At right, Ann Campbell Burke, associate professor of biology, and biology graduate student Frank Tulenko, look over Tulenko's research poster explaining how lamprey embryos develop. Tulenko is continuing this research at the RIKEN Institute in Kobe, Japan this summer. Posted 06/03/08 In the past 350 million years of vertebrate evolution, the musculoskeletal system has morphed significantly across taxonomic groups. The first vertebrates, had no jaws or paired fins, and are represented today by the eel-like aquatic the lamprey that continues to thrive with its archaic cartilage jowls. As a recipient of an East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes for U.S.…

Posted 06/03/08 A Wesleyan faculty member with Hawaiian ancestry is a founding member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA).J. Kehaulani Kauanui, associate professor of anthropology, associate professor of American studies, is one of six scholars to co-create the professional organization for faculty and researchers who work in American Indian, Native American, First Nations, and Aboriginal or Indigenous studies. The association was officially launched on April 11. "It is clear that scholars in these linked fields are at critical mass, and that the intellectual work has matured in a way that makes the importance of our multi-faceted epistemological…

Fred Cohan, professor of biology, searches for microbe samples in Death Valley, Calif. Posted 06/03/08 While exploring Death Valley’s parched landscape, Professor of Biology Fred Cohan collected samples of compacted clay from the dry grounds. He sought a bacterium that is closely related to the microbe Bacillus subtilis, previously isolated from neighboring, gravel-based terrains. B. subtilis has similar genes and DNA as the bacteria Cohan discovered living in the clay soils, but Cohan argues that the clay-thriving microbe represents an ecologically-distinct “ecotype” of bacteria that has adapted to the low-nutrient habitat. “We have identified and confirmed that Bacillus living in…

Professor Emeritus Robert Rosenbaum was honored by the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents during a banquet May 8. Posted 05/15/08 The Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS) has awarded Robert Rosenbaum its Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his exemplary career, with its many contributions to math and science education. Rosenbaum, chair and founder of the Project to Increase Mastery of Mathematics and Science (PIMMS), and the University Professor of Sciences and Mathematics, emeritus, received the award May 8 at the organization’s annual awards banquet in Groton, Conn. “Extending a well-known aphorism of Henry Adams, I remark that…

The Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies Celebrates its 20th Anniversary with the Freeman family from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 24. Posted 05/15/08 What began in an empty, shingle-style home on the edge of campus 20 years ago has prospered into a central hub for East-Asian-focused lectures, tea ceremonies, exhibitions, student performances, and programs to introduce school-aged children to new cultures. This year, the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies celebrates two decades of existence. Wesleyan will honor the Freeman family for their unique legacy of excellence during an open house and reception May 24. “The…

At right, Lori Gruen, associate professor and chair of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, associate professor of philosophy at Wesleyan, spoke on “Environmental Justice as a Feminist Issue” during the Environmental Justice Curricular Workshop at Malcom X House May 9. Posted 05/15/08 In 1982, the State of North Carolina chose to dump 60,000 tons of PCB-contaminated soil into a landfill in Warren County. Residents felt the state had chosen their county because it was predominately black and one of the poorest in the state. As a result, the landfill became the focus of accusations of “environmental racism,” or racial discrimination…

Posted 05/15/08 A Navajo sacred ceremony recording by the late David McAllester, professor of music and anthropology, emeritus, was accepted into the 2007 National Recording Registry. The recording, titled “Navajo Shootingway Ceremony Field Recordings representing the David McAllester Collection (Recorded by David McAllester 1957-1958),” was one of 25 new additions to the registry, announced May 14. The registry is online at http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/. “McAllester’s recording is listed among such luminaries as Fiorello LaGuardia, Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan, and Kitty Wells,” says Alec McLane, music librarian and director of Wesleyan’s World Music Archives. “It may be the only record of a deeply…

Posted 05/15/08 Robert H. Whitman, professor of Russian emeritus, died recently in Berkeley, Calif. He was 78 years old. Professor Whitman was trained as a linguist. He earned a bachelor of arts from Hamilton College and a Ph.D from Harvard University and joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1959. He left Wesleyan in 1963 and spent a year in the USSR, then returned to teach and continue his research at Cornell University, the University of Indiana, and the University of California at Berkeley, before returning to Wesleyan in 1971. He was a visiting professor at Yale for one semester, served as…