Tag: James E. Quick

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SMU Research Day 2017 visitors query SMU students on the details of their research

The best in SMU undergraduate and graduate research work was on full display at Research Day in the Hughes Trigg Student Center.

More than 150 graduate and undergraduate students at SMU presented posters at SMU Research Day 2017 in the Promenade Ballroom of Hughes-Trigg Student Center Ballroom on March 28.

Student researchers discussed their ongoing and completed SMU research and their results with faculty, staff and students who attended the one-day event.

Explaining their research to others is a learning experience for students, said Peter Weyand, Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

“Research Day is an opportunity for SMU students to show off what they’ve been doing at the grad level and at the undergrad level,” Weyand said, “and that’s really an invaluable experience for them.”

Posters and presentations spanned more than 20 different fields from the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development, the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences and SMU Guildhall.

“It’s a huge motivation to present your work before people,” said Aparna Viswanath, a graduate student in engineering. Viswanath presented research on “Looking Around Corners,” research into an instrument that converts a scattering surface into computational holographic sensors.

The goal of Research Day is to foster communication about research between students in different disciplines, give students the opportunity to present their work in a professional setting, and to share the outstanding research being conducted at SMU.

The annual event is sponsored by the SMU Office of Research and Graduate Studies.

View highlights of the presentations on Facebook.

Some highlights of the research:

  • Adel Alharbi, a student of Dr. Mitchell Thornton in Lyle School’s Computer Science and Engineering presented research on a novel demographic group prediction mechanism for smart device users based upon the recognition of user gestures.
  • Ashwini Subramanian and Prasanna Rangarajan, students of Dr. Dinesh Rajan, in Lyle School’s Electrical Engineering Department, presented research about accurately measuring the physical dimensions of an object for manufacturing and logistics with an inexpensive software-based Volume Measurement System using the Texas Instruments OPT8241 3D Time-of-Flight camera, which illuminates the scene with a modulated light source, observing the reflected light and translating it to distance.
  • Gang Chen, a student of Dr. Pia Vogel in the Department of Chemistry of Dedman College, presented research on multidrug resistance in cancers associated with proteins including P-glycoprotein and looking for inhibitors of P-gp.
  • Tetiana Hutchison, a student of Dr. Rob Harrod in the Chemistry Department of Dedman College, presented research on inhibitors of mitochondrial damage and oxidative stress related to human T-cell leukemia virus type-1, an aggressive hematological cancer for which there are no effective treatments.
  • Margarita Sala, a student of Dr. David Rosenfield and Dr. Austin Baldwin in the Psychology Department of Dedman College, presented research on how specific post-exercise affective states differ between regular and infrequent exercisers, thereby elucidating the “feeling better” phenomenon.
  • Bernard Kauffman, a Level Design student of Dr. Corey Clark in SMU Guildhall, presented research on building a user interface that allows video game players to analyze vast swaths of scientific data to help researchers find potentially useful compounds for treating cancer.

Browse the Research Day 2017 directory of presentations by department.

See the SMU Graduate Studies Facebook page for images of 2017 Research Day.

See the SMU Anthropology Department photo album of Research Day 2017 poster presentations.

According to the Fall 2016 report on Undergraduate Research, SMU provides opportunities for student research in a full variety of disciplines from the natural sciences and engineering, to social sciences, humanities and the arts. These opportunities permit students to bring their classroom knowledge to practical problems or a professional level in their chosen field of study.
Opportunities offered include both funded and curricular programs
that can be tailored according to student needs:

  • Students may pursue funded research with the assistance of a
    variety of campus research programs. Projects can be supported
    during the academic year or in the summer break, when students
    have the opportunity to focus full-time on research.
  • Students may also enroll in research courses that are offered in
    many departments that permit them to design a unique project,
    or participate in a broader project.
  • Students can take advantage of research opportunities outside
    of their major, or design interdisciplinary projects with their faculty
    mentors. The Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute supports
    such research via the Mayer Scholars.

    • View videos of previous SMU Research Day events:

    See Research Day winners from 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014.

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    Earth & Climate Fossils & Ruins Researcher news SMU In The News

    Nat’l Geographic: One of Earth’s most dangerous supervolcanoes is rumbling

    Italy’s Campi Flegrei may be awakening from a long slumber, scientists warn.

    Vulcanologist James E. Quick, SMU’s associate vice president for research and dean of Graduate Studies, is quoted for his expertise in the magazine National Geographic.

    Quick, a geologist in the Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, is quoted in “One of Earth’s most dangerous supervolcanoes is rumbling.” The article was published Dec. 23, 2016.

    An expert in volcano hazards, Quick is an expert in geologic science and volcano risk assessment, particularly the study of magmatic systems. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

    In 2009 Quick led the international scientific team that discovered a 280-million-year-old fossil supervolcano in the Italian Alps. The supervolcano’s magmatic plumbing system is exposed to an unprecedented depth of 25 kilometers, giving scientists new understanding into the phenomenon of explosive supervolcanos.

    Italian geologists in 2010 awarded Quick the Capellini Medal to recognize the discovery. In 2013 an area encompassing the supervolcano won designation as the Sesia-Val Grande Geopark by the UNESCO Global Network of National Geoparks.

    Prior to SMU, Quick served a distinguished 25-year scientific career with the USGS, including as program coordinator for the Volcano Hazards Program.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Brian Clark Howard
    National Geographic
    A long-quiet yet huge supervolcano that lies under 500,000 people in Italy may be waking up and approaching a “critical state,” scientists report this week in the journal Nature Communications.

    Based on physical measurements and computer modeling, “we propose that magma could be approaching the CDP [critical degassing pressure] at Campi Flegrei, a volcano in the metropolitan area of Naples, one of the most densely inhabited areas in the world, and where accelerating deformation and heating are currently being observed,” wrote the scientists—who are led by Giovanni Chiodini of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics in Rome.

    A sudden release of hot magmatic gasses is possible in the near future, which could trigger a large eruption, the scientists warn. Yet the timing of any possible eruption is unknown and is currently not possible to predict….

    The scars of another supervolcano were recently found in the Sesia Valley in the Italian Alps. That eight-mile-wide caldera likely last erupted 280 million years ago, when it blasted out a thousand times more material than Mount St. Helens spewed during its infamous 1980 eruption. The result was the blocking out of the sun, which led to global cooling.

    “There will be another supervolcano explosion,” scientist James Quick, a geologist at Southern Methodist University in Texas, said in a statement when that volcano was found.
    “We don’t know where, [but] Sesia Valley could help us to predict the next event.”

    Read the full story.

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    Culture, Society & Family Earth & Climate Economics & Statistics Energy & Matter Events Fossils & Ruins Health & Medicine Learning & Education Mind & Brain Plants & Animals Researcher news Student researchers Videos

    SMU Research Day 2016: Students present their research to the SMU and Dallas community

    Day of presenting in Hughes-Trigg Student Center allows students to discuss their research, identify potential collaborators, discover other perspectives.

    SMU graduate and undergraduate students presented their research to the SMU community at the University’s Research Day 2016 on Feb. 10.

    Sponsored by the SMU Office of Research and Graduate Studies, the research spanned more than 20 different fields from schools across campus.

    The annual Research Day event fosters communication between students in different disciplines, gives students the opportunity to present their work in a professional setting, and allows students to share with their peers and industry professionals from the greater Dallas community the outstanding research conducted at SMU.

    A cash prize of $250 was awarded to the best poster from each department or judging group.

    View the list of student winners whose research was awarded a cash prize.

    View highlights of the presentations.

    Some highlights of the research:

    • Faris Altamimi, a student of Dr. Sevinc Sengor in Lyle School‘s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, presented a study investigating experimental and modeling approaches for enhanced methane generation from municipal solid waste, while providing science-based solutions for cleaner, renewable sources of energy for the future.
    • Yongqiang Li and Xiaogai Li, students of Dr. Xin-Lin Gao in Lyle School’s Mechanical Engineering Department, are addressing the serious blunt trauma injury that soldiers on the battlefield suffer from ballistics impact to their helmets. The study simulated the ballistic performance of the Advanced Combat Helmet.
    • Audrey Reeves, Sara Merrikhihaghi and Kevin Bruemmer, students of Dr. Alexander Lippert, in the Chemistry Department of Dedman College, presented research on cell-permeable fluorescent probes in the imaging of enzymatic pathways in living cells, specifically the gaseous signaling molecule nitroxyl. Their research better understands nitroxyl’s role as an inhibitor of an enzyme that is key in the conversion of acetaldehyde to acetic acid.
    • Rose Ashraf, a student of Dr. George Holden in the Psychology Department of Dedman College, presented her research on harsh verbal discipline in the home and its prediction of child compliance. It was found permissive parents are least likely to elicit prolonged compliance.
    • Nicole Vu and Caitlin Rancher, students of Dr. Ernest N. Jouriles and Dr. Renee McDonald in the Psychology Department of Dedman College, presented research on children’s threat appraisals of interparental conflict and it’s relationship to child anxiety.

    See the full catalog of participants and their abstracts.

    Categories
    Culture, Society & Family Earth & Climate Fossils & Ruins Researcher news Videos

    Fossil supervolcano in Italian Alps may answer deep mysteries around active supervolcanoes

    Scientists will study unique exposure of “plumbing,” which can reveal critical understanding of how today’s volcanoes erupt

    There’s nothing subtle about the story told by the rocks in northern Italy’s Sesia Valley. Evidence of ancient volcanic activity is all around, says geologist and volcanologist James Quick, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

    But the full story is much less obvious, Quick notes.

    Quick led an international team that in 2009 announced they had discovered a 282-million-year-old fossil supervolcano in Sesia Valley. The find was the result of nearly two decades of geological research in the valley and its surrounding mountains.

    The discovery has attracted scientific attention worldwide for its unprecedented view of a supervolcano’s internal plumbing to a depth of 15.5 miles.

    But that’s not the end of the story — rather the beginning, says Quick, a professor in SMU’s Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.

    The supervolcano holds clues — and ultimately answers — to critical scientific questions about the processes by which volcanoes erupt.

    “I am certain that continued study of this unique geologic exposure will reveal significant insight into the operation of active supervolcanoes,” he says.

    There are six active supervolcanoes in the world, including Yellowstone, Long Valley and Valles in the United States.

    Volcanic plumbing, normally hidden from examination deep within the earth, is the internal geological structure through which lava migrates from the earth’s mantle, up through the crust, to ultimately explode. Volcanic plumbing and the processes within it remain matters of speculation, as volcanologists explore how lava forms and traverses through the earth.

    News of a supervolcano initially sparked alarm
    Supervolcanoes are one of the most potentially violent events in the world.

    Sesia Valley's fossil supervolcano could answer the question, "How does magma build up in the crust in the run up to a super eruption?” The fossil supervolcano was discovered by a team led by volcanologist James Quick, a professor of geology at Southern Methodist University. (Photo: SMU)
    Sesia Valley’s fossil supervolcano could answer the question, “How does magma build up in the crust in the run up to a super eruption?” The fossil supervolcano was discovered by a team led by volcanologist James Quick, a professor of geology at Southern Methodist University. (Photo: SMU)

    They erupt hundreds of cubic miles of lava and ash, and have caused catastrophic changes in global climate.

    Sesia Valley’s supervolcano last erupted 282 million years ago, when it erupted more than 186 cubic miles of molten rock, ash and gas.

    The discovery by Quick and scientists from the University of Trieste made headlines worldwide in 2009. Sesia Valley residents were alarmed.

    “They held a big town meeting in the largest of the communities, Borgosesia, and more than 500 people came from all over the valley,” Quick says. “People were extremely worried the volcano would erupt again.”

    The scientists reassured residents they had nothing to fear. A fossil, the supervolcano no longer poses a danger.

    Supervolcano is a super attraction for its scientifically unique features
    Now its rocks are a popular destination for scientists, college students, villagers, tourists and school groups. Proud residents enthusiastically brand many of the valley’s events and activities with their supervolcano identity.

    Even acclaimed Italian winemaker Cantalupo in 2013 honored the unique volcanic origins of its Sesia Valley grapes by labeling its Christmas wine with a painting of the exploding supervolcano.

    The supervolcano also is a central feature of the new Sesia-Val Grande Geopark, recently designated by the U.N.’s UNESCO agency.

    Residents of the Piedmont region’s Sesia Valley, with diverse history and cultures, joined forces after the discovery was announced to pursue the coveted UNESCO geopark status. One of only 100 geoparks in the world, Sesia-Val Grande Geopark spans tens of thousands of acres and more than 80 Alpine communities.

    Chaotic riverbed blocks are key to solving volcanic rock puzzle
    Rock strata of the Sesia Valley supervolcano are exposed along the banks of the Sesia River for 22 miles, sitting sideways like a tipped-over layer cake. In some places, the rocks protrude haphazardly from the sides of mountains; in other places they are obscured beneath dense forest, roads, bustling villages, fields and pastures, outdoor sports locales and tourist destinations.

    Some of the supervolcano’s deepest sections serve as a backdrop for Varallo, one of many communities in the Alpine valley.

    Granite boulders littering the bed of the Sesia River were formed in the supervolcano’s magma chamber.

    Atop a hill overlooking Varallo, more than 40 chapels of the 15th century world-famous monumental religious complex Sacro Monte di Varallo were built on the furnace that powered the volcanic system.

    So how did an entire valley not see an ancient fossil supervolcano until now?
    Like an ant looking at an elephant, it’s difficult to see something so gigantic for what it really is. In the United States, for example, it’s only in about the last 30 years that geologists deciphered that Yellowstone is a supervolcano.

    Scientists have known for more than a century, however, about the presence of volcanic rocks in Sesia Valley.

    That’s what drew Quick to the area in 1989. He sought insight into the processes in the deep crust that influence eruptions. What Quick found kept him coming back every summer for 16 years, including as head of the Volcano Hazards Program for the U.S. Geological Survey.

    Quick’s quest made him the first scientist in more than 50 years — building on the work of Italian geologist Mario Bertolani before World War II — to methodically tramp every mile of the steep mountainsides, sometimes with colleagues, often alone, to extensively identify and map the valley’s rocks.

    Years of intrepid geological work yield a supervolcano hiding in plain sight
    Quick endured pounding rain, fierce lightning, poisonous snakes, mosquitos, treacherous topography, slippery waterfalls and unexpected sheer drop-offs. More than once he feared for his life.

    “Working in the mountains there I was frequently terrified,” Quick said recently, during one of his frequent treks to the valley. “I’d wonder, is this the next traverse that claims my life? I had many frightening experiences. The vegetation looks thick, but underneath the canopy it’s easy to walk, except there are lots of cliffs hidden by the trees. Another problem — locating your position; because you can’t look out and see the topography. We started this before GPS, doing it old school, by triangulation, reading the map, carefully locating where we were, and using altimeters.”

    Summer 2005 brought an unexpected breakthrough.

    Quick was invited by his Italian colleague to see some puzzling rocks in the riverbed of the Sesia River in hopes he could identify them. Upon seeing the chaotic assemblage, Quick recognized the rocks were gigantic blocks torn from the rim of the volcano and mixed with volcanic ash during the eruption — an assemblage geologists call a megabreccia.

    In 2009, following additional work to confirm the discovery, Quick and his team announced their discovery in the scientific journal “Geology.” They estimated the mouth of the volcano when it was active would have been at least eight miles in diameter, although its true size will never be known because much of it is covered by younger sedimentary deposits of the Po Plain.

    Fossil supervolcano sits against ancient boundary separating Africa, Europe
    In its youth, Sesia Valley’s supervolcano was inland on the supercontinent of Pangea. When Pangea began to break up into smaller continents more than 200 million years ago, the supervolcano was stranded on the coast of what we now call Africa.

    About 20 million years ago, another tectonic shift sent Africa colliding into southern Europe. The coastal edges of both continents were heaved upward, creating a massive uplift – the Alps.

    The Sesia Valley supervolcano, in the process, was tilted sideways and shoved upward, exposing its plumbing.

    Today the supervolcano is a mecca for geologists not only for its volcanic story, but as one of the best samples of the earth’s mantle exposed at the surface.

    Calling it the “Rosetta Stone” of supervolcanoes, Quick says the Sesia Valley fossil supervolcano ultimately could solve the mystery, “How does magma build up in the crust in the run up to a supereruption?”

    Quick honored for scientific achievements
    In 2010 the Italian Geological Society awarded Quick the Capellini Medal, presented to foreign geoscientists for a significant contribution to Italian geology.

    In 2013, Quick was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Along with his Italian colleague, Silvano Sinigoi, Quick also was awarded honorary citizenship of Borgosesia, the highest award given to civilians by the largest city in the Sesia Valley.

    “The discoveries in the Sesia Valley demonstrate the value of supporting basic research,” says Quick, who came to SMU in 2007 after a 25-year scientific career with USGS. Quick serves also as associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies at SMU.

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    Earth & Climate Energy & Matter Researcher news

    SMU seismologist Brian Stump named AAAS Fellow for distinguished scientific contributions

    Stump’s work in underground nuclear explosion monitoring is significant in support of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

    SMU seismologist Brian Stump has been named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow for distinguished contributions to his field, particularly in the area of seismic monitoring in support of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

    AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Stump, Albritton Chair of Geological Sciences in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences in SMU’s Dedman College, is the fifth professor at Southern Methodist University to be recognized as an AAAS Fellow.

    “Dr. Stump is a scientist of the first rank and brings the results of his outstanding research into the classroom, where his students benefit from his example and insights as a scholar,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “He richly deserves the AAAS recognition by his peers and we are proud that he calls SMU home.”

    Stump is well known regionally for his continued work researching the increase of small earthquakes that have been occurring in North Texas since 2008.

    But his work in detecting ground motion from explosions has for more than 20 years proved invaluable to the United States government in ensuring that the world’s nuclear powers abide by their agreements related to underground nuclear testing.

    “Brian’s work has been seminal in scientists’ ability to rapidly and accurately discern the difference between an earthquake, a conventional explosion — such as might occur in a mining accident — and a nuclear test,” said James E. Quick, SMU vice president for research and dean of graduate studies. “His research is tremendously important to all of us, and yet he is equally committed to teaching and serving as a mentor to young faculty.”

    Stump served as scientific adviser to the U.S. delegation to the Conference on Disarmament from 1994 through 1996 and continues to be called upon frequently to assist the U.S. government in the interpretation of seismic and acoustic data.

    “I’m humbled by the recognition by the AAAS that science impacts the society in which we live,” Stump said. “I really believe that. And the work we’ve done at SMU on inducted seismicity in North Texas has that same blend of real science and societal impact.”

    For the last five years Stump has chaired the Air Force Technical Applications Center Seismic Review Panel, which provides a review of federally funded efforts in nuclear monitoring. He served as a committee member on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Seismology and Continental Dynamics from 2007 through 2012, and recently completed a term as board chair for Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), a consortium of more than 100 universities funded by the National Science Foundation.

    Stump joined SMU in 1983 from the Seismology Section of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. He graduated summa cum laude from Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore. with a bachelor of arts in physics in 1974, received a master of arts from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975 and received his Ph.D. in geophysics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1979 after completing a thesis titled Investigation of Seismic Sources by the Linear Inversion of Seismograms.

    SMU faculty previously named as AAAS Fellows are James Quick, volcanologist and research dean, who was named a Fellow in 2013; environmental biochemistry scholar Paul W. Ludden, SMU provost and vice president for academic affairs and a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, who was named a Fellow in 2003; anthropologist David J. Meltzer, Henderson-Morrison Professor of Prehistory in the Department of Anthropology who was named a Fellow in 1998; and James E. Brooks, provost emeritus and professor emeritus in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, who was named a Fellow in 1966.

    The AAAS Fellows program began in 1874. AAAS members may be considered for the rank of fellow if nominated by the steering group of their respective sections, by three fellows, or by the association’s chief executive officer. Each steering group then reviews the nominations of individuals within its respective section and forwards a final list to the AAAS Council, which votes on the final list of fellows.

    The Council is the policy making body of the AAAS, chaired by the president, and consisting of the members of the board of directors, the retiring section chairs, delegates from each electorate and each regional division, and two delegates from the National Association of Academies of Science. — Kimberly Cobb

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    Learning & Education Researcher news Technology

    The power of ManeFrame: SMU’s new supercomputer boosts research capacity

    950x150 ManeFrame_v2 rev

    The enormous capacity of SMU’s new supercomputer ranks it among the largest academic supercomputers in the nation.

    ManeFrame, previously known as MANA, was relocated to Dallas from its previous location in Maui, Hawaii. (Courtesy of mauinow.com)
    ManeFrame, previously known as MANA, was relocated to Dallas from its former location in Maui, Hawaii. (Courtesy of mauinow.com)

    SMU now has a powerful new tool for research – one of the fastest academic supercomputers in the nation – and a new facility to house it.

    With a cluster of more than 1,000 Dell servers, the system’s capacity is on par with high-performance computing (HPC) power at much larger universities and at government-owned laboratories. The U.S. Department of Defense awarded the system to SMU in August 2013.

    Book a live interview

    SMU, Thomas Hagstrom, supercomputer, ManeFrame

    To book a live or taped interview with Dr. Thomas Hagstrom in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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    SMU’s Office of Information Technology added the system to the University’s existing – but much smaller – supercomputer. The system is housed in a new facility built at the corner of Mockingbird and Central Expressway. In a contest sponsored by Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Paul W. Ludden, faculty and students chose the name “ManeFrame” to honor the Mustang mascot.

    The enormous capacity and speed of HPC expands scientific access to new knowledge around key questions about the universe, disease, human behavior, health, food, water, environment, climate, democracy, poverty, war and peace.

    “World-changing discoveries rely on vast computing resources,” says President R. Gerald Turner. “ManeFrame quintuples the University’s supercomputing capacity. Our scientists and students will keep pace with the increasing demand for the ever-expanding computing power that is required to participate in global scientific collaborations. This accelerates our research capabilities exponentially.”

    ManeFrame potential
    With nearly 11,000 central processing unit cores, ManeFrame boasts 40 terabytes (one terabyte equals a trillion bytes) of memory and more than 1.5 petabytes of storage (a petabyte equals a quadrillion bytes), says Joe Gargiulo, SMU’s chief information officer, who led the installation team.

    The sciences and engineering primarily use supercomputers, but that is expanding to include the humanities and the arts. So far, SMU’s heavy users are researchers in physics, math, biology, chemistry and economics.

    “This technologically advanced machine will have an impact on shaping our world,” says Thomas M. Hagstrom, chair of the Department of Mathematics in Dedman College and director of SMU’s Center for Scientific Computing. “This makes research that solves problems on a large scale much more accessible. ManeFrame’s theoretical peak would be on the order of 120 Teraflops, which is 120 trillion mathematical operations a second.”

    Supercomputers can use sophisticated software and step-by-step procedures for calculations, called algorithms, to solve complex problems that can’t be managed in a researcher’s lab, Hagstrom explains.

    “We can’t put the Earth’s climate system or study the evolution of the universe in a physical lab,” he says. “You can only study these and other systems in a comprehensive way using high-performance computing.”

    Making SMU competitive
    Supercomputing gave University physicists a role in the Higgs Boson research at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. Joining the collaboration with thousands of scientists around the world, SMU’s team was led by Physics Professor Ryszard Stroynowski. SMU’s physicists tapped the existing HPC on campus to quickly analyze massive amounts of data and deliver results to their international colleagues.

    SMU’s team will use ManeFrame to keep pace with an even larger flood of data expected from the Large Hadron Collider.

    “ManeFrame makes SMU – which is small by comparison with many of its peer institutions at CERN – nimble and competitive, and that lets us be visible in a big experiment like CERN,” says Stephen Sekula, assistant professor of physics. “So we have to have ideas, motivation and creativity – but having a technical resource like ManeFrame lets us act on those things.”

    SMU physicist Pavel Nadolsky has conducted “big data” analyses of subatomic particles on the supercomputer as part of an international physics collaboration. Big data refers to probability distributions that depend on many variables. As users ranging from retailers to the health industry collect multitudes of transactional data every day, requirements for big data analysis are rapidly emerging.

    “To keep up in our field, we need resources like ManeFrame,” says Nadolsky, associate professor of physics.

    “The world is moving into big-data analysis, whether it’s Google, Facebook or the National Security Administration,” Nadolsky says. “We learn a lot about the world by studying multidimensional distributions: It tells about the origins of the universe; it can win elections by using data mining to analyze voting probabilities over time in specific geographical areas and targeting campaign efforts accordingly; and it can predict what people are doing. To make students competitive they must be trained to use these tools efficiently and ethically.”

    ManeFrame will have a high-profile role in the U.S. Department of Energy experiment called NOvA, which studies neutrinos, a little-understood and elusive fundamental particle that may help explain why matter, and not just light, exists in the universe today. SMU will contribute four million processing hours each year to the experiment, says Thomas E. Coan, associate professor of physics and a member of the international team.

    “We’re in good company with others providing computing, including California Institute of Technology and Harvard,” Coan says. “It’s one way for SMU to play a prominent role in the experiment. We get a lot of visibility among all the institutions participating in NOvA, which are spread out across five countries.”

    Advancing discovery
    One of the heaviest users of SMU’s HPC is John Wise, associate professor of biological sciences, who models a key human protein to improve chemotherapy to kill cancer cells. Wise works with the SMU Center for Drug Discovery, Design and Delivery in Dedman College, an interdisciplinary research initiative of the Biology and Chemistry departments and led by Professor of Biological Sciences Pia Vogel.

    Within the Mathematics Department, Assistant Professor Daniel R. Reynolds and his team use high-performance computing to run simulations with applications in cosmology and fusion reactors.

    Looking to the future, high-performance computing will be increasing in research, business and the arts, according to James Quick, associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies.

    “High-performance computing has emerged as a revolutionary tool that dramatically increases the rates of scientific discovery and product development, enables wise investment decisions and opens new dimensions in artistic creativity,” says Quick, professor of earth sciences. “SMU will use the computational power of ManeFrame to expand research and creativity and develop educational opportunities for students interested in the application of high-performance computing in their fields – be it science, engineering, business or the arts.” – Margaret Allen

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    Earth & Climate Fossils & Ruins Researcher news

    SMU dean, earth science professor James Quick elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

    Award honors SMU volcano expert for scientifically distinguished efforts to advance science and its applications.

    Vulcanologist James E. Quick, SMU’s associate vice president for research and dean of Graduate Studies, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

    Dr James QuickAAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Quick is the fourth professor at Southern Methodist University recognized with the prestigious honor.

    An expert in volcano hazards, Quick is being honored for his distinguished contributions to geologic science and volcano risk assessment, particularly for the study of magmatic systems, and for service to governments in assessing geologic risk.

    Quick is a professor in SMU’s Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences.

    SMU President R. Gerald Turner said SMU is honored and gratified that the scientists of AAAS have chosen to recognize the research achievements and public service of Dean Quick.

    “SMU is an educational institution that prides itself on shaping world changers. It has been strengthened in that goal through Dean Quick’s dedicated vision and achievements as a researcher, an academic leader and a servant to the global community,” Turner said. “We congratulate Dean Quick on this well-deserved recognition from this distinguished organization.”

    AAAS Fellows are elected by their peers for distinguished efforts to advance science
    Election as a Fellow is an honor bestowed by AAAS members upon their peers. This year AAAS named 388 members as Fellows for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

    SMU faculty inducted previously as AAAS Fellows are environmental biochemistry scholar Paul W. Ludden, SMU provost and vice president for academic affairs and a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, who was named a Fellow in 2003; anthropologist David J. Meltzer, Henderson-Morrison Professor of Prehistory in the Department of Anthropology and an expert in the early peoples of North America, who was named a Fellow in 1998; and North American and Middle Eastern stratigraphic and geomorphologic expert James E. Brooks, provost emeritus and professor emeritus in the Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, who was named a Fellow in 1966.

    Quick led international team that discovered fossil supervolcano in Italy
    Quick joined SMU in 2007. In 2009 he led the international scientific team that discovered a 280-million-year-old fossil supervolcano in the Italian Alps. The supervolcano’s magmatic plumbing system was exposed to an unprecedented depth of 25 kilometers, giving scientists new understanding into the phenomenon of explosive supervolcanos. Italian geologists in 2010 awarded Quick the Capellini Medal to recognize the discovery. In 2013 an area encompassing the supervolcano won designation as the Sesia-Val Grande Geopark by the UNESCO Global Network of National Geoparks. Quick also was named an honorary citizen of the city of Borgosesia, Italy, in recognition of the significance of the discovery to the Sesia Valley.

    Quick also leads a team of SMU scientists working with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to monitor volcanoes in the Northern Mariana Islands. The project uses infrasound and conventional seismic monitoring to “listen” for signs that a volcano is about to erupt. The goal is to strengthen monitoring of lava and ash hazards in the Marianas, a U.S. commonwealth near Guam, the primary base for forward deployment of U.S. military forces in the Western Pacific.

    Quick’s longtime career with USGS included leading Volcano Hazards Program
    Prior to SMU, Quick served a distinguished 25-year scientific career with the USGS, including as program coordinator for the Volcano Hazards Program.

    At the USGS Quick performed fundamental research on volcanic processes and was in charge of monitoring the nation’s 169 volcanoes to provide critical early warning of eruptions. Threats from active volcanoes range from the dramatic destruction of life and property to eruption of volcanic-ash clouds that threaten jet aircraft in flight. The budget for this research group was approximately $26 million a year.

    Quick’s research has taken him to more than 35 countries, working with the federal government, elected officials and academic institutions. He has published widely in numerous scientific journals during the last 30 years and maintains an active research agenda on magmatic processes.

    Quick earned his Ph.D. in geology from the California Institute of Technology; his M.Sc. in petrology from the University of Minnesota; and his B.Sc. in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

    New AAAS Fellows will be presented an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin, representing science and engineering respectively, on Feb. 15 during the 2014 AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago. — Margaret Allen, AAAS

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    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Earth & Climate Energy & Matter Fossils & Ruins Researcher news

    Fossil supervolcano discovered in Italy by SMU-led team is now key feature of new UNESCO Geopark

    Piedmont territory in northwest Italy is designated geopark backed by 80 Alpine communities. Area is an important geological and cultural locale that promotes awareness of earth sciences and sustainable use of resources.

    SMU Sesia Supervolcano

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    “It is a rare event that geology is a catalyst of public cooperation and celebration,” says geologist and volcano expert James E. Quick, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

    The new Sesia-Val Grande Geopark is an example of just that, says Quick, whose international team in 2009 discovered a fossil supervolcano that now sits at the heart of the new geopark. The discovery sparked worldwide scientific interest and a regional geotourism industry.

    Recently designated a geopark by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Sesia-Val Grande Geopark encompasses more than 80 communities in the Italian Alps.

    Sesia Valley Supervolcano geopark

    The communities joined forces more than two years ago to promote the park’s creation, which UNESCO made official in September. The geopark spans tens of thousands of acres and has at its center the massive, 282 million-year-old fossil supervolcano.

    “Sesia Valley is unique,” said Quick. “The base of the Earth’s crust is turned up on edge, exposing the volcano’s plumbing — which normally extends deep into the Earth and out of sight. The uplift was created when Africa and Europe began colliding about 30 million years ago and the crust of Italy was turned on end. We call this fossil the ‘Rosetta Stone’ for supervolcanoes because the depth to which rocks are exposed will aid scientific understanding of one of nature’s most massive and violent events and help us to link the geologic and geophysical data.”

    The fossil supervolcano was discovered by Quick’s scientific team, which included scientists from Italy’s University of Trieste. The supervolcano has an unprecedented 15 miles of volcano plumbing exposed from the surface to the source of the magma deep within the Earth. Previously, the discovery record for exposed plumbing was about three miles, said Quick.

    Located in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy, the geopark also includes Val Grande National Park, the largest wilderness area in Italy. Sesia Valley and Val Grande are important historical and cultural locales.

    Only a handful of locations worldwide are chosen annually for UNESCO’s coveted geopark designation, which supports national geological heritage initiatives.

    Geoparks promote awareness of the earth sciences, including natural hazards and sustainable use of resources. Worldwide, there are now 100 geoparks. Sesia-Val Grande is Italy’s ninth.

    Sesia-Val Grande area is popular for diverse geology, culture, ecosystems
    Sesia Val Grande geopark

    Community cooperation is new to this part of the Alps, where villages have valued their independence for centuries and residents in adjacent valleys may speak distinct dialects. In the wake of the supervolcano discovery, the communities in Val Sesia and Val Grande joined in an unprecedented partnership to promote tourism, education and a collective identity, then applied to UNESCO for admission to the Global Geopark Network.

    Delineated by two neighboring Alpine valleys in northwest Italy, the territory of the geopark is a well-established tourist region that is popular for its wine, cheese, quarried marble, cultural heritage spanning thousands of years, hiking, skiing, rafting, biking and climbing.

    The area is about half the size of Rhode Island and has 153,000 residents. Its four environmentally diverse ecosystems are rich in biodiversity and diverse microhabitats, progressing from lowland agricultural prairies to expansive forests to Alpine peaks, the highest of which is 15,203-foot Monte Rosa in one of Europe’s largest ski resorts.

    Supervolcano was cataclysmic eruption, set off catastrophic global cooling events
    Sessia Valley geopark 400x300

    The Sesia Valley supervolcano is a vast rocky expanse, in some places visible in plain sight and in others hidden by forests or under young sedimentary deposits. The supervolcano extends over a third of the Sesia-Val Grande geopark’s territory, said Quick, who previously served as program coordinator for the Volcano Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey.

    The supervolcano was active for about 6 million years, beginning about 288 million years ago, Quick said. Its volcanic activity culminated 282 million years ago with an eruption that left an enormous crater measuring more than eight miles in diameter. The cataclysmic eruption released gas from molten rock or “magma,” raining down particles and gases measuring more than 186 cubic miles in volume, Quick has estimated. His team reported the discovery in the scientific journal “Geology” in a 2009 article, “Magmatic plumbing of a large Permian caldera exposed to a depth of 25 km.”

    Throughout Earth’s geologic time, supervolcanoes have spread lava and ash vast distances. Scientists believe the fallout may have set off catastrophic global cooling events at different periods in the Earth’s past.

    Supervolcano fossil Sesia Valley

    “We want to use this discovery. It can help us understand the fundamental processes that influence eruptions: Where are magmas stored prior to these giant eruptions? From what depth do the eruptions emanate?” Quick said.

    Sesia Valley’s unprecedented exposure of magmatic plumbing provides a model for interpreting geophysical profiles and magmatic processes beneath active calderas, he said. The exposure also serves as direct confirmation of the cause-and-effect link between molten rock moving through the Earth’s crust and explosive volcanism.

    “It might lead to a better interpretation of monitoring data and improved prediction of eruptions,” said Quick, who is a professor in the SMU Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences and SMU associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies.

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    National Geographic: Volcano Pictures: First Descent Into a Magma Chamber

    06-into-icelands-volcano_34292_600x450.jpg

    Science journalist Ker Than writes on the April 8 Daily News blog of National Geographic about the first-ever scientific expedition into a volcanic magma chamber, citing analysis from SMU volcanologist James E. Quick, a professor in the Huffington Department of Earth Sciences.

    The expedition into Iceland’s dormant Thrihnukagigur volcano in October charts a chamber shaped like a long-necked bottle, with the neck rising up to the surface of the earth and the massive chamber down below.

    “Magma chambers supply the molten rock that oozes or bursts onto the Earth’s surface during an eruption,” wrote Than. “The bottom half is about a hundred feet (30 meters) across, while the ‘neck’ that connects to the surface is only about 10 feet (3 meters) wide. The entire chamber is about 450 feet (137 meters), from top to bottom.”

    For the story — “Volcano Pictures: First Descent Into a Magma Chamber” — Than interviewed Quick, associate vice president for research, and dean of graduate studies.

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    Quick, who was not part of the expedition, said the magma channels the team discovered appear to be “beautiful textbook examples of how magma can be transported laterally in the Earth’s surface and stored in shallow chambers.”

    Quick’s analysis about the magnitude of the expedition is excerpted below.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    James Quick, a volcanologist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, said the Thrihnukagigur expedition will provide a firsthand look into a part of Earth only roughly known before.

    “We knew from geophysical tools what the plumbing system inside of a volcano looked like, but we only knew it in the crudest way,” said Quick, who wasn’t part of the expedition.

    While inside the Thrihnukagigur magma chamber, about a hundred miles (160 kilometers) away, the expedition team’s biggest risk was gas poisoning, SMU’s Quick said.

    “Whenever you go into magmatic systems like that, you run the risk of exposure to high levels of carbon dioxide” that can well up from Earth’s interior, he said.

    The University of Rhode Island’s Sigurdsson — who was prepared for such a scenario — said the thought did occur to him during his descent.

    “I sniffed the air as I went down to see if I felt light-headed at all,” he said. “I had a

    [gas mask] in my backpack, but we didn’t need it.”
    Read the full story.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smuresearch.com.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    SMU rises in Carnegie Foundation research classification to ‘high research activity’

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    The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has raised SMU’s classification among institutions of higher education, reflecting dramatic growth in the University’s research activity since it was last measured in 2005.

    SMU is now categorized as a research university with “high research activity,” a significant step up from its last assessment in 2005 as a doctoral/research university. The Carnegie Foundation assigns doctorate-granting institutions to categories based on a measure of research activity occurring at a particular period in time, basing these latest classifications on data from 2008-2009.

    “SMU’s rise in the Carnegie classification system is further evidence of the growing quality and research productivity of our faculty. We are building a community of scholars asking and answering important research questions and making an impact on societal issues with their findings,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “In addition to our dedication to outstanding teaching, SMU is becoming increasingly recognized as a vital resource for research in a variety of fields.”

    Increased research activity in step with other SMU advances
    “The designation of SMU as a ‘high research activity’ university by the Carnegie Foundation is an important step in SMU’s evolution as a strong national university,” said Paul Ludden, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “The faculty, staff, and students at SMU can be proud of this, particularly when paired with our rise in national rankings. The Carnegie Classification recognizes the tremendous efforts by the entire faculty at SMU to expand our research portfolio and address the many questions facing North Texas and the world. Recognition should go to Associate Vice President for Research James Quick and his office for their efforts to support the research activities of our faculty and staff.”

    The foundation’s assessment of SMU’s increased research activity occurs as the University is making dramatic advances in other measures of academic progress: U.S. News and World Report magazine gave SMU its highest ranking ever for 2011, placing SMU 56th among 260 “best national universities” — up from 68th in 2010.

    Additionally, SMU’s Cox School of Business is one of only a few schools in the nation to have all three of its MBA programs ranked among the top 15, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Applications to SMU continue to rise, as have average SAT scores for admitted students.

    Carnegie finds SMU research activity recorded an increase
    The Carnegie Foundation analyzed SMU’s research activity in a category of universities that awarded at least 20 research doctorates in 2008-2009, excluding professional degrees such as those leading to the practice of medicine and law. The analysis examined research and development expenditures in science and engineering as well as in non-science and non-engineering fields; science and engineering research staff (postdoctoral appointees and other non-faculty research staff with doctorates); doctoral conferrals in the humanities, in the social sciences, in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, and in other areas such as, business, education, public policy and social work.

    The Carnegie Foundation classification of U.S. accredited colleges and universities uses nationally available data from the U.S. Office of Postsecondary Education, the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the National Science Foundation, and the College Board.

    “SMU’s rise in academic rankings and research productivity is a strong return on the investment of our alumni and other donors who provide support for research, endowed chairs, and graduate programs and fellowships,” said SMU Board of Trustees Chair Caren Prothro. “SMU students at all levels are the beneficiaries of this distinction as their faculty enliven the classroom with their research and engage students in the tradition of academic inquiry.”

    About the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
    Founded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered the following year by an Act of Congress, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research center. Its current mission is to support needed transformations in American education. — Kim Cobb

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    2010 a year of advances for SMU scientific researchers at the vanguard of those helping civilization

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    To book a live or taped interview with an SMU scientist in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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    From picking apart atomic particles at Switzerland’s CERN, to unraveling the mysterious past, to delving into the human psyche, SMU researchers are in the vanguard of those helping civilization understand more and live better.

    With both public and private funding — and the assistance of their students — they are tackling such scientific and social problems as brain diseases, immigration, diabetes, evolution, volcanoes, panic disorders, childhood obesity, cancer, radiation, nuclear test monitoring, dark matter, the effects of drilling in the Barnett Shale, and the architecture of the universe.

    The sun never sets on SMU research
    Besides working in campus labs and within the Dallas-area community, SMU scientists conduct research throughout the world, including at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, and in Angola, the Canary Islands, Mongolia, Kenya, Italy, China, the Congo Basin, Ethiopia, Mexico, the Northern Mariana Islands and South Korea.

    “Research at SMU is exciting and expanding,” says Associate Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies James E. Quick, a professor in the Huffington Department of Earth Sciences. “Our projects cover a wide range of problems in basic and applied research, from the search for the Higgs particle at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN to the search for new approaches to treat serious diseases. The University looks forward to creating increasing opportunities for undergraduates to become involved as research expands at SMU.”

    Funding from public and private sources
    In 2009-10, SMU received $25.6 million in external funding for research, up from $16.5 million the previous year.

    “Research is a business that cannot be grown without investment,” Quick says. “Funding that builds the research enterprise is an investment that will go on giving by enabling the University to attract more federal grants in future years.”

    The funding came from public and private sources, including the National Science Foundation; the National Institutes of Health; the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Energy; the U.S. Geological Survey; Google.org; the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; Texas’ own Hogg Foundation for Mental Health; and the Texas Instruments Foundation.

    Worldwide, the news media are covering SMU research. See some of the coverage. Browse a sample of the research:

    CERN and the origin of our universe
    cern_atlas-thumb.jpgLed by Physics Professor Ryszard Stroynowski, SMU physics researchers belong to the global consortium of scientists investigating the origins of our universe by monitoring high-speed sub-atomic particle collisions at CERN, the world’s largest physics experiment.

    Compounds to fight neurodegenerative diseases
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    Synthetic organic chemist and Chemistry Professor Edward Biehl leads a team developing organic compounds for possible treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s. Preliminary investigation of one compound found it was extremely potent as a strong, nontoxic neuroprotector in mice.

    Hunting dark matter
    Dark%20matterthumb.jpgAssistant Professor of Physics Jodi Cooley belongs to a high-profile international team of experimental particle physicists searching for elusive dark matter — believed to constitute the bulk of the matter in the universe — at an abandoned underground mine in Minnesota, and soon at an even deeper mine in Canada.

    Robotic arms for injured war vets
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    Electrical Engineering Chairman and Professor Marc Christensen is director of a new $5.6 million center funded by the Department of Defense and industry. The center will develop for war veteran amputees a high-tech robotic arm with fiber-optic connectivity to the brain capable of “feeling” sensations.

    Green energy from the Earth’s inner heat
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    The SMU Geothermal Laboratory, under Earth Sciences Professor David Blackwell, has identified and mapped U.S. geothermal resources capable of supplying a green source of commercial power generation, including resources that were much larger than expected under coal-rich West Virginia.

    Exercise can be magic drug for depression and anxiety
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    Psychologist Jasper Smits, director of the Anxiety Research and Treatment Program at SMU, says exercise can help many people with depression and anxiety disorders and should be more widely prescribed by mental health care providers.

    The traditional treatments of cognitive behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy don’t reach everyone who needs them, says Smits, an associate professor of psychology.

    Virtual reality “dates” to prevent victimization
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    SMU psychologists Ernest Jouriles, Renee McDonald and Lorelei Simpson have partnered with SMU Guildhall in developing an interactive video gaming environment where women on virtual-reality dates can learn and practice assertiveness skills to prevent sexual victimization.

    With assertive resistance training, young women have reduced how often they are sexually victimized, the psychologists say.

    Controlled drug delivery agents for diabetes
    brent-sumerlin.thumb.jpgAssociate Chemistry Professor Brent Sumerlin leads a team of SMU chemistry researchers — including postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate students — who fuse the fields of polymer, organic and biochemistries to develop novel materials with composite properties. Their research includes developing nano-scale polymer particles to deliver insulin to diabetics.

    Sumerlin, associate professor of chemistry, was named a 2010-2012 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, which carries a $50,000 national award to support his research.

    Human speed
    Usain_Bolt_Berlin%2Csmall.jpgAn expert on the locomotion of humans and other terrestrial animals, Associate Professor of Applied Physiology and Biomechanics Peter Weyand has analyzed the biomechanics of world-class athletes Usain Bolt and Oscar Pistorius. His research targets the relationships between muscle function, metabolic energy expenditure, whole body mechanics and performance.

    Weyand’s research also looks at why smaller people tire faster. Finding that they have to take more steps to cover the same distance or travel at the same speed, he and other scientists derived an equation that can be used to calculate the energetic cost of walking.

    Pacific Ring of Fire volcano monitoring
    E_crater1%20thumb.jpgAn SMU team of earth scientists led by Professor and Research Dean James Quick works with the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire near Guam on the Northern Mariana Islands. Their research will help predict and anticipate hazards to the islands, the U.S. military and commercial jets.

    The two-year, $250,000 project will use infrasound — in addition to more conventional seismic monitoring — to “listen” for signs a volcano is about to blow.

    Reducing anxiety and asthma
    Mueret%20thumb.jpgA system of monitoring breathing to reduce CO2 intake is proving useful for reducing the pain of chronic asthma and panic disorder in separate studies by Associate Psychology Professor Thomas Ritz and Assistant Psychology Professor Alicia Meuret.

    The two have developed the four-week program to teach asthmatics and those with panic disorder how to better control their condition by changing the way they breathe.

    Breast Cancer community engagement
    breast%20cancer%20100x80.jpgAssistant Psychology Professor Georita Friersen is working with African-American and Hispanic women in Dallas to address the quality-of-life issues they face surrounding health care, particularly during diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

    Friersen also examines health disparities regarding prevention and treatment of chronic diseases among medically underserved women and men.

    Paleoclimate in humans’ first environment
    Cenozoic%20Africa%20150x120%2C%2072dpi.jpgPaleobotanist and Associate Earth Sciences Professor Bonnie Jacobs researches ancient Africa’s vegetation to better understand the environmental and ecological context in which our ancient human ancestors and other mammals evolved.

    Jacobs is part of an international team of researchers who combine independent lines of evidence from various fossil and geochemical sources to reconstruct the prehistoric climate, landscape and ecosystems of Ethiopia in particular. She also identifies and prepares flora fossil discoveries for Ethiopia’s national museum.

    Ice Age humans
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    Anthropology Professor David Meltzer explores the western Rockies of Colorado to understand the prehistoric Folsom hunters who adapted to high-elevation environments during the Ice Age.

    Meltzer, a world-recognized expert on paleoIndians and early human migration from eastern continents to North America, was inducted into the National Academy of Scientists in 2009.

    Understanding evolution
    Cane%20rate%2C%20Uganda%2C%2020%20mya%20400x300.jpgThe research of paleontologist Alisa WInkler focuses on the systematics, paleobiogeography and paleoecology of fossil mammals, in particular rodents and rabbits.

    Her study of prehistoric rodents in East Africa and Texas, such as the portion of jaw fossil pictured, is helping shed more light on human evolution.

    Categories
    Earth & Climate Fossils & Ruins Researcher news

    Italy honors supervolcano fossil discovery; Capellini Medal to SMU’s James Quick

    Award recognizes a foreign geoscientist for significant contribution to Italian geology

    BRIEFLY: Italian geologists in September will award the Capellini Medal to SMU scientist James E. Quick, recognizing discovery of an enormous 280 million-year-old fossil supervolcano in the Italian Alps.

     

    The discovery has sparked worldwide scientific interest and a budding regional geotourism industry. Quick led scientists from the University of Trieste to make the discovery.

    “There will be another supervolcano explosion. We don’t know where,” Quick says. “Sesia Valley could help us to predict the next event.”

    Sesia%20Supervolcano%20300x250.jpg
    SMU geologist James E. Quick in Italy.

    Italian geologists in September will award the Capellini Medal to Southern Methodist University scientist James E. Quick, recognizing the discovery of an enormous 280 million-year-old fossil supervolcano in the Italian Alps with its magmatic plumbing system exposed to an unprecedented depth of 25 kilometers.

    The discovery has sparked not only worldwide scientific interest but also a budding regional geotourism industry.

    Quick and his colleagues at the University of Trieste — Silvano Sinigoi, Gabriella Peressini, Gabriella Dimarchi and Andrea Sbisa — discovered the unique fossil supervolcano in northern Italy’s picturesque Sesia Valley.

    The Italian Geological Society, Italy’s oldest professional organization for geologists, awards its Capellini Medal to foreign geoscientists for a significant contribution to Italian geology.

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    To book a live or taped interview with James Quick in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU’s Office of News and Communications at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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    Quick, who is a professor in the SMU Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, will be the second recipient of the award.

    Supervolcanoes, also referred to as calderas, are enormous craters tens of kilometers in diameter produced by rare and massive explosive eruptions — among nature’s most violent events. Their eruptions are sparked by the explosive release of gas from molten rock, or magma, as it pushes its way to the Earth’s surface.

    The eruptions — which spew hundreds to thousands of cubic kilometers of volcanic ash — generate devastation on a regional scale, possibly even triggering extreme climatic and environmental fluctuations on a global scale.

    Rare uplift reveals supervolcano plumbing
    The Sesia Valley fossil supervolcano lies near the villages of Gattinara and Borgosesia in northern Italy, a rural area known for fine textiles and fine wine — and increasingly the giant caldera.

    As a result of the uplift of the Earth’s crust that formed the Alps, the Sesia Valley fossil reveals the never-before-seen “plumbing” of a supervolcano from the surface to the source of the magma deep within the Earth, says Quick.

    The uplift reveals to an unprecedented depth of 25 kilometers rocks formed by the magma as it moved through the Earth’s crust. The Sesia Valley caldera will advance scientific understanding of active supervolcanoes, such as Yellowstone in the United States, which is the second-largest supervolcano in the world, Quick says. Yellowstone last erupted 630,000 years ago.

    Sesia Valley’s caldera erupted during the “Permian” geologic time period 280 million years ago, says the discovery team. The caldera is more than 13 kilometers in diameter.

    Capellini Medal recognizes scientific exchange
    The Capellini Medal is named for Giovanni Capellini, founder and five-time president of the Geological Society of Italy and strong advocate of international scientific exchange.

    Quick will accept the Capellini Medal at the Italian Geological Society’s annual meeting Sept. 6-8 in Pisa. On Sept. 6 he will make a scientific presentation about the discovery to society members at the conference.

    “What’s new is to see the magmatic plumbing system all the way through the Earth’s crust,” says Quick, who previously served as program coordinator for the Volcano Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey. “Now we want to start to use this discovery. We want to understand the fundamental processes that influence eruptions: Where are magmas stored prior to these giant eruptions? From what depth do the eruptions emanate?”

    A key to understanding active calderas
    Sesia Valley’s unprecedented exposure of magmatic plumbing provides a model for interpreting geophysical profiles and magmatic processes beneath active calderas. The exposure also serves as direct confirmation of the cause-and-effect link between molten rock from the mantle invading Earth’s deep crust and explosive volcanism.

    “It might lead to a better interpretation of monitoring data and improved prediction of eruptions,” says Quick. He is lead author of the scientific article that reported the discovery, “Magmatic plumbing of a large Permian caldera exposed to a depth of 25 km.,” which appeared in the journal “Geology.”

    Calderas, which typically exhibit high levels of seismic and hydrothermal activity, often swell, suggesting movement of fluids beneath the surface.

    “We want to better understand the tell-tale signs that a caldera is advancing to eruption so that we can improve warnings and avoid false alerts,” Quick says.

    “Rosetta Stone” for supervolcanoes may help predict next explosion
    To date, scientists have been able to study exposed caldera “plumbing” from the surface of the Earth to a depth of only about 5 kilometers. Because of that, scientific understanding has been limited to geophysical data and analysis of erupted volcanic rocks. Quick likens the relevance of Sesia Valley to seeing bones and muscle inside the human body for the first time after previously envisioning human anatomy on the basis of a sonogram only.

    “We think of the Sesia Valley find as the ‘Rosetta Stone’ for supervolcanoes because the depth to which rocks are exposed will help us to link the geologic and geophysical data,” Quick says. “This is a very rare spot. The base of the Earth’s crust is turned up on edge. It was created when Africa and Europe began colliding about 30 million years ago and the crust of Italy was turned on end.”

    Besides Yellowstone, other monumental explosions have included Lake Toba on Indonesia’s Sumatra island 74,000 years ago, which is believed to be the largest volcanic eruption on Earth in the past 25 million years.

    Described as a massive climate-changing event, the Lake Toba eruption is thought to have killed an estimated 60 percent of humans alive at the time.

    Another caldera, and one that remains active, Long Valley in California erupted about 760,000 years ago and spread volcanic ash for 600 cubic kilometers. The ash blanketed the southwestern United States, extending from California to Nebraska.

    “There will be another supervolcano explosion. We don’t know where,” Quick says. “Sesia Valley could help us to predict the next event.”

    Quick is also SMU’s associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies. — Margaret Allen

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with James Quick or to book a live or taped interview in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

    Categories
    Earth & Climate Researcher news SMU In The News

    Guam TV: USGS-SMU project monitors Anatahan volcano

    E_crater1.jpg
    Anatahan volcano

    News reporter Tina Chau of Guam News Watch television interviewed SMU vulcanologist James Quick about the danger of nearby Anatahan volcano to neighboring Guam. Quick leads a two-year, $250,000 volcano monitoring project of the U.S. Geological Survey and Southern Methodist University in the Northern Mariana Islands.

    The project, which includes Anatahan volcano, will use infrasound — in addition to more conventional seismic monitoring — to “listen” for signs that a volcano is about to blow. The plan is to beef up monitoring of lava and ash hazards in the Marianas, a U.S. commonwealth near Guam. The island of Guam soon will be the primary base for forward deployment of U.S. military forces in the Western Pacific.

    The USGS-SMU team recently installed equipment on the islands that was originally designed to detect nuclear explosions and enforce the world’s nuclear test-ban treaty, an area of expertise for <a href=”https://blog.smu.edu/research/2006/06/brian_stump.html#more” target=”blank”>SMU scientists</a>. The Marianas’ project is an effort to pioneer the use of the technology to monitor active volcanoes.

    Categories
    Earth & Climate Technology

    Cockpit audio: Listen as volcanic ash plume causes 1989 engine failure of KLM flight 867

    1016225_thumbnail.jpeg
    Eyjafjallajokull erupting

    Floating ash plumes from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano have caused massive disruption to the world’s air traffic, highlighting the danger that volcanic ash plumes pose to aircraft.

    The threat from volcanoes has become more severe as the world’s air traffic has increased, and as more people settle closer to volcanoes, says SMU vulcanologist James Quick, a professor in the Southern Methodist University Huffington Department of Earth Sciences.

    Quick previously served as program coordinator for the USGS Volcano Hazards Program.

    One of the most infamous encounters between a commercial jetliner and a volcano ash plume took place in 1989.
    KLM Flight 867, carrying 231 passengers in a Boeing 747, flew into an ash plume after the eruption of Redoubt volcano in Alaska. According to USGS reports, the volcano spewed enormous clouds of ash thousands of miles into the air and nearly caused the airliner to crash.
    Captured on audio was the frantic conversation between KLM’s pilot and the Anchorage control tower as the aircraft’s engines began flameout. Hear the cockpit audio in this video, as well as Quick’s comments on the danger.
    Volcanic ash plumes can rise to cruise altitudes in a matter of minutes after an eruption, Quick says. Winds carry plumes thousands of miles from the volcanoes and then the plumes are difficult or impossible to distinguish from normal atmospheric clouds.
    Quick and other scientists from Southern Methodist University and the U.S. Geological Survey are pioneering technology designed to detect nuclear explosions and enforce the world’s nuclear test-ban treaty to monitor active volcanoes in the Northern Mariana Islands.
    Read AOL’s coverage: “Determining When The Next One Will Blow“
    See Guam TV’s coverage: “Eye On The Volcano: Could Guam Be The Next Iceland?“
    Quick on Fox News: “Amazing Video Shows Shockwaves Explode From Volcano“
    Stars and Stripes interviews Quick: “Monitoring to track Guam volcanoes“
    Geology.com news: “Volcanoes and Volcanic Eruptions“
    Worldwide from 1970 to 2000 more than 90 commercial jets have flown into clouds of volcanic ash, causing damage to those aircraft, most notably engine failure, according to airplane maker Boeing.
    Volcano monitoring by remote sensing allows USGS scientists to alert the International Civil Aviation Organization’s nine Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers as part of ICAO’s International Airways Volcano Watch program. The centers then can issue early warnings of volcanic ash clouds to pilots.
    The islands are near Guam, which soon will be the primary base for forward deployment of U.S. military forces in the Western Pacific.
    The two-year, $250,000 project will use infrasound — in addition to more conventional seismic monitoring — to “listen” for signs a volcano is about to blow.
    The plan is to beef up monitoring of lava and ash hazards in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth.
    Read more about the project.
    Related links:
    SMU Geophysics: Infrasound and seismo-acoustic sensing
    NASA: Eruption of Anatahan
    USGS: Anatahan volcano
    Smithsonian: Anatahan volcano
    Northern Mariana Islands
    USGS: Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers
    Alaska Volcano Observatory
    James E. Quick
    SMU Huffington Department of Earth Sciences
    Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences
    Categories
    Earth & Climate Researcher news Slideshows Technology

    USGS-SMU volcano monitoring targets hazard threat to Marianas, U.S. military, commercial jets

    Technology designed to detect nuclear explosions and enforce the world’s nuclear test-ban treaty now will be pioneered to monitor active volcanoes in the Northern Mariana Islands near Guam. The island of Guam soon will be the primary base for forward deployment of U.S. military forces in the Western Pacific.

    The two-year, $250,000 project of the U.S. Geological Survey and Southern Methodist University will use infrasound — in addition to more conventional seismic monitoring — to “listen” for signs a volcano is about to blow. The plan is to beef up monitoring of lava and ash hazards in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth.

    The archipelago’s active volcanoes threaten not only residents of the island chain and the U.S. military, but also passenger airlines and cargo ships.

    The USGS project calls for installing infrasound devices alongside more traditional volcano monitoring equipment — seismometers and global positioning systems.

    SMU Researcher to study human-fire-climate interactions

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    To book a live or taped interview with James E. Quick in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email SMU News at news@smu.edu.

    News Coverage

    Related links

  • SMU Geophysics: Infrasound and seismo-acoustic sensing
  • NASA: Eruption of Anatahan
  • USGS: Anatahan volcano
  • Smithsonian: Anatahan volcano
  • Northern Mariana Islands
  • USGS: Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers
  • James E. Quick
  • SMU Huffington Department of Earth Sciences
  • Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences

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    • Scientists at SMU, which the USGS named the prime cooperator on the project, will install the equipment and then monitor the output via remote sensing. The project is a scientific partnership of the USGS, SMU and the Marianas government.

    An infrasound experiment
    Infrasound hasn’t been widely used to monitor volcanoes, according to noted volcano expert and SMU geology professor James E. Quick, who is project chief. Infrasound can’t replace seismometers but may help scientists interpret volcanic signals, Quick said.

    “This is an experiment to see how much information we can coax out of the infrasound signal,” he said. “My hope is that we’ll see some distinctive signals in the infrasound that will allow us to discriminate the different kinds of eruptive styles — from effusive events that produce lava flows, or small explosive events we call vulcanian eruptions, to the large ‘Plinian’ events of particular concern to aviation. They are certain to have some characteristic sonic signature.”

    SMU geologists in recent decades pioneered the use of infrasound to monitor nuclear test-ban compliance, and they continue to advance the technology. For the USGS project, they’ll install equipment on three of the Marianas’ 15 islands. In the event magma begins forcing its way upward, breaking rocks underground and ultimately erupting, seismometers will measure ground vibrations throughout the process, GPS will capture any subtle changes or deformities in the surface of the Earth, and infrasound devices will record sound waves at frequencies too low to be heard by humans. Infrasound waves move slower than the speed of light but can travel for hundreds of miles and easily penetrate the earth as well as other material objects.

    Volcanoes active on nine islands
    Nine Mariana islands have active volcanoes. On average, the archipelago experiences about one eruption every five years, said Quick, who was previously program coordinator of the USGS Volcano Hazards Program.

    Most recently a volcano erupted in 2005 on the island of Anatahan, the largest historical eruption of that volcano, according to the USGS. It expelled some 50 million cubic meters of ash, the USGS reported, noting at the time that the volcanic plume was “widespread over the western Philippine Sea, more than 1300 nautical miles west of Anatahan.” A volcano that erupted on the island of Pagan in 1981 has been showing many signs of unrest, Quick said.

    Besides the USGS volcano project, SMU has been active in the Marianas through a memorandum of agreement to help the local government search for alternative energy sources, in particular geothermal.

    The Marianas volcano project is part of a larger USGS program that is investing $15.2 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to boost existing monitoring of high-risk volcanic areas in partnership with universities and state agencies nationwide.

    US military deploying to nearby Guam
    In targeting the Marianas, the USGS cited the evacuation of residents from the northern islands after the 1981 eruption on Pagan, as well as the threat to the main island of Saipan and to nearby Guam. A U.S. territory, Guam is expected to be home to about 40,000 U.S. military and support personnel by 2014, including 20,000 Marines and dependents redeployed from Okinawa. The Marines will use the island as a rapid-response platform for both military and humanitarian operations. The military also has proposed using the Northern Marianas for military exercises.

    The USGS cited also the threat of volcanic ash plumes to commercial and military planes. Air routes connect Saipan and Guam to Asia and the rest of the Pacific Rim, as well as Northeast Asia to Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and New Zealand.

    Worldwide from 1970 to 2000 more than 90 commercial jets have flown into clouds of volcanic ash, causing damage to those aircraft, most notably engine failure, according to airplane maker Boeing.

    Volcanic ash hazard to aircraft
    Volcanic ash plumes can rise to cruise altitudes in a matter of minutes after an eruption, Quick said. Winds carry plumes thousands of miles from the volcanoes, he explained, and then the plumes are difficult or impossible to distinguish from normal atmospheric clouds.

    Monitoring by remote sensing allows USGS scientists to alert the International Civil Aviation Organization’s nine Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers as part of ICAO’s International Airways Volcano Watch program. The centers then can issue early warnings of volcanic ash clouds to pilots.

    “Monitoring on the ground gives early warning when an eruption begins, as well as an indication that an eruption might be imminent,” Quick said. “The contribution by the USGS and its university partners for volcano monitoring is to provide that earliest warning — or even a pre-eruption indication — that a volcano is approaching eruption so that the volcanic ash advisory centers can get the word out and alerts can be issued.”

    The USGS objective is for infrasound on Saipan, four seismometers on Anatahan, which currently has only one functioning seismometer, two seismometers on Sarigan, and GPS on Anatahan, Sarigan and Saipan.

    Safer for residents
    Improved monitoring, Quick said, even might allow evacuated islanders to return to their homes — especially understandable for the island of Pagan, given its freshwater lakes, lush forests, black and white sand beaches and abundant fishing.

    “A lot of people would like to move back, but it’s considered unsafe absent monitoring,” he said. “If we can establish monitoring networks on these islands, then I think it becomes more practical for people to think about returning. Properly monitored, one should be able to give adequate warning so that people could evacuate.”

    Quick is a professor in the SMU Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences as well as associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies at SMU. — Margaret Allen

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smuresearch.com. Follow SMU Research on Twitter, @smuresearch.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Earth & Climate Fossils & Ruins Researcher news

    Nat Geo: Rare fossil supervolcano discovery in Italian Alps captures attention

    Basalt%20Yellowstone.jpg SMU geologist James E. Quick led a team of geologists that discovered a rare fossil supervolcano in the Sesia Valley of the Italian Alps.

    Now news journalists from internet, radio, television and newspaper outlets are interviewing Quick and his team, which was back at the site this September for further research. The team made the discovery two years ago and announced it in July. The discovery will advance scientific understanding of active supervolcanoes, like Yellowstone, which is the second-largest supervolcano in the world and which last erupted 630,000 years ago.

    Sesia Valley’s unprecedented exposure of magmatic plumbing provides a model for interpreting geophysical profiles and magmatic processes beneath active calderas. The exposure also serves as direct confirmation of the cause-and-effect link between molten rock moving through the Earth’s crust and explosive volcanism.

    James%20Quick.jpg Quick is a professor in the SMU Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences as well as SMU associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies.

    Co-authors of the report are Silvano Sinigoi, Gabriella Peressini and Gabriella Demarchi, all of the Universita di Trieste; John L. Wooden, Stanford University; and Andrea Sbisa, Universita di Trieste.

    Excerpt from the Oct. 1, 2009 National Geographic News article “‘Supervolcano’ with twisted innards found in Italy”:

    By Ker Than

    Long before Vesuvius blew its top and smothered Pompeii, Italy was rocked by a “supervolcano” eruption so powerful it possibly blocked out the sun and triggered prolonged global cooling, scientists say.

    The now fossilized supervolcano last erupted about 280 million years ago, leaving behind an 8-mile-wide (13-kilometer-wide) caldera, which was recently discovered in the Italian Alps’ Sesia Valley.

    What’s more, seismic forces have twisted the volcano’s interior, giving scientists an unprecedented glimpse deep into the feature’s explosive plumbing — and a better shot at deciphering when the next one might blow.

    Click here to read the full story.

    Excerpt from the Sept. 24, 2009 MSNBC.COM/LiveScience.com article “Supervolcano plumbing revealed”:

    090924-supervolcano-02.hmedium.jpg

    By Rachael Rettner

    The fossilized remains of a supervolcano that erupted some 280 million years ago in the Italian Alps are giving geologists a first-time glimpse at the deep “plumbing system” that brings molten rock from far underground to the Earth’s surface.

    James E. Quick of Southern Methodist University in Texas and his team discovered the “fossil,” or extinct, supervolcano in the Alps’ Sesia Valley two years ago, but they are just now reporting the results after careful study.

    The researchers estimate the ancient eruption sent about 1,102 cubic kilometers of volcanic ash into the atmosphere. For comparison, the supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park, which erupted 630,000 years ago, produced about 2,204 cubic kilometers.

    Click here to read the full story.

    Other news coverage:
    video.jpg Discovery Channel: Daily Planet at 3:41 into the video
    geology.com
    ScienceDaily.com
    Corriere della Sera
    La Stampa.com
    physorg.com
    livescience.com
    redorbit.com
    dailyindia.com
    scientificcomputing.com
    Fox News

    Related links:
    National Geographic: When Yellowstone explodes
    Discovery Channel: Supervolcano
    BBC: Supervolcano
    USGS: Yellowstone Volcano Observatory FAQ
    Geology: “Magmatic plumbing of a large Permian caldera exposed to a depth of 25 km.”
    ScienceDaily.com: Magmatic plumbing of a large Permian caldera exposed to 25 km. depth
    James E. Quick
    SMU Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences
    Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences

    Categories
    Earth & Climate Fossils & Ruins

    “Rosetta Stone” of supervolcanoes discovered in Italian Alps, reveals rare plumbing

    Fossil supervolcano in Sesia Valley, more than 200 million years old, will advance understanding of nature’s most violent eruptions

    Long%20Bishop%20Tuff.jpg
    “Bishop Tuff” at Long Valley resulted from a volcanic event that erupted 140 cubic miles of magma 760,000 years ago. (Photo: USGS)

    Scientists have found the “Rosetta Stone” of supervolcanoes, those giant pockmarks in the Earth’s surface produced by rare and massive explosive eruptions that rank among nature’s most violent events.

    The eruptions produce devastation on a regional scale — and possibly trigger climatic and environmental effects at a global scale.

    A fossil supervolcano has been discovered in the Italian Alps’ Sesia Valley by a team led by James E. Quick, a geology professor at Southern Methodist University. The discovery will advance scientific understanding of active supervolcanoes, like Yellowstone, which is the second-largest supervolcano in the world and which last erupted 630,000 years ago.

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    A rare uplift of the Earth’s crust in the Sesia Valley reveals for the first time the actual “plumbing” of a supervolcano from the surface to the source of the magma deep within the Earth, according to a new research article reporting the discovery. The uplift reveals to an unprecedented depth of 25 kilometers the tracks and trails of the magma as it moved through the Earth’s crust.

    Supervolcanoes, historically called calderas, are enormous craters tens of kilometers in diameter. Their eruptions are sparked by the explosive release of gas from molten rock or “magma” as it pushes its way to the Earth’s surface.

    Calderas erupt hundreds to thousands of cubic kilometers of volcanic ash. Explosive events occur every few hundred thousand years. Supervolcanoes have spread lava and ash vast distances and scientists believe they may have set off catastrophic global cooling events at different periods in the Earth’s past.

    Sesia Valley fossil caldera reveals rare magmatic plumbing
    Sesia Valley’s caldera erupted during the “Permian” geologic time period, say the discovery scientists. It is more than 13 kilometers in diameter.

    “What’s new is to see the magmatic plumbing system all the way through the Earth’s crust,” says Quick, who previously served as program coordinator for the Volcano Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey. “Now we want to start to use this discovery. We want to understand the fundamental processes that influence eruptions: Where are magmas stored prior to these giant eruptions? From what depth do the eruptions emanate?”

    Sesia Valley’s unprecedented exposure of magmatic plumbing provides a model for interpreting geophysical profiles and magmatic processes beneath active calderas. The exposure also serves as direct confirmation of the cause-and-effect link between molten rock moving through the Earth’s crust and explosive volcanism.

    “It might lead to a better interpretation of monitoring data and improved prediction of eruptions,” says Quick, lead author of the research article reporting the discovery. The article, “Magmatic plumbing of a large Permian caldera exposed to a depth of 25 km.,” appears in the July issue of the peer-reviewed journal “Geology.”

    Deep fossil plumbing can advance understanding of eruptions
    Calderas, which typically exhibit high levels of seismic and hydrothermal activity, often swell, suggesting movement of fluids beneath the surface.

    “We want to better understand the tell-tale signs that a caldera is advancing to eruption so that we can improve warnings and avoid false alerts,” Quick says.

    To date, scientists have been able to study exposed caldera “plumbing” from the surface of the Earth to a depth of only 5 kilometers. Because of that, scientific understanding has been limited to geophysical data and analysis of erupted volcanic rocks. Quick likens the relevance of Sesia Valley to seeing bones and muscle inside the human body for the first time after previously envisioning human anatomy on the basis of a sonogram only.

    “We think of the Sesia Valley find as the ‘Rosetta Stone’ for supervolcanoes because the depth to which rocks are exposed will help us to link the geologic and geophysical data,” Quick says. “This is a very rare spot. The base of the Earth’s crust is turned up on edge. It was created when Africa and Europe began colliding about 30 million years ago and the crust of Italy was turned on end.”

    Scientists have documented fewer than two dozen caldera eruptions in last 1 million years
    British researchers introduced the term “supervolcano” in the last 10 years. Scientists have documented fewer than two dozen caldera eruptions in the last 1 million years.

    Besides Yellowstone, other monumental explosions have included Lake Toba on Indonesia’s Sumatra island 74,000 years ago, which is believed to be the largest volcanic eruption on Earth in the past 25 million years.

    Described as a massive climate-changing event, the Lake Toba eruption is thought to have killed an estimated 60% of humans alive at the time.

    Another caldera, and one that remains active, Long Valley in California erupted about 760,000 years ago and spread volcanic ash for 600 cubic kilometers. The ash blanketed the southwestern United States, extending from California to Nebraska.

    “There will be another supervolcano explosion,” Quick says. “We don’t know where. Sesia Valley could help us to predict the next event.”

    Quick is a professor in the SMU Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences as well as SMU associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies. Co-authors of the report are Silvano Sinigoi, Gabriella Peressini and Gabriella Demarchi, all of the Universita di Trieste; John L. Wooden, Stanford University; and Andrea Sbisa, Universita di Trieste. — Margaret Allen

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

    News coverage:
    video.jpg Discovery Channel: Daily Planet at 3:41 into the video
    National Geographic News
    MSNBC.COM/LiveScience.com
    geology.com
    ScienceDaily.com
    Corriere della Sera
    La Stampa.com
    physorg.com
    livescience.com
    redorbit.com
    dailyindia.com
    scientificcomputing.com
    Fox News

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    Stroynowski with Large Hadron Collider model

    cern_model.jpg

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    To book a live or taped interview with Ryszard Stroynowski in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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    At 10 p.m. on a Saturday night in April, a handful of SMU scientists continue working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, called by its acronym CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland. A scattering of lights illuminates the windows in several buildings along the Rue Einstein, where researchers from dozens of countries and hundreds of institutions are combining their expertise on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — the biggest physics experiment in history.

    Ryszard Stroynowski, chair and professor of physics at SMU, points out each building in succession to a group of visitors. “By October, every light in every one of these windows will be on all night,” he says.

    By then, the LHC is expected to be fully tested and ready to work. When the largest particle accelerator ever constructed becomes fully operational, it will hurl protons at one another with precision to a fraction of a micron and with velocities approaching the speed of light. These conditions will allow physicists to recreate and record conditions at the origin of the universe — and possibly discover the mechanisms that cause particles in space to acquire their differences in mass.

    For Stroynowski, who has worked for almost 20 years to help make the experiment a reality, words seem inadequate to capture the anticipation surrounding its imminent activation.

    “It is somewhat like that of a 6-year-old kid on Christmas Eve, waiting for Santa Claus,” he says. “The time stretches almost unbearably long.”

    The LHC will be the site of several experiments in high-energy physics with high-profile collaborators such as Harvard and Duke and national laboratories including Argonne, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley and Fermilab. None of the experiments is more imposing than ATLAS, one of two general-purpose particle detectors in the LHC array. At about 42 meters long and weighing 7,000 tons, ATLAS fills a 12-story cavern beneath the CERN facilities in Meyrin, Switzerland, just outside Geneva. It is a tight fit: ATLAS overwhelms even the vast space it occupies. A catwalk, not quite wide enough for two people to stand side by side, encircles the device and allows an occasional dizzying view into its works.

    Size Matters
    The detector’s scale will help to focus and release the maximum amount of energy from each subatomic collision. A series of bar codes on each of its parts ensure that the detector’s components, whether palm-sized or room-sized, are aligned and locked with the perfect precision required for operability. Scientists from 37 countries and regions and 167 institutions participated in its design and construction.

    As U.S. coordinator for the literal and experimental heart of the ATLAS detector — its Liquid Argon Calorimeter — Stroynowski is helping to finalize the last details of the detector’s operation in anticipation of the extensive testing, scheduled to begin in August. He leads an SMU delegation that includes Fredrick Olness, professor, and Robert Kehoe and Jingbo Ye, assistant professors in the SMU Department of Physics in Dedman College.

    SMU scientists are completing work on the computer software interfaces that will control the device, which measures energy deposited by the flying debris of smashed atoms. A cadre of University graduate students and postdoctoral fellows also is working on data processing for ATLAS’ 220,000 channels of electronic signals, an information stream larger than the Internet traffic of a small country.

    An estimated 53,000 visitors crowded the CERN facilities on the organization’s “Day of Open Doors” April 6, eager for a glimpse of the work that CNN International has named one of the “Seven Wonders of the Modern World.”

    At the beginning of May, the areas were sealed off in preparation for the first round of testing. Computers will remotely control the ATLAS experiment, which will not be touched by human hands because of the radiation released by the atomic collisions. Safety is the reason for the elaborate lockdown procedure involving more than 80 keys, each coded to a different individual’s biometric data. The system is designed to lock out any use of the device if even one key is unaccounted for.

    “ATLAS has been built to run for at least 15 years with no direct human intervention,” Stroynowski says. “It will be as if we have shot it into space.”

    Currently, the initial test run is scheduled to begin Sept. 1.

    The Waiting Game
    Once data start streaming in, the game of expectations management begins. The ATLAS detector will produce a staggering amount of raw information from each collision, and the most useful bits will be few and far between. Out of 40 million events per second, the researchers hope to pinpoint 10 events a year. The challenge seems a little like looking for a needle in a haystack the size of Mars.

    “We may get what we’re looking for on the first try, or it may take us three years to find anything we can use,” Stroynowski says. “A big part of our job is to make sure we’re ready when we do.”

    Among those entrusted with that task are graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in SMU’s Physics Department, including Rozmin Daya, Kamile Dindar, Ana Firan, Daniel Goldin, Haleh Hadavand, Julia Hoffman, Yuriy Ilchenko, Renat Ishmukhametov, David Joffe, Azeddine Kasmi, Zhihua Liang, Peter Renkel, Ryan Rios and Pavel Zarzhitsky.

    “I came to SMU for postdoctoral work specifically because of the department’s involvement in the ATLAS project,” says David Joffe, a native of Canada who received his Ph.D. in physics from Northwestern University. “For particle physicists, being part of this is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

    For Julia Hoffman, who received her doctorate from Soltans Institute for Nuclear Studies in her native Poland, that opportunity has meant expanding her own horizons.

    “I learn new, and I mean really new, things every day,” she says. “Different programming languages, different views on physics analysis. I’m learning how it all works from the inside. I work with students and gain new responsibilities. This kind of experience means better chances to find a permanent position that will be as exciting as this one.”

    The SMU group works with formulae based in Monte Carlo methods, the “probabilistic models that use repeated random sampling of vast quantities of numbers” to impose a semblance of order on the chaos created when atoms forcibly disintegrate. Results are highly detailed simulations of known physics that will help make visible the tiny deviations researchers hope to detect when ATLAS begins taking data.

    These unprecedented computing challenges also have become an impetus for new SMU research initiatives. James Quick, SMU associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies, hopes to contain ATLAS’ vast data-processing requirements with a large-capability computing center located on campus.

    Quick visited CERN in April to discuss the details with Stroynowski and other key personnel. The proposed center would provide a first-priority data processing infrastructure for SMU physicists and a powerful new resource for researchers in other schools and departments. During the inevitable LHC downtime, as beams are calibrated and software is debugged, the SMU center’s computing power would be available for campus researchers in every field across engineering, the sciences and business.

    “The ATLAS experiment presents an opportunity for the University to step up in a big way, and one that will benefit the entire campus,” Quick says.

    He envisions a data processing farm of 1,000 central processing units, each connected to an Internet backbone to allow the fastest possible return on SMU’s ATLAS input. Speed and access are the keys, Stroynowski says, paraphrasing Winston Churchill: “The winner gets the oyster, and the runner-up gets the shell.”

    Those who have made their careers in high-energy physics are well aware of the stakes involved in the LHC, he adds, and being the first to process certain data could separate a potential Nobel Prize winner from those who will make the same discovery a day late.

    As a group, high-energy physicists are accustomed to taking the long view — and for SMU researchers, the long view has been especially helpful. The ghost of the Superconducting Super Collider, which would have made its home in North Texas, still shadows the recent triumphs at CERN.

    The SSC brought Stroynowski to the University, and its 1993 demise through congressional defunding was the impetus for the LHC project. The questions haven’t gone away because the experiment has changed venues, Stroynowski says. Yet even now, as the first test nears, his anticipation is tempered by caution.

    “I don’t think we’ll get a beam all the way around [the LHC tunnel] on the first try,” he says.

    Indeed, the subject of whether scientists will achieve a beam collision during the first tests or after additional calibration has been the subject of a few lively wagers.

    “I think we’ll have to wait at least a few more weeks for that milestone,” he adds. “But in this case, I’ll be more than happy to be wrong.” — Kathleen Tibbetts

    SMU has an uplink facility on campus for live TV, radio or online interviews. To speak with Dr. Biehl or Dr. D’Mello or to book them in the SMU studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650 or UT Dallas Office of Media Relations at 972-883-4321.

    SMU is a private university in Dallas where nearly 11,000 students benefit from the national opportunities and international reach of SMU’s seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    Categories
    Researcher news Student researchers

    Faculty mentor student researchers in both lab, field

    Through their research, SMU professors not only bring new information and insights to their classrooms, but also serve as role models and collaborators to students who conduct research in their laboratories across campus.

    Maintaining a strong research program is significant for a number of reasons, says James Quick, associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies.

    “Research programs serve as a recruiting tool that helps a university attract the best students,” Quick says. “Research also increases the diversity of ideas on campus and creates opportunities for different departments to work together on interdisciplinary projects.”

    DeTemple.jpg

    In support of SMU’s commitment to research at both faculty and student levels, which is part of the University’s long-term strategic plan, Quick is seeking to more than triple SMU’s annual research spending to $50 million.

    He emphasizes that the top 50 universities in the country, as ranked by “U.S. News & World Report,” each conduct more than $50 million a year in research.

    “The great universities of the 21st century will spend significant amounts of funds on research,” Quick says. From anthropology to engineering to religious studies, SMU undergraduate and graduate students and their faculty mentors are discovering new knowledge and playing an important role in higher education through their contributions to research.

    Lessons From Bolivia
    In summer 2007, SMU Seniors Erin Eidenshink and Katie Josephson spent eight weeks in Cochabamba, Bolivia’s third-largest city, researching gender roles and how they affect economic development programs in that country. Eidenshink and Josephson received financial support from the Richter International Fellowship Program, which funds independent research abroad for students in SMU’s Honors Program.

    Jill DeTemple, assistant professor of religious studies in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, served as their adviser on the research. DeTemple, whose own research examines the effects of faith-based development programs on religious identity in rural Ecuador, spent a semester helping the two students develop a research proposal. She later remained in contact with them by e-mail while they were in Bolivia.

    “I am immensely proud of what they accomplished,” DeTemple says. “They applied knowledge that they learned in the classroom and developed research skills. They have made the transition from being consumers of knowledge to being creators of knowledge.”

    Now a book chapter written by the students and DeTemple, describing the messages that faith-based organizations communicate about gender roles, has been accepted into an anthology under review for publication.

    “Their work highlights the ways in which most development organizations and scholars presume that men and women relate to households and family life,” DeTemple says.

    “While we have noted that the evangelical movement in Latin America has brought men in closer relationship to household life, Katie and Erin point out that this has not necessarily freed women to become more active in the public sector, nor has it led to gender parity in the household,” she says. “I learned a lot from their research, and will look at gender roles a little bit differently when I do my research.”

    DeTemple says she also has enjoyed interesting conversations with Eidenshink and Josephson.

    “Because no one else on campus is doing research in my area, I don’t have these kinds of conversations unless I go to a professional conference,” DeTemple says. “They’re working in the field now. We talk as researcher to researcher.”

    Eidenshink says that working with DeTemple and conducting the research “empowered me to draw my own conclusions.”

    Son%20Rissing.jpgIn addition, DeTemple “challenged us to look at the research that already had been done and then to analyze it based on what we had seen,” says Josephson, a President’s Scholar. “We found that the facts were complex, not simple and straightforward,” she says.

    From cheerleader to colleague
    Christiana Rissing, a Ph.D. student in SMU’s Chemistry Department, studies the interaction of dendrimers based on a tetravinylsilane core with metals like copper, platinum and silver. Any interesting properties that develop “could prove useful for medical and electronic applications,” she explains.

    If she has any questions, Rissing can call on Associate Professor of Chemistry David Son, her adviser. She began studying with Son as an undergraduate and stayed at SMU to pursue her Ph.D. because she enjoys working with him.
    David Son advises Christiana Rissing.

    “In the lab, we’re always teasing Son about his favorite line: ‘It looks promising,'” Rissing says. “He always looks for and finds the silver lining. I can work on a stubborn experiment for weeks, and I start questioning my technique. Even when the results look bad, he will look at all the data and find something that ‘looks promising.’ It makes me want to go that extra step, read that extra paper or search through the literature in case I’ve missed something.”

    As a Ph.D. student, Rissing works independently, Son says.

    “I treat her more like a colleague now. But, in the beginning, with any student, you have to be a cheerleader,” he says. “When I was a graduate student, more than half of my reactions didn’t work. A big part of my role is to be an encourager.”

    The research opportunityphysicist.jpg
    Junior Amy Hand is writing a computer program to design a solenoid magnet that students will use in the physics lab to study the properties of “muons,” electron-like radioactive particles produced in Earth’s upper atmosphere. A solenoid magnet is made by wrapping copper wire in a pattern around a specially shaped mechanical frame to produce a uniform magnetic field within the frame’s interior.

    Hand, a President’s Scholar, chose to study at SMU because of research opportunities made available to undergraduates, she says.

    “Working with a professor who has so much more experience and can guide me through a project is a huge benefit,” Hand says.

    Amy Hand learns the ropes in the physics lab
    from Tom Coan.

    Tom Coan, associate professor of physics and Hand’s adviser, helps students to develop a broad set of skills, from learning how to solder to selecting and purchasing mechanical and electrical components.

    “There are a lot of practical things and a bewildering assortment of things that students have to learn to be efficient in a lab,” Coan says.

    Hand researches, tests and refines the various components of her project, working closely with Coan to devise solutions as issues arise.

    “The best way to learn the nitty-gritty details is elbow to elbow with a mentor,” Coan says. “It’s like an apprenticeship. You have to invest a fair amount of your time working with a student before you see any return, but the work can be beneficial to both of us.”

    Planting The Seed Of Research
    Stegall%2C%20Willis%2C%20Krueger.jpgSophomore Jason Stegall spent last summer in the Laser Micromachining Laboratory of the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering using a laser process called micromachining to cut tiny channels on material that can be used to make artificial bones.

    “I was testing to see how strong the laser needed to be and how many pulses were required per task,” Stegall says.

    Jason Stegall (center) in the lab with David
    Willis (left) and Paul Krueger.

    A National Science Foundation grant awarded to David Willis and Paul Krueger, associate professors of mechanical engineering, supported Stegall’s research. The three-year grant funds summer research opportunities for nine undergraduate students through 2009.

    Through such grants the federal government is trying to encourage more students to conduct research and go to graduate school in engineering and the sciences, Willis says.

    “Part of the reason more students don’t go to graduate school is that they don’t know what researchers do, and don’t understand all the opportunities that are available to researchers,” he says.

    Stegall says he eventually wants to become a college professor and do research and development for the automotive or aerospace industries.

    Rick%2C%20Aland%2CWolf.jpg

    Torrey Rick’s research involves excavating sites as old as 10,000 years on the Channel Islands off the California coast.

    “The work I do is extremely collaborative,” says Rick, assistant professor of anthropology. “Students are an important part of this work, helping to complete field and laboratory analysis and often providing fresh ideas and perspectives. Conducting research also benefits students by showing them how to navigate the world of scholarly publication. Ultimately, doing research and publishing papers can help them secure an academic position.” – Joy Hart

    Torrey Rick (center) and Ph.D. students Amanda Aland
    and Christopher Wolff.

    Related links:
    Jill DeTemple
    David Son
    Tom Coan
    David Willis
    Paul Krueger
    Torrey Rick
    Office of Research Administration
    SMU Research: Celebrating and Investing in Research at SMU