Pamplin Society of Fellows

In the middle of last semester, a group of us got together as the Distinguished Visiting Scholar committee (henceforth called DVS). We were all given the task to pick out two scholars we would like to hear give a lecture on campus. I found this task to be daunting. I had a hard time coming up with physicists/mathematicians I would like to hear speak. Then one of my high school friends told me about James Kakalios, a professor at the University of Minnesota who teaches a freshmen seminar class entitled “Everything I needed to know about physics I learned from reading Comic Books.” Now, you probably don’t know this about me, but I absolutely love comic books, and I’m a physics major. To me, this lecture seemed perfect.

So, I sat down and with the help of the DVS committee, I wrote a letter to him, asking him to come to campus and give a lecture based on his book The Physics of Superheroes. He e-mailed me back during our winter break, asking me if the opportunity was still available. We arranged for him to come visit and give a lecture on March 16.

Thinking that the opportunity was too good to pass up, I asked Professor Kakalios if he would be willing to give an extra lecture on his research (yes, he is an actual physicist too!) for the physics department the day before his superheroes lecture. To which he agreed.

The day that Professor Kakalios finally got to campus I was really worried. I am very nervous about meeting new people. As I was walking to my last class of the day, I happened upon Professor Kakalios standing in Howard Hall. I nervously headed over to him and introduced myself. We shared a few pleasantries and I went on to my class. While I then believed that he was a kind man, I was worried that no one would come to the lecture, or worse, that it would go over poorly.

Before his superhero lecture, the Pamplin Society put a small dinner on for the society and members of the physics department. At the dinner, I listened to Kakalios tell stories about the comic book store he used to visit across from his elementary school. I was totally enamored with him. He even wore a tie portraying my favourite super heroes, the Fantastic Four.

The lecture started and the audience was met with many great comic references that contain actual physics concepts.  My personal favourite from the lecture was how Kitty Pryde’s superpower can be related to electron tunneling. Quantum mechanics tells us that there is a certain probability that an electron under proper circumstances can pass through a “solid” barrier without disturbing the barrier or itself. This probability is found through the use of Schrödinger’s Equation. So, Kitty Pryde’s mutant power can be viewed as the power to alter her quantum wave function,  making the probability of her being able to “tunnel” through the wall 100%, and therefore passing through the wall.

I think that it is obvious that I am not the only one who enjoyed the lecture. Throughout the lecture, I could hear my professors and peers laughing at Kakalios’s various jokes.

Overall, I thought that the lecture went well. And more than just going well, I learned a lot about how putting on a lecture on campus goes. I have learned a lot about what we should do differently next year and what we should keep the same.

This Wednesday, 3/31, at 6:00 PM, Prof. Curtis Johnson will be facilitating a discussion on Intent vs. Impact in the Pamplin room.

The distinction between what a person is trying to achieve and what they are actually doing is important in situations ranging from sexual harassment litigation to free speech on college campuses. It should be a good conversation. And, of course, there will be snacks.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Lately, I have been becoming familiar with streets in neighborhoods I’ve never walked, navigating regions of a country I’ve never known. In the weeks following the earthquake in Haiti, an organization called Ushahidi has been collecting, translating, evaluating, and mapping thousand of SMS text messages from those in need. Needing volunteers to map messages twenty-four house a day in wake of the crisis, the students of Lewis & Clark college were asked fill a gap not covered by those on the East coast or in Geneva. On the night pictured in this photo, over forty students from the Undergraduate, Graduate, and Law Schools were packed into the Pamplin room to be trained in message mapping. Over the course of the week, many more came to be trained, including some faculty members.

While the training room was full of long faces, dampened by the tragedy, it was also an inspiring scene. The overwhelming student response to the crisis was one of the largest gatherings of the institution-wide community that I have ever been a part of. This project, I think, is perfect for students. We have time to share, technological savvy, and a desire to share our compassion. I am continually amazed by the wonders of technology. Between our Skype chat, cinematically titled the “Portland Situation Room,” online mapping resources, and Google Earth, we were able to be part of a chain which facilitates meaningful aid in Haiti. Maybe someday I will walk the streets whose satellite images I have surveyed. In the meantime, I and many other faithful volunteers will continue tracing them from our own homes, hoping to support Haitians in rebuilding theirs.

Maddie Cole

This past Sunday, I, along with my fellow Fellows Nikki Myoraku (’12) and Warren Kluber (’12), volunteered with the Albertina Kerr Center, a non-profit group dedicated to helping children and adults with developmental disabilities. The Center helps to integrate people with developmental disabilities into their communities, both vocationally and recreationally. This is a cause that is especially close to my heart because I have grown up with two brothers with developmental disabilities, and I have seen how they and other people with developmental disabilities are often isolated from their communities, so it is pretty amazing to see an organization so dedicated to helping people like this!

As a part of our commitment to service, we decided to spend the afternoon helping out Albertina Kerr in any way that they needed. It turns out that they are currently promoting a new campaign, Army of Angels, which is an attempt to build a larger community of dedicated volunteers in the Portland area. Many of the people who receive the Center’s services are younger, so they are hoping to reach out to a new young generation of volunteers who can better relate to and with the Center’s clients (sounds kind of like us!). We helped out by putting up posters for the Army of Angels campaign in the NE Alberta and Mississippi neighborhoods. Luckily, it was a sunny day, so we were able to get in some sightseeing and exercise along with our volunteering.

This is our lovely volunteer team (minus me). From left: Warren, Nikki, and fellow volunteer Yoko

This is Nikki doing some intense postering!

Our handiwork in action!

This activity was just one of the many exciting events we’ve been up to in Service committee this semester! We have also sponsored an Ivy Pull at Tryon Creek, and this upcoming Sunday we will be cooking dinner for volunteer medical workers at the Wallace Medical Center. I hope that you enjoyed my account of our excursion, and hopefully soon we will have pictures of the delicious dinner we’re cooking!

-Lili Pill-Kahan (’11)

The Economic Crisis: What Next? ~ 7:00 PM, February 18th, 2009 in the Pamplin Room

Featuring Professors of Economics Marty Hart-Landsberg and Harry Schleef

Angry at Wall Street?  Hate the bailout?  Wish we could all go back to hunting and gathering?  Come find out what exactly happened and talk about where we should go from here.  The evening will begin with an overview of the crisis by Drs. Hart-Landsberg and Schleef, then open to a discussion about the economy, the bailout, and everything else that comes up.

Don’t know a CDO from a CD-ROM?  These articles should help you on your path to enlightenment:

• Dr. Hart-Landsberg’s Recession Watch
• The Motley Fool ~ Why Should I Invest?
• Wikipedia ~ Liquidity Trap
• Paul Krugman at the Start of the Recession
• Paul Krugman ~ The Consumer Spending Paradox
• Becker and Murphy ~ Stimulus 2.0
• Wachovia ~ Buy American? (.pdf)
• Tyler Cowen on the Crisis
• John Taylor ~ Government Intervention Won’t Solve the Crisis
• Tyler Cowen on Moral Hazard
• Dane Stangler ~ Misinterpreting Keynes

“The Uncanny Physics of Superheroes”
James Kakalios
Tuesday, March 16, 2010    7:30pm
Templeton Campus Center, Council Chamber

James Kakalios, a physics professor at the University of Minnesota, will be this year’s Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Society of Fellows Distinguished Visiting Scholar.

In his lecture, Kakalios will explore the applications of physics on superheroes, the subject of a course he teaches at the University of Minnesota. This class covers everything from Isaac Newton to the transistor, using only examples from superhero comic books. Kakalios says superhero comic books get their science right more often than one might expect. Anyone who has wondered how strong you would have to be to “leap a tall building in a single bound” should attend this lecture!

About the speaker:

James Kakalios received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago in 1985. He is the Taylor Distinguished Professor in the University of Minnesota’s School of Physics and Astronomy. In 2007, in response to a request from the National Academy of Sciences, Kakalios served as the science consultant for the Warner Bros. superhero film Watchmen. In 2009 he filmed a short video on the Science of Watchmen which was viewed over 1.5 million times times in the first few months of being posted on YouTube.

His research interests include nanocrystalline and amorphous semiconductiors, pattern formation in sandpiles and fluctuation phenomena in neurological systems. He has been reading comic books longer that he has been studying physics.

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This lecture is free and open to the public.

Email questions to awalcott@lclark.edu

On Wednesday, April 16th, 2008, at a ceremony in Albany Smith Hall, the Pamplin Society honored the four finalists for Teacher of the Year 2007-2008. One student spoke on behalf of each of the four finalists: Greta Binford, Assistant Professor of Biology; Benjamin David, Assistant Professor of Art History; Orla McDonagh, Visiting Instructor in Music; and Mary Szybist, Assistant Professor of English. At the end of the ceremony, Pamplin Fellow Nora Germano announced that the title of Teacher of the Year 2007-2008 would go to Benjamin David.

Benjamin David has taught at Lewis & Clark since 2005. Though he specializes in Italian Renaissance painting, he has taught a range of courses on Western art from visual representations of Dante’s Divine Comedy to contemporary American art. His expertise, enthusiasm, and encouragement have impressed and inspired students from first-year core courses to senior seminars. He advocates a diversity of approaches to the material, but always emphasizes fun, compelling students, even non-majors, to take his courses again and again. In addition to being an excellent teacher, David has proven an influential administrator by serving as the art department’s chair, updating its major requirements, and increasing its faculty and course offerings.