Olivia DrakeWesleyan's Gary Yohe is a member of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The panel is supported by the United Nations. Posted 10/16/07 Gary Yohe, the Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics, is a senior member and coordinating lead author on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is a co-recipient of the 2007 the Nobel Peace Prize. The other co-recipient was former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. The official press statement from The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited the IPCC and Gore for: "their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change,…
Posted 10/02/07 Wesleyan's campus has been captured on camera and bound in a book. Wesleyan University Press has released Welcome to Wesleyan: Campus Buildings in October 2007. The 64-page, full-color book features numerous photographs of Wesleyan's diverse structures captioned with historical notes. Leslie Starr, the assistant director and marketing manager at Wesleyan University Press, is the book's author and editor. Photographs in the book were contributed by a number of university staff members and professional photographers. Weve felt that Wesleyan has needed a book like this for a long time an informative and inexpensive memento of campus, Starr says.…
Posted 10/02/07 A free flu vaccination is available for Wesleyan faculty, staff and their dependents this month. Influenza is a highly contagious viral illness marked by fevers, muscle aches, cough, headache and fatigue. Influenza is at best a miserable experience for which we are all at risk every year, says Dr. Davis Smith, medical director at the Davison Health Center. An annual flu shot is very likely to confer protection against this years strains of influenza and is highly recommended for all members of the Wesleyan community. When flu season comes around, better to know you got the flu shot…
Posted 10/02/07 Wesleyans Mathematics and Computer Science Department will host The Wesleyan Dynamical Systems Conference, Oct.13-14 at the Exley Science Center. The conference is being held in honor of Ethan Coven, professor of mathematics, emeritus. Dynamical systems, an extremely broad and central field of mathematics, is, at its core, the quantitative study of systems evolving over time. Scientists in many disciplines have come to realize and use geometric and quantitative techniques that have been the outgrowth of this field of study, says Edward Taylor, associate professor and one of the conference organizers. It cross cuts such major areas of mathematical…
After wearing through four pairs of shoes and speaking to hundreds of people in 12 states about war solutions, Wesleyan student Ashley Casale '10 returned briefly to campus after a 3,000-mile cross-country trek to promote world peace. Casale walked from San Francisco, Calif. to Washington D.C. this summer to raise peace awareness and discuss ways to take action nonviolently. Her March for Peace concluded Sept. 10 in front of the White House. "Overall, this was a great, eye-opening experience," Casale said to peers, deans and President Michael Roth during campus visit Sept. 21. "This walk was about peace, and (we…
Former Ohio State Ph.D colleagues Wai Kiu Billy Chan, associate professor of mathematics, and Maria Ines Icaza of Universidad de Talca in Chile, met for two weeks in September at Wesleyan to collaborate on planning a mathematics conference. Posted 10/02/07 A Wesleyan mathematics faculty member is helping to organize an international conference in Chile that will be only the second of its kind ever held. Wai Kiu Billy Chan, associate professor of mathematics, is co-organizing the International Conference on The Algebraic and Arithmetic Theory of Quadratic Forms 2007. The event will be attended by elite mathematicians from around the world…
Tsampikos Kottos, assistant professor of physics, says his Wesleyan colleagues have encouraged him to pursue his research. Posted 10/02/07 Tsampikos Kottos, assistant professor of physics, is the recipient of a major international award for his "many outstanding contributions in the field of nonlinear physics and quantum chaos. In March 2008, he will be presented with the Stephanos Pnevmatikos International Award for Research in Nonlinear Phenomena, which is given to an outstanding young researcher in the fields of nonlinear physics, mathematical physics and nonlinear disordered systems. The award, worth $10,000, is presented to only one researcher or scientist every two years.…
President Michael Roth '78 greets Betty Tishler, wife of the late Max Tishler, for whom Wesleyan dedicated a science lecture hall in his name. Pictured in back is Max and Betty's son, Peter Tishler. Posted 09/19/07 Science Center Room 150 was recently dedicated in the name of a Chemistry Department icon. Members of the Wesleyan community gathered outside the Exley Science Center classroom Sept. 6 to remember the work, mentorship and memory of Max Tishler. The classroom is now named Tishler Lecture Hall. Max Tishler touched countless numbers of chemistry students at Wesleyan. He was the president of Merck, Sharpe…
Posted 09/19/07 For the past three years, Ron Jenkins has shared his office with a 10-foot-long Balinese dragon. But recently, his fire-breathing friend has found a temporary home inside the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The professor of theater, who uses the dragon as a teaching tool on Balinese theater, lent his mythological model, pictured at right, to the museum last May. The dragon is part of an exhibit titled Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids, which is on exhibit in New York through January 6, 2008. The dragon is a mythical creature that embodies the…
Posted 09/17/07 Though music by singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie still influences American songwriters to this day, a Wesleyan Ph.D candidate in ethnomusicology is hoping to draw attention to the influence of Guthries tunes and ideas world-wide. On Sept. 28, Jorge Arévalo Mateus, left, will present "Global Woody," a public program that focuses on Woody Guthrie's enduring musical and cultural legacy as it spreads internationally. Arévalo Mateus is curator of the Woody Guthrie Archives in New York, N.Y. Guthries American folk songs have long had the capacity to resonate with audiences beyond the U.S., however his international re-emergence seems to have taken…
Antoinette Zosherafatain 10, pictured in the front row, second from the right, and Katie Boyce-Jacino 10, pictured in the back row, second from the right, proposed a "Malaria Awareness Week" campaign for the United Nations Foundation. As national finalists, they had the opportunity to attend a retreat at the United Nations Foundation offices July 16 and 17. Posted 09/17/07 Every 30 seconds, a child living in sub-Sahara Africa dies from malaria, a virus caused by mosquitoes. Two Wesleyan sophomores want to bring awareness of the preventable disease to campus, and save lives through various activities and fundraising. Antoinette Zosherafatain 10…
With a snip of red and black Wesleyan ribbons, the Suzanne Lemberg Usdan University Center officially opened Sept. 7 following a dedication ceremony. The three-story, triangular brick building houses airy dining facilities for students, faculty and staff, Wesleyan Station post office, ample meeting spaces, the box office, student organization offices, retail space, and café. A rear terrace provides a high-up view of Andrus Field, Olin Library, Foss Hill and College Row. "Today, after several years of planning and over two years of construction we have the opportunity to share our appreciation to the entire Usdan family and many of the…