Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 8-15, 1999

Volume 28, Number 12

Hong Kong appeals court judge to present talk

The Honorable Barry Mortimer, a justice on the Court of Appeal of the High Court in Hong Kong, will speak on a topic to be announced during a visit to the campus on Tuesday, Nov. 9.

His talk will take place at noon in Rm. 110 of the Law School, 127 Wall St. The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Council on East Asian Studies (part of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies), Asia Law Forum and the Yale-China Association.

Mortimer has been a justice on the Court of Appeal of the High Court since 1993 and has served since 1997 as a vice-president of the court and as a non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal. He has lectured on legal subjects in the United States, England, Holland, Denmark and Australia.

Educated in England, he began his legal career there and was Queen's Counsel in 1971. He served as a recorder of the Crown Court 1972-87 and became a judge on the Supreme Court of Hong Kong in 1985. He became a justice of the Court of Appeal in 1993.

Mortimer was a member of Hong Kong's Law Reform Commission 1990-93 and has been chair of the Subcommittee on Privacy and Data Protection since 1991. He has served for the past two years as vice chair of the Advocacy Institute of Hong Kong. A former chair of the Criminal Court Users Committee, he has also served on the Mental Health Review Tribunal and the Overseas Trust Bank (Compensation) Tribunal. He has been an honorary diplomate of the American Board of Trial Advocates since 1994. His honors include the Gold Bauhinia Star, which he was awarded this year.

Award-winning poet to talk about poetry, manic depression

"Poetry, Translation and Manic Depression" is the title of a talk being given on Tuesday, Nov. 9, by award-winning poet and translator Rika Lesser.

The event, sponsored by the Yale University Women's Organization as part of its Lunch and Learn series, will begin with a gathering at noon in the Silliman College master's house, 71 Wall St. (between College and Temple streets). Following an introduction by George Schoolfield, professor emeritus of German and Swedish literature, Lesser will begin her talk at 12:30 p.m. Guests are invited to bring their own lunch; dessert, coffee and tea will be provided.

A 1974 graduate of Yale College, Lesser is the author of three collections of poetry: "Etruscan Things," "All We Need of Hell" and "Growing Back: Poems 1972-1992." For her poetry, she has received the Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship and the George Bogin Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America.

Lesser is also a noted translator of poetry and of both German and Swedish Literature. She was awarded the Poetry Translation Prize of the Swedish Academy in 1996 and received a Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship of Sweden this year.

Lesser has taught at Yale and at Columbia University, where she earned her master's degree.

Internationally known dancer to talk at master's tea

Dancer Mark Morris, who has created more than 100 works for ballet companies around the world, will be the guest at a tea on Thursday, Nov. 11, at 4:30 p.m. at the Calhoun College master's house, 434 College St.

The event is free and open to the public.

Morris performed with a variety of dance companies before he formed the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980. He has since created dances for such companies such as the San Francisco Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre. In 1988, his dance group was invited to become the national dance company of Belgium, and for the next three years Morris was director of dance at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the national opera house of Belgium where the group was in residence. During his time there, Morris created a dozen works, including "The Hard Nut" (his comic book-inspired version of "The Nutcracker"), "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato" and "Dido and Aeneas," and he founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov. The company returned to the United States in 1991.

The Mark Morris Dance Group maintains a full international touring schedule. It also was involved in two recent film projects: a collaboration with cellist Yo-Yo Ma titled "Falling Down Stairs" and a film version of "Dido and Aeneas."

Morris was named a fellow of the MacArthur Foundation in 1991 and is the subject of a biography by Joan Acocella. His company's British premiere performances of "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato" with the English National Opera garnered the dance group the 1997 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production.

Human genetic enhancement is topic of panel discussion

"Human Genetic Enhancement: Prospects and Ethical Dilemmas" is the subject of a panel discussion by two Yale alumni on Wednesday, Nov. 17, as part of the seminar series on "Bioethics and Public Policy" sponsored by the Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS).

The panelists will be Dr. Jon Gordon, the Mathers Professor of Geriatrics and professor of obstetrics/gynecology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and LeRoy Walters, director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.

The panel discussion will take place twice. The first discussion will be held at noon in the lower-level conference room of ISPS, corner of Prospect and Trumbull streets. This discussion is open free of charge to members of the Yale community. The discussion will be repeated at 7:30 p.m. at the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, 80 Wall St., and will be followed by a reception. This event is free and open to the public.

Gordon and Walters will explore the issues surrounding the emerging technology of human genetic enhancement and will address the question: "What kind of role, if any, should human beings play in attempting to influence the future of human evolution?"

Gordon earned his Ph.D. from Yale in 1978 and his M.D. from the School of Medicine in 1980. While doing postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Yale biologist Frank Ruddle, his research led to the first production of transgenic mice -- mice with new genes inserted into the germ line. He joined the faculty of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1982, and four years later, reported for the first time that manipulation of sperm and eggs could increase the efficiency of fertilization. He subsequently demonstrated successful fertilization of human eggs using sperm from infertile men. His current research focuses on transgenic animal models of disease and of gene therapy, and on processes of preimplantation mammalian development.

Walters earned his Ph.D. in Christian ethics from Yale in 1971, the same year he joined the newly established Kennedy Institute of Ethics. He is currently the Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Professor of Christian Ethics there. His research has been devoted to ethical issues in human genetics. Since 1975, he has been the editor or coeditor of the annual "Bibliography of Bioethics" and he is coeditor of an anthology titled "Contemporary Issues in Bioethics." His most recent books are "The Ethics of Human Gene Therapy" and "Source Book in Bioethics," a collection of readings he coedited with Albert R. Jonsen, a bioethicist who is currently a visiting faculty member at Yale, and Robert M. Veatch.

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Expert on care of minority elders receives nursing field's top honor

Alumni Whiffenpoofs will reunite for 90th musical 'spree'

Perspectives on Richard Levin

Psychologist Kazdin proposes new way to assess the effectiveness of therapies for youngsters

Scientists' find vastly enhances computer memory

Library gets grant to preserve rare films from Yale's past

Yale Art Gallery exhibit traces key themes in American art and design across four centuries

Museum joins U.S.-French consortium

Marks is new director of Pierson Lab

Karl M.Waage, renowned for his geological discoveries, dies

Yale scientists to speak at NAS symposium on campus

Symposium on global climate change marks anniversary of landmark report

Reading to feature letters of Revolutionary War partners

U.S. national identity will be topic of talk by noted writer

Wrap up your holiday shopping at one-day event

And the winners are...

Chinese delegates

. . . In the News . . .

Campus Notes