Your membership contribution is totally tax-deductible, so please be generous. We fund Graduate Student scholarships and Teaching Excellence awards through your donations; the more money we receive, the more we can give to worthy candidates. This past year’s awardees are listed on pages 3-4. ΦBKNCA does NOT receive any funds from The Phi Beta Kappa Society in Washington, D.C., and a donation to them does not give you membership in our Association.
As an active (dues-paying) member, you’ll be able to enjoy monthly activities in various sites around the Bay Area. Check the list in this newsletter on pages 6-7 and sign up for one or more. You’ll meet other ΦBK members and visit unusual places in our own backyard. Consider joining us over Presidents’ Weekend (February 17-20, 2011) at Asilomar, near Monterey, for our annual conference (see page 5). Good company, fascinating speakers, beautiful scenery: what more could anyone want?
I look forward to meeting you at one or more of our activities, so I may thank you personally for supporting ΦBKNCA. Without our loyal members, we are nothing.
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
Noël Bakhtian—Stanford—Aeronautics and Astronautics (Reed Scholarship)
Noël 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."
Noël 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
ΦBKNCA 26th Annual Asilomar Conference, Pacific Grove, CA
Presidents’ Day Weekend, February 17-20, 2012. Deadline December 1, 2011
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Don’t miss this great event. Send the form from page 8, along with your deposit, now.
Noël Bakhtian, who received the Phi Beta Kappa E. B. Reed Memorial Scholarship in May 2011 has entitled her talk "From the Slow to the Super Fast" (the Flight of Birds to Supersonic Jets).
Noël Bakhtian is a Ph.D. candidate in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at Stanford University, working in the Aerospace Design Laboratory. As a graduate student, Noël has been the recipient of the Boeing/Flight Global Engineering Student of the Year Award, our E. B. Reed Memorial Scholarship, the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award, and the Churchill Scholarship.
Betsy Gilliland will give a talk on the "Academic Literacy for California's Adolescent English Language Learners". She is the daughter of our Association president, Mary Turner Gilliland.
Betsy Gilliland (ΦBK Brown 1995) is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Education at UC Davis, with an emphasis in Language, Literacy, and Culture. Her dissertation research is an ethnographic study of three English classrooms at one Central Valley high school, examining the ways that English-language learners develop an understanding of academic language and literacy practices. Prior to starting her doctoral studies, Betsy taught English as a foreign language as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uzbekistan. She will be talking about her current research and the implications for high schools in preparing California's linguistically diverse students for college and beyond.
Kip Cranna, the Director of Musical Administration for the San Francisco Opera "From the Page to the Stage: Transforming Literature into Opera"
San Francisco Opera’s longtime Director of Artistic Administration, Dr. Clifford (“Kip”) Cranna, will illustrate how composers use their personal artistic instincts to find inspiration in works by great writers, transforming their sources in fascinating and unexpected ways. Video examples will compare print, film, and operatic versions of works like Johann Goethe’s “Faust,” Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ “Les Liaisons Dangerousness,” and Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Ranger Roxann Jacobus will again lead a tour of the Asilomar campus on Monday morning with ever new and interest-ing insights into Julia Morgan, the architect of Asilomar.
There will also be several more speakers who have not as yet been confirmed. However, as those of you who have attended our conference before well know, the speakers are only a part of the experience. What makes the weekend special (besides the always gorgeous ocean setting just south of Monterey) is the opportunity to get to know and mingle with our extraordinary members.
Contact Cal Wood, Asilomar Chair, 925-447-8666, , Asilomar Chair
Majestic. Spectacular. Words fail to convey the extraordinary beauty of the elegantly restored Palace. See this 1909 Beaux Arts gem for yourself, and discover why it's consistently ranked as one of the top luxury hotels in the world! We will meet our tour guide on the right side of the hotel lobby at approximately 10:45 am. Consider staying for lunch at the hotel after the tour is completed. Be ready to learn lots of history! Enjoy checking out this site: