Spring 2010 never let anything hold you back The spirit, attitude & determination of Sara Brown. uw & china INBRe piRi’S machine Features UWyo spring 2010 volume 11 number 3 The Taiwan Times from June 29, 1989, reporting on the wyoming Delegation’s visit. 2538 The This year is theof the story Cowboy—UW's headline continuing involvement with China This is a story teaser by byDave the Shelles author 18 Sara Brown—Never let anything hold you back by Dave Shelles 32 INBRE builds a better pipeline to biomedical research by Dave Shelles 36 Piri’s machine by Dave Shelles ON THE COVER UW doctoral student Sara Brown lost her leg in a smokejumping accident, but pushed onward with her recovery and is on schedule to earn her doctorate in 2011. departments UWyo spring 2010 volume 11 number 3 MAIN CONTRIBUTOR Main contributor text 4 VIEWPOINT 6 NEWS IN BRIEF 11 NEWS UPDATES 12 PORTRAIT UW's Flower Girls by Ted Brummond 14 SNAPSHOTS Jeffery Dannemiller Will Ross Gracie Lawson-Borders Mark Branch 40 ATHLETICS Stephanie Ortiz by Dave Shelles 42 ARTS Pete Simpson Jr. and Sr. perform in Hamlet by Dave Shelles 44 ALUMNI Catherine Keene by Tom Lacock minor contributor 46 GALLERY minor contributor text A modernist convergence at UW by Susan moldenhauer 48 OUTTAKES Rhiannon Lee Wenn studies in Knight Hall window by Trice megginson vieWPOINT UWYO Spring 2010 Volume 11 number 3 The Magazine for Alumni and Friends of the University of Wyoming e talk a lot about energy at the University of director of institutional communications WWyoming. As we develop our energy programs Jessica Lowell through the colleges and the School of Energy Resources, managing editor the energy we refer to is the kind that makes electricity, Dave Shelles heats our homes and offices, and makes our vehicles run. design This issue of UWyo magazine is all about energy, but Jim Fuerholzer energy of a different kind: it’s the energy needed to get photography things done. all photos by I suppose I am thinking that because commencement Ted Brummond takes place in May, and we’re all reflecting on the accom- Trice megginson plishments of our graduates as well as the accomplishments unless otherwise noted of our faculty in guiding them to their graduations. contributing Writers On our cover is Sara Brown, who you will meet in one of Tom Lacock our features. She has a remarkable story to tell of survival Susan moldenhauer David Van hooser and perseverance. It begins on page 18. You’ll also meet Mohammed Piri and some of the university president Tom Buchanan doctoral candidates who work in his lab in the College of Engineering. When he couldn’t find the machine to do advisory board myron allen what he needed for his work in petroleum engineering, he Ben Blalock built his own. His story starts on page 36. Dave Bonner There are other tales of energy and accomplishment in Karen Deike this edition, but I will let you discover them for yourself. william Gern cameron nazminia David perry Steve prosinski Don Richards crystal Sandberg UWYO is published quarterly by the Division of communications. ©2010 by the university of Jessica Lowell wyoming. all rights reserved. excerpts from this Director, magazine may be reprinted with permission, Institutional Communications provided appropriate credit is given to the university of wyoming and copies of reprinted materials are provided to the editor. Direct inquiries to: UWYO university of wyoming Department 3226 1000 east university ave. Laramie, wY 82071-2000 voice: (307) 766-2379 fax: (307) 766-6729 e-mail: [email protected] persons seeking admission to the university of wyoming shall be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, or political belief. www.uwyo.edu/uwyo• uwyo magazine is printed on paper with post- consumer content and is Forest Stewardship council® certified. 8 • UWyo NEWS Beck earns honor IN BRIEF from Washington Post here won’t be a plaque with his latest journalism Taward, but Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck says he’s just honored. Chris Cillizza, who writes a Web log about politics for The Washington Post, published a list of the best political journalists in each state late in 2009. Beck was the only reporter listed for Wyoming. “It was surprising, maybe a little embarrassing, but at the same time it’s nice that I got nominated for it, that someone thought I was doing a good job,” Beck says. Cillizza, who calls his blog The Fix, writes that his goal was to compile the list of the nation’s best political jour- nalists in advance of the 2010 midterm elections so readers would know whose work to follow as the campaigns go on. This year marked Beck’s 25th consecutive year covering the Wyoming Legislature, a job that caught him more or less by surprise. He started out in radio in his native “What I’ve enjoyed about it here is that for the most part Illinois, then moved to Sheridan, Wyoming, to do news and they’re above board,” he says. “Ninety-nine percent of the sports, followed by a stint at Laramie’s KOWB in the same things I see with these people are things they really, truly capacity, though he did cover Laramie issues at the Capitol. believe in, right or wrong. In 1988, about to take another job, Beck received a call from “I enjoy the gamesmanship, I enjoy watching how people Wyoming Public Radio about a new opening. He became get a bill passed that might not be the most popular thing in KUWR’s news director, a position he’s had ever since. the world and how they’ll work behind the scenes to gather Beck says he likes covering politics in Wyoming because the necessary support, and I like to report on things like that.” of the cooperation of lawmakers to do right by their constitu- photo by John weinstein, © 2010 The Field museum ents, even if the right thing might not be the popular thing. Follow Beck at twitter.com/butterbob Mammoth skull now on museum tour Different names, of Agriculture and Natural Resources people in the world extends far beyond mammoth that roamed Wyoming 11,500 years ago is “We’re very excited to contribute to this exhibit and view at meetings around the state and from African-Americans, thus it became nec- A going on the road. this as an opportunity to promote the quality of specimens better programs commodity groups. Galey also polled essary for the department to adjust its University of Wyoming paleontologist Mark Clementz housed in our museum as well as the quality of scientific college faculty members and academic curriculum and its mission to that fact. says the Columbian mammoth skull, housed in the univer- research being carried out at the University of Wyoming,” A college and an academic program professionals. More than 90 percent She says the department already has sity’s Geological Museum for decades, will be part of a trav- Clementz says. have changed their names to better approved the change in name. seen an increase in interest from a wide eling exhibition of mammoths and mastodons. UW con- “The preparators at the Field Museum will clean and reflect changes in the interests of their “Our agriculture is completely spectrum of students. tributed the skull at the request of scientists at Chicago’s repair the skull and tusks so that not only will they be students. interwoven into natural resource “Once we add the word ‘diaspora,’ Field Museum of Natural History. showroom quality, they will also be in better shape for long- The College of Agriculture issues important to the state and its that opens up the breadth that you “They came to us because our mammoth skull is special— term curation,” he adds. announced in December that it will be land and people,” says Galey. “The can offer within an African-American it’s a complete skull with lower jaw and tusks that came The specimen will be displayed through September 6 at known as the College of Agriculture college name change will help attract studies program,” she says. “You can from a well-preserved specimen of a large individual,” says the Field Museum. The exhibition is then scheduled to be and Natural Resources. The African- students and other interested folks, have classes that are Caribbean in Clementz, an assistant professor in the department of displayed through March 2014 at several museums: The American Studies department, housed who are passionate about the land and nature, that are East African in nature, geology and geophysics. “It will make an impressive display.” Museum of Natural Science in Houston, Texas; Liberty within the College of Arts and Sciences, rural communities, but may not have that are West African in nature, or UW geology professor Brainerd Mears Jr. recovered Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey; the Anchorage will go forward as the African-American seen themselves under a more tradi- U.S. Southern in nature. Since then the skull in 1961 at a bog deposit near Rawlins in Carbon Museum in Alaska; Boston’s Museum of Science; the and Diaspora Studies department. tional name and rubric.” we’ve had many more people attracted County, Wyoming. Radiocarbon dating indicates it is about Denver Museum of Nature & Science; and London’s Dean Frank Galey heard favorable In A&S, department head Tracey to the program, who otherwise might 11,500 years old. Natural History Museum. comments about renaming the College Patton says the experience of black not have been.” » 10 • UWyo Spring 2010 • 11 NEWS IN BRIEF » Conference attracts Wyoming NASA Space Grant year.