December 2007

What's going on at Ohio State?

The Buckeyes face LSU in the battle for the national title. The university congratulates its first female Rhodes Scholar. An Ohio State study identifies peak times for age discrimination. Aquaculture—or fish farming—is on the rise in Ohio, thanks in part to some help from university staffers. The Ohio State Alumni Magazine profiles "the most important person you've never heard of." A grad student raises dogs for the disabled. A scuba instructor is honored. An experts gives advice on how to buy safe toys for children.

Go Bucks!

For the third time in the past five years, Coach Tressel is taking his team to the National Championship game.

After the most upset-filled college football season in recent memory, the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes will face LSU January 7 in New Orleans.

Get details of the big game. And see stats and honors for the season.

Scholarly activity

Jessica Hanzlik has worked on physics research projects alongside experts at Ohio State throughout her undergraduate career; her next move will be to obtain her doctorate. But Hanzlik's love of science doesn't end with her career plans; she has founded two student organizations—Women in Physics and Women in Math and Science—to encourage women in the heavily male field.

So it's fitting that Hanzlik is Ohio State's first female Rhodes Scholar. The prestigious award, which funds two years of graduate study at the University of Oxford, is given to only 32 students in the United States each year.

Find out more about Hanzlik.

Aging on the job

If you're turning 50, you might expect an office full of black balloons. Much less expected? A pink slip.

But a recent Ohio State study found that firings peak when workers hit age 50—and then again just before retirement age, when many workers are eligible for pensions.

Find out which workers are most vulnerable—and why companies view age discrimination as legitimate.

Gone farming (for fish)

Go to a farm and you expect to see certain things: rows of corn and soybeans, a few pigs, some cattle.

Ohio State helps with farmers to add something unexpected to the mix: fish. University researchers are working to breed yellow perch faster and larger, while extension agents teach farmers how to get started in "aquaculture."

Find out more.

Why we fight

Why do humans wage war?

Ohio State alum Gene Sharp has dedicated his life to answering that question—and finding alternatives to bloody conflict.

Sharp's ideas have laid the path for peaceful uprisings in Eastern Europe, China, Burma, and throughout Latin America.

Read the Ohio State Alumni Magazine's profile of Sharp.

Dog days of college

Like a lot of kids, Mary Beth Kopechek begged for a dog until her parents relented. But there's a twist to Kopechek's story: The dog wasn't actually hers.

Kopechek volunteered to raise the dog for a not-for-profit organization that provides disabled children and adults with companion animals. She has raised eight dogs, including some who came to classes with her at Ohio State.

See Jen, Kopechek's latest dog, and find out more about Kopechek's work.

Name recognition

The North Atlantic. The South Pacific. Inside a World War II-era German U-boat.

You name a place, Marty Bailey has probably scuba dived there. The scuba enthusiast and Ohio State grad has logged more than 3,200 dives; for the past 20 years, he has also taught recreational divers in the university's rec centers. Bailey's wife and his mother recently recognized his passion for diving by dedicating the Martin L. Bailey Scuba Room in Ohio State's aquatic center.

Find out more about Bailey and the gift.