Sen. Sarbanes scheduled to speak at SAIS on March 17

Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., will be the second speaker in a series of lectures sponsored by the Center for International Business and Public Policy at SAIS.

Sarbanes, the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, will give a talk titled "The Public Policy Response to Corporate Scandal: Is Sarbanes-Oxley Enough?" at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, March 17, in the Kenney Auditorium of the Nitze Building.

Non-SAIS affiliates may reserve a place by calling 202-663-7787 or e-mailing ltnepomuceno@jhu.edu.

Engineering hosts Conference on Info Sciences and Systems

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will host the 37th annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems from Wednesday, March 12, to Friday, March 14, on the Homewood campus. CISS began at Princeton in 1967, was moved to Johns Hopkins during the late 1970s and now alternates between the two universities.

The purpose of the conference is to provide information sessions for new advances, applications and ideas in the fields of wireless communications, networking, signal and image processing, computer engineering and information theory. One highlight will be a special session in optical communication. Nearly 200 technical papers are scheduled for presentation by faculty and graduate students from many major educational institutions.

For more information, go to www.ece.jhu.edu/ciss/index.html.

Historic lighting demonstrations offer a glimpse into the past

The first of two historic lighting demonstrations at Homewood House Museum will be presented on Thursday, March 13, as part of its exhibition O Say Can You See? Revolutions in Lighting Technology.

In "1,000 Years of Lighting Technology: A Working Demonstration of Lamps from Primitive to Kerosene," Baltimorean Dan Sohn, a board member of the Rushlight Club, an international association of collectors and students of antique lighting, will demonstrate lighting used through the Industrial Revolution. The talk begins at 6:30 p.m. in Remsen Hall on the Homewood campus.

Prior to the demonstration, from 4 to 6:15 p.m., Homewood House will be open for a reception and the opportunity to see the lighting exhibit. The cost for the talk is $5 for Homewood members; $7 for nonmembers. To make reservations, call 410-516-5589.

The second talk, "The Romance of Gas Lights," is scheduled for March 27. O Say Can You See? will continue through March 30. For more information, go to http://www.jhu.edu/historichouses or http://www.rushlight.org.

Chair of program in PTE receives engineering honor

James Spall, chair of the Applied and Computational Mathematics Program in the Johns Hopkins Part-Time Programs in Engineering and Applied Science, has been named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

A fellow is the highest grade of membership in the international organization. Spall received the honor for his contributions to the field in the area of mathematical algorithms as applied to stochastic (random) systems.

"After 20 years with Johns Hopkins University, four years of which have been with the Part-Time Engineering Programs, Jim has more than earned this recognition," Allan Bjerkaas, associate dean of PTE, said. "He is an integral part of the PTE staff and has added to the success of our programs. I speak for the entire faculty when I add my congratulations to Dr. Spall for this outstanding accomplishment."

The number of IEEE fellows elected in a year is no more than 1/1,000th of the total IEEE voting membership.

Olesker is guest for March Neighborhood Author Series

Longtime local journalist Michael Olesker will share stories of the city and generations of fascinating Baltimoreans at the next Neighborhood Author Series event sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University Press.

Olesker will discuss his book Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12, in the Peabody Room of the Episcopal Diocesan Center, located at North Charles Street and University Parkway.

The monthly Neighborhood Author Series, featuring Baltimore-based writers of books published by the Press, is organized by the university's Office of Community Affairs and the JHU Press, America's oldest continuous university press and the area's leading publisher of books about the history, people and environment of Maryland and the Chesapeake region.

'Gazette' is compiling contact list for distribution matters

If The Gazette is delivered by messenger to your office or building, we're asking for your help. We would like to compile a list of contacts throughout the Johns Hopkins Institutions whom we could contact, when necessary, about such issues as quantities of newspapers needed and conditions of distribution racks.

If you are able to help us with this information--or if you have any related concerns about distribution--please call Lois Perschetz, editor, at 410-516-8514 or write to lwp@jhu.edu.