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Upfront: A letter from President Jacobsen
Upfront
Dear Friends,
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Ihave had the privilege these past several months of traveling across the country to meet with a great number of alumni, alumnae, parents and friends of Hobart and William Smith, all of whom have expressed their support for the Colleges and their excitement for our future. I’m looking forward to meeting many more of you as my schedule takes me to Saratoga, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston in the next couple of months. Please join me at these celebrations of HWS and, as always, return to campus for Reunion 2020 from June 5 – 7. There’s no easier way to stay engaged and learn how you can be part of the Colleges’ future than by attending one of our events regionally or in Geneva. Here on campus, there’s been noteworthy activity as I’ve finalized the leadership team at the Colleges, making important appointments in academics, athletics, inclusion, alumni and alumnae relations and the Hobart Dean’s Office, all described in detail on the following pages. With these appointments, we have resolved all interim and unfilled leadership positions, and clarified our administrative structures moving forward. I’m pleased to report that with the significant efforts of many, including the guidance of the Board of Trustees, we are establishing a firm platform for the future with a renewed strategic planning process, an increased applicant pool and record-breaking philanthropy. I am grateful to so many of you who recommend the Colleges to prospective students and who have already made a gift to HWS, whether through planned giving, the annual fund or a targeted campaign like February’s Athletic Day of Donors. All of this progress emerges from the foundation of the institution and the nearly 200 years of perseverance, tenacity and innovation that characterize the Colleges. In this issue of The Pulteney Street Survey, we investigate some of those foundations, taking a deeper look into the Seneca land on which the Colleges are built; profiling alumni and alumnae whose careers and lives intersect with concepts of foundations – literally and figuratively; and recounting the history of the Seneca Review on its 50 th
birthday. As I continue on my #ExploreHWS journey for the academic year, I have finished visiting all of our buildings and outdoor areas and have shifted to learning more about the people and activities that populate them. Every day I learn something new and interesting about the Colleges, whether by attending thoughtprovoking academic events on campus, student performances, gallery exhibits and athletic contests or by interviewing interesting people through my podcast (see facing page for details). My best wishes for a wonderful spring, and don’t hesitate to contact me with your thoughts about any matter regarding the Colleges. While visiting alumni and alumnae in Florida, President Joyce P. Jacobsen and Vice President for Advancement Bob O’Connor P‘22 met with Rebecca Fox L.H.D. ’95 (center), former dean of William Smith College and the current Dean of the Division of Continuing and International Education at the University of Miami.
Sincerely,
Joyce P. Jacobsen President
@joycepjacobsen on
237 likes joycepjacobsen Excited to have everyone back on campus finally— time to snowshoe on the quad! #ExploreHWS #HWSColleges
202 likes joycepjacobsen Inspiration sprinkled around campus #ExploreHWS #HWSColleges
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joycepjacobsen Hanging with my HWS econ dept homies, chewing over the usual econ stuff (supply, demand, dessert) #ExploreHWS #HWSColleges
102 likes joycepjacobsen Homesick for Arizona? Visit the HWS conservatory #ExploreHWS #HWSColleges
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Subscribe to The Pulteney Street Podcast and join President Joyce P. Jacobsen as she interviews members of the HWS community. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Sticher or your podcast app of choice. Have an idea for someone to interview? Contact president@hws.edu.
THE Coordinate Tradition Before my arrival at Hobart and William Smith, I was very interested in the coordinate tradition as one of the defining characteristics of the Colleges. I have spent time reading on the subject and listening to many of those with a lived history. As a newcomer, I noticed that here, in a way that is more deliberate than I’ve seen elsewhere, we seek to ensure that everyone is included. When William Smith College was founded in 1908, women were the focus of this inclusion. That has not changed, but today’s students also express difference with a complexity that requires expanded modes of recognition and support. Having given it a great deal of thought, I’ve developed a statement about the coordinate model that I’ve shared on our website. Through last year’s vote by the Board of Trustees enacting a wide range of actions including the creation of a joint diploma option, we are seeing in real time the contemporization of coordinate. Learn more, see my statement and share your reflections with me at hws.edu/coordinate.
PAST EPISODES HAVE FEATURED
John Grotzinger ’79, Sc.D. ’13, Fletcher Jones Professor of Geology at the California Institute of Technology and Project Scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory
Kay Payne ’73, Professor Emerita of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Howard University
Hill & Quad
HWS and Cornell Law Take a LEAP
Hobart and William Smith students interested in pursuing legal careers now have the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree from the Colleges and a law degree from Cornell University.
A memorandum of understanding signed by both institutions has established the Law Early Admissions Program (LEAP), a “3+3” joint degree framework that allows participating HWS students to complete their undergraduate and legal education in six years rather than the typical seven. The memorandum was approved by unanimous vote of the faculty of Cornell Law School and by Hobart and William Smith’s Committee on Academic Affairs. “Thanks to the months of planning and collaboration between HWS and Cornell, our students now have the opportunity to build on a unique liberal arts education at HWS with a degree from one of the best law schools in the world,” says Professor of Philosophy and newly named Hobart Dean Scott Brophy ’78, P’12, the Colleges’ pre-law adviser.
OTHER JOINT DEGREE PROGRAMS • Engineering (through the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University and the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College) • Business (through Clarkson University and the Saunders School of Business at the Rochester Institute of Technology) • Nursing (through the University of Rochester School of Nursing)
HWS Welcomed into Leading Liberal Arts Consortium Hobart and William Smith have been selected as the newest member of a consortium of 24 renowned institutions devoted to advancing liberal arts education. As part of the Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges (AALAC), HWS will work with other member colleges to enhance student experiences, develop faculty leadership and better address the challenges facing liberal arts colleges in the U.S. “For the past decade, AALAC’s workshop program has enabled faculty at many of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges to come together around shared research and teaching interests and to create valuable and enduring professional networks,” says Andrew Shennan, Provost and Dean of the College at Wellesley College. “The AALAC deans are delighted to welcome HWS into our group and confident that HWS faculty will contribute significantly to these networks.” “For the past decade, AALAC’s workshop program has enabled faculty at many of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges to come together around shared research and teaching interests and to create valuable and enduring professional networks.”
AALAC members include: Amherst College, Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Carleton College, Colorado College, Davidson College, Denison University, Furman University, Grinnell College, Haverford College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Macalester College, Middlebury College, Mount Holyoke College, Oberlin College, Pomona College, Reed College, Rhodes College, Scripps College, Smith College, Swarthmore College, Vassar College, Wesleyan University, Wellesley College and Williams College.
Continued Success for Debate Team The HWS Debate Team continues to make its mark around the world. Bart Lahiff ’20, Jacob Wallman ’20, Reed Herter ’21 and Sarim Karim ’21 recently competed in the 2020 Worlds University Debating Championship held in Bangkok, Thailand. Considered the most prestigious debate tournament in the world, the competition included the best debaters from more than 50 countries. Lahiff and Karim had a strong showing and narrowly missed advancing to final rounds, while Wallman made it to the final round of the World Public Speaking Competition.
Curry ’75 to Deliver Commencement Address
Bokan Greenawalt ’66 and Jemison to Receive Honorary Degrees
At Commencement on Sunday, May 17, Hobart and William Smith will award the institution’s highest honor to three
individuals whose personal and professional achievements intersect with critical aspects of the Colleges’ history. Honorary doctorates will be presented to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Bishop Michael B. Curry ’75, who will deliver the 2020 Commencement address; philanthropist and advocate for increased female leadership Margaret “Peggy” Bokan
Greenawalt ’66; and artist, activist and Historic Site Manager of Ganondagan State Historic Site G. Peter Jemison. “As we approach the Hobart bicentennial in 2022 and the centennial of the ratification of the 19th amendment in 2020, we are taking stock of our history and the foundations from which the Colleges emerged,” says President Joyce P. Jacobsen. “In honoring this year’s esteemed
recipients, we also wish to honor Hobart’s Episcopal heritage, William Smith’s continued commitment to leadership and the Colleges’ overall dedication to inclusion, and the provenance of the land the Colleges call home.” The Most Rev. Bishop Michael B. Curry ’75 is the first African American to serve as Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church. An advocate for an inclusive, authentic ministry committed to racial reconciliation, equal justice and equal opportunity, in 2015 Curry was elected the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. Curry earned a degree in religious studies
from Hobart and a master’s of divinity from Yale Divinity School. In 2016, he received the Hobart Medal of Excellence, the Hobart College Alumni Association’s highest honor. Margaret “Peggy” Bokan Greenawalt ’66 is a noted philanthropist devoted to supporting education, the arts and the advancement of women in leadership roles. She rose through the hierarchy of the finance industry, holding leadership positions at Citibank, Citicorp and Monchik-Weber and has served on the boards of directors for numerous not-for-profit organizations. In 2015, she established the Margaret Greenawalt ’66 Annual Scholarship, which pays off the student loan debt of a William Smith graduate who intends to pursue a career in finance and who has completed an internship on Wall Street. In 2018, she began supporting two students each year. Greenawalt earned a degree in economics from William Smith and a master’s in business administration from Columbia Graduate School of Business. G. Peter Jemison is a member of the Heron Clan of the Seneca Nation and a leading authority on Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) history. As a fine artist, he works in a range of media to explore political and social subjects and his relationship with the natural world. Jemison is the historic site manager of the Ganondagan State Historic Site in Victor, N.Y., where he oversees resources and programs that tell the story of Haudenosaunee contributions to agriculture, art, culture and government. Jemison earned a bachelor’s in art education from Buffalo State College and was awarded an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the State University of New York in 2003. The Most Rev. Bishop Michael B. Curry ’75 Margaret “Peggy” Bokan Greenawalt ’66 G. Peter Jemison PHOTO BY RONNIE FARLEY
HWS Ranks High in Impact and Value
In the 2020 edition of Best Value Colleges, Princeton Review ranks Hobart and William Smith among the nation’s top 25 schools for campus engagement. The annual list also
recognizes HWS for academics, financial aid and strong career prospects for graduates. The Colleges were ranked 15th on the list of 25 schools for “Making an Impact,” based on student survey responses to questions about community service
opportunities, active student governments, leading sustainability efforts and on campus student engagement. High job meaning, as reported by graduates, is also a factor. This is the third consecutive year Hobart and William Smith have been recognized in the “Making an Impact” category.
HWS Earns Carnegie Designation
Hobart and William Smith have been named among only 23 designated institutions in New York to receive the 2020 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification endorsement. The classification was launched in 2005 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to recognize higher education institutions that express their commitment to public purpose in and through community engagement. “The City is proud of the many collaborations with HWS. The reciprocal nature of our partnership puts Geneva on the map for being a service learning community,” says Geneva City Manager Sage Gerling. “HWS faculty and staff serve on local City boards; students participate in days of service, special projects and internships; and City officials often interact with students through interviews for course assignments and class discussions. I am always grateful to visit classes to share information about Geneva’s comprehensive plan and other initiatives, all created and implemented with the collaboration and participation from HWS faculty, staff, and students.”
Hobart and William Smith are again among U.S. colleges and universities that produced the most Fulbright U.S. Student Award winners. Each year the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces the top producing institutions for the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. In the past five years through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, 25 HWS students have been awarded full research grants and English Teaching Assistantships that take them around the world.
President Joyce P. Jacobsen Inaugurated
On Oct. 18, 2019, Joyce P. Jacobsen was officially installed as the 29th president of Hobart College and the 18th of William Smith College during an inauguration ceremony on the Hobart Quadrangle. Jacobsen used her speech to contest the idea that institutions of higher education are in crisis and to remind the gathered students, faculty, staff, alums and guests that colleges — and specifically Hobart and William Smith — have a long history of successfully weathering challenges.
She described Hobart and William Smith as “spunky, scrappy colleges that have survived numerous existential threats over their years and nonetheless just keep on keeping on, hustling and marketing and serving the community in which they are embedded,” and declared “a college still provides the single best bet for having a positive transformational experience that lays the groundwork for a successful adulthood.” You can read her entire inauguration speech online at www2.hws.edu/president/inauguration. President Joyce P. Jacobsen accepts the seals of the Colleges while HWS Interim Provost DeWayne Lucas, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees Craig R. Stine ’81, P’17 and Chair of the Board of Trustees Thomas S. Bozzuto ’68, L.H.D. ’18 look on.
PHOTOS BY KEVIN COLTON
Pomona’s Coffey Named Provost and Dean of Faculty
PHOTOS BY KEVIN COLTON
Anationwide search for a new provost and dean of faculty took Hobart and William Smith on a journey of nearly 2,000 miles — to the campus of Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. That’s where the search committee found Dr. Mary L. Coffey, who assumed her duties at HWS in January.
At Pomona, Coffey served as the Senior Associate Dean in the Office of the Dean of the College and Vice President for Academic Affairs. A tenured member of the faculty in Pomona’s Department of Romance Languages and Literature, Coffey is recognized for her expertise in 19th and early-20th century Spanish literature and culture, and is the author of two books on the subject. “I am thrilled that Professor Coffey has joined Hobart and William Smith,” says President Joyce P. Jacobsen. “She is an exceptionally talented scholar and teacher who has spent the better part of the last decade excelling in complex administrative roles at one of our nation’s top liberal arts institutions, serving the faculty at Pomona with distinction and success. She is already making a positive impact at Hobart and William Smith.”
“When I came to campus I had the chance to meet faculty, staff and students, and they were truly impressive,” says Coffey, who oversees the entire faculty and curriculum at HWS. “There are intelligent and committed people here at HWS, but I would add that there was also real kindness, a quality that is sometimes overlooked but also an essential part of the learning environment. I could see that there was a vibrant community here, and I wanted to be a part of it.” Coffey received her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago, her master’s degree in comparative literature from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Northwestern University. She is the recipient of a number of national and international fellowships and grants including from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as a Fulbright-Hayes Research Fellowship. Coffey succeeds Associate Professor of Political Science DeWayne Lucas, who assumed the role of Interim Provost and Dean of Faculty in 2017. Lucas has since returned to the Political Science Department.
Leadership Changes for Diversity and Hobart Dean’s Offices
Khuram Hussain, the current Dean of Hobart College and Associate Professor of Education, has been named the Colleges’ Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Reporting to the President and sitting on Senior Staff, Hussain will serve as the Colleges’ chief diversity strategist. The Offices of Intercultural Affairs, Academic Opportunity Programs and International Students will all report to him.
Hussain completed his Ph.D. in Cultural Foundations of Education at Syracuse University, where he was awarded the All University Dissertation Prize. His work as a dialogue facilitator, trainer and consultant to schools, universities, government offices, non-profits and community organizations on issues of diversity and equity has been recognized by the NAACP, the U.S. Armed Forces, and community and campus organizations nationwide, as well as by HWS faculty. HUSSAIN
Scott Brophy ’78, P’12, Professor of Philosophy and Pre-Law Adviser for the Colleges, has been named the new Dean of Hobart College. A 1978 graduate of Hobart and the parent of a William Smith alumna, he will be the 16th Dean of Hobart College and only the third alumnus to hold the position. In his new role, Brophy will provide academic and personal advising to students while also developing and executing strategies and initiatives to increase student success.
Brophy received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Rochester. As Dean, he will continue to teach his two popular courses on crime and punishment and on 17th and 18th century philosophy. He is a founder and former director of the Environmental Studies Summer Youth Institute, a nationally acclaimed program for high school students now in its 27th year. BROPHY ’78, P’12
Hussain and Brophy begin their new roles on June 1, 2020.
Leading Alumni House into the Future
In the fall of 2019, Chevanne J. Graham DeVaney ’95, P’21, P’23 was named Director of Alumni and Alumnae Relations, replacing long-time directors Jared Weeden ’91 and Kathy Killius Regan ’82, P’13. She brings a wealth of experience and extensive knowledge of the Colleges to the role.
DeVaney earned a bachelor’s in English from William Smith College and a master’s in higher education
administration from the University at
Buffalo. She began working at HWS in 1998, serving in a variety of roles in the Office of Advancement and the Higher Education Opportunity Program before joining the Office of Intercultural Affairs as assistant director and advisor to international students. As director of Multicultural Affairs at Keuka College, she served as interim director of the Higher Education Opportunity Program, Title IX investigator, coordinated the Women’s Center, chaired the Gender Education and Advocacy Committee and oversaw the LGBTQA+ Resource Center. She returned to HWS in 2016 to serve as the associate director of annual giving. “It’s as if everything I did in the past 24 years led me right here,” DeVaney says. “When I work with and talk with our alums, it feeds my soul. I am incredibly privileged to have this opportunity to serve my alma mater and I intend to honor the trust the Colleges have put in me by listening closely to all alumni and alumnae — to respect the legacy they’ve built while looking toward the future.” DeVaney has served the Colleges in a variety of roles and is a co-founder of the Afro Latino Alumni and Alumnae Association. She’s looking forward to helping alums stay connected to one another and the Colleges. “I want to uphold the traditions of Hobart and William Smith and make sure everyone finds their place here,” she says. “And I want to help our alums understand how they can make a transformative difference in the future of the institution. After all, no one knows the Colleges better than they do.” Chevanne J. Graham DeVaney ’95, P’21, P’23, Director of Alumni and Alumnae Relations
Regan and Weeden Look Back — and Move Forward
For many years, Kathy Killius Regan ’82, P’13 and Jared Weeden ’91 were the faces of Alumni House. Regan was named director of alumnae relations in 1998, while Weeden became director of alumni relations in 2002. In the summer of 2019, they both took new positions — and though they’ve moved on, they haven’t moved far. Regan, who earned a degree in art history from William Smith and a master’s in the same field from Syracuse University, now serves as chief of staff to President Joyce P. Jacobsen. “I loved being able to share the impressive work and accomplishments of our students and faculty with alumnae from all generations,” Regan says of her time in Alumni House. “Helping our alums to stay connected and give back as volunteers and donors in support of our alma mater was one of the best parts of the job.” In her new role as chief of staff, Regan is enjoying working closely with President Jacobsen, as well as interacting with students and faculty on a daily basis. The position provides “the opportunity to use my experience in a way that has a broader reach across the Colleges,” she says. Weeden, who earned a degree in political science from Hobart and played hockey and baseball as a Statesman, is now the director of leadership gifts in the Office of Advancement. Reflecting on his time in alumni relations, he says: “I very much enjoyed creating ways to enhance the relationship between alumni and the Colleges. A reunion of graduates and their alma mater, whether on campus or somewhere else in the world, was always a win-win moment that was fun to be a part of.” He’s looking forward to taking his experience in broad-based relations and focusing on one-on-one relationship-building in his new role. “I’m excited to work with constituents who have an interest and the means to make a transformational difference at the Colleges through their philanthropy,” he says. “Matching their interests with opportunities will help make an already great place even better.”
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, second row in the black hat and dress, gathers with her family at Martha's Vineyard in 1906.
A Glimpse into Blackwell’s Private Life
Recent acquisitions to the Colleges’ archives of personal letters and family photos of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) provide a rare glimpse into the personal life of HWS’ most celebrated alumna. Among several copies of well-known published works of the first woman in America to receive a medical degree, these new pieces share the story of Dr. Blackwell’s private life through letters discussing her hopes for her adopted daughter Katherine “Kitty” Barry (1848-1936), a note to her mother Hannah Lane Blackwell (1792-1870) in reference to gynecological issues she learned her mother was experiencing from her sister Dr. Emily Blackwell (1826-1910), and her opposition to suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s stance on marriage. In total, Hobart and William Smith received a collection of 18 letters, two postcards and 14 books and pamphlets written by Blackwell and her family members, as well as 15 family photos with at least two featuring the rarely photographed Dr. Blackwell. The pieces, acquired primarily from the estate of her niece Alice Stone Blackwell (1857- 1950), are being catalogued and processed by HWS Archives in the Warren Hunting Smith Library with plans for future displays. A special thanks to fine arts gallery owner Edward T. Pollack ’55 of Portland, Maine, for his assistance in making these acquisitions possible.
Comrade Dean
Professor of Political Science Jodi Dean’s new book examines political belonging in the 21 st century and how solidarity is a vehicle for action.
by Andrew Wickenden ’09
“Comradeship is about our responsibility to each other — and it makes us better and stronger than we could ever be alone,” writes Professor of Political Science Jodi Dean in a new article in Jacobin magazine. Dean ’s most recent book offers a theory of the comrade as a mode of address, figure of belonging and carrier of expectations for action, as she explains in a number of articles and interviews published in concert with the October release of Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging . As Dean t old President Joyce P. Jacobsen in an interview on the Pulteney Street Podcast, Comrade argues that the political left should “act and think of itself as on the same side” and draws a contrast between comrades and allies. “The language of allies is [that of ] separate entities protecting their self-interest and pulling together out of mutual protection of singular self-interest rather than all having the same horizon, the same commitments, the same set of understandings,” she explains. “The discipline of c ollective work on behalf of a shared goal has been replaced by an individualist rhetoric of comfort and self-care,” she writes in the Jacobin article, “We Need Comrades.” Comradeship goes deeper than “a sense of politics as a matter of individual conviction,” to a unity and mutual understanding “needed in order to build a shared political capacity.” Amidst global climate crisis and hyper-partisan politics, writes Dean, comradeship is the antidote to the misleading notion that “our problems can be solved by imagination, big ideas, and creativity.” Or , as she puts it later: “Big ideas are nothing without cadre to fight for them.”
An expert in contemporary political theory, Dean is the author or editor of 13 books, including Blog Theory, Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies, The Communist Horizon and Crowds and Party. She earned her bachelor's degree at Princeton University and her Ph.D. at Columbia University. She joined the faculty in 1993.
Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Darrin Magee, geographer of China with expertise in water and energy in the country, was featured in articles from Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg about the South-North Water Diversion Project taking place in China. The project transfers water from floodprone regions in the south of the country to the north, which often suffers from drought. Magee has authored a number of articles on China’s water and energy issues.
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Julianne H. Miller, director of the Abbe Center for Jewish Life and Hillel adviser, has been awarded the highest individual honor bestowed by Hillel International — the Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence Award. One of just eight people to be given the award, Miller was recognized for her efforts on behalf of HWS’ Jewish and interfaith communities. Since coming to HWS in 2015, Miller has created or expanded programs including service projects, public remembrances at Yom HaShoah, celebrations of Passover and Purim, and support for students growing into their Jewish identities.
Associate Professor of English Alla Ivanchikova's first book, Imagining Afghanistan: Global Fiction and Film of the 9/11 Wars, examines how Afghanistan has been imagined in literary and visual texts that were published after the 9/11 attacks. Ivanchikova’s research and teaching focus on the post-9/11 global novel, post-socialist studies, ecocriticism and new media theory. Her book is published by Purdue University Press.
Professor of Biology James Ryan has designed and built a 3D printed florescence microscope that, thanks to its economical price point, has the potential to impact high school and undergraduate classrooms across the county and clinical practices in developing countries around the world. While commercial models range in cost from $15,000 to $50,000, Ryan’s version costs less than $1,000. In a clinical setting, florescent microscopy could allow doctors to readily identify cancerous tissues or blood parasites such as malaria.
In 2015, 100 years after Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves as part of his general theory of relativity, scientists made the first detection of ripples in the fabric of spacetime, confirming Einstein’s theory. Professor of Physics Steven Penn made significant contributions to the optical and suspension systems of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors that observed those waves. Now, Penn has been elected Chair of the entire LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), a group of more than 1,300 researchers focused on the direct detection of gravitational waves as a means to explore the fundamental physics of gravity and to advance astronomical discovery.
A longtime LSC member and principal investigator, Penn has been a significant contributor to the mirror substrate and coating design for LIGO detectors. He discovered how to significantly reduce the thermal noise in the material fused silica, which led to the selection of fused silica for the Advanced LIGO mirror substrates and suspensions. He also jointly developed the mirror coating that was instrumental in enabling Advanced LIGO to detect gravitational waves. An MIT-trained physicist, Penn joined the LSC in 1998 while a postdoctoral fellow at Syracuse University. Hobart and William Smith became one of the first small colleges to join the LSC when Penn took a position in the Physics Department in 2002. He has conducted much of his groundbreaking LIGO work from his laboratory in Eaton Hall. Penn’s research recently gained the support of the National Science Foundation, which awarded him a grant to continue his work on low noise, precision coatings for gravitational wave detectors as well as a Major Research Instrumentation grant. The latter funds the development of an apparatus for the rapid, multimodel measurement of the cryogenic elastic loss of coating materials; the award is in collaboration with Syracuse University’s Associate Professor of Physics Stefan Ballmer.
