CAMPUS CURRENT
FACULTY NEWS
Research, Awards, Activities Fourth Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Chemistry Professor David Vosburg was named a 2013 Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar. He is the fourth Harvey Mudd faculty member to receive the award, which recognizes faculty in the chemical sciences at undergraduate institutions who demonstrate accomplishment in scholarly research with undergraduates, as well as a compelling commitment to teaching. Vosburg established a biomimetic synthetic organic chemistry program centered on plant-derived, natural products. He also helped establish a program that engages high school students traditionally underrepresented in engineering, science and mathematics in two weeks of chemistry research each summer. This academic year, he is on sabbatical at the University of Cambridge in England exploring molecular self-assembly with chemist Jonathan Nitschke.
Online CS Resource for Teachers
Bill Alves
Grammy Nod Music Professor Bill Alves’ “Concerto for Violin and Gamelan” from his album Mystic Canyon was a first-round contender for the “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” Grammy Award, though it did not make the top-five nominee list. The album and this concerto feature violinist Susan Jensen and Harvey Mudd American Gamelan musicians Alves, Sun Hwi Bang ’14, John Choi ’12, Anne Clark ’13, Mark Ellis ’12, Andrew Ho ’12, John Robinson ’11, Julie Simon SCR ’76 , political science and environmental policy Professor Paul Steinberg, Carling Sugarman ’14, Jonathan Williams ’14 and math Professor Darryl Yong ’96.
Efficient Computing Finding ways to improve computer performance and efficiency is the focus of two National Science Foundation-funded projects led by computer science Professor Geoff Kuenning. The first project pairs Harvey Mudd with Stony Brook and Harvard universities to design and develop new data storage devices that can seamlessly trade off performance and energy consumption under varying workloads. The second will fund the continued operation of Keunning’s file system trace repository, which helps researchers nationwide to design file systems that provide computer users with optimal performance and reliability.
Physics Professor Tom Donnelly and student researchers use lasers to study plasma physics.
12
HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE
An online resource library that will help beginning computer science teachers make their subject comprehensible for their young pupils is being developed thanks to a National Science Foundation-funded project led by Colleen Lewis. Based upon teaching strategies gleaned from experienced high school computer science teachers and university faculty, the library will include resources to help instructors teach 90 basic computer science concepts. “What 10K Novice Teachers Can Learn from Teachers with 10K Hours of Experience,” is part of a broader NSF-sponsored initiative that seeks 10,000 new, well-qualified computer science teachers in 10,000 high schools by 2017.
Laser Focus Physics Professor Tom Donnelly will collaborate with physicist Todd Ditmire on National Science Foundation-funded plasma physics research using a laser with nearly 10 times the power of the U.S. electrical grid. Their work will help advance the understanding of basic plasma physics and may lead to the development of better X-ray and neutron sources for radiography. It may also have potential applications as a test bed for fusion research. Donnelly and his students will build a machine that will deliver sub-micron-sized targets to the focus of the high-power laser. They will then travel to Ditmire’s lab at the University of Texas to participate in laser-target interaction experiments.