Binghamton University - Inside

A night to salute leadership: Forum dinner honors DeFleur

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Held for the first time in the Events Center to accommodate the crowd of 320, the Binghamton University Forum annual dinner on June 12 was a time of reflection as well as a time of celebration of the nearly 20-year tenure of President Lois B. DeFleur.

Featured speaker Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, U.S. Army (Ret.), president and CEO of Business Executives for National Security, prompted reflection throughout his presentation on “Strategic Challenges for the U.S.”

“My greatest concern is our national debt and the way it’s growing,” he said. “American people don’t understand this problem and this is the number one challenge for security — how we’re not dealing with the burgeoning deficit.”

After reviewing current and past military operations, Meigs cautioned the audience that the cyber world poses a second, serious national security problem. “The United States is in a period of idiosyncratic warfare — a crazy kind of warfare that we haven’t had to deal with before with organized, insurgent types of activity.

“We have, in my view, a more complicated strategic environment than at any time since 1963,” he said, but universities such as Binghamton can contribute to overcoming the strategic challenges our country faces. “It’s a very, very tough game we’re in and getting out of this will require participation, determination, discipline and a competitive way to solve these problems.”

Reflection was also apparent as DeFleur was lauded through word and video for her contributions to the University and community. Noting that the annual forum gala was one of DeFleur’s favorite events and the culmination of her Binghamton University career, Forum chair Gerald Putman said, “This is what Lois is all about — the University, community and friendships.

“She is a proven leader. She has vision and she commands and earned our respect. But most of all — she cares,” he said. “I thought about 1991 when Lois DeFleur came here with a vision of what this University could look like. Here we are and look where we are.”

Video tributes to DeFleur included interviews with current and former members of her senior staff, Binghamton University Council Chair Kathryn Grant Madigan and incoming Interim President C. Peter Magrath, as well as a tribute on the state Senate floor from Sen. Thomas W. Libous.

Thomas Kelly, professor of management and former vice president for external affairs, spoke of DeFleur’s attention to the University’s reputation within New York state, which “she built to one of national prominence and international renown.”

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Mary Ann Swain referred to DeFleur’s vision to sustain excellence and grow.

“She made this a public research university with superb undergraduate programs,” Swain said. “And we’re highly integrated into the community as well. She has always hung onto the notion that our foundation is in the quality of the education we offer our undergraduates.”

Strength in research, reaching out to the business community and increasing fundraising by almost 600 percent have also been part of DeFleur’s central mission said others.

“The way she approaches any issue, it’s not about her,” said James Van Voorst, vice president for administration. “It’s about Binghamton University, our students, faculty, staff and the community. She is not promoting herself and that’s an excellent framework. She knows the operation, our history, what our heart is, and she is able to express that and it will be a lasting thing that’s not going to change.”

DeFleur was surprised with a second video before beginning her remarks, this one a “thank you” video featuring more than 70 faculty, staff, colleagues, community members and friends.

“Wow!” she said. “I don’t even know where to begin, but I was remembering when I interviewed for the job, and I was impressed by all of the people.” Touring the community with Darwin and Alice Wales was a turning point in her “really wanting to come here,” she said. “I had never encountered a group such as this forum and I thought to myself that the possibilities are endless, and that if we worked together we could build something that would be vital to our combined futures.”

DeFleur spoke of the more than 1,300 partnerships the University has with the community, the University Downtown Center and its academic programs that reach out into the area, the student volunteerism that connects the University with the community and the use of the Events Center to house more than 3,000 people during the flood in 2006.

“Some of the evacuees told us they really didn’t want to leave and it was like being on a cruise ship,” she said. “That illustrates that in times of fun and cheering, and in times of great need, we do work together and in doing so we have built and enhanced the reputation of this great University.

“Throughout all of this, what we’ve done is transform what is truly an upstate jewel of the SUNY system into a first-class, international university, and this University should continue to grow and develop, and I feel great confidence that the next president will take it to the next level.

“After Commencement, I said that my years here have been the best time in my life, and I mean that sincerely,” she said. “Thank each and every one of you for the tremendous support you’ve given me over the years.”

Lynn named distinguished professor

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Psychology professor Steven Jay Lynn has been promoted to distinguished professor, a tenured University ranking conferred by the SUNY Board of Trustees and the highest academic rank within SUNY.

The distinguished ranking recognizes faculty who have achieved national or international prominence within their discipline for their consistently outstanding accomplishments. Recipients are nominated by their campus presidents.
For Lynn, the promotion “is the culmination of my career, and the greatest honor I have received in my professional life.

“The fact that there are now five active distinguished professors, one distinguished teaching professor and two distinguished service professors in the Department of Psychology is a testament to the high caliber and professional standing of the faculty, and I am proud to be counted among these truly outstanding individuals,” Lynn said.

Lynn earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in economics from the University of Michigan, and his doctorate in clinical psychology with a minor in sociology from Indiana University. He completed a National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at the Lafayette Clinic in Detroit, Mich., and rose to the rank of professor at Ohio University before joining the faculty at Binghamton in 1996.

He is also a member of the faculty of the International Institute of Psychotherapy and Applied Mental Health in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and since 2007, has been the director of Binghamton University’s Psychological Clinic.

Lynn’s research has brought a broad range of topics including hypnosis, dissociation, fantasy, false memories and related concepts into the scientific laboratory to pursue questions about their basic identifying characteristics and fundamental mechanisms.

Lynn has shown that hypnosis increases the generation of false memories of recent events — memories of events that never occurred — and does not lead to any increased ability to recall temporally distant memories, sometimes called recovered memories. These findings have led to changes in national and international laws concerning the admissibility of information gained from an individual during hypnosis.

“I am currently continuing to study what I believe are important questions related to understanding human consciousness,” Lynn said. “Specifically, ‘How do false memories of events that never transpired come about? What is the role of fantasy in everyday life? Can we describe what happens during hypnosis in scientific terms? And, how do people cope in the aftermath of trauma?’

“I also am deeply invested in developing with my students research-based treatments for smoking cessation, poor body image and depression; educating the public about science and pseudoscience in psychology; and training students in critical thinking skills,” he said.

Lynn’s writings, including The 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology; Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding; Navigating the Mindfield: A Consumer’s Guide to Separating Science from Pseudoscience in Mental Health; and The Monster in the Cave: How to Face your Fears and Anxiety and Live your Health — a featured book in the New York Times Science section — underscore his commitment to dealing with complicated issues in an open, understandable, yet scientifically rigorous, manner.

A prolific writer, Lynn has authored or co-authored 20 books or manuals, and more than 250 publications, and is ranked 49th out of 1,927 on the list of the Journal of Clinical Psychology’s “Top Producers of Scholarly Publications in Clinical Psychology PhD Programs.”

His many awards include the Distinguished Contributions to Professional Hypnosis award from the American Psychological Association, the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities and the Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship from The Research Foundation, State University of New York.

$1.4M grant to boost interdisciplinary research

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Binghamton University has been awarded a four-year, $1.4 million grant by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to fund undergraduate interdisciplinary research opportunities around the theme of solving problems in the life sciences.
HHMI is a nonprofit medical research organization that ranks as one of the nation’s largest philanthropies.

Only 50 research-focused universities from a potential field of 197 institutions across the country were awarded grants and Binghamton University joins a list of recipients that includes Harvard, Yale, Cornell and the College of William and Mary. Binghamton and Stony Brook were the only two SUNY schools to be recognized.

“I’m very proud that Binghamton won this prestigious award,” President Lois B. DeFleur said. “The application process is highly competitive and I commend the faculty and staff who worked to develop this program. Their tireless efforts will benefit our undergraduates enormously.”

With science becoming more collaborative and interdisciplinary, life science and medical research is increasingly dependent on scientists and engineers who can work across disciplines. With the help of the HHMI grant, undergraduates at Binghamton University will now have more opportunities to cross those disciplinary boundaries.

“Biology is incorporating more mathematics, engineering, physics and computer science,” said Anna Tan-Wilson, distinguished teaching professor of biological sciences and HHMI program director. “In the real world, those boundaries are blurring.”

The grant will fund a program that teams undergraduate majors in the life sciences with students in the physical sciences, mathematics, computer science and engineering to work on collaborative, interdisciplinary research projects in the life sciences.

Tan-Wilson expects to launch the program in fall 2010 with a series of workshops where faculty can meet to propose collaborative projects that the undergraduates will work on. At the same time, Tan-Wilson will start taking student applications and plans on signing up about 30 undergraduates. She hopes to actively recruit and include students who are from underrepresented minorities in science, engineering and mathematics.

Teams will begin their research projects in summer 2011 and will continue working together throughout the following academic year. Along the way, they will be trained in how to work effectively across disciplines. Graduate students will also be trained as mentors.

“We also want to work with them because these PhD students will be faculty members someday,” said Nancy Stamp, dean of the Graduate School and grant co-program director.

Binghamton is also interested in understanding how students in the program will develop and progress. Krishnaswami (Hari) Srihari, dean and distinguished professor of systems science and industrial engineering in the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, will observe the students as they work and use data to model the social interactions of the interdisciplinary teams. They will use what they learn to determine what factors help interdisciplinary students grow into independent scholars and better match students to faculty mentors.

“What are the conditions that make for success?” Tan-Wilson asked. “Or, how can we ensure that students don’t get frustrated with the challenges of interdisciplinary work? We want to find out what makes for the kind of fulfilling experience that then translates into careers in biologically-based research.”

Humanities institute names 17 fellows

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Seventeen faculty members, graduate students and undergraduate students have been named as inaugural fellows for The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH).

“We have a fantastic group of fellows,” said Bat-Ami Bar On, IASH director and professor of philosophy and women’s studies. “It’s diverse in terms of projects.”

IASH was formed last year to advance original work in the humanities while offering faculty and students opportunities for research. The fellows will present a lecture on their research topic during the upcoming academic year and also will be expected to participate in the discussion of the work of others.

“It will be interesting how we learn about each other and how we can help each other intellectually,” Bar On said. “There is value added to being with others and chatting about the work.”

Bar On said she is pleased that student fellows will be able to share their work with faculty fellows.

“Research goes all the way through the University — all the way to the undergraduate ranks,” she said. “The undergrads are not just absorbing knowledge, but they are producers of knowledge.”

The 2010-11 IASH fellows and their topics are:

Faculty members:

• Gisela Brinker-Gabler, Comparative Literature, fall 2010, “Figurations of the Modern: Gender, Politics, and Aesthetics.”

• Randy Friedman, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, fall 2010, “Transcendence, Dialogue, and Philosophical Eschatology in 20th Century Jewish Thought.”

• Leslie Gates, Sociology, spring 2011, “The Politics of Neoliberalism in Mexico and Venezuela.”

• Praseeda Gopinath, English, fall 2010, “Scarecrows of Chivalry: The Literature of British Masculinities after Empire, 1935-1965.”

• Scott Henkel, English, spring 2011, “Leaves of Grassroots Politics: Democracy, the Swarm, and the Literatures of the Americas.”

• Kelly Kinney, English, fall 2010, “Rhetorics, Politics, and the Teaching of Writing.”

• Wendy Martinek, Political Science, spring 2011, “Judging as Human Behavior: The Social Psychology of Decision Making on Appellate.”

• Luiza Moreira, Comparative Literature, fall 2010, “Gender and the Career of a Public Intellectual: The Journalism of Cecília Meireles (1941-1945).”

• Michael Pettid, Asian and Asian American Studies, fall 2010, “Women in Rural Choson Korea: An Exploration of Women’s Autonomy in a Patriarchal Society.”

• Ana Ros, Romance Languages and Literatures, fall 2010 and spring 2011, “Inheritance: Living Memory, Leaving Countries. Uruguayan and Argentinean Fictionalization at the Turn of the Millennium.”

• Benita Roth, Sociology, fall 2010 and spring 2011, “Anti-AIDS Activism in Los Angeles from the 1980s to the 2000s: The Life and Death of ACT UP/LA.”

• Paul Schleuse, Music, fall 2010, “Patronage, Print Culture, and the Music of Orazio Vecchi in Late Sixteenth Century Italy.”

• Thomas Wilson, Anthropology, spring 2010, “The Europeanization of the Irish Countryside.”

Graduate students:

• David Gutman, History, fall 2010 and spring 2011, “Rethinking the ‘Global Village:’ The Social, Political, and Economic Impact of Overseas Migration on Eastern Anatolia, 1880-1915.”

• Lewis Trelawny-Cassity, Philosophy, fall 2010 and spring 2011, “Plato’s Demiurgic Politics: The Role of the Chora in the “Timaeus” and “Law.”
Undergraduate students:

• Jan DeWitt, Classical and Near Eastern Studies, spring 2011, “(Un)common Blood: The Romanization and Alienation of Italian Allies (200-87BCE.)”

• Jieun Jang, Music, fall 2010, “Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 9 and Musical Freedom.”

For more information about the institute, go to www2.binghamton.edu/iash/.

Professor discusses infectious diseases

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Infectious diseases have become “property of a population,” thanks to the interactions of community members who can take easier short-term and long-term trips, J. Koji Lum told the Binghamton University Forum on May 20.

“The difference between the global and local perspective is decreasing because our ability to move around the planet is getting easier and easier,” Lum said. “You can be back home before you even know that you are sick.”

Lum, an associate professor of anthropology and biological sciences who also serves as director of the Laboratory of Evolutionary Anthropology and Health, discussed “Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases: Global and Local Perspectives” at Traditions at the Glen in Johnson City.

Lum began his presentation by identifying the “Big 3” infectious diseases that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent millions of dollars fighting: HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

“I used to hate Microsoft, but I can’t hate them,” said Lum, a self-proclaimed “Apple man.” “They are doing such wonderful work.”

While HIV is treatable in First World countries, tuberculosis could be untreatable if it is multi-drug resistant, Lum said. Malaria, though, is a different matter.

“Nobody with health care and an infrastructure has a problem with malaria,” he said. “Malaria is a problem of poverty.”

The challenge is to find ways to cure malaria that are cheap enough for developing countries, Lum said. But many adults in malaria-rich regions do not show any symptoms when infected, making it even more difficult to test people to ensure that the disease is not passed on to at-risk children.

“How do you find people who don’t feel sick?” Lum said. “They’re not coming to the health clinics.”

Lum is doing his part in the fight against the disease, which infects 500 million people a year. His research, funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, examines the evolution of drug resistance in malaria parasites.

Other infectious diseases are spread by short-term travels that mostly feature people from one First World nation visiting another developed nation, Lum said. These diseases are moving from airport to airport.

“SARS went from major airport to major airport: 20 countries in 10 days,” he said. “We have to start thinking beyond the borders of countries and start thinking about our global species. Anyone with a disease is potentially giving it to someone else within 24 hours.”

Long-term movement is also a factor in the spreading of diseases, as many people are leaving tropical, Southern Hemisphere countries for developed countries in the north.

“These people are coming from countries with the highest prevalence of infectious diseases,” Lum said. “Is our medical community prepared?”

Infectious diseases will be a problem for the United States as long as there are an unknown number of illegal immigrants who are “blind to the health-care system,” Lum said.

“If we have 20 million people potentially running around who are reservoirs of infectious disease and nobody knows how many of them there are and they are marginalized from our health-care system, it is a big problem,” he said.

ISCL conference focuses on building community

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

From the moment the 12th annual Institute for Student-Centered Learning began, participants were engaged and building a community — exactly what this year’s ISCL was focused on: “Building Communities Inside Your Classroom and Beyond.”

The annual day-and-a-half conference brings together faculty from all levels and all areas of campus to learn from and share expertise with each other. About 40 people attended.

“Learning is an individual process that can be enhanced by community,” said Jeff Barker, associate professor of geological sciences and environmental studies. “It’s a partnership between faculty and students, and between students and students. At the same time they are learning from you, you are learning from them.

“The classroom community can extend beyond the lecture and the four walls of the classroom. ... Our challenge is to create learning environments that promote active learning, critical thinking, collaborative learning and knowledge creation,” he added.

Chris Reiber, assistant professor of anthropology, teaches sex and evolution. To establish communities in her classroom, she creates a safe place for students to open up and share.

“To achieve that, I need to have community at various levels, so I know every one of their names the first day of class,” she said. “That makes them feel like I care about who they are. They’re not anonymous.”

Reiber then gives students anonymity through paper and pencil surveys that provide the fodder for discussions on Blackboard. She analyzes the survey data for the students, based on their own information.

“We meld that together and have discussions in the abstract, but it’s also about them,” she said. “There’s a safe, online community that gives them anonymity, and in the classroom we discuss their reality to apply concepts to their lives.”

Associate Professor Donald Spangler divides students into teams for a leadership course he teaches in the School of Management. After that, the teams connect with an outside agency such as a local police or fire department to work on a project — building community beyond the classroom. Students go to the agency’s site, interview people who have worked in extreme situations, and sometimes observe training.

“These experiences are very vivid and valuable for the students because they learn a lot about leadership,” he said.

Many faculty also build community around the globe, with examples provided by Don Boros, associate professor of theatre, and Dora Polachek, visiting associate professor of romance languages. Boros has used technology to connect with classrooms in Russia and taken students to Beijing and Shanghai for collaborative productions and classes.

“These are really rather remarkable exchanges,” he said. “And I never teach anything that I haven’t experienced first.”

Polachek, described the “Paris experience” she created for students to better integrate into the global community. With funding from the Lois B. DeFleur International Innovation Fund, Polachek developed a list of activities and programs in Paris, including contact information, which she provided to students studying there. The information helped students more easily connect for internships or volunteer activities, enabling their learning and assimilation into French culture and society.

A resource fair held on the second day of the conference featured more than a dozen campus offices.

“We tried to anticipate which people the faculty would like to meet or learn something from based on examples from the first day of the workshop,” Barker said. “The fair worked because so many of those who work on campus are willing to share their time and participants get to know people, so they don’t just talk to an office, they talk to a person.”

The ISCL is an initiative of the Center for Learning and Teaching, which focuses on programs to help students learn better and to help faculty be more effective. Other programs include the monthly “teaching corners” that bring faculty together to discuss teaching strategies, challenges and solutions; and the half-day workshop on technologies to support teaching that was held in January.

Sammakia receives ITherm Achievement Award

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Bahgat Sammakia, director of the Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging Center (S3IP), a New York State Center of Excellence, has received a prestigious award in recognition of his pioneering research.

Sammakia received the 2010 ITherm Achievement Award in honor of his contributions to electronics, thermal and thermomechanical research, as well as his service to the electronics thermal management community.

The ITherm Achievement Award was presented June 3 during the 12th Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems.

Sammakia also serves as the University’s executive director for economic development. A professor of mechanical engineering, Sammakia spearheads an effort that promises to revolutionize the electronics industry. S3IP is leading the way to advances in flexible electronics as well as more environmentally friendly data centers and manufacturing processes. The center, which includes more than 45 affiliated faculty and staff, has generated more than $700 million in economic impact to New York State industry since 1996.

Sammakia, a Vestal resident and longtime IBM engineer, joined Binghamton’s faculty in 1998.

Metheny's 'Orchestrion Tour' coming to Anderson Center

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

The Osterhout Concert Theater stage will become a gigantic “wall of sound” when Pat Metheny brings The Orchestrion Tour to the Anderson Center at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 19.

The Orchestrion is an ensemble of 40 mechanical instruments integrating conventional acoustic sounds with robotic technology controlled by Metheny.
Metheny is an accomplished musician with several awards and gold records. He has won 17 Grammys in a variety of categories.

Prices are: general public, $41; faculty and staff, $36; seniors, $36; and students, $21. For tickets: 607-777-ARTS or anderson.binghamton.edu