Robert Baker, professor of philosophy, was a guest on Fresh
Air with host Terry Gross for a discussion on medical ethics, the challenge of managed
care and the role of alternative medicines. He was joined by Art Caplan of the Center for
Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania (where Baker is visiting scholar). The two
were interviewed as co-organizers of an American Medical Association conference
celebrating the sesquicentennial of the 1847 Code of Ethics, the first to be adopted by a
national medical society. Fresh Air is broadcast nationally over a number of public
radio stations.
Chemistry major Lamyaa Hassib '98 under the direction of Prof.
James C. Adrian Jr., assistant professor of chemistry, has been named a winner of both
a GlaxoWellcome Summer Fellowship and a Pfizer Summer Fellowship to conduct research this
Summer in the chemistry department. The title of their winning project is: “Catalytic
Enantioselective Addition of Silyl Enolates to Imines with Chiral, C2-Symmetric
2,6-Diiminopyridyl-Metal Complex Lewis Acids.” The project proposes a novel synthesis
of chiral b(beta)-amino acids, compounds which have found an important role in the
pharmaceutical industry.
Martha Huggins, Roger Thayer Stone Professor of Sociology, has
been featured recently in a number of articles in the international press about her book Political
Policing and her research (and upcoming book) on Brazilian torturers. Articles
appeared in Estado de Sáo Paulo one of Brazil's largest newspapers, the
German magazine Focus, and the Swiss newspaper Neve Züricher Zeitung.
Paul Gremillion, assistant professor of civil engineering,
presented a paper titled, “An Undergraduate Course that Integrates Faculty Research
and Practical Environmental Field and Laboratory Methods” recently at the Zone I
meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education. The meeting included faculty
from colleges and universities from the mid-Atlantic and New England regions and from
southeastern Canada.
Martin Benjamin, professor of art, and Charles Steckler, associate
professor of theater, are presenting works at the 1997 Photography Invitational, an
exhibition of winners from past Photography Regional Exhibitions. The show runs through
June 11 at RCCA: The Arts Center in Troy. For details, call 273-0552.
Hilary Tann, professor of music, has released two compositions on
a CD titled Celtic Connections, which features three contemporary composers with
links to Ireland and Wales. The music is performed by Ireland's leading contemporary
music ensemble, Concorde. Of Erthe and Air for mixed trio, was composed while Tann
was resident faculty member for the term abroad in Japan in the fall of 1990; The
Cresset Stone is a meditative work for solo violin, completed in 1994. The CD was
produced by Capstone Records (CPS-8640) and is available through Albany Music Distributors
(800-752-1951).
Randolph Quaye, assistant professor of sociology and Africana
studies, is to give a talk titled “Health Care in Black America: Perceptions of
Health Care Providers” this summer at the 12th International Interdisciplinary
Conference on Hypertension in Blacks, to be held in London. His presentation focuses on a
year-long study at two Schenectady County clinics in which providers recommend greater
efforts toward preventative medicine and the inclusion of transportation services in
outreach departments.
Donna Burton, associate professor in Schaffer Library, has
published two book reviews in Journal of Government Information from Pergamon
Press. She reviewed The United Nations and Human Rights, 1945-1995 (U.N. Dept. of
Public Information), part of the U.N. “Blue Book Series.” This publication has
compiled the text of 100 documents generated or approved by the U.N. on human rights
issues and was praised by Burton for the multiplicity of access points to the material and
the affordable price. Her second review treated a bibliographic tool designed to assist
documents librarians and users of the early federal censuses up through 1945. Author Kevin
Cook's Dubester's U.S. Census Bibliography with SuDocs Class Numbers
and Indexes (Libraries Unlimited), an update and expansion of an earlier work, has
added indexing, documents numbers and annotations that make this a valuable addition for
those with heavily used retrospective census collections, Burton wrote.
Rudy Nydegger, associate professor of psychology, is president
elect of the Psychological Association of Northeastern New York. He will assume a one-year
term as president next year.
Terry Weiner, professor of political science and sociology,
delivered a paper titled “Medicine, Medicaid and Managed Care: A Broken
Covenant?” at the Southern Sociological Society meetings this spring. The paper
examines the policy of placing the elderly and the poor in managed care programs and
questions whether this policy is consistent with legislation in 1965.
David Gerhan, head of public services and of reference, has
written bibliographic entries for the 1997 biennial Bibliographie intemationale de la
demographic. Gerhan identified, selected, classified, and annotated 174 citations to
the literature of historical demography, published in books, journal articles, papers, and
other special studies in the U. S. in 1993-1994. The B.I.D.H is published at the
Université de Liège, Belgium, under the auspices of the International Union for the
Scientific Study of Population, the International commission of Historical Demography, and
the Société française de la démographie historique and serves as the bibliographical
record for historical demographers. Gerhan serves as correspondent for the United States,
among 27 other contributors for various nations.
James T. McWhirter, assistant professor of physics, has received
a Cottrell Science Award of $32,000 to support his research in “Point Defects and
Their Application to Solid State Lasers.” The Cottrell College Science Program is
supported by Research Corporation of Tucson, Ariz. It supports research in chemistry,
physics and astronomy at undergraduate colleges.