2017 – Page 42

On Jan. 28, 35 local girls in grades K-6 celebrated National Girls & Women in Sports Day at Wesleyan. Several Wesleyan student-athletes and eight coaches led sports clinics in field hockey, lacrosse, crew, soccer, softball and volleyball. All participants were treated to a pizza party and discussion with Wesleyan student-athletes and were offered free admission to Wesleyan’s women’s athletic contests. Throughout the day, the female athletes celebrated the courage, confidence, and character gained as they participated in sports. Jennifer Lane, head coach of softball, coordinated this year’s event with help from Olivia Berry, assistant softball coach and Jeff McDonald, assistant football…

Laura Grabel, the Lauren B. Dachs Professor of Science and Society, professor of biology, warns in a new op-ed that the progress of embryonic stem cell research in this country, always subject to the ups and down of politics, is currently under threat. Co-authored with Diane Krause of Yale University, the op-ed in The Hartford Courant notes that Tom Price, President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, is on record opposing embryonic stem cell research. They write: As stem cell researchers, we fear that this appointment would endanger human embryonic stem cell research in the United States…

From 4 to 6 p.m. Feb. 11 in the World Music Hall, engage in a panel discussion on the diaspora of the Kurdish people, the largest ethnic group in the world without a country that they can call their own. The program focuses on the integration of the Kurdish people into Western societies as refugees, their trials and tribulations during their assimilation, as well as the current and the future position of the Kurds in the geopolitical landscape and the stability of the Middle East and the fight against terror. This program will be followed by a musical and dance performance…

Note: This event has been rescheduled for April 20. Linda Greenhouse, the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law at the Yale Law School, will present a talk titled “Writing the Truth in the Age of Trump” during the 26th annual Hugo L. Black Lecture on Freedom of Expression. The talk begins at 8 p.m., April 20 in Memorial Chapel. Linda Greenhouse covered the Supreme Court for The New York Times between 1978 and 2008 and writes a biweekly op-ed column on law as a contributing columnist. She received several major journalism awards during her 40-year career at…

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Arthur Reinhold Upgren, the John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy, Emeritus, died on Jan. 21, a month before his 84th birthday. Upgren received his PhD from Case Western Reserve University before coming to Wesleyan as an assistant professor in 1966. He was the Director of the Van Vleck Observatory from 1973 to 1993. He held his endowed chair from 1982 until his retirement in 2000. Upgren was an author or co-author of 285 publications in the astronomical literature, including one that appeared in 2016. His research interests were in the areas of parallax (distance measurement) of stars and galactic…

Bill Belichick ’75, head coach of the New England Patriots, will lead his team to the Super Bowl on Feb. 5 against the Atlanta Falcons. The Super Bowl is the National Football League’s annual championship game. Belichick’s team has never lost to the Falcons, in fact, in his four games against Atlanta since 2000, he’s 4-0. Beginning his NFL career as an assistant coach with the Baltimore Colts in 1975, Belichick moved to the Detroit Lions in 1976, remaining there for two seasons before spending a year in the Denver Broncos organization before moving on the the New York Giants…

On Jan. 20, the Wesleyan men's ice hockey team welcomed its newest member to the team, 9-year-old Connor Albert from Team IMPACT. In April 2016, Connor was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a type of cancer that starts in the bones. The issues, however, started in January 2016 when a small limp continued to get worse. One day, while playing basketball, Connor fell on his hip and the pain increased drastically. Doctors found a tumor in his hip, which they thought was benign, until four different biopsies concluded it was bone cancer. He underwent hip replacement surgery in the fall and is…

After retiring from 46 years of teaching at Rutgers Law School, Paul Tractenberg ’60 has established a new nonprofit, the Center for Diversity and Equality in Education (CDEE), to continue pursuing major education reform projects. Tractenberg, who studied history at Wesleyan and earned a JD from the University of Michigan, has devoted his professional life to improving the educational opportunities of low-income urban students and others with educational challenges. The biggest reform project that CDEE is focusing on is the court-ordered integration effort of the Morris School District in New Jersey, which was the subject of a recent New York…

Last fall, the College of Letters (COL) welcomed Gabrielle Ponce-Hegenauer to the department as an assistant professor of letters. Ponce-Hegenauer is an expert on the biography and works of Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), author of Don Quixote. She's also interested in 16th-century translation theory and poetics; pre-Cartesian Renaissance philosophy; cultural and intellectual history in the Spanish Golden Age; early modern metaphysics; medicine and philosophy in 16th-century Spain; the history of the book and manuscript culture; Spanish theater; Renaissance and Baroque Spanish poetry; Spanish and Italian literary exchanges; the 19th-century imagination of the Golden Age; and 19th-century Spanish novelist Benito Pérez Galdós. "I like locating…

Ellis Neufeld, M.D., PhD., was appointed clinical director, physician-in-chief and executive vice president of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, an internationally renowned center that pioneers research for and offers treatment to children with catastrophic illnesses. He will begin his new position at the Memphis medical center in March. Neufeld, a pediatric oncologist with a global profile, is a longtime Harvard Medical School faculty member, serving most recently as associate chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. He was also medical director at the Boston Hemophilia Center and held the Egan Family Foundation Chair in…

Singer-songwriter Jess Best ’14 returns to campus on Jan. 29 to perform her original soul and jazz influences at the Russell House, the first performance of the spring Music at The Russell House series. Best, who was a music major, says she is influenced by Erykah Badu, Joni Mitchell, and Esperanza Spalding, and believes her time at Wesleyan has prepared her for a career in music. She explained, “Although I still constantly feel like I need to work extremely hard to feel at all prepared for being a musician, I'm so grateful I took visual arts classes and writing classes,…

Local Girls Celebrate Women in Sports Day with Wesleyan Student-Athletes

Grabel Warns of Threat to Embryonic Stem Cell Research in Op-ed

J-Hoon Musical Ensemble Presents the Music and Dance of the Ancient People of Kermanshah

“Writing the Truth in the Age of Trump” Topic of Hugo Black Lecture April 20

Undergraduates Return from Winter Recess, Begin Spring Semester

Upgren Remembered for Protecting Night Sky from Light Pollution

New England Patriots Coach Belichick ’75 Leads Team to Super Bowl

Men’s Hockey Drafts 9-Year-Old Connor from Team IMPACT

Tractenberg ’60 Heads New Nonprofit on Diversity and Equality in Education

Cervantes Expert Ponce-Hegenauer Joins College of Letters

Neufeld ’79 Named St. Jude Physician-In-Chief, Clinical Director

Best ’14 Returns to Campus for Soul and Jazz Performance