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School NotesSchool NotesA supplement to the Yale Alumni Magazine from the fourteen schools of Yale.
School of Architecture Global challenges to safe bulding A two-day symposium at the School in early November explored the challenges that architects face in countries with weak or nonexistent building code systems. Leaders in banking, insurance, architecture, and government discussed new ways of guaranteeing safe buildings for the developing world, despite the challenges of earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. Fall lecture series wraps up The semester’s weekly lecture series, which led off with an appearance by Stanley Tigerman in August, comes to a close in November with talks by British architect David Chipperfield, Yale associate professor of architecture Keith Krumwiede, and Columbia University professor of architecture Kenneth Frampton. The lecture series features prominent architects, critics, and historians who speak on various topics relevant to architecture. Retrospective of Gwathmey Siegel The first museum exhibition devoted to the work of American architectural firm Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects opens November 14 at Yale and celebrates the arrival of the firm’s records at Yale University Library’s Department of Manuscripts and Archives. Gwathmey Siegel, which won the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Firm Award in 1982, is known for such designs as Whig Hall at Princeton University and the restoration of and extension to the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Charles Gwathmey ’62MArch renovated and restored Paul Rudolph Hall in 2008 and designed the companion building, the Jeffrey Loria Center for the History of Art. He died in 2009. Gwathmey Siegel: Inspiration and Transformation will be on view through January 28.
School of Art An artist’s formative years Four decades after the death at age 34 of Eva Hesse ’59BFA, the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art has mounted an exhibition of 19 oil paintings that Hesse created shortly after graduating from the Yale School of Art. Hesse (1936–1970) has become internationally renowned for sculptures she rendered beginning in the mid-1960s, but this is the first time that her early paintings have been on view. Eva Hesse Spectres 1960 presents a “young painter establishing her own creative identity,” according to the museum’s website, and features what the exhibition curator calls Hesse’s “spectre” paintings—referring to both the mood of the paintings and the artist’s examination of herself and her work. Eva Hesse Spectres 1960 is on view at the Brooklyn Museum through January 9, 2012.
Yale College ROTC returns to Yale College After a 40-year separation, Yale and the armed forces are getting back together. In the fall of 2012, Naval and Air Force ROTC units will resume operations on Yale’s campus. The university has already fielded a number of calls from high school seniors interested in joining ROTC at Yale, confirming the prediction that Yale’s culture of “public service” will attract plenty of recruits. And the expansion of that culture is exactly why Dean Mary Miller finds ROTC so necessary in the first place: “We have not had an easy and obvious route for our students who seek to serve their nation at the very highest levels. And we want to make sure that it is one of the categories our students consider.” Stiles College renovation complete With construction in Ezra Stiles finished in time for the 2011–2012 school year, a thirteen-year cycle of college renovations is complete. The new Stiles boasts suites reconfigured from singles and two-room doubles; a restored common room, library, and buttery; the only brick pizza oven on campus; and a basement area shared with Morse College containing a theater, weaving studio, dance studio, digital media room, and gym. Unconventional angles remain. Swing Space, built to house students throughout the renovations, now serves a split function—part annex housing for juniors, part offices and meeting spaces for the Yale Law School. Consent and communication Fall 2011 marked the launch of the Consent and Communication Educator program, which aims to foster a culture of respect and understanding at Yale. This peer-based program, designed to help the Yale community prevent and respond to sexual misconduct, focuses on building community skills for risk reduction and bystander intervention. Led by Melanie Boyd ’90, lecturer in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and special adviser to the dean of Yale College on gender issues, a group of 40 undergraduates, known as CCEs, has been selected to run campus-wide workshops, as well as small-scale events within their own residential colleges.
Divinity School Library’s missions collection online The latest digitization initiative at the Divinity School Library focuses on early annual reports of missions agencies in the Day Missions Library. Most of these documents, totaling some 1,500 volumes, date from 1850 to 1950, a time when the foreign missions enterprise was in its heyday and when tens of thousand of missionaries sailed from North America, Britain, and Europe to Africa, China, and many other distant locales. Taken together, the documents weave an intricate tapestry of the day-to-day activities of missionaries. This project, funded through a 2009 grant from the UK–based Arcadia Foundation, marks the first time the library has digitized portions of its own collections. It should be completed by next spring. Mural honors 9/11 anniversary Three years ago Gerald Facciani ’13MDiv and his wife, Karen, obtained a 60-foot mural painted in honor of victims of the 9/11 tragedy by the late American Expressionist artist Gregory Etchison. The acquisition proved to be prescient, as the mural, titled The Day, became a perfect way for YDS to participate in the university’s tenth anniversary commemoration of the tragic events that unfolded on September 11, 2001. The Faccianis arranged to have the mural shipped up from their Maryland home, and it hung eloquently in the Old Common Room September 6–30. Edwards Center creates online journal Following on the heels of a massive digitization project that has made some 100,000 pages of eighteenth-century theologian and preacher Jonathan Edwards’s writings accessible to the public via the Internet, the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale is launching a new online journal, Jonathan Edwards Studies.Creation of the online journal continues the center’s efforts to make the writings of Edwards more accessible, not only in the US but internationally as well. “I am particularly excited by this new online journal,” said journal editor Kenneth P. Minkema, executive director of the Jonathan Edwards Center, “because it is the first of its kind devoted to all things Edwards, and it is the desire of the JEC to make this journal a venue for all sorts of new and exciting work on his life, times, and legacy.”
School of Drama The Freedom Theatre comes to Yale Yale School of Drama hosted a special presentation October 5 by company members of Palestine’s Freedom Theatre, which is the only professional venue for theater and multimedia in the north of the West Bank in occupied Palestine. It was founded in 2006 by Juliano Mer-Khamis and Jonathan Stanczyk, a Swedish-Israeli. The event included a theatrical introduction to the theater’s work, a video featuring highlights of their productions performed in Palestine, and a discussion of the impact and legacy of the theater’s founder, Israeli-Palestinian actor and director Juliano Mer-Khamis, who was murdered in April 2011 in front of the theater. Season explores human foibles The drama school’s 2011–12 season features three vividly imagined theatrical productions that explore some all-too-human follies: making deals with the Devil; believing appearances; and wanting what, or whom, we cannot have. The productions, created and performed by students at the School of Drama, are Gertrude Stein’s Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz ’12MFA, which ran October 25–29; Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, directed by Louisa Proske ’12MFA, December 10–16; and Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, directed by Alexandru Mihail ’12MFA, January 24–28. Bringing the world to the Yale stage West African dance, Russian music, and Chilean theater provide the international flavor to the 2011–12 season of No Boundaries: A Series of Global Performances, presented by Yale Repertory Theatre and the World Performance Project at Yale. November sees the American premiere of Engagement Féminin: An Evening of West African Contemporary Dance, created and performed by Art’ Dév/Compagnie Auguste-Bienvenue, based in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Following this in February will be Spectral Scriabin, a collaboration between pianist Eteri Andjaparidze and lighting designer Jennifer Tipton (who teaches at the School of Drama), featuring the music of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin; and in March, Neva, an ensemble theater piece performed by Chile’s Teatro en el Blanco.
School of Engineering & Applied Science Engineering faculty to lead center Several Yale Engineering faculty members will play leadership roles in the new Center of Excellence for Materials Research and Innovation that is being created with Yale’s recent award of a $13 million six-year National Science Foundation grant. The center’s research will impact technologies spanning computation, communication, energy, and medical applications. Mechanical engineering professor Charles Ahn will direct the center, and two interdisciplinary groups will lead the center’s research efforts to address grand challenges in the discovery and development of novel engineered materials. Eric Altman, professor of chemical and environmental engineering, will lead the atomic scale design, control, and characterization of oxide structures interdisciplinary research group, and Jan Schroers, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, will lead the multi-scale surface engineering with metallic glasses interdisciplinary research group. “The seamless and collaborative nature of Yale University is ideal for materials research,” said SEAS dean Kyle Vanderlick, “and this substantial investment by NSF in our research and outreach activities will help ensure that the next generation of engineers and scientists will be fully engaged in the development and processing of new materials. The awarding of this grant,” she added, “aligns perfectly with the strategic vision of SEAS in which materials research plays a central role.” From senior project to storefront After spending the summer at the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute developing a business plan based on his senior project, 2011 Yale Engineering graduate Zachary Rotholz opened a retail business in New Haven in September. The shop, Chairigami, sells Rotholz’s unique brand of affordable modular furniture, which he describes as “cardboard furniture for the urban nomad.” The line includes chairs, coffee tables, dining tables, and a standing desk. Rotholz designed and constructed his first piece of cardboard furniture in a mechanical engineering class last year as part of his senior project. Rotholz says he wants his products to “encourage people to rethink furniture and to think about how they can engineer their own space.” Featherweight and completely recyclable, the furniture, priced from $70 to $100, is sold in flat packs with simple folding instructions for at-home (or in-dorm) assembly.
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Four students named Switzer Fellows Four F&ES students are among the 2011 Switzer Fellows named by the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, which recognizes emerging environmental leaders “who are able to think across traditional disciplinary boundaries and shape the future of environmental science, policy, and study.” Each of the fellows will receive a $15,000 award. Doctoral candidate Laura Bozzi focuses her research on mountaintop-removal mining for coal in Appalachia; master’s student Shereen D’Souza works to support justice and equity in global and local food and farming systems; Sharon Smith, another master’s student, is an organizer and trainer in movements for global justice, human rights, and environmental sustainability; and Sarah Uhl, also in the master’s program, studies the health effects of toxic chemicals, particularly endocrine disruptors. Professor focuses on energy issues An expert in energy and transportation has joined the tenure-track faculty at the environment school. Kenneth Gillingham, assistant professor of environmental and energy economics, uses the tools of economics and statistics, along with expertise in energy and systems engineering, to analyze policies addressing the world’s energy challenges. His recent publications have focused on the adoption of solar photovoltaic technology, market failures in household energy efficiency, and alternative fuels for transportation. Ongoing research delves into the effects of different policies on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. Prior to Yale, Gillingham worked at the California Air Resources Board, the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and Resources for the Future. He holds a PhD from Stanford University. Class of 2013 is school’s most diverse The environment school’s Class of 2013 is the most diverse and competitive in the school’s 110-year history. There are 137 master’s students from 20 nations and 28 states, reflecting the increasingly global nature of environmental issues. Thirty-three students are from overseas, representing 24 percent of the class. Twenty-eight students, or 20 percent, are US minorities. This year there were 574 applicants to the master’s program, and the increasingly competitive nature of the program is reflected in the fact that 33.9 percent were accepted, down from 37 percent last year. In addition, 10 new students—half of them environment school alums—were admitted into the doctoral program, including two from China and one from Brazil. This brings the total number of current doctoral candidates in the school to 75.
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Improving graduate education The Graduate School has launched a major initiative to identify and implement the most effective practices to help students complete their PhD degrees. Data collected and analyzed over the course of last year show that some departments are consistently more successful than others in helping students complete their dissertations in a timely way and embark on satisfying careers. Improving outcomes was the top priority of Dean Thomas Pollard’s first year. One of the most striking differences among programs is the percentage of students who graduate with a PhD, ranging from 90 percent to barely 40 percent. The study confirmed that while academic programs use a variety of excellent approaches, none takes advantage of all of the best mentoring practices. These include providing clear and complete information about program requirements and expectations, early exposure to independent research, careful monitoring of student progress, and regular formal and informal meetings for students to discuss their ongoing research with faculty and fellow students. Beginning this year, all programs will be urged to adopt these practices. New dean at the Graduate School Carl Hashimoto ’86PhD (MB&B), professor and DGS of cell biology at Yale, joined the Graduate School as assistant dean on September 1. In that capacity, he will help implement the initiative to improve graduate education (see above) and work with the Gruber Foundation at Yale, a program dedicated to the advancement of science and support of young scientists. Dean Hashimoto’s research investigates cellular and developmental processes that are regulated by proteolysis. He was a recipient of the Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association and a Junior Faculty Research Award from the American Cancer Society. Shakespeare and Verdi A new book by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Garry Wills ’61PhD (classics), released in October, examines the writing and staging of Verdi’s three Shakespearean operas: Macbeth, Otello, and Falstaff. In Verdi’s Shakespeare: Men of the Theater (Viking, 2011), Wills considers both London’s Globe Theater and Milan’s La Scala and explains how Verdi, who spoke no English, could produce these operas. Wills’s earlier book, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America, won both the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction and the National Book Circle Critics Award. A professor of history emeritus at Northwestern University, Wills was awarded the Graduate School’s Wilbur Cross Medal in 1989.
Law School Initiative focuses on information law A new program at the Law School will foster research and intellectual community in the burgeoning area of information law. The Thomson Reuters Initiative on Law and Technology at the Yale Information Society Project (ISP) enables the selection of two Thomson Reuters fellows who will work closely with Yale faculty and staff to study cutting-edge issues at the intersection of law, technology, and media. It also provides funding for workshops, a speaker series, a conference, and support for the leadership of the ISP. The initiative is made possible by a grant from Thomson Reuters. Alumni gather to discuss human rights Yale Law School alumni, faculty, students, and friends gathered on campus November 4–6 for Alumni Weekend 2011, “Human Rights in a Turbulent World.” The weekend included a series of panel discussions on the subject of human rights, with such topics as “Emerging Challenges to the Freedom of Expression: From Hate Speech to Social Networks”; “Reporting on Human Rights: The Responsibility of Journalists and NGOs?”; and “Navigating the Tension Between National Security and Human Rights.” Other highlights included a talk on international law and US foreign policy by former YLS dean Harold Hongju Koh, now legal adviser to the US State Department; an all-alumni reception and dinner; a student-alumni breakfast; and presentation of the Yale Law School Award of Merit. This year’s award went to Luzius Wildhaber ’65LLM, ’68JSD, former judge and president of the European Court of Human Rights. Law School mourns former dean Sterling Professor Emeritus Harry H. Wellington, who served as dean of both Yale Law School and New York Law School, died August 8 at age 84. A specialist in the areas of labor law, constitutional law, and legal theory, Wellington joined the Yale Law School faculty in 1956, and was named Edward J. Phelps Professor of Law in 1967 and Sterling Professor in 1983. He became dean of the Law School in 1975 and served in that role until 1985. Upon his retirement from the faculty in 1992, Wellington joined the faculty at New York Law School, where he served as president and dean until 2000. He retired from teaching in 2007. A memorial service is to be held November 13 in the Law School auditorium.
School of Management New SOM complex taking shape The concrete at the 242,000-square-foot Edward P. Evans Hall is almost all in place. Since May, 10,000 cubic yards of concrete have been poured. By late October, the 4,750 pieces of steel that will comprise the building’s skeleton were expected to begin arriving. If everything goes according to plan, the 20-foot steel sections will be installed over the following few months. Beginning in spring, the plan is to begin installing 130,000 square feet of glass, of eight different types. The final year or so of the project will focus on finishing the inside and landscaping. Full-sized trees will be brought into the 25,000-square-foot courtyard—built on more than four-foot-deep soil laid over the parking garage; inside, 782 doors will be hung using 30 different hardware configurations. Take an online tour at mba.yale.edu/evanshall. Class of 2013 arrives on campus The incoming Yale SOM MBA class boasts 228 students who have lived and worked in countries all over the world and speak dozens of languages. They have worked at top financial firms such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and the Blackstone Group; major consulting firms McKinsey and BCG; the US Army and US Air Force; the Israeli Defense Forces and Swedish military; Google and Microsoft; and the Environmental Defense Fund, Teach for America, the Peace Corps, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Yale SOM has long been a leader in recruiting a diverse and talented student body. The Class of 2013 is 36 percent women, 32 percent international students, and 25 percent US minorities. Yale SOM launches YouTube channel Get the latest insights on the big issues facing business and society at the new Yale SOM YouTube channel. Recent videos include great classroom moments from the Yale SOM core curriculum; research briefs from leading scholars in finance, economics, and marketing; and lectures by distinguished leaders. Visit www.youtube.com/yalesom.
School of Medicine Professor wins major science award Arthur L. Horwich, Sterling Professor of Genetics and professor of pediatrics, has been named a winner of the 2011 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for his discoveries of how proteins form their complex shapes. Horwich joins Franz-Ulrich Hartl of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Germany as cowinner of this year’s research award. Scientists used to think that proteins folded into shape by themselves, without any cellular energy input. Over more than two decades of work, Horwich and Hartl showed that proteins fold in the cell with the assistance of specialized proteins called chaperonins, which form a sort of a dressing room in which nascent proteins are assisted into their functional shapes. (For a Yale Alumni Magazine report, see page 22.) Enzyme breakthrough may boost Alzheimer’s research A team led by Ya Ha, associate professor of pharmacology, has made a significant breakthrough in determining the atomic structure of the enzyme FlaK. The research, published in Nature on July 28, marks the first time that anyone has solved the structure of an aspartyl membrane protease, a family of enzymes of which FlaK is a member. Moreover, FlaK has an infamous cousin—presenilin, an enzyme that plays a major role in the development of hereditary, early-onset forms of Alzheimer’s disease. The scientists hope that knowledge of FlaK’s structure will help shed light on presenilin’s form and function, which in turn could reveal new opportunities to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s in its more common forms. Researcher takes international prize Ruslan M. Medzhitov, the David W. Wallace Professor of Immunobiology, is one of three scientists awarded the 2011 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine. A member of Yale Cancer Center and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, Medzhitov has made groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of Toll-like receptors (TLRs), an evolutionarily ancient component of the innate immune system that provides rapid, first-line defense against infections. Medzhitov’s work has elucidated how TLRs sense microbial infections, TLR signaling, and TLR activation of inflammatory and adaptive immune responses. The Shaw Prizes, international honors that carry a monetary award of $1 million (US), are given by the Hong Kong–based Shaw Prize Foundation for achievement in the life sciences, astronomy, and mathematics.
School of Music YSM composers win major awards This September, Garth Neustadter ’12MusM garnered an Emmy Award, and Yoshiaki Onishi ’07MusM, ’08ArtA, won the prestigious 2011 Gaudeamus Prize. Neustadter won the Emmy in the category of Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score). His score for the PBS documentary “John Muir in the New World,” an episode of American Masters, was recorded at Yale with members of the Yale Philharmonia, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and the Linden String Quartet. Neustadter, 25, studies composition with Chris Theofanidis ’94MusAM, ’97MusAD, at the School of Music. An international jury unanimously selected Onishi for his piece Départ dans…. Thirteen nominees, selected from 385 original entries, had their music performed at the Gaudeamus Music Week in Utrecht. The prize acts as a commission for a new piece to be performed at Gaudeamus Music Week 2012. Chamber music series renamed For many years, the Chamber Music Society at Yale has been one of the most popular concert series at the School of Music. Now it has been renamed the Oneppo Chamber Music Series in honor of Vincent Oneppo ’73MusM, who retired last fall after serving Yale in various capacities throughout his career. Most recently, Oneppo was director of concerts and media at the school. Dean Robert Blocker noted Oneppo’s “vital role in directing the chamber music series over the years and in bringing many of the world’s finest performers to New Haven.” New choral ensemble to debut The School of Music and the Yale Glee Club are launching a new professional ensemble, the Yale Choral Artists. The project-based ensemble will be made up of leading professional singers from around the country and will be directed by Jeffrey Douma, director of the Yale Glee Club and a member of the School of Music faculty. The Yale Choral Artists’ first two projects include a February 2012 program with guest conductor and renowned early music specialist William Christie, and a June 2012 program of contemporary American music at the Yale International Choral Festival. Dean Robert Blocker believes that “the Yale Choral Artists will enhance and enrich the school’s commitment to the choral arts. Gifted singers from throughout the nation will not only bring a new artistic voice to our concert programs but also mentor Yale undergraduate and graduate students.”
School of Nursing YSN to offer new doctorate Beginning in the fall of 2012, the School of Nursing will offer a doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree. The DNP at YSN is the product of two years of work by a faculty task force, chaired by Margaret Moss, who will serve as director of the DNP program. The program will enroll 12 students for the fall semester of 2012, and ramp up to 18 students by the third year of operation. “This degree will be a professional doctorate in contrast to an academic research degree like the PhD,” commented Moss. “This will be a terminal degree that prepares senior clinicians who also are seeking leadership and policy roles related to the future of healthcare.” Heart Association honors professor YSN professor Marjorie Funk has been selected for the highest award of the American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Cardiovascular Nursing. The Katharine A. Lembright Award will be presented to Funk during the AHA Scientific Sessions on November 15 in Orlando, Florida. As honoree, Funk will present a lecture at the conference. The Lembright award is an acknowledgment of contributions and achievements in the field of cardiovascular nursing research. Connecticut nurses recognize YSN faculty Nancy S. Redeker, professor and associate dean for scholarly affairs, has been selected by the Connecticut Nurses’ Association (CNA) to receive the 2011 Virginia A. Henderson Award for Outstanding Contributions to Nursing Research. This award represents the highest honor that the nursing profession in Connecticut can bestow on one of its own. Ms. Henderson, a former member of the YSN faculty, conceptualized 14 basic needs of all people—one of which is sleep and rest. Redeker has focused her research on sleep in people with cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions. The CNA presented the 2011 Josephine A. Dolan Award for Outstanding Contributions to Nursing Education to Linda H. Pellico, associate professor at YSN, for her use of a variety of teaching strategies that build upon the arts and humanities. Pellico has collaborated with the Yale Center for British Art and Yale School of Music in the creation of Looking is Not Seeing, Listening is Not Hearing, a program to improve the observational, diagnostic, and reflective skills of students through art and music.
School of Public Health Training center will span two states A new public health training center based at YSPH will allow for a vastly expanded training program for the public health workforce in Connecticut and Rhode Island, with a special emphasis on addressing health disparities such as HIV/AIDS in underserved communities. A $2.6 million federal grant creates the center, which will be housed at YSPH, along with a satellite center located at Brown University. The two-state program will significantly augment existing public health workforce training and is expected to reach hundreds of practicing public health professionals in a variety of local and state governmental agencies and community health organizations. Students and faculty from Yale, Southern Connecticut State University, the University of Connecticut, Brown, and other academic institutions will be engaged in a broad-based effort to improve community health outcomes. Training will cover areas as diverse as technological skills, environmental health, public health leadership, and cultural competency. Genetic link identified in brain tumor Researchers have found a significant link between the most common type of brain tumor in the United States—meningiomas—and a patient’s family history, suggesting that genetics play an important role in the development of the potentially debilitating lesions. The YSPH-led study compared 1,124 patients with the intracranial tumors with a nearly equal number of control subjects from different regions of the United States and concluded that an inherited gene (or genes) for meningiomas appears to be involved in the tumor’s onset. Meningioma patients were 4.4 times more likely than their peers in the control group to report a first-degree family history (e.g., parents, offspring, and siblings) of the tumor. Patients with a second-degree family history (e.g., grandparents, uncles and aunts, and grandchildren), meanwhile, had an elevated but not statistically significant risk compared with their control peers. During the five-year study, the researchers also found that the meningioma patients had greater exposure to ionizing radiation (which is suspected to cause tumors) through previous radiotherapy for illnesses such as leukemia and thyroid cancer. The findings were published in the Journal of Neurosurgery.
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