 |
 Donna
Riley, associate professor of engineering,
recently received the Sterling Olmsted Award, the highest
award given by the Liberal Education/Engineering and
Society Division of the American Society of Engineering
Education. The annual award honors those who have made
distinguished contributions to the development and
teaching of liberal arts in engineering education.
She received the award at the annual ASEE meeting in
San Antonio, Texas. Riley was also chosen to be the
deputy editor of the Journal of Engineering Education,
the flagship journal in the engineering education field.
 Carla
Coffey, senior coach of track and field, is
serving as the head manager for the USA Junior World
Track & Field women’s team this summer. The team
is composed of women athletes aged 14 to 20, “our
future Olympic team athletes,” notes Coffey. Last
month, Coffey traveled to Bloomington, Ind., where the
team selection took place. The World Junior Championships
took place July 10 through 15 in Barcelona, Spain. Coffey,
who has coached Smith track and field team since 1992,
coached world championship teams in 1990, 1993, 1995,
2000 and 2004.
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander ‘44,
is among the 2012 medal recipients from the American Society
of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the highest awards presented
by the society. “Oberlander has been and continues
to be among the most important practitioners emphasizing
sustainable design in all her built work, frequent lectures,
influential publications, and numerous awards,” notes
the ASLA award citation. Oberlander was one of the first
women in the post-World War II era to establish her own
landscape architecture practice, the citation points out,
and has a portfolio of numerous noteworthy projects in
Canada and the United States. Oberlander was a recipient
of the prestigious Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award from the
International Federation of Landscape Architects in 2011.
 Three
Smith students—Frankie Petronio ’14,
Katy Swartz ’13 and Sydney Sadur ’14—have
been chosen by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI) as
Centennial Interns, in honor of the 100th anniversary of
the founding of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization
of America. The three Smith interns are among eight Hadassah
Centennial Interns, each of whom will complete an independent
research project related to gender and Jadaism. Petronio
will study Jewish women in comedy; Swartz will create a
guide for religious youth who are questioning their sexuality;
and Sadur will explore narratives of transgender Jews and
their relationships with their faith. Each intern will
also assist a faculty member with a research project related
to her scholarly interests. The HBI is an international
and interdisciplinary institute established at Brandeis
University in 1997, for the purpose of developing fresh
ways of thinking about Jews and gender worldwide by producing
and promoting scholarly research, artistic projects, and
public engagement.
Rick Fantasia,
the Barbara Richmond 1940 Professor in the Social Sciences,
spent three weeks this summer as a visiting scholar at
Gothenburg University in Sweden. In addition to participating
in various seminars, he presented lectures on his work
to the Department of Sociology and to the Forum for Civil
Society and Social Movement Research at Gothenburg University,
and was one of the two speakers at the symposium, titled "Cultural
Sociology: Possibilities and Challenges," at Linnaeus University
in Vaxjo, Sweden.
 Steve
Goldstein, Sophia Smith Professor of Government,
recently traveled over the pond to present a talk, “Election
Results in Taiwan: What’s Next for the US-China-Taiwan
Tangle?” at the Taiwan Studies Programme, Asian
Studies Centre, St. Antony’s College, Oxford, U.K.
Goldstein’s current research focuses on relations
between mainland China and Taiwan, as well as the evolution
of U.S.-Taiwan relations.
Nicholas Horton,
professor of mathematics and statistics, was recently named
a fellow of the American Statistical Association, the world’s
largest community of statisticians. The honor is given
annually in recognition of outstanding contributions by
individuals to the statistical profession. Horton will
be presented with an award, along with other 2012 fellows,
on Tuesday, July 31, during the Joint Statistical Meetings
awards ceremony in San Diego, Calif.
 Dana
Leibsohn, the Priscilla Paine Van der Poel Professor
of Art, was recently named a recipient of a 2012 Collaborative
Research Fellowship with ACLS, a nonprofit federation
of 71 national scholarly organizations with the mission
of advancing scholarship by awarding fellowships and
fostering relationships among learned societies. The
fellowships are granted to groups of two to three scholars,
who work closely together on a substantive project. Leibsohn
will team with art historian Carolyn Dean, professor
of the history of art and visual culture, University
of California, Santa Cruz, on a project titled “Colonial
Things, Cosmopolitan Thinking: Locating the Indigenous
Art of Spanish America,” in which the fellow art
historians will combine their expertise on the art of
New Spain and the Andes to co-author a book exploring
how indigenous art, global trade networks and cosmopolitan
ambitions intersected in colonial Spanish America. They
join six other teams of humanities scholars from American
schools.
 Renée
Claire Fox ’49 was recently elected
to the American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned
society in the U.S. Founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin
for the purpose of “promoting useful knowledge,” the
APS honors and engages distinguished scientists, humanists,
social scientists and leaders in civic and cultural
affairs; supports research through grants, fellowships
and events; and serves scholars through an internationally
renowned research library. Fox is the Annenberg Professor
Emerita of the Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania,
and she joins four other newly elected members in the
Social Science category. Read
about Fox in the spring 2006 Smith Alumnae Quarterly (page
20). The ASP has 1,022 elected members. Past members
include George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson,
Thomas Paine, James Madison, Charles Darwin, Thomas
Edison, Albert Einstein, and many other prominent leaders
and thinkers in American history, including more than
240 Nobel Prize winners.
 Kayvia
Pemberton ‘12 was named the winner of
the ninth annual Elevator Pitch Contest, sponsored by
the Center for Women and Financial Independence. The
contest invites students to present their business start-up
ideas in 90 seconds—the duration of a typical elevator
ride—to a panel of judges and an audience. Pemberton
won the contest with her business idea called Smart Laundry,
and was awarded $100. Pemberton's win earned her an invitation
to compete in a regional competition sponsored by the
Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation on April 25 at
the Log Cabin in Holyoke, Mass., where she will present
her elevator pitch to potential investors.
Kristine Molina ‘05 won
the first-place “Kurt M. Landgraf Outstanding Dissertation
Award” at the annual conference of the American Association
of Hispanics in Higher Education, held in Costa Mesa, Calif.,
March 8-12. The conference, with the theme title “Celebrating
Our Similarities, Embracing Our Differences,” drew
hundreds of the nation’s top Hispanic researchers,
educators, policymakers and leaders. Awards were provided
by Educational Testing Service (ETS) in recognition of
outstanding student research. According to the awards web
site, Molina’s research “is aimed at understanding
the unique role that discrimination and socioeconomic status
play in contributing to adverse health outcomes.”
 A
film, Swim Suit, by Lucretia Knapp,
a lecturer in the art department, was shown in March as
part of the Sport, Gender and Media conference at the University
of York in England. Knapp’s film was screened part
of the conference segment themed “Gendered Displays
in Swimming.” (scene pictured) is an experimental documentary
short that is part of a larger work on transgender identities.
Alex Webster ’08 was
this week awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship,
which includes full tuition as she pursues her doctorate
in ecology at the University of California, Davis. The
fellowship also includes a stipend of $30,000 for the next
three years.
Carolyn Dehner,
a McPherson Postdoctoral Fellow and lecturer in biochemistry,
recently served as a judge of student presentations at
the annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority
Students (ABRCMS), the largest event of its kind in the
nation. The event is designed to encourage underrepresented
minority students to pursue advanced training in biomedical
and behavioral sciences. This year’s conference registered
its highest participation with more than 3,300 people in
attendance.
 Clockwork
Design Group, Inc., a full-service graphic and web design
agency based in Waltham, Mass., led by Vanessa
Schaefer ’85, president and creative director,
was the winner of four awards at the recent New England
Legal Marketing Association’s annual “Your
Honor” awards, which celebrates the “best of
the best” in New England legal marketing. Clockwork
Design won first-place awards for a web site for Campbell
Trial Lawyers and an e-card announcement for the same company;
as well as two third-place awards, for a web site for Bernkopf
Goodman LLP, and a single ad for Sherin and Lodgen LLP.
Clockwork Design has received numerous awards for its designs,
including recognition from the Boston Business Journal as
a top web and graphic design firm.
 Sierra
Bainbridge '99, a program director in Rwanda
with MASS, an architectural design firm that builds and
advocates for structures that improve health and strengthen
communities around the world, was recently cited by Contract magazine,
which named MASS its 2012  Designer
of the Year for its positive impact on health care and
design. Bainbridge heads a professional school of architecture
in Rwanda, now in its third year, the first school of
its kind in the African country, which is training 25
students annually and will graduate its first class in
two years. The school is a partnership between MASS and
the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, at which
Bainbridge served as Head of the Architecture Department
in 2010-11. MASS also built the Girubuntu School (pictured)
in Kigali, Rwanda, which educates 300 children. Bainbridge,
who joined MASS in 2009, oversaw the completion of the
school.
Bill Oram,
Helen Means Professor of English Language and Literature,
was recently awarded the Colin Clout Lifetime Achievement
Award by the International Spenser Society, an organization
devoted to the study and promotion of the works of English
poet Edmund Spenser. The award is occasionally given to
a senior scholar “whose body of work represents a
wide-ranging, long-standing and distinguished contribution
to the study of Edmund Spenser" and, in general, English
Renaissance poetry, according to officials at the International
Spenser Society. The award citation notes Oram’s
essays on Spenser, as well as poets Raleigh, Milton and
Herrick; his biography of Spenser; and his service as editor
of the annual journal Spenser Studies. Oram was
presented with a medal representing the award in January
during the annual meeting of the International Spenser
Society.
 A
short film, titled Breakdown, by dance major In
Kyung Lee ’12, was screened last week as
part of the Frameworks Dance Film Series, a showcase of
artworks choreographed for the camera. The festival takes
place annually at Dance New Amsterdam in New York City.
Lee’s film is a nearly 4-minute experimental work
featuring Angelica Falcinelli ’12 and Lee, who also
directed. On-camera action is interspersed with computer-animated
dance sequences in the piece. View
the film.
 Lily
Hallock, a teaching fellow in exercise and sport
studies, has been named the 10th head volleyball coach
at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Hallock will
also serve as an instructor in the university’s
Exercise Sport Science Department. Hallock, who is pursuing
her master’s degree in exercise and sport studies
at Smith, served as a graduate assistant volleyball coach
at Smith for the past two seasons, and as interim head
volleyball coach from January to June 2011.
Trish Jackson,
vice president for development, is one of 10 chief advancement
officers featured in a new book, Making the Case for
Leadership: Profiles of Chief Advancement Officers in Higher
Education, co-authored by Jon Derek Croteau and Zachary
Smith. The book takes a detailed look at the role of the
chief advancement officer , a relatively new position at
most schools, and its importance in higher education.
 Julie
Casper Roth AC’07J was recently awarded
a Fellowship in Visual Arts from the College Art Association
(CAA), the nation’s leading arts organization for
higher education. Roth, who is pursuing a masters of
fine arts degree at the University at Albany-State University
of New York, is among only five graduate students in
the nation to receive the prestigious award, which includes
a $5,000 stipend. The CAA fellowship, which is given
to studio art graduate students in their final year of
study, is intended to further the artistic and professional
work of awardees. Roth is an award-winning video artist
whose work focuses on experimental explorations of identity
and perception. Her graduate thesis exhibit will consider
the influence of Mormonism on gender and sexual identity.
Mary Hall,
professor of social work, and Joan Lesser,
adjunct associate professor of social work, both received
honors from the National Association of Social Work (NASW),
Massachusetts Chapter. Hall was given an award for Greatest
Contribution to Social Work Education while Lesser was
honored for Greatest Contribution to Social Work Practice.
The social work faculty members will be feted during the
association’s annual awards celebration on March
29, at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel and Conference Center,
along with other award winners. The NASW is the largest
organization in the world for professional social workers,
with 145,000 members.
 The
Washington, D.C., Housing Authority, which is led by executive
director Adrianne Todman ’91, was
recently awarded a $300,000 Choice Neighborhoods grant
from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) to help transform a neighborhood in need in the city. “We
are very excited about this new opportunity to help revitalize
another D.C. neighborhood,” said Todman. The HUD
grant is one among many community improvement awards the
D.C. Housing Authority has received. Todman was appointed
to head the agency in 2010, the first woman to serve in
the leadership post. The HUD Choice Neighborhoods grants
aim to assist in linking housing projects with a wider
variety of public services, including schools, transit
and employment opportunities.
 Sherrill
Redmon, director of the Sophia Smith Collection,
is the recent recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award
from Veteran Feminists of America (VFA), a nonprofit
organization for people instrumental to and involved
in the “Second Wave” feminist movement. Redmon
was presented the award on October 29 by Smith alumna
Gloria Steinem ’56 during a VFA celebration at
Rollins College, Winter Park, Fla. Joining Redmon in
receiving the association’s Lifetime Achievement
Award this year were Terry O’Neill, president of
NOW; and Barbara J. Love, editor of the book Feminists
Who Changed America, 1963-1975. Redmon has directed
the Sophia Smith Collection since 1993. The collection
is an internationally renowned archive of papers and
materials pertinent to the history and sociology of women
in America. The VFA is dedicated to preserving the record
of the second wave of feminism and to passing the torch
to future generations.
Katherine Halvorsen,
professor of mathematics and statistics, has been named
Mosteller Statistician of the Year by the Boston Chapter
of the American Statistical Association, the nation’s
preeminent professional statistical society and the world’s
largest community of statisticians. The Mosteller honor
is presented annually by the association’s Boston
Chapter to a distinguished statistician who has made exceptional
contributions to the field of statistics, and has shown
outstanding service to the statistical community. The award
was renamed in 1997 after Fred Mosteller, the award’s
first recipient, in 1990, and Halvorsen’s dissertation
adviser at the Harvard School of Public Health. The ASA,
which was founded in Boston in 1839, is the second oldest
continuously operating professional society in the United
States. Halvorsen was appointed as a Fellow of the ASA
in 2008.
 A
film, Looking for Michael, produced by Lucretia
Knapp, lecturer in film studies, was recently
named a first-place winner in the Experimental Shorts category
of the Columbus (Ohio) International Film + Video Festival,
also known as “The Chris Awards,” one of the
most prestigious film competitions in the country. Looking
for Michael was screened at the 59th CIF+VF on Nov.
19. Knapp, who attended undergraduate school at The Ohio
State University in Columbus, Ohio, also taught video production,
still photography, computer graphics and film theory there. Looking
for Michael grew out of events following the death
of Michael Jackson, Knapp explains. “Looking
for Michael is a reflection on collective grieving,
but at the same time includes humorous touches.” The
film has screened at Open Screen in Northampton.
Poet Nikky Finney,
the Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence in 2007-08,
a frequent visitor to campus for readings of her work,
and author of a poem commissioned by Smith for the annual
Otelia Cromwell Day, was recently named a National Book
Award winner for her most recent book of poems Head
Off & Split. Finney, a professor of English and creative
writing at the University of Kentucky, is also the author
of three other collections of poems: The World Is Round (2003), Rice (1995),
and On Wings Made of Gauze (1985).
 A
video produced earlier this year by Kate Lee,
multimedia developer in Information Technology Services,
was recently announced the winner of a Telly Award. , a documentary video about
the origin of women’s collegiate basketball at Smith
College, won a Silver Telly, the highest honor given, in
the History/Biography category. The annual Telly Awards,
founded in 1978, honor the best in television commercials
and programs, as well as video and film productions, and
work created for the Web. The Telly is among the most sought-after
award in the industry. According to Lee, more than 13,000
entries were submitted for the awards this year, 6 percent
of which won Silver Awards, which require a ranking of
a 9 or 10 out of 10 from every award judge. Drawing heavily
from archives images and a voiceover narrative, Lee’s
film documents Smith’s legendary basketball beginnings,
from the interactions between Senda Berenson with Dr. James
Naismith, the inventor of basketball, to the first college
basketball game in the world, on March 22, 1893.
 John
Brady, the Mary Elizabeth Moses Professor of
Geosciences, was recently named the first winner of the
Undergraduate Research Mentor Award, to be given annually
by the Geoscience Division of the Council on Undergraduate
Research in recognition of transformative student-faculty
mentoring relationships and a sustained and innovative
approach to undergraduate research. Nominations for the
award were solicited from among students and colleagues.
Cited among the examples of Brady’s outstanding
undergraduate mentoring are his inspiration in bringing
about transformative experiences for his students, his
advising role for more than 50 special studies and honors
thesis students, and his development of a first-year
seminar, “Geology in the Field,” which introduces
women to science as a possible career field.
Alice Delcourt '99
accepts first prize at the 2011 Cous Cous Fest,
Sicily. |
Alice Delcourt ‘99,
head chef at Erba Brusca, a restaurant in Milan, Italy,
was the recent winner of the Fourteenth Annual International
Cous Cous [sic] Fest, a highly competitive contest that
took place last week in San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily. Delcourt
swept the top awards, taking the over all award for best
couscous, as well as the award for best presentation. Delcourt’s
couscous was a recipe with dried fruit, sesame seeds and
roasted almonds, topped with a slice of smoked mackerel,
with a dab of Greek yogurt on the side. Her winning couscous
competed against entries from Egypt, Israel, Italy, Morocco,
Tunisia and other countries. "My couscous was very
different from the traditional plates that were served
there," says Delcourt,
"very fresh, using lots of herbs and such." Couscous,
a dish that originated in Northern Africa, has long been
a regular dish in the Sicilian diet.
Delcourt, an Italian and government
double major at Smith, spent her Junior Year Abroad in
Florence, Italy, in 1997-98, and settled in Milan seven
years ago. Born in France, Delcourt grew up in Chicago
and Asheville, N.C.
Those visiting Milan and curious
about Delcourt's winning couscous might stop by Erba Brusca,
where she often serves the dish. But check ahead.
"It's currently not on the menu," she adds.
Aimee Christensen ‘91,
an award-winning green energy strategist and CEO of Christensen
Global Strategies, a firm that works with businesses internationally
in investigating and implementing clean energy solutions,
received the Hillary Institute Award at last week’s
Clinton Global Initiative, which took place September 20
through 22 in New York City. Christensen, whose clients
have included Duke Energy, Ogilvy, the United Nations Development
and the U.S. Department of Energy, serves as a member of
the Homeland Security Advisory Council’s Task Force
on Sustainability and Efficiency, advising Secretary Janet
Napolitano. She was a national co-chair of Cleantech and
Green Business for President Obama, and co-founded the
Clean Economy Network, which brought more than 250 business
leaders to Capitol Hill in 2010 to advocate for the passage
of comprehensive climate change and energy legislation.
Christensen will visit Smith on Monday, Oct. 3, for a conversation
with the Center for the Environment, Ecological Design
and Sustainability. Christensen visted Smith on October
3 to speak on "What Do We Value and What It Means
for Our Economy and for Each of Us" as part of a series
in Environmental Science and Policy.
 Róisín
O’Sullivan, associate professor of economics,
was appointed this summer, by the Ireland Minister for
Finance, to a five-member Irish Fiscal Advisory Council,
a new governmental body. The council is being established
as part of a plan to reform Ireland’s budgetary
architecture, and will act as an independent group charged
with compiling an assessment of the government’s
progress in meeting its own stated budgetary objectives,
as well as the soundness of the government’s fiscal
position. O’Sullivan, who is originally from Limerick,
Ireland, worked for several years as an economist with
the Central Bank of Ireland. She is joined on the council
by other top Irish economic experts: John McHale, head
of economics at NUI Galway, who chairs the council; Alan
Barrett, Economic and Social Research Institute; Sebastian
Barnes, economics department, Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD); and Donal Donovan,
University of Limerick.
 Nicholas
Horton, professor of mathematics and statistics,
who co-authored a paper last year, titled “Telling
Data Stories: Essential Dialogues for Comparative Reasoning,” published
in the Journal of Statistics Education, was given the
first annual Best JSE Paper Award. Horton wrote the paper
with Maxine Pfannkuch, Matt Regan and Chris Wild, all
of the University of Auckland, New Zealand. The Best
JSE Paper Award was established with a donation from
William I. Notz, professor of statistics at Ohio State
University. Horton and his research team will receive
a $1,500 cash prize as part of the award. The article
appeared in the JSE in 2010; (pdf).
 Sabina
Knight, associate professor of Chinese and comparative
literature, was recently selected among 20 fellows in
the Public Intellectuals Program (PIP) of the National
Committee on United States-China Relations. The PIP assists
experts on China in further developing their knowledge
and understanding of the country and its culture and
history through professional workshops and conferences,
as well as two 10-day study tours to China. Knight, who
teaches Chinese and comparative literature at Smith,
is also a research associate at Harvard’s Fairbank
Center for Chinese Studies. She is the author of The
Heart of Time: Moral Agency in Twentieth-Century Chinese
Fiction (Harvard, 2006), and Chinese Literature:
A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2012).
Elizabeth Jamieson
in the lab (on left) |
An article titled “Inorganic
Chemistry and IONIC: An Online Community Bringing Cutting-Edge
Research into the Classroom,” co-authored by Elizabeth
Jamieson, associate professor of chemistry, was
among the most-read articles in Inorganic Chemistry,
one of the top chemistry research journals, following its
June 3 publication. The article discusses research among
a group of inorganic chemists with whom Jamieson collaborates
on a Web site called the (VIPEr)—link
www.ionicviper.org . Inorganic Chemistry publishes
a page listing its most read articles each month. Jamieson’s
article occupied the top spot for part of the summer.
 An
article by John Davis, associate provost,
dean for academic development, and longtime member of the
art faculty, is among 32 articles, by an impressive list
of art scholars and historians, recently selected as the
most important writings published by the Art Bulletin,
the field’s flagship journal, in its 98 years of
publication. Davis’ article, “Eastman Johnson’s
Negro Life at the South and Urban Slavery in Washington,
D.C.,” was first published in the journal in March
1998. The “greatest hits” list was created
in response to a request from the College Art Association,
partly in celebration of its centennial. Other renowned
art historians on the list include Meyer Schapiro, Donald
Posner, Leo Steinberg, Rensselaer Lee, and many others. “It
is indeed humbling to be in the company of the art historians
on the list,” commented Davis.
 Erin
Morgenstern, a 2000 Smith graduate (under the
name Erin Joyce McCauley) is joining the ranks of Smith
alumnae making noise in the world of literature with
her debut novel The Night Circus, a book about
family, rivalry and love, due for publication, by Doubleday,
in September. But even before the novel has been released,
it has attracted attention from Hollywood. Summit Entertainment,
the production company behind the mega-hit Twilight series
of movies, has acquired rights to the book and talks
are circulating about turning the story into a movie,
possibly for television. Morgenstern joins a long list
of Keep
an eye out for The Night Circus this fall. Pre-orders
of the book are available on .
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, Class
of 1944, is the recipient of the 2011 Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe
Award, the highest honor bestowed by the International
Federation of Landscape Architects. The award annually
recognizes a living landscape architect whose lifetime
contributions have made a lasting impact on society and
the environment. For six decades, Oberlander has created
designs that successfully incorporate her concerns for
the environment and for the people who will use and live
among them. One of the first females to graduate from Harvard
University Graduate School of Design, Oberlander has long
been a pioneer in the field of landscape architecture.
The Jellicoe Award was presented during the IFLA World
Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, on June 28, at which Oberlander
gave a lecture as part of the ceremony. Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe
was a founding member of the IFLA, in 1929, served as president
of the federation from 1948 to 1954, and was knighted in
1979 for his services to landscape architecture.
 Marsha
Kline Pruett, the Maconda Brown O’Connor
Chaired Professor in the School for Social Work, is the
recent recipient of the Nurturing Fathers Alliance Award,
given by the Nurturing Fathers Program. A primary focus
of Pruett’s work and research include increasing
father involvement with their children. The Supporting
Father Involvement project, to which she contributes,
aims to reduce child abuse and neglect and enhance family
well-being through intervention and encouragement of
father involvement. The Nurturing Fathers Program, based
in Holyoke, Mass., teaches parenting and nurturing skills
to men through training programs. Pruett was presented
with her award during the Nurturing Fathers Program’s
graduation ceremony of its ninth class of graduates,
held on June 16.
 Nicholas
Howe, associate professor of computer science,
is the recent grand prize winner of a highly technical
programming contest coordinated by MathWorks, a mathematical
computing software development company in Natick, Mass.
MathWorks is the producer of MatLab, an interactive computer
scientific system used extensively by Smith’s Clark
Science Center, including the computer science department.
The MathWorks MatLab Programming Contest is a semi-annual
competition in which contestants submit MatLab computer
code for a crossword puzzle. Howe’s puzzle project,
titled “Rapid Weight Loss May Be Harmful,” came
in first in a hotly contested race. Howe has participated
in the annual contest since 2004. “I think I can,
without hyperbole, say that I have never seen anyone
so thoroughly dominate the closing minutes of a contest,” says
Ned Gulley, the contest administrator.
Jaime Estrada ’12,
has been accepted to participate in the Summer Institute
for Literary and Cultural Studies (SILCS). As a participant,
Estrada will spend May 28 through June 26 with nine other
highly motivated English majors at SILCS, based at Wheaton
College, Norton, Mass. The students, selected from a very
competitive national pool, will study literary and cultural
theory and will learn from a number of top scholars in
the field, who will serve as visiting lecturers for the
institute. SILCS aims to increase diversity in the field
of English studies by preparing students to apply to doctoral
programs in English. The program supplements the undergraduate
curriculum, introduces students to archival research, and
works on writing and presentation skills. SILCS students
are sponsored by faculty members at their home institutions,
who pledge to guide them through the graduate school application
process during their senior year. Jaime's sponsor at Smith
Naomi Miller, professor of English language and literature.
Elliot Fratkin |
Two Smith faculty members
have been selected for the U.S. Fulbright Scholarship program. Elliot
Fratkin, professor of anthropology, has been granted
a Fulbright teaching and research award, with which he
will teach Anthropology of Development and Human Ecology,
while developing a master’s degree program at Hawassa
University in Ethiopia. Patricia Mangan,
a lecturer in anthropology, was granted a Fulbright teaching
award, with which she will teach 19th and 18th century
American history and anthropology in China. Fratkin and
Mangan will participate in the scholar program from September
2011 to June 2012.
 Samuel
Scheer, lecturer, English language and literature,
and a teacher of English at Windsor High School, Windsor,
Conn., is a recipient of the second annual All American
Teacher of the Year Award from the National Math and
Science Initiative (NMSI), which recognizes outstanding
math, science and English teachers in NMSI’s Advanced
Placement Training and Incentive Program for their contributions
to their students and to the teaching profession. The
23 award winners will receive an award and will be recognized
at a special awards luncheon in Washingtobn, D.C. on
May 26. Awards are given to one teacher each in AP math,
science and English from seven states that participate
in APTIP.
Priscilla Ross ’88 recently
received the Paragon Award for Community Enrichment for
her work founding and directing the Florence Community
Band. Ross has grown the band from a handful of members
to a performing ensemble of more than 50 instrumentalists
from throughout Hampshire County. The band gives concerts
and participates regularly in local parades and community
events. The Paragon Awards have been presented annually
for seven years to individuals in the Northampton area
to honor their outstanding volunteers service.
 Natalie
Zemon Davis ’49 was recently elected as
a member of the prestigious American Philosophical Society.
Davis, an adjunct professor of history and professor
of medieval studies at the University of Toronto, was
elected in the humanities category. The APS is an honorary
society that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences
and humanities. Election to the APS honors extraordinary
accomplishments in the fields of mathematical and physical
sciences, biological sciences, social sciences, humanities,
and the arts. The APS has a membership of 1004 worldwide.
 Kim
Bierwert, head coach of swimming and diving,
has been appointed to a four-year term on the NCAA Division
III Swimming Committee. The committee serves as the guiding
committee for Division III swimming, overseeing operational
aspects of conducting the league championships and reviewing
and implementing new rules. "I am excited about the prospect
of working with the members of the committee to help
foster the growth of swimming and diving in Division
III," said Bierwert. "I am hopeful that we can continue
to create a championship for Division III that is competitive,
exciting and well run. Bierwert becomes the sixth member
of the Smith athletic department to serve or have served
on a NCAA committee.
An exhibition catalog, John
Singer Sargent: Portraits in Praise of Women,
for the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY, featuring
an essay by Helen Horowitz, professor
emerita of American studies, on the American painter,
was recently awarded the W. E. Fishcelis Book Award
from the Victorian Society of America. The award is
given annually for an outstanding book dealing with
19th-century art and artists. Horowitz’s essay
discusses “The Women of Sargent’s World.” The
award will be presented at The Victorian Society’s
annual meeting on May 29 in Portland, OR.
 Jennifer
Guglielmo, associate professor of history,
recently received the Theodore Saloutos Memorial Award
from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society for
best book in United States immigration history, for
her book Living the Revolution: Italian Women’s
Resistance and Readicalism in New York City, 1880-1945,
published last year by University of North Carolina
Press.
Michael Barresi,
assistant professor of biological sciences, is the recent
recipient of a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER)
grant from the National Science Foundation.
Elizabeth Jamieson,
associate professor of chemistry, has won two grants, one
from the National Institutes of Health to advance her research
on DNA, and the other to support a multi-campus faculty
workshop on inorganic chemistry, funded by the Mellon Foundation,
sponsored by AALAC.
 Ellen
Doré Watson, director of the Poetry Center,
has been appointed to a five-year term as an elector
of Poets' Corner in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine
in New York City. The Poets’ Corner was created
in 1984 as a memorial to preeminent American writers.
More than 30 writers have been inducted since its inception
in 1984, including, last November Smith alumna Sylvia
Plath ’55. Watson joins a distinguished
group of poets and writers who have participated in the
ceremonies of The Poets' Corner, including current electors
Rosanna Warren, Cynthia Zarin, Major Jackson, Kelly Cherry,
Mark Jarman, Kimiko Hahn, Patricia Smith, Aemon Grennan,
Doug Anderson, and current poet in residence at the cathedral,
Marilyn Nelson. Electors’ duties include participation
in: the nomination of one poet or writer each year for
installation in The Poets' Corner; the annual installation
of the poet or writer; the Maundy Thursday Dante reading
at the cathedral.
 David
Newbury, Gwendolen Carter Professor of African
Studies, is the editor of a new book, Defeat Is the
Only Bad News: Rwanda under Musinga, 1896-1931,
by Alison Liebhafsky Des Forges, due to be published
next month by the University of Wisconsin Press. The
book recounts the ambitions, strategies and intrigues
of an African royal court under Yuhi Musinga, the Rwandan
ruler from 1896 to 1931, describes a UWP press release. “These
were turbulent years for Rwanda, when first Germany and
then Belgium pursued an aggressive plan of colonization
there. At the time of the Europeans’ arrival, Rwanda
was also engaged in a succession dispute after the death
of one of its most famous kings. Against this backdrop,
the Rwandan court became the stage for a drama of Shakespearean
proportions, filled with deceit, shrewd calculation,
ruthless betrayal, and sometimes murder. Des Forges’s
vividly narrated history, meticulously edited and introduced
by David Newbury, provides a deep context for understanding
the Rwandan civil war a century later.” Newbury
is the author of Kings and Clans: A Social History
of the Lake Kivu Rift Valley.
Judge Lillian Miranda,
who recently retired as first justice of the Franklin-Hampshire
Juvenile Court, will join Smith as a teacher of law and
social work in the School for Social Work’s summer
session. Miranda presided over juvenile delinquency cases
as well as those involving parental abuse and custody rights.
Miranda operated a private law practice before becoming
a judge, and served as director of the Hampshire County
bar advocate office.
 Denise
Silber ’74 is being honored this month
by the government of France for her professional contributions
to health care. Silber is among very few designated for
recognition by the National Order Legion of Honor of
the Republic of France, bestowed on people of foreign
birth who have made professional contributions in the
country for at least 20 years. Silber, an innovator of
eHealth, began in 1995 creating Web resources for improving
health care. She has since worked with numerous organizations
around ethics on the Web, quality of information and
telemedicine and has taught a course on eHealth at French
graduate schools. She also runs her own business, Basil
Strategies, as an eHealth consultant. Last year, Basil
Strategies organized the first annual international eHealth
conference in Paris. Silber joins citizens of Germany,
Poland, Great Britain, Brazil, Belgium, Chad and Greece
in receiving the rank of knight by decree of the president
of France.
 Elizabeth
Hoffman ’68, a Smith College
trustee, won the 2010 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award, given
by the American Economic Association’s Committee
on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession
(SCWEP) to an individual who has advanced the status
of women in economics. Hoffman, who serves as executive
vice president and provost at Iowa State University,
has spent more than 40 years as a university administrator,
faculty member and researcher, including serving as
president of the University of Colorado system, and
vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University
of Illinois, Chicago. She is a member of several boards
and advisory groups, including the Association of Universities
for Research in Astronomy, and the Science Center of
Iowa. The Bell Award was created in 1998 for the 25th
anniversary of the founding of SCWEP; Bell was the
first chair of the committee.
 Kate
Reagan ’95 was recently appointed mortgage
consultant for PeoplesBank, the largest mutually chartered
bank in western Massachusetts. Reagan will be responsible
for residential mortgage business in Northampton, Easthampton,
South Hadley and the surrounding areas. Reagan, who served
most recently as a senior loan officer for Applied Mortgage
in Northampton, has worked in the mortgage banking industry
for 15 years. She also serves as events director for
the Northampton Area Young Professionals and is a member
of the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce and the
Realtor Association of Pioneer Valley.
Robert Schumann |
Madeline Zehnder ’13,
a STRIDE Scholar, is the winner of this year’s Boston
Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in the College category. The contest
was held November 18 through December 4, in conjunction
with the orchestra’s celebration of the bicentennial
of the birth of Robert Schumann (1810-1856), one of the
premier music critics of his time. Zehnder wrote a creative
review of Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major,
a five-movement work also known as the “Rhenish” Symphony.
As one of five contest winners (other categories are elementary
school, middle school, high school and other), Zehnder
will receive two complimentary tickets to a BSO performance,
and her name will be published in the program book of the
organization’s Schumann concert series.
 Bismata
Sahu ’14 won the science and
engineering poster competition at the 2010 United States
Naval Academy Science and Engineering Conference (NASEC)
held last month. Sahu reports that 25 schools were
represented at the conference from throughout the U.S.
The conference focused on science, technology, engineering
and mathematics (STEM) topics, with emphases on information
(cyber security), transportation (energy grid) and
disaster preparedness (Katrina, Gulf spill). Keynote
speakers included officials of governmental departments
of energy, defense and homeland security, as well as
NASA. “I learned so much,” says Sahu.
Richard Millington, professor
of English language and literature, will spend a week in
Santiago, Chile, in mid-January after being invited by
the United States Embassy there to teach a course in American
literature to university and high school teachers in the
city. The course is co-sponsored by the Pontifical Catholic
University of Chile (“La Catolica”), one of
the country’s major universities. The purpose of
the course—“basically a survey of American
literature from the beginning to now,” Millington
describes—is to encourage the teaching of American
literature in Chile. The course is expected to have 50
to 70 enrollees.
 Adrianne
Todman ’91 was recently appointed executive
director of the District of Columbia Housing Authority
(DCHA), becoming the first woman to serve in the post.
The DCHA, which works to provide and manage housing for
low- and moderate-income people and families in the nation’s
capital, is one of the largest housing authorities in
the nation. Todman, who has worked for 19 years in public
administration, joined the DCHA after working as a special
assistant to the Secretary of Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD). She served as interim executive
director of the DCHA for more than a year. Todman is
a former trustee of the Alumnae Association at Smith.
Nellie Beckett ’14 recently
won first prize for editorial writing in the Columbia Scholastic
Press Association’s annual Gold Circle Awards. The
awards are among the most prestigious for student journalism.
Beckett, who served as editor-in-chief for the student
newspaper, Silver Chips, at Montgomery Blair High
School in Silver Spring, Md., was given the award for her
editorial article titled “Globalization’s Nightmare,” published
last year.
 An
abstract prepared by Tenzin Dechen ’10 on “Reproductive
Health Naivety and Perceived Gender Inequities Among Tibetan
Refugee Adolescent Girls in India” has been accepted
for poster presentation at the 2011 meeting of the Society
for Adolescent Health and Medicine in Seattle. Dechen completed
the study in collaboration with Les Jaffe,
college physician and director of health services. Her
findings reflect survey responses of 223 girls in grades
7 through 12 at the Tibetan Children’s Village School
in Bylakuppe, India. “Cultural shyness about discussing
women’s reproductive health needs and the absence
of adult female relatives raises the question of what is
learned and from whom,” writes Dechen in the study. ”Ignorance
of hygiene, sexual reproduction and sexually transmitted
diseases may lead to future adverse health outcomes.” Dechen
is currently working at Dartmouth University and hopes
to attend medical school.
 Renowned
author of young-adult literature Virginia Euwer
Wolff ’59 was recently named the 2011 recipient
of the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature,
a juried award sponsored by the University of Oklahoma
and World Literature Today. The prize is given
annually to an accomplished contemporary writer or illustrator
of high-quality literature for children. Woolf, author
of several novels with teenaged characters, including This
Full House (2009), has won the National Book Award
among many other honors.
Paula Barker Duffy ’67,
former director of the University of Chicago Press and
publisher of the Free Press, has been nominated by President
Barack Obama to a post on the National Council on the Humanities.
Duffy currently serves on the boards of the Great Books
Foundation and Valid Sources, Inc., and advises the Cultural
Policy Center at the University of Chicago.
 Cornelia
Oberlander ’44 will receive a Lifetime
Achievement Award at Vancouver Cities Alive 2010, an
annual event that celebrates green roofs, walls and other
forms of green infrastructure. Oberlander, who has practiced
as a landscape architect in Vancouver for nearly 60 years,
has become renowned for her designs that emphasize sustainability,
as well as her consideration of social and physical surroundings,
and has won several awards for her designs. Oberlander
will receive the award, along with fellow honoree, landscape
architect and roof garden pioneer Theodore Osmundson,
during the Awards of Excellence luncheon on Thursday,
Dec. 2.
 New
York activist and educator Ileana Jiménez ’97 has
been named one of “40 under 40” by the Feminist
Press at the City University of New York. The company is
honoring 40 women and men under age 40 in the tri-state
area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) as part of
its 40th anniversary celebration. The honorees were nominated
by nearly 400 people for their achievements and their strong
representation as the next generation of feminists. Jiménez,
who was the recipient of a Distinguished Fulbright Award
in Teaching this year, teaches about feminism, Latino/a
literature, and LGBT literature at the Little Red School
House & Elisabeth Irwin High School in New York. Jiménez
is no stranger to lists of honorable mentions. She was
named last year as one of the 40 Women of Stonewall by
the Stonewall Foundation, and as one of 30 Women Making
History by the Women’s Media Center. Jimenez and
her fellow honorees will be lauded during a celebration
on October 18 in Manhattan. “I don’t think
I would have ever received this award without the education
I received at Smith,” said Jimenez.
 Germaine
Nendah ’11 has been awarded an Undergraduate
Research Fellowship from the American Society for Microbiology
(ASM), the oldest and largest single biological membership
organization in the world. The fellowship is given to
outstanding students who plan to pursue graduate careers
in microbiology. The fellowship, which includes a $4,000
stipend, supported Nendah’s full-time research
at Smith last summer, working on a project, “Short-term
Adaptation to Temperature Changes in Escherichia coli,” under
the mentorship of Christine White-Ziegler, professor
of biological sciences.
MacKenzie Clark ’11,
a geosciences major with a minor in environmental science
and policy, teamed with Roger Guzowski, Five Colleges recycling
manager, in imparting new initiatives and concepts in recycling
during her summer internship at the Springfield office
of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
Clark, who assisted in coordinating a training program
for the DEP interns statewide, including a tour of the
Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in Springfield, thought
of Guzowski when she sought speakers for the training program. “I
had been to a couple of talks that Roger had given at Smith
and wanted to hear him speak again,” said Clark. “My
own interest in recycling and waste management was really
spurred by hearing the talk Roger gave to my sustainability
pre-orientation group.”
 Randy
Frost, the Harold and Elsa Siipola Israel Professor
of Psychology, has been named to the Speakers Bureau
of the International OCD Foundation, a nonprofit organization
based in Boston, of people with Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder and related disorders committed to educating
the public about OCD, supporting research, and assisting
those with such disorders. Frost is among four new speakers
for the organization, joining a group of 13 OCD sufferers
and experts who act as leading voices for the foundation.
Frost, who is internationally recognized as an expert
on OCD and compulsive hoarding, is the author of Stuff:
Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things.
Craig Felton,
professor of art history, gave the keynote lecture on September
1 at a conference in Dresden, Germany, hosted by Staatliche
Kunstsammlungen Dresden. His talk, "Imaging the Temple," focused
on the First (Solomon's) and Second (Herod's) Temples built
on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and on the Visionary Third
Temple of the Prophet Ezekiel, and how the ideas and images
of these structures continued in Western Europe from the
time of the Crusades into the 18th century. The conference
was held in connection with an exhibition "Fragmente der
Erinnerung" (Fragments of Memory).
 Georgia
Yuan, who served as Smith College general
counsel from 2003 until this year, was recently awarded
the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association
of College and University Attorneys (NACUA). The award
recognizes individuals who have given extraordinary
service both to NACUA and to institutions of higher
learning. Yuan, who joined NACUA in 1991, served on
its Board of Directors from 1998 to 2000, and again
from 2003 to 2009, and as association president in
2006-07, the first Asian-American to hold that office.
Before coming to Smith, Yuan served as general counsel
at the University of Idaho. Yuan recently relocated
to Washington, D.C., where she joined the U.S. Department
of Education as Deputy General Counsel for Post-Secondary
Education and Regulatory Service.
  Katlyn
R. Lewicke ’11 (pictured
at left) and Helen Hua ’10 were
among the contestants in the Miss Massachusetts pageant
earlier this month, a lead-up event to the high-profile
Miss America pageant. The students qualified for the
state competition by taking regional crowns, Lewicke
for Miss Western Massachusetts 2010, Hua for Miss Southcoast
2010. Neither Lewicke nor Hua cracked the top 10 in
the state pageant, blunting their hopes for national
contention. For Lewicke, who appeared in a Fourth of
July parade, it’s only the beginning. “It
was my first year competing,” she said. “I
am in love with the system and plan to keep competing."
It was Hua's in the state pageant.
Victoria Davey ’77 was
appointed in June to the position of Chief Officer of Public
Health and Environmental Hazards, U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs. Davey has served in the office since 1999, and
has been Acting Chief Officer since September 2009, and
Deputy Chief Officer since 2006. Davey is a national expert
on planning and preparedness for pandemic influenza and
other public health/biodefense-related initiatives and
has been princpal for VHA’s response to the 2009
H1N1 outbreak. The Office of Public Health and Environmental
Hazards leads public health programs for the VA.
 Among
her duties as Google’s manager of space initiatives, Tiffany
Montague ’96 oversees the possibilities
of sending robots to the moon and observing Mars. Montague,
who was featured in a by New York Times “Bits” column
writer Ashlee Vance, developed a sense for space, first
as an Air Force officer flying high-altitude reconnaissance
aircraft, then as an employee for the National Reconnaissance
Office, a government intelligence agency specializing in
spy satellites. After graduating from Smith, Montague had
her sites set on becoming a NASA astronaut, but eventually
realized the odds were slight that she would fly in space.
Perhaps her current job offers the next best thing: working
with NASA in gathering astronomical data and looking long
and closely at space.
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People News is a column for publicizing
the achievements, distinctions and notable activities of people in the
Smith community, PeopleNews welcomes your submissions. If you -- or someone
you know in the Smith community -- have recently received an award, participated
in an interesting event, or are involved in an important endeavor, please
let us know. |
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