Cynthia RockwellRosemary Ostfeld ’10, MA ’11, an E&ES and biology major, is a semi-finalist for Sierra Club’s “Best Internship on Earth.” The winner will spend the summer video-blogging on different Sierra Club outings sponsored by the club’s Inner City Outings, Building Bridges to the Outdoors, and Volunteer Vacations programs. A four-year member of Wesleyan's Outing Club and former house manager of OutHouse, Ostfeld also developed and led an outdoor program for Snow Elementary School in Middletown. She says that Suzanne O’Connell, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences and director of service learning, encouraged her to apply for the internship with…
David LowEllen Driscoll ’74 is one of three artists this year to receive the prestigious 2010 MacColl Johnson Fellowships of $25,000 each—one of the largest no-strings awards to artists in the United States—from the Rhode Island Foundation. The fellowships are intended “to fund an artist’s vision or voice,” and have been awarded on a three-year cycle since 2005 to composers, writers, and visual artists. Providence-based Driscoll, a professor of sculpture at Rhode Island School of Design, plans to use her award to create three new floating sculptures for the Providence River. Her creations in sculpture, drawing, installation, and public art reflects…
Robert Block ’65, M.D., was named president-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics, with his term as president beginning in October 2011. A biology major at Wesleyan, he earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and served three years in the U.S. Army. He joined the faculty of the University of Oklahoma Medical School in 1975 and has been chair of the pediatrics department for the past 13 years. He has been particularly active in combating and raising public awareness of child abuse and has been the state’s chief child abuse examiner since 1989. The position as president…
On Dec. 13, Mauricio Delgado ’97, assistant professor of psychology at Rutgers, was one of only 85 researchers across the country to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. This is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. The winners are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology, and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach. Delgado’s research group, which is funded by a five-year grant…
Vivian Chau ’03 was selected by Pacific Business News as one of the “Forty Under 40” young Hawaii business leaders last summer, and then in December, the Honolulu Star Advertiser named her one of the “10 people who changed Hawaii in 2010.” An art history major at Wesleyan and an elementary school teacher, Chau developed and now heads a donation project that provides 1,000 pounds of fresh, locally produced food to the homeless each month. Her “Give It Fresh Today”—or GIFT—program began last year, when she set up a table at the entrance of the Hawaii Farm Bureau’s farmers market…
Robert G. McKelvey ’59, of Sea Girt, N.J., was named a Distinguished Friend of Oxford University by the university’s chancellor, Lord Patten of Barnes, during a ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York as part of the university’s recent North American reunion. Founded in 1998, the Distinguished Friend citation has been awarded to 42 Oxonians of approximately 180,000 Oxford alumni. The citation noted McKelvey as the “driving force” behind the Merton College Charitable Corporation, the alumni organization of Mertonians in the Americas since its formation in 1994. Merton College, one of the Oxford’s 45 colleges and halls, was founded in…
Judge Anthony J. Scirica ’62, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, was one of two justices presented with the 28th Annual Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Awards on Sept. 13 in Washington, D.C. The Devitt award, administered by the American Judicature Society, is given annually to honor judges “whose careers have been exemplary, measured by their significant contribution to the administration of justice, the advancement of the rule of law, and the improvement of our society as a whole.” William D. Johnston, president of the society, noted in the press release that, “The award…