Laurels

On The Ball
John J. Bello, A68, an athletics overseer at Tufts, and former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason received the annual Joe DiMaggio Awards in June at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The awards gala benefited Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, New York. Bello spent 10 years as president of NFL Properties, where he and Esiason partnered on many charitable endeavors.

White House Honors
Marina Umaschi Bers left her home in La Plata, Argentina, in 1994 to study with Seymour Papert, Sherry Turkle, and others who saw computers as tools that could enrich children’s learning and creativity. Twelve years later, she was at the White House, accepting from President George W. Bush the highest award the government gives to promising young researchers for her own groundbreaking work in the field. An assistant professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Bers develops virtual worlds to help hospitalized children cope with illness. She was one of 20 scientists who received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in July. “This award is, for me, recognition… that women can do good science; that women can be spouses and mother of three little kids and still do good science; that Latin American immigrants to this country can contribute to their own discipline and society,” says Bers, whose virtual world Zora allows children to create, chat, navigate, and live in a three-dimensional virtual city, and populate it with personal artifacts, rooms, and stories. The virtual world, which Bers developed as a doctoral student in MIT’s Media Lab, is helping young dialysis patients at Children’s Hospital in Boston with their personal and social development as well as their ability to cope with illness. She is expanding the work to children who have received organ transplants.

Genius Grants
David Carroll, MUSEUM65, and Edith Widder, J73, are among 25 recipients of 2006 MacArthur Fellowships, so-called genius grants, awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in recognition of extraordinary creativity. Carroll, a naturalist, artist, and author, was honored for “employing the eye of an artist, the mind of a scientist, the voice of a storyteller, and the passion of a conservationist to help people of all ages see the beauty, history, and value in swamps, bogs, kettle ponds, and rivers.” Widder is a deep-sea explorer who invents “technologically innovative, unique devices for observing and collecting data from the ocean’s depths to reverse the worldwide trend of marine ecosystem degradation.”

Fulbright Winners
John Dulac, E06, and Maura Allaire, A06, have won Fulbright Scholarships. Dulac, who majored in environmental engineering, received a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in France. Allaire, a geology and economics major, is working in Ghana.

Atkins Professor
Andrew S. Greenberg, whose research focuses on obesity and its complications, has been named to the newly endowed Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Professorship in Metabolism and Nutrition at Tufts School of Medicine. The chair was established with a $2 million gift from the Dr. Robert C. Atkins Foundation to support research into the role of metabolism and nutrition in managing obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Greenberg also directs the Obesity and Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts.

Classroom Support
Claudio X. González Guajardo, F91, who has worked to improve education in Mexico, is the recipient of the James L. Fisher Award for Distinguished Service to Education from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. González is cofounder and president of both UNETE Foundation and Televisa Foundation. UNETE has provided computer equipment to more than 2,800 public schools in Mexico, and Televisa has given nearly 135,000 books to 450 public elementary schools since 2002.

Water World
Ann Yelmokas McDermott, N02, project director for the Boston Obesity, Genetics, and Lifestyle Study at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts, competed in the XI FINA World Masters Swim Championships at Stanford University. More than 7,300 swimmers, water polo players, and divers from 75 countries competed, including more than 100 former Olympians. McDermott swam in five individual events and on three relays. She finished 20th overall in the 200-meter breaststroke.

New Overseers
Stephen J. Ricci, E67, E88P, J88P, a senior partner with Flagship Ventures in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Kenneth L. Bloom, E85, president and CEO of Preferred Rubber Compounding Corporation in Barberton, Ohio, have been appointed to the Board of Overseers to the School of Engineering. David B. Rone, A84, executive vice president for network development and rights acquisition for Fox Sports Networks, and John K. Halvey, A82, a partner with Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy in New York City, have been named to the Board of Overseers to the School of Arts & Sciences. The Board of Overseers for Athletics has two new members: Donald C. Bettencourt, E72, E99P, E01P, E07P, CFO of Aquatics For Life, Inc., in West Hartford, Connecticut, and John C. Howe, A80, founder and managing partner, Old Hill Partners in Westport, Connecticut.

Top Litigator
Jeffrey White, A70, a partner at the New England law firm Pierce Atwood LLP, has been named among the best attorneys in the nation for 2006 by Chambers and Partners, an independent British legal research firm. White heads up the firm’s litigation practice group.