THE TUFTS DAILY
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FOCUS ON THE FACULTY
NIH recognizes professor with innovator award BY
TUFTSDAILY.COM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2009
VOLUME LVIII, NUMBER 30
Where You Read It First Est. 1980
TMC’s Trips Cabin to open over the weekend BY
KATHERINE SAWYER
Daily Editorial Board
Having received the fire marshal’s official OK, the new Trips Cabin is set to open this weekend, and the Tufts Mountain Club (TMC) plans to celebrate in style. The New Hampshire state fire marshal signed the Trips Cabin over to Tufts last Friday, according to Senior Construction Project Manager Robert Biswanger, who oversaw the building’s construction. “We officially accepted it as of last Friday. We went through the place and everything passed, no problems,” he said. “The place is 100 percent ready.” Katahdin Cedar Log Homes completed the final step in construction, building the bunk beds in the cabin, two weeks ago. Mattresses arrived last week. In line with the opening of the Trips Cabin, TMC will also commemorate the 70th anniversary of the club and the Loj. “It’s a big year all around,” said TMC Vice President Lily Glidden, a sophomore. “There will be fireworks, a big ribbon-cutting ceremony and a slideshow of recent TMC events … We want to celebrate as much as possible.”
CARTER ROGERS
Daily Editorial Board
As a new addition to the Tufts Medical School faculty, Assistant Professor Leon Reijmers is fitting in quite well, having received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award last month. The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award is given to 55 recipients annually. The award comes in the form of a research grant that offers far more flexibility on the part of the researcher than a normal grant. A body of scientists from universities across the United States selects successful applications from the applicant pool. According to Reijmers, the award COURTESY ROBERT BISWANGER
see REIJMERS, page 3
The Trips Cabin, located alongside the Loj in New Hampshire, officially opens this weekend.
see TRIPS CABIN, page 3
Tufts researchers recognized for eradicating cattle disease BY
MINYOUNG SONG
Contributing Writer
Researchers at Tufts’ Feinstein International Center (FIC) played a leading role in Ethiopia’s successful eradication of a viral disease that kills cattle and destabilized a large group of people dependent on the livestock for survival. The Ethiopian government, along with a team from FIC and the Tufts School of Medicine, in
July celebrated the official eradication of the rinderpest virus from the country, once a hotspot for the disease commonly known as cattle plague. Research Associate Professor Jeffrey Mariner from the medical school was integral in finding the vaccine, which he began working on nearly two decades ago. The first vaccine for the rinderpest disease, created in the 1960s, was heat-sensitive and could not be transported
without refrigeration, severely limiting its effectiveness. Mariner discovered a freezedrying process in the early 1990s that would allow for a heat-stable version of the vaccine. This process greatly enhanced the versatility of this vaccine, said Andrew Catley, a research director at the FIC. He said that the new vaccine had the same ingredients as the first version, but the freeze-drying process altered its form, allowing it to be delivered
to areas where refrigeration is not an option. Tufts’ researchers helped distribute the vaccine in Ethiopia through the Global Rinderpest Eradication Program. The program has set a deadline to completely eradicate the disease by 2010. If successful, rinderpest will be the second disease eradicated in history, after smallpox, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.
Associate Professor of History Jeanne Penvenne, who studies African issues, explained that rinderpest has devastated a number of African communities throughout history. When it has “struck at critical times,” the disease has been blamed for preventing the growth of the African human population, she said, as Africans are largely dependent on cattle for food and economic see RINDERPEST, page 2
Gordon Institute welcomes new resident entrepreneur Tufts alum founded a leading software company BY
ALEXA ROSENTHALL Contributing Writer
As the university’s new entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR), Ronald Croen (LA ’76) is on a campaign to give entrepreneurship a greater presence at Tufts. Croen, founder of the software technology company Nuance Communications, is the second person to serve in the position, which represents part of an effort by the Gordon Institute’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Program (ELP) to COURTESY GORDON INSTITUTE provide students with real-world business experience. “Entrepreneurship is not in the culture here yet, but it is at other institutions such as MIT and Stanford
[University],” Croen told the Daily. “I hypothesize that there is a lot of potential in the university research sphere for commercial ventures.” Over the course of the year, Croen will divide his time between mentoring students on commercial ventures, conducting research and teaching the program’s entrepreneurial leadership class during the spring semester. So far, Croen has already started advising a doctoral candidate and Tufts alumni. The Gordon Institute loosely established the EIR position last year, giving it to Mara Aspinall ( J ’83), former president of Genzyme Genetics. Pamela Goldberg, program director of the ELP, called last year’s creation of the EIR position an “experiment” that started with a phone call from Aspinall, who was leaving her company. “It happened out of thin air,” Goldberg said. “Together we figured it out, crafted the role.” This year, the Gordon Institute invitsee CROEN, page 3
Inside this issue
JODI BOSIN/TUFTS DAILY
Initiatives like the library’s green roof highlight efforts to make Tufts’ campus more sustainable.
For Tufts, not easy being green BY
GRAHAM ROGERS Daily Staff Writer
When former University President Jean Mayer convened 22 university presidents and chancellors in Talloires, France in 1990, his goal was to enumerate the key actions universities had to take to ensure an environmentally sustainable future. The result of the meeting was the Talloires Declaration, which spelled out a 10-point
plan for the participating universities and established Tufts as an early leader of the sustainability movement. The first of its kind, the document has since been signed by more than 350 universities from over 40 countries, and Tufts continues its commitment to sustainability to this day. But Tufts is no longer the leader of the pack. When the Sustainable Endowments see SUSTAINABILITY, page 2
Today’s Sections
The band múm coats ethereal acoustic sounds in electronic veneers; this was an affecting blend at the Somerville Theatre.
With a match against undefeated Williams looming, the women’s soccer team beat Salem State 2-0 on Wednesday.
see ARTS, page 5
see SPORTS, back page
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