LSU'S Biweekly Newsletter for Faculty & Staff
May 6, 2005 |
VOL. 21, NO. 15 |
LSU ornithologist Van Remsen is one of a team of researchers who have discovered the existence of an ivory-billed woodpecker – a species believed by many to be extinct since the 1930s or 1940s.
A seven-month search in the Cache River/White River area of southeast Arkansas has resulted in the discovery of at least one living ivory-billed woodpecker. The elusive bird has been caught on both video and audio tape.
“This is a landmark event for the conservation of bottomland forest ecosystems and a chance to recover some of our lost natural heritage,” said Remsen, who is curator of birds at the LSU Museum of Natural Science. The museum houses the largest collection of bird DNA in the world.
The research team began looking for the woodpecker in Arkansas after deciding that a sighting of the bird in February 2004 was reliable. Other researchers on the team were from Cornell University’s Ornithology Lab, the Arkansas Nature Conservancy and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Although the ivory-billed woodpecker has a unique call and taps its bill on trees in a distinctive manner, the individual bird discovered is mostly silent, Remsen said. He also said the woodpecker does not spend a lot of time in any one specific area, making it all the more difficult to track.
Average size of an ivory-billed woodpecker is approximately two feet in length, and it is black with a white crest on its head and an ivory bill. Scientists attribute the near-extinction of the species to loss of the bird’s natural habitat through cutting of forests for timber and agricultural development.
Remsen organized a search for the bird in 2001 in the Pearl River swamp near Slidell, La., after an LSU student believed he saw a pair of ivory-billed woodpeckers there while turkey hunting. The student’s reported sighting was considered reliable enough to start a search because he was familiar with the species and knowledgeable about ornithology. However, the extensive search in Louisiana was unsuccessful.
Michael Steinberg, an acquisitions editor with LSU Press and an adjunct assistant professor of geography at LSU, is writing a book about the ivory-billed woodpecker. He believes that the species could still exist in the Pearl River area, even though the search did not turn up any evidence.
“Pearl River is a huge area, and most of it is inaccessible,” Steinberg said. “A pair of woodpeckers could avoid being detected because, not only is Pearl River swamp large, but it is also connected to other wilderness areas on the north and east. A pair of woodpeckers could easily live in an area that large and not be discovered.”
Remsen said that a bird as quiet and wary as the one in Arkansas would be extremely difficult to detect.
Remsen said this recent search in Arkansas was successful mainly through luck and persistence. He said the historic video of the Arkansas bird is in some ways miraculous because the team member who captured the footage never actually saw the bird clearly, did not realize that it was an ivory-billed until later and got the footage only because he deliberately left his camera running while canoeing. After that, Remsen said, many thousands of hours of intensive searching by a team of camouflage-outfitted observers with cameras yielded no further footage, only glimpses, of the rare bird.
The research team has released a Web site – http://www.ivorybill.org/ – with details of the Arkansas search and the discovery. “It’s one of the biggest events in the last 100 years of natural history and conservation,” Steinberg said of the discovery. “It’s huge, and LSU played an integral role in it.”
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| Andreas Giger |
The legendary opera composer Giuseppe Verdi once said he considered “Rigoletto,” which was based on Victor Hugo’s drama, “Le Roi s’amuse,” to be “the best material” he had ever put to music. Nevertheless, it was one of his later works, “Aida,” that captured the imagination of LSU Assistant Professor of Musicology Andreas Giger.
Giger recalled that he was a teenager when he fell in love with “Aida,” an Egyptian-set opera written to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Giger’s affection for opera eventually led him to choose musicology as his field of study. In turn, his fondness for Verdi led him to make the 19th-century Italian composer the subject of his dissertation. Now, that dissertation has spawned a research project that has garnered Giger a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship.
NEH Fellowships support individuals pursuing “advanced research that contributes to scholarly knowledge or to the general public’s understanding of the humanities.” Recipients usually produce scholarly articles or other materials. Giger’s Fellowship lasts for a period of six months and includes a stipend of $24,000.
Giger, a native of Zurich, Switzerland, will use his NEH Fellowship grant to complete work on a new book, “Mastering French Melody: Versification, Stanzaic Theory, and Melodic Aesthetics in Giuseppe Verdi’s Operas.”
For Giger, the book marks a culmination of years of research. In it, he examines the issue of librettos - the body of words used in an extended musical work – in relation to Verdi’s foray into French opera in the mid-1800s. In particular, he considers the challenge Verdi faced in moving from Italian librettos to French librettos.
“I wanted to find out what it meant to Verdi to write for a French audience on a French libretto, as opposed to writing for an Italian audience on an Italian libretto,” said Giger.
In the 1800s, Giger said, Paris’ grand opera houses were a major draw for audiences and composers alike. Many Italian composers hoped to make a names for themselves or build on existing fame by scoring a success in Paris.
The greatest challenge facing Verdi and others who hoped to attain crossover success in France was learning to write for French audiences. The distinct differences in Italian and French librettos was one specific barrier to overcome.
“An Italian libretto has a very different rhythm than a French libretto,” Giger explained. “Italian librettos are much more ‘regular’ in their conception, while French librettos are much more sophisticated rhythmically.
“Every verse in an Italian libretto might have the same textual rhythm to it. French librettos are less regular in terms of their accent structure.”
In his examination of Verdi’s efforts at French composition and use of French librettos, Giger discovered a number of interesting things, including the fact that the text of the librettos had an affect not only on melodic rhythm, but accompaniment as well. In addition, Giger examined versification manuals, which provide guidance for composing. While Italian manuals tend to clearly agree on writing for Italian librettos, French manuals offer a wide variety of options.
“When you approach a French libretto, you have many more options as to exactly how carefully you want to follow accents,” Giger said. “Verdi was much better at exploiting this in his later French operas. His early approach was fairly narrow-minded – every accent follows an accent in the text. Later, he was much more flexible with this, which was very much in line with the diverse options that the versification manuals provide.”
Giger said that Verdi composed three French operas, and that the later ones have a much greater melodic variety.
“So, really, he took advantage of all the options that were offered to him by theorists and by earlier French operas,” he said.
Giger’s book on his Verdi research will be complete later this year.
Giger earned a degree in musicology from the University of Zurich and studied piano at the Winterthur Conservatory in Switzerland. He earned a doctorate in musicology from Indiana University, where he was associate director of the Center for the History of Music Theory and Literature. He now serves on the board of directors for the center.
Giger is also the founder of the Internet database “saggi musicali italiani,” http://www.music.indiana.edu/smi/, and co-editor of the Internet database “Musical Borrowing: An Annotated Bibliography,” http://www.music.indiana.edu/borrowing/.
Marybeth Lima, an associate professor in LSU’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, has been named winner of the prestigious 2005 Ernest A. Lynton Award, presented nationally to a faculty member who connects scholarly expertise with service-learning and community outreach.
In the past eight years, more than 500 faculty members nationwide have been nominated for this prestigious award, from every institutional type and from a broad range of departments and disciplines. Lima is LSU’s first recipient of the Lynton Award.
Lima was recognized for her innovate, creative service-learning opportunities that are allowing her biological engineering students to transform the playgrounds of East Baton Rouge Parish schools – one sandlot and swing set at a time.
Lima received the award during the American Association for Higher Education’s National Conference held in March in Atlanta. During her acceptance speech, she thanked LSU for its support, noting that “the payoffs, in terms of student learning, active citizens, strong community-university relationships and strong communities, have been tremendous.”
“ The faculty members and university learn and benefit as much from interactions with the community as the community does from the university,” Lima said. “If not us – universities in partnerships with communities – then who? Who will effectively address our critical community issues?”
Working in collaboration with teachers and public school officials, Lima’s goal is to build a safe playground for every East Baton Rouge Parish public school, all of which will be accessible for physically challenged children and will incorporate the children’s own creativity.
Through her service-learning classes and through many after-class and weekend hours, Lima has worked alongside undergraduate students to design, implement and raise funds for “dream playgrounds,” butterfly gardens and an outside classroom for elementary students.
She believes that playground design is an appropriate way to introduce principles of democracy in the context of engineering design. She frames engineering problem-solving from multiple perspectives with an emphasis on equality, dignity and respect for all partners involved in the design process.
“I became an engineer because I wanted to make the world a better place,” Lima said. “What I found as a student, and as a professional, is that engineering often boasts of service to society, but in reality we serve entities that are often far removed from service to society. A colleague and I often spoke about how we might transform engineering education to a liberal, holistic approach that truly services society.”
For more information, contact Jan Shoemaker, director of the Center for Community Engagement, Leadership and Learning, at 225-578-9264 or jshoema@lsu.edu.
The 14th Annual Employee Recognition Program was hosted by Chancellor Sean O’Keefe on Wednesday, May 4. This event honored those employees who have achieved 25, 30, 35 and 40 years of service. Those who were honored are listed below.
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LSU’s Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices, or CAMD, located at 6980 Jefferson Highway, will hold its sixth annual Open House on Saturday, May 7, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
CAMD is one of eight synchrotron light source centers in the U.S. and the only one in the Southeast. It is a high-tech synchrotron research center that serves as a nucleus for research and development in the area of microstructures and microdevices.
The facility is housed in a 45,000 square-foot building located on a 15-acre site between College Drive and Corporate Boulevard.
CAMD’s Open House is free to the public and is geared toward families. The event will include tours of the facility and hands-on science and microfabrication demonstrations.
For more information, contact Lee Ann Broussard at 225-578-8887 or leeann@lsu.edu.
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Anne Cunningham
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LSU Manship School of Mass Communication Assistant Professor Anne Cunningham has been awarded the Donald G. Hileman Award for Educator of the Year. Presented by the American Advertising Federation’s 7th District, which covers five states, this award was established to recognize a college educator for outstanding service to advertising, the 7th District, his or her local Ad Federation, the AAF, and advertising students.
Cunningham has developed and taught courses in virtually every area of advertising. Her innovative style has earned her numerous research grants, awards and professorships, as well as the Ad Federation of Greater Baton Rouge’s Pinnacle Award for Educator of the Year, Honorary Faculty Member of the Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society, the Tiger Athletic Foundation Teaching Award and Faculty Honor Roll.
Under the guidance of Cunningham and her colleague, Lance Porter, LSU’s AAF National Student Advertising Competition team earned the school its highest rankings in 35 years.
Cunningham is the area head of the Manship School Advertising Area Committee, co-chair of the Faculty Search Committee and Faculty Advisor to the LSU Ad Fed. She has served on the political communication area; several Ph.D., master’s thesis, graduate and undergraduate honors options committees; as committee chair for the Manship Prize for Exemplary Uses of Media Technology; and as a mentor in LSU’s Pre-Doctoral Scholar Institute.
She is a member of Kappa Tau Alpha, and serves as a national and regional reviewer for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.
Cunningham is an ex-officio member of the AFGBR Board of Directors and, most recently, joined the Ad Fed in coordinating their first-ever statewide student career conference for advertising, marketing and design students.
Past LSU faculty who have won this prestigious award include Elsie Hebert in 1988 and Gerald Bower in 1990.