The Warren Alpert Medical School has a new home. The Corporation voted to renovate a 65,000 square-foot building it owns at 222 Richmond St. to serve as the school’s new headquarters. The building is in the Jewelry District, which the city is nurturing as a center for new life sciences and high-technology jobs.

Chancellor Thomas J. Tisch has informed members of the Corporation that Boldly Brown: The Campaign for Academic Enrichment has reached its overall goal of $1.4 billion. Campaign fund-raising efforts will continue through Dec. 31, 2010, to meet goals for individual priorities, including student financial aid and endowed faculty positions.

Rain, thunder and the threat of lightning did not stop the awarding of 2,157 degrees May 24 at the University’s 241st Commencement, with President Ruth J. Simmons presiding. Senior orators Noor Najeeb and Juliana Thorstenn spoke of seeking justice and believing in possibility. Simmons told the seniors, “I think your hearts are the biggest and bravest of any previous generation at Brown.”

Shane Reil and Eliana Reyes Castro both graduated May 24 with enormous gratitude towards a man they never met. Reil and Reyes Castro are among the first group of 49 Sidney Frank scholars, whose education was funded by liquor magnate Sidney Frank’s gift of $100 million in 2004. The Web version of the story is accompanied by an audio slide show that also features Frank’s daughter, Cathy Halstead.

Norman Boucher, editor and publisher of the Brown Alumni Magazine, reflects on the significance of the first graduating class of Sidney Frank scholars in an AC 360 blog piece. Frank attended Brown for one year only, but his $100-million gift is enabling many students to get a Brown education, while the University benefits from their talents.

The University and computing giant IBM have signed an agreement that will start a two-year pilot program to bring a new generation of high-performance computing to Brown and to Rhode Island. The arrangement should greatly enhance statewide research and collaboration, capitalize on interdisciplinary work, and increase funding opportunities for major research initiatives.

A ceremonial groundbreaking for the University’s new Creative Arts Center on Angell St. was held May 22. Designed by the internationally renowned architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, known for its work on the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Creative Arts Center will advance and facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration between and among the arts, sciences, and humanities at Brown and beyond.

There’s an inexpensive way to help low-income, ethnically diverse people eat better: Send personalized nutrition education materials through the mail. Kim Gans, co-director of the Institute for Community Health Promotion, is the lead author of the Your Healthy Life/Su Vida Saludable which informs a health outreach that is being expanded throughout Rhode Island.

Mark Brady, who received both his M.D. and Master of Medical Science May 24, has had extensive international on-the-job training. Brady, who has worked in clinics and hospitals in Cambodia, South Africa, Peru and Bolivia, said, “ I realized I could make a disproportionate impact working overseas.”