Laurels

AAAS FELLOW NALINI AMBADY, professor of psychology, has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her groundbreaking research on perception and nonverbal communication.

GRIDIRON AWARD ADAM ARSENAULT, A08, a linebacker on the Jumbo football team, received the 2007 New England Football Writers Association’s Jerry Nason Award, given to the senior player in New England who has persevered against all odds. Arsenault’s achievement was simply making it back onto the field. As a freshman, he was the New England Small College Athletic Conference Defensive Rookie of the Year, even though he played with a bad shoulder and had surgery during the off-season. He fractured and dislocated his ankle sophomore year and did not play again until senior year. “I didn’t feel like I had reached my potential as a player,” Arsenault says. “I wanted to try to have one more season before I left.”

CEO OF THE YEAR Tufts University President LAWRENCE S. BACOW has been named CEO of the Year for District I of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. District I encompasses New England and eastern Canada.

U.N. CLIMATE FORUM RISHIKESH R. BHANDARY, A09, was one of 22 youth leaders representing the United States at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Indonesia in December. “It is ultimately our generation that will be dealing with the effects of decisions made today, so youth voices must be represented,” says Bhandary, who is majoring in quantitative economics.

JOURNAL EDITOR DIANA BIANCHI, the Natalie V. Zucker Professor of Pediatrics, Obstetrics, and Gynecology at the School of Medicine, is the new editor-in-chief of Prenatal Diagnosis, the journal of the International Society for Prenatal Diagnosis.

BOOK PRIZE MARYANNE WOLF, the John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts, has received the Margot Marek Award for the best book on reading in 2007 for Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (HarperCollins). Publishers Weekly listed it as one of the year’s top 25 nonfiction books.

NEW OVERSEERS JASON P. EPSTEIN, A96, partner and portfolio manager for Columbus Nova in New York City, has joined the School of Arts and Sciences Board of Overseers. WILLIAM F. OWEN JR., M80, president of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, is a new overseer to the School of Medicine and Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences. CHARLES A. STEINBERG, a dentist who is vice president of marketing and public relations for the Los Angeles Dodgers, has been named an overseer to the School of Dental Medicine, and FRANCINE L. TRULL, G80, president of Policy Directions Inc. in Washington, D.C., is a new overseer to the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

DENTAL ASSOCIATION PREZ MARK FELDMAN, D73, has been installed as the 144th president of the American Dental Association, which represents more than 155,000 dentists across the country. He said his top priority is improving access to dental care. “I believe that every one of our ADA members should provide a certain amount of pro bono work every year,” he said. Feldman is the second Tufts dental alum to serve as ADA president; GERALDINE T. MORROW, D56, became the organization’s first woman president in 1991.

RESEARCH FELLOW JUSTIN HOLLANDER, assistant professor of urban and environmental policy and planning (UEP), has been appointed a research fellow with the Genesee Institute, which studies wide-ranging urban issues. The appointment includes funding for UEP graduate students COURTNEY KNAPP and JULIA WOLFSON to conduct research on neighborhood change in shrinking cities.

BROWN UNIVERSITY VP DAVID W. KENNEDY, F77, F79, F84, is Brown University’s new vice president for international affairs. He had been a professor of law at Harvard, and earned his undergraduate degree from Brown and his J.D. from Harvard. His job is to strengthen Brown’s international programs and visibility worldwide.

HEART ASSOCIATION AWARD ALICE LICHTENSTEIN, the Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy at the Friedman School and director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, received the 2007 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism of the American Heart Association.

ACADEMIC DEAN AVIVA MUST, N87, N92, professor of public health and family medicine, has been appointed dean of academic affairs in Tufts School of Medicine’s Office of Public Health and Professional Degree Programs, which offers master’s degrees in public health, health communication, business administration in health management, pain research, education and policy, and biomedical sciences. Must is responsible for curriculum design and implementation, faculty development, and oversight of program faculty.

KING FAISAL PRIZE BASIL A. PRUITT, M57, an internationally known burn surgeon, will receive the 2008 King Faisal International Prize for Medicine at a ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in March. He shares the prize with Donald D. Trunkey, professor of surgery at Oregon Health & Science University. Prize winners receive $200,000 in cash and a 24-carat-gold medal. Pruitt, clinical professor of surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, and Trunkey are being honored for their work in trauma management. Pruitt serves as editor of the Journal on Trauma.

MEDICAL DEAN JONATHAN I. RAVDIN, M76, will become dean and executive vice president of the Medical College of Wisconsin on May 5. He is currently professor and chair of the department of medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

WHITE HOUSE AWARD J. PETER RUBIN, M92, received the 2007 Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering at a recent White House ceremony. A plastic surgeon, Rubin was recognized for his pioneering tissue engineering research. Codirector of the Adipose Stem Cell Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Rubin works with stem cells derived from fat tissue, a technology that might one day generate replacement tissue for breast cancer survivors, wounded soldiers, or children with birth defects.

DRAMA FELLOWSHIP LAURENCE SENELICK, the Fletcher Professor of Oratory and professor of drama, has been awarded a William Evans Visiting Fellowship to the University of Otago in New Zealand. In Otago he will deliver the keynote address at the annual conference of the Australasian Drama Studies Association and present lectures in the university programs of Russian studies, gender studies, and music and theater.

ESQUIRE’S BEST NBC Entertainment Cochair BEN SILVERMAN, A92, and JOEL WEINSTOCK, professor of gastroenterology and immunology at the School of Medicine, were among the “36 revolutionaries” Esquire magazine cited as the “Best and Brightest of 2007.” Silverman made his mark selling foreign TV shows, including Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Survivor, to American broadcasters, and producing U.S. versions of The Office and Ugly Betty. Weinstock, also chief of gastroenterology at Tufts–New England Medical Center, has found that Americans’ quest to make their lives germ-free has eliminated intestinal worms that help regulate the immune system.

HALL OF FAMER The longtime team physician for the athletic programs at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, GEORGE A. SNOOK, M52, has been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) in recognition of his contributions to sports medicine. He was team physician at UMass from 1960 to 1992, and also served as team physician for the Northampton (Massachusetts) High School football team, fencing coach at the Northampton YMCA, and tournament physician for the New England Wrestling Association. He is a founding member of AOSSM, and was the organization’s president in 1987–88. He is a former chief of orthopedics at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton and former president of the hospital staff.

ESSAY CONTEST WINNER GRACE TALUSAN, J94, lecturer in English, won the Creative Nonfiction Foundation’s “Silence Kills” essay contest. Her winning essay, “Foreign Bodies,” has been published in Silence Kills: Speaking Out and Saving Lives (Southern Methodist University Press), a collection of essays on medical errors that can arise from a lack of communication. In “Foreign Bodies,” Talusan writes about how her father, an ophthalmologist, misses signs of his granddaughter’s eye cancer.

FRANCOPHILE HONORS JUDITH WECHSLER, professor of art and art history, has been named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for her 50-year body of work in French art. The honor recognizes artists, writers, and others who have contributed to diffusing French culture in the world. Wechsler has written three books, A Human Comedy: Physiognomy and Caricature in 19th Century Paris, The Interpretation of Cézanne, and Le Cabinet des dessins: Honoré Daumier. She has made 22 short films on French art and theater, and spends most summers in France working on her film projects. Her most recent film, Le dessein des Nymphéas (Monet’s Water Lilies), commissioned by the Orangerie Museum in Paris, premiered at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The French government honor comes with a medallion and a lapel pin. “I’ll have to wear suits more often now,” Wechsler told the Boston Globe.