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Hardy wins Armstrong Fund for Science Award

Chemist Jeanne Hardy has won the seventh annual Armstrong Fund for Science Awards, which this year is granting $30,000 over two years to encourage transformative research that introduces new ways of thinking about pressing scientific or technical challenges. Hardy will be recognized at the Honors Dinner for invited faculty on April 29.
 
Hardy’s lab investigates the role of a protein known as caspase-6, among the most promising drug targets for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. To treat Alzheimer’s, it is essential that only caspase-6 but no other related proteins are inhibited, she explains.

Cattani, Kaplan collaborated with Abel Prize-winning mathematician

During the course of his notable career, professor Pierre Deligne of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, this year’s winner of the Abel Prize in Mathematics, collaborated with two members of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics: professors emeriti Eduardo Cattani and Aroldo Kaplan.
 
Deligne is being recognized “for seminal contributions to algebraic geometry and for their transformative impact on number theory, representation theory, and related fields.”
 
The Abel Prize was instituted in 2002 by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Arts as an international prize for

Six named Family Research Scholars

Six faculty members have been named Family Research Scholars for the 2013-14 academic year by the Center for Research on Families (CRF).
 
Elizabeth Harvey, Psychology, Agnès Lacreuse, Psychology, Joya Misra, Sociology and Public Policy, Jonathan Rosa, Anthropology, Gwyneth Rost, Communication Disorders, and Lisa Troy, Nutrition, were chosen on the basis of their promising work in family-related research.

The Family Research Scholars Program provides selected faculty with the time, technical expertise, peer mentorship and national expert consultation to prepare a large grant proposal for

O’Brien’s poem published in The New Yorker

“Crustaceans,” a poem by English professor Peggy O’Brien, appeared in the April 8 issue of The New Yorker.
 
O’Brien is the author of two collections of poems, “Sudden Thaw” and “Frog Spotting.” She is also the editor of the “Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry” and a book about Seamus Heaney and other Irish poets called “Writing Lough Derg.”
 
 
 

Obituary: Irving Howards, professor emeritus of Political Science

Irving Howards, 87, of Amherst, professor emeritus of Political Science, died April 8.
 
Born in Milwaukee, he was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, where he received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D.
 
He joined the Political Science faculty in 1965 and served as director of the Bureau of Government Research, assistant to the chancellor and president and coordinator of Public Affairs.

Hayes gives ASECS presidential address

Julie Candler Hayes, professor of French and dean of Humanities and Fine Arts, gave the presidential plenary lecture on April 5 during the annual meeting of the American Society for 18th-Century Studies.

Hayes was elected vice president of ASECS in 2011 and served as the organization’s president in 2012-13. The topic of her lecture, which stems from an ongoing book project on 17th and 18th-century women writers, was “Philosophical About Marriage: Women Writers and the Moralist Tradition.”

Baran honored for contributions to audiology journal

Jane A. Baran, professor and chair of Communication Disorders, was awarded the 2013 JAAA Editor’s Award on April 4 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Audiology (AAA) in Anaheim, Calif.
 
The award, which was presented to Baran at the academy’s honors and award banquet, recognizes her outstanding contributions to the peer review of the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

Obituary: Pauline Collins, first librarian of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies

Pauline P. Collins, 92, of Amherst, retired librarian of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, died April 4 at the Hospice at the Fisher Home in North Amherst.

Born on April 4 in Sylva, N.C., she graduated from Cullowhee High School in 1938. She developed an early interest in Spanish and Spanish-American literature at Western Carolina University and Duke University, which led to a master’s degree at Duke and a doctorate in romance languages at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Obituary: Kenneth Cashin, professor emeritus of Chemical Engineering

Kenneth D. Cashin, 91, of Lexington, professor emeritus of Chemical Engineering, died April 6.
 
Born in Lowell, he attended Worchester Polytechnic Institute in 1940, but left to join the U.S Navy Radio and Radar Unit in 1944. He returned to WPI in 1946 to complete his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
 
He joined the faculty in 1948 as an assistant professor and initiated what became the Department of Chemical Engineering. During a sabbatical year he completed his work for a doctorate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

From 1968-70, he took a leave of absence to establish the chemical

Pianist Vonsattel debuts at London’s Wigmore Hall

Pianist Gilles Vonsattel, assistant professor of Music, made his debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall on April 5, performing music by Holliger, Ravel, Honegger and Beethoven.
 
Reviewing the recital on the website Classical Source, Peter Reed wrote, “The Sonatine was remarkable for its poise and elusive lyricism, and Gaspard de la Nuit was hugely impressive.

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