Dr. Massimo Faggioli, Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of “Council Vatican II: Bibliographical overview 2007-2010,” published in Cristianesimo nella Storia 32 (2011/2), 755-791.

Dr. David Jamieson, Organization Learning and Development Department, College of Applied Professional Studies, presented at the Minnesota State Conference of the Society for Human Resource Management on the “Evolving Role of the Strategic Business Partner” and is the author of an article, “Managing Use of Self for Masterful Facilitation,” published in the Training & Development Journal. He also is scheduled to present later this month at the National Organization Development Network Conference on “Integrating OD with Strategic HR: The Ultimate Strategic Business Partner.”

Dr. David Kelley and Catherine Hansen, Geography Department, College of Arts and Sciences, attended the 2011 GIS/LIS Consortium annual conference, Oct. 6-7,  in St. Cloud, Minn. Senior Alex Boie received a consortium undergraduate scholarship award during the awards breakfast. Kelley, in conjunction with co-author Dr. Paul Lorah, Geography Department, College of Arts and Sciences, presented their research, “The USA’s Most PITA (Pain-in-the-A#%) Geocache.” Kelley, chair of the Scholarship committee, served as judge for the undergraduate and graduate student competitions.

Dr. Anne Klejment, History Department, College of Arts and Sciences, and Father David Smith, former Theology Department faculty member and founder of the Justice and Peace Studies program at St. Thomas, were appointed to the advisory committee of the Friends of the Dorothy Day Guild. The Friends Guild supports the canonization of Dorothy Day through prayer and in other ways. 

Dr. Ray MacKenzie, English Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of a new translation of Émile Zola’s 1885 novel, Germinal. This edition includes illustrations and an introduction by Zola scholar David Baguley, and it is the first to include an English translation of Zola’s research notes for the novel. More information is available at the website of the publisher, Hackett.

T. Dean Maines, president of the Veritas Institute of the Opus College of Business, wrote the chapter “Self-Assessment and Improvement Process for Organizations,” and Dr. Kenneth Goodpaster, Koch Endowed Chair in Business Ethics at the Opus College of Business, wrote the chapter “Corporate Conscience,” both of which appear in Palgrave Macmillan’s The Palgrave Handbook of Spirituality and Business, edited by Luk Bouckaert and Laszlo Zsolnai.

Faculty members and students from the geology and biology departments, College of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Engineering presented papers at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, held Oct. 9-12, in Minneapolis. Presenters included:

• Dr. John Abraham (presenter and co-author), School of Engineering, College of Arts and Sciences, “The Climate Science Rapid Response Team – A Model for Science Communication”
• Dr. Kevin Theissen, Geology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, “What Do Our Students Know About Climate Change?” (presenter and author), and “A Post-Settlement Transition Towards Phytoplankton Dominance in Shallow West-Central Minnesota Lakes” (presenter and co-author)
• Matthew Hendrickson (presenter) and Nikki Strong (co-author), “Geological Map of the Kuna Yala, Panama”
• John McDermott (presenter and co-author) and Strong (co-author), “Rates of Coastal Erosion and Aggradation for the Panama Viejo UNESCO World Heritage Site”
• Jillian Schleicher (presenter and co-author), and Strong (co-author), “Meteogenic Travertine Deposition Through Varied Flow Velocities: A Model of the Fossil Creek Travertine System in Verde, Arizona”
• Dr. Jennifer McGuire, Geology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, (presenter and co-author), “Using Push-Pull Tests to Evaluate Fate and Transport of Mixed Hydrocarbon Plumes (Betex and Ethanol) in Aquifier and Wetland Systems”
• Dan Probst (presenter and co-author) with Dr. Kyle Zimmer, Biology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, Ann Goding and Leah Domine (co-authors), “Consumption of Organic Carbon From Lake Sediments by Detritivorous Fish: Implications for Carbon Sequestration in Shallow Lakes”
• Domine (presenter and co-author), with Zimmer (co-author), “Potential Impact of Mixing and Stratification Patterns on Carbon Burial in Macrophyte- and Phytoplankton-dominated Shallow Lakes”
• Sean Hagen (presenter and co-author), with Theissen, Ben Czeck, Will Hobbs and Charles Bruchu (co-authors), “A Multi-Century Biogeochemical Record From a Small Shallow Lake: Evidence of a Successful Conservation Effort”
• Ana Maria Schanzenbach (presenter and co-author), with Dr. Melissa Lamb and Dr. Thomas Hickson, Geology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, and Brett Tobin (co-authors), “Late Miocene Fossil Lakes of the Lake Mead Region: Implications for Paleogeography and Transtensional Faulting During Basin and Range Extension”
• Rachel Rockwell (presenter and co-author), with Zimmer and Domine (co-authors), “Effects of Water Depth, Type of Primary Producer, and Variation Among Lakes on Decomposition Rates in Shallow Lakes”
• Jessie Kopp (presenter and co-author) and Hickson (co-author), “A Superbly Exposed Late Miocene Lake Margin in the Upper Horse Spring Formation of Southern Nevada: Paleoenvironmental Controls on Microbial Carbonate Deposition in a Hypersaline Lake System”

During the summer, the International Congress of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) convened in Vancouver, B.C. Over 3,000 mathematicians attended this tri-annual conference. Among the many features of this year’s congress was the addition of ICIAM TV. Videos of plenary lectures, interviews with delegates and conference highlights were among the items broadcast at the convention center, at conference hotels and on the ICIAM website. The website also featured video vignettes of 10 mathematics departments in North America and the United Kingdom. These departments were chosen because of the exciting work they are doing in applied mathematics. The Mathematics Department at the University of St. Thomas was one of the departments featured with a video. We have received copies of the video and a version has been placed on the UST video streaming server. The film details several activities that are ongoing in the mathematics department and, in particular, highlights work done by our students.