June 2014 – Page 2

Fifth graders from Snow Elementary School in Middletown toured Wesleyan's astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics and scientific imaging departments on June 18, 2014. Students also visited the Joe Webb Peoples Museum and Collections in Exley Science Center. (more…)

Wesleyan staff and the Green Street Arts Center are helping to make a dream come true for a Middletown girl with a life-threatening illness. Hannah Vecchitto, 14, is passionate about photography and received a brand new camera for Christmas. Her dream, which she shared with Make-a-Wish Connecticut, was for the opportunity to learn the camera and the art of photography, as well as have the technology to work on her own photography as a true artist. Make-a-Wish Connecticut grants wishes for children between 2-1/2 and 18 years old who are suffering from life-threatening medical conditions. This year, the Connecticut chapter,…

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This month, five Wesleyan students received Summer Experience Grants, supported by the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship. The honor comes with a $4,000 stipend to supplement costs associated with a summer internship experience. The grants are available for Wesleyan sophomores and juniors currently receiving need-based financial aid who plan to do socially innovative or socially responsible work during summer break. The recipients include Theodora Messalas ’15, Dara Mysliwiec ’16, Keren Reichler ’16, Geneva Jonathan ’15 and Jared Geilich ’15. In addition, film major Aaron Kalischer-Coggins ’15 received a Priebatsch Internship Grant. All grantees report on their experiences on the Patricelli Center's ENGAGE blog. Sociology major Theodora Messalas is working with…

Grandmothers used to warn youngsters against being “a jack of all trades, and a master of none,” and with good reason, at least in the animal kingdom, according to research by Mike Singer, associate professor of biology, associate professor of environmental studies. Singer’s decade of research in the ecosystems of Connecticut forests reveals that caterpillars with finicky feeding habits avoid predation from birds, whereas those that feed generally on many plants become meals for baby birds. The “specialist” bugs are much better at survival. Singer and five collaborators published these findings in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of…

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On June 15, Helen Poulos, a postdoctoral fellow in the College of the Environment, set sail aboard the Charles W. Morgan, the last remaining wooden whaling ship in the world. Built and launched in 1841, the Morgan embarked on 37 voyages up until 1921, roaming every corner of the globe in pursuit of whales. She had been docked at the Mystic Seaport in Connecticut since 1940, and underwent major restoration work in recent years. This month, she took one final commemorative voyage in order to call attention to the importance of historic ships and America’s maritime heritage, as well as…

Professor Elizabeth McAlister recently presented a weeklong intensive seminar on the ethnography of religion at the Anthropology and Sociology Department, Faculté d'Ethnologie, at the State University of Haiti, Université d'Etat d'Haïti. McAlister is professor of religion, professor of African-American studies, professor of American studies. Her seminar catered to Haitian university students who are training in field methods of ethnography of religion. The seminar wrapped up McAlister's four-month study on "Understanding Aggressive Prayer Forms in Evangelicalism and Afro-Atlantic Religions." Her research was supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation in "New Directions in Study of Prayer." Developed through the Social Science Research…

Kurtz: Connecticut needs program for the good of individuals, families and society

Francis Starr, professor of physics, and Paul Hanakata ’14 are the co-authors of a new article published in the journal Nature Communications on June 16. The article, titled "Interfacial Mobility Scale Determines the Scale of Collective Motion and Relaxation Rate in Polymer Films,” is based off Hanakata’s senior thesis research at Wesleyan. Thin polymer films are ubiquitous in manufacturing and medical applications. Their chemical and mechanical properties make them suitable as artificial soft biological tissue and there has been intense interest in how film thickness and substrate interactions influence film dynamics. The nature of polymer rearrangements within these films determines their potential applications. However, up to now, there has been no way to readily…

Philip Resor, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, is taking his knowledge of petroleum down under. Between June 18-26, Resor, a Distinguished Lecturer for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), is delivering six lectures in Australia. The talks are geared toward members of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA) and a general petroleum industry audience. While abroad, Resor will speak on "Syndepositional Faulting of Carbonate Platforms" and "Revisiting the Origin of Reverse Drag." He'll be lecturing in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra. A specialist in structural geology, Resor's work integrates field mapping, remote sensing, and numerical modeling to better understand the…

Roy Kilgard, support astronomer and research assistant professor of astronomy, together with Trevor Dorn-Wallstein ’15 and Tyler Desjardin MA ’11, recently presented stunning new images of a spiral galaxy produced by combining data from more than 232 hours of observing time with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Similar to the Milky Way, the galaxy is officially known as Messier 51 (M51) or NGC 5194, but nicknamed “the Whirlpool Galaxy.” Located about 30 million light years from Earth, its face-on orientation to Earth offers a perspective astronomers can never get of our own galaxy. The image showing a vibrant purple swirl was…

Wesleyan Faculty Teach Fifth Graders about Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Astronomy

Wesleyan Partners with Make-A-Wish Foundation to Grant Teen’s Wish of Becoming a Photographer

Green Street Arts Center Dedicates Community Garden, Mosaic Project

Students Receive Patricelli Center Grants, Priebatsch Summer Internship

Singer’s Study Reveals that Finicky Feeders Avoid Bird Predation

Wesleyan’s Lush Landscape Greens in June

Poulos Studies Changing Perceptions of Whales Aboard World’s Last Wooden Whaling Ship

McAlister Teaches “Ethnography of Religion” Seminar in Haiti

Closing Schizophrenia Program a Crippling Loss

Starr, Hanakata ’14 Co-Author Paper on Polymer Films, Published in Nature Communications

Resor Delivering 6 Lectures to Petroleum Geoscientists in Australia

Kilgard Presents Stunning New Image of ‘Whirlpool Galaxy’