Tackling the China question (in China).
Faculty members of UConn's Insurance Law Center participated in an international conference in Beijing where they analyzed China's pending membership in the World Trade Organization.

During the conference, Robert Googins, founding director of the Insurance Law Center, John Day, lecturer in law, and Hugh Macgill, professor of law and former UConn Law School dean, discussed the changes with Chinese insurers and regulators that will accompany China's expanding global role.

UConn's Insurance Law Center, the only program of its kind in the nation, is recognized as a world leader in the study of insurance as a business and as a social institution for allocating risk and responsibilities.

Outstanding publishing record honored.
School of Business management professors, Dr. Michael H. Lubatkin and Dr. John F. Veiga, were inducted into the Academy of Management Hall of Fame. The Academy, with nearly 15,000 members, is the world's largest and most prestigious society for management scholars. Lubatkin and Veiga were among the first 34 scholars to achieve this honor for having published extensively in the Academy's journals. When the award was announced, Lubatkin and Veiga had each published ten papers in the journals. Their writings represent extensive research into a broad range of business management issues.

Researchers net major research instrument award.
A multidisciplinary team of UConn faculty--in engineering, geology, physics and chemistry--was awarded a $620,000 Major Research Instrumentation grant from the National Science Foundation to purchase a state-of-the-art automated digital transmission electron microscope. Matching funds of $420,000 were also awarded from various University sources.

The funds will be used to purchase the microscope and support a full-time postdoctoral fellow to assist scholars in using the device. The instrument will dramatically enhance existing research programs, and positions the University to pursue path-breaking nanoscale science and engineering initiatives. When networked across campus, the device will also enrich graduate and undergraduate education by revolutionizing the teaching of electron microscopy and related subjects.

Nelson named poet laureate.
The Connecticut Commission on the Arts has named UConn English professor Dr. Marilyn Nelson the state's poet laureate. Nelson will serve a five-year term in the honorary position, which was created by the state legislature to recognize a Connecticut poet of the highest distinction. In addition to this prestigious honor, in 2000-01 Nelson received a Guggenheim Fellowship and won the 2001 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children's Literature for her book, "Carver: A Life in Poems." Nelson is the author of six books of poetry and two children's collections. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary collections.

Virtual reality researchers combat fear of flying and other phobias.
People suffering from paralyzing phobias such as a fear of flying will soon have a new treatment option thanks to work being done by UConn researchers in partnership with Argus VR International, a Connecticut virtual reality technology firm.

Dr. Eugene Santos, associate professor of computer science and engineering, in collaboration with Dr. Irving Kirsch, professor of psychology, and Argus VR International, received a $150,000 Yankee Ingenuity Technology Competition award for the project, which intends to demonstrate the effectiveness of virtual reality in treating phobias and other anxiety disorders.

Fighting invasive plants for the National Park Service.
UConn researchers have been tapped by the National Park Service to help combat an increasing number of invasive, non-native plants that are upsetting the ecological balance in national parks in the eastern United States.

Dr. John Silander, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and Dr. Leslie J. Mehrhoff, curator of the University's George Safford Torrey Herbarium, are focusing their attention on nearly 40 eastern parks from New England to the Virginias.

Through workshops, Silander and Mehrhoff will teach park personnel to identify the invasive plants, assist them in establishing inventories, and help them develop plans for monitoring and remediation. UConn students will benefit as well through internships and assistantships in the program.