New Orleans — University of New Orleans professor James Lowry received the 2012 Distinguished Service Award from Gamma Theta Upsilon, the international honor society in geography.
Lowry, an associate professor and chair of geography, was presented with the award at the National Conference on Geographic Education in San Marcos, Texas, earlier this month.
The Distinguished Service Award, Gamma Theta Upsilon’s highest honor, recognizes Lowry’s outstanding contributions to the honor society through his role as the executive secretary of GTU’s national office.
Lowry joined the UNO faculty in 2006 and activated the Zeta Lambda Chapter of GTU. In 2007, he served as national second vice president and he became executive secretary in 2008.
Lowry’s research and teaching focus on cultural ecology and natural hazards.
New Orleans — Tulane University School of Medicine’s dermatology department will offer free skin cancer screenings from noon to 3 p.m. Friday in the Dermatology Clinic on the fifth floor of Tulane Medical Center, 1415 Tulane Ave.
New Orleans — Xavier University now has a Confucius Institute, a partnership with the Hebei University and the Office of Chinese Language Council International of the Chinese Ministry of Education.
The Confucius Institute is committed to sharing knowledge about Chinese language and culture. Hebei is the only comprehensive university in its province and one of the first institutions in China to admit international students.
The primary focus of the partnership is cultural-educational exploration through the disciplines of education, pharmacy, art and music as well as language instruction.
Xavier is the first historically black college and university in the nation and the first university in Louisiana to establish a Confucius Institute following a historic agreement endorsed by Hanban, the Confucius Institute headquarters in Beijing in December.
Dr. Yu Jiang, director of the Xavier Confucius Institute, said he envisions the Xavier CI becoming a leading teaching, learning and resource center of China for students, educators, community groups, civic organizations and businesses in the Greater New Orleans area. The CI will teach Chinese language, culture and economic development to Xavier students and the community.
New Orleans — Tulane faculty members and graduate students from the School of Science and Engineering volunteered their time to work with the girls during the Perry Initiative event at the Boggs Center for Energy and Biotechnology on the Tulane campus earlier this month.
Representatives from the Tulane Biomedical Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Physics and Engineering Physics departments assisted with the sessions.
The program agenda included lectures from surgery and engineering faculty and workshops, where, among other exercises, the girls used power tools to practice fixing fractured bones using internal rods.
“I knew I wanted to do surgery. But now I really know I want to do it,” said Ciana Steele, a senior from Destrehan.
Jenni Buckley, a mechanical engineer, founded the nonprofit Perry Initiative in 2009 with Dr. Lisa Lattanaza, an orthopedic surgeon, to encourage high school girls to enter the female-deficient fields of mechanical engineering and orthopedics.
New Orleans — Tulane students will highlight local innovators at TEDxTU: Inspire Change from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at Dixon Hall on Tulane’s Uptown campus.
The event will feature a series of 5-minute talks by more than a dozen local innovators, including Tulane University President Scott Cowen, Anoop Jain, founder of Humanure Power Project, and Johanna Gilligan, founder of Grow Dat Youth Farm in City Park.
The event is designed to bring innovators together to spark discussions in small groups that inspire new ideas and connections. It is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Attendees are encouraged to reserve seating online at http://tedxtu.com.
Keep Louisiana Beautiful, the state’s non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to litter prevention and waste reduction, joined forces with the University of Louisiana System as part of its 2012-13 Healthy Communities Grants program.
KLB has awarded the UL system $30,000 to implement a series of projects around Louisiana.
From Sept. 12 to June 1, the nine universities in the UL system — which includes University of New Orleans — will create student-led projects through their service-learning programs and participate in events focusing on environmental and clean-up activities.
Two projects will be implemented at each of the nine institutions, the first of which includes each institution to host a recycling awareness event for America Recycles Day on Nov. 15.
The second project includes each institution executing a campus/community project as part of the Great American Cleanup in the spring.
New Orleans — Member of Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center’s School of Dentistry received their white coast in a ceremony this month.
The 64 students, members of the class of 2015, officially and publicly marked their passage from student to clinician during the White Coat Ceremony.
New Orleans — The SUNO Alumni Association is holding a meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Knights’ Cafe on SUNO’s main campus.
The meeting is also open to students, faculty and staff. For information, call the Office of Alumni Affairs at (504) 286-5341.
New Orleans — The University of New Orleans received $966,350 from the National Science Foundation for its role in a project to conserve biodiversity under climate change in Central Africa.
The total grant is for $4.95 million for a period of five years and was awarded through the agency’s program in Partnerships for International Science and Education.
Nicola Anthony, UNO associate professor of biological sciences, is a co-principal investigator on the project.
Habitat degradation and deforestation in Central African rainforests continue at an alarming rate, severely limiting the ability of species to respond to climate change. To address this challenge, more than 150 scientists and students from three continents will unite around a common research program that seeks to identify top areas for conservation where the capacity for species to either move or adapt to climate change is greatest.
“This is an exciting project that seeks to tackle real world conservation problems across western central Africa,” Anthony said. “We are thrilled that UNO can play a role in research and education efforts that will not only inform conservation efforts in one of the last great forests of the world but also help build meaningful collaborative partnerships between universities in the U.S., Central Africa and Europe.”
The project is funded by NSF’s Office of International Science and Engineering.
Editor’s Note: This story was changed on Oct. 23, 2012 to correct the spelling of conservation.
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