Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 12, 2004|Volume 33, Number 11



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Houston Grand Opera director to give Gordon Grand Lecture

David Gockley, general director of the Houston Grand Opera (HGO), will give the next Gordon Grand Lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 16.

Gockley's lecture, titled "It's not started till the thin lady sings," will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the Branford College common room, 74 High St. The talk is free and open to the public

Gockley began his career with the Houston Grand Opera in 1970, when he was hired as the business manager. Two years later, at age 27, he became general director.

Gockley is credited with turning a regional opera company into what is considered to be one of the most prestigious opera companies in the United States.

Under Gockley's leadership, the HGO has become one of America's leading commissioners and producers of new works, with 30 world premieres and six American premieres to its credit.

By producing new and non-traditional operas such as "The Little Prince," "Nixon in China," "Treemonisha," "Florencia en el Amazonas," "Frida" and "Jackie O," HGO has also earned a reputation for reaching out to new audiences. In an effort to increase HGO's community outreach, Gockley launched the Community Connections Initiative aimed at educating and nurturing new audiences.

For its efforts in broadening opera's appeal and developing innovative technologies, HGO has been awarded a Challenge III Grant by the National Endowment for the Arts as well as a Ford Foundation Grant.

HGO has won a Tony Award, two Emmy Awards and two Grammy Awards.

Since 1999, HGO's seasons have been heard nationally each fall on National Public Radio's "World of Opera." HGO's radio broadcasts, which have been expanded to include New York City's WQXR, the European Broadcast Union and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, now reach over 5 million people annually.


Engineering talks will feature experimental physicist

Richard L. Garwin, the IBM Fellow Emeritus at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, will give two lectures while on campus on Wednesday, Nov. 17.

"Mining the Acoustic Records in the Kennedy Assassination" is the title of Garwin's 1 p.m. lecture, which will take place in Rm. 220, Dunham Laboratory, 10 Hillhouse Ave. Garwin's lecture on "Missile Defense and Space Weapons," which is part of the Engineering Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series, will begin at 4 p.m. in the Davies Auditorium, 15 Prospect St. A reception will follow. Sponsored by the Faculty of Engineering, both talks are free and open to the public.

An experimental physicist, Garwin contributed to the design of the first hydrogen bomb. As an IBM fellow emeritus, he served as a scientific adviser to several U.S. presidents and received the presidential Enrico Fermi Award and the National Medal of Science.

Garwin has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Group to the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff and served on the Rumsfeld Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States. A prolific researcher, Garwin has published more than 500 papers, and has been granted more than 45 patents. He has made significant contributions in the fields of nuclear and low-temperature physics; in the design of nuclear weaponry and deterrence; and in computer elements and systems. Garwin has written extensively about missile defense and space weapons. His latest book is "Megawatts and Megatons: The Future of Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons."


ISPS lecture will explore the Visible Human Project

Michael J. Ackerman, assistant director for high performance computing and communications at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), will speak to the Technology and Ethics Working Research Group on Tuesday, Nov. 16.

Titled "Ethical Decisions Molding the Visible Human Project," Ackerman's lecture will take place 4:15-5:45 p.m. at the Institute for Social and Policy Studies, 77 Trumbull St. Dinner and continued discussion will follow 5:45-7 p.m. The talk, which is co-sponsored by the Law School's Information Society Project, is free and open to the public. For reading materials and dinner reservations, contact Carol Pollard at (203) 432-6188 or carol.pollard@yale.edu.

In his current position, Ackerman provides guidance for NLM's telemedicine, distance collaboratory, advanced networking and imaging interests. He also holds academic appointments as an associate professor in the Department of Computer Medicine at George Washington University and as an assistant professor in the Department of Medical Informatics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

The author of over 140 papers and book chapters, Ackerman is active in the field of medical informatics. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Telemedicine Journal & e-Health and as a member of the board of directors of the American Telemedicine Association.

Ackerman is the recipient of numerous awards including the 1993 and 2003 American Medical Informatics Association President's Awards. His work on the Visible Human Project was nominated as a finalist for a 1995 Discover Magazine Award for Technological Innovation in Software and a 1996 Smithsonian Award for Information Technology.


Historian of Christianity to deliver Bainton Lecture

Andrew F. Walls of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland will deliver the Roland Bainton Lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 16.

Walls' lecture, titled "The Vernacular Principle in Christian History," will begin at 5:15 p.m. in the H. Richard Niebuhr Lecture Hall, 409 Prospect St. A reception will follow. There will be a live broadcast of the lecture on the Divinity School web site at www.yale.edu/divinity/video/live.campus.event.html.

In his lecture, Walls will explore the tension in Christian history between the process that produces special "church" languages, hallowed by Christian tradition, for worship and theological discourse, and the process that appropriates the vernacular of popular speech for these purposes. The lecture will also raise questions about the present position of English as the "new Latin" in ecumenical debate.

An historian of world Christianity and of Christianity and culture, Walls is an honorary professor at the University of Edinburgh, director of the Scottish Institute of Missionary Studies at the University of Aberdeen, and professor at the Akrofi-Christaller Memorial Centre in Ghana.

Previously, Walls served as professor of religious studies and the Riddoch Lecturer in Comparative Religion at the University of Aberdeen before becoming director of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World. Walls has been a visiting professor of world Christianity at Yale and Harvard universities and a guest professor of ecumenics and mission at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Walls' recent publications include "The Missionary Movement in Christian History" and "The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History."


Slifka Center talk will focus on lost manuscript of noted artist

On Thursday, Nov. 18, the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life will host a visit by author and psychologist Chris Rothko.

Rothko will speak on the topic "The Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art" 4-6 p.m. at the Slifka Center, 80 Wall St.

A Yale College alumnus, Rothko will discuss the lost manuscript of his father, world-renowned artist Mark Rothko.

Considered to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Mark Rothko (1903-1970) created a new and sublime form of abstract painting over the course of his career. Stored in a New York City warehouse since the artist's death more than 30 years ago, this manuscript is now being published for the first time by Yale University Press.

Although a writer of many essays, it was thought that Rothko had never completed a full, book-length manuscript. Probably written around 1940, this book discusses Rothko's ideas on the modern art world, art history, myth, beauty, the challenges of being an artist in society, the true nature of American art, and Rothko's own use of color, light and space.

Chris Rothko will describe the discovery of his father's manuscript and the process that was necessary to bring it to publication.

In a New York Times article, he was quoted as saying, "Through the paintings, I've gotten to know my father, I'd never had a second-person utterance in his direction since I was 6 years old, but here I was addressing a ghost. But it wasn't a ghost, because he was in my hands in some strange way."


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

Yale to pay fee for students seeking visas

Pagnam steps down as V.P. for Development

Reception for donors will feature prizes, departmental awards

In Focus: Yale Urban Design Workshop

Medical School welcomes new deputy dean: Jaclyne Boyden

YCIAS event will honor new Leitner Professor

New database has info on all grants at Yale

The presidential election is topic of Poynter Lecture by CNN anchor

Noted surgeon displays his artistic side in sculpture exhibit

Alumni to explore Asian Americans' new role 'in the spotlight'

Environmental experts will explore the effects of the U.S. elections

Exhibit illuminates architects' work with 'Light Structures'

First talk in new series to explore gender studies in global context

Study links low education level with impaired recovery from illness

Researcher's grants support the development of statistical methods

Study enhances understanding of enzyme's role in psychiatric illnesses

Study shows spinal cord nerves regenerate despite absence of NgR protein

Journal fostering international dialogue . . .

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes


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