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1. Pavlis Shares Concerns, Advice with Students |
Frank Pavlis came to Houghton for the first time in the heart of the Depression, 75 years ago on a cold rainy night with $50 in each shoe and a driving ambition to study engineering.
It didn't get much warmer or easier living in a rented room on the drafty second floor of a College Avenue house, without so much as a hotplate. "I had a difficult four years as far as nutrition was concerned," he remembers "but I was so happy to be living my vision that even cold pork and beans tasted good."
A poor farm boy, Pavlis was typical of his generation to be the first in his family to attend college. He came to Michigan Tech on a four-year scholarship, hungering for an engineering education. So, inadequate food notwithstanding, and the need to work part-time to offset expenses, he persevered and in 1938 graduated at the top of his class.
He returned to Michigan Tech last week to receive the Distinguished Alumnus Award and to visit with the students participating in the Pavlis Institute for Global Technological Leadership, which he established four years ago. Students in the program take course work and attend seminars in leadership. They also undertake an international experience. The first cohort of Pavlis students went to an African village, in Ghana, where they introduced local children to computers, discussed the feasibility of a new infant heartbeat detector with hospital officials, and investigated safer, cleaner indoor cookstores for rural households.
Pavlis addressed groups of students throughout the day who were participating in the leadership institute. When asked why he established the program, Pavlis replied, "I did so to address the real need for global technological leadership and to help reverse the industrial decline in America that has occurred in my lifetime. I note that my best suit was made in Korea, my shoes, in Mexico, my automobile and TV set in Japan, and when I need technical assistance with my TV, the person responding to the telephone service call lives in India. We Americans have to get over our pseudo-superiority attitudes, and anyone who is not aware of the global competition that exists at all levels has his head in the sand," he said.
Pavlis recounted his early experience in industry and with globalization. He was one of the founders and the first employee of Air Products and Chemicals, in 1940. The business thrived in World War II during which it manufactured mobile plants for the production of breathing oxygen for high-altitude flights in war theaters. After the war ended in 1945, that business ended, and the company moved to eastern Pennsylvania to begin commercial operations. Based on its wartime experience, Air Products entered the industrial gas business to satisfy growing domestic and foreign needs for industrial and medical gases and special production equipment.
Pavlis changed his career focus from the technical to the commercial and headed export sales, and, later, corporate finance and the establishment of foreign joint ventures. He was a director of the company for 30 years. "It was difficult in the beginning, but I learned by doing," he told the students. Since then, Air Products and Chemicals has become a global giant with sales of over $10 billion a year and operations in over 30 countries. By establishing the leadership institute, Pavlis hopes that many of the basic lessons and skills of leadership will be taught on the Michigan Tech campus and later applied on the job.
However, more than leadership skills, students need a solid foundation in their major. "Although I applaud your studies in leadership, don't neglect your other studies," he advised. "First remember, it is essential that you be good engineers, good business people, good at whatever you do. Lead from competence rather than from mediocrity." Furthermore, he said, "it is important that students learn the value of generosity and humility. You have been on the receiving end so far in your lives," he told the students. "Soon, it will be your turn to give. Giving not only of money and other assets, but time, attention and, frequently, of love. The self-centered and arrogant forfeit their potential effectiveness." |
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2. Staff Council Meeting Thursday |
submitted by Staff Council
Calling all staff! The Staff Council invites you to join them for their next meeting on Thursday, Oct. 15, at noon in Memorial Union Ballroom B1. The meeting will include a presentation from Jessica Dellavalla on the Treehouse, a Keweenaw Family Resource Center Indoor Playground. The council will also be conducting its annual election of officers. Meetings and membership on Staff Council are open to all Michigan Tech staff members. Refreshments are provided. Please email any questions an/or comments to staffcouncil@mtu.edu . |
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3. Mini-grant Application Deadline Approaching |
The deadline for applying for a mini-grant for instructional improvement and innovation through the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development is Monday, Oct. 19.
Details and the online application can be found at www.admin.mtu.edu/ctlfd/grants/index.php . |
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4. Women's Wednesday Oct. 28 on Breast Cancer Awareness |
submitted by the Society of Intellectual Sisters
Everyone is invited to join the Society of Intellectual Sisters when we host our second Women's Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. in Memorial Union Peninsula Room B. Geri Merkey, RN, a community health nurse at Portage Health System, will give a presentation on breast cancer awareness and how to do a self-breast exam.
The Society of Intellectual Sisters is sponsoring a series of presentations through out the year on issues that affect the everyday lives of women, such as breast cancer, domestic violence, and health and fitness. Please join us as we protect, improve and uplift the world, one woman at a time. |
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5. New KSO Director Conducts Tribute to Mendelssohn Saturday |
submitted by Visual and Performing Arts
Joel Neves will conduct his first concert as music director of the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 7:30 p.m., in the Rozsa Center, with a welcome reception to follow in the lobby. The concert honors Felix Mendelssohn's 200th birthday with his magical "Suite for A Midsummer Night's Dream," plus music of Liszt and Stravinsky. Portage Health is the sponsor for this first concert of the KSO's 2009-10 season.
Neves comes to Michigan Tech from Utah, where he conducted the Orchestra of Southern Utah and Cedar High Orchestra. He earned a doctorate in orchestral conducting from Arizona State University and his BA and MM degrees from Brigham Young University. As assistant professor of music and director of orchestras at Michigan Tech, he will teach music theory and history in addition to his conducting duties.
"We're excited to have such a dynamic teacher and musician join us," says Roger Held, chair of visual and performing arts. "Joel has impressed everyone with his energy and enthusiasm, and of course his outstanding musicianship. We expect great things from the KSO this year and look forward to expanding the orchestra's repertoire to take advantage of Joel's special interests in opera and musical theater too."
Neves, the KSO's seventh conductor, inherits an accomplished university-community orchestra and an audience that has regarded the KSO as a community treasure for nearly 40 years. The orchestra's prior conductors--Grover Wilkins III, John Clark, Michael Griffith, Jeffrey Bell-Hanson, Alton Thompson and Milton Olsson--molded a group of 60-70 musicians (accomplished Michigan Tech students along with musicians from a wide area of the western UP) into an ensemble known widely for its excellence and brought nationally recognized soloists to play with them.
Neves says the orchestra's strong support from the community, and from community-minded corporations such as Portage Health, were key factors in his accepting the position here. He hopes the four Rozsa concerts this year will attract newcomers who would like to see what the KSO concerts are like and will also please old friends at the same time.
In addition to the Oct. 17 Mendelssohn celebration, the KSO joins the Michigan Tech Concert Choir to present Handel's "Messiah" on Dec. 5, sponsored by Copper Range Abstract & Title Agency, then presents "A Night at the Opera" on Feb. 20. A multimedia tribute to Leonard Bernstein, "The Bernstein Beat," is set for April 17, narrated by the composer's daughter Jamie, and co-sponsored by the Rozsa Mosaics Series. More information about all these concerts can be seen on the web at www.vpa.mtu.edu .
Tickets for Keweenaw Symphony concerts are available from the Rozsa Box Office (487-3200 and www.tickets.mtu.edu), free for Michigan Tech students, $15 for the general public and $7 for non-Michigan Tech students. |
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6. Friedrich to Lecture on Trends in Nanoscience and Engineering |
Professor Craig Friedrich (MEEM), director of the Multi-Scale Technologies Institute, will give a lecture, "Research Trends in Nanoscale Science and Engineering," Thursday, Oct. 15, at 5 p.m. in Fisher 138.
His talk is sponsored by the Nanotech Innovations Enterprise. |
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7. Seminar Thursday: "Bio-Inspired Odor Source Localization" |
Adam J. Rutkowski, a research engineer in the Alternative Navigation Section of the Air Force Research Laboratory, will give a presentation, "Bio-Inspired Odor Source Localization," on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 3 p.m. in MEEM 112.
For more information on this guest and the ME-EM Graduate Seminar Series, please visit www.me.mtu.edu/seminar/ .
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8. Physics Colloquium Thursday |
Michel Dupuis, associate division director of the Catalysis Science Department of the Chemical and Materials Sciences Division at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, will present a physics colloquium, "Theory and Modeling for Energy Applications: Charge Transport in Complex Molecular and Solid State Environments," on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 4 p.m. in Fisher 139.
Dupuis is the main author of the widely used HONDO program and a founding author of the GAMESS program for quantum chemical simulations.
For more information, contact Claudio Mazzoleni ( cmazzoleni@mtu.edu , 487-1226) or Petra Huntemeyer ( petra@mtu.edu ). |
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9. Sports in Brief |
by Wes Frahm, director of athletic marketing and communications
What's Happening This Week
Wednesday, Oct. 14
Huskies Drive Time, 7:30-8 a.m. on WKMJ Mix 93.5 FM
Friday, Oct. 16
Volleyball at GLIAC/GLVC Crossover (Lansing)
vs. Lewis, 1:30 p.m.
vs. Rockhurst, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 17
Volleyball at GLIAC/GLVC Crossover (Lansing)
vs. Southern Indiana, 3 p.m.
Women's Tennis at Lake Superior State, 2 p.m.
Football at Indianapolis, 6 p.m. (Live Radio, Mix 93.5 FM)
All times Eastern
Last Week's Results
Hockey (1-1, 0-0 WCHA)
10/9--at Michigan Tech 5, Northern Michigan 3
10/11--Lake Superior State 3, at Michigan Tech 1
Football (1-5, 1-5 GLIAC)
10/10--Findlay 14, at Michigan Tech 5
Volleyball (9-10, 7-4 GLIAC)
10/9--Michigan Tech 3, at Northwood 1 (21-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-20)
10/10--Michigan Tech 5, at Wayne State 2 (23-25, 26-24, 17-25, 26-24, 15-9)
Women's Tennis (6-2, 6-2 GLIAC)
10/9--Michigan Tech 7, at Findlay 2
10/10--Michigan Tech 5, at Wayne State 4
Cross Country
10/9--Michigan Tech men 1st of 2 teams; women 2nd of 4 teams at UP Championships (Marquette, Mich.)
Top News of the Week
HOT START FOR OLSON, HOCKEY HUSKIES!
Michigan Tech officially opened its 2009-10 hockey campaign with a 5-3 win over rival Northern Michigan last Friday (Oct. 9). Sophomore Brett Olson figured into every goal with his first career hat trick and two more assists in the contest for the Huskies. Tech's win over NMU was its third straight dating back to a home-and-home sweep of the Wildcats last December.
WOMEN'S TENNIS MOVES INTO SECOND PLACE IN GLIAC
Michigan Tech swept its two matches last weekend to move into second place in the GLIAC standings. After starting the year 1-2, the Huskies have reeled off five straight matches to improve to 6-2. Tech is undefeated still at two of its individual positions. Sophomore Ploy Suthijindawong is 7-0 at No. 2 singles. At No. 2 doubles, Asel Otunchieva and Victoria Zhilkina are also 7-0.
VOLLEYBALL TAKES THREE GAME STREAK TO CROSSOVER
Members of both the GLIAC and Great Lakes Valley Conference will pause conference play for interleague matches at the second annual GLIAC/GLVC Crossover. Some 30 teams will descend on the Aim High Complex in Lansing Friday and Saturday (Oct. 16-17) for three matches each. Michigan Tech takes a three-match winning streak into its trio of non-conference tilts thanks to a weekend sweep of Northwood and Wayne State. |
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10. In the News |
Patrick Martin, social sciences chair, was a featured speaker at America's First River: the Hudson, a New York Quadricentennial Celebration commemorating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's initial visit to the river that bears his name. The conference was held at the FDR Presidential Library and Historic Park in Hyde Park, N.Y., Sept. 25-27. Martin presented "The West Point Foundry and American Industrialization," a paper prepared with collaboration from Associate Professor Timothy Scarlett, Research Associate Elizabeth (Social Sciences) and Steven Walton of Penn State University, within a session describing the Hudson as America's "corridor of commerce."
The conference was broadcast on CSpan 3 and can be viewed at www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/213169. Martin's presentation appears about about 18 minutes into this segment. |
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