Information
for New Jersey's Policy Leaders
March 2008
Campus News |
Service to the State |
People in the Know
CAMPUS
NEWS
Rutgers Noise Center Improves Quality of Life
Rutgers Noise Technical Assistance Center (RNTAC) is a one-of-a-kind center that has trained thousands of noise enforcement officers nationwide and internationally through its certification program. RNTAC is the sole training center for noise enforcement that was originally contracted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and has become the destination for training as many local governments set noise limits and are empowered to enforce them. Its certification has been recognized in jurisdictions across the country from Hawaii to Rhode Island, Georgia to Alaska, and internationally from Vancouver to Barbados. NJDEP requires training for all local noise enforcement officers and now has a contract with RNTAC to offer training to county health departments. RNTAC’s staff teaches enforcement officers from across the nation how to measure noise and persuade violators, through legal remedies if necessary, to fix the problem. In addition, RNTAC offers training to businesses that want to comply with noise law and be good neighbors, and to citizens gearing up to fight the source of local noise problems.
Physicist Earns Sloan Foundation Fellowship
Rutgers physicist Kristjan Haule has won a coveted Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship, a highly competitive award intended to enhance the careers of the very best young faculty members working in seven fields of science in the United States and Canada. A third-year assistant professor in the School of Arts and Sciences, Haule plans to use the $50,000 fellowship to develop computer simulations that predict properties of materials with layers only a few atoms thick. These new materials have the potential to replace traditional semiconducting devices for solar energy conversion from heat into electricity. Haule is one of 118 outstanding young faculty members at 64 major North American universities to receive such an award which provides broad-based research funding for a two-year period.
Greenberg Receives Hiett Prize in the Humanities
Assistant professor of journalism and media studies David Greenberg, is the 2008 recipient of the Hiett Prize in the Humanities, a $50,000 prize awarded annually by the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. The prize, created in 2004 by the Dallas Institute and philanthropist Kim Jordan, recognizes one young scholar in the early stages of his or her career whose work shows exceptional promise. Greenberg, a historian of Presidents and Politics, is also affiliated with the Rutgers History Department and was honored for his first book, Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image (W.W. Norton, 2003) which received the Washington Monthly Annual Political Book Award, the American Journalism History Award and Columbia University’s Bancroft Dissertation Award. Greenberg is also the author of Calvin Coolidge (Henry Holt, 2006), which was named one of the Washington Post’s 100 best books last year, and Presidential Doodles (Basic Books, 2006).
Center Report Ranks NJ First in Preschool Funding
Rutgers' National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) recently released its report: "The State of Preschool 2007: State Preschool Yearbook" showing that New Jersey continued to lead the nation in preschool education funding, ranking first in per-child spending at $10,494 but that more needs to be done to ensure preschool access for 3- and 4-year-olds. According to the study, while state-funded preschools served over one million children last year, public pre-K was unavailable for most 3- and 4-year-olds. The NIEER national report which ranked all 50 states on the percentage of children served and spending per child, found nationally that enrollment, quality and state spending increased in the 2006-2007 school year.
SERVICE TO THE STATE
Summer Program in Engineering and Technology
The School of Engineering presents The Academy at Rutgers for Girls in Engineering and Technology (TARGET), a summer program designed to increase awareness of career opportunities in engineering for 6th to 10th grade girls through a series of hands-on activities, team challenges, speakers, and mentorships. Visit
http://www.osd.rutgers.edu/target/descr.html for program details. For more information, contact Candiece White at
cawhite@rci.rutgers.edu or Evelyn Laffey at
ehlaffey@rci.rutgers.edu.
UN Genocide Convention 60th Anniversary
The United Nations Genocide Convention 60th anniversary will be commemorated April 4 with a day-long, three-panel symposium examining the past, present, and future of the UN Genocide Convention at Rutgers Newark campus. This event is free and open to the public and runs from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., in the Center for Law Justice, 123 Washington Street. For information, visit
http://www.pegasus.rutgers.edu/~review/symposium08.php. The event is hosted by the Rutgers Law Review, a student-run journal of Rutgers School of Law-Newark, in conjunction with Rutgers Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights (
http://cghr.newark.rutgers.edu/).
Spring Writers Conference at Camden
The 20th annual Spring Writers Conference, a day of readings and workshops will be held on Saturday, April 12 at the Walter Gordon Theater, Fine Arts Building, Camden Campus. This year’s offerings feature poet Paul Muldoon and novelist Joyce Carol Oates and many other accomplished writers. All readings and workshops are free and open to the public. No registration necessary for the afternoon and evening readings. Visit
http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/RUCAM/writersconf/.
PEOPLE IN THE KNOW
If you'd like to know more about:
Inner-City & International Impact of Mortgage Crisis, contact DAVID TROUTT, Professor at Rutgers School of Law-Newark can comment on mortgage lending practices and the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis on inner-city economic development and communities of color. Contact Troutt at (973) 353-5590 or by email at
dtroutt@kinoy.rutgers.edu. In addition, contact ANNA GELPERN, Associate Professor who can comment on the international dimensions of the mortgage crisis, how it compares to past financial crises in wealthy and developing countries, and on the international experience with crisis reduction. Contact Gelpern at (973) 353-5346 or by email at
agelpern@kinoy.rutgers.edu.
Looking for Rutgers expertise on a particular topic? Browse the
Rutgers Speakers Bureau:
http://ur.rutgers.edu/speakers/
For additional information and news, click on the following links:
Questions and comments, please contact
staterel@oldqueens.rutgers.edu
