ASK ALMA’S OWL STAFF Q & A SCRAPBOOK Harlem Hospital’s For Sarah Caddick, it is Visual arts historic murals | 2 brain science | 7 round-up | 8 VOL. 32, NO. 5 NEWS AND IDEAS FOR THE COLUMBIA COMMUNITY DECEMBER 4, 2006 Students CUMC LECTURE Tell Zvi, HIGH-FLYING WOMEN Challenge SCIENTISTS of Diversity “Stay Put!” in Health By Mary-Lea Cox e promise not to Care complain about your e-mails if you is: stay!” read one of Wthe very first entries to the newly launched SaveZvi.com, a blog con- D structed by undergraduate engineer- By Keely Savoie ing students at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied he American population Science (SEAS) in honor of their has become increasingly departing dean, Zvi Galil. diverse, while diversity Meanwhile, in another part of among the nation’s med- the blogosphere, the BWOG Tical school students, professors and (sponsored by the undergrad physicians remains low. The result magazine The Blue and White) is a widening gap between the gen- posted the mass e-mail Galil sent eral population and health care out just before Thanksgiving, services, according to Donald including humor columnist Dave Wilson, director of the Program in Barry’s Thanksgiving spoof “Easy Minority Health and Health Turkey Recipe.” Disparities Education and Research Affectionately dubbing Galil the and former dean of the University “spam robot extraordinaire,” the of Maryland School of Medicine. BWOG writers noted that his idio- Wilson, who has the distinction syncratic e-mails are just one of being the first African American to head a non-minority medical SEAS Dean Zvi Galil school, made these remarks when hasn’t left yet but lecturing on the need for diversity in medical research and practice is already missed. on Nov. 27 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. example of what students will be SPECIAL SECTION, pages 4–5 Introducing Wilson, Lee missing when Galil returns to his Goldman, dean of the Faculties of native Israel to serve as president of Seven of Columbia’s women Health Sciences and Medicine, said Tel Aviv University. The announce- scientists recount their paths to that diversity is one of the most ment of his departure at the end of success: ROBIN BELL • PATRICIA important issues he wishes to take this academic year came in early CULLIGAN • GERALDINE DOWNEY on in his new role at Columbia. “I November. It sent ripples through • NORMA GRAHAM • DARCY want to make it a top priority here,” the entire University community, KELLEY • BEATE LIEPERT • said Goldman, who has served as where the charismatic engineering MAYA TOLSTOY dean since June. He also acknowl- professor has gained a huge follow- edged Jean Howard, Columbia’s ing over his 25 years of service, the first vice provost for diversity initia- last 11 as SEAS dean. BALLOONS ALOFT, INC. tives and co-host of the lecture. Beate Gertrud Liepert (center) was the “talk of As President Bollinger stated in CHAMPAGNE HOT AIR Wilson opened his remarks by the town” after taking New Yorker writer Nick a University-wide message: “I know BALLOON FLIGHTS referring to some stark statistics: Paumgarten on a balloon ride in August. CC Zvi’s leaving will not be easy for the PITTSTOWN, NJ white men outlive their black student Priya Jayasimha Murthy accompanied. many students, faculty and staff counterparts by an average of six who have thrived under his men- years; white women outlive black torship. In his years as dean, SEAS By Fred A. Bernstein for women scientists continues to be fraught with hur- women by four years. Moreover, has addressed the exponential dles. Many of them face choices—especially when work looking at potential years of life lost continued on page 8 eate Gertrud Liepert, a senior researcher at and family life conflict—that their male colleagues fre- due to suboptimal medical care, he Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observa- quently avoid. Even those without families say the road said that African Americans lose tory, spends much of her life in front of a com- to tenure can be especially difficult for women. At the twice as many years from their lives puter—except, that is, when she is floating in a Lamont-Doherty Observatory, the overwhelming as whites—which, he noted, comes Bballoon above New Jersey or walking the streets of majority of faculty members are men, while most of the as little surprise when you learn Manhattan checking pollution levels. She ventures out women (including Liepert) are researchers, a status that that 20 percent of blacks are on occasion on behalf of her pioneering study of lacks not only professorial perks but also job security. uninsured as compared to only 11 “global dimming,” a phenomenon by which pollution To address such disparities, Columbia’s women scien- percent of whites. prevents sunlight from reaching the earth’s surface. tists are working on developing a new kind of science: Wilson went on to cite a 2003 Liepert is one of hundreds of women scientists the science of diversity. Psychologist Geraldine Downey report from the Agency for doing cutting-edge work in Columbia’s laboratories organized a symposium on Nov. 17 as a platform for the Healthcare Research and Quality, and classrooms. They include (to name just a few) academic community to discuss advances in the study of which found unequivocally that Janet M. Conrad, a Harvard and Oxford-trained particle inclusive environments. Participants found that bias racial inequalities in access to physicist; Darcy Kelley, a neurobiologist studying the remains deep seated especially when women aspire to do health care exist but that our sex-linked vocal styles of African frogs; and astronomer jobs thought to be highly male. At the same time, they understanding of those disparities Jacqueline Van Gorkom, an expert in galactic structure. agreed that one of the most useful techniques for com- is limited by the lack of research But while their numbers are ballooning—and are bating this prejudice is the collection of basic data, such on the topic. Yet the 2004 report expected to do so even more thanks to the efforts of as the percentage of tenured faculty who are women. As by the Sullivan Commission on both Jean Howard, the vice provost for diversity initia- panelist Joan Girgus of Princeton put it: “People engage Diversity in the Healthcare SEAS tives, and the scientists themselves—the road to success around data more easily than around principle.” continued on page 8 www.columbia.edu/news 2 DECEMBER 4, 2006 TheRecord RECENT SIGHTINGS MILESTONES President LEE C. BOLLINGER was one of three members recently appointed to the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the largest and most important of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks. He was designated as a class C (from outside the banking community) director for a three-year term beginning Jan. 2007. His respon- sibilities will include approving the Bank’s budget and appointing its officers. SUZANNE BAKKEN, alumni professor of nursing and professor of biomedical informatics, has received the 2006 Virginia K. Saba Informatics Award for her inno- vative use of PDA-based technologies in the care of underserved populations. Several Columbians have been awarded Fulbrights. DENISE BURNETTE, professor of social work, will lecture in India on the development of social work programs. JOHN C. DINGES, associate professor of journalism, will HOLIDAY AT THE go to Chile to study journalism quality in Latin American countries. STEPHEN NICHOLAS, director of the HEIGHTS International Family AIDS Program and a professor in the Department of Pediatrics, will examine maternal- newborn HIV infection in the Dominican Republic. GARY Y. OKIHIRO, professor of international affairs, went to Japan in June to lecture on Asian American history. ROBIN R. SEARS, a research scientist in the Department of Environmental Research and Conservation, will travel to Peru to study sustainable development in Amazonia. EILEEN BARROSO EDITOR’S NOTE Angelo Lisboa, Business ’07, with Alexis Stroud (left) and her older sister, Tamara An article in the Oct. 19 issue on Austin Quigley’s 10 years Taking advantage of its position at the northern pole of Manhattan, Columbia shifts into Santa mode during the holiday season with schools, at Columbia erroneously reported that Dean Quigley was departments and the President’s office holding gift-giving parties for children from Harlem, Morningside and Washington Heights. Ushering in this involved in the creation of the course Frontiers of Science, year’s season was Columbia Business School’s annual “Holiday Party for Kids” on Nov. 15. For one night, Uris Deli, the lobby and Hepburn Lounge jointly offered by Columbia College and SEAS, which chal- were transformed into a winter wonderland for nearly 200 children from youth centers throughout Morningside Heights. Local youth participated lenges students to understand the relationship between in activities such as decorating (and eating!) holiday cookies with the help of students, faculty and staff. Low Rotunda will be the scene of another the humanities and science. In fact, the course was solely such event on Dec. 5, when President Lee C. Bollinger and Jean Magnano Bollinger host their annual gathering for faculty and staff, who are asked a faculty initiative, first proposed in 1983 and delivered in to bring an unwrapped gift for a child for distribution to community organizations. Meanwhile, over at the Medical Center, the Office of Government practice in 2003. As part of the Core Curriculum, it is not and Community Affairs is sponsoring its annual toy drive. Over 600 toys will be collected at departmental holiday parties, including the dean’s open to SEAS students, and its primary purpose is to offer holiday event, to be donated to local daycare centers, Head Start programs and after-school programs.