Reporter Volume 25, No.28 Commencement Extra

By CAITLIN KELLY
News Bureau Staff
After Mark Wieczorek earns his Ph.D. in Physics, he wants to open a
restaurant or maybe a movie theater so he can hire all his friends.
	He speaks with interest on the subduction of the Pacific
Plate, why people should travel, and how poetry is a farce if you take
it too seriously.
	Wieczorek is a graduating senior at UB in the Departments of
Physics and Geology.
	He has worked with NASA, interpreting data from the Apollo 17
mission and the Magellan mission to Venus. He traveled to Alaska to
decipher radar images of sea ice. Between NASA gigs he maintains
excellent grades at UB, assists John F. King, a nationally recognized
professor of geology with his research, animates films and writes
poetry.
	This spring, Wieczorek was awarded a $10,000 scholarship by
the National Space Club, an organization of aerospace companies
working to foster space exploration. A spokesman for the National
Space Club Scholarship Committee, Steve Dwornik, described Wieczorek
as the "clear choice" for the award out of the 110 applicants from all
over the country.
	Next semester, Wieczorek will enter the Ph.D. program in
Physics at Washington University in St. Louis. He's particularly
interested in studying the parallels between earth and other planets.
Plate tectonics, movements of the plates that make up the earth's
crust and mantle and remote sensing, infrared or radar signals from
spacecraft that give information about the composition of the surface
of a planet are two areas on which he intends to concentrate.
	Wieczorek plans to travel extensively...he wants to see the
uncommon, out-of -the-way placesQlike Newfoundland this summerQperhaps
Iceland next summer. He doesn't think he'll ever settle down for too
long.
	Film classes in the Media Studies Department inspired
Wieczorek's hobby of making animated films including "Contents," which
deals with the physical composition of film itself. "I use film as a
visual experience rather than a medium to convey information," he
says.
	He writes poems, too.
	His poems deal with reality--plain and simple. Like his films,
his poems are not intended to provoke analysis. They explore the
obvious and record what is common, relying on the shared experience of
the author and his readers.
	Last year, he placed second in a local poetry contest with his
piece, "Attention All Library Users":
	"The library will be closing in 15 minutes at which time all
persons must vacate the building. If you have not done so at this
time, please return all reference materials and periodicals to the
circulation desk...." 
	"You can't take yourself too seriously," Wieczorek explains.
	Eventually, he says, he will try computer animation and
possibly study Cognitive Sciences.