Posted on Jan 28, 2000

Jane Brody, nutrition columnist and author of the
best-selling Jane Brody's Good Food Book, will speak on
Wednesday, Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Memorial Chapel.

The talk, which is free and open to the public, is part
of the College's “Perspectives at the Nott” series.

She will talk on “Women's Health: Fitting Good
Food and Fitness Into Your Busy Life.”

Jane Brody is a veteran medical journalist and author of
seven books, including the best-selling Jane Brody's Good Food Book.
Personal health columnist for the New York Times, she is a highly
respected fitness and nutrition expert, known for her message that
moderation and variety, not deprivation and denial, are the keys to
healthy nutrition.

Brody received her B.S. degree in biochemistry from the
New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell
University and a master's degree in science writing from the University
of Wisconsin School of Journalism.

Among her books are Secrets to Good Health, You Can
Fight Cancer and Win, Jane Brody's Allergy Fighter, and Jane
Brody's Good Food Book Gourmet.

Posted on Jan 28, 2000

Residents of Davidson Hall were evacuated Saturday
at about 5 p.m. for what appeared to be a chimney fire.

As it turned out, what looked like smoke coming from a
chimney may have been exhaust from three boilers heating the building on
one of the coldest days of the season.

The evacuation came just three days after campus-wide
fire drills and heightened awareness of dorm fire safety in the wake of a
fatal fire at Seton Hall University.

Campus safety officers responded to the building, and
pulled a fire alarm to evacuate residents, according to Officer Michael
Hilton, campus fire prevention specialist. Schenectady firemen also
responded to check the building's attic.

The building's heating system this week was found in
proper working order, Hilton said, adding that the evacuation was another
good reminder of the most important rule of fire safety: get out.

“The single most important thing is that when an
alarm goes off, people have to get out right away,” he said.
“They can't finish what they're doing on their computer.”

Posted on Jan 28, 2000

The Ill Wind Ensemble, a Brattleboro, Vt.-based
group whose sound has been described as “acoustic post-industrial
trance music,” will perform Friday, Feb. 4, at 8 p.m. in the Nott
Memorial.

The concert is one in the four-part “Bridges”
series sponsored by the Department of Performing Arts. Open to the public,
there is a suggested $5 donation.

The group uses conventional, homemade and
“found” instruments to create an unusual variety of sonic
textures, from sparsely ambient to richly dense. The ensemble performs on
instruments from western and world music traditions, as well as home-made
and “found” instruments.

Members are John Levin, shawms, reedpipes, end-blown
flutes; Charlie Schneeweis, trumpets, found objects, toy instruments;
Kevin Moreau, clarinet, shawms, bagpipe; and Eric Boyer, drums,
percussion.

Posted on Jan 28, 2000

John Garver, associate professor of geology,
was co-chair and organizer of a session, “Tectonics of the Kamchatka
Peninsula and Northern Pacific Basin,” at the American Geophysical
Union meeting in San Francisco in December. This session included a number
of researchers from around the world, including a number of Russian
geoscientists. Garver was author of a paper (with M.T. Brandon, A.V.
Soloviev and M.E. Bullen) titled “Volcanism and exhumation of the
Okhotsk-Chukotka Arc revealed by detrital fission-track ages of zircon
from the Ukelayet flysch, Kamchatka.” He was a co-author (with
Brandon and others) of “Eocene collision and obduction of the
Olutorsky island arc, Koryak highlands of Northern Kamchatka, Russian Far
East.” Also presented at the conference session on undergraduate
science education was a paper titled “Enhancing cross-disciplinary
learning through limnological studies in the Environmental Studies program
at Union College.” Authors were Garver, Paul Gremillion, assistant
professor of civil engineering; Donald Rodbell, assistant professor
of geology; Grant Brown, assistant professor of biology; and Michael
Hagerman, assistant professor of chemistry.

Posted on Jan 28, 2000

Charles P. Steinmetz made the list of the top 10
engineers of the 20th century, coming in at number six in a poll of
members of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society.

The results, published in the winter 2000 issue of The
Bent, the society's magazine, came from a survey sent to 89,000
readers.

For the record, the list was topped by another
electrical wizard with a Schenectady connection – Thomas Edison. He was
followed in order by the Wright brothers, Henry Ford, Wernher Von Braun,
William Shockley, Steinmetz, Lee deForest, George Goethals, Herbert Hoover
and Hyman Rickover.

Steinmetz (1865 to 1923) was head of electrical
engineering and physics at Union and chief engineer at GE. His name
appears on an engineering building. Each spring, the College holds the
Steinmetz Symposium, a showcase of student creative, scholarly and
research achievement.

Readers of the magazine also listed the top engineering
achievements of the century with the Apollo moon landing taking top
honors.

Steinmetz might have been pleased that his work made
possible a few of the other Top 10 achievements: the transistor,
television, the integrated circuit and communications satellites.