Faculty/Staff News of Note
April 2004
Dr. Paul Becker, assistant professor of mathematics, attended the regional meeting of the American Mathematical Society at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, March 26-27. Becker presented a paper titled "Investigation of genuinely non-Abelian difference sets."
J. Andrew George, lecturer in mathematics, attended the MAA Meeting (Allegheny Sectional Meeting) March 26-27.
Dr. James Kurre, associate professor of economics, recently gave two presentations to the Erie Ambassadors titled "Education and the Erie Economy" on Tuesday, March 16, and Tuesday, March 23, at LECOM. The Erie Ambassadors is a program of the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership to educate people to the positive aspects of Erie and to overcome some of the outdated sterotypes of the area.
Kurre and Dr. Charles Brown, assistant professor accounting, accompanied a student group to Boston for the annual spring business trip organized by the Society of Undergrad Economists, the Accounting Club, and the Financial Management Association. Thirty-three students participated in this trip, which took place Wednesday, March 17- Sunday, March 21.
Ron McCarty, instructor in computer science, traveled with Dr. Michael Campbell, associate professor of biology, and students from Campbell's bioinformatics class on the spring break tour of top DNA sequencing and biotechnology organizations in the Washington, D.C. that was reported on in last week's Bulletin.
Paul Olson, lecturer in mathematics, attended the MAA regional meeting in Buckhannon, West Virginia, March 26-27. Olson presented a paper titled "Strategies with Surreal Numbers."
Dr. Boon W. Ong, lecturer in mathematics, attended the MAA section meeting at Wesleyan College in West Virginia, March 26-27. Ong presented a paper titled "Homotopy type of symmetric product of bouquets of circles."
Dr. Clare Porac, professor of psychology, has been appointed to the Editorial Board of the journal Brain and Cognition published by Elsevier. Brain and Cognition is an international journal that publishes articles in clinical, experimental and theoretical neuropsychology and neuroscience.
Dr. Joseph Previte, associate professor of mathematics and Dr. Michelle Previte, assistant professor of mathematics, attended the MAA sectional meeting, March 26-27. Michelle spoke on graph substitutions.
Dr. Scott Stevens, assistant professor in mathematics, attended the MAA regional meeting at Wesleyan College in West Virginia, March 26-27. Stevens presented a paper titled "An introduction and application of a lumped-parameter model for intracranial fluid dynamics."
Dr. Gary Viebranz, lecturer in music and director of instrument ensembles, published an article titled "Depersonalize Your Personal Music Player: Five easy steps to integrating the 'magic box' into the classroom" in the spring technology issue of the PMEANews, state journal of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association.
On Tuesday, March 30, Viebranz served as a clinician/adjudicator for thirteen area high school and middle school jazz ensembles at the Ninth Annual Edinboro University Jazz Festival in Memorial Hall on the Edinboro campus.
On Friday, April 2, Viebranz will be presenting a clinic, "Mommy, Where do Tuba Players Come From? Recruitment and Retention of Low Brass Students" at the PMEA District 2 Junior Band Festival at Westlake Middle School.
Tracy Halmi, lecturer in chemistry, attended the American Chemical Society national meeting in Anaheim, California, March 27-30. Tracy was appointed as an associate member to the Committee on Community Activities, which promotes community-based programs and activities to improve the public's recognition and appreciation of chemistry.
Dr. Alan J. Jircitano, associate professor of chemistry, attended the 227th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim, California, March 27-30. Jircitano presented a paper titled "Synthesis and Investigation of the Photochromic Properties of a Platinum(II) Complex with a Tridentate Schiff-Base Condensate."
Dr. Martin Kociolek, assistant professor of chemistry, attended the 227th National ACS meeting in Anaheim, California, March 27-30. Kociolek presented a paper titled "Ring-Opening Reactions of 2-Isoxazolines and 2-Isoxazoles." In addition, two of Dr. Kociolek's students presented posters of their research in the Undergraduate Research Poster Session.
Dr. Archie Loss, professor of English and American studies, chaired the popular culture session at the College English Association annual meeting in Richmond, Virginia, April 2. Penn State Behrend's School of Humanities and Social Sciences was one of the host institutions for this meeting.
Dr. Darren Williams, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, attended the third International Astrobiology Science Conference, NASA Ames Moffett Field, California, March 27-31. Williams presented a paper titled "Finding Planetary Moons in the Spectra of Distant Jupiters."
Carolyn Dudas, multimedia and computer support specialist, attended a two-day training session for Macromedia DreamWeaver on March 30 and April 6 at the Manufacturers' Association of Northwest Pennsylvania.
The National Association of Veterans Program Administrators (NAVPA) recently announced the selection of Giselle Hudson, staff assistant in Financial Aid, to the NAVPA Board of Directors. In addition, the board selected her as treasurer of the organization. NAVPA is an association of professional program administrators assigned to colleges and universities across the nation involved in the delivery of service to schools and to the veteran students who access their GI Bill entitlements.
Dr. James Kurre, associate professor of economics, gave a breakfast presentation to the members of the Center for Nonprofit Services. Kurre's presentation was titled "How to Find the Data You Need for Your Business Plans and Proposals." This event was held at Downey Hall in St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral. Kurre presented the ERIEdata.org site to them, showed them how to navigate it, and gave them some ideas about how to use data in their organizations.
Ralph M. Ford, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, has received a Fulbright Scholarship to support his sabbatical leave at the Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic during the spring 2005 semester. It is a combined lecturing and research award. During his leave Ralph will teach a graduate course and seminar, assist the Brno Faculty of Information Technology in an curricular revision, and conduct machine vision research.
Dr. Joseph Paullet, associate professor of mathematics, gave a presentation at the Applied Analysis Seminar at James Madison University April 17 - April 20 titled "Analysis of a Boundary Value Problem from Fluid Mechanics."
Dr. Diane Parente, assistant professor of management, spoke Thursday, April 15, at a meeting of the Erie Chapter of the Project Management Institute. Her topic was "Friend of Foe: How to Influence Project Participants."
Dr. Gary Viebranz, lecturer in music and director of instrumental ensembles, has arranged a noontime concert of music for organ and brass quintet in the Smith Chapel on Friday, April 30. The event is free and open to the public.
Gary Walker, lecturer in computer science, presented a paper titled "Experimentation in the Computer Programming Laboratory" at the Teaching and Learning Consortium Spring Colloquy at Penn State Harrisburg recently.
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