Olivia DrakeSeptember 16, 20131min
Jan Eliasberg '74 is a rarity in Hollywood—a woman who directs action dramas. In this video, she reflects on being at Wesleyan in the 1970s, and talks about founding Second Stage at the '92 Theater. Watch this video and many more on the Video @ Wesleyan website. [youtube width="640" height="420"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRuSFdFxkrY[/youtube] THIS IS WHY: http://thisiswhy.wesleyan.edu  

Bill FisherSeptember 16, 20131min
On Aug. 25, Wesleyan welcomed 92 international students to campus - 71 foreign nationals and 21 U.S. citizens living abroad, or about 13 percent of the entire Class of 2017. Why did they choose Wesleyan? Here are a few of their answers: [youtube width="640" height="420"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU1_o7sl85o[/youtube]  

Olivia DrakeSeptember 16, 20131min
In this video, meet neuroscience major Nicholas Woods '13. Woods talks about his senior thesis on the topic of epilepsy, and describes the unique research experiences Wesleyan offers undergraduate science students. Watch this video and many more on the Videos @ Wesleyan website. [youtube width="640" height="420"]http://youtu.be/NfNxbv5mEVc[/youtube]

Gabe Rosenberg '16September 16, 20132min
Donaldine Temple ’95, director and senior associate counsel at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, has been named one of The Network Journal’s "40 Under Forty" for 2013. Temple, who doubled majored in history and African-American studies, advises on legal and regulatory matters for fixed income securities. She earned her JD from Boston College Law School. Temple also advises nonprofit, arts-oriented organizations on matters of corporate law and governance, and she is associated with both the Corporate Counsel Women of Color and the Association of Black Women Attorneys. Also an avid volunteer with nonprofits such as New York Cares, Temple…

Gabe Rosenberg '16September 16, 20131min
Dr. Nicole Hubbard Longwell ’92 has joined the Board of Directors of Art beCAUSE Breast Cancer Foundation (ABCBCF) in addition to serving as the co-chair of ABCBCF’s Young Professionals Group. Longwell is National Director of the Medical Science Liaisons at Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers, and the Drug Information Association. She earned a bachelor’s in psychology from Wesleyan, a master’s in psychology from Northeastern University and a doctorate in psychopharmacolgy from Tufts University. “The goal of Art beCAUSE Breast Cancer Foundation is to prevent breast cancer for…

Gabe Rosenberg '16September 16, 20131min
My Last Day Without You, an indie romance film written and directed by Stefan Schaefer ’94, will be making a limited theatrical release through AMC Theaters on Oct. 4. The movie centers on a German business executive (Ken Duken) who falls in love with a Brooklyn singer-songwriter (Nicole Beharie) after a chance encounter on a short business trip to New York City. After winning a Black Reel Award for Best Independent Film and a Certificate of Excellence from the Brooklyn International Film Festival for Best Producer, My Last Day Without You will open in Atlanta, Seattle, Washington, DC, Chicago, and New Orleans. Schaefer…

Gabe Rosenberg '16September 16, 20131min
Leslie Greengard ’79 has been named director of the Simons Center for Data Analysis, after serving as director of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University since 2006. As director, Greengard will build and lead a team of scientists in analyzing large-scale data sets and developing innovative mathematical methods. Greengard, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan with a BA in mathematics, also holds an MD and PhD in computer science from Yale University. He is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, and he received acclaim for developing…

Gabe Rosenberg '16September 16, 20132min
Jeffrey Juris ’93 is the co-editor of the new book Insurgent Encounters: Transnational Activism Ethnography, and the Political (Duke University Press, 2013), a collection of scholarly essays on the dynamics of contemporary, transnational social movements. With co-editor Alex Khasnabish, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at Mount Saint Vincent University, Juris structures the collection around themes of emerging subjectivities, discrepant paradigms, transformational knowledges, and subversive technologies. In his contribution to the book, “Spaces of Intentionality: Race, Class, and Horizontality at the US Social Forum,” Juris examines the establishment of an intentional space at the 2007 USSF in Atlanta as a…

Olivia DrakeSeptember 16, 20131min
Erika Taylor, assistant professor of chemistry, assistant professor of environmental studies, and chemistry graduate student Kevin Barry, are the co-authors of an article titled "Characterizing the Promiscuity of LigAB, a Lignin Catabolite Degrading Extradiol Dioxygenase from Sphingomonas paucimobilis SYK-6," published in Biochemistry. This article is part of their effort to enable the utilization of lignin, the world’s second most abundant natural polymer, as a carbon source for the production of bioenergy and chemical feedstocks. An abstract will soon be available online here.

Olivia DrakeSeptember 16, 20131min
Hilary Barth, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior; Mariah Schug, visiting assistant professor of psychology; and Kyle MacDonald '10 are the co-authors of "My people, right or wrong? Minimal group membership disrupts preschoolers’ selective trust," published in Cognitive Development, Issue 28, pages 247-259 in 2013. This publication is based on MacDonald's undergraduate thesis, which he conducted in Barth's lab. MacDonald is currently a graduate student in psychology at Stanford University. Elizabeth Chase, Barth's former lab coordinator, also co-authored the paper. Read the paper online here.

Olivia DrakeSeptember 16, 20131min
Brian Northrop, assistant professor of chemistry, is the author of "Experimental and theoretical studies of selective thiol-ene and thiol-yne click reactions involving N-substituted maleimides," published in The Journal of Organic Chemistry in August 2013. Read an abstract of the paper online here. He's also the author of a paper titled "Discrete, soluble covalent organic boronate ester rectangles" published in Chemical Communications, the journal of the Chemical Society, in July 2013. Read an abstract of the paper online here. Northrop's former students, Rob Stolz BA/MA '13 and Natalia Powers-Riggs '13 co-authored both papers.

Lauren RubensteinSeptember 16, 20131min
Lisa Dierker, professor of psychology, and David Beveridge, professor of chemistry and the Joshua Boger Professor of the Sciences and Mathematics, have received a four-year grant for $599,995 from the National Science Foundation’s Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (TUES) program. This Phase II grant, awarded in August 2013, will support their work on “Passion-Driven Statistics: A multidisciplinary project-based supportive model for statistical reasoning and application,” which began with the development of the QAC 201 “Applied Data Analysis” course and will soon be implemented at other institutions.