Michigan Technological University

Second-year social sciences major Elijah Haines is many things—aspiring lawyer, outdoors enthusiast, art aficionado, wannabe world traveler.

Luckily for the Michigan Tech community, he's also a writer. Haines' essays—weekly staples in the University's student newspaper, the Lode—focus on issues big and small, from gay rights to great meals.

"I used to think writing had to be novels and fiction," Haines said. "But writing about real life can be just as creative."

If our new orchestra director's iPod is any clue, then the campus and community are in for a great mix of music.

"Tower of Power; Beatles; Berlin Philharmonic; Led Zeppelin; Earth, Wind and Fire; New York Philharmonic; Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass; Chicago Symphony; and Karen Carpenter," says Joel Neves, the newly appointed director of the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra.

Neves comes to Michigan Tech from Cedar City, Utah, where he directed jazz and music theater at . . .

Associate Professor Audrey Mayer has an abiding dream and duty: rearrange the way we live to be more efficient; use the bounty of the Earth's ecosystems without destroying them; live in a way that what we do doesn't harm others. In a word, she seeks sustainability—socially, environmentally, and economically.

Mayer has worked in academia and for the Environmental Protection Agency. She started out small: studying California's gnat catcher and Florida's cape sable seaside sparrow. She ended up expansive: devoting herself to what she calls "my silo"—global sustainability.

If Donieka Walker, who is a senior majoring in psychology, could fix the world, she'd start by ensuring "mental stability for everyone."

"If your mental state is at an all-time high," she says, "nothing else can get you down."

Walker knows what she's talking about. "My family, we were at the bottom of the bottom," she recalls about tough times in her native Dayton, Ohio. "It was a time to be depressed or sad or angry. But we kept each other encouraged. We kept our mental state healthy. We were motivated. Thinking logically. Staying mentally satisfied."

Conservation could be Amber Roth's middle name. She loves anything to do with nature. Birds, trees, grasses, ecosystems: she's fascinated by it all.

So after tucking a Bachelor of Science in Conservation Biology and International Relations and a Master of Science in Wildlife Ecology under her belt, the Green Bay native came to Michigan Tech to earn a PhD in the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science (SFRES).

Roth studies how to manage aspen forests to produce the maximum . . .

Chemical engineering Professor Julie King uses plastic to make composites that behave a bit like metals.

Plastics are everywhere, and there's a good reason why. Light and typically inexpensive, they can be engineered to do almost anything. However, there are a couple things plastics don't do well: transfer heat and conduct electricity.

Often that's not a problem. But in some applications it is. The bipolar plates at the heart of fuel cells, for example, must be electrically and thermally conductive.