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January 2007

The "Mason Connection" is Mason's electronic newsletter, designed to keep you informed of the latest developments at the university. The newsletter is sent monthly when the General Assembly is in session and every other month when it is not in session.

Mason's Quantum Physics Program Takes a Leap Forward as Renowned Physicist Joins Faculty

An international leader in quantum theory, Yakir Aharonov joined the College of Science this past fall. Mason will be his sole affiliation.

"Dr. Aharonov adds substantive leadership and wide luster to Mason's program in quantum physics, which has developed into a real center of excellence and builds as well on the strengths of several existing faculty," says Provost Peter Stearns. Mason offers the first PhD track in the world in quantum computing.

Aharonov, who previously held faculty appointments at Tel Aviv University in Israel and the University of South Carolina, will be a Distinguished Professor of Quantum Information Science in the newly formed Center for Quantum Studies at Mason.

In 1998, Aharonov was corecipient of the Wolf Prize (often the prequel to the Nobel Prize) for the Aharonov-Bohm Effect, which he discovered with the late physicist David Bohm. Some practical ramifications for the Aharonov-Bohm Effect include improving the technology in electron microscope holography (which is used in modern medical scanners) and quantum computing.

A University Engaged

Mason Researchers Work to Keep the Chesapeake Bay Clean

Researchers in the university's Environmental Science and Policy Department are working to clean the Chesapeake Bay. One method they developed in theirImage of the Chesapeake Bay efforts uses aerial photography and geographic information systems to determine the extent of and change in riparian buffer land use.

Riparian forest buffers slow storm water runoff Pic of Ches. bay from adjacent land, which means less nutrients, sediment, and other pollutants enter the waterways that lead to the bay. A lighter nutrient load reduces the occurrence of algal blooms, which can deplete the dissolved oxygen in the water needed to maintain a rich and diverse population of aquatic organisms.

With funding from the U.S. Forest Service, the research team has used the technique to measure riparian forest buffers in Henrico, James City, and Spotsylvania Counties, and in several other locations in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Research Spotlight

New Building on Mason's Fairfax Campus Provides Much-Needed Research Space

With an observatory tower that reaches toward the sky and opens to the stars, Image of Research 1 the new research building at Mason in many ways represents the university's future direction: onward and upward.

The first building of its kind at Mason, Pic of Research 1 Research I is designed almost exclusively to support the institution's growing need for research space.

"We are excited about Research I because it is very much in sync with the university's vision of becoming a much more research-based institution," says Matt Kluger, vice president for research and economic development.

Research I comprises mainly laboratories, meeting rooms, and offices-exactly the kind of spaces faculty need to pursue their innovative and groundbreaking research. While the building does not completely solve the university's research space problem, it does represent significant progress.

In The News

Wednesday, December 27,

ABC News: Good Morning America President Gerald Ford Passes Away

Richard Norton Smith, scholar-in-residence in the Department of History and Art History and the School of Public Policy, discussed the life and legacy of former President Ford.

Wednesday, December 27, Associated Press

NASA Seeks to Reverse Youth Apathy to Manned Space Exploration

"Young Americans have high levels of apathy about NASA's new vision of sending astronauts back to the moon by 2017 and eventually on to Mars, recent surveys show. Now NASA's image-makers are taking a hard look at how to win them over. George Whitesides, executive director of the National Space Society, said the agency could pick the crews for the moon and Mars trips earlier so the public can connect the faces with the far-off missions of the future. 'You can take advantage of these personalities and these stories about triumph over adversity to create heroes,' said workshop leader Peggy Finarelli, a former NASA official who is now a researcher at George Mason University."

Sunday, December 31, New York Times

Politics, Economics and Time Bury Memories of the Kazakh Gulag

"In Kazakhstan today, a large percentage of people have parents or grandparents whose life trajectories were savagely rewired by deportation and imprisonment in the camps. But memories of the gulags are fading in a growing economy. Steven A. Barnes, an assistant professor of history at George Mason University who has studied the gulags in Karaganda, insists that history's relevance to society is exactly why remembering Kazakhstan's painful gulag past is so important."

Mason Connection is a free service and official publication of George Mason University. It is designed to give you quick, monthly updates on the happenings at Mason. You received Mason Connection because of your affiliation with George Mason University. Subscribe and unsubscribe requests for Mason Connection, including address changes, are handled by sending an e-mail to the Office of Community Relations at tclaar@gmu.edu. Please be sure to include your name and e-mail address. For more information, contact Traci Claar, Director of Community Relations. For additional campus event information, please visit Today@Mason. Editorial content produced by Devon Madison, Creative Services.