Other News

  • I.  Roll – The following senators were absent:  Fagerberg, Kazura, Scherr, and Simos.  Guests were John Aber, Terri Winters and Sonic Woytonik.

    II.  Remarks by and questions to the provost – The provost said that President Huddleston will come to the Faculty Senate meeting on October 8.  The president and the provost meet with the senate chair and vice chair on a monthly basis.  The provost and the president have just been attending a Board of Trustee retreat where strategic updates were presented from each USNH institution.  The provost said that the president gave strong support to UNH faculty in his presentation and also stated that UNH will sustain its traditional commitment to high quality undergraduate instruction, select excellence in graduate education, research and competitive excellence.  The provost said that today the senate...

  •  Xiaowei Teng, assistant professor of chemical engineering, has received two National Science Foundation grants totaling nearly $1 million to improve the efficiency of ethanol oxidation fuel cell reactions.  

    “With these grants, we’re trying to promote ethanol as a future renewable fuel in the power generation industry,” says Teng. “Our research tries to target the most efficient way to burn it.”  

    Fuel cells, far more efficient than internal combustion engines, are emerging as a way to generate electricity from chemical energy; they are much like batteries in their function. Ethanol, which has been added to gasoline for use in autos, is at least four times more efficient in fuel cell reactions than in internal combustion engines. While hydrogen is the best-studied fuel in fuel cell reactions, ethanol presents several advantages.  

    “It’s less toxic compared to other fuels, and it can be obtained from a renewable...

  • The president of Irving Oil will discuss the changing energy landscape in North America, with particular focus on oil and gas and the refining business, at the next meeting of the UNH CEO Forum. 

    The event will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012. The program begins at 8 a.m. in Huddleston Hall with coffee and networking, with a full breakfast at 8:30 a.m. 

    Mike Ashtar is president of Irving Oil, and since July 2008, he has led the company’s refining, commercial, and marketing operations. He is the former executive vice president of Suncor Energy where he managed operations and major capital growth projects. Ashtar holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and economics, a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, and an MBA from the University of Toronto.  

    Irving Oil, founded in 1924 by K.C. Irving, is a family-owned and privately held regional energy processing, transporting, and marketing company headquartered in Saint John, New...

  • Researchers from UNH have been awarded funds from NASA’s Space Archaeology program to investigate the transition of indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures in the U.S. Great Lakes region to agricultural-based communities prior to European contact between AD 1200-1600.  

    The three-year, $365,698 project will be conducted by principal investigator Michael Palace of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS) Earth Systems Research Center (ESRC), co-investigator Meghan Howey of the department of anthropology, and post-doctoral researcher Crystal McMichael of ESRC.  

    The focus of the study will be to determine if “micrometeorological lake effects” around major inland lakes contributed to settlement and development of prehistoric agriculture by creating favorable conditions for an extended growing season.  

    To verify the lake effects, the researchers will use ten years of satellite “remotely sensed” imagery from two identical...

  • Dear Colleagues,

    We are pleased to announce the creation of a search committee for the new director of the Carsey Institute. This is the first step in the important process to recruit, review, and recommend candidates for the next director.  The goal is to appoint someone to continue and expand on the excellent leadership provided by Interim Director Bruce Mallory and Mil Duncan prior to Mallory’s appointment.  

    The search committee includes: 

    Rosemary Caron, associate professor of health management and policy

    Mark Ducey, professor of forest biometrics

    Kevin Gardner, professor of civil engineering and environmental research group

    Curt Grimm, deputy director of the Carsey Institute

    Ken Johnson, professor of sociology and Carsey Institute researcher

    David Pillemer, professor of psychology

    Erin Sharp, assistant professor of family studies

    Sally Ward, professor of sociology (chair)

    Tim Allison, UNH...

  • flooding

    On very high tides along the New Hampshire coast, this causeway is almost submerged, illustrating the importance of infrastructure engineers to collaborate with climate scientists.
    Credit: Steve Miller, Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. 

    As our climate changes, will roadways built to withstand New England winters hold up to increasingly normal Maryland-like summers?  If sea levels rise, will ships still be able to pass under bridges? How will the bridges themselves survive more powerful storms?  

    A new National Science Foundation grant led by researchers from UNH hopes to jumpstart our ability to answer these questions by bridging...

  • tree measuring

    Steve Eisenhaure, land use coordinator in UNH’s Woodlands and Natural Areas Office, measures a white pine at UNH’s Woodman Farm. Credit: Victoria Forester Courtland, UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture.

    UNH has been named Outstanding Community Tree Farm by the New Hampshire Tree Farm Committee for its role as a working forest that serves to educate the public on sustainable forestry. Steve Eisenhaure, land use coordinator in the Woodlands and Natural Areas Office, and Jon Wraith, dean of UNH’s College of Life Sciences and Agriculture (COLSA), accepted the award last month at the New Hampshire Tree Farm field day in Lyme. 

    “The New Hampshire Tree Farm Committee is truly...

  • Wick HaxtonWick Haxton, professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar at UNH, will peer back to the first instants following the Big Bang to discuss “The Origin of the Elements” in a public lecture Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. The lecture, at 4 p.m. in Parsons N104, is co-sponsored by the physics department and the UNH Beta of New Hampshire chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. 

    “The astronomer uses a telescope to look back in time, gathering the light emitted from the surfaces of distant stars, eons ago. The chemical elements are another important tool for ‘cosmic archeology,’ allowing us to look back to the first instants after the Big Bang. In this lecture I discuss the puzzle of why there is any matter at all in our universe – why isn’t the universe void, consisting...

  • Bruce Pfeiffer, assistant professor of marketing.

    Bruce Pfeiffer, assistant professor of marketing at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics.  

    Clint Eastwood’s famous interview with an invisible President Obama seated in an empty chair at the Republican National Convention may have done more than elicit a round of late-night television jokes. Celebrities who publicly support political candidates may want to think twice about doing so, according to a UNH researcher who has found that those who are most vocal about political, religious, and social causes may pay with decreased popularity and a hit to their wallets. 

    In fact, the more the public knows about celebrities...

  • The UNH Center for Family Business kicks off the new year of business programming with the panel discussion “A Taste of Family Business Solutions” Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012.   

    The program begins at 8:30 a.m. at the Derryfield Country Club in Manchester. Breakfast and registration begins at 8 a.m., followed by lunch and networking at noon. The panel topics and participants are as follows:

    The Healthy Family Business: Everett Moitoza, Moitoza Consulting
    Families who actively manage their firm using wellness-based vs. deficit models are more likely to succeed and prosper. Moitoza will present and discuss the top 10 characteristics of a healthy family business. 

    Role of Valuation in Business Planning: Jeremy Weir, Management Planning

    From purchasing new equipment or a competitor to strategic planning and business succession, Weir will cover how understanding the value of what you have, of what you...

  • David LaneCelebrate the life of David M. Lane, Sunday, Sept.30, at the Biological Sciences Library in Kendall Hall (behind Nesmith Hall) and the Macfarlane Research Greenhouses, noon to 3 p.m.  

    Lane worked at the Biological Sciences Library for 27 years as biological sciences librarian and associate professor.  

    Noon: Pizza and potluck at the Biological Sciences Library; remarks begin at 1 p.m. (bring your stories); 2 to 4:30 p.m. the Macfarlane Research Greenhouses will be open to view Lane’s carnivorous plant and orchid collections.

    For more information, contact: Francis Hallahan, 2-1018, frh@unh.edu or Emily Poworoznek, 2-4168, el@unh.edu....

  • UNH Manchester will host a traditional Chinese Moon Festival on Thursday, Sept. 27 from 6-7:30 p.m. in the college’s third floor auditorium. The event will include an ensemble of traditional Chinese celebration, including making Chinese lanterns and lantern riddles, a gourd pipe show, a chorus of Chinese love songs, a sample of Beijing Opera and some traditional games.

    The Moon Festival (simplified Chinese: 中秋节; traditional Chinese: 中秋節), is also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival Moon Festival, Moon Cake Festival, and Zhongqiu Festival.

    The celebration honors the goddess, Chang’e, who stole the elixir of immortality and fled to the moon. She is known as the Moon Goddess of Immortality.

    Today, the popular lunar harvest festival is celebrated...

  • The second open forum on eUNH will take place Friday, Oct. 19 from noon to 4 p.m. in the Squamscott Room in Holloway Commons. Sponsored by the Provost's Office and the Faculty Senate. Lunch will be provided and served starting at noon.

    To register visit http://survey.unh.edu/surveycat/surveys/survey1216_eunhforum2.htm. You will have the opportunity to indicate your top three choices for the question you would like to address as a participant in the discussion groups. You will also be able to send a comment or question about eUNH.

    The program for the eUNH Forum is as follows:

    Noon: Lunch

    12:30-1 p.m.: Update on eUNH
    Terri Winters, eUNH director

    1-2:15 p.m.: Vision for eUNH
    Mark Huddleston, president
    John Aber, provost
    Todd DeMitchell, Faculty Senate vice chair
    Terri Winters, moderator

    2:30-3:15 p.m.: Developing an eUNH...

  • Giant pumpkinAt the 15th annual harvest festival at the Child Study and Development Center (CSDC) last Thursday (Sept. 20), UNH’s youngest students of agriculture celebrated fall with parents, teachers, and friends. Between mule-drawn wagon rides, scavenger hunts, homemade snacks, and face-painting, the junior farmers picked from the community learning garden, eagerly sharing the fruits (and vegetables) of their labors.  

    The community learning garden is part of the CSDC’s Growing a Green Generation Project supported by a grant from the HNH Foundation and previously by the Anna and Raymond Tuttle Environmental Horticulture Endowment through COLSA. The collaboration with horticulturalists and students includes a gardening curriculum and community outreach activities.

     ...

  • The UNH Department of Education has received a $1.2 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to implement a science-based afterschool program and to research whether the program improves science achievement in traditionally underachieving groups.

     The project will engage over 2000 rural and indigenous youth in afterschool programs across New England in which they will map sustainable practices (MSP) within their communities. The goal is to strengthen the connection for youth between science and their home and community lives.

    Rural and indigenous children experience higher dropout rates, perform worse on science achievement tests, and are underrepresented in science careers as compared to non-rural students, according to the researchers. The research team believes that children are always motivated to learn, although they sometimes engage in behaviors that both hinder their academic performance and establish identities as “unmotivated...