LabNotes
Sigma Xi of San Diego	Vol. 4, No. 1, Fall 2002

CHAPTER HONORED FOR WORK WITH "COMPANION CHAPTERS"

Last August, Sigma Xi's International Headquarters cited the San Diego Chapter as one of two which have been active in helping to extend the Society's work in other countries. The announcement notes that "a Companion Chapter basically serves to communicate electronically, advise the networking group about Sigma Xi and typical chapter activities, and get to know the researchers."

Our efforts to help researchers in Ensenada illustrate the second "model," one in which Companion Chapters host joint seminars and events when it is geographically possible: "The San Diego Chapter held several informational and planning meetings with researchers in nearby Ensenada, Mexico, to talk about the possibility of forming a local Sigma Xi Chapter. In addition, these groups have held joint tours of scientific facilities in Ensenada as well as San Diego...Over two years, more than 10 members from the San Diego Chapter have been directly involved. As a result, fifteen researchers from Ensenada have become Sigma Xi members."

At its annual initiation banquet last May, the San Diego Chapter of Sigma Xi awarded a total of $2,500 to honor nine students who had entered the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair earlier in the spring. Through a generous donation by Dr. and Mrs. Barry Quart, this was the second year that we have been able to make these presentations.

This year, as in the past year, Girl Power of Chula Vista worked closely with the Chapter to select their shared winners. Four students won Sigma Xi awards and five won Girl Power awards. The winners, with their schools and teachers in parentheses, were as follows:

Sigma Xi winners: Cindy Ko (Ramona High, C. Schneider); Garrett Weekly (Clairemont High, J. Patzgold); Eli Friedman (San Diego Jewish Academy, R. Armour); and Emily Koch (All Saints Episcopal, W. Wilson).

Girl Power winners: Jocelyn Cortes (National City Middle School, E. Finley); Shawna Ewell (Rancho Del Rey Middle School Thomason); Kristy Elbel (also RdRMS, J. Tanis); Brie Longo )also RdRMS, J. Walker); and Melissa Hiebertt (Mar Vista Middle School, K. Thornton).

Special thanks go to those Chapter members who volunteered their time as judges: Don McGraw, Dora Waumann-Rojas, Mike Schaffer, and Matthew Dzieciuch.

I read recently that a substantial fraction of the currently active scientists and engineers in the United States will retire within the next ten years. At age 61 now, I will probably be among them. Unfortunately, new science and engineering degrees in the U.S. are not keeping up with this massive exodus.

For this and other reasons, it is important to encourage young people to pursue careers in the sciences and associated fields. We need especially to attract new scientists and engineers from those demographic groups that remain largely untapped today: women, African-Americans, Hispanics, and other minority groups. This will be beneficial not only to the individuals involved but to all of us. After all, science and engineering now drive today's economy, and will be even more important in the future.

There are already ample awards for outstanding projects entered in the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair (GSDSEF). Understandably, these awards are usually won by students from the top schools in the County. Taking a somewhat different approach, our Chapter decided to recognize promising students from less advantaged schools and neighborhoods, to acknowledge their work and to encourage their continuing interest in science and engineering. Selecting these students and awarding them prizes are now among the major annual activities of our Chapter.

Through the outstanding generosity of Dr. Barry and Mrs. Kristine Quart, we were able to award monetary prizes to such students in 2001 and 2002. The Quart Foundation recently renewed its commitment to support these prizes through the next two years. We gratefully thank the Quarts for their generosity and foresight. Thanks are due also to a Past President of our Chapter, Dr. Donald McGraw, who worked with the Quarts to establish this worthy program and now to continue it. We shall also seek other ways in which to encourage young people's enthusiasm for research.

Mike Schaffer, President

President Mike Schaffer has arranged for Chapter members to visit the fusion research experimental facility at General Atomics on Tuesday, December 10^th. We will gather at X:XX in the evening. General Atomics will provide a snack and beverage, but no meal or dinner service will be available.

To reach General Atomics, take...

I read recently that a substantial fraction of the currently active scientists and engineers in the United States will retire within the next ten years. At age 61 now, I will probably be among them. Unfortunately, new science and engineering degrees in the U.S. are not keeping up with this massive exodus.

For this and other reasons, it is important to encourage young people to pursue careers in the sciences and associated fields. We need especially to attract new scientists and engineers from those demographic groups that remain largely untapped today: women, African-Americans, Hispanics, and other minority groups. This will be beneficial not only to the individuals involved but to all of us. After all, science and engineering now drive today's economy, and will be even more important in the future.

There are already ample awards for outstanding projects entered in the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair (GSDSEF). Understandably, these awards are usually won by students from the top schools in the County. Taking a somewhat different approach, our Chapter decided to recognize promising students from less advantaged schools and neighborhoods, to acknowledge their work and to encourage their continuing interest in science and engineering. Selecting these students and awarding them prizes are now among the major annual activities of our Chapter.

Through the outstanding generosity of Dr. Barry and Mrs. Kristine Quart, we were able to award monetary prizes to such students in 2001 and 2002. The Quart Foundation recently renewed its commitment to support these prizes through the next two years. We gratefully thank the Quarts for their generosity and foresight. Thanks are due also to a Past President of our Chapter, Dr. Donald McGraw, who worked with the Quarts to establish this worthy program and now to continue it. We shall also seek other ways in which to encourage young people's enthusiasm for research. Mike Schaffer, President

Those of you who know people deserving membership in Sigma Xi will be pleased to learn that we are now accepting nominations at any time. The process is simple: go to www.sigmaxi.org online and click "membership" to download the necessary two-page nomination form.

This site also provides more details on the qualifications for membership and the benefits available to members, including six issues per year of our own magazine, American Scientist.

Scientists and engineers who have published research findings are eligible for Full Membership, while those who show promise of future productivity are eligible for Associate Membership.

Belonging to Sigma Xi is definitely an honor and candidates certainly know this. The nomination process is simple: go to www.sigmaxi.org online and click "membership" to download the necessary two-page nomination form.

If you do not have someone handy to second your nomination, one of the officers can serve that function. Nominations can be sent to President Mike Schaffer at any time up until about April 23rd, since there is some paperwork to be done before the Initiation Banquet in early May.

On May 8^th, I will preside over the 27^th annual Initiation Banquet of the San Diego Chapter of Sigma Xi. I have had the great honor of leading our chapter into the new millennium and the great pleasure of knowing that I helped to maintain the momentum that has led our chapter to recognition, earning five national awards.

Interestingly enough, I presided over the very first of these banquets while we were still an Authorized Club. That event took place on March 17, 1976, in the Aztec Room of the East Commons at San Diego State University. The speaker was Dr. Brage Golding, then President of SDSU. Besides me, the officers were Dr. Robert Radlow, president-elect, who took office at the close of the festivities; Dr. Theodore Cohn, secretary; Dr. Gordon Martin, treasurer; and Dr. Ellen Kuhns, past-president. We initiated 13 Associate Members that evening, the first to be initiated into the San Diego Sigma Xi family.

At the upcoming May 8^th banquet, we begin a new tradition. Besides honoring those junior high and high school students whom our Chapter's volunteer judges have selected for Quart Foundation Awards on the basis of their outstanding Science Fair projects, we will make the second presentation of the new San Diego Chapter Medal for Distinguished Achievement. The new tradition will be that the award winner will be the speaker for the banquet.

I envision this Distinguished Achievement Award being made each year to an active Sigma Xi member who has been nominated for making major advances in an area of science or engineering or who has contributed greatly to the quality and prestige of our Chapter. I call upon the Executive Committee to prepare official guidelines for the selection of awardees. This year's awardee, Dr. Donald McGraw, began many of the programs for which we have received national recognition. He is highly deserving of this honor.

At the close of this year's banquet, I will turn the Presidency of our chapter over to Dr. Michael Schaffer. I look forward to watching him continue the drive to make the San Diego Chapter the best in the nation and one of the most influential chapters in promoting international activities.

In closing, I want to thank all my colleagues who helped me during my term of office: Dr. Don McGraw, past-president; Dr. Michael Schaffer, president-elect; Dr. Norman Storer, secretary and editor of

Although the San Diego Sigma Xi Organization was founded in 1948, it was considered a provisional club which could hold meetings and send delegates to national meeting, but could not elect members. In 1976, we were promoted to the status of an authorized club, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Robert Metzger, Dr. Ellen Kuhns, Dr. Angelo Carlucci (secretary), and Dr. Gordon Martin (treasurer). Authorized clubs were permitted to elect Associate members and the chart's associate members were elected the same year. The authorized club became a Chapter in 1979 and initiated its first Full members at the banquet that year.. Robert P. Metzger

The first ever symposium featuring recent Kyoto Prize winners held outside of Japan was hosted by the University of San Diego at its newly-dedicated Joan B. Kroc Center for Peace and Justice on its Kearny Mesa main campus. The three and a half day festivities were marked with considerable pomp and circumstance befitting the winners of this extremely prestigious prize.

Some have likened the Kyoto Prize to an extension of the Nobel Prize with regard to certain disciplines not covered by the Nobel. In the Advanced Technology category, the 2001 Prize was shared amongst Drs. Zhores Alferov, Izuo Hayashi, and Morton Panish for their crucial work in electronics. Mr. Gyorgi Ligeti was honored as the recipient in the Arts and Philosophy category for his work in musical composition.

Dr. John Maynard Smith was awarded the Prize in Kyoto last year for his work in the Basic Sciences, specifically evolutionary biology, but could not attend the USD gala due to illness. While all the Prize winners were able to give public addresses and join workshop sessions, Dr. Maynard Smith was represented by Dr. Francisco Ayala of UC/Irvine, one of the leading evolutionary geneticists and philosophers of biology of our era.

Dr. Ayala's gracious acceptance of the request to stand in for Dr. Maynard Smith with but five days notice was appreciated by an attentive audience that included familiar San Diego Chapter Sigma Xi members such as Dr. Jim Baur, past Chapter President and others who were able to join the Kyoto honorees at the many activities that occupied the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th of February, 2002.

Dr. Donald J. McGraw, Past Chapter President and USD Associate Provost.

This spring we will conduct our election of officers in two different ways. The three-quarters of our members who have E-mail will receive the ballot through that medium and can vote and return their decisions in the same way.

For those who do not use E-mail, we present a hard-copy ballot on page 5 of this issue and invite you to mail it back to President Metzger at your early convenience. His address is given in the list of officers on page 4.

Thanks for your participation!

Becoming more active in the San Diego Chapter is a great way to make new friends, do some networking, and know that you are contributing to a very worthwhile enterprise.

The path to involvement is simple: just contact our new President, Mike Schaffer, to learn where and when the next Executive Committee meeting will be held - and show up!

President

Dr. Robert P. Metzger Office: 619-594-6801

Dept. of Chemistry Fax: 619-594-4634

San Diego State University rmetzger@sciences.sdsu.edu

5500 Campanile Drive

San Diego, CA 92182-1030

President-Elect

Dr. Michael J. Schaffer Office: 858-455-2841

General Atomics Fax: 858-455-4156

P. O. Box 85608 schaffer@fusion.gat.com

San Diego, CA 92186-5608

Vice President

Dr. Donna Perdue, J.D. Office: 619-687-8665

Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear Fax: 619-235-0176

550 West C Street, Suite 1200 dperdue@kmob.com

San Diego, CA 92101

Treasurer

Kathleen McNamara-Shroeder Office: 619-594-1614

Dept. of Chemistry Fax: 619-594-4634

San Diego State University kmcnamara@sciences.sdsu.edu

5500 Campanile Drive

San Diego, CA 92182-1030

Secretary/Editor

Dr. Norman W. Storer Home: 619-491-0342

1417 Van Buren Avenue nwstorer@peoplepc.com

San Diego, CA 92103-2339

Past President

Dr. Donald J. McGraw Office: 619-260-4553

Associate Provost Fax: 619-260-2210

University of San Diego mcgraw@SanDiego.edu

5998 Alcala Park

San Diego, CA 92110-2492

Ensenada Liaison

Dr. Hector Bustos-Serrano Office: 011-52-61-744570

Marine Sciences Faculty, UABC

PMB 8104

4492 Camino De La Plaza

San Ysidro, CA 92173-3097

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 2002-2003

Dr. James F. Baur Office: 858-578-3511

President, Science Fax: 858-578-3512

Solutions, Inc. SciSolns@msn.com

7968 Arjons Drive

San Diego, CA 92126-6362

Dr. Donald J. McGraw Office: 619-260-4553

Associate Provost Fax: 619-260-2210

University of San Diego mcgraw@sandiego.edu

5998 Alcala Park

San Diego, CA 92110-2492

Dr. Dora O. Waumann-Rojas

Fac. Ciencias Marinas dora@faro.ens.uabc.mx

Universidad Autonoma de Baja California

Ensenada, Baja, Mexico

Dr. Hector Bustos-Serrano 01152-6-174-41

Senior Professor, Faculty of Marine Sciences

Autonomous University of Baja California

Ensenada, Baja, Mexico

Dr. Jeff Lincer Office: 619-668-0031

Director of Research jefflincer@tns.net

Wildlife Research Institute

9251 Golondrina Drive

La Mesa, CA 91941

Admissions

Steve A. Brody

Office: 619-265-4052 sbrody@cts.com

Arthur Getis

Office: 619-594-6639 agetis@sciences.sdsu.edu

Robert P. Metzger

Office: 619-594-6801 rmetzger@sciences.sdsu.edu

Richard H. Rosenblatt

Office: 858-274-8591 rrosenblatt@ucsd.edu

Ann Sturz

Office: 619-260-4795 asturz@acusd.edu

Industrial Relations

James F. Baur

Office: 858-578-3511 SciSolns@MSN.com

University Affairs

Matthew C. Bell

Office: 619-594-3089 Mbell112@mail.sdsu.edu

Trans-Border Relations

Canon George Hemingway

ghemingway@ucsd.edu