LehighWeek Volume 13, Issue 02

              Hamsters and Hamlet
From theatre department
to neuroscience lab
See page 3
Volume 13, Issue 2
LehighWeefc
The campus digest for innovation, news and events
South Mountaineer
Lehigh crushes Fordham
in football opener
See page 8
September 14, 1999
Mlcroscopists
on threshold
Science stands one step short of
a long-held dream — the detection of single atoms of an element
using an electron microscope '■—
according to a recent article published by two Lehigh scientists in
the journal Ultramicroscopy.
David Williams, chairman
of materials science and engineering, and Masashi
Watanabe, a former research
scientist at Lehigh and now a
professor at Kyushu University
in Japan, reported that they
were able to detect two atoms
of manganese in an extremely
thin specimen of copper-manganese alloy utilizing X-ray energy-
dispersive spectrometry (XEDS).
Williams and Watanabe used
an analytical electron microscope (AEM) called HB 603 that
was designed at Lehigh in the
1980s with the goal of enhancing detection while retaining
high spatial resolution.
"Experimental measurements and calculations have
demonstrated the detection of
two atoms, and feasibility of detecting single atoms, in the
analysis volume of thin specimens using XEDS," the researchers wrote.
The ability to detect and identify single atoms would help scientists better understand the
interfaces, or planes, that hold
materials together and control
their behaviors. Interfaces no
thicker than a layer of atoms can
cause success or failure in a
material. A layer of copper atoms inserted between the aluminum crystals in an integrated
circuit, for example, can increase the lifetime of the circuit's
wires by 50 times.
In the past 20 years, Williams
and Watanabe said, scientists
have advanced the spatial resolution of AEMs from several
dozen nanometers to 1 or 2 nm
(;i nm is one-billionth of a
meter), but have been unable to
improve the instrument's relatively "poor" ability to detect
t: ny amounts of a material.
To meet that challenge, Williams and two other professors
of materials science and engineering at Lehigh, Charles
Lyman and Joseph Goldstein
(now dean of engineering at the
University of Massachusetts in
Amherst), designed HB 603, an
ultra-high vacuum field-emission gun AEM..
The detection of the two atoms of manganese, Williams and
Watanabe said, represents a
detection capability of 1022 —
three orders of magnitude
greater than the threshold of 10"
''•' that some scientists predicted
20 years ago would mark the
limits of the AEM.
-Kurt Pfitzer
Arriving frosh
get a lift
Imagine being moved into your freshman residence hall by the president and other high university officials, or having faculty, staff and returning upperclassmen help you carry TVs, computers and heavy luggage. Your over-packed car
could be emptied in minutes.
On Friday, Aug. 27, 1,084 freshmen arrived
at Lehigh and received that kind of hospitality
from 165 faculty and staff, 325 fraternity and
sorority members, 12 ROTC members and 30
other students, according to David Joseph,
director of residential services.
"We help move in freshmen to get the Greek
name out and in a positive light," said Josh
Parker '00, a computer science major and president of Theta Delta Chi fraternity, which assigned
45 members to help at M&M residence hall.
Joseph said Greek students have helped freshmen move in for almost two decades as a form of
community service. Faculty and staff began pitching in a few years ago to smooth the transition to
campus life for the university's newest students.
Most of the day went off without a hitch according to helpers, freshmen and parents.
"The parents and the students were surprised
there was help available. They thought they had
Please see FRESHMEN, Page 2
Transfer
students
double
IfiSI
Photo by Rob Upton
Caline Pinto '03 with her sister, Lara, and father, Stephen Harnik, (background) work
their way to Caline's room in Palmer House.
Changes on campus
As if to greet the new freshman class, Lehigh has made
some subtle changes to campus:
the addition of 20 Adirondack
chairs, new landscaping, and a
digitized carillon and four
speakers in the tower of the
University Center.
The chairs - an idea encouraged by President Gregory
Farrington — are sprinkled
throughout the Asa Packer campus to create inviting spaces for
students and professors to congregate, says Richard Benner,
assistant director of facilities
planning and renovation.
The cedar chairs, stained a
mossy green to harmonize with
their surroundings, were manufactured by Smith and Hawken,
prominent purveryors of garden
equipment and accessories.
Several new gardens, and two dozen
oversize terra cotta-
colored planters
housing a variety of
evergreen plantings,
were placed near
buildings.
Most of the
university's landscaping efforts went into
keeping vegetation
Students enjoy
lunch in the
reclining comfort
of the Adirondack
chairs outside
Packard lab.
alive over the record-breaking
hot, dry summer, Benner says.
When temperatures recently
dropped to more moderate levels, Benner's staff launched into
action by planting hundreds of
late-season perennials and filling oversize planters. The planters were placed throughout campus to create dramatic building
entrances or to soften the harsh
lines between stretches of macadam and the sides of structures.
Planting will continue
through the fall, especially near
the newly restored Memorial
Walkway, which can now be accessed by foot.
The last major improvement
the facilities services department has made is auditory: a
fully automated and program
mable earillon-system has been
installed to mark certain hours
of the day. At 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.,
the Westminster Chimes mark
the passage of the hours. At
noon, and again at 5 and 6 p.m.,
compositions by Mozart, Handel,
Bach and Besard are played.
Benner is working on having
several traditional Lehigh songs
programmed into the system.
Compositions by Doug Gefvert,
the carrollonneur for the National Carillon in Valley Forge,
are also programmed into the
system that is the digital
equivalent of a four-octave, 48-
bell true carillon.
The carillon was supplied by
the Verdin Co. of Cincinnati,
foremost manufacturers of carillon systems, Benner says.
-Linda Harbrecht
Photo by John Kish IV
Kira Bosak of Agoura,
Calif, wanted to transfer from the University
of Texas at Austin. She
looked at the University
of Virginia, Washington
University of St. Louis,
Tulane, Emory and
Lehigh.
In the end, Bosak, a
volleyball player, chose
Lehigh for a combination of reasons — the
academic and athletic programs,
the attractive campus and the
university's success in helping
students find jobs. But, she says,
she also opted for Lehigh because its representatives took
the time to get to know her.
Lehigh has met its goal of increasing transfer students by
combining old-fashioned recruiting methods with new technology. The number of incoming
transfer students has' jumped
from 65 enrolled two years ago
to 120 this fall.
Lorna Hunter, dean of admissions and financial aid, says,
"Transfer students put more
students in upper-class sections
so that introductory courses can
remain small. Non-traditional
transfer students bring a different perspective to the classroom,
and transfers also bring the experience of having attended another institution."
Bruce Bunnick, associate
director of admissions and coordinator of the transfer program,
says the increase can be attributed partly to concentrating
more personal attention on students interested in switching to
Lehigh and using tools like e-
mail to improve communications
with them.
E-mail certainly worked as
Bunnick recruited Bosak. "He
(Bunnick) always returned my
calls and emails promptly," she
says. "He really cared and
wanted me to be here. If you
send an e-mail and it takes a
week or so to get a response, it
makes you feel more like a number than a real person."
"I'd call her in Texas and tell
her to e-mail me all her questions to save her money on her
phone bill. And then we got back
to her with answers right away,"
says Bunnick.
"The amazing thing is we
have not increased our applicant
pool, we're just doing a better job
of communicating with potential
transfer students," says
Bunnick. "I think many bright
students are getting to college
and deciding they want more of
a challenge. At that point, it's just
up to us to let them know they
can get that and more here."
-Bill Johnson
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