Posted on Jun 3, 2005

The date for an all-campus farewell reception for President Roger Hull has been changed to Wednesday, June 8, at 3:30 p.m. on Library Field, just west of the Nott Memorial. Hull is stepping down June 30 after 15 years as president. The event had been scheduled for June 1.

Posted on Jun 3, 2005

Frank Wicks and Richard Wilk, professors of mechanical engineering, have been awarded $10,000 by the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation of National Grid to perform energy-related summer research with students. A new generation of super capacitors provides vastly improved energy storage for applications such as hybrid cars, where capacitors can supplement or replace chemical batteries. Another project will research methods to enhance the performance and lower the cost of solar-based renewable energy.

Posted on Jun 3, 2005

Robert Fleischer, research professor of geology, is author of a paper, “The Distribution of Boron in AlRu: Effect on Ductility and Toughness,” in the May issue of the journal Acta Materialia. Intermetallic compounds such as aluminum-ruthenium (AlRu) that melt at unusually high temperatures offer the prospect of high strength at high temperature, where jet engines are most efficient. Boron additions in alloys have played an important role in making other jet alloys strong also near room temperature, where most intermetallics are brittle. The paper reports the use of a nuclear technique for mapping the location of the boron atoms that improve AlRu using a reaction that is caused by neutrons.

Posted on Jun 3, 2005

Kurt Hollocher, professor of geology, was lead author of a recent paper, “Carnivore Coprolites from the Upper Triassic Ischigualasto Formation, Argentina: Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Evidence for Rapid Initial Mineralization,” in the journal Palaios. Hollocher and other scientists investigated a collection of fossilized dinosaur feces from northwestern Argentina. The samples tell about the chemical and mineralogical events during and after lithification, the physiology of the carnivore that produced them, and the likely identity of the carnivore as an early dinosaur, most likely herrarasaurus, one of the world's earliest theropod dinosaurs.

Posted on Jun 3, 2005

Hans-Friedrich Mueller, professor and chair of Classics, has been appointed section head of the North American Section of the International Plutarch Society. The IPS organizes conferences and colloquia, and publishes the journal Ploutarchos, dedicated to scholarly interpretation of the works of Plutarch of Chaeronea (circa AD 46-120), a crucial source for Greek and Roman history and a pivotal figure in the intellectual history of the West. Prof. Mueller also was invited to present a Liberal Arts Colloquium at Kalamazoo College. His talk, “Ancient Rome at Night: From Law to Conspiracy,” was on aspects of Roman law and nocturnal religion as a means to interpret political elements of the Bacchanalian conspiracy of 186 BC.