Mike SembosMarch 14, 20141min
Erika Taylor, assistant professor of chemistry, assistant professor of environmental studies; Manju Hingorani, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry; molecular biology and biochemistry graduate student Shreya Sawant and chemistry graduate student Daniel Czyzyk co-authored "E. coli Heptosyltransferase I: Exploration of Protein Function and Dynamics" published in Biochemistry, 52, 5158–5160 in 2013. They presented the paper at the 23rd Enzyme Mechanisms Conference held in Coronado Bay, Calif. in January 2013 and at the 57th Biophysical Society Conference held in Philadelphia, Pa. in February 2013.

Mike SembosMarch 14, 20142min
Elizabeth Willis, professor of English, authored several poems recently: "Alive" is forthcoming in American Reader in 2014. "Ephemeral Stream" was posted on Poem-A-Day, Academy of American Poets online on Jan. 2, 2014. "Survey” was published in A Public Space No. 17 in 2013. "The Witch" is included in the forthcoming 100 Poems Your Teachers Don't Want You to Read anthology to be published by Penguin Putnam in 2015. "Watertown Is Ninety-Nine Percent Land" is included in the forthcoming Collected in One Fund Boston Benefit anthology to be published by Granary Books in 2014. "Oil and Water" included in the Oh Sandy!:…

Mike SembosMarch 14, 20141min
Natasha Korda, professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, faculty fellow and professor of English, authored “Coverture and Its Discontents: Legal Fictions On and Off the Early Modern English Stage” published in Married Women and the Law in England and the Common Law World published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2013. She also is the author of “The Sign of the Last: Gender, Material Culture and Artisanal Nostalgia in Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday” included in the special issue on “Medieval and Early Modern Artisan Culture” published in The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies in 2013.

Olivia DrakeMarch 14, 20142min
Tsampikos Kottos, the Douglas J. and Midge Bowen Bennet Associate Professor of Physics, received a $575,000 grant from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research's Multidisciplinary University Research Program (MURI). MURI is a basic research program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense. The award will support Kottos' study on “PT-Summetric Optical Materials" through April 2017. During this time, Kottos will develop a theoretical framework for Parity-Time (PT) Symmetric Optics using mainly polymetric platforms. Additionally, efforts will be made towards identifying other platforms/areas where PT-Symmetric ideas can be applied. Kottos will be coordinating his research with faculty at the University of…

Mike SembosMarch 14, 20141min
The National Library of Sweden has announced that the Wesleyan-published (in affiliation with Wiley-Blackwell Publishing) History and Theory: Studies in the Philosophy of History is its 10th most popular foreign e-journal. History and Theory publishes articles, review essays and summaries of books in the areas of critical philosophy of history, speculative philosophy of history, historiography, history of historiography, historical methodology, critical theory, time and culture, and history and related disciplines. The electronic form to all who subscribe to the print edition. The editors include Ethan Kleinberg, Julia Perkins, Philip Pomper and Gary Shaw.

Olivia DrakeMarch 14, 20142min
Robert Borman, athletic facilities maintainer, was recently presented with a Cardinal Achievement Award for his extraordinary efforts during the snowstorm on Feb. 13. The storm dropped 9.5 inches of snow on campus so quickly that snow was piling up in front of critical building entrances and creating dangerously slippery conditions on campus. The Stonehedge landscaping crew could not keep up with the rapidly accumulating snow so Borman stepped up and walked across campus shoveling every building entrance and stairway on central campus at least once. “This was not a normal or typical work assignment for Rob Borman by any account,”…

Olivia DrakeMarch 14, 20141min
The Office of Human Resources reported the following new hires, advancements and transitions, and departures for February 2014. Newly hired Ivan Torres, Jr. joined the Office of Public Safety as an officer on Feb. 24. Advancements and transitions Andrew Chatfield became the press and marketing director at the Center for the Arts. Marc Longenecker became the programming and technical director of the Film Studies Department. Jeffrey Sweet became the associate director of facilities management. Departures Shawn MacDuff associate director of finance. Carolyn Sorkin, director of international studies.

Natalie Robichaud ’14March 14, 20142min
Hamidreza (Hamid) Ramezani Ph.D. ’13, recently won the Biruni Graduate Student Research Award. The award aims to promote and recognize outstanding research by a physics graduate student of Iranian heritage who is currently studying in one of the institutions of higher education in the United States, seeking originality, thoroughness, a teamwork spirit and ownership among the candidates. The honor comes with a cash award. Before graduating with his Ph.D. from Wesleyan in November, Ramezani studied cosmology and gravitational physics while earning his master’s degree at the University of Tehran. He completed his bachelor study in solid state physics at Sahed University.…

Cynthia RockwellMarch 14, 20143min
Max Perel-Slater ’11 has won an Advancing Leaders Fellowship from World Learning for the Tanzania-based project, The Maji Safi Movement (“maji safi” means “clean water” in Swahili; see majisafimovement.org). Maji Safi is focused on disease prevention and health promotion and particularly aimed at empowering rural communities in their efforts to combat water-borne and water-related diseases. The Movement encompasses both a local NGO and a US-based 501(c)3; Perel-Slater is president and co-founder of the U.S. arm and treasurer of the Tanzania-based organization. He has worked on water projects in Shirati, Tanzania, since 2009, when he led the construction of a rainwater…

Natalie Robichaud ’14March 14, 20142min
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently appointed Shola Olatoye ’96 as chairwoman of the New York City Housing Authority. Olatoye’s last position was vice president at Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit organization that advocates affordable housing nationally. The previous head of the authority was John Rhea ’87. The mayor made the announcement at the Abraham Lincoln Houses in Harlem, a complex of 1,282 apartments in which de Blasio and other Democratic candidates spent a night during the mayoral campaign in order to get a firsthand look at the “moldy walls and broken cabinets” that constitute the disrepair of…