Sullivan Receives Nation's Highest
Science Honor
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Dennis P. Sullivan Photo: Peter Harris |
The White House has announced that Dennis P. Sullivan, Albert Einstein Chair in the Sciences at The Graduate Center, has been named a winner of a 2004 National Medal of Science, the nation's highest scientific honor. The medals will be presented by President Bush, on a date to be announced, to eight recipients for their contributions to the fields of physical, biological, mathematical, social, behavioral, and engineering sciences. Sullivan is being honored for having developed new fields of mathematics and finding ways to connect seemingly unrelated disciplines.
An internationally renowned theoretical mathematician, Sullivan specializes in topology, geometry, and dynamical systems. He was named Albert Einstein Chair in Science in 1981, at the time in cooperation with Queens College. During the 1980s the resources of the chair allowed the founding of a regular seminar in geometry and chaos theory that brought first-rank international scholars to CUNY and New York City. Subsequently, the seminar has been supported by The Graduate Center, pursuing the connections between topology and the mathematical models of nature provided by quantum field theory and fluid mechanics.
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Brier Assumes New Position
Stephen Brier, who has been associate provost for instructional technology and dean for interdisciplinary studies at The Graduate Center, was recently named vice president for information technology and external programs. In this position, his responsibilities include oversight of the Office of Information Technology, the GC's web presence, and all instructional technology programs; supervision of Continuing Education and Public Programs; responsibility for administrative relationships with five University Center programs (CUNY-TV, CUNY-BA, Honors College, School of Professional Studies, and School of Journalism); administrative space allocation; and political relations and lobbying.
Brier is also co-director of the New Media Lab, coordinator of the doctoral Certificate Program in Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, and professor of urban education.
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Pizer Appointed as Special Assistant
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Richard Pizer Photo: A. Poyo |
Richard Pizer, former executive officer of the Ph.D. Program in Chemistry, has been appointed as special assistant to President William Kelly. Pizer's main responsibility will be to review the science doctoral programs, as part of CUNY's initiative designed to enhance scientific research and education at the University. He will also be working with the Provost's office to explore the possibility of introducing new master's programs at The Graduate Center and to smooth the integration of the new clinical doctorate programs.
Pizer, who has been a member of the doctoral faculty since 1973, has taken a leave from his position as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Hunter College to accept his appointment at The Graduate Center. Prior to his Hunter appointment, he was dean of graduate studies and research at Brooklyn College, and he also served as director of doctoral program evaluation at The Graduate Center. He has published many articles in highly respected professional journals such as The Journal of the American Chemical Society, Inorganic Chemistry, and Polyhedron, and contributed to the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Chemistry.
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"Works and Process" Acquired by NYPL
On November 2, the New York Library for the Performing Arts formally accepted "Works and Process," a vital treasure trove of more that 200 historically significant performing arts video tapes digitized by The Graduate Center's Streaming Culture project. "Works and Process" is a long-running performing arts series presented by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, featuring a full roster of some of the world's leading performing artists discussing and presenting their works.
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December 2005
Stories in this issue
- Sullivan Receives Nation's Highest Science Honor
- Brier Assumes New Position
- Pizer Appointed as Special Assistant
- "Works and Process" Acquired by NYPL
Photo stories
- The Poetry of Rita Dove
- "Bridging the Gulf:
Thinking Through Katrina" - Robert Wilson and Isabelle Huppert in Dialogue
- "Henry Monnier:
The Comedy of Modern Life"
Newsbriefs
Twenty-five doctoral students from programs as diverse as philosophy, mathematics, earth and environmental sciences, and psychology are working with Professors Susan Saegert and Susan Klitzman (Environmental Psychology) to support displaced New Orleans residents.The project provides an information bank and maps data for community based organizations that lost the capacity to assist their clients because of Hurricane Katrina.
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The Poetry of Rita Dove
Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove read from her latest collection, American Smooth, at The Graduate Center on October 20. Dove is the author of Thomas and Beulah, among many other books, and Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia. The event was cosponsored by the Center for the Humanities, the Ph.D. Program in English, the Academy of American Poets, and Continuing Education and Public Programs. Photo: Peter Waldvogel
"Bridging the Gulf:
Thinking Through Katrina"
On October 28, The Graduate Center held a multidisciplinary conference, "Bridging the Gulf: Thinking Through Katrina," celebrating Gulf Coast culture, to benefit Scholarship America's Fund for low-income college students displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Panel discussions featured Graduate Center students and faculty and speakers from across the country. Pictured above (picture 1) at a panel, "The Politics of (Un)Natural Disaster: Culture, Geography, Society," are English Professor Thadious Davis of the University of Pennsylvania and Sociology Professor William Kornblum of The Graduate Center. At another panel, "'When the Levee Breaks': Hurricane Katrina and the Musical Legacies of New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta," (picture 2, above left to right) are Clyde Woods, professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Maryland; Ned Sublette, independent music scholar; Brooks E. Hefner, a student in the Ph.D. Program in English, who moderated; Elijah Wald, independent music scholar, and Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. Photos: Foster Henry
Robert Wilson and Isabelle Huppert in Dialogue
In the biggest talk of the Act French Festival, distinguished art and film critic Annette Michelson moderated a discussion with Robert Wilson (left), an internationally eminent stage director, and Isabelle Huppert (right), one of the most versatile, enduring, and respected actresses of French film and theatre. The event, which took place in the Proshansky Auditorium on Tuesday, November 2, was cosponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, the Henri Peyre French Institute, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy of New York, and Association Française d'Action Artistique. Photo: Foster Henry
"Henry Monnier:
The Comedy of Modern Life"
Self-Portrait as Monsieur Prudhomme, 1871 (Private Collection, New York)
An exhibition of watercolors, drawings, prints, and books spanning the career of artist, writer, and actor Henry Monnier (1799-1877) opens on December 13, 2005, and runs through January 21, 2006, in the Art Gallery of the Graduate Center, Tuesdays-Saturdays, 12-6 pm. A frequent contributor to satirical and political journals, including La Caricature, La Silhouette, and Le Charivari, and an illustrator of novels by Stendhal and Balzac, Monnier also produced lithographic albums such as Scenes populaires and Scenes de la vie bourgeoise, whose acute and humorous observations appealed to a wide audience and helped transform both the subject matter and style of French painting in the 1860s and 1870s. Events on December 12 ("Henry Monnier's Erotic Puppet Theatre") and December 14 ("Is Caricature Funny?") accompany the exhibition (see Events.)