on exhibit Teaching Awards Commencement 2011 Jazz Photography | 3 A Breath of Fresh Air Words of Wisdom | 6-7 In the Classroom | 5

vol. 36, no. 12 NEWS and ideas FOR THE COLUMBIA COMMUNITY june 24, 2011 City to Expand Island Nations Columbia Program Discuss Dangers For Local Contractors Building a Of Climate Change By Meghan Berry Nerve Center By Fred A. Bernstein haron Sinaswee, who owns Armada oon after Columbia Law School Building Services in Harlem, has partici- emptied out at the end of the spring Spated in a number of professional devel- for Neuroscience S semester, its Jerome L. Greene Hall opment courses for small business owners. filled up with representatives of some of But Columbia’s construction trades man- the world’s most remote island nations. agement certificate program, from which The topic of their three-day meeting was she graduated May 23, stands out, she said. the danger posed by rising sea levels. If, as “The work we did in class was so very practi- scientists predict, sea levels rise by at least cal, and I learned from conversations with one meter during this century, some island my partners—we’re all in the same industry,” nations could essentially cease to exist, said Sinaswee, who was selected to speak at posing a host of unprecedented humani- the graduation. tarian and legal issues. The program is already paying off for Ar- “We are the canaries in the climate mada, which just completed a large painting change mine,” said Dessima Williams, the job at 415 Riverside Dr., a Columbia-owned ambassador of Grenada to the United Na- residence. “For a Harlem business, being tions and the chair of the Association of recognized by Columbia is a very big thing,” Small Island States, in a speech to the hun- Sinaswee said. dreds of lawyers, government officials and She is one of 25 professionals from 19 scholars who had gathered for the confer- firms who earned certificates this year ence, titled “Threatened Island Nations: from a joint Columbia University-New Legal Implications of Rising Seas and a York City Small Business Services men- Changing Climate.” torship program for minority, women and local entrepreneurs. The nine-month pro- gram’s curriculum is based on the School “There has been enough of Continuing Education’s highly suc- cessful master of science in construction Motor neurons cultured in vitro at neurobiologist Thomas Jessell’s laboratory administration. talk. It is time for action. Since the program’s inception in January Jerome L. Greene Science Center Will Be Interdisciplinary Hub 2008, professionals from nearly 50 firms It is time we took have graduated and garnered more than By Record Staff tiative. It is supported by a $250 million gift from $32 million in construction trades work, the late Dawn Greene and the Jerome L. Greene charge of our future.” including jobs with the city and Columbia. Foundation, and will bring together a cohort of “From the beginning, our vision was to cre- ixty years ago, when neurology department Columbia researchers roughly equal in scope to ate a program that would benefit minority, professor Harry Grundfest was doing ground- that of Rockefeller University on Manhattan’s east The Marshall Islands, just west of the women and local firms in the construction Sbreaking research that attracted the likes of side. In years ahead, the blocks between 129th International Date Line and just north of trades industry and at the same time help future Nobel laureate Eric Kandel to Columbia, and 131st will also become a new home for Co- the equator, are considered one of the most identify firms that might be able to work he designed a workspace at the medical center lumbia Business School, School of the Arts, the endangered, along with Tuvalu and Kiribati, with Columbia or other large institutional that was intended to promote maximum contact School of International and Public Affairs, as well also in the Pacific Ocean, and the Maldives firms,” said Joe Ienuso, executive vice pres- among his postdoctoral students. as a University conference center. As a result, the and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. ident at Columbia University Facilities. “We Research rooms surrounded a large central Manhattanville campus will become a mixing The global networking event was con- have been successful in both regards.” area, where a blackboard filled an entire wall bowl for a diversity of academic disciplines—and vened by Michael Gerrard, a Columbia Law and long tables and chairs filled the middle, free up much-needed space on the Morningside School professor and head of its Center for according to a monograph written later by and medical center campuses. Climate Change Law. Scholars around the one of the post-docs. Discussions and debates University President Lee C. Bollinger notes world have been working separately on the occurred throughout the day, particularly at that “the Mind Brain Behavior Initiative has two issues, but “now they have formed friend- lunch, where on the center table sat several jars functions. It’s the initiative in the Greene build- ships that will greatly facilitate internation- of Kosher sour dill pickles, delivered regularly ing in Manhattanville, and it’s the link for the al exchange on these issues,” he said. from the Lower East Side. work there to every other Gerrard had the idea for the May 23-25 Now rising on the one- part of the University.” event after Philip Muller, the Marshall Is- time site of parking lots and He emphasizes that the lands ambassador to the United Nations, warehouses in Manhattan- initiative will provide a new approached him for help in late 2009 ville is the University’s ef- forum for connecting many with the unique legal questions posed by fort to recreate that kind of To see a video about Columbia’s Mind Brain different parts of the Uni- rising oceans. Behavior Initiative, visit news.columbia.edu/mbbi

Bruce Gil b er t collaborative space in the versity—from cutting-edge Funding from Columbia’s Earth Insti- The winning team for construction trades management received Jerome L. Greene Science biomedical research to the tute, the World Bank and the governments honorary certificates May 23. From left,C oldit Thompson, Andrea Building—not just for a single department, but social sciences, arts and humanities—to collabo- of South Korea, Australia and Israel made Moyen, Fatemeh Modarres and Kenneth Shin. for a wide range of disciplines related to neuro- rate on essential questions of human behavior. it possible for delegates from the endan- Participants are trained in such topics as science. The first new structure to be completed “This is a remaking of the intellectual life of the gered nations to attend, he said. marketing and communications, disputes in the University’s long-term campus plan, the University,” he added. Though there was talk of reducing the and negotiations, and insurance and bonds, nine-story, 450,000-square-foot building will “Renzo and his architects have thought very greenhouse gases that cause global warm- as well as project planning and sustainabil- have 60 laboratories where faculty and students hard about how you populate that building with ing, most of the conference participants ity. They are assigned mentors, who are will explore the relationships between gene a thousand scientists and maintain interactions seemed resigned to the inevitability that building and business experts from banks, function, brain wiring and behavior—research that range from a small, impromptu group of climate change will affect them. “There unions and large construction firms. with vast implications for the treatment of brain three or four people who want to discuss an idea has been enough talk. It is time for action. “The program touches on every aspect illnesses and neurodegenerative diseases such as all the way through more formal presentations It is time we took charge of our future,” of how to create a business,” said Roxanne Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. that attract 150 to 200,” said Thomas Jessell, co- said Jureland Zedkaia, president of the Re- Tzitzikalakis, who graduated in the first Designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano director of the Mind, Brain, Behavior Initiative public of the Marshall Islands, during an cohort in 2008. “Class projects gave us and scheduled to open in 2015, the Greene build- and a professor of biochemistry and molecular emotional appearance at a dinner in Low a chance to connect schooling with the ing will be home to the Mind Brain Behavior Ini- physics (see Q&A on page 11). Memorial Library. continued on page 4 continued on page 10 continued on page 9

www.columbia.edu/news 2 june 22, 2010 TheRecord on deck MILESTONES

GARY SHTEYNGART, assistant pro- fessor of writing at the School of the Arts, has won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction for his 2011 novel, Super Sad True Love Story. He is the first American to win the award, which was established 11 years ago and named for the author P.G. Wodehouse. It is sponsored by Bollinger, a producer of sparkling wines (no relation to Columbia’s president), and Everyman’s Library, a division of Ran- dom House.

The New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center appointed 15 new fellows for 2011-2012, among them three Columbia professors. Soci- ology professor Shamus Khan, whose recent book focused on Shamus Khan America’s privileged youth, will spend his fellowship studying social inequality and America’s elite. Assistant history professor Evan Haefeli, who specializes in colonial America and Native am e s American history, will write about Evan Haefeli America’s tradition of religious

Mich a el D freedom. James P. Shenton Pro- fessor of the Core Susan Peder- sen will complete a book about Making it official the effects of the mandates sys- Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger and Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus mark their agreement to reinstate the Naval Reserve Officers Training tem of the League of Nations on Corps (NROTC) programs at Columbia after more than 40 years. The May 26 ceremony was held onboard the USS Iwo Jima, docked in New York the imperial order. for the Navy’s annual Fleet Week. The University will resume formal recognition of NROTC after the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law that Susan Pedersen disqualified openly gay men and lesbians from military service. During their remarks, Mabus revealed that he received hisN avy commission at a Two teachers at The School at Co- ceremony held on Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus 42 years ago. Bollinger noted that his father was a Marine in the Pacific who arrived lumbia University, Julie Broderick at Iwo Jima soon after the famous battle. Pictured standing from left are Rear Adm. Herman Shelanski, whose brother, Dr. Michael Shelanski, is and Greg Benedis-Grab, have chair of the pathology department at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons; Assistant Secretary of the Navy Juan Garcia III and University won the prestigious Presidential Trustee Michael Rothfeld. Award for Excellence in Mathe- matics and Science Teaching. They Julie Broderick are among 85 teachers selected nationally by a panel of scientists, mathematicians Brain Stem and educators. Winners receive a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation and a trip to Dear Alma, Washington, D.C., for an awards cer- Columbia is big in interdisciplinary neuro- emony, educational events and visits science, including two Nobel laureates, but with members of Congress and the who came before them? administration. The School at Co- Gene Benedis-Grab USPS 090-710 ISSN 0747-4504 Vol. 36, No. 12, June 24, 2011 —Neuro Fan lumbia, which is sponsored by the University, has Dear Neuro Fan, nearly 500 students in grades K-8. Before there were neuroscientists at Published by the Columbia, there was Harry Grundfest, a Office of Communications and professor of neurology who taught at the Public Affairs College of Physicians and Surgeons start- grants & gifts ing in 1945. Grundfest’s contributions to David M. Stone what was then called neurophysiology Executive Vice President were “extensive, touching all corners of the WHO GAVE IT: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for Communications field, providing inspiration and direction HOW MUCH: $1.5 million to more than 100 young scientists and pro- ASK ALMA’S OWL WHO GOT IT: Columbia Engineering posing mechanisms for how membrane WHAT FOR: To fund a project led by Professor Kartik TheRecord Staff: electrical events determine cellular pro- Chandran of Earth and Environmental Engineering Editor: Bridget O’Brian cesses,” according to a 1995 biographical about his political views. Government Designer: Nicoletta Barolini to develop and implement human waste-to-biodiesel University Photographer: Eileen Barroso memoir of Grundfest by John P. Reuben, funding for his research quickly dried up. a medical researcher who wrote many pa- With the support of the medical school technology in Ghana. Contact The Record: pers with him. dean Grundfest’s career eventually recov- t: 212-854-2391 WHO GAVE IT: Canning and Eliza Fok, parents of a f: 212-678-4817 Born in Minsk, Russia, Grundfest and his ered, and he went on to write scores of Columbia College student graduating in 2013 e: [email protected] family immigrated to the United States in papers with colleagues. Each summer, he 1913, when he was nine. He received his moved his research materials to the Ma- HOW MUCH: $1 million The Record is published every three weeks bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate in zool- rine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, between September and June. WHO GOT IT: Columbia College ogy and physiology from Columbia, then Mass., where he and his research assistants WHAT FOR: To endow financial aid for international taught at Swarthmore and Cornell before would study single nerve cells in sea crea- Correspondence/Subscriptions joining the Rockefeller Institute (as Rocke- tures such as squid. students attending Columbia College. Anyone may subscribe to The Record for $27 feller University was then called), where he per year. The amount is payable in advance to Grundfest is credited with influencing WHO GAVE IT: Frank Cicero (CC’92) Columbia University, at the address below. Al- did research with Herbert Gasser, who later hundreds of young researchers during his HOW MUCH: $500,000 low 6 to 8 weeks for address changes. won a Nobel Prize for his study of electrical years at Columbia. One of them was Eric signaling in nerve cells. R. Kandel, University Professor and Kavli WHO GOT IT: Columbia Athletics, Columbia College Postmaster/Address Changes During World War II, Grundfest worked Professor of Brain Science, who was fin- WHAT FOR: This gift will provide $350,000 to the Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and for the government doing research on ishing his studies at New York University’s planned Campbell Sports Center at Baker Athletics additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send wound damage to the nervous system, and address changes to The Record, 535 W. 116th medical school in 1955 when he decided Complex, $100,000 to the Columbia College Fund St., 402 Low Library, Mail Code 4321, New after the war was recruited to Columbia’s to take a basic neural science elective at York, NY 10027. new neurophysiology laboratory at P&S. Columbia with Grundfest. and $50,000 to Columbia’s football program. His expertise in both biology and electri- In 2000, Kandel shared the Nobel cal engineering was unusual, as were his Prize in Medicine for his seminal work Donor Impact in Action studies of the nervous systems of many with the sea slug Aplysia, a creature with To see 24 stories of how donors to The Columbia different animals. He studied biochemical Happening at relatively few nerve cells. His experience Campaign are fueling innovation across the Univer- changes in nerve cell signals and moved with Grundfest, the Nobel laureate writes quickly up the academic ladder. in his autobiography, In Search of Memo- sity, visit http://campaignimpact.columbia.edu. Columbia His career was sidetracked in 1953, ry, propelled him to “a new career, a new when he was called before Sen. Joseph way of life.” For the latest on upcoming Columbia events, McCarthy’s Senate subcommittee to testify The name of Samantha Power, who gave the Annual performances, seminars and lectures, go to as to whether he was a Communist sym- —Bridget O’Brian Vera and Donald Blinken Lecture on March 28, 2011, calendar.columbia.edu pathizer. Grundfest testified that he wasn’t Send your questions for Alma’s Owl to was misspelled in a photo caption in the May 13 issue but took the Fifth Amendment when asked [email protected]. of The Record. TheRecord june 24, 2011 3 Iran Scholar, at 91, Puts in 11-Hour Days on Encyclopedia

By Anna Spinner for Iranian Studies, which he founded in 1968. Sitting in his Riverside Drive office crowded with towering bookcases and Persian art, he or years, Iranian studies scholar Ehsan explains why the work is so time-consuming. Yarshater was frustrated that there was Contributors write in various languages, and F only one comprehensive and reliable between research, translation, editing and reference for his field. It was E.J. Brill’s Ency- fact-checking, an entry can take up to two clopaedia of Islam, which did not cover pre- years for completion. Islamic Iran. Originally from the city of Hamadan (for- Another encyclopedia was needed, so he merly Ekbatana) in Iran, Yarshater has two decided to create it himself. In 1974, Yarshater doctorates in Iranian studies, from the Univer- began a decades-long work-in-progress that is sities of Tehran and London. He has authored widely considered the most important schol- or edited such seminal works as Persian Poetry arly contribution to Iranian studies. And it’s in the Second Half of the 15th Century (1953) only half complete. and the third volume of the Cambridge History “I thought that Persian history and culture of Iran, in two parts (1983, 1986). But he says needed to be known by the scholars and the the encyclopedia stands out from all the rest. students and the whole world properly, im- “In terms of its service to Iranian studies partially and accurately,” says Yarshater, the and in terms of its use and its benefits, it’s the 91-year-old director of Columbia’s Center for best thing that I have done,” says Yarshater, a Iranian Studies, the Hagop Kevorkian Profes- widower who considers the encyclopedia and sor Emeritus of Iranian Studies and the general other projects his children. editor of both the Encyclopaedia Iranica and The National Endowment for the Hu- the History of Persian Literature. manities (NEH) has supported the project The Encyclopaedia Iranica aims to docu- for more than 30 years. NEH reviewers, ex- ment all aspects of the Iranian world from perts in the field who anonymously evaluate prehistory to the present. Entries range from a project for funding, have called Encyclo- archaeology and agriculture to political sci- paedia Iranica the “best impartial, non- eileen ba rro s o ence and botany. Geographic coverage in- governmental, and academically rigorous Professor Ehsan Yarshater discusses the challenges of compiling the Encyclopaedia Iranica in his book-lined office. cludes all Iranian civilization in the Middle source” in the study of Iran. East, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Indian The NEH grants were especially useful af- history of pre-Islamic Iran. He uses it himself, on, Encyclopaedia Iranica had to do its own subcontinent. ter the Iranian government, once a financial and it’s the first place he sends his students. fieldwork. “I asked a friend in Iran, and he sent But the very scale of the project is one of its supporter of the project, cut off funding after “There are about 100 or more encyclope- someone to southeastern Persia where there greatest challenges. After 37 years of work and the 1979 revolution. “I approached the chair- dias being written or in progress on Iran right are lots of camels to find out about how they contributions from 1,400 of the world’s fore- man of the national endowment … to ask for now, but I don’t think anything is really of the are branded,” says Yarshater. most Iranian scholars, the encyclopedia this support, even though it was during the hos- importance and scope of Encyclopaedia Iran- Once the first edition is complete, the work year is only halfway through the letter K. With tage crisis, as I believed that scholarly projects ica,” he says. will continue. Entries written in the 1970s will about 800 scattered entries later in the alpha- should not be taken hostage for political con- Like many of the leaders in the field, Dary- need updating, and new ones will be needed bet completed, the encyclopedia has at least siderations,” Yarshater says. aee has contributed a few entries himself. to keep pace with historical developments and another decade to go. All entries are available The reference tool is useful to scholars at all Even the most esoteric subjects get the recent research. for free online. levels, says Professor Touraj Daryaee of the Uni- full treatment. One example is animal brand- “That is why I have set up a foundation to Yarshater works 11-hour days at the Center versity of California, Irvine, who teaches the ing, or dagh. Without any scholarship to rely support the project after me,” says Yarshater.

On exhibit: Envisioning Jazz

By John Uhl school of education could have lured me away he photography exhibition Envisioning Jazz is on view primary interest has been recording the political and from my current position at Columbia.” T in the lobby of the Miller Theatre at Columbia Univer- cultural dimensions of the African diaspora. University President Lee C. Bollinger wished sity School of the Arts. The exhibition showcases some The show, curated by Erica Agyeman, runs through fter two years at Columbia as University Steele well. “Though personally saddened by of the pivotal moments of innovation and improvisation July 10, 2011, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The exhibit is provost, Claude Steele is returning to Claude’s decision to return to Stanford, I com- in jazz history captured by Kwame Brathwaite, a photog- free and open to the public, no tickets or reservations re- A Stanford University, where he will be- pletely understand this life choice,” he said in rapher with more than 50 years of photojournalistic ex- quired. For more information go to http: news.columbia come dean of its School of Education. A noted the same email announcing Steele’s departure. perience in Harlem. Though employed as a commercial, .edu/oncampus/2427. social psychologist, Steele came to Morn- “Given Claude’s great talents and the impor- fashion and entertainment photographer, Brathwaite’s ingside Heights in May 2009 from Stanford, tance of the issues he wants to explore and re- where he served as a professor of psychology solve, this is clearly a benefit to society, while from 1991 to 2009 and led the psychol- it is equally a loss for us at Columbia.” ogy department as chair from 1997 Steele is noted for developing the con- to 2000. cept of “stereotype threat” which, he Steele has conducted a wide says, is “simply being in a situation range of research, examining such where a negative stereotype about one issues as self-identity, group ste- of your identities could apply. Then reotypes and addictive behaviors. you know you could be judged or He described the decision to leave treated in terms of that stereotype.” Columbia as perhaps the most dif- His book on the subject, Whistling ficult of his career. Vivaldi, and Other Clues to How In an email to the Univer- Stereotypes Affect Us, was pub- sity community, Steele said lished in 2010 and uses real- he loved his job here. “It is a life examples and the results fascinating, challenging and of many scientific experi- constantly stimulating expe- ments to illustrate this theory, rience to be the provost of making the crucial point that a great research university, stereotype threat is not lim- especially one that is thriving on so many ited to race. It can be seen in situations involv- important fronts.” However, he added, “life ing gender, age and other examples of group doesn’t always go as planned. The decision identity. “All of my research, in some way or to accept the Stanford offer came down to a another, bears on the value of diversity in par- difficult-to-pass-up opportunity to play a role ticipation in American society,” Steele told The in the field of education.” Record in October 2009. As a scholar, Steele has sought to understand “It’s an incredibly important life mission the processes that drive educational achieve- of mine and part of my character. I’m always ment. In his new role, he is looking forward wending my way toward a support for that, to developing the implications of that work in and for facilitating that in American society. the area of education policy and practice. Full participation—that’s what I think of when “It is an important time to be rejoining that I think of the idea of diversity. And among

h wa i t e K wam e Br at vital mission,” he said. “Nothing less than this the Ivies, Columbia, I am proud to say, has the Betty Carter at Club 845 in the Bronx, 1957-58 rare opportunity to do so at such a strong most diverse student body of all of them.” 4 june 24, 2011 TheRecord Sizing Up the Internet’s Toll on News Coverage Academic Commons Makes More Research By Jay Akasie outlets and the amount of information created by the Internet, the quality of investigative reporting in this country is mediocre at best. “This is likely to lead to the kinds of problems that are, not surpris- Accessible Online ederal Communications Commission chair Julius Genachows- ingly, associated with a lack of accountability—more government ki (CC’83) came to Columbia Journalism School June 10 to waste, more local corruption, less effective schools and other seri- By Nick Obourn F discuss a long-awaited report from his agency on the chang- ous community problems,” Waldman said. ing face of American media. The news was decidedly mixed. Broadcast outlets are faring better than print, but not by much. While the 478-page report chronicles the widely known decline Many local news stations broadcast more hours per day than 10 t goes without saying that scholars want of traditional journalism, it also provides a range of recommenda- years ago, but their programming is more likely to consist of “pay- their research to attract attention, and now tions of innovative policies and practices that will encourage qual- for-play” segments, where the subjects of stories have reimbursed I a mechanism exists for their work to be ity news coverage. “The report makes clear that new technology is the TV station in return for feature coverage. seen by a wider public. creating a new world of opportunity to empower journalists and One conclusion from the report—surprising to some, given that Since January, Columbia faculty have been inform the public like never before,” Genachowski said. it came from a governmental agency—was that “government is not voting on an open access resolution that calls Titled “The Information Needs of the main player in this drama.” While it for them to post journal articles, as well as data- Communities,” the report pinpoints can remove obstacles and, “most of the sets, book chapters and other scholarly output, what Genachowski called “an emerging solutions to today’s media problems will to Academic Commons, a website managed by gap in local news reporting that has not be found by entrepreneurs, reporters, the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship yet been fully filled by digital media. This and creative citizens, not legislators or (CDRS), a division of Columbia Libraries. matters,” he added, “because if citizens agencies.” There are, however, a number Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory was the don’t get local news and information, the of government policies that could be first to adopt the resolution, and the Libraries health of our democracy suffers.” helpful to journalism, including elimi- followed suit in June. Other institutes and de- Steven Waldman (CC’83) led the FCC’s nating some of the FCC’s own unneces- partments will be voting this year on whether working group, which wrote the report. sary rules and putting the agency’s pub- to do the same. A longtime print journalist, Waldman is lic documents online. As of June, there were a total of 3,646 items co-founder and editor-in-chief of the “Universal broadband is the prereq- on the platform, but that number is expected website Belief.net; as an undergraduate, uisite for all of us,” said Waldman. “The to grow exponentially in the coming year. The he was editor of the Columbia Spectator idea is that if your local newspaper is of site is freely accessible to the public, giving when Genachowski was a staff writer. low quality, you can go online and see academics a bigger audience for their work Much like Columbia Journalism others.” Along those lines, the report en- than was previously available through costly School’s December 2009 report by for- couraged states to set up their own ver- subscription-based journals. mer Washington Post editor Leonard sions of C-Span, and called for the fed- Some papers at the Mailman School of Pub- Downie and professor Michael Schud- eral government to move all of its public lic Health are already in the database, includ- son, Waldman and his team found ample records to the Internet so that citizens ing the working papers from the National Cen- evidence that traditional news outlets FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski spoke at Columbia Journalism can better police their democracy. And ter for Disaster Preparedness. have been hard pressed to make money School about the Internet. when a government entity—federal, state “I see knowledge as an instrument of power with Internet technology. Print advertising revenue has dropped or local—spends money on advertising, it should use local media. for the transformation of communities and $22.6 billion from 2005 to 2009, according to the FCC’s report, One of the bright spots in the report is that nonprofit organiza- places,” said Clara Irazábal, director of the Latin while online revenue increased $716 million. Staffing at daily news- tions such as ProPublica on the national level and various innova- Lab and assistant professor of urban planning papers has dropped 25% since 2006. tive partnerships on the local level have emerged as serious provid- at the Graduate School of Architecture, Plan- The FCC report also found that despite the sheer number of news ers of quality, investigative reporting. “I see knowledge as an Small Business continued from page 1 instrument of power for

ing a joint venture with a larger mechanical the transformation of contractor and has secured a small business grant from Goldman Sachs. The certificate/mentorship program communities and places.” is part of a larger initiative for minority, women and locally owned businesses un- dertaken by Columbia. The University’s ning and Preservation, who has posted 19 of goal is to spend at least 35 percent of all her own articles on the site. “Posting our work construction dollars with such firms and in public databases such as Academic Com- have at least 40 percent of its construc- mons is a significant step in circumventing this tion labor force made up of women, mi- barrier.” norities and local workers. “We have one Columbia isn’t alone is creating such a plat- of the most aggressive goals around,” said form. “The repository movement has been La-Verna Fountain, associate vice presi- around since the 1990s, but has really taken off dent in Facilities. “The CAP program will in the last few years,” said Rebecca Kennison, help us by identifying those construction director of CDRS, which was founded in July trade firms that are a good match for 2007. Among the earliest innovators were the the University, and it will help firms that Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cor- come through the program by introduc- nell University and the University of Virginia, ing them to potential clients.” which created the programming platforms Sinaswee’s Armada—which began as a used in most university online repositories to- Harlem-based cleaning service in 2006— day, including Columbia’s. has expanded to include general con- The University’s first iteration of Academic tracting work, including tiling, painting Commons was called DigitalCommons@Co- and handyman services. In addition to the lumbia and was launched under the auspices of Bruce Gil b er t A total of 25 professionals from 19 firms earned certificates from the mentorship program this year. work at Columbia, Sinaswee’s firm is cur- the Libraries Digital Program Division in 2006. rently working on a large painting project At first the platform served as an online reposi- practical aspects of running a business. nearly tripled since participating in the at the Yonkers YWCA. She makes sure to tory only for the Center on Japanese Economy You can’t grow a company without a strong program, and she has hired more than 30 hire from her Harlem neighborhood. and Business and the Economics Department. foundation.” new employees in just two years. While Co- The city’s expansion of Columbia’s con- In 2008, Columbia began using the name Now, New York City’s Small Business lumbia is currently her biggest client, she is tracting mentorship program comes at a Academic Commons and placed the platform Services is building on the program and ex- also doing work for the State University of time when the University is also expand- under the care of the center. “A concerted effort panding it as part of its Corporate Alliance New York and the State of New York. ing its role as the host of the first and only by our team over the last few years has grown Program, which aims to connect program “We know that building your portfolio Small Business Development Center serv- the collection substantively,” said Kennison. participants to contracting opportunities in and diversifying your ing Harlem and Upper The University initiative to make more in- the private sector. client list is key to be- Manhattan. A public- formation available online is mirrored by a “The city has made tremendous progress coming more competi- private collaboration broader, global impulse to digitize books and in expanding the opportunities available to tive,” said Walsh. “The funded in part by the other cultural and scientific content, such as minority and women business owners under Corporate Alliance Pro- U.S. Small Business Ad- Google’s project to build the world’s largest Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership,” said Rob gram will offer this edge To see a video about this mentorship ministration and led by digital library. Walsh, commissioner of the city’s Depart- to the firms that need program, visit news.columbia.edu/mwl the University’s Office Supporters of Academic Commons believe ment of Small Business Services. “Partnering help building capacity.” of Government and the website has the potential to reduce the with Columbia was one of the ways we were Indeed, Jimmy Moy- Community Affairs and distance between the academy and the pub- able to do that. And we will now take the les- en, a graduate of this year’s cohort, says that engineering school, the SBDC provides a lic. “Simply put, knowledge is a public good,” sons learned from this three-year experience the majority of his business now comes from wide range of technical assistance, training said Arthur Lerner-Lam, interim director of to create an even better program. municipalities, and Columbia is his largest and support to entrepreneurs, small busi- Lamont-Doherty. “The results of our research Tzitzikalakis, CEO of Eagle Two Con- private client. As the head of First Choice nesses and nonprofit organizations in the should be widely available for the benefit of struction in Brooklyn, says her sales have Mechanical in Queens, he is now explor- local community. humankind.” TheRecord june 24, 2011 5 graduate student Teaching award winners Lamont-Doherty Geochemist Graduate Student in breathes life into curriculum Music Excels at Teaching By Kimberley Martineau Core Curriculum By Elizabeth Thomas ver billions of years, Earth’s continents have split apart and rejoined, and ice sheets have disappeared. Although the oon after graduating from college, Tyler Bick- Onatural world is full of drama, the problem for teachers is ford taught music for a year at a rural Vermont that it happens in geological time, not real time. Selementary school. Years later, the same school Enter Columbia graduate student Kat Allen, who has developed would serve as a rich laboratory for his Columbia a repertoire of techniques for bringing the popular introductory dissertation about how kids consume digital media. geology course, “The Climate System,” to life. On the way to earning his Ph.D. in ethnomusicol- “Physicists can drop objects and roll model cars down ramps to ogy, Bickford returned to Vermont to take notes on demonstrate universal forces,” she says. “But geologists can’t fit an how some 70 K-8 schoolchildren share earbud head- entire river delta into a lecture hall. If you’re stuck in a classroom, phones and use MP3 players. Before long, he found you need to be creative.” himself recruited back into teaching music apprecia- She tries to make concepts tangible for her students, compar- tion to the same group of youngsters. ing the size of an iceberg to Central Park or the depth of an ocean “Running a second-grade class, you learn that you trench to Mount Everest. have to have clear ground rules so that you can then At Commencement, Allen received Columbia’s top teaching back off a lot and be more exploratory,” says Bick- honor, which comes with an $8,000 prize. ford, whose dissertation was titled “Children’s Music, In her lab at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Earth & Environmental Sciences graduate student Kat Allen in scuba gear off Puerto Rico. MP3 Players, and Expressive Practices at a Vermont Allen studies ancient plankton shells to learn about past ocean coffee and cookies.” A study from the journal Science suggesting Elementary School: Media Consumption as Social acidification. Her research has involved scuba diving off Puerto that dinosaurs could see in the dark led to this set of rhymes: “Eye Organization Among Schoolchildren.” Rico and California’s Catalina Island to collect living plankton that shape and size just might/Show dinos prowled at night!/With great When he returned to Columbia to finish his she brings back to the lab and grows in glass jars. big teeth/And claws beneath:/They’d give me quite a fright!” degree, he was given a different kind of challenge: She spends weeks measuring how the water’s temperature, “I like to think of coffee hour as a social catalyst,” she explains. teaching the Core Curriculum seminar “Introduc- acidity and other measures influence the growth of the plankton’s “I have no idea if the silly poems motivate people to come, but tion to Contemporary Civilization in the West” to shell, the better to understand the ocean’s past chemistry and es- they’ve sparked some fun conversations.” College sophomores. This year, his efforts were hon- timate how much carbon dioxide was in the air. Despite exotic When it comes to teaching, Allen is a firm believer in getting ored with the University’s highest teaching award. fieldwork locations, most of the work involves long days in a lab, students outdoors to learn about earth’s processes. At Columbia, The class navigated texts by the likes of Aristo- but Allen goes about her work “humming and whistling, always in she has led her fellow graduate students on field trips to Iceland tle, Kant and Nietzsche, an unusual curriculum for a good mood,” says her colleague and adviser, Bärbel Hönisch. and brought New York City high school students to Piermont someone who once lectured at Columbia on Bob Growing up, Allen liked exploring the tide pools and crags Marsh on the Hudson River to do their own research. Dylan. Bickford calls it the best job he’s ever had. near her hometown of Falmouth, Maine, and says it was probably Two of her students this year made it to the finals of the presti- As he did in Vermont with his much younger this early exposure to the outdoors that led her to study geology gious Intel International Science and Technology Fair for original students, Bickford aimed to foster open idea shar- at Case Western Reserve University. At the suggestion of her row- research on a threatened bayou fish. In the classroom, she explains ing by assigning ungraded, stream-of-consciousness ing coach, she applied for and won a Churchill Scholarship to how data are collected using specialized instruments, from satel- journal entries in tandem with narrowly focused Cambridge University. lites to air balloons. “I think it’s important for students to get in academic papers. She came to Columbia in 2007 for her Ph.D. and is known at the habit of asking questions like: How was that measured? What’s “Often students would write in their journals Lamont for her “coffee poems,” which put the latest journal studies the uncertainty?” she says. “In a world flooded with information, I about connections into verse. Every Friday she sends an email to her colleagues with want students to make informed decisions, whether they end up they thought were her latest effort, closing with an invitation to “come on down for in a science career or not.” too far out or would be inappropriate to write papers about— self-help books and Epictetus, the Harry Computer Science Postdoc Rips up Potter books a n d Hume, Hobbes and Judith Butler—but Syllabus, Redesigns Class, Wins Award which were actually really smart,” Bick- By Adam Piore and the students loved it,” agrees John R. ford recalls. “I’d try Kender, a professor of computer science to show them how who prepared Lee’s dossier for the award it could be a solid a l p er

ae Woo Lee knows what it is like to feel on behalf of the department. Lee’s over- idea for a paper, and ba r a confused in class. He spoke almost no all vision for the advanced programming they’d run with it.” Tyler Bickford, an ethnomusicologist, JEnglish when he immigrated to Flush- course was an even bigger hit with the Victor ia Fox , a won a Presidential Teaching Award ing, Queens, from Korea at age 18. At Bay- computer science department. senior film studies for graduate students. side High School, “I could see what was Not only did Lee’s professors embrace it major at the College, recalls being intimidated by on the board in math and science classes,” for their own classes, they coauthored an philosophy in high school, but in Bickford’s seminar recalls Lee, who is now working toward a article on his course structure, which Lee in 2009, she discovered how texts like Plato’s The Ph.D. in computer science at Columbia. presented at a national computer science Republic were relevant to her life. Now she’s working “But for three months, I couldn’t really un- teaching conference. toward a philosophy concentration. “The free-form derstand what people were saying.” In “a lot of educational enterprises, you writing made me approach the papers a lot more His academic struggles, and others Lee basically earn your grade as a student by creatively,” she says. encountered as a Columbia College phys- working by yourself,” says Kender. Lee, Raised in Puerto Rico by a pair of teachers, Bick- ics major, stayed with him. Three years a l p er on the other hand, “has this idea that as ford majored in music and modern studies at Bard ago, when he began teaching a notoriously long as people didn’t cheat outright, the College at Simon’s Rock, earning his B.A. in 2001. He difficult undergraduate computer science ba r a Jae Woo Lee won a teaching award after redesigning a more communication they could have to now hopes to secure teaching work in a field related course, the first thing he did was redesign computer science course. understand the material, the better for ev- to his studies. the class to help students master crucial eryone,” Kender says. At the core of his research is a deep interest in fundamentals. sophomores and juniors, could use more The inspiration for this approach was the status of children in society. “There has been an “When I was in college, I was not a focused guidance. Lee’s own experience as a physics under- explosion in the commercial power of kids buying very good student,” Lee recalls. “It’s not He tore up the syllabus and winnowed graduate, when he struggled so much with media,” Bickford says. “That’s honest-to-goodness because I wasn’t smart. Some of the down the number of topics, then used the coursework that he took a year off be- political power.” professors just didn’t put enough effort the extra time to help students master tween his sophomore and junior years. He Professor Aaron Fox, chair of the music depart- into designing their courses and preparing fundamental skills they would need to returned to Columbia more mature and ment and no relation to Victoria, first met Bickford their lectures.” survive future systems-oriented comput- confident, he says, and consistently made about seven years ago and supervised his disserta- Last month, Lee’s innovations brought er science courses. the dean’s list. tion. He says that Bickford’s dedication to the young him University-wide recognition when he He also created a social network to But he felt he would have benefited subjects of his research mirrors the core values of won a Presidential Teaching Award. Lee’s encourage online collaboration. Then he greatly from more explicit direction and Columbia’s ethnomusicology program. citation called attention to “remarkable devised 10 programming assignments that guidance. As a young student, “you just “As confident as he is in his ability, his focus is praise” from his students, who recognized built upon one another, culminating in a don’t know what to do,” he noted. always on the other person at the table,” Fox says. “a unique, exciting educator who has ex- tangible, real-world application: a fully “When I create assignments I do them Fox also notes that Bickford is a rare example ercised a decisive influence over their pro- functional Web server. At the end of the myself first, and I also structure them so of a music graduate student teaching a seminar on fessional development.” semester, when students typed in a URL there is only one way to do it correctly. If contemporary civilization. But he adds: “I expect Lee began teaching in 2008 when the and watched a Web page generated by you get off track, you know it immediately,” this will be a more and more common thing now computer science department had to find their own server appear in their browsers, he says. “Many of my assignments were five that Tyler’s example has demonstrated that students an instructor on short notice to lead Ad- many of them emitted “screams that woke or six pages long, single-spaced. The point in music can successfully contribute to Columbia’s vanced Programming 3157. He quickly up the neighbors,” Lee recalls. is that the assignment describes everything undergraduate Core Curriculum in ways that go be- decided his students, mostly Columbia The server assignments “were a big hit the student needs to complete it.” yond ‘Music Humanities’.” 6 june 28, 2011 Record Commencement Words of Wisdom 22 011 011 Excerpts from Graduation Speeches

LEE C. Bollinger Alexandra Wallace Creed Kofi Annan Columbia University Columbia College School of International and Public Affairs eileen ba rro s o eileen ba rro s o eileen ba rro s o

have always had a special fondness for Alexander hen I was sitting in your seat 23 years ago … I ou are the first generation who can truly call your- Hamilton. Despite being a precocious advocate for had no idea what I wanted to do next. Little did selves global citizens. … I American independence as a student, at what was WI know how well, in fact, I was prepared for life. Y We need you to take the lead. … In North Africa then known as King’s College in lower Manhattan, he And you are, too. You know how to navigate the greatest and the Middle East, it is young people who are demanding famously stood between a fleeing college president, Dr. city in the world. You have read the world’s great books. change for the better. Young Arab men—and importantly, Myles Cooper, and an angry mob upset over Cooper’s no- You appreciate history and art and music. You know how women—have refused to stand idly by and allow dictator- torious loyalty to the crown. This gave Cooper a chance to to question everything you are presented with. You are ships to continue neglecting their people. … escape from campus in the nighttime darkness and make thoughtful. The events in the Middle East and North Africa … can his way down to the Hudson shore where he caught a boat If you are at all like me, you have discovered novel ways seem a long way from our own lives. But I believe they are to England and never returned. Hamilton thus earned a to make it through all-nighters before exams. You have a reminder—perhaps even a rebuke—to those of us who al- special place in the heart of every Columbia president— friends who come from completely different backgrounds ready enjoy the rights others are fighting and dying for. In including me—for bravely standing up for the principle than yours. In fact, some of your best friends today will many countries in the developed world, it is not dictators but that one’s sworn political opponents shouldn’t be tarred still be your best friends 25 years from now. our own complacency which is the threat to democracy. … and feathered for their views. Witness my closest friends who are here today, my team- So I want to appeal to you, to challenge you, to get in- But Hamilton and his fellow student John Jay became mates from the Columbia women’s tennis team. So while I volved in public service or politics … to stand up for demo- known for something else, too, namely for being the authors was sitting at my own Class Day, I had no idea what I wanted cratic principles and values. … Don’t leave it to others. Don’t of now classic public essays meant to reason and persuade to do with my life, I now realize the seeds of what I was limit your involvement to your profession. Be engaged … the public to embrace the federal constitution. They did this suited to do existed in me from the day I was born … citizens in everything you do. And not just at home, but in- in an era when violence and conflict were the order of the I was very lucky to have a role model in my father, a ternationally. … day, when the press was highly partisan and public debate man who graduated with a degree in international law and As the developments in the Middle East and North Africa was filled with scurrilous personal attacks. Yet no one ever who has improved lives all over the world by helping de- indicate, economic growth and security cannot be sustained made a more nuanced argument, respectful of the complex- veloping countries strengthen legal systems. He graduated in the long term without democracy, the rule of law and re- ities of life, on behalf of a good society than Hamilton and from law school, spent a year at a fancy New York law spect for human rights. Jay did in the Federalist Papers. firm, and then realized that life was short, and money was Improving governance demands we respect the integrity Now, your immediate plans may not have included not what motivated him. of the most basic, yet most essential institution we have come founding a new nation. But wherever life’s journey takes That’s a pretty great life lesson to witness as a kid: the to value—free and fair elections. … But elections, as we have you, my hope is that you will always carry with you the idea you could and should follow your passion, and that seen, do not on their own guarantee democracy and free- essence of this institution that has been your home for work can be an avocation as well as a vocation … dom. In many countries, they are rigged or abused … these few very formative years, the thrill and the dan- If I have any small piece of advice, it is this: The clues Constitutions are altered to lift term limits. Free speech gers of open enquiry, and the inspiration provided by its to who you really are are all around you. Do not be afraid is denied. Opposition parties are threatened. Divisions are proud heritage to bring this quality of mind to the public to structure a life around what the clues lead you to. It deliberately inflamed as unscrupulous leaders focus on dif- forum. Go, therefore, and write the Federalist Papers for is more satisfying to find a place where you fit than to ferences rather than what is common. … this century. I promise we will be even more thankful and contort yourself to fit somewhere you don’t. Is there I have seen in Kenya, in the aftermath of the post-election admiring than we are right now on this very special—and something you love doing—besides sleeping—that could violence in 2007, how it is the younger generation who un- momentarily dry—day. become a career? derstand these challenges better than their elders. … There You will work a lot in your life; you should love what is a long way to go, but the progress so far has only been you do. I loved asking questions and found the perfect job, possible because these young Kenyan men and women were where I got to ask questions all day. not complacent about the values they hold dear or the future direction of their country. We need you, class of 2011, to do as these young men and women have done in Kenya. Take up the challenge.

Lee C. Bollinger (LAW’71) is president of Columbia University. Alexandra Wallace Creed (CC’88) is senior vice president at NBC News. Kofi Annan is the former Secretary-General of United Nations and a Columbia Global Fellow. Record june 28, 2011 7 Commencement 22 011 011 Excerpts from Graduation Speeches

Tony Kushner Sheryl Sandberg Nate Silver School of the Arts Barnard College Journalism School Kh ak i A s i ya Al p er B a r ba Ye fma n R on a

always look forward to speaking at commencements. I’m omen became 50 percent of the college gradu- ournalists and media organizations … are being asked to slightly given to depression … and commencements are ates in this country in 1981, 30 years ago. Thirty Jdo more with less. … At various points throughout your Ireliable circumstances in which to turn up if you’re look- Wyears is plenty of time for those graduates to have career, you’ll probably need to act as your own editor, as ing for a contact high. … I don’t want to bum anyone out, but gotten to the top of their industries, but we are nowhere your own Web designer, as your own PR person and as your on the other hand, I am speaking to artists. close to 50 percent of the jobs at the top.That means that own CEO … We have a special relationship to depression, to bad news when the big decisions are made … we do not have an I think there are four skills in particular that will help you. … Of course, you and your fellow graduates are somewhat equal voice at that table. The first skill is simply learning how to read. … One of the depressed. You’re graduating from the School of the Arts, not, So today, we turn to you. … I encourage you to think big … bigger mistakes that people make when they think about writ- you know, business school. Your faculty knew what it was doing You’re going to have to believe in yourself … more than ing a story is that they assume that it literally consists of typing when they admitted you. Your parents knew what they were you do today. … Ask a woman why she did well on some- … But really, that should normally come close to the end of doing when they passed on their depressive tendencies thing, and she’ll say, “I got lucky. All of these great people your process. The third step is writing. The second step is think- through inspiration or genetics; they were doing their helped me. I worked really hard.” Ask a man and he’ll say ing. And the first step is normally going to be reading. part to ensure that the world doesn’t run out of artists. or think, “What a dumb question. I’m awesome.” … What should you be reading? Everything. This is the flip-side Because God help the world if it does. I’m not suggesting you be boastful. No one likes that of cheap content: You have access to more information than We are here, I think … not to report the world’s ago- in men or women. But I am suggesting that believing in ever before. … Don’t feel guilty if you spend the first 90 min- ny—though it’s important to do that—and art can do that yourself is the first necessary step to coming even close to utes of your day drinking coffee and reading blogs—it’s your as well as other things. We are here, I think, not to profit achieving your potential. … job. Your ratio of reading to writing should be high. off the world’s agony, though of course during dark nights Men make far fewer compromises than women to balance Second, learn how to be entrepreneurial. … It’s important of the soul, who among us hasn’t worried that that’s what professional success and personal fulfillment. That’s because to develop a sense of yourself as a brand—don’t let yourself we do? We should worry. But whether we profit, or what the majority of housework and childcare still falls to women. become defined too narrowly because that will limit your op- we do with the profits, we’re here also to prophesy—to If a heterosexual couple work full time … the woman will portunities as your career evolves. Learn how to read a contract, try to make some kind of large sense of the agony of the do two times the amount of housework and three times the even the fine print. Learn how to do your taxes. Learn how to world in the name of the future, in the name of hope. … amount of childcare that her husband will do. … negotiate. Learn how to manage people. These are tradition- I’m always a little uncomfortable, since I make my liv- The most important career decision you’re going to ally “business skills” but they’re also, increasingly, the skills that ing as an artist, praising what we do. I’ve always felt that make is whether or not you have a life partner and who you’ll need to find success as a journalist … self-seriousness in artists is one of the surest ways to do that partner is. If you pick someone who’s willing to share The third skill: Learn how to make an argument. … It’s your art self in, not to mention one of the surest ways to the burdens and the joys of your personal life, you’re going great to get a scoop, but it won’t happen very often [so] it’s not make sure people avoid you … the work of artists is, I to go further. … enough just to present the information verbatim. … The reader think, to define what’s humanly possible … possibility’s Of course, not everyone wants to jump into the work- is going to be asking you to develop a hypothesis, weigh the furthest reaches. … Perhaps the work of citizens is to find force and rise to the top. Life is going to bring many twists evidence and come to some conclusion about it … what’s immediately possible. and turns, and each of us, each of you, have to forge your And fourth, and this one is closer to my heart: Learn how to … I’ve been writing plays for nearly two decades and I own path. … work with data and statistics. … By far the best experience is only know, or at least I think I know, that only in activism— But … do everything you can to make sure that when going to be hands-on—download a data set, play around with in organizing, arguing, fund-raising, electioneering—can one [the] day comes, you even have a choice to make. Because a spreadsheet. Ideally, this should be in a field that you already exercise with some small degree of certainty one’s agency what I have seen most clearly in my 20 years in the work- know quite a bit about—then the numbers are going to be im- and become an actor on the public stage. Politics is the art force is this: Women almost never make one decision to bued with more meaning. What you’re looking for, ultimately, of the possible, while art is the art of the possibility of the leave the workforce. … They make small little decisions are stories. impossible. … Go forth and deepen the mystery; make the along the way that eventually lead them there. impossible seem possible; bring heaven down to earth. Nate Silver is a statistician and founder of the FiveThirtyEight blog, published by The New York Times. He gave the annual Pringle Lecture, one of two speeches associated with graduation at the journalism school. The Tony Kushner (CC’78) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. Sheryl Sandberg, is chief operating officer of Facebook. other was given by Al Antstey, managing director of Al Jazeera English, which won this year’s Columbia Journalism Award for its coverage of the democratic uprisings in the Middle East. 8 june 24, 2011 TheRecord ex libris Columbia Ink Faculty authors crowd bookstore shelves with new books in time for the summer reading season

Tangled Web: How False Statements are Love of My Youth From Financial Crisis to Global Recovery Selling Fear: Counterterrorism, the Media,

Undermining America BY MARY GOrDON by Padma Desai and Public Opinion BY JAMES B. STEWART Pantheon Random House by Brigitte L. Nacos, Yaeli Bloch-Elkon, Robert Y. Shapiro The Penguin Press Forty years after their youthful romance Economist Padma Desai, the Gladys and Ro- University of Chicago Press What would happen to our justice system if one ended in betrayal, Miranda and Adam are re- land Harriman Professor of Economic Systems, The authors of Selling Fear, including Columbia of its premises—that trial witnesses will tell the united in Rome. Both are now married, with has written an accessible account of the global political science professors Brigitte L. Nacos whole truth—was no longer the case? James children, but during their stay in Italy they financial crisis intended for student audiences, and Robert Y. Shapiro, present a detailed B. Stewart, who won a Pulitzer Prize at The Wall manage to reestablish a cautious friendship. particularly undergraduate political science look at the role the media played in the Bush Street Journal and is now a columnist for The New Discussing the nature of love and the pas- majors and those studying international affairs. administration’s counterterrorism efforts York Times, probes the implications of this ques- sage of time, they walk through a city that Desai supplies concrete and clear explana- after 9/11, including the decision to invade tion in an extended investigative report on the evokes personal, bittersweet memories of tions of the complex financial transactions that Iraq. The authors contend that government trials of four celebrities: entrepreneur Martha their shared past. Barnard English professor led to the global collapse in 2008, sprinkled officials manipulated the media to hype fear Stewart, political aid Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Mary Gordon’s narration vacillates in point of with New Yorker cartoons illustrating how the and cover up abuses of civil liberties and baseball player Barry Bonds and financial in- view between the two characters as the story latest crisis has permeated American culture. genuine issues of terrorism preparedness. vestor Bernard Madoff. From the starting point builds toward the revelation of what tore the She ends the book with a comparative analysis of these trials, Stewart expands the theme of former couple apart. of the Great Depression of the 1930s and the lying under oath into a broader consideration current Great Recession. of ethics in America.

No Return, No Refuge: Rites and Rights in After Tobacco: What Would Happen If Critical Children: The Use of Childhood in Sustainability Management: Lessons from and Minority Repatriation Americans Stopped Smoking 10 Great Novels for New York City, America, and the Planet by Howard Adelman and Elazar Barkan Edited by Peter Shawn Bearman, Kathryn M. by Richard Locke by Steven Cohen Neckerman and Leslie Wright Columbia University Press Columbia University Press Columbia University Press Columbia University Press Elazar Barkan, professor of international and Richard Locke, a professor of writing at In this book, intended for students, scholars public affairs and director of the Institute for Peter Bearman, the Jonathan Cole Professor the School of the Arts, examines the child and policymakers, Steven Cohen, the executive the Study of Human Rights, teams up with of the Social Sciences, and colleagues con- characters in 10 classic works of Anglo- director of Columbia’s Earth Institute, argues Canadian philosopher Howard Adelman to sider the social and economic consequences American fiction written by authors ranging that it is possible to cultivate economic growth explore the idea of repatriation, or the right of stricter tobacco laws. With one out of five from Charles Dickens and Mark Twain to while preserving the planet’s natural environ- of return of refugees in ethnic disputes. The Americans still smoking, the book considers J.D. Salinger and Philip Roth. Locke, who ment. Cohen discusses initiatives relating to two scholars argue that the modern trans- what a further reduction in smoking rates argues that each character serves as a water sustainability, agriculture and food dis- formation of repatriation into a universal might mean for a variety of interested par- moral compass for his or her time, considers tribution, and energy production, drawing on right has undermined political solutions to ties, including the retail and hospitality in- such iconic figures as Oliver Twist, David New York City as an example of a sustainabil- refugee crises, and they call for rehabilita- dustry, tobacco farmers and cigarette man- Copperfield, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, ity-minded urban area. He also addresses the tion policies that treat the suffering of the ufacturers, the regional economies of the Peter Pan, Holden Caulfield, Alexander political, financial and technical challenges of displaced. Southeastern United States and nonprofits Portnoy and Lolita. implementing the steps that will benefit both that rely on the industry’s philanthropy. the environment and the global economy.

TheRecord june 24, 2011 9 Senate Adopts New columbia people Confidiality Guidelines for Committees By Tom Mathewson Katiana Anglade At its final meeting of the year on April 29, the University Senate revamped its guidelines for confiden- tiality in committee deliberations, which had gone unchanged since the institution’s founding in 1969. It also felt an aftershock of its vote a month earlier to expand Colum- bia’s relationship with ROTC. The new guidelines, presented by Sen. Daniel Savin (Research Officers) for the Structure and Operations committee, seek to balance transparency in Senate governance through open plenary meetings and records with the need for confidentiality in commit- tee deliberations involving such sensitive is- sues as faculty grievances, University financ- es, honors and prizes, and appointments of senior administrators and trustees. They re- place a policy of confidentiality in perpetuity for all internal committee documents with a new 50-year embargo, a limit Columbia’s Trustees observe. The new guidelines add eileen ba rro s o flexibility by allowing committees to choose to open some or all of their meetings to out- WHO SHE IS: Director, Manhattanville Develop- students in Columbia’s 2009 Manhattanville the West Harlem community. “A lot of people siders, with publicly available minutes. ment Projects ACE Mentor Program for high school students came out and were truly happy about what we The new policy also offers a detailed YEARS AT COLUMBIA: 3 seeking careers in the field of design and con- were doing. People were welcoming to us and procedure for considering exceptions to struction. made it a great experience.” WHAT SHE DOES: Anglade helps manage Colum- confidentiality requirements to allow out- Anglade provides assistance to the Uni- bia’s expansion into Manhattanville, monitor- BEFORE COLUMBIA: Anglade chose the construc- side scholars or senators not on the com- tion field early. In high school, she participated versity’s Small Business Services mentorship ing and reviewing the University’s public program for minority, women and local en- mittee to review its documents, under commitments and supporting clean cons- in an intensive, semester-long program in New certain conditions, before the end of the York City, in which she studied economics, trepreneurs. The program provides small truction efforts. These include measures to business owners in construction trades with 50-year embargo. enforce public and environmental health. architecture and public policy. “I think it’s classroom training, technical assistance and President Bollinger summarized devel- She also works closely with contractors and really a curiosity about New York, its neighbor- opportunities to compete for jobs at Colum- opments since the Senate’s pro-ROTC vote fellow Facilities team members to support the hoods and how communities are constantly bia and across the city. Anglade supports the of April 1, including his announcement on University’s goals of working with businesses evolving that led me to this work,” she says. With two master’s degrees—one in urban program’s outreach and recruitment of firms. April 21 that Columbia was negotiating with owned by minorities, women and local planning from New York University and an- “It is challenging to be a small business the Navy to restore an on-campus relation- residents. other in construction administration from owner, and I have been fortunate to assist ship with ROTC. He stressed that a formal Anglade’s job requires her to navigate quickly among a number of different tasks. Columbia—Anglade spent years overseeing them through this program. While construc- relationship would begin only after the full “There are many experts here whom I am affordable housing and mixed-use projects as tion is still primarily a male-dominated field, repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell had been ac- humbled to work with, and there are a lot of a project manager at the Abyssinian Develop- that is changing. There are a lot of women complished, and said the provost would con- activities to learn from,” she says. ment Corporation. After attending a commu- interested in entering the field and growing sult with a faculty committee on academic nity board meeting for Harlem residents like opportunities for them, as I found out with BEST PART OF THE JOB: Working with student and other ROTC-related issues. herself, she decided she wanted to join the the mentorship program.” interns and watching them evolve. “I enjoy Sen. Lydia Goehr (Ten., A&S/Hum) read a University’s Manhattanville team. mentoring them and seeing their dedication. IN HER SPARE TIME: “I like to be outdoors. I also statement criticizing the Senate deliberative The kids are enthusiastic about learning and MEMORABLE MOMENTS: Helping others succeed. love to travel. Next stop—Thailand!” process that led to the April 1 vote. She cited visualizing themselves in our roles in the next In 2009, Anglade joined employees across an April 2 statement by Student Affairs Com- 10 years.” Anglade still keeps in touch with the University to help organize a job fair for —Renée Walker mittee chair Tao Tan (originally on Facebook, later temporarily posted on the Advocates for ROTC website) that she said took credit for the final result and recounted his own ef- Islands forts (many of them behind the scenes) to continued from page 1 bring it about. Goehr called on the president to authorize an independent investigation to There was also discussion of repara- determine whether Senate deliberations that tions—whether developed nations could had been touted as impartial, representative compensate the island nations for their loss- and open had actually been manipulated. es. Even before any islands are completely She highlighted an appreciative reference submerged, rising sea levels and extreme in Tan’s account to the American Coun- saltwater flooding could decimate freshwa- cil of Trustees and Alumni, an organization ter supplies and destroy agriculture, making that has pressed a number of campus issues the islands difficult or impossible to inhabit. across the country including the restoration But, as several participants noted, it may be of ROTC programs, and she asked whether difficult to establish in a court of law a causal ACTA had unduly influenced Columbia’s de- link between an island nation’s fate and the liberations. Goehr said a final version of her actions of particular defendants. Nor is it statement, with nearly 100 faculty signatures, clear which courts could hear such claims. would go to the president and the Senate. Monetary damages wouldn’t solve the Bollinger said he had not seen Goehr’s biggest problem facing the island nations: Where will their citizens go, and what legal statement. He said the Senate—and perhaps rights will they have when they arrive in the new faculty committee advising the pro- their new countries? vost on ROTC—would need to review her Many commentators appeared to favor an challenge to the integrity of its deliberations. international treaty to establish the rights of Offered a chance to respond, Tan said he “drowning nations” citizens to emigrate to had had informal contacts with a friend who other countries. But Jane McAdam, a law pro- worked at ACTA, but had received no mate- fessor at the University of New South Wales, rial support. dismissed the idea. “There is little internation- Derr a in C oo k In other business, the Senate approved a Michael Gerrard stands on a beach in the Marshall Islands where much of the sand has been washed away exposing al political appetite for a new treaty,” said Mc- the trees’ roots and threatening their survival. Certificate in Psychoanalytic Studies, a non- Adam, who added that “focusing on a treaty clinical, 24-point credential for doctoral stu- may distract from other solutions.” national bodies? Even a submerged nation them fishing and mineral exploration rights? dents in the humanities and social sciences. Many presenters discussed what would will want to “maintain a government that The countries might need to abandon the Most plenary documents are available at happen to the sovereignty of submerged na- can defend its interests in the international practice of defining their borders in accor- www.columbia.edu/cu/senate. tions. Would the countries continue to have arena,” advised Jenny Grote Stoutenburg, a dance with “low tide lines.” Such lines will legal recognition like the Order of Malta, visiting scholar from the University of Cali- certainly move—or even disappear. Tom Mathewson is manager of the University Senate. His column is editorially independent which ceded its island territory long ago fornia, Berkeley. If there is any bright side, McAdam noted, of The Record. For more information about but continues to be treated like a sovereign And—crucially for their economic surviv- it is that the slow onset of climate change, the Senate, go to www.columbia.edu/cu/ for some purposes? Would they retain their al—would the island nations retain some of “unlike many other triggers of displacement, senate. seats in the United Nations and other inter- their exclusive economic zones, which give provides a rare opportunity to plan.” 10 june 24, 2011 TheRecord Research For Brain Scientist, a Careful Ascent By Beth Kwon of neurons—also known as nerve cells, they are the central components of the nervous system—then studies them with techniques afael Yuste likens scientific research to drawn from physics, chemistry, engineering mountain climbing. Assemble a skilled and computer science. Rteam, get the best equipment, map the In his role as co-director of the Kavli Insti- route and proceed with slow, deliberate steps. tute (his co-director is Thomas Jessell, see Fac- “By walking up very securely, step by step, and ulty Q&A on page 11), one of Yuste’s jobs is to not losing track of the summit, you can get promote interactions between the basic science there,” says the professor of biological sciences groups at Morningside and the neuroscientists and co-director of the Kavli Institute for Brain who are currently housed at the medical cen- Science. ter. The institute, headed by Nobel laureate and Yuste knows what he’s talking about. An University Professor Eric Kandel, is also part of avid mountain climber, last summer he scaled the Mind Brain Behavior Initiative. Monte Perdido, an 11,000-foot peak in the His team, for example, developed an op- Spanish Pyrenees whose final icy incline has tical mapping method that involves bath- claimed dozens of lives. ing these brain slices with a chemical that From the much lower elevation of his of- deactivates neurons, and then uses lasers to fice in the Northwest Corner Building, Yuste stimulate them and visualize connections is tackling another tall challenge: trying to un- with light. “This way, not only can we see the tangle the cerebral cortex. It’s the largest part circuit in action, we can manipulate it with of a mammal’s brain and is responsible for fun- light and be able to get the circuit to become damental functions like perception, memory, activated and inactivated in an arbitrary fash- S A N G ULO C A RLO S imagination and thinking, yet it continues to ion,” says Yuste. Columbia neuroscientist Rafael Yuste stands on a narrow ledge with a 2,000-foot drop-off behind him as the fog rolls in during perplex scientists. “People have been studying Neurons either fire or they don’t; excitatory an expedition to the summit of 11,000-foot Monte Perdido in the Spanish Pyrenees in summer 2010. the brain seriously for the past hundred years, neurons activate other neurons while inhibi- but now neuroscience is in an exciting time tory neurons prevent them from firing. One Yuste’s training started when he was a understand how the circuit works.” After a six- because of the applications of all kinds of new conundrum neuroscientists face is the rela- high school student, analyzing blood samples month research stint in Cambridge, England, techniques,” says Yuste, who is working toward tionship between the two kinds of neurons. in a laboratory run by his mother, a pharma- Yuste decided to drop medicine and move to a unified theory of the cerebral cortex—a com- Yuste recently published research in the jour- cist in Madrid. His father was a lawyer who the United States to get his Ph.D. at The Rock- putational formula for how nal Neuron demonstrating was a member of Spain’s State Council and efeller University. He was a postdoctoral fellow the brain functions. the multiple connections ran a cultural foundation. Attracted to the at Bell Labs before joining Columbia in 1996. Yuste’s approach is to between inhibitory and idea of both doing research and treating pa- Like a mountaineer who can visualize reverse-engineer the brain, excitatory neurons using tients, Yuste went to medical school in Spain the summit, Yuste is optimistic. “The rest much like engineers who his optical mapping meth- but began considering basic neuroscience of the body is pretty well understood, but take apart circuit boards to To see a video about Rafael Yuste, od. The study supported a research when he did a rotation in the psy- once you go higher than the nose, we’re in visit news.columbia.edu/yuste figure out if they are part of long-standing hypothesis chiatry ward. uncharted territory,” he says. The unified a toaster or a TV. “The main that the brain is active in “I realized we were treating schizophren- theory he envisions would be as simple and hypothesis of how the cortex works is that it’s the absence of input, or to put it more tech- ics without any deep understanding of what elegant as the DNA double helix, and could a circuit built out of modules, like little bricks nically, the circuits in the brain can generate goes wrong,” he recalls. “The same argument likewise have a galvanizing effect on the that repeat throughout the brain,” says Yuste. “intrinsic activity.” It’s one piece of the puzzle can be made for many types of epilepsy, Al- field. “Many of us have a feeling that a big He takes slices of mice brains, a third of a mil- Yuste hopes will contribute to the unified the- zheimer’s and bipolar disorders. It’s very diffi- breakthrough is about to occur that would limeter thick and consisting of about 20 layers ory of the cortex. cult to come up with therapies when we don’t illuminate everything.”

ist without renouncing dialog between public powerful emotions. “You see the neurosci- MBBI and private space.” entists studying the impact on emotions Manhattanville’s continued from page 1 The key to Piano’s plan is to embrace the and decision-making through the studies intersection of the City and the University, es- of the brain,” said Alessandra Cassella, a Clean Construction Piano, a winner of the Pritzker Architec- pecially in the way the building activates the professor of economics. “Economics de- ture Prize, after many conversations with neu- street level. This, then, frees up the sidewalk pends very much on decision-making, and By Record Staff roscience researchers, saw the need to create level to become an open place of exchange, so the more we can understand about how quiet spaces for concentration and open space with restaurants, retail, cultural and civic spac- that works, the better able we’ll be to build ir quality, noise and vibration, traffic where people and ideas from various academ- es. “You can’t make a laboratory for research economic models that make sense.” and business disruptions—these are ic disciplines can come together—as well as on brain behavior in the middle of the street, Kandel, now a University Professor, calls A some of the issues that could keep shared public spaces for those from the Uni- but we can insert it into a world that is trans- the Greene science center and the research Ramesh Raman up at night as the University versity and the local community. parent and not self-referential,” Piano said. it will contain “the opportunity of a life- moves forward on its long-term expansion in “The university of the 21st century is not In recent decades, advances in research time. Can you imagine having a building the old Manhattanville industrial area. a fortified citadel and Columbia University in on brain circuitry have created new fields of that is just concerned with brain sciences, Raman, executive director of environ- New York City has always been an example of study. Using functional MRIs, psychologists in which we can bring engineers, physicists, mental field compliance for the Manhattan- the urban university, in contact with a complex can record the brain activity generated by chemists, psychologists all into the same ville Development Group, is responsible for social reality,” he said. “The great challenge is fear or anger; art historians use brain imaging buildings? We could bring neural science to making Columbia’s new campus a model for how to make the various requirements coex- techniques to tease out how a painting stirs a completely new level.” green development. His job is to translate the stringent environmental compliance requirements agreed to by the University and distill them into a set of engineering specifications that get incorporated into construction plans. One of the University’s main goals is to minimize the impact of construction on the daily life of the community as 6.8 million square feet of new building space go up on the former industrial site just north of the Morningside Heights campus. The Univer- sity has been working with Environmental Defense Fund to ensure any construction work be done applying the cleanest air pol- lution controls available. The cornerstone of Raman’s work is a comprehensive construction mitigation program. Mitigation measures focus on pro- tecting historically significant structures within 90 feet of construction; minimizing noise and dust; and using an environmen- tally sensitive approach to pest manage- ment. Construction equipment is outfitted with air pollution control devices and use ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel, which offers a significant reduction in particulates, sulfur and other pollutants. Truck undercarriages A rendering of the future Jerome L. Greene Science Center as seen from West 129th Street and Broadway. On the right is a depiction of the science center as seen from a plaza on the Manhattanville campus. continued on page 12 TheRecord june 24, 2011 11 FACULTY Q&A Thomas M. Jessell

Position: Claire Tow Professor of Motor Neuron Biology Co-director, Kavli Institute for Brain Science Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics

joined faculty: 1985

History: Non-resident Fellow, The Salk Institute, La Jolla, Calif., 2000–present Assistant Professor, Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, 1981–85 Locke Research Fellow of The Royal Society, Pharmacology, St. George’s Hospital Medical School, London, 1980–81

Interview by Bridget O’Brian eileen ba rro s o

hen neurobiologist Tom Jessell joined Columbia most challenging questions about brain and its relationship Informative and productive dialogues with groups 25 years ago it was, he said, to interact with cut- to mind and cognition will be answered. By embedding the A. that traditionally have not been part of the neuro- W ting edge scientists and “join the fun” in the vi- Mind, Brain, Behavior Initiative within the Greene Science science fold will be essential to the success of the Mind, brant Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Physics. Center, new technical and theoretical advances are likely to Brain, Behavior Initiative. The analysis of neuronal net- The fun included working with such Nobel laureates as Eric revolutionize the study of brain circuits and the behaviors works involved in decision-making is emerging as one of Kandel and Richard Axel, who work in nearby labs. they encode. the most exciting frontiers of neuroscience. What do de- An “understated British scientist with a wry wit and cisions mean at the level of networks of nerve cells that piercing mind,” as Axel describes him, Jessell is at the helm W hat is unique about the way in which MBBI will al- assess and evaluate sensory information and use it to drive of the Mind, Brain, Behavior Initiative, where he is actively Q. low this work to go on? behavioral output? Such questions are highly relevant to involved in the planning and design of the building where it Columbia Business School, as well as perhaps the Depart- will be housed. “This new initiative and the Greene Science This new initiative and its Greene Science Center home . will give Columbia scientists across many disciplines ment of Economics. Now is the time to try to understand Building will give us the opportunity to create something A the common language of brain and business. The discus- that brings together all of the neuroscientists at Columbia, the ability to pursue their research in an intense and interac- sions on these issues need to start now. and at the same time to combine that core focus on brain tive environment that simply has no parallel within the Uni- versity at present. The idea is to foster strong links between and mind with the technologies that are going to shape the Can this kind of interdisciplinary approach lead to brain science and the physical sciences—with chemistry and field in coming years,” he said. . breakthroughs in research on Alzheimer’s, ALS or Jessell has spent decades studying how nerve cells in the physics and engineering, with computer science and applied Q other neurologic and psychiatric diseases? brain and spinal cord wire themselves to form networks statistics and mathematics, and with psychology. Our aim is that process sensory signals from the outside world, then to attract researchers who may never have considered their For a long time, the goal of neuroscientists has been convert this information into movement. The principles work in the light of neural science, yet who may hold the key . to understand who we are and the way that we think, that have emerged from his studies are now applicable to to technical and conceptual advances. As importantly, we are A and more practically to use brain function to treat psychiatric many other regions of the central nervous system. not expanding this mind brain initiative in a vacuum; this and neurological disorders and traumatic injury. The research His ground-breaking research earned him a Kavli Prize in initiative is only possible because of Columbia’s 250 years of of the Greene science building will focus on topics that have 2008, which recognizes scientists for their seminal advances intellectual pursuit. The business school, the School of Inter- direct relevance to these and other clinical problems. The in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. He shared the national and Public Affairs and the School of the Arts will be Greene Center will serve as a discovery engine that will help $1 million award with two other neuroscientists. our neighbors, our colleagues and our collaborators. In addi- to drive the departments of neurological surgery, psychiatry “Columbia has provided, for all the years I have been tion, the Greene will be an integral part of New York City—it and neurology. here, a quite remarkable and unmatched intellectual envi- will embrace the local community and the city at large, and ronment—one that has promoted science, individually and beyond. This broader context expands the significance of the You have spoken about the public face and nature of generally,” he told The Record in 2008. “In this academic Greene Center, while demanding that the science contained climate, I have had the confidence to pursue hunches…and Q. this campus and this building. How will it be acces- within it meets the ambitions of the University and the needs sible for members of the community beyond the University? to prosper in a collegial setting that is rare and rewarding.” of the city. This building will be a success only if it engages the What does it mean to have this building devoted en- What is different about the building itself that allows . local community in the efforts that it houses. Great . tirely to neuroscience? for that kind of engagement? A Q Q. efforts have been made to ensure that the building attracts The Jerome L. Greene Science Center gives Columbia This is a building on a scale that is unusual for Co- the community. We are placing great emphasis on the estab- A. the opportunity to develop an academic discipline un- A. lumbia real estate. Each floor occupies almost 40,000 lishment of a brain science education and outreach center burdened by traditions and integrated within a modern urban square feet of space, providing an opportunity to create whose goal is to try to inform the local community, from university. We are trying to create an intellectual environment highly interactive groups with related scientific interests. The K-12 through octogenarians about brain science and its po- that will sustain itself for many decades to come, focusing on Greene Center will place a premium on new ideas—and these tential impact on the 21st century. Part of what we are trying issues of brain and mind. For us, the Greene Center provides can only emerge if scientists from different disciplines have to do with this education and outreach center is to provide an unparalleled opportunity to think creatively about what the opportunity to talk to each other and share perspective an easy way of answering questions that the community the challenges are in brain science, today and in the future. and expertise on a common problem. The challenge then is cares about. We also want to address the links between the One apt comparison is with the Salk Institute for Bio- to populate the building with close to a thousand scientists undergraduate campus at Columbia and what is going on in logical Studies in La Jolla, Calif. The Salk was founded in the while maintaining an intimacy of scale and the means to pro- this research-intensive facility. We want the undergraduates early 1960s, and through the efforts of Salk himself, Jacob from the Morningside campus to walk that six blocks north. Bronowski and many others, emerged as a scientific think mote interactions among groups ranging from a handful to a tank—science for its own sake and for its role in modern soci- hundred scientists. How do you maintain intimacy and com- This building is going to focus on the problem of nerve and ety. In the process, it attracted some of the greatest minds in munication in such a large construction? [Architect] Renzo brain and mind, but in order to distinguish itself from many 20th-century biology and medicine. A similar spirit of scientif- Piano and his group have thought very hard about that, and other enterprises, it has to become a sort of multicultural ic ambition and exploration will pervade the Greene Center. so have we. Renzo’s vision provides for the creation of small center for scientific curiosity and investigation. meeting spaces for discussions over coffee. At the same time, What is the state of neuroscience today? larger spaces will permit transparency and ease of interaction Is there one particular aspect that expresses what this Q. between groups, both vertically and horizontally. Individual Q. building, this opportunity, means for the University labs will have access to some 15 to 20 other labs without rely- and beyond? Neuroscience emerged as a coherent discipline ing on elevators, simply by using stairs. A. through the merger of the more traditional fields of We are scientists, and our stock in trade is to test hy- anatomy, biochemistry, physiology and psychology in the sec- What kind of advances can be made using these con- A. potheses, to validate them or refute them. Beyond ond half of the 20th century. This integration has now reached Q. nections between social sciences and humanities and that, the Greene Center will serve as a vanguard for the way in the point that many in the field are optimistic that even the neuroscientists? which Columbia will excel in the coming decades. Scrapbook june 24, 2011 12 R o b er t L e s lie Professor of physics Elena Aprile spoke at the June 3 panel discussion “The Mystery of Dark Matter.” She was one of six The spire of the Empire State Building was lit in Columbia professors who took part in nine events at the World blue and white at dusk on Graduation Day, May 18, Science Festival. Aprile is the founder and spokesperson in honor of Columbia graduates. The annual lighting R o b er t L e s lie of the XENON Dark Matter Experiment, currently the most is the result of an effort led by Jennifer O’Reilly- Brian Greene, a mathematics and physics professor at Columbia whose expertise sensitive among direct searches for dark matter worldwide, Jones (CC’09), who contacted the building’s is in superstring theory, spoke at a June 2 panel discussion titled “The Dark Side and the one with the highest discovery potential. The World management in 2009, and the Columbia College of the Universe.” The program was part of this year’s World Science Festival, an Science Festival, which ran from June 1 to 5, is an opportunity Student Council. annual event founded by Greene and his wife, television producer Tracy Day. for in-depth conversations with leading scientists. e s m ich a el dam The Twenty-Five Year Club held a gala reception and dinner on June 7 in Lerner Hall to honor University employees who have been at Columbia for 25 years or longer. m i k e- cl a u g hlin This year, 135 employees were eligible for membership, 80 of whom attended On May 21 at the 2011 United States Intercollegiate Archery Championships, the Lions claimed the the ceremony. New members announced and received an engraved silver picture National Championship title in the recurve division with a gripping 10-9 win against rival Texas A&M. frame from Tiffany & Co. Pictured from the left are Pantry Worker Rubena Daley- Pictured above is Sarah Chai (CC’12), who along with Anna Harrington (CC’12) and Marilyn He (CC’14) Jordine and Heavy Cleaner Dolores Channer. formed the unbeatable three-person recurve team that won gold at the championships.

Green Construction continued from page 10

and wheels are washed as they leave the site program funded by the federal government to limit dust in the air. after 9/11, and he had to work with a number This mitigation program also addresses of city, state and federal agencies to address community concerns about construction ac- the environmental impact. tivities. Community members can contact the Subsequently, the U.S. Environmental Pro- Facilities Services Center at any time, and a tection Agency adopted Raman’s clean die- website and newsletter provide frequent up- sel emissions program as a model for other dates to the community. The University also projects around the country and recognized makes regular presentations to neighbors, his program with an award. And his work to community groups and the local community make New York City Transit’s maintenance board to keep them informed about the prog- facility in Corona, Queens greener received ress of construction, which is expected to last honorable mention in the 2004 New York City three decades. Green Building Design competition. Prior to joining Columbia, Raman was re- “Construction mitigation measures, like sponsible for environmental performance everything else in business, come down to a for the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s large question of how much we care about what construction projects. Several of them, includ- we do, how committed we are,” said Raman. ing the South Ferry Subway Terminal and the “There is nothing mystical or abstract, and it Fulton Street Transit Center in lower Manhat- is no more and no less than what all of us put tan, were part of the transportation recovery into our daily jobs.” A component of ‘green’ construction is washing the undercarriage of the trucks before they leave the construction site.