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1. Tech Poet's Last (on Campus) Stanza |
by Dennis Walikainen, senior editor
Retiring Humanities Professor Randy Freisinger had plans already made after his last day on campus Monday. He was going to Isle Royale to find a muse, odds are, or maybe a moose.
And his post-Tech days, if they go as planned, sound like a writer's nirvana:
"I plan to write every morning," he says. "Then get some exercise with the dogs, have some lunch, read in the afternoon. Maybe do some revising, then, after dinner, maybe watch a bit of TV, then read in bed."
He hasn't ruled out teaching again, "in some capacity," and he's got a new chapbook coming out in October from Hol Arts Books, a new publishing house in Tucson, Ariz. "Nostalgia's Thread" features 10 poems, each based on a familiar painting by Norman Rockwell.
It's been a long journey from journalism school at the University of Missouri-Columbia, in part inspired by Ernest Hemingway's journalistic work in Kansas City, where Freisinger was born and raised.
"I was too shy to be a reporter to claim my own beats," he says, "so I ended up covering local service club banquets and hospitals. I did get shifted into sports, and that probably saved me."
Sports came naturally enough to Freisinger that he played on the Missouri baseball team. And journalism, sports and otherwise, would later help his poetry. One of his editors at The Missourian was Ron Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, novelist and non-fiction writer who also served for a number of years as the media reporter for CBS Sunday Morning.
"Ron taught me important lessons about style and economy of language," he says. "We had to memorize the stylebook for the Columbia Missourian, the paper put out by the University's J-school and in competition with another daily in Columbia. The lessons of that stylebook have stayed with me."
After receiving a master's degree in English and American literature at Missouri, Freisinger taught English at the junior-college level for four years before deciding to return for his PhD. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on contemporary American black humor, focusing on writers such as Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, Ken Kesey and Thomas Pynchon. He began the project, intending to concentrate on the British novelist Charles Dickens, but his opening chapter on black humor kept expanding.
"Three-hundred pages later, I had not yet begun to examine Dickens," Freisinger says. "I thought I had a dissertation. My advisor agreed. As the old writer's adage goes, 'How do I know what I am going to say until I have said it?'"
He counts among his greatest rewards his 32 years of opportunities to help Michigan Tech students discover the rewards of serious literature, both as readers and as writers.
"They are very intelligent, but they often struggle with ambiguity," he says. Emails from former students now bear witness to what those classes meant to them.
"I just received one over the weekend from a student who took classes with me back in 1984. He said he just wanted me to know I had made a difference. With some years away from campus and a job and family responsibilities, they have acquired a much deeper understanding of ambiguity."
This was much more satisfying, Freisinger says, at a university such as Tech, rather than at a liberal arts college, where he would be "preaching to the congregation."
Another reward was "Blue Ice Anthology," the literary nonfiction publication written by graduate students and produced by undergraduates. The anthology came out of a graduate course Freisinger created in 1987. Fourteen issues later, the project is still alive and well. Graduate students spend the entire fall term working on a piece of serious nonfiction, and in the spring the finished pieces are designed and published by undergraduates in the humanities department's scientific and technical communication program.
"The linkage with the undergrads has been great," he says, "and the response of graduate students totally committed to their own writing has been wonderfully gratifying. Writers take their work much more seriously when they know people beyond the class are actually going to read it."
He believes "Blue Ice" is in good hands with Matt Siegel, an assistant professor in humanities, "and it just might morph into something new, maybe a mix of graduate and undergraduate writing."
Freisinger just attended his last commencement Saturday to hood new PhD graduate Moe Folk, whom Freisinger mentored and whose "Blue Ice" essay was recently republished in New Letters magazine and subsequently nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize.
He also hopes the Spring Writers Series, which he helped to create in the late 1970s, can be resurrected, and he believes Siegel might be just the person to make that happen. "It all depends on funding, of course," Freisinger says of the series that brought over 30 of America's most distinguished writers to campus for readings, seminars and Q-and-As over a period of nearly 25 years.
On the day of this interview, however, Freisinger's work at Michigan Tech wasn't quite done. He excused himself to return to the rigorous, all-day assessment of student portfolios from UN 2001 (Revisions), the general education course that he has been overseeing for five of the last seven years.
The poet and teacher, it seems, wanted to make sure his legacy in all things writing would continue at Tech, and the graduate-student teachers in Walker 116 assembled to conduct the assessment weren't about to let him down. |
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2. Steam to Be Restored by Noon Today in Most Areas; Email List Established for Updates |
Maintenance work on the Central Heating Plant was expected to be completed the evening of Tuesday, May 5. Normal steam pressure (ie hot water) should be restored by noon today, Wednesday, May 6, in most areas, with the exception of Wadsworth Hall and Chemical Sciences.
Wadsworth Hall will be delayed to allow for a heat exchanger replacement to be completed, says Dave Taivalkoski, energy manager.
When steam pressure will be restored in Chemical Sciences is in question. Tuesday, a problem was uncovered, which needs to be fixed before start-up. Taivalkoski expects the problem to be resolved shortly. If it is critical for you to be advised directly about the status of the Chem Sci, email Taivalkoski at detaival@mtu.edu .
To keep members of the Michigan Tech community updated on steam services, and to address their concerns, an email list, steam-l, is in the process of being set up. To subscribe to the list and receive up-to-date information on steam services, email Taivalkoski at the address above. |
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3. Rozsa Announces Summer Hours |
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The Rozsa Center's summer hours have taken effect. The Center will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the box office will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
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4. New Staff |
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Gowtham Shankara has joined the staff of the Department of Physics as a postdoctoral research assistant. Shankara was previously employed by AT&T in Middleton, N.J., as a contractor, developing IT applications. Shankara '08 holds a PhD in Engineering Physics from Michigan Tech. He lives in Houghton and enjoys sports and photography. |
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5. On the Road |
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Ted Bornhorst, director of the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum, gave an invited talk, "Native Copper from Michigan--Great Specimens and Their Origin," at the Cincinnati GeoFair 2009, the 44th Annual Gem, Mineral, Fossil and Jewelry Show of Greater Cincinnati, Ohio, held May 2 and 3; as well, he was a judge for the mineral displays. |
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6. New Funding |
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Faculty member I. Matt Watson has received $15,133 from the University of Pittsburgh for the first year of a potential three-year project, "Expansion and Synergistic Use of the ASTER Urgent Request Protocol (URP) for Natural Disaster Monitoring and Scientific Analysis." |
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7. Proposals in Progress |
Claudio Mazzoleni (Physics), "An Acoustic Levitator for Studying Droplet-Aerosol Interactions with Application to Atmospheric Research," ORAU Oak Ridge Associated Universities
Bo Chen (ME-EM), "An Artificial Immune System Approach for Autonomous Structural Health Monitoring," Oak Ridge Associated Universities
Martin T. Auer (CEE/MTCWS), "Phosphorous Bioavailability in Lake Erie Tributaries," US Environmental Protection Agency, Great Lakes National Program Office
Rama Krishna Wusirika (Biological Sciences/BRC), "Arabidopsis 2010: Deciphering the Cis-Regulatory Code of the Arabidopsis Genome," Ohio State University
Judith Perlinger and Paul Doskey (CEE/RSI), "Novel Measurements of Semivolatile Organic Aerosol Precursors and Secondary Organic Aerosol for CALNEX 2010," University of California, Los Angeles
Reza Shahbazian-Yassar (ME-EM/MuSTI) and Yoke K. Yap (Physics/MuSTI), "The Role of Mechanical Deformation on Tuning the Electrical Transport in Insulating Nanotubes," NSF
Casey Huckins (Biological Sciences), "Long-Term Temporal Dynamics and Status Assessment of the South Shore Lake Superior Coaster Brook Trout Population in the Salmon Trout River, Marquette County," Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation
Raymond A. Shaw and Matthew Beals (Physics), "Improved Ice Crystal Size Distributions for Interpretation of Satellite Data: The Holographic Detector for Clouds (HOLODEC)," NASA
Alex Kostinski and Amalia Anderson (Physics), "Cloud Glaciation Levels Examined with MODIS and CALIPSO: Possible Effects of Aerosols," NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) Program
Nancy A. Auer (Biological Sciences), "Evaluation of Population Dynamics of a Self-Sustaining Lake Sturgeon Stock in Michigan," Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Will Cantrell and Kristopher Bunker (Physics), "Experimental Investigation of Contact Nucleation of Ice in the Atmosphere," NASA
Zhi Tian (ECE/CISSIC), "Compression and Cooperation for Wideband Spectrum Sensing and Cognition," NSF
Brian Barkdoll and William Sproule (CEE/CWS), "A Handbook for Addressing Water Resource Issues Affecting Airport Capacity Enhancement Planning," National Academies of Science, Transportation Research Board
Jason R. Carter (Exercise Science/BRC) and Thomas D. Drummer (Mathematical Sciences), "Sleep Deprivation and Neurovascular Control in Humans," NIH
John Beard (ME-EM/APS), "Collaborative Proposal: A Generic Methodology for the Improvement of Sheet Metal Stamping Processes Using Strain Closed-Loop Control Based on Process Knowledge," NSF
Tammy Haut Donahue, Reza Shahbazian-Yassar (ME-EM/BRC), Gregory Odegard and Spandan Maiti (ME-EM/MuSTI), "Multiscale Modeling of the Local Mechanical Environment of Musculoskeletal Cells," NSF
Reza Shahbazian-Yassar (ME-EM/MuSTI) and Yoke K. Yap (Physics/MuSTI), "A New Perspective on Energy-Harvesting Nanowires: The Role of Chemistry and Structures of Nanowires," NSF
Stephen Kampe (MSE/IEM), "Mechanistic Aspects of Structural Reactive Materials," ONR
Devin K. Harris (CEE/MTTI), "BRIGE: Exploration of Bridge-Vehicle Interaction Simulations for Structural Health Monitoring and Damage Identification," NSF-BRIGE (Broaden Participation Research Initiation Grants in Engineering)
Wenzhen Li (Chemical Engineering), "BRIGE: Nanoengineered Hybrid Materials for the Photoelectrochemical Reduction of Oxygen," NSF-BRIGE
Desheng Meng (ME-EM/MuSTI), "BRIGE: Through-Mask Electrophoretic Deposition to Fabricate Nanostructured 3-D Electrodes for Li-Ion Battery," NSF-BRIGE
Bo Chen (ME-EM/APSRC), "An Artificial Immune System Approach for Autonomous Structural Health Monitoring," NSF
Mahesh Gupta (ME-EM/MuSTI), "GOALI: Three-Dimensional Simulation of Melting and Flow of Polymers in a Partially Filled Twin-Screw Extruder Using GPU: Optimization of Screw Geometry and Process Conditions," NSF
Spandan Maiti (ME-EM), "A Multiscale Computational Framework for Deformation and Failure Analysis of Advanced Materials," NSF
Zhanping You (CEE/TMRC/MTTI) and Qingli Dai (CEE/ME-EM), "Discrete Element Modeling and Laboratory Evaluation of Aggregates Compaction," NSF
Qingli Dai (CEE/ME-EM/SFI), "Unified Computational Approaches for Three-Dimensional Damage-Coupled Viscoelastic Behaviors of Stone-Based Materials and Structures," NSF
I. Miskioglu, G. M. Odegard (ME-EM/MuSTI), T. R. Olson (MEEM) and W. Li (Chemical Engineering), "Gradient Theories, Molecular Modeling and Nanoindentation Applied to Interphase Characterization," NSF
Ching-An Peng (Chemical Engineering), "Polymeric Nanocarriers for Gene-Directed Enzyme Prodrug Therapy," NIH
Gerald Caneba (Chemical Engineering/CEBFM) and Mohan D. Rao (ME-EM), "Ultrasonic Chaos in Nanoscale Materials Dispersion," NSF
Bo Chen (ME-EM/APSRC), "Bio-Inspired Pattern Recognition for Structure Damage Detection and Classification in Structural Health Monitoring Sensor Networks," NSF
Katerina Aifantis (Physics) and Steve Hackney (MSE), "Chemo-Mechanical Damage in Nanostructured Li-Ion Electrode Material," NSF
Yun Hang Hu (MSE/IMP), "Catalytic Activation, Spillover and Storage of Hydrogen on Transition-Metal/MOFs," NSF-Catalysts and Biocatalysts, DOE
Victor B. Busov and Hairong Wei (SFRES/BRC), "A System Biology Approach to Elucidate Regulation of Root Development in Populus," DOE
Miguel Levy (Physics/MSE), "Materials Development of Optical Band Gaps in Magneto-Photonic Crystals for Switching and Biosensor Applications," Integrated Photonics
Chris S. Anderson (Institutional Diversity), Shalini Suryanarayana (Educational Opportunity), Cody Kangas (Educational Opportunity/Youth Programs) and Leonard Bohmann (College of Engineering), "Pursuing Underrepresented Girls' Involvement in Research, Science and Energy Production (PURSE)," Detroit Area PreCollege Engineering (DAPCEP)
Zhanping You (CEE/TMRC/MTTI), "Planning Visit for US-Malaysia Collaborative Research on the Micro-Mechanics of Cubic Stone Materials for Pavements," NSF
Martin T. Auer (CEE/CWS), "Monitoring Zebra Mussel Phosphorus Excretion," Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
Ching-An Peng (Chemical Engineering), "Targeted Delivery of Capecitabine and Paclitaxel for Cancer Chemotherapy," NIH
Ramakrishna Wusirika (Biological Sciences/BRC), "Gene Regulation Mediated by Retrotransposon Insertion in Rice Promoters," NIH
Yun Hang Hu (MSE), "Conversion of Carbon Dioxide into Carbon Nitrides," DOE
Max Seel (Provost's Office), Chris S. Anderson (Institutional Diversity), Jackie Huntoon (Graduate School), Jean Kampe (Engineering Fundamentals) and Bradley Baltensperger (Cognitive and Learning Sciences), "Michigan Tech Innovation through Institutional Integration," NSF
Jaroslaw Drelich (MSE/IMP), Kathleen Feigl and Franz X. Tanner (Mathematical Sciences/IMP), "Local and Global Interactions in Systems Involving Mosaic Surfaces," NSF
Lanrong Bi and Sarah A. Green (Chemistry), "Dynamic 'Brake' and Regenerative 'Motor' Operating System for Nucleic Acid Sequencing," NIH
Rupak M. Rajachar and Keat Ghee Ong (Biomedical Engineering/BRC), "Novel Mechanically Responsive Coating Material for Tissue-Biomaterial Interfaces," NIH
Liza Jenkins (MTRI), "Remote Sensing and Nighttime Detection of Oil," Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council
C. K. Choi (ME-EM/MuSTI), "Green Tea Catechin in Colorectal Cancer," University of Tennessee (Veterinary Medicine)
Lynn Mazzoleni (Chemistry/RSI), "Collaborative Research: Hygroscopic Properties of Aerosol Organics," NSF
Jindong Tan (ECE/CISSIC), "CPS: Small: 3D Reconstruction and Tracking with Smart Cameras," NSF
Reza Shahbazian-Yassar (ME-EM/MuSTI), "New Insights into the Nanomechanical Degradation of Nanotubes-Based Hydrogen Storage Systems," NSF
Yun Hang Hu (MSE), "Promoting Effects of Anions on Hydrogen Storage Reactions of Li-N-Based Materials," NSF
Maria Janowiak (SFRES/ESC), "Outreach, Extension and Technology Transfer for the Feedstock Supply Chain Center of Energy Excellence," Frontier Renewable Resources
Le Zhang and Allan A. Struthers (Mathematical Sciences/CSERI), "Multi-Scale and Multi-Resolution, MRI Validated, Massively Parallel, Agent-Based Model for Early Cancer Prediction," NSF |
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