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Museum of Art/WSU receives six original prints from the Andy Warhol foundation

Warhol Truck
Warhol Truck

Six original Andy Warhol prints recently were added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Art/WSU. A gift from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, they are the largest Warhol prints in the museum’s permanent collection (up to 40 x 40 inches) and depict both mundane and recognizable pop culture references.

“These works add a wonderful new dimension to our holdings of modern art,” said Chris Bruce, museum director. “Equally important, the gift provides us with an extra incentive for a successful campaign to build a new museum on campus so we can share such treasures with our audience more frequently.”

More than 20 years after his death, Warhol remains not only a fascinating cultural icon but one of the most influential figures in contemporary art and culture.

Read more at WSU news

Light exposure improves conductivity

Marianne Tarun
Marianne Tarun

Quite by accident, Washington State University researchers have achieved a 400-fold increase in the electrical conductivity of a crystal simply by exposing it to light. The effect, which lasted for days after the light was turned off, could dramatically improve the performance of devices like computer chips.

WSU doctoral student Marianne Tarun chanced upon the discovery when she noticed that the conductivity of some strontium titanate shot up after it was left out one day. At first, she and her fellow researchers thought the sample was contaminated, but a series of experiments showed the effect was from light.

Read more and watch the video at WSU News

Other sources:
Nanowerk
Nanotechnology News
VRForums
innovations-report
someone somewhere
ScienceNewsline
Machines Like Us
ZME Science

CAS alumna is Marshall Scholarship finalist

Roxanne Reese
Roxanne Reese

Alumna Roxanne Reese has made it to the final round of the Marshall Scholarship selection process and is traveling this week for a personal interview at the British Consulate-General in San Francisco. She graduated with honors in May 2012 with BA degrees in philosophy and political science, minors in ethics and criminal justice, and a certificate of completion from the WSU Honors College. She held a WSU Distinguished Regents Scholarship throughout her undergraduate program.

“The entire WSU community is very pleased that Roxanne is but one step away from becoming the first WSU graduate to receive a Marshall Scholarship,” said Mary F. Wack, WSU vice provost for undergraduate education. “She is an accomplished scholar with well-defined career goals and she will be an excellent representative of our university and nation.”

The Marshall is one of a set of prestigious awards commonly known as “distinguished scholarships.” It was established in 1953 by the United Kingdom Parliament to provide funding for up to 40 exceptional American students each year who seek to pursue graduate education in the U.K.

Read more about the scholarship

NSF grant to study corporate influence on government

Mikhail Balaev
Mikhail Balaev

Sociologist and new member of CAS faculty Mikhail Balaev has received a two-year National Science Foundation award to study political and corporate ties in the American government. The grant will enable him to collect and analyze data related to the professional affiliations of presidential appointees since 1978 in order to create a network model of the ties between corporations and executive government.

Balaev is a macro-sociologist with broad academic interests in economic and political sociology. Growing up in Soviet Russia, he witnessed the massive socio-economic change brought by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which inspired his interest in sociology.

Read more at WSU News

‘Frequent fliers’ rack up criminal convictions, frustrating officials

Zachary Hamilton
Zachary Hamilton
At any given time, Spokane-area police officers and sheriff’s deputies are monitoring between 40 and 60 repeat offenders—a.k.a. “frequent fliers” and “hall of famers.”

Zachary Hamilton, WSU assistant professor of criminal justice, is an expert on repeat-offender cases. On behalf of the Department of Corrections, Hamilton analyzes prisoners’ likelihood to reoffend.

Whatever prevents repeat offenders from staying out of trouble—usually a drug habit or mental problems—they figure the risk of committing a crime is far less than the risk of not committing a crime.

Read more about repeat offenders