Faculty news

Scher heads NEH seminar

Steven Scher, professor of German and comparative literature and Geisel Third Century Professor in the Humanities, will spend this summer directing a six- week National Endowment for the Humanities seminar, "Literature and Music." Twelve college teachers from across the country will participate in an interdisciplinary study of the interrelationships between music and literature, as in opera, poetry, and song.

Laser grant

Physics professor John Walsh has received a three- year, $300,000 grant from the U.S. Army Research Office to do research on a laser that could have applications in medicine and radar. Walsh is building a small, free-electron laser, a type of infra-red laser, that he hopes will be more portable than current larger equipment. He has explained that his laser will be too small to be part of the Strategic Defense Initiative.

$1 million from NIH

The National Institutes of Health have awarded a $1- grant to Royal Bartrum, associate professor of medicine and radiology at Dartmouth Medical School, for an evaluation of light- scanning in the diagnosis of breast cancer. Bartrum has been involved in developing a lightscanning machine, which he and his staff will test over the next four years. Lightscanning is a technique for detecting tumors by shining a filtered pattern of light through tissues to identify diseased areas. It is a promising procedure, both because it is entirely harmless and because it may detect some tumors not revealed by mammography.

On World Book board

William Smith, professor of psychology and director of the College's office of instructional services and educational research, has been reappointed to the editorial advisory board of World Book, Inc. He has served on the board for 15 years and also serves on the editorial board of Technology in HigherEducation.