Membership for the full year January to December, 2011Please take a moment to renew your membership in ΦBKNCA! All current memberships expire on December 31, 2010. There is a convenient dues form attached to the print and email versions of our Newsletter. Or you can send an e-mail to joinnow@pbknca.org to have a membership form e-mailed to you. If you’d like to go green, please check that box on the membership form. Also be sure to include your email so we can confirm your 2011 Directory information with you (see page 1). If you are student the dues are $10 per year, for others $30. But we encourage you to contribute more to directly benefit our Graduate Scholarships and Teaching Excellence Awards.
As 2010 grows to a close, I hope you have enjoyed your affiliation with our Alumni Association. Perhaps you participated in the social programs that support our awards or simply paid your dues/contributions and listed our association on your resume? All of those actions are supportive. At our annual meeting, I know the recipients of our awards greatly appreciated your participation that made possible the recognition of outstanding scholars and teachers in the Bay Area.
Phi Beta Kappa stands for a Greek phrase that means “Love of learning is the guide to life”. What better way to support that love of learning than to be part of our association of almost one thousand members in the Bay Area. There are fifty alumni associations nationwide and we are one of the largest. A contribution to the national society does not, however, give you membership in our local association. (Please see the article on page 3). Please renew your membership in PBKNCA and let’s have a great 2011!
Thank you for your support!
Janiece Nolan, President
Teaching Excellence Nominations Due November 30, 2010
Narcinda Lerner, Teaching Excellence Chair
Is There a PBK-NCA Financial Connection to “National”?
Here are the answers in a “Q” and “A” format
Some have referred to The Phi Beta Kappa Society of Washington, D.C., as our “parent organization.” This is a common misconception, but Phi Beta Kappa – Northern California Association is not a subsidiary of The Phi Beta Kappa Society. We are an independent association of people in Northern California who received membership in The Phi Beta Kappa Society as undergraduates of postsecondary educational institutions. We are one of 50 such associations across the country. We have our own EIN and have had our own 501(c) 3 tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service since June 1951. We have our own IRS exemption letter. We are also registered with the Secretary of State of the State of California as a Domestic Nonprofit Corporation and have a California Corporation number. Our funds are owned in the name of ΦBKNCA and are not accessible by anyone other than certain members of our Board, selected by that Board to sign checks and make financial decisions for the organization. ΦBKNCA pays a fee to National annually, based on the number of eligible Northern Californians who have donated at least the minimum $30 ($10 for students) for membership in our local organization during the past Fiscal Year (1 July – 30 June). The current rate that our Association pays National is $2 per member which helps support activities at the national level.
Q: Do members who donate to National thereby become members of our local ΦBKNCA?
A: Not so! Your local dues as well as part of our program fees that our members pay go to our Teaching Excellence Awards and Graduate Scholarships. National sends out yearly solicitations to all initiated members in order to maintain its services at the national level, including the Visiting Scholars Program, Book Awards, The American Scholar, and The Key Reporter. ΦBKNCA does not receive any funds members send to National.
Your local and national ΦBK organizations, as well as the 280 chapters at the various universities share a commitment to a liberal arts education which cultivates broadly applicable intellectual skills and sensibilities. Each entity works in its own way to support that goal.
Mary Turner Gilliland, Treasurer
Shah Ali, Stanford, Medicine
Chantal Frankenbach, UC Davis, Music
Harold (Hal) Haggard, UC Berkeley, Physics
William Love Anderegg, Stanford, Biology
Alexis Peri, UC Berkeley, History
Margaret Peters, Stanford, Political Science
Lilliana Radoshevich (Reed Scholarship), UCSF, Biomedical Sci.
Johnny Tam†, UCSF (& UCB), Bioengineering
† Application through UCSF, not UCB
Shah Ali (Medicine, Stanford) is in his second year of graduate study, working toward a career in academic medicine. He is studying coronary artery disease and the cellular loss that results following acute myocardial injury. Some of his research will look at the possibilities of cell transplantation therapy.
Outside the classroom and lab, Shah has been part of a team that developed patient education presentations for the Stanford free clinics and for a Palo Alto homeless shelter. In addition, showing that his interests extend beyond science and medicine, he and a colleague organized trips to live-arts performances to bring together students and faculty in appreciation of the healing power of art.
His professors noted that he is self-directing and charming and has a wonderful sense of humor, a genuine thirst for knowledge, an amazingly sharp wit, and a keen understanding of satire and irony.
Chantal Frankenbach (Music, UC Davis) is examining the dislocation of dance from Western art music. In her dissertation, "Disdain for Dance, Disdain for France: Choreophobia in German Music Criticism," she shows that German music critics characterized dance as "feminine and French," and therefore not "pure" music. She herself is a professional dancer.
As part of her work in the prestigious Professors for the Future program, she devised a project, "Behind the Scenes in the Work of a Professor," to give graduate students a better understanding of the work of a professor and how the work differs at different institutions. A second workshop focused on how to publish in the humanities.
Her professors called her an extremely creative thinker and an exceptional scholar, adept at synthesis and dedicated to her students and colleagues.
Harold (Hal) Haggard (Physics, UC Berkeley) is studying the implications of quantum mechanics and its relation to the theory of relativity. The heart of his thesis is "a description of the geometry arising out of the spin network that involves nine spinning particles." In addition to his Ph.D. from Berkeley, he will be receiving an international Ph.D. through the Universita degli Studi de Pavia, Italy.
Hal is one of the three graduate student co-founders of the Compass Project at UC Berkeley. This project works to "increase the health, diversity, and competitiveness of the physical sciences at Berkeley by cultivating students’ interest in science and supporting them through their college years. . . . [It also] exposes undergraduates to current research and helps them engage and participate in research themselves."
His professors note his impressive research achievements, extraordinary sense of community involvement, and broad intellectual interests.
William Love Anderegg (Biology, Stanford) is testing the physiological mechanisms of climate-induced forest mortality. He is studying the sudden aspen decline (SAD) that has swept across Colorado, several other western states, and parts of Canada. Through his research he seeks to "demonstrate the direct link between climate change and tree mortality . . . and make strides toward predictive models of forest mortality."
"Bill is a renaissance man. Besides his science, he also excels in music and writing." He took up the guitar because he couldn't carry his piano into the field, and he has written a fantasy novel that so impressed his favorite fantasy-novel writer that the latter placed it with his own agent.
His professors note that he is creative, grasps ideas quickly, and rapidly sees errors in logic. He is a mature thinker who "will not do science in silence."
Margaret Peters (Political Science, Stanford) is studying the politics of globalization, with a special focus on the politics of immigration. She is looking at the two periods of globalization in the modern era (1820-1914 and the post-World War II era) and the immigration policies during those periods. Specifically, she is examining the "continued relative closure of the U.S. border to immigrants after World War II." Her goal is to contribute fact-based research instead of research with a policy agenda to policy makers and the general public.
She has received a scholarship from the U.S. Dept. of State (Critical Language Program) and a Gerald R. Ford award for research in public policy. She was also chosen to participate in the National Science Foundation REU Program in Mathematics.
Her professors call her smart, intellectually tough, technically far above the mean, and creative, having "a subversively creative mind."
Lilliana Radoshevich (Biomedical Sciences, UCSF) is studying the role of autophagy in cancer. A driving force in her research is the potential that what she finds could solve serious human health problems. She is also committed to bridging the gap in understanding between the scientific community and the general public.
She designed an adult education course, "Demystifying Molecular Biology," and volunteers in community education through the Science and Health Education Partnership between UCSF and the San Francisco Unified School District, co-teaching lessons with middle-school teachers in urban schools. Having helped vaccinate and tag bighorn sheep during her own middle-school years, she believes in a hands-on approach to science.
Her professors note that she has a great nose for important questions and is meticulous, self-critical, self-directed, and able to see the big picture.
Johnny Tam (Bioengineering, UCSF) is investigating retinal capillaries in early-stage diabetes, using noninvasive techniques that he invented. His study opens up the patient pool that can be potentially investigated for both clinical practice and basic research in disease mechanisms. He is interested in directing the development of applications for medical imaging. He is licensed as an Engineer-in-Training and has received his Certificate in Management of Technology from the Haas School of Business and Engineering at UC Berkeley.
Outside the classroom and the lab, Johnny has been actively involved in the Institute for Science and Engineer Educators, which trains graduate students how to be effective teachers. As an undergraduate, he was vice-president and chair of the External Relations Committee of the Undergraduate Investment Society.
His professors note his passion, dedication, curiosity, and ambition as well as his foresight and courage to go beyond the confines of his discipline.
Joanne Sandstrom, Second Vice President, Scholarship
Upcoming Events
Our holiday tour is to one of the gems of the Bay Area. Dunsmuir's volunteers will have worked more than 5,000 hours to transform this 16,000 sq.ft. mansion into a magnificent masterpiece of an Edwardian holiday display. Each room will be decorated with elegant holiday trees, garlands, antique furnishings, and festive decorations. Our visit is a self-guided tour of approximately 45 minutes, and while the grounds are open from 11 am to 5 pm, our actual tour of the mansion will begin promptly at 1 pm. Our tickets include the scheduled mansion visit, access to the Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate grounds and activities, and the gift shop. Note: carpooling suggested; limited parking on street or possibly on the grounds for a fee.
Our docent-led tour of the Charles Schulz Museum is built around the museum’s mission to preserve, display and interpret Schulz’s art. The Peanuts Cartoon Strip collection of over 7000 drawings is the heart and soul of the collection and spans Schulz’s work from 1950 to 2000. The tour will last about 45 to 60 minutes after which we can explore the permanent and special exhibit galleries on our own and/or enjoy lunch in the “Warm Puppy Café.” 
