Theodore H. McNelly, professor emeritus, department of government and politics at the University of Maryland, College Park, passed away in February 2008 at the age of 88. Professor Emeritus McNelly was born on December 27, 1919, and received his Ph.D. in 1952 at Columbia University. McNelly joined the faculty in the department of government and politics at Maryland in the fall of 1953 as a lecturer, was promoted to professor in 1967, and retired in 1991.

Here's a preview of some of the articles that will be published in the April 2008 issue of PS: Political Science and Politics.

Trudi C. Miller died on September 30, 2003, after a brief illness. After earning a BA in English from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she spent most of her career at the National Science Foundation. After a brief stay at the State University of New York at Buffalo, she moved to NSF, where she rose to be the program director for the Decision, Risk and Management Division of Social and Economic Science.

For years journal articles from the natural sciences have been characterized by multiple authors, reflecting the collaborative nature of the research. The articles have also conformed to a professional norm in giving credit to the authors and, at least implicitly, indicating their relative contributions. Although such collaborative research has grown significantly in political science, the discipline is still wrestling with any standard to indicate who gets credit and the nature of multiple authors' relative contributions. This is an issue with which political scientists from the most junior to the most senior continue to deal.

Dr. William R. Nelson, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.), passed away on June 30, 2008, at Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Harrisonburg, VA. Dr. Nelson was born February 5, 1924, in Colton, California. He was the son of the late William Gunther and Vera Maughan Nelson.

Morris S. Ogul died on April 6, 2008, after a lengthy illness finally succumbing to pneumonia. He was 76. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Morry spent his entire career on the faculty of the political science department at the University of Pittsburgh, beginning in 1957 and became professor emeritus in 1998. He also served as chair of the department.

Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society, is proud to announce the winners of its 2007 Chapter Activity Grants Competition. In this annual program Pi Sigma Alpha chapters submit proposals for activities they would not be able to carry out without funding. The maximum grant to any chapter is $2,000. The proposed activities may be in areas such as chapter and student development, social service, and the like. A grants committee reviews the proposals competitively and makes awards based on the quality and feasibility of the activity proposed, the completeness and appropriateness of the budget, and other factors. Chapters may submit proposals for one or two activities. Some proposals received full funding, some received partial funding with instructions on how to scale back the activity, and some were rejected. This year the committee funded proposals for 103 activities. Now in its 27th year, the Chapter Activity Grants program is the biggest and most important of the honor society's award programs both because of the size of its budget and the very large number of students who benefit from it.

It is with great sadness that we report the death of James S. Pacy, professor emeritus of political science. Jim died at his home in Burlington, Vermont, on April 21, 2008, of complications from Alzheimer's disease at the age of 77. Jim, of proud Hungarian descent, was born in Caledonia, Ontario, on August 17, 1930. His family emigrated to Manville, New Jersey, when he was two years old. Manville, at the time the company town of asbestos manufacturer Johns-Manville, was an ethnically diverse community just a short drive up from Princeton but in an entirely different world. His hometown was the topic of many a reminiscence and story told by Jim over the years. Manville, for Jim, was always a reminder of the importance of home, ethnic ties, and community. For him, that humble background would lead to greater things.

Long Island University's political science department will offer a course in spring 2008 that will help students examine the background, conduct, and implications of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Economic, political, and military interests will be examined; connections will be drawn to the history and politics of the Middle East, the future of U.S. democracy, the role of the political opposition, the perspectives of other domestic and international actors, and more. The course will explore the events leading up to the invasion; internal politics within the Bush administration; the domestic and world reactions to the war; developments in Iraq and the region; the significance of oil in the world economy; the role of the media; consequences of U.S. methods upon human rights standards; opposition to the war; and the impact of the war at home. The participating faculty are John Ehrenberg, professor of political science and department chair; J. Patrice McSherry, professor, political science and director, Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Jose Ramon Sanchez, associate professor of political Science and chair of urban studies; and Caroleen Marji Sayej, assistant professor of political science.

On the morning of the day before he passed away David Rebovich felt under the weather. However, no flu (as he believed it to be) could prevent him from meeting his students to plan the next activity sponsored by the Institute of New Jersey Politics. Nor could it keep him from staying after the meeting to speak with those students who had need for his help or advice. One of the latter was a senior who decided to pursue the sought-after position of intern at the governor's office. David agreed to recommend him for the position and the two parted. This however was not the last that the student heard of the position. Following David's funeral, the governor identified him and instructed him to submit the application.

Association news.

The Pisa conference was also the occasion for presenting three of the ECPR's prizes. The first was the ECPR's Lifetime Achievement Award for an outstanding contribution to European political science, which went to an American: Philippe Schmitter (European University, Florence, and formerly Stanford University). Second, the annual Jean Blondel Ph.D. Prize was awarded to Tanja Aalberts (Leiden University) for her dissertation on the politics of sovereignty. Finally, the Mattei Dogan Foundation Prize in European Political Sociology went to Giovanni Sartori (professor emeritus, University of Florence and Columbia University).

Peter Katzenstein is a prodigiously productive scholar. As a comparativist, a student of international relations, an historian, and one who has successfully bridged the qualitative and quantitative divide in our discipline, he has made signal contributions to general international relations, political economy, security studies, European and German studies, Asian and Japanese studies, and political science in general. In this brief résumé, seven of his friends and collaborators highlight his major contributions.