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A Woman of PeaceCamelia Sadat works for world peace by encouraging people to find peace within themselves. She was the first speaker in the 1997-98 Thompson Forum series Sept. 16. For more, see Page 4. (Photo by Richard Wright) |
Camelia Sadat was filled with rage when as a college student in the United States she watched on television the assassination of her father, Anwar Al-Sadat. The late Egyptian president had forged a peace with Israel, a peace that won him the Nobel Peace Prize but also cost him his life.
Her anger deepened when others in the Middle East, particularly its leaders, praised his assassins. She could have become a bitter woman, filled with hatred for all humanity.
Instead, she turned the tragedy of her father's death into a lasting tribute to his work. As founder of the Sadat Peace Institute, Camelia Sadat has worked for peace. She believes the way to peace is for each of us to change from within.
Sadat, a senior professor at Bentley College, is a doctoral candidate in peace studies at Boston University, where she is a student of Elie Wiesel. A survivor of the Holocaust, Wiesel urged Sadat to attend a conference on hate. It was there that she learned just the opposite. By purging her inner rage, hate and fear, she became a woman of peace.
Every person feels hate, she said, yet most of us deny its existence within ourselves. By recognizing and purging it, we can begin to live in peace.
"When you live in peace, it reflects on your family and your neighbors. It reflects on your community and within society."
Naba Gupta in his Hamilton Hall laboratory. (Photo by Bob Meier (c) 1992) |
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(Editor's Note: Public Relations writer Robert Sheldon has been working on a magazine story about Naba Gupta's life work. The Scarlet excerpts a portion of that story in tribute to a great scientist.)
The good that Naba Gupta accomplished in his lifetime will live long after him. It is his legacy to the scientific and medical researchers who will follow the trail he blazed through the terra incognita of the microscopic world of protein synthesis.
That legacy is actually the fulfillment of Gupta's life-long ambition, one that had its beginnings in the town near Calcutta, India, where Gupta grew up.
Gupta, the W.W. Marshall Professor of Biotechnology, died of pancreatic cancer on Sept. 16. A native of India, Gupta had been associated with the university since 1968.
"The people I most admired," Gupta once said, were doctors, especially those who pursued medical research. It occurred to me that those doctors were making discoveries that helped improve the quality of life for mankind. I consider myself lucky to have had the same kind of opportunity."
Gupta devoted his life to furthering understanding of how genetic information translates into action within living cells, stringing together chains of peptides into the essential proteins of hormones, tissues and organs of living things. He was blessed not only with the instinctive mindset of a man of science, highly trained in its techniques and thoroughly knowledgeable in the complex biology of the human cell, but he also confronted new knowledge with imagination and exuberance.
Instead of backing away from surprise, such as the discovery of a minute piece of protein that no one had ever seen before, he puzzled and pondered over its presence until he came up with not one but usually several plausible possibilities.
In his laboratory, he would experiment with all of the alternatives, spending months, perhaps even years, looking for evidence that would either advance a particular hypothesis or relegate it forever to the scrap heap of scientific miscues.
"It's what makes my work exciting," he would say of his painstaking research, which would be an exercise beyond endurance to most people.
"There was always the possibility I'd come to work in the morning and find something totally new and unexpected."
And off he would go, studying and analyzing the evidence, and then turning his training, instincts and imagination to the formulation of new ideas that would build upon his latest advance towards greater knowledge of how living cells manufacture the proteins that lead to the growth and development of living organisms in all their infinite variety.
Gupta established his laboratory at NU in 1968, coming to the University from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he completed post-doctoral studies under Dr. H.G. Khorana, who received the Nobel Prize for his work in recombinant DNA technology. Khorana, now professor emeritus at the Massahusetts Institute of Technology, was the first scientist to successfully replicate genetic material within e coli bacteria, thereby initiating the new era of biotechnology.
In 30 years of research at NU, where he received millions of dollars in funds from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and other outside sources, Gupta came to work a lot of mornings to find exciting new vistas open before him. Certainly, they suggested numerous areas of continued research, different paths to follow in the advance of our overall knowledge of protein synthesis.
Sometimes, his ideas followed a more direct route, a logical continuum from one piece of scientific evidence to the next piece.
In the end, his latest discovery, the one of which he was most singularly proud, was the cumulative result of a series of significant discoveries made in Gupta's laboratory.
Gupta was typically a reserved sort of fellow, reticent to discuss his basic research and its practical applications. But Gupta seemed at times hardly able to restrain himself from making the imaginative leap that his evidence seemed to indicate that his discovery could hold the key to a major advance in the treatment of viral infections.
In a series of papers published in scientific journals last June, Gupta discussed his latest findings, which were based on exhaustive analysis and experiments of a tiny complex of proteins and carbohydrates that he discovered in the early 1980s.
The complex came to his attention while he was studying a peptide initiation factor known as eIF-2, which Gupta also was the first to see.
Indeed, it was in Gupta's laboratory that eIF-2 was recognized as essential to the initiation of protein synthesis. Its presence made it possible for specific genes to produce specific proteins essential to the growth and development of living organisms.
One of Gupta's major tasks was trying to figure out what turned eIF-2 on or off, or what conditions had to take place to allow eIF-2 to initiate protein synthesis and how the process came to a halt at exactly the right moment.
He knew from the beginning that there were certain enzymes in cells called kinases that had the potential to phosphorylate (the process of adding phosphate to an organic compound) eIF-2, rendering it inactive and thereby inhibiting protein synthesis.
Accepted thinking was that the eIF-2 kinases were inactive in cells until it was time for protein synthesis to stop. Then the heretofore dormant kinases were activated somehow.
Gupta found the accepted doctrine unacceptable. It was one of those moments that he decided to put his imagination to work, to look for new explanations, new ideas.
His idea, which he subsequently found to be correct, was that the eIF-2 kinases were never inactive. Instead, they were held in check by another substance. Discovery of that substance, was regarded by Gupta's peers across the country as of critical importance in the regulation of protein synthesis.
"Until I discovered p67," Gupta said, "it was thought that eIF-2 was all that was required to start protein synthesis. I found that the process could be brought to a halt if p67 was removed."
The discovery of p67 changed the whole picture in regard to how protein synthesis was regulated, Gupta said. It wasn't a matter of inactive kinases becoming active - the kinases were always active, waiting inside the cell to pounce on eIF-2. The reason the kinases didn't phosphorylate eIF-2 was because eIF-2 kept them from doing it.
Much of Gupta's research over the past decade has been devoted to providing evidence that p67 binds to eIF-2 to prevent phosphorylation. In so doing, he found that the converse was also true; when protein synthesis slowed,the kinases gained an upper hand and began phosphorylating eIF-2.
Gupta likened the process to a battle between two armies, in which first one of the combatants, p67, has the upper hand. Eventually, the tide turns and p67 loses its numerical superiority as its phosphorylating opponent gains the upper hand. Thus p67's defensive perimeter is breached, and eIF-2 kinases fall upon the eIF-2 initiation factor, deactivating it and forcing protein synthesis to a halt.
Almost as soon as Gupta established that p67 relied on numerical superiority to hold off the eIF-2 kinases, he immediately made another leap of logic and began thinking of p67 as an important biological means of combatting viral infections.
Gupta learned that eIF-2 kinase inhibitors increase when an animal cell is infected by a virus. At the same time, p67 decreases.
If a decrease in p67 activity led to a shutdown of protein synthesis and put viruses in charge of a cell's machinery, why not try to stop a virus in its tracks by overproducing p67 in a cell?
"This raises the intriguing possibility that p67 can be used as an anti-viral agent," he said.
It was an imaginative leap forward, the kind that Gupta had made before, often provoking disgruntled protests among his peers.
His discovery of p67 itself drew skepticism among many other scientists. Protein synthesis worked fine without it, they maintained.
Gupta, however, countered with the fruits of his detailed analysis of p67 based upon his extensive laboratory experiments. Within two years after he reported his findings in regard to p67 in a paper published in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, his idea had gained acceptance among leading cell biologists.
Gupta's final publications in the Archives of Biochemistry and Physics and the Journal of Biological Chemistry, in view of their far-reaching implications for medical science, will likely prove even more elusive in terms of acceptance in the scientific community. And yet, Gupta, always the thorough scientist, spent most of the last decade producing evidence in support of his thesis.
Once again, discoveries within discoveries brought forth an explosion of possibilities to be explored.
The intriguing possibilities will continue to be followed at NU in Gupta's lab, which will be headed by a post-doctoral student formerly associated with Gupta's research team. He will oversee research funded through federal sources including the National Science Foundation.
-Robert Sheldon
University of Nebraska-Lincoln officials hailed the new School of Natural Resource Sciences as a model during a luncheon Sept. 16 in the Nebraska East Union.
"I see it as the vanguard of future multi-disciplinary endeavors," said James Moeser, chancellor.
Richard Edwards, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, called the new school " a model for a lot of partnerships we will see forming" in the future.
Irv Omtvedt, vice chancellor of NU's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said the new school will join the multi-disciplinary Beadle Center in helping to minimize "that 27th Street barrier" that separates UNL's two campuses.
"What we're looking at is not to have walls between departments or colleges," Omtvedt said.
The new school began operating Aug. 1 and offers five majors: water science, range science, soil science, environmental studies, and forestry, fisheries and wildlife. Administrators and faculty are developing new master's and doctoral programs for the school.
Most of its initial faculty, the equivalent of about 35 full-time employees, come from IANR units: from the combined departments of agricultural meteorology and forestry, fisheries and wildlife, plus parts of the Water Center/Environmental Programs, the Conservation and Survey Division and the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum and some faculty members from other departments.
During the next few years, the school is expected to expand to involve additional faculty from Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Technology and other colleges, said Blaine Blad, director of the new school.
The multi-disciplinary approach will help the university coordinate its expertise and build a strong reputation in the natural resource sciences field, Blad said.
Blad predicted the school will be successful because it has been developed "by people who really want to make a difference."
A professor of agricultural meteorology, Blad headed the former department of agricultural meteorology. He is serving as the school's director and will be eligible to seek the permanent directorship, expected to be filled by July 1, 1999.
The school's budget for 1997-1998 will be approximately $3.34 million, Blad said. That amount will be supplemented by $457,000 from UNL reallocation and IANR redirection funds beginning July 1, 1998.
In 1996-97, 254 students were enrolled in academic programs leading to a bachelor's degree in natural resources at UNL. University officials expect that figure to increase by 25 percent in the next five years. The school has about 65 graduate students this year, a number that is expected to rise to 100 within five years.
Deans for the school are Ken Bolen (Cooperative Extension Division), Don Edwards (College of Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources), Brian Foster (College of Arts and Sciences) and Darrell Nelson (Agricultural Research Division).
- Molly Klocksin, IANR, News and Public Affairs
A candlelight vigil beginning at 7 p.m. Sept. 21 will mark the dedication of a memorial for Candice Harms, a UNL student who was abducted and murdered Sept. 22, 1992.
Students raised $10,000 to build a bench and garden spot in Harms' memory.
Speakers at the event include James Griesen, vice chancellor for student affairs; Andrew Loudon, former UNL student president who spearheaded the fund drive; and spokespeople for the Harms family and Lincoln's Pius X High School, where Harms earned her high school diploma.
An s-shaped bench incribed with Harms' life dates has been placed in a corner of UNL's "greenspace" just southeast of Andrews Hall. The bench is near a well-traveled sidewalk and is a visible reminder of her, according to Marlene Beyke, director of development for the Associated Students of the University of Nebraska.
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Associate professor of engineering William Weins speaks at a news conference announcing UNL as one of 14 teams in the 1998 Ethanol Vehicle Challenge. Gov. Ben Nelson, right, and Ed Wallace from General Motors, left, look on Friday at Duteau Chevrolet. Students will convert a 1997 Chevrolet Malibu to operate on a blend of ethanol and gasoline during the competition finals to be held in May at the General Motors Technical Center in Michigan. (Photo by Richard Wright) |
The College of Engineering & Technology will compete in a national contest to design an engine to run on 85 percent ethanol.
The U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors are co-sponsoring the Ethanol Vehicle Challenge competition.
Approximately 30 students from NU will have until May to rebuild the engine of a 1997 Chevrolet Malibu, donated by GM, to produce lower emissions while meeting or exceeding the performance of a 100 percent gasoline-powered engine.
Bill Weins, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and Alexander "Bob" Peters, professor of mechanical engineering, will head up the project at UNL.
Weins said the contest has practical value for students because it has a clearly defined problem for them to solve, which is to adapt a current engine design for optimal performance using 85 percent ethanol.
Students will have to learn the differences between gasoline and ethanol as fuel sources and then adapt a current engine rather than building one from scratch, he said. Ideally, the engine's adaptations will be flexible enough to allow use of fuels other than ethanol.
"This is an exciting real-world problem for students," Weins said. "They get to do hands-on stuff with expensive new equipment, which they like. And engineers always like to mess with cars."
Weins said the project involves students at a variety of skill levels, from first-year to graduate students. Like a real-world corporate environment, senior-level students will be the team leaders and direct the work of junior-level students.
"Thus they learn engineering structure and responsibility," he said.
The college likes to participate in these types of contests, Weins said, because it's good experience for students. The college competed several years ago in a similar contest to adapt a pickup-truck engine to run on natural gas.
NU submitted a proposal last spring for the competition and was one of 14 schools chosen, Weins said.
Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson announced NU's participation at a news conference Friday. Nelson said improved engine technologies for alternative fuels is one way the nation can reduce dependence on foreign oil.
A news release from Nelson's office said the Nebraska Energy Office, ethanol, agricultural and other interests will contribute $50,000 to defray costs of the competition. Vehicle Challenge sponsors include the Nebraska Grain Sorghum Board, the Nebraska Ethanol Board, and the 13-state Western Regional Biomass Energy Board. The Nebraska Corn Board is likely to contribute as well, Nelson's office said.
During the week-long finals next May at the GM Technical Center in Michigan, the vehicles from all 14 schools will be tested for emissions, acceleration, range, handling, energy efficiency and cold start capability. Each school's design report also will be scrutinized. A panel of industrial and governmental judges will evaluate the entries. Afterwards, the vehicles will be driven some 600 miles to Washington, D.C., as part of a U.S. Department of Energy alternative fuels conference.
Weins said he isn't sure what the grand prize winners will receive other than the admiration of their peers.
-Kim Hachiya
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