Your new and continuing Board members are settling into this new Board year’s routine. It is sometimes confusing to members that our Fiscal Year runs from 1 July to 30 June, while our Membership Year is from 1 January through 31 December. Because we solicit membership donations starting in November (keep your eyes out for the November newsletter, which will have information about renewing), and because payments continue to be received into the Spring, it is more convenient to close our books on 30 June. Our Board takes advantage of the summer lull to transfer responsibilities to new officers. We are so fortunate to have a wonderful group of dedicated volunteers leading ΦBKNCA.
During the coming year, we’ll have a wide variety of monthly visits to interesting Bay Area sites, thanks to First Vice President-Programs Judy Hardardt’s efforts. Check this and every newsletter for more about these. In May 2012, we’ll confer a number of scholarships on worthy graduate students from some of our nine associated college chapters thanks to Second Vice President-Scholarships Joanne Sandstrom, her able committee members, and your generous contributions. We are accepting nominations for our Teaching Excellence awards from Mills College; San Francisco State University; Santa Clara University; Stanford University; the UC campuses at Berkeley, Davis, and Santa Cruz; and the University of the Pacific. If you were motivated, impressed, or enthralled by a teacher at any of those schools, please nominate him/her for a Teaching Excellence award using the form that can be found here. Teaching Excellence Chair Narcinda Lerner awaits your input.
Consider attending our annual Presidents’ Weekend symposium, February 17-20, 2012, at Asilomar (Pacific Grove). We enjoy speakers on a variety of subjects, from literature to science and everything in between, have fascinating conversations among ΦBKNCA members during meals, and marvel at nature’s magnificence as we wander the retreat center grounds. Cal Wood will be delighted to receive your reservation from page 8 of the hardcopy or pdf version newsletter. All proceeds from the symposium are used for our award programs.
Please contact the Nominating Committee or any Board member if you have an interest in volunteering with our Association. We have positions that take as little as one day’s work (audit committee; chapter initiation representatives) or as much time as you are willing to give. We’d be delighted to get a chance to know you better!
Thank you for being a member of ΦBKNCA.
Mary Turner Gilliland, President 2011-12
Teaching Excellence Awards Nominations for 2012
Please mail hardcopy directly to the Teaching Excellence Chair Narcinda Lerner, 10 Stadler Drive, Woodside, CA 94062 or make a pdf and email it to .
Narcinda Lerner, Teaching Excellence Chair
In fulfillment of its mission to encourage scholarship and research, the Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association is honoring the following outstanding Phi Beta Kappa graduate students with $5000 scholarship awards to assist them in completing their educational objectives:
Nöel Bakhtian, Stanford, Aeronautics and Astronautics - Reed Scholarship
Maya de Vries, UC Berkeley, Integrative Biology
Jenny Lane, UC Santa Cruz, Ocean Sciences
Michael Levien, UC Berkeley, Sociology
Feng-Yen Li, UC San Francisco, Biomedical Sciences (MD/PhD)
Shane Morrison, Stanford, Medicine
Wei-chun Wang, UC Davis, Psychology
Chelsea Wood, Stanford, Biology
Nöel Bakhtian—Stanford—Aeronautics and Astronautics (Reed Scholarship)
Nöel has always wanted to be an astronaut. As she wrote in her application, "I see the exploration of space as an attempt to answer the ultimate questions concerning our origins and significance in the universe while laying down a framework for our future." She has a B.S.E., Engineering, from Duke; a M. Phil. from the University of Cambridge; and a M.S., Aeronautics and Astronautics, from Stanford.
One of her professors called her "highly motivated, hardworking, uniquely gifted, and a natural organizer." Another noted that Nöel "challenged me good-naturedly when I glossed over important details." Still another noted her "irrepressible and endearing enthusiasm" and her "coherent vision of purpose for her career the likes of which I have never observed in a student."
Nöel was instrumental in organizing the Society of Women Engineers at Stanford and gave much time to supporting its goals.
In U.S. Ballroom Dance Association competitions, she won first place in the Newcomer Cha Cha division and second in the Newcomer Waltz division. She also participated in symphony orchestra competition and was a rower at Cambridge and an organist at Duke.
Maya de Vries—UC Berkeley—Integrative Biology
The title of Maya's dissertation explains her investigation: "Testing Form and Function: Ecological and Morphological Specialization in Mantis Shrimp." Her early results already run counter to the expectation that form follows function in suggesting that "smashers" actually consume a wider range of prey types than "spearers" do. Much of her research is done in Panama at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Galeta Marine Lab.
Maya has a commitment to promoting the success of women students in science. She was a founding member of the Integrative Biology Women in Science Group, which grew from fifteen members in integrative biology to 150 members from five departments.
Letters of recommendation note that Maya is "bright, creative, resourceful, dedicated, and unusually hard-working," "curious and inquisitive with outstanding interpersonal skills" (she was adept at involving local Panamanian students and support staff in her research program), and that she "was fearless . . . in conducting her field experiments in crocodile-laden waters and in truly challenging living conditions."
Jenny Lane—UCSC—Ocean Sciences
Jenny is studying algae blooms (i.e., "red tides"), which seem to be expanding globally and causing more economic losses than thought.
Her research shows that both ocean upwelling and river flow are influential in causing the algae blooms. The research has primed a ground-breaking statewide effort at a time of significant funding shortfalls, with the California Ocean Protection Council awarding $792,000 for implementation of her models as part of a California-wide effort to develop a harmful algal bloom forecast system.
According to her professors, Jenny is "constantly asking What is the big picture?" She is doing "truly interdisciplinary work at the interface between policy, management, and science." She is "a dream student."
Michael Levien—UC Berkeley—Sociology
Michael is investigating "The Land Question: Special Economic Zones and Accumulation by Dispossession in India." His study contrasts two strategies of development: state-led high modernization revolving around massive projects (e.g., dams) and market-driven projects associated with SEZs. Basically, this is a study of conflicts over land, land use, and government policies, dispossession with and without development that benefits the original landowners.
His professors call him a "consummate, intrepid, imaginative ethnographer," a "tireless researcher and devoted theorist," and a person who "weds intellectual sophistication and civic idealism with economic and political realism."
Feng-Yen Li—UCSF—Biomedical Sciences
Feng-Yen's application begins with this statement: "Having been raised in an immigrant family of farmers from China, I have always had a strong drive to succeed and pursue the American dream." The ΦBKNCA award provides a step along the way.
Feng-Yen's dissertation is "The Etiologies of Primary Immunodeficiencies," in which she defines the molecular basis of immunodeficiency in children with congenital abnormalities of the immune system. Her research has led to the discovery of a second messenger role for magnesium in biology that is particularly important for T-cell activation and the development and function of a normal immune system in humans.
As her professors note, she is a "tenacious, creative researcher" and is "flexible in her thinking." Even more important, she has made "one of the most important discoveries in the past several years" in this area. "Her work will lead to a revision of the textbooks."
Shane Morrison—Medicine—Stanford
In his opening statement, Shane noted that "the initial impetus for my career in medicine . . . [came from] the death of the man who raised me: my grandfather. In fact, a five-gallon metal pail became my primary inspiration." This pail, which held his grandfather’s catheter bag, served as a physical reminder of his prostate cancer.
Shane's current work is on treating diabetic wounds through gene therapy. He combines a passion for scientific research with an interest in public health, often volunteering in public health clinics.
His professors call him "clear thinking, energetic, and enthusiastic," with "great initiative and creativity," "impeccable integrity," and "extraordinary energy and enthusiasm." There are "not enough superlatives to describe Shane."
Wei-chung Wang—UC Davis—Psychology
Wei-chung was born in Taiwan during an era of martial law but grew up in the American South. Growing up in the South, he was puzzled "how people could discriminate based on arbitrary traits like skin color and physical disability." He "entered high school determined to understand human behavior and combat societal injustices."
His focus now is on the physical components of behavior: using neuroimaging and neuropsychological methods to test the hypothesis that the perirhinal cortex contributes to conceptual priming. "His research has challenged strongly held beliefs in our field."
His professors note that he combines "drive, mental horsepower, and creative spirit." He is "modest, friendly, easy-going" and an "independent thinker [yet a] team player" who is "an exceptionally clear communicator" "liked by everyone in the lab."
Chelsea Wood—Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station—Biology
Chelsea is studying the impacts of fishing on tropical marine ecosystems. As she noted in her application, "Fishing is among the most economically important human uses of the world's oceans, but it may come with costs [we haven't] accounted for." Her research takes advantage of the presence of a pristine, unexploited fish community on Palmyra Atoll, where she is monitoring experimental treatments that simulate "pristine" and "fished-out" conditions on the atoll. She hopes that her work will permit the development of baselines for ecosystem function and service provision throughout the U.S. Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, the Republic of Kiribati, and other Pacific island groups.
"Exceptional" was often used in her letters of recommendation: "exceptionally talented," "exceptionally motivated," "simply exceptional." Her "logical and technical rigor" was also commended.
Joanne Sandstrom, Second Vice President, Scholarship
