Biology and Agriculture
In a study that reverses a long-held theory that the largest fish are found in colder, northern waters, associate professor of integrative biology and avid angler Mark C. Belk, ’85, has shown that bigger fish tend to be farther south, in warmer climes. The study, coauthored by Belk and published in the December 2002 issue of the American Naturalist, looked at 18 species of fish in various locations and found that almost all grew larger in warmer waters.
Education
Counseling Psychology and Special Education Department chair Ronald D. Bingham chaired the national convention for the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. Attending the conference in Park City, Utah, were approximately 850 professors and PhD students who train counselors for schools, universities, and private practice.
Timothy B. Smith, ’91, an assistant professor of counseling psychology and special education, has been appointed chair of the American Counseling Association’s council of journal editors. Smith is currently editor of the American Journal of College Counselors.
Engineering and Technology
L. Douglas Smoot, ’57, an emeritus faculty member and former dean of the College of Engineering and Technology, has been awarded the 2002 Homer Lowry Award, the U.S. Department of Energy’s most prestigious award for fossil fuel science and technology. He received the honor for his research in computer modeling of fossil fuel combustion, which has led to groundbreaking insights into how air pollutants are formed.
Family, Home, and Social Sciences
A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine coauthored by researchers at LDS Hospital and BYU assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience Ramona O. Hopkins, ’75, shows that patients with carbon monoxide poisoning are best treated with highly pressurized oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber.
Fine Arts and Communications
The School of Music announced the creation of the Endowment for Music and the Family in honor of Geraldine Swenson Watkins, a Juilliard-trained musician who fostered musical talents among her eight children. The endowment will assist families through Internet resources, music workshops and seminars at BYU, research grants and creative projects to support music and the family, and broadcasts of music courses and appropriate family music.
Health and Human Performance
Steven G. Aldana, ’87, associate professor of physical education, has received a grant from the Swedish American Health System to conduct an 18-month trial to determine if a healthy lifestyle can reduce the effects of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. The $792,000 award will be administered by the Swedish American Center for Complementary Medicine. Other members of the research team include Kim L. O’Neill and Byron K. Murray, ’66, professors of molecular biology and microbiology.
A master of public health degree is now being offered by the Department of Health Science. The practice-based degree, for which students fulfill core requirements in areas of knowledge basic to public health, including community health education, also has an emphasis in global health promotion.
Humanities
BYU has been selected by the U.S. Department of Education as headquarters for the newly created National Middle East Language Resource Center. Created with an initial grant of more than $350,000, the center will coordinate the efforts of the best Middle Eastern languages professionals at more than 20 U.S. universities, including Brown, Georgetown, Harvard, New York University, Princeton, and UCLA.
Law School
The Law School recently published Life in the Law: Answering God’s Interrogatories, a compilation of speeches and essays excerpted from the Law School’s alumni magazine, the Clark Memorandum. The book examines what matters most in professional and private lives.
Marriott School
The Marriott School continues to place high in business-school ratings. In the Wall Street Journal‘s 2002 ranking of business schools worldwide, the school moved from 41st to 38th. It was third in the newspaper’s “hidden gems” category. Additionally, in Business Week‘s 2002 ratings, BYU‘s MBA program was once again dubbed the overall “best buy.”
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business has recognized the Marriott School’s Business Career Center as one of the most effective undergraduate placement centers in the country. The report was produced as part of the International Effective Practices Series, which studies high-performing schools in the area of student satisfaction.
Nursing
The College of Nursing celebrated its 50th anniversary in October as part of Homecoming 2002 activities. During the ceremonies and conferences, which followed the theme of “Learning the Healer’s Art,” Intermountain Health Care announced a $50,000 donation to help BYU train clinicians and future leaders.
Physical and Mathematical Sciences
Adjunct professor of chemistry Douglas J. Henderson conceived of and helped organize a unique scientific conference, held on board a riverboat in China. The conference attracted some 150 scientists from 20 countries and focused on the structure of the interfaces between immiscible (unmixable) liquids and other substances.
Professor of physics and astronomy William E. Evenson, ’65, was appointed as the George and Caroline Arfken Physics Scholar-in-Residence at Miami University (Ohio). Evenson received the honor for his extensive research in nanoparticle physics and nuclear condensed-matter physics.
Religious Education
Professor of Church history and doctrine Susan Easton Black, ’66, and emeritus professor of instructional psychology and technology Harvey B. Black, ’50, have written a seven-volume record detailing the more than 60,000 baptisms for the dead performed in Nauvoo during the 1840s. Annotated Record of Baptisms for the Dead 1840–1845, Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois provides information that previously was available only on micrographic records.
