Dr. Echol's talk is titled "The great north woods: owls versus loggers"
Abstract: The great, mostly coniferous forests of our Pacific northwest are a valuable and renewable resource that, if properly managed, should provide us with wood for lumber, paper and other products well into the future. Recent controversy between environmentalists and timber industrialists has focused on clear cutting, a common harvesting process that cuts all trees in an area. Environmentalists fear destruction of forests and habitats they furnish for animals, including spotted owls. Loggers claim that most clearcut areas recover rapidly, even if left alone, and are still useful as habitats and resources. In this talk, we discuss these issues, and show slides primarily from the rainforest at Olympic Peninsula in Washington state from the speaker's visit to this area in the early 1990's.

Deuard Worthen's talk is titled "Determination of the complex index of refraction of a thin, titanium film"
Abstract: This talk will discuss a method of determining the complex index of refraction of a thin, titanium film as used in a reflective thermal reference. We begin by briefly outlining the procedure for calculating the reflectance of a thin film coating structure using the common matrix method. A brief discussion of the inverse problem of determining the complex index of refraction from measurements of the reflectance will follow. We will end with a method of determining the index of refraction by graphing two families of curves consistent with the measured reflectance. The two families are characterized by different values of thickness for the auxiliary layers in the thin film structure. In order to make this talk accessible to a general audience, terms such as "complex index of refraction" will be defined in the talk.

The menu includes chicken breast teriyaki, vegetarian lasagna, stir-fried vegetables, baked squash, stuffed potatoes, relish tray, English pea salad, tossed salad, Italian cream cake, and strawberry cream pie. For more information, contact any of the officers: Rick Kreminski (math), Ken Ashley (chemistry), Joyce Guthrie (agriculture), Charles Rogers (physics)