DRI Researcher Does Some Pretty Cool Work

Dr. Giles Marion’s work can leave you cold. As a researcher with DRI’s Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, he is busy refining a computer model known as FREZCHEM (FREeZing CHEMistry), which simulates and predicts the behavior of substances at extremely cold temperatures. And what does he think about bringing his frigid research to sunny Nevada? "Well," he says, "we’re enjoying the mild winter."

And, since joining DRI in January, he’s found a pretty good research climate, as well. "DRI seems like a very good home to do the type of work I want to do, and a good environment to get access to the type of funding I need to do it." Marion previously spent ten, much colder, winters with the Army Corp of Engineers’ Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in New Hampshire. While there, his interest in thermodynamics led him to develop FREZCHEM, which allows researchers to look at and predict geochemical processes at sub-zero temperatures. The potential applications are numerous, including examining the possibility of life on other planets, mine reclamation in cold regions, and commercial refrigeration processes.

Marion is currently working on a project for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), adding acid chemistry to the model to make it applicable to the behavior of acidic solutions in extremely cold conditions. According to Marion, this will aid NASA’s understanding of Europa, a frigid moon of Jupiter where patches of ice and frozen sulfuric acid may overlay a briny ocean. "NASA’s main interest in places like Europa or Mars," says Marion, "is finding the possibility of conditions suitable for life, and that means the presence of liquid water." FREZCHEM can help determine whether or not such conditions might ever have existed.

In the future, Marion sees his work dovetailing nicely with current DRI research in Antarctica, where tiny microbes live in pockets within the ice that alternately freeze and thaw. "FREZCHEM can help us look at how these creatures must adapt and evolve through this extreme cycle. These microbes survive temperature as low as -40° C in the winter."

Yep, Nevada winters are looking better than ever.

~Jackie Allen

Moving the DRI Library into the Future

Arriving at DRI last September 1, Melanie Scott faced a daunting task: prepare the Institute’s library for its move from Stead to the new Reno campus. Aided by DRI’s long-time information resources specialist, Anne Campbell, Scott breezed through the project by January. The Patrick Squires Library is now a cornerstone of the new DRI building.

One of Scott’s strengths is achieving the improbable with aplomb. Delegation is another.

"We used a Chicago-based moving company that specializes in libraries," says Scott. "Their shelf installers understand seismic requirements and layout, as well as how our collection is organized, so the move went very smoothly."

A self-described "farm girl," Scott hales from Michigan, where she grew up in the family’s apple, cherry, peach and plum orchards. Studying history for her undergraduate degree at Michigan’s Alma College, and for her master’s degree at Central Michigan University, Scott found a home in research.

"I interned one summer for a congressman in Washington, D.C.," she recalls. "The office was across the street from the Library of Congress, and I did a lot of research there." Scott says she simply fell in love with research, and with the library. That attraction led her to Texas Woman’s University, where she earned her master’s in library science. Afterward, she chose to focus on special libraries.

Scott has a long history of working with special library collections. Before arriving at DRI, she supervised TRW’s Yucca Mountain project’s technical information center for nearly three years. Previously, Scott spent 12 years as a research librarian for the corporate library at Electronic Data Systems. She likes the spectrum of the smaller special library’s activities.

"I get to do everything," she notes, "from research to shelving, attending conferences to planning projects." At DRI she definitely does it all. As Scott splits her time between DRI’s Reno and Las Vegas campuses, Campbell staffs the Reno library full-time.

Both women enjoy the detective work it takes to answer library patrons’ questions. "People often don’t know where to look for what they want," Scott says. "I always learn from each question, because the answers are invariably in different places." With the enormous resources at her fingertips, answers are fairly easy to find.

The new library, which shares resources with DRI’s Las Vegas campus library, the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, boasts a thorough collection of reference materials, theses and dissertations, a Library of Congress section, and upward of 120 journal subscriptions. In addition, the library houses extensive microfiche files, government documents on weather—including US Geological Survey historic weather maps dating back to 1910—and acts as a University of Nevada depository.

Scott sees her future taking shape as both libraries mature. The Sulo and Aileen Maki Research Library in Las Vegas holds much of DRI’s archaeology tomes, as well as those on water resources, earth, and ecosystems. In addition, all of the Institute’s published reports and journal articles are housed there. Scott is in the process of creating a master list of all DRI publications to include on the Institute’s website.

"The website and electronic resources are a big future focus for us," Scott reports. "Our on-line catalog—which encompasses both DRI locations, and the Universities at Las Vegas and Reno—will be expanding."

Scott’s future vision also includes plans to expand the existing collection, create policies for donations, develop a proposal to provide desktop access to electronic resources and expand the DRI libraries’ network of resources. This may seem like a tall order, but to Scott, it is part of the joy of her job.

~ Lynn Taylor

Green Power

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