Category Archives: Faculty Publications

Want to see the presentations given at ALLA’s 2014 Conference by UAH Librarians? Here you go!

Posted on by

The below presentations were given last week at the ALLA 2014 Conferece – The Crossroads of Information and Literacy – held here in Huntsville.

The first one, “Instruction in a Flash: The Flipped Classroom Incident”, was presented by Michael Manasco and Doug Bolden on Thursday morning. It deals with flipped classrooms, really rapid instructional design, and the ups and downs of the experience.

The second, “A Quickish Glance at Open Source Graphics Design: GIMP, Scribus, and Miscellany”, was a mini-session presented by Doug Bolden on Friday.

Both have been released via Creative Commons 4 “by attribution” license. Feel free to use, share, download, and remix the presentations, just please give us attribution (Michael and myself for the first one, just me for the second).

Now, these are the slides. There were a handful of notes and elements not directly visible here. If you have any questions, you can contact Michael at michael.manasco@uah.edu and myself at doug.bolden@uah.edu.

Atmospheric Science students published in Monthly Weather Review

Posted on by

Congratulations to Dr. Ken Leppert and Todd Murphy, two graduate students in UAHuntsville’s Atmospheric Science program who are lead authors on research papers published in the February edition of the Monthly Weather Review, an American Meteorological Society journal.  Salmon Library subscribes to Monthly Weather Review, so be sure to read their groundbreaking research in full!

Leppert found that certain traits that can be seen from space might help give earlier warnings of which low pressure systems coming out of Africa or South America are more likely to develop into tropical storms or hurricanes.

Murphy’s research verified that the “synthetic dual Doppler” technique can be used to study some powerful storm cells that generate tornadoes. That might significantly increase the number of storms that can be studied to help scientists find clues or traits that could be used to make earlier or more accurate tornado forecasts.

If you have any questions about how to access their articles, be sure to contact a reference librarian at 256-824-6529 or erefq@uah.edu

Thank you Dr. Sundar Christopher!

Posted on by

Our kickoff to the Lunch and Lecture Series was a great success!  Thank you to Dr. Sundar Christopher for giving our students expert career advice.  We look forward to seeing you at the library for future Lunch and Lecture events.  Please let us know if you have any ideas for a lecture topic, and we will look into providing such an event for you.

Please see below for Dr. Christopher’s PowerPoint slides.

Dr. Sundar Christopher – Navigating Graduate School and Beyond

Copyright Sundar Christopher, all rights reserved. Used here with permission from author.

Anne Coleman presents at 63rd International Astronautical Congress!

Posted on by

Our very own Anne Coleman represented Salmon Library at the 63rd International Astronautical Congress!  Her paper titled “Willy Ley:  Rocket Scientist and Book Collector” was about the unique Willy Ley Collection held at the UAHuntsville Salmon Library Archives and Special Collections.

The 63rd International Astronautical Congress, themed “Space Science and Technology for the Needs of All”, took place in Naples, Italy between October 1-5, 2012.  There were more than 3,300 attendees, including 34 UAHuntsville student researchers!  These students were selected by the International Astronautical Federation to give 42 oral presentations and 5 poster presentations in the full technical sessions of the regular congress.  The conference also included appearances by second man on the Moon Buzz Aldrin and first Chinese woman in space Liu Yang.  We are so proud of Anne and the student researchers for representing UAHuntsville on an international stage!  See below for a few pictures from Anne’s trip to Italy.

Salmon Library Lunch and Lecture with Dr. Sundar Christopher

Posted on by

Please join us on Thursday, November 1st from 11:30-1:00pm for the kickoff of our Fall Lunch and Lecture Series!  Dr. Sundar Christopher, professor and chair of the Atmospheric Sciences department, is the author of Navigating Graduate School and Beyond, which outlines important steps and skills necessary to succeed in graduate school and in your career.  Dr. Christopher’s “insider tips” help students better understand their advisors, leading to more productive advisor/student relationships.  This event is open to everybody and will take place in the Faculty Resource Center, Room 233 of Salmon Library.  Free lunch will be provided.  We look forward to seeing you!

Historical plaque recognizes 25-year old UAH superconductor discovery

Posted on by

As a graduate student 25 years ago at UAH, Jim Ashburn invented the first high-temperature superconductor. (The Huntsville Times/Eric Schultz)

Recognition denied for a quarter century finally arrived for a UAH graduate student who played a key role in the development of superconductivity. In a Sunday afternoon ceremony in front of UAH’s Wilson Hall, Dr. Jim Ashburn witnessed the unveiling of a plaque commemorating his achievement.

The plaque, placed by the Alabama Historical Society, recognized Ashburn’s research and efforts in the discovery of a quartet of elements that combined in the right way allows the conductivity of electricity with virtually no losses to resistance. It termed the discovery “a major advance in science.”

In January 1986 Jim Ashburn was a young, first-year graduate student at UAH, pursuing his Ph. D in Physics. He and Dr. M.K. Wu, who directed the UAH physics lab at that time, were working on a NASA research project involving various metal alloys to be processed in space.

NASA allowed the team to alter the research project to focus on a search for a better superconductor, following a breakthrough in superconductivity that had occurred a few years earlier.

Aided by friends and colleagues, Ashburn worked 12-14 hour days, often alone, before hitting on the right combination of three elements, yttrium, barium, copper and oxygen that form the basis of his superconductor. His research became the subject of his doctoral dissertation.

To learn more about Dr. Ashburn and his discovery, you can read the full article in the The Huntsville Times here:

http://www.al.com/42/index.ssf/2012/01/historical_plaque_recognizes_2.html

For the rest of the story, check out the UAH News article here:
http://uah.edu/news/items/9-campus/1105-uahuntsville-student-recounts-discovery-of-first-high-temperature-superconductor

To read Dr. Ashburn’s historic article on his discovery from the March 1987 issue of Physical Review Letters , which has been cited 769 times in Scopus since 1996, click on the below link (courtesy of the UAHuntsville Salmon Library):

http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.58.908

Please note that if you are off campus, you will need to log in using your Angel credentials.

Please contact the library at http://libanswers.uah.edu/ or 256-824-6529 if you have any problems accessing the article.

Congrats to Dr. Sam Thomas on new book!

Posted on by

UAHuntsville history professor Samuel S. Thomas has written about the history of midwifery for historical journals, and in the coming year he will explore the subject in fiction as well.

The book, a work of historical fiction, is tentatively titled The Midwife’s Story: A Mystery and will be published next fall by St. Martin’s Press. Thomas’s book tells the story of Bridget Hodgson, an elite midwife in 17th century York, England. While Hodgson is a gentlewoman by birth, and thus is close to the most powerful families of York, her work as a midwife takes her far beyond her elite social circle.

You can read more about how Dr. Thomas discovered Bridget Hodgson here.

UAHuntsville students and faculty can read some of Dr. Thomas’s other works listed below online or download the full-text from various databases, courtesy of the Salmon library. If you need any assistance locating the articles, please contact the library at 256-824-6529 or http://libanswers.uah.edu.

“Early Modern Midwifery: Splitting the Profession, Connecting the History.” Journal of Social History 43, No. 1 (2009): 115-38.

“Midwifery and Society in Restoration York.” Social History of Medicine 16, no. 1 (2003): 1-16.

“Religious Community in Revolutionary Halifax.” Northern History 40, no. 1 (2003): 89-111.

“Transforming the Gospel of Domesticity: Luhya Girls and the Friends Africa Mission, 1917-1926.” African Studies Review 43, no. 2 (2000): 1-27.

Congrats to UAHuntsville graduate and professor on recent publication

Posted on by

Congratulations to Dr. Q. H. Ken Zuo, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UAHuntsville, and Luis E. Deganis, UAHuntsville graduate, on their recent publication entitled “Crack-mechanics based brittle damage model including nonlinear equation of state and porosity growth” found in the April 1, 2011, (volume 109, issue 7) issue of the Journal of Applied Physics. The paper describes a mathematical model for predicting damage and failure of brittle materials under high-velocity impact, and the research is intended to assist in the design of bird strike-resistant aircraft windshields. For more info, check out the campus news press release here.

UAHuntsville students and faculty can read the article online or download the PDF from the Scitation database, courtesy of the Salmon library. If you need any assistance locating the article, please contact the library at 256-824-6529.