Arizona State University

Ted Wimsatt is the recipient of the 2008 Steven G. Lisa Award for his academic excellence and significant contributions to the Center for the Study of Law, Science & Technology at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

The $1,000 award, which is given by Lisa, a patent lawyer and alumnus of the College of Law, recognizes an outstanding third-year law student with intellectual property interests.

Wimsatt graduated this week at the top of his class and earned a law, science and technology certificate with a specialization in intellectual property.

During law school, he was a summer associate at Perkins Coie Brown & Bain and at Lewis and Roca LLP, and he also was executive editor of Jurimetrics: The Journal of Law, Science, and Technology.

Wimsatt, a former engineer at Motorola who has a computer engineering degree from Penn State, said he is honored to receive the award.

“I’m really surprised because there were a lot of great 3Ls involved with the center this year – and they are as, or more, deserving,” he says.

Gary Marchant, the center’s executive director, called Wimsatt a model student who “will surely also be a superb attorney.

“Ted is consistently brilliant, hard-working, fully engaged, responsible and reliable,” Marchant says. “On top of all that, he is a nice guy.”

Wimsatt plans to serve as a clerk for the Arizona Supreme Court’s vice chief justice, Rebecca White Berch, next year. He has lined up a job at Perkins Coie Brown & Bain after that.

The Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police (AACOP) highest ranking leader, Chief of Police John Pickens, is in charge of Arizona State University’s police department.

From last fall to this spring, Pickens has risen in the ranks of two major organizations: president of the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police (AACOP) and general chair of the University and College Section of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP).

In January, Pickens ascended to the position of president of AACOP. In this role he is the principal executive officer and provides general direction, supervision and control of the business affairs for the association. He has been a member of AACOP since 2000 and has advanced quickly since becoming fifth vice president in 2006.

“One of the things I like about AACOP is the ability to enhance cooperation and coordination among law enforcement agencies on the local, state and federal levels,” Pickens said.

According to AACOP’s Web site its purpose is to promote and enhance the cooperation and coordination between public and private entities in the interest of law enforcement with a mission that focuses on dealing with personal issues, to promote efficiencies in government, police professionalism, and the maintenance of individual liberty.

In October 2007, Pickens was named general chair of the University and College Section for IACP in which he is a lifetime member with more than 20 years of continuous service. Through October 2009 Pickens will preside over the section’s meetings and represent the section in all official matters along with other duties.

In addition to being general chair, he also has been appointed to the National Law Enforcement Institute on Violence Against Women, a project of IACP, which is a national effort to coordinate and create new approaches to address and prevent domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and human trafficking. He assists in promoting the institute and indentifying strategies to improve partnerships within the university community to deal with sexual assaults.

“This is terribly important work and it is especially appropriate to have representation from a university perspective on the Leadership Institute,” said Paul Ward, vice president for University Administration and General Counsel. “We are fortunate that Chief Pickens will bring innovative approaches for investigating sex crimes to the ASU Police Department.”

IACP’s Web site explains that their University and College Police Section fills the unique needs of a university that requires a unique level of service, one that combines the culture of education with the tenets of crime prevention and public order. The section helps in giving its own perspective to the larger law enforcement community.

Pickens said, “Both organizations are great sources for networking to share ideas, philosophies, discuss issues, and seek solutions.”

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences honored eight individuals for quality teaching, excellence in advising, and making a difference. Recipients of the college honors were recognized May 8 at a college awards program. They were nominated by students, alumni, faculty members and staff.

Neal Woodbury received the Gary Krahenbuhl Difference Maker Endowment award, which is selected by the dean of the college. Woodbury is a professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry and the director of the Center for Biooptical Nanotechnology in the Biodesign Institute at ASU.

“Professor Woodbury is a dedicated teacher, an innovative and creative researcher, dependable colleague, and is energetic in his service to the college,” says Quentin Wheeler, ASU vice president and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “He has been a leading pioneer in research on the structure-function relationships in photosynthesis and is currently developing molecular devices and nanoscale hybrid electronics for use in biomedicine, threat detection and agriculture.”

The recipient of this award personifies the spirit of difference-making demonstrated by Gary Krahenbuhl, former dean of the college. The endowment was established through generous contributions from faculty, staff and friends at ASU to annually recognize and celebrate faculty in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The Zebulon Pearce Distinguished Quality Teaching Award was established in memory of Zebulon Pearce who graduated from Territorial Normal School at Tempe (now ASU) with teacher’s credentials in 1899. This award recognizes quality teaching in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

This year, three faculty members received the award. They are Kyle Longley, a professor of history and a dean’s faculty Fellow; Mike Treacy, a professor of physics and director of undergraduate programs in the physics department; and Randall Cerveny, a President’s Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences.

Longley teaches in a variety of formats, including large lectures, online, and small seminars. He has served on doctoral and master’s thesis committees, and for several semesters he was involved in the undergraduate learning community “War, Culture and Memory.”

A student wrote to Longley: “I’m nearing the end of my four years at ASU, and I can count on one hand the number of classes that have truly challenged me and yours are both included.”

Treacy teaches undergraduate thermodynamics, optics and modern physics, and graduate level mechanics. He has earned a reputation for clear presentations and the ability to relate complex concepts in laymen’s terms to his students.

“I have learned that most students are serious, motivated, young people who have a strong desire to learn. It is a privilege to help them achieve their goals,” he says.

Cerveny teaches climate and meteorology to first-year students as well as upper division. He believes in giving students extra training and experience through avenues such as the “Arizona Thunderstorm Chase Project,” a summer project that has students act as mobile eyes for the National Weather Service during the monsoon. He has also introduced geography to broader audiences in his book “Freaks of the Storm” and by teaching a TV class titled “13 Ways Nature Can Kill You.”

“He engages students, most of whom have no idea what the field of geography is about, to the point of convincing them to become majors,” says Luc Anselin, director of the School of Geographical Sciences says.

There were three other teaching awards presented at the award program: Distinguished Teaching Award for Lecturers; Distinguished Teaching Award for Faculty Associates; and Distinguished Award for Teaching Associates.

Delon Washo-Krupps, recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award for Lecturers, is a lecturer in the School of Life Sciences. She teaches three courses every semester with class sizes ranging from 150 to more than 400 students.

“Delon loves to teach – this has been clear in every interaction I have had with her. And students think she is terrific, in spite of the large classes she teaches,” says Andrew Smith, associate director for undergraduate programs in the School of Life Sciences.

Charles “Chas” Barfoot received the Distinguished Teaching Award for Faculty Associates. Barfoot is a faculty associate in the department of religious studies, teaching in the classroom and online. Among his classes are: “Religion in the Americas” and “Myth, Symbol and Ritual.”

“I don’t lecture as much as I ‘academically entertain.’ I feel somewhat like George Lucas in that I am forever looking for new ways to tell an old story,” he says.

Chad Awtrey received the Distinguished Teaching Award for Teaching Associates. Awtrey is a doctoral student and teaching associate in the department of mathematics and statistics. He teaches algebra, finite mathematics and second semester calculus. Awtrey learns the name and area of study of each of his students. A former student said: “He does not view his job as teaching math. Instead he teaches his students math.”

Another student wrote: “Chad has an extraordinary ability to relate rather difficult concepts to students at different ranges of understanding.”

The college also recognized the role of academic advisors in the success of ASU students.

Debra Daly, an academic success specialist and coordinator of advising in the department of psychology, was this year’s recipient of the Excellence in Advising Award. Among her accomplishments, Daly initiated “Declaration of Graduation Workshops,” which have resulted in a substantial increase in the number of students who graduate on time.

“There is no single advisor more dedicated or involved with students than Debbie, and I’ve lost count of how many students come to me to rave about her as an advisor and as a person,” says Keith Crnic, chair of psychology.

Arizona State University placed sixth in the Thomson Scientific’s U.S. University’s Top 10 in the subject area of ecology and environmental sciences. The rankings, developed for 21 subject areas, were derived from an examination of 9,200 publications (from 2001-2005) associated with the Thomson’s University Science Indicators database. The top scores were held by University of California, Santa Barbara; Stanford University; University of Wisconsin, Madison; Harvard University and University of Washington.

"This honor reflects the breadth of ASU in ecology and environmental sciences, spanning microbial to social groups, marine to landscape and urban; and, with recent hires, has become one of the very best in behavioral ecology," says Professor Rob Page, founding director of the School of Life Sciences.

Page believes it is ASU’s signature interdisciplinarity, as well as research excellence in these areas, that led to ASU being ranked. There is plenty of evidence to support this opinion. For example, the School of Life Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has 101 researchers, 250 graduate students, more than 832 publications since 2001, and topped ASU’s charts for research expenditures for academic units in 2007.

Life sciences researchers study a diverse array of subjects and systems, from philosophy of sciences to transmission of disease. While their academic homes are in the School of Life Sciences, many of these scientists are also leaders or collaborators in ASU’s research centers and institutes, including the Global Institute of Sustainability, Biodesign Institute at ASU, Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity, International Institute for Species Exploration, and Center for Biology and Society.

A recent example of the multi-faceted environmental sciences resources being created at ASU is the “ecoSERVICES ASU” group in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Under the leadership of life sciences professors Ann Kinzig and Charles Perrings, this group “studies the causes and consequences of change in ecosystem services – the benefits that people derive from the biophysical environment – and analyzes biodiversity change in terms of its impacts on the things that people care about.” EcoSERVICES ASU hosts Diversitas, an international program that meshes with another international initiative around the science of biodiversity and ecosystem change, the International Mechanism for Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity (IMOSEB), supported by International Council for Science (ICSU) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The breadth of ASU’s expertise in ecology and environmental sciences creates big footprint. Big enough to top the charts. It spans the boundaries of schools, centers, and institutes, and collaborative focus, running the gamut from urban to ant studies, environmental engineering, water resources, sustainability, nutrient cycling, and everything fish, fowl, microbial, and ecosystems in between.

Since 1966, ASU researchers have published more than 44,644 total publications; 31,858 articles in peer-reviewed journals, according to the Thomson’s “ISI Web of Knowledge” tool. Interestingly, the top two highly cited papers at ASU to date are held by Sudhir Kumar, director of the Center for Evolutionary Functional Genomics and professor in the School of Life Sciences, for two publications in molecular evolutionary genetics. Thomson’s database tool is not inclusive of all publications and journals of significance, still it provides an indicator, in these 21 fields, of the impact of an institution’s research enterprise. Some of ISI’s highly cited researchers within the subject category include ASU professors Nancy Grimm, James Collins, James Elser, Jingle Wu, Michael Rosenberg, and Phil Hedrick, for his work in conservation genetics.

What do lists like this ultimately mean? Thomson notes that such data, “derived as they are from the reliable journal publication and citation information found in “Web of Science” … provide organizations, including the National Science Foundation, data for national performance analysis” and assessments."

This national ranking illustrates the long standing success and impact of our life sciences research enterprise at ASU and arises directly as a result of attracting outstanding faculty in our ecological, evolutionary, and environmental sciences,” says Sid Bacon, dean of natural sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The College of Design is pleased to announce the appointment of Kurt Creager as the new director of the Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family. Creager was most recently the CEO of the Vancouver Housing Authority in Vancouver, Washington, where he was responsible for producing over 3,500 housing units over a 15-year period. The announcement was made at the Stardust Center Advisory Board meeting on April 29.

Kurt Creager has more than 25 years experience in nonprofit affordable housing, private development and government-based public housing authorities. As the former Chief of Housing and Economic Development for King County, Seattle, Washington, he created a countywide Housing Opportunity Trust Fund, which has since invested $150 million in over 9,000 affordable housing units in over 40 localities. Creager has been active in Phoenix for the past few years as senior vice president for Housing Development for CDK Partners. He also has his own consultancy, Urbanist Housing Solutions LLC, where he is engaged in transit-oriented and sustainable master planned communities in Scottsdale, Arizona; Beaverton, Oregon; and Kootenai County, Idaho. Urbanist Solutions is also retained by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles to help diversify their portfolio to include a significant inventory of workforce housing for communities.

“Kurt Creager brings an entrepreneurial spirit to the intersection of public and private enterprise,” says Conrad Egan, President of the National Housing Conference and Stardust board member. “He has a lifelong commitment to increasing and supporting good, affordable homes to families and the organizational, managerial and leadership skills to bring the Stardust Center to a higher level of performance.”

Creager has a vision for the future of the Stardust Center that builds on ASU President Michael Crow’s commitment to social embeddedness and support and mission of founding donor Jerry Bisgrove and founding director, nationally known architect, Michael Pyatok.

“Stewardship is important” says Creager. “The Stardust Center needs to extend its reach into the community to leave it in a better condition than how we find it. We will remain grounded in the local community but will be striving to increase the visibility and applicability of the center’s work to the national and international stages.”

Wellington Reiter, dean of the College of Design, says that Creager is coming to Arizona at an pivotal time for housing and real estate development. “He has the knowledge of the complex financing and development strategies vital to the development of affordable and workforce housing. In today’s economic climate, we will need his experience and leadership to ensure that the Stardust Center will continue to be at the forefront of solutions to today’s challenges in housing and sustainable development.”

Creager was a Fannie Mae Fellow in the State and Local Public Executive Program in the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and is a graduate of the Institute for Public Policy and Management at the University of Washington. He received his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Planning & Architectural Graphics at Western Washington University. Creager lends his time and energy to a variety of boards and associations. He was president of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials and continues to sit on the board of governors. He represented the organization’s nongovernmental organization at the United Nations. He also serves on the board of the Housing Development Law Institute and on the advisory board for Affordable Housing Finance magazine. He has been an entrepreneurship trainer for Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey, and the Public Housing Authority Director’s Association in Washington, DC.

Since January 2005, when it first opened its doors, the Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family has established a strong reputation for applied design and research in affordable, sustainable housing. The Stardust Center has built two successful demonstration projects—in the Phoenix area (Guadalupe) and on the Navajo Nation. Through research, educational outreach, advocacy and design innovation, the Stardust Center supports organizations, neighborhoods and professionals in their efforts to improve the growth of quality affordable homes and sustainable communities.

Meghan McCauley, a first-year law student at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, recently was chosen as the winner of the 2008 Cohen Professionalism Scholars competition, based on an essay she wrote about integrity.

McCauley, whose essay was titled “Commandment 10: Honor who you are and you will bring honor to what you do,” received a $1,000 scholarship from the sponsors of the contest, Loren Cohen and Maricopa County Superior Court judge Bruce R. Cohen, an alumnus of the College of Law.

The Cohens awarded second place and a $500 scholarship to Alison Atwater, and honorable mentions – along with $250 scholarships – to Amy M. Coughenour, Natalie Greaves and Daniel A. Lewis.

The Cohens will take the students to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles in June.

This is the third annual presentation of the awards.

The entire Class of 2010 submitted essays to the Cohens, writing about the greatest moral dilemmas they’d ever faced and how they were resolved. The Cohens said the submissions were entertaining and inspiring, making the judging very difficult.

“If you’re not called up here, you nonetheless have inspired us and raised our optimism for the legal profession for the future,” Bruce Cohen said at the presentation.

McCauley’s essay recounted her internal struggle with telling the truth about her past indiscretions when applying to get into the Air Force, and risk not only being rejected, but bringing dishonor to three prior military generations of her family, or lying about her past and being admitted.

“We never realize the dark skeletons we have in our closets until we are asked to fill out a character and fitness report, asking everything from, did we ever pull someone’s hair in the first grade to whether or not we took a sip of alcohol prior to the day we turned 21 to whether or not we had committed misdemeanors or worse felonies,” McCauley wrote.

To read all of the essays, go to www.law.asu.edu.

ASU is saying goodbye to Regents’ Professor Cordelia Candelaria, who is leaving to assume the position of dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Candelaria has been a member of the ASU community for more than 15 years. She is a Regents’ Professor in the Department of English and the Department of Transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, a department she helped establish and chaired from 2000 to 2005.

She also serves as associate dean of the Office of Strategic Initiatives in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU.

“I’m excited by this new challenge, and also at the prospect of returning to a smaller institution like those I attended: the University of Notre Dame and Fort Lewis College,” Candelaria says. “I hope to take the best approaches and innovations from our work in public universities and combine them with the finest practices of respected private institutions. The potential is powerful.”

As founding associate dean for the office of strategic initiatives at ASU, Candelaria focused on enhancing excellence in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences by achieving measurable outcomes of diversity in faculty hiring, and by advancing interdisciplinary academic programs.

Previously, as vice provost for academic affairs at the Downtown Phoenix campus, she assisted with the preparations needed to open the full-service campus in the city’s urban center. She appointed talented directors to head the Downtown Phoenix campus’ integrated information commons, a facility offering library services, electronic and digital resources, and access to global information systems to all ASU students and other downtown patrons.

“It has been inspirational to watch Dr. Cordelia Candelaria work as a researcher, mentor, administrator and poet,” says Manuel de Jesus Hernandez, a professor of Spanish and Chicano literature at ASU. “Dr. Candelaria is deeply committed to her work, and I have seen multiple examples of her success as a professor by observing the work of the students she has mentored.”

Regents’ Professor Alberto Rios agrees, saying that Candelaria “made things make sense, and she could contextualize and embrace the range of thought on all issues.”

Candelaria, who initiated her career in higher education in the 1970s, lights up every time she talks about her students and their achievements.

“As a teacher, I encourage students to have a strong, focused commitment to achieve their goals,” she says. “At the same time, I emphasize that it’s equally important to have a noble purpose larger than oneself and then to apply that purpose to making a positive difference in the world.”

She also expresses a deep appreciation for her colleagues and the impact they had in her life.

“I’ll miss my ASU familia greatly, and I wish the university and Arizona continued success,” she says.

Carl Hayden High School’s Falcon Robotics team celebrated its recent victory in an international robotics competition at a May 7 event hosted by Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.

In April, the Phoenix high school team bested 350 other high school robotics teams from 26 countries in taking the first-place prize in the competition in Atlanta.

Many of the Falcon team’s 42 members came to the celebration at ASU for a demonstration of computer-game development, an exchange of ideas with ASU robotics experts, a congratulatory presentation by school of engineering Dean Deirdre Meldrum and Executive Dean Paul Johnson, a dinner and a tour of the engineering school’s robotics facilities.

The engineering school has played a role in the education of the Falcon team through its outreach efforts to spark interest in science, engineering and technology among K-12 students.

With support of a U.S. Department of Education grant, faculty members Wei-Tek Tsai, Gary Bitter, Yinong Chen, James Collofello and Yann-Hang Lee have been developing high school computing curriculum since 2006. Robotics programming has been used to teach computing concepts, Chen explains.

With funding from a Science Foundation Arizona grant, Chen taught a robotics-based computing class to a group of Arizona high school teachers in 2007. Two of the teachers, Steu Mann and Eira Rodriguez, were from Carl Hayden High School.

That led Chen to meet Carl Hayden High School teacher Faridodon Lajvardi and Allan Cameron, the founders of the Falcon Robotics team. They are now working together, using the attraction of robotics to interest students in all aspects of engineering.

They are also working with Intel Corporation to provide scholarships for two of the Falcon Robotics team’s programmers to attend the engineering school’s Summer Robotics Camp in June and July.

The camp experience “will prepare [the students] to improve the programming of their robots for future competitions,” Chen says.

“We are celebrating not just our success in robot building,” Cameron says. “We are celebrating how our students have been inspired and how they are inspiring others about the fun of engineering.”

Falcon team members have been giving demonstrations of their robotics work to schoolchildren and community groups.

“We are influencing the culture of our neighborhoods, the state and the country,” Cameron says. “Our robotics team has become a model for those who want to positively affect their world.”

Winning the international robotics competition was “a thrilling accomplishment,” he says, “but broadening our culture’s appreciation of science, technology, engineering and math is the goal we are really striving for, and the celebration of our victory by ASU’s engineering school is a great encouragement to us.”

The involvement of ASU’s engineering school faculty “has raised the expectations, ambitions and academic achievement levels of students,” he says. “We feel like ASU is our university, and we look forward to more collaboration. I think there are quite a few future ASU Sun Devils at Carl Hayden High School who will be studying in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.”

No. 2 ASU Softball left no doubt Sunday afternoon in the Championship Round of the Tempe Regional as they posted ten hits in an 8-0 five inning win over Hawaii to advance to the Tempe Super Regional next weekend. The win pushes ASU to 59-5 overall and wraps Hawaii’s 2008 campaign at 40-21. 

The Sun Devils started the game strong, doing all the little things right as a first-inning lead-off single from Lesley Rogers was brought around with a sacrifice bunt and RBI single up the middle from Kaitlin Cochran to take the 1-0 advantage. Another home run from Mindy Cowles and an RBI single from Jackie Vasquez in the second helped ASU start to pull away with a 3-0 lead after two, with Cowles again taking the team lead in long balls with 16 on the year.

Up 3-0 after three innings, the Sun Devils shut the door in the fourth with Rhiannon Baca drawing a lead-off walk only to be brought home by three straight ASU singles. With bases loaded Kristen Miller took to the plate where she decided she wasn’t to be outdone by Cowles’ home run as she cranked a 1-1 change-up from Hawaii’s Jessica Morton deep to left field for a grand slam, and tying Cowles for the team lead with 16 home runs on the year.

With the Sun Devils leading Katie Burkhart continued to baffled the Hawaii hitters as she gave up only three hits while striking out six en route to the complete game shutout and her 34th win on the year and her 111th in her career, tying her for 19th in NCAA history.

Head Coach Clint Myers gave praise of his team’s performance this weekend stating, "This team is talented, aggressive, intelligent and they work very, very hard and I’m very demanding as the players can attest to. Again, the expectations that we have are what you saw. We’re a well-hitting ball club and we prepared very hard for this Regional. Kudos to their ability and their performance."

The Sun Devils will now gear up to host the Tempe Super Regional where they’ll face the winners of the Evanston Regional, the Northwestern Wildcats, whom ASU will take on this upcoming weekend in Tempe. The start of the Tempe Super Regional has yet to be determined.

Arizona State won its seventh straight game and completed a three-game sweep of Washington with a 13-7 victory Sunday, May 18 in front of a crowd of 2,215 at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. The Sun Devils improve to 44-9, 15-6 in the Pac-10, with the win.

Freshman Seth Blair earned the win and moved to 4-1 on the season, going 5.2 innings and allowing three runs and six hits.

Ryan Sontag and Ike Davis had three hits each while Brett Wallace hit his team-leading 19th home run, a grand slam in the eighth inning, to lead the Sun Devil offense to their fifth straight game scoring 11 or more runs. It was the second grand slam of the season for Wallace and the second of his carrer.

Washington took a 1-0 lead on a solo home run in the second, but the ASU offense got to Huskies starter Nick Haughian in the fourth, scoring five runs off the left-hander. Kiel Roling had an RBI double, Raoul Torrez drove in a run with a bunt single, Greg Bordes brought in another on a sacrifice bunt with the bases loaded and Sontag then capped off the inning with a two-run single to right center.

The Huskies cut into the lead with two runs in the fifth, but the Sun Devils scored three more in the sixth when Torrez drove in two with a triple down the right field line and then scored on a wild pitch.

The two teams traded runs in the seventh, with ASU scoring on a groundout by Petey Paramore. After Washington added another run in the top of the eighth, Wallace crushed a grand slam over the right field fence to put the Sun Devils on top 13-5. It was Wallace’s second career grand slam, with his first coming earlier this season in ASU’s win over Vanderbilt on Feb. 23.

The Huskies scored two runs and had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the ninth, but Dustin Brader got a strikeout and a groundout to end the game and secure the victory.

Sontag was 3-for-4 with a walk and Davis went 3-for-5 with two doubles, while Wallace, Torrez and Marcel Champagnie all had two hits each in the win.

The Sun Devils wrap up the regular season with a three-game series at Arizona beginning on Thursday.

The Arizona State University women’s track and field team scored 186.5 points to claim its third title in a row while the men place second as the 2008 Pac-10 Conference Championships presented by 76 Gasoline came to a close Saturday night on Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium in Tempe. The women claimed crowns in four events on the day and seven overall to become only the second women’s team to win three in a row in the Pac-10 while the men won four events on the final day and six overall.

In the team race, the throws pushed the Sun Devil women out to a big lead that the team built into the second-most points scored at the Pac-10 meet and only three points off the meet record of 189.5 scored by UCLA. Stanford was second with 117 points while Oregon (100), USC (91) and UCLA (80) rounded out the Top 5. The Sun Devil men came up short to the Ducks for the second year in a row as UO scored 144.5 points to ASU’s 134. UCLA (108), California (81.5) and Stanford (79) rounded out the Top 5 in the men’s standings.

ASU saw four its competitors make history on Saturday as all four joined an elite group of double winners. On the women’s side, Charonda Williams made an impressive debut in her first Pac-10 meet by winning both the 100m and 200m events. She won the 100m in 11.45 before running 23.09 to take the 200m, the third-best time in school history. Her teammate, Dominique’ Maloy, also in her first Pac-10 meet, added points in both events by placing eighth in the 100m (11.71) and second in the 200m (23.28, the sixth-best time in program history). Williams’ double marked the ninth time in Pac-10 history the sweep had been recorded and the first for a Sun Devil.

Jessica Pressley continued her solid meet as she captured the discus with a winning mark of 55.93m to lead a sweep of the Top 3 with Sarah Stevens (55.68m) and Tai Battle (54.51m) taking second and third, respectively. Pressley also won the shot put one day earlier, making her the ninth woman to win the shot put and discus in the same meet and the second year in a row for the Sun Devils as Stevens accomplished the feat last year.

On the men’s side, Kyle Alcorn continued his championship meet success as the indoor 3,000m champion picked up his second Pac-10 title in as many days by winning the 5,000m run in 14:12.76. Alcorn, who added the 5,000m crown to his 3,000m steeplechase title from Friday, became the ninth man to win both events in the same meet since the 1976 meet switched to a 5,000m race instead of the 2-mile run.

Matt Turner scored in a pair of events on the final day as he won the triple jump with a leap of 15.63m while teammate Jeremy EgboroDwight Phillips pulled off the double in 1999. placed eighth at 14.59m. Turner, who also finished eighth in the high jump on the day (2.05m), became the fifth man since 1960 to win both the long jump and triple jump in the same meet. He is the second Sun Devil to accomplish the feat as

The winning did not stop there, however, as both teams captured the 4×400m relays to end the meet. The team of Jeavon Benjamin, Maloy, Shauntel Elcock and Jordan Durham ran a winning time of 3:34.45 for the women while the men’s team of Marquis Profit, Justin Kremer, Darryl Elston and Joel Phillip combined to run 3:04.75. It was the second crown of the day for Elston who just 25 minutes prior to the relay won the 200m dash with a time of 20.91.

Following the meet, the Pac-10 honored a pair of Sun Devils with the Pac-10 Athlete of the Meet Award which is given to the one man and one woman that score the most points in the Championships. Based on their finishes, Jacquelyn Johnson scored 33.5 points to earn the award while Turner’s 21 points earned him the men’s honor.

The Sun Devils will take a weekend off from competition before heading to Northridge, Calif., on May 30-31 for the NCAA West Region Championships.

Pac-10 Champion Arizona State appears to have secured its sixth straight NCAA Championship appearance at the NCAA Men’s Golf West Regional held in Bremerton, Wash., at the Gold Mountain Golf Course. ASU finished at 21-over 885 (304-285-296), which has it at eighth place after the morning round of competition. Final results can be found at the link above. ASU was the only team in the top eight that did not have a top-10 finisher for the tournament.

The top 10 teams advance to the NCAA Championships held in West Lafayette May 28-21.

ASU was led by freshman James Byrne, who finished at 3-over 219 (71-73-76).

All-Pac-10 first-team selection and freshman Jesper Kennegard finished at 6-over 222 (76-77-69) with his 3-under 69 carrying ASU in the final round, as he was six shots better than any of his teammates after having his 77 tossed out in team scoring on Friday.

Sophomore Braxton Marquez shot a 7-over 223 (77-70-76).

Sophomore Knut Borsheim finished at 13-over 229 (78-72-79).

Freshman Stephan Gross finished at 14-over 230 (82-73-75).

ASU has won or tied for the West Regional title five times and had tied for third the past two seasons.

The 2008 NCAA West Regional featureed 15 teams ranked in the Top-50 of the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index. That list includes third-ranked USC, No. 4 UCLA, No. 7 Stanford, No. 10 Florida State, No. 15 UNLV, No. 18 Clemson, No. 19 Arizona State, No. 24 Texas Tech, No. 30 North Carolina, No. 33 Texas, No. 35 Pepperdine, No. 37 San Diego State, No. 41 LSU, No. 42 California, and No. 44 Oregon State. Florida State (ACC Champion), UNLV, Texas Tech, North Carolina, LSU, Cal and Oregon State all will probably not advance.

ASU IN THE WEST REGIONALS: ASU has won or tied for the title in the NCAA West Regional five times.

NCAA West Regional ChampionsYear	Champ	ASU	Individual Champion1989	Arizona	2nd	Robert Gamez (Arizona)1990	UNLV	3rd*	Hub Goyen (UNLV)1991	ASU/UA	T1st	*Warren Schutte (UNLV)1992	Arizona*	2nd	Harry Rudolph (Arizona)1993	Arizona	2nd	Manny Zerman (Arizona)1994	UNLV	2nd	Edward Fryatt (UNLV)1995	ASU	1st	Mike Sauer (New Mexico)1996	Stanford	2nd*	*Tiger Woods (Stanford)1997	UNLV	2nd	Aaron Oberholser (SJ St.)1998	ASU/UNM	T1st	Paul Casey (ASU)1999	ASU	1st	Jeff Quinney (ASU)2000	Arizona	T6th	Michael Beard (Pepperdine)2001	ASU	1st	Matt Jones (ASU), Kyle Thompson (South Carolina)2002	UNM/UW	20th	Ricky Barnes (UA), Justin Smith (Minnesota)	2003	UCLA	5th	Michael Letzig (UNM)2004	UCLA	4th	Travis Johnson (UCLA)2005	UNLV	T4th	Rob Grube (Stanford)2006	Florida/UA	T3rd	Billy Horschel (Florida), Casey Watabu (Nevada)2007	South Carolina	T3rd	Benjamin Alvarado Holley (ASU)*Eventual NCAA Champion

START IT OVER: Back in 2002, ASU head coach Randy Lein saw ASU’s 18-year NCAA championship consecutive streak snapped in a season that had injuries and some bad luck. With a chance to clinch a sixth straight appearance on Saturday, ASU is back in the saddle with five straight appearances, and to show you how competitive the NCAA men’s golf champioships is, that five-year streak already was tied for the sixth-best active streak entering this season. Arizona had a 21-year streak snapped this year as it did not make NCAA Regional play after finishing under .500. Georgia Tech also will not make the field this year.

Rk., School, Years, Current Streak
1. Oklahoma State, 1947-2007, 61
2. Arizona, 1987-2007, 21 (ended in 2008)
T3. Georgia Tech, 1998-2007, 10 (will end in 2008)
T3. Georgia, 1998-2007, 10
5. Florida, 2001-2007, 7
T6. Arizona State, 2003-2007, 5
T6. UCLA, 2003-2007, 5

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP APPEARANCES: Heading into today’s final round of the West Regional, ASU had made 14 NCAA Championship appearances in Randy Lein’s 15 years (1993-2007), tied for the third-best mark in the nation.

MOST NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP APPEARANCES (1993-2007)
Oklahoma State, Arizona-15
Arizona State, Florida-14
Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Clemson-13
Wake Forest, New Mexico, UNLV-12
Auburn, Texas-11
Georgia-10
UCLA, Minnesota-9

For most people, including many of the nearly 5 million annual visitors to the Grand Canyon, the geological icon in northern Arizona is a striking landscape – a majestic and physical place of wonderment.

But an ASU team of educators, comprised of graduate students and faculty members from the history department and graduate students from the School of Geographical Sciences, are out to deepen that perspective with a new interpretation of the Grand Canyon’s human history.

Their project, “Interpreting America’s Historic Places: Nature, Culture, and History at the Grand Canyon,” aims to paint a cultural landscape of the canyon through a suite of public educational materials, including a digital audio-tour, walking tour brochure, interactive Web site and DVD, and educational kits known as traveling trunks, with curriculum and classroom materials that can be used by K-12 teachers nationwide.

Supported through a significant $365,000 grant that spans three years from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a $200,000 investment from and partnership with the Grand Canyon Association, the project had humble beginnings with a $9,000 seed grant from ASU’s Institute for Humanities Research.

“Our aim in this project is to explore the cultural significance of the canyon to those people who have lived there, or passed through, during the past 400 years,” says Paul Hirt, ASU associate professor of history and the project’s director. “We will also explore the ways that this unique place has influenced American sciences, art, environmental values, popular culture, tourism and leisure.

“The project is designed to help Americans understand their own nation and how we came to be who we are – and that history happens in specific places,” Hirt adds.

ASU collaborators include Linda Sargent Wood, assistant professor of history and co-director; graduate student Yolonda Youngs, School of Geographical Sciences; and graduate students Patricia Biggs-Cornelius, Sarah Bohl and Adam Tompkins from the history department.

The team began working under the NEH grant last fall and since then has interviewed park rangers, experts and tourists to produce the first interpretative product – a digital audio-tour – that will be available to the public at the Grand Canyon in May 2008.

The 90-minute digital pedestrian audio-tour interprets more than 20 historic sites at the Grand Canyon Village historic district on the South Rim, including the El Tovar Hotel, Bright Angel Lodge, the Kolb Studio, the Santa Fe railroad depot, and many other buildings and architectural features. It will be for sale at Grand Canyon bookstores and on the Internet from the Grand Canyon Association.

“The histories of the Havasupai Indians and other Americans who have called this landscape home are largely missed by most visitors to the Grand Canyon who lack the knowledge or the tools to perceive and understand the human experience embedded in this seemingly natural landscape,” says Hirt.

“As a consequence, millions of park visitors each year lose a unique opportunity to appreciate how nature, culture and history have long been bound together at the Grand Canyon and how that diverse and changing relationship reveals important features of our nation’s history.”

As a companion to the audio-tour, the project team is revising and enhancing the existing walking-tour brochure of the South Rim Historic District. Later, they will provide interpretative training for park rangers, concessionaires and bus drivers.

The traveling trunks are being produced by a team of Arizona public school teachers who are serving as consultants. Currently, the Grand Canyon Association loans out three copies of a “human history” trunk with curriculum and classroom materials developed in 2002. Under the NEH project, this human history trunk will be significantly updated with new curriculum and divided into two trunks – one for elementary students and the other for high school students. Five copies of each trunk will be produced for a total of 10 traveling trunks for loan use.

Each trunk will contain books, maps, videos, audios and illustrative items. The new curriculum is being evaluated this summer with plans to make the traveling trunks available later this fall. According to Wood, the trunks will be shipped free of charge to any teacher anywhere in the country.

Simultaneously, the project team is writing text and gathering historic photos and images for an interactive Web site and DVD.

“There will be many more sites and stories on our Grand Canyon Web site than on other existing Web sites,” Hirt says. “We will interpret some 70 to 80 historic sites.”

Another unique feature of the ASU-sponsored Web site is that many of the narratives will focus on the relationship between nature and culture, and the significance of the Grand Canyon in American history.

The National Endowment for the Humanities funding for the project comes from the prestigious “We The People” initiative designed to promote “knowledge and understanding of American history and culture.”

“The Grand Canyon Association is very pleased to be working in partnership with ASU on this significant human history project,” says Brad L. Wallis, executive director. “As one of the most visited natural history sites on the planet and a true international icon of natural places, the Grand Canyon has also had a fascinating human history story, and this grant will help visitors become more aware of this aspect of the canyon.”

More information about the project is online at www.asu.edu/clas/history/FundedProjects/GrandCanyon.htm.

Jeremy Brooks is among the first to say it.

The two-letter word eases out of the junior’s lips and bounces around the packed classroom, gaining momentum until it’s repeated hundreds of times by a bevy of students.

Many of them don’t even seem to realize the importance of the word – “we” – as they discuss unique ways to increase tourism in five rural Arizona communities. But Tim Tyrrell’s smile keeps widening as his students sound more and more like longtime residents of the small towns they hadn’t known existed before taking his Tourism Planning course.

“We want to bring in the tourism aspect but keep our small-town feeling,” says Brooks, standing before a huge photo of the city of Coolidge’s only dine-in restaurant.

Brooks was among 50 students of the School of Community Resources and Development who spoke to community leaders April 23 to share their ideas for attracting visitors to the Arizona communities of Chino Valley, Gila Bend, Jerome, Coolidge and Superior.

This marked the first time in the 10-year history of the course that students have presented their improvement strategies directly to representatives from the cities and towns.

It’s a new way the College of Public Programs is putting theory into practice, helping students at the Downtown Phoenix campus apply what they learn to directly affect communities.

Students formed five teams, ventured into communities to assess the area’s resources, and spoke with local officials, residents and visitors.

They came up with ideas for sustainable tourism development that minimizes the negative impacts of tourism and takes full advantage of its benefits. The Arizona Office of Tourism co-sponsored the project.

Student suggestions for increasing tourism ranged from adding an outdoor civic marketplace in Chino Valley where residents frequently would gather, to making the inactive mines of Jerome safe enough to open for tours.

Team members who focused on Gila Bend proposed a plan they say would double tourism in the city, which has less than 2,000 residents.

They suggested building a “desert oasis attraction” with a hummingbird facility, a small café with outdoor seating, and trails featuring native minerals and geology.

“We see this as a way to celebrate the natural area of Gila Bend without depleting its assets,” says junior Austin Beber.

Another idea included adding a gateway in Jerome similar to the Cincinnati Gateway, allowing talented folks from the town’s artist colony to play a role in its design. Residents could vote on their favorite artist’s renditions to help in providing a unique identity for their community.

Melanie Oliver, Superior’s interim town manager, says she was particularly impressed with a team’s idea of marketing the town in an “Old West” theme, complete with an attraction that would make tourists feel they were on a Western movie set.

“I think they did a wonderful job with their presentation,” Oliver says.

Corey Schubert, corey.schubert@asu.edu
(602) 496-0406
College of Public Programs

ASU President Michael Crow and the university’s executive vice president and provost, Elizabeth D. Capaldi, have announced four new ASU Regents’ Professors for 2008. The selection was ratified April 25 by the Arizona Board of Regents.

This year’s honorees are:

• Stuart Lindsay, Edward and Nadine Carson Presidential Chair in Physics, and professor of chemistry.

• James Ohlson, W. P. Carey Chair of Accountancy.

• Otto Sankey, professor of physics.

• Elly van Gelderen, professor of English.

The title “Regents’ Professor” is the highest faculty honor awarded at ASU. It is conferred on ASU faculty members who have made pioneering contributions in their areas of expertise, who have achieved a sustained level of distinction, and who enjoy national and international recognition for these accomplishments.

“In making this award to these four outstanding researchers, it reminds us of the remarkable research that is conducted daily throughout this university,” Capaldi says. “The individuals chosen this year are at the top of their professions in the sciences, the humanities and business, indicative of the breadth of accomplishments occurring at ASU. We are proud to recognize the achievements of such distinguished scholars.”

A brief description of the honorees’ accomplishments includes:

• Lindsay, a professor in physics and chemistry, leads the Center for Single Molecule Biophysics in the Biodesign Institute. He is an international leader in the area of experimental physics and chemistry. He has made key contributions to the understanding of electron transfer in single molecules and to the science of nanotechnology.

• Ohlson, the W. P. Carey Chair of Accountancy, is internationally recognized for his analytical and empirical work on valuation, earnings changes and earnings capitalization. His research is central to the progress of modern accounting research and practice, and it has fundamentally changed how academics, analysts and auditors use accounting data in security valuation.

• Sankey is a professor of physics, and his research contributions relate to the development of theoretical physics approaches that calculate the electronic states of complex materials and molecular systems. His techniques have been highly influential in theoretical materials physics research around the world. They are applied by researchers to provide insight into the relation of atomic structure, electronic states and materials properties.

• Van Gelderen, a professor of English, is a leading scholar in the history of English syntax. She is internationally recognized as a leader in the branch of theoretical linguistics that seeks to explain language change. Her original work in linguistics has been groundbreaking, combining imagination and careful data analysis.