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Friday's Times Union reports that Rensselaer senior offensive lineman Ken Taylor has been named to the Verizon Academic All-America second team for football. Over 1,800 sports information directors at colleges throughout the country choose the members of the Academic All-America teams.
Sandeep Nandy writes, "On Saturday, December 8, the RCNJ organized a trip to Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ to watch the New Jersey Devils host the Washington Capitals. In all, 54 RCNJ members attended the game, seated in sections 207, 219, 227 and 241. The Devils put forth a strong defensive effort and had timely goal scoring in a 3-1 victory. The win extended the Devils unbeaten streak to 4 games (3-0-1)."
"A good time was had by all and some new friendships created." Read on for a summary of the game action...
Sandeep Nandy continued:
Devil-killer Peter Bondra managed five shots on goal in the first period, but all were stopped by Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur during a scoreless first period.
New Jersey forward Sergei Brylin broke a 10 game scoring drought when he put home the rebound of a Bobby Holik shot. The Devils extended to a two goal lead when defenseman Brian Rafalski blasted a shot over the left shoulder of Washington goaltender Olaf Kolzig and into the back of the net.
Devils forward Scott Gomez extended the Devils lead to 3-0 when took an put home an excellent centering pass by rookie forward Andreas Salomonsson. The Capitals ended Brodeur's shutout bid with four minutes remaining in the third period.
The Troy Record reports that yesterday RPI announced a $7 million gift from Morris Silverman to fund the Noble Enterprise Constellation, a group that will conduct research into regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. RPI will match the donation, bringing total funding of the constellation to $14 million. This announcement was made at the recently-opened Amtrak station in Rensselaer, NY.
According to the Record article, Governor George Pataki said, "This partnership {between} RPI and New York State strengthens my efforts to make certain New York leads in developing the technology to protect our health, preserve our peace, and improve our lives." RPI President Shirley Jackson reportedly said, "Advances in biotechnology will bring considerable international recognition to the capital region, and it will attract funding for scientific inquiry and promote economic development."
Joe Pilaro writes, "A spirited discussion ensued at the NJ Admissions Volunteers' 'Wrap-up' dinner on Monday, December 10 for those RCNJ members who attended Fall 2001 fairs. Although we didn't solve the problems of the world, our meeting resulted in some worthwhile comments, which follow, and a request for more information from RPI Admissions."
Joe Pilaro continued:
The group has the impression that Admissions accepts any and all invitations received from schools in New Jersey. Some of the schools on our list this year were not up to the "quality" that would meet the goals set out by RPI Admissions. On the other hand, we believe that we miss out on some very good schools for various reasons. Some of us would like to have more input concerning the College Fairs on the NJ list. As a start, we believe that we, or Campus Reps, should visit all schools that award the Rensselaer Medal. The Volunteers will support this program in any way you see fit.
Further, the group welcomes the general information provided by Admissions at the start of each season but we are interested in obtaining more information about specific results of the College Fair program. We will ask if it be possible for Admissions to provide some historic information for each school when the requests for Volunteer coverage is made.
It would be helpful for the Volunteers to know, for each "key" or "target" school at the College Fair, how many applications were made to RPI, how many applicants were given an offer to attend and how many students actually did accept in, say, the last three to five years. This sort of information would be helpful in talking to prospective applicants about any relationship that exists between RPI and the prospect's school or community.
Finally, a Merry Christmas to {all of} you from your Rensselaer Club of New Jersey Volunteers who all look forward to doing our part in the Spring and Fall of 2002. We continue to seek additional Volunteers so that our help to RPI Admissions can expand in future years. Send me your e-mail address and I will include you in the distribution of the Spring College Fairs list.
Joe Pilaro pointed out that an article in today's Trenton Times reports that the Johnstown Chiefs stunned the Trenton Titans 6-5 in overtime. The importance of this article to Rensselaer graduates is near the bottom, where it refers to a recent Rensselaer graduate we have covered for more than a season:
Alain St. Hilaire, traded by the Trenton Titans to the Columbus Cottonmouths and then, immediately, by Columbus to the Roanoke Express, appears to be leaning toward retiring rather than reporting to Roanoke. An Express spokesman said that St. Hilaire was going to take the league-allowed three days to make up his mind, but Scott Bertoli, St. Hilaire's roommate with the Titans, said that St. Hilaire would likely retire. "Guys here liked to be around him," Bertoli said. "He was a good friend and I'm disappointed to see him go. But it's the nature of the business. The team felt it needed to go in a different direction."
Sunday's Times Union reports that Rensselaer Professor William A. Wallace is studying how the utilities serving New York City cooperated in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attack. Dr. Wallace is a professor in the Decision Support and Engineering Systems department, which generally educates both engineers and management students.
Dr. Wallace will be joined in this project by Joe Chow, also from Rensselaer. The team also apparently includes a third person who is unidentified. This study is one of only eight studies of the World Trade Center attack that has been funded by the National Science Foundation so far.
The RPI Men's Hockey Team ended the pre-exam stretch of the season with a .500 record inside and outside of the conference. Friday night Rensselaer beat Yale 4-2. Marc Cavosie overcame the flu and scored a hat trick. Carson Butterwick had the other goal. Ryan Shields and Nolan Graham had two assists each. Nathan Marsters had 26 saves.
On Saturday, Princeton used two 2-goal spurts to stay ahead of RPI, 4-2. Jim Vicker and Jim Henkel scored for the Engineers. Nathan Marsters had 30 saves. In the Times Union article on the game, Dan Fridgen said, "I think last night's game... took a lot out of us. We played a very up-tempo type of game. We were hoping we would feed off the energy of last night, but unfortunately we didn't get it done tonight."
On Saturday, December 8, the RCNJ is sponsoring a trip to Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford to see the Washington Capitals play the New Jersey Devils. Faceoff is 1:05pm. Sandeep Nandy wrote in to provide further information about the game.
Click the Read More... link for more information and directions...
Update: Also Read More.... for details on where to meet for the post-game meal.
Sandeep Nandy wrote:
I purchased two blocks of tickets (52 total) last Friday. One block of tickets is in Section 207 and the other block is in section 227. Dave Aiello, RCNJ President, is currently in the process of trying to get Adam Oates '85 {a player for the Washington Capitals} to meet our group after the game.
Tickets will be mailed {to members who have ordered and paid for them already} during the course of this week. I will include a directions page with the tickets, but directions to the Meadowlands Sports Complex are provided also available on the Meadowlands Web Site.
The faceoff is at 1:05 pm. The game should end at approximately 3:30-4:00 pm. An optional, informal postgame meal will take place at the Grasshopper (a nearby restaurant). If you plan to attend the postgame meal or need more information about it, please e-mail me at Sandeep.Nandy@verizon.com.
An RPI Press Release dated December 4 states that the Rensselaer Board of Trustees approved $255 million in spending on new construction for the Troy campus. This press release conclusively answers the question asked of David Haviland by an RCNJ member about the total cost of new construction plans. The question was initially posed at the RCNJ Fall Dinner two weeks ago.
According to the Press Release, "The plan calls for building a center for biotechnology and interdisciplinary studies, a center for electronic media and performing arts, a parking garage, a boiler plant, a chiller plant, and for related improvements to campus landscaping and infrastructure."
Hat tip to Dave Bohan and his Alumni Email News Update service for pointing out this Press Release.
Today's New York Times is carrying an article commemorating the 30th anniversary of email. Ray Tomlinson '63, a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame is featured in the article, which includes a personal sidebar interview discussing the first email message ever sent between computers on a network.
At one point in the interview, Tomlinson speaks about the time he realized that email had become a major part of American culture: "The story I get the biggest kick out of is when my name and e-mail appeared on 'Jeopardy' a couple of years ago. My mother was a faithful viewer and she said she was happy that they finally had an answer she knew the question to."
In today's Times Union, Alan Wechsler interviews Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson on the subjects of U.S. nuclear power plant safety and terrorist threats. Prior to assuming the RPI presidency, Dr. Jackson served as Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, so her opinion on these matters is sought after.
The article summarizes a telephone interview which Wechsler conducted with Dr. Jackson. She is said to have called our commercial nuclear plants "...are as secure as they possibly could be." Regarding the possibility of terrorists posessing the components necessary to make a "dirty bomb", Jackson is quoted as saying, "If you have people who manage to get their hands on nuclear material, not necessarily weapons grade, it would be a concern, even with a conventional bomb."
Dave Aiello wrote, "Several alumni have written to ask if the RCNJ will make tickets available to the RPI-Princeton men's hockey game on Friday, February 15, 2002 at Baker Rink in Princeton. The answer is yes. We will post further information on ticket availability here on RCNJ.org as soon as possible. So, stay tuned...."
In the only game of the weekend, Rensselaer tied Union 1-1 in an evenly matched game. Matt Murley scored a goal for the Engineers on a feed from Marc Cavosie after over two periods of scoreless play. Two minutes later Jason Kean from Union played the puck off of Nathan Marster's helmet to tie the score. The game ended 1-1 after overtime.
Matt Graves called his article in the Times-Union Goalie's Night at RPI and it sounds like it was an entertaining, but defensive, battle.