other news

  • Tablets, mobile devices and cloud-based services are tools spreading through schools, businesses and communities. UNH Manchester will host a free discussion exploring the two current major technology topics in k-12 schools and universities.

    “Computing Showcase in Education” will be held on Thursday, Oct. 4, at 6 p.m. in UNH Manchester’s third floor auditorium at 400 Commercial Street. The session is offered as part of UNH Manchester’s fall Sidore Lecture Series: “Advances in Technology.” The series is funded by the Saul O Sidore Memorial Foundation and coordinated by the computing technology department at UNH Manchester.

    How are mobile devices being used in educational organizations? Listen to discussion around specific examples of ways the devices are being used in schools across NH in all grades. What types of projects students use them for, how teachers and staff use them for productivity, and what pros and "challenges" are faced in using mobile devices in our...

  • The Whittemore School of Business and Economics announces two new open-enrollment executive development programs for women and managers on the executive track. 

    The UNH Women’s Leadership Development Program and the Next Level Executive Development Program are the newest additions to a broad range of executive development programs offered by the Whittemore School of Business and Economics that provide intensive study for business leaders who want to strengthen their management skills and leadership capabilities.

    Each program will be offered once in the spring and once in the fall. UNH Women’s Leadership Development Program will be held March 4-8, 2013, and Sept. 16-20, 2013. The Next Level Executive Development Program will be held April 8-12, 2013, and Oct. 21-25, 2013. Both programs will be held on campus in Durham in the new state-of-the-art Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, which opens in January 2013.

    “These programs provide an...

  • The New Hampshire Innovation Research Center (NHIRC) at UNH has awarded a Granite State Technology Innovation Grant to ArgenTech Solutions, Inc. (AgTS) to help develop a high-performance, photoluminescent powder coating additive suitable for advanced safety and military applications. AgTS specializes in identifying emerging, innovative...

  • Erik Swartz

    Erik Swartz, associate professor of athletic training. Credit: Jeremy Mayhew.

    NFL Charities, the charitable foundation of the National Football League owners, has awarded a grant to UNH faculty member Erik Swartz to further his ongoing research on the implications of football helmet, facemask, and shoulder pad design on emergency care for injured players.  

    Swartz, associate professor of athletic training in the department of kinesiology, received $62,521; his is one of 15 NFL Charities grants totaling more than $1.5 million that support sports-related medical research.

    The grant will allow Swartz, who has been studying the safe removal of protective equipment like helmets and shoulder pads from athletes...

  • Provost John Aber has announced the members of a search committee who will recruit and appoint a dean of the College of Health and Human Services. Neil Vroman is serving as interim dean.

    The search committee includes:

    Heather Barber, Kinesiology

    Rosemary Caron, Health Management and Policy

    Pamela DiNapoli,  Nursing

    Dan Innis (co-chair), WSBE, Dean

    Jerry Marx, Social Work

    Amy Plante, Communication Sciences and Disorders

    Josephine Porter, Institute for Health Policy and Practice

    Janet Sable (co-chair), Recreation Management and Policy

    Michele Stone, CHHS Business Services

    Corinna Tucker, Family Studies

    The College of Health and Human Services offers undergraduate and graduate instruction leading to baccalaureate and master degrees in communication sciences and disorders; family studies; health...

  • A.R. “Venky” Venkatachalam has been named associate dean for academic programs, and Peter Lane has been named associate dean for faculty and administration at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics, effective Aug. 1, 2012.

    A.R. “Venky” Venkatachalam

    Venky VenkatachalamVenkatachalam recently held the position of chair of the Decision Sciences Department. He is a professor in the Decision Sciences department and the project director for the Green Launching Pad. Since 2005, he has been the director of the UNH Enterprise Integration Research Center. He joined UNH in 1992.

     Venkatachalam has a successful track record in teaching, research, and service. He has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the business administration programs. He has significant experience in...

  • A few weeks ago, associate professor of music Robert Eshbach found out that the house that belonged to Charles Ives (American composer, 1874-1954) was about to be sold and possibly torn down. He couldn’t stand by as this great piece of American history was lost.

    “Charles Ives is our great American composer,” says Eshbach. “With an emphasis on ‘American.’ His music memorializes places in New England, as well as people like Emerson, Thoreau, and Alcott. It speaks to the American character. It is full of popular songs, hymn tunes, etc.—life as it was lived in 19th and early 20th century America.”

    Ives had done much of his composing in his Arts and Crafts style house in West Redding, Connecticut.

    “The Ives family has lived in the house ever since but has kept parts of it, including Ives’s music room, much as he left it when he died. Until just recently, his hat and canes were still on the desk, together with his music and papers. His piano is there… it’s sort of a...

  • UNH ObservatoryAstronomers of all ages and experiences will gather at UNH for lectures, demonstrations, games, crafts and, of course, observing, at the second annual New England Fall Astronomy Festival Friday, Sept. 21 and Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012. The festival, hosted by the UNH physics department in partnership with the New Hampshire Astronomical Society and organized and staffed by professional and amateur astronomers from throughout the region, is at the UNH Observatory on Spinney Lane in Durham.

    “We had so much success with the first New England Fall Astronomy Festival last year we decided to try to make it bigger and better this year. We've done our best to expand the festival to include more activities for kids and their families. We feel that NEFAF is a perfect example of UNH’s commitment to its responsibility to the engage the community and...

  • A UNH professor is among a group of researchers who will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the worldwide essay contest the Laws of Life Essay Contest to determine if the project, sponsored by the Templeton Foundation, has a lasting impact on participants.

    Victoria Banyard, professor of psychology, will join researchers at Sewanee University and Marquette University to conduct the study, which has been funded by a more than $1.1 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to Sewanee University.

    “We know from past research that narratives about our lives are a component of well-being and also of changing our behavior in positive ways. We know that even relatively brief interventions that involve writing and narrative can have a positive impact on mood, health, and behavior. This study is an opportunity to investigate how a narrative exercise presented at a key moment in the lifespan, the transition from adolescence to adulthood, may act in conjunction with other...

  • The newly transformed Pandora Mill will welcome its first occupant, UNH Manchester, for the start of fall courses in September 2012.

    The first floor of the Pandora Mill will become home to the college’s computing technology and engineering programs, as well as the UNH Graduate School’s Manchester campus. The renovated space will provide the college with an additional 22,000 square feet beyond the current location at 400 Commercial Street. The expansion will include 10 classrooms and labs, faculty offices, and several student common areas and study spaces.

    Mihaela Sabin, associate professor and coordinator of the computing technology program, sees the expansion as an opportunity to respond to the demands of the businesses and industry.

    “Employers tell us they want computing professionals with skills in collaboration, communication, team work and problem solving. Our new computing technology lab will provide space for just these needs, with large meeting tables...

  • Take just 20 minutes to find out how healthy you are and you’ll be rewarded with a $50 Visa gift card for taking steps to improve your health and well-being.

    Earn your reward by completing the Harvard Pilgrim health questionnaire between Sept. 12 and Oct.15. You’ll gain valuable information about your health and lifestyle, and be able to identify areas for improvement. You’ll receive an immediate, easy-to-read summary profile, and information on what you can do to reduce risks by changing specific health behaviors.

    If you’re a Harvard Pilgrim subscriber and you say “yes” to question 50 on the questionnaire, a certified Harvard Pilgrim personal health coach will contact you to help you plan and achieve health improvement goals.

    To complete the questionnaire, have your height, weight, blood pressure, total and HDL cholesterol levels, and blood glucose level handy.

    Note: Gift cards are...

  • College of Liberal Arts

    • Maya Abtahian, UNH:  English
    • Eliani Benaion-Basile, UNH:  Languages, Literatures & Cultures
      • Bentley University, Worcester State University, Assumption College, Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University
    • Mary Berguin, UNH:  English/ESL               
      • Abu Dhabi men's college, University of Strasbourg, St. Michael's College, University of Louisville
      • Awarded a Junior Fulbright 1982 and English Fellow Georgetown 2012.
      • Interested in pottery and art history.  Hope to resume cross country skiing and hiking.
    • John Berst, UNH:  Theatre & Dance
    • Daniel Bromberg, UNH:  Political Science
    • Shaleen Cassily, UNH:  Education
      • ...
  • UNH researchers and Conductive Compounds Inc. in Hudson recently received $450,000 from the National Science Foundation to help produce more conductive and cost-effective solar panels. The three-year grant, under the GOALI (Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry) program, will support the engineering of nanoparticles of silver suitable for screen-printing onto photovoltaic (PV) solar panels.

    To generate electricity from the sun, solar panels must have metal on the top and bottom to create a positive and negative connection, like a battery. Coating the shaded bottom side is fairly easy, but on the top, panels are screen-printed with lines of silver fine enough that they maximize light exposure.

    “But the ink that creates these lines is not nearly as conductive as pure silver,” says principal investigator Dale Barkey, professor of chemical engineering. “We’d like to produce inks that are much more conductive than the ones on the market.”

    Nanoparticles...

  • UNH Facilities is instituting key issue policy and procedure changes within the next few weeks that will affect the way keys are requested on campus.  These changes will lead to a paperless streamlined system allowing designated “key requestors” to request keys online through the Facilities database FAMIS. 

    A list is being sent to BSC directors and RCU heads to confirm key requestors within each RC unit. Facilities is holding two presentations on campus in September that will outline policy, procedure, and an overview of FAMIS as well as the historical reasons for why these changes are occurring. Key requestors will receive an invitation to this presentation and are encouraged to attend.  Policy and procedure information will also be available online at the Facilities website as the go-live date draws near. 

    Facilities has been leveraging the software package FAMIS for several months to track maintenance related work. The spring rollout gave all...

  • Emily Gold and Barack Obama.
    Emily Gold, a first-year student at UNH, will serve as an official page with the New Hampshire delegation at the Democratic National Convention. Gold, 18, from Manchester, is majoring in political science. Here she is pictured with President Barack Obama during his visit to Durham in June 2012.

    Emily Gold, a first-year political science student from Manchester, is starting her academic career at UNH with a once-in-a-lifetime experience serving as an official page to the New Hampshire delegation attending the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.

    Gold, 18, is the only UNH student serving in an official capacity as a page or delegate at either national political convention.

    “Being selected as a...