The University of New Mexico

Monthly Archives: March 2011

Nuclear Power Safety Expert to Present Physics Colloquium April 1

March 31, 2011 | By Steve Carr

Pro­fes­sor Richard Wil­son, a nuclear power safety expert from Har­vard Uni­ver­sity, will present the UNM Physics and Astron­omy Fri­day col­lo­quium April 1. Titled, “A physicist’s approach to reac­tor safety: lessons from TMI (Three Mile Island), Cher­nobyl and Japan,” Wil­son will dis­cuss how the physicist’s approach to analy­sis has led to safety fea­tures that are being tested in Japan. The col­lo­quium will begin at 4 p.m. in room 125 of Dane Smith Hall. A pre-event recep­tion starts at 3:30 p.m.

Wil­son has been study­ing nuclear-power safety since 1972. At Three-Mile Island (TMI), he appeared on many TV pro­grams to inform the pub­lic. He was chair­man of the Governor’s com­mit­tee on how to respond to the TMI accident.

Wil­son was also chair­man of an ANS com­mit­tee on reac­tor safety in 1984. He was active in inform­ing the pub­lic after Cher­nobyl and vis­ited the reac­tor, going inside the sar­coph­a­gus. For these he was awarded a medal by the USSR as a clean-up worker and an award by the APS in 1990.

His infor­ma­tion about the Japan acci­dent is being sum­ma­rized and updated reg­u­larly at, http://physics.harvard.edu/~wilson/Japanese_reactors.html.

Posted in Events | |

UNM Law School Presentation of Vagina Monologues to Benefit Santa Fe Shelter

March 31, 2011 | By Benson Hendrix

Stu­dents, fac­ulty and alumni of the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico School of Law will present their fifth annual per­for­mance of The Vagina Mono­logues at 7 p.m. on April 7–9 at the school.

The play was cre­ated and per­formed by Eve Ensler in the mid-1990s fol­low­ing inter­views she con­ducted with 200 women about their views on sex, rela­tion­ships and vio­lence against women. A few years later, Ensler helped launch the V-Day move­ment, which autho­rizes ben­e­fit pro­duc­tions of the play to raise money to sup­port groups work­ing to stop vio­lence against women and girls.

Every year, pro­ceeds from the UNM School of Law pro­duc­tion ben­e­fit a dif­fer­ent resource cen­ter for women. Pro­ceeds from this year’s pro­duc­tion will go to the Esper­anza Shel­ter for Bat­tered Fam­i­lies in Santa Fe.

Tick­ets cost $10 for gen­eral admis­sion or $5 for stu­dents and can be pur­chased at the door; no reser­va­tions are required.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit: The Vagina Mono­logues.

Posted in Events | |

Caves Honored with Max Born Award

March 31, 2011 | By Steve Carr

Dr. Carl­ton Caves

Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor of Physics and Astron­omy Carl­ton Caves is the 2011 recip­i­ent of the Max Born Award pre­sented by the Opti­cal Soci­ety of Amer­ica (OSA). Caves, who is the 29th recip­i­ent of the award, was rec­og­nized for his sem­i­nal con­tri­bu­tions in quan­tum optics and infor­ma­tion the­ory. The award hon­ors Max Born, who made dis­tin­guished con­tri­bu­tions to physics in gen­eral and to optics in particular.

The award estab­lished in 1982, the cen­te­nary of Born’s birth, is pre­sented to a per­son who has made out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to phys­i­cal optics, the­o­ret­i­cal or exper­i­men­tal. It is endowed by the United Tech­nolo­gies Research Cen­ter, Phys­i­cal Optics Cor­po­ra­tion, and indi­vid­u­als includ­ing Joseph Goodman.

For more infor­ma­tion on Dr. Caves, who is also the direc­tor of the Cen­ter for Quan­tum Infor­ma­tion and Con­trol, visit: Carl­ton Caves.

For more infor­ma­tion on the award and past recip­i­ents visit: Max Born Award.

Media con­tact: Steve Carr, (505) 277‑1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu

Posted in Research, University News | |

NMIF Discusses Japan and the Middle East and the Impact on New Mexico

March 31, 2011 | By Mara Kerkez

New Mex­ico in Focus takes a look at the polit­i­cal upris­ings in the Mid­dle East and the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake and tsunami in Japan, and how the effects of those events have far-reaching impact, includ­ing right here in the Land of Enchantment.

KNME’s one hour pub­lic affairs show New Mex­ico in Focus airs Fri­days at 7 p.m. and Sun­days at 6:30 a.m. on KNME, Chan­nel 5.1. The show can also be seen on KNME’s Dig­i­tal Chan­nel 9.1 on Sat­ur­days at 5 p.m.

An Albu­querque woman, who was in Japan when the earth­quake hit, shares her expe­ri­ences and obser­va­tions on the cat­a­stro­phe and Mohammed el-Nawawy offers his insight on the role of social media in the polit­i­cal upris­ings in Egypt.

Also this week, the Line pan­elists weigh in on the pro­posed tuition hike at UNM, the Repub­li­can race to replace Sen. Jeff Binga­man, as well as the lat­est rumors about a pres­i­den­tial run for for­mer New Mex­ico Gov. Gary Johnson.

Guests:
• Dr. Mohammed el-Nawawy, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor, Queens Uni­ver­sity of Char­lotte
• Holly Kawakami, Japan Earth­quake survivor

Guest Pan­elists:
• Dan Foley, for­mer House Minor­ity Whip
• Brigette Rus­sell, blog­ger, moraliablog.com

Line Pan­elists:
• Sophie Mar­tin, for­mer man­ag­ing edi­tor, DukeCityFix.com
• Laura Sanchez, envi­ron­men­tal lawyer, Nat­ural Resources Defense Council

NMIF Cor­re­spon­dents:
• Gwyneth Doland, for­mer edi­tor, NewMexicoIndependent.com
• Tracy Ding­mann, new media direc­tor, Cen­ter for Civic Policy

Host/Commentator:
• Gene Grant, Weekly Alibi columnist

Watch again online at KNME. Addi­tion­ally, get updates, watch and fol­low KNME on Face­book, Twit­ter, YouTube & more.

New Mex­ico in Focus is pro­duced by Kevin McDon­ald and Kathy Wim­mer and closed cap­tion­ing has been made pos­si­ble by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.

Media Con­tact: Evy Todd, (505) 277‑1218; e-mail: etodd@knme.org

Posted in Events | |

RGSA Announces Inaugural Scholarship Recipients

March 31, 2011 | By Carolyn Gonzales

The UNM Raza Grad­u­ate Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tion announces its inau­gural schol­ar­ship awardees for the 2011-12 aca­d­e­mic year. To mark the occa­sion and cel­e­brate the recip­i­ents, RGSA hosts a pub­lic recep­tion and gath­er­ing at El Chante Casa de Cul­tura, 804 Park Ave SW, Fri­day, April 1, at 6:30 p.m.

The evening includes an art exhibit and open­ing, “Lo Que Ven los Ojos y Hacen las Manos,” “What the Eyes See and the Hands Create.”

Schol­ar­ship Recip­i­ents:
Berenice Gri­jalva, grad­u­ate stu­dent of archi­tec­ture
San­dra Ander­son, grad­u­ate stu­dent, Com­mu­nity and Regional Plan­ning
Gre­gory Gon­za­les, grad­u­ate stu­dent, Latin Amer­i­can Stud­ies
Gisel Samora, grad­u­ate stu­dent, Col­lege of Edu­ca­tion
Nal­leli Ramirez-Salinas, under­grad­u­ate, biol­ogy
Aurea Cardiel, under­grad­u­ate
Lizzet Castillo, incom­ing fresh­man, pre-nursing

RGSA raised money and is mak­ing funds avail­able to incom­ing fresh­men, under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate stu­dents who demon­strated finan­cial need. Awardees were selected based upon aca­d­e­mic goals, ded­i­ca­tion to com­mu­nity out­reach and activism and fam­ily commitment.

Funds raised in col­lab­o­ra­tion and part­ner­ship with ENLACE (Engag­ing Latino Com­mu­ni­ties for
Edu­ca­tion) at UNM, assisted in increas­ing the amount of fund­ing each stu­dent is to receive. The part­ner­ship is a result of a com­mit­ment to pro­mot­ing reten­tion rates and increas­ing the num­ber of Latina/o stu­dents pur­su­ing higher edu­ca­tion degrees.

As a Hispanic-Serving Insti­tu­tion, UNM’s stu­dent body is 35.61 per­cent His­panic. UNM pro­grams con­tinue to rank among the top ten by His­panic Busi­ness Inc. For the sec­ond year, the UNM School of Law ranks first among law schools. The UNM School of Engi­neer­ing is ranked third for top engi­neer­ing schools, up from sixth a year ago. And, the UNM School of Med­i­cine is again ranked sixth for top med­ical schools. As a result, RGSA mem­bers are com­mit­ted to offer­ing sup­port and men­tor­ship to under­grad­u­ates to assist them in com­plet­ing their degrees and poten­tially pur­su­ing grad­u­ate degrees.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Christo­pher Ramirez, (505) 363‑1453, or Bianca Encinias, (505) 400‑9201.

Posted in University News | |

Free Voice Screenings on World Voice Day

March 30, 2011 | By Carolyn Gonzales

World Voice Day, Fri­day, April 15, is an inter­na­tional cel­e­bra­tion to encour­age peo­ple of all ages to assess their vocal health. The theme for World Voice Day 2011 is We Share a Voice, which brings to mind the many ways the human voice links us. UNM Speech and Hear­ing Sci­ence will offer voice screen­ings in the Stu­dent Union Build­ing Alumni room from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. In addi­tion to vocal screen­ings, they will model vocal warm-ups and pro­vide chair massages.

Phyl­lis Palmer, assis­tant pro­fes­sor, Speech and Hear­ing Sci­ence, said, “The voice we share is what we cel­e­brate this World Voice Day. Indeed, the voice is at the core of what con­nects and defines human beings.”

Even an age of tex­ting, e-mail, Face­book and Twit­ter, the spo­ken word remains the pri­mary mode of com­mu­ni­ca­tion world­wide for most peo­ple; true com­mu­ni­ca­tion and not just dis­sem­i­na­tion of infor­ma­tion or media.

“Even an indi­vid­ual who fre­quently uses e-communication will have had the expe­ri­ence of need­ing the spo­ken word to clar­ify a point or resolve a con­flict that devel­oped over a mis­in­ter­preted text, e-mail or post­ing. The mutual under­stand­ing that comes through the human voice can­not be dupli­cated,” Palmer said.

Read about a voice screen­ing from last year’s event.

Media con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les, 277‑5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu

Posted in Events, University News | |

UNM Looking for Organizations for the Third Annual Sustainability Expo

March 30, 2011 | By Benson Hendrix

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico will be host­ing its third annual Sus­tain­abil­ity Expo on Thurs­day, April 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Cor­nell Mall and invites inter­ested mem­bers of the UNM com­mu­nity to take part in the fes­tiv­i­ties. The annual Earth Day-inspired event fea­tures an alter­na­tive trans­porta­tion fair, a UNM Police Depart­ment bicy­cle auc­tion, the Lobo Grower’s Mar­ket, and many other dis­plays focused on pro­mot­ing ini­tia­tives that relate to the gen­eral con­cept of envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­ity. There is no cost to participate.

“The Sus­tain­abil­ity Expo is an oppor­tu­nity to engage UNM and the com­mu­nity in cur­rent ini­tia­tives on and off cam­pus that exist not only to improve the qual­ity of our lives now, but for future gen­er­a­tions as well,” said Danielle Gilliam, one of the event’s coor­di­na­tors. “It is excit­ing and inspir­ing to see what UNM stu­dents, staff, and fac­ulty, as well as com­mu­nity mem­bers are doing to make bet­ter use of the resources we have avail­able to us and demon­strates how we embrace sus­tain­abil­ity as a core value here on campus.”

The event is pri­mar­ily spon­sored through the col­lab­o­ra­tion of UNM Park­ing and Trans­porta­tion Ser­vices, the Office of Sus­tain­abil­ity, and Sus­tain­abil­ity Stud­ies with addi­tional spon­sor­ship from KUNM and ASUNM Stu­dent Spe­cial Events.

If you are inter­ested in par­tic­i­pat­ing or have addi­tional ques­tions, con­tact event coor­di­na­tor Danielle Gilliam with UNM Park­ing and Trans­porta­tion Ser­vices at 277‑0461 or dgilliam@parking.unm.edu. The dead­line to sign up to par­tic­i­pate in the Expo is April 8.

Media con­tact: Ben­son Hen­drix, (505) 277‑1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu

Posted in Campus Community, Events, Sustainability | |

Sarah Belle Brown Community Service Award Seeks Nominations

March 29, 2011 | By Steve Carr

Sarah Belle Brown

The Office of the Pres­i­dent is cur­rently accept­ing nom­i­na­tions for the pres­ti­gious Sarah Belle Brown Award that rec­og­nizes both a fac­ulty and a staff mem­ber with a mon­e­tary award of $2,000 each and a stu­dent with a $1,000 schol­ar­ship. The nom­i­na­tion dead­line is Mon­day, April 18, 2011 at 5 p.m.

Serv­ing New Mex­ico is cen­tral to the University’s mis­sion. Every­thing UNM does from edu­ca­tion, research, patient care and pub­lic ser­vice — advances the inter­ests of New Mex­ico. To sup­port and pro­mote the University’s com­mit­ment to pub­lic ser­vice, for­mer Regent and cur­rent Ander­son School Dean Doug Brown estab­lished the Sarah Belle Brown Com­mu­nity Ser­vice Award in honor of his wife.

This annual award rec­og­nizes those faculty/staff/students who serve as exam­ples of social respon­sive­ness and who have, over an extended period, donated con­sid­er­able per­sonal time and effort advanc­ing the Uni­ver­sity of New Mexico’s pub­lic ser­vice mis­sion through com­mu­nity ser­vice opportunities.

Sarah Belle Brown has devoted con­sid­er­able time to the com­mu­nity over the past 30 years. Her life­long inter­est in help­ing chil­dren and her com­mand of Span­ish led her to spe­cial­ize in teach­ing Eng­lish to Spanish-speaking chil­dren in the Los Ange­les School Dis­trict. When she and her hus­band moved to San Fran­cisco, she estab­lished a pro­gram in that school dis­trict focused on assist­ing newly immi­grated Asian chil­dren to adapt to a new cul­ture. While devel­op­ing this pro­gram, she also served as a Court Appointed Spe­cial Advo­cate for chil­dren in fos­ter care and as Board Chair for the Children’s Home Soci­ety, California’s largest social ser­vices agency.

After relo­cat­ing to New Mex­ico, Sarah con­tin­ued her focus on children’s needs as a trustee of Mount Ver­non Col­lege and joined the found­ing board of the char­ter school, Amy Biehl High School. She is a found­ing mem­ber of the United Way of Cen­tral New Mexico’s Alexis de Toqueville Soci­ety, co-founded the UNM President’s Club, and co-sponsored a pro­fes­sor­ship and sev­eral fel­low­ships at the Ander­son Schools of Management.

In addi­tion to her vol­un­teer work and phil­an­thropic activ­i­ties, Sarah focuses a great deal of time on her fam­ily, a hus­band of 30 years and two grown sons.

Addi­tional details as well as a nom­i­na­tion form can be found on the President’s web­site at, Sarah Belle Brown Award.

Posted in Campus Community, Featured, University News | |

Science & Society Distinguished Public Talks Continue Series

March 29, 2011 | By Steve Carr

The Sci­ence & Soci­ety Dis­tin­guished Pub­lic Talks Series presents, “The Chal­lenges of Pub­lic Health,” a talk with Jes­sica Nũnez de Ybarra on Thurs­day, April 14 at 5 p.m. A meet and greet will also be held begin­ning at 4:30 p.m. The lec­ture, which is free and open to the pub­lic, will be held at the UNM Con­fer­ence Cen­ter located at 1634 Uni­ver­sity Blvd., NE. Plenty of free park­ing is available.

Nũnez de Ybarra works as a Pub­lic Health Med­ical Offi­cer for the State of Cal­i­for­nia Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health coor­di­nat­ing pub­lic health train­ing and emer­gency pre­pared­ness activ­i­ties and as the Division’s liai­son to the Cal­i­for­nia Pub­lic Health Law Workgroup.

The mis­sion of the pub­lic health in the U.S. is the ful­fill­ment of society’s inter­est in assur­ing con­di­tions in which peo­ple can be healthy. This mis­sion can be daunt­ing in an ever­chang­ing world with con­stant emerg­ing threats and extreme resource lim­i­ta­tions. Nuñez de Ybarra will dis­cuss how pub­lic health works in com­mu­ni­ties, the med­ical estab­lish­ment and busi­ness to address health threats.

The direc­tion the field of health is head­ing will be illus­trated with lessons from the past as well as the ongo­ing improve­ments includ­ing solic­i­ta­tion of com­mu­nity input and part­ner­ship. The impor­tance of trans­lat­ing sci­en­tific results into pol­icy that is com­mu­ni­cated clearly to the pub­lic will be emphasized.

The Sci­ence & Soci­ety Dis­tin­guished Pub­lic Talks series are co-sponsored by Albu­querque Sec­tion of the Insti­tute of Elec­tri­cal & Elec­tronic Engi­neers (IEEE), Sigma Xi (the Sci­en­tific Research Soci­ety), the Depart­ment of Physics & Astron­omy, Col­lege of Arts & Sci­ences, Uni­ver­sity Hon­ors Pro­gram, and the Divi­sion of Con­tin­u­ing Education.

Media con­tact: Steve Carr (505) 277‑1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu

Posted in Events | |

UNM Board of Regents Set April 2011 Meeting Schedule

March 29, 2011 | By Mara Kerkez

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Board of Regents con­ducts its next monthly board meet­ing Tues­day, April 12 at 9 a.m. at the Stu­dent Union build­ing, Ball­room C, on the UNM main campus. 

Pub­lic com­ment may be con­sid­ered at the Board of Regents meet­ing as follows:

       * Pub­lic com­ment spe­cific to an agenda item can be made when that agenda item is pre­sented.
       * Pub­lic input unre­lated to agenda items can be pro­vided at the end of each Board of Regents meet­ing prior to adjournment.

In addi­tion, the UNM Board of Regents has sched­uled a meet­ing to approve the uni­ver­sity bud­get Fri­day, April 29 at 9 a.m. at the Stu­dent Union build­ing, Ball­room C, on the UNM main campus.

The Finance and Facil­i­ties Com­mit­tee of the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Board of Regents will meet Mon­day, April 11 at 9 a.m. at Scholes Hall, Roberts Room, on the UNM main cam­pus. In addi­tion to the three Regents who are mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee, other Regents may attend this meet­ing in a non-voting capacity.

The Audit Com­mit­tee of the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Board of Regents will meet Thurs­day, April 14, at 8:30 a.m. at Scholes Hall, Roberts Room, on the UNM main cam­pus. In addi­tion to the three Regents who are mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee, other Regents may attend this meet­ing in a non-voting capacity.

Copies of the agen­das will be avail­able at Uni­ver­sity Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Mar­ket­ing (Wel­come Cen­ter in the Cor­nell Park­ing Struc­ture) at least 24 hours before the meet­ing.  Agen­das can also be found at, Regent’s Agen­das.  

Indi­vid­u­als with dis­abil­i­ties in need of a reader, ampli­fier, qual­i­fied signed lan­guage inter­preter or any other form of aux­il­iary aid or ser­vice to attend or par­tic­i­pate in a Board of Regents’ meet­ing should con­tact Uni­ver­sity Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Mar­ket­ing. Pub­lic doc­u­ments, includ­ing the agenda and min­utes, can be pro­vided in var­i­ous acces­si­ble for­mats and indi­vid­u­als who need acces­si­ble for­mats also should con­tact Uni­ver­sity Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Marketing.

Media con­tact: Susan McK­in­sey (505) 277‑1807, cell: (505) 362‑5530; e-mail: mckinsey@unm.edu.

Posted in Regents | |