Wafaa El-Sadr, renowned infec-tious disease specialist at Colum-bia University, has been named

a 2008 MacArthur Fellow, an honor be-stowed annually by the John D. and Cath-erine T. MacArthur Foundation. One of 25 recipients, El-Sadr will receive $500,000 to use without restriction over the next five years.

Like other MacArthur fellows, El-Sadr received the news by phone and was completely stunned by the announcement. El-Sadr said, “I never imagined it, to be honest. I had no idea at all.”

El-Sadr holds multiple posts at Columbia. She is professor of epidemiology at Mailman School of Public Health, and founded and directs Mailman’s International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP) and the Center for Infectious Disease Epidemiologic Research (CIDER). She is

also professor of clinical medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and for more than two decades has led the Division of Infectious Diseases at Columbia- affiliated Harlem Hospital Center.

El-Sadr is recognized for her comp-rehensive, family-focused approach to prevention, care and treatment of diseases that disproportionately affect people with the least access to quality health care. Her programs in impoverished and immigrant communities in Harlem, as well as sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, have helped to improve the standards for health care delivery to vulnerable populations faced with infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

Mailman Dean Linda Fried underscored El-Sadr’s compassion and commitment to the field. “This is an extraordinary honor for a truly extraordinary person,” Fried said.

El-Sadr is tied to a long list of ac-

Philip Bobbitt divides his time between London, where he lectures on military strategy, and Columbia, where he is the

Herbert Wechsler Professor of Jurisprudence. For years, he kept the two fields separate, even maintaining different collections of books in London and New York. After all, what connection was there between military strategy and constitutional law?

But the events of 9/11 changed all that, Bobbitt said during a talk Sept. 10 at the law school. The blow that America suffered that day, he said, meant that the U.S. would be fighting a long war in which the goal was no longer to defeat enemy soldiers but to protect civilians.

That would require new strategies that could conflict with statutory protections.

Bobbitt’s inquiry into how such conflicts between law and strategy could be avoided led, most recently, to his 2008 book Terror and Consent, which British historian Niall Ferguson described in The New York Times as “the most profound book to have been written on the subject of American foreign policy since the attacks of 9/11—indeed, since the end of the cold war.” (Bobbitt has been consulted by both the Obama and McCain campaigns, according to Richard Gardner, the Columbia law professor who introduced him at the talk.)

Bobbitt’s was the first in a series of law school lectures on international law and policy issues facing the next president. During the talk, Bobbitt made clear that the dangers faced by

American society are great. The war on terror, he said, has three components: a war against terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda; a global struggle to prevent the dissemination of weapons of mass destruction; and the protec-tion of civilians against catastrophes, natural and man-made.

Despite the urgency of his message, Bobbitt, who was educated at Yale, Princeton and Ox-ford, was cool and composed during his noon-time lecture. He began his lecture with bits of poetry, as well as a disarming call to the stu-dents in his seminar, Terror and Consent: The Wars for the 21st Century, to skip the lecture and enjoy the sunny afternoon, since he was saying nothing they hadn’t already heard.

The remainder of the standing-room-only

NEWS AND IDEAS FOR THE COLUMBIA COMMUNITYvol. 34, no. 02 october 2, 2008

www.columbia.edu/news

continued on page 6

Wafaa El-Sadr

By Fred A. Bernstein

researchBlood Test for Alzheimer’s | 5

new FacultyFresh Faces

On Campus | 4

world leadersDominican President

Goes to School | 3

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Philip Bobbitt discusses the need for new methods of surveillance and other strategies to protect civilians.

Rethinking Legal Tactics in an Age of Terror

By Melanie A. Farmer

Disease Expert Wins MacArthur Fellowship

Alan Brinkley, the University Provost since 2003, said he will step down at the end of this academic year. He will return to

teaching and research at Columbia in 2010 after a year-long academic leave.

A noted scholar of 20th century American history, Brinkley holds the Allan Nevins Professorship in History and is the author of several books and a contributor to a number of publications.

The provost is the University’s chief academic officer, responsible for developing and implementing academic plans and policies and supervising the faculty and research

centers. During Brinkley’s tenure, Columbia launched a number of initiatives, including the growth of the faculty, the launch of the new science building, a review of undergraduate education and the increasing globalization of the University.

Also on his watch was the creation of the Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity Initiatives, which is charged with making the University more diverse through its hiring of faculty, administration and officers of research.

In addition, he also oversaw development of the Office of Work/Life; this unit promo-tes awareness and utilization of policies and programs to create a family friendly en-vironment at Columbia.

“I think what I’m proudest of is simply having

played a part in the really big things that have happened in the last five-plus years,” he said. “All these are projects that are not mine alone, but I’m very proud to be part of them.”

By Bridget O’Brian

University Provost Alan Brinkley Returns to Faculty

Alan Brinkley

Ronald Mincy, the Maurice V. Russell Professor of Social Policy and Social Welfare, has been selected a member in the New York State Juve-nile Justice Task Force. This newly created organization will review and reform New York State policies and prac-

tice for providing care and custody to incarcerated youth. The initiative aims to transform the state’s juve-nile justice system by developing a community-based, rehabilitative model that can be copied by other states seeking similar reforms.

Wallace S. BRoeckeR, a geochemist and global climate concern advocate, has been awarded the Balzan Prize for his contributions to the understanding of climate change. The $885,000 prize is presented to honor outstanding science, culture and humanitarian initiatives that advance world peace. The Milan-based Balzan Prize Foundation said, “His contributions have been significant in understanding both gradual and abrupt climate changes.” Broecker, who is often credited with inventing the term “global warming,” is the Newberry Professor of Earth and Environ- mental Sciences and has received numerous honors for his research.

Paul J. Maddon (CC’81, P&S’88, GSAS’88), founder and chief executive of Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc., was elected to the board of trustees, effective Sept. 2, as one of the six trustees chosen in consul-tation with the University Senate. He is expected to serve until the 2014-2015 academic year. The 24-

member board is led by Chair William V. Campbell. Maddon, a molecular virologist and immunologist, founded Progenics in 1986 as a graduate student at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The publicly traded biopharmaceutical firm develops and commer-cializes new drugs in the areas of gastroenterology, on-cology and virology.

TheRecord2 october 2, 2008

on c ampus

asK aLma’s oWL

Happening at columbiaFor the latest on upcoming

Columbia events, performances, seminars and lectures, please go tohttp://calendar.columbia.edu

usPs 090-710 issn 0747-4504 vol. 34, no. 02, october 2, 2008

Published by the Office of Communications and

Public Affairs

TheRecord staff:

Editor: Bridget o’BrianDesigner: nicoletta Barolini

Senior Writer: Melanie a. FarmerUniversity Photographer: eileen Barroso

Contact the record: t: 212-854-2391 f: 212-678-4817

e: curecord@columbia.edu

The Record is published fourteen times during the academic year. Permission is given to use Record material in other media.

david M. stoneexecutive vice President

for communications

correspondence/subscriptionsanyone may subscribe to the record for $27 per year. the amount is payable in advance to columbia university, at the address below. al-low 6 to 8 weeks for address changes.

Postmaster/address changesPeriodicals postage paid at new York, nY and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send address changes to the record, 535 W. 116th st., 402 low library, Mail code 4321, new York, nY 10027.

Dear Alma,How can one “tie the knot” at Columbia’s St. Paul’s Chapel? I’ve heard that the waiting list for a wedding date can be as long as four years.

— The Wedding Planner

Dear Planner,St. Paul’s Chapel is a popular site

for weddings, as well as for other non-nuptial events sponsored by campus and community organizations. That can make it tricky for couples set on a particular wedding date. The good news is that—despite the rumors—there is no four-year waiting list. But you may have to wait a year to get the exact date you want.

First, though, some history courtesy of architecture professor Andrew Dolkart: Although a chapel figured prominently in the master architectural plans when Co-lumbia moved to Morningside Heights, no funding was available for it, and the chapel wasn’t part of the original campus that opened in 1897. In 1903, philan-thropists Olivia Egleston Phelps Stokes and Caroline Phelps Stokes offered to finance the construc-tion of a chapel (to be designed by their nephew.) In 1966, the chapel was among the first buildings desig-nated an official land-mark by the New York City Landmarks Pres-ervation Commission.

Today, St. Paul’s op-erates primarily to ac-commodate students and University affili-ates, but it is open to the public and hosts several events geared toward community outreach such as the Common Meal and Music at St. Paul’s programs.

So how does one (or two, rather) get to stand at the chapel’s altar? The key to nabbing an open spot on the calendar is to plan ahead. St. Paul’s is more heavily

grants & g if ts

Going to the Chapel

miLEstonEs

PlAzA PurificAtionif there were any evil influences lurking around campus, they are likely gone after elaborately garbed monks from the kingdom of Bhutan performed demon-subjugation dances, known as cham, on Sept. 16. the performance on low Plaza, co-sponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian institute, was in celebration of the opening of “the Dragon’s Gift: the Sacred Arts of Bhutan” at the rubin Museum of Art. cham dances are both a form of danced yoga in tantric Buddhism and a means of communicating Buddhist teachings.

booked during the academic year, when student organizations and campus activi-ties compete for use of the chapel. In fact, student groups and activities have prior-ity over private wedding reservations at the chapel.

During summer months, weekday weddings are allowed before 5:00 p.m., and Saturday ceremonies are available for two-hour time slots throughout the day, while Sunday is available only from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Dur-ing the academic year, weekday weddings are allowed only on Fridays, as long as the ceremony ends by 5:00 p.m.; weekend availability is

the same as during the summer. There are no restrictions on who

can get married in the chapel. It is open to anyone in the community, not just Columbia affiliates.

—Kelvin X. Dumé Send your questions for Alma’s Owl to curecord@columbia.edu.

WHo GaVe iT: Matthew Grossman (CC’98)HoW MucH: $1.5 millionWHo GoT iT: Arts and SciencesWHaT FoR: Jerome and Matthew Grossman Professorship of EconomicsHoW Will iT Be uSed: This gift honors Matthew Grossman’s father, Jerome Grossman (CC’61). It will support a newly endowed professorship in conjunction with $1.5 million from the Lenfest Matching Challenge.

WHo GaVe iT: Einhorn Family Charitable TrustHoW MucH: $1.2 millionWHo GoT iT: College of Physicians and SurgeonsWHaT FoR: Columbia University Medical Center Brain-Gut Initiative HoW Will iT Be uSed: To support a multidisci-plinary research program that focuses on develop-ing new treatments for childhood developmental disorders.

WHo GaVe iT: Ming Chu Hsu (BUS’92)HoW MucH: $1 millionWHo GoT iT: Business SchoolWHaT FoR: Ming Chu Hsu Scholarship FundHoW Will iT Be uSed: For need-based financial aid to eligible students from emerging markets.

WHo GaVe iT: Dave Rickey (ENG’79) and Brenda RickeyHoW MucH: $1 millionWHo GoT iT: The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied ScienceWHaT FoR: Brenda and Dave Rickey Scholarship FundHoW Will iT Be uSed: For financial aid to under-graduates who are majoring in an engineering dis-cipline and have graduated from high schools in San Diego County, Calif.

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TheRecord october 2, 2008 3

As a graduate student at South-ern Illinois University, Muriel A.S. Grimmett tutored Upward

Bound students while finishing her master’s degree in counseling. That experience, advising low-income high school students trying to get into col-lege, jump-started a career in commu-nity outreach and education.

And that, in turn has led Grim-mett to Columbia, where she is the new executive director of the Double Discovery Center, overseeing the center’s many programs, including Upward Bound.

Double Discovery, which provides academic support for local students who are first generation college bound, named Grimmett effective Sept. 8. She succeeds Olger C. Twyner, who be-came an associate vice president at Xavier University in New Orleans.

Grimmett, 56, is a specialist in multicultural education and African American studies. Throughout her career she has focused on issues relat-ing to higher education access for low income students. She previously was deputy executive director of the TRIO program at University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV). TRIO is the umbrella ti-tle for several federal, educational out-reach programs like Upward Bound

and Talent Search.Long before Grimmett found her

way to Columbia, Double Discovery was a familiar name to her. “I’ve al-ready had a high regard for the Double Discovery program,” says Grimmett. “It was one of the founding programs in the TRIO movement. It represented volunteerism as well as New York City, coupled with the excitement of Co-lumbia University.”

For Grimmett, the key to Double Discovery’s success is having Colum-bia students serve as role models to

It is not often middle school students can hear directly from a world leader. On Sept. 25, the students at Columbia Secondary School for Math,

Science and Engineering (CSS) got their chance when Leonel Fernández, president of the Dominican Republic, came to visit.

President Fernández spoke to a packed auditorium of about 250 students, parents and faculty, discussing politics and answering such questions as: What is the most difficult thing about being president? “Managing conflicts,” he replied. What would he be if he weren’t president? A writer, he said.

Fernández was in New York City for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly and was also a featured speaker at the University’s annual World Leaders Forum. His trip to CSS stemmed from a key component of his presidential agenda: investing in the Dominican Republic’s youth and education.

“One of our priorities to promote economic and social development has to do with human capital, so that’s education,” said Fernández in an interview. “But we have to look at new models to train our young students how to think, how to solve problems, how to have a modern view, how to think out of the box… CSS is a great model project that we can replicate.”

To that end, Fernández also went to Teachers College for a meeting with Provost Thomas James; Portia Williams, director of international affairs; and Deanna Kuhn, a professor of psychology and education. Fernández plans to modernize and improve the Dominican Republic’s education system, and wants Teachers College to serve as an advisor in that effort.

Later that evening, at a World Leaders Forum talk in Low Library, Fernández said that Teachers College will put together a pilot project—modeled after CSS—in the Dominican Republic. “We need to bring in the most advanced methodologies to overhaul our education system,” he said.

First acquired in October 2005, CSS opened last fall with its first class of sixth-graders. A public school run by the New York City Department of

Education in partnership with Columbia and the community , the school is adding an additional grade every year, and ultimately will enroll 650 students from grades six through 12. The middle school—grades six through eight—will serve high-performing local students from northern Manhattan, while the high school will be open to students city-wide.

The partnership with Columbia has mutual benefits. It provides Columbia undergraduate and graduate students teaching experience at the school, where they work with the middle school students in after-school programs and the Harlem Robot-ics League. Meanwhile, the CSS students get access to University facilities and resources. The school, which is located on West 123rd Street and Morning- side Avenue, will eventually have its permanent home in Manhattanville as part of the University’s long-term campus plan.

José Maldonado-Rivera, principal at CSS and himself a Teachers College alumnus, said Fernández’s visit “is a unique opportunity for my Hispanic students to see [how] somebody from the barrio…through hard work and dedication, was able to drive himself to the top, to the pinnacle of political power in the Dominican Republic and become president.”

The lesson was not lost on Christian Pimentel, a Dominican-born seventh-grader. Being able to meet the president of his country was a “true inspiration,” he said. Pimentel is concerned that Dominican voices are not being heard. “Latinos are just as important as everyone else,” he said. “We want to make sure everyone knows that…we have a say in this world.”

Some students got to have their say. In preparation for the visit, students were asked to write a letter addressing a world leader on a global issue, and several read theirs aloud to Fernández; topics included the U.S. financial crisis, nuclear weapons, oil dependency, climate change, poverty, health care and women’s rights.

For one student, sixth-grader Annette Anderson, the experience made her proud. “A lot of other schools locally never had an opportunity like this,” said Anderson, 11. “This really helps us and builds us up as a community and as a school.”

Columbia Secondary School students reach out to meet President Fernández.

Students pose their questions to the president in both Spanish and English.

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ON EXHIBIT:INdIaN sIlvEr fOr THE raj

the Miriam and ira D. Wallach Art Gallery presents Delight in Design: indian Silver for the raj, a never-

before exhibited selection of richly decorated silverware produced by indian craftsmen from varying parts of the British india empire from 1858 to 1947.

the exhibition is organized to highlight the distinctive regional styles that emerged during the raj. it presents more than 150 pieces of silverware reflecting a remarkable amalgam of taste. indian silversmiths created European

forms such as tea services, bowls, claret jugs, goblets and beer mugs for European customers. the same silversmiths embellished these objects with designs that displayed an innate indian fondness for decoration.

the exhibition will be on view at columbia university’s Wallach Gallery from Sept. 18 through Dec. 13. the gallery is located on the seventh floor of Schermerhorn Hall.

—By Record Staff

By Melanie A. Farmer

Dominican Leader Sees Role Model In Columbia-Assisted Public School

Muriel Grimmett

Double Discovery Gets New Director

continued on page 8

By Melanie A. Farmer

TheRecord4 october 2, 2008

will teach classes in civil procedure and constitutional law. He was lead counsel in a coalition that represented African American and Latino students in a landmark University of Michigan undergraduate affirmative-action admissions case. Shaw worked from 1979 to 1982 as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.

Alexandra Carter (LAW’03) has joined as associate clinical professor in the law school’s Me-diation Clinic, where Columbia students participate in various court and community-based dis-pute resolution programs in the city. Carter is an associate attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where she has served on a team defend-ing against a multi-billion-dollar

securities class-action lawsuit related to Enron Corp.

Jamal Greene, associate professor of law, will teach courses related to constitutional law and federal courts. A former journalist, Greene’s expertise is the political construc-tion of constitutional law. He has clerked for the Hon. Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New Haven, and for Justice John Paul Stevens at the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2006-07 term.

Columbia alumnus Trevor Morrison (LAW’98) returns to his alma mater after five years at Cornell Law School, where he was most recently an associate professor. Morrison, now professor of law, specializes in separation of powers, federal-ism and executive branch legal interpretation.

International tax law expert Michael Graetz, who will join the law school in 2009, is currently the Justus S. Hotch-kiss Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Graetz has made substantial contributions to virtually every aspect of tax law and policy. He served in the U.S. Department of the Treasury and then again as deputy assistant secretary (tax policy) and as assistant to the secretary and special counsel during the George H.W. Bush administration.

The Journalism school

Columbia Journalism School named Bill Grueskin, formerly a deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, its dean for academic affairs. Grueskin, who in an earlier Journal job had been editor of the paper’s online edition, will help build a new media center at Columbia that will broaden the J-school’s curriculum and research capabilities. He also will be a pro-fessor of professional practice.

As part of the shift toward new media, Duy Linh Tu was named an assistant professor of professional practice and a new media coordinator. Duy, who had been an adjunct at the journalism school, is also creative director of Resolution Seven, a commercial, documentary and DVD production studio. He is also a writer and multimedia consultant who travels to newsrooms internationally to consult and train multimedia journalists.

Howard French was named an associate professor. He comes to the journalism school after 22 years at The New York Times, where he was a foreign correspondent covering such far-flung places as Central America and the Caribbean, West Africa, Japan and the Koreas, as well as China. In the last three years, he also was a weekly columnist on global affairs for the International Herald Tribune.

school oF The arTs

William (Bill) B. Worthen joined as the new chair and professor of theatre and the Alice Brady Pels Professor in the Arts at Barnard College with a concurrent appointment in the theatre program at the School of the Arts. Worthen is teaching a range of courses in drama and performance theory, modern theatre, Shakespeare and performance. Prior to this appointment, he served as a visiting professor here and has taught at numerous universities including the University of Michigan, the University of California at Berkeley and Middlebury College.

The Fu FoundaTion school oF engineering & applied science

Elon Terrell, assistant profes-sor of mechanical engineering, comes to the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sci-ence (SEAS) from Carnegie Mellon University, where he completed his Ph.D. Terrell, who also studied at the University of Texas at Austin, is primarily interested in thermal-fluid sciences, energy and tribology (the study of friction, lubrication and wear).

Rui Castro joins the electrical engineering department as assistant professor, with research interests primarily in learning theory, network inference and pattern recognition applications. Prior to Columbia, Castro was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and before that, at Rice University as a research assistant.

Haim Waisman comes to the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics as assistant professor from Global Engineering & Materials Inc., where he served as a senior research scientist. His research areas include computational solid methods, fatigue and fracture mechanics and composite materials. After studying in Israel, Waisman went on to earn his Ph.D. at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Joining Waisman in the same department at Columbia is Huiming Yin as assistant professor. Yin studied in China before completing his Ph.D. in structural mechanics at the University of Iowa. He specializes in the multiscale and physics of civil engineering materials and structures with experimental, analytical and numerical methods. His research interests range from structures and materials to innovative construction technologies and test methods.

mailman school oF public healTh

Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health made a key hire for the Department of Biostatistics. William C.L. Stew-art, assistant professor of biostatistics, was recruited from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, where he recently complet-ed his postdoctoral fellowship in biostatistics. Stewart, who will join the division of statistical genetics, specializes in the development of statistical methodologies for genetically linked disorders. His methods have been used to identify genetic risk factors for bipolar disorder, Alzheimer’s disease and primary pulmonary hypertension.

columbia business schoolColumbia Business School added

15 new faculty members in a num-ber of divisions, including profes-sors who are returning to the school a second time. Lynne B. Sagalyn, the Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor of Real Estate, has returned to Columbia after teaching at Wharton for the past four years. Sagalyn, who first joined the school in 1992, specializes in real estate fi-nance and urban development.

Other new full-time faculty include Pierre Collin-Dufresne, the Carson Family Professor of Business, who worked three years as a senior portfolio manager in the Quantitative Strategies Group of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and has taught at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley.

Wouter Dessein, professor of finance and economics, comes to the Business School after serving as associate professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. Daniel Wolfenzon, also professor of finance and economics, joins Columbia from New York University Stern School of Business, where he has taught finance since 2001.

columbia law schoolTed Shaw, former head of the NAACP Legal Defense and

Educational Fund, is joining Columbia Law School as a professor of professional practice. Shaw, a 1979 graduate of the school,

arTs and sciences As Columbia’s first Denning

Family Professor of Sustainable Development, Ruth DeFries plans to establish an undergradu-ate major in sustainable develop-ment at Columbia. DeFries was previously a professor at the Uni-versity of Maryland-College Park, with joint appointments in the Department of Geography and the Earth System Science Interdisci-plinary Center.

Jerry McManus, professor of earth and environmental sciences, was an associate scientist at Woods Hole Oceano-graphic Institution in Massachusetts. He specializes in pale-oceanography, the study of past ocean circulation and climate.

Also a professor of earth and environmental sciences, Terry Plank joins Columbia from Boston University, where she was a professor of earth sciences. A petrologist-geochemist, Plank’s work focuses on the study of magmas associated with the earth’s plate tectonic cycle.

In the humanities and social sciences, Stathis Gourgouris rejoins Columbia as a professor of classics and English and comparative literature, and will also direct the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia, which pro-motes the study of literature, culture and their social context. A poet, Gourgouris most recently taught comparative litera-ture at the University of California-Los Angeles.

Elisheva Carlebach joins the Department of History this fall as the Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture and Society. At Queens College and the Graduate Center-CUNY, she was professor of history and focused on Jewish sectarianism and the Jews of early modern Europe.

Souleymane Bachir Diagne joins Columbia from Northwestern University as professor of French and philosophy. Academically trained in France, he is writing a book on Islam and philosophy, and his teaching interests include the history of early modern philosophy, philosophy and Sufism in the Islamic world, African philosophy and literature, and 20th century French philosophy.

The economics department has hired eight new professors and assistant professors, as it expands the number and breadth of econo-metrics courses and the number of staff teaching macroeconomics. The new professors include Ri-cardo Reis, who comes to Colum-bia from Princeton University and whose specialty includes monetary policy and business cycles. Martin Uribe and Stephanie Schmitt-Grohe, both macroeconomists, are formerly of Duke Univer-sity. Jushan Bai, who comes from New York University, and Marcelo Moreira, from Harvard, are both econometricians.

columbia universiTy medical cenTer

Sankar Ghosh, a world re-nowned immunologist and mi-crobiologist, is joining Columbia University Medical Center as the chair of the department of mi-crobiology. Ghosh was a profes-sor at Yale University School of Medicine in the department of immunobiology as well as the department of molecular bio-physics and biochemistry. There,

he became known for his work on the role of nuclear fac-tor-kappa B (NF-kB), which plays a critical role in regulat-ing a number of genes involved in inflammatory and im-mune processes.

Joel Stein, an expert on strokes, was named chief of a coordinated program in rehabilitation medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Stein currently is the chief medical officer for Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Bos-ton and an associate professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School.

NEW PROFESSORS ON CAMPUS

Bill Grueskin

Sankar Ghosh

Ricardo Reis

Elon Terrell

Alexandra Carter

Lynne Sagalyn

Ruth DeFries

A sample of this year’s new faculty members

TheRecord october 2, 2008 5

A simple blood test to detect whether a person might develop Alzheimer’s disease

is within sight and could change the way the disease is treated or someday prevent it, Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers said.

Building on a study that started 20 years ago with an elderly population in Northern Manhattan at risk or in various stages of developing the debilitating neurological condition, the Columbia research group has yielded ground-breaking findings. The results indicate that by looking at the blood, doctors may be able to detect a patient’s predisposition to developing the dementia-inducing disease that robs a patient of memory and ability to carry out tasks essential to life. That could eventually help scientists in their quest toward reversing the disease’s onset.

Results suggest that individuals with elevated levels of a certain peptide in the blood plasma, Amyloid Beta 42 (Aß42), are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, and that a subsequent decline of Aß42 in the bloodstream may reflect a compartmentalization, or “traffic jam,” of Aß42 in the brain, which occurs in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.

In the study, researchers found that plasma levels of Aß42 appear to increase before the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and then decline shortly after the onset of dementia. Researchers surmise that Aß42 may become trapped in the brain, which could account for the decrease in levels post-dementia.

The principal investigator on the study, Richard Mayeux, professor of neurology, psychiatry and epidemiology and co-director of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain at CUMC, likens the finding to something similar that is seen in heart attack patients, who typically have elevated lipid levels in their blood- stream prior to a heart attack, but post-heart attack lipid levels may decrease.

While the cognitive impairments of Alzheimer’s can be monitored throughout the disease course, clinicians have had no reliable way to monitor the pathologic progression of the disease. Being able to reliably measure Aß42 levels in the blood could provide clinicians with a tool that forecasts the onset of Alzheimer’s much earlier.

“Earlier detection would of course be an important step in combating the disease,” said Nicole Schupf, associate professor of clinical epidemiology at CUMC and lead author of the paper.

Other authors on the paper from CUMC include Ming X. Tang, Jennifer Manly and Howard Andrews. The Department of Immunology at the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities also contributed to the research.

A sharp spike in autism rates over the last 20 years has experts and non-experts alike wondering

about the cause of the disability. To Columbia sociology Professor Gil

Eyal, however, the increase in autism cases is not as sweeping as the numbers suggest. His research shows that the increase has occurred because, for more than half a century, the condition was misclassified as mental retardation. Indeed, the rise in autism cases has coincided with a drop in the number of diagnosed cases of mental retardation.

“This is not an epidemic,” says Eyal, who studies the history and modern-day ethnography of autism. “The rise in the number of cases is easily explained by the changing of the diagnostic criteria.”

Autism is defined as a spectrum of mental disabilities that affect a person’s ability to communicate, form relationships and respond appropriately to the environment. The condition, which varies in severity, appears early in life, generally before the age of three, and persists into adulthood. While some adults with autism function well, others never develop the skills of daily living.

Between 1994 and 2006, the number of 6- to 17-year-old children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder in public special education programs jumped from 22,664 to 211,610, according to government data.

Eyal’s interest in autism is the result of a career-long interest in the “sociology of expertise,” which involves questions like, “What makes someone an expert on any given issue?” He became fascinated by the growing number of parents of autistic children who have become expert on the subject, many serving as a child’s co-therapist.

He also wanted to demystify some of the controversial explanations for the sudden rise in autism cases. Some argue that autism is linked to certain infant vaccinations, despite some studies that debunk this link (see accompanying article above).

As a non-medical expert, Eyal says he doesn’t have the expertise to explain the condition’s causes. As a social scientist, however, he says autism cannot be fully understood without historical perspec-

tive. According to Eyal, two broad cat-egories of childhood disorders existed in this country during the mid-20th cen-tury: emotional disturbance and mental retardation. Emotional disturbance was often treated in psychiatric hospitals as a curable condition with a cause, while mental retardation was treated as a tragic destiny, or “verdict,” that required insti-tutionalization, says Eyal.

There is a broad middle ground be-tween the two categories, says Eyal, cov-ering the spectrum of developmental disabilities now classified as autism—disabilities that are treatable, if not necessarily curable. Sadly, says Eyal, the majority of sufferers in years past were improperly labeled retarded and admit-ted into what he describes as “horrific” institutions with claustrophobic living spaces and a dearth of social activities and treatments.

Getting autism accepted as a legitimate disability has been a lengthy process. In 1969, amid efforts to eradicate mass institutionalization,

the National Association for Retarded Children pushed to create the medical term “developmental disabilities,” says Eyal, and other groups successfully lobbied Congress to create legislation that permanently shuttered the institutions in the 1970s. In 1975, Congress passed the precursor to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which granted special services and other rights to children with disabilities. Autism was adopted as a category in the legislation in 1990.

Despite these advances, Eyal says autism therapies are still unobtainable for many children who need them, because many medical insurance plans don’t cover them.

Now, some states are pushing insur-ance companies to adopt autism treat-ments. “The available therapies improve lives by improving functioning, and this has led to societal acceptance,” Eyal says. “It’s become imperative for treatment to be extended to all children who need it, regardless of their diagnosis.”

rEsEarch

study Finds no link between measles vaccine and autism

Professor Finds Historical Context for Recent Autism Surge

A new study by researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health helps dispel a persistent belief that the vaccine for measles is linked to autism.

“We found no connection between autism” and the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, said W. Ian Lipkin, senior author of the study and director of the Mailman School’s Center for Infection and Immunity. Lipkin is also the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology and professor of neurology and of pathology.

The results come amid an alarming rise in measles cases, as some parents have forgone the measles vaccine for their children in part because of fears of an autism link. From Jan. 1 through July 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) received 131 reports of confirmed measles virus infections in the United States, the highest number for the same time period since 1996. Of these cases, 91 percent occurred in individuals who had not been vaccinated or had unknown vaccination status.

Measles is a serious, highly contagious disease, which spreads when people touch or breathe in infectious droplets passed by coughing and sneezing. It is the most deadly of all childhood rash/fever illnesses, according to the CDC. Before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, three to four million people contracted measles each year—400 to 500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized and 1,000 developed chronic disability. The MMR vaccine, a combined vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella viruses, is the safest protection against measles, the CDC says.

In 1998, a small study of children with autism raised the question of a link between the neuropsychiatric condition and the MMR vaccine. The researchers suggested that vaccination with MMR caused gastrointestinal (GI) problems in the children, which

then led to autism. (Most of the researchers, however, later retracted the study’s interpretations, stating that the data weren’t sufficient to establish this link.) Additional studies in 2002 found evidence of measles virus in the intestinal tissues from 77 percent of children with autism and GI

inflammation, but in none of the intestinal biopsy tissues from normal control children.Since then, other larger epidemiologic studies have found no associations between

the MMR vaccine and autism, but no subsequent research had tested for the presence of measles virus in intestinal tissues of children with autism and GI problems, nor did

they examine the temporal relationship of MMR, GI problems and autism. The absence of such research may have contributed to persistent concerns over the vaccine, influencing parents’ decisions to vaccinate or not, and contributing to the increased outbreaks of measles.

In Mailman’s case-control study, scientists at the school’s Center for Infection and Immunity and researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, Trinity College Dublin and the CDC evaluated bowel tissues from 25 children with GI disturbances and autism and 13 children with GI disturbances but without neurodevelopmental problems for the presence of measles virus RNA. In the study, the presence of measles virus was no more likely in children with autism and GI disturbances, than in children with only GI disturbances. Evidence of measles virus was found in only one case and one control, at levels just above the threshold for detection.

“We [also] found no relationship between the timing of MMR vaccine and the onset of either GI complaints or autism,” said Mady Hornig, associate professor of epidemiology, director of translational research in Mailman’s Center for In-fection and Immunity and lead author of the study. “Our results are inconsis-tent with a causal role for MMR vaccine as a trigger or exacerbator of either GI difficulties or autism.”

By Randee Sacks-Levine

By John H. TuckerBy Alex Lyda

Sociology Professor Gil Eyal

blood TesT coulddeTecT early signoF alzheimer’s

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Jyoti Ranadive

TheRecord6 october 2, 2008

Students who want a degree from Columbia Univer-sity and from an institution overseas don’t have to choose one over the other. And now, under a series of recent cross-border arrangements with other universi-

ties, there are more ways than ever for students to earn an additional master’s or bachelor’s degree from a variety of overseas partners.

These dual degree programs, which allow students to graduate from the same course of study with degrees from two separate institutions, are part of an effort to interna-tionalize Columbia teaching and research in an increasingly interconnected world. This latest crop expands on existing options already offered by Colum-bia College, the School of Interna-tional and Public Affairs, Columbia Business School and the Department of History.

For example, the Columbia-Paris Alliance Program gives students the ability to earn a dual degree from Columbia and any of three French partner institutions: The École Poly-technique, Sciences Po and the Uni-versité of Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. These dual degree opportunities are offered across several schools and departments, including one for a master of museum studies between the art history departments at Co-lumbia and the Sorbonne, and a master of public affairs between Sci-ences Po, SIPA, LSE and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. The Alliance Program in 2009 will offer a dual doctoral degree in political science and is currently working on a dual degree offering in African Studies. Columbia Law School has dual-degree programs with Sciences Po, the Sorbonne and University of London, among others.

In June, Columbia Business School launched the EMBA-Global Asia, a new executive MBA program that gives students an MBA conferred by three institutions: Columbia, London Business School and the business school at the University of Hong Kong. Columbia Business School hopes to recruit 50 students to its inaugural class of May 2009, most being execu-tives and managers based in Asia. The joint curriculum will be taught in Hong Kong/Shanghai, London and New York.

“Recent events have highlighted just how fast-moving

and interconnected the world’s business environment has become,” says Ethan Hanabury, associate dean of the executive MBA programs at the business school, referring to the U.S. financial crisis. “These programs extend Columbia Business School’s presence to regions of the world that are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy.”

Meanwhile, budding journalists at Columbia’s School of Journalism can craft their reporting skills in New York and Paris starting this fall through a new dual-degree offering with France’s Graduate Journalism Program at Sciences Po. Columbia students at Sciences Po will also be placed in in-ternships with Paris-based news and media organizations. “Sciences Po shares our belief in the value of graduate-level university professional education for journalists and in the importance of giving journalists an international perspec-

tive,” Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia’s journalism school, said when the joint-degree program was announced.

At The Fu Foundation School of Engineer-ing and Applied Science (SEAS), the school has created a new position: director of global initiatives and education. Whoever fills the job will be charged with pursuing educational partnerships with international universities.

SEAS is hoping to finalize an agreement later this year with École Polytechnique in Paris that will award students a bachelor’s de-gree from Columbia and a master’s from Poly-technique. Columbia engineering students will spend their first three years in New York, then travel to Paris for their fourth and fifth years in order to complete the master’s from the French university.

SEAS has for more than a decade provided a dual-degree option for French students through its depart-ment of industrial engineering and operations research. About 30 students a year take advantage of the program. Also in the final stages of approval is a dual-degree offering that will award a professional degree in financial engineering through the school’s department of industrial engineering and operations research to students enrolled jointly at SEAS and the National University of Singapore. The school hopes to make this available by the next academic year.

These programs “are gaining importance because the em-phasis is on developing a more global perspective, and the opportunities for engineering worldwide are increasingly [emerging] abroad,” says Gerald Navratil, interim dean at SEAS and the Thomas Alva Edison Professor of Applied Phys-ics. “Students of ours who get the exposure of a more global perspective have an advantage.”

By Melanie A. Farmer

WHO sHE Is: Executive assistant to senior vice provost Stephen Rittenberg.

YEars aT COlUMBIa: Eight

WHaT sHE dOEs: Ranadive wears multiple hats helping the senior vice provost in handling all aspects of academic administration, including coordinating new academic program proposals and Presidential Teaching Awards.

a GOOd daY ON THE jOB: “A good day is when I know that I have solved a problem for, or answered a question from, administrators and faculty from all divisions and departments of the University. It is also a good day when I am able to answer, ‘I have already taken care of that.’ ”

BEfOrE COlUMBIa: Prior to joining Columbia in 2000, Ranadive was an adjunct professor in sociology at New York University, City University of New York and Raritan Valley Community College in North Branch, N.J. She has spent more than 15 years in university settings and in international organizations in Sweden, India and Ethiopia. “I enjoyed teaching and research,” she said, and her areas of interest included tribal education and the impact of modernization on women. “When my husband, who earned all his degrees from Columbia, proposed returning to New York City [from New Jersey], joining the Columbia community seemed an easy decision.”

MOsT MEMOraBlE MOMENT: The master of arts con-

vocation of 2005 stands out. “Just before the diplomas were handed out, the [Graduate School of Arts and Sciences] Dean Henry Pinkham commended me for running the program single-handedly after the dean for M.A. programs resigned. I ran the M.A. Dean’s Office and the [Liberal Studies Master of Arts Program], and my graduating students broke into a sustained applause, which stopped only when I stood up to acknowledge them. Naturally, that was very gratifying for me and touched me in a personal way.”

BEsT ParT Of THE jOB: “My current position places me at the very nerve center of the University, whereas in my previous position I was involved in administration of only one of the graduate schools.” (Previously, Ranadive was the program coordinator of the Liberal Studies Master of Arts Program.) “It gives an opportunity to see the inner workings of the University, since the Office of the Provost encompasses all the divisions of the University from a different vantage point.”

IN HEr sParE TIME: In India, Ranadive acted on the stage and in a feature film. But these days, she says she is happy to be in the audience. She loves spending Sunday mornings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with her husband. She also enjoys traveling, reading and baseball (she’s a Yankees fan). Baseball is a good substitute for cricket, which is her first love. “I am passionate about all my interests and baseball is no exception.”

—By Adrienne Blount

MacArthur Fellowcontinued from page 1 For Columbia Globetrotters, More

Sites on the Map for Dual Degreescomplishments, but she is most proud of having developed a comprehensive program to serve the needs of a diverse set of patients suffering with HIV/AIDS or other infectious diseases. Under her directorship at ICAP, more than 500,000 people are receiving care in some 600 ICAP-supported sites in 14 countries across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

“Unfortunately a lot of interventions to date have been piecemeal, focusing on the individual rather than the family, or what a doctor can do rather than a health team can do,” said El-Sadr. “Rather than just thinking of medicine and the clinical need, we go beyond that.”

All of her programs consider a variety of societal components to patient care and treatment, she said, including issues of discrimination or stigma, issues related to social support, or even helping people find income-generating activities.

El-Sadr joins a broad range of MacArthur grant recipients this year, including an astronomer, an urban farmer, a geriatrician and a saxophonist, ranging in age from 30 to 76. All were selected for their creativity,

originality and potential to make important contributions in the future. Two other Columbians were named MacArthur fellows in recent years, including Ruth DeFries, professor of sustainable development who won last year, and Patricia J. Williams, professor of law, a 2000 recipient.

MacArthur Fellows are not aware they are even being considered for the grant. Nominations for a MacArthur, often referred to as the “genius grant,” are accepted only from invited nominators, a list that is constantly renewed throughout the year. A 12-member selection committee serves anonymously and typically names between 20 and 25 recipients annually.

Born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, El-Sadr earned her medical degree from Cairo University, a master’s of public health degree in epidemiology from the Mailman School and a master’s in public administration degree from the Kennedy School for Government at Harvard University. She is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases.

When asked how she plans to spend the $500,000 grant, El-Sadr said, “I want to think about how I can use this to stimulate new work with a lot of colleagues around the world; to try to find solutions to so many public health problems.”

“unfortunately a lot of interventions to date have been piecemeal...

we go beyond that.”

TheRecord october 2, 2008 7

facuLtY Q&a

Q.How did the idea for these programs come to you?

A.I was trained by Michael Sherraden at Washington University. He is the father of asset theory, which states

that when people own assets they’re more likely to think and behave differently. If you’re working with these orphaned children and they have no sense of hope, or they’re not even dreaming that things will be better tomorrow, the question is: Why should they concentrate on school? Why should they not get involved in risk-taking behaviors? There must be something you can create realistically in their lives for them to think and behave differently … Using the same theory, I looked at poor families in the U.S. who are benefiting from individual development accounts and I saw how important these accounts were to these families, and how they were changing their lives and how they started to think about the future, like saving for small businesses to get out of poverty. And, I thought, how about we use the same concept in a country where two million kids have lost their parents, and most are moving [onto] the streets because they don’t want to be a financial burden to their families … At the same time, I didn’t want to create handouts, which is what a lot of people do.

Q.How do you choose the children?

A.We work with a few faith-based institutions in Uganda to identify the schools where we should work. Most

of the kids are age 12 to 16 and have lost one or both pa-rents … And we [work] with community organizations to find the orphaned children in the last two years of their primary education.

Q.Why was it important for you to do work in Uganda?

A.I know the environment very well. Most of the kids are orphaned and have lost a parent to HIV/AIDS. Uganda

was hit hard in the ’80s with AIDS. There are high, high numbers of orphaned children in Uganda. This is the right place.

Q.What are your immediate goals for these programs?

A.We’re in discussions with the [Ugandan] government now [to turn this into policy]. We’re showing them

that it has had positive effects on families and communities. We’re seeing that kids are more focused. Kids who are managing their savings accounts are reporting stronger family relationships with their caregivers. With that in mind, we’re talking to the government to try to see if we can take this to the national level. We’ve also met with the minister of education, who likes the idea. We’re moving in the right direction.

Q.What have been the surprises?

A.The parents and caregivers for these kids have started organizing themselves in these communities and

demanding for services which were missing for the most part in these areas. For example, they have now asked their banks to bring deposit machines to their villages so that they don’t have to spend money to go 10 miles from their village to make the deposits. They’re calculating that each time they take a taxi [to the banks] they’re losing money … Now they’re asking for services to be brought closer to their villages which is really very empowering.

Q. How did you come to choose social work as a profession?

A.Because I’ve been helped by people and by communities. I needed a profession that was

a “helping” profession. Social work by definition is a helping profession.

Q. What is it about the field that you enjoy the most?

A.I know you can make a difference, even if it’s a small difference, even if you only help one child. That one

child can help two and those two can go on to help four. I was the only one in my family—the youngest—who has gone this far. And now here I am writing proposals, planning big programs, which have not only implications for the communities where I’m working but also implications for Uganda and Africa. And this is one person … Each time you help a person, you’re not helping just that one person, you’re helping the community, you’re helping the village, you’re helping the nation and eventually helping the world. One person can make a big difference.

POsitiOn: associate Professor of social Work,

school of social Work associate Professor of international affairs, school of international and Public affairs

jOined fACulty: July 2003

HistOry:

senior research fellow, new america Foundation (current)

visiting professor, center for aids Prevention studies at the university of california-san Francisco

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Interview by Melanie A. Farmer

FRed M. SSewaMala

Fred Ssewamala knows firsthand the challenges tied to overcoming poverty and war. He was orphaned at the age of 12 after witnessing the murder of his parents, eldest brother, sister and niece in the height of civil

unrest in Uganda. He survived through the support of relatives, academic scholarships and old-fashioned perseverance. Now Ssewamala is helping Ugandans like himself.

Ssewamala, associate professor of social work and international affairs, has combined his past and present to develop economic empowerment programs that help hundreds of children and families in Uganda. The SUUBI programs (suubi means hope in Lugandan) are based on an asset-building model where children and their families are encouraged to start savings accounts with a local financial institution; their contributions are matched through the grants Ssewamala receives. The money in the matched savings account helps pay for the children to attend high school or start a small business.

Most of the savers have never had a bank account and are wary of big financial institutions. Ssewamala’s program helps families and children get used to the idea, and it makes them active participants—a key component to the program. “The beauty of this model is that it’s a partnership,” Ssewamala says. “You are not simply giving them handouts, but you’re telling

them, ‘When you participate, we participate.’ These families don’t need handouts. They need a helping hand.”

After a savings account is opened for the child, his or her caregiver or family members are encouraged to deposit up to $20 per month in that account. Each month it is matched by a ratio of 2-to-1, so for every $20 deposited, those in the program will receive an additional $40 each month.

Another of Ssewamala’s programs is SUUBI-MAKA (“hope for families”), which focuses on families caring for children orphaned as a result of the AIDS pandemic in Uganda. These families also receive training sessions that cover career planning, financial planning and monthly mentorship meetings. In August, Ssewamala received a $720,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to fund SUUBI-MAKA for the next three years.

SUUBI, which he piloted in 2005, is still operating in Uganda and now serves 400 orphaned children who also receive mentorships and financial management training. “A lot of these kids don’t have role models,” says Ssewamala. “We need to help motivate [them].”

Ssewamala completed his Ph.D. at Washington University’s George Warren Brown School of Social Work in St. Louis, where his primary research focused on asset-ownership and asset-building development. He is currently studying the acceptability of economic empowerment interventions among at-risk youth in Harlem and the South Bronx. He hopes to expand the Uganda programs to several other districts in the country and to additional nations in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia.

It is difficult for Ssewamala to pinpoint how he overcame such an arduous childhood. “It’s a real good question and I don’t really know what made it possible to be where I am,” he admits. But he attributes his success to the support and sacrifices made by his extended family. “It has not been easy to get where I am,” he says. “I have been very lucky to be in this country. Now I’m at Columbia, and I’m able to give back to communities that helped me.”

“Now I’m at Columbia, and I’m able to give back to communities that helped me.”

scrapbooK

What arE You LooKing at?Hint: there are many places to sit around campus, but one location may lead you to a particular form of enlightenment. Where can you sit to “see the light?” Send answers to curecord@columbia.edu. first to e-mail the right answer wins a Record mug.

ANSWER TO LAST CHALLENGE: The sundial on the plaza outside of Schapiro Center; Winner: Raquel Whittaker of the Office of the University Chaplain

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Legal Tacticscontinued from page 1

Double Discoverycontinued from page 3

Thousands of spectators—students and faculty alike—gathered on the steps of Low Library to watch on a JumboTron placed on Low Plaza as presidential candidates barack obama (CC’83) and John mccain spoke at the ServiceNation Presidential Candidates Forum on Thursday, Sept. 11. The event was held at the Roone Arledge Auditorium in Lerner Hall.

Running (or walking) proves to be another fun way to kick off the school year. On Sept. 5, President Lee bollinger and students gathered on College Walk for the President’s Seventh Annual Fun Run. Students, faculty and staff started their day off hitting a 5K course from the Morningside campus through Riverside Park. The event, which drew some 600 runners and walkers, is co-hosted by the Office of the President and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and Physical Education.

crowd of about 120 listened closely as Bobbitt de-scribed the enemy, which he says is global, networked and inclined to privatize its operations—a mirror of the society it is determined to terrorize.

According to Bobbitt, the law has to provide new methods of surveillance, compelling suspects to divulge information and detaining those who pose a danger. He called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)—the Nixon-era law governing wiretapping of Americans, recently amended amid controversy—“totally obsolete and foolish” given advances in communications technology. That position will not endear him to liberals, nor will his support for the idea of preemptive war. “Don’t let anyone tell you that preemptive war is unlawful,” he said. “Preemption is acceptable in the face of an imminent attack.”

Yet Bobbitt is hardly an apologist for the Bush administration. In the war on terror, he said, “the population understands that you have to deceive your enemy. This administration has deceived not just the enemy but the American public.” He cited the administration’s illegal surveillance of Americans and its abandonment of the principles of habeas corpus. “I believe the idea that we should strip people of habeas corpus is ludicrous. The government,” he said, “cannot operate without giving us rights.”

Instead of being ignored, he said, the law can be modified to fit changing circumstances—something it is able to do with help from scholars like Bobbitt. After 9/11, he said, “I felt bereft that we did not have at our disposal the ideas we needed.” His research is an attempt to fill those gaps.

“On 9/11,” he added, “we were tested, and it is too soon to say if we responded successfully. This I can say for certain: We will all be tested again.”

The Pentagon Memorial, designed by two alumni of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, was dedicated at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11 to honor victims of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. Stainless steel “benches”—184 of them, each dedicated to a victim of the attack—stand on 1.9 acres of land within view of the crash site. They were designed by Julie beckman and Keith Kaseman, a husband-and-wife team who graduated from GSAPP in 2001.

the college-bound participants. “If you don’t have anyone guiding you through the college [applica-tion] process, it’s tough,” says Grimmett. “Double Discovery gives the students someone who acts as their mentor.”

Grimmett is already planning to beef up branding and advertising efforts for offerings like the interna-tional summer exchange program funded by Goldman Sachs, as well as the center’s leadership training pro-grams. Grimmett also hopes to boost alumni involve-ment—not only among Double Discovery alumni but also some of the older volunteers who were the first to benefit from Upward Bound and Talent Search.

Gerald Sherwin, chair of Double Discovery Board of Friends, says Grimmett is “in the perfect position to move Double Discovery further. She works well with not only the various constituencies and the board but also with parents, students and volunteers. She brings a lot to the table.”

Double Discovery, founded by students at Colum-bia College, has helped more than 30,000 New York City students since its inception in 1965, consistently sending more than 90 percent of them on to college. It offers academic, career, college, financial aid and personal development services to teenagers who are at risk of not completing high school or entering col-lege. The goal is to increase their rate of high school graduation, college entrance and college completion.

Raised in Centerville, Ill., a small town outside of St. Louis, Grimmett held administrative and teaching posts at Rutgers University, Carleton College, UNLV and Southern Illinois University. In 1998, she was one of 11 recipients of the inaugural TRIO Dissemination Partnership Program grants awarded by the U.S. De-partment of Education.

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama each were interviewed at the televised ServiceNation Presidential Candidates Forum at Columbia on Sept. 11. The candidates, who were interviewed separately, discussed such topics as public service and civic engagement in the post-9/11, post-Katrina world.

october 2, 2008 8