Shannon Smith has been named the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (UCAA) Softball Player of the Year. A senior pitcher/utility player, Smith was also named to the All-UCAA First Team, along with six of her teammates. Two Red Hawks earned Second Team honors. Also selected to the league's First Team were senior catcher Leanna Smith, Shannon's identical twin sister, senior first baseman Megan Porter, senior second baseman Marissa Crifasi, freshman shortstop Stephanie Vanek, sophomore centerfielder Liz Vitaliano, and freshman designated player Amy Huling. Vanek was also named to the All-UCAA Second Team as a pitcher, as was junior leftfielder Laura Feeney. The league's coaches choose the award winners and All-UCAA teams. 5/19/03

Laura Feeney has been named to the 2003 Verizon Academic All-District I College Division Softball First Team. Feeney, a junior who was also selected to the All-District First Team last year, is now eligible for Verizon National Academic All-America consideration. An outfielder, Feeney boasts a 3.86 cumulative grade point average as a civil engineering & industrial and management engineering dual major. She has been awarded the Rensselaer Alumni and Emily Roebling Scholarships and is a member of the Society of Women in Engineering, the Women at Rensselaer Mentoring Program, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and the Athletic Board. On the field this season, Feeney batted .266 with five doubles, 19 runs scored, and 11 runs batted in during 28 games for the Red Hawks (15-14). 5/19/03

Women’s lacrosse players Mary Roy and Mary Beth Cooley have been chosen for All-Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (UCAA) post-season honors. Roy, a junior midfielder and team captain, has been named to the All-UCAA Second Team while Cooley, a junior attack, was an Honorable Mention selection. In 14 games for the Red Hawks (5-9 overall; 2-6 UCAA), Roy tallied 12 goals and four assists for 16 points. She led the team in assists, ground balls, draw controls, and caused turnovers. Cooley was the top goal scorer (27) and point producer (28) for the Red Hawks this year. She also had an assist, 28 ground balls, nine draw controls, and four caused turnovers. She scored at least one goal in each of the first 13 games and she had eight multiple goal games. 5/19/03

George List, professor and chair of civil and environmental engineering, will receive the David M. Darrin Counseling Award at Commencement May 17. The award was established by David Darrin ’40 to recognize a faculty member who has made an unusual contribution in the counseling of students and who demonstrates special concern for the welfare of students in and out of the classroom. The selection of the award recipient is made by Phalanx, the student leadership honorary society. 5/12/03

Peter Schroth, professor; James Stodder, associate professor; and Preeti Sharma, assistant professor, all from the Lally School of Management and Technology at Rensselaer at Hartford, presented a paper at the annual conference of the International Academy of African Business and Development (www.iaabd.org) in London, April 9-12. Their paper, titled “Transparency and Information Technology: Toward an Empirical Relationship,” received one of two awards for “Highly Commended Paper” presented by Emerald Publishing. Awards were presented to three of the 89 papers published in the refereed proceedings. Schroth teaches international finance and is director of the Center for Global Business Studies in the Lally School and the editor of the Journal of Business in Developing Nations. Stodder teaches business economics and is one of the authors of the book Better Thinking, Better Results: Using the Power of Lean as a Total Business Solution, which was selected as a Shingo Research and Professional Publication Prize Recipient for 2003. Sharma’s expertise is in marketing and e-commerce. She is the founder of the Connecticut chapter of the Internet Society. 5/12/03

The Rensselaer men’s track and field team won its second consecutive New York State Collegiate Track Conference (NYSCTC) Championship Meet, setting a meet record for team points in the process. The Engineers earned 204 points to win the 14-team, two-day event, which was held at St. Lawrence University. For his team's effort, head coach Colin Tory was selected as the NYSCTC Men's Coach of the Year for the second straight season. Among the winners for Rensselaer was junior Dwaine Alleyne, who won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.12 and the triple jump with a distance of 14.38 meters. In addition, senior Ryan Quiller won the pole vault (4.56 meters), Jimmy Motzkin won the javelin with an NCAA provisional distance of 58.01 meters, and Joe Otto finished first in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:54.84. Otto helped the Engineers sweep the 800 run as Adam Day placed second (1:55.19) and Mike Winnick finished third (1:55.62). On the women's side, junior Allison Benson finished first in the pole vault with a New York State Meet record height of 3.49 meters. 5/12/03

The Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (UCAA) has announced its year-end men's lacrosse award winners and eight Rensselaer student-athletes have been recognized. Among the Red Hawks' honorees were freshman Adam LoGiudice, who was named the Rookie of the Year, and junior Lucas Ruglis, who was selected to the All-UCAA First Team. Named to the All-UCAA Second Team were LoGiudice, sophomore attack Nick Culotti, sophomore midfielder Ryan Frisch, junior defenseman Corey Ingram, and sophomore defenseman Joe Panniello. Junior Andrew Teichman, a midfielder, and senior Matthew Moog, a goaltender, were All-UCAA Honorable Mention selections. 5/12/03

Amri Abdul-Karim, a graduate student in computer and systems engineering who does work in the Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (CenSSIS), has won the 2003 Presidential Student Award from the Microscopy Society of America for his work on quantifying changes in tumor vasculature from multi-photon 3-D image series in collaboration with MGH/Harvard. According to Badri Roysam, director of CenSSIS, “This project is a beautiful example of what can happen when the finest engineers, biologists, biochemists, and biophysicists come together and harmonize their tools and talents in service of an important societal need.” 5/5/03

Merritt Abrash, professor emeritus of cultural study, has published a book titled Mindful of Utopia (1stBooks Library), “a futuristic tale of a man thrown headfirst into a parallel world that is both ideal and disconcerting.” Abrash taught the course Utopia in Theory and Practice at Rensselaer for many years. In 1976 he initiated the Society for Utopian Studies, which has become the leading scholarly organization in the field. 5/5/03