MICHAEL GERRARD ‘72 COLLEGE HONORS FIVE IS THE GURU OF DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI CLIMATE CHANGE LAW WITH JOHN JAY AWARDS Page 26 Page 18 Columbia College May/June 2011 TODAY Nobel Prize-winner Martin Chalfie works with College students in his laboratory. APassion for Science Members of the College’s science community discuss their groundbreaking research ’ll meet you for a I drink at the club...” Meet. Dine. Play. Take a seat at the newly renovated bar grill or fine dining room. See how membership in the Columbia Club could fit into your life. For more information or to apply, visit www.columbiaclub.org or call (212) 719-0380. The Columbia University Club of New York 15 West 43 St. New York, N Y 10036 Columbia’s SocialIntellectualCulturalRecreationalProfessional Resource in Midtown. Columbia College Today Contents 26 20 30 18 73 16 COVER STORY ALUMNI NEWS DEPARTMENTS 2 20 A PA SSION FOR SCIENCE 38 B OOKSHELF LETTERS TO THE Members of the College’s scientific community share Featured: N.C. Christopher EDITOR Couch ’76 takes a serious look their groundbreaking work; also, a look at “Frontiers at The Joker and his creator in 3 WITHIN THE FA MILY of Science,” the Core’s newest component. Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of By Ethan Rouen ’04J, ’11 Business Comics. 4 AROUND THE QU A DS 4 Reunion, Dean’s FEATURES 40 O BITU A RIES Day 2011 6 Class Day, 43 C L A SS NOTES JOHN JA Y AW A RDS DINNER FETES FIVE Commencement 2011 18 The College honored five alumni for their distinguished A LUMNI PROFILES 8 Senate Votes on ROTC professional achievements at a gala dinner in March. 54 Melvin I. Urofsky ’61 8 Brill, Nnadi Win By Alex Sachare ’71; photos by Eileen Barroso 71 Arnold Kim ’96 Goldwaters 12 Student Spotlight: GURU OF CLIM A TE CH A N G E LA W 73 Raji Kalra ’97 26 Anna Feuer ’11 Law School professor and attorney Michael Gerrard ’72 13 80 LUMNI ORNER Alumni, Student is considered the foremost expert on climate change law. A C Win Scholarships By Shira Boss ’93, ’97J, ’98 SIPA Dr. Ralph Freidin ’65 shares his time and medical 15 5 Minutes with … CLUB SP ORTS FLOURISH A T COLUMBI A expertise by volunteering to Katharina Volk 30 More students participate in club sports than in work with the uninsured. 16 Roar, Lion, Roar varsity sports, but at the club level, the students handle 34 everything from travel to purchasing equipment. COLUMBI A FORUM By Jonathan Lemire ’01 Brian Greene, professor of mathematics and physics, posits in his new book, The Web Exclusives at college.columbia.edu/cct Hidden Reality: Parallel Uni- verses and the Deep Laws of the GROUNDBRE A KIN G RESE A RCH Cosmos, that the universe is Professors Martin Chalfie and Maria Uriarte discuss their scientific research. immersed in a bath of photons DEE P Spa CE EX P L A INED from the days of its creation. Watch Professor Brian Greene talk about his latest book, The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos. FIVE MORE MINUTES Professor Katharina Volk discusses the subject of her book Manilius and His Intellectual Background, winner of the 2010 Lionel Trilling Award. FRONT COVER: EILEEN BARROSO COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY Letters to the Editor Joe Coffee Jr. ’41 help was greatly appreciated. Volume 38 Number 5 Thank you for your rich account of Joseph What a great start Joe Coffee gave to May/June 2011 D. Coffee Jr. ’41’s rich life (“Obituaries,” a new alumnus who still treasures his EDITOR AND PUBLISHER March/April). friendship and guidance. Alex Sachare ’71 Mr. Coffee was my off-campus inter- John C. Thomas Jr. ’48, ’50 Business MANAGING EDITOR viewer when I was applying to Columbia. NEW YORK CIT Y Lisa Palladino Friends had prepared me for all kinds of ASSOCIATE EDITOR awful interview questions. But Mr. Coffee’s Dubious Modernism Ethan Rouen ’04J, ’11 Business question was disarmingly simple: “Why CCT editor Alex Sachare ’71 deserves FORUM EDITOR do you want to go to college?” Not why Co- praise for his candor regarding the new Rose Kernochan ’82 Barnard lumbia, but why college. It was the unasked Northwest Corner Building: “I’m not a fan CONTRIBUTING WRITER Shira Boss ’93, ’97J, ’98 SIPA question behind the enterprise that I had of these metal walls on Broadway and West been involved in for all the years of my edu- 120th Street, which a friend describes as a EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Samantha Jean-Baptiste ’13 cation. I loved it. More than 20 years later, it giant cheese-grater” (“Within the Family,” Atti Viragh ’12 GS is the only interview that I re- March/April). DESIGN CONSULTANT member. And it remains one If only the dubious mod- Jean-Claude Suarès of the most memorable, and ernists entrusted with Co- ART DIRECTOR most characteristic, of all my lumbia’s architectural heri- Gates Sisters Studio experiences at Columbia. tage evinced similar bravery. CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Ron Lee Meyers ’92 For the last 50 years, most of Eileen Barroso NEW YORK CIT Y the buildings erected on the Char Smullyan Morningside Heights cam- The excellent obituary of Joe pus have been uninspired Published six times a year by the Coffee Jr. ’41 reminded me at best, egregious at worst, Columbia College Office of of the lucky break I had in and altogether ruinous to Alumni Affairs and Development for meeting him in 1948. I had the original McKim, Mead alumni, students, faculty, parents and graduated from the Col- friends of Columbia College. & White aesthetic. lege in June and entered the One would have thought Address all correspondence to: Business School that fall and Columbia College Today we had learned our lesson Columbia Alumni Center needed a job. I can’t remember Joe’s title but from the late 1950s and early 1960s, when 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530 I believe he was on the University payroll. Mudd, Carman, Ferris Booth, Law, Interna- New York, NY 10025 At that time, he was spending most of his tional Affairs and Uris combined to despoil 212-851-7852 time with the Columbia College Alumni Columbia’s Beaux-Arts unity with their E-mail (editorial): [email protected]; Association (CCAA) and he hired me, with (advertising): [email protected]. jarring, ugly, soulless presence. But no. The Online: college.columbia.edu/cct a title of assistant secretary of the associa- 1970s brought the Sherman Fairchild Cen- tion and a salary of $200 a month. ISSN 0572-7820 ter for the Life Sciences, looking like a col- Joe had the idea that led to the Alexan- lection of solar panels attached to a central Opinions expressed are those of the der Hamilton Medal, and among the first authors and do not reflect official core. In the 1980s, East Campus arose like a positions of Columbia College awardees was V.K. Wellington Koo (Class threatening monolith out of 2001: A Space or Columbia University. of 1909, Class of 1912 GSAS), Chiang Kai- Odyssey. In the new century, the Law School © 2011 Columbia College Today Shek’s ambassador at the time. It took a addition resembles a glass and steel box All rights reserved. super-human effort to get 450 people into topped by an ocean liner’s smokestack. the Waldorf, but the next year’s honoree, Perhaps no recent building was more ea- “Wild Bill” Donovan (Class of 1905), fared gerly anticipated, and so dismally executed, much better. as Lerner Hall. Students and alumni thought Joe was a tremendous source of ideas — that undergraduates would finally receive Dean’s Day was next. His enthusiasm and the spacious activities center they deserved. boundless energy inspired the immensely Instead, they got a disjointed monstrosity talented group that ran the Alumni Asso- whose huge sloping ramps — which call to ciation to make sure these concepts didn’t mind a Pachinko machine — waste the suffer crib deaths. Having the district at- precious square footage that should have CCT welcomes letters from readers about torney of New York County, Frank Hogan articles in the magazine but cannot been given over to club space. I recently print or personally respond to all letters ’24, ’28L, as president of the CCAA made showed Lerner to a prospective College received. Letters express the views of life for me extraordinarily exciting and re- freshman. Gazing at the skeletal ramps and the writers and not CCT, the College or the University. Please keep letters to 250 warding. On the campus, Harry Carman see-through facade she asked innocently, “Is words or fewer. All letters are subject to ’19 GSAS was still dean, soon to be suc- it still under construction?” Honest. editing for space and clarity. Please direct ceeded by Larry Chamberlain ’45 GSAS, How does the University, with all of its letters for publication “TO THE EDITOR .” and their great support and willingness to (Continued on page 78) may/JUNE 2011 2 COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY W ITHIN THE FAMILY The Times, They Continue To Change uring my first semester at soliciting e-mails from other the College, I attended a pre- members of the Columbia sentation by a representative community and holding Dof the New York City Police three open forums, the Senate Department. He was on campus as voted 51–17 (with one ab- a recruiter, looking for students who stention) to approve a resolu- might be interested in careers in law tion to invite ROTC back (see enforcement after graduation. If that “Around the Quads”). Later sounds a bit strange, consider that this that same day, the University was in fall 1967, months before the issued a statement saying it demonstrations and the police bust that would take the issue before left an indelible impression on anyone the Council of Deans, with who was on campus on the night of a final decision expected to April 30, 1968.