Fall 2009 Newsletter - M E Rinker Sr School of Building Construction ...

Faculty NewsDr. Jim Sullivan and Ph.D. Candidate Mark Russell extended theRinker School’s presence to Germany and Japan this spring andsummer by presenting sustainable constructionguidelines to the U.S. Military. In Marchpresentations were given at the NATO commandcenter to the Army Corp of Engineers,designers, and contractors in Oberammergau,Germany. In June, presentations weregiven at Camp Forster to a group associatedwith U.S. Marine-based projects in Okinawa,Japan.Dr. Robert Ries attended the Solar Decathlon workshop in MadridMay 24-29, 2009, and a CIB conference called Smart and SustainableBuilt Environments in Delft, the Netherlands, from June 15-19,2009, where he presented two papers and a poster. He was recognizedas one of the top ten presentations atthis event.CongratulationsDr. Ries is the faculty sponsor for the SolarDecathlon. For more information see the articleon this event on page 26 of this newsletter.Recently, the team received honorablemention on “Sustainable Solutions” from theUF Office of Sustainability.Congratulations to Daphne Choice, BCNStaff Member, who just earned her A.S. inHealth Information Technology. She willnow begin working on a bachelor of sciencein Computer Forensics with AIU online.Congratulations to BCN staff member GinnyHoyle, who has been accepted to the Universityof Florida’s College of Journalism andCommunications’ graduate program. In additionto taking courses and fulfilling a graduateassistantship at the journalism school, Ginnywill continue on part-time at the RinkerSchool while working toward her master’sdegree.Fond FarewellDr. Anne Williamson began her career with UF in October 1987with the Real Estate Research Center in the College of Business.She joined the Shimberg Center team in mid-2002. During thepast seven years with the Center, she completed her Ph.D. at theUniversity of Georgia in the Department of Public Administrationand Policy.Her broad experience has proven to be aninvaluable asset to the Shimberg Center inits efforts to attract funded research opportunities.Her experience with multi-familydevelopment with Potemkin-Magita Developmentand her time with the Georgia Departmentof Community Affairs gave heran appreciation for both the business sideof affordable housing development and theregulatory side. In addition, her experience with the Carl VinsonInstitute of Government at The University of Georgia helped herdevelop methods for successful public service outreach to stateand local government.Anne worked with cities and counties in various parts of thestate but concentrated primarily in working with HillsboroughCounty and the City of Tampa. Since 2002, she has successfullyattracted and performed over $1.1 million in sponsored researchprojects.Anne has begun a tenure-track position as assistant professor ofpublic administration at The University of Texas at San Antonio.She is also working to establish a new Center for Housing Policywithin UTSA’s Institute of Demographic and SocioeconomicResearch in the College of Public Policy. We congratulate Anneon this new opportunity and extend to her a heartfelt thanks forall that she has done for the Rinker School and Shimberg Centerfor Housing Studies.Learning TreeDr. Jim Sullivan and Dr. AjayShanker, along with School and Universitysupport, have secured a steel“learning tree” that is scheduled tobe permanently placed on the northlawn of Rinker Hall this summer.The steel tree has been donated byWhitley Steel, Jacksonville, Florida.Mr. Touan Plante of Whitley has beeninstrumental in finalizing the tree’sdetails and fabrication. The purpose of the tree is to provideexamples of possible steel connection details. Foundation constructionis scheduled to begin in July 2009.29