LehighNow Volume 03, Issue 14

              LEHIGHNOW
April 30, 2003
Volume 3, Issue 14
IN BRIEF
HONORS/AWARDS
Women's Club
honors four
juniors
The Lehigh University
Women's Club honored
four junior women on
April 28 at their annual
luncheon: Irene LaBarca
(civil engineering),
Heather Majczan
(finance major in the
Integrated Business and
Engineering Honors
Program), Debarati
Chattopadhyay (astrophysics and computer
engineering), and Emily
Henderson (religion).
The Women's Club,
comprised of women
faculty and administrative staff as well as wives
of faculty and administrators, annually honors
junior women in each of
the three undergraduate
colleges based on their
academic excellence as
well as service to the
community and leadership.
These awards are highly
competitive, with
nominations coming from
the chairs of each
academic department.
The young women will
receive a certificate of
achievement and a cash
award, as well as having
their picture on a plaque
in each dean's office. This
is the 19th year of this
award.
Bobb Carson admires the leather-bound book that was put
together for him by the staff and faculty of the College of Arts and
Sciences. Amy Forsyth, left, associate professor of art and
architecture, coordinated the project.
Bobb Carson's vision praised
by CAS faculty, staff
Bobb Carson had the vision
to build a "mighty
mechanical midget motor
car" in the land of Lake
Wobegone, Minnesota, and
he had the vision to build a
mighty College of Arts and
Sciences (CAS) at Lehigh
University on South
Mountain.
And now, with the motor
car he built at the precocious age of 12 in the
Smithsonian and his college
"much more than pretty
good," as they're fond of
saying in Lake Wobegone,
Carson is ready to retire.
To show their appreciation for Carson's 30 years
at Lehigh, his CAS
colleagues paid a surprise
tribute to him on Friday,
April 25 in a display of
artfulness, creativity, and
intellectual vitality that
characterizes his college.
"In the spirit of Bobb, we
wanted to do something
lighthearted and fun," said
Norman Girardot, professor of religious studies,
who helped organize the
unorthodox event that was
attended by more than 200
friends and supporters in
Zoellner Arts Center.
Other organizers from the
CAS included Hannah
Stewart-Gambino, associate
dean and professor of
political science; Carl
Moses, associate dean;
Ingrid Parson, associate
dean of the graduate
research program; Phil
Clauser, director of
administration; Gordon
Beam, professor of humanities; Amy Forsyth, associate
professor of art and
architecture; and Doug
Mason, professor of practice
in art and architecture.
Lighthearted and fun it
was, and Carson appeared
genuinely surprised and
touched by the personal
tribute. The event consisted
of a Garrison Keillor-style,
Lake Wobegone slide
presentation to honor
Carson, from his days
bundled in a snowsuit in the
town of Edina, Minn, to his
years as a professor of earth
Please see CARSON, Page 3
New
rianotecrmology
center
established
Building on its world-
renowned facilities in
electron microscopy, and
anticipating a future of ever-
tinier miracles of technology,
Lehigh University has
established a Center for
Advanced Materials and
Nanotechnology (CAMN).
The new center, which
replaces Lehigh's 41-year-
old Materials Research
Center (MRC), will oversee
nanotechnology research
activities in a dozen different
academic departments and
programs at Lehigh.
The decision to reconstitute
the MRC as the CAMN was
approved by Mohamed S.
El-Aasser, dean of the P.C.
Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science,
and David B. Williams, vice
provost for research. The
new center will be directed
by Martin P. Harmer, Alcoa
Professor of materials
science and engineering and
director of the former MRC.
Derived from the word
nanometer (nm), which is
one one-billionth of a meter,
nanotechnology refers to the
creation of materials and
devices through the control
of matter at the atomic and
molecular level, where the
"bulk" properties of the
larger material are often
determined.
Nanotechnology-based
research programs are
already underway at Lehigh.
In the civil and environmental engineering department,
researchers use nanoparticles
to clean contaminated
groundwater. In the
chemical engineering
Please see NANO, Page 3