April People Notes

Frank Ackerman, director of the Research and Policy Program at Tufts’ Global Development and Environment Institute, is the principal investigator on a study sponsored by the European Parliament analyzing the expected impact on developing countries of the new EU chemicals policy, REACH, an acronym for Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals. He presented the first draft of the study to a committee of the European Parliament in Brussels on March 21. Following the presentation, Ackerman was interviewed by the Chinese media (Xinhua and Peoples Daily) and met with South African mining industry and government representatives as well as with the European Commission staff.

Astier Almedom, the Henry R. Luce Professor in Science and Humanitarianism, hosted “Against All Odds: African Languages and Literatures into the 21st Century,” a documentary film screening and discussion at Tufts on April 3 that was led by Charles Cantalupo, professor of English, comparative literature and African studies at Pennsylvania State University. The event was co-sponsored by the University College of Citizenship and Public Service, the International Relations Program, Africa and the New World interdisciplinary minor, the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences and PANGEA, a student organization. This event put Tufts on the map with a select few universities internationally that have demonstrated leadership in an emerging scholarly movement of immense significance: enabling African children, teachers and future leaders to communicate in their own (indigenous African) languages and encouraging the exchange of ideas through literature written in African languages. The documentary film shows the beginnings and follow-up implementation of the “Asmara Declaration” (http://www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/AllOdds/declaration.html) in Eritrea, South Africa and other countries in Africa. Almedom says that the meaning and impact of the Asmara Declaration in promoting cultural resilience in Africa is of scholarly interest to Tufts students and faculty who are engaged in African studies from various disciplinary perspectives.

Valerie Anishchenkova, lecturer in German, Russian and Asian languages and literature, received a summer grant from the Critical Thinking Program to develop a new course, “Egyptian Cinema at the End of the 20th Century: Cultures, Histories and People.” It introduces students to Egyptian culture through its cinema. Since the 1970s, Egyptian films have become increasingly illuminating representations of social, political and historical events and trends. The grant program, in its eighth year at Tufts, supports the development of innovative courses designed to promote undergraduates’ reasoning and analytic abilities.

Paula Aymer, associate professor and chair of sociology, presented a paper on “Negotiating the (CARICOM) Single Market Economy: The Case of Female Workers” at a meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society.

Chieko Azuma, assistant professor of clinical sciences at the Cummings School, has received a two-year, $125,000 grant from the American Kennel Club to study the genetic basis of hemangiosarcoma in dogs.

Cristelle Baskins, associate professor of art and art history, received a summer grant from the Critical Thinking Program to develop a new seminar, “Renaissance on Film,” which looks at how modern films represent the Italian Renaissance, especially considering how theories of pictorial space and narrative have affected modern filmmaking as well as the field of art history. The grant program, in its eighth year at Tufts, supports the development of innovative courses designed to promote undergraduates’ reasoning and analytic abilities.

Dr. Harris A. Berman, the Morton A. Madoff Professor and chair of public health and family medicine and dean of public health and professional degree programs at the School of Medicine, was one of the speakers at the graduation of 800 medical and nursing students from the Father Muller Institute of Health Sciences in Mangalore, India, on March 13. Berman told the graduates that India has witnessed remarkable growth in its economy, education and technology in the last 40 years. However, while a section of society has benefited from this growth, he said, there are large numbers who have been denied these benefits. Berman told the graduates that they have the opportunity and the obligation to help the underprivileged.

Harry Bernheim, associate professor of biology, and E. Teresa Howe, professor of Romance languages, have been elected to the Arts & Sciences Faculty Advisory Board for terms that end in 2011.

Margret Branschofsky has joined the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine as director of library services and information technology. She comes to Tufts from MIT, where she held several positions at the science and engineering libraries over 12 years. For the past five years, she has been a founding member and user support manager for the DSpace project, an open-source digital repository system that supports teaching and research.

Suzette Braun, E97, director of strategic projects and process redesign at the Stop & Shop Supermarket Co., and Karen Donoghue, E87, senior user interface designer at Motorola Corp., were honored by Mass High Tech, a newspaper focusing on New England technology, at the publication’s annual Women to Watch dinner on March 2 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston. They were among 10 New England women who were selected as notable and accomplished “up and comers” in their male-dominated fields.

Brian Brenner, professor of civil and environmental engineering, received a summer grant from the Critical Thinking Program to revise the course, “CEE10: Introduction to Civil Engineering,” to include newly designed activities, including a walking tour of the Medford/Somerville campus during which students observe and evaluate the pedestrian truss bridge to Dowling Hall, star anchors in the Ballou Hall façade and slope stability on the Paige Hall walkway. The grant program, in its eighth year at Tufts, supports the development of innovative courses designed to promote undergraduates’ reasoning and analytic abilities.

Dr. Kristine Burgess, V97, has joined the Cummings School as a clinical assistant professor of medical oncology. She completed a residency in oncology at the University of Wisconsin. Most recently, she was a staff medical oncologist at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital in New Jersey. She is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, American Association for Cancer Research and the Veterinary Cancer Society. Burgess is board-certified in oncology by the American College of Internal Medicine.

Peggy Cebe, professor of physics, has been awarded two research grants this year. The first is a two-year grant for $80,000 from the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society to investigate “The Impact of Clay Nanoparticles on Structure and Relaxation of a Polar Polymer.” The second is a three-year grant for $327,000 from the National Science Foundation. This award will be used to study “Constraints in Semicrystalline Polymers during the Transition from the Liquid to the Solid State.” Details of Cebe’s research program can be found at http://www.tufts.edu/~pcebe.

Claire Conceison, assistant professor of drama and dance, received a summer grant from the Critical Thinking Program to develop a new course, “Play Translation and Cultural Transmission,” designed for students of foreign languages and drama to examine plays in translation. The grant program, in its eighth year at Tufts, supports the development of innovative courses designed to promote undergraduates’ reasoning and analytic abilities.

Dr. Susan Cotter, professor of clinical sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, served on the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) Canine Vaccine Task Force, which released new canine vaccination guidelines on March 1. AAHA released its first set of canine vaccination guidelines in 2003. Factors that contributed to the updating of the guidelines include the rise of well-documented duration of immunity studies, industry support of extended revaccination intervals and developing areas of shelter medicine. The guidelines are available in their entirety on the AAHA website at http://www.aahanet.org. An executive summary of the guidelines was published in the March/April 2006 issues of Trends magazine and the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association.

Jamie Dimon, A78, CEO of JP Morgan Chase & Co., received the 2005 Light on the Hill Award March 28 in Ballou Hall. The annual award, instituted in 1995, is an honor that the undergraduate student senate presents to a distinguished alum who has demonstrated achievement, ambition and active citizenship in his or her professional career.

James Ennis, associate professor of sociology, presented a paper on “Location, Influence and Meaning: Specialties in U.S. Sociology as Intellectual and Social Structure” at a meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society.

Elizabeth Erbach has joined the Gift Planning Office as associate director. She began her gift-planning career at Boston College and went on to work in charitable asset management at State Street Bank. Most recently, she worked as director of planned giving and then director of alumni relations at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass. She has an MBA from Boston College. Erbach will be the gift-planning officer for the schools of Arts & Sciences and Engineering, the Cummings and Fletcher schools and for the Parents Program.

Kevin P. Gallagher, senior researcher at Tufts’ Global Development and Environment Institute, gave two presentations at the Latin American Studies Association meetings in Puerto Rico March 15-18. He presented his joint paper with Mexican economist Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid on “The Dynamism of Mexican Exports: Lost in (Chinese) Translation?” during a panel on “Globalization and Regional Integration in North America and the Caribbean.” He also presented a paper co-authored with economist Eva Paus, “The Missing Links between Foreign Investment and Development: Lessons from Costa Rica and Mexico.”

Neva Goodwin, co-director of Tufts’ Global Development and Environment Institute, spoke at the Americans for Informed Democracy conference organized by the Harvard Global Educators Conference on March 11. Note was taken of the fact that Tufts provided the expertise for the morning panel, “Current Issues in the U.S. Role in the World,” where the speakers included Goodwin, the Hon. Antonia Handler Chayes, visiting professor of international politics and law at the Fletcher School and former dean of Jackson College at Tufts, and Carsten Kowalczyk, associate professor of international economics at the Fletcher School. The purpose of the conference was to encourage the next generation of teachers to see global issues as an essential part of educating students and to suggest how they can integrate global tools into their classrooms. Seventy-five educators in grades K-12 attended the conference at Harvard.

Dr. Andrew S. Greenberg, director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) Obesity Metabolism Laboratory, has been asked to co-chair the organizing committee for the annual meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity in Boston October 20-24. Greenberg will chair the organizing committee for the 2007 meeting. He also has been invited to meet with the Society for Women’s Health Research to assemble a consortium to study adipose tissue metabolism and related physiology.

Matt Harrigan, a freshman goalkeeper on the men’s lacrosse team, was selected as Inside Lacrosse’s NCAA Division III Men’s Player of the Week for the week of March 13. In an 8-7 overtime win against Skidmore on March 14 and a 14-2 victory against Eastern Connecticut on March 17, Harrigan recorded a .780 save percentage and 4.28 goals against average. He saved 32 of 41 shots on net and allowed just nine goals in a little more than 126 minutes of play.

Larry D. Johnson, visiting professor of international law at the Fletcher School, has been appointed United Nations assistant secretary-general for legal affairs by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He will succeed Ralph Zacklin on May 1. Johnson served as the legal advisor to the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1997 to 2001 and chef de cabinet, Office of the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, from 2003 to 2005. Johnson is a professor of global affairs at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Society of International Law and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. An attorney, Johnson holds degrees from the University of Nebraska, Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

Brian Jordan, lecturer in English, received a summer grant from the Critical Thinking Program to develop a new course, “Art and Social Change.” The course poses the question: Can art act as a vehicle for social change? The class looks at contemporary filmmakers, writers, photographers, musicians and other artists who try to reflect and engage the world around them through their art. The grant program, in its eighth year at Tufts, supports the development of innovative courses designed to promote undergraduates’ reasoning and analytic abilities.

Ikumi Kaminishi, associate professor of art and art history, and Richard Vogel, professor of civil and environmental engineering, have been elected to the Arts & Sciences Faculty Committee on Committees for terms that end in 2011. In addition, Kaminishi received a summer grant from the Critical Thinking Program to develop a new course, “Japanese Art and Anime.” The course capitalizes on the global interest in Japan’s animation (anime) films and comic books.

Dr. Nathaniel Katz, adjunct assistant professor of anesthesiology at the School of Medicine, participated in a panel of experts in pain management at a Chronic Pain Conference sponsored by First Albany Capital Inc. March 16 in New York City. The goal of the conference was to increase investors’ understanding of the landscape of experimental therapeutics, expected to drive the $15 billion market for chronic pain drugs.

Paul H. Kirshen, research professor of civil and environmental engineering and co-chair and director of the Water: Systems, Science and Society (WSSS) interdisciplinary graduate program, and Dr. Christine Jost, assistant professor of environmental and population health at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, have been awarded a $340,000 grant from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration for their project, “Improved Water Resources Management in the Sahel-Sudan: A Case Study of Burkina Faso.” Kirshen serves as principal investigator on the project, while Jost and M. Carla Roncoli and Gerrit Hoogenboom, both of the University of Georgia, are co-principal investigators. The Sahel-Sudan climatic zone south of the Sahara Desert is characterized by extreme variability in annual rainfall, ranging from 100 mm each year in the north to more than 1,000 mm in the south. The major livelihood in Burkina Faso is rain-fed cultivation of cereal crops as well as some cultivation of rice, peanuts and cowpeas. Surface water resources are becoming more important to Burkina Faso as it tries to improve food security and water supplies and increase energy production. The objective of the research is to identify opportunities for using seasonal climate forecasts to improve irrigation surface water management as an example of possible water management improvements in the Sahel-Sudan.

Mark Leekoff, a sophomore majoring in biology, was one of three undergraduate students in the country to be awarded a Graeme Clark Cochlear Scholarship in Orlando, Fla., in February. The annual scholarships recognize the remarkable achievements of Nucleus cochlear implant recipients. Deaf since birth, Leekoff received a cochlear implant in 1989. The scholarships were presented by Prof. Graeme Clark, a pioneer of cochlear implant technology, and former Miss America Heather Whitestone McCallum, a Nucleus cochlear recipient and chair of the Graeme Clark Cochlear Scholarship Foundation. The scholarship recipients receive $3,000 per year for four years.

Richard M. Lerner, Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science, and William Damon of Stanford University are the editors of the four-volume Handbook of Child Psychology, 6th edition, which was published in March. Lerner says he is proud to bring the handbook back to Tufts, where the first edition was edited and published by former Tufts President Leonard Carmichael in 1946.

Amy M. Lischko, instructor in public health and family medicine, is the new head of the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, charged with improving the cost and delivery of health care in Massachusetts. The agency, with a $12.7 million budget and 100 employees, plays a broad role in the state’s health-care industry, setting payment rates for MassHealth, the state’s insurance program for low-income residents, and for injured workers who seek compensation under state workers’ compensation laws. Gov. Mitt Romney promoted Lischko, a former assistant commissioner, to replace Paul Cote, who was named the new commissioner of the Department of Public Health. She takes over as health-care reform dominates debate on Beacon Hill. Lischko holds a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is working on a doctorate in health services research at Boston University.

Dan Martin, senior tri-captain of the men’s basketball team, has been named to the All-New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) First Team. Martin scored in double digits for 25 straight starts, including a career-high 35 points at Western Connecticut on January 31. He also won two NESCAC Player of the Week awards this season. Martin made 169 of his 293 field goal attempts for a .577 percentage that is third in NESCAC.

Andrew McClellan, associate professor of art and art history, has been appointed academic director of museum studies at Tufts. In that capacity, he appeared on Emily Rooney’s “Greater Boston” on WGBH on February 28 to discuss the current controversy over looted antiquities at American museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Gilbert Metcalf, professor of economics, gave a presentation on “Energy Efficiency” at a conference in Washington, D.C., March 2-3 titled “The Economics of Climate Change: Understanding Transatlantic Differences” that was sponsored by Resources for the Future and the U.K. Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The two-day conference was designed to draw out the key issues, encourage discussion and develop a keener understanding of how to move forward in light of transatlantic differences concerning climate change economics. Resources for the Future is a Washington-based independent institute dedicated exclusively to analyzing environmental, energy and natural resource topics. Metcalf is currently a visiting professor at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change and is working on issues involving energy efficiency and taxation in global climate models.

Dr. Mohsen Meydani, director of the HNRCA Vascular Biology Laboratory, spoke on “Green Tea and Oatmeal for Breakfast” during the G. Malcolm Trout Visiting Scholar Program at Michigan State University March 1-2.

Dr. Klemens Meyer, associate professor of medicine, has been named an outstanding physician in nephrology by the National Kidney Foundation for his extraordinary commitment to patient care and the treatment of chronic kidney disease. Meyer directs Tufts-New England Medical Center’s Dialysis Center, where he is active in the chronic kidney disease and transplant programs, and is also on staff at Emerson Hospital. He has a particular interest in improving patient care and was the first to use quality-of-life measures as a clinical tool in dialysis. Meyer has worked to raise awareness of kidney disease and hypertension in Boston’s Asian-American community.

Lauren Miller has joined the Gift Planning Office as a staff assistant. She is a recent graduate of Tufts, with a major in international relations and a minor in European history. After attending American University’s School of International Service her freshman year, Miller transferred to Tufts in 2002. While at Tufts, she obtained her paralegal certificate through Boston University’s Center for Professional Education and has worked as a paralegal for Genzyme Corp.

Nancy Morrison has been appointed associate director of development for the School of Engineering. She comes to Tufts from Boston College, where she was director of special projects in the Office of University Advancement. Morrison also spent a number of years at Harvard, where she was associate director of the Harvard College Fund. A graduate of Goucher College in Towson, Md., she also holds a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Dr. Maureen Murray, V03, has been appointed a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Population Health at the Cummings School. Before coming back to Tufts, Murray was an associate veterinarian at the Sterling Veterinary Clinic. She conducts research on the causes of mortality and effects of environmental contaminants in sea birds.

Martin Obin, a scientist in the HNRCA Obesity and Metabolism Laboratory, has received a three-year, $300,000 grant from the American Diabetes Association to study the role of inflammatory cells in diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance.

Susan Ostrander, professor of sociology, presented a paper on “Class Elites and New Forms of Donor-Controlled Philanthropy” at a meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society.

Carole A. Palmer, professor of general dentistry and a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, lectured at the Pacific Dental Conference in Vancouver on March 9 and 10. Her lectures were titled “Nutrition and the Contemporary Dental Team” and “Communicating Effective Nutrition Messages to Patients.” Palmer also has been appointed a consultant/site visitor for the Commission on Dental Accreditation.

Jessica Powers, senior tri-captain of the women’s basketball team, has been named to the All-New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Second Team for 2006. The NESCAC Rookie of the Year in 2003 and a Second Team All-Conference pick in 2004, Powers returns to the all-star line-up after leading the Jumbos with 11.6 points per game, 57 assists, 36 steals and a .792 free-throw percentage—fifth-best in the league. During her Tufts career, Powers started all 95 games. She scored her 1,000th career point at Wellesley on December 10, 2005, and finished with 1,174 points for her career—third all-time at Tufts. Her 108 career three-pointers are second on the Jumbo list.

Anne-Christine Rice, lecturer in French, received a summer grant from the Critical Thinking Program to revise the course “French 21: Composition and Conversation,” which focuses on the study of films. The grant program, in its eighth year at Tufts, supports the development of innovative courses designed to promote undergraduates’ reasoning and analytic abilities.

Dan Richards, professor of economics, gave a talk on merger policy titled “Merger Theory and Evidence: The Baby Food Case Reconsidered” at the Canadian Bureau of Competition in Ottawa on March 21.

Marta Rosso-O’Laughlin, senior lecturer in Romance languages, received a summer grant from the Critical Thinking Program to develop a series of activities for Spanish-language classes. Focusing on the cultural component of language, exercises will elicit language appropriate to the students’ level of proficiency while also helping to develop critical thinking skills.

Dr. Marc Sadowsky, M85, clinical instructor of psychiatry, has been elected president of the New Hampshire Medical Society. A psychiatrist, he practices with New England Neurological Associates in Nashua, N.H., and in North Andover, Mass.

Stephanie Saraceni has joined the Advancement Gift & Information Services team as a gift processing analyst. She comes to Tufts from Clinical One National Healthcare, where she worked as an administrative accounting coordinator. Saraceni will be responsible for gift processing.

Dr. Barry D. Sarvet, associate clinical professor of psychiatry, is one of the lead physicians on a new Massachusetts-funded program designed to address the state’s shortage of child psychiatrists. That shortage has left pediatricians handling many mental health problems for which they are not specifically trained. The new Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program (MCPAP) provides enrolled pediatricians telephone access within 30 minutes to a child psychiatrist, social worker or care coordinator so they can receive quick answers to their pediatric mental health questions. MCPAP, which is the first such statewide program in the country, operates six regional hubs across the state. Sarvet leads the hub at Baystate Medical Center, a Tufts-affiliated hospital in Springfield, Mass., which was the first to open and is the largest of the regional hubs. As MCPAP’s medical co-director, Sarvet also oversees the hub at Tufts-New England Medical Center/Children’s Hospital in Boston and the one at the UMass Medical Center in Worcester. “Barry found solutions to many of the logistical challenges of implementing MCPAP and has generously shared them with all of the other hubs,” said Dr. Joseph Gold, clinical director of child and adolescent psychiatric services at McLean Hospital.

Christina Sharpe, associate professor of English, delivered the keynote address for “Sexuality Out of Place,” an Earlham College graduate conference on sexuality studies that took place March 31-April 1.

Sarah Sobieraj, assistant professor of sociology, presented a paper on “Negotiating Authenticity: Activists, Journalists and the Construction of News” at a meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society.

Vickie B. Sullivan, dean of academic affairs for the School of Arts & Sciences and professor of political science, published the essay “Muted and Manifest English Machiavellianism: The Reconciliation of Machiavellian Republicanism with Liberalism in Sidney’s Discourses Concerning Government and Trenchard and Gordon’s Cato’s Letters” in the volume Machiavelli’s Liberal Republican Legacy, edited by Paul A. Rahe (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Michelle Tangredi and Jason Chan, both doctoral students in neuroscience at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, organized the first Boston Regional Brain Bee on February 11 at MIT. The brain bee, designed to promote youth and community interest in neuroscience, was a live question-and-answer competition among 17 Boston-area high school students. Students were asked questions from a 60-page Brain Facts book published by the Society for Neuroscience. Monetary prizes were awarded to the top three competitors. The winner, Ariella Goldman, a senior at Newton South High School, also received an all-expenses-paid trip to compete in the International Brain Bee at the University of Maryland on March 17. The brain bee was sponsored by the Boston Area Neuroscience Group (BANG, which is the local chapter of the Society for Neuroscience), the Picower Institute at MIT, Brandeis University, Harvard University and the Sackler School. Rob Jackson, professor of neuroscience and Tangredi’s research advisor, heads the BANG steering committee.