Johnson

Transcending boundaries — no passports needed

“So who cares?”  That’s a question that I like to ask scientists and researchers, and I don’t mean it in an insulting way.  Fundamentally, if nobody cares about the work you did, you’ve probably just wasted time, energy, and resources in doing it.

How or why somebody cares is another question.  The results of research may “push back the frontiers of science,” leading researchers in a distant lab to change the way they plan or interpret their experiments, which leads to more research that influences other scientists to change the way they do things, and so on.   As the process repeats itself, we build new fundamental knowledge that eventually solves problems and often leads to new products for the marketplace, many of which were never anticipated at the beginning.

At the other extreme, the results of research may be very applied and lead immediately to the solution of a problem or the creation of a new product.

Regardless of how fundamental or how applied research is, getting students involved in it creates other benefits.  Students who are engaged in research as undergraduates are more likely to stay in school and graduate on time.

You have to agree, though, that if the answer to “who cares?” is “nobody,” that’s not good.  If nobody cites the paper you publish as a building block for their work, and nobody buys your new widget, then there might just be a problem.

At UND, we don’t hear that answer.

What we do hear is that the research and scholarly work done by UND faculty are important to people both within the state and around the globe.  The work done by our faculty transcends political borders, physical borders (the Earth vs. outer space), and biological borders (work done with cells or laboratory mice helps us improve human health).  This issue of UND Discovery highlights a variety of research and creative projects whose impact transcends all kinds of borders — and you don’t need your passport to read it.

Phyllis Johnson, Vice President for Research and Economic Development

In a style he calls both “chaotic” and “structured,” Tanner Pruess incorporated the UND logo colors of green and orange into a painting that was featured in the University’s “Spirit Week” celebration.

Tanner Pruess found opportunities at UND to mix interests and establish himself as an artistic entrepreneur

University of North Dakota graduate student Tanner Pruess had an interest in art at a young age, but it wasn’t until he arrived on campus here that he made his mark.

The 23-year-old from Pierre, S.D., is finishing up a master’s degree in business administration in the College of Business and Public Administration.  During his time at UND, he also explored other opportunities the area had to offer and found he had talent that hadn’t been tapped.

“My fiancé encouraged me to do some creating of my own,” Pruess said.  “She’s also an artist, and she definitely inspired me to start creating my own work.”

Pruess began building a unique style that combines “structured” and “chaotic” elements.  He created his first painting in the fall of 2011.

“I put a picture of it on Facebook, and I got some great feedback from friends and family,” he said.  “That was what started my second career.”

Pruess made his first sale in March 2012 to a friend who bought two pieces.  By the end of 2012, he had sold more than 50 paintings nationally.  Along with his sales, he has donated a variety of paintings to charities and fundraisers.

Pruess’ move to UND has paid off in ways he never expected.  His art career continues to flourish, and he is now part of a distinct group of artistic entrepreneurs.

“When you consider the size of the town, I think the art community in Grand Forks is pretty cool,” he said.  “It’s a great thing to be a part of.”

Pruess’ artwork was featured recently during UND Spirit Week in The Hugo’s Spirit Art Showcase & Silent Auction.  His abstract painting, “Discover the Spirit,” is up for sale.  The piece combines school colors in a way that reveals the innovative, creative, entrepreneurial and spirited legacy of the UND alumni, students, faculty, and staff.

“Having a painting featured in the University’s art auction is a huge stepping stone for many artists,” Pruess said.  “It also was extra special for me because UND has given me so many opportunities and connections.”

Brian Johnson

Holding examples of new Grand Forks maps are (left to right) Tara Dupper, Lutheran Social Services resettlement coordinator; geography student Garrett Jepsen; Michael Niedzielski, assistant professor of geography; and master’s degree student Bailey Bubach. The class undertook the project of creating maps that could be comprehended by users who are unfamiliar with the community, the culture, and even the language.

A service learning project taps student research and imagination to produce special maps of Grand Forks for new Americans

As anyone who’s been a stranger in a new town can tell you, just getting around can be difficult.  Now add to that the challenges of a new language, different customs and a foreign culture.

University of North Dakota geography student Garrett Jepsen and his classmates built a technology-based solution with paper and web-based products for a community of folks in just such a situation: New Americans.

Working with the Grand Forks office of Lutheran Social Services (LSS), the Geography 471 class — comprising students from a variety of majors besides geography — produced a series of handy community maps destined to help New Americans of all ages find the services they’re looking for.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Jepsen, a Vermillion, S.D., native who was one of 24 students enrolled this spring in Geography 471–Cartography and Visualization.

“It started out as a class project, an assignment,” Jepsen said.  “We divided ourselves up into groups to work on this.  Each group selected a topic of interest to this community, such as low-cost and free activities for children and families, available social services, and food stores.  Then we did the research and gathered the data to design and produce maps for each of these needs.”

For Bailey Bubach, a geology master’s student at UND who graduated from Grand Forks Central High School, the project is a lot more than a course requirement:  “I think it’s a vital part of learning what geography is all about outside of the classroom.”  Bubach is minoring in geography as part of her master’s degree program.

How to help new residents

It’s that contact outside the classroom that makes this project special.

“This is, as far as I know, a truly unique program:  Lutheran Social Services partnering with a geography class to produce this much-needed service,” said Tara Dupper, a social worker who is coordinator of resettlement at LSS-Grand Forks.  “The students did fantastic work with these maps, really valuable for our clients.  We not only got the maps, we got the files so that we can reprint them as needed in the future.”

The refugee program that LSS is associated with is part of the national refugee resettlement program administered through the U.S. Department of State, noted Dupper, a Syracuse, N.Y.-area native who did similar work in Colorado and Alaska before coming to Grand Forks with her husband.  The LSS refugee program in Grand Forks resettles about 90 people annually, many of them members of family groups who try to join up here.

“UND Geography will continue to work with LSS in the future providing these maps with updates made by students,” said Michael Niedzielski, assistant professor of geography, who teaches this cartography class.

“We teach Geography 471 as a service learning class,” said Niedzielski, who grew up in Warsaw, Poland.  “Not only is this about the ins and outs of map design, we understand that maps are another form of communication.  So, the point is for our maps to fill a need, to make those maps for someone.  In other words, we’re making maps as a community service.”

In this case, it’s for a very specific community.

“In this community mapping project, students got to brainstorm instead of me telling them what they should do,” said Niedzielski.  Last year he was involved through the Center for Community Engagement in a similar community project with the Near Northside Neighborhood in Grand Forks.

Walk a mile in their shoes

“The students figured out what to do by putting themselves in the shoes of the community they aimed to help.  They asked, ‘What would I need in these circumstances?’ and designed maps to meet those needs.”

Bradley Rundquist, chair of the UND Geography Department, said the “learning by doing” model used by Niedzielski in his class is extremely effective, although it’s something many faculty struggle to implement.

“Cartography lends itself to such an approach because the only way to learn to make maps is to do it,” Rundquist said.  “Dr. Niedzielski takes that one step further because his students learn by making maps to address specific community needs.”

A typical question: where do I find inexpensive clothing and home furnishings?  The answer: low-cost retailers and thrift stores.  One map produced by the students details all such locations in the Grand Forks area.

This and other maps can be found on the Maps4Community website: http://arts-sciences.und.edu/geography/maps4community/index.cfm

“One key aspect of this project is that the maps live beyond the class,” Niedzielski said.  “Some of the students have even worked past the end of the class (term), updating the maps.”

Juan Miguel Pedraza

Dennis Toom (above) carefully sifts through the soil around the “On-a-Slant Indian Village” site near Fort Abraham Lincoln and Mandan. In 2001, this “dig” netted an abundance of artifacts, many yet to be prepared and cataloged.

Archaeologist Dennis Toom protects the region’s rich and hidden past from being forever lost to development

You might call University of North Dakota archaeologist Dennis Toom the Indiana Jones of the Upper Midwest, minus the swashbuckling adventurism of the Hollywood hero.

That’s not to suggest his work’s not exciting.

Toom, who’s been a member of the Department of Anthropology for the past 25 years, has spent the majority of that time investigating and sifting through some of the more significant archaeological locations across North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, and northeastern Wyoming.

He’s collected a treasure trove of artifacts that tell a story of America’s recent and prehistoric past.  Boxes filled with finds are stacked in the lower reaches of UND’s Babcock Hall, waiting to be examined and catalogued.

“I just kind of fell into it,” said Toom, whose love of archaeology was sparked as a student at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.  “It all made sense to me, and it was easy for me.

“I’ve always wanted to know what went on here in the past.”

Toom

Toom first came to North Dakota in the 1980s to assist with archaeology work around the proposed Northern Border Pipeline Project, which originated in Canada and now runs west of Williston, N.D., southeast into Iowa.

In 1988, he joined the UND faculty as a research archaeologist, and has been hopping ever since.

Thanks to the National Environmental Policy Act and more specific language in the National Historic Preservation Act, whenever a federal project intends to move dirt or build something, a collateral damage study of archaeological and historic properties must be done.

That’s where Toom and his small team of investigators step in.

“Basically, you have to take care of natural resources as well as cultural resources,” he said.

A lot of Toom’s field work has centered on the village sites of the Indians of the Middle Missouri region in the Dakotas, along the Missouri River.  The descendents of these people are known today as the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.

In 2000-2001, while working on a project that would establish and restore part of the original palisade surrounding On-a-Slant Indian Village near Fort Abraham Lincoln, south of Mandan, N.D., one of Toom’s digs revealed a fortification ditch “packed full of artifacts.”

“This was all quite surprising to us,” Toom said.  “We still have boxes full of artifacts from that one find.”  Eventually, once inspected and cataloged, those artifacts will be sent to the North Dakota Heritage Center.

Toom said the highest density of prehistoric artifacts in North Dakota can be found along rivers, which were important for resources and travel.

“North Dakota has some very interesting and well preserved archaeology,” he said.  “We are still a frontier state in a lot of ways.”

According to Toom, one well-documented North Dakota site is the ancient Knife River Flint Quarries where American Indians, long before western settlement of North America, mined flint that was excellent for tool making.  The highly sought stone was traded across the continent, with Knife River flint being discovered as far away as Ohio.  Knife River flint was the first North Dakota “export,” beginning over 10,000 years ago.  The people who first mined the flint, the Paleo-Indians, were also the first inhabitants of North Dakota.

“These people were the first North Dakota explorers,” he said.

More recently, Toom and colleague Michael A. Jackson, an associate research archaeologist and a GIS specialist, were given a grant by the National Park Service to conduct precision mapping of President Theodore Roosevelt’s old Elkhorn Ranch site, along the Little Missouri River in the North Dakota Badlands, about 35 miles north of Medora, N.D.  Roosevelt established the ranch when he was only 26.

Toom and students of the UND archaeological field school were able to document and precisely map the features of the former ranch yard, including the ranch house, blacksmith shop, barn, utility shed, and chicken coop.

Their findings were compiled and published in February 2010.

What’s amazing about Toom and his staff is that they receive very little, if any, internal  funding to do business.  Their shop is completely funded by grants and contracts from outside sources, such as government agencies and private industry.

“If we’re not doing projects, we’re not getting paid,” he said.  Like any business, sometimes Toom is forced to be creative and innovative to get the job done when grant funding doesn’t necessarily cover the cost of the work.

Toom and his crew perform two or three major projects a year, in addition to a number of smaller ones.

They also inject an educational component into their work most years by conducting an archaeological field school, giving students hands-on experience at actual research sites.  As many as 10 to 12 students, about half from UND, take part in the field schools each time, Toom said.

David Dodds

Research on temporary settlements in North Dakota’s oil patch aims to improve workforce housing statewide

University of North Dakota researchers Bret Weber and William Caraher got to know each other while mapping out the remains of a late Roman city on the south coast of Cyprus.

The city was gone, of course.  The only things that remained were bits of pottery, fragments of walls, and hints of decoration suggesting previous settlement.

It’s a far cry from North Dakota, where workforce housing has sprung up across the state to accommodate local and out-of-town workers employed in the Bakken oil patch and related industries.

Caraher

“We had this idea that we could use some of the same techniques that I used in Mediterranean archaeology to document these ‘man camps’,” said Caraher, UND associate professor of history.

“The thought was to have Bret, who has a Ph.D. in history as well as a master’s degree in social work, bring in his experience doing oral history and qualitative research to capture the human stories while I document the material culture of the Bakken Boom.”

While driving from site to site, the two revised and articulated their research questions.  The project became more focused with Weber’s background in housing issues, as an academic specialist in social policy, a member of the Grand Forks City Council, and a founder of the Grand Forks Community Land Trust.

“With my interest in housing, we realized that the project took on a social policy angle,” said Weber, UND assistant professor of social work.  “We weren’t just going to document life in Bakken man camps, but we were going to think about how the state can make life in workforce housing better.”

Over the course of three trips to the Bakken oil patch, Caraher and Weber teamed up with Richard Rothaus, an archaeologist with Trefoil Cultural and Environmental in Sauk Rapids, Minn.; Aaron Barth, a Ph.D. student in the joint UND/NDSU history program; Kostis Korelis, an architectural historian from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa.; and two photographers, John Holmgren and Kyle Cassidy.

“We all see the world through a myopia fashioned by our circumstances — which is one reason it’s great to work with people from completely different fields,” said Cassidy, who provides an artistic vision to help capture the human experience of the Bakken.  “Together, we layer these different interpretations, and it’s that diversity of observation that I think makes this work so well.  We’re all waking up in the same place, but we’re seeing very different landscapes.”

So far, the “North Dakota Man Camp Project” has documented close to 30 man camps ranging from state-of-the-art housing provided by global corporations like Target Logistics to groups of campers neatly arranged in RV parks or clustered without power or water in shelterbelts.

Weber

“The range of housing in the Bakken is staggering right now,” Weber said.  “We created a typology of camps with the most elaborate modular camps managed by groups like Target Logistics as Type 1 camps.  RV park type camps with a diverse range of units, masted electrical hook-up, and connections to water and sewage are designated as Type 2 camps.  Camps without power or water in irregular settings are Type 3 camps.”

Weber and Barth have collected close to 50 interviews with man camp residents, operators, and staff.  Caraher has meticulously photographed the camps, Kourelis has prepared architectural drawings of representative units, and the team has developed careful descriptions of the space in the camps.

While the work has just begun, the team is starting to make some preliminary observations about life in the camps that weave together the personal experiences of people living in the Bakken and the material culture that constitutes the new settlements in the western part of the state.

“The most remarkable thing we have discovered is that a substantial part of the Bakken workforce does all they can to carve out domestic life in even the most humble of settings,” Caraher observed.  “One of the Type 3 camps, in a shelterbelt, built a horseshoe pit and an elaborate outdoor kitchen.  Type 2 camps often include fenced-in lawns, decks, mudrooms, gardens, and other amenities that you’d find in a suburban subdivision.”

Additionally, they’ve found that, despite the title “man camps,” all three types can include men, women, and children.  And all three include people earning high salaries and people struggling to earn enough to stay in the patch.

As the landscape of the western part of North Dakota continues to develop, Weber and Caraher plan to continue their work to document and analyze the changing living conditions in the Bakken.  Their work in the oil patch is — for the most part — a flip-side of their Cyprus research.  But there is, say Caraher and Weber, an eerie similarity between the vanquished Roman city and the open North Dakota prairie.

Brian Johnson

William Caraher and Bret Weber, UND professors of history and social work, respectively, contributed to this article.

Alan Frazier (right), assistant professor of aviation, demonstrates a camera-equipped UAS vehicle to Barry Milavetz, associate vice president for research, and Grand Forks County Sheriff Robert Rost.

In a bold and innovative move, the University of North Dakota formed the country’s first Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Research Compliance Committee that aims to get ahead of federal plans to regulate UAS in terms of privacy concerns and other social issues.

“This is purely voluntary,” said Phyllis Johnson, UND vice president for research and economic development.  “That’s what’s so innovative about it.  We’ve got multiple stakeholders involved: first responders; city, county and state government — including a state’s attorney, which I think is pretty cool; people from aerospace; and other faculty with backgrounds in law, philosophy, ethics and history, so they bring a variety of perspectives.”

The new committee also comprises local and regional law enforcement, including an appointee from the Grand Forks Sheriff’s Office, and other community members.

“We needed a group of people to deal with making sure that we don’t violate federal or state laws,” said Grand Forks County Sheriff Robert Rost.  “These aircraft can be used for a lot more than law enforcement, so we’ve got a good cross section of people who will assure that everything in UAS operations in this region is fair and equitable.

“People elsewhere are going to be looking at what we’re doing with this committee.  We’re going to set an example to be followed.”

The broadly based panel is modeled on UND’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) that is charged with protection of human subjects in research and on the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and other similar committees, all of which are mandated by federal law, Johnson said.

“One of the big concerns that IRBs look at with human studies is invasion of privacy and security of private data,” Johnson said.  “These are similar to the issues that we’re dealing with here with UAS.  Very often with a law enforcement application, you cannot necessarily identify the individuals and get their consent beforehand (before a UAS flies over them).  That does not mean that we should not take some time to talk about this.”

Barry Milavetz, a UND professor of  biochemistry and molecular biology and associate vice president for research development and compliance, agreed that privacy is a top concern for UAS research.  And that’s why he proposed the UAS committee idea last summer.

“Maybe there are other important ethical issues that would arise with respect to UAS, but right now, the privacy issue is in the forefront,” Johnson said.

UAS payloads now often include various kinds of cameras.  They are being used by law enforcement and others for surveillance, among many other purposes — raising invasion of privacy issues and resulting in a spate of news media coverage.

In a recent widely quoted report on UAS and privacy issues, the American Civil Liberties Union underscores those concerns about the unregulated use of UAS by law enforcement and other government agencies.

Sheriff Rost appreciates those concerns, but also cites a number of public safety or high-risk situations where UAS would come in handy.

“For sure, we’ve got issues that come up, such as a child lost in the middle of a grain field,” said Rost, who’s been in law enforcement since 1970 and with the Grand Forks County Sheriff’s Department since 1979.

“And we’ve got hazmat situations, for example where a train carrying anhydrous ammonia derails, just like what happened in Minot (N.D.) in 2002, or if a hazmat truck gets involved in an accident,” Rost said.  “These are all examples of situations where you can’t necessarily send people right in.  A UAS can be used in these events to safely survey the situation, define where the hazard is, and decide where you can safely come in from.  These kinds of situations are my main interest in making use of UAS technology.”

Another big issue is traffic accidents.

“You can use a UAS to fly over the accident scene to grid it out, instead of the laborious process of using tape measures on the ground — handy technology,” Rost said.

Still, Milavetz said, it has become clear that some of these new UAS applications are raising ethical issues, particularly with respect to privacy.  As a consequence of the proposed uses at the national level, various groups have issued position statements, and Congress also is set to take up the issue of privacy with respect to UAS usage.

UND has developed a charter to address the ethical issues related to UAS research at UND.  One outcome from this plan is the formation of the new UAS committee.

According to the charter:

• The UAS Research Compliance Committee will be a standing committee of the Division of Research and Economic Development.
• The charter will be reviewed annually by the vice president for research and economic development.
• The committee reviews and approves all research using UAS conducted by any member of the University, including faculty, staff, and students.
• No research will be undertaken without prior approval of the committee.
• The committee will consider the ethical consequences of the proposed research and apply community standards to determine whether a research project may be approved, modified, or denied.

The committee comprises six appointees representing the University, three representing emergency responders, three from local government, and three from the community at large.

In addition, the committee has four nonvoting members from UND: the associate vice president for research and economic development, a coordinator from Research Development and Compliance, and representatives from Public Safety/University Police and the General Counsel’s office.  Committee members are appointed for renewable three-year terms.

UND has been involved in UAS training and research for a number of years through its Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence and other centers across campus.  And the University awards what is still the only fully accredited degree in this discipline.

“As a leader in UAS research nationally, it behooves UND to be a leader on this front as well,” Johnson said about the new committee’s role.  “I would rather that we do this — establish this committee — than just have the federal government lay down a set of rules that can never cover every possible situation.”

Juan Miguel Pedraza

The international reputation of the Energy & Environmental Research Center has been built by the talent and energy of its dedicated employees.

Since 1987, the EERC has had more than 1,230 clients in 50 states and 52 countries.  International clients, collaborators, and guests often visit the EERC, but EERC researchers also travel around the world, bringing their expertise to clients and peers.  In just the last two years, EERC researchers have traveled to Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, Mexico, Mongolia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, and nine countries in western Europe.

“We bring value-added research, development, demonstration, and commercialization to clients wherever they are.  The two general ways we work with clients are by further advancing their technology or by developing new technology that solves a problem they are currently encountering,” said Gerry Groenewold, EERC director.  “We are also having successes in international licensing and commercial deployment, which directly promote us to future international clients.”

Carbon technologies

Nine EERC researchers returned from Kyoto, Japan, in November 2012, for example, where they presented their work on various aspects of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) at the International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, or GHGT.  Several researchers presented on EERC CCUS work through the Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership.  Another researcher who presented at the GHGT conference was EERC Deputy Associate Director for Research Mike Holmes.

“I presented a summary of the EERC work in CO2 control in gasification systems and had very positive responses on our test capabilities, our CO2 capture work, and our warm-gas cleanup of impurities in the product gases from gasifiers,” said Holmes.  He also met with current clients and networked with others in the field, including possible research collaborators and clients, throughout the week at the conference.

Jason Laumb, EERC senior research manager, and Josh Stanislowski, EERC research manager, have made three trips to Germany in as many years to share the EERC’s expertise on gasification processes through a partnership with the University of Freiberg.  The partnership began with a visit to the EERC from the Department of Energy Process Engineering and Chemical Engineering at TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Saxony.  The department is the leading institution in research in the field of large-scale gasification processes in Germany.

“They’ve asked for us to be involved in their semiannual International Freiberg Conference on IGCC & XtL (integrated gasification combined-cycle; XtL is an umbrella term comprising gas to liquids, biomass to liquids, and coal to liquids) Technologies,” said Laumb.  “I am on the conference organizing committee, and EERC researchers present papers every year.  They asked me to chair a session in 2010 and to give the closing address at the 2012 conference.  In 2011, they asked that Josh and I be instructors at their three-day compact gasification course in Freiberg at the Institute.”

The partnership includes a student/employee exchange program.  To date, three University of Freiberg students have spent a semester working at the EERC on gasification projects.

“We have some of the most advanced gasification test facilities in the world,” said Laumb.  “Implementing gasification in cost-effective and environmentally sound ways is what countries are trying to do with gasification now, and we can help them with that.”

Mercury expertise

EERC Senior Research Advisors John Pavlish and Denny Laudal, experts in mercury control and mercury measurement, respectively, have brought international attention to the EERC.  Pavlish is the U.S. representative to the Mercury Emissions from Coal (MEC) International Experts Working Group on Reducing Emissions from Coal and is a member of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP’s) Global Mercury Partnership on Reduction of Mercury Releases from Coal Combustion and the BiNational Strategy Utility Mercury Reduction Committee.  Pavlish has also served as a technical director for the EERC’s Air Quality Conferences.

Perhaps one of the highest profile roles Pavlish and Laudal have had is in their work with MEC and UNEP, which coordinates the United Nations’ environmental activities, develops guidelines and treaties, and assists developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and practices.

The MEC workshop series was established to facilitate the interaction of international experts representing utilities, governmental bodies, research institutes, and commercial industries to discuss how they can work together to address the problem of mercury emissions from coal combustion.  Laudal and Pavlish presented at the by-invitation-only 2012 meeting, which gathered around 70 experts from 20 countries and was held in St. Petersburg, Russia.  Pavlish has presented at MEC around the world since its inception in 2003; Laudal has also presented several times.

“The UN asks mercury experts around the world to provide information and experience that can be transferred to developing countries to help control mercury worldwide,” said Laudal.  “Developing nations may have to do things differently than a U.S. utility might.  They need to reduce costs and control the most mercury possible for a certain amount of money, so instead of 90 percent control, you might be looking at 40 percent.  On the measurement side, a continuous mercury monitor costs $250,000, which is beyond the limit for many clients in developing countries, so we need to make the testing equipment cheaper, simpler, and more portable.

“With our input as one of the leaders in developing sorbent trap technology, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, working with UNEP, designed and developed a ‘Mercury Measurement Kit,’ which relies on sorbent trap technology housed in a truck and moved from facility to facility.  This way, the UN and developing countries are able to monitor mercury emissions at a more reasonable cost,” Laudal said.

Contacts are vital

“Many contacts are initially made at conferences and meetings, but it’s not easy to build relationships through email,” said John Harju, EERC associate director for research.  “There is no substitute for face-to-face meetings and shared work experiences.  We have clients from every corner of the globe.  Often they come here to see our work in the laboratories or the pilot-scale testing facilities, but it can also be important for us to work with them where the problem occurs or the technology is used.  We’ve worked with clients nearly everywhere in the world.”

EERC accessibility is a major drawing card to EERC partners worldwide.  The EERC’s portfolio includes the development and commercialization of innovative technologies involving strategic energy and environmental issues such as clean coal, energy and water sustainability, hydrogen technologies, alternative fuels, biomass utilization, water management, flood prevention, global climate change, waste utilization, energy efficiency, and contaminant cleanup.

Sandy Van Eck

Imagine flying across some of the most beautiful and majestic ice structures in the world every day and doing it for a living.

UND alumna and NASA project manager Christy Hansen gets to do just that as a project manager of a geophysical program called “Operation IceBridge.”  IceBridge is a six-year NASA mission, the largest airborne survey of Earth’s polar ice ever flown, in which data is collected to help scientists “bridge the gap” for polar observations following the death of the old polar-orbiting satellite “IceSat 1” and before the new “IceSat 2” launches in 2016.

Based at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., Hansen’s fieldwork is mainly in Greenland or Chile, depending on whether they are flying over the Arctic or Antarctica.

Twice a year, the Operation IceBridge team travels to Earth’s polar regions to collect data on the changing ice sheets, glaciers and sea ice.  While on location, Hansen’s team of polar scientists, instrument engineers, educational/outreach teams, logistics teams, data specialists and aircraft personnel examine the most extreme reaches of the planet to record how they are changing.

Hansen’s work kept her hopping last year.

“If somebody would have told me that 2012 would bring with it a deployment to Greenland, Chile, and possibly Antarctica, I never would have believed them,” she said.

Hansen, 37, a native of suburban Philadelphia, attributes her important project management role to her broadly based educational and professional experiences that taught her technical, communication, organizational and leadership skills.  She got her undergraduate degree in comprehensive science with a minor in physics from the Villanova University.

She continued her education at UND, pursuing her master’s in space studies from 1997 to 1999.  While at UND, Hansen was exposed to NASA personnel and the Johnson Space Center (JSC), a place where she would later work directly with astronauts involved in human spaceflight.

A NASA employee who was a distance-degree student at UND spotted Hansen in a video and asked about her interest in coming to JSC.  She was hired to help train astronauts and worked in flight control for 10 years at JSC.  Hansen specialized in the extra-vehicular activity/spacewalk (EVA) department and was an expert on components of the International Space Station (ISS) as well as Hubble space telescope repair.  She was even featured in the “Hubble Rescue” IMAX movie.

Her career was beginning to launch.

Hansen’s next job started in 2010, when she moved to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland to become the operations lead/manager of a robotic technology payload, which launched on the final Space Shuttle mission, headed for the ISS.

“Essentially my job was to plan, train, and fly; take the payload hardware before it flew, figure out what the mission objectives were, lead the procedure development that would be flown in space, train my team to be flight controllers, and then lead the execution of the objectives once the payload was in space, ” Hansen said.

Her next career stop was her current job with Operation IceBridge.  After seeking it out, Hansen discovered that the operation was in need of project management.  Her mission now is to collect data on changing glaciers, ice sheets, and sea ice, all of which contribute to higher sea levels.  When collecting data in the Arctic, the team spends half their time in Thule, Greenland, and the other half in a small town called Kangerlussuaq, both inside the Arctic Circle.

The team is there once a year from March to May.  The day starts off at 5:30 a.m., with a visit to the weather office to look at weather patterns over Greenland and to select a flight plan.  Then they arrive at the runway, where instrument operators and aircraft/pilot crews have already checked out the hardware.

The team flies for more than eight hours 1,500 feet above sea ice, ice sheets, or glaciers, depending on the “target” selected each day, taking pictures while collecting and analyzing data.  At 6:30 p.m., there is a science meeting to discuss the findings.  Some team members work through the night to process data.

The team heads to Antarctica every year in October and stays through November, but they actually are based in Punta Arenas, Chile.

Never actually touching down in Antarctica, the team flies 11-hour missions from Punta Arenas and over the Drake Passage to various high priority targets over Antarctica.  The days are longer for the team than the ones in Greenland.

Only recently, Hansen’s team was asked to do a feasibility study of relocating their southern hemisphere IceBridge operations from Chile to continental Antarctica.

“By doing this,” she said, “we could reach new scientific targets not previously reached by IceBridge and get more science hours by starting off directly from the ice, as opposed to flying in from Punta Arenas.”

Hansen was part of a team that conducted a weeklong site visit to McMurdo, Antarctica, in December to determine what it would take to make the ice continent its new southern base.

Hansen says the job is fascinating and exciting.  She enjoys working with a well-oiled machine of people collecting important scientific data to increase understanding of the Earth’s processes and responses.

As far as the future goes, the sky is the limit for Hansen.

“I’m pretty happy in my current field and imagine being here for a while,” she said.  “But I would love to fly in space someday.  If it works out, that would be great.  If not, I’d say I’m pretty content leading a team that flies at 1,500 feet over the most beautiful and majestic ice structures on this planet.”

Kate Menzies

The information acquired through Operation IceBridge is intended to “fill in the gaps” of polar observations following the demise of the old polar-orbiting satellite “IceSat 1.” A new “IceSat 2” satellite is scheduled to be launched in 2016.

Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor Mike Gaffey (left) and Department Chair Santhosh Seelan work with students from around the world who are enrolled in UND’s Space Studies program.

UND's Space Studies celebrates 25 years as the world's academic leader in all things cosmos

“Space:  the final frontier,” said Capt. James T. Kirk.  A grand intro to each Star Trek episode.

With all the discoveries coming at us daily from NASA’s stunningly successful Mars mission, from stellar neighbors in our Milky Way to the farthest known reaches of the universe, there’s still a lot more to learn.

“It’s a fascinating realm,” said Santhosh Seelan, professor and chair of the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences Department of Space Studies, celebrating 25 years since its launch by Odegard himself.  “Space is still indeed the final frontier.”

Today, UND Space Studies encompasses everything from the study of planetary geology and near-earth objects to the development, design and building of “space suits” — more technically accurate planetary exploration suits and their associated support systems — to space flight simulators.

“Students participate at every level of research here,” notes Seelan.  “It’s very hands-on.”

The department launched the world’s first, and still one of the few, fully online master’s degree programs in space studies and is preparing to launch a Ph.D. program as well.

On its faculty are people such as Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor Mike Gaffey, who helps NASA figure out what to do about potential planetary threats — so-called near-earth objects such as asteroids.

The department also is home to people who have worked for NASA and the space industry; a former military test pilot; and a former Soviet space scientist, among others.

The idea for a space studies program came from Odegard’s drive to expand his burgeoning enterprise from a school for airplane pilots to a broadly based academic division spanning a range of scholarly endeavors related to flight, flying, the atmosphere, and outer space exploration.

A native North Dakotan and experienced aviator, Odegard was a visionary who in the late 1960s believed that UND should establish a Department of Aviation.  And he did just that after receiving his M.B.A. from UND.  As the aerospace program grew, Odegard decided that UND should also have a Department of Space Studies.

In his many travels around the United States, he met and became friends with Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin, lunar module pilot for Apollo 11 and second man to walk on the Moon.  He hired Aldrin to come to UND to serve as a front man and promoter for the program.  Aldrin recommended that the first chair of the department be David Webb, an internationally known consultant in the field of space development and a member of the National Commission on Space.

Webb arrived at UND and put together the curriculum and hired faculty.  The decision was made to offer a multidisciplinary Master of Science degree in space studies.  That degree required students to take technical and policy courses to give them broad knowledge about space: law, economics, management, remote sensing, human factors, military applications, engineering, astronomy, planetary geology, history, etc.

In addition to Webb, four faculty were hired: Joanne Gabrynowicz (space law and policy), Jim Vedda (military and commercial space), Grady Blount (remote sensing and planetary geology), and Dick Parker (life sciences).

In 1987, the first four students were accepted into the new department: Harvey Wasiuta, Brett Epstein, Jim Anderson, and Suezette Rene Bieri.  Wasiuta and Epstein were Canadian citizens.

Initially, Space Studies shared office space with the Computer Science Department in what is now Streibel Hall.  But as enrollment increased, Space Studies required more, well, space.  So, in 1992 the department moved to the fifth floor of a new building which was later named Clifford Hall.  Tom Clifford was a former mentor of Odegard, longtime UND president, and a staunch supporter of  the space studies program.

Odegard had sold the idea of a Department of Space Studies to the UND administration and the Board of Higher Education by promising that it would be self-sustaining and would not require any state funding.  To accomplish this, Space Studies offered its master’s degree to Minuteman missiliers at Grand Forks and Minot Air Force Bases.  Their tuition was paid by the U.S. Air Force.

For many years, Space Studies faculty drove to the bases to offer classes in five-hour blocks (5 p.m. to 10 p.m.).  Going to Minot required a 450-mile roundtrip.  Faculty also taught classes on campus.  So there were many days when they showed up in class bleary eyed and exhausted after a long drive to Minot and then five hours of teaching before their trek back to Grand Forks.

Soon international and political events forced Space Studies to take a different approach to fund its program when The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty was signed, eliminating the Minuteman missile field operated out of the Grand Forks Air Force Base.  The department was in the position of losing about half its missiliers and half its income.

Chuck Wood, Space Studies chair at the time, decided that the department could be financially saved and even strengthened by offering the master’s degree through distance education (http://www.space.edu).  It turned out to be one of the first college degrees in the nation to be offered via the Internet.

That transition, along with monetary support from the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education, allowed the department to flourish.  As enrollment grew, more instructors were hired.  In 1998, Space Studies became the largest graduate program at UND.

About 700 students have received Master of Science degrees in space studies since the department was founded.  The department also offers an undergraduate minor.

Suezette Rene Bieri and Juan Miguel Pedraza

Construction and testing of the NDX-1 prototype space suit has drawn wide attention to the University and the Department of Space Studies.

Hundreds of local citizens made the trip to the UND Observatory last June to see the transit of the planet Venus, passing directly in front of the sun. The next Venus transit will not be seen until 2115. The UND Observatory is the only active astronomical observatory in North Dakota and offers diverse observing opportunities with multiple Internet-controllable telescopes.

Dheeshana Jayasundara, assistant professor of social work, is examining issues of domestic violence in Muslim populations and health concerns in developing countries. Her interest in human rights topics began while pursuing an undergraduate degree in sociology in India.

Thirty years after WGS’ founding, nearly 50 campus scholars are exploring women and gender issues

Last spring, UND’s Women Studies program made the transition to being known as Women and Gender Studies (WGS), reflecting the international and national movement in feminist academic organizations toward researching and teaching gender and sexuality.

The name change, coinciding with the program’s 30th anniversary, signified an expansion of its reach beyond “female issues,” while maintaining its historical focus on women’s achievements and struggles with systematic oppression.

Kathleen Dixon: The program’s name change to Women and Gender Studies reflects both its longstanding core and an expansion of interests and participation.

“We expect that students interested in the gender theories that underlie the newfound LGBTQ (lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer) identities will also find a home here,” said Kathleen Dixon, director of Women and Gender Studies.

Interest in the program has surged over the past three decades, as UND now has faculty and students of all majors researching topics from gender and sexuality to domestic violence to international women’s rights.

In fact, there are nearly 50 faculty members on the UND campus, representing eight of the nine major schools and colleges, who are members or affiliates of the Women and Gender Studies Program.

Dheeshana Jayasundara

Among them is Dheeshana Jayasundara, assistant professor of social work.

Jayasundara took an interest in human rights while getting her undergraduate degree in sociology in India.  The native of Sri Lanka began her feminist work during a pilot project in her home country that studied violence against women.

“It was the first time I was introduced to domestic violence,” Jayasundara said.  “It was all pretty shocking for me.  I was still fairly young, but it opened my eyes to what was going on in the world.”

Jayasundara then came to the United States where she went on to get her master’s degree and her doctorate.  Her Ph.D. research focused on women’s reproductive health.

“One of the aspects I liked about this area was giving women the capabilities to dictate what they have and how their well-being should be,” Jayasundara said.

Jayasundara took her passion for women studies as well as international studies and is currently doing research at UND on domestic violence in Muslim populations.  She is also looking at health issues in developing countries.

“After 9/11, Muslim populations were really marginalized,” Jayasundara said.  “Domestic violence has been ignored, and the concept of domestic violence actually being a crime is new to them.”

Jayasundara is part of the Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation out of Dallas.  This organization comprises about 300 women who recognized how society viewed Muslim women’s needs and formed a group that could counteract what they view as the media’s inaccurate perceptions.

“My research and my services have been tied to that agency,” Jayasundara said.  “Domestic violence is a very personal subject, and we’re trying to educate other people and other agencies about taking into account the needs of Muslim women.  I’m privileged to be a part of this movement.”

As head of UND’s Norwegian language program, Melissa Gjellstad has enhanced awareness of Scandinavian issues in this area. She is particularly interested in how changes in parental leave policies are affecting Scandinavian literature and social trends in other nations.

Melissa Gjellstad

Another UND scholar who brings an international flair to her gender research is Melissa Gjellstad, head of the Norwegian program.

Since coming to UND in the fall of 2008, Gjellstad has been opening eyes to the Norway and Scandinavia of today and how they influence global society, culture and politics through her accumulating research on gender issues.

In particular, Gjellstad has studied the representation of mothers and fathers as caregivers in 1990s Scandinavian literature as compared to the prior generation.  The 1990s timeframe is significant because it followed the implementation of sweeping, liberal paternal leave policies in many Scandinavian countries.  For instance, parents of newborns were allowed 49 weeks of leave from their job at 100 percent pay or 59 weeks at 80 percent.  In the case of adoptions, the benefit period totals 46 weeks at full salary or 56 weeks at 80 percent.

Gjellstad investigates how these social changes in men’s and women’s caregiving influence Scandinavian literature, or whether the literature is ahead of the curve in precipitating social change.  And it’s not unprecedented that social trends with geneses in Scandinavia spread to other parts of the world.

“Gender politics have been a big export for these countries,” Gjellstad said.  “They have been on the forefront compared to the rest of the world in the sense that parenting or caregiving should be equally valued work.”

Trained in comparative literature, Gjellstad injects her research into many of her courses such as “Nordic Masculinities and Men’s Narratives” and “Gender Studies in Norway,” which is taught in Norwegian.

Gjellstad stated, “Even in [my] ‘Vikings and Sagas’ course, I require students to be attentive to gender issues.”

Weaver-Hightower

Marcus Weaver-Hightower

Women and Gender research at UND can sometimes be just about the boys, too.

Marcus Weaver-Hightower, an associate professor of educational foundations and research, is highly involved in the Women and Gender Studies program.  His research interests include the education of boys and gender theory.

“I always felt that the pressures boys faced were not considered when we talked about gender issues in education,” Weaver-Hightower said.  “Then, in the early 1990s, there was an explosion of interest in girls’ math and science disadvantages.  I was concerned that no one was talking about the tremendous disadvantages for boys in literacy.  So I set out to make that part of the conversation about gender in education circles.”

Weaver-Hightower says that there are many education issues that boys need help with, but that we have to focus on certain boys rather than all boys.

“Boys of color, boys of low-socioeconomic status, LGBT boys, and so on have a much harder time in schools than their white, middle-class, heterosexual, traditionally masculine peers,” he noted.

Weaver-Hightower is currently working on a number of different projects, including a book of autobiographies of famous academics who have studied gender and education.

“I actually just returned to the United States from a developmental leave in South Africa,” Weaver-Hightower said.  “I have the year off from teaching so that I can focus on my research on writing.

“Working at UND has been a really great job for me.  I have the opportunity to teach classes I’m interested in and well prepared for, with students who are engaged and hardworking.  The staff is also wonderful to work with and is supportive in my research for Women and Gender Studies.”

Bridging fields, borders

There are two main threads that tie UND’s WGS research to the national and international trends.  The first is the gender and sexuality studies, on which Weaver-Hightower focuses, and then there are international studies, part of Jayasundara’s concentration.  Gjellstad’s work bridges both.

Dixon said having faculty members such as Jayasundara, Weaver-Hightower and Gjellstad contributing to research at UND has been incredible.

“UND really provides that place for people to come together to become aware of some of the newer versions of theories and allows them to make it public in hopes of bettering society,” she said.

Emily Aasand