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April 19,
2002
Kudo's
Column
Exploring the Elements
Steven Dunn, associate professor of geology, and his colleagues
Al Werner, associate professor of geology; Jill Bubier, Clare
Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies; Lauret
Savoy, associate professor of geology; and Mark McMenamin, professor
of geology, received a $56,961 award from the National Science
Foundation for their project "Integrating Stable Isotope
Geochemistry into the Geoscience Curriculum for 2002–2004."
This year, for the first time, the Department of Geosciences at
the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has a gas source isotope
ratio mass spectrometer that allows very precise measurements
of small differences in ratios of isotopes of light elements.
Isotopes are atoms of the same type with different masses due
to different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei. In nature, atoms
of the same element behave the same chemically; however, small
differences in mass result in small differences in bond strength,
and this, in turn, leads to small variations in the ratio of heavy
isotopes to light isotopes contained within different materials.
The new mass spectrometer can measure these variations. This grant
will allow the MHC scientists to build a gas extraction lab at
the College where students will prepare and purify the elements
of interest in gaseous form for analysis at UMass. "One example
of the use of light stable isotopes is water vapor in equilibrium
with liquid water, such as the evaporated water in an air mass
over the ocean," notes Dunn. "The ocean is so vast it
acts as an infinite reservoir. The ratio of hydrogen isotopes
and of oxygen isotopes in the water vapor will be ‘lighter'
(fewer heavy isotopes) than that of the ocean water. Importantly,
the difference is larger at lower temperature and smaller at higher
temperature. Because of the temperature dependence on the isotopic
fractionation, geoscientists can analyze the hydrogen or oxygen
isotope ratios of ice on Greenland, for example, and tell which
layers represent relatively cold years and which represent
relatively warm years. There are many, many applications of stable
isotope geochemistry to the study of earth processes. We will
build exploration exercises into our courses to
give students experience with stable isotope geochemistry in a
variety of fields and
applications."
Hall of Famers
Eileen Shanley Kraus '60 was inducted into the Connecticut Women's
Hall of Fame
April 11. She joins five other MHC alumnae who have been inducted.
They are Jody Cohen-Gavarian '76; Ella Tambussi Grasso '40; Catherine
G. Roraback '41; Virginia Thrall Smith, class of 1858; and Florence
Schorske Wald '38. Located in Hartford, Connecticut, the Connecticut
Women's Hall of Fame honors and gives formal public recognition
to Connecticut women, past and present, who have "broken
new ground"
or have emerged as leaders in their fields
of endeavor.
Civil Rights Summer
Crystal Hayes FP has been selected to participate in "Civil
Rights Summer 2002," a summer fellowship program launched
last year by four leading civil rights organizations. The eight-week
program, which celebrates the legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr. by supporting and encouraging young people to realize and
utilize their power to effect change in their communities, is
a collaboration among the Leadership Conference
on Civil Rights (LCCR), Leadership Conference Education Fund (LCEF),
Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights, and the Civil Rights Project
at Harvard University. Fellows will spend their first week engaged
in intensive academic study and training with the Civil Rights
Project at Harvard University. This training is aimed at fostering
a deeper understanding of the link between the historic civil
rights movement and the civil rights struggles of today. Following
the week of study at Harvard, the fellows will learn about working
in coalition to advance public policy by working at national civil
rights organizations in Washington, DC. They will also participate
in training exercises and activities aimed at developing the students'
coalition building, organizational, and leadership skills and
at promoting intergroup understanding and respect. The fellows
will also play an instrumental role in creating a national student
activist network that will leverage Internet technology to train,
educate, mobilize, and connect students dedicated to social justice.
Bringing Home the Bacon
Sarah Bacon, Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Biology,
has been awarded $110,480 by the National Institutes of Health
AREA program for her project "Maternal-Fetal Immune Interaction
and Pregnancy Success." One of the mysteries of mammalian
pregnancy is that the embryo and its mother are genetically distinct
individuals, yet the mother's immune system does not reject the
embryo; in fact, there is some evidence that the more the genes
coding for immune responsiveness (the genes of the so-called MHC,
the Major Histocompatibilty Complex) differ from mother to embryo,
the better the embryo fares after conception. Bacon's research
and that of her students will examine and quantify this effect
in pregnant rats. The proposed work uses some research techniques
that have not previously been used in rats to type the MHC.
Tapping the Surface
Wei Chen, Mary E. Woolley Assistant Professor of Chemistry, has
received a $114,000 grant from the National Science Foundation
for her project "Independent and Simultaneous Tailoring of
Surface Topography and Chemical Structure for Controlled Wettability."
Chen proposes to create and study surfaces with different degrees
of wettability. How a liquid wets a surface is a key parameter
in characterizing the relationship between a solid surface and
a liquid in contact with it. Research is needed to understand
the relationship between roughness of a surface and wettability.
Chen and her students propose to stick polymer particles to surfaces
to create surfaces that are rough at very fine scales and to examine
the effects of this roughness on how well water and other solutions
wet the surface. Chen and her students will also vary the surface
chemistry by introducing OH and NH2 groups in the surface layers.
Both the deposition of very fine particles on a surface and the
introduction of OH and NH2 groups require a firm control of technique.
The analysis of the surfaces uses both scanning electron microscopy
and the new XPS facility at the University of Massachusetts. This
work will allow MHC students to work in the forefront of polymer
chemistry.
Economic Leapfrog
Professor of Economics Eva Paus has received a grant from the
Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation in support of her project
"From Clothing to Computers through Foreign Investment: Lessons
from Costa Rica and Ireland for Industrial Leapfrogging in Small
Middle-Income Developing Countries." She plans to do a comparative
study of Costa Rica and Ireland to determine the conditions under
which foreign direct investment can be used to stimulate a middle-income
developing country to shift from an economy characterized by low-skilled,
labor-intensive production to one characterized by high-skilled,
technology-intensive production.
A Finishing Touch
Professor of English Don Weber has been awarded $5,000 by the
Lucius N. Littauer Foundation to work on completing his book on
modern Jewish culture, tentatively titled Accents of the Future.
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