PAMS Focus - September 2003

PAMS Focus is a periodic e-mail newsletter about activities, achievements and other news from the NC State College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences. If you have any suggestions or comments, please share them with Sally Ramey, Director of College Relations, at 919-513-0300 or slramey@ncsu.edu.

Flash flood strikes campus

What? How could that happen, you say? Try dropping three inches of rain right onto campus in less than one hour. On July 30, a thunderstorm's freakish downpour overcame drainage systems, leaving Hillsborough Street under two feet of water and flooding the parking lot between Cox Hall and Bureau of Mines with about five feet of water. About two feet of water flooded the basement of Bureau of Mines, forcing a hasty evacuation of faculty and students working in the physics lab there. At one point, the Free Expression Tunnel was completely full of water. Cars were even floating on Avent Ferry Road. For more information and some amazing photographs, visit: http://www.ncsu.edu/BulletinOnline/07_03/summerstorm.htm

Alumni gather in San Francisco

Taking advantage of Dean Daniel Solomon's attendance at a national statistical conference, a group of alumni in the Greater San Francisco Bay area gathered at the home of Lawrence Ives (Physics, '73, '76, '84) to hear what's going on with PAMS.

Hosted by Ives and Meredith Williams (Physics, '94), the social was attended by about alumni. About 175 of the 1,200 NC State alumni in the Bay area are PAMS graduates.

Student lobby gets new furnishings

Three alumni have made contributions to upgrade the furnishings in the lobby area between Cox and Dabney. Originally designed and hand-built built by PAMS student council members in the late 1960s through mid-1970s, the furnishings in the lobby had become unsightly and difficult to maintain. The area had also seen an increasing use for socials and other events hosted by PAMS and the departments of Chemistry and Physics, and the immobile furnishings made this use impractical.

Nancy Ridenhour (Statistics '76) and Mary (Mathematics, '78) and Marvin (Computer Science, '76) Chaney graciously provided funding for new furnishings in this lobby area. Ridenhour and the Chaneys were among the students who built the original funishings.

On behalf of its students and faculty, the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences expresses deep appreciation for this support. The area has been named the Ridenhour - Chaney Lobby, and the gift is being honored on a commemorative plaque.

 

Banks to Lead NC State Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning

Dr. Alton J. Banks, professor of chemistry, is now director of the NC State Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL).

Created in 1998, the FCTL facilitates and supports excellence in teaching and enhances student learning by:

• Promoting a campus culture that values and recognizes the importance of teaching excellence and student learning
• Promoting the development of faculty and teaching assistants in knowledge, techniques, and skills of excellent teaching and enhanced learning
• Cooperating with and supporting other efforts at NC State that share this mission.

Recent alumni named Rotary Ambassador

Robert Reeves Anderson, a graduate student in Public Administration and a 2002 graduate (Chemistry, Political Science), received a Rotary International Ambassador Scholarship of $25,000 to pursue study in another country for one year. He will study international peace studies at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. To learn more, visit: http://www.ncsu.edu/news/press_releases/03_04/107.htm

Challenge grant supports Science House

An anonymous donor has announced a challenge grant of $250,000 to support endowment for The Science House.

Not only will the donor match contributions one-to-one to a general Science House Endowment, but the donor will support endowments in other donors' names. For example, if "Jane Smith" establishes an endowment in her name to support The Science House, the anonymous donor would designate a match into the Jane Smith endowment. This enables Jane Smith to double the value of her gift.

For information about making a contribution, please send an inquiry to pamsalumni@lists.ncsu.edu .