Olivia DrakeOctober 28, 20073min
SOUNDS OF EAST ASIA: The group IIIZ+ (Three Zee Plus) performed for an audience inside the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies Oct. 11. From left to right are Ryuko Mizutani playing a Japanese koto; Yi-Chieh Lai, playing a Chinese zheng; Il-Ryun Chung playing Korean percussion; and Jocelyn Collette Clark '92 playing a Korean kayagum. Combining these instruments is not traditional in East Asia. Clark, who majored in East Asian studies, says the ensemble relies on collaborations with contemporary composers in order to build its repertoire. At left, Vera Schwarz, director of the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian…

Olivia DrakeOctober 16, 20075min
Wesleyan's Gary Yohe is a member of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The panel is supported by the United Nations. Posted 10/16/07 Gary Yohe, the Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics, is a senior member and coordinating lead author on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is a co-recipient of the 2007 the Nobel Peace Prize. The other co-recipient was former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. The official press statement from The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited the IPCC and Gore for: "their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change,…

Olivia DrakeOctober 16, 20076min
The Long Lane Farm Club is spearheading the fourth annual Pumpkin Festival Oct. 20 for the Wesleyan and local community. The event will be held at the student-run Long Lane Farm. Posted 10/16/07 The Wesleyan community and people from the surrounding area can paint and purchase pumpkins during the fourth annual Long Lane Farm Pumpkin Festival Oct. 20. The event offers educational composting and organic gardening workshops, beekeeping, pumpkin face painting, tours of the farm, T-shirt designing, free bike tune-ups, garlic planting, music by student and local bands, games and a farmer's market, selling farm produce and pumpkins. Long Lane…

Olivia DrakeOctober 16, 20074min
  Posted 10/16/07 Anna Shusterman has joined the Department of Psychology as an assistant professor of psychology. This semester she is teaching PSYCH110, "Issues in Contemporary Psychology: What Makes Us Human?” Shusterman’s research interests are on the structure and development of mental representations, interactions between language and cognitive development, and representations of space and number. She comes to Wesleyan from Harvard University, where she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory for Developmental Studies. “Wesleyan has provided me with everything I need to do my research, including a beautiful new child development laboratory,” she says. “I also appreciate that Wesleyan…

Olivia DrakeOctober 16, 20074min
Celina Gray, assistant professor of classical studies and archeology is teaching Magic in the Ancient World and Introduction to Ancient Greek this fall.   Posted 10/16/07 Celina Gray has joined the Department of Classical Studies as assistant professor. Gray came to Wesleyan this fall after a year spent as the Blegen Research Fellow in the Department of Classics at Vassar College, her alma mater. Previously, she was assistant professor of Greek art and archaeology at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario. This semester at Wesleyan, she is teaching GRK101, Introduction to Ancient Greek, and CCIV118, First Year Initiative: Magic in the…

Olivia DrakeOctober 16, 20076min
Posted 10/16/07 Growing up, Karen Collins’s family found themselves in financially-difficult situations. But when times got tough, her community generously helped the family through local programs. In college, she received financial aid, and relied on the support of many alumni of her school to finish her degrees.Nowadays, the chair of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department, professor of mathematics, is giving back to her community by chairing Wesleyan’s Middlesex United Way campaign drive for the 2007-08 term. Wesleyan’s annual campaign kick-off is Oct. 23. “I’m a supporter of United Way because I want to give back to the world some…

Olivia DrakeOctober 16, 20074min
Dale Purves, the George Barth Gellor Professor for Research in Neurobiology, and director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University will speak on “Why We See What We Do: Brightness and Color" as part of the upcoming Snowdon Lecture Series. (Photo courtesy of Duke University) Posted 10/16/07 Upcoming lectures funded by the Edward W. Snowdon Fund focus on children’s book writing, the way human beings perceive brightness and color, and cognitive behavior as it relates to stress and health. For several years, the family of Edward W. Snowdon '33 has supported a variety of programs through the Edward…

Olivia DrakeOctober 16, 20077min
Posted 10/16/07 In the event of catastrophic weather, accidents that threaten the campus or other life-threatening situations, Wesleyan has furthered its capabilities to inform the campus community quickly and effectively. A recently-implemented Emergency Preparedness Notification System was tested university-wide on Oct. 10. The emergency notification system alerts students, parents, faculty and staff of serious campus-wide emergencies. “If Wesleyan has an extended power outage, an incident requiring mass evacuation, or possibly a hostage situation, we will use this system to quickly notify the Wesleyan community,” says Cliff Ashton, director of Physical Plant and chairperson of Wesleyan’s Business Continuity Committee. Wesleyan has…

Olivia DrakeOctober 2, 20075min
Daniela Viale, adjunct instructor of romance languages and literatures, is fluent in four languages.   Posted 10/02/07 Daniela Viale has joined the Romance Languages and Literatures Department as an adjunct instructor. She is teaching elementary and intermediate Italian this semester. Viale, who is fluent in Italian, French, English and Spanish, also has basic knowledge of German and Latin. She comes to Wesleyan from the University of Pennsylvania, where she taught elementary and intermediate Italian and French for eight years. An Italian native, Viale completed her master of liberal arts in 2007 from the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation was titled…

Olivia DrakeOctober 2, 20079min
Anna Milardo, administrative assistant for the Department of Physics, has worked at Wesleyan 36 years.   Posted 10/02/07 Q: Anna, rumor has it that you’ve been here a long time.A: I started in November of 1971 and lo and behold, 2007 comes and it seems that just a moment has gone by, and I’m still in the Physics Department. You can see that I am very adventuresome -- job-wise that is.Q: Something had to keep you here for 36 years. A: Wesleyan has allowed me to be expressive and creative, and be appreciated for who I am as a person…

Olivia DrakeOctober 2, 20076min
Tsampikos Kottos, assistant professor of physics, says his Wesleyan colleagues have encouraged him to pursue his research. Posted 10/02/07 Tsampikos Kottos, assistant professor of physics, is the recipient of a major international award for his "many outstanding contributions in the field of nonlinear physics and quantum chaos.” In March 2008, he will be presented with the Stephanos Pnevmatikos International Award for Research in Nonlinear Phenomena, which is given to an outstanding young researcher in the fields of nonlinear physics, mathematical physics and nonlinear disordered systems. The award, worth $10,000, is presented to only one researcher or scientist every two years.…

Olivia DrakeOctober 2, 20076min
Former Ohio State Ph.D colleagues Wai Kiu “Billy” Chan, associate professor of mathematics, and Maria Ines Icaza of Universidad de Talca in Chile, met for two weeks in September at Wesleyan to collaborate on planning a mathematics conference. Posted 10/02/07 A Wesleyan mathematics faculty member is helping to organize an international conference in Chile that will be only the second of its kind ever held. Wai Kiu “Billy” Chan, associate professor of mathematics, is co-organizing the International Conference on The Algebraic and Arithmetic Theory of Quadratic Forms 2007. The event will be attended by elite mathematicians from around the world…