AUBURN - Auburn University's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry will host the combined southeast and southwest regional meetings of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers Nov. 11 and 12.

The goals of the meeting include fostering communication and scientific interaction between people of diverse backgrounds and building a community of professional support. A variety of age groups and experience levels will be present at the meeting. Participants will have an opportunity to interact with representatives of industrial and governmental institutions and to explore further educational opportunities. Around 100 participants will attend, including many from historically black colleges and universities in the region.

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AUBURN - Five employees of The Hotel at Auburn University were recognized at the Alabama Hotel and Lodging Association's Stars of the Industry Awards gala in Birmingham Oct. 24, with two taking home top honors. Catering and special events chef Leonardo Maurelli was named Chef of the Year and engineer Charles Smith was named the Hospitality Employee of the Year. Finalists in their fields were Laura Stirling, director of housekeeping; Ted Dempsey, member of the audio/visual department; and Caleb Reeves, bartender.  Reeves also took home the silver medal for the Alabama Bartender Competition.

"We are so honored and proud to have two individuals from The Hotel at Auburn University win these very prestigious awards and three others named as finalists," said Hans van der Reijden, managing director of The Hotel at Auburn University.  "Chef Maurelli's continued dedication to his craft and all of the effort he put into organizing Chefs to the Rescue, the June fundraiser event to benefit Alabama's April tornado victims featuring 24 chefs from around the country, were some of the characteristics that helped him win his award."

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AUBURN - Peter Campion, assistant professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts, has received the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for Poetry.

Of the nearly 3,000 applications received, 180 recipients were selected by the Board of Trustees for the foundation. Campion is the only Auburn faculty member to receive the prestigious award, and is one of the few selected from the Southeast.

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James Edgar Foy, one of the most widely known and beloved figures at Auburn University for more than half a century, died Friday evening in Auburn. He was 93.

Visitation will be held Tuesday, Oct. 12, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Jeffcoat-Trant Funeral Home and from 10 to 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 13, at Auburn United Methodist Church's Founders Chapel. Funeral services will be held Wednesday, Oct. 13, at 11 a.m at Auburn United Methodist Church. Burial will follow in Fairview Cemetery in Eufaula at 3 p.m.

As Auburn's dean of student affairs for a quarter century and a volunteer on campus for 30 more years, Foy became one of the most iconic Auburn figures of the last half of the 20th century.

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AUBURN - The Federal Aviation Administration has awarded Auburn University researchers a $300,000 research grant for safety-related analyses of Unmanned Aerial Systems. The project is an interdisciplinary effort of the College of Business, the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and the College of Sciences and Mathematics.

Unmanned Aerial Systems are becoming more common in both military and civilian applications. Civil and commercial operations have shown increased interest in UASs because of their versatility and relatively low cost of operation. Because of the expanded use of UASs, plans are underway to integrate them into the National Aerospace System.

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AUBURN - Henry Burdg, director of the Auburn Technical Assistance Center at Auburn University, has achieved examiner recertification and recently was appointed Senior Examiner for the 2010 Alabama Quality Award.

Modeled after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the Alabama Quality Award recognizes and honors organizations whose past or recent innovations in areas of production, service or management have resulted in increased productivity and quality.

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AUBURN - Auburn University mascot Aubie recently discovered that the Harrison School of Pharmacy has a wealth of talent among its students, faculty and staff – not just for ensuring safe medication therapy, but also for using music to create excitement in education.

They did this by making a music video, "Video PHANTASTIC," that uses Aubie as their patient. Viewers can see through the eyes of Aubie his own musical experience as he gets a prescription filled at the school.

The video is available for viewing at http://www.youtube.com/user/AuburnPharmacy.

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AUBURN - TigerMeds, a pharmacy services program for Auburn University employees, has reported more than $1.3 million in savings on prescription costs for individuals and the university during the program's first year.

Auburn's group health insurance plan saved more than $1 million in prescription costs during the past year through implementation of the TigerMeds program. That figure is based on an external pharmacy benefit analysis by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, administrator of the self-insurance plan.

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The Auburn University Office of Admissions and Recruitment is inviting faculty and staff and their high school seniors for an admissions open house Tuesday, Dec. 8, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Quad Center. Sessions will be held at 4:20 p.m. and 5:20 p.m. with presentations by the offices of Admissions and Recruitment, University Scholarships and Student Financial Services. Topics covered will include the admissions and enrollment process, available scholarships and employee dependent tuition waiver. Representatives from these areas will also be available throughout the reception. Please RSVP to rsvpaub@auburn.edu by Friday, Dec. 4. For more information, call 844-3540.

AUBURN -  A new Auburn University-designed, high-tech pharmacy in Meridian, Miss., is the first of its kind and is a model facility that could be built in communities across the United States.

Auburn pharmacy professors Kenneth Barker and Betsy Flynn led a multidisciplinary team in designing the recently opened facility for Vital Care Inc., which will help pharmacists offer complex medications for in-home use, ones that are normally administered only in hospitals.

The two-story, 16,000-square-foot building is used for preparing, dispensing and administering the medications, while, at the same time, serving as a demonstration and teaching model for potential franchisees wishing to open a similar facility. Pharmacists may choose to duplicate the entire design for home-infusion medications or individual function areas.

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