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Engineering professor wins national grant Guillermo Ramirez, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, has received National Science Foundation funding to support his research in composite materials and development of learning tools that students will use to perform virtual tests of structures. For the next four years, Ramirez will receive $50,000 annually as part of NSF's Faculty Early Career Development Program. The program supports junior faculty who show promise in research and education. Ramirez will use the funds to research the use of composite materials in civil structures. His main research goal is to increase the understanding of how pressurized composite materials respond under impact loading. Ramirez is working with Richard Hale, KU assistant professor of aerospace engineering, to build a stronger program in composites at KU. For the award's educational component, Ramirez is developing analytical and behavioral tools that students can access through the Internet to look at properties of composite materials and to perform virtural testing of structures.   SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS Hamilton-Smith to lead communications efforts After a stint on the business side of things, Vickie Hamilton-Smith says she's happy to be back in the arts. Hamilton-Smith has joined the School of Fine Arts as director of communications. She will be responsible for the school's public relations, marketing, internal and external communications, branding and publications. Most recently, Hamilton-Smith was marketing manager for the Arizona State University MBA program. Before that she was music publicist for eight years at the Arizona State University College of Fine Arts. Hamilton-Smith is ready to get settled in to her new home. "I feel more prepared for my job than I did for the move," she said. She has a master's degree in public administration from Arizona State and a bachelor's degree in mass communications from Lamar University.   GERONTOLOGY CENTER Kemper named distinguished professor Susan Kemper, professor of psychology and a senior scientist at KU's Gerontology Center, has been named a Roy A. Roberts distinguished professor, Provost David Shulenburger has announced. Kemper joined KU as an assistant professor in 1978. Her research interests range from psycholinguistic processes, developmental and geriatric psycholinguistics, and figurative language to discourse comprehension and production. She is a participating faculty member in the gerontology doctoral program as well as in the child language doctoral program. The professorship was established by the late Roy A. Roberts, a 1905 KU graduate who was a reporter, editor and eventually chairman of the board at the Kansas City Star.   UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES Baird receives Chancellor's Award Keith Russell, dean of the University Libraries, recently announced that Brian J. Baird, preservation librarian, was the 2000 recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Librarianship. Baird, who came to KU in 1994 as the libraries' first preservation librarian, has built a department that now includes a professional conservator, several classified employees and numerous student assistants. He recently received the Piercy Award from the American Library Association for his local, national and international leadership in preservation. The Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Librarianship carries a cash honorarium and recipients are recognized on a permanent plaque in the Watson Library lobby. The award was established in 1989 by former KU Chancellor Gene Budig to recognize the outstanding contributions made by KU librarians to the university and to librarianship.   KANU Lorson named Morning Edition host KANU FM 91-5, the public radio station licensed to KU, has hired Laura Lorson as its new local host and news anchor for KANU's broadcast of the National Public Radio news magazine, Morning Edition. Lorson, a native of Louisville, Ky., graduated from KU in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in anthropology. For the past eight years, Lorson held a variety of news positions at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. At the network, she directed and produced NPR's Talk of the Nation call-in show and later edited and produced NPR's afternoon news magazine, All Things Considered. Most recently, Lorson was senior editor of Anthem, a show produced by NPR's Cultural Programming Division.