Physicist Jonathan Friedman Receives Award for Physics Research

September 27, 2002
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass- Jonathan Friedman, an assistant professor of physics at Amherst College, has been awarded the Agilent Technologies' Europhysics Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Condensed Matter Physics. Concurrently, Friedman also has won a National Science Foundation grant to study molecular magnets. Friedman accepted the award at a symposium in Hungary at the end of summer and presented a talk on his work.

This award recognizes the important contributions that Friedman and his co-recipients have made to our understanding of the quantum behavior of molecular nanomagnets. These studies are important both for fundamental questions about quantum mechanics and for possible applications in the emerging field of nanotechnology. In particular, Friedman was recognized for his 1995 discovery with coworkers that these tiny magnets could reverse their direction by a distinctly quantum process known as tunneling.

The Europhysics Prize, which includes a substantial monetary award, is considered to be one of the most prestigious physics prizes presented in Europe. Eight previous winners have subsequently won Nobel Prizes for their outstanding work in physics. Since 1975, the award has been given to leading scientists in nearly every internationally important area of condensed matter physics.

The award is given in recognition of a recent work by one or more individuals in the area of physics of condensed matter, particularly work leading to advances in the fields of electronic, electrical and materials engineering, which, in the opinion of the Society's Selection Committee, represent scientific excellence. Given annually, the prize is funded by donations from the Agilent Technologies philanthropy programs to the European Physical Society. Agilent has a Website at http://www.agilent.com/philanthropy/europhysics.html.

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Endellion String Quartet Presents Music at Amherst Oct. 18

September 24, 2002
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.-In the next concert in the Music at Amherst series, the Endellion String Quartet will perform an evening of quartets of Beethoven (op. 131) and Mozart (K. 499), as well as "Arcadiana," written for the Endellion by Thomas Ados, The concert is on Friday, Oct. 18, at 8 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall at Amherst College.

The Endellion String Quartet-Andrew Watkinson and Ralph de Souza, violins; Garfield Jackson, viola; and David Waterman, cello-was founded in 1979 and won the Royal Philharmonic Society award for best chamber ensemble in 1997. The quartet-in-residence at Cambridge University since 1992, the Endellion has undertaken two short-term residencies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which were so successful that the quartet was awarded an honorary degree. In 1997 the quartet was honored with the Royal Philharmonic Society's award for best chamber ensemble and the following year performed Ados' Arcadiana on a recording that won a Gramophone Award.

The Endellion has been heard by audiences throughout Europe and around the world, through performances at major musical centers and recordings for EMI and Virgin Classics. The Daily Telegraph (London) wrote, "The Endellion String Quartet has forged a distinct performing style based not just on an impressive technical mastery of a wide-ranging repertory but also on an incontrovertible sense of style and perhaps above all on the fact that the players so obviously relish playing.... They set the audience ablaze.

Admission to the concert is $21, senior citizens $18, and students $5. Tickets may be reserved by calling 413/542-2195 on weekday mornings. The Amherst College Concert Office has a Website at http://www.amherst.edu/~concerts/.

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Jazz Trumpeter Ingrid Jensen to Perform at Amherst College Oct. 4

September 24, 2002
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.-The Amherst College Department of Music will present jazz trumpeter Ingrid Jensen in a jazz quintet concert on Friday, Oct. 4, at 8:30 p.m. at Marsh House at Amherst College. She will be joined by bassist Frasier Hollis, drummer John Wikan, saxophonist Bruce Diehl (the College's jazz director) and pianist Dana Gooley, professor of music at Amherst. The concert is free and open to the public.

Jensen is an ENJA recording artist with four CDs to her name. She won Canada's Juno Award for "Best Mainstream Album" in 1995. The same year, she received the "Best Newcomer Award" at the Cork Festival in Ireland; weeks later, she won the second annual Carmine Caruso International Jazz Solo Trumpet Competition. She has performed and taught around the world, including in Japan and Chile and throughout Europe.

For more information, contact Bruce Diehl at 413/542-8308 or Dana Gooley at 413/542-8469, or see the Amherst College Jazz website, http://www.amherst.edu/~jazz.

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Michael Sells, Author of Approaching the Qur'an, to Speak at Amherst College Oct. 2

September 23, 2002
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.-Michael Sells, the author of Approaching the Qur'an, the book that has been at the center of a controversy at the University of North Carolina, will speak on Wednesday, Oct. 2, in the Cole Assembly Room in Converse Hall at Amherst College, at 4:30 p.m. This talk is sponsored by the Religion Department and the Willis D. Wood Fund.

Sells, the Emily Judson Baugh and John Marshall Gest Professor of Comparative Religion at Haverford College, has taught about Islam for 17 years. Muslim and non-Muslim scholars alike praised Approaching the Qur'an (1999) for presenting the Qur'an in a way that avoids the confusion and the stiffness of standard translations, allowing the non-Muslim a clearer and more direct access to the Qur'an and those qualities that make it so important to Muslims. The University of North Carolina required first-year students to read the book this fall, which angered some critics.

Sells, author of seven books and more than 60 articles, co-edited and contributed to the forthcoming book The New Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy, about the rise of anti-Islamic sentiment in the West and its relationship to anti-Western anger in the Islamic world. The book pays particular attention to the "clash of civilizations" theory, which posits an unbridgeable conflict of values between Islam and the West. Sells contributed to the acclaimed 2001 PBS series Islam: Empire of Faith, the first in-depth presentation of classical Islamic civilization to reach a worldwide television audience.

An activist who also studies fundamentalist and militant versions of Islam, Sells co-founded the Community of Bosnia, a non-profit organization dedicated to resisting religious persecution, racism and genocide, and to working for a tolerant, multireligious society in Bosnia and throughout the world.

Sells maintains a Website that includes a statement about the UNC controversy at http://www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/UNCsuit.htm

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"At Home and Glad": Tea at the Dickinson Houses Sept. 29

September 13, 2002
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.- This summer, guests for tea at the Dickinson Homestead and The Evergreens in Amherst, Mass., discovered what it meant when poet Emily Dickinson and her family announced they were "at home" and receiving callers. The last chance to attend a 19th-century tea this season will be on Sunday, Sept. 29, from 1 until 3:30 p.m. The fee for the program, including combination tours and tea, is $18 per person. Space is limited; advance registration is required by Wednesday, Sept. 25. Please call 413/542-8161 for information and reservations.

The Dickinson Homestead is the birthplace and residence of the poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). The Evergreens, next door to the Homestead, is the 1856 home of the poet's brother and sister-in-law, Austin and Susan Dickinson.

The program takes its name from the contents of a note that poet Emily Dickinson sent to publisher Thomas Wentworth Higginson before their first meeting in 1870. In response to Higginson's request for permission to pay a call on the already reclusive poet, Emily Dickinson wrote "I will be at Home and glad."

Tours explore domestic life, social customs and the contrasting forms of hospitality at the socially vibrant Evergreens, where Austin and Susan Dickinson cultivated an active intellectual circle, and the quieter Homestead, where Emily Dickinson wrote her extraordinary verse and lived a more retiring life. Immediately following the tours, guests will take tea with Homestead and Evergreens guides on the grounds of The Evergreens. Those who have already participated in the summer program of tours and tea have found the tours to be very informative "and the tea delicious!"

For more information about the Dickinson Homestead and The Evergreens, visit the Website at http://www.dickinsonhomestead.org. To reach the Dickinson Homestead directly, call 413/542-8161, e-mail info@dickinsonhomestead.org, or write 280 Main Street, Amherst, MA 01002. For information about The Evergreens and its schedule of tours, call 413/256-3925, e-mail evergreens1856@yahoo.com, or write P.O. Box 603, Amherst, MA 01004-0603.

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The Mead Art Museum Presents “An American in Europe: The Photography Collection of Baroness Jeane von Oppenheim from the Norton

September 13, 2002
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.- The Mead Art Museum of Amherst College hosts the traveling exhibition organized by the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Fl. Some 150 German and Central European photographs were selected from the extensive collection of 680 prints given by Baroness Jeane von Oppenheim in 1998. This exhibition traces influential photographic movements from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. Featured are works by several prominent pre-war European photographers published in Alfred Stieglitz's groundbreaking magazine, Camerawork; the modernist photographers working in Germany and other parts of Europe between the wars; an important circle of innovative post-war photographers; as well as the avant-garde generation of German photographers that has emerged in recent years. These works depict various subjects including portraits, nature studies, landscapes, cityscapes, architectural constructions, still lifes and abstraction. The exhibition will be on view from Sept. 20 through Dec. 18. The opening events will include a lecture on "The Bauhaus and the Bauhaus Photographers, 1920, 1940, by guest curator Dr. James D. Burke, Director Emeritus of the Saint Louis Art Museum, on Friday, Sept 20 at 4:30 p.m. in Stirn Auditorium with a reception to follow in the Museum.

Bauhaus artists coming to prominence just after the First World War explored innovative and often iconoclastic processes such as photogram exposures, collage effects, photomontage techniques and abstracted imagery. These revolutionary directions appear in photographs made by Lucia Moholy, Kattina Both and Lotte Jacobi.

Fascinated with plant life, Ernst Fuhrmann did not photograph himself, but his close friends Albert Renger-Patzsch and Lotte Jacobi operated the camera while Fuhrmann closely supervised. Some of these collaborations have the look of scientific documentation while others take on more fanciful appearances. August Sander's portrait types that document a range of German citizenry are much better known than the landscape studies of Cologne environs that he began producing when socially charged imagery was curtailed by the Nazi regime. The interwar period is also exemplified by photographs made by Andre Kertsz, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Florence Henri, Anton Stankowski, Alexander Rodchenko and Lotte Sandau.

Following the Second World War, the Neue Sachlichkeit or New Vision artists emphasized contemporary subject matter and the technical capabilities of the camera. In the 60s and 70s, Bernd and Hilla Becher advanced this objective tradition by repetitively recording factory buildings and mechanical structures, symbols of an industrial landscape marginalized in a world of rapidly advancing technology and emerging corporate economies. Their contemporary, Sigmar Polke, has utilized photography as a primary source of imagery for large-scale, media-influenced paintings. Among the contemporary photographers, featured artists include Candida Hefer, Jerg Sasse, Ute Lindner and Jergen Klauke.

Baroness Jeane von Oppenheim, depicted in the exhibition by Robert Mapplethorpe, is an American collector who lives in Cologne, Germany and Palm Beach, Fl. Born in New York City and trained in art history at Connecticut College, she married Baron Alfred von Oppenheim in 1962. By 1968 she began to collect photography and developed a discriminating expertise in European photography of the 20th century. Von Oppenheim started the photography department of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, and has given part of her collection to the adjoining Museum Ludwig. A prominent figure in the vibrant art world of Germany, she serves as a trustee for the Museum Ludwig, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum and the Kunstverein.

The current exhibition opened at the Museum for Angewandte Kunst Koln and has been on view at the Norton Museum of Art (West Palm Beach, Fl.), The Columbus Museum of Art (Columbus, Ohio) and The Frye Art Museum (Seattle, Wash).

The Mead Art Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and until 9 p.m. on Thursdays. Admission and parking are free. For information call 413/542-2335 or consult the Website at http://www.amherst.edu/mead. The presentation of this exhibition at the Mead Art Museum is generously supported by the David W. Mesker (Class of 1953) Fund and the Templeton Photography Fund. Related cultural events include a German Film Series, sponsored in conjunction with the Amherst College Department of German.

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Fall 2002 Reading Series at the Amherst College Creative Writing Center

September 12, 2002
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass. - The Amherst College Creative Writing Center will begin its Fall Reading Series with an appearance by poet and novelist April Bernard on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 8 p.m. in Porter Lounge at Converse Hall.

Novelist and short story writer Pauline Melville will read on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 8 p.m. in Porter Lounge.

Novelist Robert Stone will read on Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 8 p.m. in the Babbott Room in the Octagon.

Poet Phillis Levin will read on Thursday, Nov. 7, at 8 p.m. the Babbott Room.

In an event co-sponsored with the Amherst Center for Russian Culture, poet Matthew Zapruder will read on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 8 p.m. in the Amherst Center for Russian Culture (Webster 202.)

Poet Brigit Pegeen Kelly will read on Monday, Dec. 2, at 8 p.m. in the Babbott Room.

All events are free and open to the public, and refreshments will follow the readings. For more information, please visit http://www.amherst.edu/~cwc or call 413/542-8200.

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Amherst College Day of Service September 14

September 11, 2002
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, MA. - Three hundred Amherst College students will participate in the first annual campus-wide Day of Service on September 14, in commemoration of the many sacrifices made after last September 11. Pre-registration will take place on September 12 in Valentine Dining Hall. Participants may also register on the actual day of the event.

Student-led organizations along with faculty, staff, families and friends from the Amherst community also are invited to take part. Tom Gerety, the president of Amherst College, praised the effort, saying "For me as an undergraduate, community service came just after my courses among my major activities. Whatever good I did in serving my community, it gave back infinitely more to me in learning and insight about myself and others." Amherst College alumni across the country also will join with alumni of rival Williams College in service that day.

At Amherst College the day will begin at 11a.m. in Valentine Dining Hall with a talk by college president Tom Gerety at an opening ceremony. Lunch will follow. Registered volunteers will then proceed to local service sites such as the Salvation Army in Amherst. Volunteers are invited to return to campus for a closing dinner. The organizers of this Day of Service hope to inspire a more service-oriented student body as well as provide services to our local off-campus community.

The Amherst College Day of Service was initiated and organized by the students of the Outreach Council, a student committee of representatives from at least 60 different organizations that are involved in social justice work on campus. Student groups within the Amherst College Community Outreach Program that will be involved in this event include: MassPIRG, SEAS (Students Engaged in Active Service),and Big Sibs. Student affinity groups such as Asian Student Association, Queer/Straight Alliance, Korean American Student Association (KASA), La Causa, Chicana/o Caucus, Black Student Union (BSU), Amherst Christian Fellowship (ACF), Amherst College Diversity Coalition (AC/DC) AAS Amherst Association of Students (AAS), Student Health Educators, Nuestras Raices, Financial Aid and Class Equity (FACE) Amherst Students Acting Politically, and the Amherst Koinoinia Church will also be sponsoring the event. The Day of Service will provide an opportunity for these groups to work collaboratively in reaching out to the local community.

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Poet April Bernard To Read at Amherst College Oct. 2

September 6, 2002
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.- The Amherst College Creative Writing Center will begin its Fall Reading Series with an appearance by poet and novelist April Bernard on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 8 p.m. in Porter Lounge at Converse Hall.

Bernard, whom W.S. Merwin has called "[a] poet of obvious gifts and power and ambition, unsparing and brilliant," is the author of a novel, Pirate Jenny (1990), and three collections of poetry: Blackbird Bye Bye (1989), which won the Walt Whitman Prize of the American Academy of Poets, Psalms (1993), and, most recently, Swan Electric (2002). She teaches literature at Bennington College and in the Bennington Writing Seminars MFA program.

The Amherst College Creative Writing Center puts on a yearly reading series featuring both emerging and established authors. The Center's Website is at http://www.amherst.edu/~cwc.

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Guitarist Paul Galbraith Presents Music at Amherst Sept. 21

September 5, 2002
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.-Guitarist Paul Galbraith opens the 2002-03 Music at Amherst Series on Saturday, Sept. 21, at 8 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall, performing works of Bach, Berkeley, Granados, Ibert and Debussy. Paul Galbraith plays an unusual eight-string guitar that he designed in collaboration with the luthier David Rubio. The technical potentials of this guitar are multiplied by two extra strings, one high and one low, and a unique design that features varied string lengths on a slanting bridge. As Galbraith plays, the instrument is supported by a metal endpin, similar to that of a cello, which rests on a wooden resonance box.

Born in Scotland, Galbraith first won public acclaim in Great Britain at 17, winning the Silver Medal at the Segovia International Guitar Competition. Segovia himself then called his playing "magnificent." Galbraith's international career has included engagements with some of the finest orchestras in Britain and Europe. His international touring has also brought him to the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, Greece, Norway, Hungary, Brazil, Chile, China, India and Iceland.

The Scotsman (Edinburgh) praised the "mind-boggling brilliance and intensity" of a Galbraith performance. "His technique is breath-taking, yet at no time here was it in any way more important than the music." The Los Angeles Times wrote, "his technique is such that he can assume the notes will be in place, freeing him to pursue simultaneously inward fantasy and external logic." Admission to the concert is $21, senior citizens $18, and students $5. Tickets may be reserved by calling 413/542-2195 on weekday mornings. The Amherst College Concert Office has a Website at http://www.amherst.edu/~concerts/.

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Drew Gilpin Faust To Speak on Death and the Civil War at Amherst Sept. 17

September 4, 2002
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.-Historian Drew Gilpin Faust of Harvard University will deliver an address, "Missing in Action: Naming the Dead in the American Civil War," on Tuesday, Sept. 17, at 4:30 p.m. in the Pruyne Lecture Hall (Fayerweather 115) at Amherst College. Faust is an acclaimed American historian of the South, the Civil War era and women's experience. Her talk, the first annual Hawkins Lecture, is free and open to the public.

Faust taught for many years at the University of Pennsylvania, and is now Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and a professor of history at Harvard University. She is the author or editor of many books, including Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the Civil War; Southern Stories: Slaveholders in Peace and War; The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South; James Henry Hammond and the Old South; and A Sacred Circle: The Dilemma of the Intellectual in the Old South. She is currently writing a book on the problems of death and mourning in the Civil War. Faust has been president of the Southern History Association and is a national leader in women's studies and the humanities.

The history department at Amherst College established the annual Hawkins Lecture in honor of Hugh Hawkins, professor emeritus of history and American studies. A distinguished scholar of American higher education, the American South and of cultural and intellectual history, Hawkins retired in 2000 after teaching for more than 40 years at Amherst, where he helped build both the history and American studies departments.

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