FALL 2014 Looktufts Magazine Fall 2014

MAGAZINE | FALL 2014 LookTUFTS MAGAZINE FALL 2014 30 5 Discover 17 Act HEALTH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY OUR HUMANITARIANS, LEADERS, AND INNOVATORS 8 DANGEROUS WATERS The fight against a parasite that’s making 200 million people sick 18 COLD WAR STORY A bold impulse in the midst of BY JACQUELINE MITCHELL Moscow’s coup d’état BY DAVID A. KALIS, A91 10 COMRADE DAD The author’s physicist father, 22 DAMMED Witnessing the struggles of Mayan farmers Professor Alexander Vilenkin, has a surreal whose ancestral lands now lie at the bottom of a encounter with his Soviet past reservoir BY NOAH COHEN-CLINE, F13 BY Alina SimOne, J97, BFA97 26 ALL THE SMOG IN CHINA Linda Greer, J76, insists that 16 COLUMN HUMAN ANIMAL Busy as a grandma U.S. companies need to be part of the solution BY PHILIP STARKS by Dave WiecZOrek QUICK READS 6 SPOTTING BOGUS DIETARY ADVICE QUICK READS 19 CHARACTER SKETCH Cornelia Six signs of junk science | 7 VETERINARY FILE Meet Schneider, F06, champion of justice | 20 BRILLIANT! Shiloh | MY LITTLE ROBOT Kids program it with blocks Jumbo entrepreneurs and their big ideas 14 BOOGIE BIRD How cockatoos keep the beat 21 TIME OUT TO TEACH Tufts grads descend on Teach HEALTH NEWS FROM TUFTS Diet and the brain, stress for America | 27 GIVE THEM SHELTER Confronting a and the gums, magnesium and diabetes, pets and surge in homelessness | 28 LAURELS their eyes ILLUSTRATION: ALEX NABAUM; BIRDMAN PHOTO: KATHY CHAPMAN Look 29 Create THE CULTURE PAGES 30 COVER ENLIGHTENED PALATE Chef Dan Barber, A92, wants you to eat as if the future of farming depended on it BY HELENE RAGOVIN 32 MUSIC FOR PTERODACTYLS The founder of Birdsongs of the Mesozoic defies boundaries BY DAVID MENCONI 32 34 PRIVATE LIVES OF THE CIVIL WAR An architectural historian dispells myths while visiting the homes of four key figures BY HUGH HOWARD, A74 44 COLUMN SCHOLAR AT LARGE 1914’s long tail BY SOL GITTLEMAN 45 Connect KEEPING UP WITH THE TUFTS COMMUNITY QUICK READS 31 QUALITY OF LIGHT Award-winning illumination | 33 HAUNTED BY KAFKA A mini-Q&A 46 ELEPHANT OF THE HOUR 125 years of Jumbo with English professor and novelist Jay Cantor 50 REAL-WORLD SCIENCE The Tufts Institute for 41 MIXED MEDIA Books and creative milestones Innovation launches with a focus on microbes and public health BY JACQUELINE MITCHELL 54 CLASS NOTES 62 IN MEMORIAM 66 THE BIG DAY Jumbo weddings and unions QUICK READS 51 NEWSWIRE | 52 A NEW KIND OF PRESIDENT The alumni association’s incoming leader hopes to unify graduates of all Tufts schools 53 A SUPPORTER FOR THE LONG HAUL Wesley Fastiff, A54, A90P: lawyer, toy truck collector, financial aid booster | 55 TUFTS DAYS Mother-daughter act In Every Issue 2 THE EDITORIAL WE About the Cover Our makeover 46 3 LETTERS “Nose-to-tail eating of the farm” is 74 TAKE IT FROM ME Public how a top chef from Tufts sums up speaking, baby bragging, his vision of sustainable cuisine smart management, (“Enlightened Palate,” page 30). locavore apps Illustration by 2communiqué. 76 AfTERIMAGE Mile-high art The Editorial We OUR MAKEOVER Magazine VOLUME 22, NO. 1 FALL 2014 Editor LIKE A GOOD marriage, the relationship between a magazine and its DAVID BRITTAN readers needs to be refreshed now and then. We’ve laughed and [email protected] cried together, we’ve won big awards together, and we’ve achieved Editorial Director KAREN BAILEY something close to mutual satisfaction (ninety-two percent of [email protected] readers rate Tufts Magazine “good” or “excellent,” and Tufts Design Director Magazine rates its readers even higher than that). But the maga- MARGOT GRISAR zine has been coming to you in the same format for eight years. It’s [email protected] time we did something crazy, like go on a Nordic cruise together. Design Consultant In that spirit, the editors and designers of Tufts Magazine have 2COmmUNIQUÉ decided to shake things up. And we’re taking our cues from you. [email protected] Close to six thousand readers answered the survey we sent out last spring. You told News & Notes Editor HEATHER STEPHENSON us you wanted to learn more about faculty research. You gave thumbs-up to articles [email protected] on science and health and on public service. You expressed keen interest in cultural Contributing Editors matters like art, entertainment, and books. And you said you wanted more Tufts BETH HORNING history and nostalgia, as well as more news about the university. To no one’s surprise, KARA PETERS you held Class Notes and profiles of your fellow Jumbos to be indispensable. Columnists Your wish is our command. We’ve redesigned Tufts Magazine from top to NICHOLAS DOdmAN SOL GITTLEMAN bottom to give you more of what you want, in a form that makes everything easier RONALD PIES to find. Instead of coming at you in fire-hose-like profusion, articles are now JESWALD W. SALACUSE W. GEORGE SCARLETT grouped by subject into four sections, each a mini-magazine within a magazine: PhILIP STARKS DISCOVER. Our new health, science, and technology section presents the work of Contributing Writer researchers and caregivers, both at Tufts and among our alumni. Here you’ll find KRISTIN LIVINGSTON, A05 health tips, idea-driven essays, and no shortage of cute animals. Class Notes ACT. This section embodies the “active citizenship” for which Jumbos are FAITH HRUBY famous—that drive to solve problems and engage with the world, whether KATHRYN KLEM through public service, diplomacy, humanitarian work, entrepreneurship, or Tufts Magazine (USPS #619-420, ISSN business leadership. #1535-5063) is published three times a year by the Trustees of Tufts University. CREATE. Anybody who shapes or observes culture, broadly defined, might pop up Direct magazine calls to 617.627.4287. in this section. Look for artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, actors, historians, Send correspondence to Tufts Magazine, Tufts Publications, theologians, sociologists, and authors of all sorts. The old “Creations” department 80 George Street, Medford, MA 02155, (notices of books and other productions) is here, renamed “Mixed Media.” or email [email protected]. CONNECT. This is all about you and Tufts—your memories of the place, your role Tufts Magazine is distributed without as an alum, and opportunities to connect with your classmates, and with your alma charge to alumni, parents of current undergraduates, and other members of mater. It’s home to Class Notes and “The Big Day” (weddings and unions). the Tufts community. Periodicals postage We’ve made other changes as well. Knowing how busy you are, we’ve shortened paid at Boston, MA, and additional mailing our longest articles and increased the number of brief items and “brighteners.” addresses. We’ve dispersed the columns among the four sections instead of lumping them Postmaster: Send address changes to Development Records, Tufts University, together, as in the old “Think Tank.” And before you read a word, you’ll notice 80 George Street, Medford, MA 02155. our fresh new look—with a greater variety of fonts, a color scheme to match the new four-section concept, more fun with captions and portraits, and other novel © 2014 Trustees of Tufts University touches. HTTP://GO.TUFTS.EDU/MAGAZINE So what do you think? Are we good for another eight years? David Brittan Printed on recycled paper by Lane Press, Inc., South Burlington, VT Editor Please recycle. 2 TUFTS MAGAZINE | FALL 2014 PHOTO: ALONSO NICHOLS Letters SOL’S SEMICENTENNIAL Summer 2014 was a great issue. once entertaining and scholarly. Things Never Change” (bit.ly/immi- I very much enjoyed the articles Reading about the history and long Someone should tape his lectures grant_experience). —Editor on and by Sol Gittleman (“The Sol tenure of Tufts’ Ex College (“The Joy and make them available to alumni; Decades,” Summer 2014). I was of Ex,” by Geoff Edgers, A92) was I, for one, would snap them up. Sol Gittleman made a minor error dean of the Fletcher School from a treat. I also appreciated “Adding Happy Birthday, Sol! in “My Fifty-Year Journey” when 1978 to 1985, during the time when Life to My Years,” by Cathy Gody JANET B.W. WILLIAMS, J69 he stated that the 1970 Tufts Sol was Tufts’ provost. I believe that Wolf, a classmate who has lived PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY commencement was canceled. In nobody has ever done more than he with ALS for nearly twenty years. fact, we had two commencement to raise the academic standard of But the best of all was “My Fifty- Some of Sol Gittleman’s lectures ceremonies. Life magazine (June the university. Year Journey.” Sol Gittleman [who are indeed available online—in- 19, 1970) ran photographs of both: I came to Fletcher from out- recently turned eighty] embodies cluding “Building a University: The one showing the poorly attended side the academic world, and had Tufts. I once attended an afternoon Presidents of Tufts, 1852–2011” official ceremony, the other the to learn a lot very quickly. Along lecture of his at a nearby temple. (bit.ly/building_a_university) well-attended ceremony organized with John Roche, my academic He raced through centuries of and “The American Immigrant by students. I would like to thank dean, Sol was my teacher. I had Jewish history in a way that was at Experience, 1620–2013: Some my classmates who took the initia- to get Sol’s approval for faculty hires and promotions. I remem- ber one occasion from early in my tenure when I recommended someone to him and became a bit annoyed because I thought he was late in getting back to me. In due course he called to say that it had taken longer than he intended to read everything this individual had published, but that he had finally finished and approved my recommendation.

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