Rutgers students excavate 1.5 million-year-old human footprints with anatomically modern features

Ancient footprints found at Rutgers’ Koobi Fora Field School show that some of the earliest humans walked like us and did so on anatomically modern feet 1.5 million years ago. As the cover story for the Feb. 26, 2009 issue of the journal Science, this anatomical interpretation is the conclusion of SAS anthropology Professor John W.K. Harris and an international team of colleagues.

Amid the festive mood of the holiday season, the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences had special reason to celebrate: An unprecedented five of its assistant professors were selected to receive coveted National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awards in 2008.

The five-year grants, known as the Faculty Early Career Development Program awards, give outstanding junior faculty a secure financial footing to establish their research programs and share their knowledge with students from grade school through graduate school.  Eva Halkiadakis, Kristjan Haule, and Charles Keeton are receiving the first installment of their awards in 2008, and Seongshik Oh and Weida Wu were notified recently that their proposals are expected to be approved early this year.

When Joel Lebowitz presides over the next Statistical Mechanics Conference beginning December 13 on Rutgers’ Busch Campus, it will mark the 100th time he has led this tightly knit gathering of scientists, whose specialized work reaches into fields as diverse as chemistry, physics, biology, and economics.

Lebowitz, the George William Hill Professor of Mathematics and Physics on the New Brunswick Campus, began the series of twice-yearly meetings while at Stevens Institute of Technology in 1959, decades before his 1977 arrival at Rutgers. The upcoming milestone caught the attention of the magazine Physics Today, which in October published personal recollections of participants, who attend the sessions as much for the collegiality as for the depth and focus of the scientific content.

Sumit Guha, Professor of History and former Director of the Program in South Asian Studies, received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship to work on his book, Governing Caste: Identity and Power in South Asia, 1600-1900.

Charlotte Bunch is a graduate of Duke University with a B.A. in History and Political Science. A Board of Governor's Distinguished Service Professor in Women's and Gender Studies, Bunch founded the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers in 1989. She remains the executive director and in 1996 was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Professor Bunch was selected by President Bill Clinton in 1999 as a recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights. She has served on numerous boards and is currently a member of the Advisory Committee for the Human Rights Watch, and on the Boards of the Global Fund for Women and the International Council on Human Rights Policy. She has been a consultant to many United Nations bodies and recently served on the Advisory Committee for the Secretary General's /2006 Report to the General Assembly on Violence against Women.

Previous recipients have included: Edward Albee, Govenor David Patterson, Dr. Mathilde Krim, Quentin Crisp, Paul Cadmus, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Margarita Lopez, Arthur Laurents, New York Community Trust, Christine Quinn, Dr. Renee Richards, JP Morgan Chase, Phillip Reed and Julie Wilson.

An excerpt from Joyce's film on Charlotte was screed at the dinner. 

Note: Joyce had passed away the previous year, and the Award CB received was in Joyce's honor.

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University received in 2007 the first ever US Department of Education Title VIa UISFL (Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program) grant awarded specifically for the study of Iran. Through this two-year grant to its Iranian Studies Program, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies has been able to play a significant role in making available a greater understanding and appreciation of the cultural heritage and history of Iranians and the peoples of the greater Iranian world (including other countries in which Iranian languages are spoken, such as Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan).

Charlotte A. Bunch, professor of women’s and gender studies, New Brunswick, and executive director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, which she founded, was honored for the influential role her research and policy recommendations on women’s rights have played in the shaping of international agreements, human rights theory, and political activism around the globe. She is particularly noted for her work in the areas of violence against women, human rights and security, and the global campaign against AIDS, and is honored for her public service at the local, state, and national level.

The Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program is pleased to announce that Dr. Carolyn Brown, Associate Professor, Department of History, has received the 2008-09 Fulbright Distinguished Lecturing Chair Award.  Administered by the Foundation for Educational Exchange between Canada and the United States of America, the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program seeks to enhance mutual understanding between the two countries. With the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and the United States Department of State, almost one thousand of our countries' brightest minds and future leaders have participated in the program's high-level academic exchange.

Jodie Barker, a graduate student in French, won for her paper entitled, "Dance and the Dynamics of Tension and Release in Senghor’s /Élégie pour la Reine de Saba."

Her paper was nominated by Richard Serrano.

For more information on the annual paper prizes, please go to: http://ruafrica.rutgers.edu/students/prize/index.html

The Claude Ake Prize is awarded each year to the best paper on an Africa-related topic by a Rutgers undergraduate student.

Mr. Poucher's paper, "Social Security in Senegal's Informal Sector: The Complexities and Contradictions of Senegal's Attempts to Extend Its Social Benefits System," draws on historical and ethnographic data to analyze the failure of a 1996 government attempt to expand Senegal's social security system to the informal sector. Poucher demonstrates that workers' unwillingness to register voluntarily for these new social benefits stemmed largely from fears that involvement in the program would entail additional tax liabilities. Judges in this year's competition were impressed with the paper's clarity and its critical stance. They also praised the breadth of Poucher's scholarship, noting his use of French language sources and fieldwork in Senegal in preparation for his project.

Claude Ake, a Nigerian political scientist, was a long-time political critic and human rights advocate before his death in 1996.

Mr. Poucher's paper was nominated by Barbara Cooper of the History Department.

For more information on the annual paper prizes, please go to: http://ruafrica.rutgers.edu/students/prize/index.html