Lawrence Today magazine, Summer 2003
Dan Alger, '72, associate professor of economics, was featured on the CNNfn program, "Market Call," in January, joining the president of the Airline Pilots Association in a discussion titled "Should foreign airlines be allowed to buy U.S. carriers?" That same month, Alger was interviewed by Time magazine's "On Line Edition" for a segment titled "Taxpayers: Come home. All Is forgiven," about city and state programs offering amnesty to delinquent taxpayers.
Dominique-René de Lerma, visiting professor of music, was interviewed by National Public Radio's Tavis Smiley in March, during a program on African American composer William Grant Still, whose "Afro-American Symphony" is credited with bringing the folk element of black America into the realm of classical music. Professor de Lerma, who has been engaged in researching black music since the 1960s, was an acquaintance of Still's.
Barbara Smith Lawton, '87, lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, was a featured participant in Lawrence's first "Civic Engagement Week," part of a national initiative to offer students opportunities to learn about critical public issues and encourage them to speak out on issues important to their future. Under the heading "Women in Politics," Lawton led a four-member panel of elected women officials that also included Brown County Executive Nancy Nusbaum, Appleton Common Council member Helen Nagler, and Outagamie County Board member Judy Schutte.
Patrice Michaels, soprano and associate professor of music, has released a new CD titled "Divas of Mozart's Day." Michaels and musicologist Dorothea Link, formerly of the conservatory faculty, created a concert program that might have been sung by five of the leading singers of Mozart's day, along with selections from such Mozart contemporaries as Antonio Salieri and Vicente Martín y Soler. A performance of "Divas" at Northwestern University in February 2002 was the basis for an alumni event in the Chicago area.
Judith Sarnecki, associate professor of French, received Knox College's Alumni Achievement Award in February. A member of the Lawrence faculty since 1985, Sarnecki graduated from Knox with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and psychology. In addition to teaching all levels of French language at Lawrence, she is a member of the college's gender studies program. She organized and founded Lawrence's Francophone Seminar in Dakar, Senegal, and, by working collaboratively with faculty members and administrators at Knox, made the program available to Knox students as well.
Eric Seidel, '03, mathematics major, future Ph.D. candidate in computer science, and author of computer programs for the Apple Macintosh platform, was interviewed on the technical discussion site MacSlash.org in February, answering questions sent in by readers of the site about some of his recent software projects.
"Libertango! Hommage an Astor Piazzolla," a CD featuring eight works arranged by Fred Sturm, '73, professor of music, for the Hessicher Rundfunk Jazz Ensemble of Frankfurt, Germany, was released in March. Sturm is principal guest conductor of the HR Jazz Ensemble, which he describes as "one of the great professional jazz bands in the world today." He was commissioned in 2001 to arrange and orchestrate the compositions of Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla for the group.
Allen Young, vice president of collections, research, and exhibits and curator of zoology at the Milwaukee Public Museum, has been named one of the 60 most influential individuals and institutions in the development of agricultural prosperity in the Americas by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture. Honored for his work on sustainable cocoa production and in rainforest education and preservation, Young was an assistant professor of biology at Lawrence before joining the museum's staff in 1975.
