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| UC Berkeley Dean To Lead Academic Affairs At SMU |
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 Paul W. Ludden, dean of the College ofNatural Resources at the University of California- Berkeley and scholar in environmental biochemistry, has been named provost and vice president for academic affairs at SMU. He will oversee all aspects of academic life, ranging from admissions and faculty development to supervision of SMU’s seven schools, library system, and international programs. He will join SMU in time for the fall 2007 semester. Ludden received his B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Nebraska in 1972 and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977. After a Rockefeller postdoctoral fellowship at Michigan State University, he served as an assistant professor at the University of California-Riverside. In 1981 he returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he rose to the rank of full professor. At Wisconsin, he directed the Biochemistry Graduate Program for 14 years and taught in the Bio core Program for undergraduates. While pursuing his research interests, he served as assistant chair of the Biochemistry Department and later as executive associate dean for the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. In 2002 Ludden joined UC-Berkeley as dean of the College of Natural Resources and professor of plant and microbial biology. He carries a concurrent appointment as a faculty member at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. An expert on microbial biochemistry, Ludden with his students has published more than 175 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. For more information: http://smu.edu/newsinfo. |
| HACNet Lab Attracts National Recognition |
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SMU has been designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education for 2006-2009. be goal of the program, sponsored by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, is to reduce vulnerability in the national information infrastructure by promoting higher education in information assurance (IA) and increasing the number of professionals with IA expertise. SMU’s School of Engineering has been in the forefront of this revolution due in part to the High Assurance Computing and Networking (HACNet) Lab in the Computer Science and Engineering Department. The lab focuses on intelligence gathering, data analysis, and secure command and control necessary for wide-ranging applications, including military operations and transportation security. For more information: http://hacnet.smu.edu. |
| NSF Grant Supports Climate Research In Ethiopia |
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| Geological sciences faculty Bonnie
Jacobs and Neil Tabor have received a three-year $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for their paleobotany research in Ethiopia, studying the area’s plant life, geological history and climate that existed nearly 28 million years ago.
The project aims to improve documentation
of paleoecology, paleoclimate and
floral communities in eastern Africa between
28 and 27million years ago. It will focus on plant fossils in
northwestern Ethiopia and include students and specialists in
paleobotany,
paleosols (fossil soils), isotopes, dating and the rock record.
In addition, Ethiopian students will participate in a field school
with paleontologists, geologists and graduate students. this will |
| One Campaign That Worked |
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| The U.S. government missed an opportunity
to improve America’s image in the Arab and Muslim worlds when it shut down a public diplomacy television advertising campaign in 2002, according to a new book by Professor Alice Kendrick in Meadows School of the Arts’ Temerlin Advertising Institute and her associate, Jami Fullerton of Oklahoma State University.  In the book, Advertising’s War on Terrorism: The Story of the U.S. State Department’s
Shared Values Initiative (Marquette Books,
2006), the professors examine the ads’ effectiveness,
part of a multifaceted communication
campaign – the Shared Values Initiative – that
the State Department launched in 2002 to convince
the Muslim and Arab world that America
wasn’t waging war on Islam. The five television
ads, which depicted Muslims commenting on
their happy lives and freedom of worship in America, aired in
Indonesia
(the nation with the largest Muslim population) and other
Middle Eastern and Asian countries for several weeks in late 2002.
About 300 million Arabs and Muslims saw the televised ads.Despite support from Secretary of State Colin Powell, other bureaucrats and journalists criticized the effort and shut it down; however, they had no scientific evidence to back up their criticism, the authors say. “According to internal State Department documents about SVI in Indonesia, the campaign achieved its objectives. It not only got people talking about Muslim life in America, it also produced more positive perceptions of America.” The professors also conducted research in London, Cairo and Singapore with more than 500 international students from 39 countries. After viewing the ads, the students were more likely to believe Muslims are fairly treated in the United States and had more positive attitudes toward the U.S. government and its citizens. be research also found that attitudes toward the United States improved more among Muslim students than among students of other faiths. The authors conclude that advertising can be an effective tool in public diplomacy and should not be discounted as a strategy. For more information: http://www.marquettebooks.org. |
| Book In Progress: Seeing Stereotypes |
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 In the Middle Ages, Spain was
comfortably multicultural for
several hundred years longer
than the rest of Europe, with
Christians, Jews and Muslimscoexisting in relative peace. However, by 1200, European influences began to seep into Spain, and negative stereotypes, particularly of Jews, took hold, culminating in the expulsion of Jews from that country in 1492. Associate Professor of Art History Pamela Patton, whose research specialty is medieval Spain, is working on a book exploring this transformation from previously untapped sources: works of art produced for the Christian majority during this period. “Like drama, song and folklore, visual culture provides a view of Jewish-Christian relationships in the era that ‘official’ royal and legal texts often do not address,” Patton says. She won a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to pursue her research last summer in Spain and plans to complete it this summer with the study of Spanish manuscripts in Paris. Patton says she hopes her book, with the working title Seeing Stereotypes: Christians, Jews, and Images in Medieval Iberia, will “help people understand we’re still living out the legacy of the Middle Ages in our relationships with other cultures, and shed some light on how and why stereotypes and superstitions develop.” For information: http://smu.edu/meadows/arthistory/faculty.asp#. |
| Doctoral Student Makes Royal Discoveries |
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| During the past two field seasons in
Guatemala while excavating at the archaeological site of El
Perú-Waká,Michelle Rich, an SMU Ph.D. student in anthropology,
discovered tombs containing the remains of male and female Maya royals. Rich’s research, conducted over four years, concentrates on an area called the Mirador Complex, comprising two large pyramids and a group of three smaller buildings. To date, she has excavated one of the large pyramids and the small group of buildings. She is studying ritual behavior of the ancient Maya, which also includes investigating sacred landscapes, elite power structures and gender issues within traditional frameworks of ruling authority.  In 2005 Rich excavated a tomb chamber inside the large pyramid containing
the skeletal remains of two adult females stacked back to back.
Artifacts discovered in the tomb include seven painted ceramic
vessels, jade jewelry and Spondylus shell. She also discovered another
female of a more advanced age buried in a less ornate chamber,
interred with similar shell artifacts and vessels and a large jade
bead in her mouth. The period for the burials of the three women is from
A.D. 350-400, and the context of their separate burials indicates a
relationship among them, Rich says.During the 2006 field season she tested the hypothesis that the female burials were related to the interment of a male ruler, possibly his wives and mother, or daughters and wife. She did find a king, but one who ruled nearly three centuries later. Numerous artifacts also were arranged near the remains, including 33 ceramic vessels and various greenstone artifacts, among other items. Rich is conducting her research under the supervision of David Freidel, the University Distinguished Professor of Archaeology in Dedman College. |
| English Ph.D. To Fully Fund Candidates |
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 As the English Department recruits its
first class of Ph.D. students, it is offering all of them something
few other universities can: full funding for up to six years.“Our financial packages may be, in real dollar terms, the most generous in the U.S.,” says Ezra Greenspan, English chair and the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Chair in Humanities. “Most programs don’t guarantee every student a fellowship, and certainly no tone that lasts the duration of the program.” Dennis Foster, director of Graduate Studies, says the English Department could provide a model for funding other Dedman College graduate programs with its stipends, which demonstrate the University’s strong commitment to research. “Because these candidates won’t have to worry about finances, they’re going to have a moment unlike any other in their lives to read, write, research and take huge strides toward becoming professionals in this discipline,” says Foster, also the D.D. Frensley Professor of English. SMU’s
Graduate Council has approved the program’s structure and curriculum,
which follows a “generalist” philosophy, Greenspan says. “The seminars will be based on the expertise of the faculty, and that’s where students will learn how to be scholars in their chosen fields,” Foster says. Because only six candidates will be admitted each year, faculty will closely monitor their progress. In developing the program over the past several years, the department looked at numerous other universities, worked with a consultant from Tulane, and carefully weighed its own strengths, which include close working relationships among faculty and undergraduates, says Greenspan. And although the process has demanded a lot of input from everyone, he says, it also has invigorated the department for the changes ahead. For more information, visit the English Department’s Web site: http://smu.edu/english/graduate. |
| ISEM Trip Observes Geothermal Energy Use In Iceland |
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 A delegation from SMU’s Institute for the
Study of Earth and Man (ISEM) visited Iceland last summer to observe
that country’s use of geothermal energy. Iceland is the world’s leader
in the development of this form of alternative energy.Because Iceland is located atop the Mid-Atlantic ridge, the spreading center for the Atlantic Ocean Basin, thermal energy is abundant in steamy hot water. Iceland uses hot water to heat its buildings, keep its streets and sidewalks free of ice, generate electricity, and to provide energy for industrial needs. The ISEM delegation met with senior representatives of Reykjavik
Energy, Shell Hydrogen, Alcoa, Iceland Geosurvey, and Icelandic |
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| Doctoral Alumni – Where Are They Now? Susan Vandiver (’06), Systems Engineering Ph.D., works for L-3 Integrated Systems in Waco, Texas, as a senior system engineer II. She leads the Systems Engineering Metrics Action Team project to develop and deploy metrics that measure how well the company performs with its product development. As a member of the Enterprise Process Improvement Group, she assists the organization in implementation of repeatable, standard systems engineering processes. Her work also includes performing systems product development and risk management for military aircraft upgrade and maintenance programs, which support the U.S. armed forces. Pei-Lin Yu (’06), Anthropology Ph.D., serves as the Power Office archaeologist for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Pacific Northwest Region. She works with Native American tribes, federal agencies, and state governments to protect archaeological and cultural resources, analyze them to recover information, and help educate tribal and the public on America’s cultural heritage.Qe program conducts remote sensing, site stabilization, crime scene investigations for looted sites, and the repatriation process for Native American remains recovered from federal lands or housed in federal museums. She also conducts historic preservation work on old dams and power plants. Her work area covers central Washington (Grand Coulee Dam/Lake Roosevelt on what was once the Upper Columbia River) and northwest Montana (Hungry Horse Dam and Reservoir, once the South Fork of the Flathead River), and adjacent lands on national parks, forests and Indian reservations. |
