Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Carbon, calcium, and cement

Dr. Brent Contstantz, a chemistry professor, has built a plant in Moss Landing, Calif., where he is studying ways to siphon off carbon dioxide from a gas-fired power plant and conduct it through sea water. Dr. Heather Brown, director of MTSU’s Concrete Industry Management program, says, “The process that Dr. Constantz is pursuing is called mineral sequestration. In this method, carbon dioxide is injected into areas rich in magnesium or calcium. The carbon dioxide will react with those elements and combine to form calcium carbonate (limestone) and magnesium carbonate (magnesite). Calcium carbonate alone is not cement but an ingredient in cement. Calcium carbonate can function as a stand-alone limestone which is essential to the concrete industry.”

Contact Brown at 615-904-8060.
hjbrown@mtsu.edu

Death on the Nile

Dr. Gillian Pyke will lecture on “Life on the Fringe: The Christian Church and Settlement at the North Tombs of Amarna (Egypt)” from 12:40 to 1:35 p.m. tomorrow, Sept. 3, in Room 220 of MTSU’s Peck Hall. “This will be a rare chance for us to learn more about current archaeological research concerning Coptic Egypt in Late Antiquity,” says Dr. Allen Hibbard, director of the Middle East Center at MTSU. Pyke will visit the university at the invitation of Dr. Dawn McCormick, assistant professor of ancient and classical history. This event is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact McCormack at 615-494-8603.
mccormac@mtsu.edu

Welcome to the Hall, y’all!

Five former MTSU greats in their respective sports will be inducted into the Blue Raider Hall of Fame on Saturday, Sept. 6. The ceremony will take place at 3:30 p.m. at the Kennon Sports Hall of Fame prior to MTSU’s football game against Maryland. Jerry Beck (basketball), Joe Campbell (football), John DoDoo (track and field), Paul Goebel (tennis) and Kelly Holcomb (football) will be enshrined. Previous Hall of fame classes have been limited to three inductees, but this year’s class was expanded to five due to the number of nominees and votes received by the Hall of Fame committee.

Contact Athletic Communications at 615-898-2450.

TR EXTRA

A LONG AND SUCCESSFUL RUN--MTSU track and field coach Dean Hayes will be inducted into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCA) Hall of Fame on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at the USTFCCA convention in Phoenix, Ariz. Hayes, who has been at MTSU since 1965, has led the Blue Raiders to 29 Ohio Valley Conference titles, 14 Sun Belt championships, and 18 NCAA Top 25 finishes. He has been named OVC Coach of the Year 15 times and Sun Belt Coach of the Year 12 times, including a run of 10 straight titles from 1977 to 1986. His fellow coaches voted him NCAA Outdoor Coach of the Year in 1981. In addition to coaching at the World University Games and other international events, Hayes worked as an assistant at the Summer Olympics in Seoul in 1988 and a referee at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Contact MTSU Athletic Communications at 615-898-2968.

CLAP FOR THE WOLFEMAN--The late Dr. Charles K. Wolfe, professor emeritus of English at MTSU and cultural historian, will be inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame at an Oct. 2 ceremony at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Wolfe, who passed away in 2006, was a respected scholar of both country music and bluegrass and the author of more than a dozen books, including The Music of Bill Monroe, co-authored with Neil Rosenberg and published in 2007. Wolfe also was one of the faculty members who came up with the idea for a Center for Popular Music at MTSU. Paul Wells, director of the center, says of Wolfe’s induction, “It’s a well-deserved honor. Charles really made some great contributions to the history and literature of bluegrass music. … He wrote about what he loved, and he loved what he wrote about.” Contact Wells at 615-898-2449 or pwells@mtsu.edu.

A RAD-ICAL IDEA--A series of six Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) classes will be offered at no charge from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. every Thursday beginning Sept. 4 through Oct. 9 in the MTSU Public Safety training room, 1412 East Main Street in Murfreesboro. The class will be open to all female MTSU students, faculty and staff, as well as to the general public. A workbook/training manual will be provided to each student. RAD is a comprehensive course for women that begins with awareness, prevention, risk reduction and avoidance and progresses to the basics of hands-on defense training. RAD is the largest women’s self-defense system in the United States. Enrollment is limited. Contact Officer David Smith at 615-898-2424.

“I’LL BE THE ROUNDABOUT/THE WORDS WILL MAKE YOU OUT AND OUT”—JON ANDERSON AND STEVE HOWE--A new traffic roundabout at the intersection of MTSU Boulevard and Blue Raider Drive allows motorists from each direction to loop around to continue on their desired route after yielding to any vehicles already in the loop. The change is part of the four-phase $80 million traffic master-plan construction project designed to improve traffic flow, safety and access around campus. MTSU’s roundabout is the first of its kind at a Tennessee public university, and it is accentuated by pieces of limestone columns that originated at the old Tennessee State Capitol. Contact Ron Malone, assistant vice president for events and transportation services, at 615-898-5002 or rrmalone@mtsu.edu.

LISTENING IN--MTSU Audio Clips is a service for radio stations to supplement their news and information programs with sound and radio-ready stories that broadcasters can access on the Internet and download at their convenience. The latest collection of audio stories includes perspectives on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing from Dr. Andrew Owusu, associate professor of health and human performance and a three-time Olympian; two MTSU students who helped found a new chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, the political activist group best known for its opposition to the Vietnam War in the 1960s; and a commentary by Dr. Larry Burriss, journalism professor and First Amendment expert, on the expansion of governmental secrecy. You can access MTSU Audio Clips by going to www.mtsunews.com, your online location for MTSU information, and clicking on “MTSU Audio Clips” on the right side of the page. Contact Gina Logue at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu with questions or comments.