Tuesday, September 2, 2008 * Volume 26, Number 1
                  |
Douglas Dunham, professor, Department
of Computer Science, presented papers at two conferences this summer.
The first paper was “A 'Circle Limit III’ Backbone Arc Formula,”
presented on “Escher Day” (July 28) at the 11th annual Bridges
Conference in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. A copy of the paper is at: http://www.d.umn.edu/~ddunham/dunbr08tlk.pdf.
He also had two art works, “Fish Pattern 3-4 with Triangle”
and “Fish Pattern 3-5 with Triangle,” displayed at the associated
art exhibit, which can be seen at http://www.bridgesmathart.org/art-exhibits/bridges2008/dunham.html Lisa Fitzpatrick, Visualization and Digital Imaging Lab (Viz Lab), received a grant from the Finlandia Foundation to produce an animated interactive children’s story in Finnish and English, “Auntie Sal and the Bear” on CD. She presented the digital story at FinnFest 2008, and has been doing presentations on Finland and Finnish culture for children in area schools with Alison Aune, associate professor, Department of Art & Design. Jason Ford, Department of Philosophy,
had a paper, “Attention and the New Skeptics” published in
the Journal of Consciousness Studies, Vol. 15, No. 3: pp. 59-86,
2008. Scott M. Freundschuh, Department of Geography, has accepted a one-year appointment (renewable for a second year) with the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC. While at NSF, Freundschuh will serve as a program director for Geography and Regional Science. He will be part of a three-member team promoting research funding, and providing input on directions for national research in geography and regional sciences. Dalibor Froncek, professor, Department
of Mathematics and Statistics, had a busy summer. He presented a lecture
“Graph theory and sports scheduling” at University of Loughborough,
England; he presented a talk “Decompositions of complete bipartite
graphs into (0,/j/)-prisms” (a joint work with Fulbright Junior
scholar Sylwia Cihacz) at The 43rd Czech-Slovak Conference on Combinatorics
and Graph Theory, Zadov, Czech Republic; and he presented a talk “Decompositions
of complete graphs and complete bipartite graphs/ /into (0,/j/)-prisms”
(a joint work with Fulbright Junior scholar Sylwia Cihacz) at an international
conference Combinatorics 2008, in Costermano, Italy. Linda Grover, assistant professor, Department of American Indian Studies, Cheryl Reitan, publications director, and Candice Richards, Facilities Management, have work in a forthcoming publication, Trail Guide: A Northland Experience in Poetry and Prints, featuring images and poetry from the artists of the Lake Superior Writers and Northern Printmakers Alliance. They each read work at the opening reception on Aug. 28. John Hiller, professor, Department of Physics, was selected as a director on the inaugural board of ILCAC, Inc., the International Light-Cone Advisory Committee, which organizes conferences on research in particle physics done with relativistic light-cone coordinates. The corporation will now also solicit and provide funds for such research, in affiliation with the Southeastern Universities Research Association. Hiller was also named interim treasurer of the corporation. Jim Klueg, professor and interim department head, Department of Art & Design, has his vessel, “Famous Men,” included in Surface Design for Ceramics by Maureen Mills, recently published by Lark Books. Two ceramic cups were featured in a July invitational cup show at Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, N.M., curated by Avra Leodis. Klueg also has two vessels in Texting: Print and Clay, Sept. 11 - Oct. 24, Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, Mich., curated by Tara Robinson. David McCarthy, professor, Department
of Education recently presented two pre-conference workshops for the National
Association of Teacher Educator’s National Meeting recently in Washington
DC, “What’s New in Educational Technology” and “Microsoft
PowerPoint 2008 — A to Z.” Further he presented three
workshops during the conference entitled: Technology Addiction/Computer
Addiction, Social Bookmarking, and Interactive Whiteboard — A Milestone
in Classroom Teaching and Learning. Finally, David serves as the official
photographer for the national organization, serves on the ATE National
Commission on Technology and the Future of Teacher Education, and serves
as ATE’s development specialist in technology. John Pastor, professor, Department of Biology, recently published Mathematical Ecology of Populations and Ecosystems, an introductory textbook on mathematical ecology for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. The text, published by Wiley-Blackwell, shows how to bridge the sub-disciplines of population ecology and ecosystem ecology by using the mathematical theory of dynamical systems.
Basak, Mills, and Douglas M. Hawkins (U of M-Twin Cities) published the paper “Predicting allergen contact dermatitis: a hierarchical structure-activity relationship (SAR) approach to chemical classification using topological and quantum chemical descriptors,” in the Journal of Computer Aided Molecular Design, volume 22, pp. 339-343 (2008). Subhash Basak delivered an invited keynote lecture on “Pattern recognition of chemical and biological systems by information theoretic invariants” at the Information Theory and Statistical Learning workshop of WORLDCOMP ‘08 - World Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Applied Computing, held in Las Vegas, July 13-17. Steve Bortone, director, was appointed to the international editorial board of Biologia Marina Mediterranea (Journal of the Italian Society of Marine Biology). Douglas Jensen, aquatic invasive species program coordinator, gave the joint presentation, “Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers Threats Campaign: Invasive Species Outreach to Hunters and Anglers,” with Doug Grann, CEO of Wildlife Forever at the joint meeting of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basin Panels on Aquatic Nuisance Species, during June in Milwaukee, Wisc. Barb Liukkonen, water resources
educator, presented water quality activities at the White Earth Reservation
Academy of Math and Science during July. The math and science program
helps boost the achievement of 5-8 graders from reservation schools. UofM MEDICAL SCHOOL-DULUTH NEWS Mustafa al’Absi, a professor
of behavioral medicine and director of the Duluth Medical Research Institute
has been named chair of a newly established Max E. and Mary LaDue Pickworth
Endowed Research Chair. Al’Absi is internationally known for his
research on the links between stress, pain, and addiction. Subscribe for an E-mail notice of each Currents issue: instructions To submit material to CURRENTS, email currents@d.umn.edu The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
Comments to: creitan@d.umn.edu |