WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2013

CAL STATE FULLERTON

When Tom Mahood began as a gradstudent at Cal State Fullerton, herecalls being led to a generous

professor with a dry and quirky sense of hu-mor.

Mahood, a retired civil engi-neer living in Irvine, said he was– and still is – interested inweird and unusual research.

“People sent me to Wood-ward.”

James Woodward, 71, hasbeen thinking about how to rap-idly travel through space andtime for much of his life.

Woodward, a physicist and science histori-an, taught at Cal State Fullerton from 1972until 2005. The now-retired emeritus profes-sor can still be found conducting experi-ments in his lab on the sixth floor of McCar-thy Hall.

“They’ve tolerated my idiosyncratic inter-

est in trying to quickly get stuff around thegalaxy for years and years,” Woodward said.

Woodward said his research suggests thatit is possible to create “wormholes” – hypo-thetical tunnels created by distortions ofspace and time that would allow rapid travelbetween two distant points in the universe.

“If I had a wormhole generator here in thelab and you wanted to visit your cousin onMars, I could punch in a bunch of stuff, flip aswitch, and a hole would open up,” he said.

“I know,” he said. “It’s really unbelieva-ble.”

Of course, there are other considerationswhen traveling to Mars.

“The atmospheric pressure is different onMars. If you opened a wormhole betweenhere and the surface of Mars, you’d have tohang on for dear life.”

Fans of “Star Trek,” “Doctor Who” or

H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

James Woodward, who taught at Cal State Fullerton from 1972 until 2005, conducts experiments on campus in wormhole theory.

WOODWARD’SWORMHOLES

Professor emeritus is on a quest for a speedy way around the galaxy.

SHERRICRUZ

REGISTERWRITER

SEE TRAVEL ● PAGE 6

James F. WoodwardAge: 71Work: Experimental phys-icist, author, retired profes-sorKnown for: Experimentalwork on creating wormholesCSUF tenure: 1972-2005Residence: Anaheim Hillsand the Colorado mountainsSignificant other: CaroleHarrisonCats: FiveEducation: Master’s degreein physics, New York Uni-versity, 1969; Ph.D, history,University of Denver, 1972Book: “Making Starshipsand Stargates: The Scienceof Interstellar Transportand Absurdly Benign Worm-holes.”

Wormhole: A hypothetical tunnel created by distortions ofspace and time that would allow rapid travel between two

distant points in the universe.

This Week’s “Cal StateFullerton Expert” saysSouthern California’s pre-historic weather patternsshow dynamic changes andthat studying them can giveglimpses into a climatechange currently under-way in the region.

PAGE 2

GEOLOGICALCLIMATE SIGNS

SHUTTERSTOCK

Some incoming fresh-men at Cal State Fuller-ton would be able to grad-uate in four years withboth a bachelor’s degreeand master’s degree incomputer engineering ina new program expectedto start in fall 2014.

The double-degree pro-gram is pending final ap-proval by California StateUniversity Board of Trustees, butCal State Fullerton committeemembers said the process is faralong and final approval is antici-pated.

High school students will need

to have earned 10 transfer-able Advanced Placement(AP) units, including Mathe-matics 150A (Calculus I) tobe admitted into the pro-gram, said Susamma Barua,associate dean for the Col-lege of Engineering andComputer Science.

The eligible students willneed to be very motivatedand prepared to handle the

rigor of the program because theywill be taking graduate-levelcourses starting in their third year,Barua said.

Taking an accelerated pace to double degrees

MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Cal State Fullerton professor George Kiran supervises students in hiscomputer engineering multidisciplinary senior design project class.

New program to offer bachelor’s and master’sdegrees in computer engineering in 4 years.

JESSICARUBIO

REGISTERWRITER

SEE DEGREES ● PAGE 3

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Cal State Fullerton 2 Wednesday, May 15, 2013 Orange County Register

When I enrolled at CalState Fullerton as a wide-eyed, 15-year-old teenager, Inever imagined that I

would oneday be theuniversi-ty’s vicepresidentfor infor-mationtechnology.

My par-ents immi-grated tothe UnitedStates

from Iran in the late 1970sin pursuit of better educa-tional opportunities for mysister and me. I am ex-tremely grateful for theirsacrifices, which allowedme to have access to highereducation in this wonderfulcountry. After graduatingfrom Troy High School, Iwas determined to stay fo-cused and committed to mygoals of graduating fromcollege and becoming suc-cessful in working withcomputers. As typical asthis may sound, I knewearly in life that computerswere going to change theworld.

During my more thantwo-and-a-half decadeshere, starting as a student, Ihave seen the campus’sevolution to the electronicage, with technology havinga major impact on teachingand learning. Concurrently,I have witnessed firsthandCal State Fullerton’s dee-pening involvement in andcommitment to the com-munity.

One example of the fortu-nate marriage of technolo-gy and community out-reach is the university’slaunch of iPads to the cam-pus community and be-yond, an initiative that hasallowed the Department ofElementary and BilingualEducation to build on itspartnership with the Pla-centia-Yorba Linda UnifiedSchool District.

Their partnership, firstestablished in 2009, hascontinued to strengthenand expand each year. Itaims to be mutually benefi-cial to practicing teachers,teacher candidates and,most importantly, student

achievement in math, sci-ence and content literacy.In 2011, the partnership be-gan with Rio Vista Elemen-tary School, a Title 1 schoolwith 950 students. Approx-imately 62 percent of RioVista students are Englishlearners and 84 percentparticipate in the NationalSchool Lunch Program.

CSUF’s Elementary andBilingual Education De-partment purchased 10iPads last year to be used byteacher candidates in thefield as part of a sciencepartnership. Kim Case,who leads the partnershipfor CSUF, describes the les-sons that she has observedwith the iPads as “magical.”

As part of a science les-son, she observed second-graders utilize an appcalled Sky Map. “As I en-tered the classroom,” Casesaid, “100 percent of thestudents were actively en-gaged in the lesson. Theywere asked to locate specif-ic constellations using theapp on the iPads. As theywere holding the iPads upto the ceiling, they wouldtake pictures of the constel-lations as they found them.”The classroom teachershared that not one of herstudents had ever touchedan iPad before this lesson.

Since the partnership be-gan, student achievementhas risen dramatically inthose schools. One schoolearned the highest Califor-nia State Test scores in sci-ence within the Placentia-Yorba Linda School Dis-trict. The other school wentfrom 25 percent proficientto 44 percent proficient injust one year.

Beginning in the fall,CSUF’s Department of Ele-mentary and Bilingual Edu-cation and the CSUF Divi-sion of Information Tech-nology will partner with RioVista Elementary School toensure that there are iPadsin every classroom. Wehope that every child is ableto experience the magic oflearning using this tool. Forthem, computers really arechanging the world.

Amir Dabirian is Cal SateFullerton’s vice president for

information technology.

TITAN VOICES

Making an impact,one iPad at a time

AMIRDABIRIAN

CAL STATEFULLERTON

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Fact: Human activitiesare changing Earth’s cli-mate.

Fact: Southern Califor-nia is fresh-water poor.

Fact:SouthernCalifornia’spopulationcontinuesto grow.

Com-bined,these threefacts cre-ate a chal-

lenge for future water man-agement practices inSouthern California. Is itpossible to address and mit-igate these challenges?And, what role do scientistsplay in this mitigation? Toaddress these challenges, ageological perspective is re-quired.

A fundamental tenet ofgeology states: “the presentis the key to the past.” In-deed, modern physical, bio-logical and chemical proc-esses dictate the dynamicsof past geological process-es. However, one could ar-gue that by reversing this

fundamental tenet – thepast is the key to the pre-sent (and future) – we havefound a crystal ball that al-lows us to look to the past tosee the future. Much likestockbrokers investigatethe performance history ofinvestments, paleoclimatol-ogists gaze into the geolog-ical record to reconstructpast climate history. Theychronicle climate’s naturalvariability and how it reactsto changes, such as green-house gas concentrations,continental ice sheets,oceanic circulation and so-lar variability.

Over the past 10 years,my students, collaboratorsand I have focused on re-constructing the history ofSouthern California’s pastclimate, specifically its wa-ter history. To accomplishthis task, we use sedimentsextracted from the bottomof lakes and wetlands. Sedi-ment is deposited in a basinwith the oldest on the bot-tom and the youngest onthe top.

Like a history book, we“peel” back the layers ofsediment. In these layers

are physical, chemical andbiological materials that weuse to infer past biologicalchange, such as vegetationdynamics; chemicalchange, such as source ofwater; and physical change,such as river runoff into thelake. We have extractedsediment from the likes ofLake Elsinore, Big BearLake, Baldwin Lake, DryLake and Zaca Lake, toname a few.

Together, we are buildinga picture of climate extend-ing back to the last intergla-cial, 125,000 years ago. Ourmost interesting findingsreveal a dynamic climatehistory in Southern Califor-nia characterized by cli-mate variability unlike any-thing observed in the his-torical record. ImagineLake Elsinore as nothingmore than a 2-3 meter pud-dle for nearly 1,000 years?Imagine 100-year-plus timespans characterized bywetter-than-average win-ters with increased atmo-spheric river storm activity– storms that today wouldcause widespread floodingin Southern California.

Finally, imagine abruptchanges in climate thatcause rapid ecologicchange –changes that wewould notice in our life-time. Each of the scenariosabove, we have shown tooccur in the past 15,000years in Southern Califor-nia. This view into the pastis not prophecy for doom.Rather, one should consid-er this “crystal ball” as apowerful tool that enablesus to investigate and un-derstand the range of pastclimatic possibilities andtheir causes as we look tothe future.

Climate change is under-way in Southern California– a reality from which wecannot escape or hide. Thisclimate change will presentnew challenges for watermanagement and resourcedevelopment. Rather thandismiss this reality as false,we should embrace the op-portunities learned fromthe past to prepare for thefuture.

Matthew Kirby, Ph.D., is an associate professor

of geological sciences.

FILE PHOTO: EUGENE GARCIA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Lake Elsinore, where students have collected sediment, was an unimpressive puddle for 1,000 years.

THIS WEEK’S CSUF EXPERT

LESSONS FROM HISTORYSouthern California’s prehistoric weather shows drastic changes.

MATTHEW E . K IRBYCAL STATE

FULLERTON

Department Meltdown:The Fall of the Professional-Reform Model of Policing,”James R. Lasley, Cal StateFullerton professor of crim-inal justice, investigateshow and why the depart-ment crumbled after theRodney King incident and ifit could have been re-covered. His research issupported by firsthandwritten reports of unnamedLAPD officers who illus-

‘STICKUP KIDS: RACE,DRUGS, VIOLENCE’

Cal State Fullerton as-sistant professor of sociolo-gy Randol Contreras re-cently published “StickupKids: Race, Drugs, Violenceand the American Dream.”Contreras grew up in theSouth Bronx in the 1980s,when society experienced adecline in jobs and an in-crease in drugs. In this

book, Contreras examines amob of thieves known as the“Stickup Kids” who terror-ized drug dealers and stolebundles of drugs and mon-ey. He focuses on the histo-ry of the drug war and theimpact it had on communi-ties. Source: CSUF

‘POLICE DEPARTMENTMELTDOWN’

In his recently publishedbook, “Los Angeles Police

trate the department’s de-mise and how a particularstyle of policing was dis-carded by agenciesthroughout the county.Source: CRC Press

A NOVEL: ‘STALIN’SWITNESSES’

Julius “Jay” Wachtel,CSUF lecturer in criminaljustice, recently publishedhis first book, “Stalin’s Wit-nesses: A Novel of the Great

Terror and the MoscowShow Trials,” inspired byhis curiosity about Russianhistory and his research onthe Moscow show trials of1936-38. The historical fic-tion book highlights thelives of five people whowere obligated to testifyagainst fellow communists,denouncing the defendantsand involving themselves inunlikely felonies. Source:CSUF

PUBLISHED

COURTESY OF JULIUS

“JAY” WACHTEL

Julius “Jay” Wachtel

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Orange County Register Wednesday, May 15, 2013 Cal State Fullerton 3

Festivities at Cal State Fullerton’s Arts Week 2013 include exhibits, guest lectures, workshops, an open house, jazz concerts and one-act plays.

ERIC STONER, CAL STATE FULLERTON

G. Ray Kerciu, a CSUF emeritus professor of art, stands in front of his 1962 “White Only” oil painting from his Ole Miss series.

A WEEK OF ART

MATT GUSH, CAL STATE FULLERTON

Karla Monterrey places the cherry on top of a campus ice cream cone sculpture.ERIC STONER, CAL STATE FULLERTON

Kerciu describes his latest artworks.

ERIC STONER, CAL STATE FULLERTON

“Radical Retrospective” student curatorConcepcion Rodriguez pauses for a photo.

MATT GUSH, CAL STATE FULLERTON

Mat Gleason, art critic and owner of Coagula Curatorial Gallery in downtown Los An-geles’ Chinatown, gives a lecture as part of Arts Week.

Specific high schools havealready been notified by thedepartment of the new dual-degree program such asSunny Hills High, FairmontPreparatory Academy andEsperanza High, where nu-merous students are alreadyenrolled in AP courses, saidBarua.

According to the proposalwritten by Barua and theprogram committee of threecomputer engineering pro-fessors, 30 qualified stu-dents will be admitted intothe program based on theavailable resources, classesand faculty needed to launchthe program.

“It is necessary that thosestudents get the classes theyare required to take,” saidBarua. “We will see what thedemand is and how manyare eligible; if there is a veryhigh demand, then we willcome back to the table andsee any way we can accom-modate.”

Once accepted into theprogram, students will beexpected to maintain a 3.0GPA every semester, enrollin summer intercessioncourses for the first twoyears and work an intern-ship their third year to en-sure that they are on trackto finish both degrees in fouryears. Requirements forboth the B.S and M.S. de-grees total 153 units, includ-ing the 10 AP units.

“It’s a tightly packed pro-gram,” said Barua. “We willprovide internship opportu-nities to the cohort students;it’s not mandatory but en-couraged quite a lot becauseit’s to their advantage.”

In addition to studentsbenefiting from the programby earning two degrees infour years, the computer en-gineering industry will beginto have a larger pool of do-mestic, graduate-level pro-fessionals in the workforce,said Barua.

“There is a huge shortageof STEM (science, technolo-gy, engineering and mathe-matics) disciplines,” shesaid.

“This is a way we makesure we are getting a groupof domestic students fromlocal high schools with anadvanced degree for local in-dustries to hire – the indus-try knows that these stu-dents will be quite well-pre-pared.”

Traditional two-yeargraduate programs in com-puter engineering tend to beheavily populated by inter-national students, said Ba-rua.

The new program at CalState Fullerton will also ex-pand the university’s overallcomputer engineering offer-ings to include a traditionaltwo-year master’s degree,which it currently does notoffer, said Barua, coordina-tor of the undergraduateprogram. “We have sevennew courses,” she said.

The committee is workingto get final approval for theprogram by Dec. 31, just intime for students to beginenrollment into the pro-gram, Barua said.

DEGREESFROM PAG E 1

Fullerton business majorsgave winning sales pitchesand brought home eightawards from the ninth an-nual Western States Colle-giate Sales Competition inApril at Cal State Chi-co. The Titans won the sec-ond-place team award andjunior business administra-tion major Zeina Itaniplaced second individually.

Other team members in-cluded Ian Thomason andDavid Ludden, both seniorbusiness administration-marketing majors, and ju-nior Shastina Sarkhosh.Team advisers were ChrisAnicich, a marketing lec-turer, and Mark Mantey, co-director of the Sales Lead-ership Center.

PROFESSOR WINSWRITING CONTEST

Michael LaCour-Little,professor of finance and di-rector of the Real Estateand Land Use Institute inCal State Fullerton’s Mi-

Howard Hughes MedicalInstitute Research scholar.Bor will graduate thismonth, and CSUF officialssaid she has been acceptedinto nine M.D./Ph.D. andmedical scientist trainingprograms, including Duke,Harvard and Vanderbiltuniversities.

Dorough was honored bythe American Society ofMammalogists with theUndergraduate StudentResearch Award for her re-search of the bat population

SCIENCE SCHOLARS’RESEARCH HONORED

Two Cal State Fullertonstudents, biochemistry ma-jor Simona Bor and biolog-ical science student Lauren

Dorough,were hon-ored by na-tionalorganiza-tions fortheir re-search ef-forts.

Bor wasawardedthe BestPoster re-searchaward inApril at theAmericanSociety for

Biochemistry and Molecu-lar Biology national meet-ing for her research on thestorage of glucose in plantsand bacteria. She is also aPresident’s Scholar and

in Southern California. Theaward will let her attendthe organization’s June 14-18 meeting in Philadelphiato present her research.She is also a scholar inCSUF’s Southern Califor-nia Ecosystems ResearchProgram. She will graduatethis month and plans topursue a career as a fieldecological researcher.

TITANS TEAM SCORESWITH SALES PITCHESA team of four Cal State

haylo College of Businessand Economics, was thefaculty winner in the firstInstitute of Real Estate

Manage-ment-IREMFoundationwriting con-test. Thecompetitionis meant toencouragelearning inthe field ofreal estate

property and asset man-agement.

LaCour-Little was recog-nized for “Issues and Op-portunities in MultifamilyProperty Management,”which deals with both thebenefits of the multifamilymarket division and itsneed to obtain and expandtalent.

LaCour-Little has been amember of the faculty since2006.

Source: Cal State Fuller-ton Communications

BRAVO

COURTESY OF CAL STATE FULLERTON

The university’s student sales team came home with numerous awards from competition at Cal State Chico.

Dorough

LaCour-Little

Bor

The number of oyster lar-vae per square feet in shellbeds at the Newport site ofan Olympia oyster experi-mental site varied from fourto 32 in 2012 depending onhow they were arranged.Because of an editing error,the number of larvae wasincorrect in a chart on Page1 of the Cal State Fullertonsection in the May 1 editionof the Register.

CORRECTION

Control beds with no applied dead oyster shells were used to measure

the starting densities of Olympia oysters.

SHELL BED RESULTS AT NEWPORT SITE

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0Bagged Loose

0Loose

butconcentrated

00Baggedthickly

0

Oyster larvae per

square feet

The Register

2010201 12012

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Cal State Fullerton 4 Wednesday, May 15, 2013 Orange County Register

TITANS SPORTS

Although he dreads standing in front of hun-dreds of people and boasting about himself, ki-nesiology professor Robert Kersey will have tocome to terms with it. He needs to give a speech

when he is inducted into the Na-tional Athletic Trainers’ Asso-ciation Hall of Fame.

The association selected Ker-sey for his impact on the profes-sion as a teacher, researcherand mentor and for his highly-regarded research on anabolicsteroid use, Cal State Fullertonstated in its announcement.

Kersey has been a CSUF fac-ulty member since 1997 and isdirector of its athletic training

education. He created the bachelor’s degree inathletic training program five years ago.

He is known for the accelerated success ofhis students. Shari McMahan, dean of the Col-lege of Health and Human Development, saidCSUF students have a higher-than-averagepass rate on the rigorous national certificationexam.

Last year, every student in the programpassed the challenging national certificationexam for athletic training on their first attempt,Kersey said. He said he enjoys working with

students who are driven and motivated. Thisyear, the athletic training program has 16 hand-picked students.

Only eight more will be accepted into the pro-gram this fall. Kersey makes sure these stu-dents receive quality education and hands-ontraining, he said.

“Every day when I go downstairs to see thestudents I always ask them what they’velearned,” said Kersey. “I love to learn and I wantthem to like it and be excited about it.”

In class, Kersey, who has a doctoral degreeand is a certified athletic trainer with 15 years ofexperience, gives students examples of real-world experiences, he said. During the five se-mester program, Kersey does more than justteach his students how to tape ankles. From thecontacts he has acquired over the years, Kerseytakes his students to visit professional sportsteams such as the Lakers, the Galaxy and theAngels.

Students sometimes get internships and jobswith one of these teams. Chances are lookingpositive for one of the students to nail a summerinternship with the Galaxy this year, he said.

“If I have the chance to open a door for you, itdoesn’t mean you get the job, it just means thatyou might get an opportunity for a job becauseof who you know,” said Kersey. “I just try to

teach them the reality of the real world.”Kersey explains the importance of profession-

alism to his students so that they will have anedge when they enter the real world, he said.

“How you behave and how you act and howyou talk and how you carry yourself is probablymore important than what you know,” he said.“All those kids can tape ankles; what is going tomake you different?”

Kersey serves on the Association’s Research& Education Foundation board of directors, as areviewer for its Journal of Athletic Training andchair of the group’s official position statementon anabolic steroid use, published in late 2012.

The Association’s Hall of Fame has about 250members – some of which are Kersey’s mentors,advisors and friends – dating back to 1962.

“To be able to be in that same group of peopleis pretty amazing,” he said.

Kersey and four others will be inducted at theAssociation’s 64th annual Meeting and ClinicalSymposia next month. Each will be presentedwith a ring and a green jacket and will give a two-minute speech.

“To do this speech is going to make me reallynervous because I know I have to talk about my-self,” he said. “It’s exciting and I am certainlyhonored, but at the same time it is difficult forme because I don’t like all of the attention.”

KELLY LACEFIELD, CAL STATE FULLERTON

Robert D. Kersey oversees a therapy session with students Keasha Russell, left, and soccer player Jordan Dolbin in the university’s athletic training clinic.

KERSEY PICKED FOR TRAINERS HALL OF FAME

JESSICARUBIO

REGISTERWRITER

Kinesiology professor cited for his impact as a teacher and his research on anabolic steroid use. “Every daywhen I godownstairs tosee thestudents Ialways askthem whatthey’velearned,” saidKersey. “I loveto learn andI want them to like it andbe excitedabout it.” R O B E R T K E R S E Y

K I N E S I O L O G Y

P R O F E S S O R

Cal State Fullerton finished fifth at theBig West Conference women’s golf cham-pionships April 21-23 at San Luis ObispoGolf & Country Club.

Sophomore Tisha Alyn Abrea shot a fi-nal-round four-over par 77 to finish at 10-over 229 and place 10th overall, her secondconsecutive top 10 finish at the Big West.

Makayla Mier shot a final-round 79 tofinish 24th overall at 237, Seri Lee closedwith a 77 to finish tied for 26th, Neomi Huntfinished 31st and Deidre Crabtree was tiedfor 34th.

UC Davis won the competition for itsfourth consecutive title, finishing at five-over par, 29 shots better than second-placeLong Beach State, followed by UC Irvineand UC Riverside.

The Titans finished one stroke ahead oftournament host Cal Poly at 317.

Abrea’s performance at the conferencechampionships helped her earn All-BigWest Conference honorable mention hon-ors after making the second team as afreshman.

Abrea was one of two Fullerton golfersto compete in all nine events this season.She posted a 76.30 scoring average andfour top 10 finishes.

HOT SHOTS: WOMEN’S GOLF FINALS

PHOTOS: BRIE CAMPBELL, BIG WEST CONFERENCE

Senior Neomi Hunt shoots from the bunker in her first round at the 2013 Big West.

Hunt prepares to tee off inSan Luis Obispo.

Sophomore Seri Lee tees off.

Sophomore Tisha Alyn Abrea watch-es her tee shot in the second round.

Deidre Crabtree takes a shot.

By DAN ARRITT

FOR THE REGISTER

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Orange County Register Wednesday, May 15, 2013 Cal State Fullerton 5

go+do

Twenty Cal State Fullerton dance stu-dents will take the stage at the SpringDance Theatre event Thursday through

Sunday.Each fall and spring semester, sophomore

through senior dance majors perform in thismain stage concert and are given opportunitiesto work in a professional atmosphere.

This semester, the eightdance numbers will en-compass a great variety ofcreativity, said GladysKares, director of danceand production coordina-tor. The concert will be the-atrical, featuring tradi-tional ballet pieces fromSwan Lake.

The dance program pro-vides concentrated train-ing in modern dance andballet with emphasis on im-provisation, compositionand dance history to sparka wide contrast of inspira-tion for choreographyamong dance majors.

The choreography will

showcase the visions andwork of four students,three faculty members andone guest artist, Colin Con-nor of Limón Dance Com-pany.

“Each vision is unique,”Kares said. “It showcasesthe students.”

Original designs, sets,music and costumes will beworked into the show. Thisgives students the oppor-tunity to collaborate withprofessional theater pro-duction specialists.

Since 2003, the national-ly-acclaimed Cal State Ful-lerton dance educationprogram has been invited

to participate in the WestRegional Festival seventimes, according to the uni-versity’s College of theArts.

Last year, dance stu-dents were chosen for theAmerican College DanceFestival Association’s na-tional festival. This marksthe third time the depart-ment was chosen for thenational festival.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF EDWIN LOCKWOOD

Melanie Hansel, foreground, and Kelsey Smith in “Vendredi 13,” choreographed by faculty member Robin E. Johnson.

STUDENTS’ VISIONSPRINGS TO LIFE

Spring DanceTheatreWhen: 8p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Sun-dayTickets: $11Where: Clayes Per-forming Arts Center,Little Theatre, 800 N.State College Blvd.Information:pabo-web.fullerton.edu

wednesday 15th

CONCERTWomen’s Chorus andMen’s Choir: Under the di-rection of Dr. Robert Istad,the Women’s Choir is agroup of talented womenhailing from a number ofdifferent majors and de-partments on campus. Thechoir performs a wide va-riety of repertoire, repre-senting all historical peri-ods and styles. The concertis 8-10 p.m. at Clayes Per-forming Arts Center, MengConcert Hall. Admission:$8-$10. Information: 657-278-3371.

saturday 18th

CONCERTUniversity Symphony Or-chestra and SymphonicChorus Brahms Requiem:University Symphony Or-chestra and SymphonicChorus presents one of Jo-

hannes Brahms’ most be-loved works: “Ein Deutsch-es Requiem.” The concertis 8-10 p.m. at Clayes Per-forming Arts Center, MengConcert Hall. Admission:$13-$15. Information:657-278-3371.

GARDENINGBug Safari for Kids: Visi-tors can join Fullerton Arboretum’s own “Bug Lady,” Cindy Calisher, inthe garden and learn howto spot and identify manyof the littler critters thatinhabit our world and haveto chance to spot insects.Appropriate for ages 5and up. The event is 9:30-10:30 a.m. at Fullerton Arboretum, 1900 Associ-ated Rd. Admission: $4-$5.Information: 657-278-3407.

GARDENINGWorm Composting: Learnhow to introduce andmaintain worms in a homecomposting system. Class-es are free for residents ofFullerton, Brea, Santa Ana,

Orange and Buena Park.Residents of those citieswill also receive a discountvoucher for a compostingbin (one per family). Theclass is 10-1 1:30 a.m. atFullerton Arboretum, 1900Associated Rd. Admission:$5-$7. Information: 657-278-3407.

NATUREFree Nature Tour: Meetthe Arboretum’s natureguides at the Nature Cen-ter for a tour through thegarden. The event is from10-11 a.m. at Fullerton Ar-boretum, 1900 AssociatedRd. Information: 657-278-3407.

tuesday 21st

MUSICBFA Cabarets: Graduatingseniors in the BFA MusicalTheatre program constructand perform original caba-rets. The event is from 7-9p.m. at Grand Central ArtCenter, 125 North Broad-

way, Santa Ana. Admission:$10. Information: 714-567-7233.

saturday 25th

GARDENINGYoga in the Garden: Enjoysun salutations in the des-ert, fish pose at the pond,tree pose among the red-wood trees and relax in theshade of the ficus grove.Class is suitable for all lev-els of ability. Dress in lay-ers. Mats available. The in-structor’s clients includeTeam Survivor, AnaheimAchieves, Irvine PublicSchools Foundation andNickelodeon. The class is 9a.m.-noon at Fullerton Ar-boretum, 1900 AssociatedRd. Admission: $12-$15.Information: 657-278-3407.

The calendar is writtenby Kathleen Luppi.

She may be reached atkluppi@ocregister.com

By JESSICA RUBIO

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Amy Tabback, seated, and Valerie Oga perform in “Flut-ter,” choreographed by dance student Timaeus Le.

Mary Grace Lagasca turned a 4,500-square-footmeatpacking warehouse into a thriving adult day careprogram.

Lagasca, 34, is thefounder and executive di-rector of InJoy Life Re-sources Inc., a centerdedicated to providingservices for adults withdisabilities. The centerserves about 60 adultsranging in age from 18 to59.

The longtime Anaheimresident graduated fromEsperanza High Schoolbefore finishing with aBachelor of Arts degreein business administra-tion from Cal State Ful-lerton in 2002.

After bouncing around a few jobs, Lagasca receiveda state-funded grant to open the center, which is onArtesia Boulevard in Bellflower.

Earlier this year, she opened a second location, onRosecrans Avenue in Bellflower. The 5,000-square-footcenter includes a computer lab, library, kitchen, artroom, activity center and an indoor patio.

We caught up with the Titan alum and asked herabout her work.

Q: What inspired you to start InJoy Life Resources?A: I grew up around adults with disabilities butmy business is truly a gift from God. I literallywoke up with dreams about our business downto the name. God was the inspiration behind ev-ery aspect of this business and it’s about mak-ing the dreams of others come to reality.

Q: Why are you so passionate about your work?A: Being with people is fun for me. I love beingaround such a diverse group of people. It totallymakes my life more interesting knowing somany people with such different histories andbackgrounds. I’m honored to work with peoplewho aren’t afraid to just being themselves.

Q: Tell us a little about the people you work with. A: Adults with disabilities are survivors in a so-ciety that generally misjudges and underesti-mates them. I don’t know if I would have asmuch patience with the world like they do. Theyare some of the most understanding, resilientand honest people I have ever met. Everything Ido with InJoy is definitely richer because ofwhat they contribute to my life. They “InJoy”the little things as much as the big things, andeverything is worth celebrating.

Q: What are some concerns parents have when theyenroll their adult son or daughter?A: Some of our clients come out of a school sys-tem or institution and that was all they knew. Sothere’s a fear about whether their child will in-tegrate well, grow or fit in and be treated fairly.

Q: What do adults with disabilities gain from partic-ipating in the program?A: They have a real chance to be themselvesand discover that more and more each day –just like you and I want that. This is achievedthrough building life skills, independence, choic-es and just creating meaningful events, activ-ities and most importantly, relationships.

INJOY LIFE FOUNDERMARY GRACE LAGASCA

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BY JOSEPH PIMENTELORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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ALUMNI Q&A: F IVE QUESTIONS WITH…

Mary Grace Lagasca

CSUF SECTION STAFF

Editor Thomas Martinez7 1 4-796-7955 tmartinez@ocregister.com Staff writer Sherri Cruz 7 1 4-796-7762 scruz@ocregister.com Reporter Jessica Rubio7 1 4-796-6703jrubio@ocregister.com Team Leader Steve Green7 1 4-796-77 1 4 sgreen@ocregister.comDeputy Editor Rob Curley7 1 4-796-6825 rcurley@ocregister.com

The Cal State Fullertoncommunity section is conceivedand produced by the news staff ofthe Orange County Register for thebenefit of its subscribers. Whilethe university is the section’sprimary advertising sponsor, alleditorial decisions are independentof the university’s control. TheRegister will also mentor journalism students who contribute to the section.

Published Wednesday by theOrange County Register 625 N.Grand Ave., Santa Ana, CA 92701 ocregister.com/csuf

Cal State Fullerton policeOfficer Jason Miller was se-lected by Orange County’sAuto Theft Advisory Com-mittee for recognition at theVehicle Theft Recovery Offi-cer of the Year Awards.

Miller was honored for re-covering five stolen vehiclesand apprehending three sus-pects.

“Thieves thinking of steal-ing a vehicle or leaving a sto-len vehicle in and aroundCSUF’s campus better hopeofficer Jason Miller isn’t onduty, because of his proac-tive approach to crime fight-ing and his dedication to thesafety of our campus com-munity,” Police Chief DennisJ. DeMaio said in a writtenstatement. “I’m proud to

commend him on this presti-gious award.”

Miller joined the campusin September 2006 as aparking control officer, serv-ing for two years beforecompleting the Fullerton Po-

lice Acade-my andjoining theUniversityPolice De-partment.

He grad-uated fromCal StateFullerton in

2012 with a bachelor’s de-gree in criminal justice.

The Auto Theft AdvisoryCommittee is composed ofgovernment agency repre-sentatives and private in-dustry concerned with areaauto theft-related crime.

CSUF officer honoredfor fighting auto theft

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Miller

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Cal State Fullerton 6 Wednesday, May 15, 2013 Orange County Register

to be the world’s expert inanything, all you have to dois work at it long enough,the professor told him.There may be somebodymuch smarter than you,who, if they put their mindto it, could do it in sixmonths or a year, but mostsmart people won’t do thatuntil somebody shows themthat it’s worth the effort.

Before anyone speedsalong in a wormhole, scien-tists are likely to figure outhow to travel through spacein an advanced propulsionstarship.

“I’d love to see a starshipor a wormhole generatorbuilt within in my lifetime,”said Heidi Fearn, a physicsprofessor at Cal State Ful-lerton, who has been ad-vancing Woodward’s re-search.

“I’m not sure the worm-

“Stargate” might be famil-iar with the concept of trav-eling through space andtime.

Only Woodward’s re-search isn’t based in sci-ence fiction. It’s based onMach’s principle, whichworks within Einstein’sTheory of General Relativ-ity, according to Wood-ward.

“Let me explain whatwe’re doing,” he said.

Physicists take for grant-ed that if you push againstsomething it pushes back.That’s inertia, one of New-ton’s laws of motion. Buthow does inertia happen?

Mach’s principle says in-ertia on an object on Earthis caused by the gravita-tional action of all the mat-ter in the universe, Wood-ward said. To put it simply,the universe is pushingback.

This opens the possibilityof creating negative mass,which is what you wouldneed to create a wormhole,he said. It also opens thepossibility for time travel.

“Serious scientists say‘We need to invent a quan-tum theory of gravity to beable to do it,’ ” Woodwardsaid. “That may not be thecase,” he said.

“If this stuff actuallyworks, it might be possibleto make wormholes some-time in the next 10 or 20years, not thousands or mil-lions of years from now.”

Mahood, who worked inthe lab with Woodward forseveral years in the late1990s and early 2000s, saidWoodward’s research canbe mathematically proven.“If you know the calculus, itcomes out right.”

Mahood, who has a mas-

ter’s degree in physics,helped Woodward buildsome of the test machinesin the lab. “We did a lot ofpurchasing at Home De-pot,” he said.

Mahood’s website has anexplainer for non-physi-cists, titled: “Mach’s Princi-ple, Inertia and Fruitcakesfor the Hopelessly Befud-dled (No stinkin’ Physicsdegree required).”

For more detailed read-ing, Woodward has laid it allout in his recently publish-ed 279-page book, “MakingStarships and Stargates:The Science of InterstellarTransport and AbsurdlyBenign Wormholes.”

“As a historian of scienceknows, if you’re doing any-thing offbeat, people ignoreyou,” Woodward said. “Ifyou want to get people topay attention to you, youhave to write a book,” hesaid.

When the publisher,Springer Science+BusinessMedia, asked him to write aformal book proposal, hefigured he’d be dismissed.

“I figured the stakehold-ers would blow me off be-cause I’m going to write abook on how to make ab-surdly benign wormholes,”he said.

The phrase “absurdly be-nign wormholes” was intro-duced by California Insti-tute of Technology physi-cist Kip Thorne in his firstpaper on wormhole physicsin 1988. In theory, absurdlybenign wormholes would besafer to travel.

“My generation thinksthat’s nuts,” he said. “Itturns out not all genera-tions think it’s nuts.”

The way Woodwardthinks of his critics: “Eitherit’s right or it’s wrong.Whether it’s right or wrong

doesn’t depend on me or mycritics or my supporters oranything else. It depends onwhat the facts of realityare,” he said.

He began writing thebook in the summer of 2011and it was published in De-cember, 2012, with no ghostwriter. He wrote it himself.

In the first six weeks, itsold 277 copies, he said.Woodward is donating all ofthe royalties to charity andthe Space Studies Institutein Mojave to fund researchin advanced propulsion.

“I’m not selling anything.I’m not even selling thebook.”

Woodward is driven bythe possibility that he’sright.

When he was a grad stu-dent, one of his professorsgave him some advice thatstuck with him: If you want

hole will be built,” she said. But a rocket booster that

gets to space without ex-pelling a propellant is doa-ble, she said. “You don’tneed waste material thatyou’re going to burn off andkick out the tailpipe,” shesaid.

Woodward and Fearn ex-periment with inertia andgravity for advanced pro-pulsion and wormhole trav-el using electromechanicalpiezoelectric devices madeof lead zirconium titanatecrystals, which have prop-erties suitable for experi-mentation.

The devices create athrust, a force that propelsan object forward. “We’relooking for a very small ef-fect which we hope to beable to make larger,” Wood-ward said.

With his book finished,

Woodward is finding moretime to enjoy himself. Hewas diagnosed with meta-static lung cancer and hashad other health battlessince retiring in 2005.

Clinical trial drug treat-ments, along with otherdrug treatments, appear tohave prolonged his life. “Itcleared the lung cancer in afew months, and there isstill no sign of recurrence,”Woodward said.

“I am fabulously lucky,truly a medical outlieramong outliers,” he said.

He relaxes more now,spending time with hispartner of 28 years, CaroleHarrison, and his cats.

“Now that the book iswritten, the way I figure it ismy bit part in the play ispretty much over,” he said.“I’m shuffling off stage atthis point.”

H. LORREN AU JR., ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Physics professor Heidi Fearn, left, works with James Woodward in experimental research on ways to advance hu-man travel through space. This research includes exploring advanced use of gravity and inertia in rocket propulsion.

TRAVEL: Professoruses theories

to aim for the starsFROM PAG E 1

BUILDING STRONGER COMMUNITIESEach year, Cal State Fullerton students complete nearly 1.5 million hours of public service. Their dedication not only provides much-needed assistance in our communities, but they are enriched through their engagement in life off campus.

Like many of today’s CSUF students, alumnus Bobby McDonald, president and executive director of the Black Chamber of Commerce of Orange County, has the heart of a true community servant. A longtime volunteer and activist, Bobby shows that Titans Reach Higher.

Visit us at fullerton.edu/reachhigher

Giving back to the community is part of who I am, and it’s part of what makes Cal State Fullerton extraordinary. As a Titan, I’m proud that involvement in the community is a longstanding CSUF tradition that continues today. 

– Bobby McDonald ’75 

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TITANS REACH HIGHER

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