Appointments at Library of Congress

Update from the Library of Congress Preservation Directorate: In
ongoing efforts to develop staff and tools needed for increasingly
complex preservation issues in traditional, audiovisual, and digital
collections, the Preservation Directorate of the Library of Congress
will be announcing a series of milestones throughout the rest of
this year, to include:

    *   the hiring of new scientists for the Preservation Research
        and Testing Division (PRTD)

    *   the hosting a summit of national and international
        scientists

    *   the reopening of PRTD's optical properties lab, having new
        capabilities to track changes in optical properties of
        materials (with a new environmental scanning electron
        microscope and other imaging systems)

    *   the reopening PRTD's chemical and mechanical properties
        laboratory, having new capabilities to track changes in
        chemical and mechanical properties (including a new TAPPI
        Standards room)

    *   the establishment of a new materials science reference
        collection

We will be updating colleagues as these initiatives come online.  At
this time we are pleased to announce the first of these initiatives:
the hiring of the following four new scientists, effective
immediately.

Dr. Christopher S. Coughlin received a PhD in Polymer Science from
the University of Southern Mississippi, following a BSE in Polymer
Science from Case Western Reserve University.  He worked in a
variety of governmental positions, including six years at the Naval
Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).  He has a wide experience in synthetic
organic polymers and polymer engineering, which will support the
Library's programs in the preservation of audio-visual and digital
media, working with PRTD's thermal analysis and gel-permeation
chromatography instruments.

Dr. Lynn Brostoff received a PhD in Chemistry from the University of
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, following a Masters in Polymer Materials
Science from the University of Cincinnati and a Masters in Art
History with a Certificate of Conservation from New York University.
She worked at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum Conservation
Institute for four years, and previously at the National Gallery of
Art.  She has a wide experience in materials analysis and coatings
science, which will support the Library's program in the
preservation of traditional library materials, working with PRTD's
infra red spectroscopy and x-ray fluorescence instruments.

Dr. Fenella France received a PhD in Textile Science from the
University of Otago, in New Zealand.  She worked as the Smithsonian
Institution Preservation Scientist on the Star-Spangled Banner for
the past decade, as Scientific Analyst and Project Manager for the
World Trade Center 9/11 Project since 2002, and as Conservation
Scientist and Environmental Consultant with the American Museum of
Natural History in New York for the past three years.  She has wide
experience in preventive conservation and the testing of natural
organic materials, and will support the Library's programs of
environmental research and the transfer of technology to
preservation research, working with PRTD's environmental sensing
(heat, humidity, light, oxygen) and hyper-spectral and other imaging
instruments.

Dr. Jennifer Wade received a PhD in Earth Sciences from Boston
University.  She previously worked as a Physical Scientist at the
Preservation Research and Testing Division of the Library of
Congress for one year.  She has a wide experience in the
micro-analysis of inorganic materials, which will support the
Library's programs of quality assurance of library materials and the
preservation of digital media, working with PRTD's environmental
scanning electron microscopy and inductively-coupled plasma optical
emission spectroscopy instruments.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 21:65
                   Distributed: Sunday, June 15, 2008
                       Message Id: cdl-21-65-001
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