May 7, 2009
Etc.: Campus news & notes
TACOMA’S NEW DAWG: Those of us in Seattle or Bothell may not know it, but Harry the Husky now has a brother of sorts. His name is Hendrix, and he’s the new mascot at UW Tacoma. Hendrix got his start last summer when the UWT Student Activities Board wondered what it would be like to have its own mascot. Their school spirit and traditions chair worked with UWT’s Student Affairs and Advancement offices, as well as Husky athletics, and soon, students were voting on a number of proposed names. Hendrix was the choice (a tribute to Jimi Hendrix?) and nine months later (appropriately enough) he came to life. UWT Public Information Specialist Jill Carnell Danseco interviewed the new mascot, who had to mime his answers because he doesn’t speak human. Watch her interview here.
MAGNIFICENT MATHEMATICIAN: An international group of security experts has recognized UW Mathematics Professor Neal Koblitz with a 2009 prize for Excellence in the Field of Mathematics. Koblitz received the award in April at the RSA Conference in San Diego. In 1985, Koblitz and his fellow honoree Victor Miller, then at IBM, independently invented a new method of public-key cryptography. Elliptical curve cryptography went on to have far-reaching importance in both academic research and commercial cryptographic systems. Read our earlier story about Koblitz here. Watch a video interview with Koblitz here.
STARS IN SERVICE: Two outstanding UW Tacoma staff members were selected to receive the 2009 Distinguished Service Awards given on that campus, Chancellor Pat Spakes announced recently. Keiji Oka, network administrator in Computer Services, and Bridget Mason, instructional lab coordinator in Environmental Science, will be honored at the campus recognition event on May 19.
FABULOUS FULBRIGHT: Dan Abramson, interim chairman of the Department of Urban Design & Planning, has won a Fulbright award to help with redesign and reconstruction in Sichuan, China, where a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck one year ago. Much of the damage and many of the deaths resulted from inappropriate land development. However, certain traditional minority ethnic settlements proved resilient in construction, land use and community relations. Abramson and a team he’s assembling plan to study this resilience, using it and input from the communities themselves to help design more sustainable buildings and towns.
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