University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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ive, or Star Wars, :w technology tot pro- at ill applications such as ling, creating new octal airo isis Department ac- 1 a nnint tunneling micros t in physics. dwasserw 5 Foundation Centennial Chair in Plasma Theory, and a highly respected plasma physicist, was known by his colleagues as the Pope of Plasma for his leading work in fusion. Another scientist, Dr. Merlin Tuttle, a visiting scholar in zoology, was referred to as the Bat- man for his studies on the furry, noc- turnal rodents and his directorship of the Bat Conservation Institute. The rising popularity of Cajun- prepared seafood took its toll on one specific fish of blackened fame. The red- fish was in danger of extinction, and the UT Marine Science Institute studied the species and raised it in monitored tanks to help head off the threat. The University attracted faculty members, students and industry from all over the world with its worthwhile research projects. by Susan Babchick PREHISTORIC TEXAN: Eryops, a 200 million ear-old dinosaur found in North Texas, stands constructed at Balcones Research Center. HEART CHAMBER: Dr. Thomas Runge and Stephen Ottmers, Bio-Medicine post graduate stu- lent. demonstrate the artificial heart pump they leveloped. Pete Rene Peter Rene

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Late night, as Letterman signs off, researchers remain absorbed in their dedication. The University proudly secured million-dollar con- tracts and research awards that constituted glorious recognition in the newspapers and academic circles. However, real people supported these projects, spending hours tucked away in laboratories. Behind each piece of machinery, each computer program and underneath the piles of data printout were people who looked forward to horseback riding, playing basketball or swimming. Whoever imagined a guy in a black concert T-shirt handling the na- tion ' s defense mechanisms? Some researchers kept barroom hours. Experimental physics is painstak- ing, said Gail Webber, a physics graduate student who could be found at RLM after 1 1 p.m. It ' s inevitable that my experiment breaks down just as I ' m writing my thesis. It ' s frustrating. The University ' s various research projects ranged from human interests, as in self-esteem experiments in psychology, to genetically engineered bacteria developed in microbiology. The University of Texas received $110.9 million during the 1986 fiscal year, with a little more than half of that coming from the federal government, according to the state higher education Coordinating Board. University-level research was a resource for national, state and private industry. The Center for Enhanced Oil and Gas Recovery, for example, was one of four university programs in the nation that took over research once done by major oil companies. In the public sector, the Texas Water Commission relied on na- tionwide policy research conducted by students at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Although the government and private corporations benefited from UT research, the students also received practical experience. Responsibilities for graduate-level research projects was carried mostly by the students themselves. The faculty members ad- vised and outlined the experiments. They tell you what they want, and you go out and do it, Webber said. Graduate students are very indepen- dent; they have to come up with their own techniques, she said. Undergraduate students usually were hired by the professors who headed the laboratories. They worked by semester and were given research tasks but did not play a large role in completing the ultimate goals for the projects. Since research was expensive, pro- posals for funding had to be submitted. Dr. David Snow, UT associate pro- fessor of sociology, said detailed plans and designs for projects were included in funding proposals. The two projects recognized most by the news media were the hypervelocity railgun at the Center for Elec- tromechanics and the robotics projects in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The robots developed by Dr. Delbert Tesar, holder of the Carol Cockrell Curran Chair in Engineering were shaped like human arms and were designed to perform hazardous work on nuclear reactors. The railgun, part of the Strategic AUTOMATED ARM: Toying with ideas of the future, Randel Lindemann, Graduate Student in Mechanical Engineering, monitors robots design- ed to work on reactors. .. Defense Initiative, or Star Wars, research, was a new technology that pro- pelled materials at ultrahigh speeds. It had non-military applications such as superfast welding, creating new materials and launching aircraft. The UT Physics Department ac- quired a scanning tunneling microscope, one of approximately a dozen in the nation, and Dr. Alexandra de Lozanne, assistant professor of physics and .expert on that particular in- strument. It was used to look at small regions of conductors, such as silicon, with a probe. The microscope reconstructed an atomic image. This pioneer invention enabled man to look at the image of an atom, said Chris Snyder, doctoral candidate in physics. The research conducted was serious, yet it had a lighter side as well. Dr. Mar- shall Rosenbluth, holder of the Fondren 24 In Depth

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Tragedies and trials inspired sobering thoughts this year; victim ' s experiences turned grief into student ' s concern. ' Persons under 21 will not be sold alcohol. Be prepared to show I.D., warned a notice outside Jaime ' s Spanish Village on Red River. Inside the restaurant waited a strong- er deterrent for potential drinkers. On the walls between snapshots of festive students and Tecate ads hung lavender- and-black posters advising, Be a friend for life. Designate a driver. A caption reading, For the Love of Christi, was next to a picture of Christine Lanahan, a UT student killed by a drunken driver in October 1985. An odd combination of tragedy and positive initiative raised awareness this year about the dangers of alcohol. Lanahan ' s death was followed this year by the death of Mark Seeberger, a freshman who died in September after drinking 1 8 ounces of rum in less than two hours, according to autopsy reports. Lanahan ' s parents, Don and Susan Cox, marked the first anniversary of their daughter ' s death by starting the Designated Driver program at a sunset memorial service on the Uni ver- sity of Texas campus. Susan Cox said they wanted to educate people about drinking and driving. Jaime Tames, owner of Jaime ' s, a popular spot for UT students, said Susan Cox contacted him about display- ing the poster. We ' d been friends a long time, so I said I ' d be happy to help. Tames said that if he saw customers who had too much to drink, he said, OK, guys, who ' s going to drive home? The University contributed its own efforts to alcohol education. The Student Health Center sponsored alcohol counseling services, lectures about coping with alcoholism and a pro- gram called Thinking and Drinking, in which eight students spoke to campus groups on such topics as Alcohol in the Media and Drinking and Driving. Jenny Settle, fashion design junior and one of the students who gave these presentations, said speakers mentioned the immediate, harmful effects of drink- ing, like going to class with a hangover. They also asked questions to provoke discussion, such as, What can you do when a person passes out? This year, some students saw the problem through parents whose children had died in alcohol-related accidents. Susan Cox ' s message motivated at least one student to learn more about the problem. Stephanie Luther, broad- cast journalism senior, interviewed Susan Cox about her program and was so touched by Cox ' s story that she played a tape of the interview for members of her sorority. She said they had never considered how their parents would react to an ac- cident: (Cox ' s) voice sounded de- vastated a year after the accident, even when she wasn ' t talking about her daughter. You could read shock on (the girls ' ) faces. The room was silent. They had always thought, ' It will never hap- pen to me. ' ' In November, 800 Greeks showed an interest in another mother ' s story. Eileen Stevens, mother of a fraternity pledge killed in 1978 in an alcohol- related hazing accident and founder of the Committee to Halt Useless College Killings (CHUCK), spoke to a packed house at the UTC. Stevens graphically described to the hushed crowd what she went through the night her son, Chuck, died. On a cold November evening at New York ' s Alfred University, Chuck was locked in a car trunk with no jacket and told he would not be let out until he and two other pledges consumed a pint of Jack Daniels, a six-pack of beer, and a bottle of wine. Thirty minutes later, Chuck was dead. That night, Eileen Stevens had been told only that there had been a party. There was a lot of drinking. And Chuck had died of ' probable alcohol poison- ing. ' A doctor later told her that Chuck had a grotesque mixture of alcohol in his stomach. It was not Chuck ' s experience, but his lack of experience with alcohol that killed him, she said. It is my hope that you will leave here and give some serious thought to a serious subject. The object of these programs was to promote consideration of alcohol abuse, not abstinence from drinking. As Susan Cox said, We aren ' t trying to stop people from drinking, we just) want them to be aware. by Valerie Ahern AIM HIGH: Danny Merrell, RTF sophomore and KASE 101 DJ, tests his sobriety before driving t L - Forum to End Drunk Driving obsti course Nov. 26. 26 Hitting Home