FSU research magazine seems to be the best
Florida State's Research in Review, a 28-year-old magazine, took top honors in a record five categories in the 1997 Florida Magazine Association competition Aug. 23 in Fort Myers.
The magazine competed against 145 magazines with 825 total submissions. Research in Review won Best Overall Magazine and Best Written Magazine, Best Feature, Best In-depth Reporting, and Best Feature Design.
Three of the top awards were for writing by Frank Stephenson, the editor, and one was for best feature design by Bob Celander, the magazine's art director. The magazine also won two silver awards - one for overall design and another for photography by Ray Stanyard - and a bronze award for illustration by Bruce Hall.
Experts like fast train
FSU economists say it's good for business, but tourists and travelers around Florida will notice that it might be good for them too.
Anybody who likes the idea of speeding from Miami to Orlando - without a police chase, traffic jam or the fatigue of driving - will probably agree with Florida State's Tim Lynch.
He and other economists from FSU and the University of South Florida studied the proposed high-speed rail project and predicted an average of 5,380 new jobs per year and $35 billion in new business for Florida over 40 years.
Lynch, director of FSU's Center for Economic Forecasting, and colleagues at USF said the high-speed train (more than 300mph)will bring Florida faster travel, new businesses, more visitors and less traffic.
The economists predict that if Florida does not buy into the high-speed train, road congestion will cripple the state's economic competitiveness. The project is almost necessary, economists said. And Florida residents are eager to jump on.
Further studies should be completed in early 1998. The speedy train, estimated to cost $5.3 billion, will be bought with tax-free bonds, private and state money.
Can parking get worse?
If you're coming to FSU for almost any event, especially football or baseball, leave home early.
This summer nearly 700 student parking spaces were lost as a result of construction on the new intramural fields and installation of a new drainage system immediately east of Campbell Stadium. And now 200 more spaces will be lost when construction begins on the new FSU Police station at the intersection of Woodward and Jefferson Streets.
On the bright side, three new lots have been developed: a temporary lot on the old tennis courts just west of Montgomery Gym; 145 spaces near the women's softball field; and 75 on Madison street. Student and faculty parking can be used by visitors on weekends or after 4 p.m. weekdays. For updates, while on campus, tune your radio to 530 AM or call Parking Services at (850) 644-5278.
A faster vitamin C
Scientists at FSU are paving the way for Vitamin C to be manufactured in a simple one-step process.
That could save millions of dollars in what has become a $1-billion-plus industry. In addition to its value as a nutrient, Vitamin C also is used as a preservative.
Professor Michael Blaber and postdoctoral fellow Sumit Khurana at FSU's Institute of Molecular Biophysics and Department of Chemistry took one of the first steps last summer in a genetic engineering project.
"Now that we know what it looks like, we can start to understand how it works," Blaber said.
For more than 60 years, the commercial synthesis of Vitamin C has involved a six-step chemical process, developed in 1934. A modification of the process now being used shortens the process to three distinct steps.
The FSU scientists hope to create a genetically altered bacterium that will make Vitamin C directly from glucose. - Nancy Cook Lauer
Men still ahead in Canada
Canadian women can see the glass ceiling, according to FSU sociologists, but they are far from scratching it.
FSU professor Monica Boyd described the study in August to the American Sociological Association in Toronto.
Boyd and FSU researchers Jamie Miller and Brenda Hughes wrote the study and discovered that women in Canada are less likely to be employed as managers, engage in planning or supervise others. They also found that women do not benefit from their education as much as men do in getting interviews for those positions, and women are handicapped by employment in female-dominated positions. The opposite is true for men.
When women are in managerial positions, compared to men, they are likely to be found in the lower levels of management, the study found. Men in management earn about 40 percent more than women managers.
FSU researchers studied survey responses from 11,876 telephone interviews in a 1994 General Social Survey by Statistics Canada. Their study is titled "Power at Work: Women and Men in Management, Supervision and Workplace Planning."