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Marmon to lead emergency management

John Marmon

To help keep KU prepared for any natural or manmade disaster, university officials have named a law enforcement veteran with experience in Homeland Security Operations as its emergency management coordinator.

John Marmon, who spent 27 years with the Kansas Highway Patrol, began his new role with KU's Public Safety Office in January.

Marmon's responsibilities will include helping the university meet National Incident Management System standards developed by the Department of Homeland Security. NIMS establishes a uniform set of procedures that emergency responders at all levels of government will use to conduct response operations. Marmon has been an instructor in NIMS-related courses for law enforcement personnel.

Marmon will work with officials campuswide to better prepare the university. He also will work to update and streamline KU's plans for emergencies.

Han, Parsons earn best paper honors

Jie Han and Robert L. Parsons, associate professors of civil, environmental and architectural engineering; doctoral student Xiaoming Yang; and Robert Henthorne, chief geologist at Kansas Department of Transportation, recently won the first Transportation Research Board Soil Mechanics Section Best Paper Award. The paper, titled "Resistance factors for drilled shafts in weak rocks based on O-cell test data," addresses one of the emerging geotechnical problems in bridge design using the AASHTO Load Resistance Factor Design Bridge Design Specifications, which is required by all U.S. Departments of Transportation for federally funded projects from October 2007. The study was sponsored by the KDOT KTran Research Program. The paper was the only one selected and awarded by the Soil Mechanics Section among 68 submitted papers at the 87th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting last month in Washington D.C.

Spates joins staff at Edwards Campus

Annette Spates

Annette Spates has joined the Edwards Campus as student success program director.

Spates will act as an advocate for Edwards Campus students, provide support to academic advisers and be the key liaison with Lawrence-based student success units, including Academic Achievement and Access Center/Disability Resources, Office of Student Financial Aid, Kansas Union, Office of Multicultural Affairs, University Career Center, University Registrar and the KU Writing Center.

Before her appointment at the Edwards Campus, Spates worked for Edison Community College in Fort Myers, Fla., where she coordinated a program for nontraditional students. Most recently she worked for Literacy Kansas City as a program coordinator. Spates received a bachelor's in psychology and a master's in counseling/human services from the University of Northern Iowa. She speaks Spanish and is a licensed mental health counselor.

Her appointment at the Edwards Campus began Jan 28.

Tibbetts receives governor's award

John Tibbetts, associate professor of theatre and film, has received the 2008 Governor's Arts Award in the category of arts in education. He will attend the awards ceremony June 26 at Washburn University in Topeka. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is expected to attend. Six other winners in a variety of categories also will be honored.

Stites named chair of internal medicine

Steven Stites has been named chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, the largest department at the KU Medical Center. Stites has served as interim chair since July 1. As chair, Stites also assumes the Peter T. Bohan endowed professorship.

An associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Stites has also served as the Department of Internal Medicine's residency program director since July 2001 and vice chair for clinical affairs and education since 2002. He has served on the Kansas University Physicians Inc. Board of Directors since 2005 and is chair of its Practice Operations Committee.

Algren president of English ed group

Mark Algren

Mark Algren, language specialist at the Applied English Center, is president-elect of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Inc. His three-year term begins in March, and he will be president from 2009 to 2010.

The organization has 14,000 members from more than 140 countries. Algren served on the Board of Directors from 2001 to 2004 and was chair of the 2003 conference in Baltimore, Md.

RESEARCH MATTERS

Research at KU is helping ensure the safety of bridges and extending their life spans. Stanley Rolfe, the Albert P. Learned Distinguished Professor of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, heads a team whose studies are dedicated to bridge safety. "What we do is try to blend our research and our teaching to understand the behavior of steel bridges so we can help the profession implement better design rules and better control so we do not have fractures or fatigue failures in our bridge structures," Rolfe said. For more, or to listen to the original broadcast, visit www.researchmatters.ku.edu.