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NEWS ABOUT FACULTY AND STAFF

• San Julian Receives Excellence in Advising Award
• Bowersox Receives Outstanding Faculty Award 2004
• Bowersox and McCormick Retire
• Blankenhorn Appointed Associate Director for Academic Programs
• The Goddard Forum

San Julian Receives Excellence in Advising Award

Gary San Julian, professor of wildlife resources, has received the 2004 Excellence in Academic Advising Award from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences Alumni Society. The award recognizes faculty for outstanding service to students in academic advising, career planning, and personal counseling.

In addition to receiving high praise from a host of students he currently advises, San Julian-who received an engraved brass plate and $1,000 honorarium at Penn State's commencement ceremonies-got support from a number of colleagues and past students.

"Gary San Julian has been advising students in various roles for more than 30 years," wrote Amanda Yeager, a senior majoring in wildlife and fisheries science, who nominated him for the award. "Today he is recognized among students in the School of Forest Resources as an energetic and approachable faculty member involved in student activities of all sorts. As a dynamic instructor in the classroom, a motivational
and considerate adviser, and a supporter of many extracurricular activities, Dr. San Julian inspires students to pursue a college experience filled with rewarding academic and professional accomplishments."

Each year San Julian "officially" advises an average of 25 students, helping as many as 50 some years. In reality, the number of students he provides with advice and counseling is much greater. He is regularly approached by many students in the School who request his assistance in scheduling and seek personal counseling and guidance finding internships and job opportunities.

Senior Nina Cohen is one such unofficial advisee. She "can hardly imagine a more deserving candidate" for the advising award. "He's not my official adviser, but given how much academic and professional assistance he has extended to me over the past year, he might as well be," she wrote in a letter supporting San Julian's nomination. "I have been amazed at how seriously he takes his responsibility to help students succeed."

Since 2000, San Julian also has served as faculty honors adviser to wildlife science students enrolled in the Schreyer Honors College. He serves on thesis committees for graduate and undergraduate research and he also recently completed a term as faculty adviser to the Penn State Agricultural Student Council. Last year, he was honored for his longtime service to students with the 2003 School of Forest Resources Outstanding Faculty Award.

Perhaps graduate student Friedaricka Steed-who noted that San Julian refuses to let students give up on themselves and constantly seeks to build up both their skills and their self-esteem- summed up his impact on students in the School of Forest Resources
best: "Dr. San Julian has placed countless blocks in the foundations built beneath students," she wrote. "He has truly earned this award."

San Julian, who joined Penn State in 1995, notes that watching students succeed in life is reward enough, but he concedes that it is gratifying to be recognized by students." I was honored and humbled by the recognition," he says. "Helping students be successful in their chosen professions is the goal of the faculty in the college."

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Bowersox Receives Outstanding Faculty Award 2004

Todd W. Bowersox, professor of silviculture, is the recipient of the 2004 School of Forest Resources Outstanding Faculty Award. This award recognizes a faculty member who has made extraordinary contributions to the School of Forest Resources community through teaching, advising, and research. Faculty are nominated by students and a final selection is made by a panel of representatives from the School's student organizations.

Bowersox completed a B.S. in Forest Science in 1968, an M.S. in Forestry with an emphasis on silviculture in 1968, and a Ph.D. in Forest Resources in 1975, all at Penn State. He has been employed by the School of Forest Resources since 1968, first as a research assistant and then promoted through the ranks to professor of silviculture.

Bowersox has split his time fairly evenly between teaching and research. Over the years he has taught forest fire management, forest protection, timber harvesting, silviculture, and advanced silviculture. His major research interests have been regenerating eastern hardwood systems, and short rotation intensive culture of hardwoods. His honors include membership in Xi Sigma Pi and Gamma Sigma Delta, serving as president of the Penn State Chapter in 1987-88. He was a member of the Society of American Foresters and the Forest Products Society.

Though Bowersox has been heard to say, "If you can't hunt it, hook it, or cut it, I don't want to talk about it," he nevertheless has been a positive influence in the lives of many students.

Two Spring 2004 Forest Science graduates who were involved in selecting the recipient of this year's Outstanding Faculty Award have high praise for Bowersox. "I have always been impressed that after many years in teaching, he continues to keep the best interest of students as his top priority," explains Chris Dahl.

Jamie Murphy elaborates, "Throughout my four years at Penn State, no individual has influenced my career as much as Dr. Bowersox. Acting as an adviser, employer, and teacher, he has guided me both academically and professionally. He has always shown his students a genuine love for both teaching and practicing forestry."

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Bowersox and McCormick Retire

Dr. Todd Bowersox (left) and Dr. Larry McCormick (right) pose with Director Charles Strauss and their retirement recognition awards.

At the School of Forest Resources Alumni and Friends Banquet on April 23, 2004, Director Chuck Strauss recognized Dr. Todd W. Bowersox and Dr. Larry H. McCormick for their many years of service. Both retired in June 2004. Here are Dr. Strauss' remarks:

Todd W. Bowersox - After spending three years in the U.S. Navy operating from two aircraft carriers, Todd became a forestry student at Penn State. His incoming class of 1962 was the last of the forestry freshman classes at Mont Alto. He became interested in silviculture under the tutorage of Wilber Ward.

Dr. Bowersox was a pioneer in developing cornlike stands of fast-growing trees
on good agricultural sites under four-year rotations, with the feedstock directed to paper, particleboard, energy, and chemical industries. His expertise earned him a national and international reputation in the management of biomass plantations.

He has also conducted research on native forests, evaluating long-term forest plots established by the Bureau of Forestry in the early 1900s, the impact of flooding on native forests, and the growth and yield of indigenous tree species. However, his central attention has been upon the regeneration of hardwood forests.

Todd is an active forest manager. He has managed private forestlands, those of the National Park Service, and the University's forests. His research for the Park Service provided guidance in managing forests and white-tailed deer on the Gettysburg National
Military Park to ensure restoration of these resources to their original 1863 structure. Todd serves the University in the management of forested wastewater irrigation areas, our Stone Valley Forest, and the Spring Creek Forest. Since 1995, he has coordinated our School's Forestland Management Office, ensuring that our properties demonstrate exemplary practices, provide outdoor classrooms, and develop technology to better manage our forest resources.

When Todd was first hired, he was identified as a researcher. However, he was then asked to teach fire management, and continued doing so for over 15 years. In the mid-1980s a former director proclaimed Todd an expert in timber harvesting, and he successfully taught that course for 20 years. But it was in the early 1970s that Todd was given the opportunity to teach silviculture and he has had a tremendous command on that discipline for 30 years.

Todd has been quick to adapt to the latest in teaching technologies, using Power Point and Web-based delivery systems. But his preferred classroom is in the forest, sharing his knowledge and tremendous insight with small groups of students.


Larry H. McCormick - Failing to heed his father's advice to become an electrical engineer, Larry instead decided to pursue a latent interest in plants, especially trees. In 1963, he entered the four-year forestry program at Penn State. He spent his initial year at Mont Alto and then transferred to University Park where he received a B.S. in Forest Science in 1967 and a M.S. in Forest Soils in 1969. At this point Larry was prepared to leave and enter the working world to support his wife and two small children, when Dr. Ward convinced him to stay and work on his Ph.D. while serving as an instructor-the rest is history.

For the past 35 years, Dr. McCormick has been an instructor and researcher in the School. He has taught a wide range of forestry subjects, but his mainstays have been field dendrology and forest soils. More than 2000 students have learned tree identification under Dr. McCormick's tutelage-a fact that he takes great pride in. Larry has a reputation for holding class under all types of weather conditions-something he
says that builds character in students. Dr. McCormick has received several outstanding
teaching awards during his career, including the School's first Outstanding Faculty Award in 1996.

Some of Larry's earliest research was on the revegetation of surface-mined lands. This research led to the publication of a classic paper on the differential tolerance of trees to aluminum toxicity. Over the years he has continued to do research on mine land reclamation with recent studies looking at means of establishing woody plants on mine lands amended with municipal biosolids. He has also conducted research on a wide range of topics including the effects of pear thrips on sugar maple, effects of herbaceous competition on establishment of oak regeneration, and the control of invasive plants, in particular mile-a-minute and Japanese fleece flower. As part of his research, Larry has mentored numerous graduate students who today serve the forestry profession.

During his tenure, Dr. McCormick has served in the University Faculty Senate, as adviser to the Forestry Society, as program chair of the Forest Science faculty and more recently as associate director for academic programs.

Dr. Paul R. Blankenhorn, professor of wood technology, has been appointed associate director for academic programs in the School of Forest Resources beginning July 1, 2004. His main responsibility will be directing all matters relating to undergraduate degree programs in Forest Science, Wildlife and Fisheries Science, and Wood Products. Recently, he chaired our accreditation reviews of the Forest Science and Wood Product majors, successfully completed in 2003.

In September 1972, Blankenhorn received the first Ph.D. awarded by the graduate program in the School of Forest Resources. His specialization was in wood science and material science. That year he received the Wood Award for Outstanding Research in the field of Forest Products for his doctoral research. He was appointed assistant professor of wood technology in the Wood Products program in 1975. In 1983 he was promoted to the rank of professor.

He is responsible for teaching courses on the anatomical properties of wood, physical properties of wood, moisture movement in wood, drying of wood, and wood products environmental pollution control. Blankenhorn's expertise in these areas helped him develop the Kiln Operator's Short Course. He also participates in the Advanced Kiln Operator's Short Course and Wood Preservation Pesticide Training Course.

Blankenhorn's research efforts have resulted in three patents and the publication of 116 refereed publications in the areas of kiln drying of wood, wood polymer composites, wood processing, preservative treatment of wood, physical and mechanical properties of wood, polymer impregnation of wood, and wood cement composites. His current research interests are in the processing of small-diameter hardwood logs into lumber and the volatile organics compounds released during drying of hardwood lumber.

Blankenhorn is a past president of the Society of Wood Science and Technology. He has also been active in the Forest Products Society (FPS). He has been the Fundamental Discipline Technical Division Coordinator, chair of technical committees, member of the FPS Annual Meeting Committee, and a member of the Board of Trustees for the FPS Northeast Section.

The Goddard Forum

The 4th Goddard Forum, entitled "Developing Sustainable Communities: State and Local Practices, Technologies, and Policies to Promote Economic Development and Social Equity While Sustaining the Environment," was held May 10- 12, 2004, at the Radisson Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Goddard Forum is an outreach effort of Penn State's Maurice K. Goddard Chair of Forestry and Environmental Resources Conservation and forum topics focus on emerging issues in environmental and natural resource policy, particularly in areas involving state and local governments and private entities. The current Goddard Chair, Robert B. McKinstry, Jr., and a conference committee organized the conference.

The 4th Goddard Forum focused on the tools, programs, and mechanisms used by state, local, and federal governments, as well as private companies and institutions, to promote and achieve sustainable development. One hundred fifty-five presenters and attendees examined some successful state, local, and private programs and policies for sustainable development.

Achieving sustainable development is dependent on promoting and maintaining a high standard of living, while at the same time, working to sustain natural resources and promoting social equity. Because principles of sustainable development call for an interdisciplinary approach, 95 speakers participated in 44 plenary and concurrent sessions that addressed topics related to land development: forestry; water; energy, air and climate; transportation; government policy; agriculture; biodiversity; industrial ecology; and public health. Keynote speakers included Kathleen McGinty, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection; Gil Friend, President and CEO of Natural Logic and the founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance; Thomas Hylton, President of Save Our Lands, Save Our Towns, Inc.; and Dennis Wolff, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. In the concluding session, participants identified the needs and possible policies that might be employed in Pennsylvania or a similar state to bring it to a more sustainable pattern of development.

The forum was co-sponsored by the Goddard Chair, the Penn State Dickinson School of Law and the Section on Environmental, Energy and Resources Law of the American Bar Association, and was supported by the Goddard Chair Endowment, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Canaan Valley Institute, Inc., Environmental Standards, Inc., McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PPL Corporation, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, Environmental Resources Management, Inc. and R.K.R. Hess Associates, Inc.

Copies of the proceedings and copies of the report to be produced from the final session of the conference may be purchased from the Office of the Goddard Chair. Please contact Professor McKinstry at 814-865-9390 or rbm10@psu.edu.

The 5th Goddard Forum is entitled "Putting the Market to Work for Conservation: An In-Depth Examination of Traditional and Nontraditional Market-based Mechanisms for Achieving Environmental Improvement." It is scheduled for Tuesday, April 5, 2005, at the Hilton Harrisburg and Towers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

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