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November 22, 2002
Quidnunc
Scientific American
Mount Holyoke Visiting Senior Lecturer in Environmental Studies
Sandra Postel, who will teach a class in international water issues
and policies at the College this spring, has been selected by
Scientific American for inclusion in the publication's
first annual Scientific American 50. Postel is also Worldwatch
senior fellow and director of the Global Water Policy Project
in Amherst. The scientist was honored for promoting "sweeping
changes aimed at preserving the world's dwindling supplies
of freshwater." A prolific writer and experienced water analyst,
Postel is author of Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle
Last? (1999, W. W. Norton), which spotlights the unsustainability
of current global irrigation practices and calls for fundamental
reforms in agricultural water use. The new award honors fifty
individuals, teams, companies, and other organizations whose accomplishments
during the previous year "demonstrate that they have a clear,
progressive view of the technological future, and the leadership,
knowledge, and expertise needed to make that vision a reality."
The honorees are being celebrated for their contributions to one
or more of the following technological categories: agriculture,
chemicals and materials, communications, computing, defense, energy,
environment, manufacturing, medical diagnostics, medical treatments,
transportation, and general technology. Within each of these categories,
the editors recognized a research leader, a business leader, a
company leader, and policy leader. Postel was the publication's
selection for Policy Leader in Agriculture. Said Postel, "Few
challenges loom as large as meeting the food and water needs of
the world's growing population while at the same time protecting
the freshwater ecosystems that sustain life itself. I am honored
to be recognized by Scientific American, with its unique stature
in the field. I share the honor with my colleagues at Worldwatch
and others with whom I have collaborated over the years."
The complete list of winners appears in the December 2002 issue
of Scientific American, which hit newsstands November 18. Visit
this site
for more information.
MHC Meets the Met
Among the more than fifty works on view at New York's Metropolitan
Museum of Art through December 29 in The Prints of Vija Celmins,
the first retrospective of the work of the Latvian-born American
artist, is a print titled Untitled Galaxy. The work was
published by the Mount Holyoke College Printmaking Workshop in
1986 after Celmins spent a week at the College working with printer
Doris Simmelink. Students assisted and observed in the collaborative
process. The state proofs and one print from the edition are in
the collection of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. Founded
in 1984, the Mount Holyoke College Printmaking Workshop invites
highly respected women artists and master printers to the College,
where they collaborate on the making of a fine art limited edition
print. View Untitled Galaxy at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/art/printmaking/vija-celmins/index.html.
Math Whiz Kathryn
M. Zuhr '03 was awarded an honorable mention in the competition
for the Alice T. Schafer Prize for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics.
She will receive an award of $1,000. In addition to Zuhr, receiving
awards were winner Kate Gruher of the University of Chicago, runners-up
Wei Ho of Harvard University and Josephine T. Yu of the University
of California at Davis, and honorable mentions Elizabeth Thoren
of the University of Alabama at Huntsville and Annalee Wiswell
of Scripps College. In 1990, the Association for Women in Mathematics
(AWM) established the annual prize, naming it for a former AWM
president and one of its founding members, Alice T. Schafer, a
professor emerita at Wellesley College who has contributed a great
deal to women in mathematics throughout her career. The criteria
for selection include, but are not limited to, the quality of
the nominees' performance in mathematics courses and special
programs, an exhibition of real interest in mathematics, the ability
to do independent work, and, if applicable, performance in mathematical
competitions. The organization will recognize the winner, runner-up,
and honorable mention recipients January 15 in Baltimore.
Making the Short
List The Tsar's Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle
of Tsushima (Basic Books, 2002), by Constantine Pleshakov,
visiting assistant professor of Russian and Eurasian studies at
MHC, has been named to a list of twenty-five Notable Books in
the nonfiction category by the panel of judges of the Kiriyama
Pacific Rim Book Prize. That prize, which has been awarded every
year since 1996, promotes books that will contribute to greater
understanding and cooperation among the peoples and nations of
the Pacific Rim and South Asia. In addition to selecting two prizewinners
from the more than 350 books submitted, judges named forty-seven
books (twenty-two are fiction) to the list. For more information
about the Kiriyama Prize, visit www.kiriyamaprize.org.
Read about The Tsar's Last Armada and its author at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/091302/battle.shtml.
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