Scope : a look inside the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. |
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SUMMER 2008 Science with a purpose ... and a view CMAST researchers are hard at work for the health of our coasts IN THIS ISSUE Scope Academy 3 Future meteorologists 9 Youngest supernova 11 PAMS Foundation 25th 14 scope A LO O K I N S I D E THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES NC STATE UNIVERSITY PAMS Foundation Board of Directors PAMS Alumni & Friends Advisory Board Officers Benton Satterfield, President Bill White, Vice President Larry James, Secretary General Members Cindy Clark Kim Deaner Floyd Green Scott Guthrie Glenn Osmond Jack Penny Kimberly Potter Er Ralston Nancy Ridenhour Pam Pittman Robinson Chuck Wachtel Leigh Wilkinson PAMS Campaign Committee Eric Bigham Charles Case Eric Doggett Suzanne Gordon Julie McVay Connie Moreadith Emily Mann Peck* Mike Peirson Ginger Sall* John Sall* * Co- chairs Bob Jordan Liaison, University Committee scope Officers Eric Doggett, Chairperson Bill Trent, Vice Chairperson Anita Stallings, President Michelle Duggins, Secretary Kathy Hart, Treasurer Charles Leffler, Assistant Treasurer General Members Susan Atkinson Thomas Bregger Roy Cromartie Maureen Droessler Kevin Eldridge Stephen Frye Ned Guttman Lawrence Ives Don Johnson Charles Joyner Herbert Kirk Karen Lackey Rob Lindberg David Montgomery Mo Ogburn Mike Peirson Tom Rhodes John Ryals Cathy Sigal Cecil Smith Glen Snider Michael Thompson Bill White Leigh Wilkinson Glen Williams Meredith Williams Mark Wyatt Christian Wypasek Miriam Zietlow Emeritus Richard Cook Scope is published by the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. The College is made up of internationally recognized departments: Physics Mathematics Chemistry Molecular & Structural Biochemistry Statistics Marine, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Dean Daniel Solomon Managing Editor Anita Stallings Editor Steve Townsend Contributing Writer Tracey Peake Design Zubigraphics 12,500 copes of this public document were printed at a cost of $ 8,120.00 or 65¢ per copy. On the cover: David Eggleston stands on a balcony at NC State's Center for Marine Sciences and Technology ( CMAST). Located on the shores of Bogue Sound, CMAST is a leader in research, education and outreach on marine systems ( see page 4). Photo by Steve Townsend. SUMMER 2008 in this issue... 4 8 11 16 Dean’s message 2 PAMS and the public good College news 3 Scope Academy has more to offer than ever 9 Course allows future meteorologists to apply their knowledge to real- world challenges 15 Welcome to the Office of College Advancement Research highlights 4 Science with a purpose… and a view 10 Failed HIV drug gets second chance with addition of gold nanoparticles 11 Astrophysicist discovers youngest known supernova in Milky Way Honors 12 Notables 13 Pantula elected president of American Statistical Association 13 Fornes receives prestigious Holladay Medal of Excellence Alumni and Development news 14 PAMS Foundation turns 25 15 Achieved! NC State concludes record- breaking capital campaign 16 Faculty member leads by example to establish first physics professorship Just for Fun 8 State Climate Office announces winners of the Young Weather Photographers Contest More than 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “ Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” Just under a century later, North Carolina State University was established as a land- grant institution “ to provide teaching, research, and extension services to the people of North Carolina.” A lot about our state, our nation and our world has changed since the days of President Jefferson— or even NC State’s first president, Alexander Quarles Holladay— but the value of an educated and informed population is as important today as it was in 1789 or 1887. In fact, as the challenges we face as a society con-tinue to grow in scope and complexity, more and better resources than ever are needed to ensure that we make wise decisions. This is an area where the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences plays an important role. When we were established nearly 50 years ago, the College’s primary function was to contribute to the scientific literacy of NC State students through our significant role in the university’s general education program and our undergraduate and graduate curricula. While we have expe-rienced tremendous growth in the years since, PAMS remains committed to that edu-cational mission. In fact, as you will see on the pages that fol-low, we believe it is our responsibility not only to educate future scientists, but also to inform current and future leaders in government, edu-cation and industry on the importance of science in our society. We believe that our governmental leaders require a strong scientific knowledge base that informs the development of wise public poli-cies, and that citizens require the necessary information with which to evaluate them. Through their relationships in Carteret County, across North Carolina and up and down the East Coast, Dave Eggleston and his colleagues at the Center for Marine Sciences and Technology ( CMAST) are serving as a clearinghouse for such information as it relates to marine systems issues. We believe that our alumni and friends can continue to be engaged as lifelong learners well past their college days. Through pro-grams such as Scope Academy, Scope maga-zine and many others, we regularly update our alumni and friends— many of whom are leaders in their various fields— on the scien-tific advances of our researchers and on the scientific issues of the day. Finally, we believe that our faculty should be leaders in their disciplines. We achieve this through faculty members like Sastry Pantula, the head of our Department of Statistics. As president- elect of the American Statistical Association, Pantula will be actively engaged in setting the national agenda for his discipline. A well- informed people certainly can be trusted with their own government, and PAMS can be trusted to inform all the people of North Carolina and beyond— as we have for the last half century. Daniel L. Solomon, Dean 2 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope We believe it is our responsibility not only to educate future scientists, but also to inform current and future leaders in government, academics and industry on the importance of science in our society. Dean Dan Solomon shares a laugh with Prema Arasu, NC State’s associate vice provost for inter-national academics, during a tour of the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis. NC State is a primary partner in the campus, a world- class research hub where collaborative science will lead the charge for great discoveries in nutrition, health and biotechnology research. PAMS and the public good PHOTO BY BECKY KIRKLAND scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 3 What do you get when you combine two of the College’s most popular events into one exciting weekend? If our math is right, you’ll get the best Scope Academy ever. The bulk of the action for Scope Academy 2008 is on Saturday, Oct. 11. The day begins with a brunch for friends and alumni of the Department of Mathematics, followed by classroom sessions led by PAMS’ distin-guished faculty. These “ Scope Seminars” have received rave reviews in past years. This year should be no exception with topics that include: ■ Between Dose and Response The crit-ical— but often overlooked— role of phar-macokinetics, pharmacodynamics and statistics in optimizing drug treatment ( Marie Davidian, Statistics) ■ Diving for Science The impact of SCUBA- based research from the Bahamas to the Florida Keys ( David Eggleston, MEAS) ■ Driving Discovery and Development What the research we’re doing at NC State means for the state, the nation and the world ( Ray Fornes, Associate Dean for Research) ■ Clearing the Air Discussing the contro-versial relationship between smog and premature death ( Montserrat Fuentes, Statistics) ■ The Physics of Sports The huge role sci-ence plays in the way athletes perform and the way the game is played ( David Haase, Physics) ■ Cartilage Regener-ation Transforming gels into living tissue through mathematical modeling ( Mansoor Haider, Mathematics) ■ Battling Biofilms From inside your lungs to outside a ship’s hull: How a class of chemi-cal compounds can prevent communities of bacteria from forming ( Christian Melander, Chemistry) ■ Inside the VORTEX NC State’s exciting role in the study of torna-does ( Matt Parker, MEAS) ■ Get Energized! Parti-cipate in the fun, hands- on activities The Science House is using to encourage young people to engage in the important study of energy ( Sharon Schulze, The Science House) ■ What Happened? A panel of NC State experts explains the math behind the sub-prime collapse and the credit crunch ( Jeff Scroggs, Mathematics) The Scope Seminars will be followed by the Scope Lecture and inaugural Mathematics Distinguished Lecture, presented by Dr. Donald Saari of the University of California- Irvine. Widely cited in both academic and popular pub-lications as an expert on voting methods, Saari’s lec-ture is titled “ Chaotic Elections: A Mathematician Looks at Voting.” The evening will con-clude with the College’s annual Realizing Possi-bilities dinner. This extremely popular event has moved to the fall this year. As in past years, this event will honor the teachers and endowment donors who have positively impacted the lives of PAMS students. This year, we will also celebrate the College’s suc-cessful conclusion of the Achieve! Campaign for NC State. Established four years ago as PAMS Alumni and Friends Weekend, Scope Academy quickly has grown into one of the university’s most successful public education outreach initiatives. According to Dean Dan Solomon, the event is critical in the College’s efforts to promote a scientifically literate pop-ulation. “ Beyond educating those who will work directly in science and technology fields, it’s also important that we develop a strong sci-entific knowledge base among the general public and those who frame public policy,” Solomon says. “ Decision makers need solid scientific information to make sound policy decisions, and citizens need the tools with which to evaluate them. Through resources like Scope Academy, PAMS seeks to serve as an active and engaged resource for both of these groups.” Formal invitations to Scope Academy 2008 were mailed in mid August. Online registration is available at www. pams. ncsu. edu/ weekend. For more information, please e- mail pams_ info @ ncsu. edu or call 919- 515- 3462. Scope Academy has more to offer than ever Donald Saari But don’t think for a second that the resort-like setting means the folks at CMAST are tak-ing it easy. In fact, they’re hard at work tackling a wide array of marine system challenges that impact coastal regions in North Carolina and around the world. The center of the action Chartered in 1997 and housed in its current 55,000- square- foot facility since 2000, CMAST has been under the direction of David Eggleston for the past two years. Eggleston, also a professor in PAMS’ Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences ( MEAS), is rightfully proud of the unique diversity of expertise within CMAST. Center faculty and students are studying everything from shoreline ero-sion to improving the quality and safety of seafood preparation statewide. “ We have representation from seven departments and three colleges ( the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in addition to PAMS)” he says. “ I’m not aware of any other center at NC State that brings together this type of expertise under one roof.” Much more than just an NC State build-ing that happens to be located at the coast, the CMAST facility represents a unique edu-cational partnership between the state uni-versity and community college systems. In addition to CMAST, the building houses per-sonnel from Carteret Community College, NC Cooperative Extension, and NC Sea Grant. The building is also strategically located in the heart of a bustling marine systems research and education community. The UNC- Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Science and the NC Division of Marine Fisheries headquarters are within walking distance, and the Duke University Marine Laboratory, the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration/ National Ocean Service Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, the NC Maritime Museum and the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores are all within a short drive. Eggleston says each institution benefits from being a part of the greater community. “ People sometimes ask why there are so many marine labs around here,” Eggleston says. “ I explain to them that a lot of the chal-lenges we face are incredibly complex, and our expertise complements each other to address the challenge from all angles.” To illustrate his point, Eggleston explains the exciting role CMAST is playing as a mem-ber of the NC EONS ( North Carolina Environmental Observation Network System) partnership. NC EONS is a collaboration of seven North Carolina universities and addi-tional state and federal agencies tasked with developing a coordinated environmental observing and modeling system in the North Carolina estuaries and coastal waters. The Albemarle- Pamlico Estuarine System is the country’s second largest estuary and North Carolina’s most valuable marine resource, but little is known about the water quality, fisheries and physical behavior. To rectify this, the NC EONS team is building a 325- square- foot platform 15 feet above the surface of southern Pamlico Sound and about three miles north of the Cedar Island Ferry terminal. The platform, made possible by funding from the North Carolina Research Competitiveness Fund and additional sup-port from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U. S. Army 4 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope Located in Morehead City on the shores of Bogue Sound, NC State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology ( CMAST) has a view that would give a lot of beachfront hotels a run for their money. SCIENCE WITH A PURPOSE ... PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND The Center for Marine Sciences and Technology Corps of Engineers, will be loaded with sen-sors and monitoring devices. It also will be equipped with high- bandwidth communi-cations tools that allow distant researchers, students, policy makers and others to access data that are vital to monitoring the health of the system and to understanding its response to climate change. Don Stanfield, CMAST’s electronics tech-nician, has been heavily involved in the proj-ect from the beginning. Stanfield designed the platform and is one of two lead techni-cians engineering and installing its instru-mentation. According to Stanfield, data collected at the platform will include live video and meteorological conditions; water level, circulation, temperature, salinity and quality parameters; and fisheries informa-tion, such as acoustic reflection data. Where have all the oysters and blue crabs gone? While he speaks enthusiastically about all the research going on at CMAST, Eggleston’s own expertise is in marine ecology and con-servation. Much of his work is devoted to improving the health of species native to North Carolina’s coastal waters, including the oyster and the blue crab. Both species are vital to the state’s ecology and economy and have seen dramatic declines in their AND A VIEW COURTESY OF CMAST scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 5 David Eggleston 6 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope populations in recent years. One of Eggleston’s doctoral students, Brandon Puckett, recently received a presti-gious National Marine Fisheries Service- Sea Grant Joint Population Dynamics Graduate Fellowship for his work on oyster population dynamics. Puckett’s work, conducted under the guidance of Eggleston and Kyle Shertzer of the NOAA Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, involves monitoring cur-rent oyster reserves and optimizing future reserve designs, using Pamlico Sound as the model system. The fellowship will provide funding for Puckett to continue his work at CMAST for the next three years. “ This work will help answer a lot of prac-tical questions about the effectiveness of the current reserves, specifically the survival rate of individual reefs and their interaction with each other through water current and larvae flow,” Puckett says. “ The hope is that the results will give us— and, in turn, give the NC Division of Marine Fisheries— a better under-standing of spatial management practices and in particular, marine reserve network design.” Eggleston has been studying the blue crab since he joined the MEAS faculty in 1993, and he has developed an extensive body of work on the species. He shares his expertise with col-leagues and policy makers within North Carolina as a member of the NC Division of Marine Fisheries’ Scientific Advisory Com-mittee for Blue Crab. The blue crab is North Carolina’s leading commercial fishery product by both weight and dollar value, accounting for over $ 21 mil-lion in 2007 even with the diminishing land-ings of recent years. Eggleston’s latest work could actually increase blue crab numbers dra-matically. He is working with other researchers through a partnership led by the University of Maryland to see if hatchery- born blue crab can be successfully raised in freshwater farm ponds. Eggleston says the initial growth and survival rates in pilot studies were promising, but the real test will come this fall. “ We just stocked a private lake here in Carteret County with 60,000 hatchery- born crabs,” he says. “ We’ll know in a few months if we have the science down so that it can be applied on a larger scale. If so, we’ll be able to simultaneously lessen the ongoing strain on wild populations and help local farmers diversify their products.” PHOTO COURTESY OF CMAST Whether it’s oysters, oceans, blue crabs or beaches, Eggleston believes CMAST can play a large role in the long- term health of the entire coastal region. “ It’s all about sus-tainable coastal devel-opment,” he says. “ The best way to do it is to identify all the resiliency indicators we can — whether they be biological, eco-nomic, chemical— and manage as best we can for those indica-tors.” Promoting sustainable coastal development through research, education and outreach CMAST is not just a place for academic research. David Eggleston and his colleagues take great pride in providing real- world solutions to marine systems issues and opportunities to engage the center’s neighbors, regardless of age or educational background. Here is just a small sample of current and proposed activities that have created a buzz up and down the coast: Blue Heron Bowl CMAST volunteers assisted with last year’s Blue Heron Bowl in Morehead City. Blue Heron Bowl is the regional competition for the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, an academic com-petition for high schools on topics related to the study of oceans. Blue Heron Bowl partici-pants compete for college scholarships, research trips, computers and the chance to attend the national competition. This year’s North Carolina champion was the team from East Carteret High School. The team’s captain, Matt Joyner, will enroll in the MEAS department at NC State this fall. Habitat Restoration and Living Shoreline Demonstration Project Shortly after moving into its current facility in 2000, CMAST partnered with Carteret Community College and community volunteers to investigate ways to better protect water quality in Bogue Sound while also controlling shoreline erosion. The result was a system of offshore breakwaters, stone sills, man- made wetlands and coastal marsh that serves as a living laboratory and classroom to more than 300 K- 12 and college students each year. Student Center Project Still in the early planning stages, this center would provide housing to high school, under-graduate and graduate students engaged in CMAST education or research opportunities as well as to rotating faculty from NC State’s main campus and visiting scholars from around the world. Plans call for the center to be a LEED- certified building, so it will also serve as an example of sustainable coastal building. scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 7 The NC EONS Platform will change the way scientists, students and policy makers look at the Albemarle- Pamlico Estuarine System. For more information CMAST: www. cmast. ncsu. edu NC EONS PROGRAM: www. nceons. org NC COOPERATIVE EXTENSION: www. ces. ncsu. edu NC SEA GRANT: www. ncseagrant. org BLUE HERON BOWL: www. unc. edu/ ims/ blueheronbowl The State Climate Office of North Carolina ( SCO) recently concluded its first- ever weather photography contest. The contest was open to photographers between the ages of 7 and 16, with the stipulation that the photo must have been taken in North Carolina. The first place winner received a rain gauge, an NC State prize pack and a tour of the SCO offices on Centennial Campus. Second and third place received NC State prize packs. SCO plans to run the contest again next spring. For more information or to see more photos from this year’s contest, please visit www. nc- climate. ncsu. edu/ contest. 8 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope State Climate Office announces winners of the Young Weather Photographers Contest FIRST PLACE — Kalyn Faggart, 11th Grade, Concord, NC. Photo of a lightning strike ( taken from her front porch). THIRD PLACE — Kara Stonecypher, 5th Grade, Chapel Hill, NC. Photo showing the impact of the drought ( taken last summer at the North Carolina Zoo). SECOND PLACE — Kristen Kokkelenberg, 7th Grade, Holly Springs, NC. Photo of sun rays through the clouds ( taken on a bike ride near her home). To be top candidates for good jobs and graduate school slots, students need experi-ence solving messy, real- world problems that do not fit into an idealized model or a neat textbook solution. That is why associate pro-fessor Sandra Yuter of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences incorporates a semester project into her remote sensing class that requires the students to apply their knowledge to a practical application. Each student in Yuter’s Introduction to Remote Sensing class is assigned to a group and given a specific geographic location and season. The student groups tailor and justify a weather radar observing system consistent with their specific climatic conditions. Each group has unique challenges. For example, one group had to deal with a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean; another location was surrounded by moun-tain ranges; other groups dealt with ongoing threats of monsoons, hurricanes or tornadoes. The groups have various project milestones during the semester, but the true test of their work is a poster presentation session at the end of the semester. These posters, similar to those presented at a professional or academic con-ference, are judged by MEAS faculty and per-sonnel from the National Weather Service office in Raleigh. In addition to testing the students’ grasp of the basic physical principles behind remote sensing, the final project requires students to develop some of the interpersonal and com-munication skills they will need to succeed. “ They have to work together to figure out how best to apply theory and data to a specific set of needs and constraints, make design deci-sions, and then justify to the judges why they made those decisions,” Yuter says.“ They’re not just learning the science, they’re learning to work together and developing the confidence to apply the science and explain it to others. They’re also getting a chance to showcase their knowledge and abilities to some of the very people they want to work with when they graduate.” Yuter’s Spring 2008 class put their best foot forward when they made their presentations on an April afternoon in Jordan Hall. Students, mostly dressed in business or business casual attire, were more than willing to share their work and their thoughts on the experience. The team of Steven Harrington, Jason White, and Casey Letkewicz was a good exam-ple. Harrington and White were both gradu-ating seniors who will enter the work force, and Letkewicz is a graduate student. While their levels of prior experience with radar and career paths varied, each took something valu-able from their time in the class. For White, the most valuable aspect of the class was that it forced him to present and dis-cuss the science as part of a team. For Letkewicz, who had some prior experience studying radar, it was useful to “ get so specific” and to apply the theory to specific real- world settings and prob-lems. For Harrington, it was hard to nail down the most useful aspect of the experience. “ I learned something new every day,” he admits. “ The whole class helped me out.” Barrett Smith ( BS ’ 05, MS ’ 07 MEAS) was a student in Yuter’s first class that participated in this exercise. Now employed at the National Weather Service in Raleigh, he’s been back twice as a judge.“ I’m always extremely impressed by the professionalism the students show in their presentations,” Smith says. “ Meteorology jobs are focused around the presentation of infor-mation, whether it is research at conferences or daily forecasts. These projects give students a chance to practice their presentations skills in front of professionals.” scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 9 Course allows future meteorologists to apply their knowledge to real- world challenges MEAS students Jason White, Steven Harrington and Casey Letkewicz pose in front of their poster. PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE Doppler radar images from the National Weather Service in Raleigh 10 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope PAMS researchers have discovered that adding tiny bits of gold to a failed HIV drug rekindle the drug’s ability to stop the virus from invading the body’s immune system. The addition of gold nanoparticles to a modified version of a drug designed in the 1990s to combat HIV— but discarded due to its harmful side effects— creates a compound that prevents the virus from gaining a cellu-lar foothold, say Christian Melander, assis-tant professor of chemistry, and doctoral student T. Eric Ballard. The drug, a compound known as TAK- 779, was originally found to bind to a spe-cific location on human T- cells, which blocks the HIV virus’ entry to the body’s immune system. Unfortunately, the portion of the drug’s molecule that made binding possible had unpleasant side effects. When that por-tion of the molecule— an ammonium salt— was removed, the drug lost its binding ability. That’s when Melander and colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Colorado at Boulder turned to gold as the answer. The element is non- reactive in the human body, and would be the perfect “ scaffold” with which to attach mole-cules of the drug in the absence of the ammonium salt, holding the drug mole-cules together and concen-trating their effect. “ The idea is that by attaching these weak- binding individual molecules of the drug to the gold nanoparticle, you can magnify their ability to bind,” Melander says. The researchers’ theory proved correct. They started with a modified version of TAK- 779, which didn’t include the harmful ammonium salt. After testing, they found that attaching 12 molecules of the modified drug ( SDC- 1721) to one nanoparticle of gold restored the drug’s ability to prevent HIV infection in primary cultured patient cells, which are cells taken directly ftom the patient. When only one mol-ecule of the drug was attached to the gold nanoparticle, the compound was unable to prevent HIV infection, indicating that the mul-tivalency of the drug was important for its activity. “ We’ve discovered a non- harmful way to improve the strength and efficacy of an important drug,” Melander says. “ There’s no reason to think that this same process can’t be used with similar effect on other existing drugs.” PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND COURTESY OF CHRISTIAN MELANDER This graphic depicts a modified version of the HIV drug TAK- 779 bonding to gold. Christian Melander, center, takes a break in the lab with some of his students. Failed HIV drug gets second chance with addition of gold nanoparticles An NC State astrophysicist has discovered the youngest known supernova in our galaxy. Estimated at a mere 140 years old, this celes-tial whippersnapper is at least 200 years younger than the next oldest known super-nova, and its discovery may pave the way to a greater understanding of exploding stars. Stephen Reynolds, professor of physics, led a team of researchers who suspected that a celestial object known as G1.9+ 0.3 was a very young supernova remnant. They exam-ined images of the object that were taken in 2007 by NASA’s Chandra X- Ray Observatory and compared these images to those taken of the same object in 1985 by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array radio telescope. Not only did the Chandra images confirm Reynolds’ suspicions that the object was a young supernova remnant, but the scientists discovered that the supernova had increased in size by 16 percent in just 22 years, sug-gesting that the initial explosion had occurred only 140 years ago— or less if the rate of explosion had been slowing. Supernovae are exploding stars, and act as the “ engines” that drive the life cycles of galaxies. A supernova explosion disperses heavy metals, cosmic rays, and high- energy particles throughout the galaxy, aiding in the formation of new stars. In fact, a supernova explosion may have helped prod our own solar system into existence. The brightness of supernovae can easily be obscured from optical telescopes by large amounts of interstellar gas and dust, ren-dering them all but invisible to astronomers. X- ray and radio telescopes, however, can detect the radio waves and high energy X- rays that supernovae emit, enabling us to “ see” even highly obscured explosions. Reynolds says that the G1.9+ 0.3 super-nova has the largest obscuration of any known galactic supernova object. “ If not for all the interstellar ‘ gunk’ between us and this object, people would have seen this supernova as a new star in the constellation Sagittarius in the years around 1870 to 1900,” Reynolds adds. “ Normally, we deal with older remnants and have to work very hard to see even tiny changes. This supernova is getting brighter, which means it’s still on its way up— study-ing it will go a long way toward filling in gaps in our knowledge of these events and their effect on galaxies.” scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 11 Astrophysicist discovers youngest known supernova in Milky Way COURTESY OF STEPHEN REYNOLDS PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND Image of a remnant of the most recent supernova yet known in our galaxy, only about 100 years old. The radio observation from 1985 ( orange) is superimposed over the 2007 infrared observation ( green). Stephen Reynolds Ronald Fodor ( MEAS) received a Fulbright award to study and teach abroad during the 2008- 09 academic year. Fodor will use his Fulbright to travel to Hungary for the spring semester of 2009 to teach graduate geology courses at Eotvos Lorand Technical University in Budapest. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or pro-fessional achievement and leadership poten-tial in their fields. Anthony Franklin ( Statistics graduate stu-dent) received a 2008 Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship. This fellowship program is administered by the National Research Council of the National Academies and seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s col-lege and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enrich-ing the education of all students. Franklin was one of only 120 scholars to receive either the predoctoral, dissertation or postdoctoral award. Ryan Going ( Mathematics undergraduate student) was selected to participate in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship ( SURF) program for 2008. Going spent 11 weeks in Boulder, Colo., learning about and working with nanowires, which have the potential to produce inex-pensive, high- quality ultraviolet and visible light for displays, medical diagnostics, water sterilization, and a host of other applications. Going is a double major in electrical engi-neering and applied mathematics. Amit Lakhani ( Physics), Kasey Phillips ( Mathematics and Physics) and Jennifer Ricks ( Chemistry) were among 18 NC State science, mathematics, engineering and technology undergraduate students and recent alumni to receive the National Science Foundation’s prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship. The Graduate Research Fellowship program invests in graduate education for a select group of diverse individuals who demonstrate potential to successfully complete graduate degree programs in disciplines relevant to the mission of the National Science Foundation. The three- year awards include a stipend, as well as an educational allowance for tuition, fees and health insurance. Brandon Puckett ( MEAS graduate student) received a 2008 National Marine Fisheries Service- Sea Grant Joint Population Dynamics Graduate Fellowship for 2008. The program supports highly qualified doctoral students interested in careers related to population dynamics of living marine resources and the development and implementation of quanti-tative methods for assessing their status. Awarded annually for up to four researchers nationwide, the three- year award provides for the fellow’s stipend, tuition and fees, health insurance, travel and research expenses. Please see more on Puckett’s research in the cover story of this issue of Scope, which begins on page 4. The Department of Statistics, along with corporate partner GlaxoSmithKline, received the 2008 SPAIG ( Statistical Partnerships among Academe, Industry and Government) award for their collaboration in NC State’s Graduate Industrial Traineeship ( GIT) program. The GIT program, which was discussed in the spring issue of Scope (“ Statistics programs make national headlines,” pages 10- 11) places students at area companies to get hands- on experience and work in teams with excellent mentors. Pam Arroway, teaching associate professor, assistant department head and co-director of graduate programs in the Department of Statistics, directs the program. For more information, contact Arroway at pam_ arroway@ ncsu. edu. 12 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope PHOTO BY ALISON RUFF COURTESY OF AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION Dean Dan Solomon and Anthony Franklin Notables Pam Arroway accepts the 2008 SPAIG award from ASA President Peter A. ( Tony) Lachenbruch Sastry Pantula, head of the NC State Department of Statistics and director of the Institute of Statistics, has been elected as the 105th president of the American Statistical Association ( ASA). Pantula will serve as ASA president beginning Jan. 1, 2010. The ASA is a scientific and educational soci-ety founded in 1839, with 18,000 members serving in academia, government, and indus-try. The 2008 election featured the highest voter turnout in ASA history. A 2002 fellow of the ASA, Pantula received the Young Statistician Award from the International Indian Statistical Association in 2002 and the D. D. Mason Faculty Award in 2001. He is a member of the NCSU Academy of Outstanding Teachers, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, Gamma Sigma Delta and Mu Sigma Rho. Pantula received his PhD in statistics from Iowa State University, and master’s and bach-elor’s degrees in statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta, India. He became the statistics department head at NC State in 2002, after serving the university as assistant department head, director of gradu-ate programs and professor of statistics. “ Statistics is the backbone of scientific research,” Pantula says. “ ASA, in collabora-tion with many other international associa-tions and institutes, now has tremendous potential to advance science and guide pub-lic policy. The diversity of our membership and the cross- sectoral relationships among our members in academia, business, govern-ment and industry provide a unique talent pool to address global problems related to health, environment and resources. I am excited and humbled by this opportunity to serve ASA at this pivotal time.” In addition to Pantula’s election, PAMS faculty members Montserrat Fuentes and Zhao- Bang Zeng were selected this year as ASA fellows. NC State has a rich history of excellence in statistics. The university’s Department of Statistics is among the nation’s oldest and most prestigious, having been founded by renowned statistician Gertrude Cox in 1941. Among its many contributions to the field, the depart-ment is the birthplace of SAS, the world’s largest privately owned software company. scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 13 PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD Sastry Pantula Pantula elected president of American Statistical Association Fornes receives prestigious Holladay Medal of Excellence PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND Raymond Fornes, professor of physics, was a 2008 recipient of NC State’s Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal of Excellence. Named in honor of the university’s first president, the Holladay Medal is the highest award given to faculty by the Board of Trustees and the uni-versity. It recognizes “ a lifetime of outstand-ing achievement in support of NC State’s mission.” A member of the NC State faculty for nearly 40 years, Fornes also serves as PAMS associate dean for research. Raymond Fornes 14 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope This year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the North Carolina State University Physical and Mathematical Sciences Foundation. While this milestone may not get as much attention as the upcoming 50th anniversary of the founding of PAMS— which will be celebrated in 2010— it offers a won-derful opportunity to look back on the role the Foundation has played in the tremendous growth of the College over the last 25 years. The mission of the PAMS Foundation is to “ promote the educational, research and serv-ice programs of the College … through per-sonal advocacy … and by securing private funding for priority programs.” The first organizational meeting of the PAMS Foundation was held at McKimmon Center on July 6, 1983. The minutes from that meeting report that Vice Chancellor George Worsley, serving as the Foundation’s acting treasurer, reported endowment assets of $ 245,000. Thanks in no small part to sound leadership by its volunteer board of directors and the generosity of alumni and friends around the world, the Foundation’s endow-ment today is worth more than $ 10 million. Garrett Briggs served as dean of the College from 1981 to 1988 and was responsible for establishing the PAMS Foundation. Briggs, who went on to serve as president of Peace College before retiring from academics in 1998, helped set the tone early on by chal-lenging Foundation board members to serve beyond an honorary capacity. “ I told them that being on the board was obviously partly in recognition of their pro-fessional and personal achievements, but that there was more to it,” Briggs recalls. “ I chal-lenged them to be active champions for the College wherever they went.” Anita Stallings serves as president of the PAMS Foundation board in her role as exec-utive director of development and college rela-tions. Through her 10 years of experience with the Foundation, Stallings says the tradition of “ active” board members is alive and well. “ We’ve been incredibly fortunate to have volunteers serve our Foundation who are as enthusiastic, generous and hard working as they are creative and insightful,” she says. While the College has benefited immea-surably from the energies of its Foundation board members throughout its first 25 years, inaugural board member Nancy Ridenhour ( BS ’ 76 Statistics) says the members can also gain a lot from their involvement. Ridenhour recalls a specific conversation she had with fel-low board member and IBM site manager, Dick Daugherty. “ I still remember listening to Dick talk about going to China and what the impact of that huge population would one day have on the world economy,” she says. “ That conver-sation made a big impact on me. I take The Economist magazine to this day.” “ He certainly was right, by the way!” she adds. Fortunately for the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, its Foundation board members have been right about a lot of things over the last 25 years. PAMS Foundation turns 25 COURTESY OF NCSU LIBRARIES In this photo from 1983, emeritus physics faculty Jan Schetzina ( left) and former PAMS dean Garrett Briggs ( right) accept a check from representatives of Ford Aerospace. That same year, Briggs established the PAMS Foundation, which has helped the College dramatically increase contributions from individuals and public and private organizations over the last 25 years. The PAMS Office of Development and College Relations has changed its name to the PAMS Office of College Advancement to bet-ter reflect the breadth of services it provides to the College. In addition to increasing private financial support, the PAMS advancement team also are involved— both at the College level and in partnership with individual departments— in building relationships with corporate and foundation partners, improving alumni rela-tions, and developing print and electronic com-munications for a variety of audiences. In addition to the name change, three new staff members have joined the team since the beginning of the year: Steve Townsend joined the office in January as director of communications. Steve is a grad-uate of the University ofMichigan and Wayne State University and comes to PAMS from Case Western Reserve University. In his new role, Steve is responsible for all the College’s print and electronic communications, including Scope magazine, PAMS Focus and the College Web site. Marla Gregg joined the office in April as director of development for donor and alumni relations. Marla is a graduate of the University of Central Florida and comes to PAMS from the UNC Center for Public Television. In her new role, Marla will be responsible for engag-ing alumni, friends, donors and potential sup-porters of the College and its individual departments. The newest member of this team is Debbi Fox- Davis. Debbi joined the office in July as director of development. A graduate of George Mason University ( BA) and Monterrey Institute of International Studies ( MBA), Debbi most recently served as assistant director of development at Habitat for Humanity ofWake County. She is responsible for building strong relationships with PAMS supporters and iden-tifying opportunities to match College priori-ties with potential private resources. While not new to the team, PAMS’ other director of development, Denise Malloy Hubbard, will take on an expanded role. Hubbard, who previously had worked prima-rily with individual donors and alumni, will now also work with corporate and foundation partners. Anita Stallings, executive director of devel-opment and college relations, and Michelle Duggins, finance and donor relations officer round out the team. For more information on the Office of College Advancement or to con-tact a staff member, please visit www. pams. ncsu. edu/ development. scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 15 June 30 marked the official conclusion of Achieve! The Campaign for NC State. The fall issue of Scope will include a complete report on the campaign results within PAMS. In the meantime, please plan to join us as we celebrate the conclusion of the campaign at this fall’s Scope Academy ( for more information, please see story on page 3 or advertisement on back cover) and rest assured that the power of your generosity will have a transformational impact on the lives of our students, the College and beyond for years to come. New PAMS Advancement staff members Debbi Fox- Davis, Marla Gregg and Steve Townsend Welcome to the Office of College Advancement Achieved! NC State concludes record-breaking capital campaign PHOTO BY BRAND FORTNER There are any number of reasons donors choose to support PAMS. Brand Fortner did it to lead by example. In addition to his role as a research profes-sor in the Department of Physics, Fortner also serves as the department’s development liai-son. In this capacity, he works with his fellow faculty members and the College’s advance-ment staff to identify and develop fund rais-ing opportunities for the department. Leaving no doubt that he believes in what he’s selling, Fortner earlier this summer pledged a $ 333,000 bequest to establish the Brand Fortner Distinguished Professorship. With a match from the state’s Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund, Fortner’s gift will establish a $ 500,000 endowment that will pro-vide salary and other support in perpetuity for a professor in the Department of Physics. “ I am very proud to be associated with physics at NC State,” Fortner says. “ I am also confident in where we are going as a depart-ment, and this gift is my way of showing that I want to be a part of its continuing legacy.” Fortner came to NC State in 2006. He pre-viously was chief scientist of the intelligence exploitation group of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. Fortner has also held positions at NASA and at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. He is widely regarded as an expert in acces-sible scientific visualization and in technical data formats. He is the founder of two scien-tific software companies and has written two books on color vision and technical data. He holds a PhD in physics from the University of Illinois, where he funded a chair in astrophysics and continues to co- sponsor a film festival. According to Dean Dan Solomon, profes-sorships like this are vital to the long- term suc-cess of the department and the College. “ PAMS routinely competes for the best and brightest faculty members in the country,” Solomon says. “ These types of endowments are crucial for attracting and retaining out-standing talent.” Anita Stallings, executive director of devel-opment and college relations, says that more and more people are looking into creating planned gifts like Fortner’s. “ As more and more ‘ baby boomers’ are near-ing the end of their first careers and starting to retire in larger numbers, we have an increas-ing number of alumni and friends who are more seriously looking at their long- term financial plans,” she says. “ Fortunately, some of those folks are including NC State and the College in those plans.” Stallings adds that, in addition to a simple will bequest, there are a number of other planned giving options that can provide income or reduce tax liability for the donor right away. Please see the advertisement on the facing page for more information. You can also contact the PAMS Office of College Advance-ment at pams_ dev@ ncsu. edu or 919- 515- 3462 to discuss a variety of philanthropic options. PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND Brand Fortner Faculty member leads by example to establish first physics professorship How to make a gift You may remember how difficult it was to manage the expense of higher educa-tion. You may want to help today’s stu-dents achieve their dreams. The PAMS Foundation provides many ways to support students, faculty and pro-grams of the College. Whether you want to contribute to an existing scholarship, support a departmental enhancement fund, make a memorial gift or consider support in other areas, our staff is avail-able to help you explore the options. To support existing funds To contribute to a scholarship, fellow-ship or other fund, fill out our secure, online gift form at https:// www3. acs. ncsu. edu/ pams/ or mail a check to the PAMS Foundation, Campus Box 8201, Raleigh, NC, 27695. Make checks payable to PAMS Foundation and write the name of the fund on the “ notes” or “ for” line. If your employer provides matches for charitable donations, please send a completed matching gift form with your contribution. There are many funds not mentioned in this issue of Scope. For a full list of funds, visit www. pams. ncsu. edu/ devel-opment/ funds. php or contact our office. To explore other options If you have questions about gift plan-ning, we can help you identify tax benefits, choose between permanent endowment versus one- time support, and explore estate planning or life- income options. There are many ways to match your interests with specific College needs, and several possibilities for making your vision a reality. Whether using cash, appreciated stock, real estate or a bequest, we can help you find the best way to make the most of your gift. Contact us at 919- 515- 3462 or by e- mail at pams_ dev@ ncsu. edu. 16 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope NCSU Physical & Mathematical Sciences Foundation Campus Box 8201 110 Cox Hall Raleigh, North Carolina 27695- 8201 pams_ dev@ ncsu. edu 919- 515- 3462 Through careful coordination with your financial planner and the PAMS Foundation, it is possible for you to increase income, reduce or eliminate taxes— including income, capital gains, gift, and estate taxes— while making a greater investment in the future of PAMS than you ever thought possible. Deferred, or planned, gifts come in many shapes and sizes. Contact us today at pams_ dev@ ncsu. edu or 919- 515- 3462 for more information on achieving financial security for you and PAMS through: ■ beneficiary designations for wills, trusts and retirement plans ■ charitable gift annuities ■ charitable remainder trusts ■ charitable lead trusts ■ remainder interest in a residence or farm ■ life insurance How can you secure a legacy for yourself and the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences all at the same time? By ensuring that your financial, retirement and estate plans are in order, and considering a deferred gift to PAMS in the process. NC STATE UNIVERSITY E n s u r e t w o L E G A C I E S PAMS Foundation Board Meeting and Reunion Invitation Only Department of Mathematics Alumni & Friends Brunch Scope Seminars Featuring special classes about exciting topics: ■ Diving for science ■ The physics of sports ■ Tornadoes ■ Battling biofilms ■ Cartilage regeneration … and more! Scope Lecture “ Chaotic Elections! A Mathematician Looks at Voting” Donald G. Saari Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Economics Director, Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences University of California- Irvine Realizing Possibilities Dinner Celebrating the successful conclusion of the Achieve! Campaign for NC State and recognizing the generous donors who made it possible Join us on campus for a weekend of celebration and exploration! Register now at www. pams. ncsu. edu/ weekend. Sponsored by the PAMS Foundation PAMS Alumni & Friends Weekend presents scope academy 2008
Object Description
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Title | Scope : a look inside the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. |
Other Title | Look inside the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences |
Date | 2008 |
Description | Summer 2008 |
Digital Characteristics-A | 3 MB; 20 p. |
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application/pdf |
Pres Local File Path-M | \Preservation_content\StatePubs\pubs_borndigital\images_master\ |
Full Text | SUMMER 2008 Science with a purpose ... and a view CMAST researchers are hard at work for the health of our coasts IN THIS ISSUE Scope Academy 3 Future meteorologists 9 Youngest supernova 11 PAMS Foundation 25th 14 scope A LO O K I N S I D E THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES NC STATE UNIVERSITY PAMS Foundation Board of Directors PAMS Alumni & Friends Advisory Board Officers Benton Satterfield, President Bill White, Vice President Larry James, Secretary General Members Cindy Clark Kim Deaner Floyd Green Scott Guthrie Glenn Osmond Jack Penny Kimberly Potter Er Ralston Nancy Ridenhour Pam Pittman Robinson Chuck Wachtel Leigh Wilkinson PAMS Campaign Committee Eric Bigham Charles Case Eric Doggett Suzanne Gordon Julie McVay Connie Moreadith Emily Mann Peck* Mike Peirson Ginger Sall* John Sall* * Co- chairs Bob Jordan Liaison, University Committee scope Officers Eric Doggett, Chairperson Bill Trent, Vice Chairperson Anita Stallings, President Michelle Duggins, Secretary Kathy Hart, Treasurer Charles Leffler, Assistant Treasurer General Members Susan Atkinson Thomas Bregger Roy Cromartie Maureen Droessler Kevin Eldridge Stephen Frye Ned Guttman Lawrence Ives Don Johnson Charles Joyner Herbert Kirk Karen Lackey Rob Lindberg David Montgomery Mo Ogburn Mike Peirson Tom Rhodes John Ryals Cathy Sigal Cecil Smith Glen Snider Michael Thompson Bill White Leigh Wilkinson Glen Williams Meredith Williams Mark Wyatt Christian Wypasek Miriam Zietlow Emeritus Richard Cook Scope is published by the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. The College is made up of internationally recognized departments: Physics Mathematics Chemistry Molecular & Structural Biochemistry Statistics Marine, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Dean Daniel Solomon Managing Editor Anita Stallings Editor Steve Townsend Contributing Writer Tracey Peake Design Zubigraphics 12,500 copes of this public document were printed at a cost of $ 8,120.00 or 65¢ per copy. On the cover: David Eggleston stands on a balcony at NC State's Center for Marine Sciences and Technology ( CMAST). Located on the shores of Bogue Sound, CMAST is a leader in research, education and outreach on marine systems ( see page 4). Photo by Steve Townsend. SUMMER 2008 in this issue... 4 8 11 16 Dean’s message 2 PAMS and the public good College news 3 Scope Academy has more to offer than ever 9 Course allows future meteorologists to apply their knowledge to real- world challenges 15 Welcome to the Office of College Advancement Research highlights 4 Science with a purpose… and a view 10 Failed HIV drug gets second chance with addition of gold nanoparticles 11 Astrophysicist discovers youngest known supernova in Milky Way Honors 12 Notables 13 Pantula elected president of American Statistical Association 13 Fornes receives prestigious Holladay Medal of Excellence Alumni and Development news 14 PAMS Foundation turns 25 15 Achieved! NC State concludes record- breaking capital campaign 16 Faculty member leads by example to establish first physics professorship Just for Fun 8 State Climate Office announces winners of the Young Weather Photographers Contest More than 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “ Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” Just under a century later, North Carolina State University was established as a land- grant institution “ to provide teaching, research, and extension services to the people of North Carolina.” A lot about our state, our nation and our world has changed since the days of President Jefferson— or even NC State’s first president, Alexander Quarles Holladay— but the value of an educated and informed population is as important today as it was in 1789 or 1887. In fact, as the challenges we face as a society con-tinue to grow in scope and complexity, more and better resources than ever are needed to ensure that we make wise decisions. This is an area where the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences plays an important role. When we were established nearly 50 years ago, the College’s primary function was to contribute to the scientific literacy of NC State students through our significant role in the university’s general education program and our undergraduate and graduate curricula. While we have expe-rienced tremendous growth in the years since, PAMS remains committed to that edu-cational mission. In fact, as you will see on the pages that fol-low, we believe it is our responsibility not only to educate future scientists, but also to inform current and future leaders in government, edu-cation and industry on the importance of science in our society. We believe that our governmental leaders require a strong scientific knowledge base that informs the development of wise public poli-cies, and that citizens require the necessary information with which to evaluate them. Through their relationships in Carteret County, across North Carolina and up and down the East Coast, Dave Eggleston and his colleagues at the Center for Marine Sciences and Technology ( CMAST) are serving as a clearinghouse for such information as it relates to marine systems issues. We believe that our alumni and friends can continue to be engaged as lifelong learners well past their college days. Through pro-grams such as Scope Academy, Scope maga-zine and many others, we regularly update our alumni and friends— many of whom are leaders in their various fields— on the scien-tific advances of our researchers and on the scientific issues of the day. Finally, we believe that our faculty should be leaders in their disciplines. We achieve this through faculty members like Sastry Pantula, the head of our Department of Statistics. As president- elect of the American Statistical Association, Pantula will be actively engaged in setting the national agenda for his discipline. A well- informed people certainly can be trusted with their own government, and PAMS can be trusted to inform all the people of North Carolina and beyond— as we have for the last half century. Daniel L. Solomon, Dean 2 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope We believe it is our responsibility not only to educate future scientists, but also to inform current and future leaders in government, academics and industry on the importance of science in our society. Dean Dan Solomon shares a laugh with Prema Arasu, NC State’s associate vice provost for inter-national academics, during a tour of the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis. NC State is a primary partner in the campus, a world- class research hub where collaborative science will lead the charge for great discoveries in nutrition, health and biotechnology research. PAMS and the public good PHOTO BY BECKY KIRKLAND scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 3 What do you get when you combine two of the College’s most popular events into one exciting weekend? If our math is right, you’ll get the best Scope Academy ever. The bulk of the action for Scope Academy 2008 is on Saturday, Oct. 11. The day begins with a brunch for friends and alumni of the Department of Mathematics, followed by classroom sessions led by PAMS’ distin-guished faculty. These “ Scope Seminars” have received rave reviews in past years. This year should be no exception with topics that include: ■ Between Dose and Response The crit-ical— but often overlooked— role of phar-macokinetics, pharmacodynamics and statistics in optimizing drug treatment ( Marie Davidian, Statistics) ■ Diving for Science The impact of SCUBA- based research from the Bahamas to the Florida Keys ( David Eggleston, MEAS) ■ Driving Discovery and Development What the research we’re doing at NC State means for the state, the nation and the world ( Ray Fornes, Associate Dean for Research) ■ Clearing the Air Discussing the contro-versial relationship between smog and premature death ( Montserrat Fuentes, Statistics) ■ The Physics of Sports The huge role sci-ence plays in the way athletes perform and the way the game is played ( David Haase, Physics) ■ Cartilage Regener-ation Transforming gels into living tissue through mathematical modeling ( Mansoor Haider, Mathematics) ■ Battling Biofilms From inside your lungs to outside a ship’s hull: How a class of chemi-cal compounds can prevent communities of bacteria from forming ( Christian Melander, Chemistry) ■ Inside the VORTEX NC State’s exciting role in the study of torna-does ( Matt Parker, MEAS) ■ Get Energized! Parti-cipate in the fun, hands- on activities The Science House is using to encourage young people to engage in the important study of energy ( Sharon Schulze, The Science House) ■ What Happened? A panel of NC State experts explains the math behind the sub-prime collapse and the credit crunch ( Jeff Scroggs, Mathematics) The Scope Seminars will be followed by the Scope Lecture and inaugural Mathematics Distinguished Lecture, presented by Dr. Donald Saari of the University of California- Irvine. Widely cited in both academic and popular pub-lications as an expert on voting methods, Saari’s lec-ture is titled “ Chaotic Elections: A Mathematician Looks at Voting.” The evening will con-clude with the College’s annual Realizing Possi-bilities dinner. This extremely popular event has moved to the fall this year. As in past years, this event will honor the teachers and endowment donors who have positively impacted the lives of PAMS students. This year, we will also celebrate the College’s suc-cessful conclusion of the Achieve! Campaign for NC State. Established four years ago as PAMS Alumni and Friends Weekend, Scope Academy quickly has grown into one of the university’s most successful public education outreach initiatives. According to Dean Dan Solomon, the event is critical in the College’s efforts to promote a scientifically literate pop-ulation. “ Beyond educating those who will work directly in science and technology fields, it’s also important that we develop a strong sci-entific knowledge base among the general public and those who frame public policy,” Solomon says. “ Decision makers need solid scientific information to make sound policy decisions, and citizens need the tools with which to evaluate them. Through resources like Scope Academy, PAMS seeks to serve as an active and engaged resource for both of these groups.” Formal invitations to Scope Academy 2008 were mailed in mid August. Online registration is available at www. pams. ncsu. edu/ weekend. For more information, please e- mail pams_ info @ ncsu. edu or call 919- 515- 3462. Scope Academy has more to offer than ever Donald Saari But don’t think for a second that the resort-like setting means the folks at CMAST are tak-ing it easy. In fact, they’re hard at work tackling a wide array of marine system challenges that impact coastal regions in North Carolina and around the world. The center of the action Chartered in 1997 and housed in its current 55,000- square- foot facility since 2000, CMAST has been under the direction of David Eggleston for the past two years. Eggleston, also a professor in PAMS’ Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences ( MEAS), is rightfully proud of the unique diversity of expertise within CMAST. Center faculty and students are studying everything from shoreline ero-sion to improving the quality and safety of seafood preparation statewide. “ We have representation from seven departments and three colleges ( the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in addition to PAMS)” he says. “ I’m not aware of any other center at NC State that brings together this type of expertise under one roof.” Much more than just an NC State build-ing that happens to be located at the coast, the CMAST facility represents a unique edu-cational partnership between the state uni-versity and community college systems. In addition to CMAST, the building houses per-sonnel from Carteret Community College, NC Cooperative Extension, and NC Sea Grant. The building is also strategically located in the heart of a bustling marine systems research and education community. The UNC- Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Science and the NC Division of Marine Fisheries headquarters are within walking distance, and the Duke University Marine Laboratory, the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration/ National Ocean Service Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, the NC Maritime Museum and the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores are all within a short drive. Eggleston says each institution benefits from being a part of the greater community. “ People sometimes ask why there are so many marine labs around here,” Eggleston says. “ I explain to them that a lot of the chal-lenges we face are incredibly complex, and our expertise complements each other to address the challenge from all angles.” To illustrate his point, Eggleston explains the exciting role CMAST is playing as a mem-ber of the NC EONS ( North Carolina Environmental Observation Network System) partnership. NC EONS is a collaboration of seven North Carolina universities and addi-tional state and federal agencies tasked with developing a coordinated environmental observing and modeling system in the North Carolina estuaries and coastal waters. The Albemarle- Pamlico Estuarine System is the country’s second largest estuary and North Carolina’s most valuable marine resource, but little is known about the water quality, fisheries and physical behavior. To rectify this, the NC EONS team is building a 325- square- foot platform 15 feet above the surface of southern Pamlico Sound and about three miles north of the Cedar Island Ferry terminal. The platform, made possible by funding from the North Carolina Research Competitiveness Fund and additional sup-port from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U. S. Army 4 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope Located in Morehead City on the shores of Bogue Sound, NC State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology ( CMAST) has a view that would give a lot of beachfront hotels a run for their money. SCIENCE WITH A PURPOSE ... PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND The Center for Marine Sciences and Technology Corps of Engineers, will be loaded with sen-sors and monitoring devices. It also will be equipped with high- bandwidth communi-cations tools that allow distant researchers, students, policy makers and others to access data that are vital to monitoring the health of the system and to understanding its response to climate change. Don Stanfield, CMAST’s electronics tech-nician, has been heavily involved in the proj-ect from the beginning. Stanfield designed the platform and is one of two lead techni-cians engineering and installing its instru-mentation. According to Stanfield, data collected at the platform will include live video and meteorological conditions; water level, circulation, temperature, salinity and quality parameters; and fisheries informa-tion, such as acoustic reflection data. Where have all the oysters and blue crabs gone? While he speaks enthusiastically about all the research going on at CMAST, Eggleston’s own expertise is in marine ecology and con-servation. Much of his work is devoted to improving the health of species native to North Carolina’s coastal waters, including the oyster and the blue crab. Both species are vital to the state’s ecology and economy and have seen dramatic declines in their AND A VIEW COURTESY OF CMAST scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 5 David Eggleston 6 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope populations in recent years. One of Eggleston’s doctoral students, Brandon Puckett, recently received a presti-gious National Marine Fisheries Service- Sea Grant Joint Population Dynamics Graduate Fellowship for his work on oyster population dynamics. Puckett’s work, conducted under the guidance of Eggleston and Kyle Shertzer of the NOAA Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, involves monitoring cur-rent oyster reserves and optimizing future reserve designs, using Pamlico Sound as the model system. The fellowship will provide funding for Puckett to continue his work at CMAST for the next three years. “ This work will help answer a lot of prac-tical questions about the effectiveness of the current reserves, specifically the survival rate of individual reefs and their interaction with each other through water current and larvae flow,” Puckett says. “ The hope is that the results will give us— and, in turn, give the NC Division of Marine Fisheries— a better under-standing of spatial management practices and in particular, marine reserve network design.” Eggleston has been studying the blue crab since he joined the MEAS faculty in 1993, and he has developed an extensive body of work on the species. He shares his expertise with col-leagues and policy makers within North Carolina as a member of the NC Division of Marine Fisheries’ Scientific Advisory Com-mittee for Blue Crab. The blue crab is North Carolina’s leading commercial fishery product by both weight and dollar value, accounting for over $ 21 mil-lion in 2007 even with the diminishing land-ings of recent years. Eggleston’s latest work could actually increase blue crab numbers dra-matically. He is working with other researchers through a partnership led by the University of Maryland to see if hatchery- born blue crab can be successfully raised in freshwater farm ponds. Eggleston says the initial growth and survival rates in pilot studies were promising, but the real test will come this fall. “ We just stocked a private lake here in Carteret County with 60,000 hatchery- born crabs,” he says. “ We’ll know in a few months if we have the science down so that it can be applied on a larger scale. If so, we’ll be able to simultaneously lessen the ongoing strain on wild populations and help local farmers diversify their products.” PHOTO COURTESY OF CMAST Whether it’s oysters, oceans, blue crabs or beaches, Eggleston believes CMAST can play a large role in the long- term health of the entire coastal region. “ It’s all about sus-tainable coastal devel-opment,” he says. “ The best way to do it is to identify all the resiliency indicators we can — whether they be biological, eco-nomic, chemical— and manage as best we can for those indica-tors.” Promoting sustainable coastal development through research, education and outreach CMAST is not just a place for academic research. David Eggleston and his colleagues take great pride in providing real- world solutions to marine systems issues and opportunities to engage the center’s neighbors, regardless of age or educational background. Here is just a small sample of current and proposed activities that have created a buzz up and down the coast: Blue Heron Bowl CMAST volunteers assisted with last year’s Blue Heron Bowl in Morehead City. Blue Heron Bowl is the regional competition for the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, an academic com-petition for high schools on topics related to the study of oceans. Blue Heron Bowl partici-pants compete for college scholarships, research trips, computers and the chance to attend the national competition. This year’s North Carolina champion was the team from East Carteret High School. The team’s captain, Matt Joyner, will enroll in the MEAS department at NC State this fall. Habitat Restoration and Living Shoreline Demonstration Project Shortly after moving into its current facility in 2000, CMAST partnered with Carteret Community College and community volunteers to investigate ways to better protect water quality in Bogue Sound while also controlling shoreline erosion. The result was a system of offshore breakwaters, stone sills, man- made wetlands and coastal marsh that serves as a living laboratory and classroom to more than 300 K- 12 and college students each year. Student Center Project Still in the early planning stages, this center would provide housing to high school, under-graduate and graduate students engaged in CMAST education or research opportunities as well as to rotating faculty from NC State’s main campus and visiting scholars from around the world. Plans call for the center to be a LEED- certified building, so it will also serve as an example of sustainable coastal building. scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 7 The NC EONS Platform will change the way scientists, students and policy makers look at the Albemarle- Pamlico Estuarine System. For more information CMAST: www. cmast. ncsu. edu NC EONS PROGRAM: www. nceons. org NC COOPERATIVE EXTENSION: www. ces. ncsu. edu NC SEA GRANT: www. ncseagrant. org BLUE HERON BOWL: www. unc. edu/ ims/ blueheronbowl The State Climate Office of North Carolina ( SCO) recently concluded its first- ever weather photography contest. The contest was open to photographers between the ages of 7 and 16, with the stipulation that the photo must have been taken in North Carolina. The first place winner received a rain gauge, an NC State prize pack and a tour of the SCO offices on Centennial Campus. Second and third place received NC State prize packs. SCO plans to run the contest again next spring. For more information or to see more photos from this year’s contest, please visit www. nc- climate. ncsu. edu/ contest. 8 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope State Climate Office announces winners of the Young Weather Photographers Contest FIRST PLACE — Kalyn Faggart, 11th Grade, Concord, NC. Photo of a lightning strike ( taken from her front porch). THIRD PLACE — Kara Stonecypher, 5th Grade, Chapel Hill, NC. Photo showing the impact of the drought ( taken last summer at the North Carolina Zoo). SECOND PLACE — Kristen Kokkelenberg, 7th Grade, Holly Springs, NC. Photo of sun rays through the clouds ( taken on a bike ride near her home). To be top candidates for good jobs and graduate school slots, students need experi-ence solving messy, real- world problems that do not fit into an idealized model or a neat textbook solution. That is why associate pro-fessor Sandra Yuter of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences incorporates a semester project into her remote sensing class that requires the students to apply their knowledge to a practical application. Each student in Yuter’s Introduction to Remote Sensing class is assigned to a group and given a specific geographic location and season. The student groups tailor and justify a weather radar observing system consistent with their specific climatic conditions. Each group has unique challenges. For example, one group had to deal with a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean; another location was surrounded by moun-tain ranges; other groups dealt with ongoing threats of monsoons, hurricanes or tornadoes. The groups have various project milestones during the semester, but the true test of their work is a poster presentation session at the end of the semester. These posters, similar to those presented at a professional or academic con-ference, are judged by MEAS faculty and per-sonnel from the National Weather Service office in Raleigh. In addition to testing the students’ grasp of the basic physical principles behind remote sensing, the final project requires students to develop some of the interpersonal and com-munication skills they will need to succeed. “ They have to work together to figure out how best to apply theory and data to a specific set of needs and constraints, make design deci-sions, and then justify to the judges why they made those decisions,” Yuter says.“ They’re not just learning the science, they’re learning to work together and developing the confidence to apply the science and explain it to others. They’re also getting a chance to showcase their knowledge and abilities to some of the very people they want to work with when they graduate.” Yuter’s Spring 2008 class put their best foot forward when they made their presentations on an April afternoon in Jordan Hall. Students, mostly dressed in business or business casual attire, were more than willing to share their work and their thoughts on the experience. The team of Steven Harrington, Jason White, and Casey Letkewicz was a good exam-ple. Harrington and White were both gradu-ating seniors who will enter the work force, and Letkewicz is a graduate student. While their levels of prior experience with radar and career paths varied, each took something valu-able from their time in the class. For White, the most valuable aspect of the class was that it forced him to present and dis-cuss the science as part of a team. For Letkewicz, who had some prior experience studying radar, it was useful to “ get so specific” and to apply the theory to specific real- world settings and prob-lems. For Harrington, it was hard to nail down the most useful aspect of the experience. “ I learned something new every day,” he admits. “ The whole class helped me out.” Barrett Smith ( BS ’ 05, MS ’ 07 MEAS) was a student in Yuter’s first class that participated in this exercise. Now employed at the National Weather Service in Raleigh, he’s been back twice as a judge.“ I’m always extremely impressed by the professionalism the students show in their presentations,” Smith says. “ Meteorology jobs are focused around the presentation of infor-mation, whether it is research at conferences or daily forecasts. These projects give students a chance to practice their presentations skills in front of professionals.” scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 9 Course allows future meteorologists to apply their knowledge to real- world challenges MEAS students Jason White, Steven Harrington and Casey Letkewicz pose in front of their poster. PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE Doppler radar images from the National Weather Service in Raleigh 10 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope PAMS researchers have discovered that adding tiny bits of gold to a failed HIV drug rekindle the drug’s ability to stop the virus from invading the body’s immune system. The addition of gold nanoparticles to a modified version of a drug designed in the 1990s to combat HIV— but discarded due to its harmful side effects— creates a compound that prevents the virus from gaining a cellu-lar foothold, say Christian Melander, assis-tant professor of chemistry, and doctoral student T. Eric Ballard. The drug, a compound known as TAK- 779, was originally found to bind to a spe-cific location on human T- cells, which blocks the HIV virus’ entry to the body’s immune system. Unfortunately, the portion of the drug’s molecule that made binding possible had unpleasant side effects. When that por-tion of the molecule— an ammonium salt— was removed, the drug lost its binding ability. That’s when Melander and colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Colorado at Boulder turned to gold as the answer. The element is non- reactive in the human body, and would be the perfect “ scaffold” with which to attach mole-cules of the drug in the absence of the ammonium salt, holding the drug mole-cules together and concen-trating their effect. “ The idea is that by attaching these weak- binding individual molecules of the drug to the gold nanoparticle, you can magnify their ability to bind,” Melander says. The researchers’ theory proved correct. They started with a modified version of TAK- 779, which didn’t include the harmful ammonium salt. After testing, they found that attaching 12 molecules of the modified drug ( SDC- 1721) to one nanoparticle of gold restored the drug’s ability to prevent HIV infection in primary cultured patient cells, which are cells taken directly ftom the patient. When only one mol-ecule of the drug was attached to the gold nanoparticle, the compound was unable to prevent HIV infection, indicating that the mul-tivalency of the drug was important for its activity. “ We’ve discovered a non- harmful way to improve the strength and efficacy of an important drug,” Melander says. “ There’s no reason to think that this same process can’t be used with similar effect on other existing drugs.” PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND COURTESY OF CHRISTIAN MELANDER This graphic depicts a modified version of the HIV drug TAK- 779 bonding to gold. Christian Melander, center, takes a break in the lab with some of his students. Failed HIV drug gets second chance with addition of gold nanoparticles An NC State astrophysicist has discovered the youngest known supernova in our galaxy. Estimated at a mere 140 years old, this celes-tial whippersnapper is at least 200 years younger than the next oldest known super-nova, and its discovery may pave the way to a greater understanding of exploding stars. Stephen Reynolds, professor of physics, led a team of researchers who suspected that a celestial object known as G1.9+ 0.3 was a very young supernova remnant. They exam-ined images of the object that were taken in 2007 by NASA’s Chandra X- Ray Observatory and compared these images to those taken of the same object in 1985 by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array radio telescope. Not only did the Chandra images confirm Reynolds’ suspicions that the object was a young supernova remnant, but the scientists discovered that the supernova had increased in size by 16 percent in just 22 years, sug-gesting that the initial explosion had occurred only 140 years ago— or less if the rate of explosion had been slowing. Supernovae are exploding stars, and act as the “ engines” that drive the life cycles of galaxies. A supernova explosion disperses heavy metals, cosmic rays, and high- energy particles throughout the galaxy, aiding in the formation of new stars. In fact, a supernova explosion may have helped prod our own solar system into existence. The brightness of supernovae can easily be obscured from optical telescopes by large amounts of interstellar gas and dust, ren-dering them all but invisible to astronomers. X- ray and radio telescopes, however, can detect the radio waves and high energy X- rays that supernovae emit, enabling us to “ see” even highly obscured explosions. Reynolds says that the G1.9+ 0.3 super-nova has the largest obscuration of any known galactic supernova object. “ If not for all the interstellar ‘ gunk’ between us and this object, people would have seen this supernova as a new star in the constellation Sagittarius in the years around 1870 to 1900,” Reynolds adds. “ Normally, we deal with older remnants and have to work very hard to see even tiny changes. This supernova is getting brighter, which means it’s still on its way up— study-ing it will go a long way toward filling in gaps in our knowledge of these events and their effect on galaxies.” scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 11 Astrophysicist discovers youngest known supernova in Milky Way COURTESY OF STEPHEN REYNOLDS PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND Image of a remnant of the most recent supernova yet known in our galaxy, only about 100 years old. The radio observation from 1985 ( orange) is superimposed over the 2007 infrared observation ( green). Stephen Reynolds Ronald Fodor ( MEAS) received a Fulbright award to study and teach abroad during the 2008- 09 academic year. Fodor will use his Fulbright to travel to Hungary for the spring semester of 2009 to teach graduate geology courses at Eotvos Lorand Technical University in Budapest. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or pro-fessional achievement and leadership poten-tial in their fields. Anthony Franklin ( Statistics graduate stu-dent) received a 2008 Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship. This fellowship program is administered by the National Research Council of the National Academies and seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s col-lege and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enrich-ing the education of all students. Franklin was one of only 120 scholars to receive either the predoctoral, dissertation or postdoctoral award. Ryan Going ( Mathematics undergraduate student) was selected to participate in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship ( SURF) program for 2008. Going spent 11 weeks in Boulder, Colo., learning about and working with nanowires, which have the potential to produce inex-pensive, high- quality ultraviolet and visible light for displays, medical diagnostics, water sterilization, and a host of other applications. Going is a double major in electrical engi-neering and applied mathematics. Amit Lakhani ( Physics), Kasey Phillips ( Mathematics and Physics) and Jennifer Ricks ( Chemistry) were among 18 NC State science, mathematics, engineering and technology undergraduate students and recent alumni to receive the National Science Foundation’s prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship. The Graduate Research Fellowship program invests in graduate education for a select group of diverse individuals who demonstrate potential to successfully complete graduate degree programs in disciplines relevant to the mission of the National Science Foundation. The three- year awards include a stipend, as well as an educational allowance for tuition, fees and health insurance. Brandon Puckett ( MEAS graduate student) received a 2008 National Marine Fisheries Service- Sea Grant Joint Population Dynamics Graduate Fellowship for 2008. The program supports highly qualified doctoral students interested in careers related to population dynamics of living marine resources and the development and implementation of quanti-tative methods for assessing their status. Awarded annually for up to four researchers nationwide, the three- year award provides for the fellow’s stipend, tuition and fees, health insurance, travel and research expenses. Please see more on Puckett’s research in the cover story of this issue of Scope, which begins on page 4. The Department of Statistics, along with corporate partner GlaxoSmithKline, received the 2008 SPAIG ( Statistical Partnerships among Academe, Industry and Government) award for their collaboration in NC State’s Graduate Industrial Traineeship ( GIT) program. The GIT program, which was discussed in the spring issue of Scope (“ Statistics programs make national headlines,” pages 10- 11) places students at area companies to get hands- on experience and work in teams with excellent mentors. Pam Arroway, teaching associate professor, assistant department head and co-director of graduate programs in the Department of Statistics, directs the program. For more information, contact Arroway at pam_ arroway@ ncsu. edu. 12 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope PHOTO BY ALISON RUFF COURTESY OF AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION Dean Dan Solomon and Anthony Franklin Notables Pam Arroway accepts the 2008 SPAIG award from ASA President Peter A. ( Tony) Lachenbruch Sastry Pantula, head of the NC State Department of Statistics and director of the Institute of Statistics, has been elected as the 105th president of the American Statistical Association ( ASA). Pantula will serve as ASA president beginning Jan. 1, 2010. The ASA is a scientific and educational soci-ety founded in 1839, with 18,000 members serving in academia, government, and indus-try. The 2008 election featured the highest voter turnout in ASA history. A 2002 fellow of the ASA, Pantula received the Young Statistician Award from the International Indian Statistical Association in 2002 and the D. D. Mason Faculty Award in 2001. He is a member of the NCSU Academy of Outstanding Teachers, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, Gamma Sigma Delta and Mu Sigma Rho. Pantula received his PhD in statistics from Iowa State University, and master’s and bach-elor’s degrees in statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta, India. He became the statistics department head at NC State in 2002, after serving the university as assistant department head, director of gradu-ate programs and professor of statistics. “ Statistics is the backbone of scientific research,” Pantula says. “ ASA, in collabora-tion with many other international associa-tions and institutes, now has tremendous potential to advance science and guide pub-lic policy. The diversity of our membership and the cross- sectoral relationships among our members in academia, business, govern-ment and industry provide a unique talent pool to address global problems related to health, environment and resources. I am excited and humbled by this opportunity to serve ASA at this pivotal time.” In addition to Pantula’s election, PAMS faculty members Montserrat Fuentes and Zhao- Bang Zeng were selected this year as ASA fellows. NC State has a rich history of excellence in statistics. The university’s Department of Statistics is among the nation’s oldest and most prestigious, having been founded by renowned statistician Gertrude Cox in 1941. Among its many contributions to the field, the depart-ment is the birthplace of SAS, the world’s largest privately owned software company. scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 13 PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD Sastry Pantula Pantula elected president of American Statistical Association Fornes receives prestigious Holladay Medal of Excellence PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND Raymond Fornes, professor of physics, was a 2008 recipient of NC State’s Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal of Excellence. Named in honor of the university’s first president, the Holladay Medal is the highest award given to faculty by the Board of Trustees and the uni-versity. It recognizes “ a lifetime of outstand-ing achievement in support of NC State’s mission.” A member of the NC State faculty for nearly 40 years, Fornes also serves as PAMS associate dean for research. Raymond Fornes 14 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope This year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the North Carolina State University Physical and Mathematical Sciences Foundation. While this milestone may not get as much attention as the upcoming 50th anniversary of the founding of PAMS— which will be celebrated in 2010— it offers a won-derful opportunity to look back on the role the Foundation has played in the tremendous growth of the College over the last 25 years. The mission of the PAMS Foundation is to “ promote the educational, research and serv-ice programs of the College … through per-sonal advocacy … and by securing private funding for priority programs.” The first organizational meeting of the PAMS Foundation was held at McKimmon Center on July 6, 1983. The minutes from that meeting report that Vice Chancellor George Worsley, serving as the Foundation’s acting treasurer, reported endowment assets of $ 245,000. Thanks in no small part to sound leadership by its volunteer board of directors and the generosity of alumni and friends around the world, the Foundation’s endow-ment today is worth more than $ 10 million. Garrett Briggs served as dean of the College from 1981 to 1988 and was responsible for establishing the PAMS Foundation. Briggs, who went on to serve as president of Peace College before retiring from academics in 1998, helped set the tone early on by chal-lenging Foundation board members to serve beyond an honorary capacity. “ I told them that being on the board was obviously partly in recognition of their pro-fessional and personal achievements, but that there was more to it,” Briggs recalls. “ I chal-lenged them to be active champions for the College wherever they went.” Anita Stallings serves as president of the PAMS Foundation board in her role as exec-utive director of development and college rela-tions. Through her 10 years of experience with the Foundation, Stallings says the tradition of “ active” board members is alive and well. “ We’ve been incredibly fortunate to have volunteers serve our Foundation who are as enthusiastic, generous and hard working as they are creative and insightful,” she says. While the College has benefited immea-surably from the energies of its Foundation board members throughout its first 25 years, inaugural board member Nancy Ridenhour ( BS ’ 76 Statistics) says the members can also gain a lot from their involvement. Ridenhour recalls a specific conversation she had with fel-low board member and IBM site manager, Dick Daugherty. “ I still remember listening to Dick talk about going to China and what the impact of that huge population would one day have on the world economy,” she says. “ That conver-sation made a big impact on me. I take The Economist magazine to this day.” “ He certainly was right, by the way!” she adds. Fortunately for the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, its Foundation board members have been right about a lot of things over the last 25 years. PAMS Foundation turns 25 COURTESY OF NCSU LIBRARIES In this photo from 1983, emeritus physics faculty Jan Schetzina ( left) and former PAMS dean Garrett Briggs ( right) accept a check from representatives of Ford Aerospace. That same year, Briggs established the PAMS Foundation, which has helped the College dramatically increase contributions from individuals and public and private organizations over the last 25 years. The PAMS Office of Development and College Relations has changed its name to the PAMS Office of College Advancement to bet-ter reflect the breadth of services it provides to the College. In addition to increasing private financial support, the PAMS advancement team also are involved— both at the College level and in partnership with individual departments— in building relationships with corporate and foundation partners, improving alumni rela-tions, and developing print and electronic com-munications for a variety of audiences. In addition to the name change, three new staff members have joined the team since the beginning of the year: Steve Townsend joined the office in January as director of communications. Steve is a grad-uate of the University ofMichigan and Wayne State University and comes to PAMS from Case Western Reserve University. In his new role, Steve is responsible for all the College’s print and electronic communications, including Scope magazine, PAMS Focus and the College Web site. Marla Gregg joined the office in April as director of development for donor and alumni relations. Marla is a graduate of the University of Central Florida and comes to PAMS from the UNC Center for Public Television. In her new role, Marla will be responsible for engag-ing alumni, friends, donors and potential sup-porters of the College and its individual departments. The newest member of this team is Debbi Fox- Davis. Debbi joined the office in July as director of development. A graduate of George Mason University ( BA) and Monterrey Institute of International Studies ( MBA), Debbi most recently served as assistant director of development at Habitat for Humanity ofWake County. She is responsible for building strong relationships with PAMS supporters and iden-tifying opportunities to match College priori-ties with potential private resources. While not new to the team, PAMS’ other director of development, Denise Malloy Hubbard, will take on an expanded role. Hubbard, who previously had worked prima-rily with individual donors and alumni, will now also work with corporate and foundation partners. Anita Stallings, executive director of devel-opment and college relations, and Michelle Duggins, finance and donor relations officer round out the team. For more information on the Office of College Advancement or to con-tact a staff member, please visit www. pams. ncsu. edu/ development. scope | SUMMER 2008 ■ 15 June 30 marked the official conclusion of Achieve! The Campaign for NC State. The fall issue of Scope will include a complete report on the campaign results within PAMS. In the meantime, please plan to join us as we celebrate the conclusion of the campaign at this fall’s Scope Academy ( for more information, please see story on page 3 or advertisement on back cover) and rest assured that the power of your generosity will have a transformational impact on the lives of our students, the College and beyond for years to come. New PAMS Advancement staff members Debbi Fox- Davis, Marla Gregg and Steve Townsend Welcome to the Office of College Advancement Achieved! NC State concludes record-breaking capital campaign PHOTO BY BRAND FORTNER There are any number of reasons donors choose to support PAMS. Brand Fortner did it to lead by example. In addition to his role as a research profes-sor in the Department of Physics, Fortner also serves as the department’s development liai-son. In this capacity, he works with his fellow faculty members and the College’s advance-ment staff to identify and develop fund rais-ing opportunities for the department. Leaving no doubt that he believes in what he’s selling, Fortner earlier this summer pledged a $ 333,000 bequest to establish the Brand Fortner Distinguished Professorship. With a match from the state’s Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund, Fortner’s gift will establish a $ 500,000 endowment that will pro-vide salary and other support in perpetuity for a professor in the Department of Physics. “ I am very proud to be associated with physics at NC State,” Fortner says. “ I am also confident in where we are going as a depart-ment, and this gift is my way of showing that I want to be a part of its continuing legacy.” Fortner came to NC State in 2006. He pre-viously was chief scientist of the intelligence exploitation group of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. Fortner has also held positions at NASA and at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. He is widely regarded as an expert in acces-sible scientific visualization and in technical data formats. He is the founder of two scien-tific software companies and has written two books on color vision and technical data. He holds a PhD in physics from the University of Illinois, where he funded a chair in astrophysics and continues to co- sponsor a film festival. According to Dean Dan Solomon, profes-sorships like this are vital to the long- term suc-cess of the department and the College. “ PAMS routinely competes for the best and brightest faculty members in the country,” Solomon says. “ These types of endowments are crucial for attracting and retaining out-standing talent.” Anita Stallings, executive director of devel-opment and college relations, says that more and more people are looking into creating planned gifts like Fortner’s. “ As more and more ‘ baby boomers’ are near-ing the end of their first careers and starting to retire in larger numbers, we have an increas-ing number of alumni and friends who are more seriously looking at their long- term financial plans,” she says. “ Fortunately, some of those folks are including NC State and the College in those plans.” Stallings adds that, in addition to a simple will bequest, there are a number of other planned giving options that can provide income or reduce tax liability for the donor right away. Please see the advertisement on the facing page for more information. You can also contact the PAMS Office of College Advance-ment at pams_ dev@ ncsu. edu or 919- 515- 3462 to discuss a variety of philanthropic options. PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND Brand Fortner Faculty member leads by example to establish first physics professorship How to make a gift You may remember how difficult it was to manage the expense of higher educa-tion. You may want to help today’s stu-dents achieve their dreams. The PAMS Foundation provides many ways to support students, faculty and pro-grams of the College. Whether you want to contribute to an existing scholarship, support a departmental enhancement fund, make a memorial gift or consider support in other areas, our staff is avail-able to help you explore the options. To support existing funds To contribute to a scholarship, fellow-ship or other fund, fill out our secure, online gift form at https:// www3. acs. ncsu. edu/ pams/ or mail a check to the PAMS Foundation, Campus Box 8201, Raleigh, NC, 27695. Make checks payable to PAMS Foundation and write the name of the fund on the “ notes” or “ for” line. If your employer provides matches for charitable donations, please send a completed matching gift form with your contribution. There are many funds not mentioned in this issue of Scope. For a full list of funds, visit www. pams. ncsu. edu/ devel-opment/ funds. php or contact our office. To explore other options If you have questions about gift plan-ning, we can help you identify tax benefits, choose between permanent endowment versus one- time support, and explore estate planning or life- income options. There are many ways to match your interests with specific College needs, and several possibilities for making your vision a reality. Whether using cash, appreciated stock, real estate or a bequest, we can help you find the best way to make the most of your gift. Contact us at 919- 515- 3462 or by e- mail at pams_ dev@ ncsu. edu. 16 ■ SUMMER 2008 | scope NCSU Physical & Mathematical Sciences Foundation Campus Box 8201 110 Cox Hall Raleigh, North Carolina 27695- 8201 pams_ dev@ ncsu. edu 919- 515- 3462 Through careful coordination with your financial planner and the PAMS Foundation, it is possible for you to increase income, reduce or eliminate taxes— including income, capital gains, gift, and estate taxes— while making a greater investment in the future of PAMS than you ever thought possible. Deferred, or planned, gifts come in many shapes and sizes. Contact us today at pams_ dev@ ncsu. edu or 919- 515- 3462 for more information on achieving financial security for you and PAMS through: ■ beneficiary designations for wills, trusts and retirement plans ■ charitable gift annuities ■ charitable remainder trusts ■ charitable lead trusts ■ remainder interest in a residence or farm ■ life insurance How can you secure a legacy for yourself and the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences all at the same time? By ensuring that your financial, retirement and estate plans are in order, and considering a deferred gift to PAMS in the process. NC STATE UNIVERSITY E n s u r e t w o L E G A C I E S PAMS Foundation Board Meeting and Reunion Invitation Only Department of Mathematics Alumni & Friends Brunch Scope Seminars Featuring special classes about exciting topics: ■ Diving for science ■ The physics of sports ■ Tornadoes ■ Battling biofilms ■ Cartilage regeneration … and more! Scope Lecture “ Chaotic Elections! A Mathematician Looks at Voting” Donald G. Saari Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Economics Director, Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences University of California- Irvine Realizing Possibilities Dinner Celebrating the successful conclusion of the Achieve! Campaign for NC State and recognizing the generous donors who made it possible Join us on campus for a weekend of celebration and exploration! Register now at www. pams. ncsu. edu/ weekend. Sponsored by the PAMS Foundation PAMS Alumni & Friends Weekend presents scope academy 2008 |
OCLC number | 234234013 |