ELEMENTS the Citadel School of Science and Mathematics Newsletter Vol
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ELEMENTS The Citadel School of Science and Mathematics Newsletter Vol. 4 No. 1 Fall 2011 DEAN‟S MESSAGE Dear Friends of the School of Science and Mathematics: It is a pleasure to share the fourth edition of Elements with you and report some School of Science and Mathematics highlights from the 2010-11 academic year. The most exciting event this year was the very generous donation by Lee Faircloth (Citadel ‘64) of 550 acres of land on the Black River which will be developed into a Citadel environmental field station. In the departmental reports below you will find news on student and faculty activities, initiatives and achievements which illustrate the strength and vitality of our people and academic programs. We are pleased to welcome five highly talented individuals as new members of the faculty of Science and Mathematics. Blakely Adair (PhD, Chemistry, Texas Tech University), Rob Clark (PhD, Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Deepti Joshi (PhD, Computer Science, University of Nebraska), Brendon Stanton (PhD, Iowa State University), and Michael Verdicchio (PhD, Computer Science, Arizona State University) have all joined The Citadel as Assistant Professors. We bid farewell this year to four veteran faculty members: Margaret Francel in Mathematics and Computer Science, Ishaq Zahid in Computer Science, Spencer Hurd in Mathematics, and Peter Rembiesa in Physics. Brief tributes to these long-time valued colleagues may be found below. As many of you know, I have completed my five year term as dean and I have taken up a full-time faculty position in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. The administration of the School is in the very capable hands of Dr. Spike Metts who serves as interim dean while the search for a new dean continues. It has been a great honor to serve as founding dean of the School of Science and Mathematics. During my forty years in the academy I have never been associated with a more dedicated group of educators who place students at the center of their professional life. I look forward to, and hope to play a small part in, the continued success of the faculty in advancing student learning and scholarship at The Citadel. Please phone (843-953-5300) or email ([email protected]) us with your personal news and thoughts on science and mathematics education or the workings of The Citadel School of Science and Mathematics. We like nothing better than to hear from our friends and alumni. Chuck Groetsch Citadel on the Black River Through the foresight and generosity of V. Lee Faircloth (Mathematics ‘67) The Citadel has acquired an extraordinary resource to advance environmental research and education in the Lowcountry. Mr. Faircloth has donated to The Citadel his ‗Indian Hut‘ property consisting of 544 acres of bottomland forest habitat near Georgetown, including an idyllic stretch of over one mile of Black River shoreline, pictured below: This gift will further educational, research, and outreach activities of the School of Science and Mathematics in the fields of wetlands and coastal environmental and sustainability studies. It has been immediately integrated into the Biology Department‘s new environmental studies certificate program and will be used as a field laboratory in undergraduate and graduate courses. The property will also be an outstanding geographical focus for educational outreach activities associated with The Citadel STEM Center of Excellence. Plans are in the works, in conjunction with the Civil Engineering Department, to survey and lay out interpretive nature trails and the Citadel Foundation is seeking donors for a future permanent research and education station on the site. Faculty and graduate students with Lee Faircloth Getting the „lay of the land‟ Adelman receives Governor‟s Award Dr. Saul J. Adelman was awarded the inauguralGovernor‟s Award for Excellence in Scientific Research at an Undergraduate Institution. This award was announced on March 8th, 2011 and was presented to Professor Adelman by Governor Nikki R. Haley in a ceremony which took place on October 4th, 2011. The award was in recognition of Dr. Adelman's work on the chemical composition of stellar atmospheres, which has been supported by NASA, the National Science Foundation, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This research, which has extended over a period of thirty five years, is most impressive in that it has taken place at an undergraduate institution which emphasizes teaching and requires a full teaching load and in a department which has no graduate students. Adelman is a distinguished stellar astronomer with a long and continuous record of research, teaching and mentoring of undergraduates, and professional service to the scientific community and the general public. His published works include more than 300 peer reviewed journal articles. An international specialist in the chemical composition of stellar atmospheres, Adelman has expertly applied techniques of high dispersion spectroscopy and spectrophotometry to significantly advance the understanding of the atmospheres of many classes of stars. While the Governor‘s Award for Excellence in Scientific Research has been given for some time, this is the first time for the award on the undergraduate institution level. Dr. Adelman has received a well-deserved recognition and has brought positive recognition to the Physics Department and The Citadel. Saul Adelman with Governor Haley, Columbia, October 4, 2011 2011 Distinguished Alumnus Award Fred Holland Alexander F. (―Fred‖) Holland grew up on a tobacco farm in rural Florence, SC. He obtained his B.S. in Pre-Medicine from The Citadel in 1964. After graduation, Fred Holland spent time in the US Air Force before going back to school to obtain his Masters in Biology (1972) and Ph.D. in Marine Science (1974) from the University of South Carolina. Dr. Holland joined the Martin Marietta Corporation‘s Research Institute for Advanced Study (RIAS) and rose to chief of the Environmental Systems Division, which later became Versar, Inc., in Baltimore, Maryland. He worked for these companies for 15 years, eventually being promoted to Vice President. In 1991, he returned to South Carolina to become the Director of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources‘ Marine Resources Research Institute (SCDNR MRRI). In 2001, he became the first Director of NOAA‘s Hollings Marine Laboratory on James Island. Dr. Holland is a distinguished estuarine ecologist and a highly accomplished scientific administrator. He is a nationally recognized expert on the design and implementation of monitoring and research programs linking human activities and estuarine ecological condition. He has authored or co-authored approximately 100 technical reports and peer reviewed scientific papers concerning the ecology of coastal habitats. Dr. Holland co-authored a publication for the National Academy of Sciences entitled Managing Troubled Waters that reviewed the current status of marine and estuarine monitoring systems and developed recommendations for their improvement. In addition, he has spent considerable time and energy training the next generation of marine scientists, including high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. Dr. Holland has spent his entire career studying estuaries and working with the public to better their understanding about impacts of human activities on the environment and how those impacts could be managed and minimized to improve the natural environment, the community, and people‘s quality of life. In a career spanning well over 30 years, he has worked tirelessly to ensure that his research is not only relevant to decision-makers and managers, but especially to communities and ―real people.‖ He has worked to translate scientific results into plain language so that planners, resource managers, and interested lay persons could readily understand the findings and what their implications are in daily life. Based on his numerous and significant contributions to environmental awareness throughout the state, Dr. Holland was named the 2009 winner of the South Carolina Environmental Awareness Award. The Citadel Bids Farewell to Francel, Hurd, Rembiesa, and Zahid Four veteran professors, Margaret Francel, Spencer Hurd, Peter Rembiesa, and Ishaq Zahid, who collectively have a combined record of over a century of service to The Citadel, have retired. With Margaret Francel‘s retirement we lose one dedicated professor, but two PhDs. Margaret earned a PhD in mathematics from Emory University and a PhD in computer science from Georgia Tech. She was awarded the C.A. Medbery Excellence in Teaching Award in 2011. She has been a mainstay of the combined department for 27 years, teaching, counseling, and mentoring generations of students in mathematics and computer science. Dr. Spencer Hurd retired in July 2011 after 27 years of service to the college. Dr. Hurd earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Georgia prior to joining our faculty, and while at The Citadel he received widespread recognition for his research in mathematics. Dr. Hurd also authored an undergraduate textbook on applied calculus, and he is known to us as the ―go to man‖ for the latest news from the world of number theory. Professor Rembiesa came to this country on a postdoctoral appointment after receiving his PhD from Jagiellonian University (Copernicus‘s university) and stayed as a political refugee during Poland‘s struggle to cast off communism. Peter is a particle theorist who worked on the history of quantum field theory with Jadish Mehra. He was department head for ten years and during the past five years he has worked to further the career of his wife, who is herself an accomplished particle physicist. Dr. Ishaq Zahid retired in August 2010 after 26 years of service to the college. Dr. Zahid earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh prior to joining the faculty, and he subsequently obtained an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of South Carolina to help bolster the credentials of The Citadel in that area. During his career Dr.