City joins ODU to co-produce ONFilm Festival
BY SUSAN BECK

Internationally acclaimed screenwriters, directors and films will highlight the inaugural ONFilm Festival, hosted by Old Dominion and the city of Norfolk, March 18-24.

The festival marks a collaboration between the university and the city to expand and enhance ODU’s nearly decade-old film festival into an international event. Under the theme “Colonial Encounters,” the festival will explore colonialism and cultural interaction in the Americas and across the globe through a multitude of film screenings, discussion forums and seminars.

The opening night will kick off at Nauticus with a performance by the ODU Symphony Orchestra and a screening of the film “Eagle’s Wing,” including an appearance by the movie’s Academy Award-winning screenwriter, John Briley, at 7 p.m. March 18.

The festival will conclude with the presentation of the first ONFilm Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors excellence in acting, writing or producing, followed by a screening of “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” Closing ceremonies will be held at 7 p.m. March 24 at the Attucks Theatre in Norfolk.

Irvin Kershner, acclaimed director of “Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back,” will be on the campus at 8:15 p.m. Monday, March 19, for a question-and-answer session in the Mills Godwin Jr. Building auditorium. A screening of “The Luck of Ginger Coffey” (1964), a film that chronicles an Irish immigrant in search of fortune, will follow.

The festival will also feature the American premier of “Congorama,” a film that interweaves families, fathers and sons and the search for an identity from Europe to the Canadian landscape. Presented by the Naro Expanded Cinema and Quebec Cultural Services, it will debut at the Naro at 7 p.m. March 21.

A panel of filmmakers and scholars will highlight the ways in which international films depict the intersection of colonialism and gender at 7 p.m. March 23 in the Godwin auditorium. The short films “Take Me Out Tonight,” Liberty Kids,” “Under the Willow Tree” and “Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night” will be screened, followed by a discussion.

For a complete listing of films to be shown during the festival, go to www.odu.edu/onfilmfest. All screenings on campus are free. Tickets for all other events are $8. Tickets for the closing ceremonies may be purchased in advance through Ticketmaster.

Other festival sponsors include: Alliance Françoise; Filipino American Center; Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, Fund for the Arts; Belgian Consulate; Alessandra Benedicty, Quebec Cultural Services, New York; Naro Expanded Cinema; and Asian Indians of Hampton Roads. Back to top

Coach Wilder eager to start recruiting for 2009 football season
BY STEVE DANIEL

For Bobby Wilder, who was introduced Feb. 12 as Old Dominion’s new football coach, the next 2 1/2 years will no doubt pass quickly as he becomes ever more involved in starting a program from scratch.

But until the opening kickoff at that first home game in fall 2009, Wilder likely will experience many replays in his mind of the type that have occasionally roused him from sleep over the past few weeks.

“I’ve woken up at night thinking about where I’ll be on the sideline ... and the conversation I’ll have with the team before the game, the conversation I’ll have with them at halftime, preparing the speech for after the game – which I’m very hopeful is a victory speech – addressing the media for the first time after a game,” he said recently from his temporary office in the Athletic Administration Building. “All of those thoughts have been going through my head, and I get more and more excited every time I think about it.”

But as Wilder well knows, there’s much to be done between now and then. He believes, however, that the time he’s been given is just about perfect for getting it all together – everything from hiring his staff and recruiting players to working out a schedule and selecting designs for helmets and uniforms.

Wilder, 42, former associate head coach at the University of Maine and a member of the Black Bears staff for the past 17 years, announced on March 5 the addition of Brian Scott and Andy Rondeau, both former colleagues of his at Maine, as his offensive and defensive coordinators, respectively. The next order of business will be to hire a recruiting coordinator and to start the recruiting process.

Come April 15, Wilder will begin visiting high school coaches – starting in Hampton Roads and eventually fanning out throughout Virginia and into neighboring states – to gather information about student-athletes who are currently juniors, in hopes of getting leads on players who would be good candidates for ODU’s Division I-AA program.

The Monarchs’ first recruiting class of students will arrive on campus in August 2008 and sit out, or “redshirt,” their freshman year, a period of time when they will start practicing in preparation to play for the university’s first football team in more than 65 years (Old Dominion fielded a team from 1930-40, when it was a two-year division of William and Mary).

Wilder said he has benefited from the counsel of coaches at Coastal Carolina and South Florida, two schools that started new programs within the past 10 years.

“The coaches told me it was not as hard as they thought it would be,” Wilder said. “When they talked to parents about their sons attending college for five years instead of four, and to the parents and players about not having the pressure of playing the first year, combined with the luxury of having that time to get acclimated to college, they were receptive to that.”

In fact, Wilder is convinced he has many selling points to attract players to Old Dominion. For one, there’s the prospect of joining a brand-new program – knowing that you’re going to be in the first class to play football as an ODU Monarch. Said Wilder, “You don’t have to beat somebody out [who’s already here], so there’s a good chance you’re going to be a four-year starter, and that’s what every kid wants, he wants a chance to play.”

Combine that, Wilder said, with the fact that he’s selling a top university that offers a great education, an administration that’s committed to fielding a first-class program and the chance to play in the Colonial Athletic Association, one of the top-rated conferences in the country for I-AA football, and he believes the decision to get on board is, well, academic. Or, to mix a sports metaphor, a slam dunk.

Of course, a lot hinges on the one selling the goods, and in Wilder, ODU believes it has found the right man for the job.

According to athletic director Jim Jarrett, Wilder “has all of the qualities we were looking for in the person to lead our program, and his outstanding football knowledge, leadership and public relations skills will be an asset in building our program.”

Noted President Roseann Runte, “Mr. Wilder’s ethical approach to athletics and his philosophy, which includes a strong emphasis on academic achievement, combine with a congenial personality and a commitment to team-building and successful competition.”

And John R. Broderick, vice president for institutional advancement and co-chair of the football coach search committee, called ODU’s new coach, “in essence, our top choice from the first time we talked to him.”

At Maine, Wilder was promoted to assistant head coach and offensive coordinator in 2000 before moving to associate head coach in 2001. He was named the Assistant Coach of the Year by the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston in 2004, an award presented annually to the top assistant coach in New England. Prior to moving to the coordinator post, he served as quarterbacks coach during one of the most explosive eras for Black Bears quarterbacks.

A 1987 graduate of Maine with a degree in physical education, Wilder captained the Black Bears to the Yankee Conference championship his senior year. An All-New England quarterback in 1985, he left Maine as the school’s all-time leading passer with 4,493 yards, and currently ranks sixth.

After receiving his degree, Wilder served as a graduate assistant coach for two seasons at Boston College, where he earned a master’s in educational administration.

Commenting on the reception he has received here so far, ODU’s new coach said, “Everybody, whether associated with the athletic program or people in the community, has been so supportive of this so far.

“I’m sure there’s just as many people who have concerns about what direction this program is going to go in, and I can assure them we’re going to go in the same direction this entire athletic department goes, and that’s to do things in a first-class manner, to represent the school in a first-class manner and to build a program that people can be proud of.” Back to top

Research Expo features talk by Nobel laureate
BY JIM RAPER

Norfolk’s three institutions offering graduate-level educational programs are co-sponsors of Research Expo 2007: 400 Years of Discovery, which will be held April 5 at the Ted Constant Convocation Center.

The daylong event showcases research, scholarship and artistic achievements of faculty and students.

Nobel laureate Dr. Ferid Murad, who directs the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, will be the keynote speaker at the closing convocation. He formerly taught and directed the Clinical Research Center at the Univer-sity of Virginia School of Medicine.

Old Dominion produced the inaugural Research Expo in 2004 and Norfolk State University joined as a sponsor the following year. This will mark the second year Eastern Virginia Medical School has been a partner in the event’s production.

For the first time, the 2007 exposition will feature limited participation by other universities in the region affiliated with the Virginia Tidewater Consortium for Higher Education. Inside Business, a Hampton Roads weekly publication, is a co-sponsor.

Six panel discussions throughout the day will explore topics inspired by or related to America’s 400th Birthday celebration in Jamestown this year.

About 350 exhibits and demonstrations will be on the convocation center’s main floor, and awards for best student posters and faculty research will be given at the closing session.

Each segment of the event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., will be free and open to the public.

Organizers said the exposition is designed to present to the public the achievements of the participating institutions; to stir public interest in academic disciplines; to foster interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration; and to introduce faculty and students to potential collaborators and employers in business, industry, government and the military.

Murad, co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology (Medicine), will speak on the topic, “Discovery of Some of the Biological Effects of Nitric Oxide and Its Role in Cell Signaling.” He also won the 1996 Albert and Mary Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, often described as the top biomedical prize in the United States.

His work has resulted in the development of new drugs and in better understanding of how drugs work. In addition to his associations with universities, he has been an executive with Molecular Geriatrics Corp. and Abbott Laboratories, and is a major proponent of research collaborations between educational institutions and private industry.

Posters and demonstrations will come from the three sponsoring schools, as well as from consortium members College of William and Mary, Christopher Newport University, Hampton University, Regent University, Thomas Nelson Community College and Virginia Wesleyan College.

Panelists will be experts in fields such as history, history of American Indians, race relations, women’s studies, international studies, tourism, shipbuilding, global trade, naval history, critical infrastructure management, homeland security, chemistry, biochemistry, oceanography, cancer research, environmental protection and health sciences.

The panel discussions will be held in sets of two, starting at 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. A reception will begin at 4 p.m. and the closing convocation, including the keynote address, will begin at 5 p.m.

For more information call Lee Furr at 683-3148 or visit www.odu.edu/ao/research. Back to top

Gloria Steinem and Margaret Cho headline Women’s History Month
Writer, lecturer, editor and feminist activist Gloria Steinem will be the featured speaker for Women’s History Month at 8 p.m. March 21. Her lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be in the North Cafeteria of Webb Center.

To ensure seating, call the Women’s Center at 683-4109 for advance tickets.

Also coming to campus this month to help the Women’s Center celebrate its 30th anniversary are comedian Margaret Cho and the Guerrilla Girls. Cho will give a concert at 7 p.m. March 16, and the Guerrilla Girls, billed as a troupe of “feminist masked avengers,” will perform at 7 p.m. March 30. Both events are free and will be in the north cafeteria. Tickets are available at the Webb Center front desk.

Regarded as America’s most influential feminist, Steinem currently travels the globe addressing issues of equality. Her interests include the shared origins of sex and race caste systems, gender roles and child abuse as roots of violence and non-violent conflict resolution.

A prolific writer, she has contributed to numerous anthologies and textbooks, and served as editor of Houghton Mifflin’s “The Reader’s Companion to U.S. Women’s History.” She is the author of “Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem,” “Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions,” “Moving Beyond Words” and “Marilyn: Norma Jean.”

Steinem, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Smith College in 1956, first rose to fame in the late 1960s as a political columnist and founding member of New York magazine. In 1972, she co-founded Ms. magazine, serving as an editor for 15 years. She continues to serve as a consulting editor and was instrumental in the magazine’s recent move to join and be published by the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Steinem was a founding member of Women’s Action Alliance, a national information center that specialized in nonsexist, multiracial children’s education, and of the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Former president and co-founder of Voters for Choice, a pro-choice political action committee, Steinem is also the co-founder of Choice USA, an organization that supports young pro-choice leadership and works to preserve comprehensive sex education in schools.

Currently, she is working with the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College on a project to document the grassroots origins of the U.S. women’s movement. Back to top

Dartmouth prof is guest for lecture series on ethics, standards and conduct
A Dartmouth College philosophy professor who uses cheating at golf as a model for academic cheating will speak in the Lecture Series on Ethics, Professional Standards and Responsible Con-duct from 4-5 p.m. March 19 in the Cape Charles/Isle of Wight Room of Webb Center.

The visit by Bernard Gert, Stone Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy at Dartmouth, is made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation and the Council of Graduate Schools awarded to the ODU Office of Graduate Studies.

The title of his lecture will be “Who Is Cheated by Cheating?” Gert believes universities should make clear that faculty and administrators function as referees or umpires – or golf tournament officials – to assure each student a fair chance to compete with others.

The lecture series continues in April with a talk by Kirk McDermid, professor of philosophy and religion at Montclair State University: “Plagiarism and Writing Assessment: Is There a Best Policy for (Academic) Honesty?” The talk will be from 4-5 p.m. April 12 in Webb Center’s Hampton/Newport News Room. Back to top

Poetry competition winners announced
Undergraduate Robert Eugene Mayes and graduate student Rebecca Lauren won first place in their respective categories in the 2007 Poetry Competition, sponsored by Old Dominion, the Poetry Society of Virginia and the Academy of American Poets. Both students won a $100 prize and received a one-year membership to the academy.

Entries were judged by Jay Paul, who teaches poetry, fiction and prose writing and directs the honors program at Christopher Newport University.

Mayes, a sophomore English major from Norfolk, is an aspiring poet and a dramaturg with the Elizabeth River Theatre Company. His winning entry, “Letter,” was described by Paul as “an amazing blend of directions for a recipe, description of a place, revelations of a relationship. ... In other words, the blend is eventful: all the strains crash down upon the reader at once.”

Lauren, an M.F.A. student in creative writing, won for her entries “Hagar and Sarai,” “Ode to my Grandmother’s Missing Arm” and “Sower’s Parable.” Paul noted: “This writer ... has a maturity and a range that promise work well worth reading and collecting.” Back to top

Talk on oral history of Tidewater set for March 13
Bridget Anderson, assistant professor of English and applied linguistics, will give a talk on “Tidewater Voices: An Oral History and Dialect Project” at 7 p.m. March 13 in the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center lecture hall.

Her research project showcases the cultural and linguistic differences that make the Tidewater region unique within Virginia and the nation. The region has long been known for its distinct and rich linguistic history, and the Jamestown settlers developed one of the first varieties of American English.

The talk will address the unique dialect features of the “everyday” languages spoken by locals and how “traditional” Tidewater features are changing. Back to top

GRGS sponsors 6th annual Grad. Research Conference
“Transformation in International Politics – Challenge to Democracy” is the topic for Old Dominion’s sixth annual Graduate Research Conference, scheduled for April 13-14 and hosted by the Center for Regional and Global Study (CRGS).

The conference provides graduate students with a professional setting in which to present their research. Students are grouped in appropriate panels with faculty acting as chairs/discussants and non-presenting students as critical audience.

“This kind of peer review offers unique opportunity to practice presentation and argumentation skill,” said Regina Karp, director of the graduate program in international studies. “A committee of faculty reviews submitted papers and recommends the best three for prizes.”

Approximately 30 students have registered as presenters. Back to top

Stanford prof, author will address Economics Club
Daniel P. Kessler, professor of business at Stanford University and senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, will be the featured speaker at the Economics Club of Hampton Roads luncheon March 14.

Co-sponsored by the College of Business and Public Administration, the luncheon will begin at noon at the Norfolk Marriott Waterside Hotel. The cost is $30 for nonmembers. Due to limited space, reservations are required and may be made by calling 683-4058.

Kessler is the co-author of “Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Five Steps to a Better Health Care System” with John F. Cogan of the Hoover Institution and Glenn Hubbard of Columbia University. The book proposes steps that the authors say could save as much as $60 billion a year and extend coverage to 20 million people who are currently uninsured. Back to top

Former Norfolk Southern CEO to speak here on 22nd
David R. Goode, retired chairman, president and chief executive officer of Norfolk Southern Corp., will be the guest speaker for the Landmark Executive-in-Residence Series at 12:30 p.m. March 22 in 1005 Constant Hall.

Sponsored by the College of Business and Public Administration, the series brings accomplished business leaders to campus to share their firsthand experiences with students.

Goode joined Norfolk Southern in 1982 after 17 years with the Norfolk and Western Railway. Named president in 1991, he assumed the additional titles of chairman, CEO and director in 1992. He retired last year.

In 2005, Norfolk Southern Corp. named its midtown Atlanta office building the David R. Goode Building. Back to top

AUA welcomes NSU president on March 21
Norfolk State University President Carolyn Winstead Myers will be the guest speaker for the next Association of University Administrators luncheon meeting, scheduled for noon to 1 p.m. March 21 in the River Rooms of Webb Center.

Her talk is co-sponsored by the University Women’s Caucus. Back to top

VMASC to host major conferences
BY JIM RAPER

The eyes of the modeling and simulation community will be on Hampton Roads this spring when leading professionals, academics and students in the discipline come together in the region for a series of conferences.

Old Dominion faculty and the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) will be hosts for some of the meetings and participants in each of them. A total of about 1,000 conferees will be part of the events.

During the last week of March, three major conferences of the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) and the Society of Modeling and Simulation (SCS) will be collocated in the Norfolk Waterside Marriott. Participants from across the United States and several other countries will hear President Roseann Runte deliver a combined plenary address focusing on modeling and simulation education at ODU.

“We are calling it Simulation Week,” said Andreas Tolk, associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering and a senior research scientist at VMASC. As a member of the executive committee of SISO and the agent-based simulation committee of SCS, Tolk helped to bring the three conferences to Norfolk.

VMASC will sponsor its first Modeling, Simulation and Gaming (MS&G) Student Capstone Conference April 19 at Webb Center. At the meeting, students from the ODU modeling and simulation graduate program and from other U.S. universities will present their work in concentration areas such as transportation, medical modeling and simulation, education MS&G, and homeland security and military modeling and simulation.

The final event in the spring series will be the U.S. Department of Defense Modeling and Simulation Conference, May 7-11, at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton. This is seminal military modeling and simulation conference and all services will be participating.

Michael McGinnis, VMASC executive director, said the decisions to locate the conferences in Hampton Roads are recognition of the important role the region plays in modeling and simulation. “One way to measure your progress is in the number of significant events like this that occur in your region,” he explained.

ODU is one of only three schools nationwide offering advanced programs and advanced degrees in modeling and simulation. Back to top

Dominion Fund sets sights on 50 percent campus participation
Faculty and staff who contributed last year to the Dominion Fund, the annual campus community campaign, just might get a laugh from the traditional edible treat they will soon receive as a thank-you for their donation. And that’s the only hint from here.

On March 19, campaign volunteers will disperse throughout the campus to thank employees for their gift last year and to recruit new donors for the 2007 “I Believe in ODU!” campaign. The fund drive will run through April 27.

The goal this year is for a minimum of 50 percent participation. Last year’s rate was 5 percent above the previous year’s rate of 40 percent. A total of 882 employees (just shy of 45 percent participation) contributed $204,139 to the Dominion Fund last year, and the goals for 2007 are 1,026 donors and $224,400.

Gifts can be made via payroll deduction or credit card, and designated for academics, athletics or “other.” Contributions may be targeted further, for example, to a specific college, the library, specific sports programs (including football), academic or athletic scholarships, or the Alumni Association. Unrestricted gifts will be applied to university priorities.

Employees who contribute $100 or more will automatically be entered in a contest to win a reserved parking space for one year. Anyone who gives $100 or more to the Big Blue Club will be entered in this contest as well as a drawing for two basketball season tickets.

Also at the end of the campaign, a trophy will be awarded to the office or area with the highest rate of participation.

Andrew Balas, dean of the College of Health Sciences, and Ardena Jordan of the Monarch Copy Center are serving as co-chairs of the 2007 fund drive.

The volunteer coordinators are: Debra Bell, Judy Bowman, Delores Bright, Victoria Burke, Ann Campbell, Christina Enge, Martha Garris, Chuck Gray, Etta Henry, Pat King, Donna Meeks, Carlisa Merritt, Sgt. Russell Michael, Natalie “Nicole” Miller, John Nunnery, Bob Olson, Dawn Richardson, Megan Robinson, Ken Saal, Elizabeth “Lisa” Sisson, Tarsha Turner, Anthony Tyler, Linda Vahala, Karen Webb, Kathy Williamson and Robert Wojtowicz. Back to top

Expert on Islam, Mideast to give lecture March 29
Reza Aslan, one of the nation’s most respected experts on Islam and the Middle East, will speak March 29 for the President’s Lecture Series. His talk, “The Future of Islam: Toward the Islamic Reformation,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Mills Godwin Jr. Building auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

Aslan is a research associate at the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy. He serves as a Middle East commentator for National Public Radio’s “Marketplace” and Muslim affairs analyst for CBS News.

The author of the internationally acclaimed “No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam,” Aslan received critical acclaim from The New York Times, which described the work as a “grippingly narrated and thoughtfully examined ... literate, accessible introduction to Islam.”

Aslan has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Slate, Boston Globe, Washington Post and The Nation, and has appeared on “Meet the Press,” “Hardball,” “The Daily Show,” “Real Time with Bill Maher” and “Nightline.”

Aslan’s career began in 1998 when was elected president of Harvard’s chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP), a United Nations organization committed to the cause of global understanding. After consecutive nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, the WCRP, under Aslan’s leadership, brought the ambassadors of the two countries to Harvard in order to discuss for the first time their shared nuclear future.

Aslan’s work with the WCRP led to a position as legislative assistant for the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, D.C., where he served as a liaison to Congress on issues of arms control and the Middle East.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in religion from Santa Clara University, a master’s in theological studies from Harvard and a master of fine arts degree in fiction from the University of Iowa. He is currently a doctoral candidate in history of religions at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Back to top

“Fabric of the Cosmos” is topic for PLS talk in April
Brian Greene, author of “The Elegant Universe,” a national bestseller, and one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists, will give the final President’s Lecture Series address for 2006-07 at 7:30 p.m. April 12 in the Mills Godwin Jr. Building auditorium.

He will speak on “Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality.”

Greene is widely recognized for a number of groundbreaking discoveries in quantum gravity and unified theories and also for his lucid presentations of cutting-edge research to fellow scientists as well as to general audiences.

He and a Harvard colleague discovered mirror symmetry – a remarkable property of string theory that has launched a vibrant field of research in mathematics and physics.

In 1993 and 1995, Greene and his colleagues discovered topology change. Whereas Albert Einstein’s general relativity shows that the fabric of space can stretch in time (resulting in our expanding universe), it does not allow the fabric to rip.

To the contrary, Greene and his colleagues showed the fabric of space can tear, allowing the universe to evolve in far more dramatic ways than Einstein had envisioned.

Currently, Greene is co-director of Columbia’s Institute for Strings, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics and is studying the cosmological implications of string theory. Back to top

Kosnik CD features Hailstork organ music
BJames W. Kosnik, professor of organ and music history, has recorded and released his sixth CD, “Amazing Grace: The Organ Music of Adolphus Hailstork.”

Hailstork, eminent scholar of music, is an internationally known composer. The featured composition on the CD, “Armageddon,” for organ and two percussionists, is his 29-minute meditation on the events and spiritual aftermath of Sept. 11.

The CD was recorded at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Norfolk, where Kosnik is organist and choir director. The recording is produced and distributed by Albany Records.

It is also available on Amazon.com and at Kosnik’s Web site: www.odu.edu/~jkosnik. Back to top

Pianist here March 19 for Diehn Concert Series
Pianist Françoise Thinat will perform at 8 p.m. March 19 in Chandler Recital Hall for the Diehn Concert Series.

Thinat teaches at the Teacher Training School of Music in Paris, the national School of Music of Orleans and serves on many national and international piano competition juries.

She has toured extensively in Europe, the United States, Canada and Japan. Thinat has devoted her life to piano music and has recorded works by Chopin, Schumann, Dukas, Grieg, Séverac, Debussy and Ropartz. She is the founder and president of the Orleans International Piano Competition.

Tickets for the concert are $15 for general admission and $10 for students. The concert is in conjunction with the Annual Classical Period Piano Competition, scheduled for March 17. For tickets call 683-5305.
Back to top

“Art for Art’s Sake” opens on 17th at gallery
The University Gallery opens “Art for Art’s Sake: Peter Geiger” with a reception at 7 p.m. March 17. The reception and exhibition, which continues through May 6, are free and open to the public.

The exhibition marks Geiger’s final stage of graduate study in the Old Dominion/Norfolk State joint M.F.A. program.

Using a range of media from painting to installation, Geiger draws on urban and suburban living and contemporary social issues to explore the nature of artworks as objects and the illusions and interpretations basic to the process of making art.

In “Elvis Door” Geiger painted an image of Elvis Presley in his Army uniform on a door. The singer appears to be peering at the viewer through the glass of the door. The door acts as both support and frame in the tradition of trompe l’oeil, questioning the nature of the frame and support. Another work, “Grad Studios Camera Obscura,” uses the traditional camera obscura to project the image of the graduate studios next door onto an overhead projector in the gallery. The image superimposes Geiger’s private work environment into a public gallery.

These along with other mixed media pieces, installation and traditional painting, render a nonlinear narrative of Geiger’s everyday environments.

The University Gallery, located at 350 W. 21st St., Norfolk is open noon to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; noon to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 1-4 p.m. Sunday. For more information call 683-2355. Back to top

Performance Festival comes to Stables in April
Old Dominion’s annual Spring Performance Festival, featuring a collection of works directed, choreographed and designed by some of the university’s top theater students, will be staged April 6-15 at the Stables Theatre.

The festival program includes two short comedic pieces by Anton Chekhov, “Drama” and “The Sneeze,” directed by Carissa Robertson; three original fight sequences choreographed by Jon Norton; and a Jack Neary comedy, “Jerry Finnegan’s Sister,” directed by Lindsey Carey.

Performances are scheduled for 8 p.m. April 6-7 and 10-14, and 2:30 p.m. April 15. The show is appropriate for all audiences.

Tickets are $10 for students and $12 for general admission. They can be purchased in advance at the Arts and Letters box office, located in the lobby of the University Theatre, or by calling 683-5305. Tickets are also available at the door an hour before each performance. Back to top

Researchers’ BioSim application accepted on national SURAgrid computing network
BY JIM RAPER

Researchers at Old Dominion have developed a computing application that can simulate an electric charge coursing through the body, and the payoff may be advances in treatments for disease or pain.

The Bioelectric Simulator for Whole Body Tissues (BioSim), as the application is formally known, models mammalian bio-response to electrical stimulation. The project is the first of its kind and has evolved from the university’s resources in bioelectrics, computer modeling and simulation, as well as from its affiliations with the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) and the National LambdaRail (NLR).

BioSim has been accepted as an application on the SURAgrid computing network that connects about 30 universities and research facilities, not only in the southeastern United States, but also in the Southwest and on the West Coast. By means of a grid, computers at many far-flung schools and research laboratories can work together as one super-computing unit.

Ravindra Joshi, University Professor of electrical and computer engineering and a researcher at ODU’s Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics, said the project demonstrates how engineers can “add to understanding of biological systems by making models and making them more and more realistic.”

In the case of BioSim, it is grid computing – with dozens of computer clusters working together on an application – that allows realistic simulations of the response of mammal bodies to electrical stimulation. Researchers hope new diagnostic and therapeutic tools will result from experiments in which electrical stimulation is introduced by electrodes on the skin. It is safer and more efficient to test electric current-stimulation strategies on computational models of whole bodies rather than on live subjects.

Joshi is working on the project with his doctoral student Ashutosh Mishra and two staff members with the Office of Computing and Communications Services (OCCS), Mike Sachon, assistant director of research computing, and Mahantesh Halappanavar, grid-computing systems engineer.

The project has cutting-edge significance for two reasons. As far as the ODU researchers know, the application they have produced is the first that can show how a whole body responds to electrical current introduced via electrodes on the skin. Also, the application has been developed to be computer-grid-enabled. This means that computers in the SURA network across the nation could run the application simultaneously and produce a realistic snapshot of a body’s response to a particular bioelectric strategy.

“We need to know how much voltage and duration can be used and still be within safe limits,” Joshi said. A body also reacts differently to electrical current depending on where the current is introduced – where the electrodes are placed – and this is a factor that can be explored with the simulations. One concern would be electrodes placed too close to the heart.

“Previous work in this field has been on localized tissues of small volume,” explained Mishra. For example, a computational model of the liver has been used for some time in simulations. “We’re expanding it to the whole body, and because of this the variability greatly increases.”

The variability comes from the variety of tissues, organs and other components in a whole body model. Every component may react differently as the charge plays out, say from a point of introduction in the shoulder, then through the trunk and into the lower extremities.

To picture the researchers’ model, imagine a finely drawn, three-dimensional mesh. The mesh represents a map of millions of reference points within the whole body. More reference points means a finer detailed mesh and a more accurate simulation, but this also requires more computing power.

Mishra said a simulation involving a model of the human head would require 8.2 million reference points in order to provide acceptable accuracy. The whole-body model requires many more millions of points.

“Processing a data set of millions of mesh points creates prohibitively large requirements for system memory and computation times,” says an ODU document about BioSim. “To address this problem, ODU researchers have demonstrated that BioSim scales well with the increased computational resources of distributed systems such as high-performance compute (HPC) clusters. By grid-enabling BioSim and deploying it in the SURAgrid environment, ODU’s researchers have gained access to the HPC clusters that are part of SURAgrid’s collective resources and have increased their ability to process the mesh point data in their large, whole-body model simulations.”

ODU’s vice president for research, Mohammad Karim said, “Professor Joshi's BioSim project is a perfect example of an application-driven design for a large-scale, multipurpose grid infrastructure. This effort puts the work of outstanding ODU researchers to effective use by all the grid member institutions.”

Sachon pointed out that the two-year-old SURAgrid is a “grassroots” effort to give ODU and its partners – including North Carolina State, Louisiana State, Tulane, Clemson, University of Kentucky and Texas Tech – an up-to-date computing grid.

Several other grids in the country were built from the ground up with large grants from research funding agencies. SURAgrid, on the other hand, is making the most of the in-house computing resources that were already in place at member institutions. Because the resources that support SURAgrid were not developed initially to be part of a grid, the grid architects must solve problems raised by a heterogeneous collection of hardware, software and software licensing agreements, according to Sachon and Halappanavar.

The problem solving is ongoing, and the engineers said they have not yet demonstrated the full capabilities of BioSim on SURAgrid. Nevertheless, the ODU team has been “going to school,” as Halappanavar put it, by engineering a gateway allowing ODU computing resources to be put to use on SURAgrid for storm surge research at the University of North Carolina. “We learned so much by doing that,” said Halappanavar, who added that the status of grid computing today reminds him of where electricity stood in the mid-19th century and where the Internet stood less than two decades ago.

The ODU team wrote the BioSim application using only open-source software, which means there will be no licensing hurdles that could prevent the application from running on computers at multiple institutions.

ODU was connected in 2006 to the National LambdaRail, a high-speed, fiber-optics network 100 times faster than the university’s conventional Internet connection. It can boost the performance of SURAgrid and of the BioSim application because many of the SURA members have NLR access, Sachon said.

Esther Cato, Student Housing; Toni Cawley, Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; Gregory Flick, English Language Center; Troy Goldie, Academic Technology Services; Deidre Hall, Educational Leadership and Counseling; Tawana Hardy, Research; Joanne Johnson, Facilities Management; Ardena Jordan, Monarch Copy Center; Sandra Mathews, Foreign Languages and Literatures; Tonya McDuffie, Facilities Management; Marie Miller, Continuing Studies Operations; Tecarla Moore, Registrar; Anthony Redifer, Computing and Communication Services; Robin Smith, Distance Learning (Olympic College); Ronald Smith, Facilities Management; and Kelly Wyatt, Biological Sciences. Back to top

Helvie to sign copies of “Healthy Holistic Aging”
Carl O. Helvie, professor emeritus of nursing, will sign copies of his new book, “Healthy Holistic Aging: A Blueprint for Success,” March 22. He will appear from noon to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30-2 p.m. in the atrium of the College of Health Sciences Building.

A recognized health practitioner and nursing educator, Helvie began teaching at Old Dominion in 1972. His interests include public health, prevention, holism and alternative health.

His latest work, published by Syren Book Co., focuses on how our decisions, thoughts and actions influence the aging process. Helvie, 74, is among the 11 percent of the population age 65 and over who take no prescribed medications – thus, avoiding the associated costs and inconveniences – and who are also reportedly more physically active than others in their age group.

In the book, he shares his secrets for successful aging that he has used in his own life and with thousands of clients during his 55-year career in nursing. Back to top

Senate recommends changes to univ. policies
In recent meetings, the Faculty Senate voted to recommend a number of issues to the president and provost, including changes to the class attendance and evaluation of teaching policies.

Regarding the attendance policy, the senate voted to change the wording in the first sentence to read: “Regular classroom attendance is required of all students,” substituting “required” for the previous word “expected.” Another sentence was rewritten to read: “Instructors will establish an attendance policy for each class that is consistent with department, college and university guidelines and policies.”

In the evaluation of teaching policy, the senate voted to recommend that the time period allowed for student evaluations of faculty be increased from two to three weeks for both the fall and spring semesters and increased to two weeks in the summer session.

The senate’s next meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. March 20 in the Chesapeake/Portsmouth Room of Webb Center. Back to top

ODU programs among Top 100 in R&D expenditures
Ten Old Dominion academic programs are among the nation’s Top 100 in research and development (R&D) expenditure rankings reported last month by the National Science Foundation.

The university also moved closer to its goal of becoming a Top 100 public research institution, said Mohammad A. Karim, vice president for research. NSF’s latest figures, which are from 2005, place ODU at 118 in total R&D expenditures among public institutions. Last year, NSF’s ranking had ODU 131st in the public-institution category.

In a category new for this year, ODU finished 71st in total R&D expenditures among universities that have no schools of medicine.

Among all institutions, private as well as public, ODU moved from 181st in last year’s report to 166th this year in total R&D expenditures. Karim noted that ODU is now ahead of George Mason University, which is 173rd in this summary category. Five Virginia universities are ahead of ODU in the category: Virginia Tech (56th), University of Virginia (69th), Virginia Commonwealth University (99th) and College of William and Mary (162nd).

ODU’s high-ranking programs are aeronautical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, mathematics, computer science, education, business administration-management, humanities, and visual and performing arts.

The university is ranked 70th in the nation for overall engineering R&D expenditures, up four positions from the last report.

“I am very proud of the fine work done by the faculty,” said President Roseann Runte. “Dr. Karim’s leadership has been remarkable, and these results demonstrate what a strong team of dedicated faculty can do. Even more impressive are their fine contributions to the advancement of knowledge and to economic development for our nation.”

“In recent years, ODU has been making continual investments in building up its research infrastructure,” said Karim. “These efforts have resulted in creation of attractive research start-up packages for incoming faculty members, seed funding for multidisciplinary and multi-investigator projects and programs, hiring of both researchers and grant-writers, and establishment of Innovation Research Park @ ODU.”

The research park’s first building, which will open this spring, will have 100,000 square feet of office and laboratory space for ODU researchers and private-sector companies involved in technology and the sciences.

Some ODU rankings from the latest NSF report:

• Aeronautical engineering: 18th in total expenditures, as well as in federal expenditures
• Electrical engineering: 25th in total expenditures, 22nd in federal expenditures
• Civil engineering: 86th in total expenditures, 88th in federal expenditures
• Mechanical engineering: 87th in total expenditures, 82nd in federal expenditures
• Mathematics: 76th in total expenditures
• Computer science: 97th in total expenditures
• ODU overall: 50th in total expenditures, non-science/engineering
• Visual and performing arts: 18th in total expenditures, non-science/engineering
• Business administration-management: 23rd in total expenditures, non-science/engineering
• Humanities: 33rd in total expenditures, non-science/engineering
• Education: 39th in total expenditures, non-science/engineering
• ODU overall: 50th in NASA R&D expenditures
• ODU overall: 70th in Department of Defense R&D expenditures. Back to top

Agreement signed with Naval Postgraduate School
Old Dominion and Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) officials have signed a milestone education and research agreement that will foster greater collaboration between the two universities, increase access to higher education for naval personnel, advance scientific and engineering capabilities of the Navy, and be a catalyst for the development of new Navy technologies.

President Roseann Runte joined Vice Adm. John C. Harvey, chief of naval personnel and deputy chief of naval operations for manpower, personnel, training and education, and Julie Filizetti, NPS associate provost for academic affairs, at the signing ceremony Feb. 12 in Washington, D.C. The agreement strengthens an initial relationship that was established several years ago when ODU launched its Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) in Suffolk.

“We have had a good working relationship with Old Dominion on informal joint projects such as dissertation committee service and standards bodies,” notes Rudy Darken, director of the Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation (MOVES) Institute at NPS. There is already an ongoing shared project in joint battle management language and we now want to take this collaboration to a new level to include expanded joint research programs.”

VMASC Executive Director Mike McGinnis concurs. “This is a strategically important relationship between two nationally recognized centers of excellence in higher education. The agreement will certainly further the body of knowledge in technical areas vital to the security of our nation,” said McGinnis, a retired Army brigadier general.

“Higher education enables our people to think critically,” Harvey noted. “The Navy needs future leaders who are capable of leading and directing a global organization, working with other services and other nations in an environment characterized by uncertainty, risk and a wide range of cultural sensitivities.”

He added that the Navy is now looking for more mission-related degrees and this partnership will bring together exceptionally talented and experienced faculty from both universities to deliver relevant education to officers on the waterfront and at sea.

“Old Dominion is one of the nation’s most progressive universities supporting the military,” remarked Runte. “Our distributed education deliveries to deployed Navy vessels on and below the ocean’s surface, cutting-edge research in high-interest fields such as modeling and simulation, system of systems engineering and oceanography, enhanced by our Norfolk location in a Navy Fleet Concentration Area, will certainly increase individual and collective mission performance by both institutions.”

Meanwhile, NPS has been a pioneer in developing innovative education programs to address Navy requirements, offering resident masters and doctoral programs at its Monterey, Calif., campus; degree and certificate programs via distributed learning; and executive and professional short courses for military and civilian naval leaders around the world. Currently, nearly 900 Navy and Marine Corps officers are studying in Monterey while more than 230 are enrolled in non-resident, distributed learning degree programs.

NPS is also leading a national initiative called Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation to develop a 21st-century work force of qualified civilian scientists and engineers for technical jobs in Navy labs.

“We can help our nation address security issues ranging from global terrorism to regional conflict and civil-military relations,” stated Leonard Ferrari, acting president and provost of NPS. “This new partnership with Old Dominion University will enable us to enhance our academic programs and deliver more mission-relevant courses to the Navy.” Back to top

Univ. receives top award for CVC participation
Old Dominion was the only college or university to receive a Platinum Award for its record of participation and giving in the 2006 Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign, the fund drive that solicits donations to nonprofit organizations.

Karen Travis, assistant vice president for institutional advancement, who headed the ODU effort, was on hand to receive the award Feb. 28 at the CVC celebration luncheon in Richmond.

Old Dominion raised $138,740, which was 11 percent over its goal. A total of 836 employees contributed (a 42.6 percent participation rate), and the average donation was $166.

Agencies receiving Platinum Awards in ODU’s size category (1,001 to 3,000 employees) were required to have a minimum 40 percent participation rate and an average gift level of $125. Back to top

Ninety percent of ODU grad students intend to complete degrees, survey shows
A recent survey of Old Dominion degree-seeking graduate students found that 90 percent of the respondents intend to complete their graduate degree at the university, according to the Office of Graduate Studies.

Philip Langlais, vice provost for graduate studies and research, said that the two areas most frequently reported as needing attention were difficulty in obtaining courses (30 percent of respondents) and inadequate financial support (11 percent of respondents).

Smaller segments of the respondents said they would like to see improvements in mentoring/advising, health insurance and administrative support.

Slightly more than half of ODU’s 3,800 degree-seeking graduate students completed the survey, and Langlais said attempts will be made in future surveys to sample the remaining students. “These experiences and suggestions are critically important to enhancing the quality and success of our graduate student training,” he said.

Respondents in the recent survey were eligible to win an iPOD, and the winner was Brandi Colter, who is pursuing a master’s degree in psychology. Back to top

ODU Golf Club offers free clinic March 21
The ODU Golf Club will hold a free golf clinic in partnership with Lambert’s Point Golf Course from 6-8 p.m. March 21 at the Lambert’s Point driving range and putting green. Players of all levels are encouraged to participate. There will be a video swing analyzation station as well as several competitions, including long drive and long putt.

A raffle will take place during the clinic, and food and beverages will be available. The everyday fee for range balls will apply. The club will use proceeds to help cover travel costs and tournament entry fees.

For more information send an e-mail to odu_golfclub@yahoo.com or call Michelle Holmes at the Lambert’s Point Golf Course. Back to top

Judges sought for Expo
The Steering Committee for the 2007 Research Expo needs judges for the student posters on April 5, the day of the Expo. The judging process will take place from 8-11:30 a.m. A continental breakfast and boxed lunches will be provided for all judges.

To register as a judge or for more information contact Suzanne Finnerty at sfinnert@odu.edu or 683-6406. The deadline to register is March 15. Back to top

Newsmakers
“I don’t think the controversy is solved by this publication, but it gives us a paper tiger to test.” (Andrew Gordon, professor of biological sciences)

– “New Pfiesteria toxin identified”
Science News, Jan. 10

“I applaud ODU’s decision to bring its freshman campus to our area and as the parent of a senior in high school, it is my wish that she will be able to go to that campus for a lot of her classes.” (Gail Sparrow, Sandbridge resident, in a letter to the editor)

– “Keep ODU at the Beach”
The Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 29

“It’s great for students who want to review. With the limited time in class, it gives them extra time with the authentic language. So we have been really pleased with the results we are getting.” (Betty Rose Facer, director of the Language Learning Center)

– “iPods help students review lessons, practice vocabulary”
The Virginian-Pilot, Feb. 6

“The trans-fat-free topic has really not been a hot topic on campus for our students, but we like to be proactive when we can so we started to make some changes.” (Janet McLaughlin, director of dining services, on eliminating trans fat in ODU cafeteria food)

– “Transitions from trans fats:
Virginia colleges are switching from trans fats to more healthful oils”
Richmond Times-Dispatch, Feb. 7

“The statistics do not lie, and neither does Bryan Porter, professor of psychology at Old Dominion University. Red-light running was significantly decreased and lives were saved when the cameras were operating to monitor traffic.” (Laura Nichols-Knight, Smith-field resident, in a letter to the editor)

– “Photo-red legislation could save lives”
Daily Press, Feb. 9

“Old Dominion is helping to fund seven programs between EVMS and Old Dominion faculty. Our provosts meet regularly. We hope that the good relations between EVMS continue, grow and expand.” (Roseann Runte, president)

– “EVMS, ODU weigh stronger ties to increase state support, prestige”
The Virginian-Pilot, Feb. 11

“Arguably, The Pilot’s differential treatment of academic achievement and a collegiate sport-to-be stems from its need to sell papers. But shouldn’t Professor Adam’s mathematical scholarship and pedagogy be heralded at least as much as a job candidate’s interview? I am concerned, moreover, that The Pilot’s layout decision may reflect the thinking of some on campus and in our community. I want a Department of Mathematics and Statistics our football team can be proud of, not the other way around.” (Fred Dobbs, associate professor of oceanography, in a letter to the editor)

– “Football vs. academics”
The Virginian-Pilot, Feb. 14

“Sooner or later, we are going to price the Internet differently than the current, ‘fixed price, use all you want’ method. ... Congestion pricing and tiered services are the best way for payment to occur.” (James V. Koch, Board of Visitors Professor of Economics, in a commentary)

– How to price Internet: The more congestion you cause, the more you pay”
The Virginian-Pilot, Feb. 18
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