eberly college of arts and sciences magazine: fall 2010

Dear friends, This is my first official letter for Eberly magazine since joining the College as dean. It covers a topic that I am personally passionate about and one that is increasingly important to the University—graduate education.

The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences has 11 PhD programs and 23 master’s programs. We have the opportunity to significantly raise our production of graduate degrees. An increase in PhD graduates will be particularly important as the University strives to obtain Carnegie Very High Research status, a mark of excellence that we believe is attainable.

The stories in this edition give you a taste of what is currently happening at the graduate level. We are attracting talented students in the hard and social sciences and in our humanities programs. You will see the strong threads of teaching, research, and service running through the graduate education-themed edition, just as you did in each edition before it.

Currently our researchers collaborate with numerous disciplines and colleges at WVU as well as with government, private industry, and other institutions of higher education at home and around the world. Our faculty are doing cutting-edge, grant-funded research across disciplines and giving graduate students opportunities to participate and contribute to the academy.

In this edition you will find stories about discovery, research, teamwork, creativity, passion, and possibility. There is something to interest everyone, whether it is graduate student Stephanie Archer-Hartmann’s desire to contribute to the global high-tech economy, John Tudek’s forays to underground worlds of wonder, the inspirational writings of members and alumni of the Department of English’s MFA program, or the University’s recent receipt of a grant that will transform how we nurture and promote leaders in science.

Right now my most important priority is to ask questions, listen and to absorb the essence of Eberly. My first three months on the job have been a whirlwind of activity. Every day I learn more about West Virginia University and the important role of the Eberly College (on page 38, you can learn a little more about me).

In closing my first post, I would like to express sincere gratitude for the leadership and generous service that Rudy Almasy provided for the College, not only in his role as your leader during this past year (and at two other critically important times in the past), but also in his many other roles including professor, scholar, teacher, fund raiser, moral compass, and visionary. Rudy, the college staff, and the advisory committee have worked miracles to build a smooth transition for me. Success comes from that kind of team effort. I am very grateful to them and to all of you.

Sincerely,

Robert H. Jones, PhD Dean

eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 1

ContentsIN THIS ISSUE2 Around the College

6 Vox Populi6 High-Tech Mind, High-Tech Future

8 The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

10 Alchemy in the Chemistry Research Building

14 The Clean, Green Team: Advancing National Energy Security

18 Ten Years of Creative Writing at WVU

23 Taking on the Texting Generation: National Writing Project and Young Writers Holiday

28 Hidden Waters

30 New and Notable

30 ADVANCing Women in Science

36 The Golden Hour

38 Meet Dean Jones

41 Awards and Honors 41 Star Formation

42 Jim Nolan is on the CASE

44 What the Universe Holds

46 CAREER -making Research

48 Burke Wins Presidential Teaching Award

ADMINISTRATIONJames P. Clements, PhD, President, West Virginia UniversityMichele Wheatly, PhD, ProvostRobert Jones, PhD, DeanJoan Gorham, EdD, Associate Dean, Academic AffairsFred King, PhD, Associate Dean, Research and Graduate StudiesAsuntina Levelle, JD, Associate Dean, Financial Planning and ManagementKatherine Karraker, PhD, Assistant Dean for Undergraduate StudiesL. Christopher Plein, PhD, Assistant Dean, School of Applied Social Sciences Bonnie Fisher, Director of Development

EDITORIAL STAFFRebecca Herod, Executive EditorKathy Deweese, University EditorDustin Mazon, Web Designer

ART DIRECTIONAngela CaudillForrest ConroySue CristChris Schwer

CONTRIBUTING EDITORSJohn BoltJessica HammondAbby FreelandMackenzie MaysDianna MazzellaLauren PerettiAshley Wells

PHOTOGRAPHYDaniel Friend, Photography ManagerM.G. Ellis, PhotojournalistBrian Persinger, PhotojournalistAllison Toffle, PhotojournalistTaylor Jones, Photography Intern

COVER ARTBrian Persinger

EDITORIAL OFFICERebecca HerodDirector of Marketing and CommunicationsPO Box 6286Morgantown, WV 26506-6286E-mail: [email protected]

CHANGE OF ADDRESSWVU FoundationPO Box 1650Morgantown, WV 26507-1650E-mail: [email protected]

VISIT OUR WEBSITE ATeberly.wvu.edu

Look for the Entrepreneurship edition of Eberly in the spring. If you would like to access archival editions of the magazine, go to eberly.wvu.edu and select the Alumni link.

Correction: 0 of the 2010 summer edition “Eberly Tears into Service,” contained an error. The “Lady Luck” sculpture created by Burl Jones is 18.25”, not 8.25”. If you are interested in purchasing the limited edition sculpture, please contact: [email protected].

WVU is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution.

West Virginia University is governed by the West Virginia University Board of Governors and the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.

Matt Boyce works on core samples in the National Energy Technology Laboratory.

14

Stephanie Archer-Hartmann, doctoral candidate in the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry

6

Norman Cave in Greenbrier County, W.V., is part of the Bone-Norman Cave System, a 14-mile-long system.

26

2 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

Around the College

Happy Birthday LASER: WVU Celebrates LaserFest

Do you know how many times a

day lasers are used? When you check

out at a store a laser reads the bar code

on your purchase; your DVD player,

iPod, and computer all use them, and

many surgeries are now done using the

pinpoint precision of lasers.

This year is the 50th anniversary of

the invention of the laser, an acronym

developed based on the name of the

process, light amplification by stimulated

emission of radiation. To mark the

occasion, West Virginia University

Society of Physics Students and the

Institute for Electrical and Electronics

Engineers Student Branch have partnered

to present LaserFest, a traveling laser

show for schools in rural West Virginia

and cities such as Charleston, West

Virginia, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The goal is to increase young students’

interest in science and laser technology.

The show consists of three sets of

laser shows accompanied by music from

the Beatles, Michael Jackson, and the

movie Slum Dog Millionaire.

The laser was constructed by WVU

engineering students. After the show,

physics students Dorothy Nelson and

Ethel Perez demonstrate how to make

a laser at home out of just a clothespin,

cheap laser pointer, a tiny mirror, a few

Legos, and a spring from a pen.

“I think a lot of kids are under the

impression that science is geeky and

nerdy and for the smart kids. This gives

them a chance to see how cool it really

is,” Nelson said.

Michael Vannatta, a student in the

C. Eugene Bennett Department of

Chemistry, has also been working with

WVU’s Extension Service to put on laser

shows for 4-H camps.

“The number-one goal is to get kids

excited about science,” Vannatta said.

Ian Hathaway, a 12-year-old who

attends South Middle School, attended

a LaserFest event. He said he uses lasers

as a cat toy. However, this presentation

widened his view of their capabilities.

“I’ve been intrigued by lasers. I’ve

seen videos about them on YouTube, and

they’re so interesting,” he said.

Linda Wessels, a Morgantown

resident, brought her 12-year-old son,

Cole Prescott, to a show because he is

interested in science. “I like having the

opportunity to expose him to things

he isn’t exposed to on a daily basis and

having him meet

and interact with

scientists,” she said.

LaserFest is

funded by a Physics

Sponsored Research

Grant obtained

by James Lewis,

professor of physics,

in the amount of

$8,000. For more

information about

LaserFest, please visit

www.laserfest.org.

The laser machine has three lasers, green, red, and blue, but can create any color imaginable. It moves at 30,000 points a second. So if a square is on the screen, the laser is drawing the shape of a square so quickly that the human eye doesn’t see the drawing action, only the square itself.


Flash, Dance!It was a day like any other during the first week of classes.

Woodburn Tower chimed at the stroke of noon.

Then, it happened.

A flash mob of students, faculty, and alumni surprised

bystanders by putting on a dance performance to Lady Gaga’s

“Telephone.”

Russian language and literature professor Lisa DiBartolomeo

planned the event with her students. She got the idea from

TV show Glee and decided to turn it into an opportunity to

promote the Department of Foreign Languages.

“My main goal with the flash mob was to just draw

attention to the dynamics and fun within the Foreign Language

Department,” DiBartolomeo said. “It gave us a chance to show a

bit of our personality.”

Gathering about 60 participants and receiving permission

from President James P. Clements, DiBartolomeo called on

former students to choreograph the dance and help her promote

the event via an exclusive Facebook group.

West Virginia University graduate and former student of

DiBartolomeo, Bethany Fisher, created original choreography

and an instructional video for participants to study before their

single rehearsal the Sunday prior.

Fisher was impressed with the enthusiasm of the participants,

most with no professional dance background, and praised the

spirit of the mob.

“This fun event was great, and it really says a lot about the

WVU community and our school spirit,” Fisher said. “It was a

crazy event to start off the year.”

Clements also recognized the event.

“I thought it was awesome. And I’m proud of the

professor (DiBartolomeo) who put it together,” Clements said.

“Mountaineers have a lot of spirit and pride, and their passion

showed.”

DiBartolomeo was pleased with the outcome and was proud

to give her audience a taste of the fun side of Foreign Languages.

“Events like these show that we’re student centered and can

be academically oriented, but we don’t have to take ourselves

too seriously,” she said. “WVU students get the whole college

experience here. They can enjoy themselves while they learn,

and that’s great.”

See a video of the flash mob performance on WVU’s

YouTube site. Select the YouTube icon at the bottom of any

WVU webpage and search for Flash Mob: Department of

Foreign Languages.

excerpt by Mackenzie Mays from the Daily Athenaeum

WVU students perform a Bollywood-style dance routine to kick-off Diversity Week.


Around the College

Developing Safe Cleanup Methods for Meth Labs

According to the federal Drug

Enforcement Agency, between 2003 and

2008 there were 621 methamphetamine

incidents, including labs, dumpsites or

chemical and glassware seizures in West

Virginia. Include national incidents over

the same five-year period and you have

67,185 incidents.

Remediation of these toxic meth

lab sites raises environmental issues; do

the dangerous particles remain in the

air? If that is the case, painting the walls

and cleaning the carpets doesn’t solve

the problem, but simply covers it up

temporarily.

Suzanne Bell, assistant professor of

forensic and analytical chemistry in the C.

Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry

at West Virginia University, is doing

research to help clean up in the aftermath

of these dangerous drug crimes.

Bell received the Characterization and

Validation of Ion Mobility Spectrometry

in Clandestine Laboratory Remediation

grant for $77,471. The research is a joint

grant effort with the Environmental

Protection Agency.

Bell and her research group will

investigate if the standard cleaning and

purifying procedures used to clean homes

and apartments previously used as meth

labs really work.

“It’s important to clean it up properly

because so many toxic chemicals are used

in the preparation of methamphetamine,

and demolition of the site is not always

possible or appropriate. The danger to

future occupants is chronic exposure to

residuals of these hazardous compounds,”

Bell said.

Bell and graduate students Rona

Nishikawa, Lucy Oldfield, Travis Doria,

and Holly McCall will simulate meth labs

to gauge the effect of the chemicals used

on living environments. They also hope to

visit former labs to gather samples. Field

sites provide the best research environment

because it is impossible to simulate an

entire meth lab in the academic laboratory.

Third-year doctoral candidate and

research team member Holly McCall

knew she wanted to work with Dr. Bell

when she applied to WVU.

“Her research is a nontraditional

application of analytical chemistry, which

we base in forensic science,” McCall said.

“Since the toxicity of metham-

phetamine in airborne particles remains

unknown, the health of those personnel in

charge of cleaning up clandestine labs and

the future inhabitants of the location are

at risk. It is our goal to determine whether

these locations can be safely remediated, ,”

McCall said.

The findings of this research will have

applications for all 50 states, as they deal

with the cleanup of these dangerous and

toxic drug labs.

Holly McCall, third-year doctoral candidate in chemistry


WVU Press Releases Roll out the Carpet: 101 Seasons of West Virginia University Basketball

West Virginia University Press is pleased to announce the publication

of Roll out the Carpet: 101 Seasons of West Virginia University Basketball.

Roll out the Carpet is written by John Antonik, director of new media for

intercollegiate athletics at West Virginia University, with a foreword by

Rod Thorn and an afterword by Bob Huggins.

The book is the story of West Virginia University men’s basketball. This

comprehensive history chronicles over 100 seasons of the game, from the

early years of the Tri-State and Eastern conferences, to the golden era of

Hot Rod Hundley, Jerry West, and Rod Thorn, to the Mountaineers’ most

recent triumphs under coaches John Beilein and Bob Huggins.

For Mountaineers, it’s not just about winning a prize, trophy or title—

it’s about the work ethic, pride, and loyalty that embody the spirit of the

state. With unparalleled insider access, alumnus and longtime athletic

department official John Antonik details the vibrant history of the players,

coaches, and fans who

created the finest moments

of Mountaineer basketball.

These pages overflow with

accounts of nail-biting

tension leading to buzzer-

beating shots, thrilling

game-saving moments, and

rich, intimate details of the

superstar players and coaches

who built an institution of

gold and blue.

From the first game in

1904 against rival Pitt to

West Virginia’s glorious

return to the 2010 NCAA

Final Four, Roll out the

Carpet celebrates the tradition of Mountaineer basketball. With over 500

photographs—many of which have never been published before—and

articles of memorabilia from the WVU Athletic Department, University

archives, and personal collections, this book is a must-have for any WVU

men’s basketball fan.

Antonik is also the author of West Virginia University Football Vault:

The History of the Mountaineers.

Visit www.wvupress.com to purchase Roll out the Carpet and to learn

more about this book.

Watch a videocast with the author at:

wvupressonline.com/vidcast/roll_out_the_carpet.

Spin(tronics) MasterCommunications companies

are competing to squeeze the most

technologically advanced memory and

media features into the tiniest of devices, but

some design ideas for the smallest cell phones

and music players are not practical yet.

Sergei Urazhdin, assistant professor

in the Department of Physics at West

Virginia University, is conducting research

to better understand the scientific potential

of miniaturizing these devices and making

them more energy efficient.

He has received a National Science

Foundation (NSF) grant, titled

Development of Tunable Nanomagnetic

Microwave Oscillators and Circuits, valued

at nearly $341,000 over three years. The

grant will support research by Urazhdin and

two graduate students aimed at developing

miniature spintronic devices to replace

the electronic components used in today’s

communication technology. This study

extends research supported by the NSF

CAREER grant Urazhdin received in 2007.

Urazhdin is leader of the WVU

Spintronics Group in the WVNano

Initiative, West Virginia’s focal point

for nanoscale science, engineering, and

education research, workforce development,

and economic development. Spintronic

devices use the direction of the electron’s

spin to encode information, and Urazhdin’s

group works to develop these popular

electronic devices on a nanoscale. This

research is made possible in a large part by

access to WVNano’s research facilities.

Sergei Urazhdin


I am a West Virginian. I’m originally from

Glenville, a small town located in the cen-

ter of the state. In grade school I sang “The

West Virginia Hills,” before saying the Pledge

of Allegiance. It was in Glenville that I learned

the value of community and that nothing is

achieved without hard work. My husband

and I grew up a few miles from each other

and were high school sweethearts. We both

pursued undergraduate degrees in the sciences

at WVU, where he studied computer science

and I pursued chemistry. We married shortly

after graduation. Glenville was a great place

to grow up, and is a great place to live—like

most people living in small towns, I also saw

some of the problems, the most pressing be-

ing the lack of available high-tech jobs.

In high school, it was through summer

experiences provided by the West Virginia

Governor’s Honors Academy and internships

provided through the Mollohan Foundation,

that I got my first taste of the emerging high-

technology future that our state is aiming for.

Conversing with people who were very, very

good at what they did provided me with an

understanding of entirely new opportunities

in industry. I was surrounded by them—

academics, researchers, and the business

professionals who together were turning

great ideas into companies (and jobs) in West

Virginia. Additionally I was seeing how the

state’s industries were expanding into a more

technology-driven business model.

I continued my scientific training

by studying chemistry at West Virginia

University, in part, because of the research

I was exposed to at the Governor’s Honors

Academy. I realized I wanted to be challenged

by my education, and also wanted to contrib-

ute back into the state. As an undergraduate

fascinated with biotechnology, I started to

work with Dr. Lisa Holland, who would later

become my graduate advisor. It was through

her guidance, and the camaraderie of my lab

mates, that I developed a passion for studying

how biomolecules could be manipulated and

used to enhance and better understand medi-

cal testing.

The opportunity to do cutting-edge

research as an undergraduate, through both

internships and research at WVU, was part of

an invaluable experience. Through this work

I solidified what I wanted to do post-gradua-

tion—to further my education and continue

doing the research that I really enjoyed. I also

realized that WVU was well-equipped to

provide that education.

My research at WVU focuses on develop-

ing new and better ways to separate and

analyze biomolecules to better understand

and improve the treatment of disease. In the

last few years, I’ve worked on instruments and

methods to detect markers for cancer, includ-

ing steroids, antibodies, proteins, and glycans.

This research combines creative thought with

the fundamentals of scientific principles,

resulting in the kind of practical results that

inspire further study. The methods that are

created can then be further developed for use

in fields such as environmental and medical

testing, or in quality assurance.

To do this research, I use a method

known as capillary electrophoresis that sepa-

rates molecules based on their size and charge

that are placed in a very small glass tube held

under a high electric field. This method is

effective for the analysis of biomolecules

because it uses very small samples, separates

molecules quickly and efficiently, and, with

the use of commercial instrumentation, can

easily be automated. The methods I develop

can be further adapted for more portable

analyses through the use of small microfluidic

devices. I am currently working on a number

of new separation strategies using a class of

smart materials based on phospholipids that

spontaneously self assemble. In the lab we

use these materials in capillaries, automated

instrumentation, and microfluidic devices to

study a number of different types of biomol-

ecules in complex samples such as cancer cells,

plasma, and tissues.

During graduate school, I was sup-

ported through WVNano and the EPsCOR

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering,

and Math) programs, which provided a great

environment for me to develop as a research

scientist. This training provided me with the

expertise of some of the best minds in research

by Stephanie Archer-HartmanPhotos by Dan Friend

High-Tech Mind, High-Tech Future



in an interdisciplinary environment. Good

scientific communication was heavily empha-

sized in STEM, something that is often very

difficult, especially when your colleagues have

been trained in widely different fields. This is

a requirement to effectively participate in col-

laborative work. It’s through these programs

that I learned how critical good communica-

tion is in the sciences and how invaluable

the connections fostered by interdisciplinary

STEM research are.

I was recently awarded a national fellow-

ship through the United States Pharmacopeia;

only four were given this year. Through the

support of this fellowship, I will be working

on new ways to characterize glycosylation

of therapeutic antibodies. A number of new

treatments for chronic diseases and cancers

are developed from a class of drugs based

on recombinant antibodies, or rMAbs. The

usefulness of such drugs, however, is found

to be dependent on the type and amount of

sugars decorating these antibodies. My aim

is to develop new technologies that would

allow for quick and inexpensive methods of

monitoring new rMAb-based therapeutics as

they are being developed and produced for

wide-scale medical use.

STEM and WVNano provided me with

a glimpse into some of the highly innovative

research that is currently happening at WVU.

My training in the shared user facilities gave

me access to a class 10,000 clean room and

cutting-edge fabrication instrumentation.

Through these advancements WVU is prov-

ing itself to be a major player in research and

in the advancement of high-tech business in

West Virginia. These programs allow me to

witness the development of novel ideas and

have inspired me to consider the high-tech

industry in West Virginia. I am particularly

interested in transforming scientific discovery

into the groundwork needed to transition

into a successful company. It is also through

the support of the Eberly College of Arts and

Sciences and the Department of Chemistry

that I was able to travel to national confer-

ences to present the work that I, as part of

WVU, am doing.

I know I’ve received a top-notch educa-

tion. I’ve been trained, not only to understand

and perform new research, but how to turn

these ideas into jobs. I find even now, I’m not

done learning. I am a graduate student in the

C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemis-

try, with only one year left to learn as much as

I can before I graduate.

I am a West Virginian.

I am soon to be a WVU alumna.

I can’t wait to get to work.

Vox Populi

Stephanie Archer-Hartmann working in the Holland Research Group lab.


The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

Recently I had a discussion at work with

friend with a pharmacology PhD who

is about ten years younger than me. We were

comparing notes about our graduate school

experiences. She was talking about using the

Internet as a tool to find academic articles and

software that would automatically keep track

of online literature sources for quickly building

reference lists.

I interjected with the fact that the

Internet was not widely available during

the late eighties and early nineties. In fact, I

observed that we were just getting access to

a rudimentary form of e-mail while I was

finishing my thesis. She seemed surprised by

this and asked without thinking, “but how did

you do your literature research?” I quipped

with comments about places called “libraries”

with “stacks” of hard-bound journal articles.

I can hope she was as amused by the turn in

conversation as I was. Then I started thinking

about my graduate school experience and

which types of experiences had changed with

the evolution in technology during the past 20

years, and which sorts of things haven’t.

The Internet has certainly changed

how literature and information searches

are conducted. But, there has also been a

significant improvement in the scientific

equipment we used to collect our data. As

an example, I once informally repeated a

few of the experiments from my thesis study

on modern equipment. Some data sets that

used to take ten to 15 hours per experiment

could be performed in a few minutes, with

improved accuracy and reliability. No more

going to the lab in the middle of the night

to change samples! There have been great

improvements in computer applications used

to process and share our data. PowerPoint and

web-based team sites have changed how teams

collaborate. Even with all of these technology

advances, the fundamentals of science and

independent learning have not changed.

Academic exposure to a breadth of

knowledge in the science of chemistry and

focused study in a specialized field were

only part of the picture of my education

experience at West Virginia University. Like

most graduate students in the Chemistry

Department, I served as a teaching assistant

for many years. My first assignment was

in the general chemistry laboratory course,

supervising about 20 undergraduates. Over

the semester, I learned to be patient while

helping students grasp new concepts and

how to walk the fine line between providing

too much assistance and not enough. I came

to understand that it was important to let

students explore and make mistakes, while

being ready to provide support and direction

when needed.

These teaching skills have proven useful

when interacting with junior scientists and

customers during my career. As a teaching

assistant, I also developed an understanding

of the importance of safety in the chemical

laboratory. Once a student was using his

mouth to pipette (a narrow tube into which

fluid is drawn by suction) concentrated acid

and I had to quickly intervene. The idea that

I was partly responsible for the personal safety

of the students and others working in the

laboratory began to crystallize for me that day,

and this focus on safety has been important

throughout my career.

I was first attracted to WVU when Dr.

Kung Wang, a synthetic organic chemist,

gave a seminar at the chemistry department

of Miami University in Ohio, where I was a

senior undergraduate student. When I had

completed my undergraduate degree in 1988,

I knew that I enjoyed science and wanted to

continue studies in chemistry. However, I did

not have a strong sense of a career path. In

fact, I did not even have a focus on a specific

discipline within chemistry and was not

sure if I were ready to commit to a doctoral

program. Most chemistry graduate programs

at large universities only offered a PhD at

that time, and a few small universities offered

only a terminal master’s degree. West Virginia

University offered the option for either or both

degrees.

I researched the Department of Chemistry

at WVU. It had an excellent reputation

and the flexibility that I could register as a

master’s degree candidate and switch to the

PhD program at a later time if I chose. Then

I visited the Morgantown campus, met the

professors and graduate students, and WVU

became my first choice for graduate school.

As a bonus, the University had a certain

reputation as a football powerhouse with

Major Harris as quarterback. Who could

resist? I certainly couldn’t, and loaded my

belongings for the move to Morgantown, not

able to begin to predict the personal, scientific,

and professional development that I was about

to undertake.

I registered at WVU expecting to

specialize in organic chemistry, but quickly

by Mark Mabry


Mark and Stephanie Mabry

found that it was not really a good fit for

my interests. Next I began exploring the

disciplines of physical and analytical chemistry.

Chemical kinetics, the study of reaction rates

and mechanism, along with thermodynamics,

the study of energy and energy transfer, were

of interest. I tried a couple of different research

groups. I looked at a career in technical

writing. During the time spent deciding

on a field of study, I had the opportunity to

learn and develop a breadth of knowledge

in the chemical sciences that has led to my

continued growth as a scientist. I discovered

that molecular spectroscopy, the study of the

interaction of light with matter, was my real

passion, and I joined the research group of Dr.

Paul Jagodzinski. Our research used laser light

to study molecules in solution.

In graduate school, I learned it is not only

the interaction with your professor/advisor

that shapes your research and education, but

the influence of the other members of your

research group and other professors in the

department. In particular, Dr. Charles Jaffé,

Dr. Harry Finklea, Dr. Fred King, and Dr.

John Penn played a role in my development

as a scientist. Many of the casual conversations

I had with these mentors turned into

opportunities to develop critical thinking

skills and the ability to handle self-learning

and independent study. My relationships

with many of these professors lasted past my

graduation and continue today.

Graduate school at WVU was a great

place to begin learning about cultural diversity.

I moved to Morgantown from southwestern

Ohio and hadn’t had many opportunities

to interact with students from abroad.

The Chemistry Department had attracted

students from Eastern Europe, as well from

Asia, Africa, and other places around the

globe. Some of the best occasions for cultural

exchange occurred around shared meals.

One of the professors traditionally offered his

house to graduate students from China for

the traditional New Year’s celebration and I

had the opportunity to attend. I recall being

amazed by the variety of foods provided by

the students and that these were so different

from what you might expect to see in a typical

“Chinese” restaurant in the United States.

One of the senior graduate students

had recently returned from a trip home to

Shanghai and had returned with traditional

liquor. While I tasted it, the student described

many health properties associated with

drinking the vaguely soy flavored potion,

including virility. I started to inquire about the

ingredients, but it seemed like a better idea

to not ask. On a separate occasion, I invited

several friends over for chili only to learn the

students from Hungary couldn’t imagine

eating cornbread as corn was considered food

for swine. As part of a global pharmaceutical

company with a diverse workforce, I certainly

appreciate the sense of cultural awareness I

learned at WVU.

I have no doubt that two of the realities

I learned during graduate school are still

true today: 1. Graduate school is a form of

indentured servitude, and it is the student’s

responsibility to actively seek an education.

This can be a positive, yet difficult, experience

and builds the drive to succeed. 2. Selection

of a research advisor is nearly as important

as finding a compatible spouse. You may be

interacting with that individual to some degree

or another for the rest of your professional life. Mark Mabry graduated from West Virginia

University with a master’s degree in chemistry in 1992 with thesis work in molecular spectroscopy. He worked as an environmental chemist in Illinois until 1996. He then became an analytical research scien-tist with Rayonier, a chemical cellulose manufacturer in southeast Georgia. In 2000, Mabry relocated to Baltimore to take a position as a spectroscopy ap-plications specialist for Thermo Fisher Scientific.

He is currently a senior product development scientist for Pfizer Consumer Healthcare and has lived in Richmond, VA, since 2004. His work entails method development, validation, and tech-nology transfer for over-the-counter medications and medical devices. He is very involved with the local American Chemical Society and is Exposition Chair for the 2011 Southeast Regional ACS meeting.

In his spare time, Mabry is an avid sailor who enjoys racing on a nearby lake and sailing on the Chesapeake Bay with his friends and family. His wife, Stephanie (BS, ’92), is also an alumna of the WVU Department of Chemistry.



by Jessica Hammond

in the

Chemistry Research BuildingPhotos by Brian Persinger



The basement of the Chemistry Research Building houses a secret group of alchemists who are charged with transmuting common substances into materials of great value. They aren’t practicing magic, but their contributions to the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry are as a good as gold.



tools or equipment for their research, and

Adams takes care of making those as well.

“If it doesn’t work, I’ll fix it. Sometimes

professors come to me with a drawing or a

concept, and I make it,” he said.

Professor Jeffery Peterson uses an

Adams-made glass apparatus to keep the

chemicals in his lab under vacuum. He

works with air- and moisture-sensitive

molecules, so the vacuums Adams makes are

essential for successful results.

“Sherman is a very skilled individual. Not

many people can do what he’s doing. We are

very fortunate to have him,” said Peterson.

Adams has made Elizabeth Ward, a

third-year doctoral candidate in chemistry, a

glass tool that makes her experiments safer.

“It is a piece that goes into an oil bath

and prevents any splashing,” Ward said. “He

also repairs a lot of our glassware. He saves

us so much money and time,” she added.

In addition to being the creator and

fixer of most things glass, Sherman Adams

has taught more than 300 students the

how-to basics of glassblowing over the years.

He said it is a valuable skill for chemistry

and physics majors because if they go on to

become a researcher or professor they can fix

and create their own glass. This special skill-

set makes them more marketable.

Allen Burns, a scientific lab instrument

specialist, performs his magic with

different materials.

He uses a computerized numeric control

(CNC) machine to make equipment from

one piece of plexiglass, sheet metal, or

wood. The CNC is a computerized system

that can read a design created on a comput-

Sherman Adams, Allen Burns, and

Randy Eaglen support the research of

faculty and graduate students by creating

the specialized equipment needed for their

experiments.

Sherman Adams is a scientific glass

blower who has been perfecting his craft at

WVU for the last 31 years. When you enter

his office, a fire torch, oven, and shelves and

surfaces full of glass meet your eyes.

His duties include fixing broken glass

apparatus. He also creates all of the test

tubes for the introductory chemistry cours-

es. His skills have been recruited to support

various projects in the Department of En-

vironmental Protection, the WVU Health

Sciences Center, and the National Institute

for Occupational Safety and Health.

Students and professors need specialized

Sherman Adams used a single tube of glass, about as long as a two-foot ruler and as thick as a roll of quarters, to make an elephant during our photo session. His talents with glass extend beyond science, into the world of art.


er and then quickly create the device. Plexi-

glass and plastics are generally used because

they do not react with chemicals. Prior to

the 2008 purchase of the CNC, Burns used

a machine that required everything to be

made and cut by hand.

His favorite part of the job is working

with students because so many of them

come from different cultures and back-

grounds, and he likes learning about them.

In addition to creating research equip-

ment, he services the liquid nitrogen genera-

tors. These machines, on campus since 1969,

make liquid nitrogen from the air. WVU is

one of the only universities in the United

States that still makes liquid nitrogen.

“It is sold to other institutions and

provides an important revenue stream,” said

Chemistry Departmentchair Terry Gullion.

Randy Eaglen, another scientific lab

instrument specialist, specializes in work in

the woodshop, but he is truly a jack-of-all-

trades. He tackles electrical, plumbing, or

welding work.

“I’m never bored, that’s for sure. I don’t

do the same thing every day,” Eaglen said.

Gullion feels lucky to have such a strong

support staff. He said if WVU researchers

had to contract with outside companies for

glass repairs or pieces for their projects, they

would not be competitive for grants and

other research opportunities.

“Everything would take longer and be

more expensive if WVU had to travel for

their glass and machine repair and creation

needs. We would lose time and money.”

He went on to say that because of the

exploratory, cutting-edge nature of research

there are some things needed in a lab that

simply are not available commercially.

“The point of science is that it is novel

and original,” Gullion added. “If you can’t

buy it, but you have an idea, they can make

it for you.”

The alchemists in the basement are an

integral part of the scientific process.

Randy Eaglen made the table holding the computer that controls an atomic force microscope used by Elizabeth Yates, a third-year doctoral candidate.

Randy Eaglen

Sherman Adams

Elizabeth Yates Allen Burns

Allen Burns

Jeffrey Petersen, PhD


West Virginia is an energy state—it is an important energy producer and today is an innovator and leader. West Virginia University is training the next generation of engineers and scientists who will pioneer new strategies and technology platforms to make cleaner, more affordable, and reliable energy from fossil fuels and produce alternative energy sources.

Three professors in the Eberly College and their graduate students have been awarded grants from the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to provide a range of research and engineering services that are collectively valued at more than $465 million over five years.

By combining NETL’s expertise in fossil-energy technologies with the capabilities of Eberly faculty and graduate researchers, WVU is at the forefront of identifying and improving the use of fossil-energy resources and assisting the country’s transition to more energy-efficient technologies like fuel cells and fusion.

Advancing National Energy Security

TheThe


by Lauren Peretti


Harry Finklea, professor in the C.

Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry,

and his doctoral student Xiaoke Chen and

his postdoctoral associate, Yun Chen, are

working with NETL researchers to save

energy by combining heat and electrical

generation capabilities into one source of

generated energy, a fuel cell. The collabo-

ration includes Mechanical & Aerospace

Department faculty members Dr. Ismail

Celik and Dr. Nick Wu, and members of

their research groups.

Fuel cells provide a means of reducing

or even eliminating pollution of the envi-

ronment. A fuel cell is an electrochemical

device where a chemical reaction produces

energy that is converted directly into elec-

tricity. Once used primarily in space travel,

fuel cells are now being considered for use in

cars, homes, power plants, computers, smart

phones, appliances, and heating devices.

Finklea explained that a solid oxide fuel

cell is a special type of device that operates

at high temperatures up to 1,500 degrees

Fahrenheit. At this temperature, the solid

oxide fuel cell can use syngas, a fuel mixture

manufactured from coal or common liquid

fuels such as diesel. “We’re experimenting

with novel structures and compositions

of the cathode, the electrode at which

oxygen is reduced. This research could

lead to higher efficiency and lower cost for

the manufacture of solid oxide fuel cells,”

explained Finklea.

Chen earned a bachelor’s degree in phar-

macy from China in 2007 and is pursuing

a doctoral degree at WVU. New energy is a

hot topic, and Chen’s knowledge of analytic

chemistry is very applicable in this field.

“I get to team up with experts and

professors from other departments and

institutions who give me helpful advice,”

Chen said. “I gain valuable work experience

in a cross college environment working with

different people. It has helped me become a

better researcher in the relative area which I

plan to continue pursuing after graduation.”

Finklea and Chen conduct the major-

ity of their research at NETL’s facility in

Morgantown. There they can use a special

test bed that is capable of reaching the high

temperatures required for conversion and

use state-of-the-art facilities for character-

izing the solid oxide fuel cells.

The collaboration on this project

extends to the National Institute of Fuel-cell

Technology (NIFT), a multi-disciplinary

cluster of energy researchers from vari-

“We’re experimenting with novel structures and compositions of the cathode, the electrode at which oxygen is reduced. This research could lead to higher efficiency and lower cost for the manufacture of solid oxide fuel cells,” explained Finklea.

ous departments at WVU that strives to

make fuel cells an affordable, efficient, and

clean source of energy. Several professors in

WVU’s College of Engineering and Mineral

Resources have contributed, including

NIFT Director Ismail Celik, NIFT Associ-

ate Director Bruce Kang, Nick Wu, Xingbo

Liu, Edward Sabolsky, John Zondlo, and

Xueyan Song.

FINDING MARCELLUS SHALE DEPOSITS

Thanks to Tim Carr, Marshall Miller

Energy Professor of Geology and his doctoral

candidate Matt Boyce, it’s become easier than

ever for geologists to predict and find impor-

tant fossil energy sources.

Carr and Boyce are applying formu-

las to existing and extracted data, to find

reservoirs of Marcellus shale in one of the

world’s largest natural gas fields here in

the central Appalachian region. Thanks to

these unconventional resources, they are

supplying a number of nearby oil and gas

companies with predicted fuel source loca-

tions using geographic information systems

(GIS) to produce large mass infrastructures

of more than 2,900 regional wells.

“The goal of the research is to understand

where deposits are and why in order to make

better predictions, understand the formation

process, and analyze the history of the area to

more accurately look for other places where

gas is prominent. Then, companies go to these

places to extract it,” said Boyce.

Harry Finklea and Xiaoke Chen



Carr and Boyce are part of a network

of geologists who have uncovered hundreds

of years’ worth of gas, making important

contributions to energy conservation and

economic security, and now that the nation

is abundant in fuel sources, there is less of

a need to import.

“This is an infrastructure and eco-

nomic driver for West Virginia, Pennsyl-

vania, and the surrounding area, because

it provides alternative, unconventional

energy for things like public transportation

and power plants, and supplies new jobs,”

said Carr. “It also has a positive impact

on the environment as a low cost and low

carbon energy source.”

After earning bachelor’s and master’s

degrees in geology from the University of

Arkansas, Boyce followed Carr to WVU

in 2007 and began developing tools that

analyze core samples, measure physical

properties and critical rock data in a more

economical and efficient manner. Since his

graduation in August 2010,

master’s candidates in the

Department of Geology and

Geography, Anne Yanni and

Roy Sexton, have extended

Boyce’s work into northern

Pennsylvania.

Not only does predicting

the location of gas depend on existing data

at WVU, but the research has encouraged

cross-college collaboration with Mohindar

Seehra, Research Professor and Eberly

Family Distinguished Professor Emeritus

in the Department of Physics, and his

research associate, Vivek Singh.

“My role in this research was to quan-

tify the mineral composition of about 40

samples of core rock content from Marcel-

lus shale wells using x-ray diffraction and

data analysis software,” said Singh.

“This joint project is a good example

how expertise of different disciplines is

often needed to tackle important technical

problems,” said Seehra, who has previ-

ously worked with researchers from other

disciplines in the the C. Eugene Bennett

Department of Chemistry, Departments of

Chemical and Mechanical Engineering, and

Department of Orthopaedics at WVU.

APPLYING PLASMA PHYSICSEarl Scime, Eberly Distinguished Professor

and chair of the Department of Physics, is re-

searching fuels and fuel burning by-products for

the NETL’s Office of Fossil Energy with doctoral

student Mike Lindon. They are part of another

interdisciplinary collaboration with chemists

and chemical engineers at NETL and WVU to

discover new applications for plasma physics that

could reduce the environmental impact of fossil

fuel combustion.

Matt Boyce


“This is an infrastructure and economic driver for West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the surrounding area, because it provides alternative, unconventional energy for things like public transportation and power plants, and supplies new jobs,” said Carr.


Scime and Lindon are using non-thermal

plasmas to drive chemical processes that generate

hydrogen and carbon monoxide from coal and

that can dissociate carbon dioxide into carbon

monoxide and oxygen. Normally these chemical

processes require very high temperatures to occur.

However, by putting the energy into specific

energies of the electrons in a plasma, less energy

is needed to drive the chemical reactions. Such

plasmas are called non-thermal plasmas.

“This research could lead to a cheaper and

more effective method of energy extraction that

uses plasmas to react chemical systems, which

will help further more advanced research in this

field,” said Lindon, who received a bachelor’s de-

gree in nuclear engineering from Purdue Univer-

sity and has worked at the Los Alamos National

Laboratory in the plasma physics division.

Lindon hopes that, with strong results,

NETL can advance the plasma physics lab

to provide future WVU students with more

chances to pursue a degree in the plasma sciences.

He also sees this research as an opportunity to

bridge the gap between the different approaches

of physicists and chemical engineers and move

ideas across multiple disciplines.

“Partnering with NETL has proved to be

a very good work environment that provides

the funding, resources, and freedom I need to

pursue research towards my doctoral degree,”

said Lindon. “I hope being at the forefront of this

research will allow me to continue working on

such innovative work in the future.”

The National Energy Technology Labora-

tory is a federally owned and operated laboratory

that funds research and development partner-

ships with industry, universities, and government

entities to support the Department of Energy’s

mission of advancing the national, economic,

and energy security of the United States. NETL

formed the Regional University Alliance for

Energy Technology Innovation (RUA) in

partnership with five nationally recognized uni-

versities, including Carnegie Mellon University,

Pennsylvania State University, University of Pitts-

burgh, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State

University, and West Virginia University.

Advanced Energy InitiativeThe WVU Advanced Energy Initiative coordinates and promotes University-wide energy research in science, technology, and public policy.

The plan consists of three major focus areas:

•FossilEnergyFocus—deals with fossil energy resources, conversion, utilization, sequestration, and environmental management.

•SustainableEnergyFocus—addresses energy efficiency, conservation, and renewable energy sources.

•EnergyPolicyandRegulatoryAffairsFocus—providesanalysis of energy policy, carbon management, environmental, and infrastructure issues.

To learn more about the University’s Advanced Energy Initiative, and the many other research projects and partnerships associated with it, visit researchtrust.wvu.edu/energy.

Earl Scime and Mike Lindon


body body of 18 SUMMER 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

Buildingof

workThe MFA Program Celebrates

Ten Years of Success

Buildingbody aa

eberly.wvu.edu SUMMER 2 0 1 0 19

workWest Virginia University’s Master of

Fine Arts Program will celebrate its tenth

anniversary this year. The only MFA program

in Appalachia, it offers specializations in

fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Ten years ago Poet James Harms wrote

the proposal that started the program.

In 2002, the first three MFA students

graduated—Maryann Wolfe, Alvis Minor,

and Natalie Seabolt Dobson. They

transferred from the master’s program in

English, which formerly allowed students to

substitute a creative project for the scholarly

thesis requirement.

“The Department of English already

had such a wonderful group of writers

and an established master’s degree

program—so the MFA program was

the next logical and necessary step, said

Harms, professor of English and founding

director of the program.

WVU’s MFA faculty members include

Mark Brazaitis, James Harms, Mary Ann

Samyn, Ellesa Clay High, Kevin Oderman,

and Ethel Morgan Smith. They have

published more than 20 books between

them and have won many prestigious

prizes and honors including the PEN/

Revson Foundation Fellowship, National

Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship,

Fulbright Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation

Fellowship, Iowa Short Fiction Award,

George Garrett Fiction Award, and the

Bakeless Prize in Nonfiction, amongst others.

With no other MFA program offered in

the area, enrollment grew quickly.

“We have had students from as far as

Alaska and California; the reputation of

the program has really grown,” said Mark

Brazaitis, current director of the Creative

Writing Program.

Renée Nicholson was drawn to the

program after hearing Brazaitis read at the

West Virginia Writers Workshop in 2003.

“He read a short story titled, “The Priest’s

Daughter.” It’s from his first collection of

short stories and it completely blew me away.

I wanted to write stories like that; I knew

right then and there that Mark was someone

I wanted to work with,” she said.

“Mark totally shaped the way I write and

approach writing. He is a wonderful mentor.

A big part of the reason I was able to write

a draft of a novel is because Mark took so

much time to work with me,” she added.

After establishing a main character,

Brazaitis helped Nicholson understand

how to dramatically shape the narrative

around what happens to her and what she

most desires. He then helped her bring

out aspects of the narrative that might

have been lost otherwise.

“While I am a disciplined writer and

disciplined person, Mark helped me

to direct that discipline in a way that

allowed me to write a cohesive draft—

Renée Nicholson (in blue) finds inspiration for her writing in dance.


something I could really work with and

continue to shape,” she said.

“In the early going working on my novel,

I struggled with finding a strong, consistent

voice. I tried various things—first person,

present tense, first person past tense but the

recent past, and third person narrations, but

they weren’t working, she said.

“The one afternoon that I’ll never forget

is when he had written at the top of the first

page of the first chapter ‘This is the voice!’

I knew I had success, and was so excited

because I knew all the work of revision was

paying off,” she said proudly.

WVU’s MFA graduates have published

in hundreds of literary journals, including

prestigious venues such as: AGNI, Southern

Review, Gettysburg Review, Field, Prairie

Schooner, Tar River Poetry, Ninth Letter,

Northwest Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review,

The Journal, 32 Poems, Georgetown Review,

Controlled Burn, Colorado Review, PANK,

Malahat Review, Mid-American Review,

Paste, Chelsea, Washington Square, Laurel

Review, Slant, New Orleans Review, and in the

anthology Layers of Possibility: Healing Poetry.

Recent MFA students have won Intro

Prizes sponsored by the Association of

Writers and Writing Programs and the

GreenTower Press’s chapbook prize which

have published their book-length collections

of poetry and fiction.

Molly Brodak, a humanities and English

professor at Augusta State University in

Georgia was in the MFA program from

2005-2008. While attending WVU, she

published a chapbook of poems, Instructions

for a Painting.

“I chose WVU primarily because I

wanted to work with Mary Ann Samyn, who

is a stellar poet and teacher. I also liked the

beautiful location and relative isolation from

big-city distractions,” she said.

A year after graduation she won the

2009 Iowa Poetry Prize for her book, A Little

Middle of the Night.

Brodak credits the design of the MFA

program for her success.

“One great thing about the program is

that it is three years instead of two. I think

this really helped me focus on my thesis as a

book, not just a requirement for graduation,”

said Brodak.

In exchange for her tuition waver and a

living stipend, Brodak taught undergraduate

courses—this financial support is a popular

draw for the program.

“Getting a lot of teaching experience and

time to write and reflect during my years at

WVU was crucial to helping me find a job,”

she added.

Donald Hall, Jackson Family

Distinguished Chair and chair of the

Department of English would like to see the

program grow. He reports that the applicant

pool has increased 300-400 percent.

ExcerptfromRakedStages:ATwelveStepProgram by Renée Nicholson

1.HowIrememberRussia:agirlwithtwolowpigtails,dressedinapinkleotardandwhitesocksfoldedattheankles;herfeettuckedintowhite slippers, shuffling against the floor as shesprinkleditwithawateringcan.Herfacewasthedelicatepinkoftheinsidesofshells,soft, light, almost translucent. Her hair was dark,darkerthanmyown,polishedebony.Shewaspreparingtheroomforclass,wettingthe floor for traction.

A dirty light filtered through a filthy window. No one cared. The girls filed in and helped each other stretch. The girls had perfectturnout.Theirfaceswereserious;notsmiling, just concentrated. Their faces were scrubbed to a rosy shine.

WhatIalsorememberiscolor.Russiawasfullofpeacockbluesandbruisedpurplesandtarnished silver. The colors of an eerie feeling, likethesunhadturnedtoashbutneverset.


Nicholson demonstrates the proper position to one of her dancers.


On Beauty and West Virginia at the Blue Moose Caféby James Harms

The Monongahela flows north at the will of Mellons and Carnegies to join the Allegheny and the Ohio, to give away its name and what’s left of West Virginia coal and limestone toourbelovedPittsburgh,vanishingpointof minerals and rivers. And there’s a boy who comes here often whose face and scalp are a tattoo wing, as if a bird once worn as a hat has left behind its shadow. When it’s cold hecovershiswingwitharedknitcap,the face of Che Guevara embroidered ononeside.He’soldenoughtoknowhow his commitments have limited his life. I try to remain astonished, not condescending, though the truth is I could love her whose bad choices are a cost of fashion, who’s wearingthis moment the latest boots from New Zealand, and not him who simply cares more than I do about things neither of us can change. I met her at a Christmas party the yearbefore it all came apart, a sort ofpostmodern get-together, pepperoni rolls and paté, Budweiser and Krug.WetalkedaboutReynoldsPriceinthekitchen,smokingcigarettesoutthewindowabovethesink.She’dknownPriceatDuke,andasshetookthecigarettefrommyfingers,she leaned in a little, as if to heara secret. Of course she was lovely, and that’s the problem – her boots and her loveliness, an awareness ofher loveliness, which in West Virginia can lead to a sense of privilege,though such entitlement isn’texclusivetoAppalachia.Still,beauty as a form of currencyhas more value, one could argue,where the common coin is uncommonly rare, where so many are so damn poor. The snow blew in the window,soourhandsshookalittleaswepassedthecigarettebackandforth.IrememberfeelingawakeinmybodyinawayI’dneverknownwhenIturnedaway from her to answer a question. There was no one there, no one waiting for an answer, and no one anywherewhenIturnedback.

MakeThemHowlorBreatheFireby Mary Ann Samyn from Beauty Breaks In

I was strung up.I was my own angel.Repeat:Iwasmyownangel.Somethingbeepedtosignaltheendofmercy.Oh well—Weather swirled just beyond my shoulder. HadInotbeenonmykneesalready.Had I not grasped the concept.Godlikesfirmresolve.Idetestallmysins.Aboveall,ingratitude,thecolorofwhichpales,likemyskin.

Folkwaysby Molly Brodak

Distantangercloudstogether.As terrified ones tend to do.

Theafter,thevacuum—heat of imperceptible sadness gonebeforeit’sknown.

SoJupiterlugscometstoandfromthe sun and a woman in Managuafiresagunintothesky.

Somewhere,belly-white,a plume of dust replaces a building,likesomeunintelligibleword.

Still.Achime,ablushofwith what waste shall we rebuild?resurfaces. All is waste.



Currently, about ten percent of the 70-80

applicants to the program are accepted—so

between 22-30 students are in the program at

one time, and seven to nine are accepted into

each new class.

Hall says the size of the faculty limits

the number of students they can physically

accept into the program.

“Keeping the class size small is an

important part of our MFA experience. The

program cannot get much bigger unless we

hire more faculty members.”

Founding director Jim Harms adds, “It’s

both a blessing and a curse, because we are

filling such an important niche, we reached

capacity almost as soon as we began offering

the program.”

Hall continued, “We already have

an excellent track record for producing

award-winning writers, and I hope, as the

program matures, we will see more private

support for our graduate students and for

the creation of named professorships to

attract additional faculty.”

For more information about

the MFA in Creative Writing visit

creativewriting.wvu.edu.

Toreadmoreworksofshortfiction, poetry, and non-fiction by other students, alumni, and faculty involvedintheMFAprogramatWest Virginia University visit creativewriting.wvu.edu.

ANATOMY OF THE MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING

The Master of Fine Arts is the terminal

degree in creative writing. MFA students

at West Virginia University study within a

three-year academic/studio program that

combines an apprenticeship to the craft with

more traditionally academic elements. This

approach seeks to train students in ways

that reflect the realities of the writer/artist’s

evolving role in the academy.

Because writers, when hired to teach,

are often asked to handle a variety of courses

beyond the creative writing workshop, the

academic/studio format requires students

to take literature and pedagogy courses in

addition to writing workshops. The ultimate

goal is to produce writers who publish

literature and contribute to the culture; a

secondary goal is to offer practical skills

and opportunities to writers interested in

pursuing writing-related professions.

West Virginia University’s MFA is both

an academic and a professional degree. As part

of WVU’s comprehensive Center for Writing

Excellence, this degree allows students to

prepare for careers in teaching or professional

writing/editing. Our objective is to nurture

and mentor the many writers in the region

seeking professional training. We also intend

to attract student writers from all over the

country to West Virginia for the opportunity

to live and write in this culturally rich state

and to work with our faculty.


changed dramatically since becoming involved

with the National Writing Project,” says

Stephanie Runion, an elementary school

teacher in Harrison County.

“I used to give a lot of neat writing

assignments that were fun and engaging, but

these assignments really didn’t teach my students

much about the actual process of writing.”

Since the project, Runion provides her

students with much more time to write

independently on topics of their choice, to

enhance the creative process. In addition to

helping in the classroom setting, the Project also

helps Runion connect with other teachers of

writing around the state.

“It is wonderful to have the opportunity

to collaborate and network with other teachers

who value writing and the importance of high-

quality writing instruction as much as I do,”

she adds.

Runion also says she gathered some new

ideas on ways to involve parents in their child’s

writing. Instead of focusing solely on writing

instruction within the school day, she is able

to include parents in their children’s writing

process at home. This really helps transform

students into strong, developed writers.

“The National Writing Project has helped

me grow as both a writer and a teacher of

writing,” she says.

For Carrie Beatty, an English teacher at

University High School in Morgantown, the

project influences her in two ways: both as a

student and as a consultant.

“As a student, the project showed me new

and creative ways to approach teaching the

standards. For example, the simple act of taking

notes doesn’t have to be boring,” she says.

The trick for Beatty is that the notes needed

to be different than notes in standard format.

“I made mine into a game board. Move ahead

two spaces for successfully writing using the giant

National Writing ProjectandYoungWriter’s Holiday

LOL, BFF, I<3 U, C U 2 nite. This is the

language of the American adolescent, efficient

shorthand that doesn’t follow the rules of

grammar or spelling. While it may be a concise

way to express oneself in a quick text or e-mail,

it will not serve teens well when they go on to

college or enter the job market.

The more popular texting and social media

become the more teachers struggle to impart

good writing skills to their students.

The National Writing Project poses a

solution to this problem: ways and techniques

to educate young writers about the importance

of quality, professional writing by engaging their

creativity and self-expression.

“My approach to teaching writing has

by Jessica Hammond

Photos by Taylor Jones



“I am an English teacher because I love to read,

write, and discuss literature and I want to share that

joy with students,” Beatty says.

“I believe in the goals of the NWP because

it has helped me to become a better teacher. I

can draw together my passion for literature, my

creativity, and the enjoyment of teaching, stir them

together and channel that into student-focused,

fun writing projects,” she adds.

“Isn’t that the goal of every teacher? Get

students excited about a subject and help them

to learn about that subject and about themselves

at the same time. The National Writing Project

helps to give teachers the tools to make this

possible. It offers teachers of any subject another

tool in their arsenal to cultivate learning.”

Keisha Kibler, a middle school English teacher

at West Preston Middle School, said the Project

can be beneficial for teachers of all experience levels.

“I developed a network of teachers that I’m

really close to—and they give me a lot of different

ideas and research to back up my philosophy of

teaching writing,” she adds.

In a partnership with the National Writing

Project, a program called the Young Writer’s

Holiday was developed to provide a creative outlet

the imagination,” she says.

These experiences allow Beatty to create

projects that incorporate writing and creativity

together in one unit.

“This is important because too many

times a teacher is expected to diversify his or her

instruction and yet meet the educational standards

set by the state with a ratio of 30 students to one

teacher,” she says.

“Those students’ writing abilities range

from mastery to barely able to write a coherent

paragraph. This past school year I taught three

classes: ninth grade English collaboratively with a

special education teacher, tenth grade English with

‘on level’ students, and eleventh grade English in a

collaborative setting,” she adds.

Beatty says she uses the creative notes

strategy to have students retell the main events

of a short story or novel. Her sophomores did

two new projects this year; they completed a

multigenre biography with a presentation, and

the three classes all contributed to a cookbook

where they submitted a recipe and a short story

that went along with the recipe. After the book

was completed, they brought in the dish to

share with the class.

fish prompt. Move back five spaces if you

complain about the coldness of the room,”

she adds.

These exercises made her more comfortable

using PowerPoint and other technologies.

Beatty also experienced the project as a

consultant. She says she really learned about the

craft of writing and about the different approaches

teachers can use.

“During a course at WVU with JoAnne

Dadisman, I learned about the multigenre project.

Basically it is a research paper flipped to the creative

side. Instead of telling, students can show about

their topic,” she says.

She was told to read a five-page essay on the

immigrants of Ireland in the coal camps of West

Virginia or read a five-page short story that includes

the same details and research-based events.

“Stories entertain and allow students to

express themselves in a way that a standard, formal

research paper does not. The multigenre approach

isn’t limited either. With that same topic a student

may include pictures, poems, perhaps a song, they

may write a newspaper article, an obituary for a

fallen miner, or a flyer announcing a festival that is

celebrated in the area; the genres are only limited to


Alex Berge, third-year creative writing MFA candidate, assists during the Young Writers’ Holiday


for young writers. Students from across the state

gather in June for a day camp.

Kibler is the director of the Young Writer’s

Holiday. She says the three-day camp just

follows the trends and standards of the National

Writing Project.

“My favorite part of the Holiday is getting

to meet all the talented young writers from the

northwestern part of West Virginia, and listening

to their creative pieces,” Kibler says.

Kibler has been running the Holiday since it

started, four years ago.

Charity Gingerich, a third-year MFA student

at WVU, said this is her first time teaching at the

Young Writer’s Holiday. She feels the younger kids

are when they start writing, the better.

“The kids aren’t told what to write; they can

explore on their own. I have loved writing ever

since I could remember, and I’m glad they can

develop their love as well. I like working with these

kids because there is such openness about the joy of

writing,” says Gingerich.

Gingerich has taught English 101, the

University’s freshman-level composition course,

at WVU for the past two years. She also works

with Mary Ann Samyn in the dorms as part of the

Bolton grant at WVU.

Sita Sunil, a seventh grader from Suncrest

Middle School, says her teacher Ms. Muendel

suggested the Holiday to her.

Sunil hopes to be an environmental scientist

someday and she knows that will mean writing

reports. She says the Holiday really showed her

how she can think creatively while still following

the “rules” of writing.

Amy Purpura, a junior political science

major, was a helper for the Holiday. She is a tutor

at the WVU Writing Center, so helping college

students with their writing is what she’s used to.

She said it was a pleasant adjustment to helping

younger writers.

“From what I remember about English classes,

it’s a lot about the grammar. They already know

how to write. Now they can focus on what is good

quality writing,” she adds.

The other aspect Purpura enjoyed was the

friendships that formed between the participants.

They were able to make new friends with a

shared interest.

Walter Harms, an eighth grader at South

Middle School, says his dad, James Harms,

an English professor at WVU, told him

about the Holiday.

“I am having the time of my life, the

younger Harms said.

This is the fourth year for the Young

Writer’s Holiday, and Kibler is all ready in

the planning stages for next summer. For

information or to receive updates about the June

2011 Holiday, please contact Keisha Kibler at

[email protected].

eberly.wvu.edu SUMMER 2 0 1 0 25

History of the NWPTheNationalWritingProjectwasstarted in 1987 as a public school-universitypartnershiplinkingWVUwith Marion and Monongalia county schools.PrestonandWetzelcountiesare also now a part of the partnership.

Some275teacherconsultantshavebeentrainedtoworkwithteachersand administrators to promote writing and classroom research in 60 schools. A major emphasis includes training teachers on using computers in the classroom.

Eachyear,theNationalWritingProjectatWVUreceivesabout$45,000infederal grant funding, which depends on a dollar-for-dollar match. That match comes from the Eberly College ofArtsandSciences,theCollegeofHumanResourcesandEducation,and from Monongalia, Marion, and Wetzel counties. The majority of the funding provides stipends and tuition waivers for the ongoing professional development of area teachers.

TheWritingProjectisanoutreachpartnership between the WVU DepartmentofandSchoolsinWestVirginia. The program currently serves 200teachersinK-12classroomsintheNorthernWestVirginianetwork.

The National Writing Project at WVU follows a list of eight assumptions:

•Studentwritingcanbeimprovedbyimproving the teaching of writing.

•Thebestteacherofteachersisanother teacher.

•Programsdesignedtoimprovetheteaching of writing must involve teachers at all grade levels from all subject areas.

•Thewritingproblemcanbestbesolved through co-operatively planned university-school programs.

•Changecanbestbeaccomplishedbythosewhoworkintheschools,not by transient consultants or by prepackagedsystems.

•Meaningfulchangecanonlyoccurover time.

•Whatisknownaboutteachingwriting comes not only from research but from the practice of those who teach writing.

•Teachersofwritingmustwrite.


by Lauren PerettiPhotos by Brian Persinger


Underneath the surface of nearby rolling

hills and meandering streams is a hidden

world of natural drinking water and rare

species. They are buried in caves and springs

just waiting to be unearthed by geologists.

In these hidden karst aquifers is 40

percent of the United State’s drinking water

that forms some of the nation’s most dis-

tinctive landscapes, like the sinkhole plains

of Kentucky, the artesian waters of Texas,

the clear springs of Florida, and even the

complex caves of West Virginia.

Karst regions such as these house

valuable water resources, but are poorly

understood and easily polluted. Not only is

public health a concern when it comes to

karst water, but these sites are also home to

many endangered species and undiscovered

microbial communities.

In an effort to improve public health,

reduce contamination and identify fragile

ecosystems, Dorothy Vesper, associate pro-

fessor in the Department of Geology and

Geography, has joined two national research

grants each valued at about $100,000 that

explore local and global karst issues.

As part of a National Park Service grant,

Vesper, along with John Tudek, a doctoral

student studying karst geochemistry, is con-

solidating geographic information systems

(GIS) data and developing a conceptual

mapping model for karst groundwater

on some of the nation’s most popular and

nearby historic sites, natural areas and

Civil War battlefields, like Harper’s Ferry,

W.V., Antietam, MD., and the Chesapeake

& Ohio Canal National Historical Park

(CHOH).

“Karst water is a different kind of hy-

drology that changes the game of geological

research,” explained Tudek. “Not only are

karst systems hidden underground, but they

move contaminants so quickly and in unseen

ways that studying them is very important to

answering some big environmental and heath

questions.”

The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National

Historical Park extends nearly 185 miles


Dorothy Vesper (in blue) in the field with members of her research team.


along the Potomac River in Maryland and

the District of Columbia. Along the park’s

bike trail are isolated springs, caves and sensi-

tive karst sites that house 80 percent of Mary-

land’s endangered species. Understanding the

rarity of these sites requires a knowledge base

of karst species, ecosystems, and sensitivity to

environmental contamination, which is both

Vesper and Tudek’s area of expertise.

Beginning in fall 2010, Vesper and

Tudek began another two-year project with

the National Park Service focusing on the

endangered species at the C&O Park. They

survey potential karst sites to identify their

vulnerability and prioritize them based on

risk level and impact.

“Most visitors are unaware of how

important and fragile geologic, biologic,

and cultural resources are along the C&O

Canal,” said Vesper. “This project will guide

CHOH managers on how to best protect

the most vulnerable species living in their

ecosystems.”

Vesper and Tudek work with a multi-

disciplinary team to test the water, further


Volcanic and Sedimentary Rock

KARST PROCESS

VolcanicRock

Disappearing Stream

Limestone Cave

Spring

Limestone

Acidic Rainwater

Carbon DioxideDissolves into Rainwater

Cracks inLimestone

Soil


identify the species present, and select the pri-

ority sites for study. They also use microbial

tracking and dye tracing to link source areas

to vulnerable locations downstream.

“It’s two of my favorite things coming

together,” said Tudek, who is somewhat

of a history buff and caving guru. “I get

to wander around Civil War battlefields

exploring history, and unanswered geologi-

cal aspects, like abnormal rock patterns,

and how cave structures form differently in

these mostly uncharted areas.”

Tudek grew up caving in New Jersey,

and is author of two self-published guide

books, which led him to be featured in

several New York City publications. He

earned a bachelor’s degree in English from

Rutgers University in 2004 and a master’s

degree in geology from WVU in 2010.

Previously, his research centered on hydro-

geologic investigations in the Davis Spring

Drainage Basin in Greenbrier County,

W.V., and he is looking forward to explor-

ing new territory with this grant.

Many of the techniques Vesper will use to

study karst in the United States will crossover

to research being conducted on the North

Shore of Puerto Rico, an area of land now

preserved, but once historically contaminated

by pharmaceutical companies. Beginning

in fall 2010, Vesper and one WVU gradu-

ate student will partner with Northeastern

University (NU) and the University of Puerto

Rico to consult on water quality clean up and

contamination movement.

The four-year National Institute of

Environmental Health (NIEH) Superfund,

called Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring

Contamination Threats (PROTECT),

brings together experts in engineering, public

health, and biomedical and environmental

sciences with a dual goal to reduce exposure

to environmental contamination and the

preterm birth rate in Puerto Rico, which is

nearly 20 percent.

“PROTECT will link human health

and medicine with the environment and

engineering sciences by addressing challenges

posed by environmental contamination in

Puerto Rico, as well as the U.S., like health

risks, toxicity, exposure predictions, contami-

nant transport and remediation,” said Vesper,

whose role as karst geochemistry consultant

centers on the transport of organic contami-

nants and green remediation techniques.

“This research will help develop new

technology for karst remediation and build

future partnerships for WVU students with

several institutions, like Northeastern Uni-

versity and the University of Puerto Rico,”

explained Vesper.

Vesper earned a bachelor’s degree in geol-

ogy from Juniata College in Huntingdon,

P.A., in 1986. She received a master’s degree

in environmental pollution control and a

doctoral degree in geosciences from Penn State

University in 1988 and 2002, respectively.

Between 1988 and 1998, she worked as a

geologist for Arthur D. Little, Inc., in Cam-

bridge, M.A., and a project hydrogeologist at

ERM-New England, Inc., in Boston.


John Tudek in the Norman Cave system.


ADVANCing Women in Science

by Rebecca Herod


Members of the ADVANCE grant submission team (from back row to front) include Michelle Withers, assistant professor of biology; Melissa Latimer, associate professor and chair of sociology and anthropology; Maura McLaughlin, assistant professor of physics; James Nolan, associate professor sociology and anthropology; Katie Stores, PhD, grant development officer; Leslie Tower, associate professor of social work and public administration; Marjorie Darrah, associate professor of mathematics; and Kasi Jackson, assistant professor of women’s studies.


West Virginia University has received

a $3.2 million grant from the National

Science Foundation to help increase the

number of women in science, technology,

engineering and mathematic disciplines,

and to encourage these scientists with

advanced degrees to consider academia as

a viable and attractive career option.

The grant, one of only six given

this year, is awarded under the NSF’s

ADVANCE program, which is dedicated to

developing systemic approaches to increase

the representation and advancement of

women in academic STEM careers and

contributing to the development of a more

diverse science and engineering workforce.

It is the first ADVANCE grant the

University has received.

“This announcement marks a

significant day in the life of West Virginia

University as it underscores the University’s

commitment to being a global, diverse

research university with an even greater

emphasis on becoming more competitive

for federal research and education dollars,”

President James P. Clements said.

“This grant is central to our efforts to

promote participation and leadership by

women in STEM fields, which in turn is

essential to making WVU internationally

competitive in research and education. I

want to congratulate and thank all of the

faculty and staff members who worked

so hard to earn this great opportunity for

our University.”

The NSF grant will support creation

of the WVU Program for Retaining

Institutional Diversity and Equity—

otherwise known as WVU PRIDE—and

include establishment of the WVU

ADVANCE Center.

The WVU PRIDE program will be

a university-wide, multi-level project

to assess, engage and support change at

New &Notable

“This ADVANCE proposal was conceived in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and was developed in partnership with the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. However the intent is to improve the recruitment, retention, and advancement of STEM women wherever they reside in the academy and so we expect the initiative to affect women in Davis, Business and Economics and also in the basic sciences in the Health Sciences Center,” said Provost Michele Wheatly.


Brandi Howard received her undergraduate degree in biology and is now in dental school at WVU. Stacey Anderson received her doctoral degree in biology in 2004.

the department level. The University’s

long-term goal is to ensure the success of

all faculty members by creating a diverse

scientific community within WVU that

supports constructive interactions leading

to professional and personal development.

“This ADVANCE proposal was

conceived in the Eberly College of Arts and

Sciences and was developed in partnership

with the College of Engineering and

Mineral Resources. However the intent is

to improve the recruitment, retention, and

advancement of STEM women wherever

they reside in the academy and so we

expect the initiative to affect women in

Davis, Business and Economics, and also

in the basic sciences in the Health Sciences

Center, said Provost Michele Wheatly.

“The bottom line is that this grant

heralds an institution-wide impetus

to become a more diverse academic

community, a prerequisite for any world-

class research university,” she said.

“Personally I am tickled pink to

chair the internal advisory board and

draw from my own experiences as a

STEM researcher to mentor other young

women faculty and students wherever I

have the opportunity. WVU owes a debt

of gratitude to the team that captured

this large grant. They did everything

right, spent two years building the case

and brought home a major win on first

submission. Bravo!”

WVU PRIDE has three specific goals:

• To make direct connections between

individuals and the policies and practices

of WVU.

• To engage faculty from departments

and disciplines throughout the

university in a process that promotes

collective engagement in institutional

transformation and the achievement of

gender-equity and diversity goals.

• To recruit, retain, and promote more

women science and engineering faculty,

beginning in the Eberly College of

Arts and Sciences and the College of

Engineering and Mineral Resources at

WVU, but eventually spreading through

the entire University where women are

engaged in STEM fields.


Goldwater Scholar Kellen M. Calinger graduated summa cum laude in 2009 with a degree in biology.

New &Notable

“West Virginia University is poised for

significant changes, funneled by new

leadership that is committed to equity

and diversity,” said Melissa Latimer,

co-principal investigator on the grant

and the new interim director of the

WVU ADVANCE Center. “Strong

campus-level support for increasing

STEM diversity and improving the

work-life conditions for all WVU faculty

was evidenced throughout the proposal

development process.

“By receiving an NSF ADVANCE

award, we can combine these substantial

and competitive resources with our

current campus commitment in order to

profoundly and positively transform our

institution,” she added.

Those involved in the application and

successful receipt of the grant include:

James P. Clements; Michele Wheatly;

J. Kasi Jackson, assistant professor of

women’s studies; Professor Fred King,

associate dean of research and graduate

studies in the Eberly College of Arts

and Sciences; Melissa Latimer, associate

professor and chair of sociology and

anthropology; Leslie Tower, associate

professor social work and public

administration; Marjorie Darrah,

associate professor of mathematics;

Maura McLaughlin, assistant professor of

physics; James Nolan, associate professor

sociology and anthropology; Katie

Stores, PhD, grant development officer,

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences; and

Michelle Withers, assistant professor of

biology.

In addition to the internal stakeholders,

an external advisory board will assess

the effectiveness of the program. Jim

Hougland, professor of sociology at

the University of Kentucky, will act as

external reviewer. Members of the external

advisory board include faculty and

administrators from Auburn University,

Iowa State University, the National Energy

Technology Laboratory, Purdue University,

University of Oregon, University of Rhode

Island and Utah State University.


Allison Owens is a tutor in the successful Peer Led Team Learning Program (PLTL) in the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry.


MakingitHappenOneGiftat a TimeWVUAlumnaKathyHall-deGraafwasonceaskedbyacoworkerhowitfelttobethe only woman in a room full of engineers.

“MyreplywasthatIcan’teverstoptothinkaboutthat,orI’dstarttodoubtmyself,”sheexplained.“Whenyouarepartofaminority,itcanmakeyoufeelself-consciousandafraidtotakechancesorcontributeyourideas.”

To help build a society where contributions are gender-blind, Kathy and her husband, BruceR.deGraaf,havedonated$25,000totheWVUFoundationtoestablishtheHall-deGraafEndowmentforWomeninScienceandEngineering(WiSE).

TheWiSEGivingCircleisanewcollaborativeefforttobringtogetherWVUalumnaewhowanttomakeadifferenceintheacademicfieldofsciencebyencouragingandmentoringyoungwomeninpursuitofprofessionalcareerswithintheSTEMdisciplines – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The group’s main goal will be to foster a positive impact on WVU and the community while financially supporting faculty initiatives and student scholarships.

The gift will support a variety of research initiatives to promote, champion and broaden the efforts of female faculty researchers and graduate and undergraduate studentsbyadvancingSTEMdisciplinesintheWVUcommunity.

“Ibelieveingivingback,and,asafemaleengineer,Iunderstandtheneedtoencouragewomentogointotechnicalfieldsanddeveloptheirfullpotential,”saidKathy about her support of the program.

Recipients’researchwillfallwithinoneormoreoftheWVUResearchInitiatives,including:energyandenvironmentalsciences;nanotechnologyandmaterialsciences;

6°DegreesofSeparationDiandraL.Leslie-Peleckyhasbeen appointed the first full-time, permanent director of WVNano, West Virginia’s focal point in nanoscale science, engineering and education. In addition to directing WVNano, she will be a tenured professorintheDepartmentofPhysicsintheEberlyCollege.

Leslie-Peleckysaidshewasattractedto the WVNano position because of the progress already made in the multidisciplinary approach and the growing collection of laboratory equipment at WVU that facilitates advanced research.

Her research has focused on using nanomagnets(magnetslessthanonethousandth the diameter of a human hair)toimprovemagneticresonanceimaging, chemotherapy and other cancer diagnostic and treatment processes.

LookformoreonDiandraLeslie-Peleckyinfutureeditionsof Eberly.

LearnaboutWVNanoat wvnano.wvu.edu.


Bruce deGraff, Kathy Hall-deGraff and her parents, Drs. John E. and Judith C. Hall.


TheWiSEGivingCirclebringstogetherWestVirginiaUniversityalumnaeandfriendswho want to impact the field of science by encouraging and mentoring young women intheirpursuitofprofessionalcareerswithintheSTEMdisciplines—science,technol-ogy, engineering, and math. This collaborative effort supports faculty initiatives and student scholarships.

TheWiSEGivingCirclewasdevelopedtostrengthenWVU’scommitmenttoinsti-tutionalchangeasacompaniontothefederalADVANCEGrantwhosepurposeis“IncreasingtheParticipationandAdvancementofWomeninAcademicScienceandEngineeringCareers.”ThegoaloftheADVANCEprogramistodevelopsystemicapproaches to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic STEMcareers,therebycontributingtothedevelopmentofamorediversescienceandengineeringworkforce.WhenyoujointheWiSEGivingCircle,youencourageandmentoryoungwomenpursuingprofessionalSTEMcareerswithintheEberlyCollegeofArtsandSciencesandtheCollegeofEngineeringandMineralResourcesandhelpachievetheobjectivesoftheADVANCEGrant.

CirclemembersformacollectivevoicethroughtheirannualmembershipinWiSEGiv-ingbymakingaminimumannualinvestmentof$1,000.Circlemembershopetoinspirewomen to actively participate within the world of science as professionals, students andknowledgeabledonors.Therearetwolevelsofmembershipforthegivingcircle.

•GoldMembership,whichrequiresacommitmentofatleast$1,000percalendaryear.

•BlueMembership,whichisaspecialratebasedonanincreasingscaleofsupportfor eligible alumnae who have received their first WVU undergraduate or graduate degree in the last ten years.

ByjoiningtheWiSEGivingCircle,membersareentitledtoonevoteindeterminingwhich projects or scholarships the circle will financially support. As a group, circle members will annually vote on the distribution of available funds for applicants meeting the objectives within the area of science, technology, and mathematics.

Additionally, by joining the circle, members will be invited to return to WVU for the WomeninScienceandEngineeringAnnualRetreat.Duringtheretreat,memberswillhaveexcitingopportunitiestomeetandnetworkwithfellowdonorsandawardrecipi-ents. This event will advance the education of members on the accomplishments and achievementsoftheUniversity’sfemaleSTEMfacultyandstudentscholars.Theretreatwill also provide an opportunity for the circle to conduct business.

Youcanmakeyourgifttodayusingtheenclosedbusinessreplyenvelope.

Formoreinformation,togiveonline,andforstoriesabouttheexcitingworkbeingdoneby women in the sciences at WVU, visit wisewomen.wvu.edu.

All About

New &Notable

biological, biotechnological, and biomedicalsciences;and/orbiometrics,security sensing, and related identification technologies.

Fundingopportunitieswillincluderesources for ongoing research efforts equipmentandinstrumentationforSTEMfacultyresearchlabs;researchfellowshipsforgraduatestudents;andresearchscholarships and enrichment opportunities for undergraduates that encourage young women to pursue science degrees. The dean of the Eberly College, along with theWiSEGivingCircle,willapprovetheresearch projects.

The endowment honors the donors andKathy’sparents:JohnE.Hall,PhD,professorofmicrobiology,andJudithC.Hall,PhD,assistantprofessorofmathematics at WVU, for their support and encouragement of their children’s education and career choices.

Kathy Hall-de Graaf is a Morgantown native and member of the Eberly College Advisory Committee. She studied music through the preparatory program of the WVU Division of Music, and earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., before returning to WVU to earn a master’s degree in computer science.

Bruce, a native of Santa Barbara, Calif., served in the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam before earning a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

The couple met while working in software engineering in Silicon Valley, Calif., and later settled in Massachusetts. Currently, Kathy works at Juniper Networks developing software for networking devices, and is also an avid beekeeper and musician. Bruce works at General Electric developing software for train systems and enjoys astronomy and music.



by Rebecca Herod Photos by Dan Friend

Picture this: Your best friend has been

injured in a car accident in a rural area.

You manage to safely and successfully

get her to the nearest rural hospital and

discover that a transfer to a major trauma

hospital is needed.

Within trauma medicine there is a

concept called “the golden hour” — patients

treated within the first hour of injury have

a mortality rate of 10 percent. That jumps

to 75 percent if the treatment occurs within

the first eight hours. Rural patients are

already at a disadvantage because of distance

and terrain, but poor communication

between staff at a rural hospital and staff at

the trauma center can also lead to increased

transfer times, and time is a critical factor in

patient survivability.

The Accreditation Council for

Graduate Medical Education identifies

communication as one of the six core

competencies that post-MD medical

training students must exhibit in order to

graduate. Recently a team of researchers at

WVU undertook an experiment to observe

the effects of a one-hour addendum to

the Rural Trauma Team Development

Course (RTTDC). The addendum focuses

on streamlining information transfer and

quality communication between Level 3,

4, and 5 rural hospitals and Level 1 and 2

trauma medical personnel.

The Rural Trauma Team Development

Course (RTTDC) teaches health care

providers at rural hospitals to identify

injuries requiring transfer within the first

15 minutes and effectively communicate

the key issues to the Level 1 or 2 center

when they call for transfer. The WVU

School of Medicine funds the course and

donates its faculty time.

A recent collaboration between faculty

in the Department of Communication

Studies and the School of Medicine has

resulted in improvements in the protocol

that successfully reduces transfer times

between rural facilities and larger trauma

centers by 40 minutes. The improvements

have been adopted as the new standard for

the American College of Surgeons (ACS),

an organization of over 73,000 physicians

around the world. This new standard trains

Level 3, 4, and 5 trauma personnel in

effective and affirming communication.

Matthew M. Martin, PhD.,

THE GOLDEN HOUR: IMPROVING CARE FOR RURAL TRAUMA PATIENTS


Matthew M. Martin, E. Phillip Polack, MD, and Theodore A. Atvgis on the helipad of the Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center at West Virginia University Hospitals.

eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 37New &Notable

professor and chair of the Department

of Communication Studies, Theodore

A. Avtgis, PhD, associate professor of

communication studies and adjunct

associate professor of surgery, E. Phillips

Polack, MD, clinical professor of surgery

at WVU, and Daniel Rossi, DO, a former

surgical resident at WVU, found problems

encountered during the patient transfer

process from rural facilities to major trauma

centers included hostility, condescension,

and dismissive behavior. Conversely

receiving level 1 and 2 trauma centers

reported wasted time due to ineffective

communication and extraneous information

from the staff at the smaller facilities.

“Doctors and personnel at larger

trauma centers were engaging in behavior

that caused their counterparts at the rural

facilities to become angry, defensive, and

frustrated,” said Avtgis.

“They were second-guessing diagnoses

and asking a number of redundant

questions in ways that were adversely

affecting the teamwork and coordination

necessary to treat patients in effective and

timely ways. Level 1 and 2 trauma center

personnel were frustrated by the quality and

type of information provided by their rural

counterparts. The lack of mutual respect

was eroding effective communication and

information exchange.”

Avtgis and Martin attribute this type of

breakdown to the tendency for relational

and personality factors of the healthcare

team to adversely influence efficient and

effective information transfer. They say

that the same types of breakdowns can

happen in any organization.

“You can have the best and most

highly trained medical personnel out

there, but transfer is about logistics, it’s

about communication. That is why this

multidisciplinary approach gets results.

It combines excellent medical care with

excellent communication,” said Avtgis.

To address a breakdown, Polack

administered communication training,

designed by Martin and Avtgis, to

personnel in Level 3, 4, and 5 medical

facilities throughout West Virginia. The

training consists of a 30-minute lecture

on communication competence and 30

minutes of role playing with the participants.

The team found that the communication

training significantly reduced the amount of

time it took the smaller hospitals to decide

to transfer a patient, the time it took for a

transfer squad to arrive, and the number

of squads contacted before finding one to

transfer the patient.

Facilities with no RTTDC training had

a 77-minute transfer time, facilities with the

medical portion of the training showed a

67-minute transfer time. Those with both

the medical and the communication training

showed a 37-minute transfer time.

“Hospitals can spend enormous amounts

of money on technology to reduce transfer

times with limited success. By focusing on

concise and competent communication we

have an inexpensive and incredibly effective

training which based on our findings, yields

benefits for both the patient and healthcare

practitioners,” said Martin.

“West Virginia University is

consistently the benchmark of excellence

and an incubator for unique and effective

solutions in the area of rural medicine

and health communication. Adoption of

this new protocol by ACS is yet another

indication that the collaborative academic

work done at WVU saves lives and

improves communities.”

“You can have the best and most highly trained medical personnel out there, but transfer is about logistics, it’s about communication. That is why this multidisciplinary approach gets results. It combines excellent medical care with excellent communication,” said Avtgis.


West Virginia University Hospitals’ Ruby Memorial Hospital.


The first thing you should know

about Robert Jones is that he loves

trees—trees of every type, age, and

size and in every season. His eyes

light up when he talks about them.

On a recent fall day he paused

during a meeting and pointed

out toward the banks of the

Monongahela River.

“Just look at how wonderful

those colors are—fantastic,” he

said.

His love affair with the study of

trees as a profession began in earnest on

another beautiful fall day during a field

experience in which he was studying the

rooting process of oak trees.

“I looked around at the beauty and

stillness of the forest and thought,

‘this is it. There is nothing in this

world better than this.’”

He found the other great love

of his life, his wife, Jeri, during his

college career too. Fortunately for

him, zoology majors at Clemson were

required to take one plant ecology

course. Bob’s schedule just happened

to coincide with the one and only

course Jeri ever took in plant biology.

They have been together ever

since.

It is rather amazing that a

man who has spent more than

30 years studying forest ecology

can still be awed and inspired by

a vista of fall foliage, but that kind of

wonder, passion, and excitement are

what make Bob Jones the man he is

and what make him a perfect fit for the

Dean Robert Jones welcomes Karenne Wood, an enrolled member of the Monacan Indian Nation and Ford Fellow in anthropology at the University of Virginia. Wood was the guest of honor at the annual Peace Tree Ceremony this October.

MEET DEAN JONES


“I feel like I’ve grabbed a tiger by the tail, but it’s a great ride.” — Dean Robert Jones

by Rebecca Herod Photos by Brian Persinger


6°DegreesofSeparation

BobJones’favoritebooksaretheFoundationSeriesbyIsaacAsimov. He loves the threads of science, psychology, history, and philosophy that run through the series. A collection of over 600books,games,audiorecordings,videos,andwallchartsarehousedintheWestVirginiaUniversityLibraries’AsimovCollection.Itisthelargestknowncollectionintheworld.

OnOctober26,WVUheldIsaacAsimovDay;itwasthefirstin a series of events that will explore science communication. MollySimis,aseniorbiologyandenvironmentalgeosciencesmajor,coordinatedIsaacAsimovDayandisplanninganaccompanying science communicators’ conference in April. AsimovDaywasapreviewoftheconference,whichwillworktoimprovethelinkbetweenscientistsandthecommunicatorswhostrivetoexplaintheirwork.TheAprileventwillincludeaFestivalofIdeasspeaker.Lookfordetailslaterthisspring.

FormoreinformationontheLibraries’AsimovCollectionvisit, www.libraries.wvu.edu/exhibits/asimov.

New &Notable

Eberly College.

When people meet the new dean,

they lean in to pay attention. He is

a soft-spoken man who spends more

time listening than he does talking.

He is measured and thoughtful in his

responses to questions and engaged

and inquisitive when asking them.

His quiet diligence, broad smile, and

collaborative attitude have quickly

garnered the respect and admiration

of staff and faculty.

Jones has been on the job as dean

of the Eberly College since August 31.

He spends 12 to 14 hours working.

When asked what he does in his spare

time he laughs.

Normally he can be found hiking

in the mountains or communing

with the trees he loves so much. In

the past two months, he was able to

visit Cooper’s Rock for one hike. He

doesn’t think he’ll have much “spare

time” for the next year or so, but he

doesn’t mind.

“I feel like I’ve grabbed a tiger

by the tail, but it’s a great ride. This

is the place I need to be right now.

This University and this College are a

perfect fit for me,” he said.

Jones came to WVU from the

biological sciences department of

Virginia Tech—a fact he hopes you

won’t hold against him during his

first WVU football season. There he

oversaw more than 100 faculty and

staff members, 90 graduate students

and 1,600 undergraduate students

pursuing careers in research, medicine,

biotechnology, conservation, and

environmental science.

He has spent the first several months

of his appointment becoming familiar

with the programs in the College, and

working with faculty, students, alumni,

and staff to match up the Eberly strategic


40 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences MagazineNew &Notable

plan with that of the University. He

is immersing himself in the culture

of the college and discovering the

best places to apply his energy to

help improve graduate education,

undergraduate student retention,

a reputation for world-class

scholarship, and research funding.

“Eberly has an excellent team

of faculty and staff in place, which

provides a good foundation for serving

our students and the public, he said.

“Now is the time to focus

on the quality of our product.

Higher education is an investment

and we need to ensure that our

undergraduate experience provides

real value for our students. We need

to offer graduate programs that

encourage applications from the

highest-caliber students,” he added.

One thing that has really

impressed him about the Eberly

College is how everyone pulls

together to get the job done. He

has made a commitment to address

salary inadequacies and move the

personnel closer to national averages.

“This College is consistently

doing more with less. Faculty and

staff here work extremely hard

and are frequently the innovators

of practices adopted by the entire

University. I have not experienced

this level of commitment to the work

at any other institution.”

He acknowledges that Eberly has

some highly productive faculty stars

who are doing cutting-edge research,

generating a number of high profile

grants, and attracting some of the

brightest graduate candidates the

University has seen in recent years.

“To retain these excellent faculty

members, and to continue to recruit

more as the university fills the 100

new positions promised by President

Clements, we must move towards parity

in salaries with competing institutions.”

Whether it is facility

improvements, like those currently

under way at White Hall, student

scholarship support, graduate

assistantships, research opportunity,

or named professorships and chairs,

Jones believes that private giving will

allow WVU to meet the challenges it

currently faces.

Dean Jones plans to reach out to

alumni to help shape and guide the

future of the College. He says they will

be instrumental in helping the College

achieve its goals.

“I want the Mountaineer family,

the Eberly College family, to identify

what they think is important as

we strive to reach the next level of

international prominence. Together

we have an opportunity to move the

institution forward so that the entire

world can see what we already know—

WVU is a world-class academic

research institution on par with any

‘big-name’ university out there.” Robert Jones graduated summa

cum laude with a bachelor’s of science degree in forest management in 1979 and a master’s degree in 1981 from Clemson University. In 1986 he received a doctorate in forest ecology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

After post-doctoral work at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, he joined the School of Forestry at Auburn University. In 1995, he moved to Virginia Tech, becoming department head in 2002.

At Virginia Tech, Jones led efforts to remodel general education programs, enhance first year experiences, and construct new academic buildings. He has taught study abroad, undergraduate, and graduate courses in ecology, and has earned five awards for teaching.

12

34


Incollege,alonghairedJoneslovedEmerson,LakeandPalmer.His music tastes now run the gamut from classical to heavy metal;mostrecentlyhe’sbeenenjoying an album by the band PorcupineTree.

His favorite author is Charles Dickens,inwhose19th century writings he sees many parallels to current growth and development inChina.(FormerInterimDeanRudyAlmasyalsolistedDickensashisfavoriteauthor.)

Heandhiswife,Jeri,aveterinarian,have a dog named Chutney and two cats, Vitis and Gouda.

BobandJeriareFrancophiles;theyloveFrenchfoodandcultureandhavetraveledtoFranceseveral times.

Jones’academicresearchhastakenhimtoChinafivetimes.He hopes the relationships he has developed there will lead to exchanges for WVU students and their Chinese counterparts.

eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 41eberly.wvu.edu FALL 2 0 1 0 41

Awards & Honors

By Lauren PerettiPhotos by M.G. Ellis

D.J. Pisano, assistant professor in the

Department of Physics, is exploring nearby, star-

bursting galaxies using the Robert C. Byrd Green

Bank Telescope in Green Bank, W.V., to study

star formation in its earliest stages.

He has received a National Radio

Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) student

observing support grant in collaboration with

astronomers at the University of Virginia and the

NRAO worth more than $27,000.

Pisano is measuring the physical conditions

of the star-forming gas in galaxies, ranging

from small dwarf galaxies and the Milky Way

to galaxies undergoing massive collisions, to

determine how many stars have formed, how

long the star formation is likely to continue, and

how the star formation is affecting the rest of

the galaxy.

“Our motivation is to better understand

how galaxies form and evolve so we have

a better idea of how the universe works,”

said Pisano, who is also an adjunct assistant

astronomer at the NRAO. “Similar studies have

been done, but not for such a large sample of

galaxies or with such capable instruments as the

Green Bank Telescope.”

Traditional methods for studying star

formation use visible emission lines, but

dust in galaxies can decrease their brightness,

often leading to an underestimate of the star

formation activity. Pisano is searching for the

radio recombination line (RRL) emission to

measure star formation, because similar to

the way you can listen to the radio even when

it’s foggy or cloudy, emission from RRLs is

unaffected by dust.

“This type of work is valuable for

training future scientists and engineers

whether they continue doing astronomical

research or not,” he added.

Physics graduate student Katie Rabidoux

is involved in all stages of the research,

including observations, data reduction, and

data analysis. She will also author the first

paper describing the results.

Pisano began working as a post-doctoral

researcher at the NRAO in Green Bank,

West Virginia, in 2009, and currently teaches

astronomy and astrophysics at WVU.

Previously, he worked at the Naval Research

Laboratory and the Australia Telescope

National Facility. He received a bachelor’s

degree from Yale in 1996 and a doctoral

degree from the University of Wisconsin-

Madison in 2001.

His research uses radio telescopes around

the world to study neutral hydrogen in the

Milky Way and other distant galaxies. He is

also studying high-velocity clouds around the

Milky Way using the Galactic All-Sky Survey,

a recently completed neutral hydrogen survey

of the southern sky using the Parkes radio

telescope in Australia.

STAR FORMATIOND.J. Pisano in the Tomchin Planetarium

42 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine42 FALL 2 0 1 0 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

Jim Nolan admits his story is kind of

cinematic.

A Delaware cop takes drugs off the streets,

polices local neighborhoods, works toward a

PhD, makes it to the FBI and gives it up to

teach students at West Virginia University about

the realities of the criminal justice system.

Now he takes students into communities to

survey residents about local problems and into

prisons to live a moment in offenders’ shoes. He

always sees some form of transformation in the

students who realize during their studies that

the number of years in a prison sentence isn’t

the definition of justice.

It was Nolan’s own higher education

experience that showed him his calling, and it is

the act of passing on his knowledge to a decade

of students that has earned him the title of West

Virginia’s Professor of the Year by the Carnegie

Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

and the Council for Advancement and Support

of Education.

For Nolan the award is like his current

career, an unexpected, pleasant event.

“I was a cop, and I was happy doing it,” he

said. “I was happy being a soldier in the war on

drugs. And I did it pretty well.

“I worked hard, and I did wiretap cases

and search warrants and thought that it was

working. But once I was in graduate school, I

realized it was like a joke what we were doing. It

was a wake-up call; I couldn’t go back.”

From that moment he left the drug unit

behind, entered community policing—a

more preventative approach to coping with

crime—and completed his formal education

that allowed him to become a professor. He has

a lower pay grade and a different title, but his

work is still about understanding crime.

“I can’t imagine doing anything else,”

he said. “In some ways though I’m doing

the same thing I always did. It’s not like I

was a cop and then I’m doing something

different. I’m still doing investigations. I’m

still working in the community. I’m still

dealing with the topic of policing.”

His list of contributions since he began

teaching at WVU are extensive. In 2000,

around the time he began at WVU, about

250 students had majors within the Division

of Sociology and Anthropology. Now more

Jim Nolan interacts with one of his students.

By Dianna MazzellaPhotos by M.G. Ellis

Jim Nolan is on the CASE


than 900 students call that department

their academic home, and most of them are

criminology majors.

He’s introduced courses that bring

students close to the issues, people, and

problems they will face in law enforcement

or as part of the criminal justice system.

One is Inside Out, a national curriculum

developed by faculty at Temple University,

where he received his PhD. His version

of the course brings college students to

the Pruntytown Correctional Center in

Grafton, W.V., to learn from inmates what

the criminal justice system is really like.

Another is The Justice Roundtable, which

works to alleviate problems identified in

Inside Out and find solutions related to

prisoner re-entry

into society.

“I can’t think

of education for its

own sake,” Nolan

said. “If it doesn’t

benefit society in

some way it’s virtually useless to me. One

thing I like about being at a land-grant

university is that idea, that mission.”

If you ask his students what makes him a

talented teacher, it is not just his creativity in

passing on material, but his attention.

Richie Rodriguez, a former student of

Nolan’s who graduated from WVU and now

works in a defense contracting firm, transferred

to the University as an upperclassman. He

arrived in Nolan’s class, knowing few people at

the University among groups of students who

had formed bonds in freshman year.

“His classroom environment makes getting

to know people unavoidable, and many of the

people I met in his classes remain good friends

of mine today,” Rodriguez said.

His attentiveness to students further helped

Rodriguez feel at home.

“He goes out of his way to get to know

each of his students on a more personal level,”

Rodriguez said. “He doesn’t just learn your

name and face. He knows where you’re from,

your family, your favorite teams, etc.

“All of this helps students become more

comfortable in the classroom setting, and

it also goes hand in hand with his teaching

style because he will call upon a student at

any time to get their insight on a subject. He

instills the drive for his students to not only

absorb the information he is giving them, but

to also question it and see if it’s still relevant

in today’s world.

Another of Nolan’s students Michael Lupi

Jr. wrote in 2009 that Nolan’s criminology

classes gave him more knowledge than all of his

other classes combined.

“He was teaching us information, but he

was also teaching us how to live a better life

with everyone being seen as equal, and I really

appreciated that,” Lupi said. “I took this class

one year ago and til this day, and probably

for the rest of my life, I remember certain

things I learned in that class about the proper

treatment of people.”

Joan Gorham, an associate dean in

the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences,

nominated Nolan for the professor of the

year award and calls him an “innovative and

energetic professor.”

“His teaching at WVU is informed by

both professional and academic experience,

and he provides both to his students,” she

said. “All of his courses, as much as possible,

take the students outside the classroom

to (in Jim’s words) ‘places where dialogue,

action, and reflection are likely to occur.’

He is genuine, passionate, engaging —

an extraordinary asset to West Virginia

University, and to the teaching profession.”

Through his second career, Nolan learned

his own lessons. As a police officer, he estimates

that he made more than 1,000 arrests, yet his

only significant prison experience was while

working a case in which the guards were found

to be smuggling drugs.

“Now I’m inside a prison, and it’s in a

much more positive light,” he said. “And

I’m getting to know people as human beings

rather than as potential suspects.”

He tries to impress on his students how

situations influence people’s actions and that

each person influences everyone else.

“If anyone’s failing, then we all fail,” he said.

Nolan, who says he’s not a particularly

skilled lecturer, believes this award is for his

department that has worked together for

students and allowed him the freedom and

given him the support to do what he’s done.

“I’m accepting it for the department,” he

said. “They have given me the opportunity to

do what I do.”

Eighteen of WVU’s professors have received

the award since it began in 1981. “We are

proud of Dr. Jim Nolan for being named one of

the best professors in the country and this year’s

best in West Virginia,” said WVU President

James P. Clements. “His award exemplifies

the quality of our faculty and the quality of

education offered at WVU.”

WVU’s Professor of the Year honorees

over the years are: Sophia Peterson, political

science (1987); Carl Rotter, physics (1988);

Judith Stitzel, English, women’s studies

(1989); Robert DiClerico, political science

(1990); Pat Rice, anthropology (1991); Jack

Hammersmith, history (1992); Richard

Turton, chemical engineering (1993); Gail

Galloway Adams, English (1994); Bernard

Allen, history (WVU Parkersburg, 1996);

Christine Martin, journalism (1998); James

Harms, English (1999); John “Jack” Renton,

geology (2001); Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, history

(2002); Laura Brady, English (2004); Carolyn

Atkins, speech pathology (2005); Ken Martis,

geography (2007); and Ruth Kershner,

community medicine (2009).

Awards & Honors

“In some ways though I’m doing the same thing I always did. It’s not like I was a cop and then I’m doing something different. I’m still doing investigations. I’m still working in the community. I’m still dealing with the topic of policing.”

— Jim Nolan


WHAT THE UNIVERSE HOLDSAstrophysicists at West Virginia

University, working with colleagues around

the world, may soon open a new window

into the universe through the direct detection

of gravitational waves, a key prediction of

Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

Maura McLaughlin, assistant professor

of physics in the Eberly College of Arts

and Sciences, is the principal investigator

on a $6.5 million grant from the National

Science Foundation’s Office of International

Science and Engineering and the Division

of Astronomical Sciences as part of the

Partnerships for International Research and

Education (PIRE) program.

“This landmark research grant is yet

another achievement by Dr. McLaughlin

and the faculty in our nationally renowned

Physics Department,” WVU President

by Rebecca Herod Photos by M.G. Ellis

James P. Clements said. “It speaks volumes

about the quality of our faculty and their

dedication to research and their students, as

well as to their commitment to excellence in

academic scholarship.”

The PIRE project will set in motion

the International Pulsar Timing Array

partnership between the North American

Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational

Waves (NANOGrav) and Australian,

European and Indian scientists, focusing a

coordinated effort with dedicated research

power on detection of gravitational waves.

Indirect evidence points to the existence

of these waves, but they have never been

directly detected.

“In their recent Decadal Survey of

Astronomy and Astrophysics, the National

Academies of Science named NANOGrav as

one of eight mid-scale astrophysics projects

recommended as high priorities for funding

in the next decade, placing WVU at the

cutting edge of astrophysics research,” said

Curt Peterson, vice president for research and

economic development.

And WVU Provost Michele Wheatly

said the award “is a significant grant, both

because of its size and its international

aspect. This further affirms the direction

the University is moving in its commitment

to research. It also comes on the heels of

a record year in which WVU saw an 18

percent increase in sponsored research to

more than $177.7 million.”

McLaughlin explained that direct

detection of gravitational waves is one of the

most transformational prospects of modern

physics, with the potential to revolutionize

our knowledge of the universe by enabling

studies of black holes within massive

galaxies and the space-time dynamics of

early stages of the universe.

“By combining data taken at the world’s

best facilities, with the highest-precision

detection techniques, with experts from

around the world, the PIRE team expects to

detect gravitational waves within five to ten

years,” McLaughlin estimates.

The award will establish an

international team for the detection and

study of low-frequency gravitational waves

using timing observations of millisecond

pulsars. The team will use radio telescopes

around the world, including the two

largest: the 105-m Green Bank Telescope

in Green Bank,WV, and the 305-m

Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico.

The Green Bank Telescope is operated

by the National Radio Astronomy

Observatory (NRAO), and the Arecibo

telescope is operated by the National

Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, both

under cooperative agreement with the

National Science Foundation.

“This program further elevates the

importance of our unparalleled radio

facilities in Green Bank, WV,” said

Frame from a 3D simulation of gravitational waves produced by merging black holes. The honeycomb structures are the contours of the strong gravitational field near the black holes.

C. Henze, NASA


Awards & Honors

Duncan Lorimer, associate professor

of physics at WVU and a co-principal

investigator on the grant.

The grant brings together a diverse

group of researchers from colleges and

universities across the United States. It

will be managed by McLaughlin and co-

principal investigators Lorimer; Fredrick

Jenet, associate professor of physics and

astronomy at the University of Texas,

Brownsville; Andrea Lommen, associate

professor of astrophysics at Franklin and

Marshall College; and Daniel Stinebring,

professor of physics and astronomy at

Oberlin College. Other senior investigators

involved in this project are James Cordes,

Cornell University; David Nice, Lafayette

College; Joanna Rankin, University of

Vermont; Scott Ransom, NRAO; and

Xavier Siemens, University of Wisconsin,

Milwaukee. The team also includes affiliates

Zaven Arzoumanian of the Universities

Space Research Association and NASA

Goddard Space Flight Center and Joseph

Lazio at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The team of international collaborators

and U.S. researchers and students will use

radio telescopes to observe signals from

dozens of pulsars over several years. This

will enable the team to directly test for

the existence of gravitational waves and,

after detection, measure their distribution,

polarization and spectrum and identify and

characterize their astrophysical sources.

Detecting gravitational waves using

pulsars is complementary to other

detection efforts using ground-based

detectors such as the Laser Interferometer

Gravitational Wave Observatory.

“Both international collaboration and

coordinated use of worldwide resources

are critical for detecting low-frequency

gravitational waves. Detection sensitivity

increases the longer the pulsars are

monitored, so observations over many years

are required,” Jenet said.

Pairs of pulsars widely separated in

the sky must be observed to maximize

sensitivity, requiring observing sites in both

hemispheres. Additionally, long, frequent

observations at several radio observing

frequencies are required for high precision

and must be done for as many millisecond

pulsars as possible. All of these factors

combine to place a substantial demand on

the world’s radio telescope time.

“One of the most exciting things about

this project is that we are exploring the

unknown. There will be a lot of discoveries

along the way,” Lommen said.

PIRE will support postdoctoral

researchers and graduate and undergraduate

students at nine U.S. institutions,

yearly international science meetings,

workshops, and research and observing

trips. Once established, a consortium-wide

memorandum of understanding for the

planned research/study abroad programs will

continue to provide valuable opportunities

for current and future generations of students

at these institutions.

“We are enthusiastic about the

international research experiences this project

will afford our students. These types of

experiences are vital in today’s worldwide

research enterprise,” said Stinebring.

The institutions that will be part of

the international partnership are Monash

University, Swinburne University and

Australia Telescope National Facility,

Australia; McGill University and

University of British Columbia, Canada;

L’Observatoire de Paris at Nançay/

Nançay Observatory, France; Max Planck

Institute for Radio Astronomy at the

University of Bonn, Germany; National

Center for Radio Astrophysics, India;

Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari,

Italy; Netherlands Institute for Radio

Astronomy, Netherlands; and University of

Manchester, United Kingdom.

For more information, visit

nanograv-pire.wvu.edu.

“In their recent Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the National Academies of Science named NANOGrav as one of eight mid-scale astrophysics projects recommended as high priorities for funding in the next decade, placing WVU at the cutting edge of astrophysics research.”

—Curt Peterson, vice president for research and economic development.

Maura McLaughlin, principal investigator for the $6.5 million PIRE grant.


E c2B1B2

B 1 + B 2 LVout

E1c

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Paul Cassak

by Lauren Peretti Photos by Chris Schwer and M. G.

CAREER-makingRESEARCH


Awards & Honors

From the vastness of space to the inner

workings of the smallest cells, West Virginia

University faculty are being recognized for

their approach to the practice and teaching of

cutting-edge research.

Paul Cassak and Feruz Ganikhanov, as-

sistant professors in the Department of Physics

at West Virginia University, have each received

National Science Foundation (NSF) CA-

REER Awards worth more than $941,000.

Cassak’s grant, entitled “CAREER: The

Effect of Shear Flow on the Scaling of Mag-

netic Reconnection and Solar Wind-Magne-

tospheric Coupling,” will provide solutions

to questions about magnetic reconnection,

an important component of space weather

research. He will help develop a predictive un-

derstanding of how solar wind energy enters

the magnetosphere and potentially minimize

its capability to destroy satellites, affect polar

routes of airplanes, and endanger astronauts.

“The sun ejects matter known as the

solar wind into space, which can interact

with the region of influence of the Earth’s

magnetic field, known as the magnetosphere.

Through magnetic reconnection, which

occurs in hot gases called plasmas, energy

from the solar wind can be transferred into

the magnetosphere through an event called

a substorm, where it can harm man-made

objects in space,” explains Cassak

To examine magnetic reconnection, Cas-

sak uses techniques like simulations, calcula-

tions, and analysis of observational data, in

various settings, including solar eruptions like

solar flares and coronal mass ejections, and

disruptive events in fusion devices.

Over the next five years, Cassak will

receive more than $426,000 to develop a

program of theoretical and computational

plasma physics. His results could assist the

interpretation of observations from existing

satellites, as well as future missions like the

Magnetospheric MultiScale Mission, a $700

million, multisatellite NASA mission to be

launched in 2014 that will study magnetic

reconnection in the Earth’s magnetosphere.

As part of the CAREER grant funding,

Cassak will also develop educational resources

to help recruit lower socioeconomic students

in West Virginia and women into the space

sciences. This will include outreach programs

about space weather using movies shown in

WVU’s Tomchin Planetarium and other plan-

etaria throughout the region and the country.

Cassak graduated magna cum laude with

a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and phys-

ics from the University of Arizona in 1998, a

master’s degree in physics from the University

of Wisconsin in 2001, and a doctoral degree

in physics from the University of Maryland

in 2006. In 2008, he was awarded the Fred

L. Scarf Award for outstanding dissertation

research in solar-planetary science. Prior to

joining WVU in 2008, he was a postdoctoral

researcher in the Department of Physics and

Astronomy at the University of Delaware.

Feruz Ganikhanov’s research, entitled

“CAREER: A Novel Approach to Nonlinear

Microscopy System and its Application to

Biological Media Characterization,” could

develop a diagnostics instrument to access the

processes of biological cell division, differ-

entiation, and more that could advance the

medical industry.

Over the next five years, he will receive

$515,000 to develop new experimental ap-

proaches to molecularly sensitive imaging and

microspectroscopy techniques. The ultimate

result will be a laser-based instrument capable

of detecting and tracking major biological cell

constituents derived from central molecular

vibrations, which has not yet been demon-

strated due to a lack of detection sensitivity.

With the help of the CAREER grant,

Ganikhanov will also facilitate collaborative

research between the University's research

groups and other institutions through a vari-

ety of activities, including participation in the

statewide Summer Undergraduate Research

Experience (SURE) program and hosting

a summer research camp for high school

students from underrepresented and minority

groups. Additionally, he will work to improve

an existing graduate course, develop a new

graduate course, and add laboratory modules

to an existing undergraduate course.

Ganikhanov earned bachelor’s and

master’s degrees in physics from M.V.

Lomonosov Moscow State University in

1985 and 1987, respectively. He received a

doctoral degree in laser physics from the R.V.

Khokhlov Nonlinear Optics Institute at M.V.

Lomonosov Moscow State University in

1991. He holds three U.S. and one interna-

tional patent. Two patents related to his non-

linear laser microscopy work were licensed

by leading manufacturers of light microscopy

equipment, who now offer laser-based micro-

scopes designed along the ideas outlined in

the patents as a commercial product.

Prior to joining WVU in 2006, he was

a research scientist in Harvard University’s

Department of Chemistry and at Wellman

Laboratories for Photomedicine researching

the area of nonlinear optical imaging with ap-

plications to biological media. He joined Bell

Labs/Lucent Technologies working in the

area of digital lasers for high bit rate commu-

nication systems, was a senior laser physicist

for Inrad, Inc., and spent his postdoctoral

years in the Quantum Electronics Laboratory

at Ecole Polytechnique in France and in the

ultrafast optics lab at Cornell University.

The National Science Foundation Fac-

ulty Early Career Development (CAREER)

Program offers the NSF's most prestigious

awards in support of junior faculty who

exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through

outstanding research, education, and the

integration of education and research.


Feruz Ganikhanov

Cynthia Burke, who received her

master’s degree from West Virginia

University in mathematics, is a winner

of the 2010 Presidential Award for

Excellence in Mathematics and Science

Teaching.

This is the highest recognition

that a kindergarten through 12th-grade

mathematics or science teacher may

receive for outstanding teaching in the

United States.

Enacted by Congress in 1983, the

program authorizes the President to

bestow up to 108 awards each year. The

National Science Foundation administers

the award on behalf of the White House

Office of Science and Technology Policy.

President Obama and Vice President

Biden will present the award.

Burke was nominated to complete an

extensive application a year ago. In July 2009

she was told she was a state finalist, and in

June 2010 she received a notice that she and

103 others were receiving the award.

When Burke discovered that she had

won, her first reaction was how proud she

was to be in such good company. She also

stressed her love of teaching.

“I love seeing the enthusiasm in students

when they understand what you’ve been

trying to explain to them,” she said.

Burke has been teaching at Sherrad

Middle School in a town near Wheeling,

W.V. since 1976. She teaches seventh- and

eighth-grade math, which includes algebra

and geometry.

Joyce Cole, the principal of Sherrad

Middle, said Burke is an exceptional

teacher, and deserves this award. “We are

both honored and pleased to have such a

distinguished member of our faculty receive

this well-deserved award,” Cole said.

“Cindy Burke is a caring person who

is loyal to her school and students. She

is self-motivated and a teacher leader,”

Cole added. She also said Burke is an

innovative teacher who has unique and

effective methods of teaching.

“She is a proponent of problem-based

learning, enhancing student engagement

with differentiated instruction, and

believes all students can learn. She makes

even the most difficult math concept easy

to understand,” Cole said.

Cynthia’s daughter, Kathleen Burke,

is pursuing a doctorate in chemistry at

WVU. She said her mom stressed the

importance of an education ever since she

and her three brothers were young.

“One of my brothers is an

optometrist, one is a physical therapist,

and the other is in aerospace engineering.

She wanted me to know that it’s just as

important for women to have powerful,

successful jobs,” Burke said. “I’m very

grateful for what she instilled in me about

education,” she added.

As for her mom winning this award,

Kathleen Burke couldn’t be more proud. “I

can honestly say I hope I end up with this

woman’s work ethic,” she said. “She never

stops and is involved in so much.”

Burke Wins Presidential Teaching Award by Jessica Hammond

Photos by Brian Persinger

Awards & Honors

48

Give your feedback on the draft of the 2020 Strategic Plan for the Future.

You can view video footage of President Clements’ October 11, 2010, State of the University Address.

We value your input and want you to be a part of defining the future of WVU, West Virginia’s flagship land grant institution since 1867.

Visit strategicplan.wvu.edu for full details and to make your voice heard.

DRAFT Strategic Plan Summary

Mark your calendar for Emeritus Reunion Weekend, May 6-7, 2011. Fifty years after they went their separate ways, members of the class of 1961 will celebrate their golden anniversary. All who graduated in or prior to ‘61 are invited back to meet up, remember, and renew ties to their alma mater.

For more information, contact the WVU Alumni Association at (304) 293-4731.

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences201 Woodburn HallWest Virginia UniversityPO Box 6286Morgantown, WV 26506-6286

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eberly college of arts and sciences magazine: fall 2010

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