Education
Mind Matters: Marleen S. Williams (BS ’87), counseling psych prof, is coeditor of Matters of the Mind: Latter-day Saint Helps for Mental Illness.
Larry Baxter
Engineering and Technology
Going Coconuts: B Student engineers designed an innovative apparatus that enables impoverished East African women to turn coconuts into coconut oil. Road Work Ahead: Civil engineering student Paul A. Dixon (’08) received a $20,000 fellowship from the Portland Cement Association to research new highway construction technologies.
Family, Home, and Social Sciences
Got Milk?: Only 36 percent of U.S. babies are breastfed through six months, reported sociology prof Renata Tonks Forste (BS ’84) in the Journal of Human Lactation. The government goal is 50 percent by 2010.
Fine Arts and Communications
Top News: BYU’s Daily News was named the best student TV newscast in the nation by the Broadcast Education Association. Team leaders were student producer Kim M. Dalton (’08), director Katie Luman (’09), executive producer Alexis Baumgartner Wiseman (’08), and tape editor Katie M. Squires (BA ’08). In individual categories, Marco A. Villarreal (BA ’08), Jennifer J. Borget (BA ’08), and McKay S. Allen (BA ’08) took the top three spots in the news anchor division and Rob F. Sanders (’09) and Villarreal tied for first in radio feature reporting. Global Branders: A Ad Lab students Blake L. Hadley (BA ’08), Matthew S. Miller (BA ’08), and Monica C. McGhie (BA ’08) won the Global L’Oreal Brandstorm competition, marking the first time a U.S. team has placed first.
Health and Human Performance
Lifetime of Dance: Sara Lee Heileson Gibb (BA ’59), college dean, received the National Dance Education Organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Responsible Diet: Exercise science profs Keven A. Prusak (BS ’86) and Todd R. Pennington (BS ’91) received a $450,000 national grant to implement the Students Taking Responsibility in Diet and Exercise program in a Connecticut school district.
Humanities
Poetic Laurel: English prof Trenton L. Hickman (BA ’94) won first place in the Borders Open-Door Poetry Contest.
Law School
Legal Appoinment: Wendy Tidwell Archibald (BS ’80) is the new assistant dean for students and internal relations. All-American Law Librarian: Senior law librarian Dennis S. Sears was elected chair of the Foreign, Comparative, and International Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries.
Life Sciences
Professor Elected: Gary M. Booth, plant and wildlife sciences prof, has been elected a 2008–09 SENCER Leadership Fellow. SENCER works to improve teaching throughout the world. Building Endurance: Life sciences prof William W. Winder (PhD ’71) and colleagues pinpointed the enzyme responsible for the increase in muscle mitochondria after repeated exercise. Their study was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.
Marriott School
Computer Champs: B Scott B. Fitzgerald (’10) and Artan Ismaili (’09), infosystems juniors, took first place in a national systems analysis and database competition. Honored Service: The Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University recognized Professor Warner P. Woodworth (BS ’67) as a leading innovator in social-entrepreneurship education.
Nursing
Homeland Security: Nursing prof James E. Kohl was selected to attend special U.S. Homeland Security training at the Center for Domestic Preparedness.
Veteran Care: D For the first time, students in Nursing 400 visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center and dozens of war memorials in the nation’s capital as part of their veteran healthcare studies. The class was accompanied by nursing profs Kent Blad and Ronald Ulburg, both of whom are war vets.
Milton Lee
Physical and Mathematical Sciences
New Computer Chair: Parris K. Egbert is the new Computer Science Department chair. Christophe Giraud-Carrier (BS ’91) is the department’s new associate chair. Security Clearance: This summer, computer science prof Sean C. Warnick mentored top National Security Agency interns working on key issues for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Religious Education
Walking Tour: The Religious Studies Center released Hallowed Ground, Sacred Journeys: Salt Lake City, Ensign to the Nations, Walking Tours, which gives readers three historic walking tours of Salt Lake City. A second edition takes readers on the tours digitally via an accompanying DVD.