Notables

Truman’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) unit was recently recognized by the U.S. Army as one of the top performers of Cadet Command’s 273 units for the 2007-2008 school year for having achieved their assigned commission mission.

Several Truman students were honored by the Missouri Broadcast Educators Association (MBEA) for outstanding efforts in student media. 
An April 3 luncheon in Jefferson City honored first place and honorable mention winners from more than two dozen audio, video, and multi-media categories in the annual MBEA student media contest. Truman students awarded first place plaques include: Dan Rettke, a senior communication major from Washington, Mo., for television commercial for News36; Kyle Magee, a senior communication major from Wildwood, Mo., representing the Truman Media Network for convergent reporting of the 2008 elections; Tyler Killen, a junior communication major from Kirksville, Mo., and Paul Vogl, a junior communication major from Chesterfield, Mo., for sports programming at KTRM; and Jessica Wright, a December 2008 graduate from Fulton, Mo., for station promotion at KTRM. Truman students awarded honorary mentions include Jackie Gonzalez, a senior communication major from Bonita, Calif., for a radio news feature, as well as Killen and Vogl for play-by-play coverage of Truman sports on KTRM. Following the award ceremony, the students attended media workshops in the state capitol. Mark Smith, assistant professor of communication and media adviser, is immediate past president of the MBEA.

Taner Edis, associate professor of physics, was a panelist at the McGill Symposium on Islam and Evolution, March 30-31, in Montréal, Canada. More information, including webcasts, can be found at http://www.mcgill.ca/eerc/symposium/.

Nicholas Wilsey, a junior physics major from Warrensburg, Mo., and Bandon Decker, a senior physics major from Lawson, Mo., presented research conducted at the Truman Observatory at the 2009 Mid-American Regional Astrophysics Conference in Kansas City, Mo. Wilsey and Decker were accompanied at the conference by Matthew Beaky, associate professor of physics. Wilsey’s presentation was titled “Revisiting the O’Connell Effect in Eclipsing Binary Systems,” and Decker spoke on “Phase Dependent Spectroscopic Monitoring of Cepheid Variable Stars.” Both projects described work carried out as part of the summer 2008 Next STEP Program.

Megan Dowdy, a senior art major from Wildwood, Mo., was recognized for work accepted to the Fifth Annual National Student Show and Conference in Dallas, Texas. Dowdy received: a Best of Show Award; a Judge’s Choice Award; Best of Category for Poster Design; and 1,400 Words Award for Best Copywriting, which is a scholarship award. In addition to Dowdy, Victoria Weaver, a December 2008 graduate from Eureka, Mo., was included in the show. More than 2,400 submissions were received with slightly more than 100 works accepted.

Martin J. Eisenberg, associate provost and associate professor of economics, has been named an American Council on Education Fellow for the 2009-10 academic year. The ACE Fellows Program is designed to strengthen institutions and leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing promising senior faculty and administrators for responsible positions in college and university administration. Thirty-eight Fellows, nominated by the presidents or chancellors of their institutions, were selected this year in a national competition. Fellows spend three weeks discussing higher education issues organized by ACE, reading extensively in the field and engaging in other activities to enhance their knowledge about the challenges and opportunities confronting higher education today. Each ACE Fellow will focus on an issue of concern to the nominating institution while spending the next academic year working with the university president and other officers at a host institution.

Mustafa Sawani, professor of economics, and Zuriashe Patterson, a Truman alumna, had their paper “Economic Growth and Political Instability in Ethiopia,” accepted for publication. It will appear in the May 2009 “Regional Business Review.”

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