March 2009
Economics professor quoted in U.S. News
Professor of Economics Eban Goodstein is quoted in a recent in U.S. News & World Reports about a trend in educating youth about conservation. Goodstein, co-director of National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions, led 804 institutions and 250,000 people in a “day of engagement” on February 5. The teach-in was designed to bring college students together to discuss global warming and policy solutions and included student participation with members of Congress through videoconferences. On the generation this teach-in targeted, Goodstein said, “Students have a truly heroic task that they have no choice but to fulfill in their lifetimes. [The task is] saving the planet as we know it, so that their children can also inherit a beautiful and rich planet.”
US News (Washington, D.C.) The Future of Climate Change: How to Teach Children to Conserve
Two science professors receive M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust grants
Stephen Tufte, associate professor of science and Peter Kennedy, associate professor of biology:
Tufte and Kennedy each received a Partners in Science Program grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. The goal of this program is to provide high school teachers with opportunities to work with college faculty members at the cutting edge of science and revitalize their teaching.
Tufte will work with Jo Ann Wadkins, a science teacher at Lincoln High School, for the next two summers in the Department of Physics. Their research, titled “Observational Investigations of Short-Period Eclipsing Binary Stars,” will be shared at two national Partners in Science conferences at the end of each summer.
Kennedy will partner with Eileen Oppelt, a science teacher at West Linn High School. Their research, “Examining Biogeographic Patterns in the Frankia-Alnus rubra Symbiosis,” will be conducted in the Department of Biology. Oppelt will also share the results of the joint research at Partners in Science conferences.
The Murdock Trust provides grants in five states of the Pacific Northwest to organizations that aim to strengthen the region’s educational base in sustainable ways.
Assistant Professor of Mathematics receives junior faculty fellowship
Naiomi Cameron, Assistant Professor of Mathematics:
Cameron received a Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Cameron’s fellowship will allow her to take one year,
starting in June 2009, to pursue her scholarly research and writing, travel to academic conferences and connect with a network of Career Enhancement Fellows and Mentors.
Cameron said the fellowship benefits her personally as well as her students. She pointed out that this will afford her time and resources to further her research, enrich her teaching, and engage in the mathematical community at Lewis & Clark.
Law alum advocates on behalf of low-income community
As Director of the Washington Attorney General’s Public Counsel Division, Lewis & Clark Law School alum Simon ffitch believes that heat and light are essential services for people, whether or not they are behind on their bills. ffitch’s dedication to working on behalf of people from low-income communities, including a recent appeal to a request by a local utility company to raise customers’ taxes, earned him some media attention. “We think it’s important, especially during this economy, that there’s not one extra penny taken from people’s budgets,” ffitch said.
ffitch is not alone in his commitment to public service as a professional career. More than one out of every three graduates of Lewis & Clark Law School chooses to work in the area of public interest law.
The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.) Simon ffitch acts as ratepayers’ representative
Professor of Education published in American Paleontologist
Charles (Kip) Ault, professor of education:
Ault co-wrote an article in American Paleontologist with his son, Toby Ault, in March. Toby received a Watson Fellowship in 2002-03 to retrace Darwin’s adventure, with emphasis on South American localities. The article, titled “On the Trail of Darwin’s Megabeasts,” recounts efforts the Aults took to find their way to locations where Darwin collected fossils as well as to mimic his process: ask locals where to look. On the 2003 trek, Ault said, “We found ourselves guided by a motorcyclist, museum scientists, as well as Darwin’s journal, as we crossed Patagonia, with particular emphasis on the Rio Negro’s Playa Bonita and the Monte Hermoso beach near Punta Alta.”
Ault also published an article in Curriculum Inquiry in December. “Achieving ‘Querencia’: Integrating a Sense of Place with Disciplined Thinking” explores the Spanish word “querencia,” and the concept of how the self attaches feelings and beliefs to an environment.
Assistant Professor of English published in Modern Language Notes
Karen Gross, assistant professor of English:
Gross published “Scholar Saints and Boccaccio’s Trattatello in laude di Dante” in the Italian issue of Modern Language Notes (MLN) in January. Published by Johns Hopkins Press, each volume of MLN has one issue per year on French, Italian, German, and Spanish literature and covers all time periods. MLN focuses on critical literary studies in these four languages as well as recent work in comparative literature. Gross’ article discusses Boccaccio’s biography of Dante, which has long frustrated readers, and how it can be understood in part as a rewriting of the life of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Dean Julio de Paula publishes two physical chemistry textbooks
Julio de Paula, dean and professor of chemistry:
de Paula co-published two textbooks in 2009: Quanta, Matter and Change — A Molecular Approach to Physical Chemistry with Professors Peter Atkins of Oxford University and Ronald Friedman of Indiana University Purdue University and Elements of Physical Chemistry, 5th Edition with Professor Atkins. Translations of de Paula’s textbooks with Atkins have been published in Brazil, Argentina, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Russia.
de Paula co-wrote the fourth and fifth editions of Elements of Physical Chemistry. The text is a brief introduction to physical chemistry, the branch of chemistry that helps scientists understand the underlying principles that govern the structure and reactivity of atoms and molecules.
Quanta, Matter, and Change is a first edition textbook that shows the whole of physical chemistry through the lens of quantum theory, the most sophisticated theory currently available for the understanding of matter at the atomic and molecular levels. de Paula spent a great deal of effort in presenting the material in a way that is accessible to students who may come to it with different levels of preparation in mathematics.
In total, de Paula has co-written four textbooks, all in print and undergoing continual revision. Among these texts, Physical Chemistry is the world’s leading textbook in the discipline of physical chemistry.
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