I’ve been on a walk with Henry David Thoreau—not literally, of course, but a second reading (or multiple readings) of Walden can seem like an attentive wood-or-wetland perambulation with its author. I came across this: “At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.” Wait, wait … that reminds me of another favorite author, science writer and scientist Rob Dunn ’97, who writes in a recent article (in which Rob’s grandfather makes an indelible impression): “So much for my New Year’s resolution, though maybe part of the problem is that we still know so little about so many fields that it is nearly impossible to make it to the end of a story without encountering the unknown.” His resolution was to answer the science questions that come up in everyday life. His “Year in Review” blog article (Scientific American) kicked off the resolution with 11 questions. But pretty soon the questions were multiplying, not answers. But that’s a good thing that comes in part from Rob’s long lineage of questioners who “went long” and went broad to go long (Rob’s other resolution is to write shorter articles, but I’m glad that’s unlikely to work, too). It’s no wonder Rob attended K.
alumni
K Closed for Holiday Break
Kalamazoo College will close from December 24 through January 1 and will re-open on January 2. Student residence halls will open on Saturday, January 5, at 9 A.M. The first meal in the dining center will be dinner on Sunday, January 6. Classes start on Monday, January 7. Persons who would like to make a gift to K before the end of the calendar year may call 269.337.7000 between 8 AM and 5 PM, Eastern Standard Time, on Wednesday through Friday, December 26-28, and on Monday, December 31. End-of-calendar-year gifts and be made online or by mail by postmarking the gift by December 31.
K Alumna Arianna Schindle ’08 Is Still a Social Activist
Arianna Schindle ’08 is committed to improving peoples’ lives, whether in an impoverished Thai village or along Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. Read about this social justice crusader from Kalamazoo College in a profile by author, historian, and columnist John Hallwas in the McDonough County (Illinois) Voice.
The Physics of Immortality
The Goods are dead, but their good’s alive! Walter and William Good, both members of the Class of 1937, have been deceased from some time, but their legacy lives at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. The Goods created the Guff, the first successful radio controlled aircraft, and a replica of the aircraft is now on permanent display at the Air Zoo. The aircraft was created with vacuum tube-based control units; it won first place in the 1939, 1940, and 1947 R/C Airplane Nationals. The original plane resides at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The Good brothers graduated from K with bachelor’s degrees in physics, and they then went on to earn doctorates in the subject.
K Alumnus’ Documentary Film Nominated for an Oscar
A documentary film by David France ’81 titled “How to Survive a Plague,” about the early years of the AIDS epidemic, is one of five in the category to be nominated for an Oscar Award. Oscar nomination is not the only recognition France has received for his film. The Gothic Independent Film Awards and the Boston Society of Film Critics voted it the best documentary film of 2012. And the Independent Spirit Awards, which occur the day before the Oscars, has nominated “How to Survive a Plague” for Best Documentary. France’s film chronicles the tireless efforts of activists in the 1980s and early 1990s bring attention to the disease and mount a response appropriate to it–in terms of research, social policies, and human dignity compassion. An article on France and the film appeared recently in the New York Times.
K Writer-in-Residence Publishes Multiple Works
Writer In Residence Diane Seuss has been hard at work, and the result is a prolific fall and winter. Her poem “Either everything is sexual or nothing is, take this flock of poppies,” appears in the 2013 edition of the Pushcart Prize anthology, which is hot off the presses. And her poem “Oh four-legged girl, it’s either you or the ossuary” is in the fall/winter issue of Black Warrior Review. The poem won the Summer Literary Seminar’s Poetry Prize. “Hub,” a lyric essay, won Wag’s Revue’s winter contest (To access all of the essay’s pages, click on the arrow on the right margin). “I emptied my little wishing well of its emptiness” won Mid-American Review’s Fineline Competition and appears in its fall/winter issue. Two poems, “I’m moved by her, that big-nippled girl,” and “The ghosts down in North-of-the-South aren’t see-through” will appear in Ecotone’s “Abnormal” issue. The poem “Hindenburg” will appear in a forthcoming issue of Devil’s Lake. In other news, poet Adrian Blevins wrote a review of Di’s most recent collection of poems that appears in “On the Seawall: Ron Slate’s Website.” Just reading/hearing the titles of Di’s poems is a rewarding poetic experience!
K Alumna Wins Prize for Science Journalism
Kirsten Weir ’99 is the winner of the 2012 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award in the children’s science news category. The awards are administered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for professional journalists to honor distinguished reporting for a general audience. Weir received the award for her article “Uninvited Guests,” which appeared in the April/May 2012 issue of Current Health Kids. In a way that appeals to children and adults the article describes the parasites and microbes that live in and on our bodies. Said Weir: “Kids often seem to think that science is something that happens in a laboratory or a faraway place. I loved that this story underscored how much is still unknown about the organisms living right under our noses (not to mention the rest of our bodies).”
Kalamazoo College’s Only Rhodes Scholar Offers Advice to WMU Finalist
Kalamazoo College alumna Becky Gray ’81 is the only student from K or Western Michigan University ever to receive a Rhodes Scholarship. In a Nov.15, 2012 Kalamazoo Gazette article, she offered some words of advice for Rhodes Scholarship finalist Mitch Zajac, a WMU graduate student and former football player.
Kalamazoo College Alumna Helps Develop Bicycle Safety Simulator
Jodie Plumert ’85, professor and chair of psychology at the University of Iowa is helping lead a joint research project with the University’s computer science department to develop a simulator that uses virtual environment technology to study children’s decision making process when riding a bike. The simulator employs a stationary bicycle sitting in the middle of three large screens and equipped to feed real-time information into a computer network, which creates an interactive virtual environment. Bicyclists “ride” up to a simulated intersection, assess the traffic “crossing” on the screens around them, then determine when it’s safe for them to cross. Read more about Jodie and her research on her UI webpage.
Check out the video below where Jodie helps demonstrate the simulator.
Peter Tippett ’75 Wins U.S. Chamber of Commerce Award
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce presented its first Leadership in Health Care Award to Peter Tippett M.D., Ph.D ’75, chief medical officer for Verizon and vice president of the Verizon Incubator. Peter is responsible for Verizon’s health IT strategy and the development of an extensive portfolio of solutions that are enabling the rapidly evolving health care information technology ecosystem. Tippett has worked as an emergency room doctor, as a helicopter emergency physician, and as a virologist. He also worked in software development and is widely credited with creating the first commercial anti-virus product that later became Norton AntiVirus.