Robert Baker, professor of philosophy, was the keynote speaker for a lecture series titled “Making Choices: The History of Conflict in Medical Ethics” this month at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City. His lecture, “Myth and
History in Medical Ethics: From the Hippocratic Oath to Doctor Kevorkian's Suicide Machines,” related to work that was recently published in a volume Baker edited for Kluwer's Philosophy and Medicine series, Anglo-American Medical Ethics and Medical Jurisprudence in the Nineteenth Century (Vol. II of the Codification of Medical Morality). Also, the Center for Bioethics of the University of Pennsylvania has appointed
Baker as a fellow for 1996, to support his research on the history of medical ethics.
Richard Wilk, associate professor of mechanical engineering, has three recent publications: “The Oxidation of n-Butane: Transition in the Mechanism Across the
Region of Negative Temperature Coefficient” in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research; “Preflame Oxidation Characteristics of Methanol” (with
K. Aniolek) in Energy and Fuels; and “Modeling the Solar Irradiation on Flat Plate Collectors Augmented with Planar Reflectors” (with J. Bollentin) in Solar
Energy — The Journal of the International Solar Energy Society.
Karen Brison and Steven Leavitt, assistant professors of anthropology, co-edited a special issue of the journal Ethos (Dec. 1995). The issue is a collection
of papers on mourning in various cultures called “Coping With Bereavement: Long-Term Perspectives on Grief and Mourning.” Each wrote papers in the collection; they wrote
the introduction together.
Brenda Wineapple, Washington Irving Professor of Modern Literary and Historical Studies, has written the introduction accompanying Appreciation: Painting, Poetry and
Prose by Leo Stein, reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press. First published in 1947 to widespread critical acclaim, Appreciation — Stein's estimate of why art matters — was reprinted at Wineapple's urging. Publication of Wineapple's dual biography on Gertrude and Leo Stein is expected this spring.