[Vision2020] The UI Friday Letter from UI President Tim White (February 23, 2007)

[Tom Hansen]

Copied and pasted below is the UI Friday Letter from UI President Tim White
for February 23, 2007.

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University of Idaho
Office of the President
Moscow, Idaho 83844-3151
Phone: 208-885-6365
Fax: 208-885-6558

The Friday Letter
A Newsletter for University of Idaho Alumni and Friends Feb. 23, 2007

Dear Friends,

An estimated 1.5 billion people globally have no safe drinking water-300
million in Africa alone. Almost one million children die there every year
from water borne disease. The University of Idaho is leading to address the
clean water needs of the world through research, innovation and dedication. 
        
This week, a team of five students from the College of Agricultural and Life
Sciences and College of Engineering headed to Kenya to field test water
filter technologies and water catchment systems. The students will work with
Maasai tribal members and focus on building relationships with community
leaders in Kenya. The Maasai nomadic lifestyle presents challenges to the
project, since it requires solutions that can fit a mobile community. One
idea being tested by the team uses the native moringa seed, whose woolly
characteristics radically reduce bacterial content and turbidity (suspended
natural sediments) from water. The team also is testing ultraviolet
technology and traditional sand filter and ceramic filter solutions. 
        
This multidisciplinary, global project provides that experience of discovery
and transformation for our students that is a hallmark of the University of
Idaho. And it's an opportunity for the University to advance and disseminate
knowledge that will help the world community address a water crisis. We will
welcome and celebrate the team when it returns to the University in early
March.

Tim White
President

Here's the latest news from the University of Idaho:

Lynn Baird, associate dean for library services, has been named as the
University's new dean of the library. She takes up the new post on Feb. 26.
Baird has served as interim library dean since September 2006. She joined
the University's library staff in 1974 when she took a one-year temporary
assignment as a catalog librarian and progressively served as head of the
serials department, head of the acquisitions department, as head of access
services, and as associate dean for library services.

Idaho oilseed and biodiesel researchers exhibited during Family Science Days
sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science last
weekend in San Francisco. The meeting is the world's largest general
scientific gathering. Idaho plant breeder Jack Brown and biodiesel expert
Jon Van Gerpen explained the role that alternative fuels made from vegetable
oil can play in meeting future liquid fuel needs. The Idaho BioBug was front
and center in San Francisco. The Volkswagen New Beetle has a five-year track
record for running exclusively on biodiesel. The Idaho research team also
handed out packets of Sunrise canola seed, a variety developed at Idaho by
Brown.  It's an Idaho gift to families for a bright windowsill science
project. 

The University of Idaho will host eminent social historian Gary B. Nash as
he presents "Patriotism and History," a lecture exploring how patriotism and
history in a democracy might differ from how it has played out in
authoritarian societies. The lecture is slated for 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb.
27, at the Administration Auditorium. The Idaho Phi Beta Kappa chapter
sponsors the event as part of its Visiting Scholar Program. Admission is
free and open to the public. Nash, professor emeritus at the University of
California, Los Angeles, has long been at the forefront of national debate
over what history should be taught in schools, who should write it and how
tests should be devised to promote historical literacy.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Take care, Vandals.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
UI '96

Came a tribe from the north brave and bold . . .

"Here We Have Idaho"
http://www.tomandrodna.com/HWHI.mp3

"I-D-A-H-O Idaho Idaho Go Go Go"
http://www.tomandrodna.com/Vandals.mp3