Olivia DrakeApril 13, 20093min
The 2009 Olla Podrida yearbook staff is making award-winning memories this year. The book, which focuses on the theme, "Expressions of Memory," is adhering to the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's award guidelines. Since 1935, the CSPA has sponsored annual contests to honor best practices in student writing, editing and yearbook publishing. "In the past, our yearbooks have been more like scrapbooks of students' senior year, but this year, we're more structured and we're creating a more professional book," says the yearbook's editor-in-chief Luz Burgos '09. "We're building a new foundation so yearbooks after this one will constantly improve." The Olla…

David PesciApril 2, 20092min
Janice Naegele, chair and professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, has received a $499,988.00 grant from the Connecticut Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee for her study titled: "Brain Grafts of GABAergic Neuron Precursors Derived from Human and Mouse ES Cells for Treating Temporal Lobe Epilepsy." The four-year grant will begin in July 2009, and will support research in laboratories in Wesleyan's biology department and neuroscience program. The research is directed toward generating inhibitory interneurons that we will transplant into the hippocampus of mice that have temporal lobe epilepsy. The goal of the project is to investigate the potential…

David PesciApril 2, 20093min
A piece in The New York Times discusses how applications for the Class of 2013 remained strong at the nation's most competitive colleges, despite the economy's recent economic recession. Mentioned in the article was Wesleyan which, unlike several liberal arts colleges, saw an increase in applications this year. In fact, Wesleyan's dramatic increase set a record: 10,065 applications, which is up 22% over last year's admissions cycle (which was also a record). The Times had previously written about Wesleyan's increase in applications during the November early decision application period, which was also up a record 40% over the previous year.…

David PesciApril 1, 20091min
Crude Independence, a documentary film directed and scored by Noah Hutton '09 and edited by Hutton and Alex Footman '09, has been featured at a number of flim festivals during the last few months, including the presitigious South By Southwest in March. Hutton is profiled in The Hartford Courant. A free screening of Crude Independence for the campus community was held at the CFA Cinema on Friday, April 3.

David PesciMarch 31, 20091min
Award-winning, best-selling author Anna Quindlen P'07, pioneering entrepreneur and philanthropist Azim Premji P'99, and two dedicated members of the Middletown community, Mark Masselli and Jennifer Alexander ’88, will be the honorary degree recipients at the 177th Wesleyan Commencement on May 24, 2009. Quindlen will also give this year's Commencement Address.

David PesciMarch 25, 20092min
An award-winning best-selling author, a pioneering entrepreneur and philanthropist, and two dedicated members of the Middletown community will be the honorary degree recipients at the 177th Wesleyan Commencement on May 24, 2009. Anna Quindlen P’07, who will also give the Commencement Address, is a novelist, a journalist, and a champion of higher education. She currently writes the “Last Word” column on the back page of Newsweek and serves as chair of the board of Barnard College, where she received a degree in English literature. Quindlen has published five novels, all of them bestsellers. Her most recent, Rise and Shine, debuted at…

Olivia DrakeMarch 25, 20094min
Errors in genomic DNA can lead to tumors and other diseases. By probing specific DNA structures, Ishita Mukerji hopes to gain an understanding of how such medical conditions can be prevented or possibly cured. Mukerji, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, studies how different proteins recognize and bind to DNA. Specifically, she examines four-stranded DNA structures, known as "Holliday junctions," which are involved in DNA repair and recombination. These are different from the common, two-stranded DNA. On April 1, Mukerji will receive a four-year grant worth $798,368 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund her research project, "Structure and…

Corrina KerrMarch 25, 20092min
Joss Whedon ’87, writer, director and executive producer of such popular TV shows as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” “Firefly,” and the new series “Dollhouse,” will give the May 30 keynote address for the seventh annual Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns. The unique seminar scheduled for May 29 through 31 will focus on “Defining American Culture: How Movies and TV Get Made.” Jeanine Basinger, the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, Chair of the Film Studies Department, and curator of the Cinema Archives will be the facilitator for this seminar. Other presenters include successful Wesleyan alumni who work as film and…

Olivia DrakeMarch 25, 20092min
During a "Who Done It? A DNA Investigation," elementary school aged children sported white lab coats and became "detectives" hoping to solve a crime. The students learned about DNA structure by isolating DNA from wheat germ and comparing DNA samples from a 'crime scene' with the DNA from five suspects. They learn how DNA forensics actually works – just like on the television show "CSI." (more…)

Corrina KerrMarch 25, 20094min
Wesleyan’s Social Justice Leadership Conference (SJLC) will provide participants an opportunity to learn more about social justice and how to apply it in their lives. The free, all-day March 28 event is open to all members of the Wesleyan community and to anyone who may be interested. The SJLC, which is co-sponsored by the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) and the Office of Student Activities and Leadership Development (SALD), grew out of the previously held WSA-sponsored Social Justice Day and SALD’s WesLead emerging leaders conference events. “I think what we saw was that both events could be more successful if they were…