Press Releases

APPLETON, WIS. — Even our own solar system isn’t immune to downsizing, as unlucky Pluto discovered earlier this year when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) downgraded its status from planet to “dwarf planet.”

Lawrence University astrophysicist Megan Pickett sorts through the controversy surrounding Pluto’s status, why its new designation makes sense and ultimately why it doesn’t really matter in the Lawrence University Science Hall Colloquium “Confessions of a Pluto Hater.” The address, Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 4:45 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102, is free and open to the public.

On August 24, amid much fanfare and after decades of contenious debate, the IAU — the governing body of astronomers and astrophysicists responsible for classifying and naming celestial objects — officially removed Pluto from the list of nine planets in our solar system. The announcement was met with mixed reaction among astronomers and astrophysicists. Some hailed the reclassification as a “triumph of rationality over sentimentality,” while others argued that the new designation made little sense, was too vague or was just plain mean.

A self-proclaimed “Pluto hater” who has long argued against planetary status for the tiny sphere of rock and ice, Pickett joined the Lawrence physics department in the fall of 2006 after six years on the faculty at Purdue University Calumet. A specialist in the origins of solar systems and star formation, she has served on several NASA review panels as well as on the 2006 National Science Foundation Review Panel on exoplanets.

Pickett earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Cornell University, a master’s degree in astronomy from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Indiana University.

APPLETON, WIS. — Against a backdrop of continuing turmoil in Iran and Afghanistan, an emboldened Syria and Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, historian John Lewis attempts to answer the question “what went wrong” since the September 11, 2001 attacks on America in an address at Lawrence University.

Lewis, assistant professor of history at Ashland University, presents “9/11 Five Years Later: Why we are Losing the War” Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. In the auditorium of Lawrence’s Wriston Art Center. The event is free and open to the public.

While President Bush maintains America is vigorously pursuing its enemies, Lewis will argue in his address that the failure to identify the ideology of those enemies–Islamic totalitarianism–has made it impossible to confront them. Drawing upon the lessons of America’s victory over Japan in World War II, Lewis believes for the the United States to secure victory, it must reject assumptions about the nature of a “just war” and demand the removal, “by force, Islamic Totalitarianism — State Islam– from the face of the earth.”

A faculty member of the Ashland University department of history and political science since 2001, Lewis earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Rhode Island, a Ph.D. in classics from the University of Cambridge and an Anthem Fellowship for Objectivist Scholarship. He has taught at the University of London, and was a visiting scholar at Rice University and at Bowling Green State University.

He is the author of the 2006 book “Solon the Thinker: Political Thought in Archaic Athens,” and is completing the book, “Nothing Less Than Victory: Military Offense and the Lessons of History.”

Lewis’ appearance is sponsored by Lawrence University Students of Objectivism, an organization dedicated to the study and spread of the ideas of author and philosopher Ayn Rand.

APPLETON, WIS. — Sophomores Lindsey Crabb and Garth Neustadter were named co-winners of the 13th annual Lawrence Symphony Orchestra concerto competition held November 5 at Lawrence University. They will each perform as soloists in upcoming concerts with the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra.

Crabb, a cellist from Columbia, Mo., will play Dvorak’s Cello Concerto during the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra’s January 27, 2007 concert. She is a student of Janet Anthony in the Cello Studio.

Neustadter, Manitowoc, plays violin and studies with Stéphane Tran Ngoc. He will play Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 during the April 14, 2007 Lawrence Symphony Orchestra concert.

Crabb and Neustadter were chosen as this year’s winners from a field of 10 finalists. Serving as judges for the competition were Dean of the Conservatory Robert Thayer, and conservatory professors Kenneth Bozeman, James DeCorsey, Michael Kim, and Matthew Michelic. Each finalist is required to memorize a full concerto and then play up to 15 minutes worth from memory any part or parts of the concerto chosen by the judges.

The Lawrence Symphony Orchestra concerto competition started in 1994 to give students the opportunity to perform a full-length work with the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra.

APPLETON, WIS. — Charles Dickens’ last, and unfinished novel, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” will be brought to life by the Lawrence University Theatre Arts Department at 8:00 p.m. November 16, 17, and 19, and at 3:00 p.m. November 18 in Stansbury Theatre, in the Music-Drama Center. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for senior citizens and students and are available at the Lawrence University Box Office or by phone at 920-832-6749.

This interactive musical, written by Rupert Holmes, kicks off when the Music Hall Royale, a hilariously loony Victorian musical troupe, puts on its flamboyant rendition of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” The story itself deals with John Jasper, the “Jekyll-and-Hyde” choirmaster who is madly in love with his music student, Miss Rosa Bud who is, in turn, engaged to Jasper’s nephew, Edwin Drood. When Drood mysteriously disappears one stormy Christmas Eve, suspicions arise and questions linger as to whether Drood has been murdered or simply has run off. It is up to the audience to decide how the play ends as Dickens never had the chance to finish his novel before he died.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood has won five Tony Awards, eight Drama Desk Awards along with other numerous awards and honors. After its inception as part of the New York Shakespeare Festival, headed by Joseph Papp of the Public Theatre, The Mystery of Edwin Drood moved to Broadway and played for a total of 608 performances at the Imperial Theatre, where the title was changed to Drood halfway through the run. After its run on Broadway, Drood was staged in London’s West End.

Director and choreographer for the production is Annette Thornton, Lawrence University Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Theatre Arts, music direction is by Jacob Allen ’03, and set design is by Richmond Frielund. Playing the part of John Jasper is Brad Grimmer. Edwin Drood is played by Tamara Forward and Rosa Bud is played by Megan Flod. Chairman of the Music Hall Royale is played by Matthew Murphy.

APPLETON, WIS. — Sophomore Lacy Benter, one of eight Lawrence University students awarded first-place honors, won her second straight state singing title at the 2006 Wisconsin chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition held Nov. 3-4 at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Benter of Southport, Fla., earned first-place honors in the women’s lower college women’s musical theatre division after winning the freshman women division in 2005. Just as they have in recent years, Lawrence students again dominated the annual state competition, winning eight of 11 divisions, including four divisions in which they earned first- and second-place honors. A total of 18 Lawrence students advanced to the competition’s finals.

Other Lawrence first-place finishers included Derrell Acon of St. Louis, Mo., in the freshman men division; Molly Wilson of Richmond, Va., in the freshman women division; Garth Neustadter of Manitowoc, in the sophomore men division; Sarah Botsford of Waukesha, in the senior women division; Cami Bowers of Storm Lake, Iowa, in the continuing senior women division; Megan Flod of Stillwater, Minn., in the upper college women’s musical theatre division; and Mike Axtell of Galesburg, Ill., in the upper college men’s musical theatre division. Flod’s first-place finish was her second NATS title, having previously won the lower college women’s musical theatre division title in 2004.

Bender and Bowers are students in the voice studio of Joanne Bozeman. Acon and Flod study in the studio of Patrice Michaels. Neustadter and Botsford are students of Ken Bozeman. Wilson is a student in the studio of John Gates and Axtell studies under Karen Leigh-Post.

All first-place finishers received $150 for their winning efforts, while second- and third-place finishers received $125 and $100, respectively.

A total of 60 Lawrence students and two students from the Lawrence Academy of Music participated in this year’s NATS competition, which attracted more than 400 singers from colleges and high schools throughout Wisconsin.

In addition to the eight winners, six Lawrence students and both Academy of Music students earned second-place honors: Cassie Glaeser (high school girls), Natalie Beck (freshman women), Andrew Penning, (sophomore men) Katie Hawkinson (women’s lower college music theatre), Keely Borland (junior women), Andrew Lovato (junior men), Becca Young (contiuing senior women), and James Dedering (adult avocational).

Depending upon the category, NATS competitors are required to sing two, three or four classical pieces from different time periods with at least one selection sung in a foreign language. James McDonald, professor of voice at the New England Conservatory of Music and Shari Rhoads, opera coach at the University of Iowa, served as guest judges for the competition.

APPLETON, WIS. — A review of the complex consequences on both humans and wildlife caused by the use of diethylstilbestrol (DES) and other endocrine disruptors — chemicals that mimic hormones — will be the focus of the final installment of Lawrence University’s environmental studies lecture series “The Fox River Through Time.”

Nancy Langston, associate professor of forest ecology and management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, presents “TOXIC BODIES: An Environmental History of Endocrine Disruptors” Thursday, Nov. 9 at 4:45 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102. The event is free and open to the public.

Langston will examine the conflicts over the FDA’s approval of DES, the first synthetic estrogen and the first chemical identified as an endocrine disruptor, despite research indicating it caused cancer in laboratory animals. DES was prescribed to nearly five million American women in the early 1940s as a treatment for menopause and to reduce miscarriage risks.

DES also was used on livestock as an agent to promote rapid weight gain. According to Langston, a wide range of wildlife was subsequently exposed to the hormone’s effects through the runoff of wastes from feedlots and other sources of contamination.

Like all endocrine disruptors, Langston argues that DES connects environmental histories of the body with environmental histories of wildlife and wild places. She believes “the human body has become the site where environmental degradation occurs in its most uncertain and troubling forms,” resulting in increased rates of reproductive cancers, infertility and intersexuality.

A forest and environmental historian, Langston is the author of two books, 2003’s “Where Land and Water Meet: A Western Landscape Transformed” and 1995’s “Forest Dreams, Forest Nightmares.” Her current research focuses on a history of adaptive management of forested watersheds in northern Wisconsin and an examination of the links between ecosystem health and human health.

A member of the UW-Madison faculty since 1997, she earned a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College, a master’s degree from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in environmental studies from the University of Washington.

The “Fox River Through Time” environmental lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.

APPLETON, WIS. — Henry Mayr-Harting, Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History emeritus at Oxford University, discusses the renowned Oxford tutorial as part of Lawrence University’s year-long examination of individualized learning and tutorial education.

Mayr-Harting presents “The Oxford Tutorial” Thursday, November 9 at 11:10 a.m. in Lawrence’s Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

The tutorial system is at the heart of an Oxford education and is characterized by intellectual rigor designed to develop the habits of independent thought and rational argument. All Oxford undergraduates attend tutorials at least once a week. The tutorial system stresses personal relationship between teacher and student that will allow student to produce their best.

A Fellow of the British Academy, Mayr-Harting previously served as Reader in Medieval History and Fellow of St. Peter’s College before being named Regius Professor in 1997. The professorship is a Crown appointment and one of Oxford’s most distinguished positions. In taking up the appointment, Mayr-Harting became both the first non-Anglican and non-ordained Canon of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Lawrence in 1998.

Born in Prague, he studied at Merton College, Oxford, earning the doctor of philosophy degree and began his teaching career at the University of Liverpool in 1960. He has served as Fellow and Tutor of St. Peter’s College, the Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford, a Visiting Fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge and the Brown Foundation Fellow at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. He also serves as a Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Mayr-Harting is the author of “The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England,” regarded as the most definitive and widely cited work on the subject; a two-volume book on Ottonian book illumination; and a historical account of the clergy members from 1075-1207 at the cathedral in the medieval town of Chichester. A contributor to the “Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity,” he co-edited, with Richard Harries, the book “Christianity: Two Thousand Years.”

APPLETON, WIS. — Author and researcher Robert Sapolsky, who has been called “the world’s funniest neuroscientist” for the humor and humanity he brings to the complexities of human and animal life, shares his insights on stress and its impact on human health in a Lawrence University convocation.

Sapolsky presents “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: Stress, Disease, and Coping — Stress and Where Stress-Related Diseases Come From” Tuesday, Nov. 7 at 11:10 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. He also will conduct a question-and-answer session at 2 p.m. in Riverview Lounge of the Lawrence Memorial Union. Both events are free and open to the public.

Known for his wry and witty style, Sapolsky, 49, is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University. As a researcher, he has been credited with the use of innovative techniques in the field of neuroendocrinology and his Stanford laboratory was among the first to document that sustained stress can damage the hippocampus, the region of the brain associated with learning and memory.

A 1987 recipient of a $500,000 MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, Sapolsky’s career as a scientist has been divided between the laboratory, where he focuses on stress and neurological disease, and the field, studying primate physiology and social behavior. For more than 20 years, he has made annual trips to East Africa to live with a population of wild baboons and study the relationship between personality and patterns of stress-related disease in the animals. He chronicled his experiences as a field biologist living in the Serengeti in the 2002 book “A Primate’s Memoir,” which was a Natural World Book Prize finalist.

His book “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: A Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases and Coping,” which was first published in 1994 and then revised, updated and rereleased in 1998, was twice named a Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist. Sapolsky also is the author of “The Trouble With Testosterone and Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament,” “Monkeyluv and Other Essays on our Lives as Animals” and “Stress, the Aging Brain and the Mechanisms of Neuron Death.”

A frequent contributor to Discover and Science magazines, Sapolsky has been recognized by the National Science Foundation with its Presidential Young Investigator Award and its Dean’s Award for teaching.

He joined the faculty at Sanford in 1987 and also serves as a research associate with the Institute of Primate Research at the National Museum of Kenya. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from New York City’s The Rockefeller University.

APPLETON, WIS. — Kevin Fermanich, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, presents “The Lower Fox River Watershed Monitoring Project” in the third installment of Lawrence University’s four-part environmental studies lecture series “The Fox River Through Time.” The address, on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 4:45 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102, is free and open to the public.

Initiated in the summer of 2003, the project is a monitoring and assessment program of the Lower Fox River that involves high school students and teachers, university students and researchers and scientists from several federal and local agencies. The goal of the program is to establish a long-term monitoring program that engages students and other watershed stakeholders in the collection of high quality data that can be used to educate the community about watersheds, make resource management decisions and predict impacts on the ecosystem. The monitoring program is scheduled to conclude next summer.

Fermanich will detail the work conducted by area students involved in the project, outline recent findings regarding sediment and phosphorus runoff and export from five lower Fox watersheds and examine the sources of phosphorus in the Apple Creek watershed near Appleton as well as the urbanization impacts on Baird Creek near Green Bay.

A member of the UW-Green Bay faculty since 1998, Fermanich’s research interests include soil processes and management practices that influence the fate of chemicals, impact water quality and influence soil quality as well as landscape and site factors that impact surface and groundwater quality and flow.

Fermanich, who has served as the director of the lower Fox watershed monitoring project since its inception, earned a bachelor’s degree in soil science and resource management from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and his Ph.D. in soil science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The “Fox River Through Time” environmental lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.

APPLETON, WIS. — Highlighting the 26th edition of Jazz Celebration Weekend at Lawrence University this November are two world-renowned jazz artists. Friday night, November 10, jazz vocalist and NEA Jazz Master Jon Hendricks and Company featuring Aria Hendricks and LHR Redux take the stage. Saturday, November 11, features trombonist Wycliffe Gordon. Both concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Tickets are priced between $22 and $15 and can be purchased through the Lawrence University Box Office, located in the Music-Drama Center, or by phone at 920-832-6749. Tickets, if available, will also be sold beginning one hour before each show at the box office.

A recipient of the nation’s highest honor in jazz, the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award, the legendary Hendricks brings his music to Lawrence through the NEA Jazz Masters on Tour program. Hendricks, one of the world’s favorite jazz vocalists, is widely considered to be the “Father of Vocalese,” or the art of setting lyrics to recorded jazz instrumental standards and then arranging voices to sing the parts of the instruments. Hendricks is the only person many jazz greats have allowed to lyricize their music in this way for no one writes hipper, wittier, or more touching words, while extracting from a tune the emotions intended by the composer.

In 1957, Hendricks teamed with Dave Lambert and Annie Ross to form the well-known vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross. With Hendricks as lyricist, the trio perfected the art of vocalese and took it around the world, earning them the designation of the “Number One Vocal Group in the World” for five years in a row from Melody Maker magazine.

During his career, Hendricks has worked as the jazz critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and has taught classes at California State University at Sonoma and the University of California at Berkeley. In 2000, Hendricks returned to his hometown to teach at the University of Toledo, where he was appointed Distinguished Professor of Jazz Studies and received an honorary Doctorate of the Performing Arts.

As part of his performance at Lawrence University, Hendricks will perform with his daughter, Aria, and LHR Redux, a tribute to his famous trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. Opening for Hendricks are the Lawrence University Jazz Singers.

Hendricks was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2003. Established in 1982, the NEA Jazz Masters program honors living legends for their exceptional contributions to jazz and helps to connect them, and their music, to the American people through broadcasts, publications, educational initiative, and NEA Jazz Masters on Tour, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts sponsored by Verizon in partnership with Arts Midwest. Additional support is provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation through a grant to Chamber Music America.

Gordon enjoys an extraordinary career as a performer, conductor, composer, arranger, and educator, receiving high praise from audiences and critics alike. Gordon tours the world performing hard-swinging, straight-ahead jazz for audiences ranging from heads of state to elementary school students. Gordon received the Jazz Journalists Association 2002 and 2001 Award for Trombonist of the Year, the Jazz Journalists Association 2000 Critics’ Choice Award for Best Trombone and has been nominated for the Jazzpar Award.

In addition to a thriving solo career, he tours regularly leading the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet, headlining at legendary jazz venues throughout the world. Gordon is also a gifted composer and arranger, being commissioned to compose a new score for the 1925 classic silent film “Body and Soul.” His compositions have been performed by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Wynton Marsalis Septet, the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet, the Brass Band of Battle Creek, and numerous other ensembles.

Gordon currently serves on the faculty of the Jazz Studies Program at The Juilliard School, a position he has held since the founding of the program. His work with young musicians and audiences from elementary schools to universities all over the world is extensive, and includes master classes, clinics, workshops, children’s concerts, and lectures.

During his performance at Jazz Celebration Weekend, Gordon will perform with the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble (LUJE), the Faculty Jazz Trio, and the Trombone Choir, with whom he will perform “Cliffe Hangin’,” a piece composed for him by Lawrence Conservatory of Music faculty member Fred Sturm. He will also perform a duo feature with conservatory faculty member Marty Erickson on tuba during the show.

Jazz Celebration Weekend at Lawrence University began in 1981 with the intentions to bring professional jazz artists to the Lawrence campus and to establish a non-competitive jazz educational festival for local schools. The first festival was attended by 125 students from eight Fox Valley high school ensembles. By 1987, Jazz Weekend attracted over 1,000 middle school, high school, collegiate, and teacher participants from 60 schools in five Midwestern states. This year there will be 45 instrumental and vocal ensembles from over 500 high schools and middle schools from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois participating in Jazz Celebration Weekend.

This year’s team of education clinicians is the most diverse group that has ever engaged in Jazz Celebration Weekend. Clinicians include five renowned jazz educators, three men and two women from Nebraska, Missouri, Oregon, California, and Maryland, along with five Lawrence University jazz faculty members. In addition to working with each visiting school ensemble on their prepared jazz selections, the clinicians will also focus extensively upon improvisation and aural training.

Jazz Celebration Weekend has attracted numerous jazz greats to the Lawrence campus over its 26-year history. Artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Golson, the Chick Corea Elektric Band, Jon Faddis, and Kenny Wheeler have all been part of Jazz Celebration Weekend.

For more information on the “Performing Arts at Lawrence” concert series, visit www.lawrence.edu/news/performingartsseries.