Author: Maggi White

Imagine a future 25 years from now: Many forms of cancer have a cure, every house glistens with solar panels providing carbon-free energy. Water is filtered by nanoparticles. It is a golden age of science and medicine.

If Dr. M. Aslam Khan Khalil’s students are representative of the general public’s attitude toward global warming, then getting support to pay for programs to cut carbon dioxide emissions will be a challenge.

When Dr. Rob Roeser faces his class as an associate professor of psychology, he tells his students, “this is about you, it’s experiential. Keep a journal and practice.” He takes them on a journey of mindfulness with meditation as a skill to achieve awareness, which he said focuses on breathing, feelings and sensations in the body.

Dr. Harry Anastasiou grew up when conflict between the Greeks and the Turks was a way of life on his home island of Cyprus. He wondered why any parent would want their children to inherit the life of war and mistrust in society.

Scott Burns, a youthful 61-year-old, will tell anyone who listens that “geology rocks!”
He has been teaching the subject to undergraduate and graduate students for 19 years at Portland State and 39 years overall and still finds it “fun and exciting.”

A passion for civil rights is what Elizabeth Furse hopes to instill in her students at Portland State as director of the Institute for Tribal Government. She has been an activist all her life.

Portland State students who take classes from Dr. Lisa H. Weasel will probably never look at a soybean or ear of corn in the same way ever again. When they read her just published book, FOOD FRAY: Inside the Controversy Over Genetically Modified Food, they’ll be able to cite many reasons for their convictions.

Students who hear professor Jost Lottes lecture on the economics of aging and how it will affect them and their parents are shocked by what they hear.

He’s a lover of old cars, old vinyl records, old furniture, an old briefcase and old literature, but he’s certainly not conventional. Jonathan Walker, 39, has unusual teaching methods that open up discussion and critical thought on some antiquated subjects.

Erik Sanchez is such an equipment geek that he freely admits he was told by fellow scientists at MIT, “I was ‘the worst they’d ever seen.’ I’m really into it, big.”

Before Professor Thomas Fisher became a writer and poet who defines himself as “largely a scholar,” he almost followed another passion altogether into his adult life.