Michael D. Kennedy has been appointed director of the Watson Institute for International Studies. Currently director of the University of Michigan’s Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia and its Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies, Kennedy will begin his new duties at the Watson Institute in July 2009.

Brown professors Carle Pieters and Peter Schultz reminisce about the Apollo program on the eve of the 40th anniversary of America’s first landing of humans on the moon. The anniversary is being marked at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. Pieters and Schultz have been studying the moon for decades.

The results of India’s massive, month-long elections are in and Ashutosh Varshney, professor of political science, applauds the outcome. “These elections redeem an inclusive view of India. The results also promise political stability and create space for serious security and economic policy initiatives. It is hard to imagine a more benign outcome for the country, South Asia and world affairs.”

President Ruth J. Simmons delivered the keynote address at a conference at Princeton titled “The Changing Role and Influence of Women of Color in Society.” Simmons told the audience that it took some time for her to realize that her own life experience had value to others in higher education.

Faculty and students at Brown and RISD have teamed up to build a car of the future for urban areas. The vehicle, designed in part by senior lecturer and senior research engineer Chris Bull and his class, has a seven-horsepower biodiesel engine and potentially can go 100 miles on one gallon of fuel. The story was accompanied by a video featuring the car.

President Obama is pushing the healthcare industry hard for reform, and James Morone, professor of political science, says his timing is on target. “Obama gets the importance of speed,” Morone says, and points out that one of his predecessors waited too long. “(President) Clinton didn’t realize that after about nine months, his election was going to lose its luster.”