Dennis Stovall, Publishing/English faculty, was a featured presenter, along with novelists Elizabeth George and Aaron Elkin, at the Write on the River conference in Wenatchee, Wash., May 18-19. His topics were "Creating a Freelance Life" and "Publishing Demystified: Finding a Place for Your Work in the Changing World of Book Publishing."

Mara Tableman, Mathematics and Statistics faculty, presented "Nonparametric Methods for Employment Termination Time Data with Competing Risks" to the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, May 14.

Michael Clark, English faculty, presented a day-long seminar on writing across the curriculum and writing in the professions to Wagner College's First Year Program at the Chauncey Conference Center in Princeton, N.J.

William B. Fischer, Foreign Languages and Literatures faculty, has again graced the Portland operatic stage, this time appearing in Portland Opera's five recent performances of Aida. His auxiliary chorus role of "member of the Egyptian populace" afforded him a tunic, robe, headband, and some shiny white shoes that looked like they'd escaped from a louche production of Guys and Dolls. Alas, he did not merit a wig. This was Fischer's third Aida. He has now completed most of a book about his off-duty life in the opera titled Moonlighting in Turandot: Amateur Encounters with Music, History, War, Sex, Death, Literature, Ideology, Language, and Love. Many of the most prestigious publishers in the country have already rejected the manuscript, reports Fischer, who speculates that perhaps it is either too serious or not serious enough.

Dacian Daescu, Mathematics and Statistics faculty, presented "Sensitivity to Observations in Model-Constrained Optimization" at the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Conference on Optimization in Boston, May 10-13.

Marion Dresner, Environmental Sciences faculty, authored the paper "Using Research Projects and Qualitative Conceptual Modeling to Increase Novice Scientists' Understanding of Ecological Complexity" published in Ecological Complexity.

The Winter 2008 President's and Dean's lists have been released for all of Portland State University's undergraduate academic units.

A new signature research center tasked with making Oregon an international epicenter of sustainable technology development has hired an Intel executive with a broad background in business leadership and fiscal management to be its first executive director, David Kenny.

Heejun Chang, Geography faculty, and alumnus Mike Boeder co-authored the paper "Multi-Scale Analysis of Oxygen Demand Trends in an Urbanizing Oregon Watershed" published in the Journal of Environmental Management, Vol. 87, 2008.

Marie Lo, English faculty, presented "A Politics without Identity? The Impossible Subject of Asian American Cultural Critique" at the Association for Asian American Studies Conference in Chicago, April 18.

Paul Collins, English faculty, presented "The Autisphere" at the Minnesota State Autism Conference, May 3.

Portland State University is honoring six outstanding Portland State alumni, faculty and friends for success in their fields and for their dedication and support of both the University and the Portland community at the 19th Annual PSU Salutes Ceremony.

Gil Latz, International Affairs faculty, was an invited speaker on the topic of international comparisons in education and implications for institutions in the West at the 2008 Northwest Academic Forum in Boise, April 4.

John Hall, Economics faculty, presented "Keynesian and Post Keynesian Approaches to Unemployment in Eastern Germany" at the Western Social Science Association conference held in Denver, April 24-26.

Keith Hadley, Geography faculty, was co-recipient of a $260,000 National Science Foundation collaborative research grant to examine "The Occurrence of Severe Pacific Northwest Windstorms: A Multi-Century Dendroclimatic Assessment of Their Ecological Impacts."

Mark Fishbein, Biology faculty, co-authored the paper "Resurrection of Asclepias Schaffneri (Apocynaceae, Asclepiadoideae), a Rare, Mexican Milkweed," published in Madroño, Vol. 55, 2008.

Matthew Hein, English faculty, presented "Boredom and the Dream Bird: Awesomification" at the annual Pacific Northwest Writing Centers Association meeting in Everett, Wash., April 26.

Patti Duncan and Priya Kandaswamy, Women's Studies faculty; and Marie Lo, English faculty, received the Asian Reporter Foundation's Exemplary Community Volunteer Award for their work with Asian Pacific American Compass Collective at KBOO radio, 90.7 FM. Asian Pacific American Compass is a monthly Asian Pacific American public affairs program.

Sarah Eppley, Biology faculty, co-authored the paper "Moving to Mate: The Evolution of Separate and Combined Sexes in Multicellular Organisms," published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Vol. 21, 2008.