Campus News: Week of September 24, 2001

NSF Awards Rensselaer $10 Million for Nanotechnology Center

At a standing-room-only press conference last Wednesday, Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson announced the selection of Rensselaer by the National Science Foundation as one of six national Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers (NSEC). Rensselaer will receive $10 million over five years from NSF to fund the center, with additional funding from New York state, Rensselaer, and industry.

Rensselaer and two other New York universities, Cornell and Columbia, received an NSF NSEC. The other recipients are Northwestern, Harvard, and Rice universities.

"We are elated to be one of the six universities to be named an NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center," said President Jackson. "It is my firm belief that scientific research and technological advances help the economy, and more importantly the role of national security in New York, the country, and the world."

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) declared, "With this designation, Rensselaer will be at the forefront of nanotechnology research and development." He added, "The state has joined the federal government and private businesses in making a major commitment so Rensselaer has the best lab facilities and the best researchers."

Representing Governor George Pataki, Dr. Russell Bessette, executive director of New York State Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR), emphasized the economic impact of three New York centers. "These awards establish the Empire State as the primary locus for nanotechnology development in the country, and will lead to the creation of new jobs for New Yorkers," he said.

Richard Siegel, Robert W. Hunt Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer and head of the center, said, "Nanostructuring is the beginning of a revolutionary new age in manipulating materials for the good of humanity."

Also in attendance were Michael Sullivan, representing U.S. Congressman Michael McNulty, Rensselaer County Executive Kathy Jimino, and Troy Mayor Mark Pattison

For press release on the center, click here.

Philip Casabella Earns Trustees' Outstanding Teacher Award

Philip Casabella '54, professor of physics and associate chair of physics, applied physics, and astronomy, has received the Trustees' Outstanding Teacher Award for 2001. Established in 1994 by Rensselaer's Board of Trustees, the award, with a $5,000 honorarium, annually recognizes outstanding accomplishments in classroom instruction. The committee's selection is based on sustained outstanding teaching as reflected by student evaluations.

Casabella, who has taught physics at Rensselaer for 40 years and who served as department chair during his tenure, is perhaps best known to generations of students for continuing the popular "Physics Magic Show," which introduced physics majors and nonmajors alike to the basic principles of physics.

"You have continued the creative tradition of your esteemed predecessors Walter Eppenstein and Robert Resnick, bringing humor and innovation to classes and lectures," the board said in its citation.

Casabella earned a bachelor's in 1954 and a master's in 1957—both in physics—from Rensselaer and a doctorate from Brown in 1959. He was instrumental in implementing the "studio" mode of instruction in the physics department.

In the words of one former student, "It is more than a passion for teaching that makes Phil an outstanding teacher. It is his compassion for students that makes him one of the elite. Being an outstanding teacher goes well beyond passing on information. Phil turned my love of physics into a passion, engaged me in my work in the laboratory, and nurtured my self confidence."

Board of Trustees Appointment

At its fall board meeting last week, the Rensselaer Board of Trustees named Jackson P. Tai '72 a full member of the board. Tai, president and chief operating officer of DBS Bank in Singapore, had been an adjunct trustee, serving on the finance committee, since 1999.

Tai joined DBS as chief financial officer in July 1999. Prior to his appointment at DBS Bank, Tai was a managing director and member of the management committee of J.P. Morgan & Co.'s Investment Banking Division.

From 1995 to 1999, Tai was based in San Francisco as Morgan's senior officer in the western United States. Between 1992 and 1995, while stationed in Tokyo, he was chairman of the management committee for J.P. Morgan's businesses in the Asia Pacific region.

Tai serves on the boards of Singapore Telecommunications, Singapore Productivity & Standards Board, CapitaLand, and K1 Ventures. In April 1996, Tai was appointed to a 17-member White House Commission on United States-Pacific Trade and Investment Policy.

Tai is a director of the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore, and is a commissioner of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. He is a board member of the Smithsonian Institution, the Committee of 100 and the San Francisco Symphony, the Bank of Philippine Islands, and the BPI Capital Corporation.

Tai joined Morgan in 1974 immediately after receiving his MBA from Harvard University, where he was a recipient of a Sloan COGME fellowship. He received a bachelor of science management in 1972 from Rensselaer.

Ecker Honored for Service as Dean of Lally School

President Jackson hosted a celebration Sept. 14 to honor Joseph Ecker for his service as dean of the Lally School of Management and Technology. Ecker, the Edward P. Hamilton Distinguished Educator, has been an active faculty member at the Institute for 33 years. He became dean of the Lally School in January 1998, and stepped down in July to return to teaching and research.

"Joe's time as dean of the Lally School was marked by the same high level of dedication and service that has distinguished his academic career at Rensselaer," Jackson said in her remarks.

Ecker has been recognized for his teaching and research excellence over the years with the Rensselaer Trustees Outstanding Teaching Award and the Boeing Outstanding Educator Award.

"No student who has had the privilege of being taught by Professor Ecker forgets him, as Joe employs a novel approach to remembering the name of each student," Jackson said. "Indeed, he's famous on campus for videotaping the first day of his classes, traversing the classroom with his video camera and capturing each student on videotape stating his or her name. It is a well-spent hour and a half for Joe and his students. This technique makes it very difficult for Joe's students to fall between the cracks—not to mention impossible to cut class!"

Women in Engineering To Benefit From NSF Grant

The School of Engineering at Rensselaer, along with four other universities, received a three-year, $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop and test tools to evaluate programs for women in engineering. These tools will enhance opportunities for women across the country.

Barbara Ruel, director of women in engineering and technology programs at Rensselaer, said that Rensselaer will help evaluate tools such as surveys developed at the University of Missouri at Columbia, which is the lead school on the grant. Other participants, along with Rensselaer and the University of Missouri, are Georgia Institute of Technology, Texas A&M, and Pennsylvania State University.

Rensselaer will receive $82,527 over three years for the project, said Ruel. "Mentoring programs, special women's events, and other activities geared toward women in engineering are effective outreach efforts, but often we cannot measure how effective. This project will give us the tools to see how well we are doing our job and how we can better reach those women and keep them on the path toward graduation," said Ruel.

Community Design Project Involves Students and Staff in Neighborhood Improvement

As part of the Neighborhood Renewal Initiative outlined by the Rensselaer Plan, the Office of Campus Planning and Facility Design (CP&FD) is working with the School of Architecture to address quality of life issues in the community.

Barbara Nelson, project manager at CP&FD, and Frances Bronet, associate professor of architecture, are leading a class of fourth- and fifth-year architecture students to explore issues such as traffic, parking, pedestrian safety, preservation of green space, and economic development in the neighborhoods between Sage Avenue and Hoosick Street.

"The Community Design Project empowers residents to shape their environment," Nelson said. "Rensselaer wants to promote neighborhood renewal. This is most effective when the ideas come from the community itself."

"We will work both in groups and individually on the urban and architectural design of the local city," Bronet said. "The process typically comprises surveys, physical inventories, community design workshops, research on national precedents, specific proposals, public presentations, exhibitions, and publication of the results."

The students are beginning to collect data and input during regular meetings with local officials, neighbors, businesses, hospital representatives, and nonprofits. The class will present its findings to the community toward the end of October. The students then will work to develop strategies for those issues found to be most important to neighbors and to implement plans for improvement, Nelson says.

Celebrating Greatness: Alumni Hall of Fame Inducts Newest Members

Ray Tomlinson '63, inventor of e-mail, and Alan Voorhees '47, world-renowned city planner, are two of eight new members of Rensselaer's 2001 Alumni Hall of Fame.

The newest members were formally inducted during a ceremony in the Armory Friday evening. The accomplishments of the members of the Alumni Hall of Fame are celebrated in etched windows that line Thomsen Hall in the Darrin Communications Center.

Tomlinson, from Lexington, Mass., received the George R. Stibitz Computer Pioneer Award from the American Computer Museum last year, almost 30 years after he wrote what has been called the "killer application" of the Internet. Credited with inventing network electronic mail, Tomlinson is the man who put the @ sign in e-mail. He earned his bachelor's in electrical engineering at Rensselaer in 1963.

Voorhees, a former Rensselaer trustee and Alexandria, Va., resident, became one of the world's leading city planners and traffic forecasters. For the city of Baltimore, Voorhees undertook the first application of mathematical models for forecasting traffic and published a landmark paper that has become the foundation for most traffic forecasting techniques in use today. He graduated from Rensselaer with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1947.

Also inducted this year: railroad visionaries Theodore Judah, who attended Rensselaer in 1837, and Edwin Crocker, Class of 1833; food chemist Eben Horsford, Class of 1838; fire safety pioneer Frederick Grinnell, Class of 1855; steel pioneer and Rensselaer President John Flack Winslow; and technical publishing giant William Wiley, Class of 1866.

To view the full list of new inductees as well as current members, visit http://www.rpi.edu/dept/NewsComm/Magazine/jun01/feature3.html.