LehighWeek Volume 09, Issue 29

              LEHIGHWEEK
with South Mountaineer
Volume 9, Issue 29
THIS    WEEK
Lehigh University Campus Weekly
May 15,1996
INSIDE
News
1-4
Events
1-2
People
6-10
Jobs
12
Calendar
12
i
Sr<
Islamic scholar to give baccalaureate
address for 128th Commencement
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, widely known
for his efforts to encourage the understanding of the Muslim religion by people
of other faiths, will
give the baccalaureate
address at 7 p.m. Sat.,
June 1, in Packer
Memorial Church.
The ecumenical
baccalaureate service
B flHI   *s °Pen t° the public
j| /|T\ j      |   (no tickets required)
Nasr and is part of the
annual commencement weekend celebration at the University.
Nasr is University Professor of
Islamic Studies at George Washington
University. Before that he served as
professor of Islamic Studies at Temple
University. He also has taught at
Princeton University, American University of Beirut, Tehran University and
Harvard University.
Says University Chaplain Lloyd
Steffen, associate professor of religion
studies: "As a distinguished, world-
renowned scholar and teacher of Islam,
Professor Nasr has undertaken to enter
situations of dialogue with other religious
faith traditions, proving himself to be an
indispensable guide to the history, the
philosophy and ethics, and the spiritual
beauty of this important and profound
faith tradition. In his writings, lecturing
and numerous media interviews, he. has
invited us to seek greater understanding
and appreciation of Islam, critically
challenging many of the myths and
stereotypes about Islam too often held in
the West. Professor Nasr has rightly been
called 'Islam's best ambassador in the
West.'"
"To Live in a World with No Center
and Many Centers" will be the topic of
his Lehigh address.
"He will be the first Muslim to deliver
a baccalaureate address not only at
Lehigh but, I assume, in the Lehigh
Valley," Steffen says.
At the former Aryamehr Industrial
University in Iran, Nasr served as
president from 1972-1975. At Tehran
University, he served as vice chancellor
from 1970 to 1971 and as dean ofthe
faculty of letters from 1968 to 1972. He
was the first Muslim to present the
Gifford Lectures at the University of
Edinburgh, Scotland. He has written
more than 20 books and more than 200
articles.
Making Waves
Lehigh researchers unravel the science
behind the mystery
Soul
John Kish IV
Protecting off-shore rigs - Jung-Chang Lin '92 Ph.D., research
associate in mechanical engineering and mechanics, and Alan E.
Morgan '96 examine a wave in the Fluid Mechanics Lab of
Packard Laboratory. Lin and Prof. Donald O. Rockwell study the
effects of waves on structures standing in the ocean.
by Kurt Pfitzer
Wade just a few feet into
the ocean and you can already
feel its majesty and complexity. As one wave lashes your
kneecaps, the next wave is
cresting 20 yards farther out
and the previous wave is
sliding back into the ocean,
spraying the backs of your
heels with sand as it goes.
Such a sensory awe of the
ocean is probably by now
beyond the reach of Donald
O. Rockwell and Jung-
Chang Lin — unless they
have learned to leave their
work at the office, or, in their
case, the laboratory.
Rockwell, the Reinhold
professor of mechanical
engineering and mechanics,
and Lin '92 Ph.D., a research
associate, study the interaction between ocean waves and
structures placed in the
ocean. Alan E. Morgan '96,
who plans to pursue graduate
studies in mechanical engineering next fall at Princeton,
has also assisted in the
project.
Working with engineers
from the University of
Edinburgh Scotland, the
Lehigh team hopes to learn
how to protect the legs of
offshore oil-drilling platforms
from repeated stresses and
damage caused by ocean
waves.
Rockwell and Lin recently
became the first researchers
in the world to make quantitative measurements of the
physical phenomena leading
to wave breaking. By looking
at waves from the bottom up,
and by using new imaging
techniques, they revealed the
process by which a wave
"spills" and sometimes forms
whitecaps.
They accomplished this
not by driving to the shore
and watching breakers but
by building two new facilities, including a wavemaking
machine that combines state-
of-the-art technology with
time-honored engineering
know-how.
In the Fluid Mechanics
Lab of Packard Laboratory,
the researchers use a large
plastic paddle to generate
waves in a glass-walled, 30-
foot-by-2-foot, computer-
controlled  apparatus that
looks like a greatly elongated
aquarium.
They sprinkle silver-
See Wave on page 2
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