Date: 11/13/2007

Mike Adams, chair of the Department of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre, along with Professor Babak Sarrafan and KSJS radio station manager Nick Martinez spent two weeks at the Shanghai Theatre Academy School of Television Arts. Adams taught a class on photo communication while Sarrafan and Martinez worked on a cooperative agreement for the ongoing exchange of faculty and students in production projects.

Tina Daniels has been named director of planned giving within San Jos?? State's Division of University Advancement. Daniels came to SJSU from Michigan State University, where she was a gift planning advisor. She served in similar roles at the University of Michigan Law School, Meharry Medical College, Northeastern Illinois University and Western Michigan University.

Ken Haycock, director of the School of Library and Information Science, has brokered an agreement with Counting Opinions Ltd., which will provide library customer feedback data for faculty and student research and special projects. Working with the information will prepare students "for analyzing data so that they can be involved in the process of transforming the library of today to meet the changing environment," Haycock said.

Professor Claire Komives helped create a bioengineering educational materials bank featured in "Chemical and Engineering News." "More and more chemical engineers graduating now are going into biotechnology or bio-based jobs ??? however ??? the current curriculum doesn't really address those needs except where you have faculty with a biology background who add that type of material on their own initiative," Komives said. Read more.

Professor B. Kumaravadivelu delivered a plenary address, "Constructing Cultural Identity in a Globalized Society," at the Forum de las Culturas in Monterrey, Mexico. The forum is part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization global conference "Dialogues on Civilizations," which is held every four years. Read more.

Professor Jan English-Lueck's book, "Cultures@SiliconValley," has received the Diane Forsythe Prize from the American Anthropological Association. "This book is the result of an anthropological expedition into the everyday lives of people living in and connected to Silicon Valley," says the Silicon Valley Cultures Project Web site. Read more.

Professor Paula Messina was quoted in a recent National Geographic magazine story about her research on rock movements in Death Valley. In 1968, researcher Robert Sharp dubbed one such rock Karen. "Karen showed up again in 1996 ??? 'When I told him I had positively identified several of his original rocks, his reaction was a little like one would expect from a man who was just told I found his children,'" Messina said. Read more.

Professor William Reckmeyer has helped SJSU, the Salzburg Global Seminar and the University of Salzburg establish a San Jos??-Salzburg Global Dialogue to foster student discussions about critical global issues and provide a framework for an international teaching-learning relationship for the three institutions. Read more.