Heard on the Mall

A brand-new virtual tour of the University on the World Wide Web walked away with honors as soon as it was released with its selection as the Four-Star Virtual College Tour for March by CampusTours.com [www.Campus Tours.com].

The site's description of UD's new tour read, in part, "The University of Delaware's comprehensive online presentation sets a new standard for virtual college tours by delivering a quality experience with an extensive array of options."

The UD tour showcases aspects of the campus using pictures, text, sound, animation and interactive images. Alumni can take the tour at [www.udel. edu/tour].

CampusTours, which reaches thousands of students each day, was recently voted one of the "Top 10 Internet College Resources" in a student survey conducted by Time magazine and The Princeton Review.

Gov. Carper donates congressional papers to library

Delaware Gov. Thomas R. Carper has donated the congressional papers he compiled during his 10-year career as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives to the University of Delaware Library. The collection, which was officially opened Feb. 7, is now available to scholars locally and nationally.

The collection contains extensive correspondence files, memoranda, office files, reports, documents and memorabilia.

"Access to the historical record of the work of government officials is important in a democratic society. It is my hope that these papers will provide a better understanding of the way government works," Carper says.

The governor, who earned a master's degree in business administration at UD in 1975, adds, "As a student, I spent many hours at Morris Library. I am honored that the history of my tenure as Delaware's member-at-large in the U.S. House of Representatives will be available for historians and others in that same library."

Locally, the papers are available on DELCAT, the library's electronic database, and nationally through OCLC, a national online computer network to which thousands of libraries throughout the country are connected. A finding aid also is available on the library's web site, [http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spcc/findaids/carper/index.htm].

Engineering junior receives Goldwater Scholarship

Jennifer M. Buckley of Wilmington, Del., a junior at the University, has been awarded a prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. More than 1,700 college students applied nationwide for the 309 scholarships awarded this year. The awards support careers in mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.

A mechanical engineering student with a 4.0 grade point average, Buckley grew up in her parents' Ninth Street Bookstore. As the first scientist in a family of English majors, she has an irreverent sense of humor and says she has endured a lot of teasing from her politically liberal relatives over the "Republican" nature of the scholarship--something she is very willing to endure.

Buckley has conducted research on the fracture of nonhomogeneous materials, which are found in plant and animal tissue as well as adhesive layers and matrix regions of fiber-reinforced composites.

An athlete who rows on the UD crew team and participates on Team Delaware Cycling, Buckley says she hopes to compete in a triathlon or biathlon some day.

"I think my athletics complement my academics," she says. "Balance is important. I'd be even more of a psychopath about my schoolwork if I didn't have athletics to bring me down a notch. I'm able to get everything done and still maintain my sanity because of my family. They give me a lot of support. I'd be a real mess without them!"

Those family members, all with UD ties, include Buckley's father, James J. (Jack) Buckley, AS '70; her mother, Gemma Marsilii Buckley, CHEP '71; and her brother, Matthew, currently a sophomore at UD, majoring in civil engineering.

A self-described homebody, Buckley says she wants to stay in the area for graduate school and is considering the University of Pennsylvania. For the summer, she worked for the DuPont Co. in its engineering consulting division.

Where in the solar system is UD's Old College?

UD physicist Harry Shipman, museum director Belena Chapp and exhibition designer and sculptor David Meyer combined their mutual interest in space to create an artistic and educational salute to the solar system right on the UD campus.

The trio "recreated" the solar system, with granite markers representing the sun and planets. The permanent installation is anchored by the sun at the historic center of the University near Old College.

In an accurate reduced scale of distance, Mercury leads off the sequence of planets since it is nearest the sun. Its marker is located in front of Recitation Hall. The most far-out planet, Pluto, is located near the Fred Rust Ice Arena.

"Children really get a concept of the vastness of space from the campus solar system installation," Chapp says. "When we stand near the Mars marker at the top of the Mall on Main Street, I point out where Earth is, near McDowell Hall, and tell them the moon is only three inches from Earth on our campus scale. The lesson is driven home and the students begin to grasp the concept of the huge distances between the planets in the solar system."

Humboldt currents

When Edmunds Bunkse, associate professor of geography, wrote an essay in the 1970s on the career of explorer and scientist Alexander von Humboldt, the UD professor had no idea that it would lead to a part in the making of a BCC documentary on the life of the famous German scientist.

Bunkse, along with Sir David Attenborough, is one of the presenters in the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) film series, Wilderness Men. The one-hour segment on which he appears, Alexander von Humboldt: Natural Traveller, aired June 14 in England.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), a German naturalist, is considered one of the most famous thinkers of the Napoleonic era for his contributions to the study of the natural sciences.

Humboldt's accomplishments include the discovery that the Earth's magnetic force decreases in intensity from the poles to the equator. However, his most important contribution was the idea of "unity in the variety of nature," a concept that was a precursor to ecologic thought.

Bunkse's contribution to the film involved shooting a segment in a television studio in Washington, D.C., about five blocks east of the U.S. Capitol Building.

"This film shows a step in the development of modern science," Bunkse says. "It recreates the excitement of the heroic explorations that occurred during the late 18th and early 19th centuries."

--Jerry Rhodes