Notables

Daryl Fazio, assistant professor of art, has written a new play which will receive a public reading at 8 p.m., Feb. 3, in the Ophelia Parrish Black Box Theatre. Admission is free, and no tickets are required. The full-length dramatic play, titled “Split,” will be read by Truman faculty Becky Becker, associate professor of theatre, and Dana Smith, associate professor of theatre, students and staff. After the reading, audience members are encouraged to participate in a feedback session meant to help the playwright improve her script. “Split” takes place in the Mississippi Delta in 1969. The Supreme Court has put its foot down, and school integration is imminent. Sisters Nola and Nell exist in the midst of poverty, racism, and religious fundamentalism, believing through faith or cynicism that their fates are sealed. Until they discover another sister. And in a place where separation begets isolation, and hate is a way of life, difference turns out to be a saving grace. This play is Fazio’s third. Her first two, “Greyhounds” and “Georgia Out of My Mind,” were given productions at Truman. “Greyhounds” is also being produced Off-Broadway this February. Contact Fazio at 785.7728 or dfazio@truman.edu for more information.

Warren Gooch, professor of music,
has had an original musical composition selected for performance at the 2006 Iowa Composers Forum/Grinnell Festival of New Music Feb. 17-18 at Grinnell College. “Romanza and Galop” for alto saxophone will be performed at the festival by Randall Smith, professor of music.

Bach Ha, a junior computer science and mathematics double major from Kirksville; Kensy Riley, a junior mathematics major from St. Joseph, Mo.; and Matthew Sealy, a junior mathematics and physics double major from Joliet, Ill.; presented research posters in the undergraduate research session of the 2006 national joint meeting of the Mathematical Association of America and American Mathematical Society in San Antonio, Texas, in January. Theirs were among 133 posters on display. Riley and Sealy presented work conducted during “The Next STEP” program’s 2005 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, and Ha presented work conducted last year with Susan Villarreal, senior biology major from Kansas City, Mo., as part of Truman’s “Research-focused Learning Communities in Mathematical Biology” program. At the end of the poster session, judges announced that Riley and Ha had each earned one of the session’s 36 poster awards. Each student designed and carried out their project with a faculty mentor. Riley worked with David Garth, associate professor of mathematics, Ha worked with Philip Ryan, associate professor of mathematics, and Laura Fielden, associate professor of biology, and Sealy worked with Pamela Ryan, associate professor of mathematics.

Jose Herrera, associate professor of biology, was recently awarded a Research Opportunity Award by the National Science Foundation to conduct work at the Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research Field Site near Socorro, N.M. This $24,000 grant will be conducted during his sabbatical at the University of New Mexico and help determine the microbial diversity found within two economically important forage grasses in desert environments and whether some of the microfungal members of these microbial communities can be transmitted vertically through seeds.

Thomas Trimborn, professor of music, and author of the recently published “Encounters with Lincoln: Images and Words,” will present a program titled “Lincoln and the Music of the Civil War: Contrast and Form” on Lincoln’s birthday, Feb. 12, at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site Visitors Center in Springfield, Ill.
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