Clark University - Clark News summer 2005
Newsbriefs (summer 2005)
Korn Thapparansi '69 and David Strassler have been appointed to the University's Board of Trustees, each for a six-year term. In addition, Jackalyne Pfannenstiel '69 was elected to the board by the alumni this spring, also for a six-year term. Thapparansi, Strassler and Pfannenstiel began their terms on July 1.
"Korn, David and Jackalyne are some of Clark's most dedicated supporters," says President John Bassett. "Their enthusiasm and commitment to Clark, as well as their varied professional experience, will serve the University well."
Thapparansi is currently the minister of Science and Technology of Thailand and on the Executive Committee of Thailand's largest political party. He began his political career as secretary to Thailand's ministers of foreign affairs and industry. He became a member of Thailand's Parliament in 1983 and was subsequently appointed to several cabinet positions. In past administrations, Thapparansi served as deputy prime minister and minister of public health, minister of industry and chairman of the House Committee on energy. A loyal alumnus, Thapparansi has hosted several Clark events in Bangkok, is a member of the Jonas Clark Fellows and established the Korn Thapparansi Endowed Scholarship.
Strassler served as a Clark trustee from 1985 to 2003 and as chair of the board from 1992 to 1995. He also chaired the University's recent and successful $106 million capital campaign, Clark 2000. A longtime supporter of the University, Strassler provided leadership support for Clark's Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and established the Strassler Distinguished Visiting Professorship, which brings leading scholars to the University. During his previous terms on the board, Strassler also advocated for the Alumni Association's recent strategic plan. He was named an honorary Clark alumnus in 1998 and received the 2004 Distinguished Friend of Education Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, District I. He is a partner at Weston Associates.
Pfannenstiel is a commissioner for the California Energy Commission in Sacramento, Calif. Prior to her appointment to this position by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in April 2004, she was an independent energy consultant. She had previously been the vice president for corporate planning at Pacific Gas & Electric in San Francisco, the nation's largest energy utility. An economist by training, Pfannenstiel began her career as a statistician with the Connecticut State Welfare Department and, in 1974, became the first economist at the Connecticut Public Utilities Commission. She joined the California Public Utilities Commission as senior economist and, in 1987, became the first woman vice president at Pacific Gas & Electric. Pfannenstiel has been a dedicated alumna, participating in the Alumni Career Resource Network, the Alumni Admissions Program and on her Reunion Committee. She is also a member of the Jonas Clark Fellows and has hosted Clark events.
In addition, the following trustees were reappointed to the Board of Trustees, each for a four-year term: Vicki Grey '81, Shelia McCann '71, Bill Mosakowski '76 and Arrien Schiltkamp '78.
Chemistry Department Chairman Mark Turnbull guided Wachusett Regional High School senior Dan Smaltz of Paxton, Mass., to top honors in chemistry at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix this spring.
Smaltz's success at the international fair is the result of two years of work with Turnbull, who participates in Wachusett's Science Mentor Program. He was paired with Smaltz by Wachusett high-school science teacher Nick Guerin '01, M.A. '02. Smaltz became involved with the Chemistry Department's broad-based molecular magnetism work related to the design of materials with specific magnetic properties. Specifically, Turnbull explains, Smaltz spent every Wednesday afternoon for the past two years in the Clark chemistry labs working with the flouride pyrazine family of compounds. None of these compounds are known, Turnbull adds, so Smaltz was working to see which members of this family of compounds he could prepare and characterize.
In 2004, Smaltz took second prize in the Regional Science and Technology Fair and one of the top prizes at the state fair for his work in this area. This spring, Smaltz's work to essentially design a new compound took first prize in the regional fair and received the American Chemical Society Award for the top chemistry research at the international fair.
"I am grateful to have had the opportunity to do real research during high school, especially with a professor like Professor Turbull," Smaltz says.
Turnbull found his work with Smaltz equally rewarding. "I was just astounded," he says, noting how Smaltz picked up the basics of research faster than he expected any high-school student could. "What really impressed me was Dan's interest and commitment to science and to understanding research."
Advising Smaltz is just one example of Turnbull's science-education work with area elementary, middle and high schools. In addition to participating in the Science Mentor Program at Wachusett, Turnbull regularly visits elementary-, middle- and high-school classrooms to present lab demonstrations and talk to students about science.
"It's a way to spark or increase students' interest in the sciences," says Turnbull, who especially enjoys showing young students the fun of science and scientific discovery. "We need more kids who are interested in science and want to go into science. If I can give them the opportunity to see my enthusiasm for science, then I've done a good job."
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Alumni know it. Current students know it. Faculty and staff know it. Now, the rest of the world will know, too, that Clark is a college with a conscience.
Clark is one of only 81 institutions nationwide selected by the Princeton Review and Campus Compact for a new college guide, "Colleges with a Conscience: An Engaged Student's Guide to College."
Highlighting socially responsible colleges and universities, the book is designed to help high-school students incorporate service and involvement opportunities into their college-selection process and to showcase campuses that have made an institutional commitment to engage in their communities. The guide hit bookshelves in June.
Schools were nominated for the guide based on five specific areas: engaged student bodies; support for activism; scholarship and admissions practices that support students who do community service; support for service learning; and strong student voice in governance.
Academic Spree Day 2005 was held on April 27 with projects representing nearly every department and program. The event included 112 poster presentations, as well as presentations in history, English, women's studies, foreign languages and literatures, government and international relations, geography and IDCE, biology, economics, mathematics and computer science, psychology and sociology. The day also featured music and theater performances, the senior thesis art exhibition and presentations by Anton Fellows. The full program is online at www.clarku.edu/ASD2005.
Academic Spree Day is a Clark tradition showcasing undergraduate research and creative endeavors. It was established by the late Seymour Wapner, a Clark psychology professor for more than 50 years. The event is currently organized by psychology professor James Cordova and administrative coordinator Jodie Zdrok.
In the May 16 issue of Newsweek, the University Park Campus School—a neighborhood secondary school formed in partnership with Clark University and the Worcester Public Schools—was named the 68th best high school in the nation. In "The 100 Best High Schools in America," Newsweek "unveils the top schools across the country and suggests what others can do to make the grade."
The University Park Campus School opened in 1997. Because of its long hours and demanding curricula, UPCS has been lauded as a model for collaboration between a university and an urban district. Students are able to attend Clark University free of charge upon graduation, provided they meet certain residency and admissions requirements.
Nationally known author and activist Terry Tempest Williams and painter Robert Shetterly visited Clark in April for a series of special events on "The Open Space of Democracy."
The events were sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities and included a discussion with Shetterly about his painting series "Americans Who Tell the Truth," a conversation with Williams and Shetterly about their common purposes and concerns and a talk by Williams titled "On the Open Space of Democracy," which offered a personal perspective of place, spiritual democracy and the responsibilities of citizen engagement.
"It was a privilege and a great pleasure to have Terry Tempest Williams and Robert Shetterly at Clark together, at a time when many of us are seeking opportunities for meaningful and effective engagement of our own," says professor Sarah Buie, director of the Higgins School of Humanities.
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| Photo by Tammy Woodard M.A. '98 |
Undergraduates interested in writing took advantage of a new course this year, "Writing Out Loud," developed by theater arts professor Gino DiIorio '83 and Writing Center/Writing Program Director Anne Ellen Geller.
DiIorio and Geller developed the course with the support of the Seymour N. Logan Faculty Fellowship to help student writers consider how the application of spoken word and performance strategies can strengthen their written work. In conjunction with the course, Geller and DiIorio organized the Seymour N. Logan Symposium, which brought four award-winning writers to Clark on April 18 to lead small-group workshops with their students and to give a free public lecture. The event featured writers Eisa Davis, Mike Folie, Pat C. Hoy II and Todd London, who read from their works.
- Davis's plays include "Angela's Mixtape," developed by New York Theatre Workshop and Hip Hop Theatre Festival, and "Paper Armor." She has received many fellowships and is a resident playwright at New Dramatists, the nation's premiere center for the support and development of playwrights. She read from her new play, "Bulrusher."
- Folie's plays have been produced often in the United States and internationally, winning several awards. "The Adjustment" was seen Off-Broadway at the 91st Street Playhouse, on tour in England, as well as several other venues. Folie is partner, along with Randall Eiger, in the freelance corporate speech writing team of EFI, Eiger and Folie.
- Hoy received the 2003 Fellowship of Southern Writer's Nonfiction Award. His essays have appeared in many publications, and eight have been selected as "Notables" in "Best American Essays." "Instinct for Survival" was selected as a "Notable" collection in "Best American Essays of the Century," edited by Joyce Carol Oates and Robert Atwan. He directs the Expository Writing Program at New York University, where he is an English professor.
- London is in his ninth season as artistic director of New Dramatists. A former managing editor of American Theatre magazine, his essays and articles have appeared regularly in publications across the country and around the world. He has written, edited and/or contributed to a dozen books, mostly theater related.
The Seymour N. Logan Faculty Fellowship Fund was established by Todd Logan '75, a long-time Clark supporter, and his wife Linda Logan '75, Ph.D. '87 in memory of Todd's father. The fund honors the contributions of professors at the University and allows faculty to create new courses and hold innovative conferences based on those courses. The fellowship is awarded every two years.
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| Photo by Rob Carlin |
Six undergraduates were recognized by the Colleges of Worcester Consortium this spring. Elysia Alvarez '05, Yasmin Bowers '05, Anthony Davis '07, Jason Doo '05, Mikhaila Gonzales '05 and Karen Quartey '05 received the 2005 Multicultural Student Leadership Award from the Consortium's ALANA (students of African, Latino/a, Asian and Native American descent) Student Support Network. The students earned the award for meeting certain academic criteria and demonstrating leadership in diversity and multicultural education at Clark. Recipients must also be juniors or seniors. An award ceremony was held on April 8 at Assumption College.
Faculty, graduate students and undergraduates earned top honors at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), held April 5-9 in Denver.
- Chris Lippitt '06 won the Best Student Paper award from the Remote Sensing Specialty Group for his paper on "Timber Harvest Monitoring in Western Massachusetts; A Comparison of Machine Learning Algorithms." Lippitt was the John O'Connor '78 Human Environment Research Observatory (HERO) Fellow for the 2004-05 academic year. It was his second consecutive year as a HERO fellow. Lippitt, a geography major advised by professor John Rogan, intends to pursue a master's degree in Geographic Information Science in Clark's Accelerated B.A./Master's Degree Program.
- Claudia Radel Ph.D. '05 was awarded Best Student Paper from the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group for her paper on "Converging Conservation and Women's Gender Interests in the Southern Yucatan." Radel was recently named assistant professor (tenure track) in the Department of Environment and Society at Utah State University's College of Natural Resources.
- Geographer Deborah Martin was awarded the Stanley D. Brunn Young Scholar Award from the AAG's Political Geography Specialty Group. The award is given to an individual who received his/her Ph.D. in the last 10 years whose work has generated new interest in a subfield and/or opened up new areas of inquiry for political geographic research. Martin joined the Clark faculty in fall 2004 and specializes in urban, social and political geography, social movement and qualitative methods.
In addition, graduate student Jacob Brenner was awarded a three-year National Science Foundation Fellowship to examine border issues related to protected desert environments.
Jeffrey Cramer '05, Susan Munroe '05 and Matthew Olsen '05 took honors in the first Hervey Ross x'50 Oratorical Contest, held Feb. 22.
The eight students who participated in the contest chose speeches from history that embodied the theme "Speeches from the American Politic, pre-1964." Cramer earned first prize ($500), Olsen took second ($300) and Munroe third ($200). Also participating in the contest were Nicole Alton '05, Elizabeth Cutler '06, Eamonn McDonnough '05, Zo Tobi '07 and Latosha Wilkes '07.
Ross, who won the oratorical contest at Clark when he was a first-year student, is a strong advocate for teaching students the value of persuasive public speaking. He recently endowed the oratorical contest at Clark and is also sponsoring a similar program at the University Park Campus School. Ross is a graduate of Worcester Academy, where he re-established the Dexter Public Speaking Contest several years ago after it had lapsed for decades.
Theater-arts professor Gino DiIorio '83, who coordinated the contest, sees great value in celebrating the tradition of oratory, which is being lost in an age of mass media.
"We forget how great and wonderful these speeches are—Patrick Henry's ‘Give Me Liberty' speech, for example—or hearing the words of Wendell Wilkie, or Fighting Bob Forrest," DiIorio says. "It's one thing to read these speeches, but the contest makes history come alive, for both the audience and the performers."
Elysia Alvarez '05 was awarded first place for her poster presentation "Computational Analyses of the Interaction of the Anthrax Lethal Factor Exotoxin with Peptide Substrate and with the Anthrax Protective Antigen" at the New England Science Symposium, on March 4 at Harvard Medical School.
There were six awards presented at the symposium, and Alvarez was the only undergraduate recipient. Her first-place honor, the Ruth and William Slien, M.D. Award, included a $300 prize.
Alvarez joined 51 other researchers presenting posters at the event. Twenty-one presenters were undergraduates and the rest were Ph.D. or M.D. candidates or postdoctoral students. She presented the research to two judges, a Ph.D. from Harvard University and a scientist from Genentech.
Alvarez, a biochemistry and molecular biology major, derived the research through work with Clark chemist Don Nelson, which she began about a year ago. Nelson describes Alvarez as a student with "motivation and drive." He says she has made a substantial contribution to his research efforts and calls her accomplishment "truly amazing" in light of the competing graduate students and postdoctoral research fellows.
At the symposium, Alvarez also had a chance to meet many leading researchers and employers from around the world. She says that while she has always wanted to be a medical doctor, her experience at this symposium and others like it has encouraged her to think about a career in research.
Over the past two years, 80 Clark athletes have received special training to prepare them for leadership roles on their teams and in their lives.
The Leadership Workshop series was developed in January 2003 by Wellness Outreach Coordinator Jason Zelesky and Volleyball Coach and Assistant Athletic Director Karen Farrell. Each semester, two to three students from each team attend four 90-minute sessions that include group exercises designed to help the students develop effective leadership skills. The students attend the program early in their Clark career and have been selected by their coaches as possible future team captains or leaders.
Last summer, Zelesky and Farrell received a $5,500 grant from the NCAA to enhance the program with a trip to the ropes course at Thompson Island, part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area, and a talk by George Mumford, a sports psychologist who has been a consultant for NBA teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers and is currently working with the Boston College athletic program. The Athletics Department also held a special reception to honor the students who have participated in this popular program.
Clark and the University's Alumni Association hosted the Massachusetts State History Day Contest on April 9. More than 400 junior-high and high-school students, along with their parents, came to campus to compete for a chance to participate in the National History Day contest in Washington, D.C., in June. Barbara Ann Tucker '57 was one of the organizers of the Massachusetts competition.
Participants from 41 public and private schools from across the Commonwealth produced 112 entries in 14 categories on the national theme "Communications in History: The Key to Understanding." The projects, which included historical papers, table-top exhibits, live performances and documentaries, were judged by teams of teachers and history professionals.
Clark and the University's Alumni Association will host next year's State History Day Contest on April 8, 2006.
Departments
BIOLOGY: Manfred Binder and David Hibbett were awarded a grant of $324,999 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for research titled "Toward a Global Phylogeny of the Boletales." Hibbett was also awarded $19,173 in supplemental funds from the NSF in support of Research Experience for Undergraduates for his "Collaborative Research: Assembling the Fungal Tree of Life."
CHEMISTRY: Daeg Brenner was awarded $34,000 in additional support from the Department of Energy to support a student working with him on "Nuclear Structure Research."
ECONOMICS: Daniel Bernhofen and John Brown were awarded a three-year grant of $278,419 from the NSF for research on "Empirical Tests of Neoclassical Trade Theory Using a Natural Experiment: The Case of Japan." (see also George Perkins Marsh Institute.)
PSYCHOLOGY: Wendy Grolnick was awarded $112,788 in supplemental funds from the National Institutes of Health for her research on "Enhancing Low-Income Children's Emergent Literacy."
Research Centers
GEORGE PERKINS MARSH INSTITUTE: Halina Brown was awarded a $314,700 grant from the NSF for her research on "Emergence of an Institution for Sustainable Development: Cross-Country Study of Global Reporting Initiative." Ron Eastman continues his funding success from Conservation International with a grant of $248,308 for research on "Land-Use Modeling and Prediction for Biodiversity Conservation in the Andes." Wayne Gray continues his funding success with a new three-year grant totaling $329,326 from the Environmental Protection Agency for research on "Why Do Plants Comply with Environmental Regulation?"
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Clarknews Summer 2005
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