Kudos

Kudos

Timothy George, assistant professor of history, was a member of the Japanese delegation at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in August. He participated in two panel discussions and gave several short talks about the environmental and human tragedy that resulted from mercury discharges into Japan’s Minamata Bay in the 1950s.

Arun Shukla, interim dean of the College of Engineering and the Simon Ostrach Professor of Mechanical Engineering, was appointed president of the Society for Experimental Mechanics, the first time in memory that an engineering professor was selected to lead an international society.

Linda Green, coordinator of the URI Cooperative Extension’s Watershed Watch program, was co-chair of the National Water Quality Monitoring Council’s 2002 national conference in Madison, Wis.

Bernard LaFayette, director of URI’s Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies, traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico this summer and trained nearly 3,000 prisoners, staff, and custodians of Atlacholoaya Prison. He was accompanied by Tom Morin, associate professor of Hispanic Studies and Latin America advisor for the Center. The training was at the invitation of the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Program of Nonviolence. “This is the first time anything like this has happened in Mexico,” said Morin, who is now working with Rotarians throughout Mexico to pursue additional training and help establish another nonviolence center.

Marine Affairs Professor Dennis Nixon was recently appointed associate dean for academic affairs, and Natural Resource Economics Professor Cathy Wessells was named associate dean for research and outreach, both in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences. Nixon and Wessels had served as interim associate deans since September 2001.