For Release
June 28, 2004

Faculty keep busy during summer months

           Cadets may be sleeping in and lounging on the beaches this summer, but their faculty are hard at work on research, books and personal and professional development.

         Here's what some of them have told us they are working on this summer:

Dr. Terry M. Mays, assistant professor of political science
           I just had the following article published: "Peacekeeping and Human Rights on the African Continent: The Issue of State Sovereignty vs. Humanitarian Intervention" in the Journal of Development Alternatives and Area Studies.          

Dr. Terry Mays (left) with pilots Doug Yates (center) and Howard Davis (right). Both pilots flew tactical recon missions over Cuba during the Cuban missle crisis. Photo provided.

           Recently, I attended a
reunion of RF-101 pilots as part of a project on the Cuban missile crisis. I interviewed seven pilots who flew tactical recon missions over Cuba during the crisis to better understand the tactical aspects of American involvement in the Cuban missile crisis.

           I also attended a course known as "The Humanitarian Challenge" at the Pearson Peacekeeping Center in Canada with the help of a grant from The Citadel Foundation. The course is taught only once each year. This year there were 30 students from 23 countries and I was the only American. The course taught the participants how to assess the needs of refugees, set up and maintain refugee camps, and then safeguard the refugees. This will help me incorporate these concepts into my International Organizations and Multinational Peacekeeping courses.

           Lastly, I have been appointed an external faculty member of the Pearson Peacekeeping Center in Canada. My specialty is African-mandated peacekeeping operations. During some summers, I'll be placed on a faculty team to teach peacekeeping courses at the center, which is the host for peacekeepers from around the globe who take their courses before assignments to United Nations or regional peacekeeping operations.

John Weinstein, assistant professor of biology
           My research interests are in the field of environmental toxicology, especially as it concerns the effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on aquatic organisms. Previously, I have investigated the use of certain mixed-function oxygenase system enzymes as biomarkers of PAH contamination in oysters and ecological factors associated with UV-induced toxicity of PAHs in fish. Currently, I am assessing the effects of UV-induced PAH toxicity on the larvae of freshwater and estuarine bivalves.

Cadet Stephen Goldfinch (bottom right insert) piloted a flight over the Edisto Beach causeway as part of summer research with professor Danny Gustafson. Photo provided.

Danny Gustafson, assistant professor of biology
           The plant ecology lab is busy this summer. Cadet Jeff Kilheffer is working on a Spartina alterniflora (cord grass) experiment where we are testing for the effects of periwinkles and Spartina planthoppers (insect that lives only on this plant) on plant growth. And on June 25, Stephen has flown for myself (Spartina dieback, Edisto Beach Causeway Marsh Ecology study), Dr. Richard Porcher (shell mound studies), and Dr. Joe Kelley (rice field studies) for a number of different research
projects and participated in an independent research project using satellite images to map plant communities in the Folly Beach area.

Cadet Jeff Kilheffer works on a Spartina alterniflora (cord grass) experiment with Professor Danny Gustafson.. Photo provided.

Joe Kelley, assistant professor of biology
           My research interests center on the analysis of vegetation patterns and modeling of succession in tidal impoundments. Some of the methods/tools I use include GPS, the analysis of aerial photography using image analysis software (Dimple, Erdas Imagine and Arcview Image Analysis), GIS (Arcview and MapInfo) and Stella and Matlab modeling. My long-range goal is to provide a scientific foundation for succession related tidal impoundment management policy.

Saul Adelman, professor of physics
           I have a very busy summer. Much of my traveling is involved with completing my National Science Foundation sponsored spectrophotometer completed and getting ready to observe with it. In May, I visit England for a little over a week where I worked with Dr. Barry Smalley, Keele University, in specifying the data management system which will use databases written in mysql and scripts written in Perl. Then I June I visited Victoria, British Columbia, both to observe on the 1.22-m (48 inch) telescope of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (DAO) for two weeks and to see the progress on the instrument. My team and I are working through the remaining problems. We hope to transport the instrument to Fairborn Observatory, near Nogales, Ariz., by the end of 2004 for system integration with The Citadel ASTRA telescope, which will be completed about the same time.

           I will go to Poprad, Slovakia, to attend International Astronomical Union Symposium 224, "The A-Star Puzzle." I am giving the first keynote talk on the "Properties of Normal A Stars" and two invited contributions. This will also give me a chance to visit with many of my colleagues, see my five former Turkish graduate students, and recruit collaborators for reducing data from the spectrophotometer. I will also be one of four co-editors of the Proceedings.

           At the end of July I have another nine night observing run at
DAO and a chance to see progress on the spectrophotometer. On the way home, I will visit the University of Wisconsin for the ASOS8 Conference on Atomic and Astronomical Spectroscopy and will co-author a poster paper on the study of the bright star Vega as a rotational flattened star.

           I also have discovered a star whose variability is so bizarre that no theorist had predicted same and have made good progress on explaining it. This coming year I want to begin explaining the spectrophotometer project to The Citadel community and to the general public.

Elizabeth Connor, adjunct, Daniel Library
           This summer, I’ll be one of two Citadel faculty attending a weeklong summer workshop sponsored by the American Association for Higher Education. The workshop will focus on enhancing student learning. Also, I have four books in different stages of production with Haworth Press. The first, "Internet Guide to Travel Health" is due to be published this summer. "A Guide to Developing End User Education Programs in Medical Libraries will be published in winter 2004/2005.

           I recently submitted the manuscripts for "Internet Guide to Food Safety and Security" and "Planning, Renovating, and Constructing Library Facilities in Hospitals, Academic Medical Centers, and Health Organizations" These books will be published some time in 2005.

           I manage the book review process for Medical Reference Services Quarterly.

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