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CAS in the Media Arts and Sciences Media Headlines

Hydrogen production method opens up clean fuel possibilities

A new energy-efficient method developed by a team of WSU scientists to locally produce hydrogen gas from ethanol and water has the potential to make clean hydrogen fuel a more viable alternative to fossil fuels.

Louis Scudiero.
Scudiero

“Our technology produces pure hydrogen at high pressure with high efficiency and at a low energy cost while also capturing the carbon dioxide by-product,” said Louis Scudiero, professor of chemistry and co-author of a paper on the research published in the journal Applied Catalysis A.

Like electric battery-powered cars, hydrogen fuel-cell cars don’t emit harmful carbon dioxide during operation and, like traditional gasoline-powered cars, hydrogen-powered cars can be refilled in minutes.

Despite its potential, the technology’s market penetration is very low. Delivery of compressed hydrogen gas to consumers is a significant stumbling block. The economic and safety challenges involved in transporting and storing large volumes of high-pressure hydrogen gas means there is little appropriate infrastructure in the U.S.

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WSU Insider

Parks named associate vice president of health sciences academic programs and policy

Craig Parks.
Parks

Craig Parks has been named associate vice president for health sciences academic programs and policy within Washington State University Health Sciences, effective Sept. 1. He will retain his current role as vice provost for system innovation and policy on a part-time basis until Jan. 1, 2023, as well as continue to act as the university’s accreditation liaison officer (ALO) in the Provost’s Office on a part-time basis.

“Dr. Parks is an accomplished institutional leader with a heart for the health sciences and growing academic programs,” said Daryll DeWald, vice president for WSU Health Sciences and chancellor for WSU Spokane. “His expertise is vital to our health sciences colleges’ successful accreditation processes. I look forward to working with him as we continue our collective vision for expanding WSU Health Sciences across Washington State.”

Parks arrived at WSU in 1993 as a visiting faculty member in the Department of Psychology, where he later received a permanent appointment. He joined the Office of the Provost in 2015 and has been serving as the vice provost for system innovation and policy since 2019, where he supports academic initiatives across the WSU system and oversees federal and state academic policy. In his new role, Parks will be responsible for supporting academic program development as well as the accreditation processes for the colleges of Nursing, Medicine, and Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

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WSU Insider

New leaders in arts and sciences bring wealth of experience to posts

Three academic units in the College of Arts and Sciences are welcoming new leadership this fall.

Allyson Beall King.
King
Clifford Berkman.
Berkman
Keri McCarthy.
McCarthy

In the School of Music, Professor Keri McCarthy succeeds Dean Luethi as director, and in the Department of Chemistry, Professor Cliff Berkman succeeds Kirk Peterson as chair.

In the School of the Environment—which is part of both CAS and the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences—Allyson Beall King, associate professor, career track, succeeds Kent Keller as director.

“Drs. McCarthy, Berkman, and King bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to their new roles,” said Todd Butler, CAS dean. Their respective terms began Aug. 16.

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WSU Insider

New language partnership will enrich learning

The Intensive American Language Center (IALC) on the Pullman campus moved its classrooms and staff to Daggy Hall this summer after the decommissioning of Kruegel Hall, which previously housed the center.

The IALC is where international students learn and polish their English and knowledge of American customs through beginner, undergraduate and graduate programs. In addition to the IALC moving its staff and class spaces, the IALC’s Learning Support Center found a new home in Thompson Hall through a partnership with CAS’s School of Languages, Cultures and Race, which runs the Language Learning Resource Center (aka Language Lab).

Having the IALC’s Learning Support Center and the Language Lab in one place will provide WSU students taking foreign language classes and international students studying English the opportunity to learn from each other at the same location.

Carmen Lugo-Lugo.
Lugo-Lugo

“This partnership provides a nexus for language and cultural exchange that can benefit both groups of students,” said Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo, director of the School of Languages, Cultures and Race.

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WSU Insider

 

Experts say Washington elections are secure: ‘People have gotten sucked into a lot of lies’

Mistrust of system persists despite no evidence of voter fraud

In the early morning on Nov. 4, 2020, Donald Trump stood at a lectern in the White House and told a throng of cheering supporters he’d won the presidential election.

“We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the election,” Trump wrote on Twitter hours earlier. “We’ll never let them do it.”

Trump hadn’t won and provided no evidence to support his claims of fraud.

In the following weeks and months, state and federal courts dismissed dozens of cases filed by the Trump campaign and its supporters that alleged fraud and election law violations. The president’s own Department of Homeland Security called the 2020 election the most secure in U.S. history.

Cornell Clayton.
Clayton

Cornell Clayton, a Washington State University political science professor and director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy, said allegations that the 2020 election was rigged shouldn’t be taken seriously.

“The problem with suggesting there are two sides to the debate is it assumes there are two sides that have evidence,” Clayton said. “There’s no evidence behind these objections that have been raised and we should have full faith and confidence in our election system.”

Sowing doubt about the integrity of elections could cause irreversible damage to American democracy, Clayton said.

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The Columbian