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Research by (left to right) Alceste Bonanos '00 and
Astronomy Professors Priscilla Benson and Kim McLeod, may
lead to the discovery of a black hole.
What started out as a routine observing project from a small campus telescope has turned into an exciting discovery of a possible black hole.
Priscilla Benson, professor of astronomy, presented these findings last month at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta.
"When we started this project, I never dreamed that a black hole might be lurking in this star system," said Benson. "What makes this discovery even more exciting is that much of the work was done by undergraduates using relatively small telescopes."
The black hole candidate is part of a binary star system in which the two components revolve around each other every 91 days. If confirmed, this will be the longest-known orbital period for a black hole binary by a factor of about 10 and the first system known to undergo eclipses from Earth's viewpoint. This fortuitous combination makes it an excellent laboratory for learning more about how black holes are fueled.
The investigation of this system, a variable star of unknown type and period named BG Geminorum (known as BG Gem), began in 1992 when Benson asked her students to monitor its brightness changes with the 24-inch telescope at Wellesley's Whitin Observatory. Five years' worth of data were then compiled by student observer Alceste Bonanos '00 who determined BG Gem is a long period ellipsoidal binary system.
The resulting light curve piqued the interest of binary star expert Dr. Scott Kenyon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who recognized this object as an interesting binary in which the lighter "secondary star" is being stretched out by the strong gravity of the more massive "primary star." The stretching is so extreme that material from the secondary is actually flowing toward the primary. To probe this system further, Kenyon obtained visible spectra of BG Gem with the 60-inch telescope of the Fred L. Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, AZ. "I was very excited by our first spectrum showing emission from hot gas orbiting the primary star," explained Kenyon. "Then, I was sure we had an interesting and rare type of binary."
Further research yielded several surprises. Along with Benson, Kenyon, and Kim McLeod, assistant professor of astronomy, Swarthmore College junior Allyn Dullighan, during a summer research project at Wellesley, determined that the secondary star races around the primary at 75 km/s (170,000 mph), but the primary itself appears to stand nearly still. Like a small dancer being whipped around by a big, strong partner, the secondary in BG Gem is being pulled around at high speed by the gravity of a more massive primary. Using Kepler's Laws of Motion, the students estimated the mass of the primary to be about 4.5 times the mass of the Sun.
"At this point, we wondered what could be hiding this massive object," noted Benson. "One possibility is that the primary star is a black hole whose gravity fuels the hot gas." Final determination of the nature of this hidden object will require more observations by the researchers and confirmation by other astronomers.
"One of the most exciting parts of this project is that we've been using these findings in our teaching here at Wellesley," explained McLeod. "We incorporated the findings into a problem set for an introductory course. This is a great example of the synergies between research and teaching."
The Board of Trustees has given the go-ahead to the College to begin planning for a campus center. At their meeting on January 28, the trustees unanimously accepted the recommendations of the Campus Center Planning Committee, a multi-constituency group that has been working since last spring to determine whether there is a need for a campus center, what programming would occur in such a center, and where it should be built.
"This is the beginning of a wonderful opportunity for Wellesley - not just for the students but for the whole community," said Board Chair Vicki Herget.
"The Campus Center Planning Committee deserves the thanks of our entire College community," noted President Diana Chapman Walsh. "They were creative and thorough in their consultation and assessment and have provided the College's leadership with much thoughtful guidance on conditions and caveats to bear in mind as we go forward with this exciting project. When others look back years from now, I believe the Committee's study will mark an important moment in the history of Wellesley College."
In its report to Walsh, the Committee detailed the process it undertook to reach its conclusions, including a campus-wide email survey; a study of current activities and patterns of interactions among members of the College community using photojournals and focus groups; consultations with College Government, Academic Council, and Administrative Council; and a random sample, focused survey of students, faculty, and staff. To assist in identifying and assessing possible building sites, the College retained the services of Dober, Lidsky, Craig & Associates, a campus planning and design firm. The Committee's full report can be found on the President's homepage at www.wellesley.edu/PublicAffairs/President/president.html.
Although the Committee did not begin its
work with the assumption that a campus center was needed, its
consultation and deliberations, consistent with a very large majority
of input from the community, led to that conclusion. "The resounding
conclusion from our research was that Wellesley doesn't just need
more space to do what it wants and needs to become a fully-integrated
residential learning community," explained Ellen Gill Miller '73, who
chaired the Committee. "Wellesley needs different space, specifically
designed to enhance those interactions and experiences."
Center Must Serve Whole Campus, Two Sites Viewed
According to the Committee's report, the "overarching vision of the campus center is that it be truly a campus center: a place that belongs to the entire campus, a place all members of the community can comfortably use without needing an invitation." The Committee also noted the urgent need for meeting and storage space for student organizations.
The Committee recommended that the primary community activities to be housed in the campus center be: student organization space that is flexibly design for use by many groups and not "owned" by any one organization or constituency; formal and informal meeting spaces for meetings, concerts, eating, casual encounters and conversations, and "hanging out;" and a large (500-600 person) multi-purpose space for performances, parties, or large meetings. Other specific recommendations were a spacious and flexibly eating area "for the community to gather for lunch and coffee," the availability of late-night snack food, a bookstore/cafe, and other activities and amenities that serve the daily needs of the community (for example, an ATM and post office window).
With the assistance of the campus planning firm, the Committee considered three possible locations for a campus center and then narrowed its recommendation to two sites but deferred the final selection until the College has consulted architects. "All of the sites we considered offered significant opportunities and significant challenges," explained Miller. "After we had probed these details further, we concluded that the final decision about where to build a campus center should be made with the full participation of building and landscape architects."
The two sites recommended by the Committee for further consideration are near or adjacent to Schneider, and near Alumnae Hall, either between Alumnae Hall and Campus Police or on the lake side of Alumnae Hall. The third option, the Founder's parking lot, was dismissed because it precludes a major portion of the 1998 Campus Master Plan, namely the restoration of that part of the campus as a continuous meadow.
With the Board's approval of the report,
the College now can establish the process for selecting the building
and landscape architects. In addition, the administration will engage
a parking and traffic circulation consultant to conduct an assessment
of the parking needs of the campus center with an overall car storage
policy for the campus. A selection committee will be convened to work
with the architects to determine the best site for the campus center
and to bring that recommendation to President Walsh and the trustees
at a future meeting. Construction of a campus center will be
contingent upon the College's successful fundraising for the
project.
Comprehensive Fee Set, Temporary Building Deferred
In other business, the trustees approved the comprehensive fee of $31,654 for the next academic year, an increase of 3.6 percent. The Board deferred a decision until its April meeting on whether to build a temporary structure to house academic departments during the renovation of Pendleton East later this year.
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(Standing, left to right): Trustee Lulu Chow Wang, Trustee Susan Newhouse and her husband Donald Newhouse, Alice Tzou '01, Trustee Theresa Mall Mullarkey, Assistant Professor of Chinese Sherry Mou, and (seated) Madame Chiang Kai-shek (Mayling Soong '17) attended the opening reception of "Across the Century: A New Millennium Exhibition of Paintings & Calligraphy by Madame Chiang Soong Mayling and Other Masters" in New York on Jan. 1. The event held special significance for the Newhouses who were given an ink painting titled "The Poised Orchid of the Valley" signed by "Mayling" as a wedding gift from Madame Chiang when they met with Madame and her husband, the late Generalissimo Chiang, during their honeymoon in Taipei 44 years ago. The event was sponsored by the Mayling Soong Foundation of Wellesley College. Chaired by Professor Mou, the Foundation's mission is to promote cultural communication between the East and West and to enhance cross-cultural understanding. Wellesley students are encouraged to join. |
Guy M. Rogers, Professor of Classical Studies and of History, has been appointed Faculty Director of Internships and Service Learning, and Deborah A. Ullrich has been named the Director of Internships and Service Learning in the Center for Work and Service. They will be working in partnership as part of a joint initiative by the Office of the Dean of the College and the Office of the Dean of Students to strengthen and expand Wellesley's internship programs.
New to Wellesley, Ullrich brings 11 years of experience in higher education with a specialization in international program management. Ullrich and Rogers will work in partnership to provide strategic leadership for an expanded internship and service learning focus at the College.
The goals of the collaborative effort are threefold: to provide high quality internships for students through working with key alumnae, parents, and recruiters; to identify additional funding for students to pursue internships, particularly during the summer; and to create a stronger relationship between the learning that occurs through internships and learning in the classroom.
"This internship collaboration comes at a time when there are many issues and opportunities to be addressed," Rogers said. "Students are interested; faculty are interested; and, donors are supportive."
In his new role, Rogers &emdash; who has traveled extensively throughout his lifetime, primarily in Europe and the Middle East &emdash; will be exploring in more detail the applicability of using internship models in place at other schools here at Wellesley. In 1997-1998, while a Faculty Fellow, Rogers conducted a study of credit and non-credit bearing internship and experiential learning programs at institutions similar to Wellesley. He found that, in many places, there was a debate about the creditworthiness of such opportunities.
Previously, Ullrich has designed and directed overseas internship programs for MIT undergraduate and graduate students, with a focus on Asia and Europe. Most recently, Ullrich served as Assistant Director for the Global Initiative at Harvard Business School, where she oversaw all aspects of the School's outreach and relationship-building activities with alumni, corporations, and students in Canada.
"I am looking forward to getting to know the students and everyone else in the Wellesley community in expanding new internship opportunities both in the U.S. and internationally says Ullrich, who started here on Jan. 31.
Three Wellesley alumnae will be honored Feb. 10 for the significant contributions they have made to their respective fields of oncology, social work, and law. Nancy E. Davidson '75, Ann Hartman '47, and Nora Manella '72, will receive the College's Alumnae Achievement Awards for 2000 at a reception and dinner in Tower Court beginning at 5:30 pm. Students are encouraged to attend. (Students must RSVP by Feb. 9 to the Alumnae Office at x2331.)
Established in 1969 to recognize excellence and strengthen relations between undergraduates and alumnae, the awards are given annually to "alumnae of distinction who through their achievements have brought honor to themselves and to Wellesley College." Past winners include Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, astronomer Martha P. Haynes, and journalists Linda Wertheimer and Cokie Roberts.
Nancy
E. Davidson '75 is Professor of
Oncology and Breast Cancer Research Chair at the Johns Hopkins
Oncology Center. A molecular biology major at Wellesley, Davidson
earned her M.D. from Harvard, interned at the University of
Pennsylvania, and completed her residency at Johns Hopkins. From
1982-85, Davidson conducted research at the National Cancer Institute
under the supervision of Dr. Marc Lippman, whose laboratory is
considered one of the most innovative centers for breast cancer
research. She has been on the faculty at Johns Hopkins since 1986,
teaching future physician-scientists and leading the way in
innovative approaches to cancer treatment.
Davidson's contributions to breast cancer research and treatment include defining biochemical pathways by which cancer cells die and identifying how epigenetic changes in DNA methyl-athion help regulate breast cancer cell growth.
Ann
Hartman '47 is Visiting Professor at
the Fordham University School of Social Service and Dean/Professor
Emerita of the Smith College School of Social Work. She is a noted
expert in family therapy and social work theory and
practice.
A philosophy major at Wellesley, Hartman received her M.S.W. from the Smith College School of Social Work and D.S.W. from Columbia University. Recruited to the University of Michigan faculty in 1974, Hartman was there for 12 years and co-founded the Ann Arbor Center for the Family, a training and research center focusing on family social work practice. She also directed the National Child Welfare Training Center. In 1986, she left Michigan to become Dean of the School of Social Work at Smith College.
Hartman's research and writing focuses on families and family-center practices, child welfare, education in child welfare, adoption, and the history of social work theory and ideology. She is the author or editor of five books, including Family Centered Social Work Practice, which is a standard text on family practice used by social work schools. In tribute to her contributions to social work, the National Association of Social Workers published Reflection and Controversy in 1994, a collection of Hartman's most acclaimed editorials.
Nora
Manella '72 is U.S. District Judge
for the Central District of California, the largest federal court
district in the United States. Named among the "50 Most Influential
Women Lawyers" by the National Law Journal, Manella also has led one
of the busiest and most prestigious U.S. Attorney's offices in the
country.
An Italian major at Wellesley, Manella graduated from the University of Southern California Law Center in 1975. In 1982, Manella became Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Central District of California's Criminal Division, taking over the Criminal Appeals Department in 1988. In 1990, Manella was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court, which she left in 1992 upon her elevation to the Superior Court. In 1993, at the recommendation of Senator Diane Feinstein, President Clinton nominated Manella for U.S. Attorney. She was confirmed later that year.
As U.S. Attorney, Manella prosecuted some of the decade's most notorious cases, gaining verdicts against the Menendez brothers for their parents' murders and against Representative Walter R. Tucker III for tax-evasion and bribery. Under Manella's leadership, former Arizona Governor J. Fife Symington III was indicted and subsequently convicted on seven counts of bank fraud, leading to his resignation from office in 1997. Manella began her term as U.S. District Judge in early 1999 after being unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
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Wellesley senior Chavi Keeney Nana of Ann Arbor, Mich., is one of 40 Americans to be awarded the Marshall Scholarship to study at a university in Britain next year. Winners are selected for their intellectual distinction and their potential to become leaders in their fields and make a contribution to society. A double major in International Relations and German, Nana currently is writing an honors thesis on the use of repatriation programs which incorporate micro-credit schemes to ease the social, political and economic impact of repatriation on the returning refugees' country of origin. She plans to continue her study of refugee policy, forced migration, and repatriation when her Marshall Scholarship to Oxford University begins this fall. She plans one day to attend law school for human rights law and to become actively involved in refugee policy development. During her junior year, Nana, who is fluent in German, studied at the University of Konstanz in Germany through a Wellesley College exchange program. While there, she worked at the Research Center for International and European Law on Immigration and Asylum. Nana has worked with Bosnian refugees in Germany and with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Rome during the Kosovo crisis. She currently volunteers for the IRC, working with refugees in the Boston area. She worked with the Sindh Education Foundation to help develop community schools for young girls in the urban and rural slums of Pakistan. |
Nana is the ninth Wellesley College graduate to be awarded the Marshall Scholarship since its inception 45 years ago by the British government as a gesture of thanks to the United States for the assistance received under the Marshall Plan after World War II. Former Wellesley College president and alumna from the class of 1961, Nannerl Overholser Keohane, now president of Duke University, was the first Wellesley recipient of the award.
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Virginia Butler '00 and Lisa Lapman '02 demonstrate their "cowboy robots" to a crowd of all ages at the Design Studio Exhibition held Jan. 25. |
by P. H. Michelle Tsai '00 The promise of seeing robots doing interesting things &emdash;such as the above western-style cowboy duel, complete with campy western music &emdash;attracted more than one hundred people to the annual Robotics Design Studio exhibition on Jan. 25 despite blizzard conditions. Similar in format to an art opening, student teams exhibited the robots they had designed using LEGOs during their interdisciplinary physics and computer science Wintersession course taught by Robert Berg, associate professor of physics, and Franklyn Turbak, assistant professor of computer science. When they started the course four years ago, the pair imagined a robotics class that not only would teach the technical engineering side of design but one that also would incorporate the aesthetic. Berg noted that the open-ended nature of the assignment, in which students can work together to define a problem and then come up with the solution, allows for collaborative experimentation and creativity. This is in contrast to the more competitive model used by MIT's 6.270 Robot Design Competition, in which every student works within the same parameters and then a winner is selected. "We see this course mainly as an introduction to engineering ideas," Berg said, "but it's also something that provides an opportunity to blend together a lot of different things, including artistic ideas, expressive ideas, and to mix those with the engineering." As a result, Berg noted that Wellesley students' designs often have "a strong narrative element" that blurs the line between art and science. Among the robots that drew much enthusiasm from the crowd were an intricate drama-tization of The Wizard of Oz, an interactive dog named Trix, and the "Touchlator," a device that helps communication with people who are deaf and blind. One team of students from Robotic Design Studio has also been designing a robot for a firefighting contest at Trinity College in April. |
Human Resources News &
Notes
I'd like to give you a brief update on some of the major projects the Office of Human Resources is working on:
Valuing Work@Wellesley
Throughout December and January we have continued to collect the Role Documentation from the administrative employees in order to assign these roles into levels in the new classification system. Our goal had been to have all benchmark data reviewed initially, followed by all other roles. Many managers and employees were able to meet our deadlines, but others were not. The HR representatives in my office have contacted those managers and hopefully we will have these in our office by the end of January.
The Salary Administration Design team completed its recommendations in mid-January. These recommendations relate to pay policy and salary administration. These recommendations as well as the Performance Management Design team recommendations will be shared with the President for her approval. We are all grateful for the time and thoughtfulness that the members of these design teams gave to this process. Communication about these recommendations will be made to all of you once we have final approval on this program.
Performance Management
Last spring, prior to the annual performance review, I sent you a newsletter describing the importance of our individual roles in the performance evaluation process and informing you about the training programs available to employees. This year we will be offering training for all supervisors and employees in order to help support this process. Mary Grace Duffy of Cambridge Hill Partners will be conducting these programs in April. We will send out a separate notification of these dates and times as soon as they are set. HR representatives will be conducting two brown-bag lunches, open to all employees, to answer questions about this process.
Effective performance management should not be "event" driven. Rather it should be an ongoing collaborative process between supervisor and staff. The beginning of a new semester is an ideal time to discuss with one another the individual's job plan, see how work is progressing, and to determine whether there are obstacles in meeting objectives. It is also an ideal time to identify what training and development opportunities are needed to enhance development and performance. Please be alert to the training opportunities Wellesley is offering in collaboration with the Boston Consortium as well as those offered on a regular basis through the IS.
Benefits
At the deadline for this article, the status of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (HPHC) is still uncertain. Please be assured that we are in close contact with HPHC as well as our consultants in health care in order to be sure Wellesley College employee needs are met. In the meantime, as we suggested in our First Class posting to faculty and staff on January 6, we encourage you to visit HPHC's website, www.harvardpilgrim.org, for the most current information about the receivership, a special Q&A section for members, and some useful information about the new three-tier pharmacy benefit. We also encourage you to read the comprehensive article about prescription drugs in HPHC's Winter 2000 Your Health magazine that is mailed to your home.
Contributory Life Insurance
As announced in the Annual Benefits Information Day issue of the HR Illuminator Extra, each year, the group contributory life insurance rates are subject to change. For the majority of employees, the new rates represent a slight decrease in cost, which you will have seen reflected in your January deduction for your contributory coverage. For a complete listing of rates, visit: www.wellesley.edu/HR/new.
Sincerely,
Director of Human Resources
Odette Bery, Collins Café, demonstrated traditional French holiday recipes at the French Library in Boston in December.
Thomas Cushman, Sociology, is the founding editor of Human Rights Review (Transaction Publishers) that debuted in November with features on human rights in Africa, Eastern Europe, South Asia, and a symposium on the Rigoberta Menchu affair. In an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education ("Hot Type," 11/12/99), Cushman said he hopes to make room for a wider range of viewpoints than usually appear in print in the human rights field and to respond quickly to current events. He plans special issues on genocide, torture, human rights during epidemics, and on indifference to human rights abuses.
On Feb. 17, Yale University Press will publish RIEVAULX ABBEY: Community, Architecture, Memory by Peter Fergusson, Art, and Stuart Harrison, Ryedale Archaeological Services, England. The wide-ranging book provides an unprecedented account of Rievaulx &emdash; its 400 years as a monastery and its next 400 years, forsaken and deteriorating. Both authors are Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Richard French, Astronomy, is leading a team of astronomers who are using the Hubble Space Telescope to conduct a long-term study on Saturn's rings as their tilt with respect to Earth changes. The project began when the rings could be seen from Earth edge on and will continue until the plane of the rings opens most toward Earth, shortly before the Cassini spacecraft arrives at Saturn in 2004. To learn more, visit www.space.com/science/astronomy/ hubble_bumped_ 991115.html and heritage.stsci.edu/public/Oct22/saturn/displaysaturn.html.
Marshall Goldman, Economics, spoke Jan. 10 at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisc. His talk, "Is Russia Rising Again?," was the third installment of the school's six-part lecture series "Another American Century?"
In his monthly column for the Mexico City paper Reforma, James Oles, Art, wrote a review about Mexico City's largest-ever exhibition of Mayan treasures that attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers during its run that ended Dec. 30.
Lorraine Roses, Spanish, addressed the The Ford Hall Forum, the nation's oldest public lecture series, in December at the Strand Theatre in Dorchester, Mass. A scholar of the Harlem Renaissance, Roses' talk and slide presentation was titled "The Search for Black Boston's Lost Cultural Riches."
In January, Lorraine Garnett Ward, Office of the Dean of Students, together with First Year Experience Team members: Catherine Collins, Health Services; Marybeth Toomey, Student Life; and Voncile White, Class Deans; gave a paper about Wellesley's program at The First Year Experience Conference West in San Francisco.
Linda Williams, Stone Center, has been named to a three-year team on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS).
Please email your Colleagues in the News items to:
illuminator@wellesley.edu
or call x3321.
Editor-in-Chief: Mary Ann Hill,
mhill@wellesley.edu
Managing Editor: Betsy Lawson, elawson@wellesley.edu
The Illuminator is the published monthly during the academic year by Wellesley College's Office for Public Information, a division of Resources and Public Affairs, 230 Green Hall, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481. Issues are published the first week of every month during the academic year, except for combined issues in September/October and January/February. Special Family Editions are also published.
Please submit editorial content to the above listed mailing address or e-mail: illuminator@wellesley.edu
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Elizabeth Lawson elawson@wellesley.edu
Office for Public Information
Online Editor: Shanna Yetman '02
Date created: Jan 31, 2000
Last updated: Feb 8, 2000
Page expires: Febuary of 2002
