Several faculty members in the Economics department at the University of New Mexico will participate in the 2004 Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR) annual conference in Portland, Ore., July 20-22, 2004. The conference, “Allocating Water: Economics and the Environment,” features academicians, federal and state agencies, water managers and other professionals.
Case studies, analyses of current water allocation problems in several U.S. river basins and proposed new techniques will be presented. The discussions provide valuable materials for consideration in water resources research, education, legislation and policy.
Economics professors David Brookshire, Janie Chermak, Kate Krause, Philip Ganderton, Mary Ewers, Kristine Grimsrud, Kristan Cockerill, and Geography professor Olen Paul Matthews will represent UNM and give numerous presentations during the conference.
One of the more involved sessions the UNM Economics department is participating in is the “Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas” or SAHRA. The science and technology center was conceived and designed to make advances in the understanding of semi-arid hydrology, and to focus on practical problems of water resources policy, management and operational decision-making. It was established in 2000 through a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation.
UNM will also participate in other sessions including: Water Rights Markets, Prices and Limitations; Legal Issues of Water Allocation; Prices and Policy: Management of Groundwater Resources; and Approaches to Water Conservation.
The conference is sponsored by UCOWR, an organization of U.S. universities and international affiliates actively engaged in water resources education, research and public service, and the National Institutes for Water Resources, a network of research institutes in each state responsible for implementing the Federal Water Resources Research Act.
Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821
Dancers from the UNM flamenco program entertain at a reception for “Mind in the Making” curriculum. The Family Development Program in the College of Education is launching the innovative curriculum for children from birth to age five. The program is being developed in cooperation with The Families and Work Institute in New York and will prepare early childhood teachers to work more thoughtfully as they teach.
New Mexico is the first state in the nation to try the new program, which utilizes the latest brain research information about how children learn. Teachers in the City of Albuquerque Early Childhood Program, UNM Childcare Program and the Laguna Pueblo Early Childhood Program will all spend the next several months meeting and learning about new ways to stimulate the minds of children they work with.
One of the basic parts of the program provokes teachers to think in ways that encourage observation, investigation, analysis and action as they teach their young charges. One hundred fifty teachers will work in teams to encourage and mentor each other. “Mind in the Making” begins in September and runs through spring 2005.
Contact: Greg Johnston, (505) 277-1816
Clover Hatcher and Melissa Romero are serving internships at the 377th Air Base Wing at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque. The Wing is hosting the interns as part of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities internship program.
The HACU internship program arranges opportunities for students from Hispanic serving institutions to serve in a variety of governmental organizations.
Hatcher and Romero will work in various departments at the base until the end of the summer. Hatcher is writing for the “Nucleus” in public affairs, while Romero is shadowing Ricardi Redick, Special Assistant Affirmative Employment programs.
Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627
Ted A. Garcia, general manager and chief executive officer of local PBS affiliate KNME-TV, Channel 5, has been elected to serve on two boards. Garcia was re-elected secretary of the executive council of the Pacific Mountain Network's board of directors. Formerly a regional program distributor, PMN now invests in public television programs and services.
Garcia was also elected to the nominations committee of the American Red Cross. He served as vice-chairman of the national meeting of the American Red Cross in 2001 and served on the resolutions committee of the organization's national 2003 and 2003 annual meetings.
Garcia serves on the board of the Mid Rio Grande chapter of the American Red Cross. Prior to taking his position at KNME, Garcia served as chair of the St. Louis chapter of the American Red Cross.
“I am honored to have been elected to serve on these two boards,” Garcia said. “The Pacific Mountain network continues to strive to provide PBS stations with top quality educational and entertaining programs with superior production values.
"I have been a long-time supporter and participant in the American Red Cross, and am committed to continuing their humanitarian and disaster relief efforts. I am honored to serve both organizations and the people that they reach."
Garcia also serves as vice chair/chair-elect on the National Educational Telecommunications Association executive committee and is one of only six business executives nationally named to a newly created team of 19 advisors, the “2020 Vision Committee” of Southern Illinois University.
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920
Eliseo "Cheo" Torres, Vice President for Student Affairs is again offering a course in curanderismo or Mexican folk healing during the summer session. The course, scheduled for July 12-23 is expected to attract more than 70 students.
"People are searching for new approaches because health care is so expensive and so many, particularly the poor, have no insurance or are under-insured," he said.
As the instructor-of-record for the course, titled “Traditional Medicine without Borders: Curanderismo in the Southwest and Mexico,” Torres not only lectures but designs unique exhibits for the class. He also brings folk healers and alternative practitioners for hands-on demonstrations.
“We will have as many as 40 folk healers coming here from Mexico to participate in our class during its second week,” Torres said. “We also have practitioners from the Albuquerque area, including Elena Avila, who is a poet, performance artist and respected curandera. She is a very popular part of our class.”
Course topics include the healing properties of herbs and salves, ointments, and tinctures made from herbs. Demonstrations and lectures will show how traditional curanderismo is combined with oriental medicine, massage therapy, acupuncture, Reiki, and other holistic, integrative and/or New Age approaches to medicine.
In addition, curanderismo has gained some acceptance among conventional modern medical practitioners as a vital cultural avenue through which caregivers can reach medically underserved populations.
The course is offered cooperatively through the Women Studies Program (WS 379, section 390), Chicano Studies (CH ST 393.370) and University Honors (301.370).
Torres team-teaches with Sandrea Gonzales, Director of the Women’s Resource Center at UNM, who also coordinates the course.
Dr. Arturo Ornelas Lizardi, director of El Centro de Desarrolo Humano hacia la Comunidad in Cuernavaca, Mexico, will also lecture and lead demonstrations for the class. For each of the past three years, Ornelas has led a group of Mexican curanderos to Albuquerque to take part in the course, perform service in the community and demonstrate healing and therapy techniques.
In addition to the Albuquerque-based class, Torres, Gonzales and Ornelas also coordinate a Cuernavaca-based course, conducted at El Centro de Desarrolo hacia la Comunidad. The class includes field trips to ancient ruins near Cuernavaca and Mexico City.
The class, now underway, ends June 20 and will be followed by another course Torres team-teaches with Dr. Terry Crowe, director of UNM’s Occupational Therapy graduate program in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Torres hopes the three courses continue to be offered through UNM.
“The courses help us to get the word out and to popularize a previously neglected body of knowledge that is venerated among Hispanics in the Southwest and Mexico,” Torres said. “They convey information about knowledge that is culturally relevant that I think will also prove to be medically important in the long run as well.”
For more information, call Sandrea Gonzales, 277-3716. The Web site is www.unm.edu/~ovpsa/curanderismo.html.
Contact: Laurie Mellas Ramirez (505) 277-5915
Photographs like this one taken in southern New Mexico around 1880 by E.A. Bass are part of the buried treasures in New Mexico libraries and archives. It is these historic treasures that Nancy Dennis and Camila Alire want to bring to your desktop computer.
Dennis, Assistant Dean of Collections and Technology Services, and University Libraries Dean Alire are the co-principal investigators for a two year, $377,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The grant will allow University of New Mexico Libraries to lead an effort to build a regional web site called the Rocky Mountain Online Archive. Colorado and Wyoming are already working with UNM to bring community history in those states online. As the project grows, the principal investigators hope more states in the region will participate.
The goal is to scan and digitize thousands of historical documents that build the history of communities in the Rocky Mountains, then arrange the documents into a system that will make is possible for scholars and researchers to look back in time, using images of the actual documents.
Dennis says, “This project allows the mining of primary resources that have been stored in the recesses of libraries and archives around the west.” Four institutions in New Mexico are already participating in an online archive system at http://elibrary.unm.edu/oanm/
Anyone can browse through the archives and see some of the original documents available in the Center for Southwest Research in Zimmerman Library at UNM, the Fray Angelico Chávez History Library in the Palace of the Governors, the New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, and the Rio Grande Historical Collection at New Mexico State University.
The project will fund the digitization of materials and training for archivists and staff in the technical means to scan and maintain digital collections. Dennis says thousands of photographs and documents will be added to the online archive over the next two years.
The goal is to increase remote access to historical documents and information to support scholarship and research, education and information. The jewels of these unique historical collections will be available to historians, students and scholars who can make ‘virtual’ visits to these cultural institutions.
For more information about the project, please contact Nancy Dennis at (505) 277-2585 or ndennis@unm.edu.
Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627
The University of New Mexico School of Engineering has announced the appointment of Juan Heinrich as chair and professor of Mechanical Engineering. Heinrich will begin August 16, prior to the start of UNM fall semester and will lead a department of 300 students and 17 faculty.
“Professor Heinrich brings a vision and leadership style that will move the department and school forward at a time of great opportunity in engineering,” said Joe Cecchi, dean, School of Engineering. “I’m extremely pleased that such an outstanding, accomplished faculty member will be leading the Department of Mechanical Engineering.”
Heinrich is currently professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arizona. His teaching experience spans a broad array of courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He has conducted research on the analysis of materials and the modeling of solids and fluid flow.
Heinrich received his Ph.D. in Mathematics/Numerical Analysis from the University of Pittsburgh in 1975. He then was a senior research assistant in the department of Civil Engineering at the University of Wales in Great Britain. From 1978-1980, Heinrich was a senior research associate in the department of Earth Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He joined the University of Arizona in 1980 as assistant professor and was promoted to full professor in 1990.
UNM Mechanical Engineering teaches and conducts research in the areas of robotics and control systems, fluid mechanics, applied mechanics, materials science, manufacturing processes, instrumentation, thermodynamics and heat transfer.
Contact: Greg Johnston (505) 277-1816
It’s called CREATE or Center for Rapid Environmental Analysis and Terrain Evaluation, and with the aid of a $3.5 million grant from a series of federal appropriations supported by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and administered by NASA, the vision of providing useful data in real-time is finally going to happen for Earth and Planetary Sciences Associate Professor Louis Scuderi.
Through CREATE, Scuderi is looking to revolutionize the acquisition and distribution of real-time satellite digital imagery of New Mexico landscapes and those in surrounding regions of North America. The images in turn could aid in firefighting efforts, livestock managers in regard to vegetative change and by providing researchers data in real-time.
“It’s designed to access environmental satellites by producing digital imagery in near real-time when satellites pass over New Mexico,” said Scuderi. “The motivation behind CREATE is predicated on a set of problems. Under existing conditions, it takes weeks to months before the information from satellites reaches researchers. Second, I came from the private sector where we were able to obtain information in real-time. We were able to capture and process data while it was still current and of interest to the end user.
“For example, getting it (data) a month after a fire or a flood isn’t real helpful. If we provide the data in real-time, it could help firefighters. There’s not very many people outside the Department of Defense with the ability to capture and process data in real-time.”
The center has acquired complete satellite ground stations for the receipt of X-Band Direct Broadcast MODIS data from Aqua and Terra satellites and L-Band Direct Broadcast data from NOAA and other polar orbiting satellites. The center includes 4.5 and 1.5-meter satellite antennas, image processing hardware and software, 20 terabytes of data storage and archives, and web-based data distribution capabilities.
The ground stations will provide near real-time environmental data integrated with ancillary Geographic Information System (GIS) data in the CREATE computational facilities to provide rapid assessment of changing environmental conditions to state and Federal agencies in New Mexico and regions ranging from Central America on the south to southern Canada on the north and from the Atlantic Ocean on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west. The facility was designed to access most existing satellites in orbit and also those going up in the future says Scuderi.
The data sets can improve the prediction of vegetative change in response to climate variability and change leading to higher quality ecosystem models in near real-time; improved response to fire events; providing data inputs to economic and sociologically robust water decision support systems; and helping to reduce response time to environmental disasters and hazards and rapid assessment of the potential threat posed by terrorist attacks.
“The data sets provided can be used to support existing and future planned decision support systems in hydrology for the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Forest Service, the U.S. Natural Resource Conservation Service, and meteorology, ecology and climatology to the Bureau of Land Management,” said Scuderi. “The possibilities are endless. It’s so new and novel that everywhere we turn we find new data sets we can use and new applications that we can apply them to.”
Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821
The University of New Mexico Family Development Program is one of three national pilot sites chosen by the Families and Work Institute in New York City to participate in Mind in the Making, a comprehensive training for early childhood professionals. Ellen Galinsky, president and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute, will visit UNM in June to train Family Development Program staff.
UNM President Louis Caldera will host a reception at his home June 25 for Galinsky and her associates, state education leaders and community partners.
Mind in the Making grew from findings that indicate interest in early learning is at an all-time high. The Families and Work Institute is a prominent, national research center for family, workforce and community change. The UNM Family Development Program is a statewide outreach program of UNM’s College of Education.
“Teaching practice improves when teachers are engaged in understanding their own and other’s learning, are more mindful in promoting their own practice in promoting the learning of children, and when they better understand the best child development knowledge,” said Galinsky.
Galinsky is a notable national policy leader and advocate for family and work issues. She provided leadership for the 1997 White House Conference on Early Childhood and has appeared regularly at national conferences and in the media, including Today, Good Morning America, 20/20 Nightline, and Oprah. While at UNM, Galinsky plans to meet with the campus Work-Life Initiative Committee to discuss issues relating to work/family life balance.
Mind in the Making: New Mexico will bring valuable new information to communities about early learning and brain development. About 150 early childhood educators will receive training during the first year of the program. Specially selected community partners for the pilot program are the City of Albuquerque division of Child and Family Development; Pueblo of Laguna division of Early Education; and UNM Children’s Campus.
National research from scholars and early childhood authorities like T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., clinical professor of Pediatrics, Emeritus, Harvard University, will be used in New Mexico. Participating teachers will gain a better understanding of how children learn and what can be done for children to set the stage for lifelong engagement in learning.
New Mexico will serve as a pilot site to test the implementation of early learning modules. The modules are designed for early childhood teachers who want to improve how they help young children grow and learn. Modules are for beginning and experienced teachers.
As a complement to the modules, a 13-part television series, “Mind in the Making: the Science of Early Learning” will begin to air on public television in 2005.
Contact: Greg Johnston (505) 277-1816
The Center for Regional Studies is sponsoring six fellowships for the Fall 2004 and Spring 2005 semesters. The fellowships are open to graduate students at the university. The fellowships pay $12,000 and require 20 hours per week of work during the semesters.
The Center for Regional Studies is sponsoring six fellowships for the Fall 2004 and Spring 2005 semesters. The fellowships are open to graduate students at the university. The fellowships pay $12,000 and require 20 hours per week of work during the semesters.
The deadline for all applications is Friday, July 9, 2004. Awards will be announced in early August.
Clinton P. Anderson Fellowship
at the Center for Southwest Research
The Clinton P. Anderson Fellowship will be awarded to a graduate student in a discipline related to the history and culture of the Southwest. The fellowship honors Senator Anderson for his generous donation of Western Americana, Native Americana, rare books, and personal papers to Zimmerman Library. The main reference and reading room of the CSWR is named on behalf of the senator.
http://elibrary.unm.edu/cswr/CPA04an.doc
2004 Dennis Chávez Archival Fellowship
at the Center for Southwest Research
The 2004 Dennis Chávez Archival Fellowship will be awarded to a graduate student enrolled at the University of New Mexico for work in the research collections at the Center for Southwest Research. The work will be project based and will focus on improving researchers’ knowledge of and access to collections of unique and important scholarly material. The fellowship is funded by the UNM Center for Regional Studies and is named in honor of the late Senator Chávez who represented New Mexico nationally from 1930-1962. His papers are located in the CSWR.
http://elibrary.unm.edu/cswr/DC04an1.doc
2004 Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert Fellowship
at the Center for Southwest Studies
The Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert Fellowship is awarded to a graduate student to process the Hispano/Chicano vertical File and other related reference material in the Anderson Reading Room. The fellowship is funded by the UNM Center for Regional Studies.
The fellowship honors Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert, a leading New Mexico educator, author, Agricultural Extension Agent, and community organizer. Cabeza de Baca Gilbert wrote about New Mexico Hispanic history, cooking, folklore and traditions.
http://elibrary.unm.edu/cswr/FCBG04an3.doc
2004 Fray Angélico Chávez Fellowship
at the Center for Southwest Research
The Fray Angélico Chávez Fellowship is awarded to a graduate student for work in the collection of Spanish documents at the Center for Southwest Research. The fellowship is funded by the UNM Center for Regional Studies.
The fellowship honors the late Fray Angélico Chávez, an outstanding cleric and historian of the state of New Mexico. His legacy remains alive in the countless monographs and articles used virtually daily by faculty, students, and citizens studying the history and folk heritage of New Mexico.
http://elibrary.unm.edu/cswr/FAC04an.doc
2004 Juan and Virginia Chacón Fellowship
at the Center for Southwest Research
The Juan and Virginia Chacón Fellowship will be awarded to a graduate student enrolled in the University of New Mexico for work in the research collections at the Center for Southwest Research. The work will be project based and will focus on improving researchers’ knowledge of and access to collections of unique and important scholarly material. The Juan and Virginia Chacón Fellowship is funded by the UNM Center for Regional Studies.
The fellowship honors two union activists who were involved in the miners’ strike against Empire Zinc in Grant County, New Mexico in the 1950’s. Juan Chacón played a key role in the union’s struggle, while his wife, Virginia, accepted a leadership role in the women’s auxiliary. She and other women and children were jailed briefly for their participation. The strike, which resulted in substantial gains for the union, was the subject of the film, “Salt of the Earth”.
http://elibrary.unm.edu/cswr/JVC04.doc
2004 Sophie D. Aberle Fellowship
at the Center for Southwest Research
The Sophie D. Aberle Felowship is awarded to a graduate student enrolled at the University of New Mexico for work in the Center for Southwest Research on digital projects. The work will focus on improving researchers’ knowledge of and access to collections of unique and important scholarly material. The Sophie D. Aberle Fellowship is funded by the UNM Center for Regional Studies.
The fellowship is named in honor of Dr. Sophie D. Aberle. A research scientist, Aberle was also an early proponent of computers in the classroom. She held a Ph.D. from Stanford University and an M.D. from Yale. As a graduate student, she conducted anthropological research at New Mexico pueblos. Later, she studied health issues, focusing on Pueblo women and children. In 1935, John Collier appointed Aberle to be the Superintendent of the United Pueblos Agency, where she served until 1944. In 1965, Aberle began work with Pueblo leaders on a program titled Computer Assisted Instruction, which brought computers into Pueblo schools.
http://elibrary.unm.edu/cswr/SDA04an1.doc
Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627
The UNM Board of Regents has unanimously approved a $1.484 billion operating budget for the 2004-05 fiscal year. The total includes more than $407 million to operate the Health Sciences Center, and more than $404 million to operate University of New Mexico Hospital.
The overall budget is a 6.1 percent increase from all funding sources, including tuition increases, patient revenues, general fund appropriations and research dollars.
UNM President Louis Caldera convened a budget summit in April to discuss the overall budget picture and to take comments from interested groups. He says in this budget, the administration “tried to respond to requests from students for greater transparency.”
At the budget summit the university administration was asked to enhance funding for graduate assistants, and increase financial aid for students who could not afford tuition expenses. This budget allocates an additional $250,000 to hire graduate students, and sets aside $550,000 for need-based scholarships.
Although the university received a slightly larger proportion of overall general fund appropriations for higher education, the percentage of general fund appropriation in the budget is 17.4 percent, an historic low.
Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627
The University of New Mexico was among five state institutions awarded scholarship funding from the 2004 Daniels Opportunity Awards, a $2.16 million partnership to get scholarship funding into the hands of non-traditional students at risk of being unable to afford a college education.
Besides UNM, New Mexico institutions that received funding included: Clovis Community College, College of Santa Fe, College of the Southwest and New Mexico Junior College. The five schools will share $185,000 with UNM receiving $50,000.
The Daniels Opportunity Award (DOA) is a special initiative of the Daniels College Prep and Scholarship Program (DCPSP). The initiative was designed to ensure college access and success to several deserving and non-traditional student populations not targeted by the fund’s flagship program, the DCPSP.
The awards were distributed to the institutions and converted directly into scholarships to support non-traditional students — those pursuing education later in life, GED recipients, transfer students and those from foster care. Colleges and universities, both public and private, two and four-year schools across the fund’s four-state region — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — received awards from $25,000 to $150,000 each.
“Students who most desire a college education are often least able to afford one,” said Hank Brown, president and CEO of the Daniels Fund. “The Daniels Opportunity Award initiative is intended to give a boost to students of all ages and at all levels of society seeking to secure the economic and social benefits of a college education.”
The Daniels Fund was established in 1998 by cable entrepreneur, Bill Daniels. Each year, 70 percent of the fund’s community investments are made through the Daniels Fund Grants Program in the areas Daniels identified to guide the fund’s grantmaking activities.
“In establishing the Daniels Fund, Bill Daniels wanted to help individuals overlooked by other scholarship programs but who have every potential to complete a college education if given a chance and the necessary support,” said Carrie Besnette, Daniels Fund vice president and director of the Daniels College Prep and Scholarship Program.
“The Daniels Opportunity Awards honor his intent and will make a real difference in the lives of scholarship recipients, particularly in light of the economic challenges faced by higher education and low income students and families in recent years.”
For more information visit: www.danielsfund.org.
Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821
Coleman Travelstead is the new president of the UNM Alumni Association. Travelstead is publisher of “Techcomm, the National Journal of Technology Commercialization,” at Technology Ventures Corporation in Albuquerque. He is also president of the New Mexico Entrepreneurs Association.
As president, Travelstead will act as an advisor to the Board of Regents on behalf of the alumni, and will function as a link between the university and more than 120,000 graduates and students who make up the alumni community.
Alumni Relations Director Karen Abraham says, “The president of the Alumni Association acts as the conscience of the university through the eyes of the alumni.”
The UNM Alumni Association has chapters throughout the world and is developing constituency chapters that draw together alums who share specific interests. The UNM Alumni Association can be reached at http://www.unmalumni.com/
Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627
A festival like no other will be presented by the National Institute of Flamenco June 11-19 at the University of New Mexico. The 18th annual Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque will feature prestigious classes, performances and events covering all aspects of the art form for all ages. Venues include UNM’s Rodey Theatre and Carlisle Gym. World-renowned artists and groups from Spain, Mexico and the United States will perform.
Of note, UNM’s Department of Theatre and Dance offers the only fully developed curriculum in flamenco dance in the country. Students who choose the flamenco focus are advised to participate for two summers in this annual festival.
For tickets, visit www.tickets.com, or call 1-800-905-3315. In New Mexico, tickets may be purchased at the UNM Ticket Office: 925-5858, or any tickets.com outlet: 851-5050, including Raley's and Western Warehouse. Special ticket packages may be purchased only through the festival office (505) 277-1865.
2004 Festival Performances
“Asi Baila Sevilla”
June 11-12 – 8 p.m., Rodey Theatre UNM Campus Tickets:
$30,$40,$50 and $60
Manuela, muse of poets and painters alike, is the Goddess of flamenco dance.
Her historic career and inimitable style have assured her the admiration of
aficionados the world over. She has kept alive the expressive power of
flamenco, and even today her soleà is still considered one of the most moving
ever performed. Manuela will be joined in her Albuquerque debut by her
husband-guitarist Joaquin Amador, highly respected by aficionados for his
artistry and purity, along with four singers and two male dancers.
“Yjastros” American Flamenco Repertory Company
Featuring Joaquin Encinias, Artistic Director
June 13 – 8 p.m., Rodey Theatre - UNM Campus
Tickets: $25, $35, $45
An exciting evening presenting the exhilarating new works of Alejandro
Granados, Israel Galvan, Yolanda Heredia and Joaquin Encinias. “Yjastros”
features young flamenco artists from New Mexico, the United States and Latin
America. Encinias is noted to perform with “the presence of a bull and the
lightness of a dove” –Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times
"Flamenco Expo"
June 14 – 8 p.m., Rodey Theatre - UNM Campus
Tickets: $10
Our 4th Annual Professional/Semi-Professional Flamenco competition will be
judged by guest artists from our Festival. Dancers, guitarists,
singers and percussionists are invited to participate in this special event. Contestants, contact the Festival Office at 505-277-1855 to register. Round-trip air travel to Spain will be awarded as a grand prize!!!
Israel y Pastora Galvàn "Dos Hermanos"
June 15-16 – 8 p.m., Rodey Theatre - UNM Campus
Tickets: $30, $40, $50
Israel Galvàn an outrageous interpreter of this powerful art form, is on the
cutting edge of flamenco today. His sister, the breathtaking Pastora Galvàn,
who has been sweeping the flamenco world with outstanding critical acclaim,
will join him for her debut perfromance at Festival Flamenco Internacional de
Alburquerque. Israel and Pasotra will be accompanied by four outstanding
musicians from Sevilla: Alfredo Lago, Miguel Iglesias, Josè Anillo and
Encarnaciòn Anillo.
"Fiesta Flamenca"
June 17-19 – 8 p.m., Rodey Theatre - UNM Campus
Tickets: $30, $40, $50, $60
The Grand Finale! Don’t miss this blockbuster performance featuring artists
from Madrid, Granada and Mexico: Belèn Fernàndez, Kelian Jimènez, David
Jimènez, Anton Jimènez, El Ciervo, Sabù, El Veneno, Mercedes Amaya, Karime
Amaya, Santiago Aguilar, El Tati, Jose Fernàndez, Chuscales, Laura Manzella,
Joaquin Encinias, Yjastros, and many more.
For more information call 505.277.1855 or visit www.feelflamenco.com
The University of New Mexico School of Engineering is accepting applications for the Graduate Bridge Project, a multicultural engineering program, to be held July 6-23. The goal is to offer experience and information for students outside of UNM to become informed on the qualifications and expectations for entering graduate school in engineering.
A grant from the Western Alliance to Expand Student Opportunities at Arizona State University and the National Science Foundation will help bring 15 minority students from vocational schools, community colleges and universities to UNM for a three week learning program. Participants will be given the opportunity to meet with current UNM School of Engineering graduate students who are conducting research.
The Graduate Bridge Project is free to selected participants and provides a $250 in-state and $500 out-of-state travel stipend. Student participants live in a UNM dormitory and have meals served at the UNM cafeteria
Eligibility requirements include completion of at least two years of undergraduate course work and identification as a member of one of the underrepresented ethnic minority groups.
A completed application must be received by 5 p.m., Thursday, June 24, 2004.
For additional information contact Pauline Hunt-Histia, (505) 277-5062 or (505) 277-8795 or e-mail to mepgradb@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Greg Johnston, (505) 277-1816
DomeFest 2004, the world’s only festival dedicated to the art and practice of the large-scale immersive digital medium called ‘fulldome,’ will be presented Saturday and Sunday, June 12-13, at the LodeStar Astronomy Center. DomeFest 2004 will include 18 works created by producers from Europe and across the United States. Productions run a wide gamut from astronomy shows, to fine art, to entertainment, to experimental works created by production studios, fulldome theaters, independent artists, and college students.
DomeFest 2004
The 45-minute show will be presented entirely in LodeStar’s ultra-high definition, large-scale immersive domed environment. DomeFest 2004 includes eight productions that were based in New Mexico, including three award winners. As with all submissions to the festival, a 12-member panel of experts juried these works. Six submissions in all won awards and each will receive the coveted ”Domie Award” for their contributions to fulldome.
“DomeFest is all about innovation, about pushing envelopes of storytelling, design, art, technology and techniques for the exciting and seamlessly unlimited medium we call ‘fulldome,’” said David Beining, DomeFest 2004 chair and LodeStar director.
“DomeFest 2004 represents the most innovative and compelling experiences yet created for the medium. No one has seen a show like this before. In fact, many of the submissions are making their world premiere at the festival,” he added.
The festival will also include an unparalleled demonstration of large-format immersive gaming. In association with LucasArts and Secret Level, DomeFest 2004 will feature the first time a StarWars game will be played on a planetarium screen. The game, StarFighter, was redesigned for fulldome display (and play) by Alejandro Diaz of Secret Level, Inc. a San Francisco interactive software developer who does work for LucasArts.
DomeFest Screenings
LodeStar will present four screenings of DomeFest on Saturday, June 12 with shows beginning at 6, 7:15, 8:30 and 9:45 p.m. Tickets are $12 and available at the door the day of the show. DomeFest 2004 continues on Sunday, June 13, with short talks and screening of some dome winners and a special screening of ”SonicVision: How Do You See Your Music?” a fulldome music show produced by the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium and MTV2. The animated music show was mixed by Moby and includes alternative rock sounds by bands such as U2, ColdPlay and AudioSlave. Shows are at 6 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 and are available at the door on Saturday at LodeStar.
“DomeFest 2004 is an absolute breakout year,” said Beining. “We’ve grown international in festival submissions, in the jury and in distribution. We’ve added great partners including LucasArts, Hayden Planetarium, many fulldome theaters and distributors and more. We’ll be presenting DomeFest in Valencia, Spain in July and then the show will be made available to other fulldome theaters around the country and world.
“DomeFest is intended to support the medium’s future by demonstrating its possibilities. New Mexico, especially the University of New Mexico, is a world-leader in fulldome production and experimentation so it’s natural that DomeFest is based here. Part of what we’re doing with the festival is augmenting our local talents’ production expertise and showing the world what New Mexicans are making.”
The DomeFest organizers solicited fulldome video productions from across the world which were then juried by organizers and producers from/for SIGGRAPH, Pixar, Dreamworks, IMAX, dome theater manufacturers and numerous digital dome theaters.
DomeFest Winners
“Optical Nervous System,” a piece created by the elumenati, a production studio based in Minneapolis, Minn., won the Domie Award for Best of Fest. Directed by David McConville, the piece (in homage to Jordan Belson & Henry Jacobs’ Vortex) is based on a 1965 lecture by philosopher Alan Watts about the nature of vision and perception.
Albuquerque-based artist Hue Walker took the Domie for Best Art Piece for her submission “Wings of Memory,” a personal production. Walker is an instrumental member of LodeStar productions and works through the Digital Pueblo Project at UNM’s Arts Technology Center. A piece submitted from Munich, Germany took the Domie for Innovation with its submission, “R+J,” a piece inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Evans & Sutherland Digital Theater Division in Salt Lake City won the Domie for Trailer of the Year for “The Stars of the Pharaohs.”
Constance Rush took the Domie for Best Student Production for her piece “Organix,” which she produced while a University of New Mexico computer science student. Colleen Gorman of Escapes the Enemy Productions and a University of New Mexico student won the Domie for “Indigenous Skies & Celestial Beings,” an experimental piece on astronomy, symmetry and Native American views.
“The Star Wars demo also represents important innovation for the medium—the increasing prevalence and possibilities of real-time rendering and interactive experiences for domed theaters,” Beining noted. StarFighter is a single-player game based on the StarWars prequels. A lucky audience member or two from each DomeFest 2004 screening will have the opportunity to grab the joystick and see how well they do as the world’s first fulldome gamers. DomeFest 2005 may very well include many more real-time and interactive pieces, Beining predicted.
The LodeStar Astronomy Center is a University of New Mexico project located at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, 1801 Mountain Road N.W. DomeFest is a LodeStar production presented in association with the DigiFest Southwest Film Festival.
Major supporters include Sky-Skan, Inc., the University of New Mexico, Michael Stearns/The Guest House Studio, Spitz Inc., Si-Cor, the New Mexico Media Industries Strategic Plan, Kamazar Multimedia and FatCow.com. For more information visit: www.domefest.com
LodeStar Contacts: David Beining, (505) 841-5985; Karen Keese, (505) 841-5972
UNM Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821
The UNM General Library is issuing a call for submissions from Chicana and Chicano writers for the Premio Atzlán. The Library is reviving the literary prize, which was initially established by Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya. Rudolfo Anaya, an emeritus professor of English at UNM is considered by many to be the father of contemporary Chicano fiction.
The literary award lapsed a few years ago. Now a committee will work with Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya to reward a published author best able to put together plot, language, landscape, tone, and a sense of cultural community.
The competition is open to writers who have published a work of fiction in the 2004 calendar year and who have written no more than two books. Anaya says he and his wife started the prize as a way to nurture novice writers. “Premios are important in Latin America. People pay attention,” he said.
When Rudolfo Anaya began publishing fiction in New Mexico, he won a literary award that encouraged him to keep writing. Anaya says, “So many times, writers after one or two books give up, because they think no one appreciates their work.”
The winner of the $1,000 prize will be asked to give a reading at the UNM General Library during April 2005. Publishers should submit a letter of nomination. Writers should submit a letter of interest. Anyone wishing to enter the competition should send appropriate contact information and five copies of the book by December 31, 2004 to:
Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya Premio Atzlán, Literary Prize
General Library, Dean’s Office
MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
87131-1466
For more information about the competition, contact Dina Ma’ayan, dinam@unm.edu
Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya have a long association with the library, and earlier this year made a significant donation of his original manuscripts to the Center for Southwest Research. General Library Associate Professor Theresa Marquez who is helping coordinate the competition says, “By continuing this program, it brings attention to what we have within the collections in terms of Chicano literature.”
For Anaya, the prize is just a way to get a message to writers. “Your work is important,” he says. “Keep it up.”
Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627.
University of New Mexico President Louis Caldera will be the featured guest with host Jane Blume on KUNM's monthly half-hour program University Showcase on Friday, June 4.
Normally airing at 8:30 a.m. the program will air at 8 a.m. tomorrow only.
“University Showcase is an excellent program with more regional listeners at 8 a.m. than 8:30 a.m.,” said Richard Towne, KUNM general manager.
KUNM serves Albuquerque, Santa Fe and most of central and northern New Mexico on 89.9 FM and on the web at http://kunm.org.
Contact: Richard Towne, 277-8009; Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, 277-5920
The University of New Mexico announced it has joined the National LambdaRail, Inc. (NLR), a consortium of leading U.S. research universities and private sector technology companies deploying a nationwide networking infrastructure to support research in science, engineering, health care and education, as well as the research and development of new Internet technologies, protocols, applications and services.
By joining this consortium, UNM will participate in the deployment of a national networking infrastructure that provides scientists and networking researchers with unprecedented control over a wide range of facilities, capabilities, and services that support application-level and networking-level experiments.
The NLR infrastructure will initially provide four separate 10 gigabit per second wavelengths with provision to add another 28 to 36 wavelengths as needed to support members’ research collaborations. NLR is an $80 million to $100 million initiative with each member contributing at least $5 million over the next five years.
“LambdaRail’s potential impact on New Mexico is enormous,” stated UNM President Louis Caldera. “It will foster high performance computing and research in our colleges and universities and enable sophisticated health care imaging and diagnostic services in our communities. LambdaRail will dramatically enhance the state’s ability to grow and recruit technology-based companies, as well as position us to be the gateway to the rapidly developing information technology networks in Mexico, Central and Latin America.”
In addition to supporting cutting-edge uses of optical networking capabilities in research and education, a primary goal of NLR is to bring together networking research communities to solve complex challenges of network architecture, end-to-end performance and scaling.
“We are extremely pleased to welcome UNM to National LambdaRail,” said Tracy Futhey, NLR Board Chair. “Through NLR, members will not only benefit their own researchers and faculty, but also the national research and educational communities by helping to ensure the widespread availability and use of the unique NLR infrastructure. The expanded membership will allow us to quickly complete the entire NLR infrastructure with full implementation by early spring 2005.”
Other new NLR members announced today include Cornell University, the Louisiana Board of Regents, the Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN), the Oklahoma State Board of Regents, and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). The new members will enable NLR to expand its nationwide infrastructure to over 10,000 miles, reaching new points of presence in New York City, Baton Rouge, Houston, Tulsa, Albuquerque and Phoenix.
Founding NLR members include the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC); the Pacific Northwest GigaPop (PNWGP); the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center; Duke University, representing a coalition of North Carolina universities; the Mid-Atlantic Terascale Partnership (MATP) and the Virginia Tech Foundation; Cisco Systems; Internet2; Florida LamdaRail; Georgia Institute of Technology; and the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC).
For more information about NLR, please visit: www.nlr.net
Contact: Susan McKinsey, (505) 277-1989
One of the first things you see when you drive in the University of New Mexico’s main entrance on Central Avenue is a fierce lobo atop a tall pedestal. On Friday, June 4th at 10:30 a.m. the plaque on the statue will be rededicated to the 158 UNM students and alumni who gave their lives during World War II.
The statue was originally dedicated in 1947, after the university’s Greek community raised the money to commission sculpture and graphic arts professor John Tatschl to create the monument.
Over the years, the plaque’s inscription has worn away and is now unreadable so this spring, the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Council, and the Multi-Cultural Greek Council commissioned a new plaque.
They invite all interested parties to the rededication ceremony. The ceremony will be held at the statue at the UNM entrance at Central and Stanford. The event is also sponsored by UNM Student Activities.
Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627
The University of New Mexico offers plenty of opportunities for undergraduates to conduct hands-on research, still a rare prospect in most of higher education. At least one professor took it a step further, inviting chemistry major Ted Ortiz to help build a lab and create a microscope for use in optical and imaging experiments.
Ortiz, now a doctoral student, met Associate Professor of Chemistry James Brozik, Ph.D., while attending UNM-Los Alamos and working at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) fulltime. Brozik was a post doc fellow at LANL before obtaining a faculty position on main campus in 1998. Ortiz transferred to main campus to work closely with Brozik to complete his B.S. in chemistry and graduated in 2000.
“No one in the field can compare to my advisor’s interest and dynamic,” Ortiz said. “I was able to help build the lab into what it is today. It was a great experience.”
Brozik is a founder of UNM IGERT-CORE Fellowship program, a National Science Foundation graduate education program designed to train professional chemists, biologists, physicists and engineers in the cross-disciplinary field of optical research. The program has recruited 14 student researchers who, like Ortiz, are in graduate school.
Ortiz is a CORE fellow working on an NIH-funded project in Brozik’s lab. Students who earn a bachelor’s in chemistry at UNM can go directly to work on a Ph.D. They complete a research proposal, take classes to acquire knowledge in organic, inorganic, analytical and physical chemistry and pass five cumulative exams.
“We have 16 tries to pass the exams. They are tough. If the cumulative exam is about thermodynamics, or quantum mechanics, you need to be familiar with those entire areas of study,” Ortiz said.
As a CORE fellow, Ortiz took classes in physics, biology, engineering and chemistry.
“It’s a great way to get the sciences to communicate better. It seems like we are all on the same team but we use a different language,” he said.
Ortiz was required to complete two internships, which he did at the Fachhochschule Jena, Germany (In English, Fachhochschule is the University of Applied Sciences), and at Washington State University, Pullman, where he studied “Physical Chemistry on the Nanometer Scale.”
At UNM, most of his research addresses the mechanics and mechanisms of HIV Reverse Transcriptase (HIV-RT), which play a crucial role in the HIV replication process. Ortiz prepares biological samples and performs single molecule fluorescence experiments using the microscope he built. An intensified CCD camera images samples and takes movies, which collects replication data. Also incorporated into the microscope are two avalanche photodiode detectors (APD) which allow data to be collected on a fast time scale and allow Ortiz to carry out two-color experiments.
“There has been a lot of work done on HIV-RT, but not at the single molecule level,” Ortiz said. “Knowing how HIV-RT works is important to understanding HIV and in designing new anti-AIDS/new RT inhibitor drugs. This is a great way to test new drugs because in preliminary experiments one can see if the new drugs inhibit or stop the replication.”
Interested in science and “how things work” since elementary school, Ortiz was born and raised in Española graduating in 1993 from St. Catherine Indian School class valedictorian. Devoted to community as well as chemistry, Catholicism also calls. He is a minister of consolation and a Eucharistic minister for his parish in Albuquerque, and an acolyte who makes preparations for mass back home. For the past 12 years during the nine days preceding Christmas, he and sister, Sylvia Montoya, take on the roles of Joseph and Mary in Santa Fe’s Las Posadas.
“It is a great honor for us to carry on the history and tradition of our faith,” said Ortiz who recently joined Albuquerque Interfaith and The Archdiocese of Santa Fe Young Adult ministry which aims to help young adults with their faith.
Science and spiritually do not conflict in his eyes. “What brought me to both the church and science is my interest in how complex these mechanisms are. There has to be a higher being that put these into motion,” he said.
Plans for the future include post doctorial study at a national lab or in Germany. “I’m keeping my options open,” Ortiz said. “I believe that with the training and education I’ve received at UNM I can tackle anything in the physical chemistry world.”
Contact: Laurie Mellas-Ramirez
A community of UNM professors, graduate students and seniors gathered at the Colegiata de Santillana del Mar in Spain as part of a tour called "Camino de Santiago' led by Professors Enrique Lamadrid and Tony Cardenas.
Students prepared for the trip by reading the Medieval Spanish literature of pilgrimage, and the anthropology and theology of pilgrimage. The group prepared for their walking by making New Mexico pilgrimages to Chimayo and Tome Hill this spring.
According to Lamadrid, the group is walking the coastal route of the Camino de Santiago. They spent the afternoon on a secluded beach named Santa Justa, for a hermitage built into a cave there.
Other plans were to visit the Picos de Europa area to climb up a high mountain to another hermitage and to the monastery of Santo Toribio de Liebana, which was a Christian refugee camp when the Moors invaded Spain.
Contact: Greg Johnston, (505) 277-1816