Category: Professional Notes

Jack Bales, Reference and Humanities Librarian, had his latest baseball article, “‘It Was His Fairness That Caught Wrigley’s Eye’: William L. Veeck’s Journalism Career and His Hiring by the Chicago Cubs,” published as the lead article in the spring 2012 issue of the peer-reviewed Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture. By poring over original source materials, Bales corrected long-held beliefs of how Cubs owner William Wrigley, Jr. met and hired sportswriter Veeck in 1918.  He also uncovered new information about Veeck’s early newspaper career.  Bales spent a week this summer at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, New York, working on several projects.  He has shared his findings with other baseball scholars, and his research was mentioned in the December 3 issue of Sports Illustrated.

Dave Toth, assistant professor of computer science, and his collaborators published two papers in the Journal of Computational Science Education (http://www.jocse.org/).  The new issue was released December 1.  “Using Supercomputing to Conduct Virtual Screen as Part of the Drug Discovery Process in a Medicinal Chemistry Course” describes how Toth and his collaborator, Dr. Jimmy Franco of the Merrimack College Chemistry Department, taught students in Dr. Franco’s Medicinal Chemistry course how to perform virtual screening with a supercomputer to identify potential drugs.  Toth and Franco are finalists for the 2012 Undergraduate Computational Engineering and Sciences (UCES) Award for on this work.  The winners of the award will be announced in February 2013 at the SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering.  “A Performance Comparison of a Naive Algorithm to Solve the Party Problem using GPUs” describes research Toth and his former student at Merrimack College, Michael Bryant, did with GPUs.

Jason James, associate professor of anthropology, will discuss the cultural struggles that persist in post-Nazi Germany during an interview scheduled to air on the “With Good Reason” public radio program. The show, “After the Berlin Wall Came Down,” will air beginning Saturday, Dec. 1.

The program will focus on James’ argument that “there are still divisions within German culture – between the ‘good’ former West Germans and the ‘bad’ former East Germans – and that both sides struggle with a problematic past that includes Nazi and Fascist associations.”

“With Good Reason” airs weekly in Fredericksburg on Sundays from 1-2 p.m. on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital. To listen from outside of the Fredericksburg area, a complete list of air times and links to corresponding radio stations can be found at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen/.

Elizabeth F. Larus, professor of political science and international affairs, presented a paper, “The Challenges of Economic and Social Development Faced by the CCP’s Fifth Generation Leaders,” at the International Conference on the Chinese Communist Party’s 18^th National Congress – Transition of Power and Policy Outlook [中共『十八大之權 力 傳 承 與 政 策 動 向」國  際 會 議 ], in Taipei, Taiwan, Nov. 12-13. Larus was the sole female participant at the two-day conference, and the only participant from a liberal arts university. Professor Larus participated in the conference at the invitation of Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Institute for National Policy Research. During the conference’s round table discussion, Larus was able to offer to the diplomatic community in attendance comments on recent developments in China. Elizabeth Freund Larus is author of Politics and Society in Contemporary China.

Mehdi Aminrazavi published a book review of the following volume: Mohammad Azadpour’s Reason Unbound: On Spiritual Practice in Islamic Peripatetic Philosophy (New York: SUNY Press, 2011). The review appeared in the recent issue of the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES), pp. 175-177.