Rochester Review

July–August 2013, Volume 75, No. 6

Editor

Scott Hauser

Associate Editors

Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

Kathleen McGarvey

Contributors

Valerie Alhart, Theresa Danylak, Adam Fenster, Susan Hagen, Peter Iglinski, Melissa Greco Lopes, Melissa Mead, Sara Miller, Leslie Orr, Leonor Sierra, and Brandon Vick

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Published six times a year for alumni, students, their parents, and other friends of the University, Rochester Review is produced by University Communications.

Opinions expressed are those of the authors, the editors, or their subjects and do not necessarily represent official positions of the University of Rochester.

ISSN: 0035-7421

Copyright © 2013 University of Rochester

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No Stone Unturned

By Joel Seligman

presidentDEDICATING LECHASE HALL: Formally dedicated in May as the new home of the Warner School of Education, “LeChase Hall was a team effort, uniting friends, alumni, faculty, staff, and administrators in support of students.” (Photo: Adam Fenster)

May 16th was a red-letter day for the University. We dedicated Raymond F. LeChase Hall, the new home for the Warner School of Education, in a gala ceremony. LeChase Hall is the first major academic building to be constructed on the Wilson Quadrangle in 30 years.

LeChase Hall is a four-story, 65,000- square-foot facility, with 14 classrooms on its first floor that are used by Arts, Sciences & Engineering during the day and by Warner in the evenings and summers. LeChase Hall also includes the Genrich-Rusling Room, the Palladoro Methods Classroom, the Miller Technology and Research Lab, specialized classrooms and faculty offices, as well as many meeting rooms and common spaces designed to build community and encourage collaboration.

The dedication of LeChase Hall also marked a commitment by the University to help strengthen K-12 education, one of our nation’s great social challenges. In an era when many urban school districts experience low graduation and college preparation rates, Warner focuses on preparing teachers, counselors, and administrators for public, private, and parochial K-12 schools, as well as professionals playing educational roles in a variety of other contexts.

The school began in 1958 when President de Kiewiet and the University Board of Trustees orchestrated the establishment of professional schools in business, engineering, and education. In its 55-year lifespan, the Warner School has developed a distinctive profile and sense of mission, combining the best of a rigorous research school of education with a commitment to preparing educators who are driven to improve not only schools, but also the human condition, by becoming leaders and agents for change.

Warner has a long history of collaboration within the University and in the community, recognizing the need to address complex problems from various professional and disciplinary perspectives, and bringing a deep commitment to equity and justice. Warner faculty, staff, administrators, and students partner with school-based educators and community members in their research in ways that allow for meaningful change and provide important knowledge that is transferable to other schools and organizations.

A critical moment occurred for the school in 1993, when William Scandling provided substantial support to strengthen research programs and increase its ability to attract graduate students and recruit faculty. The school was renamed in honor of Scandling’s wife, Margaret Warner Scandling, a former University trustee who had long been an advocate for educational reform.

In recent years, the Warner School has been like the little engine that could. Since 2000, Warner has grown faster than any other of our schools, more than doubling its student enrollments and tripling federal and state-sponsored research support.

I want to particularly express my gratitude to Warner’s outstanding dean, Raffaella Borasi. I will always cherish my memory of my first conversation with her when I was a candidate for the University presidency in 2004. She was on one of many committees that interviewed me. Raffaella explained that the top priority for Warner was a new building. The school was literally “bursting at the seams” because of enrollment growth. “How can you help us raise the resources for the building?” I responded, “No stone unturned.”

There is no project at a University more challenging than raising money for a school of education. But with Raffaella, we worked ceaselessly to make the new building a reality. The Warner School’s new home would not have been possible without the generous support of Wayne LeChase and his family, who provided the decisive gift that made it possible to proceed with a facility named after Wayne’s father, as well as lead gifts from Tim and Robin Wentworth, Sandy Parker, and an engaged and galvanizing National Council led by Chair Bill Carpenter.

But a key to the financing of LeChase Hall was the Warner School faculty and staff. Over time, working with Raffaella, they relentlessly engaged in innovations that led to increased net tuition and grants, generating reserves that covered about one third of the building costs and thus made the ultimate financing of LeChase Hall possible.

LeChase Hall was a team effort, uniting friends, alumni, faculty, staff, and administrators in support of students.

The Warner School has made a difference in educating generations of students. Now Warner has a home as inspiring as its mission. Three cheers for the Warner School and LeChase Hall!

Letters

Sequestering Comments

Whatever satisfactions await in the pages that follow, I invariably find President Seligman’s remarks to be the first highlight of every issue of Rochester Review. “The Costs of Sequestration” (May-June) is no exception.

After reading his illuminating commentary, of which the final paragraph reads (in part), “I urge our leaders [in Washington] to recognize [the importance of] federal investments in science, education, and academic medicine,” I was very curious to know just which “leaders”—or how many—were sent copies, and how many of them will take the time thoughtfully and constructively to reply.

William Lee ’54

Commander, U.S. Navy (Ret)

Doylestown, Pa.

President Seligman’s comments on Research and sequestration (i.e. funding) together with former Secretary of Energy [Steven] Chu’s comments on research (“Power and Politics,” May-June) were especially timely for me, as I have been pondering the fate of the private sector’s investment in research.

When I entered the energy and natural resource industry in the mid–1970s most major firms had research labs. The expenses for these efforts were considered to be a necessary cost of doing business to be funded annually without question. Industrial funding of academic research at many universities augmented these programs.

Fast forward to this decade. With very few exceptions these labs have been closed. Why and what is replacing this basic research?

Perhaps one answer is the impact of the evolution in accounting, tax law, and the opinions of the equity markets. Here time frames for valuation of a company’s stock has shortened dramatically to where the long term is the next quarter. Research labs and their long-term payout, if results lead to a tangible product at all, became a luxury that diluted earnings.

The expectations of what society wants from government also evolved over this period. In that pure research (as defined by Werner Von Braun as “what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing”) benefits all of society, society should pay for it. Government evolved to being more than happy to fill this void through NSF grants and by establishing government labs, etc. So why should industry do pure research or even be the primary funding source for external research when it is being covered in this manner? This is truly a point to ponder.

As President Seligman noted, 80 percent of the $2 billion research funding last year came from government grants. (I should add a “thank God,” because the private sector certainly has not stepped up to the plate at the needed level.) Sequestration and cutbacks are certainly having a real impact on this public source of funding.

The taxpayer also seems to have limits when it comes to paying for everything it wants. So it should be no surprise that public funding for research may have its limits. The public source will experience increased volatility and will face competition that comes from the hot issues of the day (or at least the two-year election cycle) to see what hot issue gets the current funding. This could be the real world research funding faces today.

Is there a way that society can change the incentives to encourage private investment back into research at universities and private labs? Would this be a swing of the pendulum or further evolution in this business model? Is such a business model even a good idea? Again, these are many points to ponder.

John Tobin ’64, ’64 (MS)

Evergreen, Colo.

Oh, the irony in reading President Seligman espouse the virtues of government research spending and the consequences of government budget cuts while presiding over one of the most prominent “freshwater economics” schools. Perhaps President Seligman should consult Charles Plosser, former dean of the Simon School of Business, on the use of government spending to spark economic growth as opposed to debt reduction via austerity.

Bob Hunter

Parent, Class of 2007

Fulton, N.Y.

Follow-Up Questions

In my view, the most important innovation discussed in the interview with Steven Chu ’70, former U.S. secretary of energy (May-June), deals not with the problem of renewable energy sources but with the power of democratic workplaces. When we can work collaboratively and confront constructively, we can solve any problem in the universe.

When fully realized in workplaces throughout the country, the power of participation will quickly lead to innovations. Translation and application of those innovations will then outshine the sun. How do we realize a greater ROI from our human capital? We must train students to offer constructive criticism in a civil and useful manner. We must confront even the bullies on every team. We must welcome correction. These politics (with a small “p”) of rigorous yet nonviolent communication in work groups will unleash our power.

W. Joseph Hicks ’89M (Res)

Baton Rouge, La.

While I enjoyed the discussion with Dr. Chu of the various initiatives undertaken during his tenure, I was surprised at the absence of any discussion of the proposed national high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. Frankly, I would have thought this to be a ripe topic, given its profound significance to national energy policies, the controversial nature of the project, and extensive UR alumni involvement.

The license application for Yucca Mountain was withdrawn by Secretary Chu; this decision is the subject of substantial litigation. In contrast, the proposed site and plan were endorsed by Dr. Chu, along with numerous other national laboratory directors.

The continued delay in developing a national repository, required by law, exposes the U.S. government to considerable financial liabilities from damages won by nuclear utilities. The delay put the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the position of needing to reconsider, amend, or renew the Waste Confidence decision regarding the efficacy of longer term storage at interim facilities. Several states prohibit the development of new nuclear power resources until a repository for spent fuel is available. Always a litigious topic and poorly reported on by national press, even more lawsuits have resulted, rather than the intended adjudicatory hearings that could have dealt with all the questions raised.

This summary is, of course, a small subset of the issues and does not address the myriad scientific and technical questions attending nuclear energy policy generally and Yucca Mountain particularly.

Given the roles of UR geology grads like Allison Macfarlane ’87, current chair of the NRC, Bret Leslie ’83, and myself, and no doubt others of whom I am regrettably unaware, I would have thought this to be a choice issue for such a great discussion opportunity with Dr. Chu.

Gene Peters ’87

Springfield, Va.

The writer is a former branch chief of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

War Stories

It strikes me as odd that Steven Hahn ’73 (“The Forge of a New Nation,” May-June) does not consider the glaringly obvious third option in the run up to the Civil War—let the southern states secede. Of course this would not have eliminated slavery or improved the lot of black people in the South. But just think of the kind of country the United States could have been without the drag of the reactionary strains that historically informed, and continue to inform, the southern worldview and cultural values?

Instead of fighting or further compromising, the North could have rejected Dred Scott, enforced abolition in all territories, and granted American citizenship to any person of African descent who managed to cross Union borders.

And yes, the abominations of slavery might well have persisted into the 20th century until the South caught up with the rest of the so-called civilized world. But just think of the light unto the world that our country could truly have been without the South.

Bill Glasner ’69

Victor, N.Y.

Your article “On Cemetery Ridge,” (May-June) mentions Capt. Winfield Scott, Class of 1859, several times, but does not state if he was any relation of Gen. Winfield Scott (1786–1866), the “Grand Old Man of the Army” and an unsuccessful candidate for president.

Was Capt. Scott named for the general? Were they related?

Dennis Rothman

Parent, Class of 2015

Tenafly, N.J.

Author Bob Marcotte writes: There appears to be no connection other than coincidence. The general is not listed as part of the Scott family genealogy by Captain Scott’s biographer, Richard Lynch. He also makes no mention of the captain being named in honor of the general. Captain Scott was born in 1837, well before General Scott emerged as a national hero after the Mexican-American War of 1846–48, but one year after General Scott commanded forces in the Second Seminole War and Creek War.

lettersMOREYS: William Morey, namesake of Morey Hall and a Civil War veteran, and his wife, Margaret Parkhurst, are buried in Michigan. (Photo: Courtesy of Martha McRoberts Bartlett)

The recent issue of Rochester Review, which included a page from the diary of Professor [William] Morey, reminded me that I had seen his grave here in Coldwater, Mich. He is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, next to his wife, Margaret, the daughter of Gen. John Parkhurst of Civil War fame.

I have enclosed several articles and photos about the Moreys and the Parkhursts, though I do not see when or where Professor Morey met Margaret Parkhurst. Perhaps it was during the time he taught at Kalamazoo College, about an hour from Coldwater.

Coincidently, their marriage took place at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church here, which is the church where my husband, Steve, served as rector during the past 13 years. Since 2001, I served as the director of Family Promise of Branch County, helping families who are homeless achieve independence. Both of us retired during the past year and look forward to new adventures.

Martha McRoberts Bartlett ’68

Coldwater, Mich.

P.S. Isn’t it wonderful that a dandelion has bloomed behind Professor Morey’s headstone!

Historical Notes

How come your historians’ discussion of the Reformation (“Schismatics, New and Old,” May-June) didn’t include in their remarks the greatest development stemming from it and its sister movement, the Enlightenment, i.e., the concept of liberalism?

This is important for its emancipation of human thought from the stifling influence of the medieval Catholic Church, which resulted in, among other things, the explosion of scientific discovery, whose benefits I don’t have to mention. Today, we are still fighting that battle against the rubric of conservatism which the Republican Party and the present Catholic Church are aggressively pushing.

By the way, I was greatly impressed with your informative history of the key role Rochester students played in the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg. The University should commemorate their role with some kind of formal display akin to what Harvard did in its display of the names of Harvard students in the Civil War that can be found in Sanders Theater in Harvard Square.

Berge Tatian ’51

Stoneham, Mass.

Students and alumni who fought in the Civil War are memorialized in Wilson Commons, where inscribed plaques list the names of alumni who died in the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. The Civil War memorial was originally in Anderson Hall on the Prince Street Campus.—Scott Hauser

Musical Notes

I very much enjoyed reading about the University’s proactive stance in becoming involved in the massive online open course (MOOC) movement (“Cataloging a Course,” May-June). I enrolled in Professor John Covach’s History of Rock, Part 1, on Coursera. Congratulations are due to him and to the University staff for producing a course with such great material, teaching, and production. I enjoyed learning in this format. I believe it is here to stay and will only expand. One of the goals of education is to disseminate knowledge broadly, and this platform certainly offers that potential. On a lighter note, I believe I may be the only student to have taken The History of Rock twice at the U of R, almost 40 years apart—taught by different professors and in different “platforms.” There is now music to study beyond the Beatles and the Grateful Dead!

What a wonderful thing!

Richard Rubin ’77

Slingerlands, N.Y.

Photo ID

lettersPRIMP & CIRCUMSTANCES: Diana Santiago ’85 and her mother, at commencement ceremonies in 1985. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

The graduate in the Class Notes photo on page 50 (May-June) is Diana Santiago ’85 and her mom with her aunt looking at the camera. Diana was in our wedding in 1988 and is now an anesthesiologist in the New York City area.

Walter ’86 and Kim Radoane Kerschl ’87

Lexington, Va.

It’s been 28 years since graduation but, if I’m correct, the person graduating in the photo on page 50 of the May-June issue is Diana Santiago ’85. At least one of the guests has to be her mom. Diana was a friend all through college and lived in the single next door to my own our senior year.

Forrest Strauss ’85

Monroe, N.Y.

Remembering Margaret Bond

Kudos to Robert Kraus ’71 for his moving tribute to Margaret Bond ’47 (May-June).

Bondi, as we called her when she edited Gallery Notes for the Memorial Art Gallery, was a writer’s ideal editor— thorough but gentle and with unfailing ironic humor. You could always spot the perfect turn of phrase that was her suggestion.

Margaret could write as well as edit, witness her gem on the feathers incident in Eastman Theatre or her masterful obituary of Howard Hanson.

I suspect that I am not the only one with a stack of old Rochester Reviews in the corner of her library that are “keepers” because of their inimitable creator or editor.

Elizabeth Brayer

Rochester

Well Said

Kudos to Kathleen McGarvey for her articles, “Libraries Unbound” and “A Vanishing Past?,” in the March-April edition. Well written and insightful.

Nicely done!

Mack Duett

Parent, Class of 2005

East Syracuse, N.Y.

Who Speaks for the Squash?

So few take time to even dash off a note in appreciation of work well done that I must put off planting the squash and do so now.

Masterful work on the last Rochester Review. I don’t know how you do it. When I read it, I remember thinking that putting a magazine together like that was art—which cannot be learned.

I’m putting in the squash. Thanks again for contributing to our educations.

Robert Karl Skoglund ’70 (MA)

aka The humble Farmer

St. George, Maine

Review welcomes letters and will print them as space permits. Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity. Unsigned letters cannot be used. Send letters to Rochester Review, 22 Wallis Hall, P.O. Box 270044, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0044; rochrev@rochester.edu.

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD

Eastman’s Spidey Sense

spiderman (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Cameo Appearance: Look for cameos by the Eastman School of Music in next year’s installment of the Spider-Man film franchise. Crews for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 filmed several action sequences and car chases this spring in downtown Rochester, including scenes along East Main Street in front of Eastman Theatre and Eastman’s East Wing. While the comic book superhero was caught on camera a few times, none of the film’s slate of Hollywood stars made an appearance in Rochester. The film is scheduled to be released in 2014. Photograph by Adam Fenster﻿

COMMENCEMENT 2013

Merry Mortarboards

commencement (Photo: Keith Walters)

Spring Fling: Members of the Class of 2013 celebrate after this spring’s commencement ceremony for Arts, Sciences & Engineering. Commencement speaker Steven Chu ’70, former secretary of energy, told the graduating class to focus on things in life that matter to them. “When you are old and gray and you look back on your life, you will want to be proud of what you have done. The source of that pride won’t be the things you have acquired or the recognition you receive. It will be the lives you have touched and the difference you have made.” Photograph by Keith Walters for Rochester Review﻿

TAKE FIVE

Power of Performance

circus (Photo: Brandon Vick)

CIRCUS & SCHOLARSHIP: Spurrier Gymnasium was transformed into a world of juggling, acrobatics, clowning, and dance this spring when Take Five Scholar Adam Lanman presented a performance of “No Elephants Allowed,” his year-long thesis project in the performing arts. Active in Strong Jugglers and the Opposite of People Theatre Company, the physics and astronomy major worked with the Program of Movement and Dance—and classmates Sarah Smith, Chase Henson, Olivia Morgan, Andrea Stewart, Jasmine Furnace, Sarah Goodman, and others—on the project. Lanman plans to begin studies in the fall for a doctoral degree in physics at Brown University. Photograph by Brandon Vick﻿

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

Course of History

oakhill (Photo: Oak Hill Country Club)

oakhillTEE TIMES: Oak Hill’s original club house (left) was still standing when construction on the River Campus began (right) and the golf club moved to nearby Pittsford, where the Yellowjacket golf team still plays its “home” meets. (Photos: Oak Hill Country Club, left; University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, right)

When the eyes of the golfing community tune in to watch the PGA Championship this summer, they will be watching some of the world’s elite golfers play the home course of the Yellowjackets golf team. While the Oak Hill Country Club is today located in nearby Pittsford, the course was originally built on what is now the River Campus. In the early 1920s, as University leaders looked for ways to expand beyond the Prince Street campus, support from community members and from philanthropist George Eastman helped finance a campaign for a new campus on the banks of the Genesee River. In exchange for the country club’s land, the University purchased 355 acres in Pittsford for two new Oak Hill courses, which were designed by now renowned architect Donald Ross, as well as a new club house at the Pittsford site. As part of the arrangement, Rochester’s golf team gets to host visiting teams on the Pittsford course—that is, when the likes of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, and other stars of the game are not in town. The PGA Championship runs from August 5 to 11.

—Kathleen McGarvey

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

The Fellowship of Fulbrights

Recent Rochester graduates will be spanning the globe during the next year to undertake research projects and teach English in nearly a dozen countries under the auspices of the Fulbright Program of the U.S. Department of State. A total of 13 members of the Class of 2013 were selected for student programs this spring, setting a record for a one-year crop of Fulbrights for Rochester, according to the College’s Student Fellowships Office. In addition, Asad Arastu ’12, a Rochester Early Medical Scholar, and recent graduate Andrew Otis ’11 were selected. The students were joined by Mary Jane Curry, associate professor at the Warner School of Education, who was selected under a Fulbright program for faculty.

England

Rebekah Carpio ’13E A clarinet performance major from Vienna, Va. Fulbright Study/Research Grant

Spain

Ankit Medhekar ’13 A biomedical engineering major and Rochester Early Medical Scholar from Pittsburgh Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship

Chile

Mary Jane Curry Associate professor and director of the teaching English to speakers of other languages and foreign language teacher education programs at the Warner School Fulbright Scholar Grant

Turkey

Laurel Raymond ’13 An English and brain and cognitive sciences major from Richmond, Vt. English Teaching Assistantship

Asad Arastu ’12 A Rochester Early Medical Scholar from Whittier, Calif. Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship

Germany

Veronica Price ’13 A psychology and German major from Chester, N.Y. Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship

Russia

Gabrielle Cornish ’13 A Russian studies and music major from Elmira, N.Y. Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship

Meredith Doubleday ’13 A Russian and classics major from Spring, N.Y. Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship

Madeleine Klingler ’13 A Russian major from Chatham, N.Y. Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship

Japan

Cameron La Point ’13 An economics, history, and mathematics major from Fairport, N.Y. Fulbright Study/Research grant

Bangladesh

Anaise Williams ’13 A cell and developmental biology major from Belgrade, Maine English Teaching Assistantship

Thailand

Anja Weinrib-Weiss ’13 A brain and cognitive sciences major from Arlington, Mass. Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship

Jordan

Garrett Rubin ’12E, ’13 (T5) A Take Five Scholar from Palm Desert, Calif. Fulbright mtvU Award

India

Rohini Bhatia ’13 An epidemiology major from Ellicott City, Md. Fulbright Study/Research Grant

Andrew Otis ’11 A history and political science major from Higganum, Conn. Fulbright Study/Research Grant

Jyothi Purushotham ’13 A molecular genetics major from Honeoye Falls, N.Y. Fulbright Study/Research Grant

ECONOMICS & FINANCE

Simon Takes Manhattan

The business school’s annual conference aims to help put Simon on the map in the financial and economic capital of New York City.

By Bob Woods

inrev_simonPHOTO BUSINESS: Steve Forbes poses with Simon School graduate student Yvonne Wang while fellow student Eric Vargas takes a photo during Simon’s annual conference in New York City this spring. (Photo: Shannon Taggart for the Simon School of Business)

Before taking the stage at the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan, media mogul Steve Forbes recognized the positive vibe that can result when a business school gets a foothold in the nation’s financial capital.

“The Simon School is gaining a real presence in the world,” said the two-time presidential candidate just before stepping to the podium for a keynote address on economics and the media, “and this is the perfect place to do it.”

On a blustery morning in May, “this” was an annual New York City conference hosted by the Simon School of Business, and Forbes was one of several high-profile experts, alumni, and faculty members who were invited to share their insights with nearly 400 alumni, students, members of the media, and other finance and economics professionals during the daylong event.

Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, was joined by guest speakers Lou Gerstner, former chairman and CEO of IBM, Charles Plosser, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Paul Singer ’66, the founder, CEO, and co-chief investment officer of Elliott Management Corp., and Joan Solotar, a senior managing director and head of external relations and strategy for the Blackstone Group.

Titled “Reform at a Crossroad: Economic Transformation in the Year Ahead,” the conference, now in its fourth year, is a key component in a long-term initiative to raise Simon's profile in the Big Apple.

In addition to the conference, the school has launched two master of science degree programs—one in finance and one in management—for working professionals in New York City, and Simon leaders and advisors are evaluating whether other programs could be added in the near future. With nearly 14,000 University alumni and nearly 1,600 Simon alumni, the metropolitan area of New York City—the “tri-state area”—is an important market for Simon.

“New York City is our second home,” noted Mark Zupan, dean of the Simon School and professor of economics and public policy, during a break between sessions that he moderated, “and our number-one recruiting base outside of Rochester. As the nation’s financial and media capital, New York is critical in our strategic plan to expand the Simon School.”

In opening the conference, Zupan emphasized Simon’s expanding role in New York City, noting not only the school’s academic programs but also the more than 100 Simon and Rochester students in the audience, as well as dozens of alumni on hand.

Many of those alumni were impressed by the range of sessions and the depth of the expertise on display.

“They all want change, but they’re still optimistic about the future of the economy,” said Jeffery Tomasulo ’95, who’s enrolled in Simon’s New York–based master’s program in finance.

Tomasulo chose the master’s degree over a traditional MBA as a more practical enhancement to his career as a hedge fund manager with Belpointe Asset Management in Greenwich, Conn. “The Simon School was one of the first to offer a part-time finance program. This gives me the opportunity to get the additional education that I always wanted but didn’t have the time to pursue.”

Amy Tait ’85S (MBA), chairman and CEO of Rochester-based Broadstone Real Estate, said she appreciated the speakers’ insights. “This is my second year at the conference, and I came here to learn from them. Plus, it was fun to hear from some of the professors I had at Simon. Ron Schmidt is still as vibrant a speaker as ever,” she said of Simon’s Janice M. and Joseph T. Willett Professor.

Tait, who introduced Plosser during an afternoon session, also valued the opportunity to network with fellow Simon alumni and meet current students. “I have hired several recent Simon graduates at our company,” she says. S

uch opportunities for networking are an important aspect of the conference. Exchanges of business cards and “I haven’t seen you in years” were common during intermissions and in between presentations.

“Many of my classmates are here, and I’ve run into lots of other Simon and Rochester students,” said Marty Birmingham, who graduated from the executive MBA program in June. He’s the CEO of Five-Star Bank in Rochester, but he recognized the boost that an MBA from Simon can provide, calling it “a milestone in my career.”

As both a banker and a student, Birmingham gravitated toward the conference’s economics theme.

“The speakers and topics are very germane and current to ones that our industry is facing,” he said. “They’re applicable, as well, to what we’ve been learning in the classroom. It’s wonderful to see it live.”

Bob Woods is a freelance writer who frequently covers business issues.﻿

UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP

Three New Trustees Elected

trusteesCarol (John) Davidson (Photo: Provided photo)

trusteesSandra Parker (Photo: Provided photo)

trusteesTimothy Wentworth (Photo: Provided photo)

The Board of Trustees elected three new trustees at its May meeting.

Carol (John) Davidson ’88S (MBA) is a retired senior vice president, controller, and chief accounting officer of Tyco International. Before joining Tyco in 2004, Davidson held senior financial, accounting, and auditing positions with Dell and the Eastman Kodak Company. Following his retirement from Tyco in 2012, he became a director of Pentair Inc., which merged with the flow control business that was spun off from Tyco.

On the boards of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, DaVita Inc., the Financial Accounting Foundation, and St. John Fisher College, he also serves on the Executive Advisory Committee of the Simon School of Business and the Simon Campaign Committee.

In 2011, he received Simon’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in recognition of his professional achievements, contributions to his field, and service to the school.

Sandra Parker is president and CEO of the Rochester Business Alliance. Prior to that, she was president and CEO of the Industrial Management Council.

Parker was recognized in 2006 for her leadership in the Fair Share Coalition, which grew into the Rochester Community Coalition. The coalition brings together business, labor, local government, education, faith organizations, and nonprofit organizations to seek state investment in projects that will create long-term jobs and boost the regional economy. Parker also is a member of the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council.

Parker’s Rochester-area service includes board positions for the Center for Governmental Research, High Technology of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology, and the Rochester Regional Health Information Organization. A native of Rochester, she received the 2002 Athena Award, given each year to a woman for outstanding contributions to the business and regional communities.

Parker has made a generous commitment as part of The Meliora Challenge: The Campaign for the University of Rochester to support the Warner School of Education’s new Raymond F. LeChase Hall and to the Eastman School of Music.

Timothy Wentworth is senior vice president and president of sales and account management for Express Scripts in St. Louis. Before assuming that role, he held executive positions at Medco Health Solutions, which merged with Express Scripts in 2012, and at Mary Kay and PepsiCo. He

and his wife, Robin, are the parents of a 2011 University graduate and a member of the Class of 2016. Rochester natives, the Wentworths attended Monroe Community College before pursuing further career and educational opportunities outside Rochester. Tim Wentworth received a master’s degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University. In 2010, the Wentworths established the Wentworth Family Endowed Scholarship for students transferring to Rochester from a community or junior college.

Wentworth Atrium in LeChase Hall is named in recognition of their significant gift to the Warner School as part of The Meliora Challenge. They are members of the Parents Council and are cochairs of the council’s executive committee. They are cochairs of the Parents Initiative for the Campaign Cabinet, and they are members of the Northern New Jersey Regional Cabinet.

What's Your Motion Quotient?

discoverTUNING OUT: Is there a link between intelligence and the ability to suppress background motion? (Photo: Adam Fenster)

A simple exercise devised by Rochester scientists can predict your intelligence, based on an unexpected link between IQ and motion filtering.

That’s according to a study led by Duje Tadin, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences. The finding, reported online in the Cell Press journal Current Biology, indicates that people whose brains are better at automatically suppressing background motion perform better on standard measures of intelligence.

The test Tadin and colleagues developed is the first purely sensory assessment to be strongly correlated with IQ and may provide a non-verbal and culturally unbiased tool for scientists seeking to understand neural processes associated with general intelligence.

In the test, people watched brief video clips of black and white bars moving across a computer screen. Their only task was to identify whether the bars moved to the left or right. The bars were presented in three sizes, with the smallest version restricted to the central circle where human motion perception is optimal.

discoverWHAT DO YOU SEE? Take the “motion quotient” test at www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=6422. (Photo: Rochester Review)

As expected, people with higher IQ scores were faster at catching the movement of the bars when observing the smallest image—supporting prior research showing that quick-witted people make faster perceptual judgments and have faster reflexes. But when presented with larger images, those with higher IQ scores were slower at detecting movement—a perceptual marker for the brain’s ability to suppress background motion.

Another recent study by Tadin, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, indicates that motion perception may give clues about the cause of autism. Children with autism see simple movement twice as quickly as other children their age. Such heightened sensory perception in autism may help explain why some people with the disorder are painfully sensitive to noise and bright lights. It may also be linked to some of the complex social and behavioral deficits associated with autism. —

New Pathway Enhances Drug’s Ability to Tame Aggressive Breast Cancer

A Medical Center team is reporting a potentially promising development for women with basal-like breast cancer, which is notoriously resistant to treatment. Published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, the research explored a way to exploit the well-established anticancer drug tamoxifen’s ability to attack cancer cells at more than one molecular level.

discoverTARGETED: A tamoxifen breast cancer drug molecule (inset) (Photo: Science Source)

Led by doctoral student Hsing-Yu Chen and Mark Noble, professor of biomedical genetics, the Rochester team found that basal-like breast cancer escapes the initial effects of tamoxifen by relying on two proteins—one that controls the cells’ receptors and a second that affects how the first protein operates.

By targeting the second protein with an experimental drug that restored normal function to the first protein, the team was able to use tamoxifen to induce cancer cell death and suppress the growth of new cancer cells. Neither drug alone had the same effect.

The powerful combination may have two other important features: it selectively targets cancer cells while sparing normal cells, and it appears to cripple cancer stem cells, the primitive cells responsible for initiating new tumors and for building the bulk of the tumor cell population.

—Leslie Orr﻿﻿

For Good Grades, Look Inward

Is your academic performance not what you’d like it to be? The explanation may lie in your reason for attending college in the first place. So say researchers at the Warner School, in a study published in the Journal of College Student Development.

Professors Douglas Guiffrida, Martin Lynch, and Andrew Wall, along with doctoral student Darlene Abel, found that students who attend college to fulfill needs for autonomy and competence—core components of intrinsic motivation—tend to have higher grades and intentions to persist. But they also found that students’ socioeconomic status affected these relationships. Choosing to go to college to fulfill the need for autonomy was slightly more important to the success of students of high socioeconomic status than low-income students, whose motivation may be more influenced by a need to improve their financial situation.

The study also suggested that altruisim—students’ motivation to attend college to give back to their community—is a more powerful motivator for students of color than for white students.

This study, which tracked motivation, college attendance, and academic outcomes of 2,500 college students attending a two-year community college or a four-year liberal arts college, is the first comprehensive study to examine such relationships using a large sample of college students across multiple institutions and to control for demographic variables.

discoverHEAD COUNT: Baboons have shown they can calculate quantity by comparing approximate differences in number, much as children do. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Baboons Add It All Up

Opposing thumbs, expressive faces, and complex social systems are all shared by humans and apes. Now Rochester researchers have added another trait to the list: the ability to understand numbers.

The study—led by Jessica Cantlon, assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences, and published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology—helps to resolve the question of how animals understand quantity. Scientists have speculated that animals may use two different systems for evaluating numbers: one based on keeping track of discrete objects—a skill known to be limited to about three at a time—and a second approach based on comparing the approximate differences between counts.

he baboons’ choices clearly relied on the “more than, less than” approach. Research has shown that children who haven’t yet learned to count also depend on such comparisons, as do adults when estimating quantity quickly. —

MEMORIAL ART GALLERY

Speaking the Language of Art

The Memorial Art Gallery’s Creative Workshop draws out the artist in everyone.

By Kathleen McGarvey

magCOLORFUL WEDNESDAY: Students at this year’s Spring Art Day School, a weeklong program for kids 7 to 13, watch teacher Lisa Myers explain how to layer color with oil pastels in a day devoted to the exploration of hues. The classes ran six hours per day. (Photo: Brandon Vick)

For the last 30 years, watercolor painting has been a constant in the life of Rochester native Glenn Miller. “I was lucky never to have had the lesson that watercolor is hard,” he says, calling landscape watercolor painting his favorite medium of expression.

Today, recently retired from teaching photography at Rochester Institute of Technology, Miller is a fixture in the landscape watercolor class at the Memorial Art Gallery’s Creative Workshop, taught by painter Dick Kane. The class brings Miller, who has been a regular for seven years, full circle: as a child in the 1940s, he took courses at the gallery, “flinging paint with—and at—other students,” he recalls.

The gallery began holding art classes as early as the 1920s, but it wasn’t until 1949 that its art school became known as the Creative Workshop. Part of the gallery’s education department—which also includes the Charlotte Whitney Allen Library, the school outreach program, the docent program, and a variety of public programs—the workshop offers hands-on art classes taught by artist-teachers to students of all ages, from age two and a half on.

“We’re an art school with no degrees, no matriculation, no admissions requirements. Our goal is to make art accessible by doing, for children up to adults,” says curriculum director Rachael Baldanza, a member of the workshop since 2004 and a doctoral student in the human development program at the Warner School. Her work there focuses on intergenerational learning spaces, a topic on which she has gathered extensive experience at the Creative Workshop, where classes are offered for kids, for adults, and for children and adults together.

Most of the workshop’s more than 50 teachers come either from an art education background or from professional artistic training but with a talent for communicating about their art. “Somewhere along the line, they realized they were teachers,” says Baldanza. “In fact, a lot of our teachers started here as students.”

Fundamental to the workshop’s sense of purpose is the conviction that art is everybody’s business: not just its appreciation, but also its production.

magNOW & THEN: Teacher Suzanne Kolodziej (left, right) confers with Annesha Dasgupta during the Spring Art Day School at the Creative Workshop. The program of the Memorial Art Gallery has for the last 90 years introduced art to students of all ages, including Barbara Mead Strong (right) and Arthur Cerasani, who, along with other six-year-olds, learned about modeling just before Thanksgiving 1943. (Photo: Brandon Vick, left; Memorial Art Gallery, right)

“Almost all of us as young children spent a fair amount of time on our tummies, on the floor, drawing and coloring and making all kinds of pictures,” says Marlene Hamann-Whitmore, acting director of education. “And unfortunately a lot of us age out of that, which is too bad, because you learn an awful lot by drawing and making. You engage your brain in different ways when you’re actively drawing, coloring, writing than when you’re sitting passively. If you sit down and look at something, and you pick up even a golf pencil and a piece of scrap paper and start recording what you see, your hand, your eye, your brain, and I think eventually your heart are engaged in a way that they’re not if you don’t take the time to slow down and look.”

The Herdle family—father George, the gallery’s first director, and then daughters Isabel and Gertrude, who led the gallery after his death—“gravitated toward the populist and the public, and the idea that anyone could make art,” says Baldanza.

Having a museum with a hands-on educational component isn’t unique, but it’s also not typical, says HamannWhitmore. But at the gallery, those two pieces—exhibitions and instruction—reinforce each other, with classes visiting the gallery to take inspiration for their own work.

Looking at the collection “makes a huge difference,” says workshop teacher Suzanne Kolodziej, whose background is in textiles and art education. She is also outreach coordinator for the East Asia Program at Cornell. In a recent class, she took students to the Asian collection to look at mixing patterns before leading them in a project of making kimonos from origami papers.

In the gallery, “rather than my telling them about art, we talk about what we see,” says Kolodziej. “I learn from them what they perceive. It becomes a conversation. It’s not so much about information—it’s visual.”

“It’s learning the language of art,” says Baldanza of bringing people to the gallery and to the workshop’s studios to craft their own pieces in areas from painting and pottery to weaving and jewelry making. “If you were to learn Spanish, at some point, if your goal was really to speak it, you would go to a Spanish-speaking country and immerse yourself in it.” The idea at the gallery, she says, is the same.

Kolodziej sees the workshop as a valuable and inclusive resource. “Not many cities have a studio school. It makes it everyone’s museum in a different sense.”

Miller agrees. He calls the studio within a gallery “the best of all worlds. We’re able to work in an environment where we learn to manipulate the tools of the medium—and then run upstairs to see what the ‘masters,’ so to speak, did.”

ENGLISH

A Slice of Life at Bread Loaf

learnFIRST POET: Founded by poet Robert Frost, Bread Loaf has run continuously since 1926. (Photo: Corbis)

Poet Jennifer Grotz calls herself a “Bread Loaf poster child.” The associate professor of English first went to the famed Vermont writers’ conference as a 23-year-old graduate student, paying her way by waiting tables in the dining room. Since 2005, she has been assistant director of the annual August conference that was founded by poet Robert Frost and has run continuously since 1926. This year, the conference will take on a pronounced Rochester flavor, when Grotz is joined by poet James Longenbach, the Joseph Henry Gilmore Professor of English, and novelist Joanna Scott, the Roswell Smith Burrows Professor of English, who are members of the 2013 faculty.

What is Bread Loaf like?

It’s like a summer camp for writers. It’s on this rural campus, very beautiful, on a little mountaintop in the Green Mountains, which is called Bread Loaf Mountain. That’s how the conference got its name.

What makes it unique?

People respect the history and integrity of Bread Loaf. It’s the oldest and the most prestigious writing conference in the country—and it was at Bread Loaf that the creative writing workshop, that staple of American universities, was more or less invented. One of the things I really treasure about director Michael Collier’s vision for Bread Loaf is an ongoing emphasis that the conference remain about teaching and workshops, not just networking with editors or agents, though they attend the conference as well.

Is it for writers just starting out?

Yes, but there are different ways to attend, depending on where you are in your apprenticeship and career. Now acceptance is so competitive—we had 1,700 applications this summer for 150 slots—that many writers attending are slightly older than in the past.

The competition is keen, especially for scholarship positions, but there is still a true diversity of people who attend every year, from the ages of about 20 to 80 and beyond.

How does it work?

Sometimes folks think you write there, but you don’t. The time is much too busy and packed with readings and lectures and workshops. It’s also very social. You do your writing during the year, by yourself, in your “garret.” When you go to Bread Loaf, you bring work in progress. So the workshop is about sharing work you submitted with the goal of receiving constructive feedback. Workshops are buttressed with craft classes and lectures and readings by faculty and fellows and waiters—pretty much everyone reads. When I get back from Bread Loaf, I’ve heard significant chunks from the entire landscape of contemporary American writing.

How does being at Bread Loaf compare to life during the academic year?

Writers by and large have been sort of tamed into the academy, and that’s a good thing. I think the university is a great ecosystem for writers, and I also think writers contribute a lot to the university environment. I consider myself a poet-teacher, and as such, I teach poetry as well as write it, so I talk about it with students, I conduct workshops, and then as a published poet I’m also traveling and giving readings. I have a hybrid and very lucky life getting to do that during the year, but most writers really don’t—and they crave ways to be part of a writing community as well as to continue to improve their skills. Often participants at Bread Loaf are lawyers or high school teachers or nurses or folks who have a professional life but still want to pursue their writing.

What do you value most in the experience?

Writing is lonely, and it’s competitive, and it’s filled with moments of doubt and rejection. Bread Loaf—with its emphasis on nurturing new talent, reading and conversations, celebrating all the writing of the culture—well, it’s kind of the antidote to that. That’s my hope.

—Kathleen McGarvey﻿

CARDIOLOGY

Keeping Hearts Healthy—on a ‘Justice Basis’

Making healthy choices easy is key to preventing heart disease and stroke, says Thomas Pearson, director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute and Albert David Kaiser Chair of Public Health Sciences. And supporting people’s efforts to be healthy is only fair. Pearson is the coauthor of new guidelines from the American Heart Association to help communities improve cardiovascular health. Rochester has long been a leader in the kind of community-based prevention programs envisioned by the new guidelines.

How does changing the environment help heart health—and what makes that a matter of fairness?

One

example is nutrition. We did a nutritional readout of the foods served at the Medical Center’s cafeterias. One of the concerns was all the sodium in soup. So we ratcheted down the sodium—on a justice basis. If you have high blood pressure or heart failure, or any of the other reasons why you shouldn’t have a high-sodium diet, it’s unjust because we haven’t provided you with anything to eat. If you want to shake extra salt into the soup, you can. But the default option is healthy.

Why is it important to take on heart health at the community level?

If we’re going to prevent heart disease and stroke, simply relying on medical interventions won’t get us there. So we’re focused on changing the context to make people’s default decisions healthier. We came up with healthy behaviors we’d like to encourage—not reducing bad behaviors but encouraging healthy behaviors.

How effective do you expect these guidelines to be?

We have everything we need to prevent heart disease. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be doing research, and heart failure is still a problem. But places that have implemented our guidelines have had huge reductions over very short periods of time in the number of heart disease cases. It’s been the leading cause of death for over 100 years in the United States. By 2020, in many places it won’t be anymore. Is this a new way of approaching medical care?

An article in the New England Journal of Medicine recently, by David Asch and Kevin Volpp, argues that what people really want is health. Not health care—health. The U.S. health care system needs to figure out how to keep people healthy, not how to treat their disease.

We’re in a terrific position, with guidelines like this, to say, we’re going to spend X amount of dollars—what should we spend it on? And to say we need another surgical suite or another CAT scan is basically to say people want health care. To have community programs, community engagement, and better outpatient facilities and wellness programs is more consistent with what people want: health.

—Kathleen McGarvey﻿

COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Can Your Smartphone Hear You Crying on the Inside?

If you feel as if your smartphone is your best friend, that relationship might be about to deepen. A team of Rochester engineers is developing a computer algorithm that assesses human emotion in speech, with greater accuracy than existing approaches.

learn (Photo: iStockphoto)

Wendi Heinzelman, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is collaborating with other researchers to develop an app that will detect emotions in voices. It’s a tool designed for use in a study of family conflict among parents and teens led by Melissa Sturge-Apple, assistant professor of clinical and social sciences in psychology, but the concept has provoked broad interest. The group presented its research at the IEEE Workshop on Spoken Language Technology last December. C

omputers may have an edge over human assessors because of their lack of biases, says Heinzelman. Given optimal data to work with, “I actually think the computer would be better” than people in judging emotion, she says.

By the end of the summer, Heinzelman’s team hopes to have an app that can label an utterance emotionally positive, negative, or neutral. And the research has more to it than the mood rings of old. Such a device could ultimately aid people with autism or other conditions that make it hard for them to interpret others’ emotions.

Douglas Lowry Begins Second Term at Eastman

inbriefMUSIC MAN: Under Lowry, the Eastman School has finished major renovations to Eastman Theatre and opened its new East Wing. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Douglas Lowry, the Joan and Martin Messinger Dean of the Eastman School of Music, begins a second, five-year term in July.

A noted conductor and composer, Lowry has led the school since 2007. In 2011, he was named the first recipient of the Messinger Deanship, endowed by Martin Messinger ’49, a life trustee of the University, and his wife, the late Joan Messinger.

As dean, Lowry is credited with implementing an ambitious strategic plan that celebrates the legacy of the school and emphasizes its role as a national leader in the future of music.

As part of that plan, Lowry led the completion of the biggest architectural transformation in the school’s history, the renovation of Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre and the construction of the new Eastman East Wing.

Lowry also serves as professor of conducting and ensembles, and he has conducted both the Eastman Philharmonia and the school’s Symphony Orchestra.

Rochester Named National Center for AIDS Research

The National Institutes of Health has named the University a Center for AIDS Research, a designation that infuses $7.5 million into HIV/AIDS work across the University and places Rochester among the leading institutions in the nation for research on and treatment of the disease.

The award spans five years and will be used to form collaborations—such as one between the Department of Neurology at the Medical Center and the Institute of Optics on the River Campus—that focus on high-impact discoveries. The award will also support the career development of HIV/AIDS researchers through mentoring programs and pilot grants.

The center will be led by Stephen Dewhurst, the Dean’s Professor and chair of microbiology and immunology and the newly appointed vice dean for research at the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

inbriefRobert Gates, Barney Frank, and Peggy Noonan (Photo: Courtesy of the subjects)

Robert Gates, Barney Frank, and Peggy Noonan Headline Meliora Weekend 2013

Robert Gates, a former secretary of defense and CIA director who served in the administrations of President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, will give the keynote address at Meliora Weekend, Oct. 10–13.

A former president of Texas A&M University, Gates served under eight U.S. presidents during his career in public service.

He will be joined by a slate of headliners, including former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, the first openly gay member of Congress, Peggy Noonan, columnist for the Wall Street Journal and best-selling author, and comedian Demetri Martin.

Frank, a Democrat who represented Massachusetts from 1981 to 2012, chaired the House Financial Services Committee from 2007 to 2011. He will be the guest for a combined Presidential Symposium and Miller’s Court, hosted by legal scholar and commentator Arthur Miller ’56, ’08 (Honorary).

A former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and chief speechwriter for then Vice President George H. W. Bush, Noonan will be a featured guest speaker for the George Eastman Circle, the University’s leadership annual giving society.

Tickets to the Gates keynote address will be made available by lottery to the University community beginning in July. Registration for other events begins in late August. For more information, visit www.rochester.edu/melioraweekend.﻿

inbriefTEACHER & STUDENT: This year’s Singer Family Prizes were presented to Diane Haleas-Hines (front, left), with her nominator, Jiore Craig (back, left); Ann Day, with nominator Birx Allen; and Winifred Crock, with nominator Bradley Halpern; Juliet Wu (back, right) nominated Michael Mucci, who could not attend the ceremony. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Singer Family Prize Honors Excellence in Secondary Teaching

Four undergraduates honored memorable high school teachers in May, during the annual presentation of the the Singer Family Prize for Excellence in Secondary Teaching.

Paul Singer ’66 endowed the annual prize, which was first given in 2007. All seniors in the College are invited to nominate a high school teacher for consideration. The four award winners received a plaque and $3,000, as well as $2,500 for each school. They also were invited to attend commencement ceremonies in May to watch their former students graduate.

Anne Day, a chemistry teacher at Thomas J. Corcoran High School in Syracuse, was nominated by Birx Allen ’12, ’13 (T5). Orchestra teacher Michael Mucci of Longmeadow High School in Longmeadow, Mass., was nominated by Juliet Wu ’12, ’13 (T5). Winifred Crock, an orchestra teacher at Parkway Central High School in Ballwin, Mo., was nominated by Bradley Halpern ’12, ’13 (KEY). And Diane Haleas-Hines, a teacher of world history at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, was nominated by Jiore Craig ’13.

New Appointments Made in Research

Richard Waugh, professor and chair of biomedical engineering, has been appointed to the newly created position of associate vice president for research.

His first responsibilities include developing a strategic plan that identifies specific research goals, as well as opportunities for bringing together faculty members from different departments. Waugh will also be involved in strengthening the campus research community and fostering relations with corporations. Waugh has been a faculty member for 33 years.

Stephen Dewhurst, the Dean’s Professor and chair of microbiology and immunology, has been named vice dean for research at the School of Medicine and Dentistry. A past senior associate dean for basic research, Dewhurst will lead the school’s strategic planning for research in the new position, which was recommended by a faculty-led strategic planning committee. To complement his new role, Dewhurst has also been appointed associate vice president for health sciences research at the University.

Dewhurst joined the University in 1990.

New Leader for Counseling Center

A longtime counseling leader at the University of Pittsburgh has been named director of the University Counseling Center.

Joellen Popma, who served as associate director of Pittsburgh’s counseling center for seven years, began her appointment in June. In her new role, Popma will oversee counseling and mental health services available to students, faculty, and staff.

Popma specializes in trauma, sexual assault, diversity, and cultural issues, as well as in training and supervision.

The center provides a range of services and is also the site of a training program for mental health professionals at the postbaccalaureate level.

ROWING

Women Rowers Take Two Regatta Titles

A strong spring season includes the appointment of John Gaskin as director of rowing.

By Dennis O’Donnell

sportsrowingGREAT EIGHT: Coxswain Julia Evans ’14 (left to right), Bella Clemente ’16, Rhiannon Vaughan ’14, Serra Sevenler ’15, Emily Widra ’15, Allie Born ’15, Clare McMahon ’16, Juliana Orlov ’15, and Monika Cepulis ’14 took first place in the “A” division of the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia under the direction of longtime assistant coach John Gaskin (below), who was named director of rowing in June. (Photo: Athletics and Recreation)

sportsrowing (Photo: Athletics and Recreation)

Rochester’s first varsity eight won the “A” division race at 75th Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia this spring, defeating Marietta College and Emory University, while the second varsity eight won the “B” division by three one-hundredths of a second over Haverford College.

The wins moved the Yellowjackets into the national rankings by the end of the season, finishing in a tie for 14th place in the final national poll conducted by the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association and US Rowing.

“The women worked extremely hard this season, making steady progress each week as different parts of their race plan improved,” said coach John Gaskin, who along with assistant coach Nicole Felluca served as interim head coaches for the spring season. “This week everything came together to peak for this championship event.”

Gaskin, who has served as an assistant coach of the Rochester program since 2009, was named Rochester’s new director of rowing in June, succeeding William Greene. In addition to providing administrative oversight to men’s and women’s crews, Gaskin will serve as head coach of the women’s varsity team.

“John brings a wide range of experience to this position,” said George Vander-Zwaag, director of Athletics and Recreation. “First and foremost, his technical rowing knowledge is significant. Coupled with his successful coaching and business experience, he is uniquely qualified to lead our programs as director of rowing.”

The first varsity eight, which placed fifth in the state meet, consisted of Rhiannon Vaughn ’14, Monika Cepulis ’14, Serra Sevenler ’15, Emily Widra ’15, Allie Born ’15, Juliana Orlov ’15, Bella Clemente ’16, and Clare McMahon ’16. Julia Evans ’14 was coxswain.

The second varsity boat included Francesca Ossi ’13, Mary Willis ’15, Stacy Miller ’15, Kara Lambson ’15, Lindsay Willstatter ’16, Becky Chu ’16, Amanda Kierstead ’16, Katherine Peterson ’16, and coxswain Emma Pollock ’16.

Women’s rowing operated as a club sport for more than 20 years before competing as a varsity sport for the first time during the 2009–10 season. By moving to varsity status, the women’s team became eligible for the NCAA Division III rowing championships.

Dennis O’Donnell is director of athletic communications for the Department of Athletics and Recreation.﻿

HIGHLIGHTS

Rising Senior Wins Monroe Invitational

inrev_sportswrapSTANDOUT SEASONS: Nick Palladino ’14 capped off his junior season with two conference Golfer of the Year awards while Nina Korn ’14 became Rochester’s career leader in home runs (26) and RBIs (117). (Photo: Athletics and Recreation)

inrev_sportswrap (Photo: Athletics and Recreation)

Nick Palladino ’14 captured the championship of the 2013 Monroe Invitational in June, becoming the first Division III golfer to win the event in its 73-year history.

Palladino carded a final round 66 to tie for the lead at 4-under. He won a one-hole sudden death playoff over Motin Yeung of Duke University to earn medalist honors.

“This is a huge victory,” Palladino says. “I expected to play well, but I don’t know if I expected to win. I expected to put a few good rounds together, but to win it is definitely an unbelievable feeling.”

The postseason title tops a stellar career for the senior from Highland Heights, Ohio. He was also named the Golfer of the Year by Rochester’s two leagues—the University Athletic Association and the Liberty League.

Coach Dan Wesley says Palladino’s play demonstrates the enthusiasm with which he approaches the game.

“He enjoys every second that he’s out there playing,” says Wesley. “He’s good at the game because he loves it so much.”

In other highlights from this spring:

Baseball: The Yellowjackets finished the season with a 16–24 overall record, 10–16 in the Liberty League. Rochester posted wins over three NCAA-bound opponents: Case Western Reserve, Ithaca, and Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute. Outfielder Josh Ludwig ’15, outfielder Sam Slutsky ’14, and catcher Nolan Schultz ’16 all batted over .300 for the Yellowjackets, while pitcher Jon Menke ’13 posted a 3–2 record and a 2.37 ERA.

Lacrosse: Elisabeth Watson ’16 and Elizabeth Kilbridge ’15 earned All-Liberty League honors. The Yellowjackets finished 2–13, with two of the losses in overtime.

Softball: Rochester reached the finals of the Liberty League tournament before falling to RPI, finishing the season with a 23–19 record, including an 8–2 mark in the league. First baseman Nina Korn ’14 and outfielder Gena Bradford Tume ’13 hit 13 home runs apiece to set the single-season record. They tied for ninth place for most home runs in Division III this year. Korn hit .352 while driving in 41 runs, the third highest single season total in team history. She was named to the Eastern College Athletic Conference’s Upstate New York All-Star team as a member of the second team.

Men’s tennis: Rochester was 13–11 overall, eighth at the UAA meet. Boris Borovcanin ’14 and Julian Danko ’15 were 18–10 as a doubles team.

Women’s tennis: The Yellowjackets were 12–8 overall, seventh at UAAs. Frances Tseng ’13 and Janice Zhao ’14 won 17 singles matches apiece.

Men’s track and field: Jeff Hrebenach ’16 set a school record in a preliminary heat of the 100- meter dash at the ECAC Division III outdoor track and field championships before finishing in seventh place overall. Hrebenach joined Eugene O’Hanlon ’14, Max Sims ’15, and Anthony Paschke ’14 for the 4-by-100-meter relay that finished with a time of 42.56 seconds, just 0.23 seconds off eighth place in the event. The 4-by-800-meter team of Mintesinot Kassu ’16, Jeremy Hassett ’16, Andrew Keene ’14, and Mike Ricci ’14 earned ninth place with a time of 7:54.73.

Women’s track and field: Cameron Edwards ’16, the only freshman to qualify for the 400-meter hurdles at the Division III championships, finished in 20th place with a time of 1:04.24. Earlier in the season, Edwards was a part of two school records, breaking the school mark in the 100-meter hurdles and helping set the 4-by-400-meter record twice during the last two meets before the NCAAs. In the 400-meter hurdles, she posted the fastest time in Division III by a freshman in the event, placing her second in Rochester history with a top time of 1:02.62.

Forty Years Out

The closet isn’t empty, but it’s gotten a lot smaller, thanks in part to the pioneers in Rochester’s Gay Liberation Front.

By Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

emptycloset(DE)CLASSIFIED: “I was fired up,” says Larry Fine ’72, after coming out as gay at the end of his sophomore year. He submitted this classified ad, which appeared in the Campus Times on Friday, May 8, 1970. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation )

In the final days of the spring semester of 1970, sophomore Larry Fine ’72 placed a few coins in an envelope, along with a note, and dropped the envelope into a slot on the office door of the Campus Times.

The note, seven words long, appeared in the classifieds the following week: “TAKE HEART BROTHERS, Gay Lib is coming!”

It was the year after the Stonewall riots, which had begun on a night in June 1969, at a popular gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village, when patrons, long the target of police round-ups, decided to resist. The protest was a call to action, and within months, an organized gay rights movement was emerging nationally.

Much of the activity would take place on campuses. As Fine placed his cryptic note in the Campus Times, a graduate student in physics, Bob Osborn ’74 (PhD), was also planning to bring the gay liberation movement to Rochester.

A southerner, Osborn had worked across the Deep South as a white ally in support of the African-American freedom struggle. He brought his experience in political organizing to Rochester where, in the fall of 1970, he laid the groundwork for a meeting in Todd Union on Saturday evening, October 3, that would officially launch the University of Rochester's chapter of the Gay Liberation Front. Rochester would become the third campus in New York state, after Columbia and Cornell, to open a chapter of the national organization.

In the next several months, Osborn, Fine, and a small, committed core of students from the River Campus and the Eastman School successfully petitioned Student Activities for official recognition; established an office in Todd Union; set up a small library of books and other resources related to gay issues; created a speakers bureau, in which members offered themselves as educational ambassadors, speaking before classes and local organizations; and with the help of a typewriter, a mimeograph machine, and a hand stapler, created a newsletter called the Empty Closet.

By spring 1973, the group, known by then as GLF, would spawn a series of organizations in the community—the Gay Brotherhood, Gay Revolution of Women (later the Lesbian Resource Center), and others—which would unite under the umbrella of the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley.

This year, as the alliance celebrates its 40th birthday, it’s in the midst of a documentary project tracing its history and the history of the gay and lesbian community in Rochester and western New York. The project, called Shoulders to Stand On, has received funding from the New York State Archives as well as the Arts and Cultural Council of Greater Rochester.

emptyclosetOUT AND ONLINE: More than 400 past issues of the Empty Closet are available online at www.lib.rochester.edu/?page=emptycloset. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation )

More than 40 years after its inaugural issue, the Empty Closet is still in print, published by the alliance since the summer of 1973. It’s the oldest continuously published gay newspaper in New York and the second oldest in the nation after the Washington Blade, which moved to an all-digital format last year.

As part of the project, the Rush Rhees Library Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation worked with the alliance to digitize the paper. Since last fall, well over 400 issues have been made available on a searchable online archive at www.lib.rochester.edu/?page=emptycloset.

“The Empty Closet has been, and is, the primary source of LGBT history in Rochester,” says Evelyn Bailey, using the acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. Bailey, a long-time member of the alliance and the executive producer of the project, says that in the past several years, volunteers from the alliance have used the paper to identify and locate almost 100 people interviewed for the next phase of the project, a documentary film titled Shoulders to Stand On. The film will premiere in Rochester this fall as part of the annual Image Out gay and lesbian film festival.

Bailey calls the students who forged the University’s GLF “pioneers.”

“The fear that went along with being gay in those early days was extremely crippling,” she says.

And not only for gays and lesbians, but also for the larger community.

Bailey says that the GLF’s pioneers forged a culture of openness toward gays and lesbians that brought benefits to the region. Before their work began, the environment “did not allow people to be who they were and to express their talents, be able to impact their workplace or the political or economic arena to the degree that they do today.” Bailey notes that by a variety of indices, the Rochester metropolitan area ranks in the top 20 “most gay-friendly” cities in the nation.

There are many reasons for Rochester’s status—its high proportion of college graduates and major employers that have long had a financial interest in gay-friendly employment practices, for example. But no degree of friendliness would be measurable unless someone, or some group, at one point began to challenge traditional norms.

Larry Fine says he’s used to being interviewed, though not about gay issues.

“I’m used to being asked about pianos,” he says from his home office in Palm Springs, Calif.

For the past 35 years, Fine has been a piano technician and publisher of The Piano Book, a nearly 250-page guide to purchasing and maintaining pianos. But when asked about his work with the Gay Liberation Front, he pours forth with the story of his personal awakening in the spring of 1970.

He’d been participating that semester in a psychology experiment in which he played the part of patient as the professor, graduate student in tow, led Fine through a series of counseling sessions. The scenario, by itself, was not unusual—“it often happened when you were a sophomore, you got recruited into experiments,” he recalls—but for Fine, the experiment would have far-reaching effects. As the sessions wore on and the semester drew to a close, the professor asked him about one subject that had yet to come up in all the 20-year-old young man’s hours of personal revelations: sex.

“I told him, ‘I think I’m a homosexual.’ He had me say it again and again to get used to it. And he said, ‘You need to meet other gay people.’ ”

Days later, Fine met a gay senior named Jeff, who would change Fine’s life through a long conversation on a River Campus lawn. “All of a sudden I realized I was part of a larger world,” Fine says. Aside from a chance encounter or two in the weeks leading up to graduation, Fine never saw Jeff again after that day. But the conversation left a profound impression on Fine. “I was fired up,” he says. He placed the fortuitous note in the Campus Times. And in August, he strapped a pack on his back, and hitchhiked to San Francisco in search of the gay liberation movement.

It’s not surprising that young people like Fine could go about their daily lives unaware that there was a gay community in their midst.

“The community at that time was cliquish,” says Bailey. “You would have certain known gay men or gay women who had a circle of friends. They would gather fairly often for dinner parties, and they would invite people whom they knew would not out them.”

During his journey to the San Francisco Bay Area, Fine encountered a similar code of discretion. Verbal tips, handwritten notes, and pay telephone calls led him eventually to an abandoned warehouse.

“You had to knock a certain way, or say a certain thing when they answered the door so they knew you were OK,” Fine recalls. “Inside were young gay people who were involved in the GLF, and I found out from them other places to go.”

He spent a week in Berkeley, staying at a GLF crash pad for gay visitors and attending gay coffeehouses and other events. “I met a guy named Michael, who became my boyfriend for the next few months and who came back to Rochester with me—believe it or not.”

The Rochester GLF began with a simple announcement in a late September issue of the Campus Times: “UR Gay Liberation Front will hold an interest meeting. . . Open to all people who believe that realization of basic civil rights for all minority groups must come from organized effort.”

“It was Bob Osborn who started the group, not me,” says Fine. Osborn, who died in 2004, was the author of that announcement and organized and moderated the first several meetings of the group, which featured guest speakers and discussions on topics such as Military Service and the Homosexual, Homosexuals and the Law, Women’s Liberation, and Dialogue with the Church.

In those meetings and through the Empty Closet, Osborn, inspired by his activism in the South, would work to cast gay liberation as a natural outgrowth of the African-American civil rights movement.

He’d sat in the U.S. Senate gallery during the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Friends recall that he had marched from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery in the 1965 demonstration led by Martin Luther King Jr. to secure voting rights for African Americans who’d long been harassed and intimidated at the polls.

“For him, this was a continuation of the civil rights movement, and he spoke in those terms,” says Fine, who became fast friends with Osborn after the first GLF meeting.

In his mid-20s, Osborn was older and more overtly political than most of the group’s student members. Several students in the group, especially those coming to campus as freshmen undergraduates, were not even sure of their sexual identity, let alone how they believed it should be expressed in social and civic life.

Gary Clinton ’73 still remembers, word for word, the note that he read in the Campus Times at the end of his freshman year.

“It said, ‘Take heart, brothers. Gay lib is coming.’ I remember thinking, ‘This might be interesting.’ ”

That summer, at home on Long Island, Clinton continued to mull over that message. “I wasn’t sure what my sexuality was,” he says of himself as an 18-year-old freshman. “I knew I liked men. But I wasn’t sure what that meant in those days.”

When the GLF started in the fall, he was slow to take part. “I wasn’t much of a joiner then,” says Clinton, now the dean of students at the University of Pennsylvania’s law school.

emptyclosetEDUCATOR: Hagberg, a Suzuki piano instructor, spearheaded the speakers bureau, an educational tool founded at a time when many people “never had the opportunity to talk to gay people before.” (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Karen Hagberg ’76E (PhD), then a graduate student in musicology at the Eastman School, says, “I knew I was gay, somehow. But I’d never heard of anybody else who was. I mean, we really used to all think that we were the only ones in the world, no joke.”

Hagberg had come out to a few friends, such as Robert (R. J.) Alcala ’71E, an undergraduate studying oboe at the Eastman School, who was also gay. But she’d never publicly identified herself as gay. “It was exciting and scary to actually go into a room that was designated for a group of gay people,” she recalls of her first GLF meeting.

Like Hagberg, Patti Evans ’73 came out first to a couple of friends and had little familiarity with gay life in Rochester. When she approached a Todd music room on October 3, 1970, it was her second attempt to walk into an on-campus meeting of gay students.

“There was a planning meeting before that one,” she says. “It was up on the Hill, which was my dormitory. I hadn’t come out on campus. I was kind of nervous.” Intent on going, she approached the lounge where the meeting was to be held. She saw just three people. “There was a very flamboyant man,” she recalls, and two women seated close together. She kept on walking.

It was easier for Evans to approach the October meeting with confidence. “There were, like, 40 people at that meeting,” she says (The Campus Times would report an attendance of “approximately 100,” in its Dec. 13, 1970, issue). From that day forward, she became part of the small group of activists who shepherded the GLF through its early years.

She helped plan the group’s first dance, and more than 40 years later, she remembers vividly “the feeling I had at that dance.”

It inspired her to write a letter about it in the Campus Times as well as in the Empty Closet. In both places, she signed her name “Patricia Evers.”

Today she laughs about that decision. “It was kind of naive of me to think I could get away with that. It wasn’t that big of a campus.”

Though she concedes now that the robust attendance at the dance may well have been due to other factors than a chance to experience freedom from proscribed social norms—“we had a live band and free beer”—the experience was indicative of the reaction she says she continued to feel around campus. She feared disapproval. She didn’t get it. “I guess I was surprised. I guess I didn’t fit a stereotype.”

Hagberg, too, remained active in the GLF from that first meeting forward. She established the speakers bureau, in which members of the group would volunteer to appear before classes at the University, and at schools and other local organizations to talk about homosexuality, what it meant to be gay or lesbian, and the nature of the discrimination they faced and sought to eradicate.

“Some of us thought that if everybody would just come out, we wouldn’t have a problem,” says Hagberg. “And that was the impetus for forming the speakers bureau.”

GLF speakers appeared in several psychology classes. Hagberg recalls appearing before psychology professor Vincent Knowlis’s Sex and Gender Roles class toward the end of the fall 1970 semester. Knowlis held the class in his home. “I'm not sure why,” she says. “I’m not sure if he didn’t feel comfortable having it in his classroom.” Regardless, Hagberg says the experience was “really amazing, because people never had the opportunity to talk to gay people before.”

“There was certainly no backlash,” Fine recalls of the early days of the group. “I don’t know what people were talking about among themselves, but there wasn’t a lot of reaction. I think for the most part, people weren’t paying attention.”

The Campus Times, however, was giving prominent coverage to the GLF by the fall of 1971. A news article in October reported on the group’s upcoming one-year anniversary celebration, a series of events including a concert, dance, coffeehouse, and teach-in. Noting that “everyone is welcome,” the Campus Times reported, “Since last October, when Gay Liberation was still an uptight topic on campus, GLF has held four public dances at the university. Nobody knew, at first, exactly who would attend these supposedly far-out functions, but when the first dance was over, it was clear that people here are less hung-up than they might seem, or at least less hung-up than GLF members feared they would be.”

In December, the Campus Times ran a front-page feature on the group in which reporter Marc Rosenwasser ’74 cited GLF’s claims about deeply ingrained societal homophobia and its members’ political activities in response. The Rochester police had recently raided two popular gay bars, arresting three patrons as well as the owners of the bars—the patrons for loitering and the owners for “failing to display a license for dancing.” “Osborn charges that the raids were illegal and stated that countersuits were being filed along the grounds of false arrest,” Rosenwasser reported.

Meanwhile, the Empty Closet was fast becoming an effective tool for community building, both within and outside the University.

“When it first began at the University of Rochester, it was the means of communicating among university students and the greater Rochester community,” says Bailey. “As far as news about what was going on, it was the conduit.”

Osborn, Fine, Evans, a freshman named Marshall Goldman ’74, and others distributed the paper at Rochester’s gay and lesbian bars.

Its readership was—and is, Bailey stresses—much larger than the openly gay community.

“I think the paper represented the touchstone between the LGBT community that was closeted, and not closeted.” She tells about a man she met recently who reads the Empty Closet “every single month, cover to cover, front page, back page,” but won’t pick it up at a newsstand. “He’s gay. He’s not out. He won’t pick it up outside because he doesn’t want to be seen, identified with it. That’s his major source of information and connection to the community and to the people in the community. That has always been part of the real value of the Empty Closet.”

The first issues of the paper combined national and local news about the gay rights movement with listings of upcoming GLF events, poetry, short prose, opinion pieces, the “GLF Bookshelf,” and an advice column called “Dear Gale Gay.”

The paper also compiled a written record of harassment and discrimination in the city as well as on campus.

“I have made my activities in GLF and the fact that I am gay known to the denizens of my dorm, and got generally good to indifferent reactions,” wrote Goldman in the spring of 1971. But one day, he alleged, some residents trapped him and a male friend in Goldman’s dorm room by stuffing pennies in the lock, which the head resident came and removed. Later, freed from his room, Goldman lost his eyeglasses. He found them later in a Hoeing lounge, with an obscene rhyme attached that made reference to his homosexuality.

The “comment,” as Goldman called it, and those like it “won’t stop us from being ourselves and won’t push us back in our closets.”

In June of the same year, the paper reported allegations that the Eastman School dean of students was using her office to intimidate and penalize gay students. “This has resulted in a virtual reign of terror at the Eastman School, where gay students are extremely fearful of being open about themselves,” the report noted.

Inevitably, though, gay students would form relationships, and in some cases, live openly as couples. In his suite in Anderson Hall, for example, Fine shared his room with Michael. The room was a double, and Michael had moved in when Fine’s roommate didn’t return for the fall semester.

“At some point, I had to tell my suitemates who this guy was,” Fine says. “They were very, very good about it. One of the guys was actually on the sex education committee for the student government. The others were curious. And who knew? I took a chance. It was scary when I first broached the subject.”

By his senior year, Clinton would meet a freshman, Don Millinger ’76, who would become his life’s partner. The couple married in October 2011 in New York City, 39 years, virtually to the day, after they met.

They lived openly as a couple on the River Campus during the 1972–73 academic year. “By the end of my first semester, I basically moved myself into Gary’s dorm room in Helen Wood Hall from the Hill,” Millinger says.

emptyclosetMARRIED? “When I’m at work, I’m married; when I come home, I’m single,” says Millinger (left, above and opposite), who works in Manhattan and lives in Philadelphia with Clinton. The two met at Rochester in 1972 and married in 2011 in New York, which recognizes same-sex marriages. (Photo: Michael Perez/AP Images for Rochester Review)

While Clinton had been initially reticent about taking part in GLF activities, Millinger jumped right in. In his second semester at Rochester, he began participating in the speakers bureau, standing before his classmates in psychology classes, serving as “a real-live, honest-to-God, three-dimensional homosexual,” he says. “Things got around. People knew I was gay.”

“And then he was elected treasurer of the student government,” says Clinton.

As a national organization with chapters throughout the country, GLF was always intended to be a community-based group. University students, however, were prominent among the leaders in many communities, not least Rochester.

In December 1971, Osborn told the Campus Times that the group had a “floating membership” of about 200 people, out of whom 12 were University of Rochester students.

According to the recollections of Evans, Fine, and others whom alliance volunteers interviewed for the Shoulders to Stand On project, Student Activities grew concerned about whether the group could genuinely be considered a student organization.

Today, members disagree about whether the students in the GLF were singled out unfairly by Student Activities.

“It wasn’t a hostile thing,” says Evans. “It was a legitimate concern that they had. It was using activities funds and serving only a handful of students.”

Fine disagrees, calling the concern expressed by Student Activities “a red herring.” He recalls appearing before a student appropriations committee to argue the group’s case.

“I said, ‘Look. There’s a foreign film festival and most of the people coming to it are from the city. You’re giving money to this festival, so you really have no basis for complaint here.’ ”

Fine says the GLF prevailed. But by the spring of 1973, GLF members voted to form two autonomous organizations: an all-student University of Rochester GLF, led by undergraduate officers, located on the River Campus, and retaining recognition and funding from Student Activities; and an organization for people in the greater Rochester community.

“Through the assistance of the University and student body,” the Empty Closet reported, the group has grown “to the point that [non-students] are now able to leave the campus, and move into town. It is anticipated that both students and townspeople will find expanded participation because of more convenient locations and a more comfortable peer relationship.”

The group’s membership and financial resources would shrink drastically. But Clinton and Millinger, both of whom were among the individual signers of a letter from the GLF to the Campus Times announcing the April 1973 “emergency meeting” to discuss the future of the group, say that in retrospect, the reorganization may have been a good deal for students, particularly undergraduates like themselves.

“I went to a few meetings at the beginning, and I remember thinking, ‘Who are these people?’,” Clinton says. “They were older—which meant they might have been anything between 25 and 40—and I was used to student groups.”

“There were two separate kinds of priorities,” says Millinger. “Bob and the folks from town were looking at the social change aspect. On campus, students were figuring out, ‘I’m 19, 20 years old, I think I’m gay, I am gay, I may be gay, but what does that mean to me, and what does that mean on campus, and how secure can I be, and who can I talk to—all those kinds of things.” The reorganization of GLF into an all-student group, Millinger says, was “a good motivator to actually have a more significant student presence on campus.”

For the next several years, that goal proved elusive in practice. The GLF would never count more than a dozen members. Jay Stratton ’74 (MA), a graduate student in linguistics, kept a diary in which he chronicled the activities of the GLF through his eyes as a participant-observer. He donated a typed version of the diary to Rush Rhees Library last year.

From 1974 to 1980, he recorded car rides from the River Campus to the Gay Alliance meetings, a “gay table” in the dining hall, petition drives that proved disappointing, and dances that were sparsely attended.

The dances attracted spectators, according to Stratton, who eventually overwhelmed the dance floor. “It was rather funny in that most of the gay people had already left and they were gawking at others of their own kind,” he wrote.

But the group sustained itself as one among many student organizations. And the groups they spawned in the greater Rochester community sustained themselves too, with the help of tools and leaders shaped and developed in the GLF’s first years as a student organization.

Evans remained active in the alliance, advocating legal equality, and eventually becoming elected chairperson of the New York State Lesbian and Gay Lobby.

Hagberg participated increasingly in lesbian feminist activism, raising awareness of violence against women and of the ways in which sexism had infused the gay movement.

Evans, Hagberg, and Alcala went frequently on the local airwaves as part of the speakers bureau. And the bureau, Hagberg says, remains a key part of the work of the alliance today.

“We were making it up as we went along,” Fine says.

Occasionally, he’ll look back and find some of his writings “childish.”

“I can be quite critical. I was 21 years old. I’m 62 now.” But he’s also astonished at what they accomplished, and the meaning it had for people who looked at the pioneers with silent admiration.

“A lot of the effect of what we did was not measurable at the time,” says Fine.

He tells about a gathering he attended years after he’d left Rochester. “I encountered friends from my college days who, unbeknownst to me, had been struggling with their sexual orientation at the time, but who were not ready to come out. I was a hero to them. I was greeted as a hero.

And I was astounded. I had no idea.”

PRIDE NETWORK

Today’s Focus: Gender Identity

Since the Gay Liberation Front began on the River Campus in 1970, the University has maintained a student group dedicated to the interests and concerns of gays and lesbians. As the movement has progressed, students have followed in casting an even broader tent, embracing those who identify themselves as bisexual or transgender as well.

Today, the LGBT student group is called the Pride Network. Clint Cantwell ’15, a rising junior from Palmyra, N.Y., who is the group’s vice president and social chair, says that as of the end of the 2012–13 academic year, the network had just over 300 members, and about 20 whom he calls “active members.”

“For lesbians, gays, and bisexuals, a lot has happened in terms of rights and acceptance,” says Cantwell. While the GLF struggled in the 1970s to encourage gays and lesbians to come out of the closet and join the organization, the Pride Network has attracted a considerably larger population of LGBT students as well as plenty of straight allies.

And while the GLF had always counted a few quiet allies among faculty and administrators, today there are people in virtually every segment of the University who are openly part of the LGBT community.

But there’s some substantial work left to do, Cantwell says. “Transgender people are the biggest issue right now.”

They’re a small minority of the community. Cantwell, who identifies as gay, estimates that there are about 10 to 15 openly transgender students on campus, two or three of whom are active members of the group. But they’re the people who face the greatest difficulties and the most misunderstanding among their peers.

“It’s very difficult to get gender-neutral bathrooms,” he says, underscoring how something as simple as using a public restroom can be stressful and complicated for people who are transgender. Cantwell notes that the network helped bring about a gender-neutral bathroom outside Starbucks in Wilson Commons.

This fall, the group plans a series of events to help educate the community about the fluidity of gender identity and the variety of ways in which it’s expressed.

—Karen McCally

What Lies Beneath?

A 21st-century technology is bringing long-hidden elements of cultural history to the surface.

By Scott Hauser

Bianca Jackson was ready to give up on the “Three Men.” Now a postdoc- toral researcher at the Institute of Optics, she had analyzed seven sections of the fresco in the Louvre with nothing to show for her efforts but a growing sense that maybe the faded paint and plaster had no secrets to yield to her scanning technology after all.

As she worked across the painting, Jackson moved a carefully controlled beam of terahertz pulses across a postcard-sized section of the fresco and repeated a time-consuming cycle of recording the signal as it was reflected to her equipment. There, a computer program she wrote calculated the maximum amplitude of each returning pulse, adjusted the noise-to-signal ratio, and presented a pixel-by-pixel string of data across her laptop screen.

“I was ready to give up because we weren’t really seeing anything, and you have to keep doing the same thing to each section,” Jackson says from her office in Goergen Hall. “If the layers are very thin and very close, what you’re looking for is very hard to identify. I think I was on the eighth one when we started to see something.”

terahertzFACE TIME: Jackson’s research indicated that an outline of a face lay underneath the surface of a fresco at the Louvre that was suspected to be a forged example of a Roman-era work. (Photo: Dominique Martos-Levif and Bianca Jackson (Terahertz Scan); C2RMF (Fresco))

That “something” made international news this spring when Jackson reported the results at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting. She and her colleagues reported that below the surface of the left hip of one of the Romanesque men in the fresco, “Trois hommes armes de lances” (“Three Men with Lances”), the signals indicated the outline of what appeared to be a face. At a depth of a fraction of a millimeter, the equipment picked up a noticeable difference, a change in contrast, between the fresco’s plaster and another material that formed the outline of what seemed to be a separate, older work of art.

Was it possible that someone had painted over an original Roman-era work of art?

“We could not believe our eyes as the image evolved on the screen,” Jackson says. “We were seeing what likely was part of an ancient Roman fresco, thousands of years old.”

Using new technology to peer—at least metaphorically—into layers of cultural, archaeological, and artistic history has become something of a specialty for Jackson. A leading researcher on the use of terahertz imaging to examine historical artifacts and paintings, she has traveled the world during the past half decade, honing the application of the technology as a potential research tool for archaeologists, historians, art conservators, and curators.

In addition to the Louvre, she has undertaken research at Çatalhöyük, Turkey, a 9,000-year-old U.N. World Heritage site that’s considered the oldest example of a Neolithic-era human settlement; she’s scanned for decorative motifs that were painted over at an 800-year-old medieval cathedral in Riga, Latvia, and scanned Orthodox icons in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; she’s climbed to the top of Chartres Cathedral in France for a project; and she’s demonstrated the technology’s possibilities by scanning Egyptian bird mummies at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.

Gerard Mourou, a former faculty member at the Institute of Optics who is now a professor of physics and the director of the International Center for Zetta-Exawatt Science and Technology at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, says Jackson was one of the first researchers to demonstrate that terahertz technology could be used to identify “undercover” art—images that have been covered over by layers of paint, plaster, and other materials.

“She won’t tell you this, but she really is a pioneer,” Mourou says. “Bianca introduced a new electromagnetic frequency band to the archaeologists’ panoply. She’s made seminal contributions to the field.”

While terahertz technology is probably best known for its potential use in some scanning machines in airport security lines, the field has been undergoing a scientific renaissance since the 1980s. Historically considered something of a “gap” when it came to understanding the electromagnetic spectrum, the terahertz band lies between frequencies that can be readily measured electronically with antennas or optically with detectors. Falling between microwaves, like those used in the common kitchen appliances, and the infrared light used in TV remote controls, the terahertz frequency region is invisible to humans.

And like all physical phenomena that are part of a spectrum, terahertz radiation not only shares properties of nearby frequencies but also has properties that set it apart. That’s tantalizing for researchers hoping to capitalize on its potential.

On the plus side, terahertz frequencies are relatively weak as far as electromagnetic radiation goes. Unlike x-rays or ultraviolet radiation, terahertz waves don’t “energize” the electrons of the molecules that absorb them. That means those electrons don’t change their state, altering the underlying atomic structure in the way that living tissue can be affected by x-ray radiation or a work of art will change color if left exposed to the sun. Also in the plus column, terahertz waves travel deeply into dense material, transmitting especially well in materials that contain little moisture.

On the minus side, while terahertz waves propagate, their higher frequencies are easily absorbed by water and other molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, meaning that unlike microwaves or radio waves, they can’t travel far in the open air. And because terahertz radiation has relatively large wavelengths—on the order of 300 to 1,000 times larger than infrared and ultraviolet—the level of detail at which terahertz images can be resolved is more limited than that of other imaging technology.

terahertzSCIENTIFIC IMAGE: “I like the idea of a gentle form of science, of a gentle form of imaging,” Jackson says of using terahertz technology to analyze cultural and historical artifacts. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Xi-Cheng Zhang, the director of the Institute of Optics who is considered one of the leading experts in understanding the terahertz band, recognizes the trade-offs, but he says the technology has proven itself in several applications beyond imaging, particularly for quality control, nondestructive testing, and other manufacturing processes.

“I like to talk about terahertz technology as a complementary method to x-ray and infrared spectroscopy,” says Zhang, the M. Parker Givens Professor of Optics. “There are certain materials for which terahertz wave technology does a better job than x-ray or infrared. For example, for low-contrast materials, such as low-density foam, terahertz wave technology has been demonstrated as having a better contrast ratio than x-ray images; on the other hand, for infrared imaging of some optical opaque materials, such as paper, plastics, or cloth, terahertz penetration capability is better. That’s why now many airports use sub-terahertz wave imaging, and why we continue to push the frequency to the terahertz range.”

Working with terahertz pioneer David Auston and others at Columbia University in the late 1980s, Zhang was among the first to demonstrate that terahertz signals could be consistently generated and measured using semiconducting materials and lasers. In 2012, he brought his internationally regarded program to Rochester when he moved to the Institute of Optics after a 20-year career at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was director of the Center for Terahertz Imaging, acting head of physics, applied physics, and astronomy, and the Erik Josson Professor of Science.

He and his group are currently leading work to explore whether terahertz technology can be harnessed for remote sensing and long-distance communications. Zhang invited Jackson to spend a year working at Rochester after learning about her work with terahertz imaging on several cultural heritage projects. He considers her work as part of a larger effort to build strength in terahertz at Rochester.

In many ways Zhang’s initiative taps into a larger history of leadership in terahertz research at Rochester. As a scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics in the 1970s, Mourou led a team that reported the first work in producing and detecting terahertz pulses. In 1988, he moved to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where one of his former students, Steve Williamson ’82, would later found Picometrix, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of terahertz equipment. The company’s key principals also include Irl Duling ’85 (PhD) and Janis Valdmanis ’84 (PhD). In 2005, Picometrix was purchased by Advanced Photonix Inc., a public company.

At Michigan, Mourou first met Jackson, whose PhD advisor was John Whitaker ’88 (PhD), a scientist at Michigan’s Center for Ultrafast Optical Science. Whitaker himself had worked on applications of terahertz radiation in electrical transmission lines as a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering at Rochester.

“It’s like a circle almost,” Jackson says of the connections between Rochester, Michigan, and terahertz research.

In the mid-2000s, Mourou had returned from a conference at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he had heard the latest research on using infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, and other frequencies to image art work and historical objects, and he had an idea: could pulsed terahertz waves be used for imaging cultural artifacts? He turned to Whitaker, who had been advising Jackson on terahertz-based work to examine the ceramic coatings of jet engine turbine blades.

“We were basically looking for defects in the coatings on the blades,” says Whitaker.

He suggested to Jackson that she undertake the research on artwork. To do that, Jackson and Mourou’s daughter established a mini-art studio in the Michigan lab, using historically accurate painting materials and compounds to draw and paint images, such as butterflies, and then cover part of each work with different kinds of plaster, including gypsum, the mineral in modern drywall that’s also found in the plaster at the Neolithic site in Turkey.

“Visibly, you would see half of a sketch, and then white plaster,” Whitaker says. But with the terahertz equipment, it was possible to “see” more. “Even though it was under the plaster, you could still see the image of the butterfly.”

Says Jackson: “We would have a 4- or 5-millimeter thick piece of plaster, and we could see the paint patterns behind it.”

The findings were promising for imaging, Whitaker says, but they also demonstrated that pulsed terahertz waves could be used for spectroscopy, or analyzing the molecular make-up of materials by the frequency at which they reflect electromagnetic radiation. By “tuning” the frequencies at which the pulses were emitted, Jackson could examine the makeup of individual compounds under the plaster, the “nitty-gritty spectroscopy of plaster and pigment.”

“One of the beauties of using terahertz pulsed imaging to look at art is that you’re not only doing imaging, but you’re also doing spectroscopy at the same time,” Whitaker says.

Understanding the relationships among fre- quencies and the contrasting properties of different types of materials when they absorb radiation is a key area of research, Jackson says.

“When you see something, you’re not really seeing the ‘thing,’” she says of one of the tenets of imaging science. “You’re seeing the difference between the ‘thing’ and what’s around it. If you have two materials that are very similar and neither of them is particularly absorbing, it’s going to seem like the ‘thing’ is invisible or transparent. You may see edges, but you won’t really see the whole object.”

For example, with x-rays, materials like plastics and polymers are difficult to detect because the materials do not absorb much of the radiation. In other words, the atomic density of plastic is closer to air than it is to something more substantial like bones, brick, or metal, allowing the radiation to pass through it.

“With terahertz, the structure of the material—the specific atoms that make up the material—aren’t as significant,” says Jackson. “So you can have carbon-based materials or organic materials that are very visible with terahertz because there’s still some absorption, there’s still some contrast between that material and the air around it.”

To analyze paintings, the molecular composition of some pigment compounds traditionally used by artists, such as red iron oxide, aka “red ochre,” have very low contrast when it comes to imaging. On the other hand, a fundamentally similar one, like iron oxide hydroxide, aka “yellow ochre,” might be identified well.

“So red ochre, no; yellow ochre, yes,” says Jackson. “That’s the kind of information I started picking up from my early experiments.”

terahertzTEACHER: As part of her work, Jackson teaches in a terahertz lab, where Jing Zhang, a visiting PhD student from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (pointing), and Rochester optics PhD students Xuan (Betty) Sun (left) and Fabrizio Buccheri conduct research. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

An early idea to scan the Mona Lisa, for example, eventually failed to come to fruition after Jackson found that if Leonardo DaVinci used red ochre, as was traditional for him and other artists of his era, indications of drawings underneath the surface paint would be nearly impossible for her to pinpoint.

After graduating from Michigan, Jackson began working in the field, where she discovered that, because most art exists in a world of clumps, splotches, and uneven surfaces, much of her work requires fine-tuning computer algorithms to adjust for such variables, a programming challenge that she takes on herself.

“Terahertz works well for layered artifacts, like old wall paintings, because it can scan at different depths,” Jackson says. “As work is painted or plastered over, each new addition adds a layer. Sometimes the previous work was erased, but sometimes it was simply plastered over. At sites like Çatalhöyük, that means centuries of plaster.”

That requires developing new algorithms to account for the layering, which colleagues reported with Jackson this spring in the journal Optics Express.

From academic positions in France and elsewhere, Jackson has become a go-to person in the world of terahertz applications in cultural heritage. For the “Three Men” project, curators from the Louvre had turned to her and her team to evaluate the fresco—part of the Louvre’s collection of pieces that once belonged to 19th-century collector Giampietro Campana—because they knew it was not an authentic Roman-era work. Art historians have long known that Campana was not above “restoring” pieces in his collection because he thought it important to save historical work such as frescoes.

Working with a portable system made by Picometrix, Jackson was able to conduct her work within the Louvre, something that she sees as an important benefit to terahertz imaging. With other scanning technologies, like x-rays or computer tomography (CT) scans, artwork has to be taken to the equipment, usually requiring transportation to a hospital setting. That can make curators and conservators uneasy about letting researchers examine artifacts that are often priceless and one-of-a-kind, and sometimes too large to move.

Jack Green, chief curator at the Oriental Institute Museum, says that conservators have long been interested in being able to “dissect objects digitally,” especially for artifacts like mummies, which cannot be opened without destroying them. The Oriental Institute invited Jackson to scan a 2,000-year-old Egyptian bird mummy as part of a larger research project on the institute’s collection of Egyptian artifacts. While the fragile mummies had to be transported to the University of Chicago’s hospitals to undergo CT scanning, Jackson conducted her work in the institute’s conservation lab. Jackson contributed a chapter to the catalog for the exhibition, Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt, on display at the Oriental Institute through July 28.

The results were not as detailed as the CT scanning, but Green says experimenting with new technologies is important to understanding cultural history. Jackson and the exhibition’s guest curator, Rozenn Bailleul-LeSeur, plan to conduct a more detailed comparison of the CT scanning and terahertz imaging that was done on the bird mummy. “Obviously, we favor nondestructive testing,” Green says. “And a tool like this can be incredibly useful if you’re able to reveal information about the object layer by layer.”

Gillian Walker, a researcher at the School of Systems Engineering at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom and a frequent collaborator with Jackson, says the noninvasive nature of terahertz imaging is one of its most compelling features. One of her first projects was trying to develop a way to detect skin cancer using terahertz imaging. “The mathematical problem is exactly the same as detecting layers of paint in plaster,” Walker says.

And although she’s intrigued by the opportunity to help conservators and archaeologists gain new insights into cultural history, “how that enhances the study of cultural history and archaeology is up to the archaeologists to decide,” she says. “But it is where the impact of my work is, so it is important to work with good experts who are open and able to interpret the data I provide.”

Whitaker says he expects terahertz data will become increasingly prevalent, particularly in areas such as biomedical imaging, the pharmaceutical industry, and in materials testing and quality control. Two challenges to address, he notes, include enhancing the power that terahertz systems can produce and improving the signal processing of the systems.

“Improving the signal-to-noise ratio is crucial,” Whitaker says, noting “that’s also something that will improve the resolution of the images over time.”

Jackson says she’s up for the challenge, excited by the chance to demonstrate the applicability of science and research to a problem that improves other people’s lives. When people ask about her work, “I always say ‘I do terahertz.’ I think it’s great technology.”

“I’ve always been interested in science and cultural history,” says Jackson, who describes her father as a “techie person” who taught her how to program using the BASIC computer language when she was in elementary school. Her mother is an artist who made her living as an art history teacher and who often had her students try to reproduce artifacts as a way of understanding art.

“So it worked out that I was able to use both sides of my brain growing up,” Jackson says.

“But as a scientist, I’m interested in being innocuous, but also being helpful and useful. I like the idea of a gentle form of science, of a gentle form of imaging. After 9/11, I think the interest in using the technology in providing a service and in making people safer gave me more incentive.”

In 2014, she begins a Marie Curie Fellowship IntraEuropean, a program of the European Commission to support the work and geographic mobility of young investigators. She will be based at the University of Reading.

At Reading, Walker has finished scanning St. Thomas’s Church in Salisbury with the French team, and has scheduled work to scan a contemporary work of art and a church in France this summer. Jackson will inherit the data about the Salisbury Church.

“I tend to think of myself as being more aligned with terahertz and being a promoter of terahertz,” says Jackson. “But I like having fun. I like art. I like traveling. But that’s mostly secondary to someone who wants to promote terahertz.”

Shelf Life

Looking for something to read—or listen to—this summer?

celebration (Photo: Adam Fenster)

The wide range of scholarship, musical performance, and other creative work produced by Rochester faculty and staff received a celebratory round of applause this spring, as Provost Peter Lennie hosted the University’s “Celebration of the ‘Book.’ ”

The annual event recognizes authors and performers who published an academic, artistic, musical, commercial, or other work in the 2012–13 year. With the increasing influence of digital technology, the celebration has expanded to include materials that don’t always fall under the rubric of “book”—hence the quotation marks in the title.

If you’re looking for something to read or listen to this summer, we’ve put together a small library of suggestions. You can find a more complete list here: www.rochester.edu/news/photos/2013-celebration-of-the-book.

The Challenge of Congressional Representation

Harvard University

Richard Fenno, professor emeritus of political science, adds a chapter to his six-decade-long career of chronicling the lives of elected representatives. In his latest book, based on research conducted over four decades, he portrays one current and four former members of Congress, from across the nation and the ideological spectrum.

Stravinsky: Octet and L’Histoire du Soldat

Avie Records

Under the direction of Mark Scatterday ’89E (DMA), professor of conducting, and with narration by Jan Opalach, assistant professor of voice, the Eastman Wind Ensemble and the Eastman Virtuosi celebrate the 60th anniversary of the wind ensemble. The two neoclassical works demonstrate the range of the group and its ability to include many different sounds, says Scatterday.

What’s That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and Its History

W. W. Norton

In the third edition of the history textbook, John Covach, the Mercer Brugler Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Andrew Flory, assistant professor of music at Carleton College, set out to organize the rock ’n’ roll repertoire—“an enormous body of music that covers over fifty years of popular music history—to make it easier to understand and appreciate.”

Mercy! A Celebration of Fenway Park’s Centennial Told through Red Sox Radio and TV

Potomac Books

A speechwriter turned senior lecturer in English, Curt Smith celebrates the “mikemen” who tried to capture the spirit of the Boston Red Sox, their fans, and their historic baseball park.

Franz Schubert’s Winterreise

Recorded at Kilbourn Hall

Tenor Robert Swenson, professor of voice, and pianist Russell Miller, professor of vocal coaching and repertoire, present Schubert’s 1827 song cycle. “It is a dark journey, of course, at times wistful, hopeful, and despairing, but ultimately accepting of life on life’s terms,” says Swenson.

The Power of Patient Stories: Learning Moments in Medicine

Self-published

Trustee Paul Griner ’59M (MD), ’65M (Res), professor emeritus of medicine at Rochester and a former senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School, tells the stories of more than 50 patients whom he encountered as an internist and hematologist, and who “provided a learning moment for me.”

Derek Bermel: Canzonas Americanas

Canteloupe Music

The Eastman-born ensemble Alarm Will Sound, whose stage director is Nigel Maister of the International Theatre Program, “draws together all of [Bermel’s] works for Alarm Will Sound’s sinfonietta instrumentation,” according to ensemble conductor Alan Pierson ’06E (DMA).

Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History

Oxford University

Bernstein Professor Aaron Hughes explores the term “Abrahamic religions,” and his interest “in analyzing where the term came from and why we still insist on employing it.”

The Memorial Art Gallery: 100 Years

Memorial Art Gallery

Curatorial and library staff members Lu Harper, Kerry Schauber, and Marjorie Searl trace the timeline of an institution that was established, in the words of founding patron Emily Sibley Watson, for “the edification and enjoyment of the citizens of Rochester.”

The Quest for Health Reform: A Satirical History

American Public Health Association

Phelps Professor Ted Brown; Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association; Susan Ladwig ’03, ’07M (MPH) of the Medical Center; and researcher Elyse Berman bring “together two American traditions—editorial cartooning as a medium for trenchant contemporary commentary and the long-standing effort to achieve universal national health reform.”

The Deerslayer, by James Fenimore Cooper

Belknap Press of Harvard University

English professor Ezra Tawil edits and introduces a new edition of Cooper’s final installment of the “Leatherstocking” series. Although the last to be written, the novel takes place before the four other tales, emerging “as a crucial work in the series, rather than an afterthought in a procession of sequels and prequels.”

Reminiscences: A Journey through Particle Physics

World Scientific

Professor Adrian Melissinos recounts a career in which “the dominant recollection is the enthusiasm and joy of doing physics, shared with many a distinguished colleague and with the many gifted postdocs and graduate students who made the whole enterprise possible.”

A Herzen Reader

Northwestern University

Kathleen Parthé, professor of Russian and director of the Russian studies program, adds to the narrative of the influential Russian thinker whose political writing and personal correspondence has previously been largely unavailable in English.

From Afar

Albany Records

For the title track, Nicholas Goluses, professor of guitar, records the first solo guitar version of a composition by former Eastman faculty member and Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Schwanter.

American Anthem: The Music of Samuel Barber and Howard Hanson

Sono Luminos

The Ying Quartet—cellist David Ying ’92E (Mas), violinist Janet Ying ’92E, violist Phillip Ying ’92E (Mas), and violinist Ayano Ninmiya—explore “what makes ‘American music’ . . . ‘American’ ” in a recording of major works by Howard Hanson, whose 40-year leadership established the Eastman School, and major works of Hanson’s contemporary, Samuel Barber.

Beyond the Asterisk: Understanding Native Students in Higher Education

Stylus

Editors Heather Shotton, an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma; Shelly Lowe, the executive director of Harvard University’s Native American program; and Stephanie Waterman, assistant professor at the Warner School, bring together scholars to address why, “while enrollment of Native Americans in postsecondary institutions has increased, Native Americans remain grossly underrepresented in postsecondary education.” According to some estimates, Native Americans make up only about 1 percent of the nation’s college student population.

The Long View of a Fast-Striking Disease

Andrew Artenstein ’81 tells the story of scientists’ two-century battle against bacterial meningitis.

By Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

artensteinSTUTTERING SCIENCE: Breakthroughs in medical science are part of a “stuttering process” that includes small advances and setbacks, often over the course of hundreds of years, says Artenstein, an infectious diseases specialist and medical historian. (Photo: Bizuayehu Tesfaye/AP Images for Rochester Review)

Bacterial meningitis—a disease that strikes without warning and can kill within hours—ranks among the most feared of the infectious diseases that can strike humans. Its risk factors include some of the most mundane circumstances and activities—living in a college dormitory or attending summer camp—and some of the most exalted, such as undertaking the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca made by more than 2 million Muslims each year.

Andrew Artenstein ’81, an infectious diseases specialist and chair of the department of medicine at the Tufts University–affiliated Baystate Health, has long had an interest in the disease. He’s the son of the late Malcolm Artenstein, an infectious diseases expert who helped develop the vaccine for one form of bacterial meningitis, meningococcal meningitis, at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the 1960s.

“It was a very exciting time,” Artenstein recalls. “I was young, but I remember it vividly. It seemed that everything was out there to be discovered and to be solved.”

In a book released last fall, Artenstein tells the story of the disease and efforts to control it, from the very first descriptions of the malady in the early 19th century to the present. Steven Opal, an infectious diseases specialist at Brown University, where Artenstein served for 10 years before joining Baystate Health, praises the scope of the book, which places the work of scientists against bacterial meningitis within the broader context of the development of microbiology and immunology. “It’s a ‘must-read’ for medical history buffs,” he says.

Though bacterial meningitis has always been uncommon, the stakes for preventing it are enormous given how often, and how quickly, it turns deadly. Artenstein begins the book—aptly titled In the Blink of an Eye: The Deadly Story of Epidemic Meningitis (Springer)—with the story of Michael Gomes, a high school sophomore in New Bedford, Mass., who awoke one spring morning with a severe headache and neck pain.

What followed is a textbook example of the progression of bacterial meningitis. Gomes took Advil and went out for a game of pick-up basketball. But the Advil did little to alleviate his pain. During the game, he began to feel cold. On the walk home, he developed nausea, and vomited on the sidewalk. At home, he closed his shades (meningitis can make victims highly sensitive to light) and went to sleep.

When Gomes’s mother came home late in the afternoon, she found him difficult to rouse. When he arrived at the emergency room, he was losing consciousness.

Doctors performed a spinal tap and found the fluid surrounding Gomes’s spine—which would normally be clear—to be a cloudy white. “Michael had pyogenic meningitis, a bacterial infection that affects the tissues—the meninges—that cover the brain and spinal cord in the central nervous system,” Artenstein writes. “Despite the best efforts of modern medicine and powerful treatments that were brought to bear in the case of Michael Gomes, he died within 24 hours. A healthy, 16-year-old boy playing basketball with friends one day, gone the next—in the blink of an eye.”

Why does bacterial meningitis strike one healthy young adult and not another? The reason lies in characteristics of both the bacterial organism and the human host. “Most of the time,” Artenstein writes, “whether the human host or the bacteria gain the upper hand in their struggle for dominance is a matter of luck and timing.”

The tragic story of Michael Gomes shows bacterial meningitis in its episodic form, which kills many thousands of individuals every year around the globe. But the disease also has an epidemic form, in which it can spread rapidly, having the potential to kill in much higher numbers.

From the early 19th century onward, outbreaks have occurred often among troops housed in barracks. It’s no accident that the first successful meningitis vaccine was developed at a military medical facility.

“The military is a microcosm for addressing infectious diseases,” Artenstein says. “It puts people in new habitats. It crowds people together. And the whole mission of military medicine is preserving the force, so prevention, the key to attacking infectious diseases, has always been huge.”

After graduating from medical school at Tufts, Artenstein followed his father’s path and became an Army doctor and researcher at Walter Reed. He spent 10 years there, treating military personnel and their families around the world.

Artenstein says that while the vaccine developed by his father’s team in the 1960s made huge strides in preventing outbreaks of meningitis, it was not effective in preventing all strains of the disease.

“Science is a stuttering process,” he says. “You make incremental advances, you go back a few steps, then finally there’s some big breakthrough and the whole field moves in a certain direction.”

Since the breakthrough of the late 1960s, the quest to eradicate bacterial meningitis has continued to make incremental advances, especially in the so-called “meningitis belt” in sub-Saharan Africa.

Forty-plus years may seem like a long time, but Artenstein takes a long view. “I’m a student of history as well as a practitioner in the present,” he says. The battle against bacterial meningitis has taken place “only over a couple hundred years. In the scheme of things, that’s a really short time frame.”

The Business of Books

Literary agent Meredith Goodman Bernstein ’68 reflects on reading, writing, and publishing in the digital age.

Interview by Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

bernsteinSTILL IN PRINT: In her fourth decade in the business, literary agent Bernstein says digital formats have made more titles available than ever before. But the decline of print and bookstores, she adds, could make it less likely many readers will discover them. (Photo: Shannon Taggart for Rochester Review)

Meredith Goodman Bernstein ’68 remembers her first job in the business of books and literature. A clerical assistant for a literary agent in New York City, she was on the job just three months before she landed a client, and made a successful pitch, all on her own.

In 1981, she opened her own agency, the Meredith Bernstein Literary Agency. From her office on Broadway, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan (www. meredithbernsteinliteraryagency.com), she’s discovered and nurtured authors who are now well-recognized and widely acclaimed.

Leisure Reading: 10 Picks

As a literary agent, Bernstein reads all the time for work. Does she have time to read for enjoyment when the workday is over?

“I do,” she says. “It’s hard, but I do. It’s really something I always loved to do, and I don’t want to lose that pleasure just because I have so much I have to read for work.”

Bernstein says she reads books that come recommended by others, or books that she reads about and thinks might be intriguing. She also belongs to a book club—a group she joined on a friend’s recommendation that employs a professional facilitator and has been meeting since 1997.

She offers a few of her favorite titles.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (Vintage International, 2001)

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Penguin, 2008)

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (Doubleday, 1971; Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics, 2000)

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (Random House, 2011)

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Crown, 2012)

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed (Vintage, 2012)

Defending Jacob by William Landay (Delacorte, 2012)

Swamplandia by Karen Russell (Vintage, 2011)

Tenth of December by George Saunders (Random House, 2013)

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers (Back Bay Books, 2013)

They include P. C. Cast and her daughter, Kristin Cast, coauthors of the House of Night series of New York Times best-selling teen vampire novels; crime novelist Nancy Pickard; best-selling romance writer Sharon Sala; and others in the fiction, thriller, mystery, and romance genres, as well as in nonfiction.

She says she’s always on the lookout for new talent, and since 1986, has endowed the Meredith Goodman Bernstein Prize, awarded annually by the English department to an undergraduate for the best piece of writing in fiction, poetry, or nonfiction. Among the past winners is Benjamin Anastas ’91, who later published two novels and most recently, a memoir, Too Good to Be True (Houghton Mifflin).

In her 30-plus years in business, Bernstein has witnessed stark changes in reading and book-buying habits, popular tastes, and in publishers’ means of producing and distributing titles. In fact, the printed book—once the definitive product of the joint efforts of authors, agents, editors, and publishers—is today merely one “format.”

These changes don’t spell the demise of book publishing, Bernstein says, but rather, “only book publishing in the format we’ve been familiar with.”

Should we lament the decline of print publishing?

My personal feeling is that I’m very sad about the demise of book publishing as it was, because I think what bookstores have offered is discoverability. You can walk into a bookstore, and even if no one told you to look at this shelf or that shelf, or this book table or that book table, your eye has drawn you there. When you go to a website and search for things that you think you’re looking for, even if Amazon, for example, makes recommendations for you based on your previous searches, the issue is, how are you going to be aware of titles you might see by walking into a brick and mortar store?

But a lot of people don’t feel this way. A lot of people feel that there’s more product than ever, more choice than ever, and that’s probably true.

Has the rise of self-publishing had any notable impact on literary agents? Have you personally experienced any impact?

It’s having a big impact. As agents, we’re going to have to decide what we can do for clients. Will we be doing more in terms of shaping marketing plans? Will we be doing more editorial work? Not that we haven’t been involved in some aspects of that all along, but will we have to be more active?

And what happens when existing clients of mine decide they want to self-publish? If I’m helping them get published, then it’s perfectly reasonable for me to get a commission, but if I’m not, should I get a commission or not? And the argument among many agents is, “I’ve built your reputation for the most part. I got you published for the first time. And I’ve been nurturing your career all this time.”

Why should writers with a book manuscript still seek out an agent?

For many reasons. First, the literary agent is going to make the match. You know all the editors who would possibly like the material. You have personal relationships with them. Then, after you find hopefully more than one person who wants to buy the book, it’s your job to be the negotiator and to figure out what’s the best possible contract you can get for your client. After that, your job is to follow up on all of the details that go into making sure the book is published properly, making sure it’s sold to the foreign rights markets, making sure if it warrants film or television exposure that it gets that. Not to mention chasing down the money, making sure your client gets paid, and keeping track of their payments. It’s a lot of detail work.

It’s often said the fiction market is in decline. Do you agree?

No, there’s nothing wrong with the fiction market. The fiction market is perfectly fine. People do ask me, “Well, what are the trends?” And my answer is, “Look at a best-seller list and that will tell you what kinds of fiction people are being drawn to.”

The young adult market has been very hot ever since J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Harry Potter really created, I think, the craze for great young adult fiction. And book clubs have played a role—most notably Oprah’s Book Club, which was very, very significant. Oprah pretty much created best-sellers with every book she selected. She had a committee to make recommendations, and she would read and select titles from among those. And when I go to writers’ conferences, I tell people I’m looking for “Oprah-esque fiction,” which is fiction with fabulous characters, written by a wonderful storyteller, with an intriguing voice. These are the things that make great fiction.

COMMENCEMENT

Honorees & Guests

Rochester alumni, faculty, and friends were recognized for their achievement and service during commencement ceremonies this spring.

Arts, Sciences & Engineering

Miguel Alonso ’96 (PhD)

Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

An associate professor of optics at Rochester, Alonso joined the faculty in 2003.

Steven Chu ’70

Eastman Medal

A 1997 Nobel laureate in physics and this spring’s commencement keynote speaker, Chu served as secretary of energy from 2009 until last April. Chu received an honorary degree in 1998.

Harold and Joan Feinbloom

George Eastman Medal

Longtime civic leaders and philanthropists in Rochester, the Feinblooms are widely recognized for their support of the arts, education, and community health. They have served in several leadership positions at the Memorial Art Gallery and the Medical Center.

Rev. James Alexander Forbes Jr.

Doctor of Divinity (Honorary)

The Harry Emerson Fosdick Distinguished Professor of Homiletics at Union Theological Seminary, Forbes was the first African American to serve as minister of the Riverside Church in New York City.

Susan Hockfield ’73

Doctor of Science (Honorary)

The Marie Curie Visiting Professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Hockfield served from 2004 to 2012 as the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was the first woman and first life scientist to lead MIT.

Dahpon Ho

G. Graydon Curtis ’58 and Jane W. Curtis Award for Nontenured Faculty Teaching Excellence

A specialist in East Asian history, Ho joined the faculty in 2010 as an assistant professor of history.

Norman Leenhouts ’56

Charles Force Hutchison and Marjorie Smith Hutchison Medal

Leenhouts is director and chief investment officer of the family-owned Broadstone Real Estate Inc. Along with his twin brother, Nelson ’56, Leenhouts founded what is now Home Properties Inc. He is a life trustee of the University.

Jie Zhang

Doctor of Science (Honorary)

Zhang has served as president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University since 2006, when he became the youngest person to lead the Chinese university since 1949. A physicist, he previously held several positions in the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Doctoral Ceremony

Govind Agrawal

William H. Riker University Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching

A professor of optics and of physics and astronomy, Agrawal has been a member of the faculty for nearly 25 years. He is also a senior scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics.

John Aldrich ’75 (PhD)

Distinguished Scholar Medal

A leading scholar of American political behavior and institutions who’s widely known for his book Why Parties?, Aldrich is the Pfizer-Pratt University Professor at Duke University.

Richard Aslin

Lifetime Achievement Award in Graduate Education

The William Kenan Jr. Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Aslin directs the Rochester Center for Brain Imaging. He is also a member of the Center for Visual Science.

School of Medicine and Dentistry

Edward Miller ’68M (MD)

Charles Force Hutchison and Marjorie Smith Hutchison Medal

Arriving at Johns Hopkins in 1997, Miller was the first CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine, the 13th dean of the Johns Hopkins medical school, and vice president for medicine at Johns Hopkins until his retirement in 2012.

Simon School of Business

Lawrence Kudlow ’69

Doctor of Laws (Honorary)

CEO of the economic research firm Kudlow & Co. and host of CNBC's The Kudlow Report, Kudlow is a nationally syndicated columnist and contributing editor of National Review magazine, and columnist and economics editor for National Review Online.

For more about this spring’s commencement ceremonies, visit www.rochester.edu/commencement/2013.

ALUMNI RELATIONS

Rocky on the Beach

rockyRocky with John Tanenbaum ’85 and family as the Tanenbaums ride the ferry to Prince Edward Island, Canada. (Photo: Courtesy of the subjects)

rockyAt Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego with Tony D’Agnese ’87 and sons. (Photo: Courtesy of the subjects)

rockyWith Bob Dardano ’77 at Rehoboth Beach, Del. (Photo: Courtesy of the subjects)

rockyWith Lauren and Audrey Collins, daughters of D. Scott Collins ’98 and Chere Collins, on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. (Photo: Courtesy of the subjects)

After flying around the world for almost a year, Rocky has been kicking back this summer, enjoying some beach getaways with his friends in the alumni community To view his complete travel album, and to see how you can take Rocky with you on a trip of your own, visit www.facebook.com/URAlumniRelations.

John La Montaine ’42E: ‘Full of Invention’

lamontaineLa Montaine won the Pulitzer Prize in 1959 for Piano Concerto No. 1, In Time of War. (Photo: Gelfand-Piper Photography)

John La Montaine, who died in April at the age of 93, was five years old when he decided he wanted to be a composer. He became a prolific and much-performed one, as well as a member of an exclusive club among American composers: in 1959 he received the Pulitzer Prize in Music for Piano Concerto No. 1, In Time of War, which was premiered by the virtuoso Jorge Bolet.

La Montaine graduated from Eastman in 1942, after study with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers, and like many other American composers of the 20th century, with Nadia Boulanger in France. He immediately drew favorable notice for his music; the conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos described his scores as “full of invention, composing talent, and a mature musical mind.”

Shortly after receiving the Pulitzer Prize, La Montaine was commissioned to write the first piece of music specifically for a presidential inauguration; his overture From Sea to Shining Sea opened John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961. His Christmas pageant opera The Shephardes Play was televised nationally by ABC on Christmas Eve 1967, and he was commissioned to write an opera, Be Glad Then, America, for the 1976 Bicentennial. Other works were evocative of nature: his Wilderness Journal symphony (1972) used texts from Thoreau, and The Marshes of Glynn, premiered by the Rochester Chamber Orchestra in 1984, was inspired by tape-recorded sounds from the Georgia marshes.

“I don’t want to be stuck in some hole, expected to do a certain thing,” John La Montaine said in a 2003 interview with the NewMusicBox website. “There is not one of my pieces that is like another piece. . . I’ve never spent a lot of time on publicity or anything like that. I just want to write my pieces.”

—David Raymond ’81 (MA), ’87E (MA)

Raymond is editorial director at the Eastman School.

TRIBUTES

Robert Ward ’39E: ‘Gracious Collaborator’

wardWard won the Pulitzer Prize in 1962 for his opera, The Crucible. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

I first met Robert Ward ’39E in the early 1990s, while working on a revision of one of his stage works, Lady Kate. This operetta, originally called The Lady from Colorado, was being remounted as part of a festival season of the Ohio Light Opera. Knowing him as the composer of one of the greatest American operas of the 20th century in The Crucible, which won the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1962, I was interested in seeing the extent of his commitment to a much lighter work.

What I gained from that first collaboration with Robert was first and foremost a great friendship that lasted until his death in April at age 95. His mentorship, advice, and interest in my personal well-being were special to me, but I know that this act of kindness, generosity, and sincerity was repeated countless times with young musicians and artists. With everyone he met in the music profession (and beyond), he made the conversations lasting, personal, and insightful.

This had a direct relationship to his creativity: there was no stone unturned when it came to exploring the choices of every note he composed (from pitch, to rhythm, to sonority). He was relentless in making sure all the possibilities were explored.

Bob was also a strong-minded, but gracious, collaborator. He expected the artistic team producing and executing any of his works to have the same knowledge and understanding of the work that he did when he was creating it. In early 2000 the Ohio Light Opera premiered another lyric theater work of his, A Friend of Napoleon. The productions of Lady Kate and A Friend of Napoleon, and Bob’s residencies with the Ohio company, changed the lives of many of the 200 artists who worked on both productions. He took every note and word of these comic pieces seriously. We all recognized that this approach would have a lasting effect on our own creativity.

—Steven Daigle

Daigle is chair of the Eastman voice department and director of Eastman Opera Theatre.

TRIBUTE

Donald Smith: ‘Coach for All Seasons’

smithCOACHING CAREER: During his 40-year career at Rochester, Smith taught physical education and coached football, basketball, and baseball, before coaching the golf team for 27 years. (Photo: Athletics and Recreation)

For more than 40 years, Donald Smith was a coach for all seasons on the River Campus.

I first coached with Don in 1956. When I became the athletic director in 1974, Don became a valued senior advisor to me and to the entire department. His loyalty to the University and dedication to its students were unmatched. His uncomplicated and sincere mien nurtured competitive athletes, and affected students in football, basketball, baseball, and golf.

The current golf program at the University, in particular, is the product of Don’s straightforward administration and teaching. Because the River Campus was once a golf course—before George Eastman executed a trade for Pittsford farmland that’s now the world-famous Oak Hill Country Club—it was appropriate that the University have a first-class golf program. It was Don who made it so.

While his earlier years on campus had been devoted to teaching physical education and coaching football, basketball, and baseball, Don spent his next 27 years focused on golf. As associate director of athletics, and as full-time head coach of the Yellowjacket golf team from 1969 to 1995, he developed the program to the point where it became well known nationally in Division III. (It should be mentioned that there were previous part-time coaches of note: Fletcher McAmmond, who was the University physician on campus, and Paul Bitgood, who was also a football coach.)

As coach, Don led the team to the NCAA Division III national championships 14 consecutive years. The team also ranked in the top 20 every year, and from 1989 to 1995, finished in the top 10 five times.

Don died in March at the age of 83. The University lost a fine and loyal teacher, and we who knew him well lost a dear friend.

—David Ocorr ’51

Ocorr was director of sports and recreation at Rochester from 1974 to 1981.

Books & Recordings

Books

The Politics of Social Welfare in America

By Glenn Mackin

Cambridge University Press, 2013

Mackin, assistant professor of political science in the humanities department at the Eastman School, explores the ways in which politicians, academics, and citizens talk about welfare and disability. He argues that their perceptions guide policy, while those deemed “needy” have challenged that designation through activism.

Reminiscences: A Journey through Particle Physics

By Adrian Melissinos

World Scientific Press, 2012

Melissinos, a professor of physics at Rochester who has conducted research in particle physics for more than 50 years, recounts the evolution of the field from the late 1950s until the present.

Anxious Wealth: Money and Morality among China’s New Rich

By John Osburg

Stanford University Press, 2013

Based on three years of field research in Chengdu, a commercial center and capital of China’s Sichuan province, Osburg, assistant professor of anthropology at Rochester, offers insight into the private and professional lives of a segment of China’s new business class.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History

Edited by Joan Shelley Rubin and Scott Casper

Oxford University Press, 2013

Rubin, professor of history at Rochester, coedits the two-volume encyclopedia of the American “values, aspirations, anxieties, and beliefs” as expressed in popular culture as well as formal thought. Among the topics included are minstrel shows, video games, book clubs, and the pursuit of “wellness,” as well as the works of prominent artists, writers, and theologians.

The Wave Function: Essays on the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics

Edited by Alyssa Ney and David Albert

Oxford University Press, 2013

Ney, associate professor of philosophy at Rochester, coedits the volume of essays on the metaphysics of quantum mechanics and contributes the essay “Ontological Reduction and the Wave Function Ontology.” The volume includes an overview of the history of quantum mechanics and its place in metaphysics among realist alternatives.

Defiant Daughters: 21 Women on Art, Activism, Animals, and The Sexual Politics of Meat

Edited by Carol Adams ’72

Lantern Books, 2013

Adams collects 21 personal stories from young writers about the impact on their lives of Adams’s 1990 book The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory, in which Adams explored the connections between meat-eating and virility across cultures. Among the contributors is Lagusta Yearwood ’00.

Pay It Forward: Mentoring New Information Professionals

By Mary Ann Mavrinac and Kim Stymest

American Library Association, 2013

Mavrinac, vice provost and Andrew H. and Janet Dayton Neilly Dean of River Campus Libraries, coauthors a guide to mentoring. The authors offer tips to new information science professionals seeking a mentor, while arguing that mentoring is a partnership in which benefits extend to both parties.

Mercy! A Celebration of Fenway Park’s Centennial Told through Red Sox Radio and TV

By Curt Smith

Potomac Books, 2012

Smith, an author, political speechwriter, and senior lecturer in the English department at Rochester, presents the 100-year history of Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, through accounts from Red Sox radio and television broadcasters.

Mastering the Bow

By Gaelen McCormick ’92E

Carl Fischer, 2013

McCormick, a bassist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and a faculty member at the Eastman Community Music School, provides a guide to bow technique, based on Franz Wohlfahrt’s Studies for Violin, for beginning and intermediate students.

The ’90s: Diary of a Mess

By Alexsandra Sukhoy ’03S (MBA)

CreateSpace, 2013

Sukhoy, a Cleveland-area career coach and blogger, presents a collection of poetry, photography, and musings she created during and about the 1990s. The book features a foreword by artist Jacob Livshultz and afterword by comedian Deena Nyer Mendlowitz.

All I Want for Christmas

By Michael Bresner ’65

iUniverse, 2013

Bresner tells a story of murder and mayhem among Santa’s elves, and the efforts of Santa and his nemesis, the elf leader, to solve the mystery. The book is the first in a series of revisionist novels based on myths, legends, and fairy tales.

Reform of Eyewitness Identification Procedures

Edited by Brian Cutler ’82

American Psychological Association, 2013

Cutler, a psychologist and professor on the faculty of social sciences and humanities at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, offers policy recommendations based on research in eyewitness memory, the composition of police line-ups, and other aspects of eyewitness identification. Cutler is also the author of Conviction of the Innocent: Lessons from Psychological Research (American Psychological Association).

Difficult Is the Path: Why Life as a Disciple of Jesus Is Not for the Fainthearted

By R. Roderick Cyr ’01S (MBA)

Crossbooks, 2013

Cyr, chief financial officer of Own Products in San Francisco, explores the meaning of Jesus’s declaration in the Sermon on the Mount, “difficult is the path that leads to life.” Arguing that churches have ignored Jesus’s message, Cyr argues for the value of the difficult path and the ways in which it might lead to a more satisfying and purposeful life.

The Last Akaway

By Gary Karton ’91

Brattle Publishing Group, 2013

In Karton’s young adult fantasy, the last akaway—a rare, magical creature that connects children to their spirit animals—is in danger, and 11-year-old Brody Boondoggle leads the effort to save it.

Lucy in the Mind of Lennon

By Tim Kasser ’94 (PhD)

Oxford University Press, 2013

Kasser, professor of psychology at Knox College in Illinois, offers a psychobiography of the Beatles’ John Lennon, exploring a question oft-asked by Beatles fans, What was the song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” about? The book is part of the Oxford Pyschobiography Series.

Marine Corps Marathon: An Epic Journey in Photographs

By Steve Nearman ’82 and Jeff Horowitz

MCM Photobooks, 2013

Nearman, a sports journalist who covered the Marine Corps Marathon for the Washington Post and other publications, coauthors a 150-page coffee table photo book showcasing the 37-year history of the 26.2-mile race that winds through Washington, D.C., each fall.

Engineering Dynamics: From the Lagrangian to Simulation

By Roger Gans

Springer, 2013

Gans, professor of mechanical engineering at Rochester, offers an overview of dynamics designed for beginning graduate students in mechanical engineering and related disciplines.

The It Girl Rules: It’s Getting Haute in Here—Tips on Navigating Your Style Journey

By Tamika Nurse ’02S (MBA)

It Girl Industries, 2013

Nurse, an apparel marketer and CEO of It Girl Industries, offers fashion and style advice for women striving “to stir up their creativity and become their best selves.”

Constitution 20XX

By Allen H. Brown ’53

Paper Tier, 2013

Allen, a retired Air Force avionics engineer, offers his first novel, a science fiction thriller in which a catastrophic event wipes out much of the American population, forcing the nation to begin anew.

Recordings

Blue Serenade

By the Brian Cunningham Quartet

Jazz Project, 2013

The quartet that includes drummer and producer Jud Sherwood ’89 performs original works by guitarist and composer Cunningham. The recording is the 10th produced by Sherwood on his Jazz Project label.

From Afar

By Nicholas Goluses

Albany Records, 2012

Goluses, professor of guitar at the Eastman School, performs a varied program including the first recording of the solo version of Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Joseph Schwantner’s From Afar.

An American Hallel: The Sacred Choral Music of Michael Isaacson

By Counterpoint

Michael Isaacson, 2013

The professional vocal ensemble Counterpoint performs works by Michael Isaacson ’79E that offer a contemporary interpretation of the Jewish conception of gratitude.

All the Days of My Life: The Wedding Album

By Vicente Avella ’98E (MM)

Pandora’s Boombox Records, 2013

Pianist Avella presents music offering “a current expression to the traditional wedding classics.” The producer is Windham Hill founder William Ackerman.

Less Is More

By Rich Thompson ’84E (MM)

Origin Records, 2013

Thompson, a drummer and associate professor of jazz studies and contemporary media at Eastman, performs original compositions and standards with trumpeter Terell Stafford, pianist Gary Versace ’93E (MM), saxophonist and Eastman graduate student Doug Stone, and bassist and Eastman associate professor of jazz studies and contemporary media Jeff Campbell ’02E (DMA).

Books & Recordings is a compilation of recent work by University alumni, faculty, and staff. For inclusion in an upcoming issue, send the work’s title, publisher, author or performer, a brief description, and a high-resolution cover image, to Books & Recordings, Rochester Review, 22 Wallis Hall, P. O. Box 270044, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0044; or by e-mail to rochrev@rochester.edu.

Have You Had Your DES Today?

Laughter therapist Lisa Wessan ’80 shares the benefits of a good “daily ecstatic seizure”—or, simply, “laughgasm.”

Interview by Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

masterclass (Photo: David Cowles for Rochester Review)

My interest in laughter therapy really began during my first career, as a science and health reporter. I was working for Genetic Engineering News. I was doing research on monoclonal antibodies, and my newspaper was sending me to conferences where I was meeting all these immunologists. I met an immunologist who was interested in psychoneuroimmunology, the study of how thoughts or emotional states cause chemical reactions in our bodies, affecting our immune response. It captivated me, too, leading me to clinical social work, and eventually to laughter therapy.

Laughter therapy isn’t about avoiding, denying, or being evasive about grief. I talk about grief work in the very first session. I have meditations my clients do, writing exercises, journaling. I have a grief workbook for them. I use a quote from Golda Meir. She said, “Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either.” And that guides me. If you can’t access the grief and the pain and trauma in your life, you’ll have a superficial laugh. It will be the cocktail party laugh. We don’t want that.

Lisa Wessan ’80

www.mirthmaven.com

Licensed clinical social worker and laughter therapist

Home: North Chelmsford, Mass.

Majors at Rochester: Psychology and religious studies

On laughing at Rochester: “I had a great group of friends and we laughed a lot. But I laugh much more now. I was a more serious person then. I wanted to be an intellectual.”

What I joke about with my clients is, it’s important to have a DES—I’ve coined this term: daily ecstatic seizure. I also call it the laughgasm. All of the neurotransmitters are affected very powerfully by laughter, more powerfully than with medication in some cases.

My specialty is actually geriatric mental health and I serve a lot of caregivers, in addition to elderly clients. I speak to groups at hospitals and nursing homes, mostly on two topics: Laughter for Caregivers or Teambuilding with Laughter. Mental health among these groups is about being able to embrace the absurdities and paradoxes and incongruities of aging. You have a head full of knowledge and wisdom and a life full of experience, but your body’s falling apart. It’s crazy. And it can be very frustrating. But people who can laugh at the absurdities and paradoxes of their lives are tremendously resilient.

The therapy I do in my office, with individuals, couples, or families, is often based on paradoxical intention. This is a technique popularized by the psychiatrist Viktor Frankl that goes along well with laughter therapy. I ask a dramatic question, or give a paradoxical assignment. For example, a couple comes to me and they’re fighting constantly. I say to them, “This is your assignment. I want you to go home and fight for an hour every day. Set a timer. Pick a subject, then fight.” They’ll look at me like, Are you crazy? They’ll leave mumbling to themselves, laughing. I think maybe they won’t come back. But they do—this has happened several times. I say “How was your week?” They say, “We didn’t fight.” I say, “What do you mean? I gave you an assignment!” And they laugh. And then the discussion gets very deep.

My experience is that most people do not like being told what to do. So I’ve come to understand using paradoxical intention often works better. Underneath all the nonsense, people want to get well.

STUDENT LIFE FERRIS WHEELERS’ DAY OFF

backcover (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Dandelion Day: A Ferris wheel gives students a different view of campus during this spring’s annual Dandelion Day festivities. With activities set up on the Wilson Quadrangle and the fields near the Goergen Athletic Center, the day featured carnival rides, food trucks, live bands, and games. The spring celebration was revamped a few years ago to take place on a Friday in late April with programming organized by the Students’ Association. Photograph by Adam Fenster

Select Citations

Every academic year, Rochester faculty members earn recognition from their colleagues around the country and the globe for their research, scholarship, and teaching, as well as for their service to their disciplines and their students. Such honors include awards from national and international academic societies, induction into prestigious organizations, and recognition from peer institutions. Similarly, Rochester students are selected each year for recognition by some of the most competitive and prestigious honors programs available to undergraduates and graduate students in the United States. Here’s a small sample of honorees from the 2012–13 year.

National Academy of Sciences

Richard Aslin, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors awarded to a scientist or engineer in the United States. Widely recognized for his research on how infants and toddlers develop cognitive abilities, Aslin also was elected as a fellow of the Cognitive Science Society. Aslin, who directs the Rochester Center for Brain Imaging and is a professor in the Center for Visual Science, was presented with the University Award for Lifetime Achievement in Graduate Education at this spring’s commencement ceremonies.

Champalimaud Award

David Williams, the William G. Allyn Professor of Medical Optics, a faculty member of the Institute of Optics, director of the Center for Visual Science, and dean for research in Arts, Sciences & Engineering, received the António Champalimaud Vision Award. Presented by the president of Portugal, the award is presented in even-numbered years and is considered one of the most prominent honors in vision science and ophthalmology. Williams has been a pioneer in developing technology to help researchers make images of living human retinas, work that the jury awarding the prize called a “major breakthrough in the understanding and/or the preservation of vision.” Williams shared the Champalimaud Award with the developers of optical coherence tomography. Williams also was invited this spring to present the Edridge Green Lecture at the annual congress of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists in London.

President-Elect

Nina Schor, the William H. Eilinger Chair of Pediatrics and pediatrician-in-chief at Golisano Children’s Hospital, was named president-elect of the Child Neurology Society, the nation’s largest organization of child neurologists. Members of the worldwide nonprofit professional association of 1,300 pediatric neurologists elected Schor to the position. Nationally recognized for her research on neuroblastoma, a frequently fatal cancer of childhood, Schor is a child neurologist who holds appointments in the Departments of Neurology and Neurobiology and Anatomy.

Lifetime Achievement

Elizabeth West Marvin, professor of music theory at the Eastman School and professor of brain and cognitive sciences in Arts, Sciences & Engineering, received the Gail Boyd de Stwolinski Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Music Theory Teaching and Scholarship. The national award is presented every two years by the Gail Boyd de Stwolinski Center for Music Pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma. Widely recognized for her multidisciplinary interests, Marvin has published work in music cognition, music theory pedagogy, the relation of music cognition to theory pedagogy, theory and analysis of atonal music, contour theory, history of theory, and analysis and performance.

Goldwater Scholar

Amanda Chen ’14, a biomedical engineering major from Danville, Calif., was named a Goldwater Scholar, a nationally competitive fellowship for undergraduate students in science, math, and engineering that was endowed by Congress in honor of the late U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater. Chen was one of 272 recipients selected from a pool of 1,107 students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. She is the 26th Rochester student to be named a Goldwater Scholar since 2000.

Medal-Winning Musicians

Eastman School students (left to right) Rebecca Tobin, Matt Evans, Quinn Delaney, Matt Amedio, June Kim, Michael Sawzin, Russell Rybicki, Dannel Espinoza, and Johanna Gruskin earned top honors in the senior division of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Midic Winds—a quintet composed of undergraduates Gruskin, Kim, Tobin, Delaney, and Rybeck—was awarded a bronze medal while Project Fusion—a saxophone quartet composed of graduate students Espinoza, Evans, and Sawzin, and undergraduate Amedio—earned a gold medal. Coached by Chien-Kwan Lin, assistant professor of saxophone, Project Fusion also won the grand prize in the Plowman Chamber Music Competition and first place in the Music Teachers National Association Chamber Music Wind Competition.

Player of the Year

John DiBartolomeo ’13, was named national Player of the Year in men’s basketball by two organizations that follow NCAA Division III sports—D3Hoops.com and DIII News. The senior financial economics major from Westport, Conn., led the Yellowjackets in scoring, rebounding, assists, and steals this season. He was also named Player of the Year by the University Athletic Association and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (for Upstate New York). Both D3Hoops.com and DIII News also named DiBartolomeo a first team All-American, as did the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the U.S. Basketball Writers’ Association.

Awards

National Faculty Awards

Academia Europaea

Member

Maiken Nedergaard, Smith Professor of Neurological Surgery and Codirector of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Sloan Research Fellow

Jessica Cantlon, Assistant Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences

John Kessler, Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Daniel Weix, Assistant Professor of Chemistry

American Academy of Family Physicians Association

2012 Pfizer Teacher Development Award

Stefenie King, Clinical Instructor at Highland Family Medicine

American Academy of Microbiology

Fellow

Eric Phizicky, Dean’s Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics

American Academy of Nurse Practitioners

Fellow

Craig R. Sellers, Associate Professor of Clinical Nursing

American Academy of Nursing

Fellow

Emily J. Hauenstein, Professor and Associate Dean for Research, School of Nursing

Sally A. Norton, Associate Professor of Nursing

American Academy of Pediatrics

President

Tom McInerny, Professor and Associate Chair for Clinical Affairs, Department of Pediatrics

American Association of Clinical Anatomists

2013 Honored Member Award

John T. Hansen, Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Associate Dean for Admissions, School of Medicine and Dentistry

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Fellow

Eric Phizicky, Dean’s Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics

American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery

President

Judith F. Baumhauer, Professor and Associate Chair of Orthopaedics

Board of Directors

Regis J. O’Keefe, Professor and Chair of Orthopaedics

American Brain Foundation, American Academy of Neurology

Chair’s Award

Robert C. Griggs, Professor of Neurology

American Chemical Society

William H. Nichols Medal

Richard Eisenberg, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry

American College of Clinical Pharmacy

President

Curtis Haas, Director of Pharmacy

American College of Medical Toxicology

Fellow

Timothy J. Wiegand, Director of Medical Toxicology and Toxicology Consult Service, Associate Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine

American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Lifetime Achievement Award

James R. Woods Jr., Thiede Chair in Obstetrics and Gynecology

American Heart Association

Distinguished Leadership Award

John P. Cullen, Research Associate Professor of Surgery

American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering

Fellow

Kevin Parker, May Professor of Engineering and Dean Emeritus of the Hajim School of Engineering

Diane Dalecki, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

American Mathematical Society

Fellow

Frederick Cohen, Professor of Mathematics

Sam Gitler, Professor of Mathematics

John Moore, Research Associate

Joseph Neisendorfer, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics

Douglas Ravenel, Professor of Mathematics

American Medical Directors Association

2013 Medical Director of the Year

Rocco Vivenzio, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and of Geriatrics (died April 2013)

American Musicological Society

Noah Greenberg Award

Michael Alan Anderson, Assistant Professor of Musicology, Eastman School of Music

American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine

Thomas Brady Award for Community Service

Kenneth E. DeHaven, Professor Emeritus of Orthopaedics

American Pediatric Society

John Howland Award

Elizabeth R. McAnarney, Professor of Pediatrics and Chair Emerita of Pediatrics

American Psychiatric Association

Isaac Ray Award

J. Richard Ciccone, Professor of Psychiatry

American Physical Society

Fellow

Todd Krauss, Professor of Chemistry

Chunlei Guo, Professor of Optics

American Political Science Association

President (2011–12)

Bingham Powell, Wilson Professor of Political Science

American Public Health Association

Arthur J. Viseltear Award

Theodore Brown, Phelps Professor of Public Health and Policy and Professor of History

American Society for Bone and Mineral Research

Fuller Albright Award

Laura M. Calvi, Associate Professor of Medicine

American Society for Clinical Investigation

Fellow

Laura M. Calvi, Associate Professor of Medicine

American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP)

Deems Taylor Award

Michael Alan Anderson, Assistant Professor of Musicology, Eastman School of Music

Apple Inc.

Apple Distinguished Educator

Jeffrey M. Lyness, Professor of Psychiatry and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, School of Medicine and Dentistry

AQR Capital Management

Insight Award Distinguished Paper Prize

Robert Novy-Marx, Assistant Professor of Finance, Simon School of Business

Association of American Medical Colleges

Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award

Chin-To Fong, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Association for Computing Machinery

Distinguished Scientist

Wendi Heinzelman, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Dean for Graduate Studies in Arts, Sciences & Engineering

Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology

President

Steven Feldon, Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology and Director of the Flaum Eye Institute

Champalimaud Foundation (Portugal)

António Champalimaud Vision Award

David Williams, Allyn Professor of Medical Optics and Dean for Research in Arts, Sciences & Engineering

Child Neurology Society

President-elect

Nina F. Schor, Eilinger Chair and Professor of Pediatrics, of Neurobiology, and of Anatomy

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Honorary Professorship

Jack Werren, Wisch Professor of Biology

Clark Institute of Art

Fellow

Rachel Haidu, Associate Professor of Art and Art History

Cognitive Science Society

Fellow

Richard Aslin, Kenan Professor and Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Professor in the Center for Visual Science, and Director of the Rochester Center for Brain Imaging

Cornell University

George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism

Kenneth Gross, Professor of English

Division on Career Development and Transition

Marc Gold Innovative Practices in Transition Award

Martha Mock, Clinical Associate Professor, Warner School of Education, Director of the Institute for Innovative Transition

Eastern Nursing Research Society

Top 20 Sustained and Influential Leaders Award 2013

Margaret H. Kearney, Vice Provost and University Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor , of Nursing

Emerald Literati Network

Award for Excellence 2012: for Highly Commended Paper

Wendi Cross, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, of Pediatrics, and of Neuro-developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

Jennifer West, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and of Pediatrics

Extracorporeal Toxin Removal in Poisoning

Appointed to the International Panel of Experts

Timothy J. Wiegand, Director of Medical Toxicology and Toxicology Consult Service, Associate Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine

Federation of State Medical Boards

Board of Directors

Arthur S. Hengerer, Professor of Otolaryngology

Fred Basolo Medal, Northwestern University

Richard Eisenberg, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry

Fulbright Program

Visiting Scholar

Mary Jane Curry, Associate Professor, Warner School of Education

Gail Boyd De Stwolinski Center for Music Pedagogy, University of Oklahoma

Lifetime Achievement in Music Theory Teaching and Scholarship

Elizabeth West Marvin, Professor of Music Theory, Eastman School of Music, and Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences

Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation

Artistic Director

Douglas Humpherys, Professor of Piano, Eastman School of Music

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Fellow

Gaurav Sharma, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Circuits and Systems Society

Charles A. Desoer Technical Achievement Award

Eby Friedman, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Photonics Society

Quantum Electronics Award

Govind Agrawal, Professor of Optics and of Physics and Senior Scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics

Institute of Mathematical Statistics

Fellow

Robert L. Strawderman III, Professor and Chair of Biostatistics and Computational Biology

Distinguished Fellow Award

Abraham Seidmann, Xerox Professor of Computers and Information Systems and Operations Management, Simon School of Business

Quantum Electronics Award

Govind Agrawal, Professor of Optics and of Physics and Senior Scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics

2012 Distinguished Career Award

Harry Reis, Professor of Psychology

Lifetime Achievement Award

Richard Ryan, Professor of Psychology and of Education

President

Jeffrey H. Peters, Schwartz Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery and Professor of Thoracic Surgery

Distinguished Lifetime Career Award

Edward L. Deci, Gowen Professor in the Social Sciences

Richard Ryan, Professor of Psychology and of Education

Diversity/Equity Award

Emily J. Hauenstein, Professor and Associate Dean for Research, School of Nursing

Chadwick Alger Book Prize

Randall Stone, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies

Book Award in the Humanities

Beth Jörgensen, Professor of Spanish

Molecular Endocrinology

Editor-in-Chief

Stephen R. Hammes, Wolk Professor in Medicine; Chief, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism

National Academy of Sciences

Elected Member

Richard Aslin, Kenan Professor and Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Professor in the Center for Visual Science, and Director of the Rochester Center for Brain Imaging

National Library of Medicine and the Association of Academic Health Science Libraries

Fellow, Leadership Fellows Program

Donna R. Berryman, Assistant Director, Edward G. Miner Library

National Science Foundation

Career Award

Bradley Nilsson, Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Optical Society

Emmett N. Leith Medal

James Fienup, Hopkins Professor of Optics

Pfizer–Groton Labs

Green Chemistry Award

Daniel Weix, Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Society for Academic Emergency Medicine

Chair, Grants Committee

Manish Shah, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine

Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine

Outstanding Achievement in Adolescent Medicine

Richard Kreipe, McAnarney Professor in Pediatrics

Society for Financial Studies

Chair-Elect for Finance Cavalcade Conference

Toni Whited, Jones Professor, Professor of Finance, and Chair of the PhD Program, Simon School of Business

Society for Humanistic Anthropology

Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing

Daniel Reichman, Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Society for Neuroscience

Secretary

Tatiana Pasternak, Professor of Neurobiology and of Anatomy

SPIE—International Society for Optics and Photonics

A. E. Conrady Award

Kevin Thompson, Visiting Scientist, Institute of Optics

Spie Fellow

Gaurav Sharma, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Honorary Degree

Russell Peck, Deane Professor of English

Paul Creston Award

David Higgs, Professor of Organ, Eastman School of Music

Thieme Chemistry

Journal Award

Daniel Weix, Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Distinguished Service Award

Richard Miller, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and of Environmental Medicine

Honorary Degree

Barbara Iglewski, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Director of International Programs at the Medical Center

Honorary Degree

Richard Ryan, Professor of Psychology and of Education

2013 Lifetime Achievement Award

Bonnie Rubenstein, Associate Professor of Counseling and Human Development, Warner School of Education

University Faculty Awards

Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

Miguel Alonso ’96 (PhD), Associate Professor of Optics

Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching: Eastman School of Music Recipient (2012)

Carol Webber, Professor of Voice

G. Graydon Curtis ’58 and Jane W. Curtis Award for Nontenured Faculty Teaching Excellence

Dahpon Ho, Assistant Professor of History

Goergen Awards for Excellence In Undergraduate Teaching

Mark Bocko, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Alison Frontier, Associate Professor of Chemistry

Richard Kaeuper, Professor of History

Hajim School’S Lifetime Achievement Award

Duncan Moore, Kingslake Chair in Optical Engineering Science, Professor of Optics, of Biomedical Engineering, and of Business Administration

Lillian Fairchild Award

Jennifer Grotz, Associate Professor of English

Martin E. Messinger Libraries Recognition Award

Nancy Fried Foster, Director of Anthropological Research for River Campus Libraries

Presidential Diversity Award

Lynne Maquat, Orbison Distinguished Service Professor, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Director of the Center for RNA Biology

Teen Health and Success Partnership, Directed by Suzanne Piotrowski, Clinical Associate Professor of Family Medicine

Students’ Association Professors of the Year

Benjamin Hafensteiner, Lecturer in Chemistry (Natural Sciences)

Heather Layton, Senior Lecturer in Art (Humanities)

Christopher Niemiec, Senior Lecturer in Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology)

Scott Seidman, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering (Engineering)

University Award for Lifetime Achievement In Graduate Education

Richard Aslin, Kenan Professor and Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Professor in the Center for Visual Science, and Director of the Rochester Center for Brain Imaging

William H. Riker Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching

Govind Agrawal, Professor of Optics and of Physics and Senior Scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics

National Student Awards

Academic All-American Honors

Adam Bossert ’13, Ambler, Pa.; Microbiology (Third Team, At-Large, Men’s Swimming)

Shelby Hall ’13, Hamburg, N.Y.; Chemistry (First Team, At-Large, Field Hockey)

Neil Cordell ’16, York, UK; Business (Second Team All-American, Squash)

John DiBartolomeo ’13, Westport, Conn.; Financial Economics (First Team All-American, Men’s Basketball)

Andres Duany Miro Quesda ’13, Lima, Peru; Economics and Business Strategies (First Team All-American, Squash)

Katie Flaschner ’14, East Amherst, N.Y.; Political Science (Third Team All-American, Field Hockey)

Faraz Khan ’16, Stamford, Conn.; Business (First Team All-American, Squash)

Lauren Norton ’13, Troy, Pa.; Mathematics (All-American, Women’s Cross Country)

Adam Perkiomaki ’13, Portland, Ore.; English (Second Team All-American, Squash)

Madison Wagner ’14, Cheswick, Pa.; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (Third Team All-American, Field Hockey)

Ally Zywicki ’15, Liverpool, N.Y.; Biomedical Engineering (Honorable Mention All-American, Women’s Basketball)

American Academy of Periodontology

Best Poster in Clinical Research at Annual Meeting

Alessandro Geminiani, Resident, Eastman Institute for Oral Health

American Academy of Periodontology Foundation

Aap Educator Scholarship

Jingyuan Fan, Resident, Eastman Institute for Oral Health

American Association of Immunologists

Trainee Abstract Award

Sesquile Ramon, Doctoral Student, Microbiology and Immunology

American Board of Pediatric Dentistry’s Foundation of the College of Diplomats

James R. Roche Award of Excellence

Erin Shope, Resident, Eastman Institute for Oral Health

American College of Emergency Physicians

Medical Student Professionalism and Service Award

Michael Nitzberg, MD Class of 2013, School of Medicine and Dentistry

American Federation for Aging Research

Medical Student Training in Aging Research Program

Elizabeth Kistler, MD Class of 2016, School of Medicine and Dentistry

Eric Nielsen, MD Class of 2016, School of Medicine and Dentistry

American Geophysical Union

Seismology Best Student Presentation

Manahloh Belachew, Graduate Student, Earth and Environmental Sciences

American Heart Association

Individual Predoctoral Fellowship

Wei Sun, Neuroscience

American Medical Association

Physicians of Tomorrow Award

Michael Nitzberg, MD Class of 2013, School of Medicine and Dentistry

Jason Reminick, MD Class of 2013, School of Medicine and Dentistry

American Mock Trial Association

Regionals

University’s Mock Trial Team

Amgen Foundation

Scholarship

Aaron J. Cravens ’14, Champaign, Ill.; Applied Mathematics

Benjamin Goulet ’14, Lexington, Mass.; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

American Psychological Association/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Fellow

Alma Guerra, Resident, Psychiatry

ASCAP Foundation

Morton Gould Young Composer Award

John Liberatore, Doctoral Student in Composition, Eastman School of Music

Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy

Robert L. Weiss Student Poster Award

Amanda Shaw, Graduate Student, Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology

Association for Surgical Education

Linnea Hauge Promising Educational Scholar Award

Michael J. Kim, Resident, Department of Surgery

Astral Artists National Auditions

Winner

John Wintringham, Graduate Student, Saxophone, Eastman School of Music

Goldwater Scholarship

Amanda Chen ’14, Danville, Calif.; Biomedical Engineering

Junior Fellow

Katherine Garner ’12 (T5), Cheshire, Conn.; Chemistry

Carnegie Mellon University’s Junior Summer Institute

Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow

Jonathan Johnson ’14, Crystal River, Fla.; Political Science and Anthropology

Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts

Predoctoral Fellowship

Alexander Brier Marr, Doctoral Student, Visual and Cultural Studies

Critical Language Scholarship Program

Scholars

Emily Hein ’14, Clive, Iowa; Chinese Studies

Nathaly Luna ’13, Corona, N.Y.; Arabic Studies

Alexander Turpin ’13, Rochester; Applied Music (Voice), Eastman School of Music

Samantha Whalen ’15, Wilton, N.Y.; Anthropology and Health, Behavior, and Society

Simone Zehren ’14, Washington, D.C.; Archaeology, Technology and Historical Structures, and History

DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) RISE (Research Internships in Science and Engineering) Program

Scholars

Kristin Abramo ’15, Billerica, Mass.; Molecular Genetics

Kevin Allan ’14, Sharon, Mass.; Neuroscience

Alexandra Born ’15, Indianapolis; Microbiology and Chemistry

Sarah Koniski ’14, Spencerport, N.Y.; Chemistry

Louis J. Papa III ’14, Fairport, N.Y.; Biochemistry and Chemistry

Robert Rietmeijer ’15, Albuquerque, N.M.; Biochemistry

Zhongwu Shi ’15, Wenzhou, China; Applied Math

Jamie Michelle Strampe ’15, San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Microbiology

Qianli Sun ’15, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China; Applied Math

Andrew J. Pramuk ’13, Hollidaysburg, Pa.; Applied Music (Voice) and Musical Arts, Eastman School of Music

Fellowship

Berin Golonu, Graduate Student, Visual and Cultural Studies

Fellowship

Fatima Bawany ’15, Rochester; Religion

Student Fellow

Tatiana Deveney, MD Class of 2014, School of Medicine and Dentistry

DownBeat Magazine

Annual Student Music Awards

Jennifer Bellor, Doctoral Student, Music Composition, Eastman School of Music

Paulo Perfeito’s Eastman 6tet, Eastman School of Music

Marc Schwartz, Graduate Student, Jazz Composition, Eastman School of Music

Predoctoral Fellowship

Jeff Arnold, Graduate Student, Political Science

Gold Medal, Senior Wind Division

Project Fusion Saxophone Quartet, Eastman School of Music

Matthew Amedio ’12, Rochester; Alto Saxophone

Dannel Espinoza, Doctoral Student, Soprano Saxophone

Matthew Thomas Evans, Doctoral Student, Baritone Saxophone

Michael Sawzin, Master’s Student, Tenor Saxophone

Bronze Medal, Senior Wind Division

Midic Winds, Eastman School of Music

Quinn Delaney ’14, Evanston, Ill.; Bassoon

Johanna Gruskin ’13, Duluth, Minn.; Flute

June Kim ’14, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Oboe

Russell Rybecki ’13, Leander, Texas; Horn

Rebecca Tobin ’14, Glen Ellyn, Ill.; Clarinet

Teaching Assistantship Program in France

Claire Crowther ’13, Wellesley, Mass.; Linguistics

Scholars

Asad Arastu ’12, Whittier, Calif.; Economics

Rohini Bhatia ’13, Ellicott City, Md.; Epidemiology

Rebekah Carpio ’13, Vienna, Va.; Applied Music and Clarinet, Eastman School of Music

Gabrielle Cornish ’13, Elmira, N.Y.; Music and Russian Studies

Meredith Doubleday ’13, Richfield Springs, N.Y.; Russian and Classics

Madeleine Klinger ’13, Chatham, N.Y.; Russian

Cameron La Point ’13, Henrietta, N.Y.; Economics and History and Math

Ankit Medhekar ’14, Coraopolis, Pa.; Biomedical Engineering

Andrew Otis ’11, Higganum, Conn.; History and Political Science

Veronica Price ’13, Chester, N.Y.; Psychology and German

Jyothi Purushotham ’13, Honeoye Falls, N.Y.; Molecular Genetics

Laurel Raymond ’13, Richmond, Vt; English and Brain and Cognitive Sciences

Garrett Rubin ’12E (T5), La Quinta, Calif.; Applied Music (Voice), Eastman School of Music

Anja Weinrib-Weiss ’13, Arlington, Mass.; Brain and Cognitive Sciences

Anaise Williams ’13, Belgrade, Maine; Biological Sciences

2012–13 Award

Orlando Harris, Doctoral Student, School of Nursing

Honors Scholar

Gregory Sherman, Resident, Psychiatry

Foundation Award

Alicia Guzman, Graduate Student, Visual and Cultural Studies

Alexander Marr, Graduate Student, Visual and Cultural Studies

Dara Fund Scholarship

Nick Aloisio, Resident, Emergency Medicine

Med-into-Grad Fellowship

Chris Farrar, Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering

Novo Nordisk Poster Award

I-Hsin Kuo, Doctoral Student, Pathway of Human Disease–Pathology

Institute for International Education

Gilman International Scholarship

Jonathan Kho ’14,, Scarsdale, N.Y.; Electrical and Computer Engineering

First-Place Team

Rajesh Chaudhary, MBA Student, Simon School of Business

Lingling Chen, Graduate Student, Simon School of Business

Mahendra Goyal, MBA Student, Simon School of Business

Irina Ivanova, MBA Student, Simon School of Business

First Prize and Audience Award

Beiliang Zhu, Doctoral Student, Cello, Eastman School of Music

Young Scholar Award for Best Student Oral Presentation

Brittany Serke Baisch, Doctoral Student, Toxicology

Fellowship

Jonathan Klingler, Graduate Student, Political Science

Dissertation Fellowship

Sohl Lee, Graduate Student, Visual and Cultural Studies

Richard E. Greenleaf Visiting Library Fellow

Alicia Inez Guzman, Doctoral Student, Visual and Cultural Studies

Library of Congress

Junior Fellow

Meredith Doubleday ’13, Richfield Springs, N.Y.; Russian and Classics

Lindau Meeting

Graduate Student Award

Amanda Neukirch, Graduate Student, Physics

MSR Fellowship

Walter Lasecki, Doctoral Student, Computer Science

First Prize—Chamber Music Competition

Project Fusion Saxophone Quartet, Eastman School of Music

Matthew Amedio ’12, Rochester; Alto Saxophone

Dannel Espinoza, Doctoral Student, Soprano Saxophone

Matthew Thomas Evans, Doctoral Student, Baritone Saxophone

Michael Sawzin, Master’s Student, Tenor Saxophone

First Prize—Young Artist Competition

John Wintringham, Graduate Student, Saxophone, Eastman School of Music

Award of Excellence

Anaise Williams ’13, Belgrade, Maine; Biological Sciences

National Institutes of Health

F31 NIH Predoctoral Fellowship

Michael Van Meter, Graduate Student, Biology

Student of da Vinci Award

MonoMano Cycling

Travis Block ’12

Sara Hutchinson ’12, Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering

Dominic Marino ’12

David Narrow ’12

Martin Szeto ’12, Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering

First-Place Scholarship Division, Nicholas Vrenios Memorial Award

Adelaide Boedecker, Master’s Student, Soprano, Eastman School of Music

Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant

Jeffrey Vedanayagam, Graduate Student, Biology

GeoPRISMS Best Student Presentation

Manahloh Belachew, Graduate Student, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Graduate Research Fellowship

Jason Inzana, Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering

Rebecca Kreuzer, Graduate Student, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Sarah Walters ’13, Webster, N.Y.; Optical Engineering

Graduate Research Fellowships Program Honorable Mention

Matthew DeMars II ’12

Andrew Durney, Graduate Student, Chemical Engineering

Jonathan Goldberg ’12

Timothy Kopp, Graduate Student, Computer Science

Ian Marozas ’13, Rochester; Biomedical Engineering

Ian Perera, Graduate Student, Computer Science

Jennifer Suor, Graduate Student, Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology

Kaitlyn Werner ’13, Staten Island, N.Y.; Psychology

Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship on Distributed Renewable Energy

Leah Frenette, Graduate Student, Chemistry

Erik Garcell, Graduate Student, Optics

Emily Hillenbrand, Graduate Student, Chemistry

Miles Marnell, Graduate Student, Chemistry

Margaret Samuels, Graduate Student, Optics

Nelia Viza, Graduate Student, Chemical Engineering

International Research Fellowship

Jennifer Ciesielski, Graduate Student, Chemistry

New York Business Plan Competition

Biotechnology/Health Care (Third Place)

TrakOR

W. Spencer Klubben ’13, Gilford, N.H.; Biomedical Engineering

Ankit Medhekar ’13, Coraopolis, Pa.; Biomedical Engineering

Michael Nolan ’13, Corinth, N.Y.; Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics

Sonja Page ’13, Manchester, Mass.; Biomedical Engineering

Matt Plakosh ’13, Penfield, N.Y.; Biomedical Engineering

Erin Schnellinger ’13, Munro Falls, Ohio; Biomedical Engineering

Nanotechnology/Advanced Technology (Second Place)

SMP MicroStamps

Megan DeWitt, Graduate Student, Technical Entrepreneurship and Management

Andrew Durney, Doctoral Student, Chemical Engineering

Will Finnie, Graduate Student, Technical Entrepreneurship and Management

Kwaku Owusu, MBA Student, Simon School of Business

Social Entrepreneurship/Nonprofit (Second Place)

Sound ExChange

Emily Wozniak, Graduate Student, French Horn and Music Education, Eastman School of Music

New York State Stem Cell Science

Predoctoral Training Grant

Revathi Balasubramanian, Graduate Student, Neuroscience

Northeast Greek Leadership Association

Greek Leaders of Distinction Award

Kyle Coapman ’13, Chester, N.Y.; Psychology (Delta Upsilon)

Harini Morisetty ’13, Randolph, N.J.; Biology (Delta Phi Omega)

Kelly Scull ’14, New Hope, Pa.; Psychology (Sigma Delta Tau)

Amy Vojta Impact Award

Sigma Phi Epsilon

Oberlin College

Alumni Fellowship

Abby Glogower, Doctoral Student, Visual and Cultural Studies

Optical Society

Harvey M. Pollicove Memorial Scholarship

Peter McCarthy, Doctoral Student, Institute of Optics

Bill Price and Warren Smith Award

Cristina Canavesi, Doctoral Student, Institute of Optics

Orthopaedic Research Society

First Place, Video Outreach Competition

Youssef Farhat, Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering

Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society

Marcus L. Urann Fellowship

Jonathan Bennett, Graduate Student, Political Science

PHRMA Foundation

Toxicology Predoctoral Fellowship

Amanda Croasdell, Doctoral Student, Environmental Medicine

Player of the Year, D3HOOPS and DIII News

John DiBartolomeo ’13, Westport, Conn.; Financial Economics (Men’s Basketball)

Plowman Chamber Music Competition

Grand Prize and Audience Award

Project Fusion Saxophone Quartet, Eastman School of Music

Matthew Amedio ’12, Rochester, N.Y.; Alto Saxophone

Dannel Espinoza, Doctoral Student, Soprano Saxophone

Matthew Thomas Evans, Doctoral Student, Baritone Saxophone

Michael Sawzin, Master’s Student, Tenor Saxophone

Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award

Individual Predoctoral Fellowship

Adrianne Chesser, Neuroscience

Danielle deCampo, Neuroscience

Julianne Feola, Neuroscience

Daniel Marker, Neuroscience

Phillip Rappold, Neuroscience

Nathan Anthony Smith, Neuroscience

Jennifer Stripay, Neuroscience

Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Training Fellowship

Jordan Silberman, Graduate Student, Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology

Fellowship

Jessica Horton, Graduate Student, Visual and Cultural Studies

Excellence in Emergency Medicine Award

Rachel Waldman, MD Class of 2013, School of Medicine and Dentistry

Dissertation Award

Jack Peltz, Graduate Student, Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology

James I. Mackenzie Graduate Scholarship

Christopher Lewis, Graduate Student, Chemical Engineering

Best All-Around Non-Daily Student Newspaper (Medium School)

Campus Times

Beinecke Scholarship

Daniel J. Gorman Jr. ’14, Pearl River, N.Y.; History and Religion

Bill Price and Warren Smith Optical Design and Engineering Scholarship

Cristina Canavesi, Doctoral Student, Institute of Optics

Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship

Himanshu Shekhar, Doctoral Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

University Trading Challenge—Baruch College

Short-Term Trading (First Place)

Daisy Yung-Tien Cheng, Graduate Student, Simon School of Business

Ellie Ying-Chen Wang, Graduate Student, Simon School of Business

Jeff Siao-Ciang Guo, Graduate Student, Simon School of Business

Min-Feng Lee, MBA Student, Simon School of Business

Best Individual Portfolio Management Champion (First Place)

Toshinobu Chiba, MBA Student, Simon School of Business

Excellence in Public Health Award

Emma Lo, MD Class of 2014, School of Medicine and Dentistry

Invited Performance

Vocal Point a Capella Group

William C. Byrd Young Artist Competition

First Prize

Katherine Weintraub, Doctoral Student, Saxophone, Eastman School of Music

University Student Awards

Arts, Sciences & Engineering Outstanding Dissertation Awards

Sonnette Bascoe, Doctoral Student, Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology (Social Sciences)

Jesse Chvojka, Doctoral Student, Physics (Natural Sciences)

Kelley Garvin, Doctoral Student, Biomedical Engineering (Engineering)

Lucy Mulroney, Doctoral Student, Visual and Cultural Studies (Humanities)

Edward Peck Curtis Awards for Excellence In Teaching By A Graduate Student

Revathi Balasubramanian, Graduate Student, Neurobiology and Anatomy

Kimberly Manbeck, Graduate Student, Chemistry

Mark Pecaut, Graduate Student, Physics and Astronomy

John Portlock, Graduate Student, History

Hardeep Sidhu, Graduate Student, College Writing Program

Peter Zogas, Graduate Student, English

Lysle (Spike) Garnish Scholar-Athlete Award

Adam Bossert ’13, Ambler, Pa.; Biology (Men’s Swimming)

Claire Crowther ’13, Wellesley, Mass.; Linguistics (Women’s Indoor Track and Field)

Andres Duany ’13, Lima, Peru; Economics and Business Strategies (Squash)

Beni Fischer ’13, Horw, Switzerland; Economics and Business Strategies (Squash)

Shelby Hall ’13, Hamburg, N.Y.; Biological Sciences (Field Hockey)

Bridget Lang ’13, Chesterfield, N.J.; Biological Sciences (Women’s Soccer)

Jon Menke ’13, Highland Park, Ill.; Mathematics (Baseball)

Lauren Norton ’13, Troy, Pa.; Mathematics (Women’s Cross Country)

Jakob Seidlitz ’13, Reston, Va.; Anthropology (Men’s Soccer)

Jackie Walker ’13, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Biology (Women’s Basketball)

President’S Award for Undergraduate Research

Gabrielle Cornish ’13, Elmira, N.Y.; Music and Russian Studies (Humanities)

David George ’13, Middletown, N.J.; Chemistry (Natural Sciences)

Ian Marozas ’13, Rochester; Biomedical Engineering (Engineering and Applied Sciences)

Lucian McMahon ’13, Old Tappan, N.J.; German and Language Science (Humanities)

Sandra Rodgin ’13, Los Gatos, Calif.; Psychology (Social Sciences)

Provost’S Circle Scholars

Allison Bernstein ’14, West Chester, Pa.; Chemical Engineering (Women’s Soccer)

Danielle Bessette ’14, Pittsford, N.Y.; English (Women’s Cross Country)

Chris Fredrickson ’14, Mansfield, Mass.; Computer Science (Men’s Swimming and Diving)

Deborah Korzun ’14, Clifton Park, N.Y.; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (Women’s Swimming and Diving)

Laura Lyons ’14, Owatonna, Minn.; Chemical Engineering (Women’s Track and Field)

Nathaniel Mulberg ’14, Cherry Hill, N.J.; English (Men’s Baseball)

Eugene O’Hanlon ’14, Delmar, N.Y.; Biomedical Engineering (Men’s Track and Field)

Adam Pacheck ’14, Baldwinsville, N.Y.; Biomedical Engineering (Men’s Cross Country and Track and Field)

Yuji Wakimoto ’14, Newton, Mass.; Biochemistry/Biological Sciences (Men’s Cross Country and Track and Field)

Catherine Weiner ’14, Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.; Biochemistry/Biological Sciences (Women’s Basketball)﻿