MTSU has received a $2.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation for teacher preparation and leadership in science and math. This follows a $2.7 million NSF grant awarded to MTSU this spring to improve biology education in Rutherford County and Metro Nashville high schools.

“Studies have shown that average math and science scores of U.S. students trail significantly behind nearly all countries in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Congressman Bart Gordon, who was instrumental in obtaining grant funding. “These awards will work to reverse this trend.”

The latest award includes support for a Master Teaching Fellows Program ($1.5 million) and for the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program ($900,000), both of which will assist in beefing up kindergarten through 12th-grade education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM.

The MTSU Master Teaching Fellows Program, a five-year project and one of only six such programs across the nation, will place 14 exceptional math and science teachers at high-needs high schools in Rutherford and Davidson counties with support from STEM industry partners through Mind2Marketplace and the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce.

Mind2Marketplace, a consortium of academicians, businesspeople, educators and government officials, was formed in 2006 following a challenge by Gordon to coordinate efforts to develop, test and bring to the marketplace technology-based ideas to create jobs and increase economic vitality.

“Oftentimes there is a disconnect between the discoveries made by scientists and what teachers are teaching in the classroom,” Gordon noted. “The Teaching Fellows Program will bring teachers, top researchers at MTSU and industry experts together to develop the most effective ways to teach high-school math and science in Tennessee.”

The second component of the award is the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, which is earmarked to encourage students majoring in the sciences to become K-12 math and science teachers. Funding will support scholarships and programs for undergraduate STEM majors ($10,000 a year per recipient) who commit to teaching in high-need school districts for a period of two years for each year of support they receive.

Robert Norton Noyce, 1927-1990, nicknamed the “Mayor of Silicon Valley,” co-founded the Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel in 1968. He also is credited, along with Jack Kilby, with inventing the microchip.

MTSU’s Drs. Diane Miller, interim executive vice president and provost, and Robert Carlton, retired chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, designed the program that addresses the acute shortage of math and physics teachers in Tennessee.

“Future teachers will be contributors to the restoration of America’s competitiveness through the next generation of minds they will touch and inspire,” Carlton said.

Students will participate in pre-service field experiences and inquiry-based learning opportunities that reflect research-proven best practices. They will be mentored by top middle- and high-school teachers and university professors. Graduates of the Noyce program will receive dual certification in physics and math.

“MTSU’s Noyce Program will prepare undergraduates to become the physics and math teachers needed in Tennessee high schools to provide students with a 21st-century education,” said Gordon, who authored the 2007 law establishing the Noyce Scholarship Program.

“It’s a wonderful program to attract students into the teaching profession … where they are badly needed,” added MTSU’s Dr. Tom Cheatham, dean of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences. “Both of these programs will impact teachers across the state.”

Teaching the teachers

MTSU members of the Master Teaching Fellows Program project team include:

• Dr. Rick Vanosdall, director of mathematics and science education;
• Drs. Michaele Chappell and Mary Enderson, professors of mathematical sciences;
• Dr. Kyle Butler, associate professor of educational leadership;
• Dr. Dorothy Craig, professor of educational leadership;
• Dr. Terry Goodin, assistant professor of educational leadership;
• Dr. Pat Patterson, associate professor of chemistry;
• Dr. Michael Rutledge, professor of biology; and
• Dr. Ron Henderson, interim chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Other team members are Andrea Loughry, chairperson, and Sandy Ponder, executive director, Mind2Marketplace; and Stephanie Brackman, interim president, Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce.

Construction doesn’t always go up. It goes under, too. And when weeks and months of precisely calibrated and highly skilled underground work is finished, it’s buried so no one will see it.

It will be smoothed over, modified, beautified and transformed into a courtyard covered with a carpet of fine grass and dotted with shrubs and trees. Or it may be sealed under a slick layer of asphalt. Infrastructure is out of sight—and soon out of mind.

When visitors walk through the doors of a new building some years down the road, however, they’ll flip a light switch, turn on a computer, wash their hands in warm water and feel the cool A/C—all made possible by that mysterious underworld.

“If you build a building, you have to go underground,” said Jay Wallace, director of construction administration at MTSU. “It’s not sexy work, but it’s essential.”

That summarizes this summer’s construction projects on campus. Much of the work has been below-ground around the area where the new Student Union and new education buildings will stand on the east side of campus. Some of the work connected to those projects has wound its way through campus and caused motorists to ease down on the brakes as they crossed recessed areas in the road. Other projects have required temporary roadblocks and detours.

The most obvious project is the relocation of steam and chill-water lines, Wallace noted, which explains the trench that parallels the sidewalk along the Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors Building south of the Business and Aerospace Building.

“They are relocating those lines to continue to serve the Recreation Building and the new Student Union and education building(s),” he said. “We’re also putting in a new electrical duct bank that parallels Blue Raider Drive. It is coming from the intersection of Blue Raider Drive and Alumni Drive north to a manhole just outside the Student Union building, which will be used to provide electricity to the two new buildings. That work should be done by the start of the fall semester.

“Another project is replacing the sewer line that runs from a manhole at the southwest corner of Walker Library down into the sewer main on what’s now Alumni Drive. That’s to replace an existing line that serves five or six buildings and is on the verge of collapse. And of course that’s one of those things that if it goes bad, it doesn’t take long to know about it.”

Wallace said that particular line has been completed. In all, definitely not sexy, but definitely essential.

“We have another line in design that will replace the sewer line that runs from in front of Wiser-Patten westerly through Walnut Grove—that’s another old line in need of replacement. We’re not sure we can get it done this summer—after it is designed, it will go out for bid,” Wallace noted.

Wallace said workers have just about completed a phase of the underground electrical project that involved installing an electrical duct bank from Faulkinberry Drive south through the grassy area between Middle Tennessee Boulevard and the parking lot behind the James Union Building and adjacent resident halls, east through the front yard of the Cope Administration Building to Friendship Drive on the south side of campus.

“That will allow us to remove all the overhead power lines and put them underground,” he said. “When the total project is finished, there will be an electrical loop so that if there is a break at one point, we’ll still be able to take care of the majority of service on the line. With overhead lines, if there is a break, everything on that line is knocked out.”

Wallace said the long-range plan is to have all the electricity at MTSU underground.

Project updates

As of mid-summer, other smaller projects are under way and moving toward completion. The bricks will be laid at the Veterans’ Memorial just south of the Tom Jackson Building. The renovation at Homer Pittard Campus School continues, and the current phase of the project, including the new elevator, will be complete prior to the start of school. The elevator will be a featured attraction at the school’s 80th anniversary celebration on Nov. 4.

The parking and transportation project—Blue Raider Drive from Womack Lane to Friendship Drive—is now complete. Interior work at Cummings Hall is finished, and furniture is being installed. The new fire-alarm system in Murphy Center is complete.

Projects on the horizon include the renovation of Corlew Hall and the Keathley University Center and McCallie dining areas. The HVAC upgrade in Cope has begun, as has the elevator work in the Stark Agriculture Building, which should be finished by fall. The fire-alarm system in Stark Ag also will begin soon and will be completed by fall.

The Sept. 7 issue of The Record will include a feature focusing on the new education building.

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WORK CONTINUES—Tom Tozer, left, director of News and Public Affairs, and Jay Wallace, director of Construction Administration and Capital Maintenance Services, stand at the mouth of a large duct near the softball field that directs rainwater into one of four retention ponds on campus. Above, workers are dwarfed by a huge trench north of the Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors Building, where chilled-water and steam lines are being moved from the area of the new Student Union and education buildings. photos by Andy Heidt

An August session has been scheduled for Campus Recreation’s “Aquatic Moves and Grooves” course: 5-6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, Aug. 3-26. Deadline to register for the course is Wednesday, July 29. Cost is $3 per class, or participants may buy a 16-class punch pass for $24 each. For information, call 615-898-2104 or visit www.mtsu.edu/~camprec.

A projected 936 degree candidates will graduate during the 97th annual summer commencement ceremony, MTSU officials announced.

The single-ceremony graduation will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, in Murphy Center on the campus of MTSU, with Dr. Alfred Lutz, professor in the Department of English and the current MTSU representative on the Tennessee Board of Regents’ Faculty Subcouncil, delivering the commencement address.

Six hundred eighty-one of this summer’s degree candidates are undergraduates, said Sherian Huddleston, assistant vice provost for enrollment services, and 255 students are slated to receive degrees from the College of Graduate Studies. That total includes 218 master’s degrees, 31 specialist in education degrees and six doctorates.

The 2008-09 president of MTSU’s Faculty Senate, Lutz joined the university’s English department in 1998. He teaches general composition and literature courses in Introduction to English Studies, Survey of British Literature, 18th Century Literature, Travel Literature and Holocaust Literature.

In addition to terms as an MTSU senator in 2004–06 and as senate president, Lutz has served on the Academic Appeals Committee, University Discipline Committee and Library Committee (both of which he also chaired) and the Faculty Research and Creative Projects Committee. He was president of the MTSU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors 2003–05 and 2007–08.

Lutz’s service in the Department of English includes membership on the Advisory Committee, Lower Division Committee, Freshman Writing Award Committee, Tenure-Track Faculty Search Committee, Graduate Committee and the Chair Search Committee, which he co-chaired.

A member of the American Association of University Professors and the Tennessee University Faculty Senates, Lutz earned his doctoral degree (1993) and a Master of Arts (1987), both in English literature, from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (1982) in history and English literature from Tübingen University in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Lutz, who is the recipient of several Faculty Research and Creative Activity Grants, has authored articles on 18th century subjects in journals such as Studies in Philology, Modern Language Quarterly, Studies in the Novel, Anglia: Zeitschrift für Englische Philologie, Studies in English Literature and Papers on Language & Literature.

Dr. Diane Miller, interim executive vice president and provost, said she wanted to remind all degree candidates of the importance of appropriate dress, decorum and respect for the commencement ceremony.

“We believe this is a very important day in the lives of many people,” Miller said. “Commencement is one of those few days that families always remember as special. It is difficult to give the ceremony the dignified atmosphere it deserves if attendees are using air horns or leaving before the completion of the ceremony.”

Miller noted that the graduation committee also emphasized that students who participate in commencement will be required to stay for the entire ceremony. The ceremony should last about two hours. Candidates planning celebration activities should be aware of this commitment, she said.

At 8:30 a.m. Aug. 8, Murphy Center doors will open for the commencement ceremony. Candidates are expected to be in their assigned areas, dressed in their caps and gowns, no later than 9 a.m. Students who are not in their assigned gym at the proper times will not be allowed to participate in the ceremony. Because commencement rehearsals are no longer conducted, timely attendance is mandatory for students to receive important instructions.

Graduation information—including how to access the graduation ceremony via streaming video the day of commencement, maps and driving directions to Murphy Center, cap-and-gown information and how to order a DVD of the summer ceremony—is available online at www.mtsunews.com. Click on the “Graduation Info” link.

Graduation at a glance

Who: 936 graduates*
What: Summer 2009 commencement
When: 10 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 8
Where: Murphy Center, MTSU

Speaker: Dr. Alfred Lutz, professor of English and immediate past president of the MTSU Faculty Senate.

For more info: Go to www.mtsunews.com and click on the “Graduation Info” link.

*Approximate number as of July 15, 2009.

The second Alumni Summer College welcomed participants back to the MTSU campus June 24-26. The annual event is an opportunity to expand knowledge of interesting subjects with fellow Blue Raiders with a curriculum that combines innovative classes and entertaining tours tailored for members of the university community.

Open to MTSU alumni and friends, the college was a fun-packed three days of learning as participants explored this year’s theme of “How Things Work” and studied a variety of MTSU programs.

The college began with a tour of campus and a backyard picnic at the Alumni House on Middle Tennessee Boulevard. During the program, ASC students were treated to a candlelight printing on the “Franklin press” at the James E. Walker Library, introduced to MTSU’s new alumni online community, had an extensive aerospace session and lunch at the airport, learned about alternative fuels and vehicles, toured the milk-processing plant and enjoyed a milk and ice-cream tasting.

The class also traveled to Lynchburg for a field trip, where members ate at Miss Bobo’s Boarding House Restaurant, toured the Jack Daniel’s Distillery and tasted its family of brands, went to barbecue school and feasted on dinner at Barbecue Hill.

Rhonda Wright is Alumni Relations’ assistant director.

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BUSY SCHEDULE—Alumni Summer College attendees keep on their toes during the three-day event. At top, Dr. Cliff Ricketts, agribusiness and agriscience professor, leans on a Corvette converted to run on ethanol as he discusses alternative fuels and vehicles. Below left, alumnus Ken Byers (B.S. ‘96), a retired production engineer for Audio Visual Services, inspects the university’s Boeing 727 at Murfreesboro Municipal Airport. And below right, Kristen West of the James E. Walker Library conducts a tour of the facility. photos submitted

Scores of girls ages 10 to 17 will convene Monday, July 27, through Friday, July 31, at MTSU for the seventh annual Murfreesboro edition of the Southern Girls Rock & Roll Camp, a weeklong gathering that nurtures musical talent and self-esteem in a positive, supportive atmosphere.

The day camp, which will operate from 9 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. each day, will feature instruction in drums, vocals, keyboards, guitar and bass, as well as workshops in recording, screenprinting, songwriting, music herstory, photography, zine-making and do-it-yourself arts and crafts.

On Saturday, Aug. 1, at 7 p.m., the girls will display the skills they honed in bands throughout the week by performing in a showcase concert in Tucker Theatre. Admission is $8 per person, and doors will open at 6 p.m.

Throughout the evening, some 25 items will be raffled off to raise funds for the camp, including a vintage Gretsch guitar, selections from Tulle Clothing’s spring 2009 line, a stay at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville, a Daisy Rock acoustic guitar, items autographed by country music star Wanda Jackson and gift certificates to local restaurants and attractions.

Professional performers slated to guide the girls include:

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• Korean is Asian, a band that counts The Band, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, Tom Waits and Neil Young among its influences; • Tristen, a Nashville-based solo artist who grew up in Chicago and whose music has been described as “a simple, straightforward pop-influenced folk style”; • Heavy Cream, a four-piece indie-rock band on the Infinity Cat label that describes its music as sounding like “chasing some strange tail”; • DJ Eticut, aka Sarah Chrosniak, a DJ/hip-hop producer whose beats have been used on several rap albums and who also is an MTSU student who serves as DJ and backup singer for The Billy Goats; and • Those Darlins, a three-woman band that includes SGRRC founder Kelley (Darlin) Anderson. Their self-titled debut CD on their own label (Oh Wow Dang! Records) has received rave reviews in national media. David Carr wrote in the March 19 edition of The New York Times that Those Darlins have “a comically leering sexuality and the kind of abandon that seems scarce these days. Their punk hootenanny sensibility reminds us that you don’t have to act serious to be taken seriously.”

As in the past, girls will have an opportunity to ask questions of musicians and other music-industry professionals in panel discussions. This year’s participants include Meredith Kotas, marketing and promotion specialist with Pirate!Promotion; Rachel Briggs, graphic designer at American Songwriter magazine; Chrosniak; stylist Cali Devaney; songwriter and performer Tristen Gaspaderek; and SGRRC founder Anderson.

Sponsors for this year’s camp include MTSU, Kohl’s, Singer Sewing Company, Daisy Rock Guitars, Ernie Ball, Textbook Brokers, Red Bull, Tugboat Productions, The Gretsch Foundation, Griffen Technology, Loews Vanderbilt Hotel and Grand Palace Silkscreen.

The SGRRC is a program of Murfreesboro-based Youth Empowerment through Arts and Humanities, or YEAH!, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that uses involvement and hands-on approaches to inspire young people to grow as individuals, artists and community leaders. For more information, go to www.yeahintheboro.org or send an e-mail to info@yeahintheboro.org.

Young musicians can learn music, make friends and form a band at the Rock Blok weekly workshop beginning Saturday, Sept. 5, at MTSU. Registration is now open for the program, which is tailored to young people ages 10 to 17 with varying degrees of musical experience and interests in all musical genres.

“When a student signs up, he or she is assigned to a band with other students,” says workshop leader Ryan York, executive director of YEAH!, or Youth Empowerment through Arts and Humanities. “Each band had two professional musicians as volunteer teachers. The students then spend two hours each Saturday learning music, working up a set list, making merchandise for their band, recording an album and writing music.”

At the conclusion of the three-month workshop, the bands will perform in concert before hundreds of people. The fee is $40 a month or $120 total.

Rock Blok is sponsored by YEAH!, “a charitable nonprofit 501(c)3 organization that provides a safe and supportive environment for young people that fosters creativity, stronger individuals, and a stronger community,” according to its Web site, www.yeahintheboro.org.

For more information, go to the Web site, send an e-mail to info@yeahintheboro.org or call 615-849-8140.

The MTSU Educational Talent Search program, or METS, a U.S. Department of Education-funded program that serves sixth- through 12th-grade students in Coffee, Grundy and Warren counties, took 32 high-school students on an educational tour of St. Louis July 6-7.

The first stop was the Danforth Campus of Washington University.

“During our tour of WashU, we learned what it is like to live and learn at a small, private college,” said Debbie Frisby, METS coordinator.

Students then visited “the Arch,” a St. Louis icon, where they enjoyed learning about the engineering feats of the 1960s that created the Gateway Arch as well as some history about westward expansion.

At the St. Louis Science Museum, the METS students saw dinosaurs and were able to examine the blood flowing through their veins under the vein-scanning machine, then finished with an Omnimax movie, “Fly Me to the Moon.”

The group’s last stop was the St. Louis City Museum, where everything inside was hands-on and made from recycled materials. The students were able to jump into a Human Hamster Wheel, explore caves and climb through tunnels above- and below-ground as well as zipping down a seven-story slide.

Frisby said College of Basic and Applied Sciences Dean Tom Cheatham, the grant principal investigator, especially liked the seven-story slide.

The students really enjoyed the trip and are excited about their next adventure with METS, Frisby said.

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ADVENTURES IN EDUCATION—Students in MTSU’s Educational Talent Search program enjoy their educational tour of St. Louis. In the photo at top right, the METS group pauses outside the Administrative Building at Washington University’s Danforth Campus. Below left, Seth Smith of Warren County High School makes it to the bottom of the seven-story slide in the St. Louis City Museum. SAMPLING ST. LOUIS—METS students enjoy breakfast at the Millennium Hotel in St. Louis during their two-day educational adventure in the photo at bottom right. Clockwise from left are Coffee County Central High School students Amanda Eichel, Julia Qualkinbush, Amanda Hatfield and Yuri Rodriguez. photos submitted

Senior agribusiness student Lauren Britton plans to graduate from MTSU in May 2010. Her strategy then is to head into the business side of agriculture, “working in a corporate environment for five to 10 years, then settle back into education.”

Moving to education would continue a family tradition that includes her mother, Laura, a Buchanan Elementary School sixth-grade teacher, and father, Steve, a Tullahoma High health teacher and former teacher and coach at Riverdale High.

“Teaching and coaching (volleyball) is what I’ll do,” Lauren Britton, a Murfreesboro resident, said of her anticipated second career.

This summer, she has assisted Dr. Jessica Carter, and associate professor in the School of Agribusiness and Agriscience, with the MTSU Beef Camp in mid-June and, most recently, helped Department Chair Warren Gill with the UT Extension-sponsored 38th Tennessee Junior Livestock Exposition in the Tennessee Livestock Center in early July.

At the Junior Livestock Expo, Britton and fellow agribusiness major Kaitlin Pepmeier of Manchester and senior plant and soil science major T.J. Derrick of Nashville provided free samples of white and chocolate milk from the campus milk-processing facility. They also shared information about the ag program and answered questions from visitors about the university.

“There’s a lot to learn from cattle people,” Britton said.

In the atmosphere of the livestock center arena, with all the aromas associated with a beef cattle show, Britton said her preference is to be on the arena floor and the barn area.

“I like working with the animals,” she said. “With cattle, you get dirty. It’s a lot more fun. Up here (the mezzanine level adjacent to seating), you get to talk to people. Down there (on the arena floor), you get to mingle.”

Britton served as a counselor during the beef camp.

“It’s good to have our students here,” Gill said. “It puts an extra twist on it.”

Gill, a former professor in the University of Tennessee Department of Animal Science, will start his third year as MTSU ag chair this fall. He said that having the Tennessee Livestock Center serve as host site for the UT Extension-sponsored state junior livestock expo works great for both parties.

“The UT people and the exhibitors love this facility,” he said.

Add one more item to your back-to-campus list, if you haven’t checked it off already: a 2009-10 campus parking permit from MTSU Parking and Transportation Services.

All MTSU employees should have received parking-permit paperwork by campus mail, officials said. The deadline to request a parking permit by mail is Friday, Aug. 7, in order to receive the permit by Friday, Aug. 14. (New permits become effective Saturday, Aug. 15.)

Employees also may stop by the Parking and Transportation Services office, which is located on the northeast side of the building at 1403 E. Main St. Office hours are 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

White permits, which are available to faculty, administration, staff and graduate teaching assistants, cost $125. Green permits, which are available to faculty, administration, staff and students, cost $105.

Payment may be arranged by pre-tax payroll deduction (at a rate of $10.42 per month for white and $8.75 per month for green permits) or by lump-sum cash, check or credit-card payment.

Each parking permit is transferable to any vehicle that an employee drives on campus, so each employee needs only one parking permit per academic year.

For more information about campus parking permits, call Parking and Transportation Services at 615-898-2850 or stop by the office during regular business hours.

Horse Judging Team takes top honors in intercollegiate event

The MTSU Horse Judging Team earned top honors in the American Paint Horse Association Intercollegiate Horse Judging Spring Sweepstakes in Fort Worth, Texas, in April.

The team, coached by Dr. Dave Whitaker, placed first in conformation judging, second in performance judging and first in oral reasons, which led them to the overall top spot.

MTSU students also earned individual honors, including:

• Kristen Chandler—ninth place, High Individual Total Reasons and High Individual Total Overall;
• Samantha Cobb—seventh place, High Individual Total Reasons;
• Meghan Hephner—fourth place, High Individual Total Performance, and fifth place, High Individual Total Overall;
• Brittany Lehman—second place, High Individual Total Overall; fourth place, High Individual Total Halter; and sixth place, High Individual Total Performance and High Individual Total Reasons; and
• Matthew McMurtrey—10th place, High Individual Total Halter.

For more information about the university’s Horse Judging Team, visit its Web site at www.mtsu.edu/~horsesci/horsejudging.html.

Tara Greer swims and plays softball at Riverdale High School, where she maintains a strong grade-point average.

This summer, she’s experiencing life as a college student in the MTSU chemistry laboratories as a Project SEED recipient.

The rising Riverdale senior is receiving guidance and mentoring from Drs. Judith Iriarte-Gross, Bill Ilsley and Sing Chong, all from the chemistry department, in a project called “Infrared Analysis of Sol-Gel Materials.”

“It has been an enlightening experience,” said Greer, who has indicated she plans to attend MTSU after graduating from Riverdale, and whose mother, Kathy Greer, is an MTSU undergraduate student performing science-education research.

“Every day, it’s like they cram information in my brain.”

The project has led to “learning why and for what reason how (this) applies to science,” Tara Greer said.

“Tara is making what we call ‘designer materials’ or glasses,” Iriarte-Gross said. “She synthesizes these materials by changing the conditions of the ‘sol-gel’ reaction. She might change the pH for one reaction or the amount of water for another reaction. The different reaction conditions result in a different sol-gel product. Applications of sol-gel materials include coatings for space shuttle tiles and optical fibers. Sol-gel ‘microballoons’ are being studied as a material that can contain nuclear fuel or waste.

“Tara also has learned how to follow the reaction as the sol-gel products form by using sophisticated analytical techniques such as infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Tara is also learning how to use molecular modeling software programs to predict structures of her sol-gel materials.”

It has been a three-pronged project for Greer, who will finish her Project SEED endeavor by mid-August with a paper explaining her research.

The project includes synthesis, analysis and computational modeling, Iriarte-Gross, who is the primary mentor, said.

“She’s fantastic, very enthusiastic and a quick learner, learning as quickly as my undergraduate and graduate students, which is impressive for a high-school student who has never used these (lab) instruments before,” added Chong.

“She’s very patient. Her work involves using infrared sol-gel. The materials break easily. She tries her best to get it to work. That’s a very good sign for a research student.”

Ilsley has been involved with the computational modeling aspect, “looking at the geometrics of the compounds she’s trying to make,” he said, and giving her “chemistry lectures to bring her up to speed.”

The trio of professors said they believe Greer will be successful with the Project SEED-required paper, which “typically in the past was the toughest part (for the high-school researchers) of the project, but she’s working with good mentors,” Iriarte-Gross said. “She will write an excellent paper.”

Greer said she plans to present her research during the Tennessee Academy of Science’s fall gathering that will be held this year in Knoxville. She also hopes to attend the American Chemical Society’s national meeting in San Francisco next spring.

Greer will receive a $2,800 stipend, which is provided by the ACS committee on Project SEED, the acronym for Summer Educational Experience for the Disadvantaged. The Nashville Local Section of ACS supplied money and the MTSU Department of Chemistry provided space and equipment as well as the time of the mentors, Iriarte-Gross added.

“Athletics, academics: she does it all,” Iriarte-Gross said of the Lady Warriors’ reserve outfielder, swim-team member and outstanding student.

Photo p8

SERIOUS SCIENCE—Kathy Greer, left, Project SEED student Tara Greer and chemistry department mentors Drs. Bill Ilsley and Judith Iriarte-Gross enjoy a silly moment in a Wiser-Patten Science Hall lab. Tara Greer, a rising Riverdale High School senior, is making "designer materials" during 21⁄2 months of research with the professors and Dr. Sing Chong (not pictured). Mom Kathy Greer also is an undergraduate research student. The American Chemical Society provides funding to support Project SEED research. photo by Andy Heidt

Appointments

Dr. Don Hong (mathematical sciences) was invited to serve as a member of the editorial board for the Transactions on Intelligent Systems, a journal of the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, starting in April 2009.

Grants

Drs. Cen Li (computer science) and co-principal investigators Zhijiang Dong and Roland Untch (computer science) and Tom Cheatham (College of Basic and Appliances dean) have been awarded $149,745 for the National Science Foundation Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement grant. The title of their project is “Promoting Peer Collaboration Through PeerSpace—A Novel Online Social Network-Based Learning Environment.”

Meetings

Drs. Nate Phillips and Warren Anderson (agribusiness and agriscience) attended the Tennessee Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society spring meeting June 11 at the Williamson County Ag Expo Park near Franklin.

Panels

Dr. Cen Li (computer science) served on the National Science Foundation panel review for Information and Intelligent Systems Small Data Mining Grants April 28-29.

Passages

Assistant Professor Nancy J. Fann (business education), 65, passed away July 9. A native of Shelbyville and the daughter of the late Joe D. and Estelle Threet Fann, Professor Fann was employed by MTSU from August 1978 until her retirement in January 2006. She is survived by a brother, Larry G. Fann of Rogersville, Ala.; a niece, Courtney Fann Humphrey of Denver, Colo.; a nephew, Brian Kevin Fann of Portland, Ore.; and a plethora of family and friends. Professor Fann was a 1961 graduate of Central High School in Shelbyville and received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from MTSU. She taught at Jacksonville (Fla.) High School and the Department of Defense High Schools in Seville and Zaragoza, Spain. She returned to Tennessee in 1975 and taught at Motlow State Community College before joining the MTSU family. Memorials may be made to the charity of your choice.

Nannie L. Puckett Thomas (James E. Walker Library), 82, passed away July 10. She was a native of Williamson County but lived most of her life in Murfreesboro. Mrs. Thomas was employed by MTSU’s Andrew L. Todd Library from February 1970 until her retirement in August 1990 as a Library Assistant II. A member of the Lighthouse Baptist Church, Mrs. Thomas was preceded in death by her parents, Robert Dalton and Ida Hayes Puckett; her husband, Lester Thomas; one brother and six sisters. She is survived by her daughters and sons-in-law, Brenda and Summers Pass of Murfreesboro and Gail and Wayne Thompson of Hawley, Texas; seven grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren. 

Presentations

Dr. Warren Anderson (agribusiness and agriscience) presented “Water Movement in Rose Beds (Soils)” at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville in late spring.

Dr. Carol Boraiko (engineering technology) will present “Is it Safe to Go in There? Air Monitoring During Emergencies” at the Tennessee Safety and Health Congress in Nashville on July 27.

Dr. Vince Cobb (biology) and graduate students Diane Massey and Lacy Danikas made presentations at the Association of Southeastern Biologists conference in Birmingham April 1-4.

Dr. Saeed Foroudastan (Basic and Applied Sciences) presented a paper, “Enhancing Undergraduate Performance through Peer-Led, Team-Learning (PL-TL),” at the 2009 American Society of Engineering Education Conference in Austin, Texas, June 14-17.

Dr. Don Hong (mathematical sciences) and graduate student Zoe Zhang have given the following presentations: “Elastic-Net for Imaging Mass Spectrometry Data Processing,” a seminar talk at Vanderbilt Mass Spectrometry Research Center, Vanderbilt University, on May 7; and “On Imaging Mass Spectrometry Data Analysis,” a conference presentation at Vanderbilt University during the Atlantic Coast Symposium on applications of mathematics to biology and medicine May 18-21. Hong also gave a brief presentation on the MTSU actuarial science program at the 2009 Fall Meeting of the Casualty Actuaries of the Southeast at Caterpillar Financial Company in Nashville.

Dr. Abdul Khaliq (mathematical sciences) presented “Numerical Methods in Finance” at the Third Conference on Numerical Methods in Finance held April 15-17 in Paris. He visited research collaborators at Oxford University April 13-14.

Dr. Jacob Klerelein (mathematical sciences) presented “Three Upper Elementary School Children’s Mathematical Connections” at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Washington, D.C., April 20-22. At the same conference, colleague Dr. Michaele Chappell presented “Movies and Culture: Promoting Equity in the Middle Grades Mathematics Classroom.”

Brenda Parker (computer science) presented “A Beginner’s Guide to Conducting an Alice Workshop” at the 2009 Alice Symposium at Duke University in Durham, N.C., June 17.

Dr. Philip Phillips (English) delivered a lecture, “Poe, a Bostonian,” at the Boston Athenæum on June 4. Phillips received a 2008-09 Mary Catherine Mooney Research Fellowship at the Athenæum.

Dr. John M. Zamora (biology) presented research co-authored with graduate student Michelle R. Drury at the May 20 national meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Philadelphia. Gina M. Cullerton, another student, also made a presentation at the meeting.

Publications

Dr. Don Hong (mathematical sciences) has published a paper, “A novel comprehensive wave-form MS data processing method,” in Bioinformatics, 25 (2009), pp. 808-814, with master’s candidate Shuo Chen and colleagues Ming Li, Dean Billheimer and Yu Shyr (Vanderbilt University Medical Center).

Dr. Philip Phillips (English) has published a book, The Consolation of Queen Elizabeth I: The Queen’s Translation of Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae, Public Record Office Manuscript SP 12/289 (Arizona State University Press, 2009), co-edited with Dr. Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr. (Troy University). Phillips also is co-editor of Carmina Philosophiae: Journal of the International Boethius Society and New Directions in Boethian Studies (Western Michigan University Press, 2007).

Paul F. Wells (Center for Popular Music) addressed Michael Jackson’s musical legacy as a source for two July 8 newspaper articles: “'You're always in my heart’” in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and “Fans remember Jackson’s music” in the Daily News Journal. He also commented on Uncle Dave Macon Days in a July 9 DNJ article, “A musical tradition lives in Murfreesboro.”

Get noticed in The Record!

Submit your Faculty/Staff Update items (including promotions and new hires) to gfann@mtsu.edu by 3 p.m. Wednesday, July 29, for the Aug. 10 Record, or 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12, for the Aug. 24 Record. Don’t forget to include who, what, where, when and why, plus contact information, with your items. Check The Record's 2009 deadline schedule anytime at http://frank.mtsu.edu/~proffice/rec_deadlines.htm.