October 1, 2009
Vol. 20, No. 14
In this issue:
Featured Events
- Oct. 1-3: The university's celebration of Mahatma Gandhi's birthday includes a movie discussion, yoga session and lectures. For a full schedule, visit http://www.cmu.edu/uls/october/gandhi.html.
- Saturday, Oct. 3: Carnegie Mellon Night at the Symphony. 8 p.m., Heinz Hall. Carnegie Mellon professors and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians Andres Cardenes and Anne Martindale Williams will be featured soloists. For seating and ticket information call 412-392-4819 or visit http://www.pittsburghsymphony.org/cmunight. For more on the event, visit http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/September/sept23_cmuatpso.shtml.
- Sunday, Oct. 4: Carnegie Mellon Concert Choir. 5 p.m., Kresge Recital Hall. Robert Page will conduct "Aw, Leave it to the Birds!" featuring bird-inspired works by Ravel, Bartok, Janequin and more. Admission is free.
- Monday, Oct. 5: Unhacking Windows: Tips, Tools and Techniques. Noon-2 p.m., McConomy Auditorium, University Center (UC). The Information Security Office (ISO) is offering the free class to faculty and staff. To register, visit their Web site at http://www.cmu.edu/iso/events/events/index.html.
- Monday, Oct. 5: Staff Council Ice Cream Social. Noon-1 p.m., Connan Room, UC. Join staff council at its third annual social to meet your representatives, enjoy ice cream from Dave & Andy's and enter a raffle for prizes. Dairy-free sorbet also will be provided. For more information on Staff Council programs and initiatives, visit http://www.cmu.edu/staff-council.
- Monday, Oct. 5: John A. Pople Lectures in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry. 4:30 p.m., Mellon Institute Auditorium. For more on the inaugural lectures, sponsored by the Department of Chemistry and the Mellon College of Science, read the news item below.
- Monday, Oct. 5: Humanities Center Lecture Series. 4:30-6 p.m., Porter Hall 100. James Ferguson, professor and chair of Stanford University's Anthropology Department, will discuss "Declarations of Dependence: Labor, Personhood and Welfare in South Africa and Beyond." For more information on the lecture, visit http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/September/sept29_humanitiescenterlecture.shtml.
- Tuesday, Oct. 6: Book Signing. 4:30 p.m., Carnegie Mellon Bookstore. English Professor Hilary Masters will be reading from and signing copies of his two new books. In September, Masters released a book of short stories, "How the Indians Buried Their Dead," and a book of essays, "In Rooms of Memory."
- Wednesday, Oct. 7: Laptop Registration. 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Wean Commons, UC. Students, staff and faculty should bring their laptops to be registered by the University Police Crime Prevention Unit.
- Wednesday, Oct. 7: Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble. 8 p.m., Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland. Denis Colwell will direct. General admission tickets are $5, $4 for senior citizens and free to all university students with valid ID. For more information, visit http://music.cmu.edu.
- Oct. 8-10: International Festival. For more on the events, which will discuss "What's Happening to Diplomacy?" visit http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/oie/newsandevents/internationalfestival/index.html or read the news item below.
- Friday, Oct. 9: CAUSE Lecture. 5 p.m., Grand Room, Tepper School. Kimberley Phillips, associate professor of history and American studies at The College of William and Mary, will discuss "War, What is it Good For? Black Freedom Struggles, War and the U.S. Military." For more: http://www.hss.cmu.edu/cause/index.html
- October 9-11: "From Child to Scientist: Mechanisms of Learning and Development." The 37th Carnegie Symposium on Cognition honors the scientific and educational contributions of David Klahr, the Walter Van Dyke Bingham Professor of Cognitive Development and Education Sciences. Find the full schedule at http://www.psy.cmu.edu:16080/symposium37/. The event is free and open to the public.
- Tuesday, Oct. 13: AED Training. 1-3:30 p.m., Connan Room, UC. Attendees will learn how to recognize the signs of a sudden cardiac arrest, when to activate the EMS system and how to do CPR. To register, visit http://www.cmu.edu/ehs and click on the training link.
- Friday, Oct. 16: ICES Research Showcase. 3:30-5:30 p.m., Singleton Room, Roberts Hall. The College of Engineering and Institute for Complex Engineered Systems will showcase the research of the 2008 and 2009 Dowd-ICES fellows and the educational research of Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Jose M.F. Moura during his year as the 2008 Dowd Teaching Fellow. Read more about the Dowd Fellowship at http://www.ices.cmu.edu/dowd_fellowship.html.
Carnegie Mellon To Receive Former Professor's Nobel Prize Medal
Carnegie Mellon will become one of only a few universities in the United States to display a gold Nobel Prize Medal through a generous bequest from the late
John A. Pople. Pople, the former J.C. Warner Professor of the Natural Sciences at Carnegie Mellon, won 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His children will present the medal to the university at the inaugural John A. Pople Lectures in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry at 4:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 5, in the Mellon Institute Auditorium.
The Department of Chemistry has established the biennial lectures, which will bring leaders in the field of computational chemistry to campus to honor Pople's contributions to science. Giving the inaugural lectures will be two men with close ties to Pople and Carnegie Mellon: his former student
Mark Gordon, and
Walter Kohn, a former Carnegie Mellon physics professor who shared the 1998 Nobel Prize with Pople.
"John Pople was one of our most distinguished faculty members, warmly remembered for his profound dedication to his science and his students. We are very grateful to receive his Nobel Prize Medal, and hope that each person who views this artifact will be inspired to follow Professor Pople's example," said President
Jared L. Cohon.
The Nobel Medal will be displayed in the Hunt Library beginning in the spring of 2010. For more on Pople and his revolutionary work, visit
http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/September/sept29_poplelectures.shtml.
"Grapes of Wrath" Opens Today
Acting Professor
Barbara Mackenzie-Wood will direct
Frank Galati's adaptation of
John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" through Oct. 10. The show opens at 8 p.m. tonight in the Philip Chosky Theatre. Performances are at 8 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday with additional matinee performances at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
"'The Grapes of Wrath' is one of America's favorite novels, and, due to the work of the adaptor Frank Galati, now one of its greatest theatrical inventions," said Professor
Peter Cooke, head of the School of Drama. "I chose the work to open our season, in collaboration with Director Mackenzie-Wood, as I believe the play holds a mirror up to a contemporary fiscal and environmental landscape that is truly alarming."
Ticket prices begin at $23 for adults, $14 for senior citizens and $10 for students with valid Carnegie Mellon identification. For complete ticket prices, call the School of Drama Box Office at 412-268-2407 or visit
http://www.drama.cmu.edu.
International Festival Highlights Changes in Diplomacy
Carnegie Mellon's 19th annual International Festival will focus on the theme "What's Happening to Diplomacy?" Oct. 8-10 in the University Center. The Office of International Education sponsors the event to provide the campus community with a chance to engage and explore world cultures and current issues through a variety of events. Festival highlights include "Campus Conversations: A Deliberative Loop on America's Role in the Global Community" from 4:30 to 6:15 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, in the Connan Room; a keynote lecture by Distinguished Service Professor
Jendayi Frazer at 12:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 9, in Rangos Ballroom; and the International Festival Awards and Address by Heinz College alumni at 3 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 10, in the Connan Room.
All festival events are free and open to the public. For a full schedule, visit
http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/oie/newsandevents/internationalfestival/index.html.
CFA Students Light Up Pittsburgh's Cultural District
Students from the School of Architecture Urban Laboratory and the School of Drama's Lighting Design course have partnered with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust to create a branded lighting plan for the Cultural District. Students were charged with the task of branding the area in such a way that visitors would recognize that they are in the Cultural District simply by the lighting around them. Under the direction of Drama Professor Cindy Limauro and Rami el Samahy and Kelly Hutzell, assistant teaching architecture professors, students are exploring how lighting and urban design can provide a memorable urban experience that increases a sense of security, promotes green practices and encourages viewers to consider the city as a functional work of art.
The project will culminate with the unveiling of full-scale lighting mock-ups of specific sites in the Cultural District at First Night, the Cultural Trust's 25th anniversary celebration held on New Year's Eve. Students will be exhibiting their work in phases at 901 Penn Ave. in conjunction with Cultural Trust events to elicit public response. Upcoming presentations include a gallery crawl Oct. 2, when students will develop and present an overall conceptual design, and Dec. 5 when students will present full lighting mock-ups in preparation for installment at First Night.
For more: http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/September/sept30_culturaldistrictlighting.shtml
NSF Grants Mengshoel Award To Develop Tools for Monitoring Large-Scale Networks
Ole Mengshoel, a senior systems scientist at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, was awarded a two-year, $498,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to create new computer tools for improving and integrating the way information is displayed and analyzed. His project will develop new techniques that integrate visualization processes and analytical tools to improve the monitoring of large utility projects. Mengshoel reports that his novel monitoring and data mining algorithms will provide improved operation estimates for large-scale networks like those used to power the nation's critical electricity power grid.
In addition to the research, the grant also helps support future software development projects and the training of both undergraduate and graduate students. Read more about the research at
http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/September/sept30_nsfgrant.shtml.
News Briefs
- Carnegie Mellon's "2009 Annual Security Report" is available online. As required by federal and state law, the annual report includes statistics from 2006 to 2008 on reported crimes that occurred on campuses or at degree program locations. Download the report at http://www.cmu.edu/police/images/2009asr.pdf.
- The Office of the Associate Provost for Education is accepting nominations for the 2009-10 William S. Ryan Award. The William H. and Frances S. Ryan Award for Meritorious Teaching is given annually to a full-time faculty member at Carnegie Mellon who has demonstrated unusual devotion and effectiveness in teaching undergraduate or graduate students. Guidelines for the award can be found at http://www.cmu.edu/celebration-of-teaching. Nominations must include a letter (maximum two pages) addressed to the Ryan Committee, in care of Susan Ambrose, associate provost for education, Cyert Hall 127 by Monday, Nov. 2.
Personal Mention
- At the special request of the White House, Drama and Music Professor Gregory Lehane directed a concert hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama for the spouses of G-20 Summit leaders at the Pittsburgh High School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). Featured artists included Yo-Yo Ma, Trisha Yearwood, Sara Bareilles and select CAPA students. Watch the concert and remarks at http://www.cmu.edu/multimedia/first-lady-obamas-g-20-concert.shtml.
- Artist Diploma candidate Vivian Choi has been awarded a grant from American-Australian Association's Dame Joan Sutherland Fund, which supports aspiring Australian artists. She was one of only 12 artists to receive the grant in 2009. Choi is a student of Associate Professor of Piano Sergey Schepkin.
- Carnegie Mellon's Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) Student Chapter (http://www.design.cmu.edu/community.php?s=8) recently elected its officers for the 2009-2010 academic year. Co-presidents are seniors Austin Bales and Lauren Von Dehsen, junior Julius Tarng is the secretary and sophomore Linda Dong is the treasurer. The IDSA is a professional organization for industrial designers that seeks to advance the field's overall quality and positive impact of industrial design. Eric Anderson, associate professor of design, serves at the national level as IDSA's president.
- English Ph.D. student Kate Hamilton received the 2009 Joyce Hemlow Prize in Burney Studies. The annual prize is awarded to the best essay written by a graduate student on any aspect of Frances Burney's life or writings. Hamilton's essay, "London and the Female Bildungsroman: Female Coming of Age in Frances Burney's Evelina, Cecilia, and The Witlings," connected coming-of-age stories to the specifics of urban culture. The judging committee noted Hamilton's careful presentation of her argument and excellent use of source and secondary material. Her essay will be published in the Burney Journal.
For more events, visit
http://my.cmu.edu/site/events.
For daily news updates, visit
http://www.cmu.edu/news/news-notes/index.shtml.
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The "8 1/2 x 11 News" is published weekly by the Internal Communications Team. To submit news of campus interest, email
Abby Ross at
abbyross@andrew.cmu.edu.
For current issues of the 8 1/2 x 11, visit
http://www.cmu.edu/news/news-notes/weekly/2009/index.shtml. For past years' issues of the 8 1/2 x 11, visit
http://www.cmu.edu/news/weekly/index.shtml.
