Lauren RubensteinProfessor of Economics Richard Grossman recently had three op-eds published in major newspapers. All related in different ways to the U.S. Congress' negotiations over the budget and debt ceiling, and the resulting shut down. Grossman is the author of a new book, Wrong: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them, published this month by Oxford University Press. Read more about it in this Wesleyan Connection story. The Hartford Courant on Oct. 4 published an op-ed by Grossman arguing that the Republicans were on an "ideological crusade" in their refusal to pass a continuing budget resolution unless substantial changes were made to the…
Olivia DrakeElise Springer '90, associate professor of philosophy, is the author of the book, Communicating Moral Concern: An Ethics of Critical Responsiveness, published by MIT Press in September 2013. View photos of her recent book signing celebration in this Wesleyan Connection story. Modern moral theories have crystallized around the logic of individual choices, abstracted from social and historical context. Yet most action, including moral theorizing, can equally be understood as a response, conscious or otherwise, to the social world out of which it emerges. In this novel account of moral agency, Springer accords central importance to how we intervene in activity around us. To notice…
On Sept. 24, NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day featured a figure that Assistant Professor of Astronomy Seth Redfield generated as part of his research on the interstellar medium, the gas and dust surrounding the Sun and other nearby stars. Each day, NASA features a different image or photograph of the universe, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. The explanation of the figure states: “The stars are not alone. In the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy about 10 percent of visible matter is in the form of gas, called the interstellar medium (ISM). The ISM is not…
Albert J. Fry, the E. B. Nye Professor of Chemistry, is the author of four new papers published in 2013. "Ion pairing and association effects between tetraalkylammonium Ions and nitrobenzene redox species: Ion pairing to neutral substances” and " Ion pairing of tetraalkylammonium ions to nitrosobenzene and benzaldehyde redox species: A general binding motif for the interaction of tetraalkylammonium ions with benzenoid species," were published in the March and August editions, respectively, of the Journal of Organic Chemistry. The third, "The 'steric effect' of tetraalkylammonium ions on electrochemically generated anions is not steric" was published in the August edition of Electrochemistry Communications. These are the 7th, 8th,…
Manju Hingorani, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, is the author of "Distinct structural alterations in proliferating cell nuclear antigen block DNA mismatch repair," published in Biochemistry on Aug. 20, 2013. Read an abstract of the paper online here. She's also the author of "Slow Conformational Changes in MutS and DNA Direct Ordered Transitions between Mismatch Search, Recognition and Signaling of DNA Repair," published in The Journal of Molecular Biology on Aug. 20, 2013. Her former students, F. Noah Biro '09 and Christopher Doucette '11 co-authored the paper. Read the abstract online here.
The American Psychological Association's (APA) Society for the History of Psychology gave Wilbur Fisk Osborne Professor Jill Morawski the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at its annual meeting in Honolulu, HI from July 31-Aug. 4. The award is presented to individuals who have "made sustained, outstanding, and unusual contributions to the history of psychology over a career." Graham Richards was also given the award this year. At the organization's 2012 annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., Morawski was invited to deliver the Mary Whiton Calkins Address, named after the first woman president of the APA and an innovative psychologist. The address, given annually at meetings of…
On Sept. 10, Professor of Economics Richard Grossman participated in a Book Manuscript Workshop at Queen's University Centre for Economic History in Belfast, Ireland. He gave a talk on his forthcoming book, WRONG: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn From Them. It will be published by Oxford University Press in October.
Chris Rasmussen, assistant professor of mathematics, recently finished teaching a summer professional development course for K-8 teachers in the Danbury, Conn. school district. The program, called Intel Math, increases the mathematical content knowledge of elementary and middle-school teachers, with the long-term goal of strengthening STEM training. The Intel Math course ran eight hours a day for two weeks. Rasmussen co-taught the course with Sharon Heyman, a mathematics education specialist from the University of Connecticut. In 2012, Rasmussen taught the course with a cohort of 15 teachers from around central Connecticut. This summer, he taught 23 teachers in the Danbury school…
Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, presented a keynote address at the 11th International Conference on Paleoceanography, Sept. 1-6 in Barcelona-Sitges, Spain. The theme of this conference was "Long-term perspectives on ocean and climate dynamics" and Thomas spoke on "Dynamics of the ancient non-analogue oceans." See her CV online here.
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.
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.
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.