Brown's newest Rhodes Scholar

Keriann Backus '07 (left) is among the 32 American college and university students selected this year as a Rhodes Scholar. The prestigious award supports two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. She is the fourth Brown student to be named a Rhodes Scholar in five years.

A Seattle native, Backus is concentrating in chemistry and Latin American studies. At Oxford, she plans to pursue a doctorate in chemical biology and establish herself at the cutting edge of scientific research of global health problems.

"Keri is a rare individual exhibiting both the strong intellectual independence of a lifelong scholar and the compassion and drive of a devoted advocate for the disadvantaged," said Linda Dunleavy, associate dean of the College. "Keri is determined to unite her twin passions, chemistry and health policy in the developing world, to combat infectious disease in both the scientific and social arenas."

Backus repeatedly has been recognized for her special aptitude in organic chemistry. She received the Merck Prize for the highest scoring student in organic chemistry and was awarded the University's Pfizer Fellowship in Organic Chemistry as a sophomore. Backus spent seven years of her childhood sailing around the world, later raised guide dogs for the blind, and rode her bicycle across the United States to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. She is a bassoonist, a distance runner, and teaches science to underserved populations in the Providence public school system.

Tag! They're it!

At the recent International Genetically Engineered Machine competition held at MIT, a team of Brown students (left) received honorable mention for inventing a bacterial version of "Freeze Tag."

The competition is designed to test the hypothesis: Can simple biological systems be built from standard interchangeable parts and operated in living cells? It challenges students to implement a machine capable of performing an engineering task.

The Brown team included graduate and undergraduate students led by graduate student John Cumbers. Together, they engineered bacteria to swim around a microfluidics device. If these bacteria got too close to the cell that was "it," the bacteria would stop moving and would turn color - from green to blue. If another bacterium (but not "it,") neared the "frozen" bacteria, the "frozen" particle regained mobility and turned from blue to yellow. Fluorescent proteins were the keys to the color changes.

The challenge brought to bear the Brown team's expertise in biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics, neuroscience and physics.

The team members were undergraduates Annie Gao, Peter Goldstein, Brendan Hickey, Azeem Kaka, Victoria Lattanzi, Jamie Lemon, Jason Lohmueller, Megan Schmidt, and L.K. Tam; Cumber was joined by fellow graduate students James Gagnon, Ana Jaklenec, Sheldon Provost and Hayato Urabe. Twenty Brown faculty provided their support.

New director of Brown Bookstore

Manuel R. Cunard will become the new director of the Brown Bookstore beginning November 29, succeeding Larry Carr.

Cunard comes to Brown from Wesleylan University, where he was director of auxiliary operations and campus services. While there, he designed and opened a new campus bookstore, and assisted in the design and management concept development for the new University Center.

Before working at Wesleyan, Cunard was executive director of the National Association of College Auxiliary Services. He also has worked at Wake Forest University as associate dean of men, served as director of the Joseph A. Danna Center at Loyola University in New Orleans, and was director of the Charles A. Lory Student Center at Colorado State University. Cunard has the unique distinction of having received the Administrator of the Year Award at Wake Forest and the Outstanding Administrator Award at Colorado State.