Oxford Bound: Two Seniors Receive Major Fellowships

Two members of the Class of 2006 are heading to the University of Oxford next fall as the University's latest recipients of Rhodes and Marshall scholarships.

Rhodes scholar Sasha-Mae Eccleston, who is concentrating in classics and literary arts, plans to pursue her M.Phil - the British equivalent of a master's degree - in classics. Marshall scholar Jessica Ashooh will study for her M.Phil in international relations, her area of concentration at Brown.

"This is a wonderful outcome after an exciting fall fellowship season working with several exceptionally strong candidates from Brown," said Associate Dean Linda Dunleavy, who leads the Dean of the College's fellowships office. "We are particularly pleased to have had five finalists for the Rhodes this year."

Olivia Rissland '04, who is completing her D.Phil in biology at Oxford, was the most recent Brown Rhodes scholar; Kingston Reif '05 and Ryan Roark '05 are entering their second years as Marshall scholars at London School of Economics and Cambridge respectively.

Eccleston, who studied Latin in high school, knew when she entered Brown that she wanted to concentrate in classical studies and is eager to continue her study of Greek and Latin at Oxford, the oldest English-speaking university in the world. She has taken to heart advice given to her by Classics Professor Michael Putnam: "'You do best what you love best.' That advice has kept me being productive and happy," Eccleston said.

Outside of the classroom, Eccleston worked as an editorial assistant at Random House last summer, co-founded a discussion group that connects black undergraduates from across the Ivy League, and interned at WBRU. Although a self-described type-A person who likes to plan, Eccleston says she took advantage of the many opportunities that crossed her path while at Brown. "I don't want to live with any regret about the road not taken," she said.

Ashooh is eying a career in U.S.-Middle Eastern relations and, while at Oxford, looks forward to conducting research at the Centre for Lebanese Studies, an independent academic institution in London. Ashooh studied Arabic in Tunisia and spent her junior year at the American University of Beirut. In high school, she was deeply involved in the Model U.N. Program. She also has held several significant research internships, including one last summer at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C.

When not in class, Ashooh plays the cello with the Brown University Orchestra and participates in triathlons.

The Undergraduate Council of Students' annual Awards for Excellence in Teaching were presented to (clockwise from top left) Fred Jackson, Barrett Hazeltine, John Stein, and Ruth Adler Ben Yehuda at a celebratory dinner held December 8.

The awards honor faculty who "epitomize excellence in Brown teaching, emphasize learning for its own sake, display outstanding ability to communicate with students, and possess a passion and depth of knowledge of their field and the ability to impart those to students."

Last semester, undergraduates nominated eighty-nine faculty members in two categories: lecture leader and seminar leader. The names of the leading nominees were placed on a ballot, and students cast their votes online.

Stein, a lecturer in the Department of Neuroscience, and Hazeltine, professor emeritus in the Division of Engineering, won as lecture leaders. Ben Yehuda, senior lecturer in the Program in Judaic Studies, and Jackson, the greenhouse manager affiliated with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, won as seminar leaders.

Fifteen individuals and five teams received Excellence Awards during the January 20 Brown Employee Appreciation and Recognition Day celebration, a University event held to thank staff for their years of service and performance excellence on the job.

Excellence Awards are presented in six categories:

• Excellence Award Winners for Citizenship - Brian Corkum, Engineering; Christopher Harwood, Environmental Health and Safety
• Excellence Award Winners for Diversity - Maritza Marti, Institutional Diversity; Giovanna Roz Gastaldi, Computing and Information Services
• Excellence Award Winners for Efficiency - Jennifer Hodshon, Cynthia Capra, Lisa Turner, Barbara Miller, Monica Kunkel and Deborah Nagle, Health Services; Paula Penelton, Facilities Management; Tammie Ruda, Advancement
• Excellence Award Winners for Innovation - Angel Hilliard, Human Resources; Rosario Navarro and Jackie Newcomb, Residential Life; Martin Porter, Advancement; Tim Thorp and Michael Cohen, Computing and Information Services
• Excellence Award Winners for Rising Star - Wendy Lawton, Public Affairs and University Relations/Media Relations; Stacey Pulmano and Amy Martin Webster, Bio-Med Admissions/Financial Aid; Bethany Solomon, Bio-Med Advancement
• Excellence Award Winners for Service - Elizabeth Barboza, Pembroke Center; Sharon Champagne, Dining Services; Cherrie DeAngelis, Facilities Management; Kelly Duffy and Paul Langhammer, Financial Aid; Deb Lister, Facilities Management; Debra Scaramuzzi, Purchasing

Brown faculty members Ruth Colwill, Michael Tarr, and William Warren were recently elected Fellows of the Association for Psychological Science (APS). Fellow status is awarded to APS members who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service, and/or application. Colwill is an associate professor of psychology, and Tarr and Warren are professors of cognitive and linguistic sciences.

Xinsheng "Sean" Ling, professor of physics, is now a Fellow in the American Physical Society. He was elected to a fellowship in the society "for his important contributions to the study of the peak effect and the order-disorder phase transition in vortex matter, and his original contributions to colloid physics and nanoscience." No more than one half of one percent of the membership may be elected to a fellowship.

Earlier this winter, Professor Ulf Grenander of the Division of Applied Mathematics was made Doctor of Technology, honoris causa, at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The degree, presented in November, was awarded in recognition of Grenander's development of pattern theory and its application to medical imaging. Grenander is the L. Herbert Ballou University Professor Emeritus.

Professor Anne Fausto-Sterling (left), is the recipient of the Margaret Brent Award, given annually by St. Mary's College of Maryland to "a woman of talent and spirit who best exemplifies the courage and determination of Margaret Brent." (In 1648, Brent, a landholder, asked the all-male Maryland General Assembly for the right to legislative representation.) Past recipients of the award include Toni Morrison, Barbara Mikulski, Betty Friedan, and Judy Woodruff.

As the winner of the award, Fausto-Sterling, professor of biology and gender studies in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Biochemistry, delivered the annual Margaret Brent Lecture. Her November 10 address was titled "Beyond Nature vs. Nurture: New Ways to Think about Sex, Gender, and the Body."

The ArtsLiteracy Project at Brown is one of seventeen youth arts and humanities programs to receive the 2005 Coming Up Taller Award. The program, which aims to explore and create innovative approaches to arts and literacy education, was awarded $10,000 for its achievements during a White House ceremony on January 25. More than 250 nominations were received for the 2005 Coming Up Taller Awards, which recognize and support exemplary arts and humanities programs.

Unplayed Melodies, a book by Associate Professor of Music Marc Perlman (left), has received four honors.

The book, which examines Javanese Gamelan (a percussion-dominated musical ensemble) and the genesis of music theory received the Deems Taylor Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers; the Lewis Lockwood Award from the American Musicological Society; the Wallace Berry Award from the Society for Music Theory; and the Alan Merriam Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology.

Edward L. Widmer will join the John Carter Brown Library as its new director and librarian beginning in July 1.

It is the first change in the library's leadership in 23 years. Widmer succeeds Norman Fiering, who retired.

Currently the director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and associate professor of history at Washington College, Widmer received a fellowship at the John Carter Brown Library in 1994. "I'm excited to work with this enormously prestigious academic institution and to connect with the incredible vitality of Brown University," Widmer said. "I want to keep everything thatÕs great about the John Carter Brown library alive, but also adapt ourselves to the 21st century and always-changing conditions."

Widmer previously was special assistant to President Bill Clinton for national security affairs, writing foreign policy speeches, and later advised Clinton on history and scholarship-related issues. Until 2004, Widmer conducted extensive interviews with Clinton while the former president drafted an autobiography.

In January, the library was named the 2006 Institutional Laureate in recognition of its leadership "in collecting, preserving, and promoting the printing history of the colonial Americas, North and South." The award is presented by The American Printing History Association.

Susan Cu-Uvin, M.D., associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and medicine director of Miriam Hospital's Immunology Center, has received the Constance B. Wofsy Women's Health Investigator Award. The honor, presented by the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, the largest HIV clinical trials organization in the world, recognizes investigators who have made significant contributions to research in HIV-infected women and who embody qualities exemplified by Wofsy.

Over the past decade, the Brown Alumni Association's House Committee has overseen a major refurbishing and restoration of the first floor of the historic Maddock Alumni Center. On December 8, the Providence Preservation Society recognized this work with its "Material Conservation/Institutional" award.

The restoration of the historic Goddard-Iselin House for use as the Maddock Alumni Center was recognized by the Providence Preservation Society in 1977 as a model of how to sympathetically "recycle" a landmark building. This second award recognizes Brown's ongoing stewardship of this structure.