Henry M. Thomas, III, of Springfield, is the new chair of the Board of Trustees following his appointment June 27 by Gov. Deval Patrick. Thomas, who 
was appointed to the board by Patrick in September 2007, succeeds James J. Karam, whose term as chair expired at the end of the academic year. Karam will serve on the board until February, when his term ends.
Thomas, who is president of the Urban League of Springfield, most recently served as the board’s vice chair and chair of its Committee on Academic and Student Affairs.
“Henry Thomas is the consummate citizen-servant.
Alumnus and rower Wes Piermarini of West Brookfield will represent the United States in the men’s quadruple scull competition beginning July 28 at the Olympic Games in London.
Medical devices save countless lives, and increasingly functions such as data storage and wireless communication allow for individualized patient care and other advances. But after their recent study, an interdisciplinary team of medical researchers and computer scientists warn that federal regulators need to improve how they track security and privacy problems in medical devices. 
Charles Curtsinger, a doctoral candidate in Computer Science, recently received a prestigious 2012 Google Fellowship in Software Performance, one of only 14 Google PhD Student Fellowships awarded in the United States and Canada this year. With the two-year award, Curtsinger will receive funding for tuition, fees and a yearly stipend, plus access to a Google research mentor.
The award of merit was given to the Trustees of Reservations for the project “Elizabeth Freeman: A Story of Courage,” at the organization’s Ashley House in Sheffield. History graduate students Jessie MacLeod, Elizabeth Bradley, and John Morton helped develop the exhibit documenting the life of Elizabeth “Mum Bett” Freeman, a black slave at the property in the late 18
The award acknowledges teams who demonstrate outstanding dining, hospitality service and teamwork to reach a major accomplishment, enhance the food service business or improve the quality of campus life.
The student-led Permaculture Committee has won more national recognition, this time the first-ever Gold Sustainability Award given by the National Association of College and University Food Services (NACUFS), in the “outreach and education” category. Ken Toong, executive director of Auxiliary Services, and Ryan Harb, now a sustainability manager who brought the permaculture concept to campus as a graduate student in 2009, will collect the honor during the NACUFS national convention on July 11–14 in Boston.
A group of diseases that kill millions of people each year can’t be touched by antibiotics, and some treatment is so harsh the patient can’t survive it. They’re caused by parasites, and for decades researchers have searched for a “magic bullet” to kill them without harming the patient. Now, a team of Microbiology Department researchers has made an advance that could one day lead to a new weapon for fighting parasitic diseases such as African sleeping sickness, chagas disease and leishmaniasis.
In a July 2 broadcast e-mail, Subbaswamy said, “Over the past several weeks, I have had the opportunity to meet with many of you. In the coming months, I look forward to expanding that circle considerably as I sit down with faculty, students, the faculty senate, our campus unions and a host of individuals and groups, both on campus and beyond.”