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School Notes
A supplement to the Yale Alumni Magazine from the twelve schools of Yale.
January/February 2008
School of Architecture
Robert A. M. Stern, Dean
architecture.yale.edu
A&A
Building renamed for designer
The Art & Architecture Building, currently undergoing a major renovation, will be renamed the Rudolph Building in honor of Paul Rudolph, the building’s designer and architect and former chair of the Department of Architecture. Opened in 1963, the building is considered a masterpiece of modern architecture for its virtuosic use of the elements of mass, space, and light. Charles Gwathmey, of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, is overseeing the renovation. Plans call for a mix of literal renovation, interpretive renovation, and sensitive intervention in order to restore the building to its original intention, and will introduce state-of-the-art technology, air conditioning, and LEED standards of energy efficiency. Restoration is scheduled
for completion this year.
Exhibit
focuses on sustainable design
A display of sustainable design projects features the collaborative work of two German firms, Behnisch Architekten and Transsolar ClimateEngineering, and illustrates ecological design strategies driven by considerations of temperature, air, sound, and human scale. It also focuses on the relationships between human beings and their immediate environment, and the way that sustainable design can support those relationships. Principals of both firms are affiliated with the Yale School of Architecture: Stefan Behnisch is a visiting professor, and Thomas Auer of Transsolar is a lecturer. Dean Robert A. M. Stern wrote in the preface to the exhibit booklet, “Their joint projects demonstrate that artistically provocative and technically adventurous buildings can be realized without sacrifice to the comfort of the users.” The
exhibit is on view at the school’s gallery through February 1.
School of Art
Robert Storr, Dean
yale.edu/art
Ten
alumni chosen for 2008 Whitney Biennial
Of the 81 artists chosen to show their work in the prestigious 2008 biennial contemporary art exhibit at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, ten are graduates of the Yale School of Art. Included are Walead Beshty '02MFA, Shannon Ebner '00MFA, and Michael Smith '81MFA (photography); William Cordova '04MFA and Lisa Sigal '89MFA (painting); David Reinfurt '99MFA (graphic design); and Rashawn Griffin '05MFA, Leslie Hewitt '04MFA, Charles Long '88MFA, and Adam
Putnam '00MFA (sculpture).
Since its founding in 1932, the Whitney Biennial has evolved into the Whitney’s signature exhibition, as well as the most important survey of the state of contemporary art in the United States today. The Whitney Biennial is on view
from March 6 through June 1.
Sculpture
retrospective at MoMA
The Museum of Modern Art in New York City mounted a major retrospective of the work of American sculptor Martin Puryear '71MFA, featuring approximately 45 sculptures and following the development of Puryear’s artistic career over the last 30 years. Puryear’s sculptures, which are mostly made of wood, are rich with psychological and intellectual references, and raise issues of identity, culture, and history. The exhibition opened in November and closes on January
14.
Yale College
Peter Salovey, Dean
yale.edu/yalecollege
Undergraduate
engineers design, build, and race a speedy hybrid
“I haven’t had this much fun since integration of the first Segway prototypes,” says Professor John Morrell '86, who advised a group of Yale undergraduates on the development of a Formula Hybrid car that won third place at the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, last May. The three-day Formula Hybrid competition at Loudon’s speedway—including acceleration tests, an obstacle-avoiding autocross, and an endurance run—is the latest iteration of the 25-year-old Formula SAE program run by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Working within a set of rules governing size and budget constraints, teams of undergraduates from colleges around the world build and race miniature Indy cars. For the Formula SAE competition, vehicles use an internal combustion engine. The Formula Hybrid project emphasizes drive-train innovation and fuel efficiency in the open-wheel, single-seat
racecar designs.
Organizers of the event were impressed that Yale students entered the hybrid competition, instead of the internal-combustion Formula competition, in their first year taking part in the contest. “The vehicle that earned third place had a dune-buggy chassis, and only the team’s superior propulsion engineering saved the day,” reports Morrell.Undaunted, the Yale students involved in the project are now working to find sponsors so they can design a better chassis this year. A group of students in the ME senior project design class is designing a new chassis to improve the handling of the car and optimize the layout of the propulsion system. The design changes should make them a contender for honors
again this year.
New
director at Yale Center for Language Study
Nelleke Van Deusen-Scholl arrived in November to take the helm of the Center for Language Study (CLS) at Yale. Van Deusen-Scholl came to Yale from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was director of the Penn Language Center in the School of Arts and Sciences and adjunct associate professor in the Graduate School of Education. Van Deusen-Scholl, who holds a PhD in linguistics from the University of Florida, focuses her research on sociolinguistics and
foreign language education.
More than 50 languages are taught at Yale, and the CLS provides coordination and support for these courses. Through the CLS’s Directed Independent Language Study program, more than 40 additional languages are taught to students requiring specialized language study to continue with research and academic pursuits. Support provided by the CLS includes technological services and guidance, workshops and seminars for language teachers, independent study opportunities, and language tutoring resources. Yale College Dean Peter Salovey said, “The report of the Committee on Yale College Education made clear that learning languages, and learning multiple languages, is and will continue to be a priority for undergraduates at Yale. As we have implemented the recommendations of that report, the CLS has been an incredible asset. I know that with Nelleke’s arrival at Yale, we can look forward to continuing progress
in educating students who are fluent in multiple languages and cultures.”
Students
prepare for global health research
The Yale College Fellowship for International Research in the Sciences and Health Studies program provides support for original undergraduate research projects abroad in the natural and applied sciences and in health studies, including public health. The office of International Education and Fellowship Programs is collaborating with the Yale College Health Studies Initiative to again offer a workshop to enhance the academic experience of Yale College sophomores and juniors who plan to conduct an international health-related research project during the summer or a semester abroad. Professor Kaveh Khoshnood of the Yale School of Public Health, who launched the workshop last year, helps students to develop their ideas for research into proposals to be submitted for funding. Professor Khoshnood works with students to explore the cultural, political, and social complexities of conducting research in low-resource countries and take steps in
the development of a scientific, ethical, and feasible research project.
Among students who took the workshop last year was Christine Nguyen '09, who studied the interplay between HIV/AIDS and sex trafficking in Vietnam. She plans to become a physician, and she says her summer research provided an “eye-opening perspective, which has enriched my cultural awareness, and will help me make better decisions in life and in my career as a physician and promoter of public health.” Alexander Harding '09 worked in the town of Muisne, Ecuador, where, the summer before, he had worked in the hospital. When Harding returned, this time it was to address problems with Muisne’s drinking water. He says, “The time I had spent in Muisne’s hospital [in 2006] had inspired me to become a doctor because I saw how desperately some people need medical care. But it was constructing a water treatment system in Muisne [in 2007] that showed me what I could do to improve people’s health on a large scale. Doctors are essential to Muisne, but their work would be enormously more beneficial if it were merged with public health efforts.” Harding will
continue his education by pursuing degrees in both public health and medicine.
Divinity School
Harold W. Attridge, Dean
yale.edu/divinity
YDS
scholars welcome statement by Muslims
In mid-October, four Yale Divinity School scholars, including the dean and the president-elect of the American Academy of Religion, released a statement warmly embracing the open letter “A Common Word between Us and You,” issued worldwide on October 11 and signed by 138 Muslim scholars, clerics, and intellectuals. The statement from the YDS scholars, entitled “Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to ‘A Common Word between Us and You,’” reads, “We receive ‘A Common Word’ as a Muslim hand of conviviality and cooperation extended to Christians worldwide. In this response we extend our own Christian hand in return, so that together with all other human beings we may live in peace and justice as we seek to love God and our neighbors.” Issuing the statement were Dean Harold Attridge; Miroslav Volf, director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture; Joseph Cumming, director of the Reconciliation Program at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture; and Emilie M. Townes, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology and president-elect of the American Academy of Religion. As the “Loving God and Neighbor” statement was circulated beyond Yale, more than 200 Christian church leaders and theologians signed on within one month, including the dean of Harvard Divinity School and the president of Princeton
Theological Seminary.
Over
$3 million in pledges to boost financial aid at Divinity School
Yale Divinity School announced more than $3 million in capital campaign gifts during the week of Alumni Convocation and Reunions, October 8-11, including two gifts of $1 million—one in honor of former Yale University chaplain Sidney Lovett—and two of $500,000. Dean Harold Attridge said, “These most generous contributions to Yale Divinity School will provide significant support where it is most needed—scholarship aid to students. The gifts reflect the fondness for YDS that so many of our alumni feel and that was much in evidence at Convocation and Reunions 2007. I am most grateful for these gifts, and my wife, Jan, and I are happy to have joined in donating to YDS and in naming YDS a
beneficiary in our own wills.”
Alumni
Convocation and Reunions 2007: worship, dining, lectures … and homework
This year’s Convocation and Reunions was the best-attended in recent memory, with a total of 406 registered participants. They worshipped together, dined together, and heard a number of stimulating lectures. But many alumni came away with something more than memories and inspiration—homework. Two special projects were introduced during the week, both aimed at collecting and disseminating the considerable experience alumni have gathered over the years, in order to make that experience accessible to others. Describing the “Legacy Project” for the classes of 1961, 1962, and 1963, Bruce Rigdon '62BD, '68PhD, said, “My friends, I think we must have learned something after these 45 years of ministry. I really mean that. I think together we have stories to tell, wonderful stories and tragic stories, and in those stories there are some
terribly valuable lessons.”
Meanwhile, leaders of the new Initiative on Religion and Politics at Yale described plans to harvest the insights and recollections of alumni from a more specific terrain—the social justice arena. “Many of you have spent your careers, or are working now, on important issues of social justice,” said Emilie Townes, an organizer of the initiative and the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology. “We don’t want to go too far
without your input.”
And
now there are two …
In the stately YDS Common Room—adorned with portraits of iconic YDS figures such as Roland Bainton, H. Richard Niebuhr, and Liston Pope—the female presence has doubled. The latest portrait to be hung is that of Letty M. Russell, a leading feminist theologian who was on the YDS faculty from 1974 to 2001 and who died in July at the age of 77. She now joins Joan Forsberg, former associate dean of students at YDS, becoming just the second woman in the galaxy of luminaries honored in the Common Room. The Russell portrait was formally hung on October 23, following a memorial service in her honor in Marquand Chapel. Painted by artist Gerald P. York '81, the portrait was commissioned in part through the
support of Janet W. Tanner '98MAR.
School of Drama
James Bundy, Dean
yale.edu/drama
Drama
School honors memory of student
Yale School of Drama suffered a grievous loss with the death last fall of a student in the technical design and production program. Pierre-Andre Salim '09 died November 18 while unloading sets for a production at Yale Repertory Theatre, where he was serving as the assistant technical director. To honor Pierre’s life and work, the school has established a scholarship in perpetuity, called the Pierre-Andre Salim Memorial Scholarship, which will cover full tuition and living expenses for one entering student each year, for the duration of his/her program. A geographical first preference will be given to applicants from Southeast Asia and a second preference for students from elsewhere in Asia;
students in technical theater and design will also be given a preference.
Recent
gifts will fund scholarships
With a $3.25 million donation from the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, the school has created the Jerome L. Greene Endowment, which will fully fund tuition, living, and medical expenses for four third-year students studying acting. The scholarship aims to free students of financial burden during their studies at Yale and allow them the flexibility to make significant creative choices when they graduate. The first Greene endowment will be awarded this year. Also awarded for the first time this year is the Cullman Scholarship in Directing, which will cover the tuition of one student in each year of the three-year directing program. This endowment was made possible by a gift from Trip Cullman '97, '02MFA, and his father, Edgar Cullman '68. Trip, a New York theater director and member of the School of Drama’s Leadership Council, was motivated by his own experience at the drama school to “help others have the training that I found to be absolutely necessary to my own development as an
artist.”
Alumni
doings
Designer John Conklin '59, '66MFA, whose credits include productions on Broadway and at the Metropolitan Opera, returned to the Yale Repertory Theatre to design the set for the December production of Moliere’s Tartuffe. May Adrales '06MFA is the first recipient of the Denham Fellowship, named in honor of Broadway director Reginald H. F. Denham and granted by the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation; the $3,000 prize will support her production of Faith, Hope, and Charity in Charleston, South Carolina. Tarell Alvin McCraney '07MFA was awarded the 2007 Whiting Writers' Award in playwriting from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation,
given to emerging writers of exceptional talent and promise.
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
James Gustave Speth, Dean
environment.yale.edu
Rainwater
system to save half-million gallons of water a year
A rainwater harvesting system that is being built into Kroon Hall, the new home for the environment school, will save approximately 500,000 gallons of potable water every year and will help the building attain the highest environmental
ranking given by the U.S. Green Building Council.
“The rainwater harvesting system will conserve water, contribute to better water quality, and will control the rate of runoff during a storm by detaining and slowly releasing excess storm water,” said project manager Nicole Holmes. Thanks to this system, she said, “the school will be drawing less water from the city’s aquifer and will not be using any drinking water for irrigation
or toilets.”
Rainwater that falls on Kroon Hall’s roof and grounds will enter into a 24-hour recycling process that will take place in a manmade pond and a network of subterranean tanks; water that circulates through the system will be used for flushing toilets and irrigating the native flora in the two courtyards on the 3.5-acre
site.
The first inch of storm water will be filtered by specially selected aquatic plants—iris, cattails, arrowheads and lotuses—and any rainfall over that amount will be carried by a separate pipe to a 20,000-gallon fiberglass-reinforced underground harvesting tank, which will also collect overflow from the pond and rainwater from the Kroon Hall roof. That mix will then be circulated through the pond for additional cleansing. The water stored in the harvesting tank will be diverted to a separate 940-gallon tank located in the new building’s basement, where it will be filtered and disinfected for use in toilets. A
hookup to a city line will provide water for drinking and washing.
“This system will pay for itself, with savings from the potable water that would have
been used, within 10 years or so,” said Holmes.
More
developing nations gain access to scientific research
Thirty-six countries have been added to a roster of developing nations that have access to one of the world’s largest collections of environmental science research online. In the past 12 months, more than 500 public institutions and local nongovernmental organizations have enrolled in a free program called Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE). Yale University, the United Nations Environment Programme, the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers, and more than 340 international publishers and scientific societies administer OARE, whose goal is to reduce the great disparities in scientific resources between developed and developing nations. Institutions in the program receive international scientific literature that represents 75 percent of the world’s most prestigious and highly cited
scientific research in the environmental sciences.
When it began in October 2006, OARE offered access to scientific literature to 70 of the world’s poorest nations with a gross national income per capita below $1,250. Now the second phase of the program extends the access to 36 countries, territories, and areas with a per capita gross national income between $1,250 and $3,500. Gus Speth, dean of the environment school, said, “There is now an unprecedented opportunity to provide less-developed countries intellectual
capital that we in the developed world take for granted.”
Donation
will fund work on environmental problems in Asia
A $2 million gift to the environment school will be used to take on the urgent issue of climate change and other pressing environmental concerns in China and surrounding countries. The gift will help create an Asia Environment Fund at F&ES, which will be used to support four core program components: research, policy, exchange, and outreach, over the next four years. Inside China, pollution is estimated to cause the premature deaths of a quarter million people each year. As coal consumption increases at an annual rate near 20 percent, what happens in China will have a profound effect on the world’s ability to slow global warming. “The importance of focusing extensively on environmental issues as they relate to China cannot be overstated, both for the health of the Chinese people and the health of the planet,” said Dean Gus
Speth.
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Jon Butler, Dean
yale.edu/graduateschool
Etiquette
lessons
Graduate students sometimes need more than book knowledge and a degree to get a good job. Now they’re getting tips on networking at receptions and conferences and learning how to overcome anxieties related to meeting new people and making first impressions. Graduate Career Services (GCS) recently organized a workshop designed to help graduate students avoid social embarrassment, and invited Deborah Cucinotta, head of the consulting firm Global Etiquette, to speak to students embarking on the job market. “Keep your right hand free, clean, and dry at all times, so you can shake hands,” advised Cucinotta, whose usual clients are businessmen and women being groomed for upper-level positions. The workshop featured a cocktail hour (minus the alcohol, but with plenty of food and soda), and a chance for students to practice introducing themselves and mingling with strangers. “As graduate students, we are constantly attending colloquia, going to conferences, and meeting speakers. We have only a few minutes of their time and we want to maximize this,” said GCS fellow Amelia Aldo (psychology), who coordinated the event with Victoria
Blodgett, director of GCS.
American
studies scholar wins writing prize
Carlo Rotella '94PhD (American studies) has been chosen as a recipient of the Whiting Writers' Award for his outstanding work in nonfiction. A professor of English and director of American studies at Boston College, Rotella has published three books of nonfiction: October Cities: The Redevelopment of Urban Literature (1998), Good with their Hands: Boxers, Bluesmen and other Characters from the Rust Belt (2002), and Cut Time: An Education at the Fights (2003), which won the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He has published many essays and magazine pieces, including the title chapter from Cut Time, which was selected for inclusion in Best American Essays 2001 and chosen by the American Scholar as “Best Essay” and “Best Work by a Younger Writer” in 2000. The Whiting Writers' Award, which carries a $50,000 prize, is awarded annually by the Mrs. Giles Whiting
Foundation to emerging writers of exceptional talent and promise.
Music
professor discusses Industrial Revolution
The music of the nineteenth century and its influence on the Industrial Revolution is the topic of the third installment in the dean’s lecture series, “In the Company of Scholars.” Leon Plantinga, the Henry L. & Lucy G. Moses Professor Emeritus of Music, will present his talk, “Music and the Industrial Revolution,” on February 26 in the Hall of Graduate Studies Common Room. The year-long lecture series comprises four talks, each given by an outstanding
faculty member who explains his or her research to a general audience.
Law School
Harold Hongju Koh, Dean
law.yale.edu
Sterling
professor honored with book award
Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science Bruce Ackerman '67LLB was honored by Scribes: The American Society of Legal Writers for the best law book published in 2006. Ackerman was named co-winner of the Scribes Book Award for Before the Next Attack: Preserving Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism, published by Yale University Press.
In the book, Professor Ackerman addresses the threat to civil liberties posed by terrorist attacks that trigger the enactment of repressive laws. He proposes an “emergency constitution” that enables government to take extraordinary actions to prevent a second strike in the short run while prohibiting permanent
measures that destroy our freedom over the longer run.
Scribes is a national society of judges, lawyers, law professors, legal publishers, legal writers, and legal editors dedicated to improving legal writing across the profession. The Scribes Book Award has been awarded annually since 1961 to
honor the best work of legal scholarship published in the previous year.
YLS
graduate named to Connecticut Supreme Court
Barry R. Schaller '60, '63LLB, was sworn in as a Connecticut Supreme Court justice on September 24, 2007. He replaced Justice David Borden, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. Justice Schaller earned his BA from Yale in 1960. He currently teaches in Yale Law School’s Trial Practice class. “The opportunity to participate in judicial decision-making on the Supreme Court of Connecticut is very meaningful to me,” said Justice Schaller. “It represents, in some respects, the culmination of many years of work on the trial and appellate courts. It also represents a rare opportunity to decide cases that may have an impact, not only on individual litigants, but on the growth of
the law in many important areas.”
Justice Schaller practiced law with Bronson & Rice in New Haven before being appointed to the Connecticut Superior Court bench in 1974 and to the Appellate Court in 1992. He has taught and lectured widely and plans to continue teaching on a wide range of subjects, including bioethics and public health law and ethics. His newest book, Understanding Bioethics and the Law: The Promises
and Perils of the Brave New World of Biotechnology, was published in November.
YLS
alums gather for two-day reunion in London
More than 50 Yale Law School alumni, ranging from the Class of 1949 to the Class of 2007, as well as deferred students from the classes of 2011 and 2012, gathered in London on October 21 and 22. Dean Harold Hongju Koh, Associate Dean Toni Davis '92LLM, Assistant Director of Alumni Affairs Abby Roth '94JD, and Professor Jay Pottenger Jr. '75JD joined the group for an educational and fun-packed two days that included panel discussions, dinners, a walking tour of “Legal London,” a cruise along the Thames, and a visit to the “Golden Age of Couture” exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Participants also had the opportunity to observe courtroom proceedings at the Royal Courts of Justice and to hear presentations by English barristers from Brick Court Chambers, which specializes in commercial law, European Community law, administrative law, antitrust, and human rights. The graduates in attendance came from an extraordinary number of locations, including France, Italy, Turkey, Croatia, Switzerland, Germany, Egypt, Belgium, England, and the
United States.
School of Management
Joel Podolny, Dean
mba.yale.edu
Fellows
Program to honor outstanding SOM alumni
The School of Management has established the Donaldson Fellows Program, named for SOM’s founding dean, William H. Donaldson '53, and aimed at honoring exceptional Yale SOM alumni. Three Donaldson Fellows will be selected each year by a committee of SOM faculty, students, and alumni, from a pool of nominations submitted by members of the SOM community. Donaldson Fellows will be selected based on their demonstrated capacity for inspiring leadership, and for personal and professional conduct that exemplifies the three themes that define the Yale School of Management: leading and managing across boundaries; transforming positive values into personal, professional, and institutional commitments; and bringing creativity and discipline to complex management problems. The first Donaldson Fellows will be announced in early February and will take part in a two- to three-day residency at the school in April for seminars, symposium and
panel presentations, and meetings with students.
Latest
SOM magazine issue explores markets
“Can we manage with(out) markets?” Q2, the second issue of the Yale SOM magazine, uses this question to launch a series of wide-ranging conversations on the nature of markets, the role of trust and integrity in markets, how markets can alter a society, and whether markets can help the poor. Q2 pulls together top practitioners and faculty from SOM and around the country to tackle some of the most important issues facing business today. Reed Hundt, former chair of the FCC, senior adviser for telecommunications at McKinsey, and vice chair of Frontline Wireless, argues that the upcoming federal wireless spectrum auction could amount to the largest privatization of public property in U.S. history. Legendary investor Martin Whitman describes the factors that push markets toward efficiency—and how inefficiency presents opportunities to investors. And Robert Glaser, chairman and CEO of RealNetworks, and Richard Sandor, founder of the Chicago Climate Exchange, join Dean Joel Podolny and Professor Robert Shiller to discuss what it takes to create not just a new business but an entire new market. Q2 can be found online at som.yale.e du/q2, where you can also request a
print copy.
Students
win national finance competition
A team of SOM students won the National Energy Finance Challenge in September at the University of Texas’s McCombs School of Business. The group, from the Class of 2008—Akshay Dhiman, Ganga Kannan, Jeff Levi, Kate McGill, and Vinod Pathrose—defeated 15 other schools to claim the title and the $8,000 prize money at the third annual event. The contest was a marathon case study, followed by a grilling by the competition’s judges (who weren’t told which school each team represented). The match hinged on how well the teams created financial models for a fictional company and recommendations for how the company should proceed in countries modeled on current energy hotspots. Ganga Kannan credited the school’s new interactive curriculum with giving the team an edge over the other teams. “It gave us a framework to address the problem holistically and examine the effects of our strategy recommendations on all stakeholders,” he said. “We didn’t get overly caught up in the financial models.” Coming in second place behind Yale was Harvard Business School, followed by
Purdue and Northwestern’s Kellogg School.
School of Medicine
Robert J. Alpern, Dean
med.yale.edu/ysm
New
cancer hospital named for alumnus
The new 14-story cancer hospital, currently under construction, will be called the Smilow Cancer Hospital in appreciation of the generous support offered by Joel E. Smilow '54 and his wife Joan. Smilow, the former chair, chief executive officer, and president of Playtex Products, Inc., is one of the university’s most generous benefactors. The Smilow Cancer Hospital will gather all oncology patient services at Yale–New Haven Hospital and the School of Medicine into one building designed to deliver multidisciplinary cancer care. The new facility
will cost an estimated $467 million and is expected to open in 2009.
Student-run
clinic receives award
HAVEN Free Clinic, the two-year-old clinic run by students in public health, nursing, medicine, and the physician associate program, won an Elm-Ivy Award for helping
further the partnership between New Haven and Yale.
HAVEN (Health Care, Advocacy, Volunteerism, Education, and Neighborhood) offers primary care, social services, and specialty referrals to city residents, many of whom are undocumented workers with no health insurance. Based at the Fair Haven Community Health Center, the clinic is supervised by attending physicians from the medical school and the community. Since it opened, it has provided
medical care to more than 200 patients.
Weighing
the benefits against the risks
Computed tomography (CT) scans are an invaluable diagnostic tool, but too much exposure to the radiation they use could increase a patient’s risk of cancer, according to a Yale physician. James A. Brink, professor and chair of diagnostic radiology, says doctors need to be more aware of the risks posed by CT and other imaging devices that rely on radiation. The number of CT scans administered annually in the United States has grown from 3 million in 1981 to 63 million in 2005. In terms of radiation exposure, one CT scan is equal to between 100 and 250 chest X-rays. Brink would like to see physicians order fewer scans, particularly when another imaging technique would be adequate. “CT is a phenomenal technique,” Brink says. “I’m not saying it
shouldn’t be used. I’m just saying we need to use it judiciously.”
“Chronic Lyme disease” may not be real
There is no evidence that “chronic Lyme disease” exists, and if it does, the risks of prolonged antibiotic treatment outweigh any benefits, according to researchers at Yale and other institutions. In a review article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Eugene D. Shapiro of Yale and colleagues focused on the “imprecisely defined” condition “chronic Lyme disease.” They maintain that the term is a misnomer and that prolonged use of dangerous
and expensive antibiotics is not warranted.
Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne infection in the northern hemisphere. The disease is caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, and typically manifests as a rash. Patients usually respond well to conventional antibiotics, but a minority later complain of fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, and difficulty with concentration or short-term memory. If these symptoms last longer than six months, they are
called “post-Lyme disease syndrome.”
Chronic Lyme disease encompasses this condition, but it also includes symptoms unrelated to B. burgdorferi infection, according to Shapiro, a professor of pediatrics, epidemiology, and public and investigative medicine. He recommends patients with these symptoms be thoroughly evaluated for other medical conditions that
could explain them.
School of Music
Robert Blocker, Dean
music.yale.edu
Hendrie
Hall next in line for renovation
Planning for the renovation and enlargement of Hendrie Hall is well under way. As the fourth phase of the strategic plan to make Yale’s music facilities second to none, the renovation of Hendrie will be much more than a facelift. In addition to more-comfortable spaces for the current tenants of the building—Yale Band, Glee Club, Opera, Philharmonia, and some faculty—the renovation calls for an addition that will include a large orchestral rehearsal hall (it will double as a high-tech performance space), a student lounge that can also be used for receptions, and an enlarged percussion studio. Alums who remember rehearsing in Hendrie will appreciate another feature of the renovation:
elevators. Construction will begin this May and is expected to take two years.
Ives
concert wins praise
The second “Yale at Carnegie” concert, an evening of songs by Charles Ives, continued the string of successful School of Music concerts in that historic venue. The October 29 program in Weill Recital Hall, featuring School of Music alumni and student singers with faculty pianists, moved New York Times critic Bernard Holland to praise both the composer and the performers. “Hearing the songs in one sitting erased any image of the iconoclastic amateur. Poise and confidence are everywhere in this music. … The quality of singing was astonishing for such relatively young people, with consistently elegant technique and an unforced delivery, all well calculated to this small hall.” The series continues on February 4 in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, with a program of mixed wind, string, and piano chamber music featuring eight of the school's
artist faculty, four alumni, and seven current students.
Yale
pianists win abroad
Three Yale pianists placed in the top tier of major international competitions this fall. Marianna Prjevalskaya '07MusM was the third-place winner in the Seventh International Ignacz Paderewski Competition in Bydgoszcz, Poland, long regarded one of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world. Forty-four pianists from 20 countries, selected from 150 candidates, took part in the competition, which took place November 4-18. Ms. Prjevalskaya is a postgraduate teaching fellow at the Yale School of Music. Two School of Music pianists were among the top prizewinners in one of South America’s most important competitions, the 34th International Music Competition in Vina del Mar, Chile. Each year, the competition alternates among five musical disciplines (piano, voice, guitar, violin, and violoncello); this was the year for piano. Ryo
Yanagitani '08MusAM won second prize, and Jose Menor '07ArtA came in third.
School of Nursing
Margaret Grey, Dean
nursing.yale.edu
Facility
for hospice caregivers named for YSN alumna
The Connecticut Department of Veterans' Affairs dedicated the Florence and Henry Wald House November 7 at its Rocky Hill campus, as a temporary home for families involved with hospice care at the veterans' home. School of Nursing Dean Emeritus Florence Wald '41MN founded Hospice Incorporated in Branford, Connecticut, in 1971. It has since become a model for hospice care in the United States and abroad. YSN dean Margaret Grey '76MSN, who spoke at the dedication ceremony, called Florence Wald an inspiration to the school and to all nurses. “Her work in developing hospice in the United States has impacted millions of lives,” she said, adding that the Wald House “will provide
compassionate care to the families of so many who have served our nation.”
Netcast
focuses on helping children with diabetes
Dean Margaret Grey’s latest netcast is available on Yale University’s iTunesU, the library of free netcasts available on Apple iTunes. Episodes are arranged by subject or “series,” making it easier to find all Yale netcasts on a particular issue. In YSN’s new episode, found under the Health and Medicine series, Dean Grey discusses her research on effective programs to help children with diabetes live healthier lives. YSN’s audio and video clips may be accessed
by visiting http://nursing.yale.edu/News/Media. |
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