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News Bits and Pieces -
May 16, 2008
The March/April NewsLog from ASFE / The Best People on Earth is ready for download at www.asfe.org. Enjoy the regular monthly features as well as several other interesting articles in this issue.
May 16, 2008
Understanding the dynamics of large, chaotic systems, such as weather and climate, is the goal of Virginia Tech College of Engineering researcher Dr. Mark Paul, who has received a $400,000 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award to support his research.
“Despite their importance in many areas of engineering and science, nonequilibrium systems – systems driven out of equilibrium – remain difficult to analyze, control, design, and predict,” Dr. Paul said.
The difficulty in understanding these systems arises because of the complex way that their spatiotemporal patterns (variations in both space and time) affect the transport of energy and matter, Dr. Paul said. A particular challenge is to understand spatiotemporal chaos, a commonly observed behavior of nonequilibrium systems in which properties of the systems evolve chaotically in space and time.
Each CAREER project has an educational component. Dr. Paul will work with the Virginia Tech Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity to develop hands-on numerical experiments that will enable pre-college students to explore chaotic dynamics for themselves. The numerical experiments, to be made available on a website, will demonstrate the difficulty of weather prediction, for example, and the scientific meaning of the popular phrase, “the butterfly effect.” Dr. Paul also is developing a new graduate course on spatiotemporal chaos.
May 16, 2008
On May 19th, 2008, The Chesapeake Bay Trust, in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Restoration Center (NOAA), The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will announce the awarding of more than $540,000 in grants to promote Living Shorelines projects in the Chesapeake Bay region. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin will present the ten grant winners their awards.
The Maryland event will be held in Londontown (Anne Arundel County) at the site of a Living Shoreline project. Over 30 local volunteers and school children will be on hand planting wetland grasses and riparian plants along the shoreline.
Since this grant partnership began in 2005, more than $1.5 million has been awarded to residents throughout the region to install Living Shorelines. This successful collaboration has restored tidal wetlands and educated communities about the value of habitat and restoration. Altogether, these projects have resulted in a total of 24,150 linear feet of living shorelines treated (just over 4.5 miles).
May 15, 2008
A. James Clark, a leading commercial builder and university trustee emeritus, has committed $10 million to The Johns Hopkins University to endow the deanship of the university’s Whiting School of Engineering in honor of his mentor and business colleague, Benjamin T. Rome.
Mr. Clark’s gift will establish the Benjamin T. Rome Deanship in the Whiting School. In making the new gift, Mr. Clark sought to pay tribute to his business mentor and to express his confidence in the current leadership in the Whiting School of Engineering. The present dean, Nicholas P. Jones, a former chair of the school’s Department of Civil Engineering, was appointed to the post in August 2004.
Mr. Rome, who died in 1994, was a 1925 civil engineering graduate of Johns Hopkins. He received an honorary doctorate from the university in 1982. Mr. Rome generously supported the university’s School of Advanced International Studies, especially its China Studies Program. One of the two SAIS buildings in Washington, D.C., bears Mr. Rome’s name.
Mr. Clark is a former member of the board of trustees of Johns Hopkins Medicine. He previously donated $10 million toward construction of a three-story building for biomedical engineering research and education on the university’s Homewood campus. That building, named Clark Hall in his honor, opened in 2001.
A formal ceremony for dedication of the new engineering school deanship will take place in the fall.
Mr. Clark’s $10 million commitment for the engineering school deanship counts toward the $3.2 billion goal of the Johns Hopkins: Knowledge for the World campaign, which is scheduled to conclude in December, 2008. As of April 30, 2008 total commitments to the campaign had reached $3.15 billion. The campaign, which benefits both The Johns Hopkins University and The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System, has focused on endowment for student aid and faculty support; research, academic, and clinical initiatives; and building and upgrading facilities on all Johns Hopkins campuses.
May 15, 2008
Bayer CropScience is the newest sponsor of Dig It! The Secrets of Soil with a $100,000 donation to support the exhibition.
Scheduled to open July 19th, 2008 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington, D.C., Dig It! will occupy an approximately 5,000 square foot exhibition space in the most visited natural history museum in the world and will be on display until January 2010.
The exhibition will bring soils to life and invite visitors to look at soils in a new and exciting way through interactive displays, multimedia, hands-on components, and cultural displays that underscore the sustenance and inspiration that humans have drawn from soils. The exhibition will also include 54 soil monoliths (vertical columns of soil) from each state, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia that highlight the incredible diversity of soil types and colors found throughout the United States.
Dig It! is a major exhibition being funded by public and private resources with the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) as the founding sponsor and The Fertilizer Institute’s Nutrients for Life Foundation as the lead sponsor.
Bayer CropScience joins the more than 1,200 individuals and corporate, industry, foundation, USDA, and hundreds of Conservation District sponsors in supporting the exhibition. Depending on funding, following its 18-month display in Washington DC, Dig It! will begin a national tour that brings the soils education message to venues across the country.
To learn more about the exhibition, visit the Smithsonian’s Forces of Change website or the Soil Science Society of America’s site.
May 15, 2008
The political landscape, updates from the country’s top occupational safety and health officials along with the most up to date technical insights from the experts are just some of the highlights of the June 9-12, 2008 American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) Professional Development Conference (PDC) and Exposition, Safety 2008, to be held in Las Vegas, NV.
This year thousands of occupational safety, health and environmental practitioners will attend the ASSE event which features more than 200 educational session, key speakers, an exposition of more than 350 exhibitors featuring the latest in safety products and services, safety issue roundtables where attendees share their stories, concerns and expertise, and a corporate executive summit.
In addition, ASSE will unveil The Safety Professionals Handbook which features 79 chapters, has contributions from more than 250 occupational safety, health and environmental professionals as well as 900 ASSE member survey responses.
More than 40 pre- and post-conference seminars on a wide range of technical and managerial topics where attendees can earn additional CEUs/COCs, CM points and CMPs will also be offered at Safety 2008.
Registration information can be found at www.safety2008.org or by contacting ASSE customer service at 847-699-2929.
May 14, 2008
From June 14th to June 19th, the 2008 American Society of Mining and Reclamation (ASMR) annual meeting will take place at the Marriot Hotel in downtown Richmond, Virginia. This conference will also serve as the 10th meeting of the International Affiliation of Land Reclamationists (IALR). Marshall Miller & Associates, Inc. (MM&A) has committed to sponsor the event along with Iluka Resources Inc.; USDI Office of Surface Mining; Virginia Dept. of Mines, Minerals & Energy; Virginia Tech Dept. of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences; and Weanack Land LLP.
The conference theme is “New Opportunities to Apply our Science” and attendance is expected to consist of over 350 scientists, practitioners, regulators and students from across the U.S. as well as international participants. This meeting will not only focus upon mine reclamation, but also on contaminated site rehabilitation, constructed wetlands and beneficial utilization of residuals and byproducts.
May 14, 2008
Virginia Tech has selected two doctoral candidates as the 2008 Graduate Man of the Year and Graduate Woman of the Year in recognition of their outstanding academic accomplishments and their commitment to service within the community. The recipients of the awards are Osama Marzouk, originally from Egypt, and LaChelle Waller, of Chester, Va., respectively.
The graduate man and woman of the year awards recognize students with high academic achievements and contributions in research, teaching, and scholarship, who are actively involved with professional organizations, campus activities, and the graduate school community and have shown a strong commitment to diversity on the Virginia Tech campus.
May 14, 2008
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is pleased to announce the publication of Treatment System Hydraulics by John Bergendahl, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Treatment System Hydraulics addresses the nuts-and-bolts of treatment systems, examining typical variables and describing methods for solving the problems faced by practitioners on a daily basis. The book begins with an introduction to treatment systems and hydraulics and explains the basic concepts of fluid properties, fluid statics, and fluid flow. Then Mr. Bergendahl discusses the factors that shape engineering decisions: friction in closed conduits, pumps and motors, granular media, valves, instrumentation, materials and corrosion, effects of transient conditions, and open channel flow. Each chapter presents fundamental concepts and applications in diverse situations, along with worked examples and problem sets. Suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses, Treatment System Hydraulics is also an useful reference for environmental, mechanical, civil, and chemical engineers designing or managing water treatment facilities.
The book is available for purchase online or by e-mail. The cost is $75.00 for ASCE members and $100 for non-members.
May 13, 2008
S&ME, Inc. recently was awarded a new term contract with Hanover County for “Geotechnical Engineering and Construction Inspection and Testing Services” (primary award) and “Environmental, Wetlands and Stream Consulting and Hydrogeological Services” (supplemental award). The contract covers all services offered by S&ME, Inc. including soil and construction materials testing, geotechnical engineering and environmental testing. The contract term is for one year renewable to two additional, one-year terms.
The Virginia Engineer © IIr Associates 2005