Laboratory Lightning
A new and surprising finding by Dr. Joseph Dwyer and his team, which brings the study of lightning research into the laboratory, was featured on the National Geographic Channel program, “Naked Science.” Dwyer is already noted for his discoveries related to X-ray emission from natural and triggered lightning, but he was shocked to find that laboratory-generated sparks make X-rays, too. “We know that X-rays are made in outer space—in exotic places like the center of the sun and supernovae—but we didn’t think they could be made so easily in the air,” said Dwyer.
Corals under Stress
Coral bleaching, adversely affecting the world’s coral reefs, is Dr. Robert van Woesik’s specialty. Renowned for his knowledge of this phenomena, the biological sciences professor is sought by media around the globe. He was quoted in a Reuters news service story, which appeared in newspapers around the world, and published on MSNBC.com. His expertise was featured on the NBC Nightly News, and he took part in a telepress conference held by the National Environmental Trust on the condition of Florida corals. His work also earned him participation in a UNESCO Conference in Paris that studied the paling and death of corals under stressful environmental conditions.
Fibs and Falsehoods
Dr. Richard Griffith, director of Florida Tech’s Industrial/Organizational Psychology program, knows all about job applicant faking and résumé padding. So noted is his work in creating a new analytical technique to model applicant response distortion that TIME magazine called him for some quotes. The article, “Getting Wise to Lies,” was featured in the May 1, 2006, issue. Griffith has a book coming out on the subject this year.
In Other News
Space.com and several other publications in the United States and India announced that Sunita Williams ’95 M.S. would be on the July 2006 Space Shuttle Discovery crew enroute to the International Space Station … Geotimes quoted College of Business Dean David Steele in a story on the under-collection of oil and gas royalties in the United States … Science Daily and nearly a dozen other science-themed Web sites ran a story on Florida Tech’s new spectrometer … The Palm Beach Post quoted Dr. Alan Leonard in a story detailing disagreement in the scientific community over biotechnology vs. bio-defense spending … Medical News Today covered the grant earned by Drs. Annie Becker and Frank Webbe to help Alzheimer’s disease patients and their caregivers … Microsoft.com quoted Dr. Richard Ford about the future of cell phone computing.
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| Homer Deninus |
Tom Adams |
Last spring, the university lost two of the leading lights of its formative days when Homer Denius passed on in April and Tom Adams died in May. Dr. Gordon Patterson, humanities professor, shared remembrances of the two leaders in intra-campus e-mail messages.
He wrote of Denius, who with George Shaw launched Radiation, Inc., now Harris Corp.: “He threw his support behind the fledgling college. In 1959 and 1960, Denius secured temporary facilities for the school in a vacated church building on Strawberry Place off New Haven in Melbourne. The next year he allowed the college to use one of Radiation’s buildings at the former Indian River Naval Air Station, across from the Hilton [hotel on Airport Blvd.].
“Perhaps most noteworthy was Denius’ personal contribution of the funds for our first building in 1961. When Jerry Keuper [founding president] secured the property on Country Club, Denius sent an architect over and the plans were drawn up for what is now the John Miller president’s office building and the north portion of the quad. The student union was named for Homer Denius in 1968. For nearly 50 years, Homer Denius remained a great friend of Florida Tech. He will be missed.”
Patterson called Adams “the first public official to recognize the importance of Brevard Engineering College and, in the 1950s and 1960s, the university’s first advocate.”
He wrote, “Adams entered politics in 1956 when he was elected to the state senate. He was elected secretary of state in 1960. When Countdown College [the young college’s nickname] was threatened by powerful adversaries, Adams stepped forward. Keuper never forgot this ... In 1964, Tom Adams secured the name, ‘Florida Institute of Technology’ for the university.
“Between 1960 and 1991, Adams served Florida Tech in a number of different capacities ranging from board of trustees member to acting as vice president for university advancement ... His booming voice, rustic manner and powerful handshake were tempered with a mind conversant with Italian Renaissance political theory. Those who knew him will not forget him.”
Photos © Florida Today
The Florida Tech baseball program had a milestone year this season. The program retired Tech’s first-ever baseball uniform numbers and only the second, third and fourth uniform numbers ever in the school’s 48-year history.
To kick off the 2006 season, Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, former baseball coach Les Hall, and friend and former coach Andy Seminick became the first baseball honorees to have their numbers retired with an unveiling ceremony of a display of their portraits and numbers of #3, #1 and #21, respectively. The exhibit will permanently hang on the outfield walls of the Andy Seminick-Les Hall Field in the F.W. Olin Sports Complex.
A newly approved degree program, a bachelor’s degree in international business, is available to incoming students beginning fall 2006. Supporting the program are seven new courses designed to provide students with the global skills necessary for success in the borderless business world of the 21st century.
The new courses, to be taken in addition to core courses, are Cross-Cultural Management, Global Macroeconomic Issues, International Trade, Global Accounting and Tax, Global Financial Management, Business in the Western Hemisphere and an International Business Practicum/Internship.
For more information on this program, contact Florida Tech’s College of Business at (321) 674-7167 or visit http://cob.fit.edu.
 Scott J. Seymour, J.D., named last spring, is the newest member of the Florida Tech board of trustees. He is corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman’s Integrated Systems sector, an aerospace and defense systems integration organization.
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Seymour holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, N.Y., and received his law degree from Western State University College of Law in San Diego, Calif. He is a member of the American Bar Association (Section on Intellectual Property Law) and the California Bar Association, where he participates in the Volunteers in Parole program, mentoring parolees in their transition back to society.
 Gary L. Hamme has been named vice provost for enrollment management. Hamme will administer undergraduate and graduate admissions, and financial aid functions as well as manage student retention activities.
Most recently, Hamme served as vice president for marketing and enrollment management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where he was responsible for strategic enrollment and universitywide marketing efforts. He also oversaw universitywide marketing for the university’s two major locations—in Arizona and Florida.
From 2000 to 2004, Hamme was vice president for enrollment management at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.
Florida Tech won a Tournées Festival Grant to put on a festival of contemporary, critically acclaimed French films. Carla Funk, special projects assistant in the Office for Advancement, and Dr. Gordon Patterson, professor of humanities, successfully applied for the grant.
The five-film festival, held last spring was “one of the best attended community programs I have ever witnessed at Florida Tech,” said Patterson. Films were shown in the original French language with English subtitles.
The Tournées Festival was sponsored by the French American Cultural Exchange. The festival is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture.
Plans are under way for a Tournées 2007.
Dead River, a thriller by Dr. Fredric Ham, Harris Professor of Electrical Engineering, is online. The book, recently published by Pulp Bytes, is available at www.dppstore.com.
Ham, a senior member of IEEE, is also a member of the International Neural Network Society, Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Xi. He is the associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks.
Florida Tech’s first-ever textiles course, “History of World Textiles,” is open to the community this fall. Community members pay a reduced fee of $300 for audit credit only, which is less than half of what students will pay for the three-credit university course.
The course, presented through the university’s new Textile Art and Industry program, is taught by Dr. Lars Jones, assistant professor of humanities. “We will cover materials and basic production techniques as well as more complex analytical methods and techniques of connoisseurship,” said Jones, an art historian.
The course begins Aug. 22. For more information, call (321) 674-8082.
Ever dream of uncovering a valuable treasure in a garage sale or thrift store? A Melbourne thrift shop manager realized that fantasy. While sorting a jumble of clothing donations, she discovered a unique formal Japanese wedding kimono. Florida Tech was the fortunate recipient.
The shop donated the ivory-colored silk kimono, called an “uchikake” to display in the university’s textiles collection. Dating from the 1960s, the elaborate, embroidered kimono is a design from Japan’s Edo period (1600-1868).
“This kimono represents the traditional Japanese bridal costume,” said Carla Funk, special projects assistant, Office for Advancement.
“The kimono will make a dramatic display and is a wonderful addition to our textile collection, which contains many Asian objects,” she added.
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Four members of the Florida Tech community, who have taught at the university for a cumulative 79 years, have retired and been given the title Faculty Emeritus.
Dr. Rong-sheng Jin, associate professor of physics and space sciences, joined the faculty in 1969. While teaching and conducting research at Florida Tech, he was a senior faculty research fellow at the Naval Oceanographic and Atmospheric Research laboratory during the summers of 1991 and 1992.
Dr. Raghvendra Deshmukh, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, joined the university in 1982 and is a consulting engineer in the state of Florida. He has taught courses in computer engineering and has been the graduate coordinator for the department of electrical and computer engineering.
Dr. Rudolph Stoeckel, professor of humanities, joined the university in 1983. A past chair of the social sciences division of the Florida Academy of Science, he was also a member of the Renaissance Society of America, the Dante Society and the Wallace Stevens Association. Dr. Stoeckel passed away on July 15, 2006.
Joyce H. Stottler, humanities instructor since 1990, taught freshman composition and business communication. In her early years at the university, she taught English as a second language in the Academic Support Center.
Florida Tech has become the first university with a doctoral, or research program, to own an instrument that is revolutionizing the work of old-fashioned mass spectrometers. The DART (Direct Analysis in Real Time) enables direct detection of drugs, chemicals or explosives on surfaces, in liquids and
in gases without the need
for sample preparation.
What used to take hours—analyzing paper money for cocaine, clothing for gunpowder or urine for drugs, for example—can now happen on the spot.
Florida Tech is one of only 15 installations of the JEOL USA Inc. DART, which just became available in 2005. Purchased for $210,000, the instrument will be used in teaching, such as organic chemistry classes, and research. It also may assist community organizations such as law enforcement in their analysis tasks.
Dr. Nasri Nesnas and Dr. Joel Olson will be among the first to use the DART. They will apply it to their two-year-long nanotechnology project to develop a molecular photosensor. The photosensor, based on compounds such as Vitamin A, found in mammalian retinae, is expected to be useful in the fabrication of miniscule cameras used in nanorobots for medical, military and national security operations.
College of Engineering students teamed up to create design projects required for a bachelor of science degree in their chosen field. Last spring, they exhibited over 100 of these projects in the annual Student Design Showcase at the Charles and Ruth Clemente Center. Florida Tech seniors conceive, design and implement their project, write a description, document the requirements and gain hands-on experience. The project simulates a real-world work environment challenge in a variety of engineering fields.
The Falcons flight team earned first place for Safety at the National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA) Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference, held in Dublin, Ohio. Additionally, the team was awarded the Red Baron Team Sportsmanship Award. This is earned by members from all teams voting on the team that displays the best sportsmanship.
“The American Airlines Safety Award is presented to the team that has demonstrated the safest practices and procedures for the past year,” said Dr. Donna Wilt, associate professor of aeronautics and Falcons adviser.
Jeff McDivitt, the team safety officer, said, “This is the first national safety award that the Falcons have taken home, ever. The team was extremely deserving.”
Overall, the team moved up 10 places to 17th place nationally at the conference.
Florida Tech volunteers raised more than $33,000 for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life—about $10,000 more than last year.
This is the second year Florida Tech faculty, staff and students joined forces to raise money to fight cancer. Students washed cars, sold luminarias and pitted fraternities and sororities against each other in friendly competitions. Faculty and staff held book sales, raffles, a breakfast, a luncheon and an ice cream social to garner funds. The culminating event, an overnight relay inside the Clemente Center, raised a high percentage of donations through relay walker sponsorships.
The 14th Annual Sporting Affair grossed an estimated $210,000 for Florida Tech athletics
scholarships.
This year’s fund-raising event drew 140 golfers to the Panther Invitational Golf Tournament. In the 3rd Annual Chopper Dropper, a helicopter dropped 1,000 golf balls onto the Suntree Country Club golf course, while more than 200 people watched and waited to see which ball landed closest to the pin. The winner, Cherri Peoples, took home $25,000; another $25,000 went to scholarships.
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