Awards, Honors, and Appointments

Geological Society Honors Forsyth

For more than thirty years, most of them at Brown, Donald Forsyth (below) has used the tools of seismology and gravity to see and understand the invisible planet - undersea mountains and volcanoes, and layers of rock deep inside the Earth. The work has taken him on more than a dozen research cruises - from the frigid waters of Baffin Bay near Greenland to the warm blue of the South Pacific to the waters off Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay.

Along the way, the professor of geological sciences has done more than any other researcher to explain the oceanic lithosphere, the outermost layer of the Earth's crust hidden under the sea. So, last month, the Geological Society of America awarded Forsyth a major honor - the Arthur L. Day Medal - in Salt Lake City at its annual meeting.

The Day Medal is awarded for outstanding work in applying physics or chemistry to solve geologic problems. By measuring the speed of seismic waves as they travel through rock, Forsyth's work has shed light on how the lithosphere - Earth's rigid "skin" - is formed and changes over time. This information is important: Roughly seventy percent of the planet's surface is covered by ocean.

The former Guggenheim fellow, however, has not confined his curiosity to the underwater world. He invented the "spectral coherence method," which gauges the strength of the lithosphere in continental regions. That innovation helps make Forsyth one of Brown's most frequently cited scientists.

Forsyth led the 1995 Mantle Electromagnetic and Tomography, or MELT, Experiment, which employed fifty-one ocean-bottom seismometers and thirty magnetotelluric receivers to measure sound waves and magnetic fields along the East Pacific Rise, a vast volcanic mountain range. It was one of the largest marine geophysical experiments ever conducted. He is chief scientist of the Gravity Lineations, Intraplate Melting, Petrology and Seismology Expedition, or GLIMPSE project, which is exploring the origin of Pacific volcanic ridges.

Forsyth said winning the Day Medal is a special honor because his Ph.D. advisor and mentor, Frank Press, won it in 1972. Press is a former president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and served as science advisor to President Jimmy Carter. "To be acknowledged in his league," Forsyth says, "is pretty cool." - Wendy Y. Lawton

Vince Tompkins '85 (left) has joined the Office of the Provost as deputy provost.

Tompkins works closely with Provost Robert J. Zimmer to establish and implement the priorities of the office, and to coordinate a variety of activities.

In e-mail sent to the Brown community, Zimmer said that Tompkins serves as his deputy "on a broad spectrum of activities including working with me on overseeing various academic centers and activities reporting to our office, as well as certain administrative units such as the Office of Institutional Research and the Registrar. He will work closely with the Office of the President as well as cabinet-level officers in coordinating the activity of the provost's office with these offices, and will play a key role in the provost's office as the coming campaign unfolds."

Tompkins previously was associate dean for academic affairs of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.

Terrie "Fox" Wetle (left), professor of community health and associate dean of medicine for public health and public policy, has been named a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging in December. The mission of the conference, which occurs once a decade, is to develop recommendations for additional research and action in the field of aging. The 1995 conference concentrated on reaffirming support for existing programs, especially those constituting the social safety net for older Americans.

John M. Deeley is the new executive dean for administration at Brown Medical School and the Division of Biology and Medicine.

Deeley, who arrived at Brown on October 1, serves as chief operating and financial officer for the division, managing "the important processes through which resources are analyzed, developed, and allocated in support of our educational and research programs," according to e-mail from Eli Adashi, dean of medicine and biological sciences. "In particular," Adashi wrote, Deeley directs "the offices responsible for financial services, research administration, facilities and space management, computing and information technology services, and human resources."

Deeley comes to Brown from the New York University School of Medicine, where he was vice dean for administration.

Emily Kanstroom '05, an international relations graduate, has received the Forum on Education Abroad Award for her thesis research on the question of a military justification of torture and international humanitarian law.

The Forum on Education Abroad, an organization devoted to research, standards, and advocacy for international education, honored Kanstroom and Heather Craig of Wesleyan University for the exemplary research projects performed in their host countries.

Kanstroom did her research while studying in Paris. She compared the circumstances of the French-Algerian war to that of the United States' "War on Terror," and how each justified and made accounts for uses of torture.

The winners have been invited to present their work at the organization's annual conference in November.

Harold D. Roth, professor of religious studies and East Asian studies, is the recipient of a curriculum development grant that he will use toward developing a concentration in contemplative studies at Brown. The grant was provided by the Contemplative Practice Fellowship Program, a collaboration of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and the American Council of Learned Societies, with funding from the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Fetzer Institute.

Among other things, the grant will go toward a Contemplative Studies Lecture Series that is expected to include neuroscientists and psychologists who are working on the study of contemplative states of mind and their applications in medical and other fields. Roth has a long-standing interest in the study of contemplative practices in diverse religious traditions, especially those of China and India.

Professor of Anthropology William O. Beeman has been named president-elect of the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association. Beeman will serve in this capacity until the autumn of 2006, when he will become president, serving until 2008.

Sidney Goldstein, G.H. Crooker University Professor emeritus and professor emeritus of sociology, received the 2005 Laureate Award from the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP).

Goldstein is an international expert on problems of urbanization and population movement, especially in developing countries. The award is given annually to a population scientist who demonstrates outstanding contributions to the advancement of the field of population sciences and distinguished service to the IUSSP and the profession. The IUSSP, headquartered in Paris, promotes scientific studies of demography and population-related issues.

Goldstein served on the faculty of the Department of Sociology for forty-seven years, beginning in 1955, and as director of Brown's Population Studies and Training Center for twenty-five years, after its inception in 1965.

Georgetown University and Southern University at New Orleans students Tanisha Douglas and Rachel Williams are the inaugural recipients of Campus Compact's Frank Newman Leadership Award. The awards were presented at the Education Commission of the States' National Forum in Denver.

Newman, co-founder of Campus Compact, was the director of The Futures Project at Brown University until his death on May 29, 2004. Campus Compact and the Newman family established the award in memory of Newman, who exemplified a life of public service and educational leadership. The award is designed to support and recognize students with financial need who have demonstrated civic leadership through service and scholastic achievement.

Biology Professor James Simmons has received the Silver Medal in Animal Bioacoustics from the Acoustical Society of America. The award is presented in recognition of individuals' contributions to the advancement of science, engineering, or human welfare through the application of acoustic principles or through research accomplishments in acoustics.

The College Hill Independent, a joint Brown/RISD weekly publication, received top honors in the Independent Press Association's Annual Campus Independent Journalism Awards.

The newspaper was named Best Independent Campus Publication of the Year in the category for groups with a budget exceeding $10,000 per year. In the category of individual articles, the College Hill Independent took an investigative reporting award for Sarah Goldstein's "No Place Like It" (April 7, 2005), a look at the homeless population and housing crisis in Providence.

Vince Mor, chairman of the Department of Community Health, has been appointed executive director of the National Commission for Quality Long-term Care. The commission is an independent body created and run by the National Quality Forum, a private, not-for-profit healthcare quality improvement organization based in Washington.

The commission is charged with recommending a national policy agenda for improving nursing homes and other long-term care for older adults. The commission is co-chaired by former Sen. Bob Kerrey and former Speaker Newt Gingrich. The group aims to put out its first report in December.

The worksite health programs offered by the University's Benefits Office and the Health Promotion Committee received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Rhode Island Chamber of Business and Industry and the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. The Health Promotion Committee works in collaboration with the Good Health Benefit at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island to coordinate special programs designed to promote health awareness and encourage positive health behaviors among Brown employees.