Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, September 19, 1983, Page 24, Image 169

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Three students chosen
presidential scholars
The final three recipients of
$1,000 Presidential Scholarships
for study at the University beginn
ing this fall have been chosen.
The selection of Alice Blanken
ship of Eugene and Mark Emerson
and Wayne Skill, both of Salem,
brings to 50 the number of
Oregon's moist outstanding high
school graduates who are receiv
ing the grants which are
renewable for up to four years.
The other 47 winners were an
nounced in June.
More than one quarter of the
first Presidential Scholars have
straight A averages and all exceed
the 3.75 minimum CPA. In addi
tion, each has demonstrated
leadership in extracurricular ac
tivities and community service.
Selection was based on each
student’s achievements, personal
statement of educational and
career goals and recommenda
tions. More than 625 students
were mominated for the scholar
ships by 129 high schools
throughout the state.
Up to 50 of these nominated but
not picked will be offered $100
textbook scholarships for fall term
by the University Bookstore, says
lames Williams, general manager.
"The bookstore's directors, who
approved making these grants,
realize that the University's
ultimate success is contingent on
the enrollment of as many high
quality students as possible," he
says. "This effort is consistent
with our policy of support for
academic excellence."
Those to be offered the tex
tbook scholarships will be
notified by mail before fall term
begins in September, Williams
says.
The Presidential Scholarships
are funded by donations to the
University foundation by private
individuals and foundations.
When the program is in full opera
tion in four years, the University
expects to be awarding 200
scholarships a year.
Research —nued (rom Pa8e 7
among nonartists, but O'Connell
is convinced that any subject
would benefit from visualizations.
To test his theory, he has of
fered classes to non-art majors.
"It increases people's percep
tions. It makes them more sen
sitve to the visual information
available to them," he says. "Peo
ple are shocked to find out how
much they are not looking at
things."
Many fields can benefit from
visual thinking. Pre-visualization
techniques are already used in
some areas. For example, an
athlete might picture himself win
ning a race or a surgeon might pic
ture herself doing a complex
operation.
The increasing power of com
puters is going to help visual
thinking develop, he says.
It is no accident O'Connell is
heavily involved in computer
graphics. It is a natural progres
sion from pictures on paper to
pictures on a screen.
Using computers, architects can
see buildings, physicists can use a
simple chart to summarize com
plex material and artists can create
new art forms.
The vast memory of computers
gives them an advantage in stor
ing pictures, although the com
putations can be quite complex.
For example, clouds may take up
to 1,000 calculations per point in
the image.
But the advantages are
immense.
It an artist paints a particular
landscape it may take about 30
hours, about what it would take to
do a computer program. If the ar
tists wants to see another angle of
the same scene, it would tak^^
another 30 hours to paint the pic^
ture. The computer can rotate
around the whole scene in a mat
ter of minutes.
People need to see things visual
ly in order to understand complex
ideas, he says.
"We are real visual animals."
Karen Sprague bends over the
tubes of DNA as she carefully
takes the minute amount of blue
dyed liquid and spreads it onto
the piece of glass. Once she has
all of the samples on the specially
treated material, it will only be a
couple of hours until she knows if
she has successfully made a new
kind of DNA.
Sprague, a biology professor, is
studying silkworm genes to
discover how they turn on and of
What makes genes turn on an^^
off is important because all genes
do it, she says. Silkworm genes
are easier to study because when
they turn on and off there, is a
tremendous difference.
In bacteria, the controlling
region is upstream from the gene
and she is testing that idea with
the silkworm.
Because silkworm genes are
similar, if not identical, to human
genes, any findings may have
direct application to human gene
disorders.
Molecular biology is a com
petitive field and most people in
volved heavily in research do little
classroom teaching. Sprague
teaches only one class a year, but
she works closely with several
graduate assistants.
"There is a lot of teaching out
side the classroom — some of the
most valuable teaching," says
Sprague.
A major part of research is
publishing, she says.
"You don't do research to keep
it in your notebook and not tell
anyone. You tell everyone so you
can go on to new things," she
says.
If the experiment she just did
doesn't work, Sprague will try to
diagnose the problem and rethink
all the preliminary steps.
"When an experiment comes
out way you don't want it to,
the natural inclination is to be
depressed," she says. "But you
should be excited. You may be on
the verge of discovering
something exciting that you
haven't anticipated.
"As long as the questions are
worth answering I'll keep going."