February People Notes

Frank Ackerman, Neva R. Goodwin, Julie Nelson, Jonathan Harris, Brian Roach, Suzanne Bremer and Pam Velez-Vega, all staff members or researchers at Tufts’ Global Development and Environment Institute, organized and hosted an international conference on “Growth vs. Sustainability? Economic Responses to Ecological Challenges” at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Pocantico Conference Center in Tarrytown, N.Y., November 9-11. The conference brought together scientists, economists and civil society activists from the global south and north for a discussion of alternatives to current theories of economic growth.

Dr. Sawkat Anwer, professor of biomedical sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, has been appointed the school’s associate dean for research. He was invited to present a seminar on “Cellular Regulation of Hepatic Bile Acid Uptake by Cyclic AMP” at Kansas University Medical Center on December 12. Anwer has received a grant from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command to train veterinary students to become involved in biodefense and public health research.

Dr. Sandra Ayres, assistant professor of biomedical sciences at the Cummings School, wrote a chapter on “Reproductive Health Programs” in Current Therapy in Large Animal Theriogenology 2 (Saunders, St. Louis, 2007). The editors of the book are R.S. Youngquist and W.R. Threlfall.

Diana M. Bailey, associate professor of occupational therapy in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, was invited to give a presentation at the fourth Focus for Therapeutic Outcomes (FOTO) Excellence celebration at New England Sinai Hospital on November 28. She spoke on practical applications for evidence-based practice in occupational and physical therapy. FOTO is a national company that allows occupational and physical therapists to benchmark their data against national statistics.

Dr. Lisa Barber, assistant professor of clinical sciences at the Cummings School, received funding from the Barry and Savannah French Poodle Memorial Fund for a study titled “High-dose Cyclophosphamide with Cytokine Support as Consolidation Chemotherapy for Canine Lymphoma: A Dose-escalation Trial.”

Dr. Desmond H. Birkett, clinical professor of surgery, has been honored with the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons’ (SAGES) Distinguished Service Award for 2007. “I have been involved with this society for many years and am proud that my work at Lahey Clinic contributes to the ongoing mission of SAGES,” Birkett said. SAGES represents a worldwide community of surgeons and brings minimal-access surgery, endoscopy and emerging techniques to patients in every country. The Distinguished Service Award is given to a surgeon who has advanced the mission of SAGES by making a significant educational, research, clinical or technological contribution to surgical endoscopy. Birkett has been a physician at the Tufts-affiliated Lahey Clinic for the past 10 years and is chair of general surgery there.

Dr. Randy Boudrieau, professor of clinical sciences at the Cummings School, gave presentations at the Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Osteosynthesefragenan 84th Small Animal Course in Davos, Switzerland, December 2-7. AO is an international orthopedic organization.

Brian Brenner, professor of the practice in civil and environmental engineering, received a “starred review” from Publishers Weekly for his new book, Don’t Throw This Away! The Civil Engineering Life (American Society of Civil Engineers Press). The review notes that Brenner “bucks staid engineering stereotypes to deliver a brief, playful look at the world through the eyes of a civil engineer, via a collection of 46 vignettes remarkable for their subtlety, humor and inspiration.” The review also says that “despite the technical pedigree, Brenner’s honest, assured voice, brainiac populism and bite-sized essays make this a quirky, addictive winner that should bring out the ‘inner civil engineer’ in a wide cross-section of readers.”

Margo Caddell has joined the Department of Drama and Dance as a lecturer. She holds an MFA in theater, with a concentration in lighting design, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. During her studies, she completed a design concept for the lighting of “House of Desires” by Sor Juana de la Cruz. She has worked as a light designer, sound designer, tour stage manager, technical director and electrician on numerous theater and dance performances. In addition, she has lectured on lighting design for dance, emphasizing the differences between lighting for dance performances and lighting for theater.

Alva Couch, associate professor of computer science, attended the 2006 Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference in Washington, D.C. LISA is the largest system and network administration conference in the world, with more than 1,200 attendees. Couch presented a technical paper, “Modeling Next Generation Configuration Management Tools,” co-authored with Mark Burgess of Oslo City University in Oslo, Norway, and another paper, “Experience Implementing an IP Address Closure,” with Ph.D. student Ning Wu. He also presented an invited talk on “The Future of System Administration: How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love Self-managing Systems.” The talk explored the changing profession of system administrator in the presence of systems that purportedly manage themselves, and made the point that the profession will be aided, and not hurt, by new developments in autonomic computing. Couch is also chair of the SAGE subcommittee of the USENIX Board of Directors. As chair, Couch is spearheading several initiatives aimed at helping and educating system administrators, including a new version of the SAGE handbook on educational opportunities for system administrators and a new self-service mentoring program for system administrators. Couch also serves as secretary of the USENIX Board of Directors.

In an editorial posted on the medical website Medscape, Dr. Michael Dansinger, assistant professor of medicine and an obesity researcher at Tufts-New England Medical Center, said doctors should be held to a higher standard than the general public for maintaining appropriate weight and fitness levels. “Physicians rally against obesity, and yet we are not doing all we can,” Dansinger said. “The physicians who fail to recognize and treat obesity are often the ones who personally fail to heed lifestyle recommendations, and these doctors may sometimes lose credibility with their own patients.”

Dr. Armelle De Laforcade, assistant professor of clinical sciences at the Cummings School, traveled to Bologna, Italy, on December 2-3 to present a series of lectures on emergency and critical care at a meeting of Società Culturale Italiana Veterinari per Animali da Compagnia (the Italian Companion Animal Veterinary Association). De Laforcade lectured on “Approach to the Dyspneic Patient,” “Respiratory Complications of Critical Illness,” “Mechanical Ventilation,” “Respiratory Monitoring,” “Recognition and Treatment of Sepsis,” “Cardiac Emergencies,” “Adrenal Insufficiency of Critical Illness,” “Heatstroke” and “Smoke Inhalation Injury.”

Art Donohue-Rolfe, associate professor of biomedical sciences at the Cummings School, has been appointed interim chair of the biomedical sciences department while a search is conducted for a permanent department chair.

Ioannis D. Evrigenis, assistant professor of political science, delivered a “Conversations on Europe” lecture titled “Enlightenment, Emancipation and National Identity: Koraes and the Ancients” at the University of Michigan Center for European Studies/European Union Center on January 11.

Jianping Feng has joined Tufts as a lecturer in the Department of German, Russian and Asian Languages and Literature. Most recently, she was an adjunct professor of Chinese at Union College. She obtained her doctoral degree from the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at SUNY-Albany in 2004. She has taught courses on Chinese language, Chinese culture and traditional Chinese medicine at Union College and Harvard University. Feng’s research focuses on the theory of second language acquisition, language pedagogy, language and culture and computer-assisted language learning.

Alvar Gustafson, associate professor of anatomy and cellular biology, has been appointed faculty director of the new M.S. program in biomedical sciences at the School of Medicine. The new degree program is directed at prospective medical students who want to strengthen their candidacy. A talented teacher, Gustafson is course director for medical histology, the medical pre-matriculation program and dental histology. He served on the steering committee that developed the M.S. program.

Ramin Haghgooie has joined the School of Engineering as a lecturer in chemical and biological engineering. He completed his doctoral degree in chemical engineering at MIT. His research focuses on the self-assembly of magnetorheological (MR) fluids in confined geometries. As part of his doctoral work, he developed a Brownian dynamics (BD) code to simulate MR colloids interacting and performed experiments on the self-assembly of these colloids. He has written articles on this topic and has presented his research at numerous conferences.

Soha Hassoun, associate professor of computer science, served as general chair of the International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), which took place in November in San Jose, Calif. ICCAD is traditionally a conference for CAD researchers, and around 80 percent of the 127 papers presented at the conference came from academia. But this year the organizers decided to do something different by adding a designer’s perspective to the discussion. “Our goal is to bridge the gap between practitioners and research,” Hassoun said in her opening remarks at the conference. “We would like them [designers] to tell you [researchers] what critical issues should drive CAD research in the next few years.”

Oidinposha Imamkhodjaeva has joined the School of Arts & Sciences as a lecturer in comparative religion. She holds a Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the USSR Academy of Science and a doctoral degree in philosophy, interpretation and culture from SUNY-Binghamton. Her scholarly work examines questions regarding the role of Islam in the lives of people in central Asia and the influence of Central Asian culture on the practice of Islam. Most recently she served as an instructor of record at the Rochester Institute of Technology, lecturing on social and political philosophy, great Islamic thinkers and confronting the conflicting forces of Islam and globalization.

Virginia Jackson’s first book, Dickinson’s Misery: A Theory of Lyric Reading (Princeton University Press, 2005), received the 2006 Christian Gauss Award. The $2,500 annual award from the Phi Beta Kappa Society is given to works of literary scholarship and criticism. “The Christian Gauss Award is a tremendous honor for so many reasons,” said Jackson, associate professor of English. “There are many books that have won the award that have been important to my work. Indeed, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that Dickinson’s Misery was made possible by previous Gauss-winning books. It is also so rewarding to receive such recognition from one’s colleagues.” Jackson’s book poses fundamental questions about reading habits we have come to take for granted. Because Dickinson’s writing remained largely unpublished when she died in 1886, decisions about what it was that Dickinson wrote have been left to the editors, publishers and critics who have brought Dickinson’s work into public view. The familiar letters, notes on advertising fliers, verses on split-open envelopes and collections of verses on personal stationery tied together with string have become the Dickinson poems celebrated since her death as exemplary lyrics. Featuring many new illustrations from Dickinson’s manuscripts, the book makes a major contribution to the study of Dickinson and of 19th-century American poetry. It maps out the future for new work in historical poetics and lyric theory. Dickinson’s Misery also received the 2005 MLA Prize for a First Book. Jackson is currently at work on a book on 19th-century American poetic genres and their public circulation. She has published articles in Raritan, Poe Studies, Victorian Poetry, Victorian Literature and Culture and MLQ.

Dr. Robert D. Kennison, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, retired on December 31 after more than 40 years of service to Tufts-New England Medical Center and Tufts School of Medicine. Kennison, M60, became chief resident in gynecology at NEMC in 1964 and a teaching fellow in obstetrics and gynecology at the medical school. He has held positions at both institutions ever since, including several leadership roles in the hospital’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and as part of the school’s administration, where he has played a key role in curriculum innovation. He is a past president of the Tufts Medical Alumni Association and a member of the University Alumni Council. A frequent recipient of teaching awards, Kennison won the school’s Zucker Teaching Prize in 2000. He is also a captain in the Army Medical Corps and served in the Womack Army Medical Center’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 1965-67 and in 1995.

Anisha Khaitan, A06, has received a Fulbright grant to study in India this year. She is working on a public health project in which she is studying HIV/AIDS programs in urban centers in India and will design an HIV/AIDS educational prevention program for rural communities in northern India. “My goal is to create effective and appropriate community-based programs that incorporate the interests, concerns and diverse cultures of these rural communities,” she said.

Raymond Kozlowski has joined Tufts as a lecturer in computer science. He earned his doctorate in computer science from the University of Delaware in 2005, and was a visiting assistant professor of computer science at the University of San Diego, where he taught courses on digital logic design and architecture, Java and C++. His research interests include natural language generation, machine translation, tree-adjoining grammars and discourse. He has also taught at Wheaton College and Western New England College and worked as a programmer for International Fastek Corp.

Sergiy Kryatov has joined the university as a lecturer in chemistry. He obtained his doctoral degree in inorganic chemistry from the Pisarzhevskii Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 1997. He brings many years of research experience to the Tufts classroom. His research interests are in inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry, with an emphasis on small molecule activation with transition metal complexes. He has published papers in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and Angewandte Chemie, among others. For the past year, he has been a part-time lecturer in chemistry at Tufts, teaching general chemistry, analytical chemistry, inorganic chemistry and instrumental analysis.

Krishna Kumar, professor and chair of chemistry, received a 2006 Global Indus Technovators Award, established by the Indian Business Club at MIT to increase awareness about the technological contributions of young South Asians across the globe. Ten award winners were chosen from more than 100 nominations, and they were honored on December 4 at MIT. Kumar runs a peptide therapeutic research program at Tufts that has the potential to impact cancer management. In several human cancers, the malignant cells may metastasize to a location remote from their site of origin. These cells typically produce an unusually high amount of surface proteins that enable them to align along the periphery of our blood vessels and eventually squeeze between cells that line blood vessels into surrounding tissue. Kumar has experimentally proved that cancer cells can be made to express surface proteins that incorporate fluorinated peptides and this modification could be used to prevent the ominous sequence of events implicated in cancer metastasis. In combination with auxiliary imaging techniques, it will be possible to image these cancer cells—an invaluable tool in reducing morbidity associated with cancer.

Kelly Lewis has joined Tufts as a staff assistant in Corporate and Foundation Relations. She is working in the group’s Boston office, assisting associate directors Wendy Lekan and Roxanne Beal and Assistant Director Maryann Boyle as part of the team raising funds for the medical, dental, Friedman and Cummings schools.

Alice Lichtenstein, the Stanley N. Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy at the Friedman School, has been recognized as one of 10 women who “shape the world” by the popular fitness publication Shape Magazine. “Sometimes it takes just one person to change the way we view the world and motivate us to make it better,” Shape reported about the group of honorees, who “share a single goal: improving the health and well-being of women everywhere. Lichtenstein has spent the past 30 years researching dietary risk and the correlation between cardiovascular health and eating the right foods (soy protein, fiber, veggies) and the wrong ones (trans and saturated fats),” the magazine reported. “You can’t sprinkle wheat germ or soy powder on a hot-fudge sundae and expect all the fat and calories to magically disappear,” Lichtenstein told the magazine. The chair of the American Heart Association’s Nutrition Committee, Lichtenstein directs the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) and is a professor of public health and family medicine at Tufts School of Medicine.

Rachel Massey, a research associate at Tufts’ Global Development and Environment Institute, spoke about the economic costs of environmentally attributable illnesses in Massachusetts in a session on “Cost-Benefit Analyses of Environmental Policies and Diseases” at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association November 7 in Boston.

Donald McGowan has been appointed director of Corporate and Foundation Relations in the university’s Advancement Division. He succeeds John Schneider, who retired last summer. McGowan comes to Tufts after eight years in the Industrial Liaison Program/Corporate Relations at MIT, where he most recently served as associate director. Prior to MIT, he spent 20 years at Polaroid in various scientific and managerial roles. He holds a B.S. in chemistry from Boston College and an M.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from MIT.

Barbara Parmenter has joined the university as a lecturer in urban and environmental policy and planning and in environmental studies. Previously, she was an assistant professor of community and regional planning at the University of Texas School of Architecture. She obtained her doctoral degree in geography from the University of Texas at Austin in 1991. Her research uses GIS and imaging applications to understand spatial relationships and interactions. With a grant from the National Institutes of Health, she is currently exploring the relationship between the built environment and physical activity. Parmenter recently traveled to Iraq with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build GIS capabilities. She is the author of Giving Voice to Stones: Place and Identity in Palestinian Literature.

Dr. Ronald Pies, clinical professor of psychiatry, had his article, “Blues Comes with the Holidays? It’s Not That Simple,” published in the November 20 edition of The Boston Globe. The article debunked one holiday myth—the reported increase in suicides (not true, according to the studies). He also noted an increase in heart attacks on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, probably related to stress. Pies’ advice to the holiday weary: “It certainly pays to keep your holiday expectations within reason.”

Stephen Rawlings, a senior majoring in biology, has been awarded the first annual Nadia Medina Memorial Prize, which honors Medina’s contributions to Tufts as a teacher, advisor, director of the Academic Resource Center and founder of the Writing Fellows Program. Medina died in February 2006. James Glaser, dean of undergraduate education, and Carmen Lowe, director of the Academic Resource Center, presented the award at the Writing Fellows Colloquium on December 4. Rawlings received a certificate, a letter of congratulations and a check for $1,250. The Medina Prize is awarded to a junior or senior to recognize his or her contributions to collaborative learning at Tufts as a peer tutor or Writing Fellow. Rawlings became a Writing Fellow his sophomore year, a resident head tutor his junior year and student coordinator of head tutors this year. He continues to act as a resident head tutor in Houston Hall and tutors writing, chemistry and biology. Donations to the Nadia Medina Memorial Fund may be sent to Tufts University, 200 Boston Ave., Suite 2600, Medford, MA 02155.

Dan Roan, A07, a sociology major, has been appointed a Junior Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Roan is involved in community politics and was a student representative for the Democratic presidential candidate during the 2004 elections. He has organized winter clothing drives for the homeless, worked in soup kitchens and is serving for the second year as president of the Tufts Sociology Club. His career goal is to be a sociology professor.

Dr. David J. Schoetz Jr., professor of surgery, has been appointed the inaugural Tufts academic dean at the Lahey Clinic, an affiliate of the medical school. Schoetz received his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. His postgraduate training in surgery was completed with a residency at Boston University Medical Center and fellowship training in colorectal surgery at the Lahey Clinic. He has been on the medical school faculty since 1996. “The creation of the position of the Tufts Academic Dean at the Lahey Clinic represents an important step forward in the relationship between the medical school and the Lahey Clinic,” Dean Michael Rosenblatt said, “and we are delighted to have someone of Dr. Schoetz’ accomplishment and stature to serve as the first person in this role.” Schoetz has served as the president of American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and is a former president of the Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery. He has been editor-in-chief of Seminars in Colon and Rectal Surgery and associate editor of the journal Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.

Sharan L. Schwartzberg, professor and chair of occupational therapy, and Mary A. Barnes, fieldwork coordinator in occupational therapy, presented a daylong workshop on “Group Process: Understanding Forces at Work in Groups” last fall at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Association for Occupational Therapy in Westford, Mass.

Dr. Patrick Skelly, assistant professor of biomedical sciences at the Cummings School, was elected president of the New England Association of Parasitologists at the association’s 2006 annual meeting at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

Jeff Taliaferro, associate professor of political science, has been appointed a member of the Diversity Committee of the International Studies Association (ISA) for a three-year term beginning in March 2007. He has also been appointed to the editorial board of International Studies Perspectives (ISP), one of the four journals sponsored by the ISA.

Grace Talusan, lecturer in English, had her essay, “My Father’s Noose,” published in Issue 23 of Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction.

Joanie Tobin, a 2004 photojournalism graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has joined the Tufts Photo department as an image technician and photography assistant. Tobin worked as a full-time freelance intern for Tufts Photo from September 2005 to February 2006, before she took a position as a staff photographer for the newspaper Bluffton Today in Bluffton, S.C. She returned to Tufts last August to work as a full-time freelance assistant in the photography department.

Paul J. Tringale, A82, F01, director of conferences and summer programs, has been elected an administrative vice president of the Tufts Alumni Council, the governing body of the Tufts University Alumni Association. He is also serving as co-chair of his class’ 25th reunion.

Dr. Saul Tzipori, professor of biomedical sciences at the Cummings School, received an award from the U.S. Army Research Office for his project titled “Portable Flow Centrifugation for Concentration and Detection of Pathogens/Toxins for Water Monitoring.” Udi Zukerman, research assistant professor, is co-investigator on the project.

John Walker has joined the Finance Division as the university’s accounting director. He most recently was the corporate controller at the Lahey Clinic Medical Center and has held accounting and audit positions at Tufts-New England Medical Center, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Bon Secours Hospital, Compucorp Ireland and the audit firm KPMG. Educated in Ireland, Walker earned his bachelor’s degree at the University College Cork and is a chartered accountant in Ireland and the United States.

Xiang-Dong Wang, professor at the Friedman School and director of the HNRCA’s Nutrition and Cancer Biology Laboratory, was an invited speaker at the Gordon Research Conference on Carotenoids, which was held in Ventura, Calif., in January. The title of his talk was “Molecular Mechanisms Underlying the Biological Activity of Carotenoid Metabolites.” During the conference, he was elected a vice chair for the next Gordon Conference on Carotenoids. Wang also gave an invited seminar on “Carotenoids and Lung Cancer Prevention” at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Ohio State University on December 19.

Rachel Wasserman has joined University Relations as administrative assistant for public relations on the Medford/Somerville campus. She graduated last May from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a B.A. in communications. She minored in sociology and received a certificate in public policy and administration. Wasserman most recently was a manager in catering services at Harvard Law School.

Shaomei Wang has joined Tufts as a lecturer in the Department of German, Russian and Asian Languages and Literature. She completed her doctoral degree at the University of Arizona, with a specialization in Chinese linguistics and applied linguistics. Her doctoral research investigates the L2 Chinese reading process from a transactional view of reading and has led her to develop a taxonomy of Chinese miscues. She has co-authored two articles about this research that will appear in the forthcoming book, Scientific Realism in Studies of Reading.

Donald Wertlieb, a professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, represented the American Psychological Association (APA) at a November 15 planning meeting on “Children’s Mental Health Services: The Role of the Primary Care Provider” at the National Research Council/Institute of Medicine. Along with APA, delegates represented the Board of Pediatrics, American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and launched the process for a series of workshops and/or studies addressing the pressing needs of children and families for accessible and effective mental health services. In December, Wertlieb was selected for the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program and will take his initial grant assignment working with the Mohyla Public Humanitarian University in Ukraine, advancing that institution’s child development program with an emphasis on teacher preparation and research-practice integration.

Richard Wlezien has been appointed a visiting professor of mechanical engineering. He comes to Tufts after a distinguished career at NASA, where he most recently was the director of the Fundamental Aeronautics Office. Before that, he was NASA’s director of the Vehicle Systems Division; program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He obtained his doctoral degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1981. His research focuses on active flow control, turbulence physics and aeroacoustics and autonomous swarms. Wlezien is the recipient of a fellowship from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and two Popular Science Best of What’s New Awards.

Amanda Yost, G01, has joined the Tufts Advancement team’s prospect research and management group as the principal researcher for the School of Engineering. She received her M.A. in history and a Museum Studies certificate from Tufts and earned her B.A. in history at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass. Most recently, Yost was director of annual fund and membership at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., coordinating all aspects of the annual appeals to and events for the cemetery’s 6,000-plus constituencies and its corporate sponsors. In her spare time, Yost gardens and volunteers at Boston Cares.

Jing Zhang has joined Tufts as a visiting faculty member in the Department of German, Russian and Asian Languages and Literature. She holds a doctoral degree in Chinese and comparative literature from Washington University in St. Louis. Her dissertation, The Storyteller/Narrator: Multiple Voices in Short Vernacular Stories of Late Ming and Early Qing (1550s-1660s), examines the formation and maturation of the short vernacular narrative genre through the invention and innovations of the narrator. Zhang has taught at Washington University and at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. She is the recipient of a dissertation grant from Washington University and an award for excellence in teaching.