Arizona State University

The Arizona State men’s golf team was defeated by Texas A&M 3-1-1 in the quarterfinals of match play at the NCAA Championship on Friday morning.

Stay tuned for recap later in the day.

Theoretical physicists reveal path to ‘true muonium’

"True muonium," a long-theorized but never-seen tiny atom, might be observed in current and future super collider experiments, based on theoretical work published recently by researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Arizona State University. True muonium was first theorized more than 50 years ago, but until now no one had uncovered an unambiguous method by which it could be created and observed.

"We don’t usually work in this area, but one day we were idly talking about how experimentalists could create exotic states of matter," says SLAC theorist Stanley Brodsky, who worked with ASU’s Richard Lebed on the result. "As our conversation progressed, we realized ‘Gee…we just figured out how to make true muonium.’"

True muonium is made of a muon and an anti-muon, and is distinguished from what’s also been called "muonium" - an atom made of an electron and an anti-muon. Both muons and anti-muons are created frequently in nature when energetic particles from space - cosmic rays - strike the Earth’s atmosphere. Yet both have a fleeting existence, and their combination, "true muonium," decays naturally into other particles in a few trillionths of a second. This makes observation of the exotic atom quite difficult.

"The true muonium system is unique," says Lebed, an associate professor in ASU’s Department of Physics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

"It’s the smallest possible atom whose physics is determined by electricity and magnetism, The same forces that hold ordinary atoms together; but it’s 100 times smaller," Lebed says. "I was astonished to discover not only that no one has ever produced true muonium atoms, but moreover that the methods we proposed just off-the-cuff turned out to be both novel and immediately doable."

In a paper published May 26 in Physical Review Letters - "Production of the Smallest QED Atom: True Muonium (µ+µ-) - Brodsky and Lebed describe two methods by which electron-positron accelerators could detect the signature of true muonium’s formation and decay.

In the first method, an accelerator’s electron and positron beams are arranged to merge, crossing at a glancing angle. Such a collision would produce a single photon, which would then transform into a single true muonium atom that would be thrown clear of the other particle debris. Because the newly created true muonium atoms would be traveling so fast that the laws of relativity govern, they would decay much slower than they would otherwise, making detection easier.

In the second method, the electron and positron beams collide head-on, producing a true muonium atom and a photon, tangled up in a cloud of particle debris. Yet simply by recoiling against each other, the true muonium and the photon would push one another out of the debris cloud, creating a unique signature not previously searched for.

"It’s very likely that people have already created true muonium in this second way," Brodsky says. "They just haven’t detected it."

In their paper, Lebed and Brodsky also describe a possible but more difficult means by which experimentalists could create "true tauonium," a bound state of a tau lepton and its antiparticle. The tau was first created at SLAC’s SPEAR storage ring, a feat for which SLAC physicist Martin Perl received the 1995 Nobel Prize in physics.

"Once you make some of these atoms, you can study their detailed structure using incredibly fast laser pulses," says Lebed. "It makes for a truly natural interdisciplinary project combining particle physics, atomic physics and cutting-edge optics."

Brodsky attributes their finding to a confluence of events: various unrelated lectures, conversations and ideas over the years, pieces of which came together suddenly during his conversation with Lebed.

"Once you pull all of the ideas together, you say ‘Of course! Why not?’ That’s the process of science - you try to relate everything new to what you already know, creating logical connections," Brodsky says.

Now that those logical connections are firmly in place, Brodsky says he hopes that one of the world’s colliders will perform the experiments he and Lebed describe, asking, "Who doesn’t want to see a new form of matter that no one’s ever seen before?"

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is a multi-program laboratory exploring frontier questions in photon science, astrophysics, particle physics and accelerator research. Located in Menlo Park, California, SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.

Media Contacts:

Carol Hughes, carol.hughes@asu.edu
480-965-6375 (office), 480-254-3753 (cell)

Melinda Lee, melinda.lee@slac.stanford.edu
650-926-8547 (office)

Two Arizona State University faculty researchers are about to journey into the mountainous wilderness of western India, and what they might find there - frightening demons, gods and goddesses, or a peaceful utopia - depends on whom they ask.

But they won’t be searching for physical evidence supporting these types of cultural beliefs about the area. Their goal is to discover the meanings which the country’s sacred mountaintops hold for the many types of people who visit them. 

The project brings together experts from two differing traditions and methodologies, a natural resource social scientist and a religious studies scholar who aim to expand our understandings of the complex meanings associated with wilderness and other natural places that have religious significance.

The collaborators are Megha Budruk, professor in the Parks and Recreation Management Program in ASU’s School of Community Resources & Development, and professor Anne Feldhaus in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

"We plan to explore the range of meanings that people ascribe to natural places," says Budruk. "Focusing on commonalities among those meanings allows for contested places to become places of harmony, thus reducing conflict and building stronger communities."

Both researchers have spent significant parts of their lives in Maharashtra, India, where they’ll begin the study in early July. They have strong attachments to the region and are cognizant of its cultural nuances, enabling them to conduct culturally relevant research that also incorporates international theoretical perspectives.

Their academic backgrounds, however, are quite different. Budruk is a natural resource social scientist who explores human-nature relationships from a social-psychological perspective. She’s particularly interested in the concept of place attachment - the special bonds that humans develop with nature-based places. She has published several articles on this topic and has conducted some of her research in Maharashtra.

Feldhaus is a scholar of religious texts, rituals and oral traditions, whose work has emphasized human imaginations of the natural world. Originally trained as a philologist, she began in the early 1980s to combine ethnographic fieldwork with her text scholarship. She has published two books on the religious geography of Maharashtra, using this combined methodology.

"What initially brought us together was our common love of the Maharashtra region of India," says Feldhaus. "But as we began talking, we realized that we also had a lot of theoretical, academic interests in common."

They will conduct extensive interviews in natural settings of religious significance like goddess temples and river-origin sites, such as the mountaintop temples at Mahabaleshwar. Budruk and Feldhaus will speak with temple priests, pilgrimage leaders, pilgrims, tourists, local community leaders, and officials from agencies that are involved in the areas.

"I think we’ll come away from this with new ways of looking at natural places," Budruk says. "We are only just beginning to understand place meanings at natural settings. However, my field has its roots in Euro-American philosophies of what the wilderness is, and I think the meanings of nature go beyond that. In the intangibles, we haven’t explored the full range."

Feldhaus says, "People in the field of religious studies have done a lot of work on the religious poetics of holy places in beautiful natural settings, and on the rituals that pilgrims and priests perform at such places. But we have not yet looked enough at the economics and politics of such places, at their human social dimensions."

The project is funded by a $45,000 fellowship from ASU’s Institute of Humanities Research. The institute, in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, supports two annual fellowship programs to encourage transdisciplinary activity at ASU. The theme for this year’s program is "utopias, dystopias and social transformation" and was designed to attract scholars whose work addresses the nature, value, and meaning of utopias/dystopias for social transformation by using cross-boundary perspectives and methodologies. "The Feldhaus/Budruk project fits the parameters of our theme," explains Sally L. Kitch, director of the institute, "because it explores the utopic and dystopic aspects, as well as the cultural importance, of particular nature-based religious places."

The fellowship also provides funding for the two ASU scholars to invite Ramachandra Guha, an internationally noted Indian environmental historian, for a public lecture in spring 2010. Guha’s lecture topic will be "Wilderness and Democracy." This will coincide with a seminar Budruk and Feldhaus will teach to graduate students and advanced undergraduates regarding natural places, religion, pilgrimage, tourism, and social transformation.

For information about the School of Community Resources & Development, visit http://scrd.asu.edu. To learn more about the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, visit http://shprs.clas.asu.edu. For details on the fellowship, visit http://ihr.asu.edu/funding/grants/fellows.

Arizona State University’s growing West campus, a focal point of the burgeoning West Valley, has been called upon to assist the City of Glendale’s Economic Development Department in a program designed to retain and expand its existing businesses.  The West campus is joined in the partnership by the city, the Glendale Chamber of Commerce and Glendale Community College.

“The West campus was asked to participate in this unique partnership program because of its importance to Glendale and the entire West Valley,” says Dave McAlindin, economic development administrator for Glendale.

“As we were looking to roll out our business retention and expansion program, we felt (the West campus) was a very important resource and could play a significant role in assisting the Glendale business community and add substantial value to our program.”

The program focuses on existing businesses and the increased employment opportunities each represents, while also seeking to build the solid relationships necessary to grow new jobs locally.  The program’s executive summary notes, “…up to 80 percent of all new jobs in a community come from existing businesses already in town, 11 percent comes from newly locating facilities, and 9 percent comes from entrepreneurial operations.”  Seeking to bolster existing business within the borders of the state’s fourth-largest city, teams of community representatives, including ASU’s Elaine Jordan, will make direct calls on the CEO, owner, or designee of Glendale companies to gather data on the company and its industry.  Teams will also assist companies in understanding and avoiding marketplace and workforce challenges that could result in relocation or closure.

Data collected in the initial phase of the program will be closely analyzed to identify such factors as the training and technical assistance needs of each existing business, future plans of the business, and community perceptions of the business.  At the end of the visitations, a report will be produced that will identify tools and resources to help retain and create jobs.

“This will be an ongoing program, and these first visits and surveys are only the beginning,” says Jordan, who is the director of the student internship program at ASU’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.  “This is a real opportunity for this campus – our faculty, staff and students – to further our outreach in the West Valley community and be a part of real-world solutions.  One of the features of the interviews is how these four organizations working together can help with the challenges facing businesses in this community.”

Jordan, who will begin a three-year term this fall as a member of the Liaison Advisory Board of the prestigious Washington Center for Internships, is excited for the practical experience the program will offer ASU students.

“Businesses already know about our students because of our internship programs,” she says.  “There are many opportunities through this retention and expansion program, including internship opportunities, but also for student participation in real-world problem solving.  Be it a class or a group project, students will have a chance to deal with specific issues facing a business enterprise or even the community as a whole.”

McAlindin, who says that a successful and thriving business climate is critical to reducing unemployment, hopes ASU will continue as a longtime partner in the ongoing program.

“The initial phase is about two-thirds complete,” he says.  “Once we have completed this phase, we should be able to see trends emerge and perhaps common issues identified among Glendale companies that one or more of our partners can address.

“This is intended to be an on-going program and not simply a project with a definite beginning and end.  There are many businesses in Glendale, both large and small, we would like to visit and whose feedback is most important to our next steps.  We hope ASU will continue its active involvement once this initial phase is complete.”

Meanwhile, Jordan says the changing career scene makes the City of Glendale program a winner for students, as more and more employers seek candidates with multiple internships completed and civic engagement listed on their résumés.

“In addition to what such an experience will look like on a résumé, the experience students will receive through their participation in this retention and expansion program will broaden their horizons.  It will make them more aware of community issues and, subsequently, better citizens.

“Participation in this program allows us to lend expertise to the community in many different ways, ranging from compiling and analyzing statistical data to environmental and urban planning, and from helping development programs assist low-income or at-risk youth stay in school to addressing specific business challenges with enthusiasm and a new way to look at the issues.”

Fourteen members of the 2009 Pac-10 Champion Arizona State Sun Devil baseball team earned All-Pac-10 Conference honors, the conference has announced. Six players from the three-time defending conference champions were named to the All-Pac-10 Team, while eight others earned honorable mentions. Arizona State also took home three individual awards.

For the second straight season, junior RHP Mike Leake was named the Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year. Leake becomes the first ever Pac-10 player to win the award in back-to-back seasons and the fourth two-time winner. Leake is currently 14-1 with a 1.24 ERA, both of which lead the conference. He has fanned 128 batters in 115.2 innings, walking only 18. It is the fourth time an Arizona State pitcher has been named Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year (Leake 2008, Noah Peery 1994 and Marc Barcelo 1993).

Junior outfielder Jason Kipnis, who earned All-Pac-10 honors and the Newcomer of the Year award last season, was named the 2009 Pac-10 Player of the Year. He is the third straight Sun Devil to win the award, joining Brett Wallace, who won the last two. Kipnis leads Arizona State with his .380 batting average and has hit 14 homers and driven in 65 RBI. He has also stolen a league-leading 21 bases. Arizona State was the last school to have three consecutive Players of the Year when Willie Bloomquist won in 1999 followed by Casey Myers in both 2000 and 2001. Kipnis is the 14th Pac-10 Player of the Year in ASU history.

Head Coach Pat Murphy was named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year for the third straight season and fourth time in his career. Murphy has led the Sun Devils to a 44-12 regular season record, including a 21-6 conference mark and the Pac-10 crown. It is the first time since the Pac-10 divisions merged in 1999 that a coach has won the award three straight seasons. The award is voted on by Pac-10 baseball coaches. It is the ninth Pac-10 Coach of the Year award in ASU history.

Joining Kipnis and Leake on the All-Pac-10 team were freshman LHP Mitchell Lambson, sophomore OF/LHP Matt Newman, junior C Carlos Ramirez and junior LHP Josh Spence. Kipnis earned the honor for the second straight year, while Leake was the only member of the 25-man All-Conference team to earn the distinction for the third straight season. Arizona State led all schools with the six All-Conference student-athletes. California was second with four. 

Sophomore RHP Seth Blair, junior OF Kole Calhoun, freshman 2B Zack MacPhee, freshman SS Drew Maggi, junior INF Jared McDonald, freshman RHP/UTL Jordan Swagerty, junior 3B Raoul Torrez and freshman INF Riccio Torrez all earned Honorable Mention All-Pac-10.

The NCAA is providing live streaming video of the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships. Third round coverage begins at 9 a.m. PT on Thursday and lasts until 1 p.m. PT. The Sun Devils were in fourth place at the start of the day.

After today’s third round the top eight teams will advance to match play with the quarterfinals and semifinals being held on Friday, May 29 and the championship match set for Saturday, May 30. During the match-play portion of the championships, each match will be worth one point with all five players participating. The first team to win three points within the team match will advance or, in the case of the championship match, be declared the national champion.

Live stats are also available on Golfstat.com.

The No. 13 Arizona State men’s golf team advanced to the match play portion of the NCAA Championships after shooting a 3-over 287 in Thursday’s third round of the tournament being held at the par-71, 7,255-yard Inverness Club.

By virtue of the new championship format in which the 30-team field is pared down to the top eight teams after 54 holes, the Sun Devils will enter match play as the second seed after accumulating a three-round score of 10-over 862 (294-281-287). ASU’s score was surpassed only by Oklahoma State, which had a three-round total of 3-under 849 (288-280-281).

The Sun Devils will begin match play on Friday (8:30 a.m. ET) against seventh-seeded Texas A&M (298-276-295=869). Other quarterfinal pairings include top-seeded Oklahoma State facing eighth-seeded Georgia (288-285-296=869) at 7 a.m. ET; third-seeded Southern California (305-281-279=862) going against sixth-seeded Michigan (296-285-287=868) at 9:15 a.m. ET; and fourth-seeded Arkansas (297-283-285=865) facing fifth-seeded Washington (293-286-286=865) at 7:45 a.m. ET. Later in the day (2 p.m. ET) the semifinals will pair the winner of the ASU-Texas A&M match against the USC-Michigan winner while the Oklahoma State-Georgia winner will face the Arkansas-Washington winner. The winner of those two matches will advance to Saturday’s championship match scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET.

The match-play format is new this year with previous winners being determined by 72 holes of stroke play. The first team to win three of five matches will advance to the next round.

Knowing the tournament could not be won on Thursday, ASU’s focus was to maintain its top-eight standing while at the same time maintaining its competitive approach. After starting the day in fourth place the Sun Devils would come through with a solid round that would eventually help them move up two spots by the end of the day.

"We have been playing with a lot of confidence recently and so even though we had a nice cushion at the start of the day I didn’t want us to start getting too conservative with our approach," ASU head coach Randy Lein said. "Basically the plan was to go out and play smart golf. If you get into a tough spot then just go ahead and `take your medicine’ as opposed to doing anything too risky that could create an even deeper hole."

For the third time in as many days the Sun Devils had a different team member leading the way as freshman Chan Kim came through with a 1-under 70. Kim’s round included a pair of birdies as he scored under par for the first time in the tournament. After struggling on the final nine holes of Wednesday’s second round, sophomore Knut Borsheim rebounded with an even-par 71 on Thursday. Fellow sophomore Jesper Kennegard helped get the Sun Devils off to a good start on Thursday as he recorded three birdies on the team’s first nine holes before eventually ending the day with a 1-over 72. Also contributing to the team’s overall score was sophomore Scott Pinckney, who posted a 3-over 74 after leading the team with a 4-under 67 on Thursday.

"I was really proud of the guys and how they responded today," Lein said. "Knut came out and responded after yesterday’s round, Scott and Jesper both performed well and were in contention for the individual national championship and as a freshman Kim came through when we needed him most and shot under par for the day."

The individual portion of the championship was decided on Thursday. Coming through with medalist honors with a six-under par 207 was North Carolina State’s Matt Hill. ASU’s top individual finisher was Kennegard, who tied for ninth place with an even par score of 213 (72-69-72). Also finishing in the top 15 for the Sun Devils was Pinckney, who tied for 13th with a 1-over 214 (73-67-74). Chan tied for 23rd with a 3-over 216 (75-71-70), Borsheim tied for 78th with an 11-over 224 (74-79-71) and freshman Stephan Gross tied for 121st with a 16-over 229.

Live stats of tomorrow’s matches can be accessed by going to golfstat.com.

Team Results
1. Oklahoma State 288-280-281=849 (-3); 2. Arizona State 294-281-287=862 (+10); T3. Southern Cal 305-281-279=865 (+13); T3. Arkansas 297-283-285=865 (+13); T3. Washington 293-286-286=865 (+13); 6. Michigan 296-285-287=868 (+16); T7. Texas A&M 298-276-295=869 (+17); T7. Georgia 288-285-296=869 (+17); 9. TCU 299-285-289=873 (+21); T10. Georgia Tech 301-285-288=874 (+22); T10. UCF 300-283-291=874 (+22); 12. Tennessee 294-289-292=875 (+23); 13. San Diego 293-293-291=877 (+25); 14. Duke 297-285-296=878 (+26); 15. Alabama 298-288-293=879 (+27); 16. South Carolina 305-286-294=885 (+33); 17. Iowa 301-296-290=887 (+35); 18. Chattanooga 292-297-299=888 (+36); T19. Florida 310-287-293=890 (+38); T19. Stanford 305-298-DNP (+38); 21. Illinois 299-291-302=892 (+40); 22. Oregon 306-293-297=896 (+44); T23. Wake Forest 302-304-DNF (+47); T23. UCLA 306-295-298=899 (+47); 25. Texas Tech 303-292-305=900 (+48); T26. Virginia 306-297-DNF (+49); T26. Ohio State 294-310-DNF (+48); 28. Texas 308-300-DNF (+51); 29. Arizona 310-302-DNF (+52); 30. Northwestern 298-304-307=909 (+57)

Top 10 Individuals
1. Matt Hill (N.C. State) 69-69-69=207 (-6); 2. Kyle Stanley (Clemson) 72-71-66=209 (-4); T3. Rickie Fowler (Okla. State) 72-70-68=210 (-3); T3. Tom Glissmeyer 74-70-66=210 (-3); T3. Tom Hoge (TCU) 70-70-70=210 (-3); 6. Alexander Sitompul (Michigan) 72-69-70=211 (-2); T7. Blayne Barber (UCF) 75-69-68=212 (-1); T7. Morgan Hoffman (Okla. State) 72-69-71=212 (-1); T9. Brian Harman (Georgia) 71-71-71=213 (E); T9. Russell Henley (Georgia) 71-67-75=213 (E); T9. Jesper Kennegard (Ariz. State) 72-69-72=213 (E); T9. Nick Taylor (Washington) 70-70-73=213 (E)

Jessica Mapes’ 4-for-5 showing with two runs scored led the red-hot ASU offense Thursday afternoon as the Sun Devils opened their eighth WCWS appearance with a 7-3 win over the Missouri Tigers. Hillary Bach was phenomenal for the Sun Devils in the circle as she led A State to their 47th win on the year as ASU pushes their record to 47-16 on the year.

The first inning saw ASU come out of the gates swinging as lead-off singles from Jessica Mapes and Kaitlin Cochran got the ball rolling before Kaylyn Castillo drew a walk to load the bases with no out. RBIs from Krista Donnenwirth, Talor Haro and Katelyn Boyd brought home three as ASU grabbed a 3-0 lead after one complete.

The A State sballers nearly replayed the first inning again in the second as they loaded the bases again with no outs before RBIs from Kaylyn Castillo, Talor Haro and Katie Crabb again brought in three runs as ASU stormed to a 6-0 lead.

A double to left center from Rhea Taylor for an RBI got Missouri on the board in the third before ASU answered the run in the fourth, taking advantage of a dropped fly in right field to have Talor Haro dig in to hit a 1-1 pitch deep to the pocket at short to score Michelle Nulliner and collect her third RBI of the game for her second three-RBI game of her career.

Hillary Bach did the rest for the Sun Devils pitching the complete game effort for ASU, but she didn’t escape unscathed as an error cost ASU a run in the sixth before Bach gave up a solo longball in the seventh to make the final 7-3 in Game Two of the WCWS. Bach pushed her record to 31-9 overall with her 31 wins sealing her for fourth place all-time in ASU single-season history.

The Sun Devils will return to action tomorrow as they set to face Pac-10 foe Washington in Game Five of the WCWS at 6 p.m. CT/4 p.m. PT on ESPN2.

The 2009 women’s golf NCAA Champions continue to accumulate honors as four members of the Arizona State team have been named to Pac-10 All-Academic Teams. To be eligible for an all-academic team, the student-athlete must have over a 3.0 grade-point average and be either a starter or significant contributor.

Azahara Munoz earned first-team accolades for the third straight season. The senior, who was also awarded with the Edith Cummings Munson award for the second consecutive year, recently graduated with a 3.96 in psychology. The four-time All-American held the highest GPA in the conference. Munoz is head coach Melissa Luellen’s first three-time first-team honoree.

Junior Juliana Murcia received first-team honors for the second consecutive season. Murcia carries a 3.77 in sculpture and was recently named to the Duramed/NGCA All-America Second-Team.

Senior All-American Jennifer Osborn and junior Liisa Kelo were each named to the honorable mention team. Both had been named to the honorable mention team last season.

Four members of the Arizona State men’s golf team were named to Pac-10 All-Academic teams, Commissioner Tom Hansen announced today. To be eligible for the Pac-10 academic team, a student-athlete must at least have a 3.0 grade-point average and be either a starter or significant contributor.

Knut Borsheim earned first-team honors for the second consecutive season. Borsheim currently has a 3.89 in finance at ASU’s prestigious W.P. Carey School of Business. With Borsheim’s first-team honors, ASU has now had 22 Pac-10 All-Academic first-team selections by 11 players in Randy Lein’s 17 seasons. This season marks the 11th straight year at least one Sun Devil has earned first-team honors. Borsheim joins Alejandro Canizares (2004-06), Brett Johnson (2003-04), Nick Manthey (2002-03), Jeff Quinney (1999-2001), Chris Hanell (1995-97) and Todd Demsey (1993-95) as multiple honorees.

James Byrne and Jesper Kennegard were selected to the second-team. Kennegard currently carries a 3.24 in geography while Byrne has a 3.39 in economics. This is both Byrne and Kennegard’s first Pac-10 All-Academic honors. Tristan Bierenbroodspot was named to the honorable mention team.

SUN DEVIL MEN’S GOLF FIRST-TEAM PAC-10 ALL-ACADEMIC SELECTIONS UNDER Randy Lein:
2009: Knut Borsheim
2008: Knut Borsheim
2007: Fredrik Andersson
2006: Alejandro Canizares
2005: Alejandro Canizares
2004: Alejandro Canizares, Brett Johnson
2003: Brett Johnson, Nick Manthey
2002: Nick Manthey
2001: Jeff Quinney, Ryan Whitaker
2000: Jeff Quinney
1999: Greg Padilla, Jeff Quinney
1997: Chris Hanell, Scott Johnson
1996: Chris Hanell
1995: Todd Demsey, Chris Hanell
1994: Todd Demsey
1993: Todd Demsey

The newly named College of Nursing and Health Innovation reflects the recent consolidation of several health-related programs belonging to the former School of Applied Arts and Sciences (SAAS).

Along with the proposed Health Sciences program, the Exercise and Wellness and Nutrition departments have become part of the new college in its mission to become more transdisciplinary.

"Our new name reflects the broadening of our mission to be more inclusive of the other health focused disciplines that now will be part of our college," says Bernadette Melnyk, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Innovation. "This merger will allow us to accelerate inter-professional education and initiatives that will result in exciting academic programming for our students, innovative transdisciplinary research, and more comprehensive health services that will benefit the public.

“The college will serve as a new national model for transdisciplinary collaboration, education, research and clinical practice while continuing to produce the highest caliber of nurses and health professionals who will transform health care and promote the highest level of health for the community, nation and globe."

The consolidation increases undergraduate enrollment by more than 38 percent to 2,594 and graduate/doctoral enrollment by more than 33 percent to 246. Dr. Craig Thatcher, former dean of the School of Applied Arts and Sciences, has joined the College of Nursing and Health Innovation as executive dean. SAAS has been disestablished as part of the universitywide restructuring.

"Our new organization enables a transdisciplinary approach to health and wellness," Thatcher says. "It eliminates the silos in health education and will create a new generation of health providers and promoters who will work closely together to produce evidence-based quality outcomes for the public."

A new Healthy Lifestyles Research Center also is being launched as part of the new organization. The new center’s mission is to integrate basic and translational research aimed at understanding the causes for pathologies, correlates and behaviors associated with lifestyle choices. The center will implement and evaluate health promotion programs in practice. From this foundation, which will include faculty from a diverse range of disciplines, will arise a social ecological model of chronic disease prevention and health promotion, Melnyk says. Dr. Glenn Gaesser, an internationally renowned researcher who investigates the roles of exercise and diet in cardiometabolic health, has been appointed as the director of the new center.

About ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation

The ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation is one of the most innovative colleges of nursing in the United States. It was ranked in the top eight percent of graduate nursing programs in the nation in the 2008 U.S. News & World Report College Rankings.

ASU Editorial Contact:
Terry.Olbrysh@asu.edu
Office: (602) 496-0877

Arizona State University researchers and scientists have created two new features for Google Earth 5.0, the popular online application that lets users tour Earth, the starry sky, and the Red Planet Mars.

The first of the new features lets anyone, anywhere, recommend places on Mars to photograph with ASU’s THEMIS camera on NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter. The second new feature shows the most recent infrared images of Mars sent back to Earth from the THEMIS camera.

THEMIS is the Thermal Emission Imaging System, a multiband infrared and visual camera designed at ASU by Dr. Philip Christensen. A Regents’ Professor of Geological Sciences in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, Christensen is THEMIS’ principal investigator and also director of the Mars Space Flight Facility on the Tempe campus.

"These two features, developed by our staff in cooperation with programmers at Google, will help everyone have a lot more fun exploring the Red Planet," says Christensen. "It’s public engagement at its best."

Hey Mars, say cheese!

"We wanted to give the general public a way to suggest places on Mars for THEMIS to photograph," says Christensen. "Using the new feature, people can recommend sites, and these recommendations go to mission scientists who will decide what areas THEMIS images. If a public suggestion matches what the researchers choose, we’ll notify the person who suggested the site and let them see the image as soon as we do."

To suggest a place for THEMIS to photograph, viewers need two things: Google Earth 5.0 and a file that is updated each week giving the spacecraft’s Mars orbital groundtrack. Google Earth 5.0 is available at http://earth.google.com.

To get the orbital track, users should go to http://suggest.mars.asu.edu and follow the simple steps to register. Registering takes users to a page to download each week’s orbital track file and it also lets them make image suggestions without having to enter an e-mail address with each image suggestion.

Registering also creates a customized page where users can see their past image suggestions and find links to their successful ones.

With the orbital track file downloaded, viewers start Google Earth and switch the globe to Mars (via the Planets toolbar button, which resembles the planet Saturn). Then viewers open the orbital track file from within Google Earth. Viewers can also just double-click on the orbital file once Google Earth has been set to Mars as its planet.

The places where THEMIS can take images during the coming week appear as stripes wrapped onto the Martian globe. Viewers click on stripe segments to recommend places for THEMIS to photograph.

"Each viewer can make up to 10 imaging suggestions per week," says Christian Yates, software engineer at the Mars Space Flight Facility. Yates designed the online interface for the project. If a site picked by a member of the public matches one chosen by the mission scientists, the suggester will be sent a link providing access to the image after it has come from the spacecraft.

Says Yates, "Making 10 image selections a week, a typical viewer will probably get at least one image."

THEMIS takes images at both visual and infrared wavelengths; viewers using Suggest an Image are making recommendations for visual images. These have higher resolutions than THEMIS’ infrared ones: 60 feet (18 meters) per pixel versus 330 feet (100 m) per pixel for infrared.

"Taking pictures with an orbiting satellite can be a complicated business, but this tool makes it much easier," says Eric Engle, scientific software engineer at the Mars Space Flight Facility and lead project developer for the ASU team. "We hope people enjoy this chance to participate with us in exploring Mars."

Live from Mars

The ASU team also developed, with Google’s programmers, a second new Google Earth feature called Live From Mars. It shows the latest infrared images from THEMIS as soon as the mission team at ASU receives them; look for the new feature among the Mars Gallery layers in Google Earth 5.0.

When the layer is clicked on, viewers see the Martian globe with the most recent THEMIS infrared images displayed on the surface, each flagged with a square symbol. Viewers can zoom in on each image to see details more clearly.

Mousing over the square symbol brings up the image’s identification number, and clicking on the symbol opens a bubble window with more information (such as latitude and longitude, and date and time the photo was taken). The bubble also has links to the THEMIS camera site at ASU and NASA’s Mars Odyssey site.

THEMIS’ designer Christensen notes that both new features let the general public look over the shoulder of Mars researchers — and Suggest an Image in particular offers a potentially unique reward:

"Because the coverage of Mars by THEMIS at visual wavelengths is by no means complete, some people who recommend an image target could be the first humans ever to see that particular place in such detail."

There are very few places in the world where dynamic activity taking place beneath Earth’s surface goes undetected. Volcanoes, earthquakes, even the sudden uplifting or sinking of the ground are all visible results of restlessness far below, but according to research by Arizona State University seismologists, dynamic activity deep beneath us isn’t always expressed on the surface.

The Great Basin in the western United States is a desert region largely devoid of major surface changes. The area consists of small mountain ranges separated by valleys and includes most of Nevada, the western half of Utah, and portions of other nearby states. For tens of millions of years all of the Great Basin has been undergoing extension - the stretching of Earth’s crust. While studying the extension of the region, John West, a seismology graduate student in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU, was surprised to find that something unusual existed beneath this area’s surface.

West and colleagues found that portions of the lithosphere – the crust and uppermost mantle of the Earth – had sunk into the more fluid upper mantle beneath the Great Basin and formed a large cylindrical blob of cold material far below the surface of central Nevada. This was an extremely unexpected finding in a location that showed no corresponding changes in surface topography or volcanic activity.

West compared his unusual results of the area with the tomography models – CAT scans of the inside of Earth – of fellow graduate student Jeff Roth. Working with West’s and Roth’s advisor, Matthew Fouch, the team concluded that they had found a lithospheric drip. The team’s research will be published in the May 24 issue of Nature Geoscience.

A lithospheric drip can be envisioned as honey dripping off of a spoon, where an initial lithospheric blob is followed by a long tail of material.  When a small, high-density mass is embedded near the base of the crust and the area is warmed up, the high-density piece will be heavier than the area around it and it will start sinking. As it drops, material in the lithosphere starts flowing into the newly created conduit.

Seismic images of mantle structure beneath the region provided additional evidence, showing a large cylindrical mass 100 km wide and at least 500 km tall (about 60 by 300 miles).

"As a general rule, I have been anti-drip since my early days as a scientist," admits Fouch, an associate professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  "This idea of a lithospheric drip has been used many times over the years to explain things like volcanism, surface uplift, surface subsidence, but you could never really confirm it - and until now no one has caught a drip in the act, so to speak."

Originally, the team didn’t think any visible signs appeared on the surface. "We wondered how you could have something like a drip that is drawing material into its center when the surface of the whole area is stretching apart," says Fouch. "But it turns out that there is an area right above the drip, in fact the only area in the Great Basin that is currently undergoing contraction. John’s finding of a drip is therefore informing geologists to develop a new paradigm of Great Basin evolution."

Scientists have known about the contraction for awhile but have been arguing about its cause. As a drip forms, surrounding material is drawn in behind it and this means that the surface should be contracting toward the center of the basin. Since contraction is an expected consequence of a drip, a lithospheric drip could very well be the answer to what is being observed in the Great Basin.

"Many in the scientific community thought it couldn’t be a drip because there wasn’t any elevation change or surface manifestation and a drip has historically always been connected with major surface changes," says West. "But those features aren’t required to have the drip. Under certain conditions, like in the Great Basin, drips can form with little or no corresponding changes in surface topography or volcanic activity."

All of the numerical models computed by the team suggest that the drip isn’t going to cause things to sink down or pop up quickly, or cause lots of earthquakes. There would likely be little or no impact on the people living above the drip. The team believes that the drip is a transient process that started around 15-20 million years ago and probably recently detached from the overlying plate.

"This finding would not have been possible without the incredible wealth of seismic data captured by EarthScope’s Transportable Array (TA) as it moved across the western US," says West.  "We had access to data from a few long-term stations in the region, but the excellent data and 75-km grid spacing of the TA is what made these results possible."

"This is a great example of science in action," says Fouch. "We went in not expecting to find this. We came up with a hypothesis that was not what anyone had proposed previously for the area, and then we tested the hypothesis with as many different types of data as we could find. In all cases so far it has held up. We’re excited to see how this new discovery plays a role in the continued development of new ideas about the geologic history of the western U.S."

David Frakes remembers university engineering design courses he took that, due to a lack of resources, provided only Popsicle sticks and uncooked pasta for students to use in making models of structures and devices they were designing for class projects.

Now he’s looking forward to providing more upscale building materials for Arizona State University students in his Engineering Product Design courses.

Frakes will use at least half of the $15,000 that came with his recent Centennial Professor of the Year award to purchase materials for his future students to use for building actual prototypes of biomedical devices.

“Last semester we had to stop at the conceptual design stage because we didn’t have the kinds of materials needed to build prototypes,” he says. “In the future, students in this course will get a more complete design experience.”

Frakes, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and bioengineering in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, won the Centennial award in only his first semester at ASU. Only two junior-level university faculty members are selected for the award each year.

Winners are chosen by students through a selection processed managed by the Associated Students of ASU, comprised of leaders of the university’s Undergraduate Student Government and Graduate and Professional Students Association.

The award is bestowed on faculty members who student leaders judge to “embody the ideals of service to students inside and outside the classroom.” It’s funded through a university endowment.

“Rarely has this award been given to an engineering faculty member, especially those who teach courses that demand a lot from students, like the design courses,” says Jerry Coursen, associate chair of the bioengineering department, who co-teaches a design course with Frakes. “It’s even rarer for a first-year faculty member to win this award.”

How does Frakes keep his students on track through the challenging course work?

“My teaching philosophy boils down to working really hard at preparing for my classes,” he says. “When the students see you putting in the effort, and see that you care about teaching them, most of them are going to respond by raising their level of effort.”

Beyond effort, Frakes also brings lessons from his varied range of educational and entrepreneurial business experiences.

His degrees from the George Institute of Technology encompass electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and bioengineering.

He co-founded a high-tech company and worked as its chief technical officer, managing a team of engineers and research scientists to develop imaging and video processing solutions for the military and biotechnology industries.

He worked on Wall Street as a quantitative analyst, served as chief risk officer of a $1 billion hedge fund, and conducted research supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

He is currently working on medical imaging and surgical planning research projects with St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, The Barrow Neurological Institute and the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix.

Frakes is cementing a relationship with Mayo Clinic to help provide his students a taste of real-world experience in the classroom. So far, he’s had Mayo Clinic leaders present design challenges for students to take on as class projects.

“It was rewarding to see the students come up with ideas that got the Mayo people excited,” Frakes says.

He’ll expect even more from his students now that they will have funds from his teaching award to take their projects from the idea stages to prototype development.

“I think they’ll be able to design some really cool things,” he says, “things that might someday actually change the world.”

The Arizona State Women’s Golf Team has been named ASU Athletes of the Week for the week ending May 30, 2009. The team claimed their seventh NCAA Championship last Friday, coming from 11 behind to ultimately grab the title by eight strokes over second-place UCLA. Four women’s golfers were given All-American honors, while four finished in the top 25 at the tournament: Azahara Munoz tied for fourth, Carlota Ciganda and Jaclyn Sweeney tied for 11th and Jennifer Osborn finished tied for 21st. This is head coach Melissa Luellen’s first NCAA Championship as head coach. The Sun Devils also won NCAA team titles in 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1998.