WHILE STUDYING MYSTERY OF CONTINENT FORMATION, U.VA.
GEOLOGIST HOPES TO SPARK SCIENCE INTEREST IN SCHOOL CHILDREN

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 14 -- Exactly how continents
form has long baffled geologists.  "An unanswered question is
whether continents enlarge because they are pushed apart along rift
lines or because they are pulled apart by forces operating
elsewhere," says University of Virginia assistant professor Tanya
Furman.  With the help of a grant from the National Science
Foundation (NSF), Furman is seeking answers to this key question
while helping to encourage an interest in science among
African-American school children.
	Furman, a geologist in the University's environmental
sciences department, is analyzing volcanic rock from the East Africa
Rift.  She will use samples she collected from the African rift as
well as specimens gathered by geologists earlier in this century.
	During this search for clues about the conditions under
which continents were formed, Furman is developing both an
undergraduate course and a series of middle school study plans about
the geology of Africa.  She is working with Eileen Merritt, formerly
a teacher at Greer Elementary School in Albemarle County, to create
lessons on the Nile, the Sahara desert, mineral resources in African
and early African science.  The lessons integrate science and social
studies and are meant to encourage an interest in science especially
among African-American school children.
	They will be available at first in Charlottesville and
Albemarle County schools and later to any school system.
	Furman's $90,000 grant is one of 337 given as part of NSF's
Career Program, which is designed to aid junior faculty in uniting
teaching and research.  Grants were also awarded to six faculty
members in U.Va.'s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.  They
and their research topics are:
	Teresa Culver -- "Dynamic Optimal Control of Groundwater
Remediation"
	Erik Fernandez -- "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Analysis of
Protein Conformation During     Bioprocessing"

	Pamela Norris -- "Microscale Energy Transport in Aerogels"

	Christina Mastrangelo --"Multivariate Process Monitoring
with Correlated Data"

	Edmund Russell -- "War and Nature: Science and Technology in
the History of Chemical       Weapons and Insecticides"

	Kevin Sullivan -- "Toward a Scientific Basis for the Design
of Integrated Systems"

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March 13, 1996
	REPORTERS AND EDITORS:  To interview Tanya Furman, call the
environmental sciences department at (804) 924-7761 or e-mail her at
thf5w@virginia.edu.  For more information about the NSF CAREER
grantees, contact U.Va. News Services at (804) 924-7116.