Spring 2005

Précis

Aftershock: Even as the emotional aftershocks of the devastating tsunamis in Southeast Asia were being felt around the globe, students were forming Emory Tsunami Relief. Their efforts yielded more than $13,000, and staff and faculty contributions, funneled through the Emory Gives program, brought the amount to more then $18,000.

I'm the Teacher, You're the Student: University professors are known to write books about all manner of curious and esoteric subjects. Strangely, though, almost none write about what they do every day: teach students. Patrick Allitt, professor of U.S. history and holder of the Arthur Blank Chair for Teaching Excellence, has changed that with I'm the Teacher, You're the Student: A Semester in the University Classroom.

The Trailblazer: Principal Nash Alexander III ’89C decided to change the name of his northwest Atlanta public school from West Fulton Middle School to Benjamin S. Carson Honors Preparatory School in honor of Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. Carson’s autobiography, Gifted Hands, is required reading for all students at the school.

Uniquely Emory: What is the soul of Emory? What makes this University distinctive? What sets it apart from its peers? What are its aspirations? These questions are being asked in committees, open forums, town hall meetings, and spirited conversations across campus as part of an initiative to examine Emory from the inside out, analyze its strengths and weaknesses, set priorities for the University as a whole, and chart a course for its future.

New Dean for Goizueta: Lawrence Benveniste, dean of the Carlson School of Management and U.S. Bancorp Professor in Finance at the University of Minnesota, will assume the deanship of Goizueta Business School on July 1.

Defining the future: As the new vice president and secretary of the University, Rosemary Magee ’82G has to attend to plenty of logistics, from “meetings to memos to minutes,” as she puts it. But through her more than two decades at Emory, she has learned to welcome diversions—those tangents of thought, spontaneous conversations, or unexpected detours that often lead to insights and adventures.

About Face: “Like it or not, we live in a society that puts great value on appearance,” says Seth Yellin ’84C, director of the Emory Facial Center.“One’s self-image is critical. Attractive, confident people have a social advantage. Most of my patients are already attractive. But they want to regain their youthful advantage.”

Someday My Prince Will Come: Thirty students sit in rapt attention, busily taking notes and frequently raising their hands to ask questions. The average age of the students is somewhere in the thirty-five to forty range, although there are people in their twenties and a few grey heads, as well. About the only thing this group has in common is this: They all want to be married in a year.

The Alan Palmer Scholarship honors alumnus' zest for life: Alan Palmer ’86Ox-’88C had three passions in life, according to those who knew him best: golf, his friends, and Oxford College. Palmer, president of the Palmer Agency in Decatur, died suddenly of a heart attack in 2003 at age thirty-seven. His family and friends decided to hold an annual Alan Palmer Memorial Golf Tournament, with the proceeds going to fund a scholarship in his name at Oxford.

Fox bids farewell: After thirty-four years with the University, William H. Fox, senior vice president for external affairs, retired January 17.

Features

The Vanishing Bookworm: Reading for pleasure is becoming an outmoded pastime, especially among young adults reared on a diet of digital diversions. Professor Mark Bauerlein wants to convince Generation D that reading is cool.
By Page P. Parvin ’96G 

Eureka!: As the Liaison between academia and industry, Emory's Office of Technology Transfer helps faculty researchers market discoveries from anti-viral drugs to virtual reality software. By Mary J. Loftus

Guilty Until Proven innocent: Clarence Harrison spent seventeen years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. Last summer, law student Jason Costa ’99C-’06L and the Georgia Innocence Project used DNA evidence to set him free. By Page P. Parvin ’96G

Becoming Bionic: As robots become more human-like and humans more bionic, through high-tech additions such as cochlear implants and artificial hearts, will the result be a monstrous hybridization or a better understanding of what it means to be human? By Sidney Perkowitz

Winter 2005

Précis

Rudolph’s Legacy: As an Emory undergraduate, Joe King ’88C studied the life and work of architect Paul Rudolph in Judith Rohrer’s History of Modern Architecture course. King’s veneration for Rudolph’s architectural vision may have begun with Cannon Chapel, but it did not end there. King recently published a book, Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), and brought a companion exhibition to museums across the country, including most recently to the Museum of Design Atlanta.

Literary Largesse: They came to Emory in four hulking sea-cargo containers, rumbling into the Briarcliff Campus on tractor trailers that looked fit to deliver entire floors of furniture or industrial equipment. Instead, the trucks held books—more than fifty thousand of them, in fact. Books in boxes, books in crates, books in wooden tea chests that still had bits of tea leaves crushed in the bottom. The four massive shipments from a warehouse in Geneva, Switzerland, brought Emory what is thought to be the largest collection of poetry ever amassed by a private collector, recently given to the University by bibliophile Raymond Danowski.

Year of the Jaeckel: The fourteen-ton Opus 45 Pipe Organ that is now a focal point in Emory’s Emerson Concert Hall was only recently installed, but the grand instrument is the fruit of a relationship that goes back more than a decade. In 1991, when plans for a University arts center were beginning to take shape, administrators and members of the arts faculty met with organ builder Daniel Jaeckel and asked him to design an organ expressly for Emory. But those early plans were abandoned and the agreement with Jaeckel had to wait more than ten years, until the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts was completed in 2003.

The Storyteller: Author Salman Rushdie lectured at Emory in early October as the Richard Ellman Lecturer in Modern Literature. The biennial event honors the late Robert W. Woodruff Professor Richard Ellman, biographer of James Joyce and Oscar Wilde.

Goizueta helps Middle Eastern Women become business leaders: Goizueta was one of two business schools in the country chosen to offer the U.S. Business Internship Program for Young Middle Eastern Women, a mini-MBA-style program during the month of August. The effort is part of the Middle East Partnership Initiative, created by the federal government to support economic, educational, and political reform in the Middle East. Forty-two women, chosen for their promising business acumen and ambition, came to Emory from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, West Bank/Gaza, and Yemen.

Golden Voices: The Voice Center, which opened in September 2003 in the Medical Office Tower of Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, is equipped to diagnose, treat, and rehabilitate those with voice disorders, especially professionals who use their voices to make a living. The center has several specialists on staff, including laryngologists, speech language pathologists, and voice therapists.

Finding Synchronicity: Hope Mirlis ’93C, is a founding member of Synchronicity Performance Group, a theater company that seeks to produce “fearless, fresh, and thought-provoking” plays in Atlanta. Synchronicity began because its founders saw a lack of cutting-edge works locally, especially ones with juicy roles for women at all levels of production.

A win-win situation: When Betsy Stephenson joined Emory as director of athletics and recreation in July, she not only gave up her post as associate director at a highly competitive NCAA Division I school–the University of California at Los Angeles–and moved across the country, she also came to a physical education facility under major renovation. But Stephenson says the move felt right because of what lies at the heart of the Emory athletics program: the student athletes.

Fuld Fellows: After graduating with a degree in psychology, Jordan Bell ’99C traveled to Southern Nepal to volunteer with the Women’s Health Initiative, to Eastern Turkey to produce an independent documentary on the Kurdish population, and to Macedonia to teach at an international school. When, during a return visit to Atlanta, one of her former Emory professors told Bell about the Fuld fellowships at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, she saw the chance to combine social activism and international health by pursuing a master’s degree in nursing.

Healing the Sick: Physician G. Scott Morris ’83M, who grew up in Atlanta, founded the Church Health Center in Memphis, Tennessee, to help the working poor, elderly, and homeless. The clinic is now the country’s largest faith-based health center for the poor. The Church Health Center, which accepts no government funding, now has 40,000 patients for whom it is the primary health care provider.

Irish studies program a natural for Emory: Emory has long fostered vigorous scholarship in the field of Irish studies, achieving national and international renown with its collection of twentieth-century Irish literary materials and strong faculty. Ironically, though, a formal Irish studies program did not exist–until now. The program was launched last spring and the curriculum will be completed later this year.

Sundance East: Started in 2001 by a handful of Emory students, Campus Moviefest caught on like wildfire in Atlanta and is rapidly making its way into other cities. In four years, the Atlanta festival has grown from a thousand Emory students participating to ten thousand amateur directors, editors, and actors at eight area universities. “We really didn’t know what to expect that first time,” says David Roemer ’02B, co-founder and CEO of Ideas United, the fledgling company that organizes Campus Moviefest. Roemer and Dan Costa ’01B, now president of Ideas United, conceived Campus Moviefest (originally iMovieFest) as a community-building activity among students.

Features

Estate of Mind: As she transitioned from her Cleveland home to Emory's presidential residence, Debbie Wagner helped oversee some critical repairs and added a few touches of her own. Now she is beginning to call Lullwater home. By Page P. Parvin ’96G

Golden Opportunity: Michael Golden ’84MBA, a vice president of The New York Times Company and a member of the family that controls the newspaper, was named publisher of the International Herald Tribune in November 2003 and was charged with revitalizing the century-old paper. By Mary J. Loftus

Car Sick: Howard Frumkin of Emory's Rollins School of Public Health cautions against the health hazards spawned by sprawling cities where the car reigns supreme. By Page P. Parvin ’96G

Autumn 2004

Précis

Building boats: After nearly half a century as an Emory doctor and faculty member, Paul Seavey ’49C-’53M might have found retirement a little dull. But soon after he stopped working in 1997, he took up a new interest that blossomed into a hobby, then a passion: boats.

Welcome, Class of 2008: “One of the biggest changes in admissions during my tenure here has been Emory’s move from a college choice ‘among many’ to more of a ‘first or top choice’ school,” says Daniel Walls, dean of admission. “I think this is reflected in our early decision numbers. Over the past few years our early decision percentage in the freshman class has been approximately 33 percent.”

Alumnus receives Luce Scholarship, literary awards: Richard Hermes ’98C scored an academic and literary hat trick this spring when he received a Luce Scholarship for an internship in Asia, won the 2004 Gesell Award for fiction at the University of Minnesota, and took home a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board to assist him in publishing his first collection of short fiction.

The Mean Disease: The first time severe depression settled onto William R. King Jr. ’38C-’41M, he was a young doctor in Griffin, Georgia. The year was 1956, and King was building a practice with his two younger brothers, also doctors. “I was practicing surgery, working very hard day and night, and was under tremendous amounts of stress with no outlets,” he says.

“Do you remember when . . .”: The way families communicate and share stories–such as reminiscing about a beloved pet that died or recounting episodes from a favorite trip–can have an impact on their children’s well being, according to researchers from Emory’s Center for Myth and Ritual in American Life.

What’s in a name?: After a lifetime of anonymity, four streams that flow through various parts of the Emory campus have at last been properly identified, thanks to the Emory Stream Naming Committee.

What’s In A Name? Part 2: One-and-a-half-year-old Tyler Emory Levin lives in Suffern, New York, with his parents, Lisa Kring Levin ’92MBA and Ian L. Levin ’92L.But he is named after the place where his parents met and fell in love.

Decade of Darkness: It has been ten years since Shannon Melendi ’96C disappeared. “The tenth anniversary was absolutely awful,” said Luis Melendi, Shannon’s father. “I didn’t think we could be in so much pain ten years later and still be alive.”

Exploring the frontiers of physics in outer space: Associate Professor of Physics Eric R. Weeks studies colloidal suspensions–microscopic plastic particles placed within a flowing liquid–as a model to better understand one of the remaining mysteries of science: When is the exact moment that a liquid becomes a solid and not just a slow-moving liquid?

Songbird brain: For most of us, the sound of birds singing serves as a happy, tranquil soundtrack to time spent outdoors. But for Assistant Professor of Psychology Donna Maney, bird song is one piece of a fascinating neurological puzzle, and she hopes to gain a deeper understanding of its place among the various regions of the brain.

Increasing minority organ donors: Seventeen-year-old Chris Moody, a senior at Redan High School, was shot in the head on March 20, 2004 after a group of teenagers with a gun followed him to his family’s Stone Mountain home. The African American teenager later died at Emory University Hospital, and his mother made the difficult choice to donate his organs. Six transplant patients benefitted, some with their very lives.

Patz receives Presidential Medal: Arnall Patz ’43C-’45M has earned some of the highest accolades America has to offer, including the 1956 Albert Lasker Medical Research Award (often called the “American Nobel”) and, in June, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civil award. But he says it took a compliment from pop star Stevie Wonder to really impress his grandchildren.

Awards applaud international work: This spring, at the same time President James W. Wagner announced that Dean Tom Robertson of the Goizueta Business School will leave his post in January to take on a new role as head of internationalization for Emory’s strategic planning process, two awards recognized the gobally minded efforts of a faculty member and an alumnus.

Baylor’s doors close, Emory’s open for theology student:
A seminary student who lost his financial aid funding at Baylor University when he acknowledged that he is gay has been accepted to Emory’s Candler School of Theology.

First Person: An Unlikely Path: Major William B. Britt ’85 recounts his experiences in Diwaniyah, Iraq, where he helped rebuild that nation’s legal system.

Features

Race for a Vaccine: Asa Griggs Candler Professor Harriet L. Robinson, Chief of Emory's Division of Microbiology and Immunology, has developed one of the leading AIDS vaccines in human clinical trials today. By Mary J. Loftus

A Literary Legacy: Emory alumnus Craig Amason '88Lib helps preserve Andalusia, the Milledgeville home where Flannery O'Connor spent much of the last twelve years of her life. By Paige P. Parvin ’96G

The Breath of Life: The McKelvey Lung Transplant Center celebrates Emory's 100th lung transplant and its rapidly expanding transplant program, which gives new life to those who struggle simply to draw a breath. By Mary J. Loftus

Emory's Oldest Residence: The President's Home at Oxford has housed Methodist ministers, college presidents, and the deans of Oxford College for nearly one hundred and seventy years. By Mary J. Loftus

Summer 2004

Features

Coming Home: When Emily Saliers ’85C and Amy ray ’86C–together the world famous Indigo Girls–struck up the first chords of their new song, “One Perfect World,” on Saturday afternoon at McDonough Field, it seemed like the perfect choice for the occasion. Morn than six thousand alumni returned to campus in May to join in the celebration of Alumni Weekend and Commencement, which combined for the first time in an all-encompassing Emory Weekend. By Paige P. Parvin ’96G

The First Day of Emory’s Future: James Warren Wagner became Emory’s nineteenth president on April 2 in a colorful ceremony on the University’s Quadrangle. At the pinnacle of the ceremony, Johns Hopkins President William Brody helped Wagner remove the gown his students had given him, and former Emory presidents James T. Laney and Billy Frye draped him in a new presidential robe of rich gold and blue. By Paige P. Parvin ’96G

Commencement 2004: The University’s 159^th Commencement on May 10 paid tribute to Emory’s 3,331 graduates, who were told to “stay true to your own moral compass” by Commencement speaker and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson. By Mary J. Loftus

To the Source: Nearly two decades after targeting Guinea worm for eradication, the Carter Center and Emory alumni are fighting the last one percent of the painful disease left in the world. When Guinea worm is gone, it will be the first parasitic disease to be eradicated and the first sickness to be eliminated globally without a vaccine. By Paige P. Parvin ’96G

Précis

Playwright has dramatic flair: To have two plays produced at once is surely a playwright’s dream, and for Lauren Gunderson ’03C that dream has come true. She saw a pair of her plays, Leap and Background, mounted simultaneously at Theater Emory and Atlanta’s Essential Theater.

New business for Goizueta: The $33.4-million Goizueta Foundation Center will complete a “magnificent quadrangle” in a part of campus that was once little-used space, said business school Dean Thomas S. Robertson. The five-story building will house Goizueta’s recently established Ph.D. program and research centers, a reflection of the school’s growing commitment to research.

Brain surgery takes patient back in time: Peter Cohen has been stared at, mocked, and even physically threatened. Over the course of two decades, the thirty-nine-year-old’s body had twisted and contorted due to a neurological movement disorder called dystonia, which causes involuntary muscle contractions, abnormal movements, and awkward postures. However, there is now a treatment for the painful disorder that will allow the young attorney to reclaim his life.

Her left hand: origami raises funds for Parkinson’s: To be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease–a progressive neurological disorder that causes tremors and muscle stiffness–was an especially cruel irony for Kim Nichols, a solderer for Northrop Grumman Corporation who enjoys origami as a hobby. However, Nichols sells her colorful paper flower arrangements–lilies, roses, cornflowers, iris–and miniature trees on her Web site and donates the proceeds from this and other fundraisers to Emory’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease.

A unique venture at Clairmont Campus: Emory’s new Clairmont college campus, which opened in 2003, is nothing if not versatile. In summer, the place enjoys the relaxed atmosphere of a neighborhood swim and tennis club; in the fall, it becomes a bustling college campus.

Making beautiful music together: The University Concert Choir will hold its year-end concert on Thursday, yet they’ve only had the sheet music for one of the central pieces for a couple of weeks. “You can probably smell the fear in the room,” confides Eric Nelson, Emory choral director and associate professor of music.

Bobby Jones Scholars, here and abroad: The four Bobby Jones Scholars who came to Emory this year from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland had a special treat: serving as extras in the Bobby Jones biopic that opened in theaters across the country April 30, 2004.

Political prognosticators in the news: Pick up almost any news story that has to do with Southern politics, and there’s a fair chance the Asa G. Candler Professor of Politics and Government will be quoted. Alan Abramowitz, Alben W. Barkley Professor of Political Science, also fields frequent calls from media looking for tips on the political racetrack.

New senior vice president for Institutional Advancement: Johnnie D. Ray, vice president for resource development at the University of Texas at Austin, has been named senior vice president for institutional advancement at Emory. He will succeed William H. Fox ’79PhD, who has been named senior vice president for external affairs.

An Emory treasure in the Pitts Theology Library: On the top floor of the Pitts Theology Library, there is a vast room filled with ten-foot-tall shelves and protected by heavy locks and a security keypad, to which only a handful of people know the code. Pitts Library Director Pat Graham has helped make Emory’s Reformation collection one of the best in the world.

Spring 2004

Features

A Search for Truth: More than a century after Yun Ch’i-Ho 1893C–a Korean diplomat, political activist, and learned theologian–came to study at Emory College in Oxford, his great-granddaughter, Ann Kim, is trying to capture the extraordinary real life of a family legend. “Our whole family spoke of him,” says twenty-three-year-old Kim. “We grew up hearing about how he had accomplished so much and was such a pioneer and a Renaissance man, in terms of all the languages he spoke, and that he had written the lyrics to the Korean national anthem.” By Mary J. Loftus

Brave New World: Emory’s Department of Human Genetics is taking groundbreaking research from the lab to the patient by tackling some of the field’s most heartbreaking genetic disease. As the department chair puts it: “This is a happening place.” By Mary J. Loftus

The “R” Word: When racial expression was used in an open forum last fall, the University’s reaction grew into greater dialogue about race relations, the values of diversity, and what it means to strive for true community. A scant half-century after desegregation, scholars of race relations say historical racism still shadows many campuses even as they make deliberate efforts to diversity. By Paige P. Parvin ’96C

Emory Legacy: Several generations of the Quillian family have been drawn to medicine and the ministry, producing eleven physicians and twenty members of the Methodist clergy.

Précis

Emory selects a provost: Earl Lewis, dean of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies and vice provost for academic affairs/graduate studies at the University of Michigan, will become Emory’s executive vice president for academic affairs and provost.

Fox to Step Aside, But Not Away: William H. Fox ’79PhD, senior vice president for institutional advancement, has announced he will step “aside” and into a new role to make way for fresh leadership in University fundraising and advancement.

Heal magnolias: Assistant Professor of Dermatology Jack L. Arbiser was out walking near his home when he happened upon a common magnolia seed cone, picked it up and decided on the spot it should be examined from a pharmacological point of view.

Cole fellows changing the world: Emory’s Kenneth Cole Fellowship Program in Community Building and Social Change is now in its third year and has been helping many communities across Georgia. Sam Marie Engle ’90C, the director of the program, says that, “The Program is really taking off. We’ve gotten a record number of proposals from the communities for this summer. It’s going to be difficult to chose.”

Fox-Genovese honored: Eleanore Raoul Professor of the Humanities Elizabeth Fox-Genovese was awarded a 2003 National Humanities Medal by President George W. Bush in November.

Emory’s Last Samurai expert: Associate Professor of Japanese History Mark Ravina spent years researching and writing the biography, The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori (2004, John Wiley and Sons), about the samurai leader who inspired the movie.

An “umbrella” for the WoodPEC: An $8.25-million project to give the WoodPEC a new 80,000-square-foot upper story with four indoor tennis courts, two multipurpose courts, and office space.

Sanjay Gupta’s “greatest passion”: Sanjay Gupta is an Emory neurosurgeon who covers medical affairs for CNN and was in Kuwait to document the work of the U.S. Navy’s front-line medical unit, the “Devil Docs.” He received national attention when he operated on an injured Iraqi child.

Rise reaps reward: Merle Black, Emory’s Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Political Science, and his twin brother, Earl Black, Herbert S. Autry Professor of Political Science at Rice University, have won the prestigious V.O. Keyes Award for their most recent book, The Rise of Southern Republicans (Harvard University Press, 2002).

A proliferation of philosophers: Undergraduates who major in philosophy are likely to attend graduate or professional schools and to score well on the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT. Philosophy majors go on to become lawyers, doctors, corporate executives, teachers, historians, and authors.

Rap’s Bad Reputation: Notorious for its often violent, misogynistic, and sexually explicit lyrics, rap music has always gotten a bad rap for its potential effect on young, impressionable listeners. A recent study led by an Emory public health researcher bolsters the case for the allegations of rap’s bad influence.

Moonshine in the City: Brent Morgan is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Emory School of Medicine and lead author of a moonshine study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. After four adult patients showed up at Grady with potentially deadly lead levels in their blood in the spring of 2000, Emory researchers discovered that moonshine is not only readily available in urban Atlanta, but also enjoyed by a surprising number of city dwellers.

Fifty Years of Women at Emory College: Women were first admitted to Emory College in the fall of 1953 and the University celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the “feminine touch” at Emory this year with an exhibit documenting the history of coeds on campus and two special events.

Winter 2004

Features

The Long Journey Home: Ramesses I, the patriarch of the legendary Ramesside line, has been returned to his home in Egypt after more than one hundred and forty years. How this royal mummy came to be purchased, restored, and identified as a pharaoh by Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum before being returned to his ancestral home is an unlikely tale that involves tomb robbers, ocean voyages, a somewhat undignified sojourn in Niagara Falls, and some high-tech detective work. By Mary J. Loftus. Photography by Kay Hinton.

Winging It: The West Wing has a reputation for being one of the most smartly written, literate shows on television; to land a writer’s position on staff is the equivalent of being drafted to the majors. The unlikely story of how the thirty-four-year-old Mark Goffman ’90C came to be standing on the stage of the Shrine Auditorium at the fifty-fifth annual Emmy Awards has the makings of a screenplay itself.

Dream Job: Kai Ryssdal ’85C is the early-morning anchor for Marketplace Morning Report, a business and financial news show carried by some 320 public radio stations nationwide (including the Atlanta affiliate, WABE) and heard by more than 4.5 million people each week.

Murder, He Wrote: With his laid-back demeanor and easy smile, Zachary Hansen ’94C doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would make a movie about a serial killer. But the moody psychothriller Killer Me–which the thirty-two-year-old Hansen wrote, directed, scored, and edited–recently has been released on DVD and has received rave reviews from critics.