July 2009 (Vol. 8, No. 10)

This Month's Top Stories . . .

• Pinckney Named 2009 Frymoyer Scholar
• Second Season of Historic Tours Under Way
• Professor Researching Street Children of India
• New Research Measures Mood
• Alumna Sings "God Bless America" at Fenway Park
• Recent Grad Part of Mount Rushmore Protest
• Summer Session Hits the Century Mark
• The Fast and the Fuel Efficient
• New Policy Reduces Costs, Waste
• UVM's Millar and Tobin Named America East Scholar-Athletes of the Year
• In Memoriam: Jean-Guy B�liveau
• Campus Kudos

Pinckney Named 2009 Frymoyer Scholar (up^)
The ability to communicate compassion — which entails both sympathizing with another person's pain or distress and desiring to alleviate it — is a critical skill for a health care provider. Richard Pinckney, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of medicine, was recently named the 2009 Frymoyer Scholar in recognition of his proposal to develop and deliver a series of workshops to teach clinicians how to develop this skill. In addition to practicing as an internist, Pinckney is actively involved in medical education, teaching several medical statistics courses in the graduate college, as well as teaching empathy, motivational interviewing, co-directing the Vermont Academic Detailing Program, and directing the Program in Wise Prescribing. He received the UVM College of Medicine's Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation in 2005. More at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=14441

Second Season of Historic Tours Under Way (up^)
After a highly successful inaugural season, the University of Vermont launched the second season of its popular historic tour program on July 4. The free, weekly tours, led by UVM emeritus professor William Averyt, will take place Saturdays through October 10, from 9 to 11 a.m. Last year the tour attracted nearly 500 visitors, from 22 states and four foreign countries. Highlighted on the tour are such architectural treasures as Old Mill, completed in 1829, whose cornerstone was laid by the Marquis de Lafayette, the 1885 Billings Library, which the renowned 19th century architect H.H. Richardson considered his finest building, and the magnificent Grasse Mount, built for a local merchant in 1806 and later the home of the governor. In addition to its many historic structures — more than a dozen buildings on the university's central campus are on the National Register of Historic Places — the tour also covers the important and colorful people who animate UVM's history. Full story at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=14461.

Professor Researching Street Children of India (up^)
As a viewer, Jonah Steinberg, assistant professor in anthropology, enjoyed the 2008 Academy Award-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire." As a scholar, whose research focuses on the cultural and social aspects of India's street children, he took issue with the romanticization of the children's lives and the public's perception of their daily existence. Steinberg's motivation isn't necessarily to debunk the movie's portrayal of street children in India, but rather to advance research in an area that has produced surprisingly little academic literature. A $233,654 grant from the National Science Foundation, pending final approval, will allow Steinberg, who has also conducted research in South Asia on the sociocultural aspects of globalization, to focus on street children who have run away from their rural village homes to New Delhi. More at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=14538&SM=newssub.html.

New Research Measures Mood (up^)
For decades, social scientists have puzzled over the challenge of measuring human happiness. Surveys have revealed some useful information, but these are plagued by the fact that people misreport and misremember their feelings when being surveyed. But what if there were a remote-sensing mechanism that could record how millions of people around the world were feeling on any particular day — without their knowing? That's what Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth, a mathematician and computer scientist working in the Advanced Computing Center at UVM, have created. Their methods show that Election Day, November 4, 2008, was the happiest day in four years and the day of Michael Jackson's death one of the unhappiest. Their results are reported in the Journal of Happiness Studies. Read more at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=14590&SM=newssub.html

Alumna Sings “God Bless America” at Fenway Park (up^)
Brittany Langston, a 2009 UVM grad and a music major, was selected to sing “God Bless America” during Vermont Day at Fenway Park on Sunday, July 26. Langston had sung the national anthem at her commencement ceremony in May. Her mom sent in an application with a link to a YouTube video  of her commencement performance. She was given two prime seats behind home plate and was escorted onto the field to sing during the seventh inning stretch. Full story at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=14589&SM=newssub.html.

Recent Grad Part of Mount Rushmore Protest (up^)
On the morning of July 8, Basil Tsimoyianis '09 and ten other Greenpeace activists stood near Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota. At the base of the narrow staircase that leads to the path above the gigantic sculpture of four revered U.S. presidents, they stopped. Six people chained themselves across the entrance, blocking the way. Five others, including Tsimoyianis, continued up, laden with ropes and a 65-foot-long banner that showed a black-and-white image of Barack Obama overwritten, "America Honors Leaders, Not Politicians. Stop Global Warming." More at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=14559&SM=newssub.html.

Summer Session Hits the Century Mark (up^)
When UVM's summer session began in 1909, it offered 10 courses and attracted about a dozen students. One hundred years later, 3,000 students choose from more than 500 courses. The subject areas are vast and include anthropology, the sciences, education, math, foreign languages, English, environmental studies, history, music, public administration, business, physical education, sociology, psychology and still others. More at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=14476.

The Fast and the Fuel Efficient (up^)
Last year, AERO, a club sponsored by the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, won most of the design prizes at the annual Formula Hybrid International Competition in Lauden, New Hampshire. But two failed electrical switches kept their car from running. This year, the team members were determined to see GreenSpeed race. See the car and the team in action at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=14490.

New Policy Reduces Costs, Waste (up^)
When faculty and staff arrived at work at the beginning of July, they were greeted by a spiffy new piece of office equipment stationed on their desks — a six-inch high plastic trash can called a "mini-bin." The mini-bin signals a new way of doing business at UVM that managers say will save money and reduce trash. Under new procedures, custodial staff no longer empty wastebaskets in individual offices — a task they had previously done daily. Instead, faculty and staff now store trash in their mini-bins and dispose of it themselves in a receptacle centrally located near their offices. Employees will also be responsible for carrying their recyclable material such as paper, bottles and cans to a central bin, which will be emptied daily. More at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=14459.

UVM's Millar and Tobin Named America East Scholar-Athletes of the Year (up^)
For the first time ever, the America East Male and Female Scholar-Athletes of the Year come from the same institution — the University of Vermont. Connor Tobin (Fort Collins, Colo.) and Kristen Millar (Whitby, Ontario) are the 2008-09 honorees. Earlier this season Tobin was named the America East Scholar-Athlete for men's soccer, and Millar took the honor in women's lacrosse. Tobin is the first Vermont male student-athlete to earn the honor since men's soccer player Chris Shaver in 2001. He owns a 3.76 grade-point average in mechanical engineering and was the America East Men's Soccer Scholar-Athlete for the second straight year. A member of the Honors College, he is the first UVM men's soccer player named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American First Team and earned NSCAA College Scholar All-America honors as a junior and senior. Millar graduated as arguably the best player in UVM women's lacrosse history and with a 3.64 GPA as an elementary education major. She became the first Catamount to be chosen as the America East Woman of the Year after having distinguished herself throughout her collegiate career in academic achievement, athletic excellence, service and leadership. Millar was a four-time IWLCA Northeast Region All-American, a three-time America East All-Conference selection and two-time All-Championship honoree. She was also named to the America East All-Academic Team and the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District squad in each of the last two years. Millar , the 2009 America East Scholar-Athlete in women's lacrosse, is the program's all-time leader in points, goals, assists, ground balls, caused turnovers and draw controls. She became the NCAA Division I all-time leader in draw controls during the 2009 season. Full story at http://www.uvm.edu/~sportspr/?Page=News&storyID=14581.

In Memoriam (up^)
Jean-Guy Béliveau taught structural engineering at the University of Vermont College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS) from 1985 to February 2009, when he retired. He lost his courageous fight with cancer and passed away peacefully on Friday, July 17, 2009 at the Vermont Respite Home in Williston, Vt. A UVM tribute will be held to honor him on Friday, Sept. 18 in the Ira Allen Chapel at 2 pm. His full obituary can be found in the Burlington Free Press.

Campus Kudos (up^)

Lee Corbett, a graduate student in geology, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship for her work exploring the geological past of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Working with professor Paul Bierman, she will use the prestigious $30,000 grant to continue her study of the age of rocks found in and at the margin of the ice sheet.

Ted Flanagan, professor emeritus of chemistry, published two articles in the Journal of Physical Chemistry: "Hydrogen Solubility in Pd/chromia Composites Prepared by Internal Oxidation of Pd-Cr Alloys. Equilibrium Pressure-Composition Data", with D. Wang, Gauthoma and R. Balasubramaniam (IIT Kanpur India) and "Hydrogen Solubility in Pd/chromia Composites Prepared by Internal Oxidation of Pd-Cr Alloys. Calorimetric Determination of Enthalpies", with S. Luo.

Sean Hurley, assistant professor of education, co-authored "Solving Problems Using Matrix, Network, and Hierarchy Diagrams: The Consequences of Violating Construction Conventions" in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology; "Design Sensitivity: Statistical Power for Applied Experimental Research" in The SAGE Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods; and "Disentangling Ethnic and Contextual Influences Among Parents Raising Youth in High-Risk Communities" in Applied Developmental Science.

Dorian McCoy, assistant professor of higher education and student affairs, co-authored a chapter on social organizations in the oral history project-based book, Old South Baton Rouge: The Roots of Hope.

Wolfgang Mieder, professor of German and Russian, is the author of "NIeman hât ân arebeit wîstuom". Sprichwörtliches in mittelhochdeutschen Epen, a study of the use proverbs in the major German mediaeval epics. Mieder also published "Yes We Can". Barack Obama's Proverbial Rhetoric showing Obama's rich knowledge and appreciation of proverbs and proverbial expressions in his two books, Dreams from My Father (1995) and Audacity of Hope (2006) as well as in his campaign speeches, news conferences, radio addresses, and interviews.

Ken Nalibow, associate professor of German and Russian, has published the article "The USSR and LGBT Intolerance" in the essay volume The Queer Community. Continuing the Struggle for Social Justice. The article chronicles Nalibow's experiences of hostility and violence in the Soviet Union during the eighties where homosexuality is a criminal offense carrying a prison sentence.

Helga Schreckenberger, professor and chair of German and Russian, published "Literarische Reaktionen zur ostjüdischen Zuwanderung nach 1918," in the essay volume Österreich 1918 und die Folgen. The article provides an examination of the literary representation of East European Jewish emigrants in post World War I Austrian literature. Schreckenberger also published "Aimless Travels: Deromanticizing Exile in Irgmard Keun's Kind aller Länder" (1938) which appeared in Exiles Traveling. Exploring Displacement, Crossing Boundaries in German Exile Arts and Writings 1933-1945.

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