April 16, 2018

President-elect Richard J. Koubek will lead the University as its 10th president, the Michigan Technological University Board of Trustees announced Friday (April 13).

Koubek, who is executive vice president and provost of Louisiana State University, begins his tenure at Michigan Tech on July 1. He succeeds Glenn D. Mroz, who has served as president since 2004 and is stepping down to rejoin the University’s faculty.

“Rick Koubek is a man of unquestioned integrity, character and leadership,” said Terry Woychowski, chair of the Michigan Tech Board of Trustees. “He has a profound and passionate vision of the role Michigan Tech will play in our nation's prosperity, and the betterment of the world, as he leads this historic University in developing and delivering—on a global scale—the solutions to some of society's most vexing challenges. I believe that Dr. Koubek was born for this time, this place and this position.”

The Board of Trustees selected Koubek from a pool of four semi-finalist candidates brought forward for consideration by a 14-member Presidential Search Committee (PSC) that included student, faculty, staff, alumni and community representatives. Board members Bill Johnson, Brenda Ryan, Julie Fream and Bob Jacquart served on the PSC as well, with Johnson and Ryan as chair and vice chair, respectively.

Read the full story at mtu.edu/news.

The students in ED2000: Issues in American Education will exhibit their final semester projects in the main library on campus from April 25 to 27. The course instructor, Amy Lark (CLS), encouraged students to address issues they found important in as creative a way as possible.

The work ranges from papers and posters to poetry and works of art. There will be an opening reception at 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 25 and the exhibit will remain in the East Reading room until the end of the day on April 27. All are welcome to attend.

Michigan Tech IT will update mylogin.mtu.edu from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday (April 22). During this time, password resets will not be available. 

The login page will have a new look. We've posted some screenshots in our support center. If you have questions about this update, contact us by email or call 7-1111.

The next Biological Sciences Seminar will take place at 3 p.m. Thursday (April 19) in EERC 100. Steve Elmer (KIP) will present "Inspiration from Nature to Improve Human Health and Performance."

Four out of five US adults do not get the recommended amount of weekly physical activity. Reduced physical activity is a major public health concern as it increases risks for many chronic diseases and mortality. To better understand skeletal muscle function, this presentation will use a comparative approach to consider how birds, fish and mammals move.

These lessons from nature will be linked to our use of novel exercise equipment and interventions to improve human health and athletic performance. Examples of how comparative exercise physiology is used in our teaching and community outreach events will also be presented. More information is available here.

Michigan Tech sophomore Emily Byrd and junior Emily Vigil both had very strong performances in the 5,000 Meter Run Thursday night at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Invitational for the Huskies track and field team. Each took turns topping the school record and placed in or near the top ten in the finals out of 84 total competitors in the event.

"What a day for Emily Byrd and Emily Vigil," Head Coach Jake Isaacson said. "Emily V had a tremendous gutsy race winning her heat and at that point breaking the school record. She held the record for about 40 minutes before Emily B ran another incredible race and broke the record again. Both of those women are great examples of what hard work can do for you in this sport. They both set personal bests by over 30 seconds.

"Grant [Brown] ran great through 4k and then hit a bit of trouble in the last half mile, but he'll rebound and be back in a few weeks with another opportunity to show what he can do. A lot of credit needs to go to Coach Dan Kulas, for keeping the athletes organized and prepared on that trip. He's a great addition to our staff."

Vigil competed in heat three and crossed the line with a time of 17:27.81, which at that moment set a new Michigan Tech record in the event which previously stood at 17:35.11. Vigil's time eventually landed her in 12^th place in the standings and also became a new personal best.

A few minutes later in heat four of the event, Bryd had her chance to compete and vaulted her way to an eventual 10^th place finish thanks to a time of 17:19.89. Bryd's time re-wrote the school record book again and was a career best for her as well.

 The Michigan Tech men's tennis team fell in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match on the road at Wayne State University 9-0 Saturday afternoon. The Huskies opened the two-match road trip on Friday afternoon at Tiffin University.

Wayne State (12-10, 5-2 GLIAC) jumped in front 3-0 through doubles competition with quick starts in the each of the three contests. The Warriors were able to prevail with final scores of 8-2 in No.1 and No. 2 doubles followed by an 8-1 triumph in No.3 doubles.

Michigan Tech (0-12, 0-8 GLIAC) battled hard in singles, but were unable to pull through for points.

For the full story, visit michigantechhuskies.com.

Job Postings for Monday, April 16, 2018

Staff and faculty job descriptions are available in Human Resources. For more information regarding staff positions, call 7-2280 or email jobs@mtu.edu. For more information regarding faculty positions, contact the academic department in which the position is posted.

Carpenter, Facilities. ​AFSCME posting 4/16/2018 - 4/20/2018. External applicants will not be reviewed until after all internal applicants. Apply online.

Custodian, Facilities. ​AFSCME Posting 4/16/2018 - 4/20/2018. External applicants will not be reviewed until after all internal applicants. ​Apply online.​

Michigan Technological University is an Equal Opportunity Educational Institution/Equal Opportunity Employer, which includes providing equal opportunity for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

ACSHF Forum Today

Keith Vertanen (CS) will present "The Impact of Word, Multiple Word and Sentence Input on Virtual Keyboard Decoding Performance" at the ACSHF Forum from 2 to 3 p.m. today (April 16) in Meese 109.

*****

Nominations Open for Diversity Award

The Michigan Technological University Diversity Award recognizes the accomplishments of a faculty or staff member of the University who contributes to diversity and inclusion through exemplary leadership and actions. Recipients will demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion through recruitment and retention efforts, teaching, research, multi-cultural programming, cultural competency, community outreach activities or other initiatives.

Nominees must be current faculty or staff of the University. Nominations can be submitted by individual employees (including supervisors, direct reports and peers of the nominees), students, alumni, University groups, employee networks and community organizations or other University partners.

The award recipient will receive a $2,500 award and will be honored during the Faculty Awards Dinner held in September. Nominations are due Friday (April 20). For more details and nomination materials, visit the Diversity Award Web Site.

*****

Library Workshop: Finding Standards

Need to find standards? This workshop is for you. We will go over the basics of what a standard is, who publishes them and where to find them. We'll also discuss how to work with the library to get the standards that you need for your projects and research.

The workshop will take place at 1 p.m. tomorrow (April 17) in Library 242. Register online.

WJMN TV3 and WLUC TV6, covered the 20th Annual Western UP Science Fair and STEM Festival, held on the Michigan Tech campus Thursday. 

To have your event automatically appear, please submit them to the University Events Calendar.

After School: Engineering Challenges

April 16, 4:00 p.m–5:30 p.m

After School Science and Engineering Classes 2018 Grades 1-2 March 19 – May 4, 2018 (No class K-12 Spring Break week March 26-30) 6 sessions ~ 4:00-5:30 pm Hands-on...

After School: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

April 16, 4:00 p.m–5:30 p.m

After School Science and Engineering Classes 2018 Grades 6-8 March 19 – May 4, 2018 (No class K-12 Spring Break week March 26-30) 6 sessions ~ 4:00-5:30 pm Hands-on...

Framed by Frames Student Photography Exhibit

April 16, 6:00 p.m–12:00 a.m

Four Michigan Tech students are featured in a photography exhibit hosted by the Copper Country Community Arts Center’s Kerredge Gallery now through April 28th. Each artist...