Brandeis University Brandeis University VOLUME 3 / NUMBER 1 VOLUME 3 / NUMBER 1 A MAGAZINE DEVOTED RESEARCHBRANDEIS TO AT

Poetic License Professor Ramie Targoff renews John Donne for our time

THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE

Heller’s Tom Shapiro talks about growing middle-class (in)security Frontlines FALL 2008 VOL. 3, NUMBER 1

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Catalyst, the Brandeis University research magazine that Catalyst is published twice a year chronicles events and scholarship in the sciences, social sciences, by the Offi ce of Communications. and the humanities. This issue—the fi rst in our newly expanded for- Provost and Senior mat—communicates the exciting and important work taking place in Vice President the labs and classrooms throughout the Brandeis campus, including for Academic Affairs Ramie Targoff’s wonderful new book on the seventeenth-century Marty Wyngaarden Krauss, PhD’81 poet John Donne; the establishment of a new materials research science and engineering center focused on nano-structured and Senior Vice President for Communications biomolecular materials; and Margie Lachman’s observations on the Lorna Miles centenary of the infl uential psychologist Abraham Maslow. Editor The excitement surrounding research and scholarship at Brandeis Laura Gardner today is palpable. The new Carl J. Shapiro Science Center, scheduled to open later this academic year, has begun taking shape Design Chan Miller Design and now towers over the campus entrance. Soon to follow will be

the new Mandel Center for the Humanities, which, when it opens in Photographer fall 2010, will house classrooms, lecture halls, and a dramatic three- Mike Lovett story glass forum for interdisciplinary discourse in the humanities and social sciences. Writers Irene Abrams Denise Brehm In an extremely challenging research funding environment, Brandeis Sheilah Coleman achieved a 10.7 percent increase in sponsored research funding in Marjorie Lyon fi scal year 2008. This represents an all-time record for the univer- Jacob Olidort ’07 sity—an amazing accomplishment in a world in which acceptance Katherine Parisky rates at the National Institutes of Health and other major funding Max Pearlstein ‘01 Carrie Simmons agencies remain well below historical norms.

Cover illustration I am confi dent you will fi nd much to discover in Catalyst. Mark Steele

Sincerely, Correspondence Catalyst MS 064 Brandeis University PO Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 Adam B. Jaffe Fred C. Hecht Professor in Economics brandeis.edu/catalyst and Dean of Arts and Sciences contents

2 THE PIPELINE Innovations in medicine and health are fi lling the tech transfer pipeline.

3 NOTABLE RESULTS How MacArthur Award winner Deborah Bial ’87 learned to bring urban kids to college and keep them there. 4 CHANGING THE FACE OF SCIENCE Million-dollar professor Irv Epstein has brought ten students and a new perspective to the classroom.

6 THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE Tom Shapiro’s research is changing the way we look at the middle class, and policymakers are taking note.

8 AN ABLER SOULE Ramie Targoff’s new book on John Donne breathes fresh life into the master of metaphysical poetry.

12 BEESMART Computer scientist Jordan Pollack applies evolution- ary theory to elementary ed in online games for kids.

14 THE ENVIRONMENTAL Brandeis faculty take the classroom to the water- CLASSROOM ways, planning boards, and farms to teach students about the state of the environment.

16 HANDS ON Truman scholar and soccer champ Brooke Rosenbauer ’09 is kicking AIDS in Africa.

17 Q&A WITH HELLER Economist Lisa Lynch on workplace innovation, the DEAN LISA LYNCH current economic crisis, and the next presidency.

19 OBSERVATIONS Professor Margie Lachman considers the legacy of Brandeis psychologist Abraham Maslow on his centenary.

20 MATCHES MADE Fulbright fellow Jacob Olidort ’07 spent a year in IN HEAVEN the Arabian Peninsula studying the shifting sands of marriage customs.

21 RESEARCH NOTES Multimillion-dollar research awards; Pulitzer and other prizes; award-winning books; and other note- worthy accomplishments of Brandeis faculty.

24 RESEARCH BY Proposal and award activity of fi scal year 2008. THE NUMBERS >>THE PIPELINE License to Invent

ven in the midst of a nationwide We’re also bringing tech transfer to • Chemist Judy Herzfeld and graduate economic slowdown, the Offi ce business students. In the spring semester, student Jianping Hu developed several E of Technology Licensing (OTL) has Professor Preeta Banerjee at the improved nuclear magnetic resonance enjoyed one of its most productive years International Business School (IBS) used probes and licensed them to Revolution ever. Last year saw robust growth and inventions from my offi ce as case studies NMR in Fort Collins, Colorado. The company this year our license deals and income in a highly popular course on developing plans to commercialize the probes, which have increased signifi cantly. License technology strategy. Business and science have unique qualities for work at the high agreements with industry tally nine, up students met with faculty inventors magnetic fi elds increasingly used in studies from fi ve last year. We’ve received close and developed strategic business of protein structure. to thirty invention disclosures from a pool plans for Brandeis inventions. This class of faculty, post-docs, graduate students, provided real-world experience for the • Chemist Jeff Agar discovered and senior research scientists, and staff. students and created good chemistry patented a novel class of compounds between the scientists and the busi- as well as an application for a class of ness students. drugs already thought to be useful in the Our growing presence in the world treatment of metabolic disorders. The of tech transfer was nicely recognized hope is that some of these compounds earlier this year when Brandeis won can be developed into treatments for kudos for two contributions to human neurodegenerative disorders, including health from the Association of University Lou Gehrig’s disease, his area of specialty. Technology Managers. In its annual Better Brandeis licensed Agar’s discovery to World Report, the association selected ExSAR, a pharmaceutical company in one hundred university technologies Monmouth Junction, New Jersey. ExSAR globally that are making a difference in is commercializing Agar’s discovery as well the world, including Larry Wangh’s DNA as funding further research in his lab. assay using LATE-PCR to test for deadly • We licensed a patent covering our microbes in the fi eld; and KC Hayes and phytosterol technology developed by Dan Perlman’s cholesterol-lowering Smart Hayes and Perlman to Los Angeles–based Balance buttery spreads. Check out the Corazonas Foods for a number of new report at www.autm.net/about/dsp.Detail. products—heart-healthy cookies, potato cfm?pid=219. chips, and crackers. Corazonas has an IRENE ABRAMS The main tool we use to ensure existing license to sell heart-healthy tortilla Brandeis inventions reach the public is to chips made with this Brandeis technology Moreover, revenue from our existing patent our discoveries and license them (which were featured on the “O List” in the license agreements is up nearly 50 percent to companies that will commercialize July issue of The Oprah Magazine). Look over last year. Naturally, people like them. Here’s a sampling of this year’s new for the potato chips soon! to focus on the money, but there are license agreements: many other equally valuable benefi ts • We licensed three new patents from of tech transfer at Brandeis, including • Link Medicine, Cambridge, Massachusetts, chemist Li Deng to Daiso Co., Ltd., in attracting and retaining top-notch faculty; licensed a new discovery from biochemists Osaka, Japan. Deng’s discoveries make fostering corporate investment in basic Greg Petsko and Dagmar Ringe. The license it easier and cheaper to manufacture research, industry collaborations, and covers their novel method of stabilizing pharmaceuticals, while also reducing toxic consulting relationships; and cultivating a protein implicated in Parkinson’s as well byproducts. Daiso has licensed a number job opportunities for grads and post- as other neurodegenerative diseases. of Deng’s other patents and supports docs. All of these opportunities fuel our Link Medicine, founded with the goal of research in his lab. primary mission in OTL: to bring Brandeis curing Parkinson’s disease, will use this inventions and discoveries to market for discovery to develop new therapies for this —Irene Abrams, executive director, public benefi t. incurable condition. Offi ce of Technology Licensing

2 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY // Catalyst >>NOTABLE RESULTS Leader of the Posse BY MARJORIE LYON

ou k now t he dr ill. High - s c hool s t ud e nt s f ace an inc reasingly testing process to identify and measure leadership, teamwork, daunting college admission obstacle course, including and problem-solving and communication skills. Y pressure to excel on standardized tests that demand Bial designed an assessment tool to evaluate how students rigorous academic preparation available primarily in affl uent complete a task as a group. “We’re looking at them through a suburban schools. nontraditional lens,” Bial explains, noting that leadership is key. But what about exceptional students trapped in inner-city Indeed, leadership is something she knows a thing or two communities that scream “not college material”? How do admissions about. Last fall Bial received a “genius” award from the John D. offi cers from top-notch universities capture and support these and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. students through college (see related article, page 4)? “Suddenly I knew what it was like to be on the other side of a Enter Deborah Bial ’87. She is president and founder of the life-changing phone call, just like our Posse winners,” she said. Posse Foundation, a national nonprofi t organization that recruits Bial was selected for her creativity, originality, and potential. She and trains groups of promising urban students who are likely to will receive $100,000 annually for fi ve years, no strings attached. remain under the radar of admissions offi cials at selective colleges But Posse does not just identify individual students who have because their grades and test scores don’t refl ect their potential. enormous potential. Bial realized that sending a disadvantaged Based in Manhattan and fi nanced through private donations, the urban student to a primarily white suburban campus is a formula nineteen-year-old Posse Foundation uses an innovative alternative for defeat. “If I had my posse with me, I would’ve never dropped out of college,” one student told her after the culture shock of college DEBORAH BIAL proved insurmountable. “‘Posse’ was a hip word in the youth culture meaning ‘my friends,’ the people who back me up,” explains Bial. “Why not send a posse together to college so they could back each other up?” Bial asked herself. That simple, brilliant idea is at the core of the Posse Foundation, and it works. Posse students have a 90 percent graduation rate, far above the national average. Consider Natalee Graham ’02, a Brandeis Posse alumna from New York City. On a full-tuition Posse scholarship, Graham excelled as a politics major with minors in advanced Spanish literature, Latin American studies, and international studies. In 2001 Graham was selected for a highly coveted internship at Lehman Brothers. Now she is an assistant vice president at Barclays Capital, Inc., covering the credit business. She also received a law degree in May from New York Law School while working full time. “People are afraid to step outside of certain conventions and stereotypes,” says Graham. “You meet people who expect that you can’t do this, that, or the other. I say, ‘Why not?’” Like a pebble dropped into a pond that creates concentric circles far beyond its initial impact, Posse has the potential to affect thousands more lives than just the young people who win the scholarships. “I am the luckiest person in the world,” says Bial, “to see something grow from an idea to a national initiative, to see all the lives that are changed. I want to keep working on social justice, equity, and education, making a difference on as big a scale as possible.” JENICA MILLER JENICA

Catalyst \\ BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 3 CHANGINGthe

CHEMIST IRV EPSTEIN IRV CHEMIST FACE of SCIENCE eated behind the scattered stacks pool of two hundred scientists nominated from a wide group of science teachers and of paper piled on his desk, a by their institutions with specifi c guidance counselors, 200 promising high- S whiteboard cluttered with chemical proposals to make science more engaging school seniors from New York applied for formulas on the wall to his left, Professor Irv and meaningful to undergrads. To support the ten available spots, including Gloriya Epstein, sporting a gray beard and glasses, their programs, HHMI gave each winning Nedler and Andy Sanchez, both now looks like your archetypal scientist. And professor $1 million. That year, Epstein members of the Class of 2012. that’s a problem. became one of just twenty “million-dollar Nedler believes the program will help “The thing I have noticed in teaching professors.” her realize her dream of joining the tiny introductory science courses here is that Epstein decided to adapt a singularly fraction of women who are neurosurgeons you look out at what is essentially a sea successful approach developed by the of white faces,” the Henry F. Fishbach Posse Foundation. Created by Brandeis Professor of Chemistry explains. “And as alumna Deborah Bial ’87 (see article, the semester goes on, that sea gets whiter page 3), the foundation identifi es talented and whiter. This is not just a phenomenon high-school students from urban areas like at Brandeis; it’s at colleges and universities New York City and sends them in small all across the country.” groups (and on full-tuition scholarships) But increasing diversity in the chemistry to elite colleges and universities. The idea classroom isn’t just a social justice issue; is that students in the group, or “posse,” Epstein thinks it can signifi cantly boost will support one another through the science research as well. “If everyone has academic challenges they’re bound to the same set of life experiences, then, face. Epstein’s idea was to focus the Posse when they look at the petri dish, they’re model specifi cally on students who showed more likely to see things in the same way,” an aptitude for science and planned on he says. “For breakthroughs to occur, pursuing a science major in college. someone has to look at that petri dish a Working with Dean of Academic little differently.” Services Kim Godsoe, who already served as the university’s Posse liaison, as well The million-dollar professor’s plan as with Jean Eddy, senior vice president In 2006, Epstein had a breakthrough of for students and enrollment, Epstein

his own. The Howard Hughes Medical proceeded to fi nd potential students for VIRGINIA RAMOS ’12 Institute (HHMI) selected Epstein from a the new program. Thanks to assistance

4 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY // Catalyst YVONNE PEREZ ’12 AND ANDY SANCHEZ ’12

Million-dollar professor Irv Epstein has brought ten students and a new perspective to the Brandeis science classroom. \\ By Max Pearlstein ’01 in the U.S. (According to the organization is trying to create a program that will “So often in science I see students Women in Neurosurgery, in 2006 only 181 maximize that likelihood.” leave because they feel so isolated,” of the 4,000 or so certifi ed neurosurgeons she said. “They feel like they’re the only in the United States were female.) Science “boot camp” one struggling. But there’s something Sanchez is still considering his options: That’s why Sanchez, Nedler, and the other psychologically reassuring in being able to “I might go to medical school, or I might eight science posse members spent the turn to your friend who’s in the same class end up teaching science because I would fi rst two weeks in July—peak time for most and realize that you’re not the only one really like to help other people feel as incoming college students to hit the beach struggling with so much work.” passionate about it as I do.” or go to the movies—bent over beakers The fi rst-ever science posse consists of instead. They came to campus for a Breaking through fi ve men and fi ve women. Four are Hispanic, “science boot camp” designed to prepare Now that classes are in session, the science three are African-American, two are South them for the hectic pace and diffi cult work posse members are meeting each week Asian (Indian and Pakistani), and one of they’d be facing in the fall, without the with a graduate student mentor. They also the students is white. Most likely, none of threat of being graded. have the opportunity, if they want it, to them would have ended up at Brandeis if it During the day they conducted work in research labs. weren’t for Epstein’s initiative. experiments measuring the acidity of “It would be great if they all graduate in “This is going to be a big test of how various compounds and analyzed DNA science and go on to be MDs and PhDs,” important the standard measures are in structure. In the evening there were lab Epstein says, “but that’s not likely. In my view, predicting success in the sciences,” Epstein reports to fi ll out or disease research we can count success if all ten graduate, says. “Because it’s clear if you spend time to compile for a concluding poster and most of them stay in the sciences. If a with these kids that they’re really bright presentation. couple of them go off into another fi eld and and enthusiastic, but if you look at them on Melissa Kosinski-Collins, the assistant are happy and do well, that’s great.” paper, they don’t fi t the Brandeis profi le. professor of biology who organized Nedler doesn’t expect anything less So you think there’s no way they should be the boot camp, said she knows many of herself, or the rest of her posse. “We able to succeed. But if you talk to them, undergrads who would benefi t from their plan on making breakthroughs,” she says. you realize these kids can do it. The key own posse. “We’re not going to let Irv down.”

Catalyst \\ BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 5 THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE Tom Shapiro’s research is changing the way we look at the middle class— and policymakers are starting to pay attention. \\ By Max Pearlstein ’01

om Shapiro is frustrated. “This This afternoon, Shapiro is hoping his is the season of pandering,” he pioneering research on America’s middle says as we talk politics inside his class will bring some accountability to the third-fl oor offi ce at the Heller presidential race. “They say whatever they SchoolT for Social Policy and Management. think voters want to hear,” he tells me, “The conversation that we hear every four referring to the generalized claims about years out of Democrats and Republicans the middle class in daily stump speeches. is not very useful dialogue. None of the “We hear that the middle class is doing claims we hear from politicians is ever better, or that the middle class is doing explained.” worse; well, it has to be one or the other— Looking out of his offi ce window, Shapiro now we have the objective data.” can see clear across the university’s evolving campus, past the rising skeletons Mapping out the middle class of the new Carl J. Shapiro Science Center Those data, collected in a series of and Ridgewood Residence Halls, beyond collaborative reports released by the boundaries of Brandeis. It’s a fi tting Shapiro’s team at Heller and the New vantage point for someone who views his York nonpartisan research and advocacy role as director of the Institute on Assets organization Demos, assess middle-class and Social Policy as essentially bridging security based on fi ve core economic the gap between the academic and the factors: assets, educational achievement, policy worlds. housing costs, budget, and health care. By

6 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY // Catalyst plotting where a specifi c household ranked with the same exact square footage and in each of the categories, the researchers the same number of blades of grass. were able to defi ne it as fi nancially If one of the houses is located in a “secure,” “borderline,” or “at risk.” community that’s less than 75 percent white, When the original report was released in it’s probably going to be valued about November 2007, it offered some startling $300,000 less than the same house in fi gures. “By a Thread: The New Experience a community that’s 90 percent white. of the Middle Class” found that less than Realtors say ‘location, location, location.’ If one-third of middle-class households were you deconstruct it, what they mean is the fi nancially secure, and more than half of the characteristics of the location.” middle class had no net fi nancial assets. “In America, we have been concerned, Shaping a passion for social justice to some degree, about poverty,” Shapiro Shapiro, who wrote the book The Hidden says. “We think it might be the case that Cost of Being African-American: How what we have previously characterized as Wealth Perpetuates Inequality, has become the conditions of poverty are going up a nationally recognized expert on the the economic ladder and seeping into the economics of race. His passion for social middle class.” justice was ignited while he was growing Adjusting for family size, Shapiro and his up in Southern California during the height colleagues have qualifi ed the middle class of the civil rights movement. as households with income ranging from “The 1965 Watts rebellion or riot was $40,000, or twice the offi cial poverty level, something I observed closely,” he says. “I up to $140,000. especially remember listening to a police- He is quick to point out that the majority band radio and being shocked as an

of African-American and Latino households eighteen-year-old at the racist language TOM SHAPIRO that fall into this range are concentrated at and feeling expressed by law enforcement the lower level of the spectrum. In fact, offi cers during this confl agration.” “Economic (In)Security,” a follow-up report While Shapiro left behind the civil paychecks, because their paychecks, as we in early 2008 that focused specifi cally on unrest in his home state later that year to know, barely cover their living expenses. the minority population, found that three attend the University of Wisconsin, his They’re taking it out of their fi nancial out of four African-American and four out desire to better understand issues of assets. They’re going into debt.” of fi ve Latino households were at risk of inequality remained, eventually becoming falling out of the middle class completely. the nucleus of his scholarly research and Bridging the gap Now that the Institute on Assets and Social Policy reports have defi ned the problem, Shapiro has been busy spreading the “ In America, we have message of middle-class insecurity to the policymakers in Washington, D.C. He presented the fi ndings from “By a Thread” been concerned, to some to a congressional panel, and former U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban degree, about poverty.” Development Henry Cisneros has praised the project. Due to all the attention, Shapiro is optimistic that the next presidential “There is a huge difference in the fi nancial paving the way for his current focus on the administration will work on crafting a assets between African-American and increased economic demands placed on solution. “I think the more we understand Latino households on one side and white the middle class. what’s going on, the better our chance is of households on the other,” Shapiro says. “By “We want to get a handle on what it doing something about it,” he says. “Then comparison, the average African-American means when American families are being the question becomes matching a remedy family has a dime in wealth for every dollar asked to pay more for their health care,” to what you see in the research, and I think that the average white family has.” Shapiro says, “whereas previously their we’ve gotten a lot better with that.” He attributes this wealth gap to the employers did this to a much greater When I ask him how much longer he’ll historical legacy of race in the United degree and a much deeper degree. So be putting the information out there, into States and the way many American what does this transformation mean for the world on the other side of his offi ce institutions continue to operate today. families? And our hypothesis has been that window, Shapiro smiles and says, “It’s so “For example, take identical houses families aren’t taking this money out of their much fun. I’ll never slow down.”

Catalyst \\ BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 7 Cover story Call outs are in bold I included the poem the Extasie at the end of the story— it’s long and I don’t know whether we should include it as a sidebar or not… An Abler Soule but we can see if we have room for it

8 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY // Catalyst ABLERAN Ramie Targoff’s research on John Donne breathes fresh life into the master of metaphysical poetry SOULE BY LAURA GARDNER

e’s radical, rakish, and romantic, Renaissance poet with a modern voice Donne to the proverbial desert island obsessively questioning himself, and medieval obsessions. With a growing interest in religion (she neurotically worrying about God, So says Professor of English and spent the summer before college in a even while celebrating a healthy American Literature Ramie Targoff, an devout Muslim household in Indonesia), H sexual appetite. No wonder expert on Renaissance literature and she entered Yale in 1985, intending college students love him. In so many the relationship between literature and to major in religious studies. But in a elemental ways he mirrors their youthful religion, and the author of the new book, Renaissance poetry class with a professor occupations as he relentlessly explores John Donne: Body and Soul (University of “who made a lot of English professors out the relationship between body and soul in Chicago Press, 2008). of his students,” she became captivated by some of the most memorable lyric poetry She explains Donne’s popularity among Donne, whose intertwining of religion and in the English language. undergraduates this way: “Students always poetry created an irresistible intellectual So it is hardly surprising that the respond to Donne with passion and gravitational fi eld. seventeenth-century metaphysical poet interest; the reason for this, I think, is that “I have always felt drawn by the energy and preacher John Donne is alive and well he asks a lot of questions for which he has and the passion of Donne’s voice; I really can’t on YouTube, where you can watch madcap no answers. This is not someone who has think of another poet about whom I feel so performances and heartfelt recitations of a private line to God’s ear or represents strongly,” she says, grabbing her thoroughly his love poetry, replete with stick-fi gure himself as a voice of authority. Students dog-eared freshman volume of Donne off drawings illustrating one of his most can relate to that.” the bookshelf just to underscore the point. famous poems, “The Flea,” and multiple Her own introduction to Donne took place Donne, Targoff confi des, would accompany interpretations of another favorite, “A when she was a seventh grader growing her to the proverbial desert island, not Valediction Forbidding Mourning.” up in Hastings-on-Hudson, just north of Spenser, Milton, or even the Bard. Manhattan. Her assignment was to memorize Nevertheless, in graduate school at A modern voice and medieval obsessions a poem; she chose perhaps Donne’s best- the University of California, Berkeley, she Ironically, Donne’s literary persona known sonnet, “Death Be Not Proud.” studied Shakespeare, perhaps not least seems, to our modern sensibility, “There I was, this Jewish New York because her then-future husband, Stephen sympathetically tortured and humble on girl memorizing a poem by a Protestant Greenblatt, is a leading Shakespeare scholar. the one hand, and refreshingly irreverent man about death; how bizarre that of all Returning to Yale after graduate school, she on the other. Add eroticism and a healthy the poems in the world, I chose a holy taught the same Renaissance poetry course take on love (no poetics of romantic sonnet by Donne,” muses Targoff, adding, she had taken as a freshman. longing or sadness, or puritanical self- in retrospect, that she had the poem “I had a tremendous reconnection with regard in this poet), and you’ve got a all wrong. Donne,” she says. She also wrote her fi rst

Catalyst \\ BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 9 with its inevitable rupture”—has escaped “ Ramie’s verve and scrupulous scholarship, substantive literary scrutiny for centuries. “I’d say that other literary critics have generally been so dazzled or so irritated her profound sensitivity both to the poet’s voice by Donne’s intensity as a poet that they’ve had a hard time seeing him as anything but a deeply romantic fi gure or else a shallow and to his historic moment, make her Donne showoff,” says Jeffrey Knapp, a colleague and English professor at the University the Donne of our generation.” of California, Berkeley. “But Ramie isn’t intimidated by brilliance. She thinks that the best way to appreciate Donne is to try to understand him, and her book proves book, Common Prayer: The Language of that she’s right.” Public Devotion in Early Modern England (University of Chicago Press, 2001), which Love through purely bodily mechanics explores the relationship between prayer Setting the record straight in the wake of and poetry in the century following the much unsatisfying, even hostile, criticism, Protestant Reformation. proved unnerving at fi rst, precisely because she approached her subject The nature of the soul without a strong compass pointing her in With her new book, Targoff has secured her any particular direction. Instead, she spent place as a leading Donne scholar. In fewer her maternity leave from Yale in 2001 at than 200 pages, she persuasively argues Harvard’s Houghton Library just reading all

RAMIE TARGOFF TEACHING A CLASS ON DONNE’S POETRY.

that Donne’s writing “is fueled by a set of of the fi rst editions of Donne’s writing. metaphysical questions…that coalesce “I found it kind of scary, as a scholar, most persistently around the nature of because I wasn’t even sure what I was the soul and its relation to the body.” She looking for,” she says. asserts that this issue—“the body and A year and a half and mountains of notes soul’s union, and Donne’s preoccupation later, Targoff found her central interest

10 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY // Catalyst crystallized in a single poem, “The Extasie” (see sidebar). In it, two lovers lie on a riverbank fruitlessly trying to “consummate their love through purely bodily mechanics,” writes Targoff. Union remains elusive because their souls have taken off. “The question Donne asks in this poem is how can we become one?” says Targoff. Even when their souls forge into an “abler soule,” they realize that something vital is still missing, that they’re still hapless lovers stranded on the wrong side of consummation. “If bodies without souls cannot achieve union in love, The Extasie neither can souls stripped of their bodies,” writes Targoff. “So the point is, you can’t be together just in body—or just in soul—Donne believes you need both body and soul to WHERE, like a pillow on a bed, (All which before was poore, and scant,) become one,” she explains. A Pregnant banke swel’d up, to rest Redoubles still, and multiplies. Of course, Donne’s metaphysical The violets reclining head, When love, with one another so obsession with body and soul (or mind— Sat we two, one anothers best. Interinanimates two soules, Donne used the terms interchangeably) Our hands were fi rmely cimented That abler soule, which thence doth fl ow, is today largely a scientific issue. “If With a fast balme, which thence did spring, Defects of lonelinesse controules. you think about how biologically driven Our eye-beames twisted, and did thred Wee then, who are this new soule, know, all of our accounts of character have Our eyes, upon one double string; Of what we are compos’d, and made, become, you realize that people don’t So to’entergraft our hands, as yet For, th’Atomies of which we grow, really believe anymore, as Descartes did, Was all the meanes to make us one, Are soules, whom no change can invade. that the body can be separated from the And pictures in our eyes to get But O alas, so long, so farre mind,” says Targoff. Was all our propagation. Our bodies why doe wee forbeare? As ‘twixt two equall Armies, Fate They are ours, though they are not wee, Wee are Cutting to the quick Suspends uncertaine victorie, The intelligences, they the spheare. Which may help make her approach Our soules, (which to advance their state, We owe them thankes, because they thus, to Donne even more meaningful to Were gone out,) hung ‘twixt her, and mee. Did us, to us, at fi rst convay, contemporary readers. And whil’st our soules negotiate there, Yeelded their forces, sense, to us, “Ramie Targoff cuts to the quick of Donne Wee like sepulchrall statues lay; Nor are drosse to us, but allay. scholarship, renewing and freshening this All day, the same our postures were, On man heavens infl uence workes not so, great poet for our time,” notes Harvard And wee said nothing, all the day. But that it fi rst imprints the ayre, professor Elisa New. “She does so by If any, so by love refi n’d, Soe soule into the soule may fl ow, asking the essential questions about That he soules language understood, Though it to body fi rst repaire. Donne in a new way—in a way learned, And by good love were growen all minde, As our blood labours to beget elegant, stylish, and entirely her own.” Within convenient distance stood, Spirits, as like soules as it can, “When I read Donne, I really connect He (though he knew not which soule spake, Because such fi ngers need to knit to him—I am honestly moved, and so Because both meant, both spake the same) That subtile knot, which makes us man: are my students,” says Targoff. “He’s so Might thence a new concoction take, So must pure lovers soules descend quirky, so surprising, and so modern, And part farre purer then he came. T’affections, and to faculties, but at the same time he’s worried about This Extasie doth unperplex Which sense may reach and apprehend, what will happen when his body turns (We said) and tell us what we love, Else a great Prince in prison lies. to dust and mingles with the remains of Wee see by this, it was not sexe, To’our bodies turne wee then, that so whatever corpse lies next to him,” she Wee see, we saw not what did move: Weake men on love reveal’d may looke; notes sympathetically. But as all severall soules containe Loves mysteries in soules doe grow, Says New, “Ramie’s verve and scrupulous Mixture of things, they know not what, But yet the body is his booke. scholarship, her profound sensitivity both Love, these mixt soules, doth mixe againe, And if some lover, such as wee, to the poet’s voice and to his historic And makes both one, each this and that. Have heard this dialogue of one, moment, make her Donne the Donne of A single violet transplant, Let him still marke us, he shall see our generation.” The strength, the colour, and the size, Small change, when we’are to bodies gone.

Catalyst \\ BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 11 the only objective. If strict competition in the classroom does not education, experimented with children’s educational games, and serve as a motivation for the less “fi t” child to try harder, then we had his eureka moment about the role of competition in evolution. must not fully understand all the principles of evolutionary theory as This also led him to a clearer understanding of what makes his applied to highly intelligent beings. game-playing computers tick. What’s necessary, Pollack realized, is a system where all players Teaching backgammon to robots don’t simply compete to be best. But players can’t be altruistic Along the path that led Pollack to develop the BEEweb games either. The answer: a model that rewards multiple objectives, not for children, he created some very smart machines that learn as they go and handily outwit human beings in the narrowly defi ned playing fi elds of backgammon and Tron (a game based on the 1982 sci-fi movie). Pollack’s goal was to create computers that possessed the ability to continue learning, but he found that after all an initial burst of inventive behavior, these systems began slowing down and eventually reached equilibriums where all learning stopped. Once a computer got the best of its opponents, it rested youcan on its laurels; it had no reason to get smarter and no reason to BEE share its knowledge with other players. ollack says he dreams of getting BEEweb licensed into a In the late 1990s, Pollack put a backgammon-playing computer Plarge, “world-changing” program like Skype, the computer program that evolved through self-play on the Web, where it drew application that lets people worldwide make long-distance tens of thousands of human opponents. A student working with telephone calls over the Internet for free. According to his “back- Pollack analyzed the scores and IP addresses of those human of-the-envelope calculation,” in a single year, a couple of $2,000 opponents and determined that their skills were improving servers in the basement of the Volen Center could provide the over time. Next, Pollack did the same thing with Tron, a simple equivalent teaching hours of an entire school district. video game Web site where people played against a group of “If one million kids each play an hour of SpellBEE or PatternBEE, evolving computer programs. This time he saw some interesting we’ve essentially delivered one million hours of human teaching— developments in the computer’s “intelligence.” the equivalent of a medium-sized school district, which might “The computer programs actually improved and adapted to have a $1 million budget,” Pollack says. humanity, coming up with novel strategies that were hard for Already BEEweb.org has 60,000 anonymous registered users, humans to cope with,” he said. and each week the games get hundreds of additional visitors Pollack now had proof that computers learn through human who drop by for a game or two. A Google map on the site shows interaction, and vice versa, and he wondered if he could develop that more than thirty states have registered users, with Michigan, an activity that would benefi t people, rather than just entertaining Minnesota, and Texas outnumbering the rest. Some teachers them. That’s when he turned his attention toward elementary register entire classes and use the games as regular teaching tools. SpellBEE, GeograBEE, and PatternBee won Bessies (Best Educational Software Awards) for 2005–06 from the ComputED Center in Carlsbad, California. —Denise Brehm

just competition. Each player takes a turn being teacher. Students get rewarded for answering correctly, and teachers get rewarded for asking questions the student can answer but not by making the questions so easy that the student fails to learn, or so hard that the student is repeatedly stumped. “In the BEE games, the child playing ‘teacher’ will win by asking questions in the area where the student is almost ready to learn, not in the easy or hard zone, but in the zone of proximal development,” explains Pollack. “This motivates the teacher to do continual assessment, provides the student with appropriately diffi cult problems to learn from, and keeps the students engaged in educational activities.” So, when an anonymous child in Michigan logs in to BEEweb. org and plays GeograBEE with an anonymous child in Texas, she learns to use the computer, picks up some new state capitals, becomes a bit of a teacher herself, and, most important to her, has COMPUTER SCIENTIST JORDAN POLLACK some fun playing a game. Now that’s effective child’s play.

Catalyst \\ BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 13 Brandeis faculty members take the classroom to the waterways, planning boards, and farms to teach students about the state of the environment.

BY KATHERINE M. PARISKY, PhD

EnvironmentalThe

hat does it take to be a student environmentalist Perhaps Goldin sums up their collective approach to environmental these days? A lot more than being able to talk education best: “There should be no ivory tower during my students’ W about global warming and reducing your carbon Brandeis education.” footprint. You’ll have to get your hands dirty, inspect a sewage The immersion program combines experiential learning, system up close, research historical land records, and even make a cross-disciplinary study, and rigorous intellectual inquiry and case before a local planning board. debate, with its team problem solving, adventure, and countless For an intense fi fteen weeks each semester, students and two or bonding opportunities. With hands-on fi eldwork, students also three professors immerse themselves in studying local environmental benefi t from learning the diverse perspectives of farmers, career issues from diverse perspectives—ecological, legal, and historical— environmentalists, government, and community leaders. and even develop solutions. This year’s class continues the work Perlman says the excitement and intensity of the fi eld semester of last year’s group, learning about the Waltham sewer system, “are similar to a study-abroad program but with all the benefi ts and participating in sustainable farming, examining land-use records resources of being based here at the university.” going back two centuries, developing conservation and stewardship Joshua Daskin ’09, agrees, “The semester has felt like a study proposals for the town of nearby Weston, presenting their research abroad program, graduate school, and summer camp all mixed into fi ndings on a land parcel at a town meeting, and studying the one. We’ve learned a lot already.” history of the Charles River. One day, the group canoes to “class.” On the second day of the fall 2007 semester, “the group basically On another, they make canoed to the classroom,” says Lindsey Sarquilla ’10, who grew up lunch from vegetables they in California. Students paddled to the Newton/Weston town line, farm locally. then walked to the sixty-two-acre Case Estates in Weston. Harvard University owns the Case Estates but is selling the parcel to Weston No ivory tower for more than $20 million. Beginning on that sunny day, the students, The only program of divided into fi ve teams, set out to research and document the land’s its kind nationwide, the history and use. Sarquilla’s “history” team later visited the Arnold Environmental Field Arboretum archives in Boston’s Jamaica Plain area, probing records Semester (EFS) is the to uncover the Case Estates’ wide-ranging land-use history. brainchild of three Brandeis “We could see in handwritten documents who had actually professors: Brian Donahue, bought and sold the land and for what use from 1750 to the an environmental historian; present,” she says. Laura Goldin, director of A second team researched documentation on the orchards, the environmental studies woods, and vineyards that were heavily sprayed with lead internship program; and arsenate (an insecticide commonly used against insect pests) Dan Perlman, conservation in the days when the land was known as Hillcrest Farm. The biologist and chair of students researched the health effects and relevant legal issues, PROFESSOR BRIAN DONAHUE CANOEING WITH JONATHAN SHUSTER ’08. environmental studies. expressing concern about the methods of soil sample extraction

14 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY // Catalyst Classroom

and testing with a Weston town selectman, who agreed with systems, and storm-water runoff. Last fall, the EFS students got a their recommendations. crash course in Waltham sewer systems from city and Environmental Other students began an ecological inventory of the Case Protection Agency offi cials. With a new understanding of how the Estates, while a stewardship team analyzed the potential future city manages residue runoff from entering storm drains that in turn use of the land and its historic buildings. Meanwhile, the planning feed the Charles River, EFS students set out to help educate the team outlined for town leaders a conservation plan focusing on next generation about environmentalism: local fi rst graders. educational opportunities for elementary-age students and open Though the issues they explore defy simple solutions, the space for the town. EFS students emerge from the semester with just the kind of Toward the end of the semester, the teams formally presented understanding, optimism, and commitment that can make real their fi ndings to a large audience that included Weston residents environmental change possible. and the Brandeis community. The students documented their Says Del Vecchio, “The eleven of us from the immersion group research fi ndings in lengthy research papers as well as in concise are so positive about the future; we see what is wrong and we are glossy summaries that will be posted on the environmental studies motivated to go out and fi x it.” program’s Web site. But learning about land management is just one facet of the immersion experience. Throughout the semester the students regularly visit several Massachusetts farms, including Land’s Sake in Weston, cofounded by Donahue. Community and educational outreach through farming provides many life-changing moments for the students, who begin to appreciate the complex and confl icting pressures of short-term fi nancial stability and long-term environmental responsibility.

Students get their hands dirty “The farms made the biggest impact on me,” explains Chris Del Vecchio ’09. “I am actually considering a career in education now, though I came to college to study international relations and global studies. There must have been about twelve times this semester that I was learning something new and said ‘I want to do this’ as a career.” “It’s one thing to just be a visitor, or tourist, on the farm, but my students get their hands dirty,” said Donahue. “They know the land more; all the bits and pieces fi t together in a different way.” Any immersion into environmentalism worth its salt would have to explore that sometimes thorny fact of urban life, sewage

JESSICA NU ’09 (LEFT), JONATHAN SHUSTER ’08 (CENTER), AND STEPHANIE SHUMSKY Catalyst ’08. \\ BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 15 >>HANDS ON Kicking AIDS in Africa BY CARRIE SIMMONS

ormer Brandeis varsity soccer player Brooke Rosenbauer ’09 classes in Bay State high schools to raise awareness about HIV/ knows fi rsthand about the power of sports to heal. After a AIDS and the organization’s efforts, and to plan fundraisers. F serious car accident last spring, she faced a long road to In January 2007, Rosenbauer organized the fi rst KickAIDS recovery. But she took it in stride. soccer tournament at Brandeis. More than 100 students from “When you’re an athlete, being injured is just part of the game,” both the activist and athletic communities raised $1,000 for GRS says the Vermont native philosophically. “Patience is one of the programs in Africa. Later that spring, she collaborated with a hardest things to learn, but it’s important for recovery.” fellow GRS colleague to develop the “Lose the Shoes” campaign, Still, when it comes to certain things, there’s no time to lose. a 3v3 barefoot soccer tournament model that has gained national So after two seasons on the Brandeis team, Rosenbauer traded popularity. Since September 2006, “Lose the Shoes” tournaments in her varsity cleats to feed a passion combining her athletic have raised more than $100,000 at fi fty high schools and colleges prowess, her intellectual interests, and her talent for community across the country in support of GRS. organizing. She began working with Grassroot Soccer (GRS), “These activities channel all my passions; when I found GRS a nonprofi t organization dedicated to leveraging soccer’s it was about more than just playing on a team—it could be international popularity and social infl uence to galvanize kids and something for life,” explains Rosenbauer. Earlier this year, her their communities to confront HIV/AIDS with a fi gurative header. proven leadership with GRS, combined with her stellar academic While most of the group’s programming takes place in record, helped land her a nationally competitive $30,000 Truman sub-Saharan Africa, the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, scholarship to pay for graduate studies in public health. Rosenbauer began as a volunteer KickAIDS ambassador in Now, as a director of the “Lose the Shoes” campaign, Massachusetts. There she worked with soccer teams and health Rosenbauer is charged with getting American youth involved in the organization’s efforts to use the power of soccer to fi ght HIV/AIDS in Africa. Since 2003, more than 230,000 youth have graduated from GRS programs. GRS partners with African youth organizations to train local teachers, community soccer coaches, and professional players to teach middle-school children about HIV/AIDS and its prevention while imparting important life skills to make healthy choices. “These children are learning how to protect themselves,” says Rosenbauer. “But they are also going home, talking about it with their families, and breaking down the incredible stigma surrounding the disease in their communities.” For her senior thesis, Rosenbauer, who is majoring in Health: Science, Society, and Policy, is researching the psychological and social learning theories that support the use of sport in community development. “The programs help build the resilience of children who have to deal with things they can’t control,” says Rosenbauer. “When they have self-confi dence and a sense of empowerment, they make healthier decisions about their lives.” Before starting graduate school, Rosenbauer hopes to spend a year in Africa as a fi eld intern for GRS writing grants, developing curricula, and evaluating programs. The biggest challenge for the organization, which is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Johnson & Johnson, is building credibility, she says. “It’s so hard to measure behavior change and the true effect

LINCOLN BENEDICT LINCOLN the programs are having on these kids,” she says. “But I’ve seen grown men cry from the impact they felt they have made. That’s TRUMAN SCHOLAR BROOKE ROSENBAUER ’09 USES SOCCER TALENT TO INSPIRE YOUTH TO FIGHT THE HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC. pretty convincing.”

16 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY // Catalyst Q&A WITH LISA LYNCH

our government policymakers are able to practice, and teaching. How will you structure a rescue package that uses this apply this approach as the new dean of “ This crisis also highlights money to address the fi rst problem, we the Heller School? a greater need to revisit might not actually lose much money. If As we approach Heller’s fi ftieth anniver- instead the focus ends up on the second sary, we have a special opportunity our social contract. problem, we will end up spending much to look back and see how far we have What are the advantages more, and that will signifi cantly restrict come. But there is nothing like a big the amount of money available to make anniversary to get us to look forward and and disadvantages investments in expanding health-care identify what it will take to be on the of unfettered markets coverage, education and training, and cutting edge of social policy and infrastructure for this country. I think management in the decades ahead. versus markets that this crisis also highlights a greater need So over the next year I will engage have more rigorous to revisit our social contract. What are the Heller community, leading social the advantages and disadvantages of policy researchers, and key social policy- regulatory oversight?” unfettered markets versus markets that makers in a frank discussion about how we have more rigorous regulatory oversight? see social policy evolving over the next How do the gains and blame in our decade. In particular, we will examine economy get shared? Finally, can we how our research and educa- continue to design policies to regulate tional programs need to be preserved, our capital and labor markets at the enhanced, and augmented to prepare nation-state level when these markets are the next generation of leaders in increasingly organized across borders? social policy and management and to deliver on our mission statement’s You’ve often said that what interests promise of “knowledge advancing you is the interaction between theory, social justice.”

18 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY // Catalyst >> OBSERVATIONS A View on Healthy Development

his year marks the centenary of must be satisfi ed before the higher-order the great American psychologist growth needs) and the self-actualizing T Abraham Maslow. From where I person (highly creative, self-accepting, sit—occupying the same offi ce he did as and fulfi lled), but his body of work was chair of the Brandeis University psychology much more extensive. department until 1969—I marvel at how Four main themes capture and contrast he helped shape current thinking about his views to earlier theories, and they link human development. to current psychological work and broader In the hundred years since his birth on issues for healthy living in today’s world.

April 1, 1908, psychology has grown from First, he believed that human beings are PSYCHOLOGIST MARGIE E. LACHMAN a young science focusing on instincts and inherently good and well intentioned early childhood development to a holistic rather than evil or mean-spirited. Second, approach that celebrates lifelong he asserted that people act based on old. There is growing recognition in fi elds like development and potential—just as the their motivations and needs, rather than in medicine and ps yc hology t hat by foc using on aging population is exploding with the fi rst response to uncontrollable, unconscious the healthy, we can learn a lot about disease of the large baby-boomer cohort entering urges, or externally determined factors. before it develops. For example, we have their sixties and expecting to live another Third, he believed in individuals’ potential begun to research cognitive functioning twenty to forty years. to grow and develop throughout life rather during midlife, a period when most of us are A founder of the third force in psychology, than in the Freudian idea of personality being healthy but the seeds of decline and disease Maslow developed his ideas in the fi fties formed and fi xed by adolescence. Finally, may be germinating. This work will allow us and sixties at Brandeis in reaction to what and perhaps most important, he focused to identify risk and protective factors that is called “the fi rst force,” the Freudian on the healthy as a way of understanding explain why some people remain cognitively psychoanalytic approach, and the “second behavior and optimizing well-being rather healthy well into old age and others develop force,” the behavioral approach championed than studying the neurotic or ill—a signifi cant problems such as dementia. We are also by B. F. Skinner. Maslow’s third force brought departure from much of the conventional learning there is much we can do to optimize a humanistic approach to psychological psychological thinking of the time. memory, reasoning, and decision making, development that emphasized the great Today, Maslow’s teachings are more and to slow the aging process, for those human potential and possibilities for doing relevant than ever. Our burgeoning interest suffering steep declines and even for those good things in the world. in exploring what makes people happy, who are doing quite well. At the height of his career in the optimistic, and healthy, for example, can On the centennial of his birth, I gaze out revolutionary and rebellious 1960s, Maslow be traced to Maslow’s ideas, which are my offi ce window with Maslow’s visionary held ideas that were brave and bold, even being subjected to scientifi c scrutiny and legacy in mind. This year, as the oldest baby radical. He is best known for his writings on empirical testing within the new positive boomers turn sixty-two, the age at which the hierarchy of needs (basic survival needs psychology movement. Maslow’s life was cut short, many can expect By challenging the ideas of his towering to make it to one hundred. As we age over

BRANDEIS PSYCHOLOGIST ABRAHAM MASLOW predecessors, Maslow championed the the next forty years, we would do well to value of focusing on what’s right with the follow Maslow’s wisdom about healthy person rather than what’s wrong, paving development, making the most of our the way for science to explore how to potential and fi nding meaning in our lives, enhance and enrich psychological and especially by nurturing social connections. physical functioning. Decades before the This could help to make our lives not only psychological mainstream caught on, he longer, but also richer. understood the key role psychological resilience plays in promoting overall health. Margie E. Lachman is professor and chair In less than fi fty years, for the fi rst time in of the psychology department and director human history, one quarter of the world’s of the Lifespan Developmental Psychology population will be at least sixty-fi ve years Lab at Brandeis University. ROBERT FARBER D. ARCHIVES, BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY Catalyst \\ BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 19 Research Notes

First Beam Event is about a complex, elusive man who participated in palace intrigues, endured YEHUDI WYNER Early on the morning of September 10, raging storms at sea, and fought beside scientists at the Large Hadron Collider his Indian allies in ferocious wars. (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, for the fi rst time sent a proton beam around For the Love of Reading the twenty-seven-kilometer-long tunnel of the world’s most powerful particle Associate Professor of French and accelerator. The Brandeis high-energy Comparative Literature Jane Hale physics group has been involved with the received a grant of $20,000 from the world’s largest physics experiment since Kellogg Foundation for her Sesotho- 1994. Brandeis scientists and students in language children’s book-publishing the high-energy group helped design, initiative, Family Literacy Lesotho (FLL). prototype, construct, and commission A small nonprofi t organization based in much of the ATLAS experiment that will the United States and Lesotho, FLL has as take place within the LHC over the next its mission to encourage the development two decades or so. of picture books for Basotho children in the Sesotho language about Lesotho.

Northern Exposure Boston Books University Professor David Hackett Historian Jane Kamensky’s book The Fischer, who won the Pulitzer Prize Exchange Artist: A Tale of High-Flying for his book Washington’s Crossing in Speculation and America’s First Banking 2005, explores the founding of the fi rst Collapse was published by Viking in European settlement in Canada in his new January 2008. It tells the story of Andrew the nonprofi t sector, fellows are leaders biography of Samuel de Champlain. An Dexter Jr. and the seven-story skyscraper in their fi elds and include Nobel laureates adventurer and able leader, Champlain in Boston for which he amassed—and then and recipients of Pulitzer and Pritzker had a rare vision for a new world founded lost—a paper fortune, triggering a crisis of prizes, Academy and Grammy awards, and on harmony and respect. Champlain’s value that shook the nation’s confi dence in Kennedy Center Honors. Dream, published by Knopf Canada, money itself. Her next book, Blindspot, a Wyner says his main objectives are “to historical novel she co-wrote with Harvard write the best, the most personal, and the DAVID HACKETT FISCHER historian Jill Lepore, is set in rebellious most communicative music I can and to Boston on the eve of the American play the music of others with clarity and Revolution. Published by Spiegel & Grau, eloquence.” His other honors include the it is due out in December 2008. Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2006 for his Piano Concerto “Chiavi in Mano.” Music Man Yehudi Wyner, Walter W. Naumburg Granting Time and Money Professor of Composition, emeritus, was Biochemists Gregory Petsko and Dagmar elected a fellow of the American Academy Ringe of the Rosenstiel Basic Medical of Arts & Sciences (AAAS), one of the Sciences Research Center won a MERIT nation’s oldest and most prestigious award from the National Institutes of Health honorary societies and independent (NIH) in recognition of their outstanding policy research centers. achievements in structural enzymology. Drawn from the sciences, the arts and The grant program, whose name stands humanities, business, public affairs, and for “Method to Extend Research in Time,”

Catalyst \\ BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 21 provides long-term support to investigators member to capture the prestigious award who have demonstrated superior in the last four years. Feeney won for ten competence and outstanding productivity essays he wrote on visual culture ranging during their previous research endeavors. from photography to painting and fi lm. The grant will provide about $2 million to Joining the Globe in 1979 as a researcher support their research over fi ve years, and in the library, he later served as book it may be extended for another fi ve years editor and editor of the Globe’s weekly after that. “Focus” section. He is currently on the In July, Petsko, Gyula and Katica Tauber Globe’s arts staff. Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry, became president of the American Electron Microscopy Award Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biologists Piali Sengupta, Daniela Nicastro, Biology (ASBMB) for a two-year term. and Eve Marder were awarded $929,000 ASBMB has more than 12,000 members. from the National Science Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation program Accolades to Antler to establish a correlative light and electron Professor Joyce Antler ’63, a prolifi c author microscopy (CLEM) facility. The facility is known for her compelling and imaginative expected to be operational in late 2008. scholarly and cultural pursuits, won the Small wheel developed and built by Brandeis and other Brandeis National Committee’s Abram L. Kudos to Kaplan area universities is unveiled for the ATLAS experiment in the Large Hadron Collider. Sachar Medallion in June. Antler, Samuel Edward Kaplan, Kevy and Hortense B. Lane Professor of American Jewish Kaiserman Professor in the Humanities Center, was honored for excellence in History and Culture, was honored for her and chair of the Department of Romance reporting on the media by the Council exceptional contributions as a creative Studies, has won a National Jewish Book on Contemporary Families. Graff’s historian and educator. She is the author Award in the American Jewish Studies award-winning article, “The Opt-Out and editor of nine books in Jewish and category for Spiritual Radical: Abraham Myth,” appeared in the Columbia women’s history, including the recent You Joshua Heschel in America. This book Journalism Review. Never Call! You Never Write! A History of follows Kaplan’s Abraham Joshua Heschel: the Jewish Mother. Prophetic Witness, completing a two- Mellon Grant for the Humanities volume biography. Pulitzer Prize–Winning Professor The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Brandeis a $1.65 million four- Journalism professor Mark Feeney, an Minimizing Memory Declines year grant to support graduate students arts writer and photography reviewer for Psychology department chair Margie E. in the humanities and social sciences. the Boston Globe, won the 2008 Pulitzer Lachman has been awarded a The grant will fund students’ research, Prize for criticism. He is the third faculty $1.45 million fi ve-year grant from the two interdisciplinary seminars, and ten National Institute on Aging to learn more dissertation-writing fellowships. MARK FEENEY about factors that can minimize memory declines in middle-aged and older adults. McClendon Wins Medieval The research will identify modifi able Academy’s Highest Honor beliefs and behaviors that are tied to The Medieval Academy of America gave better memory and enhanced functioning its most prestigious award, the Haskins in everyday life. Medal, to Charles McClendon, professor and chair of the Department of Fine Investigating Homelessness Arts. He received the award for his book The Schuster Institute for Investigative The Origins of Medieval Architecture, Journalism garnered two awards for published in 2005 by Yale University Press. reporting earlier this year. Founding The book offers a broad study of the director Florence Graves and research important innovations in church building assistant Hadar Sayfan won fi rst place in in Western Europe from the sixth to the the second annual Cushing Niles Dolbeare tenth centuries, which contributed to Media Awards for “First Things First,” a later, better-known achievements during Boston Sunday Globe article that explored the Romanesque and Gothic periods. a new approach to ending chronic The book was also awarded the 2007 homelessness. Otto Grundler Prize for the best book in E. J. Graff, resident scholar at the medieval studies at the 42nd International Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Congress on Medieval Studies.

22 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY // Catalyst Nota Bene American Journal of Sociology on genetics treat cryptosporidiosis in AIDS patients and social structure, out in November. and epidemic outbreaks. Cryptosporidiosis Richard Lansing, professor of Italian is caused by a water-borne pathogen and and comparative literature, has been Researching Liver and is a potential biowarfare agent. appointed editor-in-chief of Dante Lung Disease Studies, an annual journal published for Radcliffe Fellows the Dante Society of America, the oldest Assistant Professor of Chemistry Anne literary journal in the United States. Gershenson has won a two-year, $130,000 Assistant Professor of Sociology Wendy award from the Alpha-1 Foundation Cadge and Jim Haber, the Abraham and Revolutionary Biotechnology and Talecris Biotherapeutics to research Etta Goodman Professor of Biology and α-Antitrypsin (AAT), a protease inhibitor director of the Rosenstiel Basic Medical The International Organization for associated with liver and lung disease. Sciences Research Center, are both Biological Crystallization awarded its The overall goal of the research is to spending the 2008–09 academic year 2008 innovation prize to physics professor provide critical structural information for as fellows of the Radcliffe Institute for Seth Fraden for his lab’s development the design of small molecule drugs aimed Advanced Study at Harvard University. of the Phase Chip, a palm-sized at preventing liver and lung disease by They are among fi fty-two fellows selected microfl uidic device that uses an intricate stopping the formation of AAT polymers. from a pool of 785 for the quality of their system of plumbing passages to carry scholarship and the long-term impact of out multiple experiments on the In Concert their projects. Cadge is working on her microscale. By reducing the volume of book Paging God: Religion in the Halls of chemicals used in common laboratory Concerto for Violin and Orchestra is Medicine; Haber is researching mechanisms practices by factors of thousands or premiering at Jordan Hall in Boston in of recombination and DNA repair. more, while improving the precision with November. Martin Boykan, Irving G. Fine which chemicals and proteins can be Professor of Music, composed the work manipulated, the Phase Chip promises in three movements, played without JIM HABER to help revolutionize biotechnology. pause. Eminent New York violinist Curt Macomber is the soloist; Gil Rose is the

SETH FRADEN conductor. Following its world premiere, Albany Records will record the work.

National Science Foundation Awards $7.8 Million for Materials Research Brandeis has won a highly competitive

$7.8 million grant from the National WENDY CADGE Science Foundation to establish a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). The center will study the effects of imposing constraints on materials, such as DNA confi ned in cells, and the packing of viruses in shapes and forms suitable for applications, such as biosensors and solar cells. By the Numbers The collaborative, interdisciplinary Mathematicians Dmitry Kleinbock and center will try to produce a new category Music Maker Joel Bellaiche each won grants from the of materials known as “active matter.” Composer Yu-Hui Chang has received an National Science Foundation. Kleinbock Distinct from normal inert materials such Aaron Copland Award, which provides for received $230,677 to research algebraic as plastics and steel, active matter can a residency at the historic Copland House dynamical systems and their applications move on its own and exhibits properties in New York State. During her stay this fall, to number theory. Bellaiche’s $138,000 previously observed only in living she will write a new work commissioned award will support his research in p-adic materials, such as muscle and cells. by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. This L-functions, geometry of eigenvarieties, new work will be performed in a program and Selmer groups. Combating Cryptosporidiosis centering on Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet Biochemist Liz Hedstrom received a and scored in the same instrumentation— Call for Papers $3.3 million grant from the National violin, viola, violoncello, double bass, and Assistant Professor of Sociology Sara Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases piano. It will premiere in San Francisco in Shostak is coeditor of a special issue of The to develop an urgently needed drug to May 2009.

Catalyst \\ BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 23 By the Numbers RESEARCH PROPOSAL AND AWARD ACTIVITY

PROPOSALS SUBMITTED FY’05–FY’08

400

300

200

100

FY’05 FY’06 FY’07 FY’08

• Total funds awarded rose to $55,051,532, an increase of 10.7% over FY2007.

• Awarded Facilities & Administration costs rose to $12,938,793, an increase of 11.4% over FY2007.

• The largest source of funds remains the NIH ($24,979,487, up 12%), at 46% of the total awarded, and other federal sources accounting for an additional 28% of the total. Foundation funding increased substantially, to $9,518,954, up 24%.

• The number of proposals submitted went up 11%, to a total of 386, and the total amount requested was up 20%, to $211,236,201.

24 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY // Catalyst Fostering Connections

The new Mandel Center for the Humanities and the Mandel Humanities Quadrangle will foster connections between faculty and students, inquiry and research, and the humanities and social sciences. The Mandel Center and Quadrangle are made possible by a generous gift from Jack, Joseph, Barbara, and Morton Mandel, founders of the Mandel Foundation, Cleveland.

Brandeis University Nonprofi t Organization PO Box 549110 U.S. Postage Waltham, MA Paid 02454-9110 Boston, MA Permit No. 15731

WWW.BRANDEIS.EDU/CATALYST BEEsmart By Denise Brehm Computer scientist Jordan Pollack applies evolutionary theory to elementary ed in online games for kids

irst he taught computers to learn from people. Then he safely online. A child logs on anonymously, chooses which game she taught computers to learn from one another. Next, he wants to play, pings another player on the site, and the two trade F taught computers to teach children. Finally—after learning spelling words or geography questions or set up money-counting some new ABCs himself—he taught computers to teach children questions. All play occurs within the strict confi nes of the game, so how to teach one another. Now there are thousands of children in there’s no possibility of extracurricular conversation. grades K to 8 learning to spell better and locate state capitals by playing his online computer games. Cooperation trumps competition The free games, called BEEweb, run off servers in the basement “The fi rst games we wrote for children were very simple; we tried of the Volen National Center for Complex Systems. Their creator, to get them to type as fast as they could or spell better than other Jordan B. Pollack, professor of computer science and of the Volen kids,” says Pollack. “Kids really liked it, but the teachers didn’t. Center, believes it’s possible to build machines that learn and As we did more research, we found out that the educational evolve into entities of ever-increasing complexity and intelligence. community hates competition in the classroom because it can It’s a quest, really, to fi nd a mathematical and computable lock in negative habits and lower children’s self-esteem, which defi nition of evolution. The philosophical principle that drives decreases their motivation. his science—the conviction that there is a form of intelligence “For me—for my science—that was an interesting moment. in nature that impels biological self-assembly that he can model Because the idea behind evolution is that there is a limited resource in computer programming—led him to develop the BEEweb that species compete for,” he says. “So the idea that a system games in which children develop their own skills in spelling and based on competition would lead to a negative outcome really geography, mathematics, and spatial reasoning. surprised me. Society is organized by the principles abstracted The games also encourage children to help other kids improve their from nature long ago. But in a classroom, it’s clearly a failure. To skills, because in SpellBEE, GeograBEE, PatternBEE, and MoneyBEE, me this was a wake-up call.” winning is based on cooperation rather than strict competition. Pollack saw that he was missing a key concept in his application Children learn something useful while interacting with one another of evolutionary theory to artifi cial intelligence: competition can’t be

12 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY // Catalyst Q&A with Lisa Lynch BY LAURA GARDNER

Economist Lisa Lynch, PhD, became dean LISA LYNCH of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management in July 2008.

Much of your recent research has focused on how investments in workplace design and organization impact workers’ pay and the ability of companies to innovate. What are some of the most important aspects of organizational innovation that you see making a difference for workers and fi rms? There has been a great deal of discussion in the popular press and in academic journals on what explains rising productivity growth in the United States over the past ten to fi fteen years—the so-called New Economy phenomenon. While many have focused on just the role of investments in information technology, my work with UCLA economist Sandra Black has looked at how investments in IT, along with investments in organizational innovation such as workplace education and training, employee involvement in decision making, and incentive-based pay, have jointly contributed to the marked increase we innovation in unionized workplaces, the work force. From survey work we know have seen in productivity in the United States especially in the manufacturing sector, that only half of the U.S. adult population since 1995. We found that organizational resulted in much greater productivity aged sixteen to sixty-fi ve years has the innovation has a signifi cant impact on gains than the returns to organizational minimum reading and quantitative literacy productivity, both directly and through innovation in nonunionized fi rms. This skills as identifi ed by the National Institute synergies with other forms of investment, generated enormous interest by trade for Literacy to succeed in the labor market. like information and communications unions and employers, not just in the This problem will need to be addressed technology. More specifi cally, we discovered United States but in Europe, Australia, both through improvements and innovation that organizational innovation accounted and New Zealand. Another key fi nding in our education system for those entering for as much as 30 percent of output was the link between education and the work force and job-training programs growth in manufacturing in the 1990s. We organizational innovation. Firms that have for those already in the work force. also determined that organizational a more educated work force are more likely innovation has a mixed impact on to invest in organizational innovation. This Given the current events in fi nancial employees. There is more wage inequality last result underscores the importance of markets, what types of challenges will within fi rms that invest in both technological investing in education to ensure our ability the next president inherit? and organizational innovation. to innovate in the long run. The U.S. government is now trying to resolve a crisis in our fi nancial markets that Are there specifi c results from your Are there any implications of this work began well over a year ago. It is important research that surprised you or others? for the current economic crisis? to distinguish between two problems Our work was the fi rst to examine how There is a deeper structural problem that in the fi nancial markets now—illiquidity such investments impacted the economy faces policymakers here in the United triggered by panic and the potential as a whole. We found that organizational States and that is the overall skill level of insolvency of many fi nancial institutions. If

Catalyst \\ BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 17 Matches Made in Heaven? BY JACOB OLIDORT ’07

t was on a trip one evening to the fabled oasis at Al Ain with and Qatar, but it is accelerated in Dubai, where foreigners (probably a local friend that I had my fi rst real insight into the cultural more than 150 nationalities) have created their own communities I tremors rocking this corner of the Arabian Peninsula, which and brought their cultures to this corner of the Arabian Peninsula. I have called home for the past year. I came to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a Fulbright fellowship to study the country’s The fi nal bulwark against foreign threats to tradition marriage customs. At the outset, I had little understanding how For the local native population, nevertheless, stolen glances these traditions, like shifting tectonic plates, are colliding with are indeed the extent to which a boy may interact with a girl. In modernity, causing cultural and psychological earthquakes among fact, though many marry by their mid-twenties, one rarely sees the country’s leaders and citizenry. a husband with his wife or wives but rather sees him with other Driving down Jabel Hafeet in a Lexus SUV while sipping Mountain men. And even more rarely does one fi nd an unmarried Emirati Dew, my friend Hamad and I talked about differences in dating culture couple sitting together in a café. In this unsettling juxtaposition of between the United States and the UAE. After making glib comments economic globalism and social traditionalism, I found a compelling about the UAE’s cultural evolution, Hamad boasted that he had been research topic: How do personal relationships represent the fi nal in relationships with eleven girls in his life before marrying. bulwark against foreign threats to tradition? I was stunned. That kind of record would be impressive in any I discovered that the answer lies in a relatively new institution culture, but to me it seemed unimaginable in a socially conservative known as the Marriage Fund. Introduced by the government state like the UAE, where gender segregation pervades every aspect sixteen years ago, it was designed to reverse the byproducts of of daily life. Responding to my seeming bewilderment, he hurriedly modernism—the exorbitant dowries, costly Western-style wedding clarifi ed that he had exchanged glances and maybe a smile with a celebrations, and the social infl uence of foreigners that seemed girl. In local dialect, this was tantamount to a relationship. to conspire to make the traditional Emirati marriage a thing of the past. The fund pays only for local Emirati, read tribal, marriages, Cultural clashes in the Gulf giving bride and groom roughly $19,000. This exchange crystallized for me the profound transformation under The Marriage Fund was conceived to restore some of the pre–oil- way in the UAE. Dubai’s global ambitions and rapid industrialization boom tribal customs of nomadic Bedouin culture. Just forty years and development are creating an increasingly cosmopolitan ago local Bedouin tribes revered the family unit and lived simple environment that appears to be swallowing up the tribal culture of subsistence lives hunting and preparing food. Communities were the Gulf. The trend is evident in other Gulf hubs, such as Bahrain intimate, with personal relationships symbolizing the epitome of trust and strength. Divorce, though permitted, followed the detailed guidelines set out in the Quran. Today, divorce rates are soaring while many local women remain unmarried, a deplorable situation in tribal culture. The result: native Emiratis comprise less than 20 percent of the population, while the country’s elders assert that outside infl uences threaten to extinguish local customs and, along with them, the native population itself.

Embracing modernism, not marriage But it seems that in modernizing a country, placing family life on the political agenda undermines its true personal essence. Despite the $912 million allocated to the Marriage Fund over the last two decades, results have been disappointing. What, then, is the role of tradition in the birth of a modern nation? This question brewed in my mind as Hamad and I drove down Jebel Hafeet that evening when, suddenly, our conversation was interrupted by a phone call from a girl. After a terse exchange he slammed the phone shut, explaining that she was one of many girls his grandfather sent his way for a second marriage, an ancient JACOB OLIDORT option in which this modern man apparently had no interest.

20 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY // Catalyst Scholarly Pursuits Brandeis has a long and rich tradition of undergraduates conducting research in partnership with award-winning faculty. Approximately half of each graduating class conducts an independent study, and about one-third of each class completes an honors thesis. All told, such intensive research experiences lead to more than seventy students coauthoring studies with faculty in peer-reviewed journals on average each year. Academic fellowships offer an exceptional opportunity to students seeking funding to conduct original research. AWARDS BY SPONSOR TYPE Students report that their fellowship experiences often transform the course of their undergrad education—allowing them to discover their own interests more fully, and also to feel a sense of “ownership” FY’07 OTHER 6% of the work in which they’ve become so invested. INDUSTRIAL 4% Last year, Brandeis celebrated a record number of Fulbright winners when four graduating seniors received grants to conduct FOUNDATION 16% research abroad. Jacob Olidort ’07 studied marriage customs in the United Arab Emirates (see article, page 20). Stuart Kottle ’07 NIH 45% is living in the Wuhan province of China, studying the developing OTHER migratory patterns of rural Chinese to the urban centers and the FEDERAL impact on migrants’ access to health care and education. Laura 18% Gerber ’07 joined a chemistry research project at the University of

NSF 11% Bergen in Norway. And Annie Rosenberg ’07 is teaching English in Germany. This year, Brooke Rosenbauer ’09 won a highly competitive Truman scholarship (see article page 16) to support graduate FY’08 OTHER 4% studies. INDUSTRIAL 4% The number of students conducting innovative research supported by internal competitions continues to grow. The competi- FOUNDATION 18% tive Schiff Undergraduate Fellows Program funded eleven students earlier this year to work with a faculty mentor on a collaborative NIH 46% project. The Undergraduate Research Program funds student

OTHER projects for a semester or summer. To learn more about academic FEDERAL fellowships, visit www.brandeis.edu/as/scholarships. 18% —Sheilah Coleman, NSF 10% director of fellowships

SPONSORED PROGRAMS AWARDS FY’05–FY’08 TOTAL FUNDS REQUESTED FY’05–FY’08 $60M $300M

$45M $225M

$30M $150M

$15M $75M

FY’05 FY’06 FY’07 FY’08 FY’05 FY’06 FY’07 FY’08

FACILITIES & ADMINISTRATION FACILITIES & ADMINISTRATION DIRECT DIRECT

Catalyst \\ BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 25