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June 29, 2006 Vol. 16, No. 49
The "8 1/2 x 11 News" is published each week by the University Advancement Division. News of campus interest should be sent to one of the following editors:
Ed Delaney, 412-268-1609
(ed47@andrew.cmu.edu) 2001 Editions are available online. 2002 Editions are available online. 2003 Editions are available online. 2004 Editions are available online. 2005 Editions are available online. Previous editions are available online.
DISCOVERY MAY HELP REVERSE PREMATURE AGING IN CHILDREN Researchers Kris Noel Dahl and Mohammad F. Islam have made a breakthrough for children suffering from Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS), a rare disease that accelerates the aging process by about seven times the normal rate. Children with HGPS have a mutation in one of the proteins in the nuclear lamina — the stiff shell that surrounds the nucleus of each cell in the body. For years, experts thought this mutation made the nuclei much softer and more likely to be ruptured when cells were under stress. But the Carnegie Mellon researchers and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania have shown that the lamina in HGPS patients is stiffer than normal. And while the stiffer lamina did protect the HGPS nucleus from some forces, it was more brittle under excessive force and eventually fractured. —"Once we understand what causes the lamina to stiffen, we can try to reverse or stop the problem," Dahl said. "We think this stiffening mechanism happens over time with increased protein concentration, so we need to determine the tipping point that causes real problems." —For more, see http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060627_hpgs.html. RESEARCHERS SAY CATALYSTS COULD BREAK DOWN ESTROGEN COMPOUNDS Scientists at Carnegie Mellon and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have found that a catalytic process involving Fe-TAML® activators and hydrogen peroxide breaks down two types of estrogen compounds. These compounds, which could contaminate drinking water, can mimic or block hormone activity in wildlife and humans and disrupt normal endocrine function. Fe-TAMLs (tetra-amido macrocyclic ligand), synthetic catalysts made with elements found in nature, originated at Carnegie Mellon's Institute for Green Oxidation Chemistry under the leadership of Thomas Lord Professor of Chemistry Terry Collins. —Waste from animal-rearing facilities across the U.S. constitutes a major source of estrogens that can enter environmental and drinking waters. They're often joined by synthetic versions of estrogen found in birth control pills that enter surface water through incomplete wastewater treatment. Some scientists believe these environmental estrogens may interfere with estrogen-controlled systems in wildlife and humans, leading to developmental disorders, infertility and other reproductive problems. Researchers say Fe-TAML activators could break down these contaminants in surface water and destroy estrogenic compounds in municipal and agricultural wastewaters. For more, see http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060627_fetaml.html. SCREENWRITING STUDENTS WIN BRONZE TELLY AWARDS Drama master of fine arts screenwriting students Lynne Kuemmel and Mary Unser won bronze Telly Awards for excellence in creative achievement for television programs they wrote for WQED. The awards honor outstanding local, regional and cable television commercials and programs, as well as video and film productions. Kuemmel won for "The Work of Fifty Men" and Unser won for "Love Chance." Shirley J. Saldamarco, an independent producer and adjunct lecturer of television and film at Carnegie Mellon, produced both programs. Gregory Lehane, professor of drama and music, was the director. The entries were judged by a blue-ribbon panel that included alumni John Wells (A'79) and Susan Dansby (A'77). For more, see http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060622_telly.html. ANDY AWARD NOMINATIONS DUE JULY 10 Nominations are being accepted for the 2006 Andy Awards, the university-wide recognition program that honors individual staff members and/or teams whose outstanding dedication and performance have had a significant impact on the university. Awards are given in five categories: dedication, innovation, enthusiasm, citizenship and culture. The deadline for nominations is July 10. Awards are open to all non-faculty university employees. Nomination forms and further information are available at http://www.cmu.edu/andyawards. NEWS BRIEFS —An interdisciplinary design team completed a lighting installation in Braddock, Pa., that illuminates the top four corner windows of the Ohringer Building, the tallest building in Braddock. Each of the large windows displays a line image of a structure in Braddock and illuminates a letter from inside. The letters change between "D-O-C-K" and "D-O-C-C," representing the often-misspelled "Braddock." Design alumna Rebecca Bortman (A'06), art student Nkechi Ebubedike and Heinz School master's student Jebediah Feldman collaborated with lighting expert and Braddock resident Jarrett Buba and Braddock Mayor John Fetterman to complete the project. For more, see http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060622_braddock.html. —"Pittsburgh Genius," a new television series designed to give viewers a behind-the-scenes tour of the Pittsburgh-area labs where world-class research takes place, will debut at 7 p.m., July 3 on Pittsburgh Community Television (channel 21 on Comcast) and will be repeated throughout the month. The first episode features Associate Professor of Robotics Howie Choset and his research on robotic snakes. The show is produced and directed by University of Pittsburgh Ph.D. student Dan Handley, who earned his master's degree in logic and computation at Carnegie Mellon. For more, see http://www.pittsburghgenius.com. —Technology and life sciences start-up companies seeking venture capital can apply for the 3 Rivers Venture Fair (3RVF) scheduled for Sept. 20-21 at PNC Park. Since its debut in 2002, 3RVF has matched investors with innovators for a total of $190 million. Companies that submit an application will be evaluated on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information and to submit an application, visit http://www.3rvf.com. —C-MITES summer classes have begun on campus and will continue through August. C-MITES provides a wide variety of challenging classes for academically talented students in kindergarten through ninth grade. Classes under way are Explorations in Science, Introduction to Architecture, Solar System Astronomy, and Robotics: Programming and Design. A second session of classes will meet in July, including Structures, Programming Using Alice, Amusement Park Physics, Math Olympiad and You Make Me Sick: Immunology. Later this summer, C-MITES will offer a broad spectrum of one-day classes in mathematics, science and the humanities. For information, call the C-MITES office at 412-268-1629 or visit http://www.cmu.edu/cmites. PERSONAL MENTION —Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Diana Marculescu has been elected vice chair for Special Interest Group (SIG) Development on the executive committee of the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) SIG Governing Board. She is chair of ACM's Special Interest Group on Design Automation (SIGDA), which sponsors the annual Design Automation Conference (DAC) and other research and educational events. Marculescu will be the ACM/SIGDA representative on the executive committee for the 43rd DAC July 24-28 in San Francisco. —James Bain, associate director of the Data Storage Systems Center (DSSC), received one of three best poster awards at this month's MagnetoOptic Recording International Symposium (MORIS) in Tomiura, Japan. His poster, "Side-Track Erasure and Wide Magnetic Pole HAMR Write Heads," was based on his invited talk. —The Institute for Complex Engineered Systems (ICES) has awarded the 2006 Dowd-ICES Fellowships to Chao-Min Cheng and Sinan Filiz of mechanical engineering, Paul Glass of biomedical engineering and JitKang Lim of chemical engineering. For more, see http://www.ices.cmu.edu/dowd. CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS —June 29-30, July 5-6: Kennywood Ticket Sale in the University Center. 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., June 29 and 30; 4:30-5:30 p.m., July 5; and 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., July 6. This year's Kennywood Picnic, sponsored by Staff Council, is Saturday, July 8. Each employee must purchase his or her own ticket(s) and present a valid Carnegie Mellon ID. One ride-all-day ticket, valid only on July 8, is $5. Four additional tickets can be purchased for $12 each, and five additional tickets are $17 each. —July 12-14: Second Annual Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security. Researchers and practitioners of human-computer interaction, security and privacy will explore new security methods that are effective and likely to be used and understood by most people. The symposium is hosted by the Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory and funded by Carnegie Mellon CyLab. For more, see http://cups.cs.cmu.edu/soups/index.html.
THE NEXT 8.5 X 11 NEWS WILL BE PUBLISHED JULY 13 DUE TO THE JULY 4 HOLIDAY.
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