We try to post some of the notable accomplishments of our folks. Please let us know if you would like us to highlight some accomplishment or want to know more about what you see on this page.

Recent News

2009 Coal Division Medlin Awards

Nicolas Pinter in National Geographic

Dan Dyer determined to beat the odds and help others do the same

An Article about Alum Al Lopinot

Granite City H.S. Wall of Fame

Cleavland State welcomes a Saluki as a new Faculty Member

Geologist John Utgaard passed away

SIUC researcher among elite honored by Obama

Matt Heinsel Appointed Director of TeraGrid GIG

Alum and IT Information Security Analyst Chet Langin

Micromeritics Announces a Grant Award to the Physics Department at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (Nanowerk News)

SIU Geologist quoted in the Sun-Times

Johnston City High School Teacher Continues Research

2009 Coal Division Medlin Awards

From Steven Esling, Chair
Department of Geology

We have some excellent MS students this year in Geology, one working with Sue Rimmer and the other working with Liliana Lefticariu. The each won two of the three Medlin awards at the annual Geological Society of America Meeting. Please take a look at the note below...

From: Sue M. Rimmer
Professor, Department of Geology

...at the GSA meeting in Portland last month, it was announced that Maggie McPherson had been awarded the 2009 Antoinette Lierman Medlin Scholarship in support of her research "Geochemistry and petrography of thermally metamorphosed Antarctic coal." The field support award from the Medlin Scholarship fund was given to Mohammed (Wahid) Rahman for his project, "Distribution and mode of occurrence of trace elements in coal from the Illinois Basin." As you know, he is working with Liliana.

(A second research award was made to Lois Yoksoulian, my Ph.D. student who is finishing up at Kentucky, for her work "Effects of contact metamorphism on coal geochemistry and petrology: Implications for the release of 13C-depleted methane.")

So, all three Medlin awards have SIU connections this year (Lois has been continuing some of her analyses here as I moved my lab).

Sue
--

Grante City High School Wall of Fame

Five to join GCHS Wall of Fame

Five new names are being added to the Granite City High School Wall of Fame, including two lawyers, a doctor with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and two university professors.

The five will be honored at the sixth annual Wall of Fame Recognition Banquet at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, at the school.

The wall honors graduates of GCHS who have gone on to excel in their careers, and have made significant national contributions to their profession, said Barb Bilbrey, a member of the Wall of Fame Committee…

…Dr. Jeffrey Lybarger (class of 1968), has spent more than 28 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most recently as a staff member for the CDC's Preventive Medicine Residency program, which provides mentoring and supervision for physicians and veterinarians training to become public health officials. He developed and supervised the CDC's Division of Health Studies, which tests people exposed to hazardous materials in the environment, and received a Public Health Service Meritorious Service Medal for his efforts.

He received a bachelor's degree in microbiology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1973, and graduated from the SIU School of Medicine in 1976. He later received a master's in environmental health from the University of Cincinnati…

New Cleavland State Faculty

James Peters is a graduate of St. Louis University, where he received two bachelor’s degrees, one in Theology and one in Biology. He is also a graduate of Southern Illinois University, where he received his master’s degree in Biology. Prior to accepting the position at CSCC, he was employed as an adjunct instructor for Parkland College in Champaign, Il.

Early Tuesday morning, John Utgaard passed away. John was an important part of the Department for nearly 40 years and a dear friend and colleague. I have attached his obituary from the Southern Illinoisan:

John Edward Utgaard, 73, passed away, peacefully, at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sept 8, 2009, in Memorial Hospital of Carbondale.

John was born Jan. 22, 1936, in Amaroose, N.D., the son of the late Sigurd B. and Florence (Heller) Utgaard.

He married Mary Susan (Baker) on Aug. 22, 1961; she survives.

He was a geology professor at Southern Illinois University from 1965 to 2003. He was the department chair from 1984 to 1993.

He was a member of American Institute of Professional Geologists, Geological Society of America, Paleontological Society and Yellowstone-Bighorn Research Association.

Survivors include his wife, Mary Utgaard of Carbondale; three sons, Erik Utgaard and wife, Elaine, of Sterling, Va., Sigurd Utgaard and wife, Claire, of Murray Ky., and John Utgaard and wife, Bentley, of Murray, Ky.; sister, Sarah Ozment and husband, Pat, of Utica, Mont.; brother-in-law, David Baker and wife, Judy, of Clover, S.C.; and six dearly loved grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his father; and mother.

Services will be at 12 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11, 2009, in Walker Funeral Home in Carbondale. Interment will be in Oakland Cemetery. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to noon Friday at the funeral home.

Memorials may be made to the Dutcher-Utgaard fund at SIUC's Department of Geology, Parkinson Hall, Mailcode 4324, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901.

Published in The Southern Illinoisan from September 9 to September 10, 2009

Steven Esling, Chair
Department of Geology

SIUC researcher among elite honored by Obama

The White House recently anounced that Professor Mercedes Calbi, a physics researcher in our college, recently won the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) award, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers. Please read more in the campus and NSF press releases!

White House

Matt Heinsel Appointed Director of TeraGrid GIG
CHICAGO, April 6 -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Cyberinfrastructure's (OCI) TeraGrid has a new director of its Grid Infrastructure Group (GIG). On April 2, 2009 Matt Heinzel, former GIG deputy director, was promoted by Ian Foster, Ph.D., TeraGrid GIG principal investigator. "Matt has been serving as the lead administrative officer of the TeraGrid GIG. Appointing him to the position of GIG director was an easy decision for me and a well-deserved promotion for Matt. His dedicated leadership has helped to shape TeraGrid as we know it. I look forward to working with him in this new role" said Foster. Heinzel brings with him more than 16 years of technology-related administrative experience. Prior to leading the TeraGrid GIG, he held various senior information technology management positions including: Technical Services Director, Senior Manager of Business Systems, Manager of Compliance, Senior Middleware Architect, Senior Consultant, and Principal Analyst. As director of an off-shore team of 29 support analysts, programmers, and system architects for more than five years, Heinzel gained unique administrative experience that allows him to successfully lead TeraGrid's widely distributed matrix organization. A native of Chicago, Heinzel lives in Bolingbrook, Ill., and has an office at Argonne National Laboratory. He holds a baccalaureate degree in computer science, with a minor in mathematics, from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. TeraGrid is coordinated through the GIG at the University of Chicago, working in partnership with the Resource Provider sites: Indiana University, the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the National Institute for Computational Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Purdue University, San Diego Supercomputer Center, Texas Advanced Computing Center, University of Chicago/Argonne National Laboratory, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Through coordinated policy, grid software, and high-performance network connections, the TeraGrid integrates a distributed set of high-capability computational, data-management, and visualization resources to make research more productive. With Science Gateway collaborations, and education, outreach, and training programs, the TeraGrid also connects and broadens scientific communities. For more information, visit www.teragrid.org. ----- Source: TeraGrid
Alum and IT Information Security Analyst Chet Langin
IT SECURITY TEAM USING NEW INTRUSION DETECTION MODEL The IT Security Team uses state of the art intrusion detection methods when possible, including a new model developed here at SIUC, which is being called a network Vulture Fest (with a tip of a hat to the folks in Makanda). The idea behind the network Vulture Fest is that some infected or vulnerable computers located on campus are sensed by other computers on the Internet off campus. Some of these other computers are malicious, thus "vultures", and they begin to attempt to contact the local computer, which is infected or vulnerable. This "vulture" activity can consist of hundreds of thousands of attempted connections from thousands of computers off campus and is typically blocked and logged by the campus border firewall. A computationally intelligent method was used to cluster network Vulture Fests from background Internet activity and an automated script runs periodically to classify current Vulture Fests in an effort to locate local computers that are infected or vulnerable. This method uses an algorithm called a Self-Organizing Map (SOM), which is a type of Artificial Neural Network (ANN). This SIUC application of a SOM using the Vulture Fest model is the first time, as far as we know, that a self-trained computational intelligence has ever successfully discovered previously unknown feral malware. The software has been named ANNaBell for an ANN that "rings a bell" when a Vulture Fest has been discovered. IT Information Security Analyst Chet Langin developed the method as part of his Ph.D. research here at SIUC, in coordination with other faculty and students in the Computer Science Department and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Chet introduced the model at an IEEE conference in Austin, TX last December, and he is scheduled to present his SOM Vulture Fest methodology at an IEEE conference in Nashville, TN in April.
Micromeritics Announces a Grant Award to the Physics Department at Southern Illinois University Carbondale
(Nanowerk News) After careful consideration by a special Grant Selection Committee appointed by the president of the company, Micromeritics’ grant award winner for the first quarter of 2009 has been selected. An ASAP 2050 Xtended Pressure Sorption Analyzer has been awarded to the Physics Department at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
According to Aldo Migone, Principal Investigator, Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics, “Research activities will span a broad area of material characterization through adsorption/desorption measurements in three departments: Physics, Chemistry, and Mechanical Engineering. The research that this project will encompass includes, but is not limited to, my own work on porous metal-organic-frameworks and carbon nanotubes, Prof. Talapatra’s work on metal hydrides and carbon nanotubes, Prof. Daves’s work on porous sol-gel glasses, and Prof. Mondal’s research on active catalysts. The investigations that will be carried out on the ASAP 2050 will provide critical information for developing applications of these nanostructured materials to areas such as gas separation, gas storage, gas sensing and catalysis.” Saikat Talapatra (Co-PI, Department of Physics) states, “The availability of this instrument will also give a tremendous boost to the ongoing research efforts on energy that are taking place in and around the SIUC campus.”
Southern Illinois University Carbondale is one of the nation’s top research universities and has attained the highest classification offered by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching – ResearchUniversity (high research activity). This classification places SIUC in distinguished company; less than four percent of all universities in the United States share this prestigious ranking.
According to Preston Hendrix, Micromeritics’ President, “Our grant program is designed to promote and advance the acquisition and use of material characterization instrumentation not generally available through other means to non-profit universities and institutions. We are very proud and excited to present this award in an ongoing grant program to support important research.”
Micromeritics’ Instrument Grant Program is intended to provide particle characterization instruments to non-profit universities and research organizations for the purpose of fostering and supporting meritorious research projects. A maximum of one instrument/integrated system will be awarded per calendar quarter. Deadline dates for the next two grants are:
1) Application deadline 03/31/09 ; Grant decision prior to 06/30/09
2) Application deadline 06/30/09 ; Grant decision prior to 09/30/09
Applications may be submitted at any time in accordance with the application instructions and will remain active for four grant periods from the date of submission. Click on Grant Program for a detailed grant description, application requirements, and application.
Source: Micromeritics (press release)

Comets may have wiped out mammoths, early Americans

A swarm of comets that smacked North America 12,900 years ago wiped out the wooly mammoth and early Native American cultures, according to a soil study released Thursday.

The report in the journal Science focuses on tiny "nanodiamonds," crystals tied to past comet impacts, at six sites in a soil layer dated to the start of a 1,300-year ice age.

Geologists and archeologists have long argued about what caused the extinction of dozens of large North American "megafauna" species, such as saber-toothed cats and mammoths.

"What we're reporting is consistent with a major cosmic impact that had major consequences for the environment and Earth's climate," says study leader Douglas Kennett of the University of Oregon in Eugene.

"A swarm of comets" or carbon-rich meteorites either delivered or created the nanodiamonds in a fiery impact, the study suggests. The report relies on photomicrograph analyses of soil samples from Arizona, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and two Canadian sites. Photomicrography captures images seen through a microscope.

"This is the 'smoking gun' evidence for a massive impact event 12,900 years ago that triggered the [ice age] and the extinction of the megafauna," says nuclear scientist Richard Firestone of the Lawrence Berkeley (Calif.) National Laboratory, who was not part of the study.

If true, the impact date coincides with an abrupt halt of deposits of "Clovis" Native American artifacts, distinctively fluted tools and arrowheads. Dozens of large animal species vanished in North America.

Some scientists urge caution.

"We simply do not have conclusive evidence that nanodiamond materials aren't everywhere at many times," says geologist Nicholas Pinter of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. "Tons of meteorite dust falls to Earth every year, after all."

Paul Suchecki, a Johnston City High School Science teacher and SIUC alum with an MS in Plant Biology has a hand in a local research grant. He's helping our faculty learn more about a fungus that threatens the dogwood tree. Find out a little more about the Research here.