A Monthly Newsletter Reporting the Professional Activities of the Allegheny Community
Associate Professor of Chemistry Shaun Murphree, Associate Professor of Political Science Sharon Wesoky, and Ben Orndorff '06 are the recipients of 2006-2007 Fulbright Awards. Murphree will spend his Fulbright year in Graz, Austria, where he will explore technology and alternative pedagogies in Austrian chemistry education as well as collaborate with Oliver Kappe, one of the leaders in microwave-assisted organic synthesis. Wesoky will travel to China, where she will conduct research in Beijing and villages in Hebei, Shanxi, and Gansu provinces on the Cultural Development Center for Rural Women, a nongovernmental organization, and the effects of its programs on party-state policy in the areas of women's political participation, suicide prevention and job skills training. Orndorff will travel to Germany, where he will be teaching English as a foreign language. He is one of over 1,200 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad for the 2006-2007 academic year through the Fulbright Student Program.
Assistant Professor of English Kerry Neville Bakken's book of short stories, Necessary Lies, received a full-page review in the Los Angeles Times on August 5. “What's great about most of Bakken's stories is what they aren't,” says reviewer Laurel Maury. “They aren't self-conscious exercises in restraint, like those mannered New York or Parisian tales that invariably have cafes in them. They aren't opportunities for making sly fun of tawdry, bourgeois life, nor exercises in being writerly. They are good tales about real situations that make the reader turn, look at everyday life and wince a bit.”
Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden recently gave two invited seminars. “Using organic matter manipulations in the DIRT (Detritus Input, Removal, and Transfer) Experiment to understand forest soil carbon dynamics,” part of the University of Michigan Biological Station Summer Research Seminar Series, described long-term research in understanding the role of forest soils in mitigating global climate change. Bowden served as a University of Michigan Biological Station Research Fellow during the summer of 2006. His seminar “Enhancing Environmental Sustainability Education through University-Community Partnerships,” given at the University of Debrecen, Hungary, discussed student-faculty-community projects in the Center for Economic and Environmental Development.
The Journal of Economic Education has accepted Visiting Associate Professor of Economics John Golden's paper “A Simple Geometric Approach to Approximating the Gini Coefficient.” It is tentatively scheduled to appear in the Fall 2007 issue.
Toshia Johnson joined the College in August as a full-time counselor in the Counseling Center. Johnson earned her B.A. from the University of Northern Iowa and a Master of Science in Education in Agency Counseling from Western Illinois University. A national certified counselor, a certified alcohol and drug counselor, a licensed mental health counselor, and a licensed professional counselor, she is also completing her certification as a licensed clinical professional counselor. Johnson comes to Allegheny from Danville, Illinois, where she worked as a therapist with the Center for Children's Services.
Betsy Mitchell joined the College this summer as director of athletics and recreation. The former Olympic Gold Medalist and world record holder becomes the first female director of athletics in Allegheny College history. Mitchell holds a B.A. and a Master of Education in Sports Administration from the University of Texas and a Certificate of Advanced Study from Harvard. Prior to her appointment with the College, Mitchell worked as an instructor in the Sports Management program at Notre Dame College of Ohio, while serving as director of athletics at Shaker Heights High School. Mitchell also formerly served as the director of athletics at Thomas Worthington High School in Columbus, Ohio. She has worked in higher education as a consultant to a number of institutions.
Professor of Religious Studies Carl Olson has had two books accepted for publication by Rutgers University Press: The Many Colors of Hinduism: A Thematic-Historical Introduction and Primary Sources for the Study of Hinduism: A Sectarian Reader. Both will be published in 2007. His book The Different Paths of Buddhism: A Narrative-Historical Introduction has been chosen as a 2006 Outstanding Academic Title by Choice, and it is enjoying its second printing.
Associate Professor of Computer Science Robert S. Roos, Kristen Walcott '05, Mary Lou Soffa of the University of Virginia, and Instructor of Computer Science Gregory M. Kapfhammer published the paper “Time-Aware Test Suite Prioritization” at the ACM International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA) in July 2006. This paper presents a technique that uses a genetic algorithm to reorder test suites in light of testing time constraints. More information about this research project, including downloadable papers and presentations, is available at: http://cs.allegheny.edu/~gkapfham/research/kanonizo/.
People & Places, published monthly during the academic year by the Office of Public Affairs, reports on the professional activities of members of the College community and highlights student achievements. Please submit items to people@allegheny.edu. We reserve the right to edit copy for length.
