NEWS ABOUT FACULTY

On Feb. 10, when the television program "Chicago Hope" aired a segment dealing with gene therapy in connection with a brain tumor, the expert advice of a Virginia Tech professor was a part of the unseen background.

Jennifer Levin, the story editor of "Chicago Hope," consulted Doris Zallen concerning the human issues behind gene therapy for the television drama. Zallen, an associate professor of science and technology studies and humanities in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at Virginia Tech, has been studying ethical issues related to gene therapy for some years.

Levin, who is a physician, had heard about the therapeutic use of so-called "suicide genes" (which insert themselves into cancer cells, marking the cells for extermination with a powerful new drug) and thought that sounded like a dramatic idea for the program. She knew of Zallen through her membership on the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee of the National Institutes of Health, where Zallen has been involved in devising policies about the use of gene therapy in the United States. Zallen's field of expertise includes not only the way people make decisions in times of crisis, but also patient's-rights and informed-consent issues.

Zallen was concerned that the show might make the general public think gene therapy is a wonderful new treatment already available to them, when it isn't. "It's experimental," she says.

Choices about experimental therapies must be described in such a way that the patient is not misled, Zallen says. "People must make the decision {to have the therapy or not}, not the doctor."

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Hypertext poetry anthology jumps

An innovative way of linking technology and poetry has been initiated at Virginia Tech.

To read English professor Edward Falco's hypertext anthology, The New River, you must be both computer and poetry literate. The poetry journal can be accessed by computer only, and the reader is allowed to control the direction of the flow. All paths lead to the core of the poem, but the reader can chose which way to get there.

"On the computer screen, words, video, visual art, and sound can be easily integrated by one person sitting alone in front of a computer screen," he says. Falco wanted to do "something different with language, make it jump." The process starts when the reader picks a work, opens it, and starts clicking on key words that lead into another section of the work. The choice of words the reader decides to link allows for the creation of a unique version of the original work by the reader.

There is a traditional way of storytelling that is linear and structured, Falco says. But hypertext poetry is without fixed sequences of words and without predetermined endings. He doesn't see them as being in competition. The work of two American writers is displayed on the site: David Herrstrom's "To Find the White Cat in the Snow" and "fleshthresholdnarrative" by Eugene Thacker.

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McGrath inducted into Plastics Hall of Fame

Professor James McGrath is one of nine scientists, innovators, and industry leaders recently chosen to become members of the Plastics Hall of Fame.

McGrath, who is a University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and co-director of the Polymer Materials and Interface Laboratory, is also director of the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center at Virginia Tech.

Before joining Virginia Tech as a professor in 1975, McGrath had spent nearly two decades working as an industrial research scientist developing new polymers and processing techniques. He then applied this knowledge in a 20-year second career as a major author and academic leader in polymeric materials, which include rubber, plastics, textiles, and adhesives. Over that span, he has conducted innovative courses on polymer chemistry for student, government, industrial, and international audiences.

McGrath is the co-author or editor of six books on block copolymers, polymerization technology, organosiloxane copolymers, and polyimides, as well as more than 300 technical papers. He initiated the first nationally offered short courses in polymer chemistry.

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Ag faculty win international prize

George Norton and Jeffrey Alwang, faculty members in agricultural and applied economics, have won first prize in an essay competition sponsored by the International Food Policy Research Institute.

The competition sought practical approaches to measuring the benefits of policy-oriented agricultural social-science research. Norton and Alwang examined research projects that affected policy change in the Amazon and the Philippines.

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Psychologists awarded $1.2 million to study fire victims

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has awarded two Virginia Tech psychology professors a $1.2-million grant to study the impact of residential fires on children, adolescents, and their parents, with the eventual goal of developing treatment programs for the victims of fires.

Russell Jones has been doing research in this area for 20 years, primarily helping children avoid being injured in a fire; Thomas Ollendick has been doing research on anxiety disorders and the fears children experience in these unexpected events.

In the newly funded, longitudinal study they will look at whether the victims developed post-traumatic-stress disorder, depression, or other symptoms of psychopathology. Jones and Ollendick also will examine the relationship between the way the parents function during the trauma and the way the children function. "If parents respond poorly and develop symptoms," Jones said, "it is likely the children will."

Documenting the consequences of fire-related disasters on children and their families in research supported by the NIMH grant will enable Jones and Ollendick to develop better treatment strategies to help the children and their families recover from the fires.

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End-plage patent makes 19th for forestry

E. George Stern, Earle B. Norris Research Professor Emeritus of Wood Construction of Virginia Tech's Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, was granted a U.S. patent on an "end plate for railway crossties, scaffolding planks, and other wood products and methods of use."

His patent makes the 19th for the College of Forestry and Wildlife Resources, which works closely with the wood products industry in research and development.

By end-plating crossties and other wood products with Stern's toothed metal plate, tie end-splitting is prevented and tie life is considerably increased. As a result, wood ties become more economical than concrete and steel crossties.

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