• Congratulations
• Welcome
• Farewell
• Retirement
• In Memoriam

Congratulations

Faculty

Keith Crowder, associate professor of geology and a member of the institute's tectonics and sedimentation research group, won the College of Natural Science's Introductory-level Teacher of the Year Award in January. Crowder earned the award by assuming responsibility for the sequence of courses General Geology and Historical Geology, renaming them The Dynamic Earth and The History of Earth and Life, and developing them into two of the most popular introductory-level science courses at UAF.

Dave Sentman, associate professor of geophysics, received this year's Terris and Katrina Moore prize for scientific excellence and vigor in his accomplishments, particularly distinguished by his research into the upper atmospheric phenomena Red Sprites and Blue Jets.

Professor of Geophysics Glenn Shaw was elected to serve a three-year term on the board of trustees for the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research. UCAR operates the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and is administered by 85 member universities from around the United States and by foreign affiliates. UCAR budgets about $200 million annually for research activities in the atmospheric, oceanic and social sciences.

Professor of Geophysics David Stone received a grant for $15,000 from ARCO Alaska to support research that could reveal a clearer picture of potential oil and mineral reservoirs in the Arctic. Stone, Associate Professor of Geophysics Paul Layer, and teams from Stanford and Michigan State universities, have researched plate tectonics in Siberia and in Yakutia, Magadan, and Chukotka in northeastern Russia since 1990. Together, they revealed the geologic character of northeast Russia by determining the age of rocks in the area, and by studying the direction and the intensity of Earth's magnetic field through time.

Professor of Geophysics Gene Wescott received the 1995 UAF Alumni Achievement Award for Professional Excellence. Wescott, who graduated from UAF with an M.S. in 1960 and a Ph.D. in 1964, has achieved national and international acclaim for his research in geophysics.

Students

Gwang-Son Choe, who recently earned a Ph.D. in space physics from UAF, won the 1995 Ed Hones Space Physics Award and $1500 for his in-depth examination of the formation of solar prominence and the eruption of solar magnetic arcade systems.

Tom Immel, who is working toward a doctoral degree in physics, was one of four students to receive an award for the best student poster at a Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) meeting in Boulder, Colorado. The title of his poster was "Observations of Large-scale Thermospheric Oxygen Density Variations due to Geomagnetic Forcing." Co-authors of the poster were Professor of Physics John Craven and University of Iowa Professor Louis Frank.

Ming Yan's paper, "Interaction of Interplanetary Rotational Discontinuities or Alfven Waves with the Earth's Bow Shock," was selected as one of the outstanding student papers at the 1995 American Geophysical Union spring meeting. Yan recently earned a Ph.D. in space physics.

Support Staff

Human Resource Manager Kate Barr recently earned certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources. To be certified as an SPHR, an applicant must pass a comprehensive exam and have at least eight years of professional experience.

Science Editor-in-Chief Kathy Berry won a national first-place award from the National Federation of Press Women and a first-place statewide award from the Alaska Press Women for writing and editing the GI Quarterly. Berry, Graphic Artist Deborah Coccia, and Administrative Assistant Jan Dalrymple won a national award for excellence in content and presentation by the editors of the Journal of Government Information for producing the publication, Global Change and the Polar Regions: Regional Research Programs for the Arctic and the Antarctic. Their accomplishments also were honored with a citation from the Alaska State Legislature.

Welcome

NEW EMPLOYEES---Pictured from left to right in the top row are Richard Harding, Dan Delano and Jeff Tilley. From left to right in the front row are Suzan Underwood, Jeffrey Freymueller and Milton Garcés. Abdul Alkezweeney is absent.

Abdul Alkezweeny joins the institute as a research professor of atmospheric sciences. He brings his experience in cloud physics, chemistry, modifications, and interactions to the arctic site for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program. Alkezweeny earned a Ph.D. (1968) in atmospheric sciences from the University of Washington in Seattle, an M.A. (1962) in physics from the University of California, and a B.A. (1958) in physics from the University of Baghdad. He taught atmospheric sciences at the University of North Dakota, and worked as a senior research scientist for 15 years with Battelle Northwest. He also served as a Native American representative in the U.S. Department of Energy¹s High Level Waste Program.

Dan Delano is the new senior system administrator for the Alaska Synthetic Aperture Radar Facility. Delano, a 20-year resident of Alaska who grew up in Kenai, earned a B.S. (1985) in computer science and engineering at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas. He served as a captain in the U.S. Army from 1986 to 1989. Delano later worked as a senior system analyst for CACI, Incorporated, in Anchorage from 1990 to 1992 and in Arlington, Virginia from 1992 to 1996.

Jeffrey Freymueller joins the institute as a research assistant professor of geophysics. Using global positioning system (GPS) techniques, he guides the institute's seismology group in crustal deformation research. Freymueller completed his M.S. (1988) and his Ph.D. (1991) in geophysics at the University of South Carolina. He worked as a postdoctoral research associate in geophysics at Stanford University and as a member of the technical staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1986 to 1991. Freymueller was given a NASA Group Achievement Award in 1992 and became an associate of the International Association of Geodesy in 1993.

Milton Garcés comes to the institute as a postdoctoral fellow in seismology after obtaining his Ph.D. (1995) from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. (1989) in physics from the Florida Institute of Technology. He specializes in analyzing the sounds generated inside volcanoes for the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

Richard Harding is the operations manager for the Alaska Synthetic Aperture Radar Facility, which acquires, processes, distributes and archives remote sensing data used to support advanced polar research. He also supervises the Geo-Data Center and the Map Office. Harding earned his B.S.E.E. (1971) at North Carolina State University and his M.S.A.E. (1981) at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Previously, he worked as a senior staff engineer for Delfin Systems in Virginia, as a special programs manager at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and as a senior systems engineer for both Titan Advanced Digital Systems in Virginia and Aeronix in Florida.

Jeffrey S. Tilley joins the institute as a research assistant professor of atmospheric sciences. He earned his B.S. (1984) and his Ph.D (1990) in meteorology from Pennsylvania State University. At the institute, he works on regional climate modeling and on short-term weather prediction. Prior to his arrival, Tilley was a research associate working on high-latitude regional modeling for the Program in Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences at the University of Colorado in Boulder. As an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee from 1990 to 1992, he taught undergraduate survey courses in meteorology and graduate courses in mesoscale dynamic and synoptic meteorology. He is a member of the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the U.S. Arctic Research Consortium.

Suzan Underwood is the human resource coordinator for the Alaska Synthetic Aperture Radar Facility. Underwood is responsible for all human resource functions at ASF, including recruitment, development and implementation of policies and procedures, maintenance of personnel records, and personnel assistance, training and development. Prior to joining ASF, Underwood worked as an administrative assistant to the dean at the UAF College of Liberal Arts, as the personnel representative for First Health Services Corporation in Anchorage, and as the office manager at Phil A. Younker & Associates, Limited.

Farewell

Lou-Chuang Lee, professor of physics, is taking a special leave of absence to work as the Dean of the College of Natural Sciences at the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan. Lee, who joined the institute in 1978, has performed research on auroral arc formation, solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions, solar flares and the formation of solar prominence. He also taught a variety of classes, including mechanics, statistical mechanics, atmospheric fluid dynamics, plasma physics and space physics. His wife Li-Her Lee, a programmer analyst with the Computer Resource Center, also is taking a leave of absence.

Amanda Lynch, assistant professor of atmospheric sciences, left the institute to assume a position at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia. After joining the institute in August 1992, Lynch worked in climate modeling to develop an arctic model of ocean-ice-atmosphere and land-atmosphere interactions. Henry Johnson, who worked as a CD-ROM designer for the Computer Resource Center, is accompanying her.

Julia Triplehorn, an associate professor of library science, is taking a yearlong sabbatical to work at the Atmospheric Science Library in Toronto, Canada, and at the NOAA Central Library in Silver Springs, Maryland. During her absence, contract-librarian Betty Galbraith is overseeing the institute's Keith B. Mather Library. Galbraith formerly was the librarian at the UAF Institute of Marine Science, and the librarian for the Office of the Gas Pipeline Coordinator.

Retirement

Kristina Ahlnäs, who retired as a remote sensing specialist, came to the Geophysical Institute from the Institute of Marine Science in 1973 to work with geochronology, paleomagnetism, glaciology, meteorology and volcanology. Ahlnäs investigated the use of satellite data for Alaska and for sea ice studies in Antarctica when, respectively, the NOAA-AVHRR satellite became operational and a NOAA station was established in McMurdo, Antarctica. Ahlnäs operated ASF's geophysical processor system following the launch of the ERS-1 SAR satellite in 1991. Most recently, her research interests include the analysis and color enhancement of SAR data for glaciers in Alaska and dipole eddies around St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea.

Neal Brown, who recently retired as a research assistant professor of physics, was drawn to the institute to study the northern lights as a graduate student 31 years ago. He earned his M.S. (1966) in geophysics at UAF, and joined the institute faculty in 1968. Brown was the first full-time director of Poker Flat Research Range, a position he held from 1971 to 1989. Since then, he has devoted his time to science education. In 1993, he founded the Alaska Space Academy, a summer science camp for middle-school students from Alaska, western Canada, and Russia. Brown maintains ties with the institute as a senior consultant and his passion for science education continues in his retirement.

Jim Burton, a recently retired specialist in computer-aided design, was hired at the institute in 1973. As a draftsman, Burton used computer software to create maps, graphs, line drawings, models and true-sized replicas of instruments needed for scientific purposes. He also taught CAD classes at the UAF Downtown Center. In 1987, Burton was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive illness that causes the gradual loss of eyesight. A member of the National Federation of the Blind, Burton was appointed by Governor Tony Knowles in 1995 to a three-year term on Alaska's Statewide Independent Living Council. He remains an active volunteer in the local community.

Larry Sweet was hired at the institute as a high-school graduate in 1958 during the furor caused by the launch of Sputnik. As a laborer for the institute's carpentry, electronic, and machine shops, he helped erect antennas to track the satellite. Sweet retired as a systems engineer for the Alaska Synthetic Aperture Radar Facility, a position he assumed in 1987. Prior to that, he worked as the statewide research manager for the Alaska Department of Transportation and served the university in various administrative capacities, including as the executive officer to both the vice president and the vice chancellor for research.
Sweet earned a B.S.E.E. at Washington State University in 1963 and a master's degree in engineering management from the University of Alaska in 1972. For many years he was involved with upper atmospheric research activities at Poker Flat Research Range. He describes himself as the tall guy who won institute stair races and as a master laborer (the planer that took off the tip of his finger is still in the machine shop).

Stanley Keith Runcorn, who held the Sydney Chapman Endowed Chair in Physical Sciences at UAF, was slain in December in his hotel room in San Diego, California.

The apparent victim of a robbery, Runcorn, 73, was visiting the area to lecture at the University of California before attending the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. He accepted the position of endowed chair at UAF shortly after he retired from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1988.

The chair was named in honor of Chapman, the scientific director of the Geophysical Institute from 1951 to 1970.

Originally from Lancashire, England, Runcorn was highly regarded internationally as a geophysicist. Considered a scientific pioneer in plate tectonics, he is renowned as a central player in two of the major earth science debates in the mid-twentieth century: the origin of Earth's magnetic field and the validity of the theory of continental drift.

Professor of Geophysics David Stone calls Runcorn, who remained unmarried, one of the great generalists in geophysics.

"He knew a great deal about the various aspects of the moon, the earth, and the origin of planets," Stone said. "Right up until his death, he was working on how magnetic reversals occur."

A Fellow of England's Royal Society since 1965, Runcorn held honorary doctoral degrees of science from Utrecht University, Gent University, Paris University and Bergen University.

In 1984, he received the Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society, and in 1987, he was awarded the Wegener Medal from the European Geophysical Society, an organization similar to AGU.

Runcorn also sat on a committee of scientists overseeing the experimental Biosphere II Space Habitat in Arizona from 1991 to 1993, and he was a member of the Papal Academy of Science, which is Pope John Paul II's science advisory panel.

Runcorn will be missed by many for whom he was both personal friend and mentor. Kenneth Creer with the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Edinburgh wrote:

"For all his achievement and many awards, Keith Runcorn remained modest and unpretentious. His reputation as one of the foremost geophysicists of his generation will remain long after his death, as will memories of his warmth and sincerity."

One of Runcorn's students, Jim Stuart Runner-Beuning, adds, "Professor Runcorn will always be an inspiration to me as he has been to so many throughout his productive, creative life. He will be missed."