Distinguished alums to be honored on Founders’ Day
Old Dominion will present Distinguished Alumni Awards to seven graduates Oct. 20 at the annual Founders’ Day luncheon in Webb Center.

The program will also include the presentation of the Batten Award, given in recognition of philanthropic leadership; Town-N-Gown Community Service Awards; and the Albert B. “Buck” Gornto Jr. Regional Service Award.

This year’s distinguished alumni are:

• Alphonso V. Diaz (M.S. ’70) – Diaz, who earned his master’s in physics, became vice chancellor for administration at the University of California, Riverside, in January 2006 after a full career with NASA, which included a position as director of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
• Rear Adm. Charles H. Griffiths Jr. (M.E.M. ’05) – Following a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy, Griffiths joined Raytheon in 2002, where he currently is director of strategy and business development for maritime mission systems in Integrated Defense Systems. His master’s degree is in engineering management.
• Lenore E. Hart (M.F.A. ’00) – Hart is the author of several novels, including “Ordinary Springs” and “Waterwoman,” a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Authors selection. Her first young-adult novel, “The Treasure of Savage Island,” was published in 2005. She is a professor in the master’s program for creative writing at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
• Linda L. Lilley (M.S. ’84) – Lilley’s teaching experience spans 25 years, with the last 18 in the ODU School of Nursing. Now an associate professor emeritus, she is finishing the fifth edition of “Pharmacology and the Nursing Process,” for which she is the lead author. Lilley also serves as an editorial contributor for articles submitted to the American Journal of Nursing.
• Thomas J. Murphy ’83 – Murphy is CEO of Athena Design Systems Inc., based in Santa Clara, Calif. The company tackles the problems that come with packing more and smaller transistors on a semiconductor. He joined Athena in 2005 after 12 years at Cadence Design Systems, the world’s largest chip-designing software company. He is the inventor of clock-tree synthesis, a process to improve chip performance. Murphy received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.
• Deborah K. Stearns ’80 – Stearns, who joined Advantis/GVA in 1975, currently oversees three offices in Norfolk, Newport News and Richmond, offering brokerage, property management and construction services to third-party clients. The region’s offices employ 125 people and generated revenues of approximately $30 million in 2005. The chair of the ODU Real Estate Foundation, she received her bachelor’s degree in business administration.
• Ella P. Ward (M.S. ’93) – Ward was elected this year to the Chesapeake City Council, becoming only the second African American female to be elected to this office in the city’s history. Ward worked for 35 years in Portsmouth Public Schools as a teacher and administrator before retiring as assistant principal of Craddock Middle School in 2004. She was elected vice president of the Virginia Board of Education in 2006. Her master’s is in educational administration.

The Batten Award will be presented posthumously to E.V. Williams, who was founder and chairman of E.V. Williams Co. Inc., a road construction company. Williams, who died in 2003, attended Old Dominion in the 1930s. His gifts to his alma mater have benefited the Perry Library, the Center for Real Estate and Economic Development and the College of Business and Public Administration. His contributions have also endowed two professorships and will support faculty research grants, fellowships, stipends and development for decades to come. ODU recently named the Engineering and Computational Sciences Building in recognition of his philanthropy.

Town-N-Gown will present its service awards to Alice Coles and William Drewry.

The Bayview Citizens for Social Justice, the nonprofit group Coles helped found, obtained funding and support from federal, state and private sources that led to improved housing, a clean water system and an economic development plan to bring jobs, and thus hope, to residents of this Eastern Shore village.

Drewry has been a professor in ODU’s civil and environmental engineering department since 1976. He authored the “Bayview Environmental and Commun-ity Action Plan” in collaboration with the Bayview Citizens for Social Justice. He also co-wrote “Water and Wastewater Feasibility Study – Bayview, Virginia,” and helped prepare overlay maps of the environmental planning area.

The Gornto Regional Service Award will go to Dr. Robert Rubin, a retired orthodontist, former lecturer and consultant in orthodontics at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. Rubin, who has served as an associate professor in ODU’s School of Dental Hygiene, is a past president of the Tidewater Orthodontic Society. He wrote “Your Dental Health,” a weekly column for The Virginian-Pilot, and served as moderator and producer of “Let’s Face It,” a weekly program broadcast on local public radio. Back to top

Literary Festival opens Oct. 16
Poetry and prose born from conquest, the melding of peoples and cultures in the wake of colonization, is the theme of this year’s ODU Literary Festival.

Titled “Colonial Encounters,” the university’s 29th annual festival will bring 19 authors to campus for readings and lectures Oct. 16-20.

According to festival director Tim Seibles, associate professor of English, “It is impossible to think about ‘colonial encounters’ without confronting the idea of colonization, a word that can easily be understood as a euphemism for conquest.”

He adds, “From among the subjugated, came those who mastered the words, who used English as a vehicle for transformation. They told the stories and wrote the poems that helped to decolonize the minds of the subjugated, that also helped to open the eyes of those who had enjoyed the privileges of power.”

Noting that the 2006 festival will feature a wide variety of authors, from novelists to poets to spoken word artists, Seibles said, “It is my hope that, through our encounters with the authors ... some significant aspect of our own wakefulness will be re-energized.”

Four of the visiting authors are profiled below. For complete profiles of all the authors and the festival schedule, go to www.lib.odu.edu/litfest.

• Bernard Cooper – fiction/nonfiction author of two collections of memoirs, “Maps to Anywhere” and “Truth Serum,” as well as a novel, “A Year of Rhymes,” and a collection of short stories, “Guess Again.” He will read at 8 p.m. Oct. 17 in the Diehn Center’s Chandler Recital Hall.
• Dagoberto Gilb – fiction author/ essayist, who was born in Los Angeles and spent many years in El Paso. His most recent book, “Gritos,” an essay collection, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. He is also the author of “Woodcuts of Women,” “The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña” and “The Magic of Blood. He will read at 8 p.m. Oct. 18 in Chandler Recital Hall.
• Queen Sheba – performance poet and lecturer whose works have been published in several anthologies and periodicals, including “Skipping Stones Anthology of Hampton Roads Poets” (2004, 2005). She is currently on the second-ranked poetry slam team in the country and was the Red Bull Word Clash champion in 2005-06. She has appeared on BET and VH1 and is an Apollo favorite. She and fellow festival authors Jeff Hewitt, godchild and Tarika Blizzard will appear at noon Oct. 18 in the North Cafeteria of Webb Center.
• Rebecca Solnit – essayist, historian and activist with a particular interest in geography, landscape, slowness, insurrection, photography, indirect routes and subjects that escape category. The author of 10 books, including “A Field Guide to Getting Lost” and “Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities,” she will read at 8 p.m. Oct. 19 in the Mills Godwin Jr. Building auditorium.
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The shape of things to come? Auto manufacturer Mercedes-Benz
hooked on prof’s boxfish research
BY JIM RAPER

At first glance, the boxfish looks prehistoric and about as sleek as a brick. But Old Dominion University marine biologist Ian Bartol has found the tropical fish to be an efficient swimmer with maneuverability and stability that may make it the shape of things to come.

When German engineers – whose affiliation he was never sure of – contacted Bartol several years ago, he gladly shared information about his work. So he couldn’t help but feel proud this summer when Mercedes-Benz unveiled a concept car that was developed in Germany and is inspired by the boxfish. With a 140-horsepower diesel engine, the four-passenger concept car has delivered more than 80 miles per gallon in steady highway travel, according to the automaker.

An article about the new vehicle in The Scientist magazine this summer relied heavily upon Bartol’s explanation of what is so special about the design of the fish.

“It’s exciting that Mercedes-Benz has used the boxfish, but understandable, because it expresses so well the design constraints of a car: rigid, low drag and a big cross-section,” Bartol told The Scientist. He said the concept car is a good example of “how some of nature’s solutions together with human ingenuity and creativity can help advance technology.”

As the article notes, Bartol has done boxfish research for the Office of Naval Research that could influence the Navy’s design of small, unmanned submarines. He is an assistant professor of biological sciences who joined the ODU faculty in 2003.

Boxfish became a focus of Bartol’s professional interests when he was doing postdoctoral research from 2000-03 at UCLA, Cal Tech and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “We noted that it could swim in smooth trajectories, even in highly energetic, turbulent waters,” he explained. A typical boxfish environment includes coral reefs and shallow waters where there are wave-generated perturbations.

Building on earlier research that characterized the awkward-looking boxfish as a fast and nimble swimmer, Bartol and colleagues took on the task of finding out what it is about the fish’s morphologies that keep it stable during quick movements, even in turbulent water.

In two papers published in 2002 and 2005 in The Journal of Experimental Biology, the team led by Bartol showed how unusual contouring and other physical characteristics produce self-correcting forces for four species of boxfish. When swimming maneuvers or perturbations threaten to toss the fish topsy-turvy, their contours develop spiral vortices – like tiny whirlpools – alongside them as they swim and the resulting pressure differences bring about the self-corrections.

Whereas design principles in nature and engineering usually require trade-offs between stability and maneuverability, the boxfish design does not gain one at the expense of the other, Bartol said.

The shape of the Mercedes-Benz concept car is faithful to the boxfish, with very similar overall shape and flow channels. Bartol said fish have long been used as models for sleek, low-flow-resistance vehicles, but that most fish shapes are not boxy enough to allow for passenger compartments. Also, most fish have soft, flexible bodies, whereas the boxfish has a rigid outer shell that makes it more practical for use as a model for a rigid automobile. (Mercedes-Benz engineers reported that they increased their car’s rigidity and decreased its weight by taking construction tips from the boxfish skeleton.)

Bartol said, however, that he has heard nothing about the automaker’s plans. “I’m wondering when I’ll get my free car,” he added with a smile.

Early efforts of the young scientist to create precise replicas of spotted boxfish forced him to make some interesting trips to medical computer tomography laboratories that normally produce the three-dimensional CT scans (similar to the original CAT scans) on humans. “I went there with my fish and I got lots of strange looks from patients sitting with me in the waiting room,” he said.

Recently he acquired a state-of-the-art Defocusing Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DDPIV) device that uses laser illumination, reflective particles and a sophisticated, three-lens camera to capture a three-dimensional image of water flow over the exterior of a boxfish model or actively swimming fishes and squids.

Current research by Bartol in his field of marine-organism biomechanics includes studies of how squid of various sizes move through the water. He is looking in this National Science Foundation-funded project at the relationship of squid size to efficiency of jet propulsion.

Bartol said word of the DDPIV capabilities quickly reached aeronautical engineers at the Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology, whose research can be similar to his. He presented a seminar on his boxfish and squid swimming research to the engineers, in which he introduced the DDPIV technique. Back to top

Journal of Race & Policy publishes second issue
ODU’s Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity has published the second issue of The Journal of Race & Policy. The publication is edited by Michael L. Clemons, associate professor of political science and director of the institute.

The new edition (spring/summer 2006) includes the following articles: “Liberal and Neo-Conservative Black Urban Regimes in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, 1985 to 2000,” “District Composition and State Legislative Votes on the Confederate Battle Emblem” and “Leaving Black Males Behind: Debunk-ing the Myths of Meritocratic Education.” The issue also features a book review by Ingrid P. Whitaker, associate professor of sociology, of “African Americans in the U.S. Economy.”

Next year’s issue, a collaborative work with the University of Virginia, will focus on the racial implications of Hurricane Katrina, Clemons said. Back to top

Benefits Fair set for Nov. 1
The Department of Human Resources will hold its 11th annual Benefits Fair from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 1 in the North Mall of Webb Center.

The following outside vendors and agencies that provide benefits to ODU employees plan to attend: AIG VALIC Financial Advisors, Ameriprise Financial Services Inc., AXA/Equitable Advisors, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, BJ’s Wholesale Club, CommonHealth, Fidelity Investments, Great-West Retirement Services, Legal Resources, Lincoln Financial Group, MassMutual, Met Life Financial Services, Minnesota Life Insurance Co., ODU Credit Union, CIGNA Long Term Disability, Perks Card, Social Security Administration, TIAA-CREF, Travel Counsellors Inc., Value Options, Virginia Retirement System, and Waddell and Reed.

Drawings will be held throughout the day for door prizes, including a television and DVD player. Back to top

School Integration in Norfolk” is panel topic
Benita Diggs and Danielle Avery, who were classmates at Norfolk’s Northside Middle School in 1971, will lead a panel discussion on “School Integration in Norfolk, 1971: Perspectives in Black and White” at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 7 in the Isle of Wight Room of Webb Center.

It is sponsored by the women’s studies department, the Darden College of Education and the Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.

The discussion is free and open to the public. For more information call women’s studies at 683-3823. Back to top

Programs aim to increase awareness of sexual violence
The Women’s Center will sponsor various events in October as part of Sexual & Relationship Violence Awareness Month.

Members of the campus community can visit a “Talk Back Wall” during the day on Oct. 18 in the North and South Mall of Webb Center. The wall offers an opportunity to “talk back” to popular media images that are harmful and offensive. Visitors can read what others have written and write their own reactions to the advertisements on display.

Also on Oct. 18, from 3-4 p.m., Alexa A. Priddy from the Women’s Center and Jaime M. Fenton from Counseling Services will lead an interactive workshop on “The Many Shades of Violence; Sexual & Relationship Violence in the LGBTQ Community.” It will be held in the James/Lynnhaven River Room of Webb Center.

For more information about these and other activities call 683-4109 or visit www.studentservices.odu.edu/wc. Back to top

Institute of Physics elects Karim as Fellow
Mohammad A. Karim, vice president for research, has been elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, a London-based organization that promotes the advancement and dissemination of physics.

He is an elected Fellow, as well, of the Optical Society of America, the Society of Photo-Instrumentation Engineers, the Institution of Engineering and Technol-ogy and the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences.

Karim came to ODU in 2004 from City University of New York, where he was dean of engineering at City College. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics, a master’s in electrical engineering and a doctorate in electrical engineering.

While on the faculty of the University of Dayton from 1986-98, Karim founded the institution’s Electro-Optics Program. He has written eight books and more than 325 papers pertaining to his research. Back to top

Service offers TV programs in native languages
As part of a grant-funded project, SCOLA Videostream Service is available for faculty, staff and students until fall 2007. SCOLA (Satellite Communications for Learning) is a nonprofit educational organization that receives and re-transmits television programming from around the world in native languages.

A SCOLA link is available from the Language Learning Center and the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at http://al.odu.edu/lang/scola/index.shtml. An active MIDAS account is required to access information.

SCOLA channel 1 has international news, channel 2 has international variety, channel 3 is dedicated to Chinese, channel 4 is for less commonly taught languages, and channel 5 features news, weather and cultural programming.

“In addition, SCOLA InstaClass lessons provide a video clip playback while viewing a transcript, translation, quiz or vocabulary window,” said Betty Rose Facer, director of the Language Learning Center. “The combined use of the SCOLA programs, the video and audio clips available on the individual InstaClass pages and instructional materials enhance language training through the use of current events.”

For more information call 683-4455. Back to top

Koch provides textbook cost analysis for Congress
James V. Koch, president emeritus and Board of Visitors Professor of Economics, testified Sept. 19 to the Congressional Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance about his findings in a study of college textbook pricing.

Koch was retained by the committee to complete a one-year study on the cost of college textbooks, the impact of costs on students and options to make the books more affordable. The committee will report to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce by May 2007.

At the hearing, Koch outlined his proposal for the study design, explained the underlying issues of textbook costs, and offered suggestions for policy options and paths for action. He noted that textbook prices rose at 6 percent per year from 1986 to 2004, even though the Consumer Price Index rose only about 3 percent annually over the same period.

One factor in the rising costs is that most faculty, who are responsible for choosing the textbooks students must purchase, don’t know how much they cost and therefore don’t take those prices into account when making choices. Koch likened the situation to the pharmaceutical industry, where prices climb somewhat as a result of doctors not knowing the costs of the drugs they prescribe.

Another aspect, according to Koch, is that five dominant publishers have 80 percent of the textbook market.

For more information visit www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/acsfa/edlite-index.html. Back to top

NewPAGE course for freshmen to be withdrawn after fall 2007 semester
In a letter to the campus community Sept. 20, President Roseann Runte announced that the required one-semester course for freshmen, NewPAGE (New Portals to Appreciating Our Global Environment), will be withdrawn after next fall.

A day earlier, the Faculty Senate, noting the course’s deactivation, passed a resolution acknowledging “the ingenuity, creativity, and enterprising hard work of the founders and instructors” and expressing “its gratitude to those who conceived of such a formidable experiment and nursed it into actuality over four years.”

In her letter, President Runte thanked the faculty and teaching assistants who dedicated their time to the course; the senate’s Committee A, which studied it; and the full senate, which initially endorsed it.

Regarding the timing of discontinuing the course, Runte said in her letter, “This should coordinate perfectly with the revision of the general education curriculum and the role the recently established university college will play by then.

“I expect that, following these discussions, a recommendation will be made to Senate on the general education curriculum which might or might not include a course intended for all first-year students.”

Recognizing that there were both faculty who were opponents and proponents of the NewPAGE course, she added, “Let us not let our opinions about the course distract us from the important work of revising our general education curriculum.”

G. Richard Whittecar, who chairs the NewPAGE Committee, noted, “The committee, the graduate assistants and university staff members who continue their creative and energetic work for NewPAGE students are grateful to Committee A and the Faculty Senate for the resolution of appreciation.

“Chairman Harold Wilson and Committee A members worked very hard to review the evaluations available from the first two semesters of the course, and the many changes we have made to the course since last January. They made many helpful suggestions to the NewPAGE Committee and encouraged us to continue with present innovations that are making this course even more effective.

“As the course continues to evolve over the next year, we look forward to sharing our experiences in developing this course with interested faculty members.”

“In my first published work as an academic, I wrote of the advantages the disadvantaged have for questioning privileged authority and seeking truths which extend beyond the message sold by those in power.” Back to top

Oceanographers use seals for ocean data collection
BY JIM RAPER

Two Old Dominion oceanographers are participating in a project that puts seals to work as climate researchers.

Eileen Hofmann and John Klinck, professors of oceanography at the Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography, are part of an international team of scientists who are using seals to collect data from the ocean depths. A story about this work appeared in the Sept. 8 issue of Science magazine.

The two faculty members are involved in an Antarctic project called “Southern Elephant Seals as Oceanographic Sensors,” which is funded by the National Science Foundation and includes researchers from the United Kingdom, France and Australia. The project is one segment of the seal-sensor climate research pioneered by Dan Costa, a biologist at the Univer-sity of California, Santa Cruz.

About 70 elephant seals and crabeater seals, whose feeding routines require dives of several hundred meters or more, carry sensors that scientists have attached to the animals’ heads or backs.

Sensors such as these have been used mostly to collect information about animals’ migratory and feeding habits, as well as other life sciences data. But a little ingenuity and technical advances in sensors have now made it possible for seals to send back information – global coordinates, dive depth and duration, water temperature and salinity – that is also useful to climate researchers.

Data from the sensor-equipped seals allows scientists to understand more about deep-ocean currents and other physical characteristics that are important factors in climate modeling.

Research vessels, as well as buoys, have long collected deep-ocean data that go into the World Ocean Database funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The data from seals promises to greatly expand the WOD.

“We are showing that we can do real oceanography research with the data sets that seals are collecting,” said Hofmann, who, together with Klinck, is involved in the analysis of the data.

Some scientists thought the data would be too sketchy to be of interest to physical oceanographers, Hofmann added. “But, in fact, we’re showing that seal data gives better space and time coverage than we get through ship data.”

Relying on ships’ data to describe conditions of the ocean depths is like characterizing Norfolk’s summer weather from measurements taken once at the beginning of the season and again toward the end of the season, Klinck explained. “The seals can fill in what’s missing in between.”

The scientists have been able to validate information transmitted by the seal sensors by spot-checking it against data from vessels or buoys. Seal-assisted research in the Antarctic is even more valuable than it is elsewhere because the animals can take sensors under ice packs where vessels cannot go and where underwater buoys cannot transmit.

Ocean conditions and processes at both polar caps influence global weather patterns and serve as early indicators of climate change. So the more data the seals can gather in the Antarctic region, the more scientists will know about global warming and climate cycles. Back to top

Arts Calendar
Diehn Concerts
Percussion Group Cincinnati, cited by The Washington Post as “performing some of the most beautiful and unusual chamber music,” will appear at 8 p.m. Oct. 23 in Chandler Recital Hall. Tickets are $15 for general admission.

Jazz pianist Marian McPartland and her trio will perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 30 in Chandler Recital Hall. Widely acknowledged as one of the world’s most skilled practitioners of the jazz piano, she has been a force on the jazz scene since the 1950s. She has hosted “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz” since 1978. The award-winning series is the longest-running cultural program on National Public Radio. Tickets are $25 for general admission.

Tickets to both Diehn Concerts may be ordered by calling 683-5305.

Theater performances
ODU Theatre will present “Macbeth” Oct. 20 to Nov. 5 at the University Theatre and “Anton in Show Business” Nov. 17 to Dec. 3 at the Stables Theatre.

Playtime Theatre for All Ages presents “Fairly Stupid Stories,” a collection of obscure, weird folk and fairy tales, Oct. 13-15 at the Stables Theatre.

For dates and times, call 683-3608; for tickets call 683-5305.

University Gallery exhibit
“A Categorical Imperative Cast Adrift on a Stormy Sea of Doubt,” new paintings, assemblage and installations by Ron Snapp, opens with a reception at 7 p.m. Oct. 21 at the University Gallery. The reception and exhibit, which continues through Nov. 26, are free and open to the public. Snapp has taught at ODU since 1973.

Dance Concert
The University Dance Theatre Fall Concert, including ballet, jazz and modern dance, is scheduled for 8 p.m. Nov. 16-18 and 2 p.m. Nov. 18 at the University Theatre. For tickets call 683-5305. Back to top

ODU, Yale team to find solution for packing works of art
BY LISA SUHAY

The Old Dominion graduate who was the lead sculptor of the bronze lion on Kaufman Mall and who created the mold for Norfolk’s mermaids has now embarked on a business partnership with Yale University and U.S. Art, which combines computer programming and laser scanning with computer modeling to move fragile, priceless works of art.

It is a high-tech marriage of lasers and art, computer wizardry and packing foam, resulting in a solution to the costly and time-consuming process museums face when they need to transport precious pieces without incident.

Kevin Gallup, who earned bachelor’s degree in fine arts from ODU in 1985 and has taught at the university on an adjunct basis, has developed a revolutionary system to scan fragile objects and translate the resulting 3-D images into data, which are then transferred to a computerized router that cuts the perfect reverse in packing foam for quick, cost-effective, smooth moves.

Now, thanks to a partnership with U.S. Art Co. Inc., a fine art handling company specializing in museum-quality transportation, crating, installation, storage and international customs services, and Yale University, the system is about to go global, changing the way art and many other businesses make their moves.

“Until we came up with this system, museums had to wait months and spend tens of thousands of dollars for hand-carved cases to be sculpted from foam,” said Gallup, who has a patent pending for his process. “Even then, they couldn’t accurately sculpt memory foam and other art-packing foams.”

Gallup added, “The types of foam generally used for these products are Styrofoam or expanded bead-type foam, but they are not suitable for museums, given archival and impact-related standards. In addition, the typical cutting methods for these types of foams did not work well with Ester foam, Ethafoam or Volara, the foams typically used by museums.”

Developing this technology took both skill in computer technology and the eye of a master craftsman.

Ajay Gupta, director of computer research at ODU, has teamed with Gallup and Yale to both create the software which makes it all work and develop new uses for the technology in such fields as chiropractic medicine.

“We have been working with Yale to help Kevin make a well-defined package, enhancing it and applying it to a number of fields,” Gupta said. “As Kevin field-tests the technology, we work with him to refine the software. And as we go along, we discover more and more uses for this highly profitable technology.”

One field test involved moving a priceless Brancusi vase from the Yale University Art Gallery to the Tate Museum in London. In October, an intricately carved, fragile, mermaid-shaped acoustic guitar will be moved from the studio of internationally known craftsman Andy Manson to its buyer.

Patricia Sherwin Garland, the Yale Gallery conservator who oversaw the recent move of works for a traveling exhibition, said, “I was impressed by the method developed for moving our 3-D collections. We have a wide range of materials, from small sculptures, to Chinese scrolls to ancient pots. The simple shape-scanning system allowed us to protect, pack and ship literally thousands of objects within a tight schedule. Our task was daunting. This method was straightforward, efficient and safe.”

Over the years, the Yale gallery had developed successful manual foam-packing techniques, thanks to the work of another ODU alumnus, Burrus Harlow, B.F.A. ’82, associate director of installations. But the magnitude of the recent traveling exhibition exceeded this capability, Gallup explained. Together, Gallup and Harlow developed a strategy for creating a new system.

Gallup is currently working in partnership with U.S. Art to offer modeling and cutting services so that clients do not have to purchase costly equipment.

“Right now we are all just following Kevin Gallup and trying to do our best to assist him in the best way we can,” Gupta said. “I think that ODU will be able to take this technology in directions even the amazing Mr. Gallup has not foreseen. That is our challenge and it’s a very good one.” Back to top

Nobel laureate to speak on “Fantastic Reality” Nov. 9
Nuclear physicist Frank Wilczek, who won the Nobel Prize for work he did when he was 21 and who is known for his ability to make science interesting to all audiences, will deliver a public address, “Fantastic Reality,” Nov. 9.

His appearance is part of the Nobel Laureate Public Lecture Series, coordinated by Amin Dharamsi, professor of electrical and computer engineering. The lecture is scheduled for 10 a.m. in the Ted Constant Convocation Center.

Wilczek, who is on the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also will participate in an open forum for students and faculty from 2:30-4:30 p.m. Nov. 9 in room 1310 of Webb Center.

While a graduate student at Princeton University, Wilczek did research that won for him the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics. The prize was for his role in the discovery of asymptotic freedom, which is a feature of quantum chromodynamics and involves interactions of particles such as quarks. This led to the emergence of a Standard Model of particle physics based on quantum field theory.

Wilczek and his wife, Betsy Devine, wrote “Longing for Harmonies,” a New York Times Notable Book of the Year that explains the basics of modern physics. Their second book, “Fantastic Realities,” which one reviewer described as a “playful yet profound” account of the behavior of matter at fundamental levels, was published earlier this year.He also told her that there would be an internship available for her in his lab, where she will be able to learn the molecular techniques necessary to analyze a portion of her own samples. Back to top

Commonwealth of Va. Campaign sets $125,000 goal
Members of the campus community will soon be asked for their pledges of support to local United Way agencies as well as a host of other area, state, national and international charitable organizations through the annual Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign.

The kickoff for the campaign, which is headed by Karen Travis, assistant vice president for institutional advancement, coincides with ODU’s Community Care Day on Friday, Oct. 13.

The goal for the campaign, whose theme is “Caring + Sharing = Hope,” is to raise $125,000 before the end of the semester. Back to top

Commentary: Reading my way around the world – at 30,000 feet
BY DON ZEIGLER

ASummer’s gone, but I am already looking forward to the next one. I can usually find a conference to attend, and that gives me a chance to travel the world. It also gives me a chance to catch up on my reading. Last summer, I joined an international conclave in Brisbane and then escaped, sans itinéraire, to explore an entire continent. I also escaped into the written word, and vicariously added another three continents to my unplanned peregrinations.

You lose a whole day in traveling “down under”; the flight alone takes more than 20 hours. That’s good; I really can do some catching up in the reading department. I have a shelf of books, bought but never read. None of them is about any place in the Southern Hemisphere. So, which one did I ask to keep me company on my long journey to the other side of planet Earth? “The Basque History of the World” by Mark Kurlansky. I remembered buying it at a used book store along the Delaware River in the 1990s. I could devour it slowly, thought I, and it would probably be more satisfying than airplane food. It would also be professionally worthwhile. A geographer (that’s me, fair dinkum) should know a little something about all the world’s peoples.

By the time I arrived in Brisbane I had covered not only 8,000 miles of geography, but also 2,000 years of history – Basque history. What were the tastiest morsels? A few insights into some of my favorite subjects: words, flags and maps. Did you know, for instance, that honcho is one of the few Basque words (jauntxo) to infiltrate English, or that the Basque flag (ikurriña) was designed in 1895 by the founder of the Basque Nationalist Party? And, as a result of the fleeting reference to a 1914 map of all linguistic minorities in Europe, I have yet another excuse to travel – to that big library with its incomparable map collection in Washington, D.C.

Because I travel with a backpack only, I am always anxious to dispose of things I don’t need: Basque book done, cast it off. I wonder who has it now. I left it in the Brisbane airport with a note attached: “free for the taking.” I rather liked the notion that a book set in Europe was purchased in North America and ended up in Australia. Now it had a tri-continental geography of its own. I rather disliked the notion that it probably ended up in a Brisbane landfill. Now, my Basque companions were gone and my plate was empty. Over the next week or so I snacked only on Australian newspapers and tons of tourist literature.

One day in Sydney, however, my craving to see Western Australia got the best of me. The long transcontinental flight to Perth would require a substantial entrée. I could have dropped by Borders (almost ubiquitous in Australia), but why should I spend money when I could get something to read for free? All hostels (yes, hostels, not hotels) have a shelf or two of exchange books, and it was not hard finding a novel to fit my upcoming journey. It was a paperback called “Flying” by Henry Sutton. It had been published in London, and I was sure it was not meant for the American market. Somehow, that thought appealed to me.

As I looked at the book’s dog ears, I wondered who else had thought it the perfect read for a long flight. I also wondered if the flight crew on my VirginBlue.com jet knew I was reading about them. The book chronicled the lives of the “hosties” and pilots – and their inner-most yearnings – on a single round trip between Heathrow and JFK.

In addition to words, flags and maps, I collect quotes. “Flying” yielded one for my collection, written about Nigel, a member of the flight crew: “He has seen clouds over every continent and ocean of the world, structures he thinks defy description.” I’d like to be able to say that, too. As Nigel and his life-challenged colleagues arrived back at Heathrow, I arrived in Perth – another plate empty, another book to recycle.

While flying to Australia, I had been reading about Basques. Flying across Australia, I had been reading about transiting the Atlantic. So far, my two-course meal reminded me of the last time I visited the island continent. That time I had planned ahead. I had bought a new copy of “A Town Like Alice” by Nevil Shute to read on my way to Alice Springs. Good book, but it had almost nothing to do with Alice Springs!

On this trip, for my third course, I would find an Australian novel. The book exchange at the hostel in Perth gave me just that opportunity. “Flying” was traded in for a book called “Davo’s Little Something” by Robert Barrett. With a title like that, the book promised to serve up a full ladle of Australian culture. How many Americans are nicknamed Davo, or use words like “sheilas” for the ladies? As I bit into chapter one, however, I confronted yet another incongruity: I was reading about Sydney while in Perth. I allowed myself to get into the normalcy of Davo’s world, but when the normalcy turned abnormal and the spree of revenge killings started, I stopped reading. I wanted to wait until I was back in Sydney. That’s where the action was taking place. That’s where Davo lived.

Unlike Patricia Cornwell, who rearranges Virginia geography to suit the needs of Kay Scarpetta, Barrett stays true to Sydney’s urban geography. When I returned to the shores of Botany Bay, I knew where I would be staying: on the road to Bondi Beach. In fact, I felt as if I had already been there. I resumed “Davo’s Little Something”; I walked the streets that Davo ran; I had coffee at Bondi Junction; I paused by Waverly Oval and wondered which flat belonged to Detective Blackburn’s mother. The book’s action was taking place on the very streets I had made my temporary home. The book’s action became part of Sydney’s spirit of place, proof of the theorem that a city’s genius loci is welded to its literature.

I actually finished “Davo’s Little Something” on the trans-Pacific flight home. The friendly newlyweds to my right must have felt sorry for me when they saw the last chapter disappear from my plate. Out of her bag, my seatmate pulled “The Kite Runner.” Both she and her husband had read it – and now it was my turn. Serendipity was at work again.

It would be a good read: Hadn’t all my book-club friends already read it? It would bring me back home via Afghanistan, via yet another continent. It would be like the bottle of French champagne that our flight attendant gave my seatmates and me simply because she said we were her favorite row. It would substitute for dessert; it would be the perfect ending to a fine, but eclectic, meal.

Zeigler, professor of geography and winner of a 2006 SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award, teaches at the Virginia Beach Center. Back to top

State of the Region report looks at economy, traffic congestion
Old Dominion University’s seventh annual State of the Region report examines a wide array of Hampton Roads issues, ranging from the economy to the growing problem of traffic congestion.
Published by ODU’s Regional Studies Institute, the report also looks at beach replenishment from the standpoint of who benefits and how the costs should be shared.

In addition, the 104-page report discusses the state of Hampton Roads’ open spaces and parks, as well as its theaters and performing arts companies; addresses the plight of its young people; and looks at the economic impact from neighboring counties in North Carolina.

James V. Koch, Board of Visitors Professor of Economics and President Emeritus, oversaw the production of the State of the Region report, which received financial support from the university and a number of local organizations and individuals. Koch notes that the report does not constitute an official viewpoint of Old Dominion University.

“The State of the Region reports maintain the goal of stimulating thought and discussion that ultimately will make Hampton Roads an even better place to live,” he said. “We are proud of our region’s many successes, but realize it is possible to improve our performance. In order to do so, we must have accurate information about ‘where we are’ and a sound understanding of the policy options available to us.” Back to top

Newsmakers
“It was good. He did skim over a bunch of topics, but I was glad he had a chance to come talk.” (Alex Denison, English major)

– “Kaine pitches policies to ODU students”
The Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 4

“I was just talking to some prosecutors this morning and they were saying that now they have to bring in scientists to explain the absence of such evidence [DNA analysis] or to explain that the kinds of things you see on TV are not realistic.” (Donald Smith, associate professor, sociology and criminal justice)

– “Forget what you see on ‘CSI’ about crime-investigation career”
The Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 3

“All things considered, our economic prospects for the remainder of this decade are much less favorable than they have been over the past few years. The ‘good old days’ have passed.” (Vinod Agarwal and Gil Yochum, professors, economics)

– “Worrying signs in state of the region report”
The Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 3

But applying early can help students who already know where they want to go and want to start preparing for college. “I think it takes stress off. They don’t have to go through the waiting game.” And it’s a head start for students who want a piece of the financial-aid pie. (Alice McAdory, director of admissions)

– “W&M, HU, CNU, ODU keep early admissions”
Daily Press, Sept. 28

“I don’t know that it ever gets any easier. They shouldn’t have these kinds of worries that their parents could be harmed all the time or they could die overseas. Those are the kinds of worries you try to protect them from.” (Michelle Kelley, professor, psychology)

– “In shadow of war, post’s school does well, but questions remain”
Associated Press, Sept. 27

“It’s like the second generation of what the Internet is all about – to facilitate research-based and military communications.” (Bob Armstrong, director of technology, VMASC)

– “New network puts researchers on the fast track”
The Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 23
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