University of the PACIFIC

Anthony Dutoi and Balint Sztaray, Chemistry, were each awarded 2014 Department of Energy Visiting Faculty Program Awards to conduct research at national research laboratories. The VFP seeks to increase the research competitiveness of faculty members and their students at institutions historically underrepresented in the research community in order to expand the workforce vital to DOE mission areas. As part of the program, selected university/college faculty members collaborate with DOE laboratory research staff on a research project of mutual interest.

Anthony Dutoi's award will fund 10 weeks of research with Stephen Leone at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The national lab group uses extremely short pulses of x-rays to follow the motions of molecules after they have been suddenly stripped of an electron. Dutoi will be developing theoretical approaches to help interpret the data and understand the origins of the signals being observed. 

Balint Sztaray's award will fund 10 weeks of research at Sandia National Laboratories Combustion Research Facility (CRF) for Sztaray and one of his graduate students, Kyle Covert (PCSP, 2018). They will be working on combining Sztaray's method of photoelectron-photoion coincidence spectroscopy with the multiplexed mass spectrometry experiment of David Osborn (Sandia CRF) and build a prototype new instrument for the Swiss Light Source synchrotron.  Sztaray was on sabbatical at Sandia during spring 2013 and has been working closely with the CRF ever since. 

Caroline Schroeder, Religious and Classical Studies, was awarded two National Endowment for the Humanities Grants totalling $100,000 for her research project, Coptic SCRIPTORIUM. One is a Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant to develop a user interface and language analysis tools to facilitate  interdisciplinary, collaborative research and annotation of digitized Coptic texts. The other is a preservation grant for the creation of a digitized corpus of Coptic texts of importance to scholarship in biblical studies, early Christian history and linguistics. The project would develop a pilot text corpus and establish technical standards to ensure interoperability of the corpus with other digital projects on the ancient world. Shroeder has been working for the past year and a half on the project prototype. The Pacific Fund and the Faculty Research Committee provided important seed funding for the work on the prototype. Two Pacific undergraduate students have been involved in the project so far: Alexander Dickerson '14, a Computer Science major in the School of Engineering and Computer Science, and Lauren McDermott '14, an English major with a minor in Classics in the College. Schroeder is looking forward to involving more students in the research project as it develops.

Dari Sylvester, Interim Executive Director of the Harold S. Jacoby Center for Public Service & Civic Leadership and Political Science, will be awarded the 2014 Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Associations Excellence in Teaching Award.  She is one of four professors throughout northern California receiving the award, which requires nomination by members of Phi Beta Kappa.

Clark Kelso was one of only two individuals honored by the California Public Sector CIO Academy with a Hall of Fame Award at their 2014 meeting on Feb. 26, 2014. Kelso served as a receiver for California Correctional Health Care Services and has more than 15 years' experience in all three branches of government, including service to the California Judicial Council and Administrative Office of the Courts, where he worked in support of court unification; the Department of Insurance, where he replaced Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush, who abruptly resigned amid allegations of corruption; and as California's CIO, where he turned around the state's troubled information technology program. Kelso was described in Government Technology magazine in the article announcing the award as having "a reputation for independence, integrity and commitment to his work as a change maker in government." Read more>>

Paul Paton has been selected as a 2014 recipient of the Ontario Bar Association's Distinguished Service Award. The Award will be presented at the OBA Annual Awards Gala Dinner in Toronto on April 24. The OBA is the provincial branch of the national Canadian Bar Association, representing some 37,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, law teachers and law students from across Canada. Approximately two-thirds of all practicing lawyers in Canada belong to the CBA. Paton also had his article on innovation in the legal profession in North America, "The Ball is Rolling," published by Lexpert. His article about the controversy over approval of the first faith-based law school in Canada, "Any Flavour You Like," also was published in Lexpert.