Clark University - Clark News Winter 2003
Newsbriefs (winter 2003)
Biologist David Hibbett is part of a project that recently received a $2.65 million grant from the National Science Foundation's new Assembling the Tree of Life (ATOL) program. Hibbett is one of five researchers involved in a collaborative project for "Assembling a Fungal Tree of Life," which will develop a phylogeny, or genealogical map, for all major groups of fungi. Hibbett's portion of the grant is approximately $550,000.
The goal of the ATOL program is to construct a genealogical map for the 1.7 million species of life that scientists have identified. In order to achieve this, the ATOL program supports large teams of researchers working across institutions and disciplines to study species at the genetic level.
Hibbett will work with researchers at Duke University, the University of Minnesota and Oregon State University to develop an online database of genetic information for approximately 1,500 species of fungi. According to Hibbett, roughly 80,000 species of fungi have been identified, with the actual number of species estimated at 1.5 million. He adds that fungi play important roles in ecological systems and have a significant economic impact in such areas as agriculture, medicine and drug discovery. The project also includes training and outreach activities for graduate and postdoctoral students, visiting graduate students, undergraduates and teachers at all levels.
"This analysis of fungi is necessary to our understanding of the history of life and the evolution of ecosystems," says Hibbett, who also hopes the project will facilitate the creation of diagnostic tools and enable the discovery of many fungal species that have not yet been identified.
The George Perkins Marsh Library has been renamed the Jeanne X. Kasperson Research Library, in memory of the library's founder and director who died in August 2002. Special dedication ceremonies for the Kasperson Library will be held at Clark on April 24. A keynote address, panel discussion and reception are being planned.
The Jeanne X. Kasperson Research Library offers one of the most extensive collections in North America on environmental risk and hazards and the human dimensions of global change and also has significant holdings that cover international development, technology, water and energy policy. The library has received national and international recognition and acclaim as a premier collection of research materials in these areas and is a valued resource for university researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, visiting foreign scholars, regional experts, federal, state and local agencies, industry, schools and consulting firms.
Jeanne X. Kasperson, wife of Clark Professor Roger Kasperson, founded the library in 1978 to support the research mission of the then Hazard Assessment Group. The library and research group then became part of the Center for Technology, Environment and Development (CENTED), where Kasperson served as head research librarian and director of publications. In 1991, CENTED and its library merged with other research units at Clark to become the George Perkins Marsh Research Institute, and Kasperson became director of the Marsh Library. In 1993, she was promoted to research associate professor in the Marsh Institute. Kasperson wrote more than 80 articles, books and technical reports, was the editor of several journals and received many research grants during her career. She is also recognized by her colleagues as a key contributor to much of the research conducted at the Marsh Institute and its forerunners.
Alumni and friends interested in making a gift to the Kasperson Library should contact University Advancement at 508-793-7200.
On Campus: |
Grant supports teacher recruitment in Worcester
Clark was awarded a three-year, $1-million Title II teacher-recruitment grant. The grant, one of 20 awarded nationally, is part of the federal Teacher Quality Enhancement program.
The grant will allow Clark's Jacob Hiatt Center for Urban Education to join the Worcester Public Schools and the Worcester Education Partnership to launch a focused teacher-recruitment effort. The grant will primarily fund full scholarships and stipends for candidates in Clark's Master of Arts in Teaching program, which is run jointly with the Worcester schools in the Hiatt Center's Professional Development School Collaborative.
The grant will target candidates who match the high-need areas of the district in math and science and minority candidates in any area, in support of the district's effort to diversify its teaching force. Scholarship recipients must commit to a teaching position in Worcester or another urban area for at least one year after completing the program. Funds will also be used to help several Worcester Public Schools teachers in high-need areas to obtain certification.
"I view this grant as a sign of the power of our partnership with the Worcester Public Schools," says Tom Del Prete, director of the Hiatt Center. "It complements perfectly our collaborative work in teacher preparation and high-school reform, affirms its importance and will help Worcester develop national models in these areas." |
Fall Fest celebrates research near and far
This year's Fall Fest of undergraduate research featured projects in biology, chemistry, geography, psychology, visual and performing arts and international development, community and environment. Also represented were projects supported by the Anton Fellowship Program, the Lois and Robert Green Undergraduate Internship and the Urban Development and Social Change Summer Research Fellowships.
This annual showcase of undergraduate research activities undertaken during the summer included projects that took students to places as far away as Japan, Hawaii and Tanzania. Others pursued research closer to home, examining local water quality, working with Worcester's city government and monitoring the impact of affordable housing on the Main South neighborhood. A complete list of Fall Fest participants and their research projects is on the Clark Web site, www.clarku.edu. Select "Active Learning and Research" on the homepage, then select "Present It!" and follow the links to Fall Fest. |
Eizenstat delivers first President's Lecture
The first of a new President's Lecture Series at Clark brought Stuart E. Eizenstat to the University in November. Eizenstat, deputy secretary of the treasury in the Clinton Administration and former ambassador to the European Union, discussed "Imperfect Justice: The Unfinished Business of World War II."
Eizenstat led recent efforts to reclaim the stolen and confiscated assets of Holocaust survivors and other victims of World War II. As special representative of the President and of the Secretary of State for the Clinton Administration, Eizenstat helped to successfully negotiate major agreements with the Swiss, Germans, Austrians and French. In his recently released book "Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor and the Unfinished Business of World War II," Eizenstat discusses how the Holocaust became a political and diplomatic battleground 50 years after the war's end and recounts the often heated negotiations over stolen and confiscated assets. |
Psychology Ph.D. alumni are invited back to campus on April 11 for the 2003 Heinz Werner Lectures in Developmental Psychology and Related Disciplines. Distinguished psychologist John Flavell Ph.D. '55 will deliver the lectures at 1 and 3 p.m. in Room 320 of the Jefferson Academic Center, followed by a special dinner for alumni and guests.
Flavell is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. He will discuss the development of children's knowledge about the mind in two lectures: "An Overview of Theory-of-Mind Development" and "Development of Intuitions about Mental Experience."
Flavell studied developmental psychology at Clark, where his dissertation committee included Heinz Werner, Seymour Wapner and Bernard Kaplan. He has conducted research on the development of role taking and communication skills, metamemory and other forms of metacognition, memory strategies, the appearance-reality distinction and theory of mind. His 1963 book, "The Developmental Psychology of Jean Piaget," helped introduce the English-speaking world to Piaget's theory and research. He has served as president of the Society for Research in Child Development and of Division Seven of the American Psychological Association (APA) and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the recipient of the APA's Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award and the APA Division Seven's G. Stanley Hall and Mentoring awards, among many other honors and distinctions.
Flavell's lectures are the 25th in the Heinz Werner series, named for the noted psychologist who was the G. Stanley Hall Professor of Genetic Psychology at Clark from 1947 to 1960. The lecture series began in 1968 and has since brought to Clark such noted psychologists as Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner, Herman A. Witkin, Lawrence Kohlberg, Richard Lewontin and Gilbert Gottlieb. Werner's book "Comparative Psychology of Mental Development" is also being republished this year. The new edition includes an outstanding introduction by Marjorie Franklin Ph.D. '61.
The Concert Choir and Chamber Chorus performed in Montreal this fall. It was the choir's first trip abroad since its tour of Ireland in spring 2001 and included concerts at historic and acoustically renowned venues.
Led by Conductor Andrew Clark, the 54-member choir performed at Erskine and American United Church near McGill University on Nov. 15 and at the celebrated St. George's Anglican Church on Nov. 16. The tour officially began with the choir's fall concert on Nov. 14 in Razzo Hall of the new Traina Center for the Arts. The program, "A Choral Kaleidoscope," included works by Bartok, Palestrina, Durufle, Vaughan Williams, Schubert and Carl Orff, as well as American folk songs and spirituals.
The Montreal tour is part of the choir's mission to share music with audiences outside of Worcester, Clark says. "It's also a great opportunity to build community, forming a cohesive group, both musically and socially," he adds.
Departments
BIOLOGY: David Hibbett was awarded a new four-year collaborative grant, totaling $551,000, from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for research on "Assembling the Fungal Tree of Life" (see story page 2). Hibbett will receive $136,177 in the first year of the grant. Hibbett also received a three-year NSF grant, totaling $300,000, for "Phylogenetic Relationships of Cyphelloid and Aquatic Homobasidiomycetes." This grant awards $115,263 in the first year.
CHEMISTRY: Rafael Bruschweiler received a five-year, $937,500 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his research on "Direct NMR Methods for Protein Structures and Assignment" (see story page 4). Brüschweiler will receive $228,442 in the first year of the grant.
EDUCATION: Tom Del Prete continues his grant success with the Department of Education with a three-year, $986,493 grant for the "Clark-Worcester Community Teacher Recruitment and Induction Initiative" (see story pg. 2). The grant, which provides $334,899 in the first year, is supported by 74.5 percent in federal funds and 25.5 percent in non-federal funds.
GEOGRAPHY (see also George Perkins Marsh Institute): Graduate student Winifred Curran, adviser Susan Hanson, was awarded a $10,053 Doctoral Dissertation Research grant from the NSF for her research on "Gentrification and the Displacement of Work and Home."
PSYCHOLOGY: Jamie McHale continues his grant success from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development with a new three-year grant, totaling $452,600, for research on "Pre-birth Predictors of Early Coparenting."
Research Centers
GEORGE PERKINS MARSH INSTITUTE: Dale Hattis continues his grant funding from Connecticut's Department of Public Health with a new two-year agreement of $154,967 to "Evaluate Differences in Pharmacokinetic (PK) Handling of Chemicals between Children and Adults." Hattis also entered a contract agreement of $89,993 from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for research on the "Role of Dosimetric Scaling and Species Extrapolation in Evaluating Risks Across Life Stages." David Angel, with co-principal investigator Michael Rock, was awarded a $99,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation for research on "Policy Integration, Technology Change, and Sustainability in East Asia." Sam Ratick was awarded a $48,399 grant from the EPA for research on "Determining the Vulnerability of Populations to Mercury." Billie Lee Turner ii received $50,000 in supplemental funds in a subcontract from Carnegie Mellon University, funded by the NSF, for continuing research on the "Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change." Rob Goble received $235,325 in renewal funds from the NIH for his research on "Nuclear Risk Management for Native Communities." Scott Jiusto, research associate, has entered an agreement of $30,720 with the Ecotarium in Worcester for a project on "Ecotarium Institutional Clean Energy System Development, Research, and Education."
Chemist Rafael Brüschweiler, who holds Clark's Carlson Chair, recently received a five-year grant of approximately $940,000 from the National Institutes of Health to support his research on "Direct NMR Methods for Protein Structures and Assignment."
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which is based on the same principle as magnetic resonance imaging, is a powerful technique that helps reveal the shape of proteins in genes. Brüschweiler's research will help develop new NMR methods that will allow faster and semi-automated determination of protein structures and assignments.
According to Brüschweiler, structural genomics, a large-scale project that follows the human genome project, requires that the shape of thousands of proteins be determined in order to gain important information about their function.
"The advent of complete genomic sequence information of the human genome and other genomes and the availability of large chemical libraries open up a wide range of opportunities for structure-based biology and medicinal chemistry," says Brüschweiler. "Knowledge of a protein's three-dimensional structure is thereby invaluable for understanding its function at atomic detail. X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy are the two key methods to reach this goal."
NMR resonance assignments of proteins allow for systematic studies of binding properties of known drugs or new drugs in development. Drugs that bind to many different proteins are likely to cause unwanted, or toxic, side-effects. Knowledge of the binding modes from structural investigations can be used to develop drugs with more specific binding properties, thereby reducing the risk of failure during clinical trials.
Three postdoctoral fellows and two graduate students will work with Brüschweiler in his research. He describes his interdisciplinary research as "mobile and dynamic," combining experiment, theory and computation.
Brüschweiler joined the Clark faculty in October 1998 and previously worked in Switzerland with Nobel Prize recipient Richard R. Ernst and at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. Brüschweiler is also the recipient of a three-year, $387,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to support the characterization of protein dynamics by NMR and computer simulations.
That was an excellent article in the fall 2002 Clarknews titled "High Above Hawaii." I think that I am in an enviable position to comment on this, since I was a cartographer for the USAF Chart Center for 10 years and a space scientist at NASA Houston for about 21 years and received my doctorate at Clark University in geography. In addition, I was a project scientist in many of the remote sensing experiments in Projects Mercury, Gemini, Apollo Skylab and Shuttle. I was also a principal remote sensing scientific investigator in the LANDSAT and SKYLAB Earth Resources NASA programs.I retired in 1980 as assistant chief of the Johnson Space Center's Earth Observations Division.
Professor Herwitz is to be commended for his application of UAV remote sensing for continual inventorying, managing and monitoring of one agricultural crop. I am certain that his work will pave the way for many more UAV applications, not only in agriculture, but in all the scientific disciplines which make up what we term "Earth Resources," forestry, geology, oceanography, hydrology, etc. The use of digital remote sensor data analysis is certainly not new.
Your article sounded like there have been few to no Clark former professors and alumni involved in remote sensing research to apply space-age technology to earth-bound challenges for the past 75 years, until Stanley Herwitz came along. I'm certain that this wasn't your intent.
— John E. Dornbach Ph.D. '67
I read with great interest that my former tennis doubles partner at Worcester Academy and Clark University was named to Clark's Athletic Hall of Fame (fall 2002 Clarknews). The article mentions that Neil Walsh '59 won the singles and doubles tournament every year that he was at Clark.
While I agree that Neil was a phenomenal player and remains, in my opinion, the best tennis player ever to attend Clark, I feel compelled to correct you here. Neil and his partner, Stan Silverzweig '60, lost to another doubles team in 1957-58. I, along with Richard Aronson '59 (no relation), beat Neil and Stan in the finals of that particular tournament.
Neil and I were friends from the time we were 13 years old, and we continued to play New England junior tournaments together as doubles partners during our years at Worcester Academy. I am most pleased to see Neil honored in this way for his achievements at Clark.
During my four years on Clark's tennis team, there was a tight circle, or brotherhood, of tennis players sharing our passion under the auspices of "The Good Doctor," Dr. Theodore Nicol. Dr. Nicol never received the credit he richly deserved for assembling the stellar squad that achieved a very remarkable record in tennis-team history.
— Tony Aaronson '59
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Clarknews Winter 2003
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| John Flavell Ph.D '55, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Profesor of Psychology at Stanford University |
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