Remembering Marino Xanthos

Yesterday there was a tribute at NJIT for Dr. Marino Xanthos who passed away in June of this year.  He was a renowned leader in polymer engineering and science research and was recognized with a number of NJIT and national awards.  There were several introductory remarks made by the President, Provost, administrators and faculty.  They spoke of his accomplishments as a researcher, teacher and Associate Provost of Graduate Studies at Stevens Institute of Technology and at NJIT.  Dr. Costas Gogos, a friend and colleague of Marino for many years gave a detailed account of his professional and family life.

As liaison to the Department of Chemical Biological and Pharmaceutical Engineering I was his librarian.  It was always my pleasure to serve him and greet him when I saw him on campus.  I should conclude by listing just a few of his publications.

Xanthos, M. (2005). Functional fillers for plastics. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH.

 Properties of aspirin modified enteric polymer prepared by hot-melt mixing
 By Chomcharn, Nonjaros; Xanthos, Marino
From International Journal of Pharmaceutics (Amsterdam, Netherlands) (2013), 450(1-2), 259-267. Language: English, Database: CAPLUS, DOI:10.1016/j.ijpharm.2013.04.036
 

 Recycling of the #5 Polymer
By Xanthos, Marino
From Science (Washington, DC, United States) (2012), 337(6095), 700-702. Language: English, Database: CAPLUS, DOI:10.1126/science.1221806
 
 Drug release characteristics from nanoclay hybrids and their dispersions in organic polymers
By Ha, Jin Uk; Xanthos, Marino
From International Journal of Pharmaceutics (2011), 414(1-2), 321-331. Language: English, Database: CAPLUS, DOI:10.1016/j.ijpharm.2011.05.028  


 Sequential modification of cationic and anionic nanoclays with ionic liquids
By Ha, Jin Uk; Xanthos, Marino
From Green Chemistry Letters and Reviews (2011), 4(2), 103-107. Language: English, Database: CAPLUS, DOI:10.1080/17518253.2010.509111

Information Literacy on the Fly in 20 Minutes Twice

I always like it when a professor contacts me in advance and arranges for a class on a specific topic.  I have a standard plan that I use for all of my classes, but then at the end I cover the specific assignment.  Yesterday I received a frantic e-mail from a professor teaching two sections of a biophysics course.  He assigned students to find a paper discussing mutations, cancer or evolution that showed graphs and tables.  He reported that students were having problems finding this.  He asked me to visit these classes on very short notice.

It was the Ebsco Discover Service to the rescue.  I showed them how to do the search (mutations) and (statistical study).  I showed them how to limit to full text articles that are available in our library.  At that point they had to look at the articles in PDF to find if the article had what they needed.  I did this in 20 minutes.  The professor seemed to be satisfied.  As usually I advised the students to come to the reference desk if they need further assistance.

Google Wins Again in a Science/Engineering Library

It is somewhat exasperating when you give a lecture to science/engineering students about the use of the primary journal literature and how to search bibliographic databases to find papers on a topic and then find out that they just report web sites.  They seem to love searching Google and just don't want to apply their information seeking skills to searching library databases.  For many years I have taught to a sophomore level class in environmental engineering who are assigned a descriptive paper. Below are the topics that were assigned this semester.  I do feel that most of them were too broad and that in the future a more specific topic be given which would compel students to find journal articles.

Group #          Topic for Paper

1                      Hydroelectric Energy - what the technology is, how it is used, the costs, the problems/benefits with the technology and present a real-world case study.

2                      Electromagnetic Radiation from Mobile Phones - source, nature of the problem, environmental/health implications and ways to address the situation.

3                      Highway Traffic Noise Barriers - what they are, how they are constructed, costs, and the environmental benefit.

4                      Collapse of the World Trade Center Buildings - nature of the environmental problem, health implications and ways that the Government is addressing the problem.

5                      Greenhouse Gas Emissions - source, nature of the problem, environmental/health implications and ways to address the situation.

6                      Bioremediation – what the technology is, how it is used, the costs, the problems/benefits with the technology and present a real-world case study.

7                      Wind Energy - what the technology is, how it is used, the costs, the problems/benefits with the technology and present a real-world case study.

8                      Solar Energy - what the technology is, how it is used, the costs, the problems/benefits with the technology and present a real-world case study.

9                      Geothermal Energy - what the technology is, how it is used, the costs, the problems/benefits with the technology and present a real-world case study.

10                    Illegal Selling/Use of Pesticides - nature of the problem, explanation of pesticides and pesticide  regulations, environmental/health implications and ways to address the situation.