Olivia DrakeApril 28, 20073min
BIOPHYSICS IN BALTIMORE: Thirteen Wesleyan students, faculty and alumni attended 2007 Biophysical Society 51st Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Md. March 3-7. Pictured from left, are Ishita Mukerji, associate professor and chair of the Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department; Maiko Kondo '07; and Wendy Barber-Armstrong, graduate student. Kondo stands by her poster titled "Mechanism of Fiber Formation: Amyloid Beta Peptide (10-35)" The poster was co-authored by Barber-Armstrong and Mukerji. Kondo says she was able to speak to many scientists at the meeting who study similar topics. Carlo Balane '06 and Jason Wolfe, professor of biology, check out the exhibitions at the…

Olivia DrakeApril 17, 20076min
Gregory Dubinsky ’07 will work with experts in Washington DC after graduation. He was named a Carnegie Junior Fellow, the first Wesleyan has had since 1991. Posted 04/17/07 Gregory Dubinsky ’07 will have the opportunity to work with two Russian scholars as a newly-accepted Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think-tank based in Washington, DC that focuses on promoting cooperation between nations. Dubinsky, a government and intellectual history double major, is one of only seven students in the country to receive this honor. Each year the Carnegie Endowment offers the one-year fellowships to seniors and individuals…

Olivia DrakeApril 17, 20074min
Jeremy Stuart '08, top, is one of 27 winter athletes named an all-academic by the New England Small Athletic Conference.  (Photos by Brian Katten) Posted 04/17/07 The New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) announced its 2006-07 Winter All-Academic selections. Twenty-seven Wesleyan student-athletes received the honor. To be honored, a student-athlete must have reached junior academic standing and be a varsity letter-winner with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.35. A transfer student must have completed one year of study at the institution."At Wesleyan, athletics is to be an integral part of the overall educational enterprise," says Wesleyan…

Olivia DrakeApril 17, 20079min
Shari Swanson '79, library assistant and cataloger, started working at Olin Library in 1981. She plans to retire this summer.   Posted 04/17/07 Shari Swanson may be considered a bit “bibliophilic.” During the day, Swanson works as Olin Library’s assistant and cataloger, sorting an array of reading material. And during the evening, she may retire to her personal library – stocked with more than 5,000 volumes. “I am a bibliophile of the first order,” Swanson says. “I love to read, admire and collect books, old and new. A s a matter of fact, with me, it's even close to an…

Olivia DrakeApril 17, 20076min
John Seamon, professor and chair of the Psychology Department, led a study titled the study, "Do you remember proposing marriage to the Pepsi Machine? False recollections from a campus walk," which appeared in a recent issue of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. Posted 04/17/07 Did you propose marriage to a Pepsi machine two weeks ago, or did you just imagine it? That's one of the questions John Seamon, professor and chair of the Psychology Department, asked participants in a study designed to determine if memories, and, in particular, bizarre false memories, could be implanted. "We were interested in seeing if merely…

Olivia DrakeApril 17, 20075min
After exams finish up, Kudakwashe Ngogodo '08 hopes to provide safe drinking water in a rural community in Zimbabwe. Jessica French Smith '09 wants to spend her summer building a community center for the troubled youth of Nagarote, Nicaragua. With support from the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace Program, Smith, Ngogodo and other students from 65 colleges and universities will receive funding to undertake their proposed projects. Philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis, on the occasion of her 100th birthday in February, established the new program with a donation of one million dollars so that each of the projects will…

Olivia DrakeApril 17, 20076min
Goaltender Mike Palladino '09 was named to the 2007 New England NESCAC All-Conference first-team. (Photo by Richard Orr) Posted 04/17/07 Seven Wesleyan athletes and one coach were named to the 2007 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) All-Conference Teams. Men’s hockey team members Will Bennett '07 and Mike Palladino '09 were first-team choices. Bennett, pictured at right, was the hockey team’s top scorer, and Palladino was the starting goaltender for the hockey Cardinals. Bennett, the 2004 NESCAC Rookie of the Year, is tied for second in the conference in scoring with 11 goals and 24 assists for 35 points…

Olivia DrakeApril 2, 20076min
Holly Nicolas, postal clerk at Wesleyan Station, helps two students send their mail. He was recently featured on Afropop Worldwide Radio.   Posted 04/02/07 It’s 20 minutes after noon and postal clerk Holly Nicolas heads to the Wesleyan Station window. Students begin trickling into a line. Some want to send letters, others wait to pick up packages. “When the students get out of class, we really get hit,” Nicolas says in his Creole-accented English. Holly, pronounced “O-Lee,” is a Haitian native who moved to the United States in 1993. His days begin with sorting incoming mail for the university’s faculty,…

Olivia DrakeApril 2, 20074min
A study by Dana Royer, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, has established a calculable relationship between increases in CO2 and global surface temperatures. Posted 04/02/07 The connection between CO2 concentrations and increased global temperatures just gained a significant amount of evidence - about 420 million years worth of evidence, to be specific. In a paper published in the March 29 issue of Nature, Dana Royer, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, and two colleagues from Yale University have used nearly 500 data points to create the most comprehensive model of the relationship between CO2 and temperature to…

Olivia DrakeApril 2, 20073min
Michael S. Roth, a historian and president of California College of the Arts, will become the 16th president of Wesleyan at the beginning of the 2007-08 academic year. Roth, a member of Wesleyan's Class of 1978, has been a professor in history and the humanities since 1983 and is recognized both as a curator and author. He is noted for founding the Scripps College Humanities Institute in Claremont, Calif., as a center for intellectual exchange across disciplines, for his scholarly leadership in the arts community as associate director of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, and for enhancing the…

Olivia DrakeApril 2, 20076min
Nancy Chesbro, secretary for the Department of Physical Education and Athletics, attends several Wesleyan athletic events. She's worked in the department for 26 years.   Posted 04/02/07 Q: Nancy, you’ve been a secretary in the Department of Physical Education and Athletics for 26 years. What led you here in the first place?A: I had worked in the Physical Education Department at the University of Connecticut, so when I decided to look for a job in Middletown, Wesleyan was the logical place to start. When I was offered a position in Physical Education it was a perfect match for me. I…

Olivia DrakeApril 2, 20077min
  At left, Marlon Bishop ’07 and Leigh Senderowicz ‘07 received Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowships, which facilitate independent projects abroad. Posted 04/02/07 Two Wesleyan students will have the opportunity to travel abroad and conduct independent studies as Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellows. Marlon Bishop ’07 and Leigh Senderowicz ‘07 each received the $25,000 award. The Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship provides graduating college seniors with a one year fellowship to explore an independent project outside of the United States, to enhance their capacity for resourcefulness, imagination, openness, and leadership and to foster their humane and effective participation in the…