Olivia DrakeFog encompassed Wesleyan's Macomber Boathouse on April 8. The boathouse, built in 1992, is home for Wesleyan men’s and women’s crew. It’s located on the Connecticut River in the Harbor Park area of Middletown, and is 1/2 mile from campus. From the boathouse, one can view the Arrigoni Bridge’s arches peeking out above the fog. (Photos by Olivia Drake)
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Zin Lin '12 received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship for his research on PT-symmetric systems performed while a student at Wesleyan. Lin's advisor was Tsampikos Kottos, the Douglas J. and Midge Bowen Bennet Associate Professor of Physics. Lin was selected for his "outstanding abilities and accomplishments, as well [his] potential to contribute to strengthening the vitality of the U.S. science and engineering enterprise. He's currently studying quantum nonlinear photonics as a second-year graduate student at Harvard University. As a fellow, Lin will receive a $32,000 stipend for 2014-15. Fellows are expected to make satisfactory academic progress towards completion of…
Several Wesleyan students enjoyed lunch outdoors for the first time this spring on April 3. Temperatures reached 56 degrees. (Photos by Olivia Drake) (more…)
The Office of Human Resources reported the following new hires, advancements and transitions, and departures for March 2014. Newly hired Courtney Becher joined the Corporate Foundation and Government Grants Office as an assistant director on March 17. Edwin Flynn joined Physical Plant as a boiler tender in the Central Power Plant on March 10. Advancements and transitions Lisa Sacks became assistant director of curricular initiatives on March 1. Departures Rosanna Carabelas, administrative assistant of the Wesleyan Fund. Jonathan Connary, area coordinator in Residential Life.
Kari Weil, University Professor of Letters, delivered a keynote address on “Animal Studies: The Ends of Empathy and Beginnings of Reading” at a "Why do Animal Studies?" conference April 3-4 at the University of Chicago. During the conference, scholars discussed "What is it that draws a multiplicity of voices into this conversation, and how can they productively engage with one another? Why has this field of inquiry gained such traction in recent decades? How is Animal Studies taking shape as a field that overlaps multiple discourses and disciplines, and what opportunities or difficulties arise as a result? How do different methodologies clarify or substantiate one another, fill knowledge…
Four staff from Information Technology Services and one student spoke at the NorthEast Regional Computing Program (NERCOMP) Annual Conference held in Providence, R.I. on March 26. Karen Warren, director of user and technical services for Information Technology Services, led a poster session on "The Best thing to Ever Happen at Wesleyan: Justifying and Sustaining LyndaCampus." Warren explained the successes of Wesleyan's LyndaCampus implementation backed by usage data statistics, cost comparisons, and a description of the cross-departmental approach used to garner support campus-wide. The poster featured quotes and anecdotes from Wesleyan student users underscoring the benefits of the campus (versus a limited)…
Michael Roberts, professor and chair of the Classical Studies Department, presented a paper titled, “Venantius Fortunatus on Poetry and Song,” at the annual meeting of the International Society for Late Antique Literary Studies at Brown University, Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 2013. He also spoke at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign on March 21 on “Pompatic Poetics: Claudian’s Epithalamium for Honorius and Maria and Some Features of Late Latin Poetry.” Roberts also is the Robert Rich Professor of Latin and professor of medieval studies.
Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, is the co-author of a paper titled "Carbon Sequestration during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum by an Efficient Biological Pump," published in the April 2014 edition of Nature Geoscience. In the paper, Thomas explains how ocean-dwelling bacteria may have vacuumed up carbon and halted a period of extreme warmth some 56 million years ago. The finding suggests how Earth might once have rapidly reversed a runaway greenhouse effect. Its effect on global oceanic productivity is controversial. In the paper, Thomas and her colleagues present records of marine barite accumulation rates that show distinct peaks during…
Professor Phillip Wagoner is the co-author of Power, Memory, Architecture: Contested Sites on India’s Deccan Plateau, 1300-1600, published by Oxford University Press in March 2014. Wagoner is chair and professor of archaeology, professor of art history. Focusing on India’s Deccan Plateau, this book explores how power and memory combined to produce the region’s built landscape, as seen above all in its monumental architecture. During the turbulent 16th century, fortified frontier strongholds like Kalyana, Warangal, or Raichur were repeatedly contested by primary centers—namely, great capital cities such as Bijapur, Vijayanagara or Golconda. Examining the political histories and material culture of both…