People News, August 2018 vol 2

Smith College has been awarded $13,000 from the Calderwood Charitable Foundation for the college’s first “Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing.” The grant will support writing-intensive courses starting next spring that will engage students across disciplines and train them to write for a broad public audience.

The Smith College Museum of Art was awarded a $2,500 grant from the Highland Street Foundation for a “Free Fun Friday” event on August 24. The SCMA was one of 100 Massachusetts cultural institutions that partnered with the foundation to offer free admission on Fridays throughout the summer.

Ginny Svec ’20 interned this summer at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology’s Community Education Program. A geological sciences major, Svec says the internship allowed her to explore “the layout and history of the island, as well as the biota present in Hawaii and the research being performed at HIMB.”

Patricia Cahn, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics, has been awarded a $122,271 two-year grant from the National Science Foundation for “Collaborative Research/RUI/CDS&E Data-Driven Methods In Classical Knot Theory.”

Sara Pruss, associate professor of geosciences, is the recipient of a prestigious James Lee Wilson Award from the Society for Sedimentary Geology. The award is given to someone “who has achieved a significant record of research accomplishments in sedimentary geology.”

Professor of Engineering Glenn Ellis and Professor of Education and Child Study Al Rudnitsky have been awarded a $1.39 million grant from the National Science Foundation for “Collaborative Research: Design and Development of Transmedia Narrative-Based Curricula to Engage Children in Next Generation Science Standards and Engineering Design.” The Smith professors will train teachers and work with students in the Springfield, Mass., public schools. Springfield Technical Community College is also partnering on the project.

Research by Assistant Professor Camille Washington-Ottombre and Siiri Bigalke ’16, “An aggregated and dynamic analysis of innovations in campus sustainability,” is a finalist in the published research on planning and administration category of the 2018 Sustainability Awards given by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). Breanna Parker ’18 is a finalist in AASHE’s undergraduate awards category for her honors thesis, “Designing a Proxy Carbon Pricing Strategy for Smith College.” The winners will be announced September 10.

Danielle Ignace, assistant professor of biological sciences, Jesse Bellemare, associate professor of biological sciences, and Aliza Fassler ’17 have published “Decline of a foundation tree species due to invasive insects will trigger net release of soil organic carbon” in a recent issue of Ecosphere. The paper is the culmination of five years of research at Smith’s MacLeish Field Station.

Professor of Theatre Daniel Kramer spoke recently on “Using Theater to Extend Community and Deepen Empathy” at Congregation Ahavath Sholom in Great Barrington, Mass. Kramer is artistic director of Chester Theatre Company.

Elizabeth Myers, director of special collections at Smith, was a featured storyteller for “A Finding Aid to My Soul: An Archivist Storytelling Event,” sponsored in August by the Society of American Archivists’ Committee on Public Awareness. Myers told “a tragic love story set amongst the Communist Party and World War II.”

Three recent alumnae have been awarded highly competitive scholarships by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for international study: Krista Smathers ’18 (art: architecture and urbanism); Isabella Casini ’17 (engineering); and Monica Wilson ’17(biological sciences and German studies).

Ariana Quinones ’16 participated in the PowHERful 2018 Enrichment Conference held in July in New York City for young women aged 14-23. Quinones, a coordinator for the BOLD Women’s Leadership Network at Rutgers University, earned a degree in English language and literature from Smith.

Grace McKay-Corkum ’14 has been named one of 37 Medical Research Scholars by the National Institutes of Health and will spend the next year doing biomedical research at NIH headquarters in Bethesda, Md. Now a third-year student at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine, McKay-Corkum earned a degree in neuroscience from Smith and did research at the NIH while an undergraduate.

Caitlin Pemble ’07 has been named to the Berkshire Museum’s board of trustees. Pemble, who earned a degree in sociology from Smith and an M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is director of agency talent acquisition and development initiatives for Guardian Life Insurance.

Wendy Bolger ’91 is the inaugural director of Loyola University Maryland’s Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Bolger—who majored in comparative literature at Smith and earned an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia Darden Graduate School of Business—previously held corporate marketing positions with Mercy Corps, Global Envision and Intel.

Danielle Pletka ’84 is co-author of “Partnership in Peril: The Populist Assault on the Transatlantic Community,” published by the Center for American Progress. Pletka, who is senior vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, majored in history at Smith.

Susan Hall ’80, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, helped discover finchite, a new uranium mineral species found near Sulphur Springs Draw in Texas. “Not only did we get to discover a new species of mineral, but we also had the opportunity to honor a friend and celebrated colleague,” Hall said, of the species named for the late USGS scientist Warren Finch. Hall, who majored in geology at Smith, earned a Ph.D. in geological science from Harvard University.

Silkscreen posters created by Lisbeth Bornhofft ’74 for the annual Sea Fair in Gloucester, Mass., are on view at the Annisquam Historical Society this summer. Bornhofft, who majored in art at Smith, earned a master’s degree in education, crafts and folk art from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Nancy Weiss Malkiel ’65, a former dean and professor of history emeritus at Princeton University, has been named the 2018 recipient of the Phi Beta Kappa Society’s Sidney Hook Memorial Award for national distinction in scholarship, undergraduate teaching and leadership in the liberal arts. Malkiel, who majored in history at Smith, earned a master of arts degree and a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. She will deliver a Presidential Colloquium at Smith on Wednesday, Sept. 26.