John Sowa, professor of chemistry, is co-chair of the 15th annual conference of the Brain Injury Association of New York State to be held in June. He recently gave a
lecture to professionals for accreditation on brain injury rehabilitation at a conference
titled “Alternatives in Mankind.” Also, he was co-chair of the fifth annual art exhibit by people with brain injuries.
Jean Sheviak, acting librarian, Gail Golderman, electronic media librarian, and Annette LeClair, head of technical services, were group facilitators at a meeting for the development of the third statewide library technology plan.
Information received is to be used by the Electronic Doorway Library Action Committee (of
which Sheviak is a member). The three librarians also presented at a meeting to develop a
new federal library program for New York under the Library Services and Technology Act
(LSTA).
Yu Chang, professor of electrical engineering, has been invited to visit
Matsuyama, Japan, as winner of the 1996 international haiku contest sponsored by the Shiki
team at Matsuyama University. Chang says he began writing haiku about a year ago after
seeing of e.e. i sing, a musical work (directed by Yulman Theater Director William
Finlay) based on the writings of e.e. cummings. Chang submitted three works, one of which
took top honors in a field of 200 writers. Chang's colleagues in haiku run the gamut from
English professors to engineers, he says. An affinity for the simple and succinct poetry
form “really doesn't have much to with a person's profession,” Chang says.
“If you're interested, you're interested.” He expects to visit Matsuyama
sometime this year.
Richard Wilk, associate professor of mechanical engineering, has written
“Autoignition Characteristics of Methanol,” co-authored with M.J. Bowman, in a
publication of the Society of Automotive Engineers Special Publication titled Performance
of Alternative Fuels for SI and CI Engines. He also co-authored, with Bowman,
“Heterogeneous Surface Effects on Methanol Autoignition” and another paper,
“Autoignition Characteristics of Ethanol,” co-authored with J.W. Bollentin, both
published in the SAE's Alternative Fuels: Composition, Performance, Engines and
Systems.
Thomas Werner, Florence B. Sherwood Professor of Chemistry, has published an
article, “The Binding of Pyrene and Other Probes to CD Polymers” in Proceedings
of the Eighth International Symposium on Cyclodextrins by Kluwer Academic Publishers,
1996. Co-authors are Jodi Iannacone and Mary Amoo, both Union Class of '96 chemistry
majors.
Donald Rodbell, assistant professor of geology has delivered two papers.
“Tephrochronology, Palynology and Sedimentology of late Glacial-Holocene lake
sediment cores from southern Ecuador” (with co-authors J.C. Nebolini, G.O. Seltzer,
B.C.S. Hansen and M.B. Abbott) was delivered at the Geology Society of America annual
meeting in October 1996. “Tephrochronology, Sedimentology and Palynology of late
Glacial-Holocene lake sediment cores from southern Ecuador” (with co-authors Seltzer,
Abbott, Hansen, A.Y. Goodman and Nebolini) was delivered at a meeting of the American
Geophysical Union last December. (Nebolini and Goodman are 1996 Union graduates.) Also,
Rodbell was author of “Subdivision of fluvial terraces in northwestern Tennessee
based on subsurface stratigraphy and morphometry” in U.S. Geological Survey
Bulletin 2128 (October 1996).
Chris Duncan, assistant professor of visual arts, has completed a one-month
residency as a fellow of the Casting Institute at SUNY Buffalo. The residency was
supported by the Casting Institute, Union's Humanities Faculty Development Fund, and the
New York State Council on the Arts. Several of the new bronze sculptures from the
residency will be included in “Sculptor's Drawings,” an exhibition of sculpture
and drawing Duncan curated for the Visual Arts Museum at the School of Visual Arts in New
York City. In December, Duncan spoke at Fulton-Montgomery Community College as part of
Vine Street Gallery Visual Arts Forum. He is exhibiting works in a one-person show at
Rensselaer's Vertical Gallery and at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute of Art.
Paul Rieschick '74, director of administration and senior development officer,
was elected to his fourth two-year term as treasurer of the Council for the Advancement of
Secondary Education, District II, at the recent District conference in Baltimore.