March People Notes

Kevin Taylor Anderson, visiting lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, will have his article, “Toward an Anarchy of Imagery: Questioning the Classification of Films as ‘Ethnographic,’ ” published in the Journal of Film and Video (Vol. 55 No. 2-3). The article suggests that visual anthropology needs to look beyond dichotomies of fiction/ nonfiction and ethnographic/ nonethnographic to examine the ways in which all genres of filmmaking can inform anthropology as a discipline and how performative, experimental and avant-garde stylistics might be employed by anthropological filmmakers to circumvent some of the pitfalls of visual representation and narrative. Anderson is completing a multimedia dissertation on acupuncture that combines text and video. He also teaches cinema studies at Clark University and is teaching visual anthropology at Tufts this semester.

Dr. Donald J. Annino, assistant professor of otolaryngology, was named one of “Boston’s Rising Star Doctors” in the February issue of Boston Magazine. Annino is a physician and a dentist whose clinical interests include craniofacial disorders, facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, head and neck surgery, maxillofacial disorders, microvascular free tissue transfer and sinus diseases.

Dr. Diana W. Bianchi, professor of pediatrics; Ralph Isberg, professor of microbiology; Dr. Joseph Lau, professor of medicine; Dr. Thomas F. O’Donnell, professor of surgery; Dr. Ab Sadeghi-Nejad, professor of pediatrics; and Dr. David R. Snydman, professor of medicine, were presented with the 2003 Distinguished Faculty Awards March 1 at a medical school faculty meeting.

Lisa Brukilacchio, who last year contributed to the River Institute of the University College of Citizenship and Public Service, is continuing with the college as community engagement specialist. She has lead responsibility for the Mystic Watershed Collaborative and is also contributing to the college’s community partnership work with organizations in Somerville.

Daniel H. Cox, assistant professor of neuroscience, has been recognized by the Society of General Physiologists for his research in the regulation of Ca2+-activated potassium channels. He received the society’s 2003 Paul F. Cranefield Award.

Daniel Dennett, University Professor of Philosophy and director of the Center for Cognitive Studies, was the subject of an award-winning essay by a high school student from the Marlborough School in Los Angeles. Helen Highberger, 16, won the school’s Guerin Prize for her essay about “a living American whom a student finds inspirational.” After reading Dennett’s book, Consciousness Explained (Little, Brown & Co., 1991), Highberger wrote, “There is one person who takes the new science by the horns and incorporates it into the philosophical method: the philosopher of the mind Daniel Dennett.” Highberger’s prize includes an opportunity to meet with Dennett.

Deborah Digges, professor of English, had her poem, “Seer Sucker Suit,” published in the January issue of The New Yorker. Her fourth book of poems, Trapeze, will be in bookstores on March 16.

Virginia Drachman, the Arthur Jr. and Lenore Stern Professor of American History, had her most recent book, Enterprising Women: 250 Years of American Business (University of North Carolina Press, 2002) selected as an Outstanding Academic Title by CHOICE, a publication of the Association of College & Research Libraries. Enterprising Women is the companion publication to the similarly named two-year national museum tour that tells the story of women entrepreneurs in America. Drachman says these female entrepreneurs “understood the value of a good idea, found the capital to finance it, assembled the team to implement it, launched the advertising campaign to market it and ultimately built a profitable enterprise.” The book chronicles trailblazing women from Katherine Goddard, publisher of the first copy of the Declaration of Independence and owner of a print shop, to Madam C.J. Walker, whose hair care products brought her from her slave parents’ dilapidated cabin to her own Hudson River estate down the road from the Rockefellers.

Donny Emanuel and Anabel Franciskato, both fourth-year students at the School of Dental Medicine, received the Massachusetts Foundation/Louis J.P. Calisti Scholarship, named after Calisti, who served as dean of the dental school from 1963 to 1971. The scholarships were awarded at the Yankee Dental Congress January 29 through February 1 in Boston.

Seth Flagg, a second-year student at the School of Medicine, has been appointed to the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Commission on Legislation and Governmental Affairs.

Dr. Lisa M. Freeman, associate professor of clinical sciences at the School of Veterinary Medicine, has received a five-year, $500,000 education grant from the National Institutes of Health to attract veterinary students and residents to careers in biomedical research. Under the grant, 14 Tufts veterinary faculty members will develop and deliver a menu of programs designed to teach students and residents about research careers, provide them with research experiences and encourage them to make research contributions. The new program also will assist in furthering the development of the veterinary school’s research agenda. Freeman is board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. Her general research interests include the nutritional modulation of disease in animals, particularly cardiovascular disease, critical illness and obesity.

David Valdes Greenwood, lecturer in English, will have his plays performed in three states this spring. In March, New Jersey Rep will be doing staged readings of “Wandaleria” for two nights. In April, his commissioned play “Paradise of Earthworms” will be seen in a staged reading at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York. And in May, “Wonderland” will receive a staged reading at the Portland Stage in the Little Festival of the Unexpected as a finalist in the Clauder Competition for New Plays.

Boris Hasselblatt, professor of mathematics, Monica Moreno Rocha, assistant professor of mathematics, and mathematics graduate students Alexey Beltokov, David Cowan and Olga Kurgalina attended the Joint Mathematics Meetings January 7-10 in Phoenix, Ariz. This is the largest professional meeting in mathematics. Hasselblatt co-organized the session on coding, geometry and hyperbolic dynamics, for which he, Rocha and Cowan gave talks on “Dimension Product Structure of Hyperbolic Sets,” “A Topological Model for a Perturbed Quadratic Family” and “Modeling a Gas of Hard Non-spheres,” respectively. Kurgalina gave a talk on “Radial Parts of Invariant Differential Operators on Grassmannians” and also presented a poster.

Marcie Hershman, lecturer in English, spoke at Hebrew College on the “Art of the Memoir,” along with authors Justin Kaplan, Anne Bernays and Daniel Asa Rose. Her memoir, Speak to Me, was chosen by Hebrew College’s McGann Library as its book of the month for discussion. Hershman’s essay on the national award-winning architectural design of the Honan Allston Public Library, the newest library in the Boston system, appeared in ArchitectureBoston’s year-in-review (January 2003) issue. Her short essay on books will appear this spring in the Jewish intellectual journal, Sh’ma. Also this spring, Hershman will introduce an emerging writer to the wider literary community at PEN/New England’s annual “Discovery Evening,” when she sponsors the novelist JoeAnn Hart.

Jan Hollenbeck, an alumna of the Boston School of Occupational Therapy (BSOT), Sharon Ray, assistant professor at BSOT, and Diane B. Walker, a BSOT alumna, presented a paper, “Guidelines for School-Based Practice: Implications and Applications,” at the November 2003 conference of the Massachusetts Association of Occupational Therapy.

Lynn Hyams has been appointed human resources administrator at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts. She comes to the HNRCA with 10 years of experience working as a human resources administrator at MIT’s Media Laboratory. Prior to joining MIT, Hyams was a social worker for Catholic Charities.

Dr. Richard S. Irwin, M68, is the new president of the American College of Chest Physicians. The chief of pulmonary, allergy and critical care medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Irwin did his residency at Tufts-New England Medical Center.

Through the HNRCA’s Speakers Bureau over the past few months, Elizabeth Johnson, a scientist in the Carotenoids and Health Laboratory, talked to the National Association of Retired Federal Employees about eye health, and Odilia Bermudez, a scientist in the Dietary Assessment and Epidemiology Program, spoke at Back of the Hill Apartments in Jamaica Plain, Mass., about diabetes and at Alianza Hispana about the Tufts Food Guide Pyramid for Older Adults. Monica Rodriguez, a graduate student in nutrition communication at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, gave a cooking demonstration to Golda Meir House elders in Newton, Mass. Presentations also were given at Grace Chapel in Lexington, Mass., the West Suburban YMCA in Newton, Mass., and the Francis Cabot Lowell Senior Housing in Waltham, Mass. The Speakers Bureau, run through the HNRCA’s Volunteer Services Department, provides elders with up-to-date nutrition information and also helps to increase the number of culturally diverse volunteers for research studies. It also offers an opportunity for HNRCA investigators to translate research findings for consumers. For more information about this program, contact Jean Bianchetto, volunteer recruiter, at 617-556-3013.

Dr. Michael A. Kahn, professor of oral pathology at the School of Dental Medicine, has been named a fellow of the 2004-05 American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Leadership Institute. The Leadership Institute is a yearlong program designed to develop the nation’s most promising dental faculty to become future leaders in dental and higher education. Participants include faculty and administrators from dental, allied dental and advanced dental education. The four-phase institute includes self-assessment, peer assessment, in-depth leadership development, team building, analysis of issues critical to dental, health professions and higher education and administrative competencies development.

Dr. Gerard Kugel, associate dean for research and professor of prosthodontics and operative dentistry at the School of Dental Medicine, and Dr. Debbie Eisen, clinical assistant professor of prosthodontics and operative dentistry, served as co-chairs of the scientific program for the Yankee Dental Congress, the nation’s fifth largest dental meeting, which took place January 29 through February 1 in Boston. The majority of the congress’ subcommittees were led by Tufts dental alumni or/and faculty. Twenty Tufts dental students presented research papers, and 25 dental faculty members gave lectures at Yankee Dental. More than 1,200 alumni and guests attended the dental school’s annual alumni reception held in conjunction with the professional meeting.

Richard M. Lerner, Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science, co-edited the recently published Nature and Nurture: The Complex Interplay of Genetic and Environmental Influences on Human Behavior and Development (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates). In the book, Lerner and co-editors Elaine L. Bearer and Cynthia Garcia Coll present a variety of views about the ways in which dynamic, developmental, mutually interactive systems in the genetic and environmental domains operate. January also saw the release of second edition of the Handbook of Adolescent Psychology (John Wiley and Sons). This multidisciplinary handbook, edited by Lerner and Laurence Steinberg, with contributions from leading researchers, reflects the latest empirical work in the field. Lerner will participate in the Society for Research on Adolescence’s biannual meeting March 11-14 in Baltimore. He also will attend the Second Annual Mid-Winter Research Conference on Religion and Spirituality March 19-20 at Loyola College in Columbia, Md., where he will give a lecture titled “On Making Humans Human: Spirituality and the Promotion of Positive Youth Development.”

Gary P. Leupp, professor of history, is on sabbatical this semester as a visiting scholar at Kansai University in Osaka, Japan. He will be collaborating with Prof. Kiyoshi Hamano in Kansai’s economics department on a book about the Nishijin silk-weaving district of Kyoto from the 16th through the 19th centuries.

Nan Levinson, lecturer in English, was featured in “Free Speech in the Age of Ashcroft,” a discussion sponsored by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the Coliseum Bookstore in New York in January. Levinson talked about the current state of civil liberties and the stories in her book, Outspoken: Free Speech Stories, with writers Katha Pollitt and David Cole.

Michael Malamy, professor of molecular biology and microbiology, and Anthony Baughn, a student at the Sackler School, had their paper, “The Strict Anaerobe Bacteroides Fragilis Grows in and Benefits from Nanomolar Concentrations of Oxygen,” published in the January 29 issue of Nature.

Shirley Mark is the University College of Citizenship and Public Service’s community partnerships manager. She joined the college last fall to coordinate its work with the Chinatown community, where she has more than 10 years of work experience. In taking on the broader coordination role, Mark will ensure that the college builds productive education for active citizenship relationships with community organizations in all of Tufts’ host communities.

Natanya Marracino, D05, won first place in the student poster competition at the Pan Boston Oral Science Research Symposium, held February 5 at the Forsyth Institute in Boston. Marracino’s award was in the predoctoral category for her poster, “Which Vector Is Most Effective in Gene Transfer to Salivary Glands?” She presented research that she completed while at the National Institutes of Health as a result of her Summer Dental Student Research Award from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. The poster competition was open to pre-doctoral and postdoctoral students from the Forsyth Institute, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine and Tufts School of Dental Medicine. Lili Tayari, D05, also was a presenter in the pre-doctoral category.

Molly Mead, a key partner in developing the University College of Citizenship and Public Service from its inception, is now leading the college’s work in curriculum development and research and is serving as the Lincoln Filene Professor.

Sam Merabi, D05, has received an applied research grant from the Tufts University Center for Children for Project CORRECT (Child Oral Rehabilitation, Residential Education, Counseling and Therapy), which targets high-risk children at the Franciscan Children’s Hospital in Brighton. Merabi developed Project CORRECT with the support of an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship last year. He has enlisted 30 student volunteers to work with about 50 children a year.

Gilbert E. Metcalf, professor of economics, has been asked to serve as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council to the College of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Other members of the Advisory Council include Katherine Abbott, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation; Frederic Winthrop, former commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture, and Stanley Charm, who served as chair of Tufts’ chemical engineering department from 1981-85 and is co-founder of Charm Sciences Inc., a Lawrence, Mass.-based company that works on food safety issues around the world. Council members work with the dean and his administrative team on long-term strategic planning for the college.

Dr. Mohsen Meydani, director of the Vascular Biology Laboratory at the HNRCA, was invited to speak on “Nutrition and Healthy Aging” at the International Conference on Longevity in Sydney, Australia, March 5-8. He will also give a talk on “The Molecular Mechanisms of Green Tea Catechin Inhibition of VEGF-induced Angiogenesis” at the Oxygen Club of California 2004 Congress and 11th annual meeting in Santa Barbara March 10-13.

Dr. Simin Meydani, director of the HNRCA Nutritional Immunology Laboratory, discussed “Vitamin E and Respiratory Infections in the Elderly” at the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements seminar series on January 21. Earlier that month, she spoke on “Nutrition and Immunity” at the 2004 annual meeting of the International Life Sciences Institute.

Aviva Must, associate professor of family medicine and community health, served on a Centers for Disease Control panel to help develop recommendations for physical activity for youth. The recommendations should be released this spring.

Mindy Nierenberg has joined the University College of Citizenship and Public Service as student programs manager. She oversees all student programs and coordinates the college’s working relationships with various kindred student groups at Tufts. Her specific charge is to expand the scale of education for active citizenship among Tufts students. Prior to joining the college, Nierenberg was director of community outreach at the Massachusetts School of Arts, where she pioneered bringing art teachers and students into communities to achieve social goals. Nierenberg started her working career as a residence director at Tufts many years ago.

Jose Ordovas, director of the HNRCA’s Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory, discussed “Personalizing Nutrition: The Role of Nutrigenetics” at Columbia University’s Distinguished Lecture series on February 2.

Dale Peterson, lecturer in English, had his latest book, Eating Apes (University of California Press, 2003), an examination of the disastrous inter-relationship between European and Asian logging and the traditional bush meat trade in Central Africa, named a Best Science Book of 2003 by Discover magazine and by The Economist in Britain. Bloomsbury Review named it as an Editor’s Favorite for 2003. The book has been nominated for a 2004 Pulitzer Prize.

Cindy Pollard, director of public relations, left Tufts in February to become the vice president for marketing and communications at the University of Nevada in Reno. Since joining Tufts in 1998, she built a public relations team that has raised the university’s visibility in the international, national and local media. In addition, the public relations department launched a number of communications initiatives designed to build greater awareness and pride in Tufts, including Tufts E-News, the Tufts Today Network of information monitors across the Medford/Somerville campus, the weather and emergency dial-up communications channel and the president’s weekly “On the Record” e-mail.

Dr. Morton B. Rosenberg, professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the School of Dental Medicine, discussed cyanosis, hypoxia and new techniques in airway management in a lecture titled “Something Old, Something New, Something Blue” at an assembly in memory of Dr. Kenneth Stern, D73, G77, who was an associate clinical professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the dental school. Faculty from the oral and maxillofacial surgery programs at Tufts, Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston University attended the lecture on January 14.

Dr. Robert Russell, director of the HNRCA, has been appointed as the Food and Nutrition Board representative and chair of the U.S. National Committee to the International Union of Nutrition Sciences (USNC/IUNS). The USNC/ IUNS represents the field of nutrition and the major societies of nutrition in the United States within the IUNS.

Dr. Kevin Ryan has been promoted to assistant clinical professor of general dentistry at the School of Dental Medicine.

Dr. Steven D. Schwaitzberg, associate professor of surgery at the School of Medicine, gave a talk on “A Practical Guide to HIPAA Issues for Research at Tufts-New England Medical Center” February 24 in the Wolff Auditorium of Tufts-NEMC. Schwaitzberg chairs the hospital’s Institutional Review Board.

Dr. Leonidas Spyrou has been appointed clinical instructor in orthodontics at the School of Dental Medicine.

Dr. Paul Summergrad, psychiatrist-in-chief of the North Shore Medical Center and a network director of Partners Health Care, has been appointed chair of psychiatry at the School of Medicine and psychiatrist-in-chief at Tufts-New England Medical Center.

Nicole Tateosian, alumni relations officer at the School of Veterinary Medicine, has left Tufts for Harvard University, where she is combining her work responsibilities with the pursuit of a master’s degree in higher education administration.

Mark Tilki, a senior cornerback on the Jumbo football team, received the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston’s Joe Zabilski Award as the region’s top defensive player for Divisions II and III. Bill Samko, head football coach, presented the award at the Gridiron Club’s Bob Whelan College Awards dinner January 9 at the Sheraton Needham Hotel. Tilki was one of New England’s premier playmakers on defense for the Jumbos this year. He led the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) in interception return yards with 131 on five picks. Twice he returned interceptions for touchdowns. His 40-yard touchdown return of an interception at Bates with 59 seconds left in the fourth quarter sealed a 24-14 victory for the Jumbos. He had two interceptions in that game. The next week against Bowdoin, Tilki’s 51-yard interception return for a touchdown in the second quarter put Tufts in command with a 16-0 lead. He was NESCAC’s Defensive Player of the Week for consecutive weeks on September 28 and October 5. Tilki finished his senior season with 29 tackles (23 solo). He was chosen to the All-NESCAC First Team at cornerback and as a return specialist, at which he averaged 26.2 yards on kickoffs and 10.6 yards on punts. He was also selected to the prestigious New England Football Writers’ Division II-III Team, to the Football Gazette All-East Region First Team and to the d3football.com All-America Third Team. Overall, the Jumbos finished 5-3 and were ranked 10th among New England Division III teams.

Paloma Valverde, a scientist in the Nutrition and Vision Laboratory at the HNRCA, has found that scorpion venom contains a compound that inhibits bone loss in advanced periodontal disease. Valverde was the principal investigator on the research, conducted at the Forsyth Institute in Boston. The compound, tested in animal models, is kaliotoxin, a potassium channel blocker. The study was published in the January 4 issue of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

Paul Waldau, lecturer in environmental and population health at the veterinary school’s Center for Animals and Public Policy, spoke at Harvard Law School on international and educational developments in animal law. He also submitted, at the editors’ invitation, an article on “Animals” for the Encyclopedia of Religion.

Peter Walker, director of the Alan Shawn Feinstein International Famine Center, says that the center has been invited to become an associate member of the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International, which explores ways of making aid agencies more accountable to the people they serve. The agency is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Janet Walzer, senior health sciences writer in the Office of Publications, left Tufts to take a new position in the communications department at the Joslin Diabetes Center. Walzer served as editor of Tufts Nutrition and a contributing writer for Tufts Dental Medicine.

Dr. Xiang-Dong Wang, a scientist at the HNRCA, gave an invited presentation, “Mechanistic Understanding of Potential Beneficial/Adverse Effects of Carotenoid Supplementation in Lung Cancer Prevention,” at the National Cancer Institute on December 16. He was invited by Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to a luncheon in honor of Wen Jiabao, premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, December 10 in Boston.

Richard Weiss, William Walker Professor of Mathematics, received one of 100 annual Humboldt Research Awards given to scientists and scholars with internationally recognized academic qualifications. The award, given by the Alexander Humboldt Foundation, honors lifetime academic achievements, and recipients are invited to pursue research with colleagues anywhere in Germany for between six months and a year. Weiss will spend the fall 2004 semester visiting the universities of Würzburg, Halle and Kiel.

Donald Wertlieb, professor of child development and a member of the Community Health Policy Board, addressed the Mercaz Gil Conference on Children and Families Under Psychological, Economic & Political Stress at Haifa University last fall. He spoke on “Authoritative Communities for Promotion of Children’s Well-being.” Mercaz Gil is an international partnership for professional development and technical assistance affiliated with a network of 24 innovative family clinics throughout Israel.

Katherine Haley Will, J74, H02, has been appointed the 13th president of Gettysburg College. She succeeds Gordon A. Haaland, who will step down at the end of the current academic year. Will has been president of Whittier College in Los Angeles, Calif., since 1999. The author of many published works on Victorian literature, women’s literature and trends in educational technology, Will earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana.

Elaine Wilson is the new research administrator at the School of Dental Medicine. The former director of grants development at Bunker Hill Community College, Wilson is preparing a grant proposal to help develop the school’s research infrastructure.

Jonathan M. Wilson, Fletcher Professor of Rhetoric and Debate and professor of English, received recognition for his book A Palestine Affair in the New York Times’ “Notable Books 2003.”

Nancy Wilson has joined the University College of Citizenship and Public Service as director and associate dean. Wilson is responsible for all student, community and alumni programs of the college as well as day-to-day management and administration. Wilson recently moved back to the United States after living for 16 years in several African countries, where she worked on a range of nonprofit community development and adult education programs. She also worked in the for-profit sector as a partner in an international management consulting firm. Most recently, she served as executive director for Africa Foundation, a nonprofit working with communities adjacent to conservation areas in eastern and southern Africa.

Dona Yarbrough, director of Tufts’ Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center, received the 2003 Crompton-Noll Award for the “Best Essay in Lesbian, Gay, Queer Studies.” The award, now in its 24th year, recognized her article, “A Queer Form of Trauma: Lesbian Epistolarity in Either is Love,” for outstanding scholarship, originality of the research, care of the writing and quality of analysis. Yarbrough is finishing her Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia.