Newsletter

Campus News Briefs

Faculty promotions and appointments
Goodarz Ahmadi, Clarkson Distinguished Professor of Engineering, has been appointed interim dean of the Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering.

Linda Luck

Departments of Chemistry and Biology faculty member Linda Luck was recently promoted to full professor. Department of Liberal Studies faculty member Sheila Weiss was also promoted to full professor.

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Susan Powers has been appointed associate dean for Research and Graduate Studies for the Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering.

Amy Zander, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been appointed associate dean for Academic Programs of the Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering.

Daryush K. Aidun has been appointed chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering.

Michael Wasserman, assistant professor of Consumer and Organizational Studies, assumed the duties of associate dean for Undergraduate Programs and Administration.

Farzad Mahmoodi, professor of Operations and Information Systems, has been named associate dean for Graduate and Executive Programs.

Schulman appointed Gutzwiller Fellow
Professor of Physics Lawrence Schulman is a Gutzwiller Fellow (honorary visitor position) at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden , Germany .

CAMP director receives 20th career patent
S.V. Babu, director of the Center for Advanced Materials Processing and Distinguished University Professor, recently co-authored his 20th career patent. The patent, U.S. #6,918,820, details a method for polishing compositions comprising polymeric cores having inorganic surfaces. The process was invented by Babu and Dennis E. Smith of the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, N.Y., and has potential applications in chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) of metal and dielectric films of importance in the fabrication of semiconductor devices.

Amy Zander

New chapter of Engineers Without Borders
Clarkson has recently started an official Student Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB). The mission of EWB is to partner with disadvantaged communities to improve their quality of life through implementation of environmentally and economically sustainable engineering projects, while developing internationally responsible engineering students. The Clarkson chapter is advised by Amy Zander, associate dean for Academic Programs of the Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering.

Clarkson prof. releases jazz album
Associate Professor of Philosophy Bill Vitek has released the CD "A Fine Line," a collection of jazz standards and original songs with St. Lawrence University Professor of Mathematics (and bassist) Dan Gagliardi. Vitek has played professionally around the North Country since his arrival in 1987.

"Among Nation's Best" — U.S. News 2006
U.S. News and World Report's America's Best Colleges 2006 issue ranks Clarkson among the top 125 universities in the nation. The University is also recognized by U.S. News as one of the "best undergraduate engineering programs," and for its School of Business' supply chain management program. The two programs are ranked number 77 and number 19, respectively.

Princeton Review's Best Colleges
The Princeton Review, a New York-based education services company, features Clarkson in The Best 361 Colleges, the new 2006 edition of its annual "best colleges" guide just released. Only 15% of the four-year colleges in the U.S. and two colleges in Canada are on The Princeton Review list.

CREST director delivers inaugural Shulman lecture; Guest lecture by renowned architect
Charles Robinson, director of Clarkson's Center for Rehabilitation Engineering, Science and Technology (CREST) presented the inaugural Herman L. Shulman lecture titled "Rehabilitation Engineering, Science and Technology — Engineering for the REST of Us."

The Shulman lecture was followed by a guest lecture by renowned architect Robert Dale Lynch, American Institute of Architects (AIA) fellow, and president of RD Lynch and Associates, Pittsburgh, Penn., which specializes in accommodative architectural designs and services.

Student awards & honors
Environmental engineering graduate student Timothy McAuley was the winner of a prestigious fellowship from the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology (BEST) for the summer of 2006.

Elizabeth Urban

Elizabeth Urban, a junior civil and environmental engineering student has been chosen to receive a $1,500 scholarship from the New York Water Environment Association (NYWEA). Urban is one of only two students statewide to receive the award.

Sheila Negron-Vazquez, environmental engineering graduate student, received first place this past spring for her presentation at the NYWEA conference for work completed as an undergraduate through the NSF's Research Experience for Undergraduates program.

Junior Matthew R. Williams, biology and math double major, has been awarded a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Greater Research Opportunities Undergraduate Fellowship. The award provides Williams with up to $34,000 in support for his junior and senior years, as well as a paid internship at an EPA facility next summer.

Prof. John Dempsey, chair of this
summer's POAC Conference,
welcomes scientists and engineers
to Clarkson.

POAC Conference hosted by Clarkson
More than 100 engineers, scientists and designers of ships and arctic structures attended the 18th International Conference on Port and Ocean Engineering under Arctic Conditions (POAC) hosted by Clarkson in June. This was the first time ever the conference was held in the continental United States .

Conference topics included aspects of climate modeling, global change, heat budget analyses, forecasting ice conditions for ice breakers and ship navigation, the opening of the Northern Sea Route, ice loads on fixed and floating structures, submarine surfacing, aircraft landings, winter ice-surface transportation, and ice mechanics dealing with intact ice.

Woodbeck new director of publications and Web
Dean L. Woodbeck has been named director of Publications and Web Development. He was director of News and Information Services at Michigan Technological University where he worked for 20 years.

Winners of the TuxMaster Invitational
with faculty advisor Jeanna Matthews.

Clarkson wins first place (again!) in a Linux Competition
Graduate students Todd M. DeShane and Patricia A. Jablonski recently won the TuxMasters Invitational, an intercollegiate competition designed to encourage learning while contributing to the advancement of Linux and the open source computing community. The competition was co-sponsored by Unisys and the Data Center Linux Initiative at Open Source Development Labs. Projects submitted by student teams were judged by computing professionals. The Clarkson team of DeShane and Jablonski brought home the grand prize. Another Clarkson team, formed by students Mike McCabe, Justin Basinger, Ed Despard, and Jeremy Bongio, finished second in the competition. Jeanna N. Matthews, professor of Computer Science, served as faculty advisor.