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Ph.D.s find a future
The February issue of Lingua Franca reported that 110 U
of C humanities alumni earned full-time, junior academic positions
for the 1998–99 academic year. Columbia came in second with
64 alumni placements.
On board for studies abroad
Stephanie Latkovski joined the University in March as the College’s
associate dean for international and second-language education.
Besides coordinating administrative aspects, she will help organize
new internship opportunities and assist students in selecting programs.
Good guard
Fourth-year Andy Strommem, a guard on the men’s basketball
team, was named UAA co-player of the year. Leading the Maroons with
14.3 points per game, he finished his career as Chicago's all-time
leader in three-point field goals (185) and three-point field goal
percentage (45.5).
Scientific advancement
Chemistry professor R. Stephen Berry has been elected home secretary
of the National Academy of Sciences. He will also become chair of
the National Research Council’s report review committee.
Master of the humanities
Starting this quarter, associate professor of English Bill Brown
replaces Philippe Desan, the Howard L. Willett professor of Romance
languages and literatures, as master of the Humanities Collegiate
Division.
A truly cosmic award
U of C astrophysicist John Carlstrom was named one of ten McDonnell
Centennial Fellows by the James S. McDonnell Foundation. He plans
to use the $1 million award to study cosmic microwave background
radiation—the Big Bang’s afterglow.
A close call
Fulbright fellow Elizabeth Garland, AM’97, a U of C doctoral
student in anthropology, escaped a March attack by Rwandan rebels
in Uganda’s Bwindi National Park. Eight tourists and four park
rangers were killed. Garland, who was studying the effects of wildlife
tourism on local communities, hid in her tent at the campsite’s
outskirts. Though she plans to continue her research, Garland flew
to Uganda’s capital, Kampala, after the attack.
Dust in space
An instrument built and designed at the U of C was part of the
payload launched in February on the Advanced Research and Global
Observation Satellite. The instrument, SPADUS, will measure the
mass, speed, and trajectory of dust particles in low-Earth orbit,
and help scientists determine whether the particles were left by
comets or are man-made debris.
Intimate inquiries
The winter 1998 issue of Critical Inquiry, the University’s
renowned arts and humanities journal, won the professional and scholarly
publishing-division award for best single issue of a journal from
the Association of American Publishers. Guest edited by English
professor Lauren Berlant, the theme issue focused on intimacy.
Très bien
James Lawler, the Edward Carson Waller distinguished service professor
emeritus in Romance languages & literatures, was recently elected
to a three-year term as president of the Association Internationale
des Ètudes Français.
Historical double-header
Historian Amy Dru Stanley won two 1999 awards from the Organization
of American Historians with From Bondage to Contract: Wage Labor,
Marriage, and the Market in the Age of Slave Emancipation. She
received the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize for the best first book
in American history and the Avery Craven Prize for the best book
on the era of the Civil War and reconstruction.
The ever-evolving faculty
Wen-Hsiung Li, author of the first textbook on molecular phylogeny,
joined the U of C in December as the George Wells Beadle distinguished
service professor in ecology & evolution. Department chair Chung-I
Wu calls Li “the premier evolutionist in the world today.”
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