UD in the News, April 18, 2008

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2:39 p.m., April 18, 2008--A roundup of recent news items about UD, its faculty, students, staff and alumni.

Willett Kempton, associate professor of marine and earth studies, was featured in an in-depth article about wind power in the April issue of Geotimes. Kempton said he believes wind energy can help in “solving climate change without huge amounts of money.”

Benjamin Fleury-Steiner, associate professor of sociology, was cited in an April 16 News Journal story about a panel discussion on race and the death penalty. Fleury-Steiner is author of the book Jurors' Stories of Death: How America's Death Penalty Invests in Inequality.

Charles Beale, director of the Center for Counseling and Student Development, Michael Gilbert, vice president for student life, and Natalie Eleuterio, a UD student, were quoted in an April 16 News Journal story about psychological assistance available to students on college campuses.

David Legates, associate professor of geography, was cited in an April 15 ScienceDaily story about the scientific debate concerning the accuracy of Al Gore's 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, with information drawn from a forum in GeoJournal. Legates concluded that the film contains significant errors, owing to “alarmism and exaggeration.”

Pamela Green, Crawford H. Greenewalt Endowed Chair in Plant Molecular Biology, and Blake Meyers, associate professor of plant and soil sciences, were cited in an April 14 United Press International story about their discovery of a new type of molecule, a kind of “micro-switch” that can turn off genes in rice. The research also was reported on science-related Web sites worldwide, including sites in Asia, India and Europe.

Kerinne Bratty, UD student, was featured April 14 on the popular NBC-TV show Deal or No Deal. She won $50,000 in a deal with the show's unseen “banker.”

Saul Hoffman, chairperson of the Department of Economics, was quoted in an April 13 News Journal story about a proposed hike in the minimum wage and the impact that could have on hiring. "If employment is lower, somebody isn't getting a job who would otherwise get a job," Hoffman told the newspaper. "We don't see a layoff necessarily, but we just see a position not getting filled."

Leland Ware, Louis L. Redding Chair for the Study of Law and Public Policy, was co-author of an opinion piece on the nation's dropout crisis that appeared in the April 13 News Journal.

Bernard Dworsky, policy scientist in the Institute for Public Administration, was quoted in an April 13 News Journal story about transportation in Delaware. University researchers are looking at bus rapid transit as an option. Commuters, business people, would pay to get off the congested roads, and they could know they would get to their destination on time," Dworsky told the newspaper. "This is reliable, effective and efficient."

Cihan Conbanoglu, associate professor of hotel, restaurant and institutional management, was cited in an April 12 Fort Meyers (Fla.) News-Press story about GPS-based marketing.

John Barnshaw, sociology graduate student and research assistant at the University's Disaster Research Center, was interviewed about a summer course he is teaching, "Crowds, Cults and Revolutions," and was quoted April 9 on the LiveScience web site in a story about the sect in Texas that is under investigation.