Dec. 18, 1997/ Volume 17, Number 12
News Bureau | Calendar | II Info | II Archives
- UI economist study: CEOs who serve on each other's boards get paid better
- A chief executive officer gets as much as 17 percent more pay when he and a fellow CEO sit on each other's board of directors.
- Book explores large, growing phenomenon: the academic couple
- With the publication of "Academic Couples: Problems and Promises" (UI Press), a clear and detailed picture emerges of the history and status of the academic couple two faculty members living in the same household as spouses or partners.
- Strong growth in Illinois economy predicted
- The Illinois economy will roll forward in 1998, propelled by strong growth in retail trade, services and non-durable goods, UI economists predict in their annual forecast.
- Energy flow in molecules can affect reaction rates
- The transfer of vibrational energy within a molecule long thought to occur nearly instantaneously can actually take place so slowly that overall reaction rates are affected, researchers at the UI say.
- News Notes
- Farnsworth named director of research ... Hammersla named director of RTMO ... NCSA Education Division names Rusch associate director
Dependent tuition waiver expanded ... AISS newsletter features UI Buy ... Open enrollment for shared benefits ... Humboldt chapter formed ... Second Sunday features cellist, pianist
By Mark Reutter
A chief executive officer gets as much as 17 percent more pay when he and a fellow CEO sit on each other's board of directors.
This is one of several findings by a UI economist who has completed the first empirical study of the compensation of chief executive officers (CEOs) and "reciprocal interlocks" on boards of directors. A reciprocal interlock takes place when an employee of one firm serves as a director of a second firm and an employee of the second firm sits on the board of the first.
Kevin F. Hallock, a professor of economics and of labor and industrial relations, found that, on average, CEOs leading interlocked firms earned as much as 46 percent more than non-interlocked CEOs.
However, when important determinants of CEO pay, including a firm's market value and stock performance, were considered, this was reduced substantially. But when firms with documented business relationships were considered not interlocked, there was a substantial difference in CEO pay.
The return on these interlocks ranged from 12 to 17 percent, reflecting the CEO pay premium of interlocked companies without any documented business relationships. Hallock's results were based on 1992 executive pay cross-checked with 1991 and 1993 data, which showed the same trend.
Questions of "cronyism" between CEOs and their boards of directors have been hotly debated on Wall Street and by stockholder groups. A panel of the National Association of Corporate Directors has issued a set of guidelines that outline "best practices" for boards of directors.
Among the practices favored by activists is the banning of interlocking directorships, which they believe encourage board members to look out for each other, not for the shareholders.
Academic studies in the past have examined why CEO compensation at U.S. companies is so high. Some studies have suggested that CEOs are extraordinarily productive and worth what they are paid.
Hallock's study was based on an examination of 600 of the largest companies. The UI economist compiled data on 9,804 director seats held by 7,519 individuals. (Some individuals sit on multiple boards.)
Data on CEO salaries were collected from various annual surveys of executive pay. Hallock included bonuses and other reported compensation such as insurance policies, but excluded exercised stock options because they might not reflect the current year's compensation.
He found that 20 percent of the 600 companies were reciprocally interlocked, with at least one current or retired employee from one company sitting on another company's board and vice versa. Almost half of these interlocks involved current CEOs sitting on each other's boards.
His results were published recently in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.
By Andrea Lynn
One of the things scholars haven't spent much time investigating is right under their noses themselves and their partners.
However, with the publication of "Academic Couples: Problems and Promises" (UI Press), a clear and detailed picture emerges of the history and status of the academic couple two faculty members living in the same household as spouses or partners. Once a rarity, the academic couple today is a large and growing phenomenon. One national sample of married full-time faculty found that 35 percent of men and 40 percent of women had academic spouses.
In the book, 16 researchers probe a wide range of topics, but they find, in general, that the lives of academic couples black, white, married and unmarried, same gender and opposite gender do not differ greatly from those of their colleagues who are not mated with academic partners.
With regard to her study of academics in Illinois, book co-editor and contributor Marianne Ferber described her most significant finding as "in many ways a non-finding." According to Ferber, a professor emerita of economics at the UI, there isn't "a shred of evidence" that academic couples don't perform as well career-wise as everybody else.
"That used to be the assumption, campus gospel," Ferber said, "that when you hired the wife with the husband, the wife would be no damned good. But there's simply no evidence of that. And that, I think, is good." Ferber and her co-editor also found that partners on the same faculty are about equally likely to be hired by research universities, are promoted to full professor at about the same rate, and are paid about the same as other faculty with comparable qualifications.
Some gender disparities were found, however. For example, male academics with academic spouses are less likely to have published as extensively as male academics with non-academic spouses and are paid less; female academics with academic spouses are more likely to publish more, to hold a higher rank, and to be paid more than their female counterparts with non-academic spouses.
For her study of UI spousal accommodation programs, co-editor Jane Loeb, a UI professor of educational psychology, drew on the experiences of 90 couples hired at the UI. Among other things, she found that there is no evidence that spousal hiring undercuts the hiring of minority faculty.
"On the contrary, it seems needed to support the hiring of African-American and Hispanic faculty," Loeb said. However, she also found that "accommodated spouses tend to be in lower priority units than their recruited/retained partners."
In her contribution, Linda Perkins, a professor at the City University of New York, explored the history of African-American academic couples at historically black institutions. She found that the practice in these institutions was to use, rather than to waste, the considerable talents and knowledge of well-educated African-American women by also hiring them.
By Mark Reutter
The Illinois economy will roll forward in 1998, propelled by strong growth in retail trade, services and non-durable goods, UI economists predict in their annual forecast.
The Gross State Product (GSP) is projected to rise 3.9 percent next year to $358.9 billion in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars, amounting to the total value of goods and services produced in Illinois.
"A fundamentally strong national economy presages an upbeat future," concludes the UI report, released Dec. 17 by the Bureau of Economic and Business Research.
The recent financial turmoil in Asia "should not significantly affect the sound economic fundamentals" of the United States and Illinois in the coming year, according to the report.
If the UI predictions hold true, Illinois will enter its seventh year of uninterrupted growth. The last period of such sustained prosperity was in the 1960s when there were eight years of expansion. The current recovery began in earnest in 1992.
Personal income is projected to jump by 3.6 percent in 1998. "The services sector will continue as a major source of statewide growth in personal income, expanding by 4.8 percent in 1998," the report says. "A second important source of the growth in personal income will be the financial sector, including the finance, insurance and real estate industries, which will grow 4 percent."
On the other hand, employment gains next year are liable to be low, the report cautions. Overall, 80,200 new non-farm jobs are expected in 1998, a meager 1.4 percent rise from this year's total. The vast bulk of new jobs (60,800) will be created in the services sector.
Illinois manufacturing will continue its long-term decline as a percentage of the state's total economy. Machinery, metals and other heavy goods will decline by 1.3 percent in 1998, while non-durable manufactured goods will increase 6 percent.
Low manufacturing expansion will translate into few new jobs in the sector. The UI report projects only 19,500 new industrial jobs next year, mostly in the construction trades.
A wild card that will affect the state's future is the export market. In recent years Illinois has outpaced the nation as a whole in export growth, with a large portion of exports going to Canada and Mexico.
As a result, Illinois is expected to be less harmed by the "Asian flu" the economic malaise-striking Korea, Malaysia and Thailand than other sections of the country. Continued losses in overseas exchanges, however, could put a damper on the robust financial sector in Chicago.
The annual "state of the state" report is produced by the research division of the UI College of Commerce and Business Administration. This year's report was written by Harvey B. Westbrook Jr. of the research office.
The forecasts are based on the Illinois Econometric Model developed by UI economists to interrelate the many variables that influence the state economy. The forecasts are based partly on national forecasts generated by the WEFA Group, a forecasting company based in Philadelphia.
By James E. Kloeppel
The transfer of vibrational energy within a molecule long thought to occur nearly instantaneously can actually take place so slowly that overall reaction rates are affected, researchers at the UI say.
Using quantum mechanics, chemical physics professor Peter Wolynes and postdoctoral research associate David Leitner have developed a theory to account for energy flow within large molecules. They recently applied their theory to the kinetics of a well-studied chemical reaction the isomerization of the light-sensitive molecule stilbene.
"The most commonly accepted unimolecular reaction rate theories assume that intramolecular energy flow occurs so rapidly that it doesn't affect reaction rates," said Wolynes, who holds the James R. Eiszner Chair in chemistry at the UI. "However, there is a finite rate to energy flow, and in certain isomerization reactions where the structural rearrangement takes place at very low energies the quantum energy flow can indeed be slow enough to modify the reaction rates."
In the past, chemists have tried to simulate energy transfer in molecules by using classical mechanics, "but the artificially high rates they obtained didn't match the experimental data," Leitner said. "Because molecules are quantum mechanical objects, you have to use quantum mechanics to accurately describe them, particularly for processes occurring at low energies. In the case of stilbene, this was the first time the energy transfer rates were calculated reliably enough to show that they really do matter."
Stilbene is a large molecule that possesses a carbon double bond that rotates when light is absorbed. This torsional mode allows the molecule to undergo an isomerization reaction that transforms it from trans-stilbene to cis-stilbene. Because the stilbene reaction has been extensively studied by both theorists and experimentalists, it provided an ideal test for the new theory.
"Our theory which we call Local Random Matrix Theory emphasizes the local nature of energy flow in the vibrational space of a molecule," Leitner said. "Energy flows through certain preferred paths because some of the vibrational modes couple much more favorably than others. Our theory provides a statistical description of these couplings and introduces selection rules for energy transfer in the vibrational space, yielding a sequential structure for energy flow."
Predictions derived from the theory for vibrational flow rates in stilbene "compare well with those directly measured in the laboratory," Wolynes said, "and our calculations for the resulting reaction rates also compare favorably with the measured rates. These calculations show that the process of transferring energy within the stilbene molecule is, in fact, slow enough to influence the reaction rate, thereby bringing theory and experimental observations into full agreement."
Wolynes and Leitner described their theory in the Dec. 12 issue of Chemical Physics Letters.
Faculty members are invited to the UI's annual retreat on "Teaching for Active Learning," from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 5 in the Illini Union. Keynote speaker is Larry K. Michaelson, professor of management at the University of Oklahoma and former editor of the Journal of Management Education. Michaelson will discuss Team Learning, a comprehensive, small-group-based instructional process. He also will discuss maximizing success in learning teams.
Michaelson received his doctorate in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan; his research interests include the dynamics of group problem-solving, the use of small groups in classroom instruction and the development of instructional approaches for teaching higher-level thinking and group problem-solving skills.
Approximately 20 members of the UI faculty also will share their experiences and expertise in a series of concurrent sessions. These sessions include topics such as learning communities, distance learning and teaching off-site students, technology in the classroom, teams teaching teams, leading discussions, lecturing, active learning in the sciences, large classroom issues and pragmatics, and the 1997-98 Provost's Initiative for Teaching Assessment (PITA) projects.
Marne Helgesen, head of the Division of Instructional Development in the Office of Instructional Resources, is coordinating the retreat with Allan Goody, visiting specialist in education. "The retreats have become so popular, that in addition to registration filling up quickly, we now have faculty members approaching us who wish to be presenters in the concurrent sessions," Helgesen said.
More than 200 faculty members have participated in each of the four previous retreats and by all accounts, rate the retreats very highly. Registration is limited, so interested faculty members should register early through Conferences and Institutes, 333-9561 or by e-mail through the World Wide Web at: http://www.conted.ceps.uiuc.edu/ci/retreat.
The UI's Campus Charitable Fund Drive concluded this month, raising $782,723 and surpassing its goal of $725,000.
Hundreds of UI faculty and staff members contributed their time as section and unit leaders while thousands more donated to the drive.
"That the volunteers worked so hard and the faculty and staff [members] gave so generously this year demonstrates that this is indeed an extraordinary community of people who share the belief that helping others elevates us all," said May Berenbaum, professor of entomology and chair of this year's fund drive.
The UI's participation in the drive dates back to 1929. And, according to Bill Kitson, executive director of the United Way of Champaign County, the university's participation is an integral part of the agency's annual drive.
"The UI Campus Charitable Fund Drive is very important to the Champaign County community, contributing more than one-fifth of the total amount raised by United Way of Champaign County each year," Kitson said. "United Way and its affiliated agencies rely on the support of university employees to help make a difference in our community."
For the breakdown of the drive by section, please see our page 2 of this issue's PDF file.
By Andrea Lynn
Like the peregrine falcon, 200,000 historical aerial photographs of Illinois are endangered. A victim of overuse, the collection owned by the UI is getting new life. Since May, 270 of the bird's-eye views of the Land of Lincoln have been digitally preserved. They also have been put on the Internet, for quick, efficient use by genealogists, history societies and law, environmental and engineering firms.
This is just the first step in the Historic Air Photo Imagebase, the UI pilot project that combines the expertise of the university's Map and Geography Library, Digital Imaging Initiative (DII) and Geographic Modeling Systems Laboratory (GMSL), with a corporate partner, Scantech Color Systems Inc. of Champaign. The Illinois State Library supports the project.
According to Jenny Marie Johnson, head of the UI map library and co-director of the project, with Beth Sandore of DII and Doug Johnston of GMSL, the project aims to conserve a badly deteriorated collection and to provide innovative electronic access, including downloading of images, to digital information. "An important element of this research and development is the collaboration of library and information science specialists with experts in geography and geographic information systems," Johnson said. It is likely that 60,000 more photos will be taken under wing and into the imagebase. "If we lose a photo, it is lost forever," she said.
Using the images, one can examine the change over time of rivers, cities, buildings and of waste materials. In fact, the archive provides "the only remaining footprints of historical land and resource usage in Illinois," Johnson said. Until now, retrieval and reproduction of the photographs has been time-intensive and has jeopardized the photos. The photographs targeted for digital preservation and access were taken between 1935 and 1955 by subcontractors for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, used in field studies, then deposited at the UI's map library as the USDA obtained new sets.
The photos literally are falling apart. "They have pinholes on them, and they have been marked with ball point pen and china marker. The emulsion is shrinking, and the images are curling and fading. There are lots of problems because they were used in real-life field survey, because we never have been able to store them appropriately, and because they are so heavily used here." Another problem: The negatives have self-destructed.
The photo project also is a springboard to the future role of the library, Johnson said.
"Traditionally, libraries have excelled at purchasing and taking care of data, but for the most part, it's been conveniently packaged in books and later in microfiche, microfilm, CD-ROM and bibliographic databases. We're producing a numeric database that describes spatial phenomena that's what these digital aerial photographs are. And this is a very different kind of role for a library." The project Web site is at http://images.grainger.uiuc.edu/airphotos.htm.
By Shannon Vicic
Arthur C. Clarke, author of the classic science-fiction novel, "2001: A Space Odyssey," and other visionary works of fiction and non-fiction, has been named a recipient of the UI Presidential Award and Medallion.
Clarke is being honored for his numerous literary and scientific achievements as well as for the unique relationship he created with the UI at Urbana-Champaign when he named Urbana the birthplace of HAL 9000, the on-board computer in the novel and film, "2001: A Space Odyssey." A representative of the university will present the award to Clarke in Sri Lanka, where Clarke has lived since 1956.
HAL's birthday was the impetus for Cyberfest '97, a weeklong festival of computers and technology held in March 1997 on the Urbana-Champaign campus. Clarke participated in the festival's closing event, the Cyberfest Gala, by means of the Internet.
Clarke's participation in and support of Cyberfest '97 "helped create an unforgettable experience for those who attended the event," said Michael Aiken, the chancellor of the UI at Urbana-Champaign.
In addition to honoring Clarke's many achievements, the award recognized his role in Cyberfest and honored his 80th birthday on Dec. 16.
According to Clarke, he chose Urbana as HAL's birthplace because George McVittie, his mentor at King's College in London, left England in 1952 to become chair of the UI astronomy department. McVittie was a member of the university's faculty until his retirement in 1972.
Clarke has published more than 70 books, including such science-fiction works as "Childhood's End," "Islands in the Sky," "The Hammer of God" and several novels based on "2001: A Space Odyssey." His most recent novel, "3001: The Final Odyssey," was released in March by Del Rey Books.
Ten other people have been honored with the UI Presidential Award and Medallion. Among those who have received the award are James B. "Scotty" Reston, a UI alumnus and longtime columnist for the New York Times; Walter Robb, vice president of General Electric; and Fidel V. Ramos, a UI alumnus and president of the Philippines.
Patel, who completed his degree in sociology in three years, lives in Chicago and works for the Chicago Academy of Sciences as an outreach educator, visiting impoverished public schools in the city.
The scholarship provides for study at Oxford University in England, covering the cost of tuition, fees and travel. Patel will do original research in educational studies.
At the UI, Patel earned a straight-A average and was part of the Campus Honors Program. He lived for two years at the Unit 1 Living and Learning Center at Allen Hall.
While at the UI, Patel also did a lot of volunteer work, including at the Center for Women in Transition and the Men's Emergency Shelter.
One of 32 Rhodes' winners announced on Saturday night, Patel is the first winner from the Urbana-Champaign campus since 1991.
Established in 1902, the Rhodes scholarship program was created by Cecil Rhodes, who decreed that those selected embody leadership and character, in addition to academic excellence.
UI Provost Larry R. Faulkner was appointed president of the University of Texas at Austin Dec. 16.
UI Chancellor Michael Aiken expressed the university's appreciation for Faulkner's contributions. "Larry Faulkner is an extraordinarily gifted administrator with superb academic values," Aiken said. "He is also a very decent human being. This campus is deeply appreciative of his many years of service here in a variety of capacities, and we all know that he will be a great success as president of the University of Texas. We wish him well."
Although it was not immediately known when Faulkner would assume his duties at Austin, Aiken said that steps would be taken right away to find an interim provost.
"We will now begin the consultation process to find an interim provost." Aiken said. "And we will put together a search committee by the beginning of the spring semester to find a permanent replacement." He anticipated the search process would take at least six to nine months.
Faulkner, a chemist who received a Ph.D. from UT-Austin in 1969, joined the UI faculty in 1973 and spent the rest of his academic career at the UI except for 1983-84 when he was a professor of chemistry at UT-Austin.
Faulkner, who was a finalist for president at the University of Michigan last year, was the last of five candidates that met with UT's campus and community leaders last month. During his interview Nov. 25, Faulkner spotlighted his ties to UT and the goals he would pursue as its leader: seeing more students graduate in four years, enhancing UT's national reputation and attracting a balanced student body that reflects the state's population.
He and the four other finalists voiced concern about the federal court's Hopwood decision, which led to a dismantling of affirmative action programs for students.
William H. Cunningham, chancellor of the UT System, said: "Dr. Faulkner comes to UT-Austin with an extraordinary record of achievement in managing large and complex academic enterprises. He has a thorough understanding of and appreciation for the diverse constituencies of an institution such as UT-Austin, and he will be a great president for this university."
Faulkner, a native of Shreveport, La., earned a bachelor of science degree from Southern Methodist University in 1966 and then enrolled in graduate school at UT-Austin. He was a member of the chemistry faculty of Harvard University from 1969 to 1973 before moving to Illinois.
After holding a succession of faculty and administrative positions at Illinois, Faulkner was appointed provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs in 1994.
Faulkner is the author or co-author of more than 120 research papers on topics that include electrochemistry and electroanalytical chemistry, fluorescence spectroscopy, transfer processes in systems of controlled chemical architecture, and chemiluminescence.
With UT-Austin chemistry professor Allen J. Bard, he is the author of a textbook on electrochemical methods.
Faulkner is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Electrochemical Society. In 1994 he received the Special Maria Sklodowska Curie Medal from the Polish Chemical Society.
He has been active in numerous professional associations, including serving as president of the Electrochemical Society, vice president of the International Society of Electrochemistry, and an officer in the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
Faulkner will succeed Robert M. Berdahl, a former UI administrator, who resigned from UT last spring to become chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley. Berdahl, formerly UI's provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, left the UI in 1993 to assume the presidency. Former UT-Austin President Peter T. Flawn has been serving as interim president.
By Andrea Lynn
Leon Dash, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Washington Post, has accepted a 75 percent appointment with the UI department of journalism and a 25 percent appointment with the UI Afro-American Studies and Research Program.
Dash, who won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism for a series of stories about one family's six-generation entrapment in America's urban underclass, will begin working at the UI in August.
A reporter for the Post's investigative/projects desk since 1984, Dash is working on a project about the huge rise over the past decade in the number of homicides committed by young men, including adolescents. He began his career in journalism as a Post copy boy in 1965, and since then has served the paper in a variety of capacities, including on the city desk, the Maryland desk, the foreign desk and in the West Africa Bureau, the latter as chief.
"Bringing Leon Dash into our department not only adds to an already strong faculty of former professionals, but also will allow us to craft some distinctive courses in the realm of investigative urban journalism, which is a reporting discipline that Leon essentially developed at the Washington Post," said Ronald E. Yates, professor of journalism and head of the journalism department.
"Leon is a world-class journalist who will bring more than 30 years of experience to a world-class journalism program."
Kim Rotzoll, dean of the UI College of Communications, calls Dash "a man of extraordinary talents and personal and professional presence."
"I feel certain that he will be an immediate asset to his students, his colleagues in our college and to the university community," Rotzoll said.
According to Dianne Pinderhughes, a UI professor of political science and director of the Afro-American Studies and Research Program, Dash is "a veteran reporter who has developed a unique approach to his work that involves meticulous ethnographic field research."
"Through that work, he explores the lives of Rosa Lee Cunningham, her family and other groups of people teen-age
parents and young male killers, the subjects of his current research. Dash's work is of interest to a wide range of faculty members associated with Afro-American Studies, and we are delighted and privileged that he will join us."
The reporting Dash is doing for his current investigative series will result in his fourth book, "Young Male Killers: America's Urban Street Wars." His most recent book, "Rosa Lee: A Mother and Her Family in Urban America," is based on his four years of reporting on the Cunningham family for the Post series that won the Pulitzer.
Dash's previous books are "When Children Want Children: The Urban Crisis in Adolescent Childbearing" and "The Shame of the Prisons," co-written with Ben Bagdikian.
Dash also has won numerous other awards, including an Emmy from the Washington, D.C., chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his work on a public television documentary based on his Rosa Lee series; first prize in the 1995 Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism award competition; a special citation for nonfiction work in 1990 from PEN/Martha Albrand; and the 1974 George Polk Award from the Overseas Press Club.
After his Rosa Lee articles were published in the Post, Dash led a White House discussion on the policy implications of Lee's life. His book research has been supported by the Annie E. Casey, Joyce and Rockefeller foundations, among others. Dash's work often is cited in academic books and journals, and a portion of his Rosa Lee series is included in William David Sloan's "Masterpieces of Reporting."
Dash was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Harlem and the Bronx in New York City. He earned his bachelor's degree in history from Howard University in 1968.
Farnsworth named director of research
Norman R. Farnsworth, a research professor in the College of Pharmacy at the UI at Chicago, has been named director of research for Functional Foods for Health, a joint program of the UI's Urbana-Champaign and Chicago campuses.
Farnsworth is an expert on herbal remedies and medical botany. He has served as director of the UIC Program for Collaborative Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Farnsworth was a member of the Presidential Commission on Dietary Supplement Labels, which last month delivered its final report on legislative recommendations to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He also is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Herb Research Foundation and has served on the Expert Panel on Traditional Medicine of the World Health Organization since 1983.
Farnsworth received his bachelor's and master's degrees in pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and a doctoral degree from the University of Pittsburgh.
Functional Foods for Health was created by the UI in response to growing consumer awareness of the crucial link between diet and health. Approximately 90 scientists from 29 academic units or departments are affiliated with the program. They work with producers and processors of foods, dietary supplements and ingredients to identify, create and market foods that are both safe and functional for human consumption.
More information about the Functional Foods for Health program can be found on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~ffh/ffh.html.
Hammersla named director of RTMO
Ann M. Hammersla has been named director of the Research and Technology Management Office at the UI. She also will be the associate vice chancellor for research. The director of the Office of Sponsored Programs and Technology Transfer at Syracuse University since 1989, Hammersla expects to begin work at the UI in early February.
Hammersla replaces Melvin DeGeeter, who left the position to pursue other opportunities. William J. Hall has been the interim director of RTMO since April.
The Research and Technology Management Office, established in 1995 as a unit of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, primarily is responsible for facilitating research relationships between faculty members and other researchers and government entities, industrial sponsors and other organizations, including negotiation assistance with sponsored research contracts and other research-related agreements; providing in-house technology commercialization services to transfer intellectual property created on the Urbana-Champaign campus into practical use for the public benefit as quickly and effectively as possible; and formulating, implementing and overseeing academic research policies that encourage the discovery and development of knowledge and its transfer for the public benefit.
Prior to working for Syracuse University, Hammersla was the assistant director for intellectual property and policy analysis in the Office of Research and Project Administration at the University of Rochester (1987-88); from 1982 to 1987, she was the assistant director of the Office of Research and Project Administration at Rochester.
Hammersla (pronounced hammer-slay)earned a law degree from Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Rochester.
NCSA Education Division names Rusch associate director
Frank Rusch, a national leader in the field of special education and a UI professor of education, has been named associate director of the Education Division of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the UI.
Rusch will serve as a liaison between the center and educators throughout the United States. He also will play a key role in supporting the diverse Education, Outreach and Training (EOT) teams of the National Computational Science Alliance. The alliance is a group of more than 50 universities, government institutions and industry researchers working together to develop the nation's information and computing infrastructure. Recently funded by the National Science Foundation, the alliance is led by the supercomputing center.
Alliance EOT teams work as part of the NSF's national Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) program in Education, Outreach and Training. The program links the alliance and its sister PACI partnership, the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure, to ensure that the technological advances made by the PACI partnerships can be productively employed in other sectors of society, including schools, industry and government.
"Frank will be instrumental in seeing that the technological advances pioneered by the alliance are disseminated to the larger community including our schools, government, industry and sectors of society that in the past have been underserved by the computing and communications market," said Larry Smarr, director of the supercomputing center and the alliance.
"We will focus on identifying leading-edge technology tools and resources for application in education, business and lifelong learning," Rusch said, "as well as the development of emerging computational science and visualization tools and learning resources for potential larger-scale applications."
To be eligible, a child must be a natural, adopted or stepchild of an eligible employee and be enrolled in an undergraduate degree program. An employee must have 50 percent or greater employment over a minimum of seven academic years in any of the above institutions and in a capacity that is eligible for participation in the State Universities Retirement System.
Forms must be submitted at the institution where the student is enrolled. In all cases, a Disclosure/Certification of Illinois Public University Employment form must be completed. This form is available from and must be verified by the Academic Human Resources Office/Personnel Services Office.
For further information, contact the campus financial aid office at the institution where the student is enrolled.
The current and final printed issue of "The Integrated Circuit" focuses on UI Buy and the redesign of the UI procurement process. Anyone may request a copy of this issue by sending e-mail to tic@uillinois.edu. In addition, an Acrobat PDF version can be found on the AISS Web site. To become an electronic subscriber, any university employee who is not currently a TIC subscriber may send e-mail to the above address with "subscribe" on a message line. All electronic subscribers will receive an announcement each time a new online issue of TIC is published.
Further information about the program and applications for donating to the pool are available from the Office of Academic Human Resources, 333-6747. Forms are due by Jan. 23. Employees who have previously contributed to the pool still maintain eligibility.
Named after the German scientist-explorer-writer, the Humboldt Foundation awards competitive grants to postdoctoral scientists and scholars worldwide to do research in Germany. For non-Germans, the awards include the Humboldt and Max Planck Research Prizes, Junior Faculty Fellowships and Federal Chancellor Fellowships. Feodor-Lynen Research Fellowships are given to young German scholars coming to U.S. universities to work with Humboldt scholars.
About 60 UI faculty members are former recipients of Humboldt awards, said Krause, who won the prize in 1992. "The chapter will point promising potential candidates toward this generous source of support and will encourage invitations of Germany scholars to this campus for cooperative projects."
The chapter's first general meeting took place last month in Champaign. The chapter plans to hold several interdisciplinary events in the coming year. So far, chapters have been established in 18 states and a national conference is planned this spring in New York under the theme of culture and politics.
Charles A. Wert, professor emeritus of materials science, was elected vice president of the local chapter last month, and U. Henry Gerlach, professor of German, was chosen secretary-treasurer.
The free concert, at the Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, will be broadcast live on WILL-FM (90.9) with host Vic DiGeronimo.
Khoma, who won first prize at the 1990 Belgrade International Cello Competition, has performed as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras throughout the former Soviet Union, as well as the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East.
McHugh, a faculty scholar at the UI, has performed numerous solo and chamber recitals. Her participation in workshops, masters classes and music festivals has included performances in Germany, Japan and Switzerland.
The duo's Second Sunday Concert will include Bach's Prelude, "Sarabande," "Gigue" from Suite in C major for cello solo; Schubert's Sonata in A minor (Arpeggione) for cello and piano; Brahms' Sonata in E minor, Op. 38, for cello and piano; and Bartok's "Romanian Folk Dances."
The Office of Academic Human Resources, Suite 420, 807 S. Wright St., maintains the listings for faculty and academic professional positions. More complete descriptions are available in that office during regular business hours. Job listings are also updated weekly on its Web site at: http://www.oc.uiuc.edu/ahr/ahrjobrg.htm. Any other information may be obtained from the person indicated in the listing.
academic professional
Administrative Information Systems and Services. Research programmer. BS in computer science, business data processing or related areas required with minimum two years' experience in information processing. Working knowledge of UNIX operating system and utilities and related database principles, application development techniques and practices preferred. Available immediately. Susan Nelson McLain, 333-8635, smn@uillinois.edu. Closing date: Dec. 31.
Administrative Information Systems and Services. Senior research programmer. BS in computer science, electrical engineering, management information systems or related technical field required. Minimum two years' experience with computer systems required. Experience with micro architecture, LAN, WAN and working knowledge of Windows, Macintosh or UNIX as well as Microsoft Office Suite required. Available immediately. Susan Nelson McLain, 333-8635, aissap@uillinois.edu. Closing date: Jan. 1.
Grants and Contracts Office. Research programmer. BA/BS and minimum two years' experience with personal computer applications and ability to implement advanced Microsoft applications required. Minimum $30,000. Available Jan. 20. Daniel Gordon, 333-9272, dgordon@illinois.edu. Closing date: Jan. 12.
Illinois MBA Program. Director of recruiting, marketing and admissions. MA/MS required, preferably in business administration or related field. Minimum five years' experience in administration, marketing and/or recruiting required. Available Feb. 16. Scott Buechler, 244-8019, sbuechle@illinois.edu. Closing date: Jan. 23.
Information Technology and Communication Services, Office of. Network analyst. BA/BS and minimum three years' experience administering networks and providing user support required. Experience with Windows NT, Novell Netware, Windows 95 required. Available immediately. Nancy Mickenbecker, 244-0477, nancym@illinois.edu. Closing date: Jan. 15.
Materials Research Lab. Research engineer, design. MS in mechanical and industrial engineering or related field of engineering and minimum two years' experience in X-ray optical design and detailed knowledge of CAD required. Available immediately. Donna Jacobs, 244-2944. Closing date: Jan. 5.
Recreation, Division of Campus. Assistant director, fitness program. BA/BS required, MA/MS preferred in exercise physiology or related field. Minimum one year's experience, including personal training required. ACE, ACSM or CSCS certification preferred. Available July 1. Robyn Deterding, 244-6423, rdeterdi@illinois.edu. Closing date: Feb. 23.
Veterinary Medicine. Veterinary research specialist, veterinary biosciences. BS in biological science with minimum three years' experience required or MS in biological science with minimum one year experience. Available immediately. Linda Swett, 333-8933. Closing date: Dec. 26.
Personnel Services Office, 52 E. Gregory Drive, Champaign, conducts open and continuous testing for civil service classifications used on campus. More information is available by calling 333-2137. Or visit its Web site at: www.uiuc.edu/providers/pso/pso.html
A report of honors, awards, offics and other outstanding achievements of faculty and staff members
Rosemary Laughlin, teaching associate at University Laboratory High School, presented a session at the annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English, that was held Nov. 20-25 in Detroit. In a session titled "Rediscovering the Dictionary: History, Skills, Poetry," Laughlin demonstrated a one- to two-week teaching unit about dictionaries. She has published numerous articles in scholarly and professional journals about dictionaries and their place in the English curriculum.
Lisa Micele, college counselor at University Laboratory High School, was honored in May at the annual conference of the Illinois Association for College Admission Counseling. Micele received the association's Newcomer Award, which recognizes significant contributions by those members with fewer than five years of involvement in the IACAC or in the profession of counseling.
Nancy P. O'Brien, professor of library administration, social sciences division coordinator and head of the Education and Social Science Library, has been named winner of the 1997 Distinguished Education and Behavioral Sciences Librarian Award. This award is sponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries and its Education and Behavioral Sciences Section and honors a distinguished academic librarian who has made an outstanding contribution as an education and/or behavioral sciences librarian through accomplishments and services to the profession. O'Brien was noted for her contributions to the professional literature through her research on historical curriculum collections test collections, and resources for educators.
Chrisann Schiro-Geist, professor of community health, was named a recipient of the 1997 Faculty Service Award given by the University Continuing Education Association, Region IV. The association recognizes faculty members who make significant contributions in the provisions of continuing professional education opportunities. Schiro-Geist received the award at the region's fall meeting.
Robert Skirvin, professor of horticulture, received the Excellence in College and University Teaching in the Food and Agricultural Sciences Award. The award is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. The regional award, one of eight given each year, includes a stipend of $2,000 to be used by the recipient for the improvement of teaching at his college or university. The association cited Skirvin as an internationally recognized researcher, who focuses on tissue culture of fruit crops, and as a popular and effective teacher.
Chris Thompson, teaching associate at University Laboratory High School, has been named to a new committee of the Association of Teachers of Japanese. Thompson, who also heads the Center for Improvement of Teaching Japanese Language and Culture, joined the ATJ team that is looking at ways to support secondary school teachers. Thompson also is serving the second year of a two-year term on the Japanese Language Exchange Program (JALEX) regional advisory panel. The JALEX program provides Japanese teaching assistance to some 160 secondary schools all over the world.
UI's department of physics has been selected as an Employer of the Year for 1997 by the Champaign Developmental Services Center. The purpose of the award is to recognize a business that has made a significant contribution to the support of services for developmentally disabled individuals and for outstanding efforts in employing disabled people. Raymond Borelli, then assistant to the head of the department, first contacted DSC in May 1996 to inquire about the possibility of DSC providing someone to set up and manage a food and beverage cart for daily physics department meetings and coffee breaks. The department then hired two people from DSC for a total of 15 hours a week. Borelli and the department were recognized at the DSC's 11th annual recognition dinner Oct. 9.
Nancy Koeneman
Archer joined the UI faculty in 1962, and was well known for his work in a collaborative research program between the UI and the University of Tehran. From 1966 to 1970, he was director of the Tehran Research Unit, which facilitated collaboration between the two universities. Archer was interested in ethno-linguistics and spent much of his time in Iran during his career with the UI.
He also served in the Navy in 1945.
Survivors include his wife, Forough; and a son.
Memorial contributions may be made to a charity of the donor's choice.
Becker was on the UI faculty from 1946 to 1959. He received two successive Guggenheim appointments from 1958 to 1960 and then joined Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, Calif. He retired to Carmel, Calif. in 1973.
Johnson graduated from Earlham College, Richmond, Ind., in 1956. He pursued graduate studies in geology at the UI and received a master's degree in 1961 and a doctoral degree in 1962.
Johnson retired from the UI as a professor and associate head of the geology department in 1995 after 33 years as a faculty member. He became associate head of the department in 1991 and was acting head from 1993 to 1994.
His research interests included quaternary stratigraphy, glacial geology and geomorphology. He was the author of numerous professional papers, books and reports.
He taught field geology at the UI Geology Field Camp in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming during the 1960s and '70s and was director of the camp from 1964 to 1968 and 1976 to 1979. He taught at the Wasatch Uinta Geology Summer Field Camp at Park City, Utah, from 1992 to 1993. He also taught an introductory course on the geology of the national parks and monuments for students who were not majoring in geology.
Johnson was a research affiliate and consultant with the Illinois State Geological Survey. The Geological Survey presented him a Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award in 1995.
Johnson also served in the Army at Fort McClellan, Anniston, Ala., from 1956 to 1958.
Surviving are his wife, Joyce; two sons; a daughter; and three grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to sarcoma research in care of S. Patel and Peter Pisters, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Melanoma and Sarcoma, Box 77, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX 77030.
Peyton was employed by the UI for more than 35 years as a dairy herdsman.
He served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific during World War II.
He is survived by his wife, Helen; a son; a stepson; a stepdaughter; two sisters; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society.