Dyadic Adjustment, Relationship Stability and Substance Use” in Vol. 8, No. 1 of Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Fals-Stewart was selected to give the commencement address entitled “Coming Home: Fulfilling the Promise of Professional Psychology in the New Millennium” for the 1999 graduating class of the California School of Professional Psychology.

Fals-Stewart received the 1998 Outstanding New Investigator Award from the International Conference on the Treatment of Addictive Behavior for his research on behavioral couples’ therapy and substance abuse.

Timothy T. Freitas, Psy.D. doctoral student, and FalsStewart published “Substance Use Patterns Associated with Cognitive Impairment Among Drug Abusers” in Vol. 61, No. 1 of Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior.

Michelle L. Kelley, associate professor, published “Importance of Fathers’ Parenting to African-American Toddlers’

Social and Cognitive Development” in Vol. 21, No. 4 of Infant Behavior & Development. Coauthors are Tammy S. Smith, master’s graduate; Arlene P. Green, master’s graduate; Andrea E. Berndt, doctoral graduate; and Melissa C. Rogers, bachelor’s graduate.

Kelley published (with two co-authors) “Masculinity Ideology Among Young African American and European American Women and Men in Different Regions of the United States” in Vol. 4, No. 3 of Cultural Diversity and Mental Health.

Mark Lee, assistant professor, was appointed chair of the Committee on Education and Training for the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Debra A. Major, associate professor, and Alexis A. Fink, doctoral candidate in I/O psychology, and Renee Stout of Naval Air Warfare Center published “The Development of Shared Understanding: Exploring Team Situational Awareness Through Role Theory” in Vol. 4 of Training Research Journal.

cal Association and the American Psychological Society.

Bryan E. Porter, assistant professor, was selected for inclusion in the fifth edition of Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, 1998.

Porter published “Predicting Active and Effective Agents for Safety: Test of the Actively Caring Approach” in Vol. 29, No. 4 of Journal of Safety Research.

Porter was awarded the 1998 John T. Hanna Award for traffic safety excellence given to “Intersection Connection” (Porter is director of this program to reduce red-light running) by the Concerned Citizens Advocating Traffic Safety, Hampton Roads, VA. Janis V. Sanchez, professor, is the 1998-99 recipient of the University Women’s Caucus Award for her “significant contributions to improving the situation of women at Old Dominion.”

Major and Fink presented “Linking Situation Awareness to Hierarchical Team Decision Making” at the 24th International Congress of Applied Psychology, San Francisco, CA. Robert M. McIntyre, associate professor, has been invited for the fifth consecutive summer to serve as a summer research associate on equal opportunity issues at the Department of Defense Management Institute at Patrick Air Force Base, FL. Danielle McNamara, assistant professor, gave invited talks at the Rocky Mountain Psychologi-

39

1998 Honor Roll of Donors The Old Dominion University College of Sciences expresses deep appreciation to the individuals and companies who, over the past year, have contributed to our many programs to help strengthen our efforts to achieve excellence. Donors in categories listed reflect neither pledged amounts nor Capital Campaign contributions. We have made very effort to compile a complete and accurate list of donors to the College of Sciences. We apologize if we have omitted anyone.

Dean’s Corporate and Foundation Circle Association for Computing Machinery Inc. AT&T Foundation Bell Atlantic Foundation Collins & Aikman Corporation Compaq Computers Corporation Cox Communications Inc. Crestar Foundation Eastern Computers Inc. Exxon Education Foundation U.S.A. Florida Power and Light Company Glaxo Wellcome Company Hampton Roads Traffic Club Inc. Harris Foundation Hoechst Celanese Foundation International Business Machines Inc. International Paper Co. Newport News Shipbuilding Drydock Co. Olin Corporation Patricia and Douglas Perry Foundation Salomon Brothers Inc. Sprint Corporation T. Parker Host Inc. Norfolk Foundation Thistle Foundation Trust TRW Inc. Virginia Natural Gas

Dean’s Platinum Circle $5,000 and Over Barry, Richard F. III Bullitt, Fay P. Ellis, John and Janet Mahlstedt, Brooke P. Smith, Dorothy D.

40 VOLUME 11, FALL 1999

Warren, Lewis and Lisa Willcox, Catherine Martin

Dean’s Gold Circle $1,000 - $4,999 Alexander, Scott A. Cherinka, Robert D. Dickerson, Mr. and Mrs. Douglas G. Maly, Kurt J. Scheffey, Joseph L. Dean’s Silver Circle $500 - $999 Ake, Robert L. Dahiya, Ram C. Daniel, Joseph C. Jr. Hickey, Terry L. Keyes, David E. Loy, Robert W. Vuskovic, Leposava Dean’s Copper Circle $100 - $499 Adam, John Altice, Perry E. Anderson, Lonnie M. Jr. Atiyah, Steven K. Atkinson, Larry P. AtLee, Richard Y. II Balitsky, Ianko Berent, Stanley Birsch, Frederick T. Blume, Karen W. Borysiewicz, Anthony F. Brown, Kenneth G. Browne, Beverly J. Butler, C. Baylor Cahoon, Sharon B. Campbell, Richard E. II Ciereszko, Ana A. Clark, Allen K. Clarke, Eva G. Cockrell, Todd R. Cook, Desmond C. Cox, James L. Jr. Cross, Joseph W. Darby, Dennis A. Dobbs, Frederick C. Dodge, Gail E. Donat, John R. Duncan, Bazil B. III Duncan, Perry M. Dunham, Thomas H. Dunn, Mark H. Eberhardt, Nancy K.

Elliott, Mark S. Ellwood, Kathleen C. Farmer, Archer D. Jr. Freeman, Frederick G. Gillen, Henry B. Given, JoAnn B. Goodloe, Alwyn E. Gordon, Andrew S. Graves, William J. Griffin, Jerome B. Jr. Hamid, Ayman Adel Hart, Kathryn L. Haupt, Kelly D. Hodson, Brian J. Homsher, Paul J. Honick, Murray G. Hooks, Walton A. Jr. Hoy, Gilbert R. Hughes, Charles F. Jr. Hyde-Wright, Charles E. Jeffrey, Barbara M. Jenkins, Peter A. Johnson, David R. Justice, Elaine Kandil, Osama A. Kanipe, Rebecca W. Kilburn, Kerry S. Kinard, Peggy H. Kroll, John E. Kuhn, Sebastian E. Leong, Lawrence Levy, Gerald F. Lewis-Schoner, Robin J. MacDougall, Sue C. Maniscalco-Theberge, Mary E. Marshall, Harold G. Mayo, Michael N. McLaughlin, Matthew S. McNamara, Maureen F. Melrose, Gordon Mihilasky, Linda Mikulka, Peter J. Moen, Laura K. Mucciola, John K. Mukkamala, Ravi Naik, Dayanand N. Nesius, Kneeland K. Oglesby, Donald M. Olson, Robert P. Overstreet, C. Michael Padula, Donald L. Pick, David F. Pleban, Patricia A. Polifka, Lt. Col. (ret.) Lois E. Porter, Jonas M.

Pothen, Alex Radyushkin, Anatoly V. Ratcliffe, Denise H. Rothgery, Lorraine Rouse, Cathy M. Rule, Joseph H. Rutter, Catherine E. Sadler, Philip W. Schwing, James L. Scully, Frank E. Jr. Sharpe, Martha S. Shen, Stewart N. Shufflebarger, David T. Smith, Judy B. Sonenshine, Daniel E. Starr, Roger W. Streker, Stephen D. Strobel, Scott D. Stuck, Mary M. Sweeney, Thomas M. Jr. Swetits, John J. III Toida, Shunichi Tweed, John Unger, Steve and Joyce Webber, Mary P. Weinstein, Stanley E. Whittecar, G. Richard Wilson, Larry W. Winkley, Carl R. Wood, John L. Jr. Woolf, Jeffrey H. Zimmer, Seth

Friends of the Dean Less than $100 Anderson-Ashcraft, Merrell P. Askew, Christopher Atkins, Douglas C. Baer, Christine Balsley, David A. Barros-Bailey, Robert Jr. Bartusiak, Marcia F. Becher, Jacob Beck, Allison C. Benton, Terri L. Bergman, John W. Bogacki, Prezemyslaw Boltri, Mario G. Bradshaw, Scott D. Broady, Victoria G. Brown, Phyllis F. Bruton, Dempsey B. Jr. Burian, Chrysta C. Butler, Clyde A.

Caja, Jenny M. Callaway, Linda Carowan, Mary S. Cash, Thomas F. Changyun, Nie Christensen, Teresa M. Compton, Harry W. Jr. Curtis, John H. III Dattatreya, Rajiv Dolt, Vadim Dooling, David Doviak, Michael J. Duffy, Michael E. Durrer, Preston L. Erbland, Christopher R. Everett, Anne P. Fan, Kwok W. Freeman, Kendall E. Frye, Jack E. Galicia-Castillo, Marissa C. Ghizzoni, Jeffrey A. Gibbons, Paul T. Gibson, Charles L. II Glover, Julia B. Godfrey, Roy B. Jr. Gonzalez, Augustin J. Granat, Mitchell A. Griffiths, R. Todd Gupta, Ajay K. Halford, Karnice S. Hamill, Laura S. Harrell, Sidney L. Hassarangsee, Siriwan Hassell, Suzanne Hatch, Amelia A. Hayden, Linda B. Hayden, Sharon O. He, Xin Herbertson, Robert K. Jr. Hill, Brandon G. Hillegass, Catherine M. Hizer, Todd J. Hogge, H. Stanley Hook, Nadine I. Horan, Sandra L. Hudson, Ronald K. Hutchinson, Natalie Ishom, Vincent G. Jenkins, Jack W. Jr. Johnson, Carolyn H. Jugan, Laurie K. Karunaratne, Nilan C. Kelly, W. Robert Kiernan-Troidle, Laura C. Koch, Robert J. Jr.

Kopanski, Gregory V. Kumfert, Gary K. Lawrence, Christine C. Leta, Helane B. Levinstein, Irwin B. Lewis-Schoner, Robin J. Lindhjem, David C. Lowe, Stephen A. Ludvik, Joseph F. Lunsford, Charles A. Major, Debra A. Malakhoff, Lawrence A. McAnulty, D. Michael McDonald, Amy M. McEntee, Scott P. McIntyre, Robert M. McLain, Robert A. McNamara, Danielle S. Medina, Jay A. Mitchell, Gordon B. Jr. Moore, Meda B. Morgan, John P. Oliver, Bruce R. Osborn, Paul M. Pedone, Darryl B. Philips, Richard B. Pidgeon, Brenda Norris Pittman, Frank J. Pixley, Barbara H. Ponton, Michael K. Provo, James S. Quilon, Donnie A. Rach, Timothy J. Ravi, Anusha Ray, Kim Rice, Daniel N. Robinson, W. Wright Russell, Sheryl H. Sauer, Mark H. Saxon, William G. Schumacher, Kara A. Shevlin, Nancy K. Sisson, Gamble M. Smithson, Cecil L. Soltz, Edward J. Soyka, Nancy S. Specter, Joyce C. Spence, Peter L. Stenberg, Gail S. Stoveken, Sheryl L. Syed, Hazari Im Tannenbaum, Dr. and Mrs. Scott Tarkelsen, Gayle P. Tate, Maxine L. Timmins, Robert H. Jr.

Toida, Karen Train, Catherine P. Tung, Amy F. Turner, Dennison L. Twine, Charles E. Jr. Unger, Amy F. Ureke, Brenda L. Walker, Susan W. Washington, Marietta D. Waters, Judith C. Webber, David B. Weigand, Charles A. Weinstein, Lawrence B. Wells, John and Patricia Wible, David C. Widener, Larry N. Wilson, Lt. Gayle S. Wilson, S. Shelley Woods, Phyllis Y. Xu, Ting Yager, Jill Yalamanchili, Rama D. Zainy, Iman Zhu, Xiaoqing

continued from inside cover

the reputation of the department not only in the local community but in the commonwealth and national communities as well.”

Sanders believes, “the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (OEAS), particularly since the incorporation of the geology program, has a dual mission of undergraduate teaching and graduate research and education. Now more than ever, it will be important in the coming year to craft a new vision for the department that incorporates both of these aspects and develop a strategic plan to carry out that vision, within the constraints of the university’s fiveyear plan. This winter I plan to evaluate departmental strengths and determine where new programs or research areas can best be added and where existing programs can be expanded. I want to continue improving the department’s strong research funding base and integration of undergraduate programs with the graduate research underway.

Along with this, and essential to the department’s growth, is the broadening of the coverage of the ocean, earth and atmospheric sciences, and attraction of new undergraduate and graduate students to the department. A vision and plan will be developed to embrace the dual mission of OEAS while continuing to strive for excellence in teaching and research, along with improving the department’s standing within the U.S. oceanographic community.”

Catalyst welcomes Drs. Keyes and Sanders into the family of the College of Sciences.

Terry L. Hickey, Dean

41

1SH00

College of Sciences Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA 23529-0163

NONPROFIT ORG U. S. P O S T A G E P A I D N O R F O L K, V A P E R M I T N O. 49