By Jo McCulty

Ohio State graffiti wall

Cheria Dial, program coordinator for the University Honors & Scholars Center, adds her comments to a graffiti wall at a March 27 open house for The Women's Place. The graffiti wall is functioning as a survey of opinions about the various roles and benefits of The Women's Place at Ohio State. The Women's Place is located in 5046 Smith Lab.

New service improves access to medical care outside Ohio, abroad

Obtaining medical care while traveling outside of Ohio and abroad will soon be easier for Ohio State faculty and staff. Starting May 1, the University will enter into a partnership with GlobalCare, an international firm which provides referrals to medical providers, language interpretation and other services to guide patients through an unfamiliar health care system.

GlobalCare services will be provided free to faculty and staff members and their dependents who are enrolled in a University medical plan and to faculty, staff and student employees not enrolled in a University medical plan but who are traveling on University-sponsored business.

"We are pleased to be able to offer this free service to Ohio State faculty and staff," said Judith V. Kadja, director of benefits and wellness services."GlobalCare will fulfill a valuable need, easing the minds of those who travel for work or personal reasons throughout the United States and abroad."

GlobalCare is not an insurance provider."It is meant to assist the traveler in accessing medical treatment. Eligible expenses incurred will still be insured by the University sponsored health plan in which the faculty or staff member is enrolled," Kadja said.

Outside of Ohio, but within the United States, GlobalCare can provide referrals to more than 650,000 health care providers and more than 5,400 hospital facilitates. Outside the United States, GlobalCare can provide pre-trip consultations and make referrals to carefully screened, English-speaking medical providers in more than 190 countries. It also can provide interpretation of at least 140 languages and dialects in support of medical situations.

The program includes 24-hour access to a registered nurse, who can offer a telephone triage to assess the nature of a medical condition and direct the traveler to medical care he or she believes is appropriate.

If unable to obtain access to medical care due to a required payment, with the proper prior approval from the University, GlobalCare will advance cash funds to the traveler or the medical care provider. Repayment of this advance may come from the faculty or staff member's health insurance.

GlobalCare also can assist and manage air evacuation to the closest appropriate care facility and/or return to the home country when medically necessary. Any direct costs will be administered and paid according to the medical insurance plan's guidelines.

Other services include: Notification of personal contacts in the event of a medical emergency; assistance in arranging for the return of the physical remains to the city of residence in the event of a death away from home; and assistance in obtaining an equivalent prescription if prescription medications are lost or stolen. GlobalCare does not practice medicine or diagnose medical conditions and does not recommend a specific physician, nor does it represent the quality of medical care the traveler will receive.

For details, contact the Office of Human Resources Customer Service Center at 292-1050, e-mail service@hr1.ohr.ohio-state.edu or access the Web at www.ohr.ohio-state.edu.

Ohio State professor embarks on fifth trip to oversee Bosnian elections

An Ohio State professor is on his fifth trip to oversee elections in Bosnia, continuing his crusade for democracy and peace there.

Okey Onyejekwe, director of the Center for African Studies, is part of an international team supervising the April 8 parliamentary elections mandated by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accord. He supervised elections in Bosnia in 1995 and 1998, and twice in 1997.

The U.S. State Department and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the group organizing the elections, selected Onyejekwe for the position. An associate professor of African and African-American studies and associate professor of journalism and communications, he has written position papers for the State Department on U.S. policies in Africa and on the process of democratization.

Okey Onyejekwe

"Our plans now are to work with the Bosnians. When you have major ethnic conflicts, you need outsiders to nudge the democratic process along. But there is a limit to how much you can get involved," Onyejekwe said."We will continue to work as election observers, but we hope they will need fewer supervisors, which have a more hands-on role."

While Onyejekwe expects to face many of the same obstacles he encountered in earlier supervisory trips -- land mines and a heavily armed citizenry -- he also hopes to find signs that the Bosnians are ready to take charge of the election process and also take the lead in becoming a democratic society.

As an election supervisor, Onyejekwe will work with local elections officials to make sure voting rules are followed, determine voter eligibility, resolve disputes, and oversee accountability and ballot security.

In 1994, Onyejekwe served as a United Nations election observer for South Africa's first multiracial elections.

A native of Nigeria, Onyejekwe says he knows well the kinds of challenges facing Bosnians.

"I know from Nigeria in the late"60s and early"70s, that it takes a lot of outsiders to help make it easier for people to talk to each other," he says."But it is a balancing act. While people appreciate the help, they don't want you to dictate. They want assistance but resent it at the same time."

Physics faculty named as fellows

The American Physical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers have recognized five members of Ohio State's Department of Physics for their contributions to physics research.

Four faculty -- Jason Ho, Robert Perry, Eric Herbst and Alan Van Heuvelen, all professors of physics -- were named fellows in the American Physical Society (APS). Len Brillson, professor of physics and electrical engineering and a scholar at Ohio State's Center for Materials Research, has been recognized as a fellow in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

"These award winners demonstrate the depth of experience in our department," said Will Saam, chair of the Department of Physics, one of the University's eight departments to receive Selective Investment funding."The new fellows of the APS and IEEE are being recognized for significant contributions to their fields of research over the course of their careers."

• Jason Ho earned his naming as an APS fellow for his work in superfluids -- fluids exhibiting quantum phenomena on a macroscopic scale. Superfluid helium and superconductors are classic examples of this kind of phenomena where materials flow without loss of energy, unlike ordinary fluids such as water. In particular, Ho was the first to study the properties of the so-called spin-1/2 Bose gas, which was finally discovered at the University of Colorado in 1999 and showed many properties he had envisioned. For the last two years, he has focused his efforts on the newly discovered Bose-Einstein condensation in atomic gases, and created a sub-field within this area called"spinor Bose condensate," which is now a subject of international conferences. Ho also was named a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in April 1999.

• Robert Perry helped develop a new model of atomic forces that may solve a long-standing problem in particle physics. That problem began in the 1970s, when physicist Richard Feynman described protons as very complicated structures made up of many particles including quarks and gluons. Perry's work, while consistent with Feynman's universally accepted model, provides a more intuitive fewer-body picture of protons and other particles that interact with what physicists call the"strong force." While the equations that describe the fundamental theory of the strong interaction remain unsolved, Perry has made it easier for theorists to use successful quark models to approximate low-energy solutions to these equations.

• Eric Herbst was recognized for his work in astrochemistry. He searches far-away interstellar objects for molecules that offer clues to the physical conditions in their part of the universe, such as dust particles, interstellar gas, and the nebulae surrounding young, low-mass stars. Over billions of years, these cold and diffuse objects collapse to form stars and planetary systems, but in the interim, they may show astronomers how molecules form in space -- how single atoms coalesce to form more than a hundred different complex organic molecules present in galaxies today.

• Alan Van Huevelen is part of a growing field within physics research -- physics education research. His work gets to the root of students' conceptual understanding of physics and to their problem-solving skills. He offers workshops around the world for physics professors who want to employ his teaching techniques. His new multimedia CD, active learning materials and laboratory learning system help make students more active participants in their learning. He is now working with others in science, math and engineering departments at Ohio State to introduce graduate and undergraduate student fellows into grade-school classrooms in the Columbus Public Schools.

• Len Brillson, new IEEE fellow, leads an interdisciplinary research effort in electronic materials. He conducts atomic-scale electronic and chemical studies of materials interfaces, in particular the semiconductors that are at the heart of next-generation electronic technologies for computers, communications and displays. Brillson formerly directed the Materials Research Laboratory, one of several major research departments in Xerox Corp.'s Corporate Research Division, and he shares that management experience through regular lectures at scientific meetings. He often discusses the changing roles of researchers in industry, exploring the different ways engineers and physicists approach problem-solving and finding news ways for each to complement the other's skills. Besides teaching and research at Ohio State, Brillson has provided leadership in several scientific societies, including roles as editor, trustee and former governing board member of the American Institute of Physics.

The American Physical Society elects as fellows"only such members who have contributed to the advancement of physics by independent, original research or who have rendered some other special service to the cause of the sciences." Each year, up to only 0.5 percent of all APS members may be elected fellows.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers provides recognition to individuals whose"contributions to the art and science of electro- and information technologies worldwide have improved the quality of daily life." In any one year, no more than 0.1 percent of IEEE members may receive this honor.