A Magical Wedding of a Brown University PhD and Colleague

After spending a total of 8 weeks in various countries in Europe and South America conducting research and speaking at multiple conferences it has been nice to be back in Amherst before the new academic year begins.

Academics in the summer keep very busy (I am in the process of finishing up writing a 400 page book) and we continue to work with our students.

Summer is also a time for weddings and "academic" weddings are a lot of fun since they also, very often, serve as reunions.

Yesterday, my husband and I had the pleasure of attending a beautiful wedding of a colleague of his, Dr. Ying Yu,  who received her PhD from Brown University in engineering.  In attendance were also her dissertation advisor from Brown, Professor Harvey Silverman, whom we have known for many years, and his lovely wife, who has 3 Brown degrees (in Math and Computer Science). Professor Silverman  has a PhD from Brown. The bride was Professor Silverman's 22nd PhD student. She did a postdoc in Italy before joining the engineering faculty at the University of Hartford. This year she received her promotion to Associate Professor with tenure!

My husband has 2 graduate degrees from Brown, including his PhD, which is in physics, and I have 4 degrees from Brown, including my PhD in Applied Math with a specialty in Operations Research.

Below are some photos of the wedding, which took place at Saint Clements Castle in Connecticut.

The ceremony was outdoors followed by a reception and a lavish dinner with scrumptious desserts and dancing. The parents of the bride could not make it from China but their letter was read in Chiene and translated. Many colleagues from the University of Hartford, as well as staff, came to the wedding to help Ying celebrate. The wedding party had two female professors, one of engineering, and one of computer science. Needless to say, the conversations over dinner were on high tech topics.

We wish the newlywed couple, Ying and Eric, much happiness!

 

 

Below are the Brown University alums.

I attended the wedding of one of my PhD students, Dr. Trisha Woolley Anderson,  a few years ago. It  was a great reunion with other former PhD students in attendance.  I wrote about the experience in the blogpost: I was the Academic Mother of the Bride.

When the President (of the US) Comes to Campus

Yesterday was a very special day at the university where my husband teaches engineering -- the University of Hartford.

President Obama came to campus and the logistics of his visit, his speech, and the pagentry were very special. My husband took the photos below prior to the President's arrival.

Some highlights from President Obama's visit are captured here in the writeup on the University of Hartford website. You can watch the touching event and hear him speak on reducing gun violence in this video, courtesy of whitehouse.gov.  His visit even made the front page of today's New York Times.

And today, after my husband heartily congratulated the President of the University of Hartford, Dr. Walter Harrison, on the success of yesterday's Presidential visit, he sent the following message to the campus, which is very special so I believe it merits being recognized.

April 9, 2013

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff:

Yesterday’s visit by President Barack Obama was one of the greatest days in the history of the University of Hartford.  Bringing a sitting president of the United States to our campus to address one of the most important political, cultural, and moral issues of the day is what a great institution of higher learning should do, and yesterday was our day to shine.  We came through with flying colors.

When President Obama took a moment from his introductory remarks to thank the University of Hartford for hosting the event, and a huge roar of approval rose from the 3,000 people assembled in the Chase Family Arena, I thought my heart was going to burst through my chest.  I have never had a prouder moment as president; I may never have had a prouder moment as a human being.

It was not, however, a perfect event.  When you agree to host a presidential event, you agree to allow the White House staff and the Secret Service to control the activity.  As a result of their decisions, 2,000 of you waited in line Friday for two hours to get a ticket, and then waited in line for two hours to get into the arena.  In a day of tight security, I know this is how it must be done.  It doesn’t make it easy.

And then, when the Hartford Fire Marshal and the Secret Service decided the arena had reached its safe capacity and closed the doors, I know that 200 of you were turned away.  I can only imagine your anger and disappointment.  It was their decision, not mine, but I apologize from the bottom of my heart.

I want to thank the hundreds of University students, faculty, and staff who volunteered so many hours to make the day a success, especially Maria Arroyo and Aja Wilson, who led the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem.  From the people who led the planning—John Carson, Mildred McNeill, John Schmaltz, and Lee Peters, to name a few—to the grounds crew, the Public Safety department, the Office of Residential Life, and so many more, I say thanks.  And to everyone who volunteered, I extend my deepest gratitude.

This is what I dream of for the University of Hartford.  Many of us saw and heard things yesterday that will become memories to last a lifetime.  That is part of what a great University education and experience should be.

It was a great day, a day to cherish and remember.  I thank you.

Sincerely,

Walter Harrison

President

And, in the spirit of (almost) the end to the college basketball season,   I have posted the photo below, courtesy of the University of Hartford.

The women's basketball team left a message for President Obama in their locker room Monday, and President Obama left a message in response. The team wrote: "Dear President Obama, We are thrilled that you will be speaking at the University of Hartford. We hope you enjoy your visit! Your leadership is inspiring to all of us. Best wishes and safe travels! Love, The Hartford Hawks." In response, President Obama wrote "Thanks for the hospitality. Go Hawks!", followed by his signature.

Universities Remember the Victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre in Newtown

It has been a very difficult week and, this morning, we are marking the one week anniversary of the massacre of innocents at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which took away innocent, beautiful lives on a golden morning during what is considered a holiday season.

Everyone in the US continues to mourn and, as we go about our daily lives, we have often stopped to reflect and to remember the children and the educators and to thank the first responders.

At 9:30AM today, we will be having a moment of silence at UMass Amherst, as we were informed by our Chancellor, and the bells will peel 26 times, to honor the 20 young children who lost their lives and the six educators.

Nature is mourning as well -- we are experiencing torrentials rains and high winds.

As we all reflect on this senseless, horrific tragedy, those of us who are educators can't help to try and ease the pain somehow in whatever way that we can.

Some universities have had alums die in the massacre and have had children of alums perish -- my husband's university, the University of Hartford, for example, which has set up a Support page.

The University of Connecticut has established a memorial scholarship.

In times like these, we need to embrace one another for support and to watch out for one another.

Make the most of each minute that you are on planet earth.

The Man of the Year Lived in Our House and the Case of the Missing Manuscript

As my readers know, I often like to say that Amherst is the center of the universe.

We have had some amazing residents in our town from famous authors to renowned scientists and humanitarians and there are still many in the midst that inspire.

As a Brown University alumna (4 times over) and officially also a Harvard alumna (having been a Science Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study), I stay in touch with these communities and periodically also catch up with news by checking out their websites.

Today I found out on the Brown University website that Chinua Achebe, the renowned Nigerian-born novelist, former professor at UMass Amherst and Amherst resident (wait -- there is more, so do read on), and now professor at Brown University, has been selected as The Man of the Year by The Guardian.

The lovely article and tribute begins with the following paragraph:

GREATNESS is an attribute much in retreat in our society these days. But it is the quality that is imperative for a nation, for a people to make progress. Greatness is the depth of character that is unswayed by material attraction and superficial rewards, especially of the sort that is flaunted by persons of lesser pedigree, and craved by many, including sundry jobbers and petty crooks. Greatness is the strength to say no when everything and everyone else seems swept away by a certain madness that benumbs the senses. Greatness is the ability to look past the present and see beyond the future. It is the courage to envision a better society, to insist on what is right, on what is proper to realize that better society.

Amazingly, and for those of my readers who like doing research it is not hard to confirm, Chinua Achebe once lived in our house on Blackberry Lane.

The connections are even stronger. One of my husband's colleagues at the University of Hartford, Professor Joyce Ashuntantang, who was featured in a Faculty column (it's the second one) in a recent issue of The Observer, which is online and can be accessed here, discovered that Achebe's original manuscript for Things Fall Apart, his groundbreaking 1958 work and first novel, was missing. She has been trying to track it down and my husband promised her that should we find it on our home (unlikely since it was given to a Cameroonian professor then living in the US) that we would let her know. She is also from Cameroon and was completely amazed when my husband told her that we live in Amherst in Achebe's former home!

I very much enjoyed Professor Ashuntantang's remarks in the article as to why finding the original manuscript is important; according to her: it may help to reveal Achebe’s thought process as he wrote. Although he told me that he was quite a neat writer and did not change anything, the manuscript may reveal otherwise. Even minor changes may prove to be important to literary critics and historians. The truth is, written literature depends on effective record keeping as a basis for new writing.

Who doesn't love a great mystery!

Congrats to a New College President -- Dr. Lynn Pasquerella!

Yesterday was a celebratory day as Dr. Lynn Pasquerella became the 18th President of the oldest women's college in the US, Mount Holyoke College, which is part of the five college system, which also includes UMass Amherst (where I teach), Amherst College, Smith College, and Hampshire College, in beautiful western Massachusetts.

There was a lot of pomp and circumstance surrounding her induction in South Hadley with students, staff, alums, dignitaries, and presidents and officials from other colleges and universities in attendance on a rather warm day.

Dr. Pasquerella was the first female in her family to graduate from college and her life story shows, how, despite significant odds (her parents divorced when she was 11 and her mother moved the family to South Hadley to work in a factory), through education, determination, and a winning personality, she has achieved so much. Dr. Pasquerella transferred to Mount Holyoke as an undergrad after receiving a degree from Quinebaug Community College in Connecticut. She then went on to receive her PhD in philosophy from Brown University (my alma mater as well), taught and administered at the University of Rhode Island, before becoming the Provost at the University of Hartford, where my husband teaches.

She has traveled far and wide in support of females globally and has spent significant amounts of time in Kenya over the past couple of years, during which she led groups of faculty and students from several universities and colleges.

This article in The Daily Hampshire Gazette has nice quotes from President Harrison of the University of Hartford, who, like Pasquerella, is a lover of the sport of baseball, and who was in attendance at her inauguration. She has terrific energy and ideas and the festivities yesterday were called a love-fest, complete with fireworks.

We wish Dr. Pasquerella all the best in her new role as President of Mount Holyoke College.

A New Student Generation and E-Cycling

As the new academic year begins and students move into their new dorms (and new roles) on campus, many colleges and universities are hosting special events.

My husband has already started teaching at his university, the University of Hartford, and this past week it hosted a special series of events focusing on Our Campus -- Our Planet.

At this full day of special activities, he gave a presentation on e-cycling, which he had worked on a lot and I thought it both relevant and entertaining so we have made his presentation available in pdf format. In his presentation, he references a paper that appeared in Transportation Research E that I co-authored with my former doctoral student, Fuminori Toyasaki, who is now a Professor at York University in Canada, and which is on the list of most-cited papers in this journal over the past 5 years.

Who can forget one's freshman year and especially that monumental moment when one gets dropped off on campus and parents leave?!

In terms of e-cycling (electronic recycling), the students of today certainly have much more electronic equipment that they bring to campus than their parents did.

Nice that colleges are keeping the students busy with various activities and interesting lectures before classes begin.

Send Us Your Professors

Send In the Professors is the title of an OpEd piece in The New York Times, written by Professor Altaii, who is an Engineering Professor at James Madison University. Professor Altaii in his very moving article on the devastation of higher education in Iraq quotes his mother: “Education is the most important thing in the world,” she said. “Once you realize that, there is nothing you cannot accomplish.” An Iraqi professor is quoted in the article as saying: “Occupy us with your knowledge and advances, not with your guns."

In his article, Professor Altaii notes that the US has several educational initiatives in Iraq, including the new Fulbright Visiting Scholarship Program for Iraq that will enable more than two dozen Iraqi professors to spend time at US universities. As a former Fulbrighter (two times) I can attest to the unique nature of this program in helping to build international friendships, collaborations, enriching educational experiences, and long-lasting special memories.

I would also like to highlight several other very special educational initiatives and programs that are making great impacts on parts of our globe where professors are being sent from the US to Afghanistan; to Kenya, and to India. Many of these intitiatives are due to the professors themselves and the partnerships that they have established.

For example, my university, UMass Amherst, has been involved in sending teachers to Afghanistan as this nice writeup in The Boston Globe reports. Because of this initiative, last month, 41 students earned advanced degrees in education, nearly doubling the number of master’s-level faculty at education colleges in Afghanistan. A colleague of my husband's at the University of Hartford, Professor Keshawarz, who was born in Afghanistan, and who has been involved in rebuilding the engineering education infrastructure there states that: "To have an impact, the international community must establish priorities with an eye toward the long term. Providing food is not enough. Aid programs must help rebuild agricultural capacity so that Afghans can feed themselves. Also, in addition to building roads, bridges, and hospitals, we must establish the educational infrastructure needed to train engineers and doctors." More about his brave and important educational activities can be found here.

Another group, representing the University of Hartford, Brown University (from which I have 4 degrees), and the University of Rhode Island, last summer traveled to Kenya. The delegation included the Provost of the University of Hartford, Dr. Lynn Pasquerella (who is the incoming, new President of Mount Holyoke College, and a Brown PhD), who spearheaded this initiative. This group, which also included students, is utilizing a variety of disciplines – engineering, art, and sociology – to help residents address such issues as water purification, sustainable agriculture, and women’s safety.

In addition, Professor David Pines, also a colleague of my husband's, who is involved in the above Kenya project, has been leading groups of students to India, through the Engineering Without Borders program, to assist in the building of water wells and the provision of clean water.

Through international, face to face, education, great, positive impacts can be achieved. Indeed, even in war-torn and strife-stricken regions, professors can serve as emissaries for knowledge and peace. Respect for education knows no boundaries.

Dr. Stephen Perry, the University of Hartford, and Truly Inspirational Educational Leaders

It is still July but I have seen a few colorful leaves falling down in our yard in Amherst. One can sense the anticipation in the air of the new school year beginning. At the Isenberg School of Management we will very soon be welcoming our new Dean, Dr. Mark Fuller, and UMass Amherst will be welcoming its new Provost, Dr. James Staros, a very distinguished scientist, who is joining us from SUNY Stony Brook. With the anticipation comes the excitement about beginnings and renewed energy.

Last week, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I was in Cambridge to teach in Harvard's Executive Education program. After an intense lecture on portfolio optimization plus some extensive walking in Cambridge, which included checking out Professor Henry Louis Gates' house, I had an opportunity to watch CNN's special program on Black in America 2, which was hosted by Soledad O'Brien. The segment on Dr. Stephen Perry, the Founder and Principal of the Capital Preparatory Magnet School, in Hartford, Connecticut, was superb, and it continues to resonate with me. If you get a chance to see the rebroadcast, please do so -- what Dr. Perry has done with his school is amazing. All of those who graduate go on to 4 year colleges and the lives that some of the graduates have led and the obstacles that they have faced demonstrate what a great principal, teachers, and educational institution can accomplish.

What I found out after returning from Cambridge, is that Dr. Stephen Perry received his doctorate in 2008 from the University of Hartford, where my husband teaches! Please see this release for more information.