Commencement 2001

Faculty, trustee and students to receive Commencement honors

Faculty members, a former University chancellor, graduate students and undergraduate students have been selected to receive special honors during Commencement ceremonies on Monday, May 28, 2001.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The following honors will be among those presented during Brown University’s 233^rd Commencement exercises Monday, May 28, 2001.

Barrett Hazeltine Citations

For the last 27 years, Brown’s graduating seniors have chosen members of the faculty or administration to receive these citations as an expression of their respect and appreciation for the support, guidance and teaching they received. Originally called Senior Citations, the awards were renamed the Barrett Hazeltine Citations in 1985 in tribute to the engineering professor who received the honor 13 times from graduating classes. The Class of 2001 has selected:

Harold Ward, the Lindemann Professor of Environmental Studies and professor of chemistry. Founder and director of the University’s Center for Environmental Studies, Ward is considered a passionate advocate for a clean and healthy environment, as well as one of the area’s leading experts on the chemistry of pollution and pollution laws. His citation reads, in part:

Whether it is assessing exposure to lead paint in old Providence houses or industrial pollutants in local rivers, you and your students are on the scene. Your faith in the ability of even the least experienced of us to research complex environmental questions and make a real contribution to the region’s quality of life is one of the greatest gifts you have given us. We thank you, Professor Ward, for showing us how to see beyond the ivory tower and put our knowledge to work for others. You are a dedicated teacher and an inspiring mentor.

James Morone, professor of political science. More than 400 students take his course on city politics each year, flocking to his classes for his “stunningly manic lectures and wealth of personal anecdotes that make theory come alive,” with lessons from Tammany Hall to modern-day Providence. Students credit him with providing them with “intellectual skills [that] will serve us well all our lives, no matter where we live and vote.” His citation reads, in part:

Afire with an insatiable desire to learn and teach, you light fires under us and help us to be our best – in class, on campus, downtown and downcity. For all of that, we extend our deepest gratitude and sincerest admiration.

Brown Medical School Senior Citation

Edward Feller, M.D., clinical professor of medicine at the Miriam Hospital, will for the second time receive the most prestigious award presented during the Medical School Convocation. The school’s graduating class chose Feller to receive the Medical Senior Citation, writing, “As our mentor in the truest sense, you have created an unending legacy of inspired students who will continue to pass down the tradition of compassionate medicine.”

Feller was previously honored during the 1999 Medical School commencement.

Wilson-Deblois Award

This award, given in recognition of outstanding contributions to the Graduate School, will be presented to University Trustee and former Chancellor Artemis Joukowsky ’55 in gratitude for his “hard work and magnificent generosity on behalf of graduate education at Brown.” The award was named for the recipients of the first two doctoral degrees given by Brown in 1889.

Joukowsky Family Foundation Outstanding Dissertation Award

This award recognizes doctoral students for the outstanding research work presented in their dissertations. Finalists were nominated by academic departments, and winners were selected by faculty members of the University Research Council. The following students will each receive a $2,000 honorarium and a certificate:

• Christine Kearney, political science: “The Comparative Influence of Neoliberal Ideas: Economic Culture and Stabilization in Brazil”



• Aibing Li, geological sciences: “Crust and Mantle Discontinuities, Shear Wave Velocity Structure, and Azimuthal Anistotropy Beneath North America”



• Becky Schweighardt, biology: “HIV-1 Infection in Human Astrocytes: An Investigation of Viral Tropism and the CD4-Independent Mechanism of Viral Entry”



• Aaron Stalnaker, religious studies: “Overcoming Our Evil: Spiritual Exercises and Personhood in Xunzi and Augustine”

Several students were also selected for honorable mention in this category, including William Gilders, religious studies; Marie-Chantal Killeen, French studies; David Landsberger, psychology; Daphnée Rentfrow, comparative literature; Brian Roark, cognitive and linguistic sciences; Ji Shi, applied mathematics; and Adriana Zavala, history of art and architecture.

President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching

Four of approximately 500 graduate students who serve as teaching assistants have been chosen by a faculty committee to be honored for excellence in teaching. They will each be presented with a $2,500 honorarium during the Graduate School Commencement ceremony at 9:15 a.m. at Lincoln Field. The recipients are:

• Mark Bayfield, biology and medicine, of Barre, Ontario.



• Vanya Dukic, applied mathematics, of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.



• Domingo Ledezma, Hispanic studies, of Magdaleno, Venezuela.



• Susanne Wiedemann, American Civilization, of Eltville, Germany.