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| Title | South Dakota Tech News Report June July 2004 |
| Digitaization Specification | Master file format: ? bytes, application/doc, Uncompressed, DOC, ; Checksum: ; Adobe Photoshop CS3 |
| Transcript | South Dakota Tech News Report June - July 2004 Tech Teams Return From Vehicle Competitions Teams from South Dakota Tech recently returned from three competitions that tested the students' ability to design, fabricate and race different kinds of vehicles. During the events, Tech student-run teams competed against the best engineering schools in the world. South Dakota Tech is an engineering and science university in Rapid City, S.D. The results: Human-Powered Vehicle The South Dakota Tech Human Powered Vehicle team finished in sixth place overall during the Human Powered Vehicle Challenge held at Oregon State University. The vehicles were judged on design and safety, and in sprint and endurance races against more than 25 teams from across the country. The Tech team, which designed its bike so riders sit in a recumbent position, competed in the single rider events. The Tech team brought home second place in the utility vehicle competition and fifth place in the women's sprint competition. Human Powered Vehicles are aerodynamic, highly engineered vehicles that may be for use on land, in the water or the air. Some land-based HPVs have achieved speeds of over 60 mph. The point of the competition is the elegance and ingenuity of the design, including presentation, practicality and safety. All areas of engineering problem-solving are addressed. Mini-Baja The South Dakota Tech Mini Baja team finished in seventh place overall in the 2004 Society of Automotive Engineers Mini Baja West competition held in Portland, Ore. The team also finished second in the rock crawl event and 10th in the acceleration event. Tech competed against more than 85 engineering design teams from colleges across the United States, Mexico and Canada. The Baja cars were judged on design, cost and safety. Teams gave presentations about their cars, and showed off their performance during hill climb, maneuverability and acceleration events. The Baja cars and drivers were also put to the test during the four-hour endurance race over rugged terrain that tested the durability of each vehicle. Mini Baja simulates real-world engineering design projects and their related challenges. Engineering students are tasked to design and build an off-road vehicle that would survive the severe punishment of rough terrain. The object of the competition is to provide students with a challenging project that involves the planning and manufacturing tasks found when introducing a new product to the consumer industrial market. Mini-Indy The South Dakota Tech Mini-Indy team finished in 74th place during the annual Mini-Indy competition in Pontiac, Mich. Mini-Indy is an annual contest organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers. More than 140 teams from around the world traveled to the Pontiac Silverdome for the event. The Teach team scored perfect marks in the manufacturing part of the cost competition and placed 20th in the skid pad event. In the competition, students designed, fabricated and competed with small, formula-style racecars. The focus of Mini-Indy is not simply on who can build the fastest car, but rather on the use of engineering skills, financial know-how and creativity. Given certain car frame and engine restrictions, the competition tested students' knowledge, creativity and imagination. Vehicles are judged on static inspection, engineering design, solo performance trials, endurance trials and on other variables. #30# Memorial Created To Honor Former Tech Student The family and friends of a former South Dakota Tech student from Greeley, Colo., have created a memorial to support fossil research and preparation. The Jeffery Von Loh memorial fund will support research into the geologic history of the Greenhorn Formation and the preparation of fossils in South Dakota Tech's Museum of Geology. Von Loh studied geology at Tech from 1995 to 1998, and had significant interests in the fossils of western South Dakota, especially the fossils of the Greenhorn Formation and the Pierre Shale. Von Loh, 37, of Greeley, Colo., was killed in a traffic accident April 1, 2004, near Hudson, Colo. While attending Tech, Von Loh worked in the Museum of Geology as a student assistant and student preparator. His duties included helping collect vertebrate fossils from the western interior Cretaceous rocks of South Dakota, preparation of those fossils, and their curation and scientific study. He worked closely with the Museum staff, and was well liked and respected by his faculty and student colleagues. Von Loh graduated from Greeley Central High School in 1985. Immediately after graduation, he joined the U.S. Army, serving most of his tour of duty in Germany and then with the Army Reserve. After his military service, he attended Aims Community College, Colorado State University and South Dakota Tech. He was a member of the Paleontological Society of America and a published author, writing about dinosaur fossils he found. He also was a volunteer with the Denver Museum of Natural History. #30# Tech Names Dormitory ‘Howard Peterson Hall' In his more than 50-year relationship with South Dakota Tech, Dr. Howard Peterson has become a cornerstone of what the university represents. In recognition of his contributions, Tech has named its new, student-centered dormitory, "Howard Peterson Hall." The South Dakota Board of Regents approved the action during its meeting Friday in Vermillion. A formal dedication ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 24, to coincide with M Week festivities. "I am delighted to announce that the Board of Regents approved our request to name the new residence hall in honor of Dean Pete, in recognition of his long relationship with South Dakota Tech" university President Dr. Charles Ruch said. "Dean Pete is a Hardrocker to his core, and his contributions to this university have helped make it what it is today." Peterson has a long legacy at Tech. A native of Alpena, he attended Tech in an era when most students were veterans of World War II, and few were traditional, out-of-high-school youngsters. Howard was one of the youngsters. He was active in many campus organizations, and received a bachelor's degree in Geological Engineering in 1950. After working in oil exploration, he taught high school in eastern South Dakota. During his teaching years, he earned a master's degree in Education in 1955 from Northern State Teachers College. He then returned to Tech and was appointed assistant dean of students. He later earned a doctorate in Education from the University of South Dakota. From the 1960s into the 1990s, Peterson truly was a personal friend of most Tech students. He retired as dean of students in 1992, only to immediately play a leadership role that made a significant impact on the very successful, first-ever capital campaign in the university's history. Peterson continues to mentor students as an advisor, as a member of several university boards and as chairman-emeritus of the SDSM&T Foundation Board of Directors. "Dean Pete's service to South Dakota Tech can not be understated" Ruch said. "It is people with this kind of commitment to making this university the very best it can be who allow us to help students achieve their dreams." Students will move into the new residence hall in August 2004. Once the new hall is opened, March and Dake halls will be razed, but the names will not be forgotten. Plaques outlining the legacies of former Tech President Earl Dake and former professor and Alumni Association director Guy March will be prominently displayed in the vicinity of the former buildings in an outdoor lounge area for students. This area will be named March Dake Plaza. The new, 300-bed residence hall is being constructed adjacent to the south end of the Surbeck Center. Room configurations include suites and standard double rooms. Study lounges, a kitchen and an exercise room also will be included. Since the residence hall will connect to the Surbeck Center's main floor, a coffee and smoothie shop, the cashier's office, the campus safety office and a common front desk operation will serve both. "Providing students with more of what they want is the best part of this building project" Residence Life Director Reeny Wilson said. "We've talked with many students, held focus groups and gathered survey information. Through a new residence hall, we will offer students more on-campus housing options, better meet their needs and hopefully attract more students to the Tech campus." Features of the new building include: • Individual temperature control in each room • Air conditioning • Large windows • Sinks in every room • Moveable furniture • Beds that can be bunked or lofted with provided hardware • Large laundry room with ice machine • Exercise room • Study rooms • Private showers and dressing areas in the public shower rooms • Kitchen • Card access entry to rooms Howard Peterson Hall will be home to the inaugural group of more than 100 students to participate in a new Tech program designed to help freshmen succeed. The program, called FIRST, Freshman Introduction to Real Success at Tech, will help students develop connections with each other and the university during each student's first year on campus. "These connections provide the students with a foundation of support both academically and socially during their first year at Tech" Wilson said. "Participants will be able to take advantage of in-hall tutoring and coordinated classes and study groups. Other features of the program will give participants opportunities to live, learn and succeed." The new program's location in Howard Peterson Hall is fitting, because, "This is a residence hall that is centered around student needs" Ruch said. "That makes it the perfect tribute to Dean Pete.�� #30# Tech Aircraft Team Finishes 21st The South Dakota Tech AeroDesign team finished in 21st place during the recent AeroDesign West competition in Texas. The AeroDesign competition challenges engineering students to conceive, design, fabricate and test a model radio controlled aircraft. The competition is divided into two parts - design and flight. In the design event, the contestants present their design strategy and demonstrate the accuracy of their calculations in predicting the maximum payload the aircraft can lift. The flight event determines which aircraft can lift the most weight. The competition limits the wingspan of each aircraft, and requires each aircraft to take off and land within a limited distance. #30# Wildfire Awareness Day Scheduled For July 10 Representatives from the Red Cross, Pennington County Fire, South Dakota Wildland Fire and the National Weather Service will host a Wildfire Preparedness Month information day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 10, at the Rushmore Mall. Information booths will se set up inside the mall near Riddle's Jewelry. A state fire truck will be parked outside the food court. The state fire truck will be on site to demonstrate fire-fighting capabilities, award-winning posters from the children's Wildfire Preparedness Month poster contest will be displayed and emergency information from the Red Cross, fire weather information from the National Weather Service and fire prevention information from the state of South Dakota will be available. The purpose of the event is to promote Wildfire Preparedness Month, encourage wildfire awareness in the community and across the state and to educate the general public about various issues regarding wildfire. The sponsoring agencies invite and encourage the public to attend. #30# Project Investigates Lightning's Impact On Climate A three-year, $300,000 research project at South Dakota Tech will help scientists better understand the impact of lightning on global climate change. The study, funded by NASA, will examine the nitric oxide produced by lightning. Nitric oxide is a greenhouse gas that produces or destroys ozone in the lower atmosphere, depending on the amount of nitric oxide present. Lightning is the least well understood source of the gas in the atmosphere. The simulations produced at South Dakota Tech should help decrease the uncertainty associated with lightning-produced nitric oxide. Dr. John Helsdon, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, and Richard Farley, a research scientist in the department, are conducting the research. The project runs through March 2007. "Since global climate change and ozone budgets are a worldwide problem, our research will help in obtaining more accurate predictions of climate change and ozone concentrations on a global basis" Helsdon said. "As a result, decision making that depends on accurate global climate estimates and ozone budgets will be positively affected by the research." Helsdon and Farley are using Tech's three-dimensional Storm Electrification Model to investigate nitric oxide production. The lightning scheme in the models is based on physical principles, and accounts for the production of nitric oxide through the calculation of the energy dissipated by lightning flashes. The model calculates the amount of nitric oxide produced along each lightning channel and distributes it according to the channel geometry and the storm wind flow. The Storm Electrification Model also explores the ultimate influence of lightning on atmospheric ozone. "Ours is the only model in the world that explicitly treats the production of nitric oxide by lightning because we have a lightning scheme in the Storm Electrification Model that develops actual lightning channel paths" Helsdon said. "Since the production of nitric oxide depends on the energy change due to lightning, we can calculate the production rate along the channel and place nitric oxide in realistic quantities and locations within the modeled thunderstorm. "If global and regional climate change estimates can be improved because of our research, then local, regional, and national economic decision making processes will be impacted and improved." #30# Research Funding Illuminates Lightning South Dakota Tech researchers have received $132,800 from the National Science Foundation to continue an investigation into lightning in thunderstorms. Dr. John Helsdon, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Richard Farley, a research scientist in the department, and Megan Holm, a graduate research assistant and Atmospheric Sciences master's degree student from Spearfish, are collaborating on the project. They are using three-dimensional storm models to investigate a class of severe thunderstorms that produces a high percentage of positive polarity cloud-to-ground lightning (the normal cloud-to-ground lightning polarity is negative). The models, in combination with various observations from a field project conducted in 2000 in Kansas, will be used to verify or refute certain scientific hypotheses that have been offered to explain this phenomenon. The project also involves testing various charging mechanisms that involve the interaction between liquid drops and ice particles to better understand the fundamental physics of how thunderstorms become electrified. The researchers also will study the Maxwell current (the total of all electrical currents flowing in and around thunderstorms) to investigate hypothesized relationships between this current and the lightning flash rate. "The processes involved in the electrification of thunderstorms and the production of lightning are a primary focus in the field of atmospheric electricity" Helsdon said. "While man has marveled at the beauty and violence of thunderstorms, our understanding of how thunderstorms form and become electrified to the point of lightning is incomplete." Field projects have been conducted to try to improve this understanding, but data obtained from instrumentation used in such projects is of limited resolution. "Modeling is a means to generate a more complete picture of what is happening because the model produces a high-resolution, time-evolving picture of all the interacting processes taking place" Helsdon said. "Having this more-complete picture allows for the more thorough testing of hypotheses that relate to thunderstorm electrification." The project runs through March 2006. "This is basic research, an exploration for the sake of gaining knowledge and insight into a familiar natural phenomenon" Helsdon said. Helsdon and Farley have been working together in the modeling of thunderstorm electrification for more than 25 years at Tech. They have pioneered much of what is used today in such modeling efforts worldwide. This includes the first electrical model simulation of an observed storm, the development of the lightning scheme that is now used in several models around the world, the creation of an explicit model of nitric oxide production by lightning from the lightning scheme, and the first presentation of results concerning the modeled behavior of Maxwell currents. #30# Artificial Intelligence To Improve Student Learning South Dakota Tech researchers have received $75,000 from the National Science Foundation to develop software that will improve the skills of Tech students to study and recognize micrographs, pictures of microscopic features within materials that are used to characterize materials in many different ways. "Students do not get exposed to enough opportunities to learn how to recognize the features within a micrograph, and they are often required to do this when hired as a metallurgist" Dr. Alan Anderson said. Anderson is an instructor and research scientist in the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering. Anderson, Dr. John Weiss, associate professor, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, and Dr. Glen Stone, professor, Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, plan to use pattern recognition with neural networks or other artificial intelligence algorithms to automatically identify regions in a micrograph. The automatic identification of these regions will then be used to help students learn how to identify the regions themselves. The project funding runs through March 2006. "We plan to improve each student's ability to recognize common microstructures by providing them more opportunities than typically possible in a class or laboratory" Anderson said. "Additionally, we want to develop some fundamental techniques for automatically characterizing some micrographs." The researchers are initially focusing on steel because it is one of the most commonly used materials. "For students, it is important to understand how to recognize features within micrographs" Anderson said. "This requires an understanding of the material and its phase transformations, but it also requires the opportunity to study many different micrographs showing the different ways a similar phase might appear. This project will help give the student opportunities to see many different micrographs and have the system explain to them what it is they are seeing. This has a direct impact on their learning during school and a direct impact on their ability to get good jobs after graduation." The project also could provide a new mechanism for characterizing micrographs that could be commercialized and applied to industrial settings. #30# Microbes Eat Their Way To Better Concrete Two South Dakota Tech professors and researchers are creating living organisms that may provide a better way to seal cracks in concrete. Dr. Sookie Bang, professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Venkataswamy Ramakrishnan, distinguished professor emeritus, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, are conducting the research. The two recently were awarded $51,601 in additional funding from the National Science Foundation to continue their work. This is the second of a three-year project. During the current funding cycle, Bang and Ramakrishnan plan to develop genetically engineered microorganisms that can produce excess amounts of organic and inorganic biosealant. "This microbial sealant is a smart material that is environmentally safer and economically more feasible than the currently available synthetic sealing materials" Bang said. "Our innovative approach introduces cutting-edge biotechnology in concrete crack remediation." The microbes seal concrete surface cracks with their metabolic byproducts. That's already been done, so Bang and Ramakrishnan plan to use genetic engineering to create microbes that produce even more metabolic byproducts. The researchers will put the microbes through a wide range of concrete performance tests to measure the endurance and resistance of the repaired concrete to environmental changes. Beyond concrete reinforcement, these environmentally innocuous biological products can be used as a sealing or caulking agent for the gaps in building structures, bioremediation means to confine contaminated aquifers or subsurface soils through selective cementation, and possibly as a dust controller for surface soils. The project also provides excellent research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students who are actively involved conducting research experiments, analyzing data, presenting their findings at conferences and preparing journal publications. The research also offers potential economic development opportunities. If the research proves successful, "we will attempt to produce the microbial sealant in large scale to be commercially available in the future" Bang said. #30# Laser Research Aimed At Better Materials Materials used for tools, dies and other processing equipment in the forging, die casting and glass industries have been in existence for more than 50 years, but the materials are inadequate for the stress they endure. Those inadequacies spike energy costs and cause poor efficiency because the materials don't last very long. A research project at South Dakota Tech aims to fix those problems. Dr. James Sears, director of the Additive Manufacturing Laboratory that is part of Tech's new Institute of Multi-Scale Material Development and Processes, is in the first of the three-year, $600,000 project. The research is designed to create new industrial materials that will reduce energy consumption by 25 percent and increase the lives of the materials by a minimum of five times. End use applications for the technology proposed include tools, die and molds in hot forging metals, die casting molten metals and press forming molten glass. "Current materials are a bottleneck to increasing the manufacturing efficiency in these industries" Sears said. "Solving these barriers requires a new approach to materials selection and the manufacturing of these materials with advanced powder metallurgy technology. Our plans are to develop advanced tooling materials for hot forging automotive steel components, die casting aluminum and magnesium parts and molding glass television picture tubes.��� Sears is using Tech's laser powder deposition equipment to create the new materials based on thermodynamic phase calculations performed by Dr. Stanley Howard, professor, Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, Ph.D. candidate student Sudip Bhattacharya. Tech is working on the project with the following industrial and research partners: Carpenter Powder Products, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, GKN Sinter Metals, Metaldyne Group Operations, THT Presses and Techneglas. The laser powder deposition equipment is used to build components from the inside out, unlike traditional manufacturing. A nozzle sprays a metal powder into a molten pool on a work surface while a laser forms the desired shape by successive layer buildup, preprogrammed by the equipment operator. "The materials created for tools and processing equipment will be custom designed and manufactured for testing in a commercial environment" Sears said. "Tech's industrial partners will test the performance, energy usage and economics to determine what, if any, of the materials will be used." South Dakota Tech is an engineering and science university in Rapid City, S.D. #30# Composite Vehicles Hold Promise Of More MPG In a time of higher gas prices, a South Dakota Tech research project holds promise for lighter, higher-mileage vehicles. The three-year project, funded with $450,000 from the United States Department of Energy, involves studying the use of new materials for automotive applications. Specifically, researchers will investigate structural materials made out from composites. Composites are materials comprised of stiff, strong fibers embedded in plastics. Tech researchers Dr. Jon Kellar, chair and professor, and Dr. Bill Cross, instructor and research scientist, Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, and Dr. Lidvin Kjerengtroen, professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, plan to determine the viability of a select group of composite materials for use in vehicles. Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Southern Research Institute are collaborating on the project. "Little fundamental research that investigates the interface between fiber and plastic has been conducted" Kellar said. "That is the focus of this research." If the composites prove to be viable, the end result could be lighter-weight cars – made possible by the use of composite materials – that go further on a tank of gas. The research also could impact the entire automotive industry. "The research is very fundamental in nature, and therefore of high potential for direct technology transfer" Kellar said. "Knowledge transfer is the key here." #30# Arsenic Removal Aim Of Research Project A research project involving South Dakota Tech and a Rapid City company could result in an inexpensive way to remove arsenic from drinking water. The project comes at the perfect time. The drinking water standard for arsenic, currently set at 50 parts-per-billion, will be lowered to 10 ppb by 2006 because of arsenic's links to cancer. In South Dakota, it is estimated that 30, or 8.6 percent, of the state's public water systems will violate the 10 ppb arsenic standard. The American Water Works Association has estimated the cost of decreasing the arsenic standard to 10 ppb in South Dakota at $8.25 million. "This research project has the potential to reduce arsenic in drinking water at the source, with the added benefit of low-cost disposal of a stable and benign waste product in ordinary landfills" Tech's Dr. Arden Davis said. Davis is chair and professor, Department of Geology and Geological Engineering. The $40,000 research project, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, runs through the end of 2004. The Tech collaborators are Davis, Dr. David Dixon, professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Jan Puszynski, dean, College of Materials Engineering and Science. The commercial partner is HydroTech Engineering of Rapid City, a company formed by Dixon, Davis, and former South Dakota Tech professors Dr. Terry Williamson and Dr. Cathleen Webb. The overall vision and scope of the arsenic-removal research is to develop a commercial treatment suitable for what are called "point of entry" systems and complete field trials on an individual well. The guiding purpose of the research is to develop a low-cost remediation technology for arsenic removal that can be easily adapted to small or rural supply systems. The researchers will conduct the field trial on a single well with 70 ppb arsenic in Keystone. Arsenic contamination of drinking water is a serious problem in some parts of the United States and is a major health problem internationally. "A low-cost, effective technology for arsenic removal is needed" Davis said. "If successful, this project has potential for economic development opportunities for the state since naturally occurring limestone is used in the technology, and South Dakota has abundant limestone resources." #30# Tech Selects Mining Program Director South Dakota Tech, an engineering and science university in Rapid City, S.D., has named S. N. Shashikanth director of the university's new Mining Engineering and Management Program. Tech created the new program to respond to needs of students and industry. The new degree program combines mining engineering technical skills with management principles. The program, designed with the help of consultants and industry representatives, will prepare students for the current needs of the mining industry. Shashikanth earned a master's degree in Mining Engineering from Tech in 1993. From 1993 to 2000, he worked for the Ensign-Bickford Company of Simsbury, Conn. While with Ensign-Bickford, Shashikanth performed technical services for major mining clients in North America, India, Thailand, Korea, Malaysia and Japan. He also was instrumental in the formation of a new joint venture in Asia. Shashikanth then went to work for Modular Mining Systems, Inc., of Tuscon, Ariz. With Modular, he conducted consultative proposal and sales initiatives in North America and Asia. In 2002, Shashikanth moved to Special Devices, Inc., in Moorpark, Calif., where he served as program manager for their new mining and blasting division. The job involved several working on groundbreaking technologies, as well as radical out-of-the-box alliances with external agencies and third-party entities. Shashikanth met his wife Jennifer while a graduate student at Tech. Jennifer originally hails from a ranch near Newell, S.D., where her parents still live. The Shashikanths have three children, and are excited about moving back to Rapid City and South Dakota. #30# Research Attempts To Explain Wetlands' Role In Climate Researchers from South Dakota Tech, South Dakota State University, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Weather Service Office in Aberdeen are investigating the relationship between the region's climate and the behavior of the wetlands that stretch from Iowa, through eastern South Dakota and into North Dakota and Canada. The impact of these surface water bodies on the regional climate has never been fully determined. The researchers will modify regional climate models by including the wetlands and their behavior to see if the new model produces a significantly different and more accurate representation of the recent climate in the northern Great Plains. A $91,743 National Science Foundation research grant is funding the project. "We hope to show that the inclusion of wetlands in regional climate and weather forecast models alters the resulting forecasts" South Dakota Tech's Dr. Bill Capehart said. Capehart is an associate professor in the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences. "The recent expansion of wetlands in the eastern part of the South Dakota, especially in the Waubay Lakes region and parts of the James and Big Sioux river basins, shows the importance of these wetlands on the regional way of life. Likewise, these systems may have an important role to play in regional weather and climate." Since the early- to mid-1990s, these wetlands have increased significantly in volume and surface area, with the most notable effects seen in South Dakota's Waubay lakes area. The wetland growth has resulted in disastrous long-term flooding and inundation. Land surface features such as trees, grass, urban centers, soil moisture and water impact regional weather, in some cases creating the same type of small-scale circulations as coastal breezes. Surface water anomalies such as wetlands, in particular, can increase chance of regional rainfall by increasing the amount of moisture in the lower atmosphere, or conversely, inhibit storm development by slowing the rate at which the ground and lower atmosphere warms. The wetlands in eastern South Dakota represent a short- and long-term source of such moisture anomalies since some wetlands last only a few days after rain, while others last for years. "We want to merge rainfall and temperature data found in regional climate models and weather forecast models, and the small-scale changes in wetland behavior" Capehart said. "Our long-term goal is to be able to couple these two types of models for extended climate studies in the region." #30# Museum Of Geology Receives Important Donation Virgil O. Butler was an amateur paleontologist who scoured the South Dakota badlands for fossils 70 years ago. The results of his expeditions spent the past seven decades in a basement museum in Sargent, Neb. Through the generosity of Butler's family, much of the collection has been donated to the Museum of Geology at South Dakota Tech in Rapid City. "This is a very important collection" Dr. Jim Martin, Tech's curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, said. "It's even more important because it's from South Dakota, and we are happy to see the fossils come home." The fossils include well-preserved specimens of entelodont, or giant pig; titanothere, a large rhinoceros-like creature; tortoises; oreodon, a sheep-like creature; a large bison; a camel jaw; tooth fragments; and many others. "We seldom have this caliber of material donated anymore" Martin said. "We appreciate the family's kindness and generosity." Museum staff now will remove shellac from the specimens and prepare them with modern techniques. Some of the fossils will then be displayed in the Museum of Geology, while others will be curated in the museum's collections. All items will become part of the Virgil O. Butler Collection. Staff also will study Butler's journal that details the circumstances of each of his finds from 1931 to 1934. The specimens are important scientifically because museum staff can compare the samples with the fossils found at the Big Pig Dig in Badlands National Park. Butler eventually left the family farm in Nebraska and moved to Washington state, where he spent his career teaching. He visited Nebraska regularly, but left the fossils at the family home, where friends, family, and visitors could see them. After Butler's death, his daughters, Kay Seed of Washington, and Elaine Shields of Alaska, decided to donate the collection. They contacted Martin because of Butler's connection with South Dakota Tech. He studied at the university and received some paleontology training, particularly in fossil extraction and preparation. "They could have sold them for a lot of money, but that wasn't their goal" Martin said. "They wanted them to come back to a place where they would be used for educational and research purposes and will be cared for." South Dakota Tech is an engineering and science university located in Rapid City, S.D. NOTE: South Dakota Tech has photos of the fossils and of Virgil O. Butler. Contact Steve Buchholz if you would like to see and/or use the photos. Tech also has contact information for the Butler family. #30# Students Bound For Tech Earn PIMCO Scholarships The following students who are headed for South Dakota Tech have received PIMCO scholarships. The four-year, renewable scholarships are for $2,000 per year. PIMCO awarded 70 such scholarships to South Dakota students. The scholarship recipients were chosen by the South Dakota Investment Council on the basis of their ACT scores, with their GPAs used as tiebreakers. Qualifying applicants needed to be on track to complete the Regent Scholar curriculum at the time of application. Students must maintain a GPA of 3.0 in their college studies to retain eligibility The PIMCO South Dakota Scholarship Program is funded by PIMCO Advisors Distributors LLC in connection with its management of South Dakota's Higher Education Savings Plan, called CollegeAccess 529. Scholarship applicants were not required to be invested in the plan. The students: Dyan Lorge, Black Hawk; Jeff Schnabel, Emery; Scott Kranz, Kranzburg; Andrew Kraft, Mobridge; Jonathan Huft, Pierre; Kyle Zvejnieks, Rapid City; Don Lampert, Rapid City; Brent Mette, Tea; Paxton Alsgaard, Yankton #30# |
| Creator | South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. University Relations; |
| Subject | South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; |
| Local Subject | South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
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| Digital Publisher | South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Devereaux Library
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| Contributors | Buchholz, Steve; |
| Date | 2004-07 |
| Type | Text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Language | eng |
| Relation | Is part of Office of University Relations SDSM&T News Collection |
| Rights | The work from which this copy was made did not include a formal copyright notice. This work may be protected by U. S. copyright law (Title 17, United States Code), which governs reproduction, distribution, public display, and other uses of protected works. Uses may be allowed with permission from the copyright holder, if the copyright on the work has expired, or if the use is fair use or within another legal exemption. The user of this work is responsible for compliance with the law. |
| Submitting Institution | Devereaux Library. South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. |
| Date Digital | 2009 |
| CONTENTdm number | 6548 |
| CONTENTdm file name | 7511.pdf |
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