ABSTRACTS

Dr. Richard French, a nationally recognized expert in desert flash floods and the hydrology of arid lands, was awarded DRI's 1996 Alessandro Dandini Medal of Science. The award is sponsored by Countess Angela Dandini, the late Count Dandini's widow, to recognize outstanding scientific achievement and leadership among DRI's research faculty.

French, a scientist in the institute's Water Resources Center in Las Vegas since 1979, received his Ph.D. in engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975. He has conducted an extensive research program in southern Nevada involving local, state and federal agencies. In addition to his work in Nevada, French is currently involved in projects in Mexico City, Jordan and Brazil.

He also teaches courses and advises graduate students at both University of Nevada campuses in Reno and Las Vegas, and has presented many invited lectures nationally and internationally.

French received the American Society of Civil Engineers Hydraulic Engineering Award in 1991 in recognition of his contributions in the fields of hydraulic processes on alluvial fans and open channel hydraulics. His book on those subjects is widely used in U.S. and foreign universities as a standard text and reference.

French was presented with the medal and $1,000 prize by Countess Dandini. In conjunction with the award, she also contributes $5,000 annually to the DRI Faculty Endowment fund which supports the development of new research initiatives. Dr. Dandini was considered a "modern renaissance man" who excelled as a scientist, inventor, industrialist and educator. He served as special assistant to DRI's president for many years and also as the ceremonial marshal of the University of Nevada, Reno. He held a number of patents, including one for the three-way electric light bulb and was primarily responsible for obtaining the 470-acre tract of former federal land in Reno that is now known as the Dandini Research Park.

Countess Dandini established the Dandini Medal award in 1992 on the first anniversary of her husband's death. She is an emerita trustee of the DRI's Research Foundation and a longtime supporter of the institute's research programs.

When Dr. Britt Jacobson views her world, it includes a dimension most of us would have difficulty imagining. An assistant research professor in DRI's Water Resources Center, Britt's research requires her to visualize the chaotic dynamics of ground water as it moves through rock and soil far beneath the surface. As one of DRI's most active joint faculty teaching appointments with UNR, her goal is to encourage budding hydrologists to conjure up those visions as well.

In recognition of her significant research contributions, her extensive faculty service commitments, her teaching, graduate student supervision and mentoring activities, Dr. Jacobson was selected as DRI's Woman of Achievement for 1997. In addition to her DRI recognition, she was honored by the Reno area community at the Nevada Women's Fund Salute to Women of Achievement on May 7. Jacobson prepared for her Ph.D. in Hydrology with an M.S. in Atmospheric Sciences. Maybe spotting water before it hits the ground helps in tracking it underneath. At any rate, this scientific version of "cross-training" make her particularly suited to DRI's multidisciplinary approach to environmental research.

In addition to the considerable peer recognition she has received for her research, Dr. Jacobson has chaired or served on more than 30 graduate student committees, prompting her selection as 199X Teacher of the Year in UNR's Hydrologic Sciences Program. And ground water isn't the only thing she tracks to its source; she has also served on Nevada's Selection Committee for the National Science Scholars Program for four years, ensuring the classes she faces will have fresh talent in the years to come.

Dr. James S. Coleman, 36, has been named executive director of the Biological Sciences Center at the Desert Research Institute following a national search. Coleman, a plant physiological ecologist and currently an associate professor of biology at Syracuse University in New York, will start in his new position July 1.

DRI President James V. Taranik said the DRI directorship is equivalent to the rank of dean at the academic campuses of the University and Community College System of Nevada. Coleman will supervise one of DRI's five environmental research centers with operations in Reno and Las Vegas. He will work out of DRI's Great Basin Environmental Research Laboratory in Reno.

Taranik said Coleman has an impressive record of research concerning the responses of plants to environmental stress and damage. The respected British journal "The Scientist," in a 1996 ranking of the ten most significant papers on global climate change research since 1993, cited Coleman's work on the impact of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on plants. He holds a prestigious five-year "Young Investigator Award" from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and has authored more than 75 scientific publications.

Coleman received a doctoral degree in ecology from Yale in 1987, and conducted post-doctoral research at Stanford and Harvard universities before joining the Syracuse faculty in 1990. Coleman served as a program officer at NSF during 1995-96 where he was responsible for administering programs in ecological and evolutionary physiology and terrestrial ecology and global change . He has received awards from Syracuse faculty and students recognizing his outstanding graduate and undergraduate teaching.

The April 14 issue of Time magazine featured an article about the National Science Foundation's polar ice core project led by DRI hydrologist Dr. Kendrick Taylor. When the magazine hit the newsstands, Taylor was in Ghana, West Africa, working on research sponsored by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to help locate potable water supplies.

Nominations for the Nevada Medal are due July 15. The medal is presented annually to a scientist or engineer in recognition of outstanding contributions to improved understanding of our global environment. See DRI's World Wide Web site or call Kiemmy Boc (702-673-7350) for nomination materials.

With funding from the State of Nevada distance education program, DRI has been able to expand the reach of the lesson plans written by its summer teacher fellows.

The institute's second set of in-service workshops were conducted in March and April via video-conferencing. Twenty-three teachers from eight counties took the class in Reno, Las Vegas, Elko, Ely, Eureka, and Winnemucca. Lesson plans presented by DRI researcher/summer fellow teams focused on demonstrating how teachers from across the state can model the lessons to enhance the science curriculum in their own classrooms. The presenters were John Newman of Smith Valley High School and Dr. Dale Johnson, Donald Keele of Churchill County High School and Dr. Peter Wigand, Eric Hobson of Fernley High School and Dr. Alan Gertler, as well as Dr. Paul Buck and Anne DuBarton. Statewide participants in