Professional Qualifications - Martin LaBar

Degrees
Professional meetings and courses past the doctorate
Grants obtained, etc.
Software used
Publications
        web publications
Teaching
Committees, civic, religious

 

  
 

 

  
  Degrees: B.A. with double major (biology, chemistry-physics) and minor in math from Wisconsin State University, Superior, 1958.
M.S. in Genetics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1963
Ph.D. in Genetics & Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1965.
Sc. D., Southern Wesleyan University, 2004.

Pertinent Professional Attendance: National Science Foundation Summer Institutes: 1965 College Botany Teachers (Michigan State Univ.) 1971 Population Biology (U. of Houston) (used mainframe computer for FORTRAN batch programming while there) 1973 Computers in Undergraduate Education (Ill. Inst. Technology) (used HP minicomputer for interactive computing while there)
NSF Chautauqua-Type Short Courses: 1971-72 Mathematical Modeling (Clark College); 1976-77 Modeling, Mathematics, & Computers in Biology (Clark College); 1977-78 Biosociology (U of GA); 1978-79 Use of Original Literature in Teaching Biology (U of GA); 1980-81 Immunology (U of GA)
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar "Liberty, Equality & Fidelity in Bioethics" Indiana University, 1979.
Faith/Learning/Living Institute, Trinity College, Deerfield, Illinois (1981)
Attendee First Annual Conference "Environmental Ethics and Contemporary Ethical Theory"  University of Georgia (Oct. 19-21, 1981)

Grants Obtained, etc: Title VI HEW Instructional Equipment Grant project director, 1977-78
NSF Student Science Training Program, "Mathematics as Applied to Biology," 1978 (high ability high school students--was project director and sole instructor. We used a terminal hookup to the Clemson mainframe.)
NSF LOCI grant director, "Using Computers to Improve Undergraduate Instruction at CWC," (SWU was formerly named Central Wesleyan College) 1980. (Purchased SWU’s first academic computer, an Apple II, with this grant.)
National Association of State Departments of Teacher Education Certification evaluation team member: Furman University, Presbyterian College, Voorhees College 
Invited Lecturer to high school groups on ethics of human cloning, genetic engineering, science and religion, also lecturer to church groups on similar topics, origins, environmental stewardship, and science fiction
SWU Faculty lectures on Genetic Engineering (1981) and the Philosophy of Physics (1985)
All-School chapel on the Bible and the environment, sometime in the 1970s
Several other all-school chapels, mostly on non-scientific subjects
Addresses to Science Division chapel, or chapel choice, on "Uploading your soul (to a computer," "When does life begin," "Keeping the relationship between body and spirit in balance," "What I have learned as a scientist"
Assisted with faculty workshop on academic integrity
Presented faculty workshop on finding academically credible sources on the Internet, on two occasions
Presentation to SWU honors seminar on intellectual property
Co-presenter (with a student) on "Stem Cells," to SWU honors seminar
Member, biology task force, Christian College Coalition. This committee suggested topics for publication of a book entitled Biology Through the Eyes of Faith, and served as reviewers of the manuscript. (1984 - 1987)
Referee/reviewer for Wm. C. Brown Co. (Now part of McGraw-Hill) texts in computing (2), botany and genetics
Reviewer for a chapter on “Spam and the Legal Counter Attacks” in The Handbook of Information Security, Hossein Bidgoli, editor-in-chief, to be published by John Wiley

Address, SWU graduation, morning ceremony, December, 2004
Presented workshop to any interested SWU faculty, introducing RSS feeds and Blogs, April, 2005.

Software used: Have had extensive experience with the following current applications: Adobe Photoshop; Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint; FTP programs; Corel DRAW and Photopaint (through 13); Microsoft Windows (through Vista). Also experience with the following applications which are not current: Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft FrontPage, Corel WordPerfect. Less extensive experience with Microsoft Access; Macromedia Freehand, Fireworks, Flash. Nodding acquaintance with several other applications.

Publications A. Articles

1967 (with M.R.Irwin) "Relationships Among Interaction Products of Genes in Hybrids Between Pigeons and Doves, Following Transfer of Genes Between Species," Genetical Research, 10:273-287

1972   "Ecology and the Bible," Wesleyan Advocate, May 15, 1972

1973   "Turning the Left Cheek Examined Using Modern Photography" Nature, 245:338 1974   "The Bible and Race," Wesleyan Advocate, Feb. 18
           "A Message to Polluters from the Bible," Christianity Today, 18:1186-1190 (revision of 1972 article)
           "Programmable Calculators as Teaching Aids and Alternatives to Computers," School Science and Mathematics 74:647-650  (with Floyd L. Wilcox, Sr., and Claude M. Rickman)

1977    "Some Uses of Programmable Calculators in Mathematics Teaching," in Math Monograph #5, Mathematics Council, Alberta Teachers Assn., K. Allen Neufeld, ed., pp. 119-122

1978     "Arthur C. Clarke:  Humanism in Science Fiction," Christianity Today, 22:1097

1980     "The Left Hand of Sexism?  Women as the Alien Species on Gethen," Extrapolation 21:187-189
              "Reversing the 2nd Law," Wesleyan Advocate, March 17
              "All Things are His," Wesleyan Advocate, Dec. 15

1981      "Slipping the Truth in Edgewise," Christianity Today, 25:38-39 (overview of the fiction of Ursula K. LeGuin)
               "The Abortion Dilemma," Wesleyan Advocate, Sept. 21
               "Genetic Engineering: Good, Bad or Indifferent,"  Wesleyan Advocate, Nov. 2

1982     "A Practical Use of Exponents:  Eliminating an Unnecessary Search for a Compound Interest Rate," School Science and Mathematics 82:373-374

1983     "A World is Not Made to Last Forever:  The Bioethics of C. S. Lewis," Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 35:104-107

1984     "The Pros and Cons of Human Cloning," Thought 59:319­333
              "Earth, Age of," and "Origin of the Universe," in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Walter Elwell, ed. (Baker:  Grand Rapids: also responsible for same articles in revision during 1996)

1986     "A Biblical Perspective on Nonhuman Organisms:  Values, Moral Considerability, and Moral Agency," in Religion and Environmental Crisis, Athens: University of Georgia, pp. 76-93. Originally presented as "A Biblical Perspective on Non-Human Organisms," at the conference, "Theological Issues in Environmental Ethics," at the University of Denver, October, 1982.

1987      "Celebrate the Diversity of God's Creation!," Wesleyan Advocate, October 5, p. 9 (vol 145:329)

prepared for distribution by The Wesleyan Church’s Task Force on Moral and Social Reform:
               "Death and dying," 1990
               "Environment," 1991

1998       Letter commenting on "Alcohol Through the Ages," Scientific American, October 1998, page 9 (Vol 279)

                "Numbers in Genesis," (letter to editor) published in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, 56:75, March 2004

                "On Gaps in Genealogies," letter in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, 56:308, December, 2004

B. Book reviews of approximately 220 books and web sites in Choice and Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (formerly Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation) from the 1960s to the present. Formerly occasional reviewer for Ecology, Science Books and Films, and Christianity Today. Also have done a few software reviews.

Some of these reviews have been published on-line by the American Scientific Affiliation. They include: Christianity, Wilderness and Wildlife, by Susan Power Bratton, September, 1994.
On the New Frontiers of Genetics and Religion, by J. Robert Nelson, June, 1995.
An Ethos of Compassion, edited by Brian J. Walsh, Hendrik Hart and Robert E. VanderVennen, December, 1996.
The Artful Universe, by John D. Barrow, March, 1997.
Dignity and Dying, edited by John F. Kilner, Arlene B. Miller and Edmund B. Pellegrino, December, 1997.
Full House, by Stephen Jay Gould, March, 1998.
Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds, by Phillip E. Johnson, March, 1998.
Religion and Technology, by Jay Newman, June, 1998.
Where Garden Meets Wilderness, by E. Calvin Beisner, September, 1998.
The Animal Creation, by John Styles, March, 1999.
On God and Dogs, by Stephen H. Webb, March, 1999.
Bioethics: A Christian Approach in a Pluralistic Age, by Scott B. Rae and Paul M. Cox, June, 2000
The Reproduction Revolution, edited by  John F. Kilner, Paige C. Cunningham, and W. David Hager, December, 2000.
God After Darwin, by John F. Haught, December, 2000.
Supersymmetry, by Gordon Kane, June, 2001.
Are Souls Real?, by Jerome Elbert, June, 2001.
 The Reenchantment of Nature: The Denial of Religion and the Ecological Crisis, by Alister McGrath, December, 2002.
Darwinism and the "Creation Science" Movement, by Joe Ator, December, 2002.
Religion and Science: God, Evolution and the Mind, by Nancey Murphy, March, 2003.
Science and Creation: An Introduction to Some Tough Issues and Biology and Creation: An Introduction Regarding Life and its Origins, both by Wayne Frair, June, 2003
Pandemonium Tremendum: Chaos and Mystery in the Life of God by James M. Huchingson, September, 2003
Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology by Albert Borgmann, March, 2004
Some later reviews -- I haven't kept this current since my retirement.

C. Web Publications: Documents on these subjects are among those currently available on-line: Harry Potter,  Jack Vance (I received a request, which I granted, for permission to translate this document into French, in late January 2005), Patricia McKillip, J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert Silverberg's Majipoor stories, uploading a soul to a computer, thermodynamics, technology and the Bible, Keeping the relationship between body and spirit in balance and When does life begin?

Began blog, "Sun and Shield," December, 2004, wherein I engage in "Musings on science, the Bible, and fantastic literature." Publication on this blog is extensive. See right-hand sidebar for list of my most important posts.

The American Scientific Affiliation has posted my article on the bioethics of C. S. Lewis. (Without mentioning my affiliation with SWU--which is because I was on sabbatical at Bryan College when I presented the paper.)

D. I personally prepared all the graphics on this page, and on my web site, unless an exception is noted.
I have prepared three TrueType fonts, Hex Nut, Stacy Font and Waxfont. Hex nut is available from the previous link. The other two were prepared from the handwriting of my daughters. They are not available for Internet distribution.

Teaching experience: Have taught, or am teaching, zoology, desktop design, ecology,  immunology, animal behavior,  fundamentals of  math, introduction to computers, algebra, physical science,  genetics, computer ethics, biology, physics, bioethics, botany, and biology seminars, some for over 30 years, (Last 6 during Spring semester, 2005; biology in May term, 2005) all at Southern Wesleyan University (also taught physics and physical science at Bryan College while on sabbatical). I joined the faculty at Southern Wesleyan University (then Central Wesleyan College) in September, 1964.

Committees, civic, religious: Was chair of science at SWU from 1964 until July 2003, when I asked to be relieved of that office, except for a year on sabbatical. Served on numerous committees, including searches for president, Dean of Students, Associate VP for Academics, Academic Dean (chair), head librarian (chair), music faculty, science and computer faculty (chair). Was on SWU committee to plan new library (chair), Information Technology Committee, Academic Council, Cultural Awareness, others. Member of Pickens County Health Planning Council, 1971-6 (chair one year). Member, Liberty Elementary School Principal's Advisory Council, 1978-82, chair 2 years. Vice-President, Liberty Elementary School PTA, 1981-2. Member, Liberty Planning and Zoning Commission, 1993-2005, chair, 1998-2005. Married to the same woman since October 1966. Member of the same church (now United Wesleyan, Easley, SC) since July 1966. Have taught Sunday School, been song leader and choir director, children's worker, YMWB (now WKFM) director, been on local, state and North American boards of administration. Currently SS teacher and on local board.

Prepared using CoffeeCup, Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe Photoshop, and Macromedia Freehand. Uploaded with FileZilla, by Tom Kosse. I thank SWU for computer infrastructure.

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May 1, 2008