Congratulations to Robert Beichner on his receipt of the Gertrude M. Cox Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching and Learning with Technology. The award honors the creative pedagogy of NC State's faculty and their work in integrating new technologies into effective teaching strategies. Nominations were received from a broad range of disciplines and were peer reviewed by a panel of judges.

Bob is the first winner of this new award.

Information about the award can be found at www4.ncsu.edu/~jmgilber/gertrude_cox.htm

Key Request Reminder. To request a key for any physics space, please complete a Key Request Form (available in the Physics Main Office, Cox 110, directly below Leslie Moon's mailbox) and place it in Leslie Moon's mailbox. Your key(s) will be placed in a small envelope in your mailbox in the Physics mailroom (Cox 216). Requests submitted before 10:00 AM will be filled by 4:00 PM the same day.

Annual Faculty Retreat. The annual Physics Faculty Retreat is scheduled for Wednesday, May 15, at the conference room at Lake Wheeler Park. (This is the same location as last year's retreat.) All regular faculty and EPA Staff with teaching duties are invited to attend.

Please let Becky Savage know by May 8 if you will be attending. A map to the retreat will be distributed at a later date.

Paycheck Distribution Changes. Paychecks are coming to the department by campus mail and will not be available for pick-up until after 11:00 AM on the last working day of the month.

Reminder: You can enroll in direct deposit. The link for the direct deposit form is: www2.acs.ncsu.edu/hr/pdf/directde.pdf

Reminder; Our Physics Spotlight person this month is Jenny Allen. There will be a pizza lunch for Jenny in Daniels 200 at 12:00 on February 27. See you there!

M.Z. Kiss, D.E. Sayers, Z. Zhong, "Measurement of image contrast using diffraction enhanced imaging," Phys. Med. Biol., vol. 48, iss. 3, 7 Feb 2003, pp. 325 - 340.

The North Carolina State University Sustainability Essay Contest.

$1000 for Good, Green Ideas. Open to all undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff at NC State.

The essay contest arrives three years after the NC State University Sustainability Task Force recommended that an award program be established to recognize those with ideas to lessen the campus's impact on the environment. Essays shall be less than 1,000 words and should briefly articulate why a current practice on campus is socially, economically, or environmentally unsustainable, propose a sustainable solution, and describe how the solution is to be implemented. The selection committee will award $500 for the best essay in each of four categories: faculty; staff; undergraduates; and graduates.

The best overall essay will receive an additional $500 award. Winners will be recognized at the 5th Annual Park Scholarship Symposium on March 27th.

Essays due February 28th.
For more details, see: www.ncsu.edu/park_scholarships/symposium/contest.html

Undergraduates in all departments at North Carolina State University engaged in scholarly research under the supervision of one or more faculty members are eligible to participate. Interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research contributions are encouraged. Participants choose one of four award categories in which to designate their research project: Biological Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences or Physical and Mathematical Sciences. A team of faculty and off-campus judges for each category will select the most outstanding contributions for special recognition. Additional information is available at: www.ncsu.edu/ugrs

Beowulf Cluster Administration Course Offered. Jack Neely in PCO will offer a class to faculty and staff interested in the administration and operation of Beowulf clusters. Faculty and staff interested in attending should e-mail pco-l@pams.ncsu.edu with the subject line "S03 Beowulf admin course".

There will be a later course for those who will be users on the cluster(s).

Installing and Administrating a Beowulf Cluster -- PCO Style --
Topic to be covered are:
Introduction
Software Offered by PCO
Specing Out Your Hardware
Installing NPACI Rocks
Like what batch system - updated RPMS, etc
Beginning Computing
Administration Goodies

Robert Beichner: To Jacksonville, Florida, to attend the 14th annual conference on Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Technology.