Mon, Jul 17, 2006
July 17-21, 2006
CITY CAMPUS UNION, JULY 20-21
Academic Conferences Hosts National Association of Fellowships Advisors Regional Workshops
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Office of Undergraduate Studies is proud to present the 2006 NAFA Regional Workshops on July 20-21, 2006 at the City Campus Union on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus, Lincoln, Nebraska. This conference will focus on new fellowship advisors with information and resources about nationally competitive fellowships. Topics such as how to set up and maintain a scholarship office, how to solicit administrative support, how to identify and work with students, plus other topics of mutual interest will be covered. An optional pre-conference Fulbright Workshop is scheduled with Walter Jackson, Outreach Manager for the Fulbright US Student Program, on Thursday morning the 20th.
To register for the conference, visit the Academic Conference Planning & Management website: http://conferences.unl.edu or call 472-9334. If you have any further questions regarding the conference, please contact Laura Damuth at (402) 472-5024, or by e-mail at: ldamuth1@unl.edu.
FEATURED IN JULY 14 ISSUE
UNL Physicist's Attention to Electron Tunneling Noted By Science
Evgeny Tsymbal
University of Nebraska-Lincoln physicist Evgeny Tsymbal's groundbreaking identification of an emerging research field in electronic devices earned publication this week in Science magazine. Tsymbal, a professor of physics and astronomy at UNL and a specialist in spin electronics at UNL's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center and the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience, identified and provided an overview on electron tunneling through ultra-thin layers of spontaneously polarized materials as an important new area for applied physics research.
In "Tunneling Across a Ferroelectric," in the July 14 issue of Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Tsymbal and collaborator Hermann Kohlstedt of the Research Center in Julich, Germany, highlighted emerging research on ferroelectric tunnel junctions.
The phenomenon of electron "tunneling" through nonconductive barriers has been known since the advent of quantum physics. But Tsymbal noted in his article that new research and experimental collaboration on practical applications of the theory are becoming likely and necessary, and that new studies will open an avenue for the development of new electronic devices.
Tsymbal described ferroelectric tunnel junctions this way: Metal conducts electric currents and insulators block them. But if an ultra-thin layer of an insulating material about one nanometer (1 billionth of a meter) thick is placed between two metal electrodes and a voltage is applied, electrons are able to tunnel through the barrier. Using a ferroelectric material as the insulating barrier layer adds new functional property to a tunnel junction because of the spontaneous polarization of the material. Ferroelectric tunnel junctions could be used for different applications such as nonvolatile memories for computers. more...
UNL Physicist's Attention to Electron Tunneling Noted By Science
Evgeny Tsymbal
In "Tunneling Across a Ferroelectric," in the July 14 issue of Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Tsymbal and collaborator Hermann Kohlstedt of the Research Center in Julich, Germany, highlighted emerging research on ferroelectric tunnel junctions.
The phenomenon of electron "tunneling" through nonconductive barriers has been known since the advent of quantum physics. But Tsymbal noted in his article that new research and experimental collaboration on practical applications of the theory are becoming likely and necessary, and that new studies will open an avenue for the development of new electronic devices.
Tsymbal described ferroelectric tunnel junctions this way: Metal conducts electric currents and insulators block them. But if an ultra-thin layer of an insulating material about one nanometer (1 billionth of a meter) thick is placed between two metal electrodes and a voltage is applied, electrons are able to tunnel through the barrier. Using a ferroelectric material as the insulating barrier layer adds new functional property to a tunnel junction because of the spontaneous polarization of the material. Ferroelectric tunnel junctions could be used for different applications such as nonvolatile memories for computers. more...
MARY RIEPMA ROSS MEDIA ARTS CENTER
A Prairie Home Companion, Twelve And Holding, Water Play at the Ross
UNL's Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center presents A Prairie Home Companion, Twelve And Holding, and Water. All three films will be showing through July 20.
Director Robert Altman and writer Garrison Keillor join forces with an all-star cast to create a comic backstage fable, A Prairie Home Companion, about a fictitious radio variety show that has managed to survive in the age of television. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin star as the Johnson Sisters, Yolanda and Rhonda, a country duet act that has survived the county-fair circuit, and Lindsey Lohan plays Meryl's daughter, Lola, who gets her big chance to sing on the show and then forgets the words. Kevin Kline is Guy Noir, a private eye down on his luck who works as a backstage doorkeeper, and Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly are Dusty and Lefty, the Old Trailhands, a singing cowboy act. Add Virginia Madsen as an angel and Tommy Lee Jones as the Axeman and Maya Rudolph as a pregnant stagehand and Keillor in the role of a hangdog emcee, and you have a playful story set on a rainy Saturday night in St. Paul, Minnesota, where fans file into the Fitzgerald Theater to see "A Prairie Home Companion," a staple of radio station WLT, not knowing that WLT has been sold to a Texas conglomerate and that tonight's show will be the last.
Director Michael Cuesta follows up his debut film L.I.E. with another harrowing coming-of-age tale in Twelve And Holding. Cuesta casts young Conor Donovan as his lead, with the impressive actor playing twins--the sociable athlete Rudy and the distinctly introspective Jacob. Joining Donovan in the cast are Jesse Camacho as Leonard, a paunchy kid reminiscent of Jerry O'Connell's Vern in Stand By Me and Zoe Weizenbaum as Malee, a quietly disturbed young girl with a fractured family life. The five 12-year-olds are close friends, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a prank by local bullies goes horribly wrong and Rudy is burned alive in a tree house. As Jacob's parents fall apart at the news, the rudderless surviving twin realizes he can't rely on them for support, so he makes the surprising decision to make regular visits to the two brothers who killed Rudy as they languish in a juvenile detention center. Meanwhile, Malee copes with the tragedy by obsessing over an attractive older guy named Gus (Jeremy Renner) and Leonard gets on a health kick despite his overweight parents' protestations. But Twelve And Holding is not a facile reproduction of other work; instead it's a startling kids'-eye view of poor parenting and woeful neglect. The four leads give astonishingly mature performances, and Cuesta manages to surpass his meager budget by creating a stylistic tour-de-force that may leave anxious parents wondering what their kids are doing in their spare time.
When Deepa Mehta first began filming Water in 2000, angry fundamentalist mobs burned her sets and threatened her life. Her film has raised the ire of extremists because it challenges the Hindu customs that dictate that widows, considered half-dead after the loss of their husbands, must be closeted in holy ashrams--a practice that still exists today. Set in the 1930s, the film tells the story of eight-year old Chuyia, whose husband dies before she even meets him. Her parents shave her head and whisk her away to a house of widows where the women sleep on the ground and beg in the streets to earn their puny portion of rice. Chuyia, feisty and resilient, comes into this world like a ray of light, and soon the women are rethinking their mute acceptance of their fate. Her closest friend and ally is the lovely Kalyani, and soon a forbidden romance begins to develop between Kalyani and Narayana, a young Brahmin man who, following the teachings of Gandhi, has denounced injustice. The film is sumptuously beautiful, Chuyia is utterly winsome, and despite the harsh social issues at its heart, it often feels light and lively: Chuyia and Kalyani play games and dance, Chuyia steals sweets for a dying old widow, the women dance and paint each other's faces during a color festival, and the Cinderella-story romance between Kalyani and Narayana shimmers with the promise of salvation and happiness. Mehta, however, knows it would be disingenuous to allow such an easy resolution to such a dire situation, and the final chapter of Water takes a tragic turn.
More information is available at the Ross website.
MRRMAC | A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION | TWELVE AND HOLDING | WATER
A Prairie Home Companion, Twelve And Holding, Water Play at the Ross
UNL's Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center presents A Prairie Home Companion, Twelve And Holding, and Water. All three films will be showing through July 20.
Director Michael Cuesta follows up his debut film L.I.E. with another harrowing coming-of-age tale in Twelve And Holding. Cuesta casts young Conor Donovan as his lead, with the impressive actor playing twins--the sociable athlete Rudy and the distinctly introspective Jacob. Joining Donovan in the cast are Jesse Camacho as Leonard, a paunchy kid reminiscent of Jerry O'Connell's Vern in Stand By Me and Zoe Weizenbaum as Malee, a quietly disturbed young girl with a fractured family life. The five 12-year-olds are close friends, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a prank by local bullies goes horribly wrong and Rudy is burned alive in a tree house. As Jacob's parents fall apart at the news, the rudderless surviving twin realizes he can't rely on them for support, so he makes the surprising decision to make regular visits to the two brothers who killed Rudy as they languish in a juvenile detention center. Meanwhile, Malee copes with the tragedy by obsessing over an attractive older guy named Gus (Jeremy Renner) and Leonard gets on a health kick despite his overweight parents' protestations. But Twelve And Holding is not a facile reproduction of other work; instead it's a startling kids'-eye view of poor parenting and woeful neglect. The four leads give astonishingly mature performances, and Cuesta manages to surpass his meager budget by creating a stylistic tour-de-force that may leave anxious parents wondering what their kids are doing in their spare time.
When Deepa Mehta first began filming Water in 2000, angry fundamentalist mobs burned her sets and threatened her life. Her film has raised the ire of extremists because it challenges the Hindu customs that dictate that widows, considered half-dead after the loss of their husbands, must be closeted in holy ashrams--a practice that still exists today. Set in the 1930s, the film tells the story of eight-year old Chuyia, whose husband dies before she even meets him. Her parents shave her head and whisk her away to a house of widows where the women sleep on the ground and beg in the streets to earn their puny portion of rice. Chuyia, feisty and resilient, comes into this world like a ray of light, and soon the women are rethinking their mute acceptance of their fate. Her closest friend and ally is the lovely Kalyani, and soon a forbidden romance begins to develop between Kalyani and Narayana, a young Brahmin man who, following the teachings of Gandhi, has denounced injustice. The film is sumptuously beautiful, Chuyia is utterly winsome, and despite the harsh social issues at its heart, it often feels light and lively: Chuyia and Kalyani play games and dance, Chuyia steals sweets for a dying old widow, the women dance and paint each other's faces during a color festival, and the Cinderella-story romance between Kalyani and Narayana shimmers with the promise of salvation and happiness. Mehta, however, knows it would be disingenuous to allow such an easy resolution to such a dire situation, and the final chapter of Water takes a tragic turn.
More information is available at the Ross website.
MRRMAC | A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION | TWELVE AND HOLDING | WATER
