News Releases - 2008

ASU geographer receives Presidential Early Career Award

chughes3 — December 19, 2008

Arizona State University geographer Paul M. Torrens is among the newest recipients of the competitive Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Torrens, an associate professor in the School of Geographical Sciences at ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences was recognized in a ceremony at the White House Dec. 19.

AAAS elects 8 from ASU as Fellows

evelasco — December 18, 2008

Eight Arizona State University faculty members, including seven from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, are among the 486 newly elected Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a prestigious international scientific society. AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society.

Brad Allenby, Richard Creath, James Elser, Patricia Gober, Nancy Grimm, Sudhir Kumar, Thomas Moore and John Spence will be recognized Feb. 14 at the Fellows forum, during the 2009 AAAS annual meeting in Chicago.

College to celebrate fall graduates

chughes3 — December 17, 2008

Some 1,215 ASU students are scheduled to graduate with degrees from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dec. 18. They will earn 1,053 bachelor’s degrees, 112 master’s degrees and 87 doctoral or terminal degrees.

The schools or departments with the largest number of undergraduate students scheduled to earn degrees this fall are:

Noel Stowe leaves his mark on Arizona history

chughes3 — December 16, 2008

Noel Stowe, an ASU professor who founded the university’s Public History Program and is recognized for his work in helping Arizona preserve its heritage, died Dec. 13 at the age of 66. A memorial ceremony to celebrate his life will be held in late January.

Seminar to explore the humanities through history of medicine

evelasco — December 12, 2008

Health, and how human beings treat and react to diseases and disabilities, can influence a historian’s analysis of the death of a monarch or a literary critic’s examination of a poetic passage about a sickness thought to be leprosy. Exploring the humanities through the lens of medicine will be the focus of a summer seminar designed by scholars from Arizona State University and the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Earth and Space Exploration community to present at American Geophysical Union meeting

evelasco — December 12, 2008

Earthquakes. Volcanoes. Sand dunes on Mars. And much more. Fifteen faculty members from the School of Earth and Space Exploration in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will be presenting the results of their research about these and other topics at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, Dec. 15-19.

Center broadens scope of demography in Phoenix and internationally

evelasco — December 12, 2008

Arizona State University is constantly moving past traditional boundaries and redefining research perspectives. The Center for Population Dynamics is doing just that by changing the way we think about demography and creating an inclusive and multi-discipline approach to its research.

Mission trip illustrates power of women

evelasco — December 11, 2008

In the past few years, ASU creative writing faculty member and English Professor Melissa Pritchard has written magazine and journal articles on the sex trafficking of women and children in Asia, poetry projects in the brothel districts of Calcutta, and the journey of the Lost Boys of Sudan from Africa to Arizona.

So when she was invited to accompany the first all-female team of plastic surgeons, nurses and volunteers on a medical mission to Cuenca, Ecuador, sponsored by Women for World Health (W4WH), she didn't hesitate.

Ancient oceans reveal secrets on survival of life

evelasco — December 9, 2008

In the search for life beyond Earth, scientists ‘follow the water’ to find places that might be hospitable. However, every home gardener knows that plants need more than water, or even sunshine. They also need fertilizer – a mixture of chemical elements that are the building blocks of the molecules of life. Scientists at Arizona State University are studying how the distribution of these elements on Earth – or beyond – shapes the distribution of life, the state of the environment and the course of evolution.

Senior with passion for physics wins Marshall Scholarship

evelasco — December 3, 2008

A bright, energetic young ASU senior with a notable passion for science has won a 2009 Marshall Scholarship, among the most prestigious awards for graduate study in the world.

Andrew Gamalski of Chandler, who just turned 20 this summer, will use the award to study in England for two years, starting next fall.