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Identity Crisis Part two

Golden leads Vols past Georgia

Monday, February 6, 2012

PAGE 6 T H E

E D I T O R I A L L Y

Partly Cloudy 20% chance of rain HIGH LOW 61 35

Issue 18

http://utdailybeacon.com

Vol. 119

I N D E P E N D E N T

S T U D E N T

PAGE 5

PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 N E W S P A P E R

O F

T H E

U N I V E R S I T Y

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T E N N E S S E E

Professor wins prestigious science award Geologist garners recognition for Mars research Deborah Ince Staff Writer It’s true that sometimes hobbies turn into lifelong professions. For Harry “Hap” McSween, his childhood pastime of rock collecting certainly helped spur him to pursue a career in planetary sciences. However, never in his wildest dreams did he picture working with NASA on prominent spacecraft missions such as Opportunity, Spirit, Pathfinder and Mars Odyssey. Now, after over 30 years in the field, studying Mars and martian meteorites, professor McSween has become one of the most accomplished scientists in the nation. “You know, I feel so lucky to have been at the right place at the right time because this is kind of our generation’s frontier,” McSween said. “You know, we understand the earth and we’re using the same tools that we used to understand the earth to now understand other planets.” Thirty-five years ago as a geology Ph.D. student at Harvard University, McSween and a fellow student were the first to suggest that the earth contained meteorites from Mars. And, as a rite of passage most prominent scientists face at least once in their careers, both young men were “laughed out of the room” at the thought of such an outlandish suggestion. However, as the years progressed, the gentlemen’s ideas started not to seem as unconventional as initially thought. After in-depth research into the matter, it was concluded that many of the meteorite samples that had been gathered on earth actually did have martian atmosphere in them. McSween and his colleague had been right.

Since then, McSween has been involved in a number of Mars spacecraft missions, working with other NASA scientists and receiving grants from the organization as a NASA principle investigator. Because of his work, the National Academy of Sciences awarded McSween with the J. Lawrence Smith Medal, given every third year since 1888 to a scientist in recognition of their work and research in planetary science. The prize consists of $25,000 and a gold medal. McSween will receive the award on April 30 in Washington, D.C. “I got a letter in December,” McSween beamed. “I couldn’t believe it. It was a surprise. I had no idea that I had even been nominated, and so it was a thrill. It still is a thrill. I’m still kind of smiling every day.” One of McSween’s professors at Harvard, John Wood, also received the J. Lawrence Smith Medal. “While I was his student, he won this same award,” McSween said. “So it’s kind of like father-son — a kind of passing-the-torch, academic father-son thing.” Despite receiving such esteemed recognition, McSween still strives to continually impact the next generation of students and scientists, most especially as a faculty member at UT. “I’ve had probably maybe close to 50 graduate students over the course of my time here, and I’ve learned as much from them as they’ve learned from me,” McSween said. “You know they push you to do things differently and think a different way. If I were at a research institute instead of at a university, I don’t think I would have accomplished nearly as much and had nearly as much fun because it is so enjoyable and stimulating to work with students.” See MCSWEEN on Page 3

• Photo courtesy of utk.edu)

Professor Harry “Hap” McSween was announced as the recipient for the National Academy of Sciences’ J. Lawrence Smith Medal, presented in recognition for excellence in work and research in planetary science.

Comedian elicits laughter, gasps Governor consolidates panels Justin Joo Staff Writer Despite the small crowd of about 40, the audience fully enjoyed the comedic performance of Ben Lerman at the UC Auditorium Thursday night. Lerman, a ukulele-playing comedic songwriter, has toured both the New York comedy club scene and several universities. He was not deterred by the somewhat lackluster turnout. “Sometimes it helps to have a good mass of people,” Lerman said. “Any time you have a full room the energy sort of feeds on itself. But the people that came out gave it a lot of warm, positive energy. And I could hear laughter, too.” Lerman’s style is a combination of humorous songs and brief bits of monologues. His topics include all types of vulgarities, ranging from scatology, female genitalia, troubles of puberty for boys, dating someone with a lazy eye and the LGBTQ lifestyle.

His songs consisted of both originals as well as parodies. Those parodies included changing Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten” into a song about being unshaven, and Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” became a song about a man who “keeps eating” as a coping mechanism. But some of Lerman’s funniest moments occured when he interacted with the audience. The show began with Lerman running down the auditorium’s aisles, pausing at the foot of the stage and then encouraging the audience to maintain the applause until he made it all the way to the microphone. During his “Unwritten”/“Unshaven” parody, Lerman called out to Cameron Allen, a freshman theater major. During Lerman’s finale, he danced his way through the aisle and audience until he was all but straddling Allen and sang a techno ode to chubby chasers. “I was not expecting it, but yeah, I didn’t really mind,” Allen said with a chuckle after the performance. “(The show) was really good.” SeeLERMAN on Page 3

The Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Gov. Bill Haslam’s first effort to reduce state boards will merge six panels with significant environmental duties into three, affecting one with regulatory power over gas stations, including the family’s Pilot Travel Centers. The Republican insists the proposal won't diminish conservation efforts in Tennessee or present a conflict of interest for him. Haslam is proposing to combine the Solid Waste Disposal and the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank boards; the Water Quality Control and Oil and Gas boards; and the Conservation Commission and Tennessee Heritage Conservation Trust Fund board. John McFadden, executive director of the Tennessee Environmental Council, said he doesn’t expect a noticeable change if the mergers happen because conservation interests are already sparsely represented. “These boards are so heavily weighted to the industry side, and the reality is clean water and clean air don’t have much representation on them,” McFadden said in a phone interview.

“The flip side of that is you had six boards making really bad decisions, and now you’re only going to have three boards making really bad decisions,” he said. Haslam, a former president of the Knoxville-based Pilot chain of truck stops, has pledged to recuse himself from matters that could the family business in which he still holds an undisclosed stake. But the governor said he cleared the legislation on combining the boards that could affect Pilot before the measure was introduced. “I actually talked with legal counsel and others to say that obviously that’s a place that does intersect with Pilot, but really that wasn’t changing the authority, it was just combining two boards,” Haslam said in a recent interview. “In this case, I think any ramifications toward me — or increased or decreased decision-making from the governor — didn’t really impact that,” he said. The Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Board, created a couple of decades ago with an act to protect public health and the environment from leaky underground fuel storage, oversees several matters that affect Pilot.

Fatal helicopter crash kills two The Associated Press

George Richardson • The Daily Beacon

Members of the UT Dance Team cheer after a victory over Georgia on Saturday, Feb. 4.

SYDNEY — Award-winning American cinematographer Mike deGruy and Australian television writer-producer Andrew Wight have died in a helicopter crash in eastern Australia, their employer National Geographic said Sunday. Police said two people — an Australian pilot and an American passenger — died Saturday when their helicopter crashed soon after takeoff from an airstrip near Nowra, 97 miles (156 kilometers) north of Sydney, but did not immediately release the victims’ identities. Australia’s ABC News reported that

Wight was piloting the helicopter when it crashed. National Geographic and “Titanic” director James Cameron confirmed the victims’ identities in a joint statement that said “the deep-sea community lost two of its finest” with the deaths of the two underwater documentary specialists. David Bennett, president of Australia’s South Coast Recreational Flying Club, said the pair had set off to film a documentary when they crashed. DeGruy, 60, of Santa Barbara, California, won multiple Emmy and British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or BAFTA, awards for cinematography.


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