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School NotesSchool NotesA supplement to the Yale Alumni Magazine from the fourteen schools of Yale. School of Architecture Professorship honors late architect A newly established professorship at the architecture school will be an enduring legacy in the name of architect Charles Gwathmey ’62MArch, who died last August. Gwathmey was celebrated for the geometrically complex and meticulously detailed buildings he designed in a Modernist style, and was identified along with other architects as a champion of High Modernism. His long list of acclaimed designs includes a number of private homes as well as institutional projects such as the additions to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge. His design for the recently completed Yale arts complex encompassed the restoration and expansion of the Art & Architecture Building (now Paul Rudolph Hall), the Jeffrey C. Loria Center for the History of Art, and the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library. “The Charles Gwathmey professorship acknowledges the contributions Charles made as an architect, as well as his unique abilities as an educator to motivate young people,” said designer Ralph Lauren, who along with his wife, Ricky, established the professorship at the school. The Laurens were close friends of the architect. Peter Eisenman, the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Professor of Architectural Design, has been named the first Charles Gwathmey Professor.
Visiting professorship will attract distinguished faculty A visiting professorship in the name of Pritzker Prize laureate Norman Foster ’62MArch will bring prominent architects and designers to the school to lead advanced studios and expose students to the latest cross-currents of ideas in current architectural practice. The Norman R. Foster Visiting Professorship is supported by a gift from the architect and his family; Foster credits his time at Yale and “in particular Paul Rudolph, Serge Chermayeff, and Vincent Scully,” as having an “incredible impact” on his life. The first Norman R. Foster Visiting Professor will be Alejandro Zaera-Polo, theorist, architect, and co-founder of London-based Foreign Office Architects (FOA).
School of Art Exhibition of undergraduate work The Undergraduate Fall Comprehensive Exhibition, which includes examples of work by almost every student enrolled in an undergraduate art course last semester, opened in the Green Hall galleries in December and continues through the end of January. Included in this exhibition are works from classes in drawing, painting, graphic design, printmaking, video, sculpture, and photography. During the fall 2009 semester, 424 undergraduate students were enrolled in 36 course sections.
Yale College Junior faculty honored In October, the Yale College dean’s office announced the 2009–2010 recipients of three annual awards for outstanding junior faculty—the Arthur Greer Memorial Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publication or Research, the Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publication or Research, and the Poorvu Family Award for Interdisciplinary Teaching. The Greer Prize was awarded to Jack Harris, associate professor of physics, for his pioneering work in mesoscopic quantum systems. An innovator of research methods in this emerging area, Harris has successfully devised and implemented the use of tools that enable breakthrough study of previously unresolved problems in the field. The four recipients of the Heyman Prize are Milette Gaifman (assistant professor of history of art) for her soon-to-be-published work, Aniconism in Greek Antiquity; Aaron Gerow (associate professor of film studies and East Asian languages and literatures) for his book A Page of Madness: Cinema and Modernity in 1920s Japan; Edward Rugemer (assistant professor of African American studies and history) for his first book, The Problem of Emancipation: The Caribbean Roots of the American Civil War; and Caleb Smith (assistant professor of English) for his recent publication, The Prison and the American Imagination. The Poorvu Award was given to Thierry Emonet, assistant professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, for his leadership role in fostering scholarship in computational biology through his course, Systems Modeling in Biology; and to Ludger Viefhues-Bailey, associate professor of religious studies, for his interdisciplinary teaching of modern religion, including his co-teaching (with Professor Charles Bailyn of the Department of Astronomy) of the Shulman Seminar, Religion and the Big Bang. All three prizes are conferred in the form of research funds to support the recipients’ further scholarship and research. The award winners also were honored at a dinner in November at the Graduate Club.
Student journalists receive national honors Several current and recently graduated Yale College students were recognized in the past year for their submissions to national writing competitions. Six students were among those honored by the Norman Mailer High School and College Writing Awards for creative nonfiction—Laura Gottesdiener CC ’10 and Jerry Guo TD ’09 were finalists in the competition, while Alice Baumgartner BK ’10, Anthony Lydgate DC ’10, Aditi Ramakrishnan TD ’09, and Emma Sokoloff-Rubin TD ’11 were named as semifinalists. The Rolling Stone College Journalism Competition recognizes annually the single most outstanding work of nonfiction published in a college student newspaper or magazine. The 2009 winner was Isaac Arnsdorf DC ’11, for his September 10, 2008, Yale Daily News article, “The Man Who Duped the Ivy League.” A history major and current managing editor of the Daily, he received a cash prize of $2,500 for his winning entry. To read the story, visit www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2008/09/10/the-man-who-duped-the-ivy-league/.
Divinity School New journal launched by YDS students At Yale Divinity School, students are always transforming the way scholarship is done in and outside the classroom. So it only seems natural that YDS would have a student publication that celebrates student scholarship in various fields of study. The inaugural issue of the new semi-annual, peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal Glossolalia (from the Greek meaning “speaking in tongues”) has 15 articles, on subjects that include “Imagining Eve: Sensation and the Poet’s Sympathy,” “The Poetics of Epiphany in Arab-American Literature,” and “Religious Metaphor in Moliere’s L’Ecole des femmes.” Glossolalia co-founder Rebecca Lenn ’10MDiv said, “The diversity of interests and scholarly expressions presented in this journal is a testament to what I would call the multi-vocality of scholarship at YDS—scholarship that starts with each and every YDS student.”
“No Man Is an Island” and the Global Opportunities Fund “I thought, what a tremendous inspiration for our Global Opportunities Fund. No one of us is an island. We are all pieces of the human continent, and that is what we’re trying to lift up and affirm through the Global Opportunities Fund.” Those were the words of Ralph Barlow ’59BD, ’64STM, at Convocation and Reunions 2009, quoting the famous John Donne meditation “No Man Is an Island” as he announced the Class of ’59’s 50th reunion gift of $122,860. Under the terms of the fund, financial assistance will be available to send YDS students abroad for study and to bring overseas students to YDS. Barlow said his thoughts about Donne were inspired by the death in August of YDS professor emeritus James Dittes: “Something of me was diminished when Jim Dittes died.”
Saturday night and Sunday morning convergences Indigo Girls musician Emily Saliers and her father, Don Saliers ’62BD, ’67PhD, liturgical musician and former Yale Divinity School professor of theology, entertained an enthusiastic Convocation and Reunions crowd at Battell Chapel October 13 with a richly woven tapestry of musical offerings and stories drawn from both the secular and the sacred. Two of the songs performed by the father-daughter team were dedicated to Annie Le ’13PhD, the 24-year-old Yale student murdered in a Yale research building in September. The first of those songs, an arrangement of “Be Still and Know that I Am God,” was followed by a deep silence, prompting Don Saliers to observe, “Some music breaks the silence. Some music brings the silence.” The evening of music and conversation was sponsored by the Institute of Sacred Music.
School of Drama Yale Institute For Music Theatre announces 2010 workshops The Yale Institute For Music Theatre will again select three original music theater works to receive two-week workshops in New Haven in June. Established jointly by the Yale School of Drama and the Yale School of Music, the Yale Institute For Music Theatre seeks to identify distinctive and original music theater works by emerging composers and writers, and match them with collaborators, such as directors, music directors, and actors/singers, who can help them further develop their work. By limiting production resources and values, the workshop will keep the focus on the creative process of the artistic team. Under the leadership of artistic director Mark Brokaw ’86MFA and producer Beth Morrison ’05MFA, the selections for the inaugural Yale Institute For Music Theatre in June 2009 were the book musicals sam i was, with book, music, and lyrics by Sam Wessels; and POP! with book and lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman and music by Anna K. Jacobs—as well as the opera Invisible Cities, with score and libretto by Christopher Cerrone. POP! received its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre last fall, directed by Mark Brokaw.
Actor Mandy Patinkin comes to Rep stage Tony and Emmy Award winner Mandy Patinkin makes his Yale Rep debut this month, alongside Hannah Cabell and Rich Topol, in the world premiere of Compulsion by Rinne Groff ’90, directed by Oskar Eustis. Inspired by the story of Meyer Levin, the novelist obsessed with adapting Anne Frank’s diary into a play, Compulsion is a co-production with New York City’s Public Theater (where Eustis is artistic director) and Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California. The production features sets by Eugene Lee ’86MFA, costumes by Lisa Loen ’10MFA, lighting by Marie Yokoyama ’10MFA, sound by Darron West, and puppet design by Matt Acheson.
School of Engineering & Applied Science Professor honored for harnessing power of light Assistant professor of electrical engineering Hong Tang was awarded a 2009 Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering—one of the most prestigious early-career awards, given annually to 16 of the country’s most innovative young researchers in the natural or physical sciences and engineering. In Tang’s breakthrough research, the extremely weak force of light has been harnessed to drive nanomachines on a silicon chip, opening the door to a new class of semiconductor devices that are operated by light instead of electrons. “The full potential of this platform has yet to be fully realized,” said Tang. “This support will allow us to work on the forefront of nanoscale quantum physics while simultaneously bringing light force devices into engineerable reality.” Tang joined Yale in 2006 after receiving his PhD from the California Institute of Technology. Also in 2009, he won a National Science Foundation CAREER Award—one of the highest honors for young faculty members—for his groundbreaking “Silicon Optomechanics” research.
Green workout Yale fitness enthusiasts have found a new way to charge their electronics at the Adrian C. Israel Fitness Center of the Payne Whitney Gym. This past year, exercise machines were retrofitted to harness the energy of exercise to charge a variety of electronics, including iPhones, iPods, BlackBerry smart phones, and Nokia cell phones. (For a Yale Alumni Magazine report and photo, see "Fat Into Fuel.") The project was initiated by 2009 Yale College graduate Henrique Rocha, under the supervision of associate professor of electrical engineering Hür Koser. “Our main purpose,” says Koser, “is to create energy awareness in the Yale student and staff community, as well as the general New Haven and Connecticut population.” With continued expansion, the technology has the potential to harvest enough energy to power gym light fixtures, televisions, and other utility devices.
Alumni support opens doors for undergraduates Three engineering undergraduate students gained valuable hands-on work experience last summer, with help from the Reid and Anne Buckley Fund for Renewable Energy and the Environment. Henry Misas ’10 evaluated wind energy potential at Yale’s West Campus; Emma Smith ’10 volunteered with Sunseed Tanzania Trust, studying fuel efficiency of new mud-brick stoves; and Aaron Fuchs ’10 interned in the renewable energy division of Columbus Nova, which entailed projects ranging from marketing and finance to technology evaluation. Paid internships are particularly difficult to obtain in today’s economy, which greatly limits a student’s ability to gain valuable exposure to their areas of interest. The Buckley Fund provides students the financial freedom to pursue internships that would not otherwise be available to them. The fund will be available to students again this coming summer.
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Amphibians as environmental omens Amphibians, for years considered a leading indicator of environmental degradation, are not uniquely susceptible to pollution, according to a meta-analysis to be published in Ecology Letters. After a review of over 28,000 toxicological tests, researchers from the University of South Dakota, Yale, and Washington State University are challenging the prevailing view that amphibians, with their permeable skin and aquatic environment, are particularly sensitive to environmental threats and, as such, are “canaries,” or predictors of environmental decline. The team based its analysis on information gleaned from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Aquatic Toxicity Information Retrieval database, examining 1,279 species that were exposed in water to various concentrations of 107 chemical agents. “For most of the classes of chemical compounds we looked at, frogs range from being moderately susceptible to being bullet-proof,” said David Skelly, professor of ecology at the environment school and a member of the research team. Team leader Jacob Kerby of the University of South Dakota added, “What our results suggest is that all animals are susceptible to chemical stressors and that amphibians are potentially good indicators,” but “there isn’t any evidence that they’re a uniquely leading indicator.”
Kroon Hall receives design awards Kroon Hall, the environment school’s new ultra-green home, captured two awards for “compelling” design from the American Institute of Architects (AIA): an Honor Award from AIA New England and a Design Award from AIA Connecticut. The building is expected to achieve a platinum rating in the green-building certification program, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. “The way the building performs is essential to this beautiful, cathedral-like structure,” the jurors noted. “Part of its performance is the creation of a destination on the campus. The long walls of its idiosyncratic, barn-like form define this compelling building.”
Online magazine garners award The Online News Association honored Yale Environment 360 with its best “specialty site journalism” award at its annual Online Journalism Awards ceremony in October, citing content that is “taking debate to a higher level and is so needed in the journalism community now.” In recognizing Yale Environment 360 as the best small website in a specialized category, the judges praised its mix of reporting, commentary, and discussion, as well as the quality of its writing, the attractiveness of its design, and the level of debate on its interactive reader forum. Published by the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale Environment 360 was launched in 2008 as an online source for in-depth environmental journalism, commentary, and debate from a global perspective. Earlier this year, TreeHugger named Yale Environment 360 as the Best New Science Site.
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Geology and geophysics department hosts reunion conference Almost 200 people, including 70 alumni along with current students and faculty of the geology and geophysics department, assembled for a weekend’s reunion and conference in November. The conference, “Future Challenges for the Earth Sciences,” featured panels on the Earth’s origin and interior; resources and energy; geological evidence on past climates; recent studies concerning climatic change; and biogeochemistry and the evolution of terrestrial and marine life. Speakers included alumni of four decades who represented distinguished institutions of research and higher education as well as private industry. Current students presented their research in a poster session.
Neurobiology students have brains, will travel Once a month, a group of Yale graduate students take their brains on the road. Equipped with brain models, brain cell slides and microscopes, and other brain-related items, they visit middle- and high-school science classes to share some of what they know about the workings of the human brain. The outreach program, led by third-year neurobiology student Amanda Foust and second-year interdepartmental neuroscience program student Seth Taylor, aims to instill enthusiasm for the scientific process while disseminating information. It also provides an opportunity for graduate students to “practice communicating science to the broader community—a valuable survival skill that prepares us for the challenges of writing grant proposals and explaining scientific findings to the media and other community audiences,” says Foust. Each classroom session involves a brief introductory lecture, a game that reinforces the basic principles of brain cell function, and interactive exhibits. The initiative began several years ago with classroom visits by Yale neurobiology and INP students during Brain Awareness Week, a Dana Foundation campaign held in March to increase public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research.
Celebrating great teaching All doctoral students serve as teaching fellows (TFs) for Yale College discussion sections, language classes, or laboratories in the course of their graduate studies, to help them prepare to be academicians and leaders in their fields. Every year, undergraduates and supervising faculty members are invited to single out truly exceptional TFs by nominating them for Prize Teaching Fellowships. Twelve Prize Teaching Fellows (PTFs) were honored at a dinner hosted jointly by the deans of Yale College and the Graduate School in November. This year’s PTFs spanned all academic areas, from philosophy to physics, and from history to engineering. Asked to describe their approach to teaching, the honorees mentioned the “delight of working with young adults,” the thrill when students “have an ‘ah-hah!’ moment,” and using class “not as a place where students would absorb information, but as a forum for investigating problems.” One after another, they described teaching as “fun” and “exciting.” No wonder their students nominated them for Prize Teaching Fellowships!
Law School Yale Law Journal Online launches in DC Yale Law School’s Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic and the board of the Yale Law Journal Online co-hosted a conference in Washington, DC, in the fall on the Supreme Court’s case selection process. The event also marked the launch of the Yale Law Journal Online, the new online companion to the print Yale Law Journal. It integrates what were previously two websites, the Yale Law Journal and The Pocket Part, the latter being the first-ever online companion published by a leading law review when it debuted in 2005. YLJ Online provides original essays, legal commentaries, responses to articles in the print journal, podcast and iTunes University recordings of featured pieces, and other works by both established and emerging academics and practitioners. “The Yale Law Journal Online provides a markedly improved forum for serious, timely, and accessible scholarship, and represents a great step forward for legal scholarship in general and the Yale Law Journal in particular,” said Yale Law Journal editor-in-chief Benjamin Taibleson ’10JD. YLJ Online will periodically reissue significant past pieces. Additional archived material will be available on the website and will span the journal’s nearly 120-year history. Visit the website at yalelawjournal.org.
Professor honored for achievements in comparative law Mirjan Damaška, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and professorial lecturer in law at Yale Law School, received the American Society of Comparative Law’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Comparative law is the study of differences and similarities in the legal systems of different countries. The award honors “living senior comparatists whose writings have changed the shape or direction of American comparative or private international law.” Professor Damaška said recognition of the comparative law genre was “a source of joy” to him, adding, “In this increasingly interconnected world, comparative law can serve as an instrument to identify deeper similarities behind superficial differences of legal cultures, and concealed differences behind their ostensible similarities.” In announcing the award, Symeon C. Symeonides, president of the American Society of Comparative Law, said Professor Damaška not only met but exceeded the criteria for the award because his contributions “are not only to comparative law but to law in general, and not just in the United States but around the world.”
Justices gather for 13th Global Constitutionalism Seminar Yale Law School hosted its 13th Global Constitutionalism Seminar in September, bringing together leading Supreme Court and Constitutional Court justices from around the world to discuss in strict confidentiality important legal issues of the day. The theme of the three-day seminar was “Constitutional Administration.” Sixteen justices attended, including Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as justices from Italy, Argentina, England, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. Topics discussed this year included the Law of Detention, Constitutional Dimensions of Administrative Law, Constitutional Dimensions of Environmental Law, Dignity, and Precedent. Justice Miguel Poiares Maduro of the European Court of Justice spoke on “Passion and Reason in European Law and Integration,” and Yale Law School’s Judith Resnik, Arthur Liman Professor of Law, discussed “Courts: In and Out of Sight, Site, and Cite.” The Global Constitutionalism Seminar was founded in 1996 to promote international understanding of common issues of constitutional law.
School of Management CEO Summit honors Indian pioneer For the first time, the Yale CEO Summit was held in India this past November, bringing together some of the world’s top chief executives around the promise of India in the twenty-first century and honoring one of the country’s brightest leaders. More than 100 global leaders attended the event, which is organized by senior associate dean Jeffrey Sonnenfeld under the auspices of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute. At the Indian event, Yale president Richard C. Levin presented Nandan Nilekani, Infosys Technologies Ltd. co-founder and chairman of India’s Unique Identification Database Authority, with the Legends in Leadership Award, the first time an Indian has received the honor. Nilekani, who co-founded Infosys in 1981 and served as CEO from 2002 to 2007, is the first chair of the Indian government’s newly created Unique Identification Database Authority. The universal ID card is expected to help ensure that most of the billions of dollars India and other organizations spend on aid reach the people for whom it was intended.
Latest issue of Qn looks at the behavioral side of economics Q6, the latest issue of Qn, the Yale SOM magazine, focuses on the behavioral side of business and economics: research, finance, and how individuals are often less than fully rational when it comes to their decisions. The magazine leverages the school’s strength in behavioral fields to study the recent economic crisis, while exploring the impact this growing area is having on business, public policy, and even the law. In the issue, titled What are you thinking? Robert Shiller, Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics, argues that not understanding how people make decisions is a dangerous blind spot for economists; MIT’s Andrew Lo studies how improper perceptions of risk lead even the most experienced financiers to make what seem like rookie mistakes; and three SOM scholars discuss what their research tells us about whether consumers actually make choices in their best interests. Read Q6 at http://qn.som.yale.edu.
New SOM alumni portal released Alumni looking to keep up with classmates and current happenings at SOM have a new resource. In November the school launched a Beta version of the SOM alumni portal, which brings many familiar functions and key new ones under the banner of a single website. The portal includes upcoming alumni events, alumni news, job resources, and ongoing learning opportunities. Alums can create personal profiles and join virtual interest groups, forums that allow alumni, faculty, and current students to come together and discuss a wide variety of topics. “We believe the new portal has the potential to become a very powerful tool for the entire SOM community,” said Joel Getz, associate dean for development and alumni relations. “I look forward to our alumni actively engaging with each other and the school through this great new tool.” The portal can be accessed at http://alumni.som.yale.edu.
School of Medicine Yale scientists reveal how the body mobilizes to fight infection In a study that sheds light on the inner workings of the immune system, a Yale-led team of researchers has revealed hidden details of how CD4+ T helper cells mobilize the body’s immune system to fight infection. T helper cells are needed in order to generate the white blood cells that kill virus-infected cells. But the Yale scientists showed that, even at their strongest, those white blood cells need assistance to actually enter the infected tissue. Studying mice infected with Herpes Simplex Virus 2, the scientists found that CD4+ T helper cells secreted a cell-signaling protein that accelerated the recruitment of killer cells to the site of the infection and allowed them to enter the infected tissue to launch their battle. According to lead author Akiko Iwasaki, associate professor of immunobiology, “Our research could help design new cancer treatment methods that enable killer cells to enter the tumor mass and destroy it.” The research, which appears in Nature, may also help prevent the unwanted migration of killer cells that harm healthy organs in cases of autoimmune disease.
Symposium celebrates interdisciplinary science The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Institute for Biological, Physical and Engineering Sciences held its inaugural symposium on October 16 at West Campus. The day-long event honored both the gift by the Sacklers that helped establish the institute, and the arrival of the first class of graduate students in the Integrated Graduate Program in Physical and Engineering Biology. The institute is dedicated to promoting research that bridges the gaps between traditional scientific fields. The symposium featured talks by internationally renowned scientists from diverse fields, including Columbia University’s Martin Chalfie, who shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the green fluorescent protein (GFP).
Professor honored for her influence on women’s health research Sex and gender are among the most important variables in understanding biology and behavior, and yet women were generally not included in clinical research trials until recent years, notes Carolyn M. Mazure, professor of psychiatry and associate dean for faculty affairs. On October 29, Mazure was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, in honor of both her vision in creating the Women’s Health Research at Yale (WHRY) program and her influence on biomedical research and health care. Mazure founded WHRY in 1998 on the premise that understanding gender differences is vitally important to the health of both women and men. The program is dedicated to exploring the wide range of conditions that are more prevalent in women or for which the causes, treatment, and prevention have gender-specific differences.
School of Music Yo-Yo Ma premieres concerto by Angel Lam ’10AD Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of music director Robert Spano, presented the New York premiere of Angel Lam’s Awakening from a Disappearing Garden on Saturday, November 7, at Carnegie Hall. Lam is a second-year student in the artist diploma program at the School of Music and a two-time winner of Carnegie Hall’s emerging composer commission. The piece, a concerto for cello and orchestra, is Lam’s third commission from Carnegie Hall and was first performed in Atlanta Symphony Hall in October 2009. In addition, Lam’s composition Empty Mountain, Spirit Rain was selected for the repertoire of Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble’s tours throughout the United States, Britain, Canada, China, Japan, and Switzerland in 2007 through 2009. The Silk Road Ensemble has recorded this work twice for Sony/BMG.
Prokofiev rediscovered The Yale in New York concert series, directed by David Shifrin, will present a concert of rarely heard music by Sergei Prokofiev, including three premieres of recently rediscovered works. The program will feature Music for Physical Exercises, a fragment from the opera To the Distant Seas, and music for the ballet Trapeze. The program will be presented in New Haven on Monday, February 8, and in New York at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, on February 9.
Students and recent alumni garner prizes In the tenth San Antonio International Piano Competition, Ryo Yanagitani ’08MMA won the Gold Medal—the competition’s top prize—and Andrea Lam ’04AD won the Silver Medal. In addition, Yanagitani received prizes for the best performance of a Romantic work and of a work by a Latin American composer, as well as the prize of the junior jury. Lam was awarded prizes for the best performance of a classical composition and best performance of a Russian work. In Amsterdam in September, the prestigious Gaudeamus Prize was awarded to Ted Hearne ’09MMA for his work Katrina Ballads. (For a Yale Alumni Magazine report on Katrina Ballads and a link to audio, see "Lyrics Ripped From the Headlines.") The award is intended as a commission for a new work that will be performed at the 2010 International Gaudeamus Music Week. The Yale Percussion Group, which is directed by faculty member Robert van Sice, was among the select group of winners of the 2009 Percussive Arts Society (PAS) International Percussion Ensemble Competition. Igor Pikayzen ’11MM captured first prize in the Wronski International Competition for solo violin, held at the end of September in Warsaw, Poland.
School of Nursing Recent grants to fund new research New grants totaling $8.8 million will fund YSN research and support nursing innovations ranging from the treatment of patients with advanced cancer, to therapies for insomnia in cardiac patients, to diabetes prevention. The 11 grants come from a variety of government and private sources, including $3 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. More details may be found at http://nursing.yale.edu/Research.
Parent training helps reduce behavior problems in children with autism The serious behavior problems that can occur in children with autism and related conditions can be reduced with a treatment plan that includes medication combined with a structured training program for parents, according to Lawrence Scahill, professor at the School of Nursing and the Yale Child Study Center, and his colleagues at two other sites. Published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the study was conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP) Autism Network. The RUPP group is expecting to launch a multi-site parent training study in preschool-age children with pervasive developmental disorders. “We hope to show that these behavioral problems can be reduced in children without medication—if intervention starts early,” Scahill said. “Future studies may also look for ways in which the parent training program can be used in schools and community clinics.”
Dean reappointed to second term Margaret Grey ’76MSN has been reappointed to a second five-year term as dean of the School of Nursing, effective July 1, 2010. Dean Grey, the Annie Goodrich Professor at YSN, has been at Yale since January of 1993, serving as dean since September 2005. During her first term as dean, the school achieved the maximum ten-year reaccreditation from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education; established a PhD program and had its first graduates; and reached the school’s capital campaign fund-raising goal well ahead of schedule. A pediatric nurse practitioner, Dean Grey has been principal investigator for a number of funded research studies and has had a major impact on the study of the management of chronic illnesses. She has served in leadership positions with the American Medical Association, American Diabetes Association, and National Institutes of Health.
School of Public Health Childhood ADHD, adult crime linked Schoolchildren with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder are substantially more likely to engage in many types of criminal activity, such as burglary, theft, and drug dealing, as they grow older, a study conducted by the Yale School of Public Health has found. The findings are published in the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics. The study of more than 10,000 adolescents who were later surveyed as young adults found that children with ADHD were, for example, nearly twice as likely to commit theft later in life and 50 percent more likely to eventually sell drugs. The findings suggest that intervention programs for children with ADHD might be an appropriate response, according to assistant professor Jason M. Fletcher, the study’s lead author. The research results are believed to be the first drawn from a national sample of individuals, which provide evidence of a link between the childhood condition commonly known as ADHD and illegal activity.
Many patients arriving too late for stroke drug Most stroke patients arrive at the hospital too late to take advantage of a clot-busting drug that significantly reduces stroke symptoms and lessens the chance of permanent disability if delivered within three hours of the onset of symptoms. New research by the School of Public Health found that while hospitals are more frequently delivering tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) to ischemic stroke patients, the proportion of patients arriving in time to benefit from the drug changed little over a three-year period. Lead researcher Judith H. Lichtman, an associate professor in the division of chronic disease epidemiology, said the findings suggest that more needs to be done to educate people about stroke symptoms and the importance of receiving prompt medical care. “One of the greatest challenges for acute stroke care is getting patients to the hospital as soon as possible once they experience stroke symptoms,” Lichtman said.
Professor named “Researcher of the Year” A Yale School of Public Health professor has been named “Researcher of the Year” by Business New Haven magazine for her work on nutrition, genetics, and cancer prevention. Susan Mayne, head of the division of chronic disease epidemiology, appeared in the magazine’s “HealthCare Heroes” supplement with a profile on her research into the role of diet and nutrition in the development of chronic diseases, including cancer. The article detailed potential future applications of Mayne’s research, including dietary guidelines tailored to a patient’s genetic makeup to treat or prevent cancer, amounting to personalized prevention.
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