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Inside ESF, Spring 2002 IN THIS ISSUE 3CAMPUS UPDATE Inside ESF is published four times Forestry Changes Faculty Name each year for alumni and friends of Makkonen Named TAPPI Fellow the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. SUNY-ESF Hosts Onondaga Nation Students Community Foundation Grant Helps ESF Help City School Children SUNY-ESF Jump Into Onondaga Lake 1 Forestry Drive Green Fields Bloom with ESF Syracuse, NY 13210-2778 Alum’s $100,000 Gift Names New Laboratory for June Wang www.esf.edu 2002 Feinstone Awards Honor New York Teachers President: Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr. 6SPANNING THE GLOBE Vice President for Administration: Students learn the rigors — and wonders — of international environmental Connie S. Webb research in the field around the world. Editor: Jeri Lynn Smith 10 HOW MUCH WATER ON MARS? Director of News and Publications [email protected] Undergraduate engineering majors at ESF explored the question of how much water existed on Mars — with some surprising results. Graphic Designer: Wendy P.Osborne News and Publications 12 SEA GRANT EXPANDS WITH NEW ESF OFFICE Long-time partnership between Sea Grant and the college will be enhanced Photo Credits: with new arrangement. Page 3, Ben Dall; page 4, Claire B. Dunn and John Dowling Photography; page 5, Kleinberg Photography; page 6, Kate Howles and Katherine Cameron; 13 CAMPUS PROFILE:SHE CARRIES A TORCH page 7, Wellington Guzman and Dr. Barbara Hager; Kristin Sciortino took the short road to Olympic glory. page 8, Dr. Scott Turner; page 9, Dr. Allan P.Drew; page 10, NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems; page 11, NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems; ON THE COVER page 12, Bill Huff Jr. and Diane Kuehn; page 14, Kodak. Our cover photograph, taken by Dr. Allan P.Drew, shows ESF students travel- ing up the Indian River near Portsmouth, Dominica. Says Drew, who has Additional Assistance: taken students to Dominica for more than 10 years, “The boat trip allows us to Kathleen A. Ciereck see the gallery forest of Pterocarpus trees which form pure stands along the Cynthia A. Gamage streambanks.” This freshwater swamp forest is one of many ecosystems stu- dents visit during the field class. Office of News & Publications 122 Bray Hall 315-470-6644 www.esf.edu/newspubs The State University of New York College of and using renewable natural resources; improving Environmental Science and Forestry offers a di- outdoor environments ranging from wilderness, verse range of accredited programs and degree op- to managed forests, to urban landscapes; and tions in chemistry, construction management and maintaining and enhancing biological diversity, wood products engineering, environmental and environmental quality, and resource options. As forest biology, environmental resources and forest such, ESF has maintained its unique status within engineering, environmental studies, forest re- SUNY’s 64-campus system as one of only five sources management, forest technology, landscape specialized colleges and one of only eight doc- architecture, and paper science and engineering. toral-granting institutions. The College’s mission is to be a world leader ESF takes affirmative action to provide equal in instruction, research, and public service related opportunity for all people and to build a campus to: understanding the structure and function of community that reflects a wealth of diversity. the world’s ecosystems; developing, managing, Printed on recycled paper. CAMPUS UPDATE Forestry Changes Fellows comprise less than one percent The grant to the ESF College Founda- Faculty Name of TAPPI’s membership. The designation tion, Inc., provides the resources for ESF is given to individuals who have made ex- educators to develop modules on conserva- Members of ESF’s Faculty of Forestry traordinary technical or service contribu- tion education, including topics such as the voted to change the unit’s name to the Fac- tions to the industry and/or the association. ecology of Onondaga Lake; sustainability, ulty of Forest and Natural Resources Man- habitat fragmentation and urban sprawl; agement. The change was announced by SUNY-ESF Hosts Onondaga preservation of biodiversity; and urban ESF Provost William P.Tully in January. wildlife. In the modules, students will have Faculty Chair William R. Bentley said Nation Students the opportunity for hands-on activities and the impetus for the name change grew out Twenty-five students from the Onondaga science research. of the college’s strategic planning initiative, Nation School participated in a career day at Saunders said the link to local natural as unit members explored both the history ESF on March 25. history will make the lessons exciting for and future focus of the program. The youngsters participated in activities children because the subject matter is rele- “We are part of an increasingly sophisti- designed by ESF students and staff mem- vant to them. cated college,” said Bentley. “Forest and bers in landscape architecture, fisheries biol- “Syracuse will be a decade ahead of a lot Natural Resources Management captures ogy, and plant ecology.The program focused of school districts in the United State that our breadth, our focus on things profes- on exposing the children to the wide range are still practicing stodgy science,” he said. sional, and our strong knowledge of forests.” of careers in scientific fields. The students toured the greenhouses and Jump Into Onondaga Lake Makkonen Named the Roosevelt Wild Life Station museum. SUNY-ESF educators have created an The Onondaga Nation students, ranging TAPPI Fellow exciting new interactive exhibit, “Jump Into in age from 9 to 12, were chaperoned Onondaga Lake,” for Central New York’s Dr. Hannu P.Makkonen, director of the throughout the day by minority ESF stu- Museum of Science and Technology Empire State Paper Research Institute dents involved in mentoring programs spon- (MOST). The exhibit debuted Saturday, (ESPRI), was named a Fellow of the Tech- sored by the National Science Foundation February 2. nical Association of the Pulp and Paper In- and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. dustry (TAPPI) at the organization’s annual Museum visitors will learn about the business meeting and awards ceremony lake’s diverse history as well as the impact March 5, 2002. Community Foundation civilization and industrialization had on the Makkonen came to ESF as senior re- Grant Helps ESF Help City lake over time through a rich combination search associate in 1993. He was appointed School Children of photographs, original artifacts and text. director of ESPRI in 1996. An interactive computer allows visitors to A $32,000 grant from the Central New access current water quality conditions Before joining ESF, Makkonen worked York Community Foundation will allow being transmitted directly to the kiosk from at the Finnish Pulp and Paper Research ESF educators to implement new science a sampling buoy in Onondaga Lake. Institute. In 1976, he moved to Kajaani curriculum materials for sixth-, seventh- Oy as research director. He was a found- Other aspects of the exhibit present the and eighth-grade students in the Syracuse ing member and president of Kajaani Inc. lake’s biological diversity, explain how shal- city schools. Automation, Sensodec Oy, and Tapio low sediments react when lake water is dis- “The idea is to make science education Technologies Oy. rupted, and display a 500-year timeline exciting to children, not to treat it as rote examining the dynamic influences of in- Makkonen has been memorization of facts,” said D. Andrew dustrial and social use on lake quality. a member of TAPPI Saunders, a faculty member in Environ- for 17 years. Makkonen The exhibit was created by Paul B. Hai, mental and Forest Biology and associate di- received his bachelor senior education specialist with ESF’s rector of education for SUNY-ESF’s and master of science Roosevelt Wild Life Station, under the Roosevelt Wild Life Station. degrees from Helsinki direction of D. Andrew Saunders, a mem- Dr. William F. Porter, who directs the University and earned ber of the Faculty of Environmental and station, said the effort will produce learning his doctorate at the Forest Biology, and exhibit designer Robert modules on the environment that can be in- University of Wash- McNamara ’73. corporated into the district’s science cur- ington in 1974. The exhibit will be displayed through riculum.The units will debut in September. the end of the year. Hannu P.Makkonen Inside ESF Spring 2002 3 CAMPUS UPDATE Green Fields Bloom with ESF Tommy Makem’s popular ballad. “Green Fields Will Bloom” served as a reference to ESF students and staff marched in the ESF’s rehabilitation of “brownfields” in- annual Syracuse St. Patrick’s Parade March dustrial sites and efforts to create a sustain- 16, distributing 1,000 free seed packets to able future. spectators along the route. The seed packets, which included several The seed packets reflected the name of types of flowers and vegetables, were donated ESF’s parade entry, “Green Fields Will by Chase-Pitkin, Taft Road, Liverpool. Bloom.” This is the second year in a row that The students used ESF’s newly painted ESF students have participated in the Syra- emerald-green bus for a base as they con- cuse St. Patrick’s Parade, which marked its structed a flower garden bursting with bril- 20th anniversary this year. The three-hour liantly colored blossoms. The entry’s name parade is a major civic event that has been was adapted from the broader parade dubbed “the largest parade per capita in the theme, “Four Green Fields Will Bloom United States.” ESF students and staff distributed seed packets to spec- Once Again,” taken from folk-singer tators along the Syracuse St. Patrick’s Parade route. Alum’s $100,000 Gift Names New Laboratory for June Wang A $100,000 gift to the ESF College space for the Faculty of Construction Foundation, Inc., by a 1984 ESF graduate Management and Wood Products Engi- kicked off the Appeal for the Hugh P.
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