October 9, 2003
Etc.
INFAMOUS JOB: The UW’s botany greenhouse manager Doug Ewing has won a dubious distinction: His was one of the jobs profiled by Popular Science magazine recently as “the worst, most torturous, icky, painful, stinky, dangerous and just plain horrible jobs in science.” What could be so bad about running a greenhouse, you ask? Well, the greenhouse is home to the corpse flower, a plant the magazine describes as “a phallic flower that’s taller than a man and gives off an overwhelming scent of rotting flesh.” Ewing, however, refused to join in the magazine’s disparagement of the flower. “It’s just incredible to watch this massive structure come up, and it changes every day,” he said.
STAR IN THE MAKING: News and Information’s former student assistant Joey Lam earned a spot in a student poster competition at the 2003 International Graphic Design Fair in Nagoya, Japan. Lam, a School of Art senior, was the only graphic designer from the United States to qualify for the finals. The event is sponsored by the International Council of Graphic Design Associations. Lam is in Japan right now displaying his work. Overall winners will be announced during a ceremony on Oct. 11.
KUDOS: Adrian Raftery, professor of statistics and sociology and director of the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences, was the world’s third most cited mathematician for the decade 1993–2003, according to the Institute for Scientific Information, which publishes the Science and Social Science Citation Indexes and the Web of Science. See http://www.in-cites.com/top/2003/second03-math.html . . . Elaine McCusker, UW Office of Federal Relations, recently received the 2003 Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges Council on Government Affairs for work in the area of defense research . . . Professor Emeritus of Fisheries John E. Halver, one of the world’s leading authorities on fish nutrition, received Washington State University’s Alumni Achievement Award recently.
Do you know someone who deserves kudos for an outstanding achievement, award, appointment or book publication? If so, send that person’s name, title and achievement to uweek@u.washington.edu.
