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Vignola honored for his push to put solar energy into public buildings

Frank Vignola, director of the University of Oregon’s Solar Radiation Monitoring Laboratory, received the inaugural Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association’s “Legacy Award” announced Friday, Sept. 14, during the Northwest Solar Expo 2007 in Portland.

“Frank was chosen for his tireless efforts toward the passage of Solar Energy on Public Buildings, HB-2620, which will restart the incorporation of solar design considerations into our buildings,” said Jon Miller, executive director of the association. “Frank has been working on solar issues for over 25 years, so it was really nice to choose him as the first person to win the award and recognize the work he has done for furthering solar energy in Oregon.”

House Bill 2620, introduced by State Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, was signed into law by the governor in June and takes effect Jan. 1, 2008. The measure requires state and local government to devote at least 1.5 percent of the cost of constructing a new building or renovating an existing building to solar energy technologies – if the project receives state funds. Passive solar energy investments can meet the requirement if they reduce energy use by at least 20 percent.

Vignola, who joined the UO faculty in 1977, said he was honored by the award. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in physics from the UO. He is a member of the International Solar Energy Society and is a Fellow of the American Solar Energy Society.

OSEIA's Legacy Award will be given annually. It recognizes an individual or entity successfully creating conditions, such as public policy, leading to a positive impact on future generations of Oregonian's.

“From our point of view, the furthering of solar energy initiatives or policy is a major factor in our selection,” Miller said.

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UO researchers and private industry have access to high-tech microcopes through the Center for Advanced Materials Characterization in ORegon (CAMCOR).

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Newest Additions:

Sept. 23 -- Check out the Fall 2008 Cascade! You won't be disappointed.

Sept. 22 -- Presidential politics have centered on the Iraq war and the U.S. economy. Now the two candidates discuss science in their responses to 14 questions.

Science in the Northwest now has central Web showcase

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Looking for the latest research news in the Northwest? Collaborating science writers at the leading Northwest research institutions now have a clearinghouse dedicated to the region's major institutions. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory now hosts Science Northwest. Check it out!

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What makes the University of Oregon a special and unique place? How do we share this information with the rest of the world?

These are the questions the university’s Integrated Marketing and Strategic Communications Task Force (IMSC) has been charged with answering. Read more about the effort HERE.

 
Legacy Award to Vignola

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Physics professor Frank Vignola is the first winner of the “Legacy Award” given by the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association. Read more.
UO physicist Dave Soper to share a top 2009 APS prize

UO physics professor Dave Soper is a 2009 winner of the J.J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Physics. He will share the prize with John Collins (Penn State) and Keith Ellis (Fermilab) when presented formally in May during the American Physical Society's annual meeting in Denver. Soper was cited for his "work in perturbative quantum chromodynamics, including applications to problems pivotal to the interpretation of high-energy particle collisions." Quantum chromodynamics is a theory of strong nuclear interactions among quarks -- fundamental constituents of matter.

The prize honors J.J. Sakarai, a Japanese-American particle physicist who authored leading textbooks on quantum mechanics and the principles of elementary particles during a career at the University of Chicago and UCLA. This year's winners bring the total numbers of honorees to 36, including three who later won the Nobel Prize.

UO's Hutchison is part of ACS's touting of global sustainability via chemistry

Face shot of Jim HutchisonCheck out Jim Hutchison's participation in an American Chemical Society production of its "Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions" Podcast, in which the society says: "Faced with concerns about dwindling petroleum supplies and environmental pollution, we must begin to consume in a new and more sustainable way." (Listen in)

Also, still available is a report featuring Hutchison by ScienCentral: Some are calling it a revolution in manufacturing technology. But, will nanotechnology be a "green" industry? It’s a question that some scientists are saying needs to be answered now, before nanotech goes big-time. (Check it out)

Sense of entitlement? Not in faces at military base, writes UO's Tom Bivins

Tom Bivins UO journalism professor Tom Bivins, sipping coffee and watching youthful faces at San Antonio's Fort Sam Houston, says the often-discussed "sense of entitlement" thought to exist in today's college-aged students was absent among like-aged faces wearing U.S. Army uniforms. His comments appear in a commentary in The Oregonian. (Read it)

Investors worried, tuned into news reports, UO psychologists tell Wall Street Journal writer

Paul Slovic mug shot    Two with University of Oregon ties named to new FDA risk advisory panel

Since 2001, investors’ comfort zone with their stocks has nose-dived from little worry about negative returns to growing worry about their stocks going nowhere for maybe a decade, reports UO psychologist Paul Slovic in an interview with Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig about today’s economy. In same article, UO psychologist Ellen Peters notes that American investors are spending a lot of time following, especially on TV news, the economic turmoil. Zweig’s column, however, carries the message that those who have some cash and can conquer their stock-phobia may be a good position, likening their potential investments to a venture in emerging markets. (Read story – may require paid subscription)

 

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