Top Stories
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Spring lineup for Bucknell Forum announced
A Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist, a premier Wall Street analyst and TV personality, a best-selling American author, and a panel of leading experts on religion will headline the spring semester's continuing national speakers series, "The Bucknell Forum: The Citizen & Politics in America." [full story]
The scheduled speakers for spring are:
- Jim Cramer, popular host of the CNBC's "Mad Money," radio host, author, co-founder of the Internet financial news hub The Street.com, and graduate of the Harvard University School of Law (7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29, Weis Center for the Performing Arts)
- A leading panel of experts on religion in politics, including Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Dr. Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life; and The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, in Trout Auditorium)
- Barbara Ehrenreich, author of best-selling books, including "Nickel and Dimed" and "Bait and Switch” (7:30 p.m. Monday, March 17, in the Weis Center for the Performing Arts)
- Leonard Pitts, Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist (7:30 p.m. Monday, March 24, in Trout Auditorium)
Free tickets are required for the Cramer and Ehrenreich lectures. Distribution details will be announced in January.
The series, which kicked off this fall with a discussion about media and its influence on citizenship and the presidential election, has drawn large crowds through the first three events. The forum will continue through the inauguration of the next U.S president in 2009.
Hear a podcast interview with Bucknell management Professor William Gruver about Jim Cramer, their Wall Street experiences, and ideas Cramer may talk about at Bucknell.
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Bucknell to develop robots for military, law roles
Congressman Christopher P. Carney and Bucknell have announced a joint research project between the University and investigators from the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) to develop robots that will help protect members of the military and law enforcement in urban environments. [full story]
Carney worked with Bucknell to secure $800,000 in federal funding for the project, which was included in the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2008. The work will develop and demonstrate technologies for unmanned ground vehicles (legged robots) with the advanced mobility necessary for negotiating urban terrain to enhance the capabilities of the U.S. Armed Forces and reduce risk for troops.
The lead researchers for Bucknell are Keith Buffinton, professor and department chair of mechanical engineering, and Steven Shooter, professor of mechanical engineering. They will work with researchers from IHMC, which is based in Pensacola, Fla.
"Bucknell is deeply grateful to Congressman Carney for recognizing the multiple benefits of this project to the U.S. Armed Forces, citizens at large, Bucknell students of today and of tomorrow, and the Central Pennsylvania economy,” said Bucknell President Brian C. Mitchell. “In just a brief time in office, he has come to see clearly the enormous potential that Bucknell and its human resources represent for driving economic progress and quality of life in the region."
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Samek Art Gallery to receive gift of Andy Warhol art
Samek Art Gallery will receive nearly 150 original Andy Warhol photographs and prints by the end of January 2008 to be added to the University's permanent collection. [full story]
The gift is part of the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program in honor of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ 20th anniversary. The program is giving selected groups of photographs from a collection of 28,543 original Warhol photographs, valued in excess of $28 million, to 183 college and university museums across the United States.
"Bucknell is honored to be chosen for this program," said Dan Mills, director of the Samek Art Gallery. "The addition of these Warhol photographs will enhance the University's growing permanent collection."
Each of the participating institutions will receive approximately 150 original Polaroid photographs and gelatin silver prints.
"Recognized as the most influential pop artist (the media often call him the 'prince of pop'), Warhol also was a native Pennsylvanian," said Mills. "In addition to benefiting Bucknell's students, this substantial gift of Polaroids and black-and-white photographs has regional significance. Many images from this body of work are portraits and snapshots of people. It will be exciting to see just what work we receive and who may be represented in the photographs.”
See video of Mills discussing the significance of Warhol’s photographs.
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Bucknell 5th in national Chem-E Car Competition
A multidisciplinary team of Bucknell students took fifth-place honors in the national Chem-E Car Competition on November 4. [full story]
With student team entries from 29 colleges and universities from around the United States, the Salt Palace Convention Center competition featured small car-like vehicles powered by chemical reactions of alternative fuels created by the students.
The shoebox-size cars are powered by alternative fuels and must carry a small payload a specified distance. The payload and distance are not revealed to the competitors until one hour before the contest begins, requiring teams to make last-minute fuel calculations and adjustments.
Each of the teams had earned a spot in the national competition based on a series of eight regional competitions. Bucknell finished first in the Mid-Atlantic Regional competition that was held on the Bucknell campus in April.
In Salt Lake City were junior Brian Smith of Freeburg, Pa.; junior Nicholas Hanes of Wilmington, Del.; and senior Peter Baughman of New Cumberland, Pa. Two additional team members remained in Pennsylvania.
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Bucknell grads featured in national poetry anthology
Three recent Bucknell University graduates are included in the new anthology Best New Poets 2007. [full story]
K.A. Hays ‘03, Tyler Mills ’05, and Rebecca Wadlinger ‘06 were among the 50 emerging poets selected for the anthology.
The three alumnae also participated in the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets, a four-week summer program of intensive writing. A fourth poet, Donika Ross, who participated in the Seminar in 2004, also is included in the anthology.
"In the last several years, this anthology has become an increasingly competitive and distinguished one," said Shara McCallum, director of the Stadler Center for Poetry. "This year's judge, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey, selected only a tiny fraction of the poems nominated for inclusion. When you consider that fact, it is even more remarkable that not one but three recent Bucknell alums, and a fourth student with connections to the University through the Stadler Center’s summer program for younger poets, have received this kind of attention to their work.”
Founded in 1988, the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell offers a wide range of programs and residencies for emerging and established poets and writers, including the summer Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets, the Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing, the Sandra and Gary Sojka Visiting Poet Series, and the annual poet-in-residence program.
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BMEG students present research at BME meeting
Better understanding of how a mouse’s heart works and how freezing tissue destroys cancerous cells might lead to better diagnosis and surgery methods in humans, according to research presented by two Bucknell University students who gave research presentations at the Biomedical Engineering Society national meeting in Los Angeles in November. [full story]
"This is the third straight year Bucknell students have been invited to present at the meeting," said Dan Cavanagh, associate professor of biomedical and chemical engineering and chair of Bucknell's Department of Biomedical Engineering. "For a program that began only four years ago, with our first class of biomedical engineering majors graduating last year, this is a remarkable achievement, and a testament to the quality and work ethic of the students in addition to the dedication of the faculty to involve undergraduates in our research.”
Elizabeth Banerjee ’09 gave the peer-reviewed poster presentation, "A First Step Toward an Understanding of the Unique Characteristics of the Mouse Electrocardiogram." Her advisor was Joseph Tranquillo, assistant professor of biomedical and electrical engineering.
Qiushui Liang ’08 gave the platform presentation, "Numerical Modeling of Ice Ball Formation During Cryosurgery using COMSOL Multiphysics." The research was advised by James Baish, professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering, and was conducted in collaboration with the Department of Urology at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.
Other Bucknell students at the conference were seniors Stacey Kang, Adhira Sunkara, Michael Ambrosi, Sarah Henderson, and Andrew Inglis, and junior Robert Littlefield.
