MATHEMATICS
Adam Wins Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award
John Adam, the University Professor of mathematics who is renowned for his ability to make numbers interesting (Quest, June 2000), is a 2007 recipient of the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award sponsored by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

He is Old Dominion’s 20th winner since 1991, and this is the ninth straight year that the university has had a winner in the highly competitive program, which is funded by the Dominion Foundation.

Each year about a dozen faculty members at the state’s colleges and universities are chosen for the honor. This year’s recipients receive $5,000 in cash and a commemorative engraved award.

Adam’s mother and father, who was a farm worker in the family’s native England, scraped together enough money to buy their 12-year-old son a brass telescope to encourage his early interest in astronomy. His interest changed to mathematics after he had earned a doctorate in astrophysics from the University of London in 1975.

During 23 years at Old Dominion, Adam has won international recognition for his research in mathematical modeling and mathematical biology involving tumor growth and wound healing. He produced the text and photographs for a book, “Mathematics in Nature: Modeling Patterns in the Natural World” (Princeton University Press, 2003), which won the Association of American Publishers Mathematics and Statistics Professional/Scholarly Award in 2004 and was one of Choice’s Outstanding Academic Titles for 2004.

OCEAN, EARTH AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
Noffke Wins National Award for Geology Research
Nora Noffke, who has been a pioneer in research of sedimentary structures formed by microbes (Quest, Winter 2003), was the winner of the 2007 James Lee Wilson Award of the Society of Sedimentary Geologists (SEPM).

The award is given annually to recognize excellence in sedimentary geology by a young scientist.

Research by Noffke, which was the subject of a news story in the May 5, 2006, edition of Science magazine and was detailed in her article in the April 2006 edition of the journal Geology, has ­provided some of the sturdiest evidence yet that life forms colonized Earth’s sandy coasts at least 3.2 billion years ago.

As a doctoral student in her native Germany, Noffke became fascinated with felt-like microbial mats, which are living weaves of tiny organisms, or microbes. These mats can be found today blanketing sandy tidal flats in many coastal areas worldwide. Her research, which includes discoveries in Europe and Africa, builds a persuasive case that similar microbial mats existed in the Early Archean Age more than 3 billion years ago.

Work she published beginning in 2000 has helped to coin the scientific term, “microbially induced sedimentary structures.” She is assistant professor of ocean, earth and atmospheric sciences.

EXERCISE SCIENCE
Presses Roll with Colberg’s Books about Diabetics and Exercise
Eight years ago, Sheri Colberg published an article about her new exercise guide for diabetics (Quest, Spring 1999), and it turned out to be the start of something big. Since then, she has produced five books and 75 articles on diabetes, fitness and nutrition.

Two of the books are due out in the second half of 2007: “50 Secrets of the World’s Longest Living People with Diabetes” as well as “Aging Successfully: The Essential Guide to Navigating the Last Half of Life.”

Colberg, who is associate professor of exercise science in Old Dominion University’s Darden College of Education, as well as a diabetic, turned her original exercise guide into her first book, “The Diabetic Athlete: Prescriptions for Exercise and Sports” (2001). That book was followed by “Diabetes-Free Kids: A Take-Charge Plan for Preventing and Treating Type 2 Diabetes in Children” (2005) and “The 7 Step Diabetes Fitness Plan: Living Well and Being Fit with Diabetes, No Matter Your Weight” (2006).

“Aging Successfully,” which Colberg wrote with the St. Louis University gerontologist, Dr. John E. Morley, focuses more on exercise than diabetes. The publisher, McGraw-Hill, plans to promote the book as a unique guide for baby boomers who want to be active and productive into their latter years. Colberg says the book provides a 10-point program for successful aging that produces immediate, and long-term results.

“50 Secrets of the World’s Longest Living People with Diabetes,” to be published by Marlowe & Company, is co-authored by Dr. Steven Edelman, an endocrinologist who directs the nonprofit organization Taking Control of Your Diabetes. Colberg, who interviewed more than 50 people for the book, says two of the diabetics profiled are brothers from Syracuse, N.Y., who together have lived well with the disease for 157 years.

“The more I learn about diabetes and exercise, the more convinced I become that exercise is absolutely essential for anyone living with diabetes or pre-diabetes—to prevent complications and enhance longevity,” Colberg says. “All of the old-timers I have interviewed for my 50 Secrets book have been physically active their whole lives and consider exercise to be a key part of their longevity.”

For 2007, the American Diabetes Association is funding her research into blood flow in the skin of the feet, and the state of Virginia is funding her project on the effects of diabetes and exercise on dementia.

AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
First Launch a Success for Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), a collaborative project between ODU, local business, and the states of Maryland and Virginia, launched its first rocket, a Minotaur I, from Wallops Island, Va., on Dec. 16, 2006.

The Eastern Shore facility (Quest, January 2000) features a $3.6 million, 113-foot-tall launch pad and promises low-cost launch services for commercial, government and scientific/academic uses. Directed by Billie Reed, ODU assistant professor of engineering management, MARS was established in 1995 by the university and Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology.

The launch was contracted by the U.S. Air Force to send a small satellite into orbit. At press time, the Air Force planned to use MARS for launches in April and November. Another launch, scheduled for June, is for NASA.