Spring 2010: Of Note

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Emory College names new dean

Robin Forman, a mathematics scholar and dean of undergraduates at Rice University, has been chosen as the next dean of the Emory College of Arts and Sciences, starting July 1. Forman, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a PhD from Harvard in mathematics, also will hold the title of Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Mathematics designate. Look for more in a future Emory Magazine.

Yerkes researchers are selected as AAAS fellows

Stuart Zola, director of Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and Larry Young, Yerkes researcher and professor in the School of Medicine, have been selected as fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science—Zola for his work in neuroscience, delineating the brain’s memory system; Young for his research in neurogenetics on genes, the brain, and social behavior.

Fulbright Scholars selected to teach and travel

Assistant Professor of Physics Stefan Boettcher, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History Thomas Burns, and Kenya Casey, assistant director of the Center for International Programs Abroad, have been selected as Fulbright Scholars and will be going abroad to lecture and conduct research. Two visiting Emory scholars are also Fulbright recipients.

Emory appoints a trio of new trustees

Emory has appointed three new members to serve a six-year term on its forty-one-member Board of Trustees, which oversees the University’s governance and finances. The new trustees are Muhtar Kent, president and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company; Facundo Bacardi 96L, chairman of the board of Bacardi Limited; and Kathelen Amos 79C, president of the Aflac Foundation.

Goizueta undergraduate program ranks in top ten

Goizueta Business School ranked seventh in the annual evaluation of undergraduate business programs compiled by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which considers student and recruiter surveys, starting salaries for graduates, alumni who go on to top MBA programs, SAT scores, student-faculty ratios, class size, percentage of students with internships, and number of hours spent on classwork.

Margaret Atwood selected to give Ellmann Lectures

Renowned Canadian author and Booker Prize-winner Margaret Atwood will deliver the Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature at Emory October 24 to 26. The author of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Penelopiad, and Oryx and Crake will present a series of lectures, “In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination.”

Developing new drugs for neglected diseases

Scientists at the Emory Institute for Drug Discovery will partner with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals on research aimed at developing new drugs for neglected tropical diseases in the world’s poorest countries. Neglected diseases targeted by the program are sixteen that have been identified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including tuberculosis and malaria.

Emory professor honored in Pretoria

I.T. Cohen Professor of International Law and Human Rights Johan van der Vyver, who played an active role in efforts to end apartheid and bring constitutional reform to his native South Africa, has been named an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, where he will lecture in the Department of Private Law and with the Centre for Human Rights’ joint-degree program.

$2.4 million grant supports changes in humanities

The University has received a grant of $2.4 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the reassessment, reconfiguration, and strengthening of the humanities across the campus. Provost Earl Lewis says the program will build on three broad areas: digital scholarship, mind/brain neuroscience, and humanities in the age of the human genome.

Genetic database will help disease and disorder researchers

Thanks to a $3.4 million federal stimulus award to Emory, the International Standard Cytogenomic Array Consortium (ISCA), a new genetic database of more than 200,000 cases collected in clinical testing labs worldwide, will soon be available free and online to researchers seeking clues to developmental disorders, according to Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Human Genetics David Ledbetter.

Human papillomavirus vaccine shows promising results

A five-year, international study has shown that human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations given to young women decrease abnormal pap smears, biopsies, and genital warts, which will probably translate into lower rates of vaginal and cervical cancers, says study coinvestigator Kevin Ault, associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics.

Professor Kevin Young wins Graywolf Prize

Atticus Haygood Professor of Creative Writing and English Kevin Young has been awarded the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, designed to honor and encourage the art of literary nonfiction. Young will receive a $12,000 advance for his manuscript, The Grey Album: Music, Lying, and the Blackness of Being, and the press will publish the collection of essays in spring 2012.