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Newsbriefs
Science
Grant: Smith's plans to develop a new Center for Molecular
Biosciences got a boost in May with a four-year $1.3 million grant from
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to support the sciences. According
to Thomas Litwin, director of the Smith Science Center, the Hughes grant
will fund "creating a space that brings people together in an interdisciplinary
forum." The award will also support outreach to high school students
and teachers through the Summer Science and Engineering Program
for girls and the Summer Institute for teachers.
New Institutional
Diversity Director: Professor Naomi Miller is Smith's
new director of institutional diversity and assistant to the president.
Before this appointment, Miller was a professor of English literature
and women's studies at the University of Arizona. She was selected
in 2003-04 by the American Council on Education for a fellowship
that enabled her to conduct two major studies at Princeton
University: one on the challenges facing diverse students
at Princeton and the other on the challenges faced by women faculty and
graduate students in science and engineering. She assumed her Smith position
in September.
High Honors: Smith President Carol T. Christ
has been elected as a fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
She is among 178 new fellows and 24 new foreign honorary members who
were awarded the prestigious academy membership -- all world-renowned leaders in scholarship,
business, the arts and public affairs. An annual induction ceremony will
be held in October at the academy's headquarters in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
New College Relations Chief: Laurie Fenlason,
former director of media relations, has taken the helm in
the Office of College Relations after being appointed as
Smith's executive
director of public affairs and special assistant to the president
on July 1. Before coming to Smith six years ago, she was
the executive director of college relations at Hobart and William Smith
Colleges in Geneva, New York. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, Fenlason
succeeds Ann Shanahan, who retired in June.
Scholarly Contributions: Howard
Nenner, Roe/Straut Professor in the Humanities, was quite
busy this year serving as associate editor of the Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography, which is a collection of 50,000 biographies of people
who have influenced British history and society. The 2004 edition will
be published in October. As associate editor, Nenner, a historian, was
responsible for a block of 160 biographies on lawyers, judges and others
influential in law from the original dictionary. He wrote two articles
for the tome, one on Orlando Bridgeman and one on "The
Regicides." Frank Ellis, Mary Augusta Jordan Professor Emeritus
of English, also contributed to the dictionary with articles
on John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester; Robert Parsons;
and Sir Fleetwood Sheppard, courtier, wit and poet.
Chapter of the Year: The Smith College Democrats were awarded Chapter of the Year
during this summer's College Democrats of America Convention
in Boston. The award denotes the most successful and hard-working
college Democrats in the country. This is the first time
that a small liberal arts college has received the award.
Retirement Kudos: Former Chief Public Affairs Officer Ann Shanahan '59,
who retired in June after 19 years of work in public and media relations
at Smith, was awarded the John M. Greene Award, which is bestowed upon
individuals who have rendered service to the college beyond the call
of duty and who personify the Smith motto, "To virtue, knowledge," in
their service and in their lives. The award, given since
1980, was named for John Morton Greene, pastor and adviser to Sophia
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