School of Natural Sciences Newsletter
(http://www.cs.stedwards.edu/)
Volume 1, No. 1 Fall 2000
[After Heisenberg's 1927 lecture enunciating the uncertainty principle] "Marvelous, what ideas the young people have these days. But I don't believe a word of it." Albert Einstein
The following is our newly developed mission statement
Mission Statement of the School of Natural Sciences
The School of Natural Sciences strives to help our students understand and be able to value their physical, social, academic, and cultural worlds. Through our programs in natural sciences, computer sciences and mathematics, we provide students with knowledge, skills, and experience that prepare them for careers as scientists, mathematicians, or practitioners in a related profession. Our mission is rooted in the University's Mission Statement, which calls for a balance among the humanities, sciences, and the professions. The School helps to accomplish this by its contribution to the General Education Core-Curriculum and by its various degree programs. By providing General Education courses, the School also educates non-science majors in understanding the role of science and mathematics in today's world. The School of Natural Sciences strongly promotes research and scholarly activities among students and faculty, which in turn provides the ultimate active learning environment for the students and teaches them to be life long learners. Because of our Catholic and Holy Cross heritage, we attempt to promote an understanding of the world and the human person, which is derived from reason and open to faith.
General News
This year there are three new faces in the School: 
Dr.
James McGuffee in the Department of Computer Science.
Dr.
Cynthia Verjovsky Marcotte in the Department of Mathematics.
Dr.
Roger Yu as the Dean of School of Natural Sciences. Welcome!
Dr. Laura Baker was promoted to Associate Professor of Computer Science and was awarded tenure.
David Naples was awarded tenure in the summer of 2000.
Dr. Alan Koch has resigned his position as an Assistant Professor in the Math Department at St. Edwards and has joined Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia.
Awards & Honors
Dr.
Jean McKemie was selected to be the Brother Lucian Blersch Professor. Congratulations!
Dr. James McGuffee has been invited to be a reviewer for NSF's CSEMS program. He
traveled to Arlington, Virginia on October 4 -7, 2000 for an initial meeting.
St. Ed's mathematics graduate Matthew Shirley accepted a fellowship from Texas Tech to pursue a Ph.D. in mathematics.
St. Ed's biology graduate Celene Hadley received Br. Daniel Lynch Scholarship and Dr. Harold Robinson Scholarship to go to the Medical School of Tulane University.
Dr. Allan Hook spent last summer in Brazil doing research.
Dr. Hook reflects upon his trip: I arrived in Belem, Brazil
at the end of July; Belem is at the mouth of the Amazon River. There I worked
in the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi sorting and identifying their wasps. A
group of us, including a colleague from Trinidad, one from Arizona State Univ.,
and a curator from the Goeldi Museum, then took a boat up the river to the
museum's field station in the primary rain forest where we conducted field
studies there for about a week. I was in the Belem area for about 2.5 weeks
studying wasps and doing work in their museum. We then took a bus to Iguassu
Falls to attend the 21st International Congress of Entomology, where I presented
a research paper on some wasp work I had been doing in Trinidad. I was also
able to spend a day in Argentina in a nearby national forest. I then flew
home arriving in Austin a day before classes started.
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