Olivia DrakePosted 09/15/06 Each year, the Office of University Communications collects objective and comparative measures of Wesleyan's strengths from data compiled by outside sources. Following is a brief list of recent findings:No. 1 in National Science Foundation (NSF) Funding among Liberal Arts Peers This is an objective ranking based on available NSF funding data. Between 2001 and 2003 Wesleyan received $14.49 million in NSF funding (this reflects the most recent data available Wesleyan was also No. 1 in the previous survey that ran up to 2001). Next closest was Mt. Holyoke at $5.31 million. Carleton was 3rd, Barnard 4th and…
Science teachers in Connecticut teachers take classes at Wesleyan through the Project to Increase Mastery of Mathematics and Science Program (PIMMS). PIMMS is teaming up with the Connecticut Science Center to provide science and math education techniques to K-12 teachers. Posted 09/15/06 A new partnership between Wesleyan University and The Connecticut Science Center in Hartford will be designed to engage more students across the state to the sciences than ever before. Specifically, The Connecticut Science Center will be partnering with Wesleyan's Project to Increase Mastery of Mathematics and Sciences (PIMMS). Together they will train Connecticut middle school science teachers how…
Posted 09/15/06 On May 4, 2006, Doug Bennet '59, P'87, P'94, Wesleyan's 15th president, announced his decision that the 2006-07 academic year will be the 12th and final year of his presidency. The Wesleyan Board of Trustees is in the process of convening an 18-person search committee composed of alumni, trustees, faculty, staff and students to undertake a comprehensive search to identify and successfully recruit Bennet's successor. The alumni and trustee members of the search committee are Kofi Appenteng '81 and chair, Stephen Daniel '82, Jim Dresser '63, Joe Fins '82, Ellen Jewett '81, Michael McPherson P'98, Megan Norris '83,…
UP, UP AND AWAY: Wesleyan's Davison Art Center received a new fiberglass cupola atop its building Aug. 9. The new addition replaces a deteriorated wood cupola, which was removed in July. The new cupola is a replica of the former cupola. The 1,500-pound white, decorative cupola was hoisted by crane to the DAC's rooftop. Contractors lower the cupola to a copper-rimmed base. The new cupola brings beauty to the DAC second and third-story views, as well as the DAC's courtyard below. Macri Roofing provided the labor. (Photos by Olivia Bartlett)
Grigori Enikolopov 08 was one of more than 50 students to present their research at the Hughes Program in the Life Sciences Poster Session in the Exley Science Center. Posted 08/24/06 When Grigori Enikolopov 08 studied the leaf economics in river, swamp and upland areas, he found that the wetter the area, the more ridges or teeth the leaves of woody tree species possessed. During the Hughes Program in the Life Sciences Poster Session Aug. 4, Enikolopov, explained that 70 percent of the trees in a swamp have teeth compared to 60 percent in the upland areas.…
Posted 08/24/06 The Kresge Foundation of Troy, Mich., has awarded a challenge grant in the amount of $500,000 to Wesleyan University. This grant will be applied toward the purchase of equipment for several Wesleyan science departments, including biology, chemistry, molecular biology and biochemistry, earth and environmental sciences and physics. To apply to the Science Equipment Program, Wesleyan had to raise $500,000 and now must raise an additional $1 million to meet the terms of Kresge challenge grant and establish an endowment for repair and replacement of science equipment. According to the tenets of the grant, Wesleyan must raise $1.5 million…
Tom Morgan, the Foss Professor of Physics, developed a laser lab in the basement of Exley Science Center. He uses a control panel to fire atoms and study quantum mechanics. His atom research is supported by a recent National Science Foundation award of $200,000. Posted 08/24/06 In outer space, some protons and electrons can travel millions of years alone before colliding, forming super-excited exaggerated atoms. Tom Morgan, the Foss Professor of Physics, wants these atoms to come back down to earth. For the past 20 years, Morgan, an atomic and molecular physicist, has experimented with these excited atoms known as…
Wesleyan tennis coach Ken Alrutz, right, teaches his son, Graham, a few techniques on the Wesleyan tennis courts Aug. 24. Posted 08/24/06 Q: Ken, you will be entering your third year as the mens and womens head tennis coach. What attracted you to Wesleyan?A: When my wife and I contemplated a move, I decided I wanted to coach both women and men, to work at an academically distinguished school, and to finish my career at a small institution similar to the place where I began my professional life. Q: What months does the tennis season span? When do you…
Mary-Jane Rubenstein, assistant professor of religion, will teach Modern Christian Thought and the Problem of Evil during the fall semester. Posted 08/24/06 Mary-Jane Rubenstein has joined the Department of Religion as an assistant professor. Her primary research interests are continental philosophy and Christian theology. She also focuses on post-colonial Christianities; literary and critical theory; and race, gender and sexuality studies. Rubenstein comes to Wesleyan from the Department of Religion at Columbia University in New York. There, she taught Contemporary Civilization and co-taught the courses, Religions in the Modern World and Religion and Its Critics. She was awarded the Core…
Posted 08/24/06 A team of staff members is updating Wesleyan's emergency response plan, which describes protocols for maintaining personal safety and the continuity of operations in the event of a crisis. Led by Director of Physical Plant Cliff Ashton, the Business Continuity Planning Committee is updating a plan that was implemented in 2002. The plan covers hurricanes and other natural disasters, as well as such manmade crises as power outages and chemical spills. The committee is exploring responses to more recent threatssuch as the possibility of a pandemic contagion. It also is reviewing the plan for consistency with protocols established…
Posted 08/24/06 Wesleyans Music Department will sponsor a memorial service for David McAllester, professor of music and anthropology, emeritus, at 2 p.m. in the Memorial Chapel Sept. 24. McAllester, a founder of the Society for Ethnomusicology, died April 29, 2006, after suffering a stroke. He was 89. David had a huge impact on generations of Wesleyan students, many of them not music majors or grad students, says Mark Slobin, professor of music, who worked with McAllester for 15 years. When I was hired at Wesleyan in 1971 and looked at a college guide, the only course singled out was McAllesters…
Artist Mary Lum works on her painting, which is part of the exhibit "Up Against the Wall" opening in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery on Sept. 8. Posted 08/24/06 Up Against the Wall, an exhibit featuring art that relies exclusively on the interior surfaces of architecture for inspiration and material support, will open at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery on Sept. 8. Organized by Nina Felshin, curator of Zilkha Gallery, the exhibition includes work by William McCarthy, gallery supervisor of Zilkha Gallery and Davison Art Center gallery supervisor, as well as artists Shoshana Dentz, Elana Herzog, Mary Lum…