WHAT’S INSIDE p2 Octavio Martinez UT alumnus returns as director of Hogg Foundation for Mental Health
Celebrated violinist joins UT
p3 Jeanne Lagowski Longest tenured female faculty member retires from UT after 48 years
p4 2009 iitAP Winners DIIA rewards professors for use of innovative technology in classroom
Anne Akiko Meyers Photo Anthony Parmelee
By Kira Taniguchi
p5school Outstanding graduate Faculty and staff Awards given for teaching, advising and coordinating
p7 Karl gebhardt
UT professor, astronomer discovers M87 galaxy’s black hole larger than thought
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ne of the world’s premier concert violinists, Anne Akiko Meyers, has taken the stage with many of the music world’s major players. A soloist, recording artist and educator, she is about to bring her bright talents to Austin. In the fall, Meyers will make her solo debut as distinguished artist and professor of violin in the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas. Butler School of Music Director B. Glenn Chandler said Meyers will bring her 20 years of concert touring experience and her virtuoso playing abilities to the University. He said Meyers’ role at UT will be to teach private violin lessons, recruit new talent and en-
hance faculty performances. “Every time we bring such a stellar musician to our faculty we enhance the overall value of the faculty,” Chandler said. “Her presence will further enhance our ability to recruit talented violinists, and such recruits will further enhance our symphony orchestra, our chamber music program and in turn, all aspects of the Butler School of Music.” Born in San Diego, in 1970, Meyers’ family soon moved to the middle of California’s Mojave Desert. Meyers believes her musical education began in the womb because her mother listened to Russian violinist David Oistrakh while pregnant. “I like to say that it’s a Pavlovian training I’ve had since she [Meyers’
mother] was pregnant,” Meyers said. “I love and feel music and all its vibrations.” After a fruitless attempt at playing the piano, Meyers’ burgeoning talents surfaced at the age of four when she began studying violin with the Suzuki method. Meyers described the violin as an “amazingly natural fit.” She remembered practicing in the front seat of her family’s VW Beetle while her mother drove her three hours, round trip to violin lessons. At the age of seven, Meyers began studying violin and chamber music with her German teacher, Alice Schoenfeld. By the time she was 11, Meyers’ talents were receiving national recognition and she was asked to perform on the “Tonight Show” with Johnny Continued page 8
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Martinez Making Texas Strides in Mental Health McCombs alumnus returns as director of Hogg Foundation for Mental Health
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By Kira Taniguchi and Gloria Cisneros Lenoir year ago this month the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health came under the wing of a new executive director, Dr. Octavio N. Martinez, Jr. An alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin, he returned to campus with a broad range of academic and work experience from across the country. As executive director, his focus is to improve mental health care for all Texans. “Miss Ima Hogg and her brothers created the foundation in 1940 to help all Texans, regardless of race, color, creed or nationality,� Martinez said. “She was a very progressive individual and
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the greatest mental health philanthropist that Texas has ever seen.� Martinez has a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University’s School of Public Health, a doctor’s degree in medicine from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in business administration with a concentration in finance from the University of Texas at Austin. Dean of the College of Pharmacy Lynn Crismon recently invited Martinez to serve on a committee working to update the state’s prescribing parameters for use of psychotropic medications in foster children with mental dis-
orders. Crismon said Martinez’s background as a board-certified psychiatrist brings real-world experience to the foundation. “This will assist him in establishing the most appropriate priorities for the Hogg Foundation and increases the likelihood that projects funded will positively affect the lives of Texas’ mentally ill citizens,� Crismon said. A native Texan and former assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Martinez moved to North Carolina in 2006 to work as a clinical psychiatrist at the Albemarle Mental Health Center and associate professor at the Brody School of Medicine.
Martinez and his wife, Clarissa Moreno, returned to Austin in August 2008 after he was selected through a national search to succeed Dr. King Davis as the foundation’s executive director. “I’m very happy to be back with my family here in Texas. It has been a homecoming for us even though we loved North Carolina,� Martinez said. “Texas culture is great because it is so varied—we missed Texas.� As executive director, Martinez oversees the foundation’s grant-making, strategic planning and operations. As the face of the foundation, he also networks and meets with local, state and Continued page 6
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our campus • august 2009 • page 3
Longest tenured female faculty member retires after 48 years with UT By Jennifer Schmalz
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fter 48 years, Jeanne Lagowski, Ph.D., was the longest tenured female faculty member at UTAustin until she retired the end of May 2009. She found the inspiration to teach neurobiology in her students. Lagowski counts the thousands of students she has taught and advised over the years as her biggest accomplishment. Recognizing the lights that came on in them made her job worthwhile. The guidance she has offered students during critical points in their lives, such as encouraging them to pursue graduate school or find a new direction, was also particularly rewarding for Lagowski. “Dr. Lagowski was instrumental in guiding my own career path, as she has done for thou-
sands of students before me,� said Rebecca Steinberg, Lagowski’s former teaching assistant and graduate student. Harold Zakon, Ph.D., a professor in the College of Natural Sciences, echoed the sentiment, stating that Lagowski “always had the best interest of students in mind.� In August 2006, Lagowksi stepped down from her administrative position as the associate dean for the health professions. She continued to teach physiology and functional anatomy parttime. Lagowski described her students as “amazing individuals� who kept her going. “Dr. Lagowski cared greatly for her students,� Steinberg said. �The fact is that her class was a gateway into health professions.� Science intrigued Lagowski as early as grade school. For her,
definitive resources on heterocyclic chemistry. The team also coauthored several other books on the subject, including “The Principles of Heterocyclic Chemistry� in 1968. Lagowski came to the University of Texas in September of 1959 when her husband, Joseph Lagowski, Ph.D., accepted a position in the chemistry department. Initially, she worked as a research scientist for the Genetics Foundation in UT’s Department of Zoology, where she conducted molecular genetic studies using the common fruit fly and the large milkweed bug. In 1973, she became a faculty member in the zoology department and was later appointed associate dean of health professions. Zakon said Lagowski served as a voice of reason during the faculty meetings. Jerry Brand, another professor in the College of Natural Sciences, said it has been a “high honor to work with a colleague with such strong administrative instincts who could at the same time focus on critical details.� Brand emphasized that Lagowski’s strong ability as an administrator resulted
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Jeanne Lagowski
there was “never a question it would be anything but science.� She earned her doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1957 for her work in heterocyclic chemistry. Heterocyclic chemistry studies molecules that are cyclic, which means they have ring systems that contain at least one atom of an element different from the others. Most heterocyclic compounds studied to date are organic. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Cambridge University in England from 1957 to 1959. At Cambridge, she worked in the organic chemistry research group headed by Lord Alexander Todd, the winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the structure of DNA. It was also there that Lagowski met Alan Katritzky, with whom she has collaborated on many heterocyclic chemistry projects over the years. “We were two people willing to work hard,� she said. In 1964, Katritzky and Lagowski coauthored the book “Advances in Heterocyclic Chemistry,� the first volume in their continuing series. She served as co-editor of the textbooks, which are considered
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Innovative Instructional Technology Awards Program By Jennifer Schmalz
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he IITAP is sponsored by the UT Office of the Provost and the Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment. Created in 1997 by thenProvost Mark Yudof, the annual awards program recognizes UT faculty achievements in innovation in instructional technology and the use of technology that makes teaching and learning more effective, relevant and efficient. “The University was looking for a way to encourage faculty members to enhance their cours-
Photo Tamir Kalifa
es with appropriate technology,” said DIIA’s Associate Dean Rob Bruce. The awards are open to all UTAustin faculty and faculty-student/staff teams. To be eligible, the innovative instructional materials must be put to use for at least one semester and have documented results that demonstrate how the teaching approach promotes students’ knowledge and skills. Each participant submits a two to four minute demonstration video explaining the innovation of the project and how it is used in the classroom.
This year, the entries were judged by a faculty review panel composed of previous IITAP award recipients, members of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers, experts in instructional design and members of the New Media Consortium. Three awards totaling $10,000 were presented by Executive Vice President and Provost Steven Leslie to four UT faculty members. K. Sata Sathasivan, Ph.D., in collaboration with John Gilbert, Rhonda Hostetler, Shane Lewis, Paul McCord, Patsy McDonald, John Markert and Steven Szysz-
ko, won IITAP’s Gold Award for their Quest Learning and Assessment System. Sathasivan earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agriculture and agronomy respectively from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, and his doctorate in plant health and biochemistry from Louisiana State University. He is a senior lecturer at UT in the section of molecular, cell and developmental biology in the School of Biological Sciences. He has taught at UT and served as faculty adviser for the department’s student organizations for 19 years. Sathasivan said that Quest’s main benefit is the availability of regular weekly assignments that ensure students keep up with the required reading and improve their problem-solving skills. According to the Web site, https://quest.cns.utexas.edu, the system uses an extensive knowledge database with more than 60,000 questions. Each question can have up to several hundred variations, delivering different parameters to students and ensuring different answers. Currently, Quest covers mathematics, computer science, physical science, physics, biology and chemistry. Students can access assignments online from anywhere and receive immediate feedback on the answers they submit. They can also compare their performances to
those of the rest of the class. “Quest stood out this year because of its numerous options and the number of students impacted,” Bruce said. Quest evolved from a homework service developed over many years in the physics department. The efficiency of the service was initially hampered by the steep learning curve for both faculty and students. Sathasivan introduced the idea for Quest in a white paper in response to the dean’s desire to improve students’ homework with a database system. In collaboration with the developers of the physics department’s homework service including Lewis as project manager, McDonald as administrator, Szyszko as programmer, Hostetler as Web developer and the remaining three, Gilbert, McCord and Markert, as subject coordinators, Quest became a reality. Sathasivan said the system, combined with a user-friendly format, was tested by both students and faculty. “Quest is a great example of what happens when intelligent and creative people get together and brainstorm,” Bruce said. Quest is still evolving with the steady addition of more questions and new subjects. Sathasivan said it will soon offer learning modules that will show segments of lectures explaining concepts followed by problems for students
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our campus • august 2009 • page 5
Graduate School Staff, Faculty Recognized By Harsh Kalan
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edicated staff and faculty members of the graduate school are recognized every year with professional awards. In May, this year’s outstanding graduate teacher, Daron Shaw; coordinator, Susan Corbin; and adviser, David Springer, all received $4,000 awards underwritten by the University Co-op for their contributions. As a freshman trying to make it onto UCLA’s baseball team, Daron Shaw’s ultimate career goal was to be a center fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The San Diego native would not have imagined winning the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award at a top tier university back then. But, more than two decades down the line, he is creating award-winning lesson plans as a professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin. The 42 year old whose recurring shoulder injury during his junior year brought his baseball career to a halt, chose to pursue a career in
political science instead. “In terms of my baseball career it probably wasn’t the best thing to happen, but it worked out well in the end,” said Shaw, who earned his doctorate in political science from UCLA. Before his arrival at UT, Shaw worked as an exit poll data analyst for the Fox News Channel during the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections and as a survey research analyst for various political campaigns. However, he said his most satisfying job has been teaching UT undergraduate and graduate courses such as American government, political parties and applied survey research since 1994. “I love the freshness of being on a college campus. The fall, it will be my 16th year,” he said. “Every year there is a new set of students. They come to UT, they graduate, and go off and do great things.” Shaw said that his students’ successes in college and after graduation give him a sense of accomplishment and pleasure. He Continued page 9
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Octavio Martinez Continued from page 2
national stakeholders in mental health. Recently, Martinez and Program Officer Rick Ybarra were two of 30 invitees from across the country brought together by the federal Office of Minority Health to discuss workforce issues for Hispanics and Latinos nationwide. Martinez and Ybarra served on a panel to discuss the foundation’s new statewide bilingual scholarship program, which will award up to $1 million in full scholarships over three years to graduate social work students who speak English and Spanish. “This is an effective state model for workforce development and cultural diversity that could be replicated at the federal level,” Martinez said. “It is very empowering to be recognized and it makes me very proud of the foundation and the work we do here.”
The foundation is known for its groundbreaking, innovative work in developing grants and programs to improve mental health in Texas. Five years ago, the midsized foundation adopted a competitive proposal process to focus its grantmaking in key areas that bring the greatest benefit to mental health. The process also ensures that the best proposals are funded. Martinez credits his staff for making his job easier with their expertise and experience. Together, they are entrusted with the difficult task of prioritizing mental health care needs in Texas and deciding where the money goes. The recession’s impact on nonprofit and service organizations has further heightened the need for funding in mental health. “The need in Texas was great even before the economic downturn, which has exacerbated that need,” Martinez said. “We continually reevaluate needs in the state and think about the outcome and
impact our programs and grants can have.” Martinez and his staff meet annually with an advisory council of state and national experts in mental health to learn about trends in mental health and get feedback on potential new funding areas. The foundation’s current priorities include consumer and family involvement, integrated health care, cultural competency, workforce development and mental health policy and research. All of these areas are interrelated, he said. “Addressing integrated health, cultural competency and workforce shortages will help reduce the stigma of mental illness,” Martinez said. “We just have to address all of them in a strategic fashion so we are not wasting dollars.” The first grants under his watch awarded $456,565 to six mental health policy projects in Texas. One of the grantees is Jaimie Page, assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the Univer-
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sity of Texas at Arlington. Page founded the school’s Exoneree Project in 2008 to study and treat the mental health needs of people who have been wrongfully convicted in Texas. Martinez said the impact of Page’s work has been profound, prompting new laws in 2009 that provide exonerees with higher compensation and more social services, including mental health care. “Thanks in part to Dr. Page’s work, the legislature adopted laws to change how exonerees are treated—a very tangible outcome,” Martinez said. “Our grant was instrumental in helping her achieve that goal.” Martinez also launched a higher education research initiative that awarded nearly $150,000 in grants for mental health research projects to 10 tenure-track assistant professors at schools across Texas. The one-year grants are capped at $15,000 each. The research projects cover a variety of topics, such as mental health care preferences of Iraqi war veterans, the economic crisis’ impact on depression among elderly Korean immigrants and potential links between childhood obesity and mental health. “These grants can further the recipients’ academic careers while also encouraging research of important mental health issues in Texas,” Martinez said. Since 2006, the foundation has promoted integrated health care, an emerging national movement to improve people’s health by treating physical and mental
illnesses together. Last fall, Martinez hosted the 15th Robert Lee Sutherland Conference on integrated healthcare, a two-day event that featured state and national experts and attracted more than 400 stakeholders from across Texas. In June the foundation awarded $259,000 to Mental Health America of Greater Houston to form a statewide online learning community on integrated health care. “You cannot have good physical health without having good mental health,” Martinez said. “They go hand-in-hand and cannot be separated, in my opinion.” In September, the foundation plans to award up to $9 million in grants over three years to improve children’s mental health. The grants will be funded by the Ima Hogg endowment, which is dedicated to providing mental health services for children and adolescents in Houston and Harris County. Martinez’s long-term goal is to elevate the footprint of the Hogg Foundation in Texas’ mental health care landscape. He said the foundation is fortunate to call Texas’ flagship university home. “To be part of a premier research university is a very unique position for a foundation focused on mental health and elevates our position in Texas and at the national level,” Martinez said. Visit http://hogg.utexas.edu for funding opportunities, mental health resources, news and information.
our campus • august 2009 • page 7 By Elena Watts
U
T professor and astronomer Karl Gebhardt has gained notoriety in scientific communities around the world for his recent discovery that nearby giant galaxy M87’s black hole is two to three times larger than originally thought. With German astronomer Jens Thomas of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Gebhardt unearthed the revelation with a new modeling system run on UT’s Lonestar supercomputer, one of the most powerful in the world. Stephen Hawking’s best-selling book, “A Brief History of Time,” traces the beginning of the understanding of black holes back to John Michell’s 1783 paper “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London” that attests “a star sufficiently massive and compact would have such a strong gravitational field that light could not escape: any light emitted from the surface of the star would be dragged back by the star’s gravitational attraction before it could get very far.”
Hawking refers to such stars as black holes, a term coined by American scientist John Wheeler in 1969 that has become symbolic of the mysteries of the universe for scientists and novices alike. Hawking further explains in his book that, “Eventually, when the star has shrunk to a certain critical radius, the gravitational field at the surface becomes so strong that the light cones are bent inward so much that light can no longer escape. According to the theory of relativity, nothing can travel faster than light. Thus if light cannot escape, neither can anything else; everything is dragged back by the gravitational field…this region is what we now call a black hole.” Contrary to his prior claims and to the delight of many new age and scientific proponents of reincarnation, Hawking now asserts that all matter falling into a black hole will eventually be recycled in the form of particles and radiation emitted as the black hole evaporates. Although curiosity and imagination have ushered many into science fiction fandom, they can Continued page 11
Gebhardt’s Modeling System Unearths Black Hole’s Mass UT professor, astronomer takes world one step closer to understanding origin, fate of universe
Photo courtesy McDonald Observatory
UT’s supercomputer, the Lonestar system, which Karl Gebhardt used to discover M87’s black hole is two to three times larger than originally thought, is one of the most powerful in the world.
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Carson. “It was nerve-racking because I hadn’t had much exposure in front of big cameras,” Meyers
became the only artist ever to be the sole recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. The $10,000 grant helped her with necessary career expenses such as gowns for the stage and violin strings. “At the time, it was very much an honor to be recognized by my peers and colleagues in the music industry,” she said. “To be given this award was very meaningful.” However, Meyers’ demanding schedule caught up with her in her early 20s. Life as a professional violinist became daunting when she signed with a management company and began touring constantly. “I was so busy traveling, I was rarely home—just traveling all over the world by myself,” she said. “I didn’t realize how demanding and challenging it would be to be alone.” Meyers recovered from that period and has gone on to captivate audiences around the world. Photo Anthony Parmelee Although she fresaid. “Johnny Carson was so quents venues such as gracious, so excellent at speak- Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Oping with children and making era House and New York Philthem feel comfortable on TV. I harmonic, her most memorable felt like I was in a studio having performances are in outdoor a good time.” venues where there is little conWhen she was 23, Meyers trol over the environment. She
remembers playing outside in Sydney, Australia’s Harbour in front of nearly one million people. “Speakers dangling from helicopters and I was playing the Barber Violin Concerto—it was quite wild,” Meyers said. “To be outdoors with my bow practically getting ripped out of my hand and going out to sea—that was very exciting.” When she is not touring, she charms fans with her more than 20 CDs. The conception of her latest CD entitled “Smile” stemmed from the Schubert Fantasy. It features “Over the Rainbow” and Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile.” “It was like a solar system for me—that the sun, the biggest most powerful planet was the Schubert Fantasy, and everything evolved from that,” Meyers said. She has already recorded half of her next album with a French harpist of the Paris Opera. Entitled “Dreams,” it is scheduled for release in early 2010. Meyers has spent a fair share of her life studying and practicing the violin. After her time practicing with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, the 13 year old studied at Indiana University. After just six months in Indiana, she moved to the Julliard School where she practiced with Dorothy DeLay. Therefore, her newest endeavor as professor of violin at UT will not be all that new to her. “With that experience, from my early training with DeLay and Schoenfeld—all these people I have studied with—it really has culminated to this place,” she said.
Meyers hopes to inspire her future students by teaching them traditions from her past. By helping them to discover and fix the core of their problems, Meyers said they can go on to become better musicians. Her experience as a performer will also be crucial in giving students a glimpse of what it is like to play on stage with a full orchestra. “I was, along with my colleagues, I’m sure, very aware and very appreciative of Anne’s artistic gifts and abilities while we were all studying during the early days of our careers,” said Daniel Ching, senior lecturer and instructor of violin at the Butler School of Music. “Her playing and rising status as a superstar in the classical world was incredibly inspirational to those of us who were trying to achieve even a fraction of her artistry.” Meyers will also bring to the University a piece of history in her violin. She plays the “Royal Spanish” Antonio Stradivarius violin, dated 1730, that once belonged to the King of Spain. Meyers compared finding the right violin to finding a spouse. “It’s an extension of your voice and basically of your soul,” she said. “It so spoke to me and had this warm burnished tone—like a fine bottle of wine.” A self-professed “foodie” Meyers is excited to make Austin her new home. She loves Whole Foods and is looking forward to hiking, biking and listening to all types of music in the live music capital of the world. “I love to shop. I really love to drink wine—I just love listening to all kinds of music,” she said. “Austin is the town for that.”
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our campus • august 2009 • page 9
Graduate School Awards Continued from page 5
attributes his own success in academia to his enthusiasm, which he believes is key to being a good professor. “If you are not interested in ideas, the concepts and the controversies that animate your field of study, your students won’t be interested in it,” he said. Shaw credits his graduate students for recommending him for the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, which he referred to as a gratifying experience. He considers imparting his knowledge to students as a great responsibility because they will be the professionals who will represent the University and implement his ideas and approaches in the future. Although his baseball days are long gone, he still applies what he learned on the field to his approach in the classroom. “The thing I learned very late in baseball is that you always need a plan. Don’t waste any at bats,” Shaw said. “With teaching also, you have to have a plan, while being flexible enough. Hopefully I am doing justice to those who taught me.” For a water sports junkie from Cocoa Beach, Fla., advising graduate students of social work at the University of Texas at Austin might seem like an unlikely calling. However, for David Springer, who won this year’s Outstanding Graduate Adviser Award, the reality of his role is clearer than ever. “Owning a surf shop, somewhere in Maui would be ideal… Costa Rica would be ok too,” said the associate dean of the School of Social Work about his alternate reality. But, given his exploits in the field of social work and his unflinching commitment to his graduate students, the surf shop will probably have to wait a few years. Springer has been teaching at UT since 1997 and has been an academic adviser for the last seven of those years. After earning an undergraduate degree in psychology from Florida State University, Springer
Hey UT Faculty & Staff! David Springer, Ph.D., received the Outstanding Graduate Adviser Award for his work in the School of Social Work; Susan Corbin, Ph.D., graduate adviser for the Department of Communication Studies, received the Outstanding Graduate Coordinator Award.
went on to earn both his master’s and doctoral degrees in social work from the same university. His passion for working with adolescents and juvenile delinquents in clinical settings developed during this time and prepared him for his job as an adviser. “You have to be a good listener to be an adviser,” Springer said. “A large part of it involves taking the time to sit with students and talking with them about their program, what’s happening in classrooms, what career path they wish to go on.” Springer said his job entails helping students navigate the complexities of graduate school, career paths and other life decisions. “When I think about the School of Social Work, and broadly about UT, you need world class faculty to recruit and retain the top graduate students, and vice versa. The two go hand-in-glove,” he said. “So, when we are supporting the grad students in their work, we are really supporting the mission of the University.” Therefore, Springer believes advisers have to put a lot of thought into how graduate students are guided—especially in the current economic climate. “I think the secret to navigating life as a grad student, and even beyond that, is to figure out the thing that you love to do and feel fully engaged in,” Springer said. “The rest usually falls into place, even with the times being economically tough like they are right now.”
Summer is the toughest part of the year for Graduate Adviser for the Department of Communication Studies Susan Corbin, Ph.D. That is when life becomes too dull because most of her students leave school. It is fitting that Corbin, who thrives on students passing through her cozy office seeking her advice, received this year’s Outstanding Graduate Coordinator Award. “This award was really gratifying,” said Corbin pointing to a wall adorned with numerous thank you notes and appreciative greeting cards. “Some of the notes I received from students were really sweet and nice. You work and you hope that what you do is appreciated. This makes it tangible.” Corbin looks over the academic progress of about 100 students seeking doctoral and master’s degrees each year. She has been a graduate coordinator for six years and was an academic adviser for five years before that. Listening, understanding and most importantly, motivating graduate students comes from her vast experience. Corbin, who came to UT as an undergraduate student in the late ‘60s, has plotted an unconventional path to reach her current position. “I did my undergrad degree in medical technology at UT,” said Corbin. “After that I worked in a clinical lab for five years, and then worked at the research lab at UT in the biochemistry department for another five years.”
When she became bored with that, Corbin decided to pursue a few courses in the College of Communication. She soon applied for the master’s program in communication studies—an academic move that laid the foundation for her career as a graduate adviser. She earned her doctorate from UT in the same field, and has been employed with the department ever since. As a graduate student and coordinator, Corbin has taught a few courses in the department. But, her job description mainly entails advising students on how to cope with the complexities of higher education and the challenges that come with it. “To do this job, I think you’ve got to like constantly dealing with people and not mind saying the same thing over and over,” Corbin said. “It’s probably the 50th time I said it, but it’s the first time the student asked it. Answer it like the first time.” Corbin said that because the bureaucratic and administrative necessities are too much for students to manage alone, she does not want them to feel stupid or think questions are inappropriate. “There’s no dumb question,” she said. “A dumb question is the one you didn’t ask!” This is key to Corbin’s success. Her years of experience and dedication to the department and University are reflected in her encouraging attitude that has seen her grow from student to master.
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IITAP Winners Continued from page 4
to solve. For instructors, Quest’s automatic grading system frees up time for more class preparation, and their ability to draw from a database of questions makes creating assignments easier. Sathasivan acknowledged that the transition from high school’s weekly assignments that help prepare students for tests to college’s independent study can be difficult for some students. Quest makes offering that structure easier for faculty. Sathasivan researches areas of applied plant molecular biology, such as plant genetic engineering, genome analysis, expression of foreign proteins in plants and developing biofuels from algae, and encourages undergraduate students to do original research in these areas. He has received numerous teaching awards, including the Texas Exes Teaching Excellence Award and the Dads’ Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship. Franky Ramont, senior lecturer in the Department of Linguistics, received a Silver Award for ASL (American Sign Language) Online. Ramont earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from Gallaudet University and a master’s degree in deaf education from the University of Nebraska. For the past nine years, she has taught three ASL courses at UT Austin. Ramont’s entry video for ASL Online explains that she developed the Web site because, “here at UT we do not have a lab for the ASL program… ASL students have textbooks, but they contain two-dimensional line drawings of signs that look frozen.” ASL’s site provides students with video of multi-dimensional ways to sign. This is particularly helpful since some signers are left-hand dominant, while others are right dominant. The units incorporate examples that reflect the surrounding UT environment. One lesson uses the Drag to teach students how to sign the names of stores, as well as spatial referencing and expanded concepts. The site, which can be accessed from any computer with high-speed Internet, prepares students for class by teaching them vocabulary and providing opportunities for them to engage with material outside the classroom. As a result, more time is available in class to discuss language structure and
deaf culture. Bjorn Sletto, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Architecture, also received a Silver Award for his East Austin Environmental Justice Project. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota, his master’s in geography from the University of Kansas and his doctorate in city and regional planning from Cornell University. In response to the spatial and economic distinction between East and West Austin, Sletto created a class focusing on environmental justice. The class gave students the opportunity to research environmental conditions in East Austin and analyze how the issues affect area residents. In pursuit of this goal, Sletto formed partnerships with the environmental justice organization, PODER, and Zavala Elementary School. He said the partnerships allowed the class to document their perceptions of the environment surrounding Zavala Elementary School and the children’s exposure to environmental hazards. Although Sletto employed teaching techniques including readings and class discussions, it was field work and his application of digital technologies to work effectively and responsively with community groups that moved beyond traditional classroom-based instruction. Research methods and geographic information systems (GIS) model development were accessed by students via the Internet, allowing them to learn mixed-method research. Digital technology furthered their conceptualization of local knowledge and their roles in environmental planning while encouraging students to document the knowledge in new and innovative ways. “There are few opportunities in classes to build GIS from the ground up in a real world environment,” said Elizabeth Walsh, a Ph.D. student in community and regional planning in the Department of Architecture. Sletto, who spent most of his professional and academic life working to improve social and environmental conditions for residents of marginal communities in Latin America, said his project is grounded in his personal and professional commitment to issues of justice. He has taught at UT for two and a half years in the areas of Latin American development and planning, environmental justice and GIS.
Photos courtesy DIIA
Top to bottom: Biological Sciences Professor K. Sata Sathasivan, Ph.D., won the ITTAP Gold Award for his Quest Learning and Assessment System; Department of Linguistics Senior Lecturer Franky Ramont won a Silver Award for ASL (American Sign Language) Online; and Architecture Assistant Professor Bjorn Sletto, Ph.D., also won a Silver Award for his East Austin Environmental Justice Project. The three awards totaled $10,000.
Gebhardt’s Discovery Continued from page 7
only imagine what Gebhardt lives. His sole claim to such fancies is a 1982 film about a futuristic earth. “Science fiction books and films really never played an important role for me, although I love ‘Blade Runner,’” he said. “The speech that the robot gave while holding on to Harrison Ford’s life is actually inspirational:” “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” It was Gebhardt’s search for such lost moments that led him
Jeanne Lagowski Continued from page 3
from her “genuine compassion for those with whom she works, a distinct quality throughout her career.” “She has never sought privilege or publicity,” Brand said. “Instead she has assumed a modesty and service mindset.” Nevertheless, Lagowski’s career has brought her many sought-after awards and appointments. She received
our campus • august 2009 • page 11
to a career in astronomy. “I am obsessed with understanding our place in the universe, and that we are so insignificant, yet dare to understand, and succeed in understanding, our world around us,” Gebhardt said. “It is impressive how far we have come in understanding the universe.” To understand black holes and galaxies of all masses, Gebhardt said both M87’s black hole and Milky Way’s black hole, which is 1,000 times less massive than M87’s, are needed. He has worked on and off on M87 for 10 years. “M87 is important since it has the most massive black hole measured, at 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun,” he said. “The black hole in the Milky Way is
yet more important since we can see detail around it so well.” M87 provides Gebhardt with an ideal test case for his new galaxy models including both the dark halo, which is a cloud of dark matter that envelopes the black hole, and the black hole, since it is so well studied with lots of data on it. “It should have taken about 100,000 hours of computer time—for a computer like the ones that we use—which on the supercomputer, since there are 5,000 nodes, is only about a day,” he said. “However, especially true for the first time, you make mistakes, rerun many models, find that you are not in the proper parameter space…and it took probably a week in total of supercomputer time.” This translated to about a year of Gebhardt’s time spent shifting back and forth between analyzing and rerunning the models with tuned parameters. “The good thing is that we can apply this knowledge to what I am doing now, and one galaxy actually only takes a few hours now,” he said. “This opens the door for doing a large sample.” Gebhardt fully expected to find a smaller black hole. “I actually had an idea that it was overestimated before,” he said. “I was quite surprised when the models found a larger black hole.” He is now applying a similar analysis to a large set of galaxies and the trend of increasing the black hole appears to be there, though M87’s mass remains the largest, by far. “Now, it is important to see
if M87 is unique—it is already unique because it is so massive— and apply this to other galaxies,” Gebhardt said. “We expect to have another 20 or so galaxies modeled in the same way over the next year.” The ultimate goal is to understand how galaxies are formed and having a sample of just one is not sufficient for this. “The analysis is going very well so far,” he said. “I cannot predict what we will discover, but no one has looked at these galaxies with the detail we are using now.” Gebhardt’s work is helping us to understand why black holes have the masses that they have, or how the black hole was fed over cosmic time, and more importantly, how that relates to the formation of the galaxy. “There are many theoretical models for why black hole mass relates to the galaxy mass, and having the accurate data is going to illuminate the underlying physical process,” he said. “Once we understand the process, then we can say how our galaxy formed, and how it will evolve into the future.” Thanks to Gebhardt’s innovative modeling system, the Department of Astronomy at UT is currently one of the leaders in understanding how black holes relate to galaxies. “This continued research, and in particular, the excellent facilities at the Texas Advanced Computing Center will ensure our lead for a long time,” he said. Gebhardt, who was raised in Rochester, N.Y., earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in physics and astronomy
from University of Rochester, Michigan State University and Rutgers University respectively. Following his postdoctoral appointment at the University of Michigan and a fellowship at the University of California Santa Cruz, he joined the University of Texas’ faculty in 2000. “I teach about two classes a year, and I normally teach the intro to astronomy for non-science majors—AST301 and AST309,” he said. “I particularly enjoyed the two classes I taught in fall 2008, and I have to figure out why.” Gebhardt, his wife of 14 years and their five-year-old daughter spend their summers in Munich, Germany where they escape Texas’ triple digit heat and he can focus on research. It came as no surprise when Gebhardt, reflecting on his New York days, said, “I actually miss the snow and shoveling the driveway,” since Austin is experiencing its hottest summer in history. When time and circumstances allow, Gebhardt and family are avid gardeners, hikers and home renovators. “Hopefully [we] will start some camping and backpacking trips with our daughter soon,” he said. Gebhardt’s discovery takes the world one step closer to understanding the origin and fate of the universe. “It is a testament to the combined force of everyone in the world and demonstrates the ability for the world to come together on major questions and provide solutions,” Gebhardt said. “So, in addition to wanting to understand nature, I am as motivated by the challenges they present.”
a National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Award, she was a visiting scholar at the University of East Anglia, England, and she was elected both a Danforth Associate in ’77 and to Leadership Texas in ’88. Her teaching has been recognized with a number of excellence awards, including the Blunk Memorial Professorship and a College of Natural Sciences Advisory Council award, among others. Finally, in 1994, Lagowski and
her husband endowed the Jeanne Lagowski Scholarship at Bradley University, where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. “The department has been good to me over the years,” Lagowski said of her UT colleagues. Although many people at the University have had an impact on her, Lagowski said that Hugh Forrest, Ph.D., was a wonderful mentor when she first arrived at UT. During her transition into administration, Lagowski
received generous and instrumental guidance from Auline R. Schrank, Ph.D. In 1971, Schrank was appointed associate dean of the newly formed College of Natural Sciences because of his effectiveness in the administrative process of planning the Patterson Laboratories building, she said. Elspeth Rostow, who served as the dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs and UT’s Division of General and Comparative Studies, and chaired the board of
the U.S. Institute of Peace, also made an impression on Lagowski when she worked with her in an administrative role in the area of comparative studies. When Lagowski considers moving on to the next phase of her life, she suspects it will not be academic. However, she said that she has enjoyed “wonderful, fun years” teaching at UT and has had the privilege of working with interesting people, both colleagues and students.
Photo courtesy McDonald Observatory
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