A Dead Man’s Honor by Frankie Bailey: A Great Escape
By Greta Petry
For pure escapism, pick up UAlbany criminal justice professor Frankie Bailey’s new murder mystery, A Dead Man’s Honor, (Silver Dagger Mysteries, $13.95).

Bailey’s second in the series about the black crime historian Lizzie Stuart is a must-read for UAlbany faculty, staff, and students, and for anyone who likes a fast-paced story that keeps the reader guessing. In her acknowledgments, Bailey thanks two members of the UAlbany community: Ellen Higgins of the English department, a member of the author’s Wolf Road writing group; and University Police Chief J. Frank Wiley, “who took the time not only to tell me about being a university police chief but to brainstorm a plot twist.”

The main character, Lizzie Stuart, is a tenured professor of criminal justice from Kentucky who has come to the town of Gallagher, Va., to accept an appointment as a visiting professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Piedmont State University. Lizzie is also conducting research for a book about a lynching her grandmother witnessed in Gallagher as a child in 1921.

Bailey’s subplot about the lynching is a thread that runs through the text. In the foreground, Lizzie Stuart deals with the murder of a colleague, a nationally known criminologist named Richard Colby, the only other African American in the School of Criminal Justice. Bailey tells the story of the brilliant but arrogant Colby, mixes in a little departmental infighting, adds jealousy, a messy divorce, and campus unrest, and comes up with a novel that holds the reader’s attention from beginning to end.

Undeterred in her quest for the truth by the maneuverings around her, Professor Stuart is a smart and savvy postmodern heroine.

The author cleverly inserts realistic details of campus life into her novel. Piedmont State, like UAlbany, has a Don’t Walk Alone program, a vendacard system at the library, a Performing Arts Center, and an Alumni House. The fictitious Piedmont State, which was larger than UAlbany’s 17,000 students, “had grown significantly in the last 10 years. Piedmont State University now had a population of over 26,000 full- and part-time students. The presence of the university and all those students and faculty and staff had a rather significant social and economic impact on the city,” Bailey writes. There is even a police station located next to Parking Management, just as there used to be at UAlbany.

These details add to the fun for UAlbany readers, while using routine pieces of daily life on a college campus to good effect. There’s even some subtle campus humor.

“ ‘So I gather you don’t think a student might have killed Professor Colby?’ asked a police investigator.

“I thought of the kid who had almost knocked me over as he came charging out of Richard’s office. But killing Richard would hardly get him into the graduate program,” Lizzie thinks to herself.

Bailey excels at story-telling. Out of a 218-page book, the reader still has few clues about who committed the murder by page 200. As a reader who detests murder mysteries, thrillers, and gore, I nevertheless found A Dead Man’s Honor highly entertaining, which is a testament to Bailey’s talent.

Within Bailey’s subplot, the author skillfully offers a lesson on lynching and racism. She teaches without being pedantic, and spotlights inequities in race, gender, and class in a memorable way.

As a true academic, Bailey uses the setting of the library as an important location for Lizzie Stuart’s sleuthing. But rather than a place of dusty stacks and obscure information, the library in Bailey’s hands comes alive as the place where microfilm leads to more clues, and where she can escape from reporters.

“I decided not to go back to my house. I wanted to avoid any and all media encounters. And the best way to do that might be to stay away from home a little longer,” thought Lizzie.

“The question was where to go. As I turned onto Main Street, I answered my own question. The library. Ever since I was a child, the library had been the one place I could go when I wanted to hide out. “Public library, not university.”

It is a librarian who hands Stuart just the right box with a scrapbook full of newspaper clippings germane to the era of the lynching she is researching.

Even though A Dead Man’s Honor is the second in a series, the reader who is unfamiliar with her first mystery, Death’s Favorite Child, can pick up the latest Bailey book and get right into the story. However, reading A Dead Man’s Honor has piqued this reader’s curiosity enough to make me look for the first book in the series.

UAlbany’s 19th Annual Sexuality Week to Feature Dr. Drew of “Loveline”
By Lisa James Goldsberry
Dr. Drew Pinsky, co-host of the nationally syndicated call-in radio show “Loveline” will be the keynote speaker for the University at Albany’s 19th Annual Sexuality Week. Pinsky will speak on Friday, Feb. 8, at 8 p.m. in the Recreation and Convocation Center. There will be a book signing and reception after the program, which is free and open to the public.

A regular on “Politically Incorrect” and “The View,” Pinsky (known to most people as Dr. Drew) has been a guest on numerous national television outlets, including “Larry King Live.” “Loveline” evolved when Dr. Drew, then a medical student, volunteered to answer a few questions on the radio. The show is now heard on more than 50 radio stations across the country.

In 1996, Dr. Drew and his co-host, Adam Carolla, took their show to MTV, where it had a successful five-year run. In 1998, they released a book titled The Dr. Drew and Adam Book: A Survival Guide to Life and Love.

Dr. Drew is a board-certified addictionologist. He is the medical director for the Department of Chemical Dependency Services and chief of service in the Department of Medicine at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena. He continues to run a private clinical medicine practice and was recently named clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at Los Angeles Children’s Hospital.

Sexuality Week, which runs from February 7 through February 15, consists of programs, performances, and workshops by professional health educators on many topics related to sexuality. The programs are designed to encourage learning, dialogue and critical thinking in prevention education. Sexuality Week is coordinated by the Middle Earth Peer Assistance Program at the University Counseling Center, and funded by the Student Association.

Among the activities planned are an HIV/AIDS update, a presentation on communicating with your partner about sexual issues, and a performance of the popular play “The Vagina Monologues.”

For a complete listing of Sexuality Week programs, visit http://www.albany.edu/feature2001 /sexuality_week/workshops_programs.html.8.

UAlbany and Cyprus: From Antiquity to Modernity
By Greta Petry
For more than 30 years, the University at Albany has nurtured its relationship with the island nation of Cyprus. This mutually beneficial friendship has been marked by the exchange of scholars, by archaeological excavations by UAlbany students at sites such as the village of Pyrgos, and by enrollment of Cypriot students in graduate and undergraduate education. Now this relationship is taking a new twist involving the government of Cyprus, the University of Cyprus, and Cyprus College.

As a result of talks in early December between President Karen R. Hitchcock and H.E. Nicos A. Rolandis, minister of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism of the Republic of Cyprus, a joint committee is being established to develop a new memorandum of agreement between the University at Albany and the government of Cyprus. This collaboration will focus on a variety of issues, particularly those that promote academic initiatives and economic development.

“We will draft a new agreement that will focus on science and technology, broadly conceived, and will provide for the exchange of students and faculty. The Cypriot government was very much interested in the wide variety of research projects on campus, including the work being conducted at the Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management (CESTM) and the East Campus,” said President Hitchcock.

Professor Donald Biggs of the School of Education has been coordinating efforts between the University and the Republic of Cyprus. UAlbany representatives to the joint committee include Pro-vost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Carlos E. Santiago, Vice President for Research Christopher F. D’Elia, and Associate Vice President for Research and Director of Technology Development Eugene K. Schuler, Jr. The committee will be chaired by Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, Cyprus’s ambassador to the United States. She accompanied the Cypriot delegation to Albany this past December. The Cypriot representatives to the joint committee will be appointed by Rolandis.

Vice President D’Elia observed: “We have a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Cyprus and have many alumni there. We are now taking a step to enhance that relationship to take advantage of the technology opportunities of the 21st century.”

The Provost’s office will continue to promote graduate fellowships and exchanges between UAlbany and the University of Cyprus, which has sent many talented graduate students in the fields of education and public affairs to UAlbany. In March, the Provost is travelling to Cyprus with D’Elia and Biggs to sign an articulation agreement with Cyprus College in the fields of economics, accounting, math, and computer science. A number of very distinguished alumni of the University reside in Cyprus, including Dr. Andreas Orphanides, the dean of academic affairs at Cyprus College, who earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University at Albany.

At present, Cyprus ranks seventh among countries with foreign students at the University -- about 30 undergraduates from Cyprus are currently enrolled.

The University’s ties to Cyprus date back to the late 1960s, when the American Ambassador Taylor Belcher took James Heaphey, a professor of public administration in the Graduate School of Public Affairs, to meet then-President Makarios of Cyprus. The three agreed to create a social science research center. President Evan Collins concurred, and the Institute for Cypriot Studies was born.

In the spring of 1970, the first Albany archaeological expedition arrived in Cyprus under the leadership of classics professor John Overbeck. Stuart Swiny joined the team since he was already working on the island. Since then, a long list of UAlbany faculty members have visited, researched, and written scholarly works on Cyprus.

In 1996, Swiny joined the Department of Classics at UAlbany and began teaching the art and archaeology of Cyprus. One of his first priorities was to resume UAlbany’s archaeological projects in Cyprus. After being appointed director of the Institute of Cypriot Studies in 1997, he received permission from the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus to undertake an archaeological survey in the southern part of Cyprus. As a result, the UAlbany-sponsored Sotira Archaeolo-gical Project Survey spent six weeks in the field during the summer of 1997. Thirteen UAlbany students participated.

“Between 1997 and 1999 I made arrangements for several UAlbany students to participate in archaeological excavations on Cyprus, and in 2000, my wife Helena [who is an archaeologist] and I took 12 UAlbany students to participate in an Italian excavation of a Middle Bronze Age settlement at Pyrgos Village near the south coast of the island. Here they were joined by Italian and Cypriot students, making it a truly international experience,” Swiny said. In 2001 the Sotira Archaeological Project resumed fieldwork at the Early Bronze Age settlement of Kaminoudhia. These excavations will be continued later this year.

The mutually beneficial links between the University at Albany and Cyprus span the range from ancient civilizations to emerging high technologies. Building on this strong base, both the number and diversity of these links will continue to grow and evolve. The results of the December meetings with the Cypriot delegation broaden the University’s relationship with Cyprus, build upon our long-standing relationship, and assist both nations in benefiting from new opportunities in the global economy.

X-ray Optical Systems Gift Supports Life Sciences Research at UAlbany
By Carol Olechowski
A Capital Region firm that got its start at the University at Albany is donating $116,000 of custom X-ray optics to strengthen University research efforts in such fields as genomics/proteomics, medical imaging, and pharmaceuticals.

Over the years, X-ray Optical Systems (XOS), a developer and manufacturer of X-ray optics that support cutting-edge research, materials development, and manufacturing control, “has provided almost $500,000 of cash funding for UAlbany research,” said company president David Gibson. The firm’s most recent gift, an X-ray source and six polycapillary lenses that redirect X-rays into highly parallel or slightly focused beams, will enhance the research being done by Professor Carolyn MacDonald and Assistant Professor Susanne Lee of the physics department and the University’s Center for X-ray Optics.

The donated lenses, noted MacDonald, “use a unique fiberoptic-like technology to collect and focus X-rays with the greatest efficiency of any available optics. XOS is the only company in the world that makes and sells this technology, which has been developed in collaboration with the Center for X-ray Optics.” The equipment is crucial for the initial development of a new kind of X-ray diffractometer with the potential for determining molecular structures that cannot be measured with current laboratory-based machines. In addition, it will be used to improve mammographic imaging in order to reduce the X-ray dose during the procedure and increase its diagnostic efficiency.

Lee and MacDonald have been working to develop a diffractometer that would permit structural analysis of materials as they undergo phase changes. That technology will also be helpful to Lee and UAlbany Assistant Professor of Chemistry Rabi Musah, who have been “exploring phase transformation in flavonoids. Flavonoids are found in many foods, such as tofu and cranberries, and are potential anticancer therapeutics.” Lee directs the University’s Metastable Materials Manufacturing (MMM) Laboratory, where research that “spans other areas of the life sciences” has important implications for cancer treatment, long-term storage of organs for transplants, veterinary medicine, and pollution applications.

The collaboration exemplifies an ideal arrangement - and a long partnership - between industry and higher education. Gibson’s father, XOS co-founder Walter Gibson, was a UAlbany physics professor when the firm started in 1990 “as an incubator company paying rent for space in a University basement. Many of our technical personnel studied at UAlbany. The University and XOS have jointly applied for and received funding from NASA, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Army Breast Cancer Research Program.” X-ray Optical Systems, which started with two employees, “now has 34 full-time staff, and we’re still hiring,” he added.

“We expect to continue this partnership for a long time; it is good for XOS, the University, and the community. We hope that more innovative companies, both large and small, will build collaborations with UAlbany and other local institutions of higher learning.” There are, Gibson said, “many and long-lasting” benefits accruing to firms that work with UAlbany researchers. His firm’s partnership with the University has enabled the company to minimize investor risk, develop new products, demonstrate the benefits of new applications, expand its market, attract federal research and development funding, and hire well-educated staff. The University has also made its “faculty, staff, and student expertise; extensive research libraries; and specialized and expensive equipment” available to the firm, and put XOS in touch with “other collaborators in the academic, government, and industrial sectors,” Gibson said.

In turn, XOS support has helped to heighten the University’s reputation for research and innovation. UAlbany, Gibson observed, “is at the forefront of life sciences research. The University and the new Life Sciences Center are part of the cutting edge, using their strengths in physics, nanosciences, chemistry, biology, and other fields to drive for a fundamental understanding of the life sciences. For example, professors MacDonald and Lee will use the [XOS] gift to develop better tools for determining the structure of proteins and for understanding and controlling pharmaceutical forming processes. Another example is the development of devices on a chip that can monitor life science processes - research being done at the University’s new School of Nanosciences and Nanoengineering.”

XOS has also helped UAlbany to garner support from other private sources. One of MacDonald’s former students, Jim Manos ’89, and Fuller Industries, a local investment corporation that supports Lee’s research in the life sciences, contributed $4,000 and $4,800, respectively, that “will allow the University to explore high-risk, high-payoff life sciences research for which traditional funding is unavailable,” said Lee.

XOS’s most recent gift will allow the physics department to expand its interdisciplinary research in medical physics. It will also, Lee added, “provide an important research cornerstone for the life sciences initiative by enabling the University to develop new technology that will have an impact in many other life science areas.”

Home Page/ Front Page/ Campus News/ Features/ Sports/ Date Book