mark dantonio - MSU Alumni Association - Michigan State University

license agreements for new technologies
and systems.
“Our research universities are
creators of knowledge and generate
the innovations, new technologies
and new businesses that
not only provide jobs, but also
improve the life for all citizens of
Michigan,” says MSU President
Lou Anna K. Simon.
Detroit News columnist Dan
Howes calls it “the closest thing
Michigan has to Silicon Valley—
an intellectual powerhouse.”
MSU NO. 1 IN STUDY ABROAD
For the second straight year,
MSU is the top public university
in the U.S. for study abroad, according
to Open Doors 2006,
the annual report by the Institute
of International Education.
In 2004-2005, 2,385 MSU students
studied abroad, second only
to New York University among
all colleges and universities.
Kathleen Fairfax, director of
MSU’s Office of Study Abroad,
touts “both the strength of MSU’s
institutional commitment to study
abroad as well as the depth and
breadth of faculty involvement.”
MSU offers among the most
diverse study abroad options,
with more than 230 programs
in 62 countries on all continents—including
Antarctica.
MSU was one of five universities
highlighted in a November report
by NAFSA: Association of International
Educators as 2006 winners
of the Paul Simon Award For
Campus Internationalization.
LAW COLLEGE TOPS IN STATE
The MSU College of Law
achieved the highest pass rate
on the July 2006 Michigan Bar
Exam among public institutions
in the state.
MSU had 180 first-time test
takers and they achieved a 94
percent pass rate, compared to
the state average of 91 percent.
Tied for second place—at 93
percent—were Wayne State University,
with 162 first-time takers,
and the University of Michigan,
with 30 first-time takers. Only
Ave Maria School of Law, a
private Catholic law school, had
graduates pass the bar at a higher
rate; 96 percent of its 26 firsttime
takers passed.
CROUCHING TIGER—MSU’s Kresge Art Museum has acquired this
fabulous Chinese ceramic pillow, dated around 1160 AD in the Jin
Dynasty. The MSU purchase was funded by the Emma Grace Holmes
Endowment. In early Chinese mythology and art, the tiger was
regarded as an auspicious guardian beast, noted for its bravery and
nobility, explains museum director Susan Bandes. This pillow was
probably intended to ward off evil spirits in the night.
Pillow in the Form of a Recumbent Tiger, 1160 AD
Photo courtesy of Kresge Art Museum
A tradition begun to honor MSU’s Sesquicentennial, Fred
Honhart, director of MSU Archives & Historical Collections, will
continue to highlight key moments and people in MSU history.
This year is the
50th anniversary of
our National Superconducting
Cyclotron
Laboratory (NSCL).
How MSU came to
acquire the NSCL
began in the 1950s,
when MSU’s physics
department wanted to
enter the field of high
energy physics. Under
the leadership of professor
Joseph Ballam,
a committee decided
that MSU should
build a state-of-the-art
cyclotron.
Milton Muelder,
then dean of arts and science, and
later vice-president for research,
enlisted the support of President
John A. Hannah. Muelder
enticed Sherwood Haynes from
Vanderbilt University to be the
new department chair. Haynes
hired Henry Blosser, then at
the Oak Ridge nuclear facility,
to head up the MSU cyclotron
research project. Blosser has
since noted that MSU’s MISTIC
computer (see “MISTIC Memories,”
Fall 2006, p. 57), which
was similar to one they used at
Oak Ridge, influenced his decision
to come to MSU. He and
Muelder sought funding for the
project from the Atomic Energy
Commission (now the Dept. of
Energy). At one point President
Hannah told Muelder if they
could not get funding MSU
would build its own high energy
cyclotron.
Henry Blosser
Harley Seeley/IMC
In various trips to Washington,
D.C., Muelder and Blosser
met with Glenn Seaborg, the
head of the Atomic Energy
Commission. He was intrigued
by the MSU efforts and his
support helped secure the
project’s first National Science
Foundation Grant—$700,000
for a 50 MEV cyclotron at
MSU. MSU would build the
building housing it. Thus
MSU began to develop one of
the preeminent high energy
nuclear research facilities in the
world.
In 1989, Sam Austin succeeded
Blosser as NSCL director
and in 1992 and he was
succeeded by Konrad Gelbke.
With the most recent $100
million grant, Gelbke and his
faculty are ready to move vigorously
forward with the next half
century of high energy physics
research at MSU.
Click Right Through for MSU
www.msualum.com
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