Faculty of NSM Annual Report 2003-04
Submitted by David G.L. Van Wylen
It is a pleasure to serve as the Associate Dean for a very active and productive Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. This annual report summarizes some of the many meaningful FNSM activities that occurred during the 2003-04 academic year.
Faculty Successes
The heart and soul of the FNSM remains our faculty, and I am pleased to share several faculty successes.
We were successful in all four of our tenure-track searches. John Schade, a biogeoscientist, will have a leave during the 04-05 academic year to continue his postdoctoral work and will join us Fall 2005. Gary Muir (cognitive neuroscientist), Urmilla Malvadkar (mathematical biologist), and Olaf Hall-Holt (computer science) will join us this fall.
We had several faculty/staff who completed their first year at St. Olaf:
+ Amelia Taylor
+ Paul Roback
+ Shelly Dickinson
+ Doug Beussman
+ Sujeev Wickramasekara
+ Steve Cronin
+ Bill Jurney
+ Rob Rutherford
+ Muir Eaton
+ Young Yoo
+ Randy Bailey
We had four professors who were promoted.
+ Dick Brown was promoted to Associate Professor in the Mathematics,
Statistcs, and Computer Science (MSCS) Department.
+ Charles Umbanhowar Jr. was promoted to Professor in the Biology
Department
+ Dan Gross was promoted to Professor in the Psychology Department and
+ Matt Richey was promoted to Professor in the MSCS Department.
We also had successful reviews for Kim Kandl (4th year), Jeff Schwinefus (2nd year), and Jason Engbrecht (2nd year).
Other accomplishments to be noted include:
+ Faculty activity across campus - Lilly, EIN, CILA, Mellon, Committees
+ Several published papers, chapters, and books (20 papers, handful of
chapters/books)
+ Involvement with The Man Who production in the fall
+ Many excellent seminar and colloquia, many of which were joint
presentations
+ Hosted conferences - ADM Information Literacy in Psychology (Bonnie
Sherman), PEW Statistics (Julie Legler and Matt Richey), Bioinformaics
with Jacques Cohen (Rich Allen)
+ Program Identity - Biomolecular Science (new name, updated
concentration, exciting curricular initiatives), Statistics (new courses,
updated concentration, name added to department), Computer Science
(new courses, new major), Neuroscience (Shelly Dickinson joining group,
successful search, spring meeting), Environmental Studies (first search,
departmental status)
+ New courses taught - Dolphin Communication, Bioinformatics, Island
Biology in Pacific, Zoo Biology, Biophysical Chemistry, QWEC.
+ Several courses approved - e.g. Biostatistics in Geneva
+ Jean Porterfield gave "first lecture"
+ Amy Kolan gave Mellby Lecture
+ Paul Humke and Henry Kermott featured in Provost Sabbatical Series
+ Bob Jacobel had a glacier named in his honor
+ Goldwater, Rhodes, Fulbright scholars were science/math students.
Program Successes
This has been a year full of many successes for FNSM programs. The paragraphs below describe some of the events and decisions that affected current and future FNSM programs.
We had an excellent group of Chairs - Anne Walter (biology), Mary Walczak (chemistry), Matt Richey (MSCS), Dave Nitz (physics), and Chuck Huff (psychology), and Program Directors - Beth Abdella (molecular biology), Ted Johnson (biomedical studies), Bonnie Sherman (neuroscience), Julie Legler (statistics), Dick Brown (computer science), and Charles Umbanhowar Jr. (environmental studies). With much appreciation, we acknowledge the end of Dave Nitz's and Matt Richey's terms as chairs, and welcome Bob Jacobel and Paul Zorn as the new chairs fo physics and MSCS, respectively.
We were approved for three tenure-track searches to be conducted during the 2004-05 academic year:
+ Biochemist (chemistry)
+ Experimental Physicist (physics)
+ Organismal Neuroscientist (biology)
We had another excellent Science Symposium during Honor's Day, thanks to the hard work by Wes Pearson and the Science Symposium Committee (Uta Wolfe, Charles Umbanhowar Jr., Jason Engbrecht, Jeff Schwinefus, and Steve McKelvey). The theme for this year was The Strange Attraction of Chaos: Advances in Understanding Complex Systems and featured three distinguished speakers: Larry Liebovitch (Florida Atlantic University), Walter Freeman (UC-Berkley), and Jim Hansen (MIT). Associated with the symposium was our annual student research poster session, which again attracted more than 50 student presenters.
Our summer reserach program was again very successful, with 43 students and 21 faculty involved. Thanks to Charles Umbanhowar Jr., our Director of Summer Research, and Mary Walczak, who organized another fine Communication Series for students.
This was a quiet year for design work on the Science Complex, as we intentionally put design work on hold while we got started with fund raising. In December 2003, the Board of Regents formally approved a $77.2 million capital campaign, $56 million for total project costs for the Science Complex, $20 million for endowment to operate the Science Complex, and $1.2 million for interim financing. We continued to do some work with The Weidt Group and submitted a grant to support this work to the Kresge Foundation as part of their Green Building Initiative.
Several facility and equipment upgrades brought new energy to our program. Shelly Dickinson's "lavender lab" renovation was completed, as were renovations to the AMCL, a biology teaching lab, and several research spaces. The shared biomolecular science lab is now fully equipped and functioning well, and in January we installed the new mass spectrometer. The NWR, complete with OleNMR , is now on line.
FNSM faculty were active writing and receiving grants during the 2003-04 academic year. The highlights were:
+ Jason Engebrecht, Gene Bakko, Greg Muth, Charles Umbanhowar Jr., Bob
Jacobel, and Eric Cole were funded.
+ Jeff Schwinefus, Kim Kandl, Doug Beussman, and Uta Wolfe have grants
pending.
+ Howard Thorsheim and Dick Brown are resubmitting.
+ Pre-tenure faculty develoment grants (Kim Kandl completed; Jason
Engbrecht and Jean Porterfield awarded).
+ Faculty develoment grants - Rich Allen and Dick Brown.
+ Institutional - HHMI, NSF, LI-COR funded; Keck, Kresge Green Building,
Kresge Science Equipment pending.
+ Total in $3 million range successful, $1 million pending.
Sabbaticals were awarded next year for Charles Umbanhowar Jr., Gary Miessler, Amy Kolan, and Howard Thorsheim.
Departing Faculty
+ Muir Eaton
+ Young Yoo
+ Bill Jurney
+ Steve Cronin
+ Uta Wolfe
+ Sujeev Wickramasekara
+ David Molnar
+ Matt Bloss
+ Randy Bailey
