Yale Bulletin and Calendar

July 19-August 23, 1999Volume 27, Number 35




























Campus Notes

Photographs by Terry Dagradi, a photographer and designer with Biomedical Communications at the School of Medicine, are part of an exhibit titled "Water & Silver: Two Generations of Artists" at Small Space Gallery, 70 Audubon St. Viewing hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. The exhibit, which also features watercolors by Matty Dagradi, will be on display through Tuesday, Aug. 3. Terry Dagradi's photographs also may be seen in the exhibit "The Harbor of Red Mountains: Contemporary Photographers Look at East Rock and West Rock" currently on view at the New Haven Colony Historical Society, 114 Whitney Ave.

President Richard C. Levin has announced the following appointments and reappointments: Lisa Pfefferle, professor of chemical engineering and mechanical engineering, has been named chair of the department of chemical engineering for a three-year term; John Geanakoplos, the James Tobin Professor of Economics, has been reappointed director of the Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics for three years; Harry Stout, the Jonathan Edwards Professor of American Christianity and master of Berkeley College, will serve for another year as chair of the Council of Masters; Robert Adams, the Clark Professor of Moral Philosophy and Metaphysics, has been reappointed to a three-year term as chair of the department of philosophy; and Hazel Carby, professor of African American studies and American studies, has been reappointed chair of the African American Studies Program. Carby will take a leave of absence during the spring 1999-2000 spring semester; during her absence, Robert Stepto, professor of African American Studies, American studies and English, will fill in as chair of the program.

Margaret Grey, associate dean for research affairs and the Independence Foundation Professor of Nursing at the School of Nursing, has been selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow. A recognized authority on children with diabetes, Grey is one of only 15 nurses nationwide to win the prestigious fellowship this year. Through mentorship, seminars and an independent learning plan, the three-year program allows nurse executives to develop as leaders in preparation for major roles in shaping the health care system. Grey, a pediatric nurse practitioner, will use her time as a fellow to explore the use of technology, particularly the Internet, to offer more and better services to people living with chronic illness. She will also attempt to build coalitions among various health care professions to establish a network of chronic care that is accessible, affordable and high in quality.

Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania presented its 1999 Cornerstone Award for Scholarship to Patricia E. Kane, curator of American decorative arts at the Yale University Art Gallery. The award recognizes the achievements and leadership of Chatham alumnae who "demonstrate the essence of a Chatham College education and the ideals of liberal arts education." Kane, a 1966 alumna of Chatham College, has spent the last 31 years at the Yale Art Gallery. Considered an expert in the field of American art, she has written extensively on the subject. She earned her doctorate from the University in 1987.

Carter Wiseman, editor of the Yale Alumni Magazine, has been elected president of the board of directors of MacDowell Colony, the oldest artists' community in the United States. Situated on 450 acres of woodland in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the colony serves as a retreat for 200 composers, writers, visual artists, architects, interdisciplinary artists and filmmakers from the U.S. and abroad each year. Wiseman, an architectural critic and Yale alumnus, has served on the colony's board since 1995. He has written two books on American architecture and is a contributing editor of ARTnews.

Edward Tufte, professor of political science, statistics and computer science, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree by the Maryland Institute, College of Art at its May Commencement ceremony. His citation read, in part, "Edward Tufte, reviewers of your work have said you are to the theory of information architecture what E. H. Gombrich is to art history, what Rudolf Arnheim is to the psychology of art, what Paul Samuelson is to economics, and what Strunk and White are to writing." Tufte has also received honorary degrees from The Cooper Union, Connecticut College and St. Joseph College.

Sara Friedman, a 1988 graduate of Yale College, is one of 15 scholars nationwide to receive a 1999 Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Grant in Women's Studies. The $1,500 grants were established
to encourage scholarship about women. The grant supports graduate students who are completing their doctoral studies in preparation for careers as teachers and scholars. Friedman is now at Cornell University, where she is completing her dissertation "Owing a Debt: Changing Conceptions of Marriage, Labor and Culture in Southeastern China's Hui'an County."

The Organization of American Historians conferred major awards on two Yale faculty members and two alumni at its annual meeting in Toronto in April. Ira Berlin, the Cardozo Lecturer in the history department and a professor at the University of Maryland, was cowinner of the Elliott Rudwick Prize for his seminal work on racial and ethnic history, "Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America." Berlin was also a recent winner of the American Historical Association's Bancroft Prize, considered the top award in the study of history. Rogers M. Smith, professor of political science, received the Merle Curti Award for the best book in intellectual history for his recent "Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History." Yale graduate Catherine Allgor, who teaches at Simmons College, received the Lorner-Scott Prize for her Yale doctoral dissertation "Political Parties: Society and Politics in Washington City, 1800-1832," and alumna Elizabeth Anne Fenn, who teaches at George Washington University, received the Louis Pelzer Memorial Award for the best essay in American history by a graduate student. Her essay, which will appear in a forthcoming issue of The Journal of American History, is titled "Beyond Jeffrey Amherst: Biological Warfare in Eighteenth-Century North America."

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has selected two faculty members -- Dirk Bergemann and Charles A. Schmuttenmaer -- as Sloan Research Fellows. The prestigious fellowships are awarded to support young college and university faculty members who have "demonstrated special creative ability in the physical sciences, mathematics, neuroscience, computer science and economics." Bergemann, an assistant professor, was chosen for his work in economics, while Schmuttenmaer, an associate professor, was selected for his research in chemistry.

Two Yale affiliates are among 23 recent graduates of the Leadership Greater New Haven program conducted by the Greater New Haven Leadership Center (GNHLC). GNHLC, part of a nationwide network, offers a variety of programs in leadership and community development to individuals who seek a leading role in strengthening their communities. Heidi Hamilton, contract manager in community relations, and Wanda Anderson Harris, director of the Urban Health Program in the department of epidemiology and public health, graduated from the program on June 16.

Robert Farris Thompson, the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art, was a featured speaker at an international symposium titled "Reverberations: Tactics of Resistance, Forms of Agency in Trans/Cultural Practices," held in Maastricht, the Netherlands, in April. Thompson presented a talk titled "Mambo: Microcosm of Black New York Creativity," which explored the Kongo roots of mambo dance and its evolution in American and Latino culture.

Benjamin Harshav, professor of comparative literature, Slavic languages and literature, and the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature, was featured in the May 1999 edition of ARTnews for his discovery that the FBI kept Marc Chagall under surveillance because of its suspicion that the famous artist was associated with Communists. Harshav obtained an FBI file through the Freedom of Information Act, and has written an unpublished manuscript exploring the life of the Russian-born artist using primary source material. Harshav is considered on expert on the Russian Jewish cultural milieu of Chagall's generation and wrote the catalogue for the Guggenheim Museum's 1992 exhibit "Marc Chagall and the Jewish Theater."

Two Yale-New Haven Hospital laboratories led by members of the Yale faculty have recently been granted accreditation. The Yale Cardiovascular Nuclear Imaging Laboratory, led by Dr. Frans J. Th. Wackers, professor of diagnostic radiology and cardiology at the School of Medicine, is one of the first laboratories to be granted accreditation by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Nuclear Medicine Laboratories. The laboratory conducts testing for the diagnosis of heart disease, performing about 4,000 stress tests each year to diagnose coronary artery disease and about 1,000 specific tests to assess ventricular function. The adult echocardiography laboratory, directed by Dr. C. Carl Jaffe, professor of internal medicine (cardiology) and academic director of the Center for Advanced Instructional Media, received accreditation from the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories. The Echo Lab, as it is known, provides images used in the diagnosis of cardiac function, valvular heart disease and cardiovascular disease. More than 6,200 patients are seen in the lab each year. The accreditations recognize both laboratories' commitment to quality care.

Dr. Irwin M. Braverman, professor of dermatology, was presented the David Martin Carter Mentor Award at the annual meeting of the Society for Investigative Dermatology, held in Chicago on May 7. The award is presented annually by the David Martin Carter Award Fund to a member of the dermatological community who embodies those characteristics of the late Dr. D. Martin Carter, a former faculty member in the dermatology department who was a mentor to many dermatologists and dermatologic investigators throughout the world. The award was presented to Dr. Braverman in recognition of his thoughtful direction and leadership in dermatology as a trainer in clinical and basic science to medical students, residents, research fellows and junior colleagues.

Yale University Press and the American Philosophical Society have announced the appointment of Ellen Cohn as editor-in-chief of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin. Cohn, who has been working on the Papers for nearly 20 years, will oversee the final stages of the Yale-based editorial project, which is targeted for completion in the year 2006, the 300th anniversary of Franklin's birth. So far, 34 volumes of papers have been published; 12 more volumes are required to make available in print (and CD-ROM) all of Franklin's surviving papers. New staff members will be hired to prepare the final volumes. Cohn has shared her extensive knowledge of Benjamin Franklin via lectures, articles and editorial notes. She has visited repositories around the country in connection with her work on the project.

Dr. Stephen Waxman, professor and chair of the department of neurology at the School of Medicine, was awarded the Robert Wartenberg Lecture by the American Academy of Neurology. The lecture, established in 1957 to honor the contributions of the late Robert Wartenberg and his contributions to clinical neurology, is presented to a neurologist for excellence in clinically relevant research. Waxman recently gave his lecture, titled "The Molecular Revolution and the Preservation of Function in Neurological Disorders," at the academy's annual meeting in Toronto. In his talk, the neurologist noted how molecular neuroscience may help to provide new therapies for such disorders as stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injury.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a MERIT Award to Joel L. Rosenbaum, professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, for continuation of his laboratory's research on the synthesis and assembly of flagellar proteins.

The award provides long-term support (at least five years and up to 10 years) to "investigators of proven research competence and productivity" who are working actively "in a research area that is of special importance or promise."

Rosenbaum's research team studies a bi-flagellate alga called Chlamydomonas, and has identified processes essential for the development and maintenance of cell organelles called cilia. Cilia, which line the respiratory and reproductive tracts, also play an important role in embryonic development and sensory processes such as sight, smell, hearing and taste. Rosenbaum's work could have implications for numerous human illnesses and diseases, including cystic fibrosis.


T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Yale students working with city residents to revitalize New Haven . . .
Top women in tennis to vie for Pilot Pen trophy
Enterprise Center helping to transform ideas for new businesses into realities
With NIH support, researchers seek ways to heal spinal cord
Exhibit pays tribute to Fossey's work with mountain gorillas
Entomologist verifies immigrant mosquito's arrival in state
Artistic transgressions applauded in Yale Art Gallery show
Fellowship winners devote summer to work in Elm City
Dwight Hall internships provide opportunity for public service
Accomplished high school students will attend Yale as Sterling Scholars
Alumni honored for their success as scholar-athletes
Support renewed for Yale-China's summer institutes
Links between environment, economy explored in new books
Yale affiliates featured in exhibit focusing on East and West Rocks
Noted pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton to speak at annual conference
Campus Notes


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