Read about the recent achievements of people in our campus community: Publications, participation in conferences or presentations of work, collaboration on projects, special travel, honors and activism with professional, campus and civic groups.
George Ashline, professor of mathematics, recently presented “Exponential Functions in Snowflakes, Carpets, and Paper Folding” to three separate classes at Craftsbury Academy on October 18. Through class activities, George led student investigations of exponential functions and their applications. These presentations and visits were sponsored by the Vermont State Mathematics Coalition’s “Expanding Horizons Program,” through which college and university faculty give presentations and visit classrooms across the state ofVermont.
Alain Brizard, associate professor of physics, has been selected for Fellowship in the American Physical Society (APS), at the recommendation of the Division of Plasma Physics. This rare honor is limited to no more than one half of one percent of APS membership. Election to APS Fellowship is recognition by peers of Alain’s outstanding contributions to physics. His Fellowship Certificate’s citation will read as follows: “For pioneering the modern formulation of nonlinear gyrokinetics, including the development of methodology for general geometry, the theory of dynamical reduction, and a variational formulation of the gyrokinetic-Maxwell system.” Alain’s name and citation will be published in the March 2012 issue of APS News, and will appear on the Fellowship Page of the APS Home Page and he will receive his certificate at the annual meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society.
Christina Chant, formerly an assistant professor at Clarion University in Pennsylvania, has joined Saint Michael’s Chemistry Department as a new assistant professor. She began this fall semester and is teaching physical chemistry, lecture and lab, and a 
general chemistry lab. In the spring, she will be teaching organic chemistry lab. Christina earned her doctorate in chemistry (biophysical chemistry) from the Pennsylvania State University in 2002 with a dissertation titled, “Computational design and experimental verification of protein domains.” She earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry and environmental chemistry from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in 1996. She was a visiting assistant professor at Saint Michael’s in 2008-2009, was clinical research supervisor for the department of radiology at the University of Vermont, 2005-2007, and was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at UVM, 2002-2005. She has produced research publications on targeting portions of genetic codes responsible for cancer, particularly breast cancer. Her work has appeared in Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (2011), Opium Magazine (2010), Physics in Medicine and Biology (2008 and 2007), Protein Expression and Purification (2004), Protein Science (2004 and 2003), and Current Opinion in Chemical Biology (2003). She has a manuscript in preparation on chemically induced photocrosslinks in the hairpin ribozyme. She has also done a number of poster presentations, and has won awards supporting her research. She is also a violist for the Venango Chamber Orchestra and formerly for the Clarion University Orchestra.
Brian Collier, assistant professor of art, presented an artist lecture on October 11 in the BioLounge at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. The event included Brian providing members of the museum with a personal “Behind the Scenes Tour” of his multi-media exhibition, “Bird Shift: The Anthropogenic Ornithology of North America,” which is on display at the museum through Dec. 31, 2011. That was followed by a reception and presentation, with Brian discussing his past and future creative projects. Brian also currently has work showing in The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education called “Facts and Fables: Stories of the Natural World.”
Laura Crain, library associate director for collection services, presented “The Future is On Demand: Just-in-Time and Patron Driven” at the New England Library Association Conference on October 3, 2011.
Kathryn Dungy, assistant professor of Caribbean and Latin American history, gave a talk October 5 entitled “Pirates of the Caribbean” in Stowe for the Lamoille Valley chapter of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute program. Her talk was an overview of the history and culture of a Caribbean pirate, exploring the immense modern cultural fascination with “these curmudgeonly scallywags.” One of Kathryn’s goals in the talk was to “debunk some commonly held beliefs and raise awareness of the often democratic egalitarian world in which they lived.”
Laurie Gagne, director of the Edmundite Center for Peace and Justice, accompanied 10 members of the Saint Michael’s Dear Hillary Campaign for the Congo to Clark University in Worcester, MA, September 23-25, for an “Informed Activism” conference organized by the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies on “Crisis in the Congo: Challenges and Opportunities.”
Bob Kenny, professor of business, made three presentations in recent weeks. At the Vermont Institutions of Higher Education, Innovative Investments in Energy Efficiency Conference, on October 4, Bob presented on “The Nuts and Bolts of Green Revolving Funds” to many of the presidents and chief financial officers of the state colleges and universities; at the Renewable Energy Vermont Conference on October 12, he presented on “The economics of District Wood Chip Heating Systems.” On campus, Bob presented “Planning and Implementation of a Biomass Heating Facility,” which was sponsored by the Environmental Council and held October 10. The last two presentations were two different slices of a larger Biomass study that Bob has been working on for the last two years.
Diane Lander, associate professor of business administration and accounting, is co-author of a paper recently accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of Risk Management. The paper is titled “Real Option Perceptions Among Project Managers,” and Diane’s co-author is David N. Ford, associate engineering professor at TexasA&MUniversity.
Declan McCabe, professor of biology, recently heard from Jennifer Patritti Cram, a Puerto Rican high school student who worked with him this past summer, along with other students, as an intern on a streams project, gathering samples and conducting laboratory analysis. In her email Jennifer wrote how the Ana. G. Mendez University System celebrated their annual Research Symposium for all the students who went to summer internships: Pre- College (Jennifer’s category), Undergraduate and Graduate Students making presentations. Jennifer presented the poster she made during her Saint Michael’s internship, and of the 23 pre-college posters, she won best presentation. “I am really excited and I wanted to tell you that because you helped me a lot, and I wanted to thank you,” she wrote to Declan.
Melinda Micheletto, associate professor in the Department of Business Administration & Accounting, was invited in September to give a presentation to the American Industrial Hygiene Association – Rocky Mountain Section and The American Society of Safety Engineers (AIHA-RMS and ASSE), Fall Technical Conference in Denver; a keynote address entitled, “Using a Response System as a Learning Solution” to the American Contractors Insurance Group (ACIG) in San Diego, California; and a presentation entitled, “Engaging Students with Clickers: Promoting Pedagogy Through Technology” at the Indiana Association of Social Work Educators (IASWE) at IUPUI in Indianapolis. Melinda also gave a keynote address entitled, “Instructional Learning Strategies through Response Technologies” at the Turning Technologies’ User’s Conference in San Diego in October.
James Nagle, associate professor of education, will be presenting with Rita MacDonald and teachers from South Burlington and Winooski School Districts on academic language complexity in social studies and science in middle and high school during the annual Northern New England Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (NNETESOL) conference at Saint Michael’s College in November, 2011. Project CREATE, which James and Elizabeth O’Dowd are principal investigators, will be sponsoring a series of presentations on systemic functional linguistics and academic language in public school teaching as part of the NNETESOL conference.
Mike New, vice president for human resources, recently was elected chair of the board of trustees of COTS (Committee on Temporary Shelter), for a two-year term. The organization provides emergency shelter, services, and housing for people who are homeless or marginally housed inVermont. COTS advocates for long-term solutions to end homelessness, believing in the value and dignity of every human life; that housing is a fundamental human right; and that emergency shelter is not the solution to homelessness.
Robert Niemi, professor of English and American Studies, has just signed a publishing contract with ABC-Clio (Santa Barbara, CA) to publish a revised and expanded edition of his 2006 book, History in the Media: Film and Television. The new edition will come out in the fall of 2012. Beat Scene, a British journal devoted to Beat literature, interviewed Bob about his new book, The Ultimate, Illustrated Beats Chronology (published this past August). The interview will appear in a forthcoming edition of the magazine. Bob also will be presenting a paper on Tom Wolfe at the 2011 Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) Conference at WesternConnecticutStateUniversity,Danbury,CT, on November 12.
Jonathan Silverman, associate professor of education, led two workshops at the InSEA World Congress, the International Society for Education through Art, in Budapest, Hungary in June, 2011. In the Pre- Congress session focusing on arts assessment he presented a workshop entitled Intent to Authentic Assessment: the Critical Response Process. Here, he modeled how choreographer Liz Lerman’s critique process can be adapted to visual arts working with two graduate students from the Maholy-Nagy University of Design in Budapest who presented their video and photography work. At the main Congress he presented an interactive session entitled Words, Images, Gestures: Creating Cultural Space. In this session he used movement, visual images, and poetry to help art educators create narrative, build community, and communicate about common and uncommon cultural space.
Sarah Smith ’09 is the new graduate assistant for the Graduate Education Department. Sarah graduated Magna Cum Laude and is continuing her education toward her master’s in Special Education and K-8 Licensure. While an undergraduate she was the director of Best Buddies, Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts (MOVE), a mentor at King Street Youth Center, a Service-Learning Scholar along with many community service student leader roles through Pre-Orientation Weekend (POW) and international service trips. Before beginning her graduate studies, Sarah worked as an Autism Interventionist at theHowardCenter inBurlington.
John Trono, professor of computer science, recently presented a paper, “Security Enhancements for the Additive Cryptosystem,” at the CCSC-E (Consortium for Computer Science in Colleges – East region) held atMarymountUniversity, inArlingtonVirginia, October 14-15.
Patrick Walsh, assistant professor of economics, will present “When Unified Teacher Pay Scales Meet Different Alternatives” as part of the Social Science Research Center (SSRC) seminar series, on Wednesday, November 2 in the Farrell Room from noon to 1 p.m. Also, in September, Patrick and colleagues Shefali Misra, assistant professor of political science, and Robert Letovsky, professor of business administration and accounting and department chair, presented a discussion of “Debt Limits, Deficits, Downgrades, Defaults, Debt Crises, and Depression,” capturing the entire discussion on Tegrity, (accessible at this link): https://tegr.it/y/5tjo
Tim Whiteford, associate professor of education, will be giving two presentations at conferences in November. The first, on teaching math to students with Down Syndrome, will be at the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress annual conference in Worcester, Mass. on November 3. The presentation is entitled “Constructing Meaning in Counting and Numeracy.” The second is in Warwick, R.I. on November 9 at the annual conference of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics of New England (ATMNE). This presentation is entitled “The Referent Unit:A Different Way of Looking at Elementary School Math.”
News around Campus:
The 2011 Academic Convocation in McCarthy Arts Recital Hall on the afternoon of Friday, September 30, was the 25th anniversary of this important college tradition. In honor of the anniversary, Karen Talentino, vice president for Academic Affairs, invited President Emeritus Paul J. Reiss to speak about the initiation of the Convocation in 1986, and his talk was well-received.
Faculty Awards in Teaching, Scholarship and Service announced at the event:
The 2011 Joanne Rathgeb Teaching Award was presented posthumously to the late Douglas S. Green, former 
professor of biology and of computer science, by Doug’s colleague and friend and winner of the award in 2010, Richard Kujawa, professor of geography. The award was accepted by Doug’s wife, Donna Bozzone, professor of biology.
“Doug Green was a totally committed teacher — completely focused on students and their learning, and his dedication to our profession made Saint Michael’s College a better place,” Richard said, noting that Doug was also a productive scholar with his scholarship strongly linked to student learning. Richard shared a litany of praise written by Doug’s students that brought the assembly to tears and a standing ovation. Doug died in March 2011, having taught at Saint Michael’s since 1987.
Joanna Ellis-Monaghan, professor of mathematics, received the Scholarship and Artistic Achievement Award. Last 
year’s winner and presenter Jeffrey Ayres noted Jo’s impressive research program in algebraic combinatorics and graph theory, which deeply involves undergraduates. He noted she has some 40 publications on her resume, holds two patents and has developed computer software for industry and classroom. She collaborates with other researchers worldwide and was an Isaac Newton fellow at Cambridge; edits a professional journal and speaks widely at conferences and schools.
The Norbert Kuntz Service Award was presented to Professor of Religious Studies Edward Mahoney and Associate Professor of Chemistry Bret Findley for their collaborative work co-chairing the largest-scale curricular change at Saint Michael’s in some 40 years. In presenting the award, last year’s winner, mathematics professor George Ashline said the two
Mahoney
deserve credit together for shepherding the faculty through the process. “The Faculty Council could not imagine giving the Service Award this year to one without the other,” George said. Ed, director for many years of the storied Saint Michael’s graduate program in theology and pastoral ministry, is an expert and frequent lecturer about the Human
Findley
Genome Project; ethics and genetics; fundamental moral theology; and the ethics of long-term care. Bret, who earned his doctorate in physical chemistry fromDartmouth, is expert in experimental physical chemistry; photo-induced electron transfer reactions; molecular spectroscopy; and physical chemistry pedagogy. He is the recipient of a number of Vermont Genetics Network grants, is widely published, and has made many poster presentations, frequently produced jointly with student research partners.
As last year’s Scholarship awardee, Jeff Ayres, chair of the Political Science Department, gave the Convocation Address entitled: Research at a Liberal Arts College: Mending the Rational Center. Talentino also announced the Emeritus Awards and the awarding of tenure and promotion decisions from last year and recognized the college’s newest faculty members. New music professor, William Lee Ellis also performed an original guitar composition titled Darkness as the Noonday.
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The actor Michael Sidney Fosberg brought his autobiographical solo show “Incognito: An American Odyssey of Race & Self-Discovery” to Saint Michael’s on September 27 in theMcCarthyArtsCenter. Sponsored by the Martin Luther King Jr. Society and Diversity Coalition, this show delved into Michael’s personal account of familial discovery upon which his original play is based.
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An all-day philosophy colloquium on September 27 explored “Representations of Life: Kant’s Critique of Teleological Judgment.” Teleology is the study of design or purpose in natural phenomena. Scholars who presented were Mark Fisher of Penn State University (The Supersensible Ground of Nature,” “The Moral Proof of God’s Existence”) Ina Goy of the University of Tubingen, Germany (“What is the Antinomy of Teleological Judgment?”) Thomas Teufel, Baruch College, City University of New York (“The Intuitive Understanding”) and Saint Michael’s own Lara Ostaric (“Dogmatic Teleological Accounts of Nature” and “The Divine Architect.”)
Much more Saint Mike’s news on our Web site: http://www.smcvt.edu/admission/news/news_archive.asp
….and coming events on our Calendar:
