Yiddish is Back at the UW
Impressionism Exhibit Inspires Course
A Steinway to Honor Ruth Gerberding
Physics Earns High Marks
Julie Stein Appointed Divisional Dean
New Program Searches for Life "Out There"
On the Web: A Work in Progress
West Endows Chemistry Fund

Yiddish is Back at the UW
This summer, for the first time in nearly two decades, a course in Yiddish language and culture is being offered at the UW. The course is being presented jointly by the Department of Germanics and the Jewish Studies Program in the Jackson School of International Studies.

"Several years ago, the German Department decided it could be focusing more on the Jewish tradition in Germany," explains Jane Brown, professor of Ger-manics. "Last year we introduced a new course, 'The Contribution of German Jews to German Culture,' and we started discussions about reinstating Yiddish. We decided to start with summer quarter, to see what kind of following could be developed."

The course will run for nine weeks, meeting for more than three hours each day. Those likely to participate include undergraduates with ties to the culture, graduate students in Germanics and Jewish Studies, and members of the broader community. "Several of our graduate students have been working on German Jewish topics and have wanted to study Yiddish for a while now," says Brown.

Brown adds that Yiddish is "a very curious composite" of German, Slavic, and Hebrew. Its morphology--the way words are formed and the endings they take--is similar to German, but much of the syntax is Slavic. The vocabulary borrows from all three languages, and the alphabet is Hebrew.

The challenge for those developing the course was to find an instructor who could teach both the language and cultural components of Yiddish. They were delighted to find Vera Szabo, a Hungarian woman who is a native speaker of Yiddish. Szabo has taught Yiddish in the U.S. and abroad and is now studying for a doctorate in Israel. Classes will be supplemented with talks by visiting lecturers, performances of Klezmer music, films, and conversation groups that will involve native speakers from the area.

"If we get enough interest, we hope to offer Yiddish permanently--at least in alternate years," says Brown. "We'll just have to see how this develops. If the program grows, we will be just delighted."

Impressionism Exhibit Inspires Course
Most people are familiar with French Impressionist painters of the late nineteenth century: Monet. Degas. Manet. But how many understand the influences that sparked the impressionist movement?

Quite a few, thanks to a 200-level course, "Paris in the Age of Impressionism," offered by the UW's Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities in conjunction with the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). The four-week course--a survey of the history, art, architecture, and literature of Impressionist Paris--was designed to complement SAM's exhibit, Impressionism: Paintings Collected by European Museums, on view through August 29.

"The museum expects this exhibit, which includes an extraordinary selection of works from over 30 European museums, to draw more visitors than ever before," says Margit Dementi, associate director of the Center for the Humanities. "It presented a wonderful opportunity to develop a fruitful collaboration between the museum and the University, and to share the intellectual riches of our faculty with a broader public."

The course, taught by UW History Professor Ray Jonas, was designed to encourage public participation. While UW students took the course for academic credit, one lecture each week was held at the museum and was open to the public. Guest lecturers included Meredith Clausen, UW professor of art history and architecture, and Marek Wieczorek, UW assistant professor of art history.

The Center also planned two discussion groups, open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. George-Julius Papadop-oulos of the UW School of Music led a discussion of composer Claude Debussy, with emphasis on the strong ties between music, painting, and literature in French Impressionism. Art History Professor Wieczorek focused on Impressionism's techniques and content, which were so innovative at the time that art critics were "dumbfounded by what they considered sheer incompetence or downright provocation."

The interdisiplinary nature of these offerings, with lecturers and discussion leaders coming from history, art history, architecture, and music, reflects the Center for the Humanities' commitment to interdisciplinary study.

A Steinway to Honor Ruth Gerberding
When music lover Ruth Gerberding saw the new Steinway piano in the School of Music's Brechemin Auditorium, she was impressed. Then she learned that the piano had been donated by her friends, in her honor.

"It was an absolute surprise," recalls Gerberding, whose husband, former UW President William Gerberding, was in on the secret. "I had no inkling. It was just wonderful."

The gift was the brainchild of Robin McCabe, School of Music director and renowned pianist. McCabe explains that the auditorium's previous piano had been played upon more than any other concert instrument in Seattle and had "quite frankly, seen its day." She saw an opportunity to raise funds for a much-needed replacement while honoring School of Music supporter Ruth Gerberding.

"We created a letter to be sent out to special friends of Ruth Gerber-ding, inviting them to contribute in any amount," explains McCabe. "It was suggested that they could even purchase keys or claim octaves on 'Ruth's Piano.' The response was overwhelming. The money came flooding in as if it were Christmas."

In just a few months, more than $75,000 was raised to purchase the Concert D Steinway--renamed the Ruth Gerberding Steinway--that now resides in Brechemin Auditorium. In fact, enough surplus funds came in to make possible a permanent gift fund in Ruth's name, which will be used for the acquisition of instruments for the School.

Contributions came from friends of the Gerberdings but also from School of Music faculty, staff, visiting committee members, and alumni. "We even received a donation from a former mentor of mine at the Juilliard School who insisted he must have an F# because F# was Scriabin's key for Heaven!" recalls McCabe.

The piano seems the perfect honor for Gerberding, who began playing the piano at age eight and continues to play duets with friends. "Music has been a part of my life forever," she says. "My father was a singer and my mother and my husband were always big supporters of music. It has just filled my life."

Physics Earns High Marks
In U.S. News & World Report's latest ranking of graduate programs and professional schools, the UW Department of Physics ranked in the top ten nationally in two categories. Its graduate program in nuclear physics ranked number two, and its graduate program in atomic/molecular physics ranked eighth. The department as a whole tied for fourteenth.

"We are both pleased and proud of the high rankings," says Stephen Ellis, chair of the department. "This is a world class physics faculty that richly deserves ratings at least this high."

The magazine's rankings are established through several research methods, including statistical analysis of selected academic attributes and surveys of deans and senior faculty at accredited schools in each discipline.

For more information, check out the magazine's web site at www. usnews.com.

Julie Stein Appointed Divisional Dean
She's participated in excavations on nearby San Juan Island and more exotic locales. She's studied the sites of Lewis and Clark's winter camp and Jefferson's home in Monticello. But Julie Stein believes her next destination will be equally fascinating: the Arts and Sciences Dean's Office.

Julie Stein

Stein is a UW professor of anthropology, curator of archaeology at the Burke Museum, and adjunct professor with the Quaternary Research Center. In mid-July she will join the Dean's Office as divisional dean for computing, facilities, and research.

"It's time in my career to contribute more directly to the College's future," says Stein. "My background crosses natural and social sciences, which gives me a somewhat unique perspective to offer."

Stein has been on the College's faculty since 1980. She received her B.A. from Western Michigan University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota. Her specialties are geoarchaeology--especially archaeological stratigraphy and sediment analysis--and coastal adaptations, with an emphasis on Northwest Coast archaeology.

Stein's fourth book, The Archaeology of the San Juan Islands, will be published by University of Washington Press in the coming year.

New Program Searches for Life "Out There"
In September, the UW will begin offering courses in its new astrobiology program--a doctoral program designed to train scientists to search for life on celestial bodies such as Mars or Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter. The University is the first institution anywhere to launch such a program.

The highly interdisciplinary curriculum will involve nearly a dozen UW degree programs, including seven in the College of Arts and Sciences: astronomy, atmospheric sciences, chemistry, genetics, geological sciences, geophysics, and history. Graduates can receive degrees in any of those areas, with an endorsement noting an emphasis in astrobiology.

"We recognize that there is a good possibility that life exists in the solar system outside Earth, but if that life does exist it would be microbial, not the higher forms," says James Staley, a UW microbiology professor and principal investigator for astrobiology.

Likely sites for such life are Mars, where there is evidence of water, or the ice-clad moon Europa. The key to finding life in such forbidding environments is understanding how life exists in extreme conditions on Earth--such as hot springs in Yellowstone National Park or pools of brine within polar sea ice.

"We have microbial systems on Earth that are good models for those on Mars or Europa, and those systems are poorly studied," says Staley, adding that such life forms were the precursor to advanced life on Earth, so their presence on other planets could signal the eventual evolution of advanced life there as well.

Two entities outside the University are participating in the project by offering research opportunities. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland will offer students a chance to study microbial life in the subterranean basalt formations in Eastern Washington, and ZymoGenetics, Inc. of Seattle--a subsidiary of Novo Nordisk A/S of Denmark--will offer summer internships allowing students to pursue that research.

The idea for an astrobiology program grew out of a special seminar, "Plants and Life," offered at the UW in 1996, shortly after the discovery of planets orbiting nearby stars and an announcement that NASA scientists possibly had found microbial fossils inside a Martian rock. That claim has since drawn much scientific skepticism, but the success of the seminar, which sparked much campus excitement, laid a foundation for a program in astrobiology.

Woodruff Sullivan, professor of astronomy and adjunct history professor, spearheaded the seminar and is an astrobiology co-investigator. He expects about a dozen students when the program begins in September. The astrobiology program will be financed by a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation and supplemented by $500,000 from the University.

On the Web: A Work in Progress
Steven Shaviro, professor of English, is working on his fourth book, tentatively titled Stranded in the Jungle. It may not be finished for several years, but those interested in reading the work-in-progress can find it online.

"This is actually the second book I've put online," says Shaviro, whose previous book, Doom Patrols, can be found online and in bookstores.

Shaviro's field is film and cultural studies, and his books explore contemporary cultural phenomena. Given the timely nature of the subject matter, the online texts have an advantage: they offer links to sites (including those of pop culture icon Jerry Springer and the band Sonic Youth) related to topics discussed in the books.

Does Shaviro have any hesitation about sharing his work while it's still in draft form? Not at all, he says, pointing to an historic precedent. "In the nineteenth century, novelists published novels in journals as they were writing them," he explains. "Charles Dickens would be writing a chapter while another was in print. He couldn't go back and rewrite the previous chapter."

Shaviro uses a commercial Web site, rather than the UW server, to present his online books.

West Endows Chemistry Fund
It's been 60 years since Lloyd West earned his Ph.D. from the UW Department of Chemistry, but he still remembers the teaching fellowship he received as a student. "It was $50 a month for three years," he recalls. "Having that support was a big help to me."

Lloyd West

Now West and his wife, Florence, have made a major gift to the Department of Chemistry to ensure that future chemistry students will have similar opportunities. They have established the Lloyd E. and Florence M. West Fund in Chemistry with a $300,000 gift of stock. This is the Wests' second major gift to the department.

"I was very fond of the UW," says Lloyd West, explaining the gifts. "I just loved it. This year, thanks to the stock market, I was able to give some more, and I was happy to do so." West says that this endowment honors the memory of Professor Rex Robinson, with whom he worked as a doctoral student at the UW. "I thought the world of him," recalls West.

While the Wests' first gift to the Department of Chemistry was for graduate fellowships, their recent endowment is discretionary, allowing the department to direct the funds where they are needed most--for fellowships, scholarships, a professorship, or other priorities. "Paul Hopkins, the chair of chemistry, had written a letter to alumni explaining the need for discretionary support," says West, "so we designed this endowment to meet those needs."

Lloyd West's career, as well as his generosity, serves as an inspiration to chemistry students. After a stint as an assistant professor at Oregon State University, West worked on the Manhattan Project. Then he spent nearly 30 years at Eastman Kodak, where he developed analytical testing methods to standardize and improve color film processing.

An avid photographer and hiker as well as a chemist, West was involved in the adoption of rigorous national standards to protect the environment from photographic waste products. Although he initially had trouble convincing his colleagues that ecological issues were important, he eventually won them over. In fact, in 1990 the National Association of Photographic Manufacturers presented him with a Leadership Award for his pioneering work in the field of pollution abatement.

Now in his early 90s, West--who has travelled in 85 countries and all 50 states with Florence--is slowing down. But not too much. He still joins friends for a four- to eight-mile hike every two weeks. Now that's an endorsement for a career in chemistry.

[Summer 1999 - Table of Contents]