Graduate School Newsblog

Alumni Reunion Features Tech Talks, Tours, Singing and More

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The annual Alumni Reunion is set for Thursday-Saturday, Aug. 4-6. Everyone is invited to enjoy the wide variety of activities and get reacquainted with old friends and former students.

The School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science (SFRES) is hosting a number of events to mark its 75th anniversary. Other special reunion groups include the Varsity/Jazz Singers; the classes of 1961, 1971, 1981, 1986, 1991 and 2001; the Golden Ms, volleyball, cross country, track and Nordic skiing alumni; and the Sigma Rho, Theta Tau and Kappa Delta Psi fraternities.

The Alumni Reunion registration area opens on Wednesday, Aug. 3, in the Memorial Union. You can get your tickets there for the reunion events listed below, unless otherwise indicated.

A full schedule of events is available on the Alumni Relations website.

Thursday, Aug. 4

Alumni Relations Director Brenda Rudiger will review reunion activities at the Welcome Breakfast, which begins at 8:30 a.m. A guided campus walking tour follows. Tickets for the breakfast are $12.

Two faculty members will discuss their work during two Tech Talks, to be held in Fisher 139. At 10 a.m., Professor Ann Maclean (SFRES) will present “Wood to Wheels: A Working Example of Interdisciplinary Research at Michigan Tech.” Associate Professor Tim Scarlett (SS) will follow at 11 a.m. with “Mining, Smelting and Mills, Oh My!”

At noon, you can join alumni reliving their dining hall experiences in Douglass Houghton Hall. Lunch tickets are $12.

The dedication ceremony for the Seaman Mineral Museum begins at 1:30 p.m. The new building is located on Sharon Avenue near Garnet Street, adjacent to the Advanced Technology Development Center.

At 3 p.m., the dedication ceremony for the Paul and Susan Williams Center for Computer Systems Research will be held on the fifth floor of EERC.

The Pasty Picnic begins at 4 p.m. on the campus green between EERC and Chem Sci. The meal includes salads, dessert, beverages and three things Tech alumni hold dear: pickled eggs, pasties and beer. A keg of Keweenaw Brewing Company product will be available. Tickets are $14.

At 5 p.m., the Keweenaw Alumni and Friends Chapter is hosting a free social at the Keweenaw Brewing Company. All alumni and friends are welcome.

SFRES is hosting Outdoor Movie Night, featuring the Tom Hanks movie “Big.” The movie begins at 9:30 p.m. in the forestry building parking lot. Bring a lawn chair if you have one.

Friday, Aug. 5

President Glenn Mroz will present an update on the University at the All-Class Alumni Breakfast, set for 8:30 a.m. in the Memorial Union Ballroom. Tickets are $12.

The Ford Forestry Center in Alberta will hold an open house from 9:30 a.m. to noon, including tours of the historic sawmill.

The Class of 1961 Golden M Pinning Ceremony begins at 10 a.m. in Memorial Union Ballroom B. Also at 10 a.m., class year gatherings for the other recognized classes will be held in the Memorial Union’s Keweenaw Commons.

You can join students for a casual lunch in Wadsworth Hall between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The cost is $8.

Most University departments and the J. R. Van Pelt and John and Ruanne Opie Library are holding open houses Friday afternoon, starting at 1:30 p.m.

At 2 p.m., Admissions will lead guided campus tours, starting at its office on the ground floor of the Administration Building.

SFRES will present its alumni awards at 3 p.m., followed by a tree-planting ceremony honoring Gene Hesterberg. The former department head passed away in September.

At 6 p.m., see volleyball alumnae battle it out during a reunion game in the SDC.

The annual Alumni Reunion Dinner begins at 5:30 p.m. with a social hour. Dinner is served at 6:30 p.m., following class pictures. Tickets are $30.

Saturday, Aug. 6

This is the day to get away from campus and see the Keweenaw. First, you can canoe the Sturgeon River, hosted by the Outdoor Adventure Program. It’s a nice, easy paddle with some great scenery. Tickets, including snacks, transportation and all necessary gear, are $25. Participants meet at the Memorial Union at 9 a.m. and return about noon.

SFRES will hold an open house at the Otter River Cabin from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Directions to the cabin, located southeast of Tapiola, are posted on the School’s reunion website.

At noon, tour the historic Quincy smelting works, located in Ripley on M-26. Hard hats are provided for this fascinating 45-minute visit to an historic industrial complex. Cost is $5, payable at the site.

The Alumni Reunion Golf Outing begins at 12:30 p.m. This four-person scramble is supported by the School of Business and Economics and open to all. The top three teams receive cash prizes, and all golfers get a swag bag. The cost is $45 per person, $25 for students. To register, email golfouting@mtu.edu or call Rebecca Middlebrook at 487-2788.

Visit some of the area’s famous waterfalls with the Outdoor Adventure Program. Participants meet at the Memorial Union at 2 p.m. and head out to see Hungarian Falls, Jacob Falls, Eagle River Falls, and more. After the 2-1/2-hour tour, enjoy a lakeside cookout, which is included. Tickets are $30.

At 5 p.m., alumni from the Jazz and Varsity Singers gather in the Rozsa for an open mic session. Everyone is invited, and the event is free.

Published in Tech Today.

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Researcher Discovers Bacteria that “Fertilize” Copper-Contaminated Soil

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When miners abandoned Michigan’s Copper Country, they left a lot of the red metal behind, and not in a good way. Waste from the mining operations still contains a high fraction of copper, so high that almost nothing can grow on it—and hasn’t for decades, leaving behind moonscape expanses that can stretch for acres.

Now, however, Assistant Professor Ramakrishna Wusirika (Biological Sciences) and his research team may have discovered how to make plants grow in the mine-waste desert and soak up some copper while they are at it.

Wusirika began his research using several species of Pseudomonas bacteria from the sediments of Torch Lake. In the region’s copper-mining heyday, the lake was used as a dump for mine waste. “We found bacteria that are resistant to high levels of copper,” he said. “We thought we might be able to use them to help plants grow better on contaminated soils.”

So Wusirika’s research team added copper to soil samples and then inoculated them with a copper-resistant strain of Pseudomonas. Finally, they planted the samples with maize and sunflower seeds and waited.

As expected, seeds planted in copper-free soil thrived, and seeds planted in the copper-tainted soil without bacteria were stunted. But seeds planted in the coppery soil enriched with bacteria did much better; some were nearly as vigorous as plants grown without the toxic metal.

“The bacteria seem to help with plant growth, and they also help maize and sunflower uptake copper,” said Wusirika. That means some kinds of naturally occurring bacteria could make soil more fertile and, in concert with the plants, remove at least some of the copper, a process known as rhizoremediation.

Their work, coauthored by PhD student Kefeng Li and Wusirika, was published online March 1 in the Journal of Hazardous Materials. For their next project, Wusirika’s team has been testing how well their technique might work in a real copper-mining desert. They are in the process of using these bacteria to promote plant growth in stamp sands collected near the small UP village of Gay, where the copper-processing byproduct covers about 500 acres.

Published in Tech Today.

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Summer GSG Travel Grants Awarded

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Congratulations to the following students who received Summer GSG Travel Grants:

Presenting

  • Adam Abraham
  • Ananyo Bandopadhyay
  • Andrew Williemsen
  • Arash Hosseinzadeh
  • Azad Henareh Khalyani
  • Beini Jiang
  • Bryan Murray
  • Casey Fritsch
  • David Clark
  • Ehsan Taheri
  • Ellen Brenna
  • Fang Chen
  • Fengli Zhang
  • Foad Yousef
  • Gary Kaunonen
  • Jaclyn Nesbitt
  • Jacquelyn Nyenhuis
  • Jeremy Boss
  • John Mayer
  • Kaitlyn Bunker
  • Kari Jordan
  • Kumar Vanga
  • Margo Woller-Carter
  • Mark Weise
  • Martin Hobmeier
  • Meagan Harless
  • Meredith Ballard
  • Parichehi Saranjampour
  • Renee Oats
  • Renn Lambert
  • Saima Ghaszal
  • Sanchai Kuboon
  • Sayyed Hessam Mir Shah
  • Sean Gohman
  • Seyedmehdi Mortazavi
  • Srinivasa R Sripathi
  • Stephanie Hamilton
  • Subhashish Mandal
  • Tara L. Bal
  • Thomas Daunais
  • Weilue He
  • Weilue Hu
  • Xiahui Wang
  • Yaoxian Huang
  • Yunzhu Zhao

Attending

  • Anthony Matthys
  • Erica Jones
  • Jie Li
  • Joel Suss
  • Patrick Belling

The Fall Travel Grant submissions are also now open. If you are traveling to a conference during the Fall semester you are encouraged to submit your application as soon as you have your acceptance to the conference.  Contact Margo Waller-Carter if you have any questions.

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Graduate Student Parking

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Graduate student parking for the fall semester will go on sale Tuesday, July 26th at 7:30 am for lots 5 and 34.  Keep in mind that even though it prompts you to choose a specific lot when signing up for parking, you are not guaranteed to be able to park in that lot.  Both lots will be available on a first-come,first-served basis daily with your permit stating you will have access to both lots.

Parking decals will no longer be sent to your mailing address, even though the option is still available when you resgister.  Students can have them mailed to their department on campus, or choose to pick them up in the Registrar’s Office once they become available.  If you choose to pick the decals up, there will be an email sent in August letting you know when the parking decals are ready to be picked up.

Please note that parking registration will only be available online and will not be available in the Registrar’s Office.

In Banweb under the Personal Information tab, choose Self Serve Parking.  In order to register for parking, you must have your vehicle registered with the University.  You may add, delete, or update your vehicle information at any time.

The lot registration button will not appear on the Vehicle Registration page until Tuesday morning when parking goes on sale.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact the Registrar’s Office at 487-2319.

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Industrial Archaeology Program Cosponsors Events

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The Industrial Archaeology Program, of the Department of Social Sciences, is cosponsoring events that are part of the Isle Royale and Keweenaw Parks Association’s annual meeting this weekend, July 23 and 24.

Associate Professors Tim Scarlett and Susan Martin (both of SS), with Red Jacket Trolley’s Wil Shapton, will be leading a guided trolley tour centering on copper mining in Isle Royale and in the Keweenaw. The trip will run from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, July 24, starting at Calumet and then moving on to the Cliff Mine. The cost is $10; space is limited and advance registration is required.

Other events include a stereoscopic tour of Lake Superior, Isle Royale, and the Keweenaw in the 1860s and early 1900s, and a book signing. For more information on these events, visit parks.

For more information call 482-3627 or email irkpa@irkpa.org.

Published in Tech Today.

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Lake Superior Binational Forum Honors Professor

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Professor Alex Mayer (CEE) has received the Lake Superior Binational Forum’s 2011 individual Environmental Stewardship Award for the US. The award honors “extraordinary achievements by ordinary people.”

The Lake Superior Binational Forum is composed of 12 Canadian and 12 American stakeholders, representing industrial, Tribal/First Nations, business, environmental, recreational, tourism, health, labor and academic interests.

The forum is recognizing Mayer, who heads the Center for Water and Society (CWS), for his efforts to restore the health of the Huron Creek watershed. That project was the first one taken on by the CWS.

Mayer worked with other faculty and graduate students, as well as public school teachers and their classes, home-schooled students and concerned citizens who formed the Huron Creek Club under Mayer’s guidance. They won funding to analyze, restore and monitor the creek and to develop a recreational and interpretive trail along it. They have also helped the City of Houghton and Portage Township develop storm water management ordinances.

“Alex’s unflagging efforts have raised awareness and galvanized local concern in the community, spawning many new community efforts and activities, and bringing very diverse partners together to enhance the environment and the aesthetics of the area, and attract residents to the area,” said Joan Chadde, education program coordinator.

Mayer called the award “quite an honor for all of the people who have been working to improve and protect Huron Creek.” He cited others closely involved, including Chadde, Associate Professor Hugh Gorman (SS), Assistant Professor Rod Chimner (SFRES), Scott MacInnes (Houghton city manager) and dozens of students, including former graduate student Linda (Kersten) Watson (MS in Environmental Engineering).

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Agassiz Tours Teach Community about Lake Ecology

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Last Saturday, people flocked to Chassell for the Strawberry Festival, but not everyone was there for the strawberries. “The Strawberry Festival was nice, but I really came here for the Agassiz,” said Carl Groeneveld, a resident of Houghton.

The Western UP Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education hosted the public aboard the Agassiz, Michigan Tech’s research vessel. Participants learned how scientists study the Great Lakes and what factors contribute to a healthy lake. More than 100 adults and children signed up for the scientific excursions on Chassell Bay, so many that the organizers added two 45-minute trips.

Participants pitched in, dropping a small dredge to pick up a sediment sample from the lake bottom and collecting plankton using a fine-mesh net. The plankton were then scooped it into a jar and passed around for a sniff. (It smelled like fish.)

“It was interesting and a lot of fun,” said youngster Josh Eckloff, from Allouez. “I liked learning about science and, of course, the mud.”

The chief scientist, PhD graduate student Marcel Dijkstra (Environmental Engineering), addressed a variety of ecological concerns, such as stamp sand in Torch Lake, zebra mussels in the Great Lakes and unbalanced oxygen levels in the water.

See Tech Today for the complete news story.

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Researchers Connect Volcanic Activity to Mini-Earthquakes

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The ash from the recent eruptions of the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle in Chile has disrupted airplane schedules, even circling the globe a second time to cause more delays recently. A Michigan Tech researcher and his graduate students are studying how these volcanoes erupt and what their relation is to earthquakes. They hope to resolve much bigger issues than airplane inconveniences.

Assistant Professor Greg Waite (GMES) is focusing on “mini-earthquakes” within or beneath the troublesome Villarrica volcano. These earthquakes reveal details about the shape of the conduit and dynamics of the magmatic system.

“The seismic data suggest the conduit becomes a planar dike at a relatively shallow depth,” he says. Graduate student Josh Richardson (GMES) has studied those “spaghetti splatters”: the mini-earthquakes at Villarrica.  “He recorded some 19,000 mini-quakes over the course of about a week on a recent field trip,” Waite says. These events are very subtle and cannot be simply identified without careful analysis. “We think they are from the small expansions and contractions in the conduit.”

Waite and his students’ conduit-model work has produced another interesting result at Fuego volcano in Guatemala. Recent PhD graduate John Lyons (GMES) discovered that, instead of the magma simply moving vertically up the conduit from a deeper magma chamber, there is a kink–an “elbow in the conduit, a corner in the geometry”–a couple hundred meters below the surface.

See Tech Today for the complete news story.

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Weekend Backpacking Trip

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Join the OAP on a weekend backpacking trip to the Porcupine Mountains. Led by OAP staff, this trip will feature one of the great resources in our backyard. The trip leaves the OAP on Friday, July 15, and returns around midday, Sunday, July 17.

The trip has some incredible vistas, including (but not limited to) waterfalls, Lake of the Clouds, and the sights of the wilderness coast of Lake Superior.

All skill levels are welcome, with trip leaders who will not only choose the best trails for the group, but take care of the transportation, food, cooking, group gear hauling, permits and pre-trip info. The cost of the trip is $40 and can be paid at OAP Rental Center.

For more information, see OAP, call 487-2290 or email oap@mtu.edu.

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South African Graduate Student Plans to Bring Education to Her People

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PhD student Taile Leswifi
PhD student Taile Leswifi
Like Michelle Obama, who is visiting South Africa this week, a black South African young woman who is studying for her PhD in environmental engineering at Michigan Tech, has a message of hope and inspiration for young women in remote areas of her country.

Nelson Mandela, who led the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, is Taile (pronounced Dah-ee-lay) Leswifi’s hero. And the graduate student is certainly following his counsel. She is making the most of what she has: an aptitude for science and math, the problem-solving mind-set of an engineer, a deep commitment to improving life for the people of her native land, and a fierce dedication to communicating to coming generations of South African children that education is the key that can open the doors of their world.

Studying on Fulbright and PEO Sisterhood international scholarships, Leswifi is researching new ways to produce a sustainable, renewable, low-cost source of hydrogen energy from water and sunlight–energy that does not add to the pollution of the environment. She is also preparing herself to teach at Tshwane University of Technology back in South Africa. The university is holding a professorship for her, and she plans to work with a South African Fulbright group to take the promise of success through education to children in remote reaches of her country.

“I can’t change all of South Africa by myself,” she says, “but if I can change the mind-set of one person, then that person can change one other person, and that’s the way real change takes root.”

Leswifi knows about the challenge of living in a remote area. She grew up in one herself, the small town of Phalaborwa in northern South Africa. When she was small, apartheid was still the law of land. It deprived black South Africans of citizenship and gave them limited access to education, health care and other public services. Blacks could only get jobs considered undesirable by whites. Racial segregation was total and enforced by law.

For the rest of her amazing story, see Hope.

Published in Tech Today.

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