NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper
washington square news Vol. 39, No. 41
Thursday, November 17, 2011
nyunews.com
Art and science converge in exhibit
NYUAD now open for study abroad
Though there is often a divide between science and the arts, an NYU science professor and a former art professor have bridged the gap with their drawing exhibition, “Two Points of View,” held at the Spring Studio in SoHo. Leon Axel, professor of radiology at NYU’s Langone Medical Center, first began taking drawing classes at the studio six years ago. Barbara Kerstetter, a professional artist and former NYU adjunct professor, has been drawing at the studio for roughly ten years and has occasionally taught classes there. Though Axel’s profession revolves around radiology, he said that he has always taken a keen interest in art. “I guess radiologists tend to be visually oriented people,” he said. “They’re not all art-
While hundreds of NYU students will be spending their spring semesters at study abroad staples like Paris and Florence, seven students will study abroad in Abu Dhabi for the first time. According to Chris Nicolussi, senior director of Student Services and Support in the Office of Global Programs, study abroad students will be fully immersed in NYUAD culture. The program will host through special programs like a sevenEmirate tour. Students will be permited to take most NYUAD classes. Exceptions include those that require an NYUAD specific prerequisite. Students will live in Sama Tower, where most NYUAD students, faculty and staff are currently housed. And all ex-
By Jessica Littman
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By Gentry Brown
Aarushi Chopra/WSN
Giving a hoot
Gallatin got a bit greener yesterday at the Wild NYC panel where experts discussed how urbanization affects the city’s wildlife.
STORY ON PAGE 4
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Friends and faculty react to death of Diaspora co-founder By Hanqing Chen
When he received a call from San Francisco to tell him that his close friend and fellow Diaspora co-founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy had passed away, CAS junior Raphael Sofaer said he couldn’t believe it. “He was a programmer and the best mathematician out of all of us,” he said of Zhitomirskiy. “He was the most tied to the idea of freedom of software.” The NYU alumnus and cofounder of social-networking site Diaspora, passed away last Saturday. Police found him in his San Francisco home shortly after 8 p.m. Though the cause of his death has yet to be determined, reports have suggested suicide. Zhitomirskiy was 22 years old. Zhitomirskiy is best known for creating the social network Diaspora with fellow Courant students Sofaer, Maxwell Salzberg and Daniel Grippe. The group was inspired to pioneer a decentralized, open-source social network to give users control over their own data. Evan Korth, an NYU computer science professor, said Zhitomir-
skiy had been interested in the internet’s social effects since he enrolled at NYU in 2009. “He was an extremely knowledgeable student,” Korth said. “He could speak on almost any topic. He liked to talk about the social implications of the internet.” Korth is the faculty advisor to the NYU chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery, where Zhitomirskiy and his fellow co-founders first met. One of the group’s first projects
together at the ACM was a 3-D printer called the maker-bot. Korth remembered being impressed by Zhitomirskiy’s hardware knowledge. And Zhitomirskiy’s practical know-how made him an invaluable co-worker, Sofaer said. “He was amazingly passionate and really, really adventurous,” Sofaer said. “He was persistently optimistic. He was a person who
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via flickr.com
The NYU alum and social network guru died on Sunday.
Men’s basketball preps for another winning season By John Axelrod Saturday marks the beginning of the NYU men’s basketball team’s 2011-12 season, and the Violets, who finished last season with a 16-11 overall record, are hoping to have its 28th winning season in the past 29 years. The top priority for the Violets this season will be getting to the NCAA Tournament. Last season, the Violets fell short, losing in the semifinals of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Metro Tournament. To do that, the Violets will have to improve their play in the University Athletic Association. NYU went a meager 4-10 against UAA opponents last season. Head coach Joe Nesci plans to compete with the top teams in the conference. “Our guys have been working hard and are improving,” Nesci said. “We need to do a better job on the defensive end of the floor. We need to keep sharing the ball, and we need our younger players to step up.” If the Violets can protect their
own net, they should be able to compete with any team in the UAA. On offense, the team expects to be very strong. “We have a lot of talent on offense,” sophomore guard Ryan Tana said. “We can rely on Andy [Stein] to score in the post and we have a bunch of shooters.” Stein is NYU’s 6-foot-8 center, who earned first team all UAA honors last season. He also led the team in scoring with 17.3 points per game and averaged just over five rebounds per game. Around Stein, three other starters will return from last year’s roster. Junior forward Carl Yaffe should be a key contributor. Last season, Yaffe led the team in assists, was second in rebounding and third in points per game. Junior guard Kyle Stockmal shot 45.9 percent from beyond the arc and will again be the Violets’ primary 3-point threat this season. Junior forward Max Wein will be relied on for defensive stops
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