M O N D A Y DECEMBER 1, 2003
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVIII, No. 120
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
Bringing bigname speakers requires bargaining, connections
Brown AIDS researcher on the path to vaccine BY TED BROWN
Brown University is home to a proclaimed genius, according to Esquire magazine. The magazine included Doctor Anne DeGroot in its December issue featuring the 38 best and brightest people in America. DeGroot, also an assistant professor of community health, does research in Brown’s bio-medical department and is developing a vaccine for AIDS. The magazine looked for mavericks — people willing to push the envelope in their field of work — for the so-called genius list, she said. DeGroot said she felt honored to be included in the list. “It’s nice to be recognized for my work instead of being called crazy,” she said. She said the major difference between her lab and other labs working on an AIDS vaccine is that she is working on a globally relevant vaccine that will protect against all strains of HIV, not just strains that are prevalent in the United States. “We have some truly crazy ideas about how to make that possible,” she said. “Some
BY DANA GOLDSTEIN
Sara Perkins / Herald
The Main Green stood cold and empty over the weekend as students straggled back to campus from their Thanksgiving sojourns with friends and family. Some of those who remained on campus enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at the Third World Center's annual meal.
see VACCINE, page 3
Brown scientists named AAAS fellows BY JONATHAN HERMAN
Some Brown professors consider scientific achievement a reward in itself. But receiving honors from the American Association for the Advancement of Science isn’t bad either. Professor of Chemistry David Cane and Professor of Biology Johanna Schmitt were named AAAS Fellows in the Oct. 31 issue of Science, the weekly magazine of the AAAS. The two are among 348 scientists named fellows this year. Cane, a member of the Department of Chemistry since 1973, is an organic chemist who studies how nature makes compounds like vitamins and enzymes. “It’s like when you have a children’s toy,” Cane said. “You have three bricks and we try to understand how these blocks are snapped together.” Cane and his research associates study an antibacterial substance present in soil and Vitamin B6. After they identified the enzymes used to create these chemicals, the researchers tried to “trick” the enzyme into using different substances and observed how these variations affected the resultant molecule, Cane said. Cane said he was excited when the AAAS notified him, but was resistant to celebration. “Obviously, the main reason I do my work is to search for the answers to these scientific questions and satisfy my own curiosity,” Cane said. A professor of biology, Schmitt studies the mechanisms plants use to adapt to changes in climate. She conducts field-
work in New England and North Carolina on simple plants often used in genetic research. “We’re interested in measuring natural selection in the real environment and more doing it by traits like the number of flowers and seeds,” Schmitt said. Her group discovered that plants adapt differently in different climates. For example, a modification in an observed plant to respond better to cold weather will be more prevalent in specimens grown in New England than in North Carolina. “You could start out with the same
plants and 100 years later the ones in North Carolina would be different winners in each location.” Not even the shock of winning the fellowship could stop Schmitt from her work. “Honestly, I was too busy writing lectures and writing grant proposals to celebrate,” Schmitt said. “The reason scientists do the work (they) do is because they love it.” Herald staff writer Jonathan Herman ’07 can be reached at jherman@browndailyherald.com.
Sarah Green ’04 gives advice to seniors bothered by questions about their futures column, page 7
In the days before Thanksgiving break, the line of students hoping to obtain one of the coveted tickets to today’s lecture by filmmaker Spike Lee spilled out of Faunce House onto the Main Green. Tickets were free despite Lee’s $23,000 honorarium funded by the Lecture Board and the Undergraduate Finance Board. The Lecture Board’s annual budget of $62,854 is provided by the Undergraduate Finance Board, which draws its funds from the combined total of undergraduate student activities fees, currently $120 per student. This semester, the Lecture Board allotted $5,500 to cosponsor lectures with student groups such as the Brown Space Club, the South Asian Students Association, Brown Sistahs United and WORD, a spoken word poetry group. The rest of the budget was reserved for attracting “one big name speaker,” Lecture Board Co-President Emily Boness ’04 told The Herald last month. Boness and Lecture Board Vice President Adam Deitch ’05 described to The Herald in November the lengthy process of bringing a big name speaker to campus. Boness said the Board begins each semester with a “wish list,” taking into consideration each speaker’s cost and availability, as well as personal connections to Brown students that might encourage a celebrity to come for a reduced rate. In the past, personal connections helped bring to campus film director Martin Scorsese, MSNBC talk show host Chris Matthews P’05 and Doonesbury cartoonist Gary Trudeau P’06. Deitch said comedians Jon Stewart and Conan O’Brien are repeatedly on the “wish list,” but lacking personal connections and facing honoraria that run between $100,000 and $200,000, the Board cannot afford to bring them to campus. see LECTURE, page 3
PLME early applications rise for Class of 2008 BY AMY HALL GOINS
Applications to the Program in Liberal Medical Education are up 20 percent so far this year, a “significant increase,” according to Michael Goldberger, director of admission. The University has received 247 applications to date as part of the early decision pool, compared with 207 from last year. As of Nov. 21, the Office of Admission had received 1,907 early applications total, compared to 1,871 by the same date last year. Goldberger called the 1.9 percent increase “meaningless.” Although early decision applications for the Class of 2008 have been rolling in, Goldberger said it is too early to tell if any major patterns have emerged in
the applicant pool. Some of the early applicants will later request to be placed in the regular decision pool, he said. Likewise, some applicants have sent all their application materials, but the office has not formally coded their applications as early decision. The race and ethnicity of 20 percent of the applications have yet to be recorded but will probably be done by mid-December, he said. Applicants usually indicate their expected area of academic concentration, Goldberger said. The distribution for the various areas remained the same this year — no group had a difference greater than one percent.
I N S I D E M O N D AY, D E C E M B E R 1 , 2 0 0 3 Recent column in the Herald is unintelligent in manner presented, says Cory Saunders ’04 letter, page 6
www.browndailyherald.com
Cross country’s Gaudette ’05 becomes All-American after national competition sports, page 8
The number of students with relatives who attended Brown rose from 6 to 8 percent, he said, and applications from public school students increased by 1 percent. While there was a 2 percent rise in applications from New York, the number of applicants from the South dropped by two percent. Fifty-four percent of early decision applicants will apply for financial aid, compared to 55 percent of last year’s pool. Brown’s current early decision policy is that applicants may not apply to any other early decision or early action prosee PLME, page 3
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Antoine Walker is nearly useless for Dallas, says Andrew Tobolowsky ’07 sports column, page 8
All in all, future looks good for USC to enter Bowl College Series title game sports, page 8
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