Olivia DrakeGiulio Gallarotti, professor of government, tutor in the College of Social Studies, is the author of The Power Curse: Influence and Illusion in World Politics, published by Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010; and Cosmopolitan Power in International Relations: A Synthesis of Realism, Neoliberalism, and Constructivism, published by Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Eric GershonLaura Stark, assistant professor of sociology, is the author of "“The Science of Ethics: Deception, The Resilient Self, And the APA Code of Ethics, 1966-1973,” published in the fall 2010 issue of the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. The paper examines the process by which the American Psychological Association determined that deception could be used as an acceptable research method.
Erika Taylor, assistant professor of chemistry and environmental studies, has received a $193,809 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for a project called “Imaging Lignin Degradation." Taylor will collaborate with colleagues at Penn State University and the University of Tennessee. Taylor hopes to use fluorescence imaging and isotope trace experiments to develop probes for finding organisms that can break down lignin. She plans to test complex biological samples. "Think going to the forest and bringing home a bucket of dirt containing small insects and lots of microorganisms and then figuring out which ones can break down lignin. This is…
A Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) award will fund a biomedical research project on tobacco-related illnesses. On Oct. 26, Senator Joseph Crisco (D-Woodbridge) presented Manju Hingorani, associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, with one of the eight awards, supported by the Connecticut DPH Biomedical Trust Fund. Hingorani received a $165,083 grant to promote understanding of the mechanisms whereby DNA mismatch repair suppresses carcinogenesis and development of refractory cancers. "While we have made considerable progress in the area of tobacco use prevention, tobacco-related illnesses continue to be the leading causes of disability and death," said Senator Crisco, sponsor of…
Dana Royer, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, assistant professor of environmental studies, accepted the gold Donath Medal at the Geological Society of America’s (GSA) annual meeting in Denver, Colo. Nov. 1. The award came with a cash prize of $10,000. The award recognizes a scientist, aged 35 or younger, for outstanding original research marking a major advance in the earth sciences. On a GSA press release, Peter D. Wilf of Pennsylvania State University said, “Dana is a true innovator who successfully tackles extremely important questions in paleoclimatology and paleoecology, in part using paleobotanical proxies calibrated with a remarkable…
Mary-Jane Rubenstein, assistant professor of religion, assistant professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, was a guest panelist at a conference titled “Christianity and the Global Politics of Sexuality” held Oct. 21 at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, New York University. Focusing specifically on sexuality, Rubenstein and other panelists discussed the ways in which transnational and non-governmental Christian organizations have an impact on legal and social policies in different areas where Christians may comprise a small minority or a larger percentage of the population. In addition, sexuality continues to rankle and even divide Christian churches themselves, as evidenced…
Edward Taylor, associate professor of mathematics; Petra Bonfert-Taylor, associate professor of mathematics; and David Bodznick, dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, received a grant worth $199,924 from the National Science Foundation for their “Collaborative Research: Analytic and Geometric Methods in Limited Angle Tomosunthesis.” The grant expires Aug. 27, 2011.
Barry Chernoff, the Robert Schumann Professor of Environmental Studies, professor of biology, chair of the Environmental Studies Program and director of the College of the Environment, received a $13,000 grant from The Nature Conservancy for his research titled “Fish and Benthic Invertebrate Assemblages-Zemko Dam.” The grant expires Aug. 15, 2011.
David PesciIn an Oct. 8 The Los Angeles Times OpEd titled "Gaps in medical research ethics," Laura Stark, assistant professor of science in society, assistant professor of sociology, assistant professor of environmental studies, explains flaws in the current research review system in the United States. On the heels of a U.S. apology for medical research in Guatemala, the U.S. now has on opportunity to overhaul ethics rules. Stark shows how the ethics review process enabled the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to use federal prisoners in experiments during the 1960s. The prisoners were infected with “pneumonia, influenza and the common cold,…
Fernando Degiovanni, associate professor of romance languages and literatures, associate professor of Latin American studies, was awarded the prestigious Alfredo Roggiano Prize for his Los textos de la patria: Nacionalismo, politicas culturales y canon en Argentina (2007). This prize is awarded every three years by the International Institute of Ibero-American Literature to the author of an outstanding scholarly book on any phase of Latin American literature or culture. The International Institute of Ibero-American Literature is the oldest association of scholars devoted the study of Latin American literature and culture in the United States.
In July 2010, the board of the New York Academy of Medicine elected Andrew Curran, professor of French, Department of Romance Languages, a Fellow of the Academy in the history of medicine. Curran had previously received the Paul Klemperer fellowship in the history of medicine at the Academy and had given a lecture there on “natural history and slavery.” While at the Academy, Curran finished a book on 18th-century life sciences, The Anatomy of Blackness: Science and Slavery in an Era of Enlightenment (Johns Hopkins University Press, forthcoming 2011).
Ákos Östör, professor of anthropology, emeritus, was appointed to "Professor Catedratico" for the fall semester at the Instituto Superior de Ciencias do Trabalho e da Epresa - Lisbon University Institute. This is the highest appointment offered in the Portuguese University system. There, Östör is teaching a course on the "History of Visual in Anthropology" for the new master's program in Visual Anthropology. "Lisbon is a delightful place, deep histories and memories of ages and ethnicities, well reflected in the cuisine (the wine and seafood are superb and affordable in the numerous tascas, neighborhood eateries, throughout the city) definitely a place to visit and…