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Super Science Complex State-of-the-art facilities open new doors to discovery T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f N o r t h C a r o l i n a a t C h a p e l H i l l I n s i d e : I r a q V e t s • W o m e n ’ s S t u d i e s • M u s i c S c o r e s • U n d e r g r a d R e s e a r c h S P R I N G • 2 0 0 7 a r t s&s c i e n c e s C a r o l i n a T h e C o l l e g e o f A r ts & S c i e n c e s • Madeline G. Levine Interim Dean • William Andrews ’70MA, ’73 PhD Senior Associate Dean, Fine Arts and Humanities • Bruce Carney Senior Associate Dean, Sciences • Arne Kalleberg Senior Associate Dean, Social Sciences and International Programs • Tammy McHale Senior Associate Dean, Finance and Planning • James W. May Senior Associate Dean, Program Development; Executive Director, Arts & Sciences Foundation • Bobbi Owen Senior Associate Dean, Undergraduate Education Arts & Sciences Foundation Board of Directors • Ivan V. Anderson, Jr. ’61, Charleston, SC, Chair �� Madeline G. Levine, Chapel Hill, NC, President • William L. Andrews, ‘70 MA, ‘73 PhD, Chapel Hill, NC, Vice President • Tammy J. McHale, Chapel Hill, NC, Treasurer • James W. May, Jr., Chapel Hill, NC, Secretary • James L. Alexandre ’79, London, UK • D. Shoffner Allison ’98, Charlotte, NC • William S. Brenizer ’74, Glen Head, NY • Vicki Underwood Craver ’92, Cos Cob, CT • Steven M. Cumbie ’70, ’73 MBA, McLean, VA • Archie H. Davis ’64, Savannah, GA • Robin Richards Donohoe ’87, San Francisco, CA • Gail McGregor Fearing ’66, Chapel Hill, NC • Alan Feduccia, Chapel Hill, NC • Mary Dewar Froelich ’83, Charlotte, NC • Robin March Hanes ’78, Asheville, NC • William T. Hobbs, II ’85, Charlotte, NC • Lynn Buchheit Janney ’70, Butler, MD • Matthew G. Kupec ’80, Chapel Hill, NC • William M. Lamont, Jr. ’71, Dallas, TX • Cathy Bryson Moore ’90, Santa Monica, CA • Paula R. Newsome ’77, Charlotte, NC • Benjamine Reid ���71, Miami, FL • Emily Pleasants Sternberg ’88, ’94 MBA, Greenwich, CT • G. Kennedy Thompson ’73, Charlotte, NC • S. Thompson Tygart ’62, Jacksonville, FL • Thomas M. Uhlman ’71 MS, ’75 PhD, Murray Hill, NJ • Charles L. Wickham, III, ’82 BSBA, London, UK • Michael R. Zimmerman ’75, New York, NY College on the move Scientists are moving into new high-tech labs. Our women’s studies program celebrates a major landmark with a move into the 1901 Smith building — the first building on campus named for a woman, Mary Ann Smith of Raleigh. A major gift from the Kenan Trust is underwriting a transformative “movement” for the music department, with scholarships and a new building. A chemist moved to Washington, D.C., to work for the U.S. State Department for a year and traveled around the world, sharing information with scientists and graduate students in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Undergraduate researchers journeyed all over the world to discover new ideas, and two alumni are back from Iraq with an informed perspective on foreign policy. Faculty, students and alumni of the College of Arts and Sciences are on the move. In this issue of the magazine, we celebrate the opening of Chapman Hall and Caudill Labs, the first two buildings to open in the new Carolina Physical Science Complex. Gifts for these facilities from alumni Max Chapman ’66 and Lowry Caudill ’79 are opening doors to discovery and forging new collaborations for scientists and students. A 4,500-square-foot fluids lab being built in Chapman Hall will help mathematicians and marine scientists better understand hurricanes, tsunamis and global warming. We feature protein pioneer Gary Pielak, insect flight specialist Laura Miller, polymer professor Valerie Ashby, microscope master Lu- Chang Qin, and wave tank researchers Richard McLaughlin, Roberto Camassa, Alberto Scotti and Francisco Werner. You’ll read about undergraduate research projects that examine Soviet wetlands policy, human rights and public art in Mexico, delays in the state appellate court process, and misconceptions about women of the Middle East. You’ll find out what chemist Edward Samulski accomplished as a Jefferson Science Fellow. And you’ll learn about distinguished awards our chemistry faculty earned from the National Institutes of Health, the American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Our women’s studies program is celebrating its 30th birthday. This curriculum reaches some 2,000 students a year in 118 classes across the arts and sciences. The program’s core faculty are a blend of established scholars and rising stars, and its graduates enjoy successful careers in business, government, nonprofits and academia. An $8 million gift to music from the Kenan Charitable Trust completes funding for the Kenan Music Building and will make possible 16 full music scholarships for undergraduates. The gift is the largest ever received by an academic department in the College. Marine captains Rye Barcott ’01 and Croft Young ’95, both of whom have seen active duty in Iraq, share their views on the Iraq Study Group Report. ABC World News named Barcott a “Person of the Year” for co-founding Carolina for Kibera, a community-based nonprofit providing medical care and recreation for impoverished people in Nairobi. We also share news about Drew Levinson ’82, a CBS correspondent who felt a calling while reporting from the Middle East to pay tribute to his Southern Jewish heritage. Many of these accomplishments are possible because alumni and friends of the College were moved to support our mission — to provide an exceptional liberal arts education for leadership in a fast-changing world. Their generosity is making a difference for faculty and students today and tomorrow. Madeline G. Levine, Interim Dean From the Dean F r o m t h e D e a n Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 Madeline G. Levine Dan Sears Contents F e at u r e s 8 • Super Science State-of-the-art facilities open new doors to discovery 15 • Summer Scholars Undergraduate students navigate research at home and abroad 18 • Women’s Studies Turns 30 Examining the role of gender across disciplines Cover photo: Chemist Valerie Ashby is thrilled with her brand new lab in Caudill Laboratories, one of two major buildings that opened in the fall as part of the new Carolina Physical Science Complex, the largest construction project in the history of the University. (Photo by Steve Exum) Ta bl e of C on t e n ts Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 De p a r t me n ts inside front cover From the Dean On the move 2 High Achievers Banner year for chemistry, two more Rhodes Scholars, a Citizen of the World, three cheers for creative writing, blues scholar lauded at international film festival, and more 21 First Person Two Marines offer a “view from the ground” on the Iraq Study Group report. 22 Spotlight Chemist Edward Samulski found plenty to do during his year with the U.S. State Department in Washington. 23 Highlights Music’s $8 million gift, Amazon River switched direction, a CBS journalist reflects on his Southern Jewish heritage, and more 30 College Bookshelf New books across the arts and sciences explore poverty in America, fundamentalism and the Scopes trial, the lost gospel of Judas Iscariot, the first published novel by an African American woman, the making of “Oklahoma” the musical, perspectives on affordable home ownership, mismatched workers in a globalized society, and more 32 Final Point Historian Heather Williams’ patchwork quilt conveys the African American experience. inside back cover In the News Holden Thorp named next dean of the College Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 1 18 8 15 Dan Sears Steve Exum Steve Exum High Achievers 2 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences H i g h A c h i e v e r s A banner year for chemistry It was a big year for UNC chemists, who brought home major awards for pioneering research. Gary Pielak became the first Carolina scientist to win the $2.5 million, five-year Director’s Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for groundbreaking research on the role of proteins in Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. [See story on page 11.] Mike Ramsey also received a notable $3.8 million, four-year NIH grant to further develop his tiny “lab-on-a-chip” technology for cheaper, faster and more customized DNA sequencing. The goal is to eventually reduce the cost of human genome sequencing from about $10 million to $1,000, greatly expanding its usefulness in medical research and health care. Ramsey, the Minnie N. Goldby Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, joined two of his colleagues in receiving top awards from the American Chemical Society for outstanding contributions to their fields. Ramsey received the top award in chromatography. James W. Jorgenson, William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of Chemistry, received the society’s highest award in analytical chemistry. Joseph M. DeSimone, William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at UNC and N.C. State University, received the Henry F. Whalen Jr. Award for Business Development. Chromatography is a laboratory-scale technology for separation and purification of chemicals and is critical to chemical research. Ramsey is a pioneer in the field of microfluidics and nanofluidics, helping to create the concept of performing lab tests in miniature — on tiny silicon, glass or plastic chips — called “lab-on-a-chip.” Analytical chemistry focuses on measuring the chemical composition of material of all types with greater precision, sensitivity and speed. Jorgenson, former chair of the department, pioneered the chemical separation technique, capillary electrophoresis, in the 1980s. DeSimone’s award recognizes his ability to identify market needs, develop novel technologies to address those needs and transfer that technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. He is inventor of record for more than 100 patents, of which the majority are assigned to UNC. He has pioneered environmentally friendly processes for manufacturing and dry cleaning, researched the use of fuel cells for portable power and explored the use of nanotechnology for cancer detection and drug delivery. DeSimone was recognized with two more honors. He was elected to the College of Fellows for the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [See story on page 3.] • Mike Ramsey James Jorgenson Steve Exum High Achievers Three recognized nationally for efforts to advance science Three faculty in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences were named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the leading science organizations in the nation. • Joseph M. DeSimone is director of the UNC Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology and Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. He is engaged in all aspects of polymer synthesis and processing and has been widely recognized for originating environmentally friendly methodology used in dry cleaning and manufacturing. He is involved in fuel cell research for alternative sources of power and the use of nanotechnology in medicine. DeSimone was named a fellow for “distinguished contributions to polymer synthesis and processing, from fundamental aspects of chemical systems to environmentally friendly ways to manufacture polymers.” • Daniel A. Reed is director of the Renaissance Computing Institute, UNC vice chancellor for information technology and Chancellor’s Eminent Professor in the department of computer science. He is founding director of the interdisciplinary Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), a Citizen of the World James Peacock, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, was named a “Citizen of the World” by the Interna-tional Affairs Council of North Carolina. Each year the nonprofit awards the title to a North Carolinian who has done the most for the internationalization of our state. Peacock has been instrumental in the development of new international programs at UNC, such as the World View program for educators and the Rotary Peace Center. He is the former director of the University Center for International Studies, now called The Center for Global Initiatives. His research focuses on Southeast Asia and the Southeastern United States in relation to history, memory and global issues. Triangle Business Journal also tapped Peacock as one of “10 Area People Working to Change the World.” • Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 3 collaborative venture of Duke University, N.C. State University, UNC and the State of North Carolina. Reed is a member of President Bush’s Information Technology Advisory Committee. He was named a fellow for “outstanding research in the field of high performance computing, exemplary professional leadership and distinguished national service.” • Stephen J. Walsh is director of the Landscape Characterization and Spatial Analysis Lab and a professor of geography. He examines the interactions between people, places and the environment using geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, spatial analysis and physical geography. He directs studies in Ecuador, Thailand, Latvia and the U.S. Walsh was named a fellow for “substantive landscape characterization and spatial analysis through remote sensing and geographic information science.” • Joseph DeSimone Daniel Reed James Peacock Jeffrey Johnson Anne MacNeil Ajit Joglekar Biology lecturer wins national teaching award Jean DeSaix, senior lecturer in the department of biology, won a national honor for outstanding teaching. The National Association of Biology Teachers’ Four-Year College Biology Teaching Award recognizes a college educator who demon-strates creative and innovative instruction. DeSaix, who has been teaching biology since 1972, received the award during the group’s annual meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., last October. Chancellor James Moeser recognized her during a fall meeting of the University Board of Trustees. DeSaix, who has a Ph.D. from UNC, teaches introductory biology. • Hettleman Prize Given for artistic And scholarly achievement College faculty members were among the recipients of 2006 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prizes for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty at UNC. Winners were Jeffrey Johnson, assistant professor of chemistry, and Anne MacNeil, associate professor of music history. Jonathan Oberlander, associate professor of social medicine and an adjunct faculty member in political science, also received the prize. The Hettleman Prize recognizes the achievements of outstanding junior tenure-track faculty or recently tenured faculty. All of this year’s recipients also received praise for their qualities as teachers. The award was established by the late Phillip Hettleman, who was born in 1899 and grew up in Goldsboro, N.C. He earned a scholarship to Carolina, went to New York and, in 1938, founded Hettleman & Co., a Wall Street investment firm. Johnson joined the chemistry faculty in 2001. His laboratory develops new synthetic methodology for the rapid construction of complex organic molecules, especially pharmaceuticals, and he has won nearly every major award available to young chemists, said Holden Thorp, chair of the department of chemistry. “Johnson’s productivity has been truly astonishing,” Thorp wrote in a nomination letter. “He has assembled a strong group of graduate students and together they have published 34 papers from UNC, all in top-refereed journals. Jeff has already established a national reputation and is regarded as one of the very top young chemists working in this crowded and highly competitive area.” MacNeil came to Carolina in 1999. Her study of women in late 16th and early 17th century Italian theater has “opened whole new fields of inquiry in the areas of theater history, opera history, commedia dell ’arte, and not insignificantly in gender studies,” wrote music department chair Tim Carter, who nominated MacNeil. A colleague characterized MacNeil’s writing as an “exceptionally learned, often brilliant study of what I had previously and offhandedly thought of as a peripheral topic in the history of music.” “In her publications and lectures she has brought to light a whole new facet of musical and literary activity in the late Italian Renaissance and early Baroque in a way that has gained her high national and international repute,” Carter said. • Biologist wins Burroughs Wellcome early career award Ajit P. Joglekar, a postdoctoral biology fellow, won a prestigious $500,000 award over five years from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. He is the first scholar to win the award at UNC. The 2007 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Awards at the Scientific Interface are awarded to early career researchers with back-grounds in the physical/computational sciences whose work provides innovative approaches to tackle important questions in biology. Twelve awards were given nationally this year. Joglekar’s research focuses on “protein machinery” in cells. “Movement of chromosomes, the genetic material in a cell, is critical for dividing them equally between daughter cells as a cell divides,” said Joglekar, whose mentor is Ted Salmon, the James Larkin and Iona Mae Ballou Distinguished Professor of Biology. “Errors in this process of chromosome segregation lead to human disease and aging. I am studying the structure and action of the ‘protein machinery’ that generates forces needed to achieve accurate chromosome segregation.” Joglekar received master’s and doctorate degrees in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Pune University in India. • [Mathematical biologist Laura Miller won the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Award in 2006, before joining UNC in January 2007. See story on Miller on page 12.] 4 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences High Achievers Jean DeSaix Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 5 High Achievers Three cheers for creative writing A UNC creative writing professor and a student were tapped with honors named for author Thomas Wolfe, and an alumnus won North Carolina’s highest civilian honor in literature. Shinemaster — a book of poems by Carolina creative writing professor Michael McFee — received the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award, given annually by the Western North Carolina Historical Association. McFee, an Asheville native, has been a professor of English and creative writing at UNC since 1995. He is the author of eight books of poetry and a collection of essays. His new chapbook of one-line poems was published in February and his first book of prose, The Napkin Manuscripts: Selected Essays and an Interview, was published last fall. [See page 31.] Nathaniel “Nate” Lumpkin of Raleigh was awarded the fifth Thomas Wolfe Scholarship in creative writing at UNC. The scholarship, established in 2002, provides a student with full financial support for four years at Carolina. Lumpkin enjoys fiction writing, especially short stories, but says that “poetry is beginning to be a draw.” He has his own Web “blog,” and has been writing informal essays on it for over two years now. Frank Borden Hanes Sr. of Winston-Salem, a novelist, poet and retired journalist who graduated from UNC in 1942, contributed $2 million to establish the scholarship. Creative writing alumnus Michael F. Parker ’84, who’s now an English professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, won a 2006 North Carolina Award in literature. The awards, the state’s highest civilian honor, recognize outstanding lifetime achievements in fine arts, science, literature and public service. Parker writes about characters who struggle with love, family and relationships. His first novel, Hello Down There, was published in 1993 to critical acclaim. Other novels include Towns Without Rivers, Virginia Lovers and, new this year, If You Want Me to Stay. He also has a new collection of short stories. [See page 31.] Two UNC alumni won North Carolina Awards for public service: former N.C. Governor James E. Holshouser, Jr. ’60 J.D. and newspaper editor Roy Parker, Jr. ’52 Journalism. • Blake Scholar Lauded for Online archive English professor Joseph Viscomi was among five trailblazers in information and library science and information technology honored Oct. 12 in the first Knowledge Trust honors ceremony. Viscomi was recognized for his work in creating the William Blake Archive. The Louis Round Wilson Academy, convened by UNC’s School of Information and Library Science, includes world leaders in library and information science and technology management. Academy members nominated candidates for the Knowledge Trust awards. Viscomi, James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of English, was presented the Exploration Award for creating or compiling new knowledge, tools and services. Viscomi co-edited and created the William Blake Archive based on approximately 5,500 images — two-thirds from the illuminated books and one-third from Blake’s paintings, drawings and engravings — transferred to digital form. Conceived and designed in 1993- 95, and a free site on the World Wide Web since 1996, the archive is an international public resource for major works of visual and literary art that are highly disparate, widely dispersed and often severely restricted as a result of their value, rarity and extreme fragility. The Blake Archive has had a significant impact on teaching and scholarship. It also has challenged the traditional notion of literary criticism by virtue of the ways in which elements of Blake’s work can be viewed, moved and modified. • Michael McFee Nate Lumpkin 6 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences High Achievers Two more Rhodes Scholars A Carolina senior and a recent graduate have won 2006 Rhodes Scholarships. Ben Lundin of Nashville, Tenn., is a senior religious studies major and Morehead Scholar. Adrian Johnston of Toronto graduated in May 2006 with a double major in economics and philosophy. Among the most prestigious scholarships available, the award funds tuition, fees and living expenses for two to three years at Oxford University in Great Britain. Lundin will use the scholarship to earn a master’s degree in international relations. He will study the political influence of religious movements and write a thesis on religion in global conflict. “Eventually, I would like to develop my interests in religious dialogue through a research professorship in religious and ethnic conflict resolution,” Lundin said. “These are some of today’s most pressing issues, and I could pass my passion on to the next generation of researchers and public servants in this developing field.” The summer after his freshman year, Lundin had an internship with a human rights group involved with prisons in Peru. There he interviewed a man accused of being a member of the Shining Path terrorist group. The prisoner seemed near despair, Lundin wrote in his Rhodes application. “But what struck me most was his conviction that faith had kept him alive in isolation … Peru was my glimpse of faith’s powers of inspiration and sustenance in the lives of believers.” Back at Carolina, Lundin took an honors seminar about religious ideals, chose to major in religious studies and eventually became a teaching assistant for a freshman honors course in the subject. He founded Carolina Crossfire, a student group dedicated to discussing difficult religious questions, personal and political. The group sponsored a public dialogue by an agnostic professor and a local pastor, asking what they considered to be attractive and unattractive aspects of organized Christianity. Johnston plans to pursue a master’s degree in international relations at Oxford, researching how developing countries can improve gains from international trade by pursuing institutional reforms. “The privilege of an Oxford education would greatly enhance my future career in international economic diplomacy, advocating for structures of power that serve vulnerable communities on a global scale,” he said. In Burundi from July through October, Johnston worked for an organization that provided conflict management training to leaders in the country’s peace process, “using the same negotiation theory that I studied in a graduate level course at UNC.” He researched the impact of the training on the Burundian Army, formed through the integration of Hutu rebels and Tutsi-dominated government forces. Previously, the two groups had engaged in bloody slaughters against each other for three decades. On Johnston’s first visit to Burundi, in summer 2003, he evaluated conditions in a refugee camp in Tanzania. The camp was home to Burundians who had fled the conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in their own country. At Carolina, Johnston was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and the Order of the Golden Fleece, an honor society recognizing extraordinary contributions to the University. • Hofweber wins philosophy best article prize Thomas Hofweber, an assistant philosophy professor, won the 2006 best article prize awarded to young scholars by the American Philosophical Association. Hofweber, who came to UNC in 2003, won the award for “Inexpressible Properties and Propositions.” The prize is given for the best article published in the last two years. Hofweber specializes in metaphysics (the basic features of reality) and the philosophy of language and mathematics. He received a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1999 and a master’s degree from the University of Munich, Germany, in 1994. “It’s no surprise that Thomas Hofweber’s work is winning prizes,” said philosophy department chair Geoffrey Sayre-McCord. “His papers, considered singly, are consistently sophisticated and elegant. Taken together, they are working to support a powerful systematic account about what we are doing in thinking and talking about logic, mathematics and what exists. His work is at the cutting edge of the field.” • Ben Lundin Adrian Johnston High Achievers Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 7 endowed lecture named for long-time philosophy staff member Blues scholar Honored at international film festival William Ferris, a widely recognized expert on African American music and Southern culture, received a Lifetime Achievement Award at an international film festival in Prague last fall. Ferris, the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South, was honored at the Music on Film — Film on Music Festival at the Palace Lucerna, one of the oldest cinemas in Europe. The festival showcased several of Ferris’ documentary films on B.B. King, the Mississippi Delta blues, black churches and religion, gospel music and African fife-and-drum music in the United States. There also was an exhibition of his photography, and he discussed and performed blues music. Festival director John Caulkins called Ferris “a pioneering ethno-graphic filmmaker in the tradition of the legendary Alan Lomax,” referring to the late ethnographer who recorded thousands of blues and folk songs for the Library of Congress. A native of Vicksburg, Miss., Ferris has interviewed thousands of musicians ranging from the famous (B.B. King) to the unrecognized (Parchman Penitentiary inmates working in the fields). He has written or edited 10 books and created 15 documentary films. He chaired the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1997 to 2001. • William Ferris Claire Miller retired in 2002 after 39 years as manager of the philosophy department. A day or two later, she came back on a part-time basis to manage one of her prized projects: the department’s annual philosophy colloquium. And during the colloquium last fall, Miller got to sit in on a new endowed lectureship named in her honor. Faculty surprised her with the news of the gift at a department meeting. The donors who established the endowment for the annual Claire Miller Lecture in Philosophy wish to remain anonymous. The unusual gift recognizes the extraordinary contribution that Miller has made to the UNC philosophy department and, perhaps most visibly, to the internationally recognized Chapel Hill Colloquium, which she has organized since its inception 40 years ago. Gerald Postema, Cary C. Boshamer Professor, said he could think of no more fitting way to honor the colloquium’s “queen bee.” “Claire identified with the colloquium from the very beginning and threw herself into the planning of the event with incredible energy. Early on, she made a commitment to the department of philosophy, and she has worked pretty much all of her life for the love of the department,” Postema said. “Naming a lectureship for a staff member is a wonderful tribute and signals the important role that staff play in the life of the University.” Philosophy professor and department chair Geoff Sayre-McCord said Miller is someone who “pays careful attention to details.” “Claire understands and appreciates what’s at stake in everything she does,” he said. “She works tirelessly. Neither the department nor the colloquium would have thrived in the way they have without her decades of hard work, intelligence and commitment. We know how lucky we have been, and it is a delight to be able to put in place this permanent honor to her.” Miller’s reaction to the news: “thrilled, stunned, shocked.” “It’s a nice recognition for University employees,” she said. “It was very creative, outside-the-box thinking on the part of the donor.” “Although I had been to college before I came to UNC, I probably got my education in the philosophy department,” Miller added. “The people are fascinating; they’re intelligent; they’re funny; they’re interesting. It’s a friendly, open, diverse place to work. The department has been my professional family.” • { } “Claire understands and appreciates what’s at stake in everything she does. Neither the department nor the colloquium would have thrived in the way they have without her decades of hard work, intelligence and commitment.” — Geoff Sayre-McCord 8 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences Whether they are squinting at stars or molecules, measuring the motion of waves or the flight of insects, Carolina scientists across traditional and emerging disciplines are discovering what new state-of-the-art facilities can mean for their research and their students. The big news just off Polk Place is the recent opening of Max C. Chapman Jr. Hall and the W. Lowry and Susan S. Caudill Laboratories, the first buildings completed in the first phase of the long-awaited $205 million Carolina Physical Science Complex. The complex, the largest construction project in UNC history, will rely on $22 million in private gifts and $84 million from a higher education bond referendum approved by N.C. voters in 2000. Chapman Hall is named for the 1966 College alumnus who gave a $5 million gift to support the new 130,000-square-foot building. “The real thanks for this building goes to the people of North Carolina,” said Chapman during the building’s official dedication in November. “Clearly my contribution and others are small fractions of what it takes to build a facility like this.” Chapman, chairman of Gardner Capital Management Corp. in New York City, is a legendary figure in the futures and options industry on Wall Street. He has also served nearly 20 years on the UNC-Chapel Hill Foundation’s Investment Fund, which he has chaired for the past decade. Chapman Hall offers lecture halls, laboratories and offices for faculty and students in chemistry, mathematics, marine significant impact highly innovative integrated approach Left to right: Chemists are excited about collaborative possibilities in the new Caudill Labs. • Protein pioneer Gary Pielak uses an NMR instrument to study proteins in living cells. • Marine scientist Alberto Scotti and mathematician Richard McLaughlin will expand their experiments with waves. • Chapman Hall provides high-tech labs and classrooms for faculty and students in chemistry, mathematics, marine sciences and physics and astronomy, as well as the Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology. Super Science State-of-the-art facilities open new doors to discovery B y A n g e l a S p i v e y Steve Exum Steve Exum Steve Exum Steve Exum Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 9 materials sciences. In Phillips, the scientists had to run separate machines to supply pressurized air and refrigerated water, for example, but now all of that is central. “The less noise and power we have going through any room, the better science we can do,” Hall said. Rich Superfine, Bowman and Gordon Gray Professor in the department of physics and astronomy, has also found that the data from a microscope he uses to examine single molecules of DNA in studies of sciences, and physics and astronomy, as well as the Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology. Researchers who study and manipulate molecular materials on the nanoscale (which can be 100,000 times narrower than a strand of human hair) rely on high-tech instruments that are susceptible to the smallest interference. In their old labs in Phillips Hall, vibrations came from cars and trucks pulling into a nearby parking lot, from power lines feeding nearby Peabody Hall, and even the building’s window air conditioners and steady foot traffic. Before-and-after pictures taken with a scanning electron microscope tell the story. Those taken with the same microscope, but after the move to the basement of Chapman, have much higher resolution, even to the lay person’s eye, than those taken in the old labs. [See sidebar on page 14.] The absence of window air conditioners and other extraneous machines also reduces vibrations, said Adam Hall, a graduate student in applied and continued underlying principles extraordinarily strong 10 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences blood clotting is “considerably quieter,” he said. “The better measurements I think will allow us to better determine the forces involved when cells divide and help us understand the process of clotting better.” Chapman Hall’s central ventilation system also means more controlled conditions for these and other instruments that 21st century science requires, said Laurie McNeil, professor and chair of the department of physics and astronomy. “These instruments need steady temperature and steady humidity,” she said. • Forging new collaborations Another exciting feature of Chapman Hall is a new 4,500-square-foot fluids laboratory [see sidebar on page 10], including a 120-foot long wave tank, which will allow for new collaborations between the departments of mathematics and marine sciences. For the last nine years, applied math researchers had relied on a 350-square-foot fluids lab in Phillips Hall. “The applied math group has landed some big grants and trained a large number of undergraduates and graduate students in the small space,” said Patrick Eberlein, professor and chair of the mathematics department. Two awards were given by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Mathematical Sciences. Mathematics professor Richard McLaughlin is the principal investigator for a $1.7 million research training grant; and Roberto Camassa, George Kane Professor of Mathematics, is the principal Making Waves By Angela Spivey When you picture a wave, it’s probably crashing on a beach. But applied mathematicians and marine scientists at Carolina see waves everywhere — in the warming of the earth, in a cloud of chemicals in the air. By April 2007, others will be able to see them too — in a 120- foot-long transparent tank in the basement of Chapman Hall that is part of a new 4,500-square-foot fluids laboratory. The tank will enable researchers to study the large-scale behavior of water seen in hurricanes and tsunamis, for instance, and to expand their experiments with waves — to help answer such questions as how global warming works and how airborne chemicals behave. The National Science Foundation’s Division of Mathematical Sciences awarded UNC a $620,000 major research instrumentation grant to acquire the wave tank. Roberto Camassa, George Kane Professor of Mathematics, is the project’s principal investigator. Co-principal investigators include mathematics professor Richard McLaughlin and, in marine sciences, assistant professor Alberto Scotti and Francisco Werner, the George and Alice Welsh Professor. Deeper, longer and wider than similar tanks at other scientific institutions, the UNC tank will be transparent and elevated off the floor, so scientists can observe the water from all angles. “To be totally optically accessible with this length is unique,” Camassa said. The tank will be divided into four modules, so several experiments can happen at once. In addition, the modules will have different properties. The deepest module will be used for studying deep waves and the effect of dropping things a long distance. Another module that is wider than the others could be lined with material such as sand, to study how bottom topography affects wave propagation. If need be, the gates between the modules can be opened so scientists can use the whole length of the tank, to study waves that happen over long distances. Before scientists can answer the big questions about global warming, they have to understand the underlying principles, Camassa said. An example is mixing of stratified fluids — fluids in which one layer is denser, or heavier, than the other. “You have an energy balance on earth, and energy from the sun has to be distributed one way or another,” Camassa said. If you think of the earth as a water basin, and the sun’s energy as a running faucet, the way the earth stores and releases the sun’s energy — or the height of the overflow drain from the bottom of the basin — is influenced by mixing, he added. Scotti also studies mixing of fluids of different densities. For instance, if a heavy gas such as chlorine were to be spilled in an industrial accident, how would it mix with the lighter air? ��If a large cloud of gas spills, it’s important to understand how fast the cloud will get dispersed in the environment.” he said. The fluids lab also will include a wind tunnel, a mixing station and other equipment. It was quite a change from the old fluids lab in Phillips Hall, which could accommodate only three people at once — forcing scientists to work in shifts. • ABOVE: Marine scientist Alberto Scotti (left) and mathematician Richard McLaughlin will work on a much larger wave tank in the new 4,500-square-foot fluids lab in Chapman. underlying principles Steve Exum Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 11 continued investigator for a $620,000 major research instrumentation grant. The larger space in Chapman will help the group expand even more. For example, the new fluids lab will include a wind tunnel that McLaughlin, Camassa and Laura Miller, who joined the department’s faculty in January, will use to study insect flight. [See sidebar on page 12]. The physical design of the complex makes it easier for scientists to connect. “The simple ability to communicate has made a profound impact on how we work and on the ease of collaborating,” said Francisco Werner, George and Alice Welsh Professor and chair of the department of marine sciences. Now, marine sciences faculty will be able to meet with colleagues in applied math by simply walking down a flight of stairs or crossing a bridge that connects Chapman Hall to Phillips Hall. For chemist Mike Ramsey, whose group studies the emerging field of nanofluidics, the new space in Chapman means eliminating a daily hike between his former office in Kenan and labs in Venable. Ramsey recently received a $3.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to further develop his “lab-on-a- chip” technology for faster and cheaper human genome sequencing. “Now all of our lab space is contiguous, and all of the office space for students and postdocs are now together and adjacent to the labs,” said Ramsey, the Minnie N. Golby Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. “That allows for a lot more camaraderie. Protein Pioneer By Karen Stinneford (BA ’87, MBA ’02) Chemist Gary Pielak’s award-winning research into the role proteins play in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s was fueled by a dare, of sorts. Years ago whenever Pielak, who studied protein stability, discussed his research with fellow UNC chemist Linda Spremulli, she’d tell him it wasn’t applicable to real life, saying, “But the way you’re doing it isn’t what happens in living cells, because in living cells, proteins are really crowded.” “And that really, really bugged me,” Pielak recollected, “because I knew she was right.” So he changed direction and began doing much riskier research in living cells. The gamble paid off. Pielak’s new approach garnered him a $2.5 million, five-year Director’s Pioneer Award this year from the National Institutes of Health. The award supports exceptionally creative scientists who pursue highly innovative and risky approaches to biomedical challenges. He’s the first UNC scientist to receive the award. Pielak uses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to study proteins inside cells that are still alive. His research team had successfully used this high-resolution imaging tool to study bacteria. Now they hope it will lead to new understanding about proteins in animal cells. “We’re really swinging for the fences here,” Pielak said. What Pielak and his team uncover could have sweeping ramifications for medicine. Better understanding how proteins change in cells diseased by Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s could lead to breakthrough treatments that halt the rate of degeneration — or even reverse it. “Probably not in my lifetime, but absolutely, it can happen,” Pielak said. For now, the NIH grant gives Pielak and his team of student researchers added motivation to push on with their work. Pielak enjoys a reputation on campus for being especially generous when it comes to giving students hands-on laboratory experience. “Scientists don’t spring forth fully formed from Zeus’ head — scientists have to be trained,” he said. Matthew Dedmon ’02 worked with Pielak for three years as an undergraduate at UNC and majored in chemistry. Now completing his post-doc at Harvard Medical School, Dedmon says Pielak’s secret to training talented scientists is the latitude he gives them as students. “Gary is a brilliant scientist who is always ready to discuss a problem and always has suggestions for a potential solution,” Dedmon said. “What makes him a great educator, however, is that he gives students the chance to solve their own problems, rather than merely dictating the work and supplying the answers.” • ABOVE: Chemist Gary Pielak uses a large NMR spectrometer to study proteins inside living cells. His award-winning work could advance Parkinson’s research. highly innovative Steve Exum 12 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences In general, when doing science, the casual/coincidental discussions are really important.” Chemists are also envisioning new collaborative projects in the W. Lowry and Susan S. Caudill Laboratories, their new 146,000-square-foot home connected to the adjacent Kenan Laboratories by a bridge and an open plaza [see sidebar on page 13]. Lowry Caudill, a 1979 chemistry alumnus and entrepreneur, gave a major gift for the new building and the Royce Murray Quadrangle, the largest of the green spaces planned for the complex. The Caudill building features laboratories for chemists; a special “high field room” with seven nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers, which are high-resolution imaging tools; a “clean room” for nanoparticle synthesis in the lab of Joseph DeSimone, William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor; and numerous common areas for students and faculty to interact with each other. Caudill agrees that one of the science complex’s biggest assets is the way the layout encourages conversations. “The Royce Murray Quadrangle, for example, is going to be a centerpiece to the complex when it’s completed. It’s a place where students and faculty can go outside for lunch or conversation or throw Frisbees or contemplate a problem,” he said. The quadrangle honors Caudill’s Carolina mentor, longtime chemistry professor Royce Murray, whose 45-year career has been marked by extraordinary achievement as a scholar and educator. Flying Lessons By Pamela Babcock Why is it that below a certain size, tiny insects no longer flap their wings to fly? What can the flying habits of these insects tell us about aerodynamics? How do trees and plants withstand high wind forces such as hurricanes or tornadoes? And how does the flow of blood through a fetal heart change as it grows and develops? These are a few of the subjects Laura A. Miller, assistant professor of math-ematics, has studied. A mathemati-cal biologist, Miller researches how animals and plants deal with fluid dynamic forces in nature. “The basic idea behind mathematical biology is you use the tools of mathematics to better understand biology, and the other idea is that biology can inspire new problems in mathematics, so the two fields really enhance each other,” Miller explained. Miller joined the Carolina faculty in January, after serving as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. She received her Ph.D. in math from New York University in 2004; she has an M.S. in zoology from Duke University and a B.S. in biology from the University of Chicago. “I’ve always been torn between studying aerodynamics and physics, and biology and math,” Miller said. In 2006, Miller won a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface, which provides $500,000 over five years to support research in quantitative biological and medical sciences. Miller’s laboratory and field work may have applications for military flight and medical healing. Her research on lift generation in insects could inform the U.S. Department of Defense as it develops micro-air vehicles. Remote-controlled, insect-size aircraft could be used for search and rescue, military surveillance or the detection of chemical and biological agents, for instance. The physics of flight changes “as you shrink it down to the size of an insect,” Miller said Plant wind-resistance studies could have implications for manmade structures and buildings, while knowledge about early embryonic blood flow and heart development could lead to “corrective tools for congenital heart disease,” she explained. Miller, a native of Marietta, Ohio, said she was attracted to UNC because it supports mathematical biology and offers an integrated approach to problems with synergies between the departments of biology and genetics and the UNC School of Medicine. She is also excited about the new fluids lab in Chapman Hall, which will include both a large wave tank and a wind tunnel. In Utah, Miller had access to a miniature water tank, but looks forward to using the much larger fluids lab in Chapman Hall to continue her heart development experiments. “For a math department to have access to a really large facility to do fluid dynamics experiments is really unique,” Miller said. She’ll also continue her plant research with the wind tunnel in the new interdisciplinary fluids lab. Miller previously used the tunnel while she was a graduate student at Duke. The tunnel, 2.8 meters tall and 7 meters in length, was donated last year to UNC by Nekton Research, based in Durham, N.C. • ABOVE: Mathematical biologist Laura Miller studies habits of tiny insects. She stands in a walkway connecting Phillips Hall to Chapman Hall, which will promote collaborations between scientists. integrated approach Dan Sears Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 13 The second phase of the Carolina Physical Science Complex will include an addition to Sitterson Hall for computer science, scheduled for completion around 2008, and the replacement of Venable Hall with two, new state-of-the-art buildings to be completed around 2010. “New Venable” will be occupied by chemistry and marine sciences. Marine sciences will move out of Chapman in late 2010 or early 2011 — and that space will then be filled by physics and astronomy, and mathematics. • Enhanced teaching space Both Caudill and Chapman add improved teaching space in the project’s first phase. All of the classes formerly taught in Venable, including chemistry classes, are now being taught in Chapman’s new lecture halls and classrooms. And Carolina’s first class on entrepreneurship for scientists is being held in Caudill Labs. Holden Thorp, Kenan Professor and chair of chemistry, and Caudill, an adjunct professor of chemistry, are co-teaching the class as part of the College of Arts and Sciences’ involvement in the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative. Caudill brings his experience as one of the founding scientists of pharmaceutical development company Magellan Laboratories, which he and a partner grew to 600 employees, then sold to Cardinal Health. Labs for undergraduate astronomy classes will also be taught in Chapman, where telescopes will be set up on the new rooftop observing deck. The new Polymer Professor By JB Shelton Protégé and first graduate student of UNC chemistry professor Joseph M. DeSimone, Valerie Sheares Ashby has already garnered 10 patents for her research on the design and synthesis of polymeric biomaterials. “It is a long, hard road from inside the lab working with biological materials to using them inside the human body, but the impact can be significant,” said Ashby. Significant, indeed, for folks interested in feeling better, healing faster and avoiding medicinal side effects. Ashby, Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Professor, teaches organic chemistry to sophomores and juniors and introductory chemistry to freshmen. The Ashby group, her intrepid band of students, moved from antiquated Venable Hall in December to a 21st century polymer chemical lab in the new W. Lowry and Susan S. Caudill Laboratories. “[Students] have the advantage of state-of-the- art equipment and extensive working space with no option but enhanced efficiency,” Ashby said. “We are primarily interested in designing the properties of synthetic polymer materials for multiple functions in biological applications,” she explained. Polymers are the building blocks of plastics, created by linking many separate units together. If you’ve ever hooked dozens of heal and repair damaged eye tissue and maintain sight. As new cells grow in, the biodegradable scaffolding safely disappears. She earned both her B.S. (’88) and Ph.D. (’94) from UNC, and joined the faculty as an associate professor in 2003. In the interim, Ashby was a visiting scientist at IBM and Eastman Chemical Company and a National Science Foundation NATO postdoctoral fellow. She was honored by the American Chemical Society in 2002 as one of the country’s top 12 young female chemists. Ashby explained her enjoyment of her career — certainly one of intense and intensive scientific expertise — with the motto, “If it’s not fun, I’m not doing it.” • paper clips to form chains, you’ve created the office-supply version of a polymer. Ashby is tailoring biomaterials to improve drug delivery in the body. “The polymer materials become nontoxic carriers with targeting agents that either hold or attach to drugs. They prolong the drug’s circulation time in the blood, control its rate of release and only target a specific cell or area of the human body,” she said. Think, for example, of quick-acting but continuing relief of your headache without digestive side effects. Her tissue engineering and scaffolding work are initial steps to facilitating cell growth and alignment. One potential application is regenerating retinal cells to significant impact ABOVE: Chemist Valerie Ashby has garnered 10 patents for her research on polymers. She and her students will benefit from state-of-the-art equipment and extensive lab space in Caudill. continued Steve Exum Microscope Master By Karen Stinneford (BA ’87, MBA ’02) Imagine you are an astronomer, peering through a high-powered telescope to examine an object on the moon about the size of two tennis balls. Then imagine what might happen to your view if a dump truck lumbered by 20 feet in front of your telescope, vibrating it. Lu-Chang Qin, an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy, knows how vibration can blur one’s view of another world — in his case, the not-so-distant one involving atomic and molecular particles that can only be viewed through a highly sensitive microscope. As director of the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Atomic Imaging and Manipulation, Qin uses a transmission electron microscope to study tiny carbon nanotubes. They are extremely thin — about 100,000 times narrower than a human hair — and look like cylinders of balled-up chicken wire. Because they are extraordinarily strong and can conduct heat and electricity, they could be useful in a variety of ways — from making more sensitive electronics to stronger concrete or even warmer winter coats. Studying the structure of carbon nanotubes is critical to understanding their potential applications. The transmission electron microscope allows Qin and his colleagues to magnify carbon nanotubes up to 1 million times. “Everything is made up of atoms, but exactly how they are stacked is important to the property and performance of materials,” he explained. “It’s like building a house with brick or blocks — depending on which you use, you get a different house. Any disturbance affects the resolution.” When the Keck lab was housed in Phillips Hall, vibration frequently obstructed Qin’s view. Ordinary traffic was a problem, but lumbering dump trucks and cranes were even worse. “We couldn’t always hear the construction traffic, but we could tell it was there because our resolution was affected,” said Qin, who also is associate chair in the curriculum in applied and materials sciences. This is why Qin was excited about moving into Chapman Hall. The transmission electron microscope was relocated to the basement of Chapman, where Qin can conduct his research essentially vibration free. “The department worked very hard to adapt the Phillips Hall space — still, it took more than a year to get the microscope to perform marginally,” Qin said. “The new environment in Chapman is a big improvement as far as I’m concerned.” • ABOVE: Lu-Chang Qin (pictured in his old Phillips Hall lab) uses an electron microscope to study tiny carbon nanotubes. In the old lab, vibrations frequently interfered with his work. 14 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences extraordinarily strong space allows the department of physics and astronomy to teach these labs at the optimal time — after dark. The deck at Morehead Observatory was too small to accommodate all of the students at once, so classes were split into two observing sessions, one at 7 p.m. and one at 8:30 p.m. “Early in the fall and late in the spring, the first class would be observing when it was still partly light out,” said Bruce Carney, Samuel Baron Professor of Astronomy and senior associate dean for sciences. “That just doesn’t work.” The first floor of Chapman includes a glass-walled room where astronomers, aided by undergraduate and graduate students, will remotely control telescopes UNC uses in Chile and South Africa. The room is four times the size of the old observing room, but Carney said that its best feature is that it puts astronomy on display. “It’s planted right where the students will be passing by on their way to classes on the first floor,” he said. “When one of the professors was debugging it last fall, there were students plastered up against the wall looking in. I’m sure we’re going to draw more students into the sciences this way.” Expanded space and high-tech facilities will also make it easier to attract high-caliber faculty. For example, marine sciences will begin recruiting in fall 2007 for a specialist whose interests will provide a bridge between the work of various faculty in marine sciences and those in the applied math group, Werner said. “Moving into a 21st century building and laboratories has completely changed our outlook on the possibilities — on what we think we can do. We have set our targets higher.” • Dan Sears Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 15 Summer Scholars Art for change in Oaxaca, Mexico Katie Almirall landed in the middle of a major news story last summer — a political uprising in Oaxaca, Mexico — while pursuing her SURF project on using public art to raise awareness of human rights issues. In a backlash against Governor Ulises Ruiz, teachers went on strike, and people camped out in the streets and organized protest marches. “When I went out the morning [of June 14] for my Spanish class, there was tear gas in the air, helicopters, and teachers were running through the streets. It was crazy,” said Almirall, a native of Oak Island, N.C. “I didn’t tell my parents until I got home.” Never once did Almirall, a senior studio art major pursuing a minor in Spanish, think that maybe she should go home. It was a ripe environment for encouraging artistic comment from the 16 young students she taught in an art class at the Center for Human Rights in Oaxaca. Students discussed the explosion of art going on around them in reaction to the political unrest: puppets, life-size dioramas, banners and graffiti. Guided by Almirall, students brainstormed and created their own interactive public art project: A huge, inflatable hand out of clear painter’s plastic, a hand large enough for people to walk inside. The students filled it with index cards full of facts Exploring public art and human rights in Mexico, studying Russian wetlands policy, revealing delays in North Carolina’s appellate court process and dispelling misconceptions about women of the Middle East— these were a few of the research projects undertaken last summer, not by senior faculty, but by Carolina undergraduate students. Each year the Office of Under-graduate Research in the College of Arts and Sciences awards Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURFs) to 60 to 65 young scholars to encourage discovery beyond the classroom. Guided by faculty advis-ers, undergraduates conduct research that spans the fine arts, humanities, business, sciences and social sciences. Students share their findings each spring at the Undergraduate Research Symposium on campus. “It’s exciting to carry out a project of your own design as an undergraduate,” said Patricia J. Pukkila, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and a professor of biology. “It’s also an effective way to learn, to understand the limits of conclusions and to gain confidence in your abilities to address future unsolved problems.” The sampling of projects featured were funded with $3,000 stipends from the Frances C. and William P. Smallwood Foundation, the College, General Administration’s Undergraduate Research Expansion Fund and the Robin March Hanes Fund for Studio Art. continued B y K i m W e a v e r S p u r r ’ 8 8 Undergraduate students Navigate research at home and abroad 16 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences about human rights and markers so that passersby could write reactions of their own. The giant hand was displayed in the center of town. “People were drawing on the inflatable [hand] which was great — they felt compelled to do that,” Almirall said. UNC art professor Beth Grabowski, who served as Almirall’s SURF adviser, was impressed with her resourcefulness, vision and initiative. “In that kind of situation, you’re an art director, an art teacher, a conversation facilitator … there are lots of different skills to draw upon,” Grabowski said. Almirall says the SURF project helped her to build bridges between the Oaxacan art students and the Latino immigrants she teaches in a Carrboro art class. The two groups worked on art projects to exchange with each other. “Although there was a lot of political conflict, I also got exposed to normal life in Oaxaca. I got to know so many interesting people who were involved in the community,” she said. Studying post-Soviet wetlands policy Dylan Trettin combined his interest in environmental policy and history to examine the impact of the fall of communism on wetlands policy in Russia, home to about 40 percent of the earth’s wetlands. “Russia’s wetlands are an immensely important global resource, playing a significant role in carbon absorption and regulation of global warming,” said Trettin, a junior international studies and history major from Mount Pleasant, S.C. Trettin spent the summer in Moscow interviewing scientists and governmental officials, poring over policy briefs and visiting a wetlands research site with scholars from the Russian Academy of Sciences. He hypothesized that Russia’s democratic transition had improved the ability of the scientific community to impact wetlands policy. His findings weren’t quite that simple. Major funding cuts, layoffs and a market plagued by corruption are hampering professionals’ ability to shape policy, Trettin said. “The collapse [of the Soviet Union] was just so chaotic, with people losing jobs and the government changing. It wasn’t that the old system was better, but it has taken time to rebuild something comparable,” he said. Traveling abroad for the SURF project gave Trettin a different perspective once he returned to Carolina last fall for his international studies courses. “It was an interesting experience coming back and sitting in on classes about globalization … dealing with broader issues in the context of your own research,” he said. Retired Asian studies professor Steven Levine, faculty adviser on the project, said Trettin has an extraordinary sense of self-confidence and maturity. “I felt like it wasn’t so much a student-teacher relationship — we were exploring things together,” Levine said. “[The partnership] was very conducive to learning.” Trettin is continuing his work abroad this spring on an internship with the U.S. Embassy in Russia, in the Office of Environment, Science and Technology. Anatomy of delay in the state court of appeals Sam Hartzell said only a college student would spend his summer poring over 1,636 court cases decided in 2005 by the North Carolina Court of Appeals. The junior political science and philosophy major from Raleigh, N.C., wanted to determine the speed with which cases receive appellate review in the state system — and to compare those numbers with American Bar Association (ABA) guidelines. It turns out his SURF project yielded major findings. Hartzell found that in 2005, the state Court of Appeals fell substantially short of the ABA recommendations. It was data that Hartzell Katie Almirall Dylan Trettin Dan Sears Dan Sears Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 17 said the National Center for State Courts confirmed had never been gathered before. Political science professor Georg Vanberg admitted he was a bit skeptical at first that Hartzell could complete such a daunting project. “I wasn’t sure an undergraduate could pull this off in a summer,” Vanberg said. “Hopefully he’ll turn this into an honors thesis. All of our undergraduate theses are good, genuine pieces of scholarship — but I think Sam’s will be a standout piece.” The ABA recommends that 75 percent of all cases be resolved within 290 days from filing the notice of appeal, with 95 percent of all cases resolved within one year of filing. Breaking his preliminary findings down into data on civil and criminal cases, Hartzell found: • The North Carolina Court of Appeals resolved 75 percent of criminal cases within 21 months, 2.1 times as long as the ABA guideline; • The Court resolved 75 percent of civil cases within 18 months, 1.8 times the ABA guideline; • The Court resolved 95 percent of criminal cases within 32 months, 2.6 times the ABA guideline; and • The Court resolved 95 percent of civil cases within 24 months, 2 times the ABA guideline. Hartzell said the delays were occurring even though the Court judges issued significantly more rulings than the national average. “The research suggests that cutting appeal times may be more a matter of trying to change how things are done rather than changing how hard people work,” he said. “If the Court judges were not unusually productive, the backlog would be longer.” Hartzell hopes to publish the research and share it with the Court. He adds that working on the SURF project was “the best summer job I’ve ever had.” Misconceptions about women of the Middle East Marium Chaudhry, a native of Pakistan, wanted to dispel some of the misconceptions that Westerners have about women of the Middle East. So she decided to go straight to the source: surveying her peers at the University of Jordan. The senior journalism and international studies major spent the summer in Amman for her SURF project. She interviewed 50 college students, 19 men and 31 women, about their views on culture, religion, gender roles, education and lifestyles of women in the Middle East. Chaudhry said it’s generally presumed that women living under a Muslim government are suppressed and oppressed because of their gender. But even Chaudhry admits she was surprised by one of her findings: 50 percent of the students surveyed said that the government should enforce women wearing the hijab or “the veil.” She found that: • 50 percent of the participants said wearing the veil (described as head-to-toe covering) was extremely important; and • 34 percent said that Islam requires a woman to be modest but does not require a woman to wear the veil. “Most of the women I spoke to felt [wearing the veil] was a part of their culture, less a part of their religion than their culture,” she said. Chaudhry also found that 76 percent of those surveyed said they would like to incorporate some ideas of the West within their own lifestyle, such as the freedom to wear what they want, and more work opportunities and education choices. The SURF experience further whetted Chaudhry’s appetite for digging deeper for the facts. She hopes to combine her love of journalism and international study and to get a job with Al Jazeera, a broadcast media company based in the Middle East. Chaudhry asked sociology professor Charles Kurzman, an expert on the Middle East and Islam, to help her formulate survey questions for her project. “She’s an enthusiastic student who’s a real self-starter,” Kurzman said. “It was an ambitious project on a topic that’s of interest to many academics as well as to the public at large, the issue of Islamic identity.” • Sam Hartzell Marium Chaudhry Dan Sears Dan Sears 18 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences It was once unthinkable that women would occupy a prominent and permanent place at the nation’s first public university, let alone become the subject of a serious academic field in which Carolina would be in the vanguard. But today, 30 years after the women’s studies curriculum was planted in Chapel Hill, the program has thrived, reaching some 2,000 students a year in 118 classes across the arts and sciences. Its graduates enjoy successful careers in business, government, nonprofits and academia. And its core faculty — a diverse blend of established scholars and rising stars — are enhancing public understanding of the role of women and gender in archaeology, anthropology, cinema, history, literature, government, public policy, public health, sociology and science in the United States and around the world. It wasn’t always so. In the beginning, UNC was, like the majority of other institutions of higher learning in the country, a male bastion. By 1897, a century after the University’s founding, UNC trustees admitted five women for advanced courses; however, they would never appear in a class picture or participate in a public graduation ceremony. The die had been cast, though, and the number of women on campus would gradually grow until the prevailing norms were turned upside down and inside out. During the 1960s, women’s pedestals were replaced with soapboxes in a wave of activism around a host of issues, including the Vietnam War, Civil Rights and equal rights for women. By the 1976-77 academic year, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was well established. The U.S. military and air force academies admitted their first women cadets. The Episcopal Church began ordaining women to the priesthood. And that year, Carolina reached a major milestone of its own: For the first time, female students outnumbered male students. The new majority was not a cause for celebration in every quarter. The Chapel Hill Newspaper predicted that “the state’s future business and political leaders would no longer be predominantly UNC graduates” and “there would be a consequent decline in public and private support,” according to Pamela Dean’s , women s studies turns 30 , women s studies turns 30 Carolina is a leader in examining the role of gender across disciplines B y L i s a H . T o w l e Steve Exum Women’s Studies core faculty (clockwise from left) Michele Berger, Jane Burns, Karen Booth, Joanne Hershfield and Barbara Harris (seated). Not pictured: Silvia Tomaskova. Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 19 Women on the Hill: A History of Women at The University of North Carolina. Such skepticism did not deter those who demanded a different paradigm. Education professor Mary Turner Lane, an unfaltering yet judicious advocate for the rights of both female students and faculty, wrote to then Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson that “today’s students are vastly different from those of our generation” and would expect to assume public leadership roles. With Title IX of the federal Education Amendment mandating an end to discrimina-tion on the basis of gender in admission, financial aid and housing, women sought to permanently transform the academy. They began negotiating for a course of study that would, in keeping with the goals of a liberal arts education, systematically and accurately represent the experiences, roles and contributions of women within human culture. An ad hoc committee of the UNC Faculty Council formed to study the matter. There were practical issues to address, of course: How would such a program be structured? What about its cost? But there were also some telling exchanges. Again, from Women on the Hill: “When Kenan Professor of Philosophy Maynard Adams wondered if enough students would want to major in such a program, Margaret O’Connor (an English professor who had taught the first Carolina course on ‘women in literature’ in 1972), threw the question back to him. How many majors did his department have? Rather sheepishly he reported at the next meeting that there were only nine. Adams and the rest of the committee concluded that, since a major university without a philosophy department was unthinkable, programs should not be judged on the number of majors they might attract.” Then came the charge that women’s studies would have no academic merit, and was merely a passing fad rooted in politics. Joan Wallach Scott, who joined the UNC history faculty in 1974 and is now at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University, countered that what “began as a political movement has become an intellectually legitimate field of inquiry (addressing) issues of importance to historians, sociologists, economists, anthropologists and psychologists” and therefore belonged at a major research university. In one sure stroke, Scott had created a leitmotif for the Carolina approach to women’s studies. In 1977, the committee’s recommenda-tions were accepted and women’s studies at UNC began as an academic program in the College of Arts and Sciences. Mary Turner Lane was named program director, a part-time position. She and Scott immediately set about developing its first course, “Introduction to Women’s Studies,” taught to some 50 under-graduates in 1977-78. The program continued to attract students. When Barbara Harris arrived on campus in January of 1989, she had two mandates: teach history and lead the women’s studies program to the next level. It would take three years for the Board of Governors to approve the move to a full-fledged curriculum. “By that time, I had created a significant network across campus so cross-listing courses was no problem,” recalls Harris, a historian of late medieval/early modern English women. “In fact, other departments felt affiliating with women’s studies was a recruitment tool.” They were right. Senior Shannon Fyfe, with a double major in music and political science and a minor in women’s studies, took her first cross-listed course (in sociology) her first year at UNC. “It was then that I fell in love with looking at the world in a different way, a multi-dimensional way,” explains Fyfe. That led her to apply to the University’s joint continued graduate program in law and social work. Today women’s studies has six core faculty engaged in teaching and research [see Who’s Who in Women’s Studies page 20]. In addition, the program lists more than 100 affiliated faculty in 29 academic departments in the College and the professional schools, including African and Afro-American studies, American studies, anthropology, art, biology, communication studies, comparative literature, economics, English, geography, history, philosophy, political science, psychology, religious studies, romance languages and sociology. Women’s studies offers a B.A. degree and a graduate minor. About 36 undergraduates major in women’s studies and 25 more take enough courses for an academic minor in the field. Many courses are filled to capacity, including “Women’s Studies 101,” which attracts about 250 students each semester and another 50 students in the summer. Carolina’s program also includes a women-in-science initiative — led by archaeologist Silvia Tomaskova — that engages students in ethnographic studies of women in science and co-sponsors guest lectures by prominent female scientists. In addition, women’s studies has a strong internship and public service component providing opportunities for Carolina students in about 25 local organizations. “Our program’s growth and profile have secured the reputation of women’s studies at UNC as one of the strongest in the nation,” said Harris, the chair. “We are regularly used as a standard for other universities that are expanding or institutionalizing their own women’s studies programs.” A priority for 2007-08 is to fill the Druscilla French Distinguished Professorship in Women’s Studies, funded by Drucie French (’71 AB English, ’78 MA Communication Studies) and her husband, Stephen Cumbie (’70 BS Chemistry, ’73 MBA). It is the first endowed professorship in women’s studies at Carolina. Next year, women’s studies will move into the 1901 Smith building, the first at UNC named for a woman — benefactor Mary Ann Smith of Raleigh. Steve Exum 20 • Spring 2007 • Carolinaarolinaarolinaarolinaarolinaarolinaarolina Artsrtsrts & Sciencesciencesciencesciencesciencesciencesciences French’s fund-raising efforts also led to the creation of the Women’s Studies Faculty Fund, which supports the research, writing and professional activities of the curriculum’s professors. French serves on the executive committee of the Carolina Women’s Leadership Council and served on UNC’s Board of Visitors from 2000 to 2004. Alumnus Matt Ezzell captures an important aspect of Carolina’s approach to women’s studies. After coming to UNC in 1995 and discovering none of his choices for major study fit quite right, Ezzell took a sociology course cross-listed with women’s studies and “suddenly found a language to make sense of the entirety of life.” He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in women’s studies, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in UNC’s department of sociology. He says he would like to teach in a university women’s studies program. Ezzell’s favorite quote comes from the activist, author and educator bell hooks because it speaks to his belief that the feminist perspective benefits everyone: “To be ‘feminist’ in any authentic use of the term is to want for all people, female and male, liberation from sexist role patterns, domination, and oppression.” This expansive view is reflected in the content of the women’s studies curriculum. Joanne Hershfield, a scholar and filmmaker who specializes in the role of women in film, uses quotes from Bella Abzug and clips from the film “Erin Brokovich” to help students focus on the varied relationships between feminism and environmentalism during a “Women’s Studies 101” lecture. The ongoing dialogue in these classes is the important thing, says UNC history professor Crystal Feimster, who graduated from Carolina in 1994 with a double major in history and women’s studies. “There’s not necessarily a space outside the academy to debate these issues and to figure out how to create a world where we all have the same opportunities regardless of gender, race and class,” says Feimster. The interdisciplinary approach to curriculum, coupled with internships and international research programs, have put women’s studies in a good place. Michele Berger, a political scientist who joined the women’s studies faculty in 2002, says, “I’m part of a legacy of scholars who made UNC a leader in women’s studies.” As a rising star in the study of historically excluded “outsider” voices — such as women of color or women who have been stigmatized by AIDS — she wants to help take the program to the next level. Berger acknowledges that she and others of her generation have their work cut out for them. “We now have a global, multi-feminist, multi-racial movement. Understanding what it means to place women’s lives at the center of all that, and to also be aware of the inevitable transformation of men’s roles, will take a lot of questioning and analysis and commitment,” she says. “It’s very exciting!” Women’s studies faculty at Carolina are also excited about moving next year to the Smith Building on Cameron Avenue. The historic structure was named for 19th century benefactor Mary Ann Smith of Raleigh, and completed in 1901, long before anyone envisioned a women’s studies program for Carolina or any other university. Smith left half her estate to Carolina — supporting construction and endowing the Mary Ann Smith Professorships in Chemistry, the oldest continuous professorships at UNC. How fitting that the women’s studies program will celebrate the start of its next 30 years by settling into the first building on campus named to honor a woman whose visionary philanthropy was considered ahead of her time. • To learn more about ways to support women’s studies at Carolina, contact Emily Stevens at (919) 843-5285 or emily.stevens@unc.edu. Women, Global Science, reveals conceptual flaws in internationally funded AIDS prevention efforts in Africa that focus on changing the behavior of women without addressing the power imbalances involved in unsafe sex practices.• E. Jane Burns, acting chair (Ph.D. French Literature and Medieval Studies, University of California at Berkeley), explores gender, sexuality and material culture in medieval texts. Her book, Courtly Love Undressed, is a study of courtly love and clothing in 13th century French culture. She also teaches courses on feminist and gender theory and women’s spirituality across cultures.• Barbara J. Harris, chair (Ph.D. History, Harvard University), is the author of four books and many journal articles. She is now writing a book on aristocratic English women from 1450 to 1550. She teaches classes on English history during the Tudor and Stuart periods and English and European women's history. Harris received the Mary Turner Lane Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Lives of Women at UNC in 1994.• Joanne Hershfield (Ph.D. Radio, Television and Film, University of Texas-Austin) is a documentary filmmaker and an expert on women in cinema in Mexico. She has published three books on Mexican films and directed/ co-produced several documentaries including studies of Latinos in North Carolina, women in leadership in N.C. and women in Japan.• Silvia Tomaskova (Ph.D. Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley) studies Paleolithic settlements of central and eastern Europe as well as the historical invention of shamans. She directs the women-in-science initiative and teaches courses on gender and science, women in scientific professions, gender and culture, and European prehistory and archaeological theory. • who s who in women s studies A glimpse of the core faculty in the women’s studies curriculum hints at the program’s strengths and breadth.• Michele Tracy Berger, (Ph.D. Political Science, University of Michigan) won a top-book award from the American Political Science Association for Workable Sisterhood, her study of the lives of 16 stigmatized women — former drug users and sex workers with HIV — who became politically active in Detroit. She teaches classes about women of color in contemporary U.S. social movements and the portrayal of African American women in the media.• Karen M. Booth (Ph.D. Sociology, University of Wisconsin at Madison) is a rising expert on the impact of globalization on reproductive health and rights. Her book, Local , ,clashes too frequently with the predominately Sunni Iraqi Police, a poorly developed force. Indeed, 2006 was slated as “the Year of the Iraqi Police.” Yet, as the Study Group notes, we have failed to develop an effective police force. In Fallujah, many police facilitate insurgent activity. When the Iraqi insurgents’ focus of effort shifted from attacks on American and Iraqi Security Forces to attacks on fellow citizens, the time passed when more U.S. troops on the ground would improve the situation. We have never made significant gains stopping Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence, and it will continue unabated regardless of troop strength — unless organic institutions are strengthened and a sense of national identity forged. The Iraqi government and people will ultimately determine whether a unified and peaceful Iraq will be a reality. The Iraq Study Group presents a “least-worst” option in Iraq. There is no panacea to the complex concoction of competing insurgencies, sectarian violence, terrorism, corruption and IRAQ: A view from the ground By Marine Corps Captains Rye Barcott ’01 and Croft Young ’95 The first step to recovery is to admit we have a problem. The Iraq Study Group report admits we have a “grave and deteriorating” problem in Iraq. Additionally, the new Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, acknowledged we are not “winning” in Iraq. As Marines who returned from Fallujah last spring, we welcome this candor, though we wish it had come sooner. We have not been “winning” in Iraq since the months immediately following our invasion, when we disbanded the Iraqi Army and failed for months to acknowledge incipient insurgencies popping up across the country. A year later, the Abu Ghraib scandal further advanced the radicalization of local Iraqis, many of whom have since adopted a jihadist ideology and will be life-long enemies of the United States. Key to the strategy proposed by the Study Group is an increase in the number of military advisers assigned to training the Iraqi Army and Police. If this strategy is adopted, the training must become much more of a priority. However, military advisers alone cannot build government institutions. Are we simply training Iraq’s three largest ethnic groups to kill each other? We both worked closely with Iraqi Police and Army units. The Iraqi Army in Fallujah, many of whose units perform admirably, is predominantly Kurdish and Shi’ite, and Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 21 First Person F i r st P e r s o n criminality. As Colin Powell’s Pottery Barn rule says, “If you break it, you own it.” We have a responsibility to at least leave Iraq in the best shape possible. Perhaps the release of the Study Group report will be a step in the right direction. • — College alumni Croft Young (international studies) and Rye Barcott (peace, war and defense/international studies) have served active duty in Iraq. Young served two tours there, most recently commanding a reconnaissance platoon in Fallujah. Barcott provided written testimony to the Iraq Study Group. TOP: Marine Captain Rye Barcott ’01 has served in Iraq and the Horn of Africa. BOTTOM: Marine Captain Croft Young ’95 has served two tours in Iraq, most recently in Fallujah. “We have not been ‘winning’ in Iraq since the months immediately following our invasion, when we disbanded the Iraqi Army and failed for months to acknowledge incipient insurgencies popping up across the country.” [ [ Spotlight S p o t l i g h t policymakers overseas. The goal was to build intellectual bridges between the United States and the rest of the world. Samulski helped organize two transatlantic conferences on “health and nanotechnology” involving both scientists and policymakers. The first one, on therapeutic advances, was held in Virginia, and the second, on the social and institutional ramifications of nanotechnology, was in Italy. “It was a great experience for me, and I worked very hard,” Samulski said. “I learned to appreciate how important it is to communicate science to non-scientists.” He also helped organize four bilateral conferences — around the central theme of “Global Dialogues on Emerging Science and Technology” — on quantum computing (in Germany), genomics and infectious diseases (in China), biotechnology and agriculture (in India) and bioinformatics (in Brazil). “The State Department would pay for 15 of the very best U.S. scientists in a particular area to go to a country and meet with 15 of their scientists and about 100 graduate students,” Samulski explained. “We wanted to get access to the next generation of scientists in these countries,” he said, noting that U.S. universities are facing increased competition from overseas institutions. Each trip involved intense travel to scientific institutes. In China, for example, he visited 27 laboratories in three weeks. Working in the State Department was both intriguing and fun, Samulski said. And the social life in D.C. was considerably more active than in Chapel Hill, he joked, describing embassy parties, Capitol Hill briefings and receptions, and jetting around the world. He occasionally found himself face to face with a major newsmaker. He met Secretary Rice two times and ran into then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the hallway. Samulski also watched with amazement as President Bush tried to persuade a roomful of skeptical university presidents that teaching critical languages is essential to the security of the U.S. Samulski was most impressed by the State Department’s little-known foreign service officers, civil servants and analysts, who, he said, “do the demanding work of maintaining and staying abreast of foreign affairs, at far less pay than they could make outside of government.” He especially enjoyed surprising his non-scientist peers on C Street by accurately predicting the actual date and outcome of North Korea’s first nuclear missile launch last summer. “I had a real coup there,” Samulski recalled. “Despite the seriousness of this, our office had a pool on when it would be launched. These people are all experts on Asia, and they take their work seriously, and I didn’t know a lot about North Korea. So I was a little reluctant to enter the pool. But, at everyone’s insistence, I made an estimated guess and predicted the launch would fail no matter what date it occurred, and then I predicted that it would take place on July 5 in Korea, because that’s July 4 in the U.S., and I thought that would be just the kind of message that Kim Jong Il would want to send.” The test launch occurred just the way Samulski had predicted. “It was just a scientist’s intuition,” he said. When Samulski returned to work after the launch, he said, “People were pointing at me whispering, ‘That’s the guy.’ I think they started wondering if maybe they should have more scientists in the State Department.” • Beyond the Classroom Professor Samulski goes to Washington By Dee Reid Chemist Edward Samulski didn’t know what to expect when he was one of only five scientists nationwide selected to spend the past year at the U.S. State Depart-ment as a Jefferson Science Fellow. After all, what could a nanotechnology expert — and an “independent Democrat”— find to do on Condoleezza Rice’s turf? Plenty, it turned out, as the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor fulfilled two very different assignments, one in which he needed to suppress information and the other in which he was supposed to disseminate information. Inside the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, he worked on classified projects that he can’t describe, except to say that he was asked to assess Asia’s progress in nanotechnology. That’s the study and manipulation of matter at the atomic scale — an emerging science with applications in medicine, energy, electronics and security. The atmosphere in the bowels of the State Department where intelligence work occurs was quiet, dark and ascetic, Samulski reports. Signs warn employees not to converse in the hallways. He got used to wearing a dark suit and tie every day, locking his computer hard drive in a vault each night and not discussing work with colleagues either in or out of the State Department. His other assignment in the Office of the Science and Technology Advisor to the Secretary was not at all hush-hush. Samulski traveled around the world to promote the mutual exchange of scientific information, in order to stay abreast of scientific activity globally and to strengthen America’s relationships. He encouraged U.S. scientists to share information with counterparts and 22 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences Chemist Ed Samulski’s State Department work took him to China for a conference on genomics and infectious diseases. Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 23 Highlights H i g h l i g h ts Drew Levinson ’82 at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill Thousands of miles away in the middle of Muslim territory in the Middle East, CBS Newspath correspondent Drew Levinson started thinking about his Jewish childhood in Robeson County, North Carolina. Over a three-year period, he had covered skirmishes between Israelis and Palestinians, interviewed the head of Hamas in Gaza, covered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping in Pakistan and reported on the Iraq War from Kuwait and Afghanistan. “In 2000, when I was at PLO headquarters interviewing the head of Hamas, he welcomed me and was very cordial,” said Levinson, who graduated from Carolina in 1982 with an undergraduate degree in peace, war and defense. “Then we sat down to do the interview and he said, ‘My goal is to wipe Israel off the face of the map and kill the hated Jews.’ “I thought about being a young American Jewish reporter working for a national broadcast company, and it really, really hit me. I kept thinking more about [my heritage]. In all, in the history of Robeson County, there have only been about 100 Jews there. And it’s now fewer than five. So I wanted to remember them.” Levinson, who lives in New York City, had never made a documentary film, although he had been covering national news for CBS since 1997. Serendipity led him to childhood acquaintance Melinda Weinstein, now an English professor at A Lasting Impression CBS journalist pays tribute to his heritage growing up Jewish in Robeson County By Kim Weaver Spurr ’88 Lawrence Technological University in Detroit. They teamed up with Levinson’s friend Lew Pincus, a West Palm Beach videographer. The team spent 2 ½ years roaming the back roads of Robeson County. The result is a 47-minute documentary, “Lasting Impressions,” a tribute to the Jewish people and their Christian neighbors, who grew up in harmony in the buckle of the South’s Bible Belt, in a community almost evenly divided between blacks, whites and Lumbee Indians. It is also a very personal story, as Levinson and Weinstein talk about their own families in the film, while chatting over black-eyed peas, fried chicken and collard greens at Candy Sue’s Café. “One of the things we talk about in the film is we tried to fit in, but at the same time, to stand out,” Levinson said. “Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t all honey and roses. There was hidden anti-Semitism, but we never had the overt anti-Semitism I’ve witnessed in bigger cities.” The film has been shown at dozens of film festivals, synagogues and museums. Levinson came home to UNC last fall to screen the film as part of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies’ lecture series. When he’s not flying around the world 250 days out of the year covering stories for CBS, Levinson works on marketing the film, a true “labor of love.” As a broadcast journalist, Levinson has covered major news stories including Hurricane Katrina, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the execution of Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh and the Columbine High School shootings. He fell into his love of the broadcast medium early, working as a teen-age disc jockey at WFMO radio in Fairmont. When he got accepted to Carolina, Levinson said his father, who is now deceased, read the course catalogue and told him he needed to major in peace, war and defense. “He said, ‘You can take courses in journalism and learn how to write — but you better know what in the hell you’re talking about,’” Levinson said. Levinson followed his father’s advice, becoming captivated with military history courses taught by former professor James Leutze, now chancellor emeritus at UNC-Wilmington. “Peace, war and defense has helped me tremendously in news,” he said. “The only way you can look at the future is to look back at history. I understand military strategies and tactical movements. I can’t imagine a different major for me.” As a general assignment reporter, Levinson never knows when he wakes up in the morning where he’s going to end up at night. He once hopped on nine planes in 14 days. “A perfect example was when I woke up one morning in New York, got sent to Washington to work there for the day, and by that night I was put on an airplane to Rome. “You never find me in the same place for long — but I’ve got a lot of frequent flier points.” • “I thought about being a young American Jewish reporter working for a national broadcast company, and it really, really hit me. I kept thinking more about [my heritage]. In all, in the history of Robeson County, there have only been about 100 Jews there. And it’s now fewer than five. So I wanted [ to remember them.” ] Justin Smith 24 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences Highlights If Joseph Haydn’s “Surprise Symphony” woke its audience, then the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust’s news of an $8 million gift to music at Carolina brought a deafening ovation to Hill Hall. On Dec. 15, music department faculty, staff, students and friends gathered in the rotunda of the 100-year-old building to hear that the Kenan Trust’s gift will create 16 full music scholarships for undergraduates, and will complete funding for a new music building in the College of Arts and Sciences. The new facility will be called the Kenan Music Building. The gift, the largest ever received by an academic department in the College, includes a $4 million endowment for Kenan Music Scholarships and $4 million for the building now under construction on Columbia Street between Hanes Art Center and Abernethy Hall. Chancellor James Moeser, a concert organist, described the trust’s gift as “transformative for music at Carolina.” “The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust has long been a leading patron of the arts, through its support of the arts faculty, the department of dramatic art, the Carolina Performing Arts Endowment and now the department of music,” Moeser said. “Through a premier merit scholarship in music and the naming gift for the new music building, the trust not only ensures the continuing vitality of musical performance at Carolina, but elevates and enhances the quality and reputation of the department of music and the University.” Carolina’s music department has seen substantial growth in recent years, though its facilities are more than 75 years old, lack adequate space and have poor acoustics. Herbert Hoover was U.S. president in 1930 when the music department moved to its A ‘Transformative’ Gift Kenan Trust gives $8 million for music scholarships, new building By Del Helton current home in Hill Hall, built first as the University library in 1907. The number of music majors has tripled in the past decade to 250 students, and hundreds more attend class, practice and perform in the building each year. “This gift represents the intersection of two very important interests the Kenan family has nurtured for generations: first, is a dedication to excellence at the University of North Carolina and; second, a love and appreciation for the fine arts, especially music,” said Richard Krasno, executive director of the Kenan Trust. “It is our hope that the exceptional young women and men who will be recipients of the Kenan Music Scholarships will not only benefit from the extraordinary education they will receive at UNC, but that the UNC community at-large will benefit from their talent in our midst.” Not a traditional conservatory While the trust has long supported faculty and facilities at Carolina, the scholarships represent its most generous gift directed to students. The first four scholarships will be awarded to students entering in fall 2007, with four scholars to be named to each subsequent undergraduate class. The Kenan Music Scholarships cover in-state tuition, student fees, room and board, and provide a $6,000 allowance for study abroad, work with a particular performer, internships with elite music groups, attendance at music festivals and other musical events, and travel to audition for graduate school programs. Kenan music scholars will also benefit from faculty mentoring and peer counseling. Within hours after learning of the gift, department chair Tim Carter began planning for the first class of Kenan scholars, which included the appointment of professor Brent Wissick as faculty coordinator for the program. “We immediately contacted North Carolina high schools to announce this incredible opportunity,” said Carter, David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Music. “After auditioning 250 students through February, we’ll have a short list of candidates in early March. These students will participate in additional interviews with faculty before we name the first four Kenan scholars.” Next year, with time to mount a broader publicity campaign, Carter hopes to create a significantly larger applicant pool from the state and across the nation. “Carolina is not a traditional conservatory, and that’s a good thing,” he said. “We are looking for students who want the full experience of performance and academic study, of bringing together the benefits The new Kenan Music Building and new scholarships for students are being made possible with an $8 million gift from the Kenan Charitable Trust. Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 25 Highlights of doing and thinking. Our liberal arts emphasis brings together two sides of the brain, and our students are innovative in all of their academic as well as artistic pursuits.” Great faculty, great students, great facilities The trust��s gift also completes funding for the first of two building phases planned for the site. Costs for the first phase are estimated to be $31.4 million, with $19.8 million coming from the 2000 Higher Education Bond Referendum, $7.6 million from University sources and $4 million from the Kenan Trust. With a 2008 completion date, the Kenan Music Building will provide a space with proper acoustics now lacking in Hill Hall. Designed by architect Michael Dennis with Perkins & Will of Charlotte, the 100,000 square-foot building will feature a large instrumental rehearsal hall, 18 faculty studios for applied teaching, 100- and 45- seat classrooms, three piano studios, three ensemble rehearsal rooms, three practice rooms, a world music room, a digital theory laboratory, a recording studio and a percussion suite. The large rehearsal hall will accommodate practices for the University’s biggest ensembles, including the 300- member marching band. The second phase, slated for construction when funding becomes available, will feature a 650-seat concert hall with a stage large enough to accommodate a full symphony orchestra but with acoustics intimate enough for chamber music, additional classrooms and piano practice rooms, as well as public space for the arts community. The Kenan Music Building is a major step forward in the University’s planned Arts Common, which aims to elevate the quality and reach of the arts on campus to the local community and across North Carolina. “Not only do we have great faculty and great students, we will now have a great facility,” Carter said. For musicologists such as Carter, and for his performance colleagues, having a new space where music comes to life is equivalent to a well-equipped laboratory for scientists. “I couldn’t be more delighted with this remarkable gift from the Kenan Trust,” Carter said. “It identifies two of our most pressing needs: outstanding facilities fit for music in the 21st century and support for the remarkable creative and academic talents of the best undergraduates wanting to study at Carolina. Moreover, the wholly innovative and unique Kenan Music Scholars Program will allow our most talented performers to combine practice and theory at the highest level, both within the semester and outside of it. Hark the sound!” • Grace notes • The Kenan family’s ties to the University date to 1790 when James Kenan, a member of the University’s first Board of Trustees, contributed $25 to the construction of Old East, the first state university building in the nation. A member of the North Carolina General Assembly, James Kenan helped draft and pass the University’s charter. • The various Kenan family philanthropies have given the University nearly $60 million during the Carolina First Campaign, a comprehensive, multi-year, private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading university. More than half of that total has been designated for the College of Arts and Sciences, the oldest and largest academic unit at Carolina. • Carolina’s is the second-oldest Ph.D.-granting music department in the United States. Columbia University is the oldest. • Llamas paraded down the center aisle in Hill Hall auditorium during the 2006 Festival on the Hill’s performance of composer John Cage’s Theatre Piece No. 1. The biennial festival celebrates a time or place in music composition, combining concerts with symposia. In 2008, the theme will be Latin American music. By 2010, festival planners hope the venue will be the new concert hall. • ABOVE: (from left) Rishard Krasno, executive director of the Kenan Trust; Chancellor James Moeser; music department chair Tim Carter; and Thomas Kenan III look over a model of the Kenan Music Building. Dan Sears Highlights 26 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences The psychol-ogy department lost two outstand-ing former faculty members when David Galinsky and Grant Dahlstrom died last year. Psy-chology department chair Karen Gil is hoping graduate fellowships established to honor them will forever link the two professors to the field they loved and support future graduate students in psychology for many years to come. Raising funds for the David and Maeda Galinsky Graduate Student Fellowship and the W. Grant Dahlstrom Graduate Student Fellowship, both $300,000 awards, are a top priority for the psychology department. The department needs $180,000 to complete the Galinsky Fellowship and $68,000 to complete the Dahlstrom Fellowship. “Graduate student fellowships greatly enhance our ability to recruit and recognize the very best graduate students,” said Gil, the Gillian T. Cell Distinguished Term Professor. “We typically provide these fellowships to first-year graduate students so that they can devote all of their time to their academic program and their research.” The Galinskys first established a graduate fellowship in 1996 because of their appreciation for the importance of graduate student support. Graduate fellowships in psychology honor beloved professors Family, friends and colleagues are raising money to complete the fellowship in honor of Galinsky’s 40- year career as a professor and director of the clinical program. He also served as psychology department chairman from 1983-1993. Galinsky retired in 1997 but continued to be active in teaching and supervising graduate students as well as playing a major role in the department’s fundraising initiatives. The psychology department established the Dahlstrom graduate fellowship in 1999 to recognize his 40-year career as an outstanding scholar, mentor and teacher. Dahlstrom chaired about 60 dissertation committees during his time at Carolina. He served as department chairman from 1971 to 1976 and retired in 1993 as Kenan Professor of Psychology. A colleague once called him “a master clinical diagnostician.” “Our department owes a great deal to David and Grant for their dedicated service to the field of psychology,” Gil said. • To support the Galinsky and Dahlstrom fellowships, contact Kim Goodstein in the Arts and Sciences Foundation, (919) 843-3919, kim.goodstein@unc.edu. The Reeves Challenge The Galinsky and Dahlstrom fellowships were included in a challenge issued by the Reeves Foundation, a New Jersey-based family philanthropy, in support of graduate students. If alumni and friends contributed $600,000 by Dec. 31, 2006, to endowed graduate student support, the Reeves Foundation would create a new $300,000 graduate student fellowship in the College. Alumni and friends have helped the College successfully meet that challenge, raising $623,272 in gifts and pledges. The foundation’s support will allow the College to create a new graduate fellowship. Fundraising for other graduate fellowships continues, however, for at least five funds in English, religious studies, economics and psychology. • Family, friends and colleagues are raising money to complete the fellowship in honor of Galinsky’s 40-year career as a professor and director of the clinical program. [ ] The psychology department established the Dahlstrom graduate fellowship in 1999 to recognize his 40-year career as an outstanding scholar, mentor and teacher. [ ] David Galinsky Grant Dahlstrom Highlights Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 27 Two new distinguished professorships named for faculty members in American studies and dramatic art have been estab-lished in the College of Arts and Sciences. • Townsend Ludington Distinguished Professorship in American Studies Joe Dorn, who received an undergraduate degree in American studies in 1970 and is now a lawyer in Washington, D.C., remembers Townsend Ludington as a true mentor to students — both inside and outside the classroom. Dorn and fellow alumni and faculty in American studies are establishing the Townsend Ludington Distinguished Professorship in American Studies. Dorn joins Sunny ’84 and Lee ’82 Burrows and Molly Monk Mears ’84 in giving lead gifts to establish the professorship. Donors have committed $408,762 toward a goal of $500,000 for the professorship, which will be matched with $167,000 from the state’s Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund to create a $667,000 endowment. The American studies curriculum offered an excellent preparation for law school, with diverse courses in literature, history, art and the social sciences, said Dorn. “‘Towny’ Ludington was an excellent champion of the program’s multi-disciplinary approach.” “Towny was accessible, personable and easy to relate to as a student,” added Dorn. “I hope this new professorship will help the University find more Towny Ludingtons, New distinguished professorships established in American studies, dramatic art who will help students today have the experience that I had at UNC.” Ludington first came to Carolina to teach in 1966 and was one of the founders of the American studies program. He twice served as chair of the program, from 1968 to 1971 and 1986 to 2001. Ludington’s research focuses on American literature of the 20th century, biography and American art. Before he retired in 2004, he was instrumental in the creation of a Native American studies program, housed in American studies. Joy Kasson, professor and chair of American studies, calls Ludington “the moving spirit behind the successful establishment of the American studies curriculum.” “The program would not have been possible without Towny’s guidance and dedication,” she said. “But most of all, he evoked loyalty and dedication from his grateful students and colleagues. He models an engaged, humane and generous UNC professor.” • Milly S. Barranger Distinguished Professorship in Dramatic Art Alice Welsh has been a long-time supporter of dramatic art at UNC, and she wanted to do something special to recognize her friend, distinguished professor emerita Milly Barranger. Welsh’s gift of $353,620 to the College will create the Milly S. Barranger Distinguished Professorship in Dramatic Townsend Ludington Milly S. Barranger Art. The gift will be matched with $167,000 from the state’s Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund to create an endowment of $520,620. Barranger came to Carolina in 1982 as chair and professor of dramatic art and producing director of PlayMakers Repertory Company. She later taught in the department of dramatic art until her retirement in 2003. Dramatic art professor and department chair McKay Coble credits Barranger with “essentially building the department as we know it now.” “Milly hired a young and talented faculty/company that eagerly continued and expanded the extraordinary work of our founders,” Coble said. “It was also under her charge that the UNC Center for Dramatic Art was built. Our magnificent facility now houses all aspects of theater education and production.” Welsh said she once lived within walking distance of PlayMakers, so she didn’t miss a single play. It was there that she met Barranger, and the two struck up a friendship. “I’ve always been interested in theater, even when I was very little,” said Welsh. “When you’re in Chapel Hill, you start to meet people interested in the arts. Milly elevated the department of dramatic art to getting recognition across the country.” Welsh and her late husband, George, came to Chapel Hill in 1953 when he accepted a job as a psychology professor. Their generosity also made possible the George and Alice Welsh Acting Studio in the Center for Dramatic Art. • To support distinguished professorships, contact the Arts and Sciences Foundation, 134 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514, (919) 962-0108. Highlights When Jeff Allred, who has triple degrees from Carolina, was once asked what would make him want to give back to his alma mater, his time on the debate team was the first thing that came to mind. Allred, a native of High Point, got an undergraduate degree in political science in 1976 and a joint MBA/law degree in 1980. While on the freshman UNC debate team, Allred and his debate partner Marc Sandman ’77 brought home a national championship to Carolina. Allred later served as debate team president during his senior year, from 1975 to 1976. “The debate team set the foundation for my later life,” said Allred, who has practiced law, held high-level management positions in a global communications services company and today is president of a business consultancy firm in Atlanta. “What debate taught me is an ability to critically listen and think and organize my thoughts and express myself orally. If you can speak, you can write — and that skill set is a fundamental skill set that everybody needs, regardless of what you end up doing with your life. … It’s critical to success in the legal profession and business world, but equally important to other endeavors.” Allred and his wife, Jennifer, have given $1 million to the communication studies department to establish the Jeff and Jennifer Allred Initiative for Critical Thinking and Communication Studies. In collaboration with funding from the College of Arts and Sciences, the department has hired assistant professor Christian O. Lundberg, a young $1 million gift to communication studies funds new initiative in critical thinking By Kim Weaver Spurr ’88 28 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences scholar in rhetorical studies. He will teach courses that emphasize effective oral communication and critical thinking and will serve as a resource to other faculty in the teaching of these skills. Lundberg also is teaching a course this spring on “Globalization and Communication.” He comes to UNC from Northwestern University, where he received a Ph.D. in 2006 in rhetoric and public culture and was a debate coach. Lundberg’s appointment frees up senior scholars to develop and teach three First Year Seminars. And those seminars will be named in honor of Jeff Allred’s mentor and former debate team member, Joseph P. McGuire ’72, who is now a lawyer in Asheville. Allred first met McGuire when he participated in the semi-final round of a state championship debate tournament in high school. McGuire was a judge in the competition and later persuaded Allred to come to Carolina. “Our friendship turned into a mentorship,” Allred said. “I chose Carolina because of the personal investment Joe had in me and the quality of the Carolina debate program, which was one of the best in the country.” Communication studies professor Robert “Robbie” Cox, who was director of the UNC debate team from 1971 to 1975, recalls Allred as “the calm center in the midst of UNC’s nationally ranked debate program.” “Jeff had a sharp intellect and the highest personal integrity and discipline,” Cox said. “One story that has remained with me after 32 years is Jeff’s remarkable leadership on the eve of a national debate tournament, when his debate partner became ill. After working to prepare a more junior member of the debate team throughout the night, Jeff led Carolina through the elimination rounds and won the championship debate against a stronger team.” Allred said the First Year Seminars are a perfect place for the seeds of his gift to take root because they engage students at the beginning of their Carolina experience in making new discoveries as they work alongside their professors in the classroom. Lundberg is developing a new seminar for fall 2007, “Think, Speak and Argue,” that will teach students about formal logic, critical thinking, public speaking and the practices of debate. “These First Year Seminars will become laboratories of learning how to teach critical thinking skills, and then hopefully we’ll be able to export what we learn there to teach teachers how to do this [across the undergraduate curriculum],” Allred said. Dennis Mumby, professor and chair of communication studies, called the Allreds’ gift to communication studies “visionary.” “As a department, one of our most important goals is to provide our students with the critical thinking and communication skills that will help them participate as responsible citizens in an increasingly complex information environment,” Mumby said. “This generous gift takes our department to a new level in its ability to teach those essential skills.” • “If you can speak, you can write — and that skill set is a fundamental skill set that everybody needs, regardless of what you end up doing with your life.” ( ) Jeff Allred and wife, Jennifer, pictured with their family, have given $1 million to communication studies. Highlights Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 29 New exercise program helps breast cancer patients A new exercise and recreational therapy program is helping women with invasive breast cancer deal with the side effects of cancer treatment. Get REAL (Get Recreation, Get Exercise, Get Active, Get Living) & HEEL is a collaborative effort between the department of exercise and sport science in the College and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. With support from a $42,316 grant from the N.C. Triangle Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the program is being offered free to a limited number of women in a 13-county region. The goal of Get REAL & HEEL is to increase participants’ chances of survival by enhancing the overall quality of their lives. All patients enrolled in the program are working with a personal trainer and a recreational therapist to design an individual exercise and recreational plan to help manage cancer treatment-related symptoms. Get REAL & HEEL is the brainchild of Claudio Battaglini and Diane Groff, assistant professors in the department of exercise and sport science. They say the program is distinctive in its holistic approach to dealing with the side effects of cancer treatment. “We believe this program will complement the strong national history that UNC has in breast cancer research,” said Battaglini, a former international level endurance sports coach. “Breast cancer is the highest incidence of cancer among women. This is a disease that kills people every day.” In the pilot program, Battaglini and Groff will try to determine if exercise and recreational therapy are effective ways to reduce symptoms associated with breast cancer treatment and explore how women respond to these combined therapies. Pain, depression, worry and fatigue are among the most prevalent adverse side effects of cancer treatment. Learn more about the program online at www.unc.edu/depts/exercise/RTB/ index.htm. • Patient Gretchen Hoag with professor Claudio Battaglini. Amazon River once flowed in opposite direction The world’s largest river basin, the Amazon, once flowed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific — opposite its present direction — according to research by UNC geologists. Russell Mapes, a geology graduate student, set out in 2004 to study the speed at which sediment in the Amazon travels from the Andes mountains, in the present headwaters of the river, to the Atlantic. While studying sedimentary rocks in the river basin he discovered something else — ancient mineral grains in the central part of South America that could only have originated in now-eroded mountains in the east. If the Amazon had continuously flowed eastward, as it does now, Mapes and his adviser, geology professor Drew Coleman, would have found much younger mineral grains in the sediments from the Andes. Mapes said these sediments of eastern origin were washed down from a highland area that formed in the Cretaceous Period, between 65 million and 145 million years ago, when the South American and African tectonic plates separated and passed each other. That highland tilted the river’s flow westward, sending sediment as old as 2 billion years toward the center of the continent. A relatively low ridge, called the Purus Arch, which still exists, rose in the middle of the continent, running north and south, dividing the Amazon’s flow — eastward toward the Atlantic and westward toward the Andes. Toward the end of the Cretaceous, the Andes started growing, which sent the river back toward the Purus Arch. Eventually, sediment from the mountains, which contained mineral grains younger than 500 million years old, filled in the basin between the mountains and the arch, the river breeched it and started its current flow. Previous research had identified a reverse flow, but only in segments of the river. Mapes and Coleman illustrated a continent-wide shift of the river’s flow, as they traversed about 80 percent of the Amazon basin. • 30 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences College Bookshelf C o l l e g e B o o k s h e l f • In the Beginning: Fundamentalism, the Scopes trial and the making of the antievolution movement (UNC Press) by Michael Lienesch. Political scientist Lienesch traces the growth of a movement that has ignited debates in state legislatures and school board meetings across the nation. He begins with early 20th century fundamentalists, provides a fresh examination of the 1925 “monkey trial,” and tracks the rise of creation science in the 1960s, the Christian right in the ’80s and intelligent design today. • Saving Graces (Broadway Books/ Random House) by Elizabeth Edwards ’71 English, ’77 JD. This Carolina alumna is quick to acknowledge that she is not the first mother to lose a teen-age son in a car accident, nor the first woman to be diagnosed with breast cancer. But in this well-written memoir, she may be the first political spouse to speak so frankly about these challenges and about her life on the campaign trail with husband John Edwards ’77 JD, the former U.S. senator now running again for President. Hers is a warmly told story about the importance of community. • Ending Poverty in America (The New Press) edited by John Edwards, Marion Crain and Arne Kalleberg. Edwards ’77 JD, the former trial attorney and U.S. senator, directed UNC’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity until he officially launched his second presidential campaign at the end of last year. The center sponsored a series of symposia and policy research projects, and assembled this collection of writings by experts addressing poverty in our time. Co-editors are Crain, the Paul Eaton Professor of Law and new director of the Center, and Kalleberg, professor of sociology and senior associate dean for social sciences in the College. • The Mismatched Worker (W.W. Norton & Co.) by Arne L. Kalleberg. An expert on labor and workplace changes, Kalleberg examines how and why modern jobs often fail to match the skills and/or needs o
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Full Text | Super Science Complex State-of-the-art facilities open new doors to discovery T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f N o r t h C a r o l i n a a t C h a p e l H i l l I n s i d e : I r a q V e t s • W o m e n ’ s S t u d i e s • M u s i c S c o r e s • U n d e r g r a d R e s e a r c h S P R I N G • 2 0 0 7 a r t s&s c i e n c e s C a r o l i n a T h e C o l l e g e o f A r ts & S c i e n c e s • Madeline G. Levine Interim Dean • William Andrews ’70MA, ’73 PhD Senior Associate Dean, Fine Arts and Humanities • Bruce Carney Senior Associate Dean, Sciences • Arne Kalleberg Senior Associate Dean, Social Sciences and International Programs • Tammy McHale Senior Associate Dean, Finance and Planning • James W. May Senior Associate Dean, Program Development; Executive Director, Arts & Sciences Foundation • Bobbi Owen Senior Associate Dean, Undergraduate Education Arts & Sciences Foundation Board of Directors • Ivan V. Anderson, Jr. ’61, Charleston, SC, Chair �� Madeline G. Levine, Chapel Hill, NC, President • William L. Andrews, ‘70 MA, ‘73 PhD, Chapel Hill, NC, Vice President • Tammy J. McHale, Chapel Hill, NC, Treasurer • James W. May, Jr., Chapel Hill, NC, Secretary • James L. Alexandre ’79, London, UK • D. Shoffner Allison ’98, Charlotte, NC • William S. Brenizer ’74, Glen Head, NY • Vicki Underwood Craver ’92, Cos Cob, CT • Steven M. Cumbie ’70, ’73 MBA, McLean, VA • Archie H. Davis ’64, Savannah, GA • Robin Richards Donohoe ’87, San Francisco, CA • Gail McGregor Fearing ’66, Chapel Hill, NC • Alan Feduccia, Chapel Hill, NC • Mary Dewar Froelich ’83, Charlotte, NC • Robin March Hanes ’78, Asheville, NC • William T. Hobbs, II ’85, Charlotte, NC • Lynn Buchheit Janney ’70, Butler, MD • Matthew G. Kupec ’80, Chapel Hill, NC • William M. Lamont, Jr. ’71, Dallas, TX • Cathy Bryson Moore ’90, Santa Monica, CA • Paula R. Newsome ’77, Charlotte, NC • Benjamine Reid ���71, Miami, FL • Emily Pleasants Sternberg ’88, ’94 MBA, Greenwich, CT • G. Kennedy Thompson ’73, Charlotte, NC • S. Thompson Tygart ’62, Jacksonville, FL • Thomas M. Uhlman ’71 MS, ’75 PhD, Murray Hill, NJ • Charles L. Wickham, III, ’82 BSBA, London, UK • Michael R. Zimmerman ’75, New York, NY College on the move Scientists are moving into new high-tech labs. Our women’s studies program celebrates a major landmark with a move into the 1901 Smith building — the first building on campus named for a woman, Mary Ann Smith of Raleigh. A major gift from the Kenan Trust is underwriting a transformative “movement” for the music department, with scholarships and a new building. A chemist moved to Washington, D.C., to work for the U.S. State Department for a year and traveled around the world, sharing information with scientists and graduate students in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Undergraduate researchers journeyed all over the world to discover new ideas, and two alumni are back from Iraq with an informed perspective on foreign policy. Faculty, students and alumni of the College of Arts and Sciences are on the move. In this issue of the magazine, we celebrate the opening of Chapman Hall and Caudill Labs, the first two buildings to open in the new Carolina Physical Science Complex. Gifts for these facilities from alumni Max Chapman ’66 and Lowry Caudill ’79 are opening doors to discovery and forging new collaborations for scientists and students. A 4,500-square-foot fluids lab being built in Chapman Hall will help mathematicians and marine scientists better understand hurricanes, tsunamis and global warming. We feature protein pioneer Gary Pielak, insect flight specialist Laura Miller, polymer professor Valerie Ashby, microscope master Lu- Chang Qin, and wave tank researchers Richard McLaughlin, Roberto Camassa, Alberto Scotti and Francisco Werner. You’ll read about undergraduate research projects that examine Soviet wetlands policy, human rights and public art in Mexico, delays in the state appellate court process, and misconceptions about women of the Middle East. You’ll find out what chemist Edward Samulski accomplished as a Jefferson Science Fellow. And you’ll learn about distinguished awards our chemistry faculty earned from the National Institutes of Health, the American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Our women’s studies program is celebrating its 30th birthday. This curriculum reaches some 2,000 students a year in 118 classes across the arts and sciences. The program’s core faculty are a blend of established scholars and rising stars, and its graduates enjoy successful careers in business, government, nonprofits and academia. An $8 million gift to music from the Kenan Charitable Trust completes funding for the Kenan Music Building and will make possible 16 full music scholarships for undergraduates. The gift is the largest ever received by an academic department in the College. Marine captains Rye Barcott ’01 and Croft Young ’95, both of whom have seen active duty in Iraq, share their views on the Iraq Study Group Report. ABC World News named Barcott a “Person of the Year” for co-founding Carolina for Kibera, a community-based nonprofit providing medical care and recreation for impoverished people in Nairobi. We also share news about Drew Levinson ’82, a CBS correspondent who felt a calling while reporting from the Middle East to pay tribute to his Southern Jewish heritage. Many of these accomplishments are possible because alumni and friends of the College were moved to support our mission — to provide an exceptional liberal arts education for leadership in a fast-changing world. Their generosity is making a difference for faculty and students today and tomorrow. Madeline G. Levine, Interim Dean From the Dean F r o m t h e D e a n Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 Madeline G. Levine Dan Sears Contents F e at u r e s 8 • Super Science State-of-the-art facilities open new doors to discovery 15 • Summer Scholars Undergraduate students navigate research at home and abroad 18 • Women’s Studies Turns 30 Examining the role of gender across disciplines Cover photo: Chemist Valerie Ashby is thrilled with her brand new lab in Caudill Laboratories, one of two major buildings that opened in the fall as part of the new Carolina Physical Science Complex, the largest construction project in the history of the University. (Photo by Steve Exum) Ta bl e of C on t e n ts Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 De p a r t me n ts inside front cover From the Dean On the move 2 High Achievers Banner year for chemistry, two more Rhodes Scholars, a Citizen of the World, three cheers for creative writing, blues scholar lauded at international film festival, and more 21 First Person Two Marines offer a “view from the ground” on the Iraq Study Group report. 22 Spotlight Chemist Edward Samulski found plenty to do during his year with the U.S. State Department in Washington. 23 Highlights Music’s $8 million gift, Amazon River switched direction, a CBS journalist reflects on his Southern Jewish heritage, and more 30 College Bookshelf New books across the arts and sciences explore poverty in America, fundamentalism and the Scopes trial, the lost gospel of Judas Iscariot, the first published novel by an African American woman, the making of “Oklahoma” the musical, perspectives on affordable home ownership, mismatched workers in a globalized society, and more 32 Final Point Historian Heather Williams’ patchwork quilt conveys the African American experience. inside back cover In the News Holden Thorp named next dean of the College Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 1 18 8 15 Dan Sears Steve Exum Steve Exum High Achievers 2 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences H i g h A c h i e v e r s A banner year for chemistry It was a big year for UNC chemists, who brought home major awards for pioneering research. Gary Pielak became the first Carolina scientist to win the $2.5 million, five-year Director’s Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for groundbreaking research on the role of proteins in Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. [See story on page 11.] Mike Ramsey also received a notable $3.8 million, four-year NIH grant to further develop his tiny “lab-on-a-chip” technology for cheaper, faster and more customized DNA sequencing. The goal is to eventually reduce the cost of human genome sequencing from about $10 million to $1,000, greatly expanding its usefulness in medical research and health care. Ramsey, the Minnie N. Goldby Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, joined two of his colleagues in receiving top awards from the American Chemical Society for outstanding contributions to their fields. Ramsey received the top award in chromatography. James W. Jorgenson, William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of Chemistry, received the society’s highest award in analytical chemistry. Joseph M. DeSimone, William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at UNC and N.C. State University, received the Henry F. Whalen Jr. Award for Business Development. Chromatography is a laboratory-scale technology for separation and purification of chemicals and is critical to chemical research. Ramsey is a pioneer in the field of microfluidics and nanofluidics, helping to create the concept of performing lab tests in miniature — on tiny silicon, glass or plastic chips — called “lab-on-a-chip.” Analytical chemistry focuses on measuring the chemical composition of material of all types with greater precision, sensitivity and speed. Jorgenson, former chair of the department, pioneered the chemical separation technique, capillary electrophoresis, in the 1980s. DeSimone’s award recognizes his ability to identify market needs, develop novel technologies to address those needs and transfer that technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. He is inventor of record for more than 100 patents, of which the majority are assigned to UNC. He has pioneered environmentally friendly processes for manufacturing and dry cleaning, researched the use of fuel cells for portable power and explored the use of nanotechnology for cancer detection and drug delivery. DeSimone was recognized with two more honors. He was elected to the College of Fellows for the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [See story on page 3.] • Mike Ramsey James Jorgenson Steve Exum High Achievers Three recognized nationally for efforts to advance science Three faculty in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences were named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the leading science organizations in the nation. • Joseph M. DeSimone is director of the UNC Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology and Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. He is engaged in all aspects of polymer synthesis and processing and has been widely recognized for originating environmentally friendly methodology used in dry cleaning and manufacturing. He is involved in fuel cell research for alternative sources of power and the use of nanotechnology in medicine. DeSimone was named a fellow for “distinguished contributions to polymer synthesis and processing, from fundamental aspects of chemical systems to environmentally friendly ways to manufacture polymers.” • Daniel A. Reed is director of the Renaissance Computing Institute, UNC vice chancellor for information technology and Chancellor’s Eminent Professor in the department of computer science. He is founding director of the interdisciplinary Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), a Citizen of the World James Peacock, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, was named a “Citizen of the World” by the Interna-tional Affairs Council of North Carolina. Each year the nonprofit awards the title to a North Carolinian who has done the most for the internationalization of our state. Peacock has been instrumental in the development of new international programs at UNC, such as the World View program for educators and the Rotary Peace Center. He is the former director of the University Center for International Studies, now called The Center for Global Initiatives. His research focuses on Southeast Asia and the Southeastern United States in relation to history, memory and global issues. Triangle Business Journal also tapped Peacock as one of “10 Area People Working to Change the World.” • Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 3 collaborative venture of Duke University, N.C. State University, UNC and the State of North Carolina. Reed is a member of President Bush’s Information Technology Advisory Committee. He was named a fellow for “outstanding research in the field of high performance computing, exemplary professional leadership and distinguished national service.” • Stephen J. Walsh is director of the Landscape Characterization and Spatial Analysis Lab and a professor of geography. He examines the interactions between people, places and the environment using geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, spatial analysis and physical geography. He directs studies in Ecuador, Thailand, Latvia and the U.S. Walsh was named a fellow for “substantive landscape characterization and spatial analysis through remote sensing and geographic information science.” • Joseph DeSimone Daniel Reed James Peacock Jeffrey Johnson Anne MacNeil Ajit Joglekar Biology lecturer wins national teaching award Jean DeSaix, senior lecturer in the department of biology, won a national honor for outstanding teaching. The National Association of Biology Teachers’ Four-Year College Biology Teaching Award recognizes a college educator who demon-strates creative and innovative instruction. DeSaix, who has been teaching biology since 1972, received the award during the group’s annual meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., last October. Chancellor James Moeser recognized her during a fall meeting of the University Board of Trustees. DeSaix, who has a Ph.D. from UNC, teaches introductory biology. • Hettleman Prize Given for artistic And scholarly achievement College faculty members were among the recipients of 2006 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prizes for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty at UNC. Winners were Jeffrey Johnson, assistant professor of chemistry, and Anne MacNeil, associate professor of music history. Jonathan Oberlander, associate professor of social medicine and an adjunct faculty member in political science, also received the prize. The Hettleman Prize recognizes the achievements of outstanding junior tenure-track faculty or recently tenured faculty. All of this year’s recipients also received praise for their qualities as teachers. The award was established by the late Phillip Hettleman, who was born in 1899 and grew up in Goldsboro, N.C. He earned a scholarship to Carolina, went to New York and, in 1938, founded Hettleman & Co., a Wall Street investment firm. Johnson joined the chemistry faculty in 2001. His laboratory develops new synthetic methodology for the rapid construction of complex organic molecules, especially pharmaceuticals, and he has won nearly every major award available to young chemists, said Holden Thorp, chair of the department of chemistry. “Johnson’s productivity has been truly astonishing,” Thorp wrote in a nomination letter. “He has assembled a strong group of graduate students and together they have published 34 papers from UNC, all in top-refereed journals. Jeff has already established a national reputation and is regarded as one of the very top young chemists working in this crowded and highly competitive area.” MacNeil came to Carolina in 1999. Her study of women in late 16th and early 17th century Italian theater has “opened whole new fields of inquiry in the areas of theater history, opera history, commedia dell ’arte, and not insignificantly in gender studies,” wrote music department chair Tim Carter, who nominated MacNeil. A colleague characterized MacNeil’s writing as an “exceptionally learned, often brilliant study of what I had previously and offhandedly thought of as a peripheral topic in the history of music.” “In her publications and lectures she has brought to light a whole new facet of musical and literary activity in the late Italian Renaissance and early Baroque in a way that has gained her high national and international repute,” Carter said. • Biologist wins Burroughs Wellcome early career award Ajit P. Joglekar, a postdoctoral biology fellow, won a prestigious $500,000 award over five years from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. He is the first scholar to win the award at UNC. The 2007 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Awards at the Scientific Interface are awarded to early career researchers with back-grounds in the physical/computational sciences whose work provides innovative approaches to tackle important questions in biology. Twelve awards were given nationally this year. Joglekar’s research focuses on “protein machinery” in cells. “Movement of chromosomes, the genetic material in a cell, is critical for dividing them equally between daughter cells as a cell divides,” said Joglekar, whose mentor is Ted Salmon, the James Larkin and Iona Mae Ballou Distinguished Professor of Biology. “Errors in this process of chromosome segregation lead to human disease and aging. I am studying the structure and action of the ‘protein machinery’ that generates forces needed to achieve accurate chromosome segregation.” Joglekar received master’s and doctorate degrees in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Pune University in India. • [Mathematical biologist Laura Miller won the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Award in 2006, before joining UNC in January 2007. See story on Miller on page 12.] 4 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences High Achievers Jean DeSaix Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 5 High Achievers Three cheers for creative writing A UNC creative writing professor and a student were tapped with honors named for author Thomas Wolfe, and an alumnus won North Carolina’s highest civilian honor in literature. Shinemaster — a book of poems by Carolina creative writing professor Michael McFee — received the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award, given annually by the Western North Carolina Historical Association. McFee, an Asheville native, has been a professor of English and creative writing at UNC since 1995. He is the author of eight books of poetry and a collection of essays. His new chapbook of one-line poems was published in February and his first book of prose, The Napkin Manuscripts: Selected Essays and an Interview, was published last fall. [See page 31.] Nathaniel “Nate” Lumpkin of Raleigh was awarded the fifth Thomas Wolfe Scholarship in creative writing at UNC. The scholarship, established in 2002, provides a student with full financial support for four years at Carolina. Lumpkin enjoys fiction writing, especially short stories, but says that “poetry is beginning to be a draw.” He has his own Web “blog,” and has been writing informal essays on it for over two years now. Frank Borden Hanes Sr. of Winston-Salem, a novelist, poet and retired journalist who graduated from UNC in 1942, contributed $2 million to establish the scholarship. Creative writing alumnus Michael F. Parker ’84, who’s now an English professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, won a 2006 North Carolina Award in literature. The awards, the state’s highest civilian honor, recognize outstanding lifetime achievements in fine arts, science, literature and public service. Parker writes about characters who struggle with love, family and relationships. His first novel, Hello Down There, was published in 1993 to critical acclaim. Other novels include Towns Without Rivers, Virginia Lovers and, new this year, If You Want Me to Stay. He also has a new collection of short stories. [See page 31.] Two UNC alumni won North Carolina Awards for public service: former N.C. Governor James E. Holshouser, Jr. ’60 J.D. and newspaper editor Roy Parker, Jr. ’52 Journalism. • Blake Scholar Lauded for Online archive English professor Joseph Viscomi was among five trailblazers in information and library science and information technology honored Oct. 12 in the first Knowledge Trust honors ceremony. Viscomi was recognized for his work in creating the William Blake Archive. The Louis Round Wilson Academy, convened by UNC’s School of Information and Library Science, includes world leaders in library and information science and technology management. Academy members nominated candidates for the Knowledge Trust awards. Viscomi, James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of English, was presented the Exploration Award for creating or compiling new knowledge, tools and services. Viscomi co-edited and created the William Blake Archive based on approximately 5,500 images — two-thirds from the illuminated books and one-third from Blake’s paintings, drawings and engravings — transferred to digital form. Conceived and designed in 1993- 95, and a free site on the World Wide Web since 1996, the archive is an international public resource for major works of visual and literary art that are highly disparate, widely dispersed and often severely restricted as a result of their value, rarity and extreme fragility. The Blake Archive has had a significant impact on teaching and scholarship. It also has challenged the traditional notion of literary criticism by virtue of the ways in which elements of Blake’s work can be viewed, moved and modified. • Michael McFee Nate Lumpkin 6 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences High Achievers Two more Rhodes Scholars A Carolina senior and a recent graduate have won 2006 Rhodes Scholarships. Ben Lundin of Nashville, Tenn., is a senior religious studies major and Morehead Scholar. Adrian Johnston of Toronto graduated in May 2006 with a double major in economics and philosophy. Among the most prestigious scholarships available, the award funds tuition, fees and living expenses for two to three years at Oxford University in Great Britain. Lundin will use the scholarship to earn a master’s degree in international relations. He will study the political influence of religious movements and write a thesis on religion in global conflict. “Eventually, I would like to develop my interests in religious dialogue through a research professorship in religious and ethnic conflict resolution,” Lundin said. “These are some of today’s most pressing issues, and I could pass my passion on to the next generation of researchers and public servants in this developing field.” The summer after his freshman year, Lundin had an internship with a human rights group involved with prisons in Peru. There he interviewed a man accused of being a member of the Shining Path terrorist group. The prisoner seemed near despair, Lundin wrote in his Rhodes application. “But what struck me most was his conviction that faith had kept him alive in isolation … Peru was my glimpse of faith’s powers of inspiration and sustenance in the lives of believers.” Back at Carolina, Lundin took an honors seminar about religious ideals, chose to major in religious studies and eventually became a teaching assistant for a freshman honors course in the subject. He founded Carolina Crossfire, a student group dedicated to discussing difficult religious questions, personal and political. The group sponsored a public dialogue by an agnostic professor and a local pastor, asking what they considered to be attractive and unattractive aspects of organized Christianity. Johnston plans to pursue a master’s degree in international relations at Oxford, researching how developing countries can improve gains from international trade by pursuing institutional reforms. “The privilege of an Oxford education would greatly enhance my future career in international economic diplomacy, advocating for structures of power that serve vulnerable communities on a global scale,” he said. In Burundi from July through October, Johnston worked for an organization that provided conflict management training to leaders in the country’s peace process, “using the same negotiation theory that I studied in a graduate level course at UNC.” He researched the impact of the training on the Burundian Army, formed through the integration of Hutu rebels and Tutsi-dominated government forces. Previously, the two groups had engaged in bloody slaughters against each other for three decades. On Johnston’s first visit to Burundi, in summer 2003, he evaluated conditions in a refugee camp in Tanzania. The camp was home to Burundians who had fled the conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in their own country. At Carolina, Johnston was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and the Order of the Golden Fleece, an honor society recognizing extraordinary contributions to the University. • Hofweber wins philosophy best article prize Thomas Hofweber, an assistant philosophy professor, won the 2006 best article prize awarded to young scholars by the American Philosophical Association. Hofweber, who came to UNC in 2003, won the award for “Inexpressible Properties and Propositions.” The prize is given for the best article published in the last two years. Hofweber specializes in metaphysics (the basic features of reality) and the philosophy of language and mathematics. He received a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1999 and a master’s degree from the University of Munich, Germany, in 1994. “It’s no surprise that Thomas Hofweber’s work is winning prizes,” said philosophy department chair Geoffrey Sayre-McCord. “His papers, considered singly, are consistently sophisticated and elegant. Taken together, they are working to support a powerful systematic account about what we are doing in thinking and talking about logic, mathematics and what exists. His work is at the cutting edge of the field.” • Ben Lundin Adrian Johnston High Achievers Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 7 endowed lecture named for long-time philosophy staff member Blues scholar Honored at international film festival William Ferris, a widely recognized expert on African American music and Southern culture, received a Lifetime Achievement Award at an international film festival in Prague last fall. Ferris, the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South, was honored at the Music on Film — Film on Music Festival at the Palace Lucerna, one of the oldest cinemas in Europe. The festival showcased several of Ferris’ documentary films on B.B. King, the Mississippi Delta blues, black churches and religion, gospel music and African fife-and-drum music in the United States. There also was an exhibition of his photography, and he discussed and performed blues music. Festival director John Caulkins called Ferris “a pioneering ethno-graphic filmmaker in the tradition of the legendary Alan Lomax,” referring to the late ethnographer who recorded thousands of blues and folk songs for the Library of Congress. A native of Vicksburg, Miss., Ferris has interviewed thousands of musicians ranging from the famous (B.B. King) to the unrecognized (Parchman Penitentiary inmates working in the fields). He has written or edited 10 books and created 15 documentary films. He chaired the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1997 to 2001. • William Ferris Claire Miller retired in 2002 after 39 years as manager of the philosophy department. A day or two later, she came back on a part-time basis to manage one of her prized projects: the department’s annual philosophy colloquium. And during the colloquium last fall, Miller got to sit in on a new endowed lectureship named in her honor. Faculty surprised her with the news of the gift at a department meeting. The donors who established the endowment for the annual Claire Miller Lecture in Philosophy wish to remain anonymous. The unusual gift recognizes the extraordinary contribution that Miller has made to the UNC philosophy department and, perhaps most visibly, to the internationally recognized Chapel Hill Colloquium, which she has organized since its inception 40 years ago. Gerald Postema, Cary C. Boshamer Professor, said he could think of no more fitting way to honor the colloquium’s “queen bee.” “Claire identified with the colloquium from the very beginning and threw herself into the planning of the event with incredible energy. Early on, she made a commitment to the department of philosophy, and she has worked pretty much all of her life for the love of the department,” Postema said. “Naming a lectureship for a staff member is a wonderful tribute and signals the important role that staff play in the life of the University.” Philosophy professor and department chair Geoff Sayre-McCord said Miller is someone who “pays careful attention to details.” “Claire understands and appreciates what’s at stake in everything she does,” he said. “She works tirelessly. Neither the department nor the colloquium would have thrived in the way they have without her decades of hard work, intelligence and commitment. We know how lucky we have been, and it is a delight to be able to put in place this permanent honor to her.” Miller’s reaction to the news: “thrilled, stunned, shocked.” “It’s a nice recognition for University employees,” she said. “It was very creative, outside-the-box thinking on the part of the donor.” “Although I had been to college before I came to UNC, I probably got my education in the philosophy department,” Miller added. “The people are fascinating; they’re intelligent; they’re funny; they’re interesting. It’s a friendly, open, diverse place to work. The department has been my professional family.” • { } “Claire understands and appreciates what’s at stake in everything she does. Neither the department nor the colloquium would have thrived in the way they have without her decades of hard work, intelligence and commitment.” — Geoff Sayre-McCord 8 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences Whether they are squinting at stars or molecules, measuring the motion of waves or the flight of insects, Carolina scientists across traditional and emerging disciplines are discovering what new state-of-the-art facilities can mean for their research and their students. The big news just off Polk Place is the recent opening of Max C. Chapman Jr. Hall and the W. Lowry and Susan S. Caudill Laboratories, the first buildings completed in the first phase of the long-awaited $205 million Carolina Physical Science Complex. The complex, the largest construction project in UNC history, will rely on $22 million in private gifts and $84 million from a higher education bond referendum approved by N.C. voters in 2000. Chapman Hall is named for the 1966 College alumnus who gave a $5 million gift to support the new 130,000-square-foot building. “The real thanks for this building goes to the people of North Carolina,” said Chapman during the building’s official dedication in November. “Clearly my contribution and others are small fractions of what it takes to build a facility like this.” Chapman, chairman of Gardner Capital Management Corp. in New York City, is a legendary figure in the futures and options industry on Wall Street. He has also served nearly 20 years on the UNC-Chapel Hill Foundation’s Investment Fund, which he has chaired for the past decade. Chapman Hall offers lecture halls, laboratories and offices for faculty and students in chemistry, mathematics, marine significant impact highly innovative integrated approach Left to right: Chemists are excited about collaborative possibilities in the new Caudill Labs. • Protein pioneer Gary Pielak uses an NMR instrument to study proteins in living cells. • Marine scientist Alberto Scotti and mathematician Richard McLaughlin will expand their experiments with waves. • Chapman Hall provides high-tech labs and classrooms for faculty and students in chemistry, mathematics, marine sciences and physics and astronomy, as well as the Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology. Super Science State-of-the-art facilities open new doors to discovery B y A n g e l a S p i v e y Steve Exum Steve Exum Steve Exum Steve Exum Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 9 materials sciences. In Phillips, the scientists had to run separate machines to supply pressurized air and refrigerated water, for example, but now all of that is central. “The less noise and power we have going through any room, the better science we can do,” Hall said. Rich Superfine, Bowman and Gordon Gray Professor in the department of physics and astronomy, has also found that the data from a microscope he uses to examine single molecules of DNA in studies of sciences, and physics and astronomy, as well as the Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology. Researchers who study and manipulate molecular materials on the nanoscale (which can be 100,000 times narrower than a strand of human hair) rely on high-tech instruments that are susceptible to the smallest interference. In their old labs in Phillips Hall, vibrations came from cars and trucks pulling into a nearby parking lot, from power lines feeding nearby Peabody Hall, and even the building’s window air conditioners and steady foot traffic. Before-and-after pictures taken with a scanning electron microscope tell the story. Those taken with the same microscope, but after the move to the basement of Chapman, have much higher resolution, even to the lay person’s eye, than those taken in the old labs. [See sidebar on page 14.] The absence of window air conditioners and other extraneous machines also reduces vibrations, said Adam Hall, a graduate student in applied and continued underlying principles extraordinarily strong 10 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences blood clotting is “considerably quieter,” he said. “The better measurements I think will allow us to better determine the forces involved when cells divide and help us understand the process of clotting better.” Chapman Hall’s central ventilation system also means more controlled conditions for these and other instruments that 21st century science requires, said Laurie McNeil, professor and chair of the department of physics and astronomy. “These instruments need steady temperature and steady humidity,” she said. • Forging new collaborations Another exciting feature of Chapman Hall is a new 4,500-square-foot fluids laboratory [see sidebar on page 10], including a 120-foot long wave tank, which will allow for new collaborations between the departments of mathematics and marine sciences. For the last nine years, applied math researchers had relied on a 350-square-foot fluids lab in Phillips Hall. “The applied math group has landed some big grants and trained a large number of undergraduates and graduate students in the small space,” said Patrick Eberlein, professor and chair of the mathematics department. Two awards were given by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Mathematical Sciences. Mathematics professor Richard McLaughlin is the principal investigator for a $1.7 million research training grant; and Roberto Camassa, George Kane Professor of Mathematics, is the principal Making Waves By Angela Spivey When you picture a wave, it’s probably crashing on a beach. But applied mathematicians and marine scientists at Carolina see waves everywhere — in the warming of the earth, in a cloud of chemicals in the air. By April 2007, others will be able to see them too — in a 120- foot-long transparent tank in the basement of Chapman Hall that is part of a new 4,500-square-foot fluids laboratory. The tank will enable researchers to study the large-scale behavior of water seen in hurricanes and tsunamis, for instance, and to expand their experiments with waves — to help answer such questions as how global warming works and how airborne chemicals behave. The National Science Foundation’s Division of Mathematical Sciences awarded UNC a $620,000 major research instrumentation grant to acquire the wave tank. Roberto Camassa, George Kane Professor of Mathematics, is the project’s principal investigator. Co-principal investigators include mathematics professor Richard McLaughlin and, in marine sciences, assistant professor Alberto Scotti and Francisco Werner, the George and Alice Welsh Professor. Deeper, longer and wider than similar tanks at other scientific institutions, the UNC tank will be transparent and elevated off the floor, so scientists can observe the water from all angles. “To be totally optically accessible with this length is unique,” Camassa said. The tank will be divided into four modules, so several experiments can happen at once. In addition, the modules will have different properties. The deepest module will be used for studying deep waves and the effect of dropping things a long distance. Another module that is wider than the others could be lined with material such as sand, to study how bottom topography affects wave propagation. If need be, the gates between the modules can be opened so scientists can use the whole length of the tank, to study waves that happen over long distances. Before scientists can answer the big questions about global warming, they have to understand the underlying principles, Camassa said. An example is mixing of stratified fluids — fluids in which one layer is denser, or heavier, than the other. “You have an energy balance on earth, and energy from the sun has to be distributed one way or another,” Camassa said. If you think of the earth as a water basin, and the sun’s energy as a running faucet, the way the earth stores and releases the sun’s energy — or the height of the overflow drain from the bottom of the basin — is influenced by mixing, he added. Scotti also studies mixing of fluids of different densities. For instance, if a heavy gas such as chlorine were to be spilled in an industrial accident, how would it mix with the lighter air? ��If a large cloud of gas spills, it’s important to understand how fast the cloud will get dispersed in the environment.” he said. The fluids lab also will include a wind tunnel, a mixing station and other equipment. It was quite a change from the old fluids lab in Phillips Hall, which could accommodate only three people at once — forcing scientists to work in shifts. • ABOVE: Marine scientist Alberto Scotti (left) and mathematician Richard McLaughlin will work on a much larger wave tank in the new 4,500-square-foot fluids lab in Chapman. underlying principles Steve Exum Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 11 continued investigator for a $620,000 major research instrumentation grant. The larger space in Chapman will help the group expand even more. For example, the new fluids lab will include a wind tunnel that McLaughlin, Camassa and Laura Miller, who joined the department’s faculty in January, will use to study insect flight. [See sidebar on page 12]. The physical design of the complex makes it easier for scientists to connect. “The simple ability to communicate has made a profound impact on how we work and on the ease of collaborating,” said Francisco Werner, George and Alice Welsh Professor and chair of the department of marine sciences. Now, marine sciences faculty will be able to meet with colleagues in applied math by simply walking down a flight of stairs or crossing a bridge that connects Chapman Hall to Phillips Hall. For chemist Mike Ramsey, whose group studies the emerging field of nanofluidics, the new space in Chapman means eliminating a daily hike between his former office in Kenan and labs in Venable. Ramsey recently received a $3.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to further develop his “lab-on-a- chip” technology for faster and cheaper human genome sequencing. “Now all of our lab space is contiguous, and all of the office space for students and postdocs are now together and adjacent to the labs,” said Ramsey, the Minnie N. Golby Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. “That allows for a lot more camaraderie. Protein Pioneer By Karen Stinneford (BA ’87, MBA ’02) Chemist Gary Pielak’s award-winning research into the role proteins play in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s was fueled by a dare, of sorts. Years ago whenever Pielak, who studied protein stability, discussed his research with fellow UNC chemist Linda Spremulli, she’d tell him it wasn’t applicable to real life, saying, “But the way you’re doing it isn’t what happens in living cells, because in living cells, proteins are really crowded.” “And that really, really bugged me,” Pielak recollected, “because I knew she was right.” So he changed direction and began doing much riskier research in living cells. The gamble paid off. Pielak’s new approach garnered him a $2.5 million, five-year Director’s Pioneer Award this year from the National Institutes of Health. The award supports exceptionally creative scientists who pursue highly innovative and risky approaches to biomedical challenges. He’s the first UNC scientist to receive the award. Pielak uses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to study proteins inside cells that are still alive. His research team had successfully used this high-resolution imaging tool to study bacteria. Now they hope it will lead to new understanding about proteins in animal cells. “We’re really swinging for the fences here,” Pielak said. What Pielak and his team uncover could have sweeping ramifications for medicine. Better understanding how proteins change in cells diseased by Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s could lead to breakthrough treatments that halt the rate of degeneration — or even reverse it. “Probably not in my lifetime, but absolutely, it can happen,” Pielak said. For now, the NIH grant gives Pielak and his team of student researchers added motivation to push on with their work. Pielak enjoys a reputation on campus for being especially generous when it comes to giving students hands-on laboratory experience. “Scientists don’t spring forth fully formed from Zeus’ head — scientists have to be trained,” he said. Matthew Dedmon ’02 worked with Pielak for three years as an undergraduate at UNC and majored in chemistry. Now completing his post-doc at Harvard Medical School, Dedmon says Pielak’s secret to training talented scientists is the latitude he gives them as students. “Gary is a brilliant scientist who is always ready to discuss a problem and always has suggestions for a potential solution,” Dedmon said. “What makes him a great educator, however, is that he gives students the chance to solve their own problems, rather than merely dictating the work and supplying the answers.” • ABOVE: Chemist Gary Pielak uses a large NMR spectrometer to study proteins inside living cells. His award-winning work could advance Parkinson’s research. highly innovative Steve Exum 12 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences In general, when doing science, the casual/coincidental discussions are really important.” Chemists are also envisioning new collaborative projects in the W. Lowry and Susan S. Caudill Laboratories, their new 146,000-square-foot home connected to the adjacent Kenan Laboratories by a bridge and an open plaza [see sidebar on page 13]. Lowry Caudill, a 1979 chemistry alumnus and entrepreneur, gave a major gift for the new building and the Royce Murray Quadrangle, the largest of the green spaces planned for the complex. The Caudill building features laboratories for chemists; a special “high field room” with seven nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers, which are high-resolution imaging tools; a “clean room” for nanoparticle synthesis in the lab of Joseph DeSimone, William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor; and numerous common areas for students and faculty to interact with each other. Caudill agrees that one of the science complex’s biggest assets is the way the layout encourages conversations. “The Royce Murray Quadrangle, for example, is going to be a centerpiece to the complex when it’s completed. It’s a place where students and faculty can go outside for lunch or conversation or throw Frisbees or contemplate a problem,” he said. The quadrangle honors Caudill’s Carolina mentor, longtime chemistry professor Royce Murray, whose 45-year career has been marked by extraordinary achievement as a scholar and educator. Flying Lessons By Pamela Babcock Why is it that below a certain size, tiny insects no longer flap their wings to fly? What can the flying habits of these insects tell us about aerodynamics? How do trees and plants withstand high wind forces such as hurricanes or tornadoes? And how does the flow of blood through a fetal heart change as it grows and develops? These are a few of the subjects Laura A. Miller, assistant professor of math-ematics, has studied. A mathemati-cal biologist, Miller researches how animals and plants deal with fluid dynamic forces in nature. “The basic idea behind mathematical biology is you use the tools of mathematics to better understand biology, and the other idea is that biology can inspire new problems in mathematics, so the two fields really enhance each other,” Miller explained. Miller joined the Carolina faculty in January, after serving as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. She received her Ph.D. in math from New York University in 2004; she has an M.S. in zoology from Duke University and a B.S. in biology from the University of Chicago. “I’ve always been torn between studying aerodynamics and physics, and biology and math,” Miller said. In 2006, Miller won a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface, which provides $500,000 over five years to support research in quantitative biological and medical sciences. Miller’s laboratory and field work may have applications for military flight and medical healing. Her research on lift generation in insects could inform the U.S. Department of Defense as it develops micro-air vehicles. Remote-controlled, insect-size aircraft could be used for search and rescue, military surveillance or the detection of chemical and biological agents, for instance. The physics of flight changes “as you shrink it down to the size of an insect,” Miller said Plant wind-resistance studies could have implications for manmade structures and buildings, while knowledge about early embryonic blood flow and heart development could lead to “corrective tools for congenital heart disease,” she explained. Miller, a native of Marietta, Ohio, said she was attracted to UNC because it supports mathematical biology and offers an integrated approach to problems with synergies between the departments of biology and genetics and the UNC School of Medicine. She is also excited about the new fluids lab in Chapman Hall, which will include both a large wave tank and a wind tunnel. In Utah, Miller had access to a miniature water tank, but looks forward to using the much larger fluids lab in Chapman Hall to continue her heart development experiments. “For a math department to have access to a really large facility to do fluid dynamics experiments is really unique,” Miller said. She’ll also continue her plant research with the wind tunnel in the new interdisciplinary fluids lab. Miller previously used the tunnel while she was a graduate student at Duke. The tunnel, 2.8 meters tall and 7 meters in length, was donated last year to UNC by Nekton Research, based in Durham, N.C. • ABOVE: Mathematical biologist Laura Miller studies habits of tiny insects. She stands in a walkway connecting Phillips Hall to Chapman Hall, which will promote collaborations between scientists. integrated approach Dan Sears Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 13 The second phase of the Carolina Physical Science Complex will include an addition to Sitterson Hall for computer science, scheduled for completion around 2008, and the replacement of Venable Hall with two, new state-of-the-art buildings to be completed around 2010. “New Venable” will be occupied by chemistry and marine sciences. Marine sciences will move out of Chapman in late 2010 or early 2011 — and that space will then be filled by physics and astronomy, and mathematics. • Enhanced teaching space Both Caudill and Chapman add improved teaching space in the project’s first phase. All of the classes formerly taught in Venable, including chemistry classes, are now being taught in Chapman’s new lecture halls and classrooms. And Carolina’s first class on entrepreneurship for scientists is being held in Caudill Labs. Holden Thorp, Kenan Professor and chair of chemistry, and Caudill, an adjunct professor of chemistry, are co-teaching the class as part of the College of Arts and Sciences’ involvement in the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative. Caudill brings his experience as one of the founding scientists of pharmaceutical development company Magellan Laboratories, which he and a partner grew to 600 employees, then sold to Cardinal Health. Labs for undergraduate astronomy classes will also be taught in Chapman, where telescopes will be set up on the new rooftop observing deck. The new Polymer Professor By JB Shelton Protégé and first graduate student of UNC chemistry professor Joseph M. DeSimone, Valerie Sheares Ashby has already garnered 10 patents for her research on the design and synthesis of polymeric biomaterials. “It is a long, hard road from inside the lab working with biological materials to using them inside the human body, but the impact can be significant,” said Ashby. Significant, indeed, for folks interested in feeling better, healing faster and avoiding medicinal side effects. Ashby, Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Professor, teaches organic chemistry to sophomores and juniors and introductory chemistry to freshmen. The Ashby group, her intrepid band of students, moved from antiquated Venable Hall in December to a 21st century polymer chemical lab in the new W. Lowry and Susan S. Caudill Laboratories. “[Students] have the advantage of state-of-the- art equipment and extensive working space with no option but enhanced efficiency,” Ashby said. “We are primarily interested in designing the properties of synthetic polymer materials for multiple functions in biological applications,” she explained. Polymers are the building blocks of plastics, created by linking many separate units together. If you’ve ever hooked dozens of heal and repair damaged eye tissue and maintain sight. As new cells grow in, the biodegradable scaffolding safely disappears. She earned both her B.S. (’88) and Ph.D. (’94) from UNC, and joined the faculty as an associate professor in 2003. In the interim, Ashby was a visiting scientist at IBM and Eastman Chemical Company and a National Science Foundation NATO postdoctoral fellow. She was honored by the American Chemical Society in 2002 as one of the country’s top 12 young female chemists. Ashby explained her enjoyment of her career — certainly one of intense and intensive scientific expertise — with the motto, “If it’s not fun, I’m not doing it.” • paper clips to form chains, you’ve created the office-supply version of a polymer. Ashby is tailoring biomaterials to improve drug delivery in the body. “The polymer materials become nontoxic carriers with targeting agents that either hold or attach to drugs. They prolong the drug’s circulation time in the blood, control its rate of release and only target a specific cell or area of the human body,” she said. Think, for example, of quick-acting but continuing relief of your headache without digestive side effects. Her tissue engineering and scaffolding work are initial steps to facilitating cell growth and alignment. One potential application is regenerating retinal cells to significant impact ABOVE: Chemist Valerie Ashby has garnered 10 patents for her research on polymers. She and her students will benefit from state-of-the-art equipment and extensive lab space in Caudill. continued Steve Exum Microscope Master By Karen Stinneford (BA ’87, MBA ’02) Imagine you are an astronomer, peering through a high-powered telescope to examine an object on the moon about the size of two tennis balls. Then imagine what might happen to your view if a dump truck lumbered by 20 feet in front of your telescope, vibrating it. Lu-Chang Qin, an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy, knows how vibration can blur one’s view of another world — in his case, the not-so-distant one involving atomic and molecular particles that can only be viewed through a highly sensitive microscope. As director of the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Atomic Imaging and Manipulation, Qin uses a transmission electron microscope to study tiny carbon nanotubes. They are extremely thin — about 100,000 times narrower than a human hair — and look like cylinders of balled-up chicken wire. Because they are extraordinarily strong and can conduct heat and electricity, they could be useful in a variety of ways — from making more sensitive electronics to stronger concrete or even warmer winter coats. Studying the structure of carbon nanotubes is critical to understanding their potential applications. The transmission electron microscope allows Qin and his colleagues to magnify carbon nanotubes up to 1 million times. “Everything is made up of atoms, but exactly how they are stacked is important to the property and performance of materials,” he explained. “It’s like building a house with brick or blocks — depending on which you use, you get a different house. Any disturbance affects the resolution.” When the Keck lab was housed in Phillips Hall, vibration frequently obstructed Qin’s view. Ordinary traffic was a problem, but lumbering dump trucks and cranes were even worse. “We couldn’t always hear the construction traffic, but we could tell it was there because our resolution was affected,” said Qin, who also is associate chair in the curriculum in applied and materials sciences. This is why Qin was excited about moving into Chapman Hall. The transmission electron microscope was relocated to the basement of Chapman, where Qin can conduct his research essentially vibration free. “The department worked very hard to adapt the Phillips Hall space — still, it took more than a year to get the microscope to perform marginally,” Qin said. “The new environment in Chapman is a big improvement as far as I’m concerned.” • ABOVE: Lu-Chang Qin (pictured in his old Phillips Hall lab) uses an electron microscope to study tiny carbon nanotubes. In the old lab, vibrations frequently interfered with his work. 14 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences extraordinarily strong space allows the department of physics and astronomy to teach these labs at the optimal time — after dark. The deck at Morehead Observatory was too small to accommodate all of the students at once, so classes were split into two observing sessions, one at 7 p.m. and one at 8:30 p.m. “Early in the fall and late in the spring, the first class would be observing when it was still partly light out,” said Bruce Carney, Samuel Baron Professor of Astronomy and senior associate dean for sciences. “That just doesn’t work.” The first floor of Chapman includes a glass-walled room where astronomers, aided by undergraduate and graduate students, will remotely control telescopes UNC uses in Chile and South Africa. The room is four times the size of the old observing room, but Carney said that its best feature is that it puts astronomy on display. “It’s planted right where the students will be passing by on their way to classes on the first floor,” he said. “When one of the professors was debugging it last fall, there were students plastered up against the wall looking in. I’m sure we’re going to draw more students into the sciences this way.” Expanded space and high-tech facilities will also make it easier to attract high-caliber faculty. For example, marine sciences will begin recruiting in fall 2007 for a specialist whose interests will provide a bridge between the work of various faculty in marine sciences and those in the applied math group, Werner said. “Moving into a 21st century building and laboratories has completely changed our outlook on the possibilities — on what we think we can do. We have set our targets higher.” • Dan Sears Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 15 Summer Scholars Art for change in Oaxaca, Mexico Katie Almirall landed in the middle of a major news story last summer — a political uprising in Oaxaca, Mexico — while pursuing her SURF project on using public art to raise awareness of human rights issues. In a backlash against Governor Ulises Ruiz, teachers went on strike, and people camped out in the streets and organized protest marches. “When I went out the morning [of June 14] for my Spanish class, there was tear gas in the air, helicopters, and teachers were running through the streets. It was crazy,” said Almirall, a native of Oak Island, N.C. “I didn’t tell my parents until I got home.” Never once did Almirall, a senior studio art major pursuing a minor in Spanish, think that maybe she should go home. It was a ripe environment for encouraging artistic comment from the 16 young students she taught in an art class at the Center for Human Rights in Oaxaca. Students discussed the explosion of art going on around them in reaction to the political unrest: puppets, life-size dioramas, banners and graffiti. Guided by Almirall, students brainstormed and created their own interactive public art project: A huge, inflatable hand out of clear painter’s plastic, a hand large enough for people to walk inside. The students filled it with index cards full of facts Exploring public art and human rights in Mexico, studying Russian wetlands policy, revealing delays in North Carolina’s appellate court process and dispelling misconceptions about women of the Middle East— these were a few of the research projects undertaken last summer, not by senior faculty, but by Carolina undergraduate students. Each year the Office of Under-graduate Research in the College of Arts and Sciences awards Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURFs) to 60 to 65 young scholars to encourage discovery beyond the classroom. Guided by faculty advis-ers, undergraduates conduct research that spans the fine arts, humanities, business, sciences and social sciences. Students share their findings each spring at the Undergraduate Research Symposium on campus. “It’s exciting to carry out a project of your own design as an undergraduate,” said Patricia J. Pukkila, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and a professor of biology. “It’s also an effective way to learn, to understand the limits of conclusions and to gain confidence in your abilities to address future unsolved problems.” The sampling of projects featured were funded with $3,000 stipends from the Frances C. and William P. Smallwood Foundation, the College, General Administration’s Undergraduate Research Expansion Fund and the Robin March Hanes Fund for Studio Art. continued B y K i m W e a v e r S p u r r ’ 8 8 Undergraduate students Navigate research at home and abroad 16 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences about human rights and markers so that passersby could write reactions of their own. The giant hand was displayed in the center of town. “People were drawing on the inflatable [hand] which was great — they felt compelled to do that,” Almirall said. UNC art professor Beth Grabowski, who served as Almirall’s SURF adviser, was impressed with her resourcefulness, vision and initiative. “In that kind of situation, you’re an art director, an art teacher, a conversation facilitator … there are lots of different skills to draw upon,” Grabowski said. Almirall says the SURF project helped her to build bridges between the Oaxacan art students and the Latino immigrants she teaches in a Carrboro art class. The two groups worked on art projects to exchange with each other. “Although there was a lot of political conflict, I also got exposed to normal life in Oaxaca. I got to know so many interesting people who were involved in the community,” she said. Studying post-Soviet wetlands policy Dylan Trettin combined his interest in environmental policy and history to examine the impact of the fall of communism on wetlands policy in Russia, home to about 40 percent of the earth’s wetlands. “Russia’s wetlands are an immensely important global resource, playing a significant role in carbon absorption and regulation of global warming,” said Trettin, a junior international studies and history major from Mount Pleasant, S.C. Trettin spent the summer in Moscow interviewing scientists and governmental officials, poring over policy briefs and visiting a wetlands research site with scholars from the Russian Academy of Sciences. He hypothesized that Russia’s democratic transition had improved the ability of the scientific community to impact wetlands policy. His findings weren’t quite that simple. Major funding cuts, layoffs and a market plagued by corruption are hampering professionals’ ability to shape policy, Trettin said. “The collapse [of the Soviet Union] was just so chaotic, with people losing jobs and the government changing. It wasn’t that the old system was better, but it has taken time to rebuild something comparable,” he said. Traveling abroad for the SURF project gave Trettin a different perspective once he returned to Carolina last fall for his international studies courses. “It was an interesting experience coming back and sitting in on classes about globalization … dealing with broader issues in the context of your own research,” he said. Retired Asian studies professor Steven Levine, faculty adviser on the project, said Trettin has an extraordinary sense of self-confidence and maturity. “I felt like it wasn’t so much a student-teacher relationship — we were exploring things together,” Levine said. “[The partnership] was very conducive to learning.” Trettin is continuing his work abroad this spring on an internship with the U.S. Embassy in Russia, in the Office of Environment, Science and Technology. Anatomy of delay in the state court of appeals Sam Hartzell said only a college student would spend his summer poring over 1,636 court cases decided in 2005 by the North Carolina Court of Appeals. The junior political science and philosophy major from Raleigh, N.C., wanted to determine the speed with which cases receive appellate review in the state system — and to compare those numbers with American Bar Association (ABA) guidelines. It turns out his SURF project yielded major findings. Hartzell found that in 2005, the state Court of Appeals fell substantially short of the ABA recommendations. It was data that Hartzell Katie Almirall Dylan Trettin Dan Sears Dan Sears Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 17 said the National Center for State Courts confirmed had never been gathered before. Political science professor Georg Vanberg admitted he was a bit skeptical at first that Hartzell could complete such a daunting project. “I wasn’t sure an undergraduate could pull this off in a summer,” Vanberg said. “Hopefully he’ll turn this into an honors thesis. All of our undergraduate theses are good, genuine pieces of scholarship — but I think Sam’s will be a standout piece.” The ABA recommends that 75 percent of all cases be resolved within 290 days from filing the notice of appeal, with 95 percent of all cases resolved within one year of filing. Breaking his preliminary findings down into data on civil and criminal cases, Hartzell found: • The North Carolina Court of Appeals resolved 75 percent of criminal cases within 21 months, 2.1 times as long as the ABA guideline; • The Court resolved 75 percent of civil cases within 18 months, 1.8 times the ABA guideline; • The Court resolved 95 percent of criminal cases within 32 months, 2.6 times the ABA guideline; and • The Court resolved 95 percent of civil cases within 24 months, 2 times the ABA guideline. Hartzell said the delays were occurring even though the Court judges issued significantly more rulings than the national average. “The research suggests that cutting appeal times may be more a matter of trying to change how things are done rather than changing how hard people work,” he said. “If the Court judges were not unusually productive, the backlog would be longer.” Hartzell hopes to publish the research and share it with the Court. He adds that working on the SURF project was “the best summer job I’ve ever had.” Misconceptions about women of the Middle East Marium Chaudhry, a native of Pakistan, wanted to dispel some of the misconceptions that Westerners have about women of the Middle East. So she decided to go straight to the source: surveying her peers at the University of Jordan. The senior journalism and international studies major spent the summer in Amman for her SURF project. She interviewed 50 college students, 19 men and 31 women, about their views on culture, religion, gender roles, education and lifestyles of women in the Middle East. Chaudhry said it’s generally presumed that women living under a Muslim government are suppressed and oppressed because of their gender. But even Chaudhry admits she was surprised by one of her findings: 50 percent of the students surveyed said that the government should enforce women wearing the hijab or “the veil.” She found that: • 50 percent of the participants said wearing the veil (described as head-to-toe covering) was extremely important; and • 34 percent said that Islam requires a woman to be modest but does not require a woman to wear the veil. “Most of the women I spoke to felt [wearing the veil] was a part of their culture, less a part of their religion than their culture,” she said. Chaudhry also found that 76 percent of those surveyed said they would like to incorporate some ideas of the West within their own lifestyle, such as the freedom to wear what they want, and more work opportunities and education choices. The SURF experience further whetted Chaudhry’s appetite for digging deeper for the facts. She hopes to combine her love of journalism and international study and to get a job with Al Jazeera, a broadcast media company based in the Middle East. Chaudhry asked sociology professor Charles Kurzman, an expert on the Middle East and Islam, to help her formulate survey questions for her project. “She’s an enthusiastic student who’s a real self-starter,” Kurzman said. “It was an ambitious project on a topic that’s of interest to many academics as well as to the public at large, the issue of Islamic identity.” • Sam Hartzell Marium Chaudhry Dan Sears Dan Sears 18 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences It was once unthinkable that women would occupy a prominent and permanent place at the nation’s first public university, let alone become the subject of a serious academic field in which Carolina would be in the vanguard. But today, 30 years after the women’s studies curriculum was planted in Chapel Hill, the program has thrived, reaching some 2,000 students a year in 118 classes across the arts and sciences. Its graduates enjoy successful careers in business, government, nonprofits and academia. And its core faculty — a diverse blend of established scholars and rising stars — are enhancing public understanding of the role of women and gender in archaeology, anthropology, cinema, history, literature, government, public policy, public health, sociology and science in the United States and around the world. It wasn’t always so. In the beginning, UNC was, like the majority of other institutions of higher learning in the country, a male bastion. By 1897, a century after the University’s founding, UNC trustees admitted five women for advanced courses; however, they would never appear in a class picture or participate in a public graduation ceremony. The die had been cast, though, and the number of women on campus would gradually grow until the prevailing norms were turned upside down and inside out. During the 1960s, women’s pedestals were replaced with soapboxes in a wave of activism around a host of issues, including the Vietnam War, Civil Rights and equal rights for women. By the 1976-77 academic year, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was well established. The U.S. military and air force academies admitted their first women cadets. The Episcopal Church began ordaining women to the priesthood. And that year, Carolina reached a major milestone of its own: For the first time, female students outnumbered male students. The new majority was not a cause for celebration in every quarter. The Chapel Hill Newspaper predicted that “the state’s future business and political leaders would no longer be predominantly UNC graduates” and “there would be a consequent decline in public and private support,” according to Pamela Dean’s , women s studies turns 30 , women s studies turns 30 Carolina is a leader in examining the role of gender across disciplines B y L i s a H . T o w l e Steve Exum Women’s Studies core faculty (clockwise from left) Michele Berger, Jane Burns, Karen Booth, Joanne Hershfield and Barbara Harris (seated). Not pictured: Silvia Tomaskova. Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 19 Women on the Hill: A History of Women at The University of North Carolina. Such skepticism did not deter those who demanded a different paradigm. Education professor Mary Turner Lane, an unfaltering yet judicious advocate for the rights of both female students and faculty, wrote to then Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson that “today’s students are vastly different from those of our generation” and would expect to assume public leadership roles. With Title IX of the federal Education Amendment mandating an end to discrimina-tion on the basis of gender in admission, financial aid and housing, women sought to permanently transform the academy. They began negotiating for a course of study that would, in keeping with the goals of a liberal arts education, systematically and accurately represent the experiences, roles and contributions of women within human culture. An ad hoc committee of the UNC Faculty Council formed to study the matter. There were practical issues to address, of course: How would such a program be structured? What about its cost? But there were also some telling exchanges. Again, from Women on the Hill: “When Kenan Professor of Philosophy Maynard Adams wondered if enough students would want to major in such a program, Margaret O’Connor (an English professor who had taught the first Carolina course on ‘women in literature’ in 1972), threw the question back to him. How many majors did his department have? Rather sheepishly he reported at the next meeting that there were only nine. Adams and the rest of the committee concluded that, since a major university without a philosophy department was unthinkable, programs should not be judged on the number of majors they might attract.” Then came the charge that women’s studies would have no academic merit, and was merely a passing fad rooted in politics. Joan Wallach Scott, who joined the UNC history faculty in 1974 and is now at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University, countered that what “began as a political movement has become an intellectually legitimate field of inquiry (addressing) issues of importance to historians, sociologists, economists, anthropologists and psychologists” and therefore belonged at a major research university. In one sure stroke, Scott had created a leitmotif for the Carolina approach to women’s studies. In 1977, the committee’s recommenda-tions were accepted and women’s studies at UNC began as an academic program in the College of Arts and Sciences. Mary Turner Lane was named program director, a part-time position. She and Scott immediately set about developing its first course, “Introduction to Women’s Studies,” taught to some 50 under-graduates in 1977-78. The program continued to attract students. When Barbara Harris arrived on campus in January of 1989, she had two mandates: teach history and lead the women’s studies program to the next level. It would take three years for the Board of Governors to approve the move to a full-fledged curriculum. “By that time, I had created a significant network across campus so cross-listing courses was no problem,” recalls Harris, a historian of late medieval/early modern English women. “In fact, other departments felt affiliating with women’s studies was a recruitment tool.” They were right. Senior Shannon Fyfe, with a double major in music and political science and a minor in women’s studies, took her first cross-listed course (in sociology) her first year at UNC. “It was then that I fell in love with looking at the world in a different way, a multi-dimensional way,” explains Fyfe. That led her to apply to the University’s joint continued graduate program in law and social work. Today women’s studies has six core faculty engaged in teaching and research [see Who’s Who in Women’s Studies page 20]. In addition, the program lists more than 100 affiliated faculty in 29 academic departments in the College and the professional schools, including African and Afro-American studies, American studies, anthropology, art, biology, communication studies, comparative literature, economics, English, geography, history, philosophy, political science, psychology, religious studies, romance languages and sociology. Women’s studies offers a B.A. degree and a graduate minor. About 36 undergraduates major in women’s studies and 25 more take enough courses for an academic minor in the field. Many courses are filled to capacity, including “Women’s Studies 101,” which attracts about 250 students each semester and another 50 students in the summer. Carolina’s program also includes a women-in-science initiative — led by archaeologist Silvia Tomaskova — that engages students in ethnographic studies of women in science and co-sponsors guest lectures by prominent female scientists. In addition, women’s studies has a strong internship and public service component providing opportunities for Carolina students in about 25 local organizations. “Our program’s growth and profile have secured the reputation of women’s studies at UNC as one of the strongest in the nation,” said Harris, the chair. “We are regularly used as a standard for other universities that are expanding or institutionalizing their own women’s studies programs.” A priority for 2007-08 is to fill the Druscilla French Distinguished Professorship in Women’s Studies, funded by Drucie French (’71 AB English, ’78 MA Communication Studies) and her husband, Stephen Cumbie (’70 BS Chemistry, ’73 MBA). It is the first endowed professorship in women’s studies at Carolina. Next year, women’s studies will move into the 1901 Smith building, the first at UNC named for a woman — benefactor Mary Ann Smith of Raleigh. Steve Exum 20 • Spring 2007 • Carolinaarolinaarolinaarolinaarolinaarolinaarolina Artsrtsrts & Sciencesciencesciencesciencesciencesciencesciences French’s fund-raising efforts also led to the creation of the Women’s Studies Faculty Fund, which supports the research, writing and professional activities of the curriculum’s professors. French serves on the executive committee of the Carolina Women’s Leadership Council and served on UNC’s Board of Visitors from 2000 to 2004. Alumnus Matt Ezzell captures an important aspect of Carolina’s approach to women’s studies. After coming to UNC in 1995 and discovering none of his choices for major study fit quite right, Ezzell took a sociology course cross-listed with women’s studies and “suddenly found a language to make sense of the entirety of life.” He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in women’s studies, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in UNC’s department of sociology. He says he would like to teach in a university women’s studies program. Ezzell’s favorite quote comes from the activist, author and educator bell hooks because it speaks to his belief that the feminist perspective benefits everyone: “To be ‘feminist’ in any authentic use of the term is to want for all people, female and male, liberation from sexist role patterns, domination, and oppression.” This expansive view is reflected in the content of the women’s studies curriculum. Joanne Hershfield, a scholar and filmmaker who specializes in the role of women in film, uses quotes from Bella Abzug and clips from the film “Erin Brokovich” to help students focus on the varied relationships between feminism and environmentalism during a “Women’s Studies 101” lecture. The ongoing dialogue in these classes is the important thing, says UNC history professor Crystal Feimster, who graduated from Carolina in 1994 with a double major in history and women’s studies. “There’s not necessarily a space outside the academy to debate these issues and to figure out how to create a world where we all have the same opportunities regardless of gender, race and class,” says Feimster. The interdisciplinary approach to curriculum, coupled with internships and international research programs, have put women’s studies in a good place. Michele Berger, a political scientist who joined the women’s studies faculty in 2002, says, “I’m part of a legacy of scholars who made UNC a leader in women’s studies.” As a rising star in the study of historically excluded “outsider” voices — such as women of color or women who have been stigmatized by AIDS — she wants to help take the program to the next level. Berger acknowledges that she and others of her generation have their work cut out for them. “We now have a global, multi-feminist, multi-racial movement. Understanding what it means to place women’s lives at the center of all that, and to also be aware of the inevitable transformation of men’s roles, will take a lot of questioning and analysis and commitment,” she says. “It’s very exciting!” Women’s studies faculty at Carolina are also excited about moving next year to the Smith Building on Cameron Avenue. The historic structure was named for 19th century benefactor Mary Ann Smith of Raleigh, and completed in 1901, long before anyone envisioned a women’s studies program for Carolina or any other university. Smith left half her estate to Carolina — supporting construction and endowing the Mary Ann Smith Professorships in Chemistry, the oldest continuous professorships at UNC. How fitting that the women’s studies program will celebrate the start of its next 30 years by settling into the first building on campus named to honor a woman whose visionary philanthropy was considered ahead of her time. • To learn more about ways to support women’s studies at Carolina, contact Emily Stevens at (919) 843-5285 or emily.stevens@unc.edu. Women, Global Science, reveals conceptual flaws in internationally funded AIDS prevention efforts in Africa that focus on changing the behavior of women without addressing the power imbalances involved in unsafe sex practices.• E. Jane Burns, acting chair (Ph.D. French Literature and Medieval Studies, University of California at Berkeley), explores gender, sexuality and material culture in medieval texts. Her book, Courtly Love Undressed, is a study of courtly love and clothing in 13th century French culture. She also teaches courses on feminist and gender theory and women’s spirituality across cultures.• Barbara J. Harris, chair (Ph.D. History, Harvard University), is the author of four books and many journal articles. She is now writing a book on aristocratic English women from 1450 to 1550. She teaches classes on English history during the Tudor and Stuart periods and English and European women's history. Harris received the Mary Turner Lane Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Lives of Women at UNC in 1994.• Joanne Hershfield (Ph.D. Radio, Television and Film, University of Texas-Austin) is a documentary filmmaker and an expert on women in cinema in Mexico. She has published three books on Mexican films and directed/ co-produced several documentaries including studies of Latinos in North Carolina, women in leadership in N.C. and women in Japan.• Silvia Tomaskova (Ph.D. Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley) studies Paleolithic settlements of central and eastern Europe as well as the historical invention of shamans. She directs the women-in-science initiative and teaches courses on gender and science, women in scientific professions, gender and culture, and European prehistory and archaeological theory. • who s who in women s studies A glimpse of the core faculty in the women’s studies curriculum hints at the program’s strengths and breadth.• Michele Tracy Berger, (Ph.D. Political Science, University of Michigan) won a top-book award from the American Political Science Association for Workable Sisterhood, her study of the lives of 16 stigmatized women — former drug users and sex workers with HIV — who became politically active in Detroit. She teaches classes about women of color in contemporary U.S. social movements and the portrayal of African American women in the media.• Karen M. Booth (Ph.D. Sociology, University of Wisconsin at Madison) is a rising expert on the impact of globalization on reproductive health and rights. Her book, Local , ,clashes too frequently with the predominately Sunni Iraqi Police, a poorly developed force. Indeed, 2006 was slated as “the Year of the Iraqi Police.” Yet, as the Study Group notes, we have failed to develop an effective police force. In Fallujah, many police facilitate insurgent activity. When the Iraqi insurgents’ focus of effort shifted from attacks on American and Iraqi Security Forces to attacks on fellow citizens, the time passed when more U.S. troops on the ground would improve the situation. We have never made significant gains stopping Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence, and it will continue unabated regardless of troop strength — unless organic institutions are strengthened and a sense of national identity forged. The Iraqi government and people will ultimately determine whether a unified and peaceful Iraq will be a reality. The Iraq Study Group presents a “least-worst” option in Iraq. There is no panacea to the complex concoction of competing insurgencies, sectarian violence, terrorism, corruption and IRAQ: A view from the ground By Marine Corps Captains Rye Barcott ’01 and Croft Young ’95 The first step to recovery is to admit we have a problem. The Iraq Study Group report admits we have a “grave and deteriorating” problem in Iraq. Additionally, the new Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, acknowledged we are not “winning” in Iraq. As Marines who returned from Fallujah last spring, we welcome this candor, though we wish it had come sooner. We have not been “winning” in Iraq since the months immediately following our invasion, when we disbanded the Iraqi Army and failed for months to acknowledge incipient insurgencies popping up across the country. A year later, the Abu Ghraib scandal further advanced the radicalization of local Iraqis, many of whom have since adopted a jihadist ideology and will be life-long enemies of the United States. Key to the strategy proposed by the Study Group is an increase in the number of military advisers assigned to training the Iraqi Army and Police. If this strategy is adopted, the training must become much more of a priority. However, military advisers alone cannot build government institutions. Are we simply training Iraq’s three largest ethnic groups to kill each other? We both worked closely with Iraqi Police and Army units. The Iraqi Army in Fallujah, many of whose units perform admirably, is predominantly Kurdish and Shi’ite, and Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 21 First Person F i r st P e r s o n criminality. As Colin Powell’s Pottery Barn rule says, “If you break it, you own it.” We have a responsibility to at least leave Iraq in the best shape possible. Perhaps the release of the Study Group report will be a step in the right direction. • — College alumni Croft Young (international studies) and Rye Barcott (peace, war and defense/international studies) have served active duty in Iraq. Young served two tours there, most recently commanding a reconnaissance platoon in Fallujah. Barcott provided written testimony to the Iraq Study Group. TOP: Marine Captain Rye Barcott ’01 has served in Iraq and the Horn of Africa. BOTTOM: Marine Captain Croft Young ’95 has served two tours in Iraq, most recently in Fallujah. “We have not been ‘winning’ in Iraq since the months immediately following our invasion, when we disbanded the Iraqi Army and failed for months to acknowledge incipient insurgencies popping up across the country.” [ [ Spotlight S p o t l i g h t policymakers overseas. The goal was to build intellectual bridges between the United States and the rest of the world. Samulski helped organize two transatlantic conferences on “health and nanotechnology” involving both scientists and policymakers. The first one, on therapeutic advances, was held in Virginia, and the second, on the social and institutional ramifications of nanotechnology, was in Italy. “It was a great experience for me, and I worked very hard,” Samulski said. “I learned to appreciate how important it is to communicate science to non-scientists.” He also helped organize four bilateral conferences — around the central theme of “Global Dialogues on Emerging Science and Technology” — on quantum computing (in Germany), genomics and infectious diseases (in China), biotechnology and agriculture (in India) and bioinformatics (in Brazil). “The State Department would pay for 15 of the very best U.S. scientists in a particular area to go to a country and meet with 15 of their scientists and about 100 graduate students,” Samulski explained. “We wanted to get access to the next generation of scientists in these countries,” he said, noting that U.S. universities are facing increased competition from overseas institutions. Each trip involved intense travel to scientific institutes. In China, for example, he visited 27 laboratories in three weeks. Working in the State Department was both intriguing and fun, Samulski said. And the social life in D.C. was considerably more active than in Chapel Hill, he joked, describing embassy parties, Capitol Hill briefings and receptions, and jetting around the world. He occasionally found himself face to face with a major newsmaker. He met Secretary Rice two times and ran into then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the hallway. Samulski also watched with amazement as President Bush tried to persuade a roomful of skeptical university presidents that teaching critical languages is essential to the security of the U.S. Samulski was most impressed by the State Department’s little-known foreign service officers, civil servants and analysts, who, he said, “do the demanding work of maintaining and staying abreast of foreign affairs, at far less pay than they could make outside of government.” He especially enjoyed surprising his non-scientist peers on C Street by accurately predicting the actual date and outcome of North Korea’s first nuclear missile launch last summer. “I had a real coup there,” Samulski recalled. “Despite the seriousness of this, our office had a pool on when it would be launched. These people are all experts on Asia, and they take their work seriously, and I didn’t know a lot about North Korea. So I was a little reluctant to enter the pool. But, at everyone’s insistence, I made an estimated guess and predicted the launch would fail no matter what date it occurred, and then I predicted that it would take place on July 5 in Korea, because that’s July 4 in the U.S., and I thought that would be just the kind of message that Kim Jong Il would want to send.” The test launch occurred just the way Samulski had predicted. “It was just a scientist’s intuition,” he said. When Samulski returned to work after the launch, he said, “People were pointing at me whispering, ‘That’s the guy.’ I think they started wondering if maybe they should have more scientists in the State Department.” • Beyond the Classroom Professor Samulski goes to Washington By Dee Reid Chemist Edward Samulski didn’t know what to expect when he was one of only five scientists nationwide selected to spend the past year at the U.S. State Depart-ment as a Jefferson Science Fellow. After all, what could a nanotechnology expert — and an “independent Democrat”— find to do on Condoleezza Rice’s turf? Plenty, it turned out, as the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor fulfilled two very different assignments, one in which he needed to suppress information and the other in which he was supposed to disseminate information. Inside the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, he worked on classified projects that he can’t describe, except to say that he was asked to assess Asia’s progress in nanotechnology. That’s the study and manipulation of matter at the atomic scale — an emerging science with applications in medicine, energy, electronics and security. The atmosphere in the bowels of the State Department where intelligence work occurs was quiet, dark and ascetic, Samulski reports. Signs warn employees not to converse in the hallways. He got used to wearing a dark suit and tie every day, locking his computer hard drive in a vault each night and not discussing work with colleagues either in or out of the State Department. His other assignment in the Office of the Science and Technology Advisor to the Secretary was not at all hush-hush. Samulski traveled around the world to promote the mutual exchange of scientific information, in order to stay abreast of scientific activity globally and to strengthen America’s relationships. He encouraged U.S. scientists to share information with counterparts and 22 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences Chemist Ed Samulski’s State Department work took him to China for a conference on genomics and infectious diseases. Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 23 Highlights H i g h l i g h ts Drew Levinson ’82 at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill Thousands of miles away in the middle of Muslim territory in the Middle East, CBS Newspath correspondent Drew Levinson started thinking about his Jewish childhood in Robeson County, North Carolina. Over a three-year period, he had covered skirmishes between Israelis and Palestinians, interviewed the head of Hamas in Gaza, covered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping in Pakistan and reported on the Iraq War from Kuwait and Afghanistan. “In 2000, when I was at PLO headquarters interviewing the head of Hamas, he welcomed me and was very cordial,” said Levinson, who graduated from Carolina in 1982 with an undergraduate degree in peace, war and defense. “Then we sat down to do the interview and he said, ‘My goal is to wipe Israel off the face of the map and kill the hated Jews.’ “I thought about being a young American Jewish reporter working for a national broadcast company, and it really, really hit me. I kept thinking more about [my heritage]. In all, in the history of Robeson County, there have only been about 100 Jews there. And it’s now fewer than five. So I wanted to remember them.” Levinson, who lives in New York City, had never made a documentary film, although he had been covering national news for CBS since 1997. Serendipity led him to childhood acquaintance Melinda Weinstein, now an English professor at A Lasting Impression CBS journalist pays tribute to his heritage growing up Jewish in Robeson County By Kim Weaver Spurr ’88 Lawrence Technological University in Detroit. They teamed up with Levinson’s friend Lew Pincus, a West Palm Beach videographer. The team spent 2 ½ years roaming the back roads of Robeson County. The result is a 47-minute documentary, “Lasting Impressions,” a tribute to the Jewish people and their Christian neighbors, who grew up in harmony in the buckle of the South’s Bible Belt, in a community almost evenly divided between blacks, whites and Lumbee Indians. It is also a very personal story, as Levinson and Weinstein talk about their own families in the film, while chatting over black-eyed peas, fried chicken and collard greens at Candy Sue’s Café. “One of the things we talk about in the film is we tried to fit in, but at the same time, to stand out,” Levinson said. “Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t all honey and roses. There was hidden anti-Semitism, but we never had the overt anti-Semitism I’ve witnessed in bigger cities.” The film has been shown at dozens of film festivals, synagogues and museums. Levinson came home to UNC last fall to screen the film as part of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies’ lecture series. When he’s not flying around the world 250 days out of the year covering stories for CBS, Levinson works on marketing the film, a true “labor of love.” As a broadcast journalist, Levinson has covered major news stories including Hurricane Katrina, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the execution of Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh and the Columbine High School shootings. He fell into his love of the broadcast medium early, working as a teen-age disc jockey at WFMO radio in Fairmont. When he got accepted to Carolina, Levinson said his father, who is now deceased, read the course catalogue and told him he needed to major in peace, war and defense. “He said, ‘You can take courses in journalism and learn how to write — but you better know what in the hell you’re talking about,’” Levinson said. Levinson followed his father’s advice, becoming captivated with military history courses taught by former professor James Leutze, now chancellor emeritus at UNC-Wilmington. “Peace, war and defense has helped me tremendously in news,” he said. “The only way you can look at the future is to look back at history. I understand military strategies and tactical movements. I can’t imagine a different major for me.” As a general assignment reporter, Levinson never knows when he wakes up in the morning where he’s going to end up at night. He once hopped on nine planes in 14 days. “A perfect example was when I woke up one morning in New York, got sent to Washington to work there for the day, and by that night I was put on an airplane to Rome. “You never find me in the same place for long — but I’ve got a lot of frequent flier points.” • “I thought about being a young American Jewish reporter working for a national broadcast company, and it really, really hit me. I kept thinking more about [my heritage]. In all, in the history of Robeson County, there have only been about 100 Jews there. And it’s now fewer than five. So I wanted [ to remember them.” ] Justin Smith 24 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences Highlights If Joseph Haydn’s “Surprise Symphony” woke its audience, then the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust’s news of an $8 million gift to music at Carolina brought a deafening ovation to Hill Hall. On Dec. 15, music department faculty, staff, students and friends gathered in the rotunda of the 100-year-old building to hear that the Kenan Trust’s gift will create 16 full music scholarships for undergraduates, and will complete funding for a new music building in the College of Arts and Sciences. The new facility will be called the Kenan Music Building. The gift, the largest ever received by an academic department in the College, includes a $4 million endowment for Kenan Music Scholarships and $4 million for the building now under construction on Columbia Street between Hanes Art Center and Abernethy Hall. Chancellor James Moeser, a concert organist, described the trust’s gift as “transformative for music at Carolina.” “The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust has long been a leading patron of the arts, through its support of the arts faculty, the department of dramatic art, the Carolina Performing Arts Endowment and now the department of music,” Moeser said. “Through a premier merit scholarship in music and the naming gift for the new music building, the trust not only ensures the continuing vitality of musical performance at Carolina, but elevates and enhances the quality and reputation of the department of music and the University.” Carolina’s music department has seen substantial growth in recent years, though its facilities are more than 75 years old, lack adequate space and have poor acoustics. Herbert Hoover was U.S. president in 1930 when the music department moved to its A ‘Transformative’ Gift Kenan Trust gives $8 million for music scholarships, new building By Del Helton current home in Hill Hall, built first as the University library in 1907. The number of music majors has tripled in the past decade to 250 students, and hundreds more attend class, practice and perform in the building each year. “This gift represents the intersection of two very important interests the Kenan family has nurtured for generations: first, is a dedication to excellence at the University of North Carolina and; second, a love and appreciation for the fine arts, especially music,” said Richard Krasno, executive director of the Kenan Trust. “It is our hope that the exceptional young women and men who will be recipients of the Kenan Music Scholarships will not only benefit from the extraordinary education they will receive at UNC, but that the UNC community at-large will benefit from their talent in our midst.” Not a traditional conservatory While the trust has long supported faculty and facilities at Carolina, the scholarships represent its most generous gift directed to students. The first four scholarships will be awarded to students entering in fall 2007, with four scholars to be named to each subsequent undergraduate class. The Kenan Music Scholarships cover in-state tuition, student fees, room and board, and provide a $6,000 allowance for study abroad, work with a particular performer, internships with elite music groups, attendance at music festivals and other musical events, and travel to audition for graduate school programs. Kenan music scholars will also benefit from faculty mentoring and peer counseling. Within hours after learning of the gift, department chair Tim Carter began planning for the first class of Kenan scholars, which included the appointment of professor Brent Wissick as faculty coordinator for the program. “We immediately contacted North Carolina high schools to announce this incredible opportunity,” said Carter, David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Music. “After auditioning 250 students through February, we’ll have a short list of candidates in early March. These students will participate in additional interviews with faculty before we name the first four Kenan scholars.” Next year, with time to mount a broader publicity campaign, Carter hopes to create a significantly larger applicant pool from the state and across the nation. “Carolina is not a traditional conservatory, and that’s a good thing,” he said. “We are looking for students who want the full experience of performance and academic study, of bringing together the benefits The new Kenan Music Building and new scholarships for students are being made possible with an $8 million gift from the Kenan Charitable Trust. Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 25 Highlights of doing and thinking. Our liberal arts emphasis brings together two sides of the brain, and our students are innovative in all of their academic as well as artistic pursuits.” Great faculty, great students, great facilities The trust��s gift also completes funding for the first of two building phases planned for the site. Costs for the first phase are estimated to be $31.4 million, with $19.8 million coming from the 2000 Higher Education Bond Referendum, $7.6 million from University sources and $4 million from the Kenan Trust. With a 2008 completion date, the Kenan Music Building will provide a space with proper acoustics now lacking in Hill Hall. Designed by architect Michael Dennis with Perkins & Will of Charlotte, the 100,000 square-foot building will feature a large instrumental rehearsal hall, 18 faculty studios for applied teaching, 100- and 45- seat classrooms, three piano studios, three ensemble rehearsal rooms, three practice rooms, a world music room, a digital theory laboratory, a recording studio and a percussion suite. The large rehearsal hall will accommodate practices for the University’s biggest ensembles, including the 300- member marching band. The second phase, slated for construction when funding becomes available, will feature a 650-seat concert hall with a stage large enough to accommodate a full symphony orchestra but with acoustics intimate enough for chamber music, additional classrooms and piano practice rooms, as well as public space for the arts community. The Kenan Music Building is a major step forward in the University’s planned Arts Common, which aims to elevate the quality and reach of the arts on campus to the local community and across North Carolina. “Not only do we have great faculty and great students, we will now have a great facility,” Carter said. For musicologists such as Carter, and for his performance colleagues, having a new space where music comes to life is equivalent to a well-equipped laboratory for scientists. “I couldn’t be more delighted with this remarkable gift from the Kenan Trust,” Carter said. “It identifies two of our most pressing needs: outstanding facilities fit for music in the 21st century and support for the remarkable creative and academic talents of the best undergraduates wanting to study at Carolina. Moreover, the wholly innovative and unique Kenan Music Scholars Program will allow our most talented performers to combine practice and theory at the highest level, both within the semester and outside of it. Hark the sound!” • Grace notes • The Kenan family’s ties to the University date to 1790 when James Kenan, a member of the University’s first Board of Trustees, contributed $25 to the construction of Old East, the first state university building in the nation. A member of the North Carolina General Assembly, James Kenan helped draft and pass the University’s charter. • The various Kenan family philanthropies have given the University nearly $60 million during the Carolina First Campaign, a comprehensive, multi-year, private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading university. More than half of that total has been designated for the College of Arts and Sciences, the oldest and largest academic unit at Carolina. • Carolina’s is the second-oldest Ph.D.-granting music department in the United States. Columbia University is the oldest. • Llamas paraded down the center aisle in Hill Hall auditorium during the 2006 Festival on the Hill’s performance of composer John Cage’s Theatre Piece No. 1. The biennial festival celebrates a time or place in music composition, combining concerts with symposia. In 2008, the theme will be Latin American music. By 2010, festival planners hope the venue will be the new concert hall. • ABOVE: (from left) Rishard Krasno, executive director of the Kenan Trust; Chancellor James Moeser; music department chair Tim Carter; and Thomas Kenan III look over a model of the Kenan Music Building. Dan Sears Highlights 26 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences The psychol-ogy department lost two outstand-ing former faculty members when David Galinsky and Grant Dahlstrom died last year. Psy-chology department chair Karen Gil is hoping graduate fellowships established to honor them will forever link the two professors to the field they loved and support future graduate students in psychology for many years to come. Raising funds for the David and Maeda Galinsky Graduate Student Fellowship and the W. Grant Dahlstrom Graduate Student Fellowship, both $300,000 awards, are a top priority for the psychology department. The department needs $180,000 to complete the Galinsky Fellowship and $68,000 to complete the Dahlstrom Fellowship. “Graduate student fellowships greatly enhance our ability to recruit and recognize the very best graduate students,” said Gil, the Gillian T. Cell Distinguished Term Professor. “We typically provide these fellowships to first-year graduate students so that they can devote all of their time to their academic program and their research.” The Galinskys first established a graduate fellowship in 1996 because of their appreciation for the importance of graduate student support. Graduate fellowships in psychology honor beloved professors Family, friends and colleagues are raising money to complete the fellowship in honor of Galinsky’s 40- year career as a professor and director of the clinical program. He also served as psychology department chairman from 1983-1993. Galinsky retired in 1997 but continued to be active in teaching and supervising graduate students as well as playing a major role in the department’s fundraising initiatives. The psychology department established the Dahlstrom graduate fellowship in 1999 to recognize his 40-year career as an outstanding scholar, mentor and teacher. Dahlstrom chaired about 60 dissertation committees during his time at Carolina. He served as department chairman from 1971 to 1976 and retired in 1993 as Kenan Professor of Psychology. A colleague once called him “a master clinical diagnostician.” “Our department owes a great deal to David and Grant for their dedicated service to the field of psychology,” Gil said. • To support the Galinsky and Dahlstrom fellowships, contact Kim Goodstein in the Arts and Sciences Foundation, (919) 843-3919, kim.goodstein@unc.edu. The Reeves Challenge The Galinsky and Dahlstrom fellowships were included in a challenge issued by the Reeves Foundation, a New Jersey-based family philanthropy, in support of graduate students. If alumni and friends contributed $600,000 by Dec. 31, 2006, to endowed graduate student support, the Reeves Foundation would create a new $300,000 graduate student fellowship in the College. Alumni and friends have helped the College successfully meet that challenge, raising $623,272 in gifts and pledges. The foundation’s support will allow the College to create a new graduate fellowship. Fundraising for other graduate fellowships continues, however, for at least five funds in English, religious studies, economics and psychology. • Family, friends and colleagues are raising money to complete the fellowship in honor of Galinsky’s 40-year career as a professor and director of the clinical program. [ ] The psychology department established the Dahlstrom graduate fellowship in 1999 to recognize his 40-year career as an outstanding scholar, mentor and teacher. [ ] David Galinsky Grant Dahlstrom Highlights Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 27 Two new distinguished professorships named for faculty members in American studies and dramatic art have been estab-lished in the College of Arts and Sciences. • Townsend Ludington Distinguished Professorship in American Studies Joe Dorn, who received an undergraduate degree in American studies in 1970 and is now a lawyer in Washington, D.C., remembers Townsend Ludington as a true mentor to students — both inside and outside the classroom. Dorn and fellow alumni and faculty in American studies are establishing the Townsend Ludington Distinguished Professorship in American Studies. Dorn joins Sunny ’84 and Lee ’82 Burrows and Molly Monk Mears ’84 in giving lead gifts to establish the professorship. Donors have committed $408,762 toward a goal of $500,000 for the professorship, which will be matched with $167,000 from the state’s Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund to create a $667,000 endowment. The American studies curriculum offered an excellent preparation for law school, with diverse courses in literature, history, art and the social sciences, said Dorn. “‘Towny’ Ludington was an excellent champion of the program’s multi-disciplinary approach.” “Towny was accessible, personable and easy to relate to as a student,” added Dorn. “I hope this new professorship will help the University find more Towny Ludingtons, New distinguished professorships established in American studies, dramatic art who will help students today have the experience that I had at UNC.” Ludington first came to Carolina to teach in 1966 and was one of the founders of the American studies program. He twice served as chair of the program, from 1968 to 1971 and 1986 to 2001. Ludington’s research focuses on American literature of the 20th century, biography and American art. Before he retired in 2004, he was instrumental in the creation of a Native American studies program, housed in American studies. Joy Kasson, professor and chair of American studies, calls Ludington “the moving spirit behind the successful establishment of the American studies curriculum.” “The program would not have been possible without Towny’s guidance and dedication,” she said. “But most of all, he evoked loyalty and dedication from his grateful students and colleagues. He models an engaged, humane and generous UNC professor.” • Milly S. Barranger Distinguished Professorship in Dramatic Art Alice Welsh has been a long-time supporter of dramatic art at UNC, and she wanted to do something special to recognize her friend, distinguished professor emerita Milly Barranger. Welsh’s gift of $353,620 to the College will create the Milly S. Barranger Distinguished Professorship in Dramatic Townsend Ludington Milly S. Barranger Art. The gift will be matched with $167,000 from the state’s Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund to create an endowment of $520,620. Barranger came to Carolina in 1982 as chair and professor of dramatic art and producing director of PlayMakers Repertory Company. She later taught in the department of dramatic art until her retirement in 2003. Dramatic art professor and department chair McKay Coble credits Barranger with “essentially building the department as we know it now.” “Milly hired a young and talented faculty/company that eagerly continued and expanded the extraordinary work of our founders,” Coble said. “It was also under her charge that the UNC Center for Dramatic Art was built. Our magnificent facility now houses all aspects of theater education and production.” Welsh said she once lived within walking distance of PlayMakers, so she didn’t miss a single play. It was there that she met Barranger, and the two struck up a friendship. “I’ve always been interested in theater, even when I was very little,” said Welsh. “When you’re in Chapel Hill, you start to meet people interested in the arts. Milly elevated the department of dramatic art to getting recognition across the country.” Welsh and her late husband, George, came to Chapel Hill in 1953 when he accepted a job as a psychology professor. Their generosity also made possible the George and Alice Welsh Acting Studio in the Center for Dramatic Art. • To support distinguished professorships, contact the Arts and Sciences Foundation, 134 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514, (919) 962-0108. Highlights When Jeff Allred, who has triple degrees from Carolina, was once asked what would make him want to give back to his alma mater, his time on the debate team was the first thing that came to mind. Allred, a native of High Point, got an undergraduate degree in political science in 1976 and a joint MBA/law degree in 1980. While on the freshman UNC debate team, Allred and his debate partner Marc Sandman ’77 brought home a national championship to Carolina. Allred later served as debate team president during his senior year, from 1975 to 1976. “The debate team set the foundation for my later life,” said Allred, who has practiced law, held high-level management positions in a global communications services company and today is president of a business consultancy firm in Atlanta. “What debate taught me is an ability to critically listen and think and organize my thoughts and express myself orally. If you can speak, you can write — and that skill set is a fundamental skill set that everybody needs, regardless of what you end up doing with your life. … It’s critical to success in the legal profession and business world, but equally important to other endeavors.” Allred and his wife, Jennifer, have given $1 million to the communication studies department to establish the Jeff and Jennifer Allred Initiative for Critical Thinking and Communication Studies. In collaboration with funding from the College of Arts and Sciences, the department has hired assistant professor Christian O. Lundberg, a young $1 million gift to communication studies funds new initiative in critical thinking By Kim Weaver Spurr ’88 28 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences scholar in rhetorical studies. He will teach courses that emphasize effective oral communication and critical thinking and will serve as a resource to other faculty in the teaching of these skills. Lundberg also is teaching a course this spring on “Globalization and Communication.” He comes to UNC from Northwestern University, where he received a Ph.D. in 2006 in rhetoric and public culture and was a debate coach. Lundberg’s appointment frees up senior scholars to develop and teach three First Year Seminars. And those seminars will be named in honor of Jeff Allred’s mentor and former debate team member, Joseph P. McGuire ’72, who is now a lawyer in Asheville. Allred first met McGuire when he participated in the semi-final round of a state championship debate tournament in high school. McGuire was a judge in the competition and later persuaded Allred to come to Carolina. “Our friendship turned into a mentorship,” Allred said. “I chose Carolina because of the personal investment Joe had in me and the quality of the Carolina debate program, which was one of the best in the country.” Communication studies professor Robert “Robbie” Cox, who was director of the UNC debate team from 1971 to 1975, recalls Allred as “the calm center in the midst of UNC’s nationally ranked debate program.” “Jeff had a sharp intellect and the highest personal integrity and discipline,” Cox said. “One story that has remained with me after 32 years is Jeff’s remarkable leadership on the eve of a national debate tournament, when his debate partner became ill. After working to prepare a more junior member of the debate team throughout the night, Jeff led Carolina through the elimination rounds and won the championship debate against a stronger team.” Allred said the First Year Seminars are a perfect place for the seeds of his gift to take root because they engage students at the beginning of their Carolina experience in making new discoveries as they work alongside their professors in the classroom. Lundberg is developing a new seminar for fall 2007, “Think, Speak and Argue,” that will teach students about formal logic, critical thinking, public speaking and the practices of debate. “These First Year Seminars will become laboratories of learning how to teach critical thinking skills, and then hopefully we’ll be able to export what we learn there to teach teachers how to do this [across the undergraduate curriculum],” Allred said. Dennis Mumby, professor and chair of communication studies, called the Allreds’ gift to communication studies “visionary.” “As a department, one of our most important goals is to provide our students with the critical thinking and communication skills that will help them participate as responsible citizens in an increasingly complex information environment,” Mumby said. “This generous gift takes our department to a new level in its ability to teach those essential skills.” • “If you can speak, you can write — and that skill set is a fundamental skill set that everybody needs, regardless of what you end up doing with your life.” ( ) Jeff Allred and wife, Jennifer, pictured with their family, have given $1 million to communication studies. Highlights Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2007 • 29 New exercise program helps breast cancer patients A new exercise and recreational therapy program is helping women with invasive breast cancer deal with the side effects of cancer treatment. Get REAL (Get Recreation, Get Exercise, Get Active, Get Living) & HEEL is a collaborative effort between the department of exercise and sport science in the College and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. With support from a $42,316 grant from the N.C. Triangle Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the program is being offered free to a limited number of women in a 13-county region. The goal of Get REAL & HEEL is to increase participants’ chances of survival by enhancing the overall quality of their lives. All patients enrolled in the program are working with a personal trainer and a recreational therapist to design an individual exercise and recreational plan to help manage cancer treatment-related symptoms. Get REAL & HEEL is the brainchild of Claudio Battaglini and Diane Groff, assistant professors in the department of exercise and sport science. They say the program is distinctive in its holistic approach to dealing with the side effects of cancer treatment. “We believe this program will complement the strong national history that UNC has in breast cancer research,” said Battaglini, a former international level endurance sports coach. “Breast cancer is the highest incidence of cancer among women. This is a disease that kills people every day.” In the pilot program, Battaglini and Groff will try to determine if exercise and recreational therapy are effective ways to reduce symptoms associated with breast cancer treatment and explore how women respond to these combined therapies. Pain, depression, worry and fatigue are among the most prevalent adverse side effects of cancer treatment. Learn more about the program online at www.unc.edu/depts/exercise/RTB/ index.htm. • Patient Gretchen Hoag with professor Claudio Battaglini. Amazon River once flowed in opposite direction The world’s largest river basin, the Amazon, once flowed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific — opposite its present direction — according to research by UNC geologists. Russell Mapes, a geology graduate student, set out in 2004 to study the speed at which sediment in the Amazon travels from the Andes mountains, in the present headwaters of the river, to the Atlantic. While studying sedimentary rocks in the river basin he discovered something else — ancient mineral grains in the central part of South America that could only have originated in now-eroded mountains in the east. If the Amazon had continuously flowed eastward, as it does now, Mapes and his adviser, geology professor Drew Coleman, would have found much younger mineral grains in the sediments from the Andes. Mapes said these sediments of eastern origin were washed down from a highland area that formed in the Cretaceous Period, between 65 million and 145 million years ago, when the South American and African tectonic plates separated and passed each other. That highland tilted the river’s flow westward, sending sediment as old as 2 billion years toward the center of the continent. A relatively low ridge, called the Purus Arch, which still exists, rose in the middle of the continent, running north and south, dividing the Amazon’s flow — eastward toward the Atlantic and westward toward the Andes. Toward the end of the Cretaceous, the Andes started growing, which sent the river back toward the Purus Arch. Eventually, sediment from the mountains, which contained mineral grains younger than 500 million years old, filled in the basin between the mountains and the arch, the river breeched it and started its current flow. Previous research had identified a reverse flow, but only in segments of the river. Mapes and Coleman illustrated a continent-wide shift of the river’s flow, as they traversed about 80 percent of the Amazon basin. • 30 • Spring 2007 • Carolina Arts & Sciences College Bookshelf C o l l e g e B o o k s h e l f • In the Beginning: Fundamentalism, the Scopes trial and the making of the antievolution movement (UNC Press) by Michael Lienesch. Political scientist Lienesch traces the growth of a movement that has ignited debates in state legislatures and school board meetings across the nation. He begins with early 20th century fundamentalists, provides a fresh examination of the 1925 “monkey trial,” and tracks the rise of creation science in the 1960s, the Christian right in the ’80s and intelligent design today. • Saving Graces (Broadway Books/ Random House) by Elizabeth Edwards ’71 English, ’77 JD. This Carolina alumna is quick to acknowledge that she is not the first mother to lose a teen-age son in a car accident, nor the first woman to be diagnosed with breast cancer. But in this well-written memoir, she may be the first political spouse to speak so frankly about these challenges and about her life on the campaign trail with husband John Edwards ’77 JD, the former U.S. senator now running again for President. Hers is a warmly told story about the importance of community. • Ending Poverty in America (The New Press) edited by John Edwards, Marion Crain and Arne Kalleberg. Edwards ’77 JD, the former trial attorney and U.S. senator, directed UNC’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity until he officially launched his second presidential campaign at the end of last year. The center sponsored a series of symposia and policy research projects, and assembled this collection of writings by experts addressing poverty in our time. Co-editors are Crain, the Paul Eaton Professor of Law and new director of the Center, and Kalleberg, professor of sociology and senior associate dean for social sciences in the College. • The Mismatched Worker (W.W. Norton & Co.) by Arne L. Kalleberg. An expert on labor and workplace changes, Kalleberg examines how and why modern jobs often fail to match the skills and/or needs o |
OCLC number | 65216324 |
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