Olivia DrakeGim Seng Ng '08 was recently published in two internationally-recognized physics journals. Posted 06/25/08 For his research efforts in mesoscopic physics, Gim Seng Ng '08 was awarded the 2008 Vanderbilt Prize for Undergraduate Research in Physics and Astronomy. Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tenn., offers the annual prize to any undergraduate student in the U.S. doing original research in physics or astronomy. Ng is part of Wesleyans Complex Quantum Dynamics and Mesoscopic Phenomena Group, led by Tsampikos Kottos, assistant professor of physics. The groups objective is to develop models and theories to understand the interplay between quantum mechanics, interactions, and…
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…
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.…
Senator Barack Obama delivered the 176th commencement speech May 25. Posted 06/03/08 When a pinch hitter comes into a game, it's usually a crucial moment hope balanced against uncertainty. At Wesleyan's 176th Commencement May 25, the hope shone through, and by all accounts, the pinch hitter sent a grand slam far over the fences. "I have the distinct honor today of pinch-hitting for one of my personal heroes and a hero to this country, Senator Edward Kennedy," said U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.). "He called me up a few days ago and I said that Id be happy to…
Ian Renner '08 will observe, assist and run theater activities for child laborers in Egypt as a 2008-09 Fulbright scholar. Posted 06/03/08 In Egypt, about 300,000 children spend their days laboring six days a week to help support their families and shoulder significant responsibilities at home. As a recent Fulbright scholar, Ian Renner 08 will spend the 2008-09 academic year helping some of these children regain their childhood through theater. He is one of 13 Wesleyan students and recent graduates to receive scholarships under the auspices of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Administered by the Institute for International Education,…
Fred Cohan, professor of biology, searches for microbe samples in Death Valley, Calif. Posted 06/03/08 While exploring Death Valleys 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…
Andrea Ray's Désire is on exhibit in the Center for the Arts' Zilkha Gallery. The dinner table is embedded with speakers, playing a dinner conversation. Posted 05/15/08 May 2 marks the 40th anniversary of a student strike in France that led to a shift to the eventual the end of the De Gaullle government in France. This historic event is the topic of a new exhibition in Wesleyans Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. Titled Désire by Andrea Ray, the three-part installation revisits May 1968 to pose a question about the present: Could the Paris model of social and political agency…
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 organizations annual awards banquet in Groton, Conn. Extending a well-known aphorism of Henry Adams, I remark that…
Posted 05/15/08 Students who received academic prizes, fellowships and scholarships were honored at a reception May 6 in Beckham Hall. The awards and the student recipients are: George H. Acheson and Grass Foundation Prize in Neuroscience Established in 1992 by a gift from the Grass Foundation, this prize is awarded to an outstanding undergraduate in the Neuroscience and Behavior Program who demonstrates excellence in the program and who also shows promise for future contributions in the field of neuroscience. Jacob Mirsky '08 Alumni Prize in the History of Art Established by Wesleyan alumni and awarded to a senior who has…
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/. McAllesters recording is listed among such luminaries as Fiorello LaGuardia, Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan, and Kitty Wells, says Alec McLane, music librarian and director of Wesleyans World Music Archives. It may be the only record of a deeply…
Wesleyan's softball team hosted the NESCAC Tournament May 3-5. Posted 05/15/08 Coming off a team-record 21-15 season in 2007, one that featured a first-ever trip to the NESCAC tournament, Wesleyan's softball team came into the 2008 campaign with realistic hopes of repeating last year's success. Our goal this season was to get better every day, said seventh-year head coach Jen Shea. We knew we had a lot of talent but we needed to see how it would come together. Come together was just what the team did, equaling the team record for wins, three of those coming during…
Posted 05/15/08 Associate Professor of History Magda Teter has received a $14,000 grant from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University to help with the operating costs of the sixth annual Early Modern Workshop (EWM) in summer 2009. The workshop will explore the topic of History of Reading across Cultures: The Jewish Book and Its Readers in Early Modern Europe. The workshop seeks to form collaborative interaction between scholars of Jewish history, early modern history and literature and to facilitate cross-fertilization of ideas between them. Workshop participants will be examining how Jewish readers coped with the advent of…