Olivia DrakeEllen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences is the co-author of "End-Cretaceous Marine Mass Extinction not Caused by Productivity Collapse," published in (PNAS) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; "Blake Outer Ridge: late Neogene variability in paleoenvironments and deep-sea biota," published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 302: 435-451; "Seawater calcium isotopic ratios across the Eocene-Oligocene Transition, published in Geology, 39: 683-686; "A core-top calibration of B/Ca in the benthic foraminifera Nuttallides umbonifera and Oridorsalis umbonatus: reconstructing bottom water carbonate saturation," published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 310: 360-368; "Ocean deoxygenation: past, present and future," published in EOS Transactions AGU, 92: 409-410, all in 2011.
David PesciThis issue, 5 Questions talks about the connections between the Moneyball and biology with Fredrick Cohan, professor of biology. Q: Fred, you’ve been talking about how the data mining revolution in baseball, championed by the Michael Lewis book Moneyball and the recent movie of the same name starring Brad Pitt, can change science in general and biology, specifically. Really? A: Absolutely! On the surface, Moneyball is the story of Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s, who found a way to lead his poverty-stricken team to success against teams with many times the payroll of Oakland. But Moneyball is…
Bill HolderThe Marietta College Board of Trustees has elected Joseph Bruno, formerly vice president for Academic Affairs and provost at Wesleyan, as the 18th president of Marietta, effective July 1, 2012. The college is located in Marietta, Ohio. Bruno is considered an effectual and collaborative higher education leader who has worked with four Wesleyan presidents in his 27 years and has helped to shape academic initiatives at the university, according to an announcement issued by Marietta. A graduate of Augustana College and Northwestern University, Bruno is currently a professor of chemistry at Wesleyan. He also completed a thesis parts appointment at Argonne…
A high profile auction of Elizabeth Taylor’s estate provides a definitive moment to discuss the film icon’s life and work. Jeanine Basinger, Chair and Corwin Fuller Professor of Film Studies, is featured on Southern California Public Radio (KPCC) and brings a historical perspective to Taylor’s body of work and her life as one of the last true movie stars. More than 2,000 of Taylor's items are being auctioned online. "With Elizabeth Taylor, you're operating at at a level of stardom, it's cosmic really," Basinger says in the show. "Whether anyone was a fan of hers or not, they would want something of…
Ron Cameron, professor of religion, is the co-editor of the book Redescribing Paul and the Corinthians. The 340-page book was published by the Society of Biblical Literature in 2011. This second volume of studies by members of the SBL Seminar on Ancient Myths and Modern Theories of Christian Origins reassesses the agenda of modern scholarship on Paul and the Corinthians. The contributors challenge the theory of religion assumed in most New Testament scholarship and adopt a different set of theoretical and historical terms for redescribing the beginnings of the Christian religion. They propose explanations of the relationship between Paul and…
Professor Lori Gruen’s The First 100 web site was featured in The New York Times. The web site provides biographies of the first 100 chimpanzees used in scientific experimentation. Gruen is chair and professor of philosophy, professor of feminist gender and sexuality studies, professor of environmental studies. Chimpanzees live 50 to 60 years in captivity, so those who are retired have long histories, although the details can be spotty. On her web site, Gruen has thumbnail biographies of the first 100 chimps used in research in the United States. She hopes to create a similar site for chimps now in…
Erika Fowler, assistant professor of government, received a grant worth $80,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The award will provide support to the Wesleyan Media Project through October 2013. The grant is shared with Bowdoin College and Washington State University.
Charles Lemert, University Professor and Andrus Professor of Social Theory, emeritus, is the author of Why Niebuhr Matters, published by Yale University Press, November 2011. Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) was a Protestant preacher, an influential religious thinker, and an important moral guide in mid-20th-century America. His work has informed the thinking of political leaders and commentators from Barack Obama and Madeleine Albright to David Brooks and Walter Russell Mead. In this lively overview of Niebuhr's career, Lemert analyzes why interest in Niebuhr is rising and how Niebuhr provides the answers we ache for in the face of seismic shifts in the…
Ed Moran, associate professor of astronomy, received a grant worth $62,804 from NASA for a project titled "Black Holes at the Center of Nearby Dwarf Galaxies." The project involves observations of six dwarf galaxies with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, also known as the "Hubble Space Telescope of X-ray Astronomy." "We have identified 'active nuclei' in these objects, which are powered by the accretion of gas onto massive black holes," Moran says. "The X-ray emission associated with the accretion will give us direct information about the black holes and their surroundings in their host galaxies." The black holes in these galaxies…
Stewart Novick, professor of chemistry, received a grant worth $43,260 from the National Science Foundation. The award is shared with Professor Stephen Cooke of SUNY-Purchase and represents a new collaboration between Professors Cooke and Novick who now co-mentor graduate students and share sophisticated equipment (Fourier transform microwave spectrometers housed in Novick's lab at Wesleyan). The collaboration, which goes beyond this one grant, involves investigating the structures and dynamics of a whole range of systems including large halogenated compounds and molecules involving actinide valence electrons in their chemical bonding.
Like all eating disorders, binge eating only affects women and teenaged girls, right? Wrong. An extensive new study that examined the eating habits of 21,743 men found that binge eating affected 1,630 of them. The rate, while slightly less than the number of women in the same study who experienced binge eating, reveals that this behavior is not limited to female populations. The results argue strongly for including men in future studies and treatment strategies. Published in the Sept. 2011 issue of International Journal of Eating Disorders, the study, titled “Why Men Should be Included in Research on Binge Eating:…
Six Wesleyan researchers, including a graduate student, were authors or co-authors of papers chosen for presentation at this year’s annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA) in Minneapolis, Minn., Oct. 9-12. It is the largest annual meeting of the preeminent scientific association in the geologic and earth science fields. Johan Varekamp, Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Sciences, professor of earth and environmental sciences, presented two papers. The first, “Wethersfield Cove, Hartford, Conn. – A 300 Year Urban Pollution Record,” detailed a study of the sedimentary record of the cove, which revealed unusually high levels of Mercury. The…