Dear members of the School of Arts & Sciences community,

Welcome to the first edition of Arts & Sciences In Focus, a new channel for sharing important milestones and events at the school and continuing a dialogue about the essential role a strong liberal arts education plays in our society. I believe it is also important, as we busily plan and prepare for a new academic year, that we reflect on the achievements and notable moments of the 2017 spring semester and celebrate the many disciplines that comprise the School of Arts & Sciences.

Early this spring, our commitment to a well-rounded education was recognized with a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support initiatives to increase undergraduates’ engagement with the humanities. Beginning this fall, the five-year Humanities for Life initiative will work with students early in their academic careers and help them discover opportunities for experiences outside the classroom.

Interdisciplinary collaboration is at the heart of the Humanities Center, and I am pleased to note that our Dexter Perkins Professor in History Joan Shelley Rubin was formally installed as the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Director of the Humanities Center. The directorship is named in recognition of the support of University Trustee Ani Gabrellian ’84 and her husband, Mark Gabrellian ’79. Their continued generosity is a cornerstone of much that we have been able to accomplish as a School.

One of the Center’s first major events centered around the visit of Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and former president of Cornell University David Skorton, who underscored the critical role that arts and humanities will play in overcoming many of society’s obstacles.

This year, we also explored how the University is using data science to change how we learn, research, and understand our world; and we celebrated as Wegmans Hall underwent the final phases of construction and opened its doors to the building’s first tenants. A new landmark in the center of River Campus, Wegmans Hall is home to the Goergen Institute for Data Science, which fosters research collaborations throughout the University. Of particular note is “textual scientist” Gregory Heyworth, who was recently hired as part of the data science initiative and is an associate professor of English. His work with the Lazarus Project has recovered seemingly lost images and text from cultural heritage objects and has allowed researchers to explore and understand artifacts that were once considered lost and unsalvageable.

I would also like to commend our students, who are doing impressive things to make the world “ever better.” Many earned national awards in recognition of their academic achievements, and in February, the University of Rochester was named to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs list of U.S. colleges and universities that produced the most 2016–17 Fulbright U.S. students. Among the Fulbright recipients is Michael Gilbert ’17, a biochemistry major from Wayland, Massachusetts, who is bound for the University of Hong Kong, where he’ll be part of a lab studying cancer and aging.

Instruction is cornerstone of the Rochester experience. Each year, the Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student recognizes full-time graduate students who assist or have a primary role in undergraduate instruction.

Receiving the award this year are:

Jessica Hogestyn, neuroscience
James Rankine, history
Dev Crasta, psychology
Adam Johnson, biology
Marissa Adams, physics and astronomy
John Komdat, philosophy

On behalf of the School of Arts & Sciences, I want to extend my sincere congratulations to Professor and Chair of the Department of Linguistics Jeffrey Runner, who was recently appointed the next dean of the College in Arts, Sciences & Engineering. Runner succeeds Richard Feldman, who served as dean of the College for the past decade. It was a distinct honor to work with Rich Feldman and to cochair the search committee for his successor. I look forward to working with Jeff in his new role.

We also recently welcomed Richard (Rick) Waugh as the interim dean of the faculty of Arts, Sciences & Engineering. Rick is biomedical engineer with more than 35 years of academic and leadership appointments at the University. His interim leadership of one of the institution’s main academic units will provide important direction and support while the search for a successor for Peter Lennie, the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences & Engineering continues. It has been a distinct honor to work with Peter, who has served as dean of the faculty since 2006 and brought extraordinary leadership to a position that includes academic, administrative, and financial responsibility for a unit that is home to more than 350 faculty members, 5,200 undergraduates, and 1,200 graduate students.

The School of Arts and Sciences is fortunate to count among its faculty some of today’s brightest minds and true thought leaders in their fields. A list of select faculty awards and distinctions appears below.

Poet and Professor of English Jennifer Grotz, was not only named a Guggenheim Fellow for 2017, but also became the director of the Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences, making her the seventh director of the oldest American conference for writers and the first woman to hold the post.

William Jones, professor of chemistry, received the Royal Society of Chemistry Award for finding new methods of converting hydrocarbons into chemicals found in useful, everyday products.

Steven Piantadosi, assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences, was named to the Association for Psychological Science’s list of distinguished Rising Stars for his contributions to the field of psychology.

Alice Quillen and Andrew Jordan, both professors of physics and astronomy, were awarded prestigious Simons Foundation Faculty Fellowships to take research leaves for the 2017–18 academic year and pursue their research in theoretical physics.

Supritha Rajan, associate professor of English, won the Modern Language Association’s Prize for a First Book.

Joanna Scott, the Roswell Smith Burrows Professor of English, and James Longenbach, the James Henry Gilmore Professor of English, received fellowships from the Bogliasco Foundation, which are awarded for notable achievement in the arts and humanities.

John Tarduno, professor of geophysics and chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, received the European Geosciences Union 2017 Petrus Peregrinus Medal in recognition of his research on the evolution of the early earth’s magnetic field.

Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching:
Kara Bren, chemistry
Thomas Eickbush, biology

Lifetime Achievement in Graduate Education
Thomas Hahn, English

William H. Riker University Award for Graduate Teaching
Robert Westbrook, history

Congratulations to all the recipients, and thank you for your outstanding contributions.

I hope you enjoyed the first edition of our In Focus newsletter. I look forward to sharing important milestones and events with you during the upcoming academic year.

Sincerely,

Dean Gloria Culver