September-October 2009 (Vol. 9, No. 2)

This Month's Top Stories . . .

• Pulitzer Prize Winner Tracy Kidder Keynotes Convocation
• Spatial Analysis Lab Named "Center of Excellence"
• Stuart Kauffman, Complex Systems Pioneer, to Join Faculty
• NASA Awards UVM $1.5 Million in Research Funding
• Retired Prof Continues Research on National Stage
• Interview: John Burke
• New Program Takes A Global Perspective
• Men's Hockey Ranked 15th in USA Today/USA Hockey Poll
• Class of Six to be Inducted into UVM Athletic Hall of Fame
• Campus Kudos

Pulitzer Prize Winner Tracy Kidder Keynotes Convocation (up^)
Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World was the keynote speaker for the university’s annual Convocation Ceremony on Sunday, August 30. Kidder urged students to be attentive to their studies, not just to pass tests, but to improve the world. Following the ceremony, nearly 3,000 people — students, staff, faculty, guests — marched to the beat of Taiko drummers down Main Street to the UVM Green, where the Class of 2013 was officially inducted. Read more here.

Spatial Analysis Lab Named "Center of Excellence" (up^)
The University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Laboratory, part of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, has received two prestigious honors in recent months. The Definiens corporation, founded by Nobel Prize laureate Gerd Binnig, has designated the lab one of eight international Centers of Excellence. The other seven Centers of Excellence organizations are among the most well-respected and well-funded remote sensing labs in the world. In addition, ESRI, a leading developer of GIS software, last spring named the lab one of the first ESRI Development Centers. Both honors have benefits for the UVM community. Read more here.

Stuart Kauffman, Complex Systems Pioneer, to Join Faculty (up^)
Stuart Kauffman, one of the world's most eminent scientists — a founder of the field of complex systems science, pioneer of biocomplexity research, and MacArthur "Genius" Fellow — will join the faculty of the University of Vermont in January. Kauffman will join UVM's Complex Systems Center with a joint faculty appointment in the university's College of Medicine and College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. Funding secured by Senator Patrick Leahy in the NASA budget for 2009 launched the Complex Systems Center. "I couldn't be more pleased that Dr. Kauffman, a world-renowned scholar, author, and entrepreneur in complex systems, has chosen the University of Vermont to continue his transformational work," said vice president for research and dean of the Graduate College, Domenico Grasso. Read more here.

NASA Awards UVM $1.5 Million in Research Funding (up^)
The National Aeronautics Space Administration has awarded $1.5 million in research grants to two research groups based in the University of Vermont's College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences to study topics that are NASA research priorities. Each research group has been awarded $750,000 over three years, beginning September 1. “These research collaborations will not only advance our abilities in space, but they will improve life here on Earth as well,” says Interim Dean Bernard "Chip" Cole. Full story here.

Retired Prof Continues Research on National Stage (up^)
When professor emeritus Alan Wertheimer retired in the spring of 2005 after 37 years in the political science department, the plan was to travel and relax in his new condo on the Burlington waterfront. Co-writing research papers with one of President Barack Obama's top health care advisers, a venture that would place him in the middle of a heated national health care reform debate, wasn't part of the retirement picture. But Wertheimer has a post-UVM career at the National Institutes of Health, where he's influencing the national debate on health care reform. Full story here.

Interview: John Burke (up^)
Every four years, John Burke, professor of political science, is sought out by conferences and members of the media seeking his opinion as a national expert on presidential transitions. In between these cycles, he's managed to crank out eight books, including his latest offering, Honest Broker: The National Security Advisor and Presidential Decision Making, that takes an in-depth look at the role of National Security Council (N.S.C.) adviser and its influence on the decision-making process of the president. Read the UVM TODAY interview here.

New Program Takes A Global Perspective (up^)
Preparing for life in a world of interdependent countries and cultures requires an education built upon many perspectives, a passport to cross academic borders freely. That spirit drives the structure and name of the new Global and Regional Studies Program, which debuted with the fall semester. The program, directed by Luis Vivanco, associate professor of anthropology, is the latest evolution of the program formerly known as Area and International Studies, part of UVM for nearly five decades. The program features a brand new major in Global Studies, which has quickly drawn students with 43 undergraduates, approximately half of them in the first-year class. Full story here.

Men's Hockey Ranked 15th in USA Today/USA Hockey Poll (up^)
The University of Vermont men’s hockey team is ranked No. 15 in the first USA Today/USA Hockey Poll of the 2009-10 season. The Catamounts went 22-12-5 in 2008-09 on the way to the Frozen Four and were ranked No. 3 in final poll of the season. The No. 3 ranking was the highest final ranking in program history. Vermont will meet five of the top-12 teams in the USA Today/USA Hockey Poll including No. 2 Denver. The Catamounts will also face No. 3 Boston University, No. 10 UMass-Lowell, No. 11 Yale and No. 12 Boston College. The Catamounts open the season October 4 at 4 p.m. against New Brunswick as part of a doubleheader with the UVM women’s hockey team who hosts McGill at 7 p.m. Sunday is Free UPS team poster day with a post game autograph session and fans are also encouraged to stay for the women's game for free with a men's ticket. Complete USA Today/USA Hockey Poll

Class of Six To Be Inducted Into UVM Athletic Hall Of Fame (up^)
The University of Vermont will welcome six new members into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, October 3. This year’s inductees are: Gordon Allen ’97 (men’s lacrosse), Ethan Barlow ’96 (baseball), Erik Nelson ’98 (men’s basketball), Brooke Taft Robbins ’90 (women’s gymnastics), Lori Taylor ’98 (women’s basketball) and Laurie Woelfel ‘97 (women’s swimming and diving). The inductees will be lauded at the 41st annual UVM Athletic Hall of Fame Dinner at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center starting at 6 p.m. Tickets to the dinner may be purchased through the UVM Athletic Ticket Office in Patrick Gym (1-866-4CAT-TIX). More here.

Campus Kudos (up^)

Christopher Allen, emeritus professor of chemistry, co-authored a paper titled, "Stereodirective Effects in Mixed Substituent Vinyloxycyclotriphosphazenes," published in Inorganic Chemistry, Volume 48, 7576 (2009).

A book review by Robert Costanza, director of the Gund Institute, was published in the September issue of Nature. Costanza reviewed David Orr's book, Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse.

Anne Geroski, associate professor in integrated professional studies, published a CourseSmart eTextbook with Pearson titled, Groups in Schools: Preparing, Leading, and Responding.

David Jones, assistant professor in the School of Business Administration, had an article published in the Journal of Business Ethics.

Rodger Kessler, research assistant professor of family medicine, was featured in an article titled "New Subnetwork Seeks Evidence to Support Collaborative Care" in the August 5 issue of the American Academy of Family Physician publication aafp NEWS NOW.

Jane Kolodinsky, professor and chair of the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics, and CDAE graduate students recently had two articles published related to the food system and obesity. Kolodinsky, Travis Reynolds , Mark Cannella , David Timmons, and Daniel Bromberg co-authored "U.S. Consumer Demand for Restaurant Calorie Information: Targeting Demographic and Behavioral Segments in Labeling Initiatives" that appeared in the Sept/Oct 2009 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion. Kolodinsky and Reynolds published "Social Marketing and Segmentation of Overweight Americans" in the March 8 issue of the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Kathleen Liang , associate professor in the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics, published a new book to demonstrate how to engage students in entrepreneurial activities on campus. The book, titled Dollar Enterprise - From Theory to Reality - An Experiential Learning Exercise Applying Community Entrepreneurship to Plan and Operate a Small Venture on Campus (Kendall Hunt Publishing company) is one of the first books to describe procedures of entrepreneurship and new venture creation in a campus environment.

Robert Nash, professor of integrated professional studies, co-authored Helping College Students Find Purpose: The Campus Guide To Meaning-Making (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2009). Nash and Penny A. Bishop, associate professor in education, co-wrote Teaching Adolescents Religious Literacy in a Post-9/11 World (Information Age Publications, 2009).

An article by Susan Ryan, professor and director of the Center on Disability and Community Integrated Professional Studies, "Left behind: Lack of research-based interventions for children and youth with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders" was published in Rural Special Education Quarterly. She also co-authored "Inclusion for students with fetal alcohol syndrome: Classroom teachers talk about practice" in the March 22 issue of Preventing School Failure."

Issei Shimada, a graduate student in anatomy and neurobiology, has been awarded a Pre-doctoral Fellowship from the Founders Affiliate of the American Heart Association for his work with assistant professor of medicine Jeff Spees exploring mechanisms to protect the brain following stroke.

Lance C. Smith, an instructor in integrated professional studies, had an article titled, "The anxiety of affirming heterosexuals when negotiating heteronormativity" accepted for publication by the peer reviewed journal Human Services Education.

Barri Tinkler, assistant professor in education, received an award as the Outstanding Reviewer for the American Educational Research Journal's Section on Social and Institutional Analysis.

Regina Toolin, assistant professor of education, co-authored a refereed article titled, "Conducting sustainable energy projects in secondary science classrooms," that will appear in the journal Science Activities.

Rory Waterman, assistant professor of chemistry, and graduate student Michael Ghebreab co-authored a research paper accepted for publication in the journal Polyhedron. The paper, titled "Triamidoamine-Supported Zirconium Complexes in the Catalytic Dehydrocoupling of 1,2-Bisphosphinobenzene and Ethane" describes some of their recent advances in bond-forming catalysis.

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