Kudos is an occasional column that recognizes Dartmouth faculty, students, and staff who have received awards or other honors. Did you or a colleague recently receive an award or honor? Please tell us about it: dartmouth.news@dartmouth.edu.
Soni Lacefield, a professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Geisel School of Medicine, has been named a 2023 Fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology. The cohort of 19 peer-elected fellows includes scientists who have contributed significantly to the field of cell biology and individuals who have worked to further ASCB’s mission of advancing scientific discovery, advocating sound research policies, improving education, promoting professional development, and increasing diversity in the scientific workforce.
Lacefield studies the mechanisms of meiotic and mitotic cell cycle regulation leading up to chromosome segregation and gamete formation. She serves on the ASCB Public Policy Committee and works to promote diversity in science through a summer research program she established that brings students from Africa to work in labs at Geisel.
The fellows will be formally recognized in December at Cell Bio 2023, the joint meeting of ASCB and the European Molecular Biology Organization, which will be held in Boston.
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Chandrasekhar Ramanathan, a professor of physics and astronomy and adjunct associate professor of chemistry, has received a grant though the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Experimental Physics Investigator Initiative.
Ramanathan, who joined Dartmouth’s faculty in 2010, conducts research at the interface of quantum information processing and condensed matter physics. The Moore grant will support the development of techniques to characterize “entanglement”—a form of quantum correlation—in electronic spin systems in solids.
Ramanathan is among 21 experimental physicists to receive the award, which supports creative and innovative research ideas, including research that improves scientific understanding of the natural world. Each investigator will receive $1.25 million over the next five years to advance the scientific frontier in experimental physics.
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Karen Fortuna, an assistant professor of psychiatry, licensed independent clinical social worker, and co-founder of the Collaborative Design for Recovery and Health has been named a 2023-2024 Health and Aging Fellow.
The fellowship aims to enable professionals from a variety of fields to effect change in health and aging policy to improve the health care of older adults. It includes a training and enrichment program focused on current policy issues, communication skills development, and professional networking opportunities.
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Jennifer Lind, associate professor of government, was in Taiwan earlier this month on a study tour with a group from the Brookings Institution. The group met with Taiwanese scholars and officials, focusing on the theme of technology and supply chain resilience. On Aug. 15, they met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to discuss the issue and broader U.S.-Taiwanese security and economic relations.
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Katherine Salesin, a computer science PhD candidate at the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, has been awarded a Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science Technology grant. Her adviser, Wojciech Jarosz, associate professor of computer science, will be principal investigator on the grant, which provides funding for research projects designed and implemented by graduate students that contribute to NASA’s science, technology, and exploration goals.
For her project, Salesin will adapt computational models employed in the computer graphics community to push the boundaries of image analysis from satellite data and deepen human understanding of the Earth as a system.
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Axium, a new student-run journal of comparative criticism, launched in May with a first edition featuring translations from Latin, French, and Mandarin. A second volume is in the works; the editors will put out a call for papers by Dartmouth undergraduate and graduate students this fall.
Jose “Fabricio” Lopez Cochachi ’24 is among several students who worked on the online journal, advised by Yuliya Komska, chair of the Department of German Studies.
Lopez Cochachi, who plans to go to graduate school and eventually publish his work, says being a managing editor with Axium has taught him valuable lessons about the peer-review process.
“It’s very dynamic,” with considerable communication back and forth over a long period of time, he says. “In the end we could publish these amazing pieces.”
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A history of women’s softball at Dartmouth by Justin Lafleur, associate athletics director for varsity athletics communications, took first place in the historical feature category of the 2022-2023 College Sports Communicators’ Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest.