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AGGIELIFE:
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Page 3
lume 110 • Issue 178 • 6 pages
\ Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
www.thebatt.com
PACE DESIGN BY: RACHEL SMITH
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'he Texas Municipal Fire Training School celebrates its 75th anniversary
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By Suzy Green
THE BATTALION
The Texas Municipal Fire Training School ended its
weeklong 75th anniversary celebration at Brayton Fire
Training Field Wednesday night with several large
firefighting displays, fireworks and birthday cake.
About 4,500 people from across Texas attended
the event, including many families and Texas A&M
President Robert M. Gates.
“Firefighters are a very close-knit family with
strong, traditional values exemplified in their personal
families and their extended families, the fire service,”
said Les Bunte, director of the Emergency Services
Training Institute, a part of the Texas Engineering Ex
tension Service.
After introductory speeches, fires lit on several
large gas-fueled metal structures billowed over 50 feet
high and teams of firefighters used hoses and their
new knowledge to put out the fires using different
techniques.
Over 55,000 emergency service workers are trained
each year by the personnel of the training institute
both at Brayton Field and through statewide work
shops, Bunte said.
Brayton Field is the largest live-fueled fire train
ing facility in the world and is often referred to as the
“Disneyland of Firefighting.”
“Our reputation as the largest, best fire school in the
world was built on hard work and effort by men and
women across Texas,” Bunte said.
The fire school relies on hundreds of volunteer
guest instructors to train firefighters, Bunte said.
“Fm very proud of the guest instructors,” Bunte
said. “Without them and our full time staff, the school
wouldn’t be possible.”
Dusty Hale, an 18-year-old La Junta, Texas fire
fighter, trained at the fire school last week and partici
pated in the fire display.
“The instructors’ tips on hose handling will prob
ably help me when I get back home,” Hale said. “1
love firefighting because it’s a huge adrenaline rush.”
“There is a unique bond and sense of brotherhood
and sisterhood between firefighters because they risk
their lives and have to depend on each other,” Bunte
said.
The fire school is planning several improvements,
See Fire on page 2
RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
Municipal firefighters from Texas fight a fire with the help of instruc
tors at the 75th annual Municipal Fire Training School.
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BRIAN WILLS • THE BATTALION
Children explore an old firetruck on display at the 75th
anniversary of the Brayton Fire School. Thousands
attended the celebration to watch firefighters from around
the country demonstrate and train in different firefighting
scenarios such as apartment, chemical complex and
warehouse fires.
DAVE MORRIS • THE BATTALION
Les Bunte, director of the Emergency Services Training Institute at the
Brayton Fire Training Field, gives opening remarks at Wednesday’s 75th
anniversary ceremony. The municipal fire training program is one of
four annual programs that the training field houses each year.
d NASA gives A8dVl researchers grant Candidates named
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By Andrew Burleson
THE BATTALION
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Researchers at Texas A&M have been
| ven a $900,000 grant from NASA to study
|ew sterilization methods for spacecraft. The
I search is being conducted by Suresh Pillai,
irector of the National Center for Electron
:am Food Research, and Les Braby, a re-
tarch professor in the Department of Nucle-
Engineering.
Sterilizing the space equipment guaran
is accurate feedback from the craft. When
inducting missions, such as searching for
|gns of life on Mars, NASA scientists don’t
jant to accidentally discover bacteria the
iver brought with it, Pillai said.
NASA currently sterilizes most equip-
lent using dry-heat sterilization, but this
rocess can be damaging to many sensitive
lacecraft components.
itown ■“Dry h eat sterilization, as the name im-
ii lies, uses high temperature to destroy bac-
ed m
Electron-beam technology uses ionizing ra
diation generated by means of a linear accel
erator to destroy these same bacterial cells
and spores. Since this sterilization process
does not involve heat, components that are
heat sensitive can still be sterilized using
electron-beam technology,” Pillai said.
The research at A&M is being conducted
as a partnership with the Jet Propulsion Lab
at the California Institute of Technology.
Braby said NASA selected A&M as the
recipient of the grant due in large part to the
superb facilities available at A&M’s Food
Irradiation Laboratory.
“The availability of our food irradiation
research facility on campus provides the
high-energy electrons to compare with the
low-energy electrons that they are work
ing with at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,”
Braby said.
Doug Johnson, general manager of the
Food Irradiation Lab, said most universities
To Sterility and Beyond
Researchers at Texas A&M are currently working on
a project to develop new sterilization procedures
for spacecraft components using electron-beam
technology.
for agriculture leader
By Chelsea Sledge
THE BATTALION
The research is being funded by a $900,000
grant from NASA
The research is being conducted as a
partnership between A&M and the Jet
Propulsion Lab at the California Institute of
Technology.
Sterilizing spacecraft instruments is
necessary so that bacteria from Earth is not
mistaken as alien
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See NASA on page 2
Electron-beam sterilization will help sterilize
heat sensitive spacecraft components that
cannot be sterilized using current methods.
Andrew Burleson •THE BATTALION
Source:* SURESH PILLAI, LES BRABY
forthgate goes ‘urban’ with new apartments
By Erin Price
THE BATTALION
Ribbon cutting and grand opening ceremonies for new urban
rep orl ' partments behind Northgate are scheduled for 4 p.m. tomorrow at
)e comer of Cross Street and College Main.
Charles Wood, assistant director of economic development for
e City of College Station, said he hopes that The Warehouse at
â– ross Street will make way for Northgate to be a more residentially
lease area with multi-use facilities.
“The more students living near campus alleviates much of the
exas Avenue traffic during peak hours,” Wood said. “It also re-
luces the parking demands for Texas A&M.”
, _ Wood said these 42 new apartments will be the city’s first “urban-
^ dJ^ style” apartments geared toward students. With 2,500 square feet
ee 11 ^ retail space on the bottom floor, the 60,000 square foot mixed-use
levelopment represents a $4 million investment, he said.
“This is a totally unique project,” Wood said. “It would be like
mething you would find in Houston’s midtown area.”
Randy Klein, a partner in Radakor Development, said the project
began in January and the apartments are different from others in
College Station. The apartment has stained concrete floors, exposed
pipes and is open and lit.
“We wanted to offer a lifestyle that we felt wasn’t being offered here
in College Station,” Klein said. “It’s not your typical apartment.”
Wood said the project is part of the city’s Northgate Redevelopment
Plan (NRP), which includes goals for more restaurants and specialty
retailers at Northgate. The city hopes to make Northgate a more urban
neighborhood, from University to the Bryan city limits, he said.
“Northgate is the oldest area in College Station and we take pride
in that,” Wood said. “Not many people know, but Cafe Eccel used
to be City Hall.”
The NRP is a road map for the City of College Station to im
prove Northgate, Wood said. The city has invested a lot of money
for public projects, and this is a way to leverage public funds for
private dollars.
Ashley Peterson, senior accounting major, said she is glad that
College Station now offers urban-style apartments.
“It will be great for community growth,” Peterson said. “It seems
like it will have that big-city feel to it, and I miss that.
Elsa Murano and John Ow
ens have been named candi
dates for the top agricultural
position in the Texas A&M
University System.
The Board of Regents will
make the final decision based on
recommendations from the search
committee before the 2005 spring
semester. The recommendations
will determine if
the titles of vice
chancellor and
dean of agriculture
and life sciences,
and director of the
Texas Agricul
tural Experiment
Station will be
given to Owens or
to Murano, or per
haps another un
named individual.
“We will keep
the door open (for
candidates) for a
few more weeks,”
Kem Bennett,
chair of the Agri-
Either of these
two... could lead
this program. It's
not a question of
which is best; it's a
question of which
fits best.
Nebraska and the vice chancellor
of Neal and Leone Harlan.
Murano was formerly a pro
fessor at A&M in the Depart
ment of Animal Science. She
joined the faculty in 1995 and
served as the director of the Tex
as A&M Institute for Food Sci
ence and Engineering-Center for
Food Safety from 1997-2001.
“(Murano) has been a brilliant
researcher,” Bennett said. “She has
been working on the cutting edge
of research in food
safety and health.
She was tapped to
go to Washington
and has been man
aging a wealth of
people.”
Prior to her
work at A&M,
Murano was an
assistant profes
sor at Iowa State
University. She
graduated from
Florida Interna
tional University
in 1981 with a
degree in biolog
ical sciences. She
— Kem Bennett
chair, search committee
cultural Dean Search Committee,
said. “One of the things we’re
looking for is leadership. This
person will have a very impor
tant role in Texas agriculture and
policy. Both of these individuals
bring strong leadership and one
of the things I like is they have
differing backgrounds.”
Appointed by President Bush
in 2001, Murano is currently
working as the undersecretary for
food safety for the U.S. Depart
ment of Agriculture. Owens is the
vice president at the University of
later obtained a master’s degree
in anaerobic microbiology and
a doctorate in food science and
technology from Virginia Poly
technic Institute.
Owens has served as executive
vice president and chief academic
officer emeritus at New Mexico
State University. He began in 1977
as an associate professor and was
promoted to professor, and then
head of the department of entomol
ogy. Owens was later named dean
See Candidates on page 2