UNIVERSITY TRULY HAS A ROLL IN SPACE MISSION

Selection by NASA of four Southeast Missouri State University instructors to participate in its Joint Venture Program virtually puts certain components of America's space program at the doorstep of the university and other schools in its service region.

Thursday's announcement that the four faculty members will participate in the program, known as JOVE, serves as proof that talent at Southeast, a regional state university, is at least equal to that of the larger, more prestigious research universities.

Through the program, Gary Cwick of the department of geosciences, David Probst of the department of physics, and Jim Gong and Bruce Hathaway, both of the department of chemistry, will work with NASA scientists over the next three years.

NASA will make data from active space science missions available to them through electronic links with research teams at NASA field centers. NASA also will provide support to them for a 10-week summer research orientation, fund equipment and travel purchases and student support, and will make available to the university partial summer salaries.

In return, the university will provide research time for the faculty members at no charge to NASA, support undergraduate and graduate student scholarships for students to work on data, conduct curriculum development in the space sciences, and administer outreach programs about the space program to area high schools and elementary schools.

The four will participate in research focusing on the use of geographic information system to monitor changes related to stresses in forests induced by human behavior, the catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into oxygen and organic molecules, biomedical neuroscience, and technology related to optical communications systems.

Southeast is one of just 21 schools selected this year for participation. It joins 53 institutions already participating.

JOVE will provide an opportunity for the Southeast faculty members to participate in the space program and to spread information about the program to university, high-school and elementary students in the region. The direct working relationship that will evolve between the faculty members and NASA scientists, and the information that will be made available to the university about America's space program, will help generate students' interests in the sciences.

With astronaut Linda Godwin being a graduate of Southeast, and the university now participating in JOVE, the university can boast that it truly is playing a part in the nation's space mission.