Musician Wynton Marsalis helped them mark the moment, delivering the University of Vermont 2013 commencement address with a heartfelt talk that was wise, wry, musical, and throughout—appropriately enough for the father of Simeon Marsalis, UVM Class of 2013—fatherly. Then the New Orleans native picked up his horn and played “When the Saints Go Marching In,” the crowd clapping time.

Marsalis’ counsel to the graduates revolved around two central themes—the power of family and the importance of being present in our daily lives. His talk was laced with numerous familiar references to student life at UVM and in Burlington—Bailey/Howe Library to Club Metronome, free popcorn in the Davis Center to the cliffs of Red Rocks Park.

“Improvisation is what challenges the jazz man to give order to an unknowable moment of the present,” Marsalis said. “The size and grandeur of this moment challenges you to be present and to create the relationships you want to experience. This day is the final test of your college career. What you do is what you will do. Approach this day with grace, with grit, with graciousness, and with gratitude. This is not preparation for life. This is life.”

As Marsalis directly addressed his son Simeon and, on behalf of all of the parents and step-parents in the crowd, all of the graduates, his voice wavered with emotion. “From every changed diaper to every sickness to every shoulder ride…” Marsalis said and paused to gather himself as the crowd applauded. “And every bedtime story, every fight with a curfew, over home, over habits and even further onto all the triumphs and the failures rolled up into one. All of us, we thank you. All of you give meaning and depth to our lives and so many good times. We are so proud of you all and we fear for you. We fear because part of us is not ready to accept that you are grown. But you are. Still, to us, you will always be our baby. You will always be our child.”

Describing the bonds of family, Marsalis used the vehicle he knows best, music. Referencing the tradition of New Orleans jazz parades, he told his audience that the dancers that follow the band are called the second line. “When we play ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ we sing, ‘Oh lord, I want to be in that number.’ We are in that number today. We are your support system. Our presence today is our pride.”

Watch Marsalis' full speech on YouTube. Read a PDF of the transcript.

 At this year’s ceremonies, approximately 3,258 graduates received diplomas, including 2,577 bachelor's, 439 master's, 122 doctoral and 106 M.D. degree recipients, in addition to 14 post-baccalaureate certificates. Degree recipients are students from 44 states, as well as 79 international students from 17 countries. Approximately 1,207 graduates are from Vermont. The graduating class includes 379 African, Latino/a, Asian and Native American (ALANA) students and students identifying with two or more races.

In addition to Wynton Marsalis, four other individuals received honorary degrees at the ceremony: James Douglas, Kathy Giusti, William Meezan and Dr. John Tampas. Learn more about these recipients.

During the ceremony, the UVM Alumni Association presented the annual George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award for excellence in teaching to Richard Foote, professor of mathematics.

Eight students were honored with five university awards. Tram Tran won the Mary Jean Simpson Award, honoring the senior woman who exhibits the highest qualities of leadership, academic competence and character; Rob Rudy won the F.T. Kidder Medal, honoring the senior man ranking first in character, leadership and scholarship; Kyle DeVivo and Eliza Kelsten won the Class of 1967 Award, presented to seniors who best exhibit leadership, academic competence and character, and who have earned the respect of faculty and fellow students; Michelle Leung and Ryan Little won the Keith M. Miser Leadership Award, recognizing outstanding service to the university; and Brent Reader and Tracie Ebalu won the Elmer Nicholson Achievement Prize, recognizing the greatness of the students' UVM experiences and the expectation that they will make major contributions in their fields of interest.

Suddenly he recalled another deadline, a commissioned poem about a painting from a favorite artist, Romare Bearden. He’s chosen Calypso’s Magical Garden – Calypso the nymph in Greek mythology, the seductress who held Odysseus hostage on her island, the enchantress who lured Jackson back into his world of words. “It’s bad,” his new poem begins, “when a man doesn’t own even his dreams/a faint head full of the scent of a woman…”

That’s what tax extensions are for.

It wasn’t his accounting skills, of course, that won Jackson a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship, one of the most prestigious honors granted to “midcareer” academics and artists who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation receives between 3,500 and 4,000 applications each year and awards approximately 200 fellowships.

Established in 1925 by former United States Senator and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim, in memory of their seventeen-year-old son who died in 1922, the foundation has sought to "add to the educational, literary, artistic, and scientific power of this country, and also to provide for the cause of better international understanding."

Jackson is the author of three collections of poetry: Holding Company, Hoops and Leaving Saturn, which was awarded the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry. He has published poems and essays in periodicals including AGNI, American Poetry Review, Callaloo, The New Yorker and Tin House. His work has been included in Best American Poetry (2004, 2011) and Best of the Best American Poetry. Poetry editor of the Harvard Review, Jackson, among other honors, has been a recipient of a Pushcart Prize and a Whiting Writers' Award.

“It is good to follow in the long tradition of poets I've admired who have also been awarded a Guggenheim,” he says. “It is fortifying and affirming.

Jackson’s grant proposal is to pursue the intriguing story of Edmonia Lewis, an African American woman who studied at Oberlin before the Civil War, stood trial for the alleged poisoning of her roommates, was acquitted and went on to become an internationally acclaimed sculptor, living most of her life in Rome. It’s a story with many twists and unknowns, of a woman who, in many ways, transcended her race given the time in which she lived, and in others, even in a progressive place like Oberlin, could not.

“She didn’t respect the boundaries between races,” Jackson says, and she was kidnapped, brutally beaten and left in a field after she was accused. Her lawyer, John Mercer Langston – great uncle of the poet Langston Hughes – provides the primary source for her story. Jackson’s ambition is to write a verse play about her trial, placed within history yet using modern techniques to appeal to a contemporary audience.

‘Writing in miniatures’

Jackson has longed used art metaphors to talk about poetry, particularly for his students. In class before workshopping their poems – he assigns one a week, which he admits is intense – Jackson compares the luxury of prose writers working on a large canvas to the constraints on poets, writing in miniatures where every stroke has weight.

Four years ago he started The Painted Word poetry series in which he brings established and emerging poets to read at the Fleming Museum once a month. While these are events open to everyone, Jackson is driven by the desire to give students the opportunity to come in close contact with working poets. This spring’s series will wrap up, however, with the first annual student reading on Wednesday, April 24 at 6 p.m. “The students really do astound me with their poems every semester,” he says. “I could have built the whole series around their work.”

Jackson is inspired both to nurture his students as poets and also to be part of the broad conversation about poetry in and outside of the academy: “I want to help shape the dialogue particularly around poetry and race and our collective American literary inheritance.” 

But with or without Calypso’s call, Jackson’s art is who he is, above publishing books and winning prizes. Writing, he says, is the only way he lives and grows in the world. Experiences filter through his imagination and demand interpretation. “That’s the pressure,” he says. “Not the pressure of a career or to produce but to know that my existence is so tied with how I process it through this thing called the poem… I walk it.”

Milestones are many for Jody Williams ’72 these days. It’s twenty years since the founding of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Fifteen years since the Mine Ban Treaty was signed by 122 nations. And fifteen years since the Oct. 10, 1997 morning when her phone rang with the news that she and the ICBL had been selected for the Nobel Peace Prize, a call that would bring international media up an unlikely mile-long dirt road in Putney, Vt., and change Williams’ life immeasurably. All are captured in My Name is Jody Williams: A Vermont Girl’s Winding Path to the Nobel Peace Prize, just published by the University of California Press.

Williams currently co-chairs the Nobel Women’s Initiative, which brings the shared influence of the six living female recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize to bear on issues of peace, justice, and equality, work that includes their current focus on an international campaign to stop rape and gender violence in conflict. Last May, she also helped launch a campaign to halt the use of fully autonomous killer robots. The many working on this effort include her husband, Stephen Goose, a colleague in the land mine work and current director of the arms division of Human Rights Watch.

Vermont Quarterly editor Tom Weaver talked with Williams on the phone the morning of December 12, shortly after she’d returned home to Fredericksburg, Va., from a long round of travel that took her to Geneva and Berlin for anniversary events. After excusing herself early in the conversation to take a moment to let her German shepherd Sophie in from the yard and towel off  her muddy paws, Williams fielded questions with her typical frankness and humor.

VQ: Why did you want to write the book at this point in your life?

Williams: Too often for my taste, giants of change are stripped of the flaws, weaknesses and complexities that make us all human and the focus is solely on their strengths. Then, all buffed up and made almost earthly saints, they are put on a pedestal where they seem far beyond the reach of “ordinary” people. They become intimidating and hard to relate to and it’s hard to believe they are or were as human as we are or that we mere mortals could ever accomplish such things, too.  

In all honesty, I wanted to write this book because I know how many people think they are powerless in this world with so many issues challenging us. I know they are not. They just need to understand about activism and change and that we all can find ways to contribute. I am an inspiring speaker—much comes from the fact that I talk straight with people. I do the same in the book. I am who I am, and I don’t try to pretend I’ve not made good and bad choices like everyone else I know. I think I help people realize that they, too, can make changes in the world without having to turn into a saint to do it. 

You’re candid in the book, and have said the same in past talks at UVM, that you were in search of a major and a focus during your college years and didn’t really find it until years after your graduation. Do you think that’s an important message for students to hear?

Yeah, I don’t think you have to decide who you are when you’re eighteen, for god’s sake. I think there is too much emphasis these days—at least from my perception outside—that you have to know what you want to be, that you should really try to do something that can earn you tons of money, and that you should, you know, “stay on the path.” I think that helps to diminish critical thinking and makes students really narrowly focused.

How was it working on the book? Do you enjoy writing?

Yes. I haven’t in a while, but I also love writing poetry. I have a stack of poems from different periods in my life and I’d like to get back to that. I, obviously, do lots of political writing. There are a few things I do well, I think. I’m a good writer; I’m very good at building coalitions; and I’m an excellent public speaker. I believe you should focus on what you do well, because there is not that much time in life to try to perfect things you can’t do. For example, I’m not a good manager of staff. I suck at it, frankly. I knew I just couldn’t do it, didn’t want to do it, so I didn’t do it.

You mention being petrified for your first public speaking experience?

I don’t know many people who actually are thrilled the first time they speak publicly.

True enough. I was looking at your TED Talk and it’s clear that you have that ability to just “talk” rather than “deliver” a speech.

Yes, I think I’ve only delivered a speech twice. One was in Japan where they insisted I had to write something so they could translate it. It was horrible, just staring at the paper and reading it aloud. Really terrible.

You write in the book, “For me, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize hasn’t been all joy and wonder. At first I was perplexed about how to understand it in relation to my work…” Tell me about that period and how you came to terms with it.

Just because one can speak coherently in public does not mean that one is an extrovert, right? If I tell people that I’m an introvert they look stupid about it, to be honest. Then I have to take a lot of time to explain what an introvert is, that you can still develop a public persona — which doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t rather be sitting home reading a book.

I had been very happy coordinating the campaign. I saw the job as I described it in the book; everybody knew what they were supposed to do. I spoke, certainly, but the focus wasn’t on me. But then, suddenly, with the prize I was the only one people wanted to speak to. And that enraged me for everybody else in the campaign who had always had a voice. Suddenly, we’re looked at like I had this gigantic staff or something, instead of that we were colleagues in the movement.

That angered me a lot on behalf of all the people who made the ban happen. That wasn’t just me; I was part of it. That lack of understanding made me nuts. Also, all of a sudden, I am invited to speak as a Nobel Laureate. I didn’t know what that meant. What did that mean?

One time I was together with Archbishop Tutu at a Nobel conference in Virginia, and somebody asked him what changed after the Peace Prize. He said, “Before I spoke about the same things over and over and over, and nobody listened. Suddenly, I got the Peace Prize and everything I said was a pearl of wisdom.”

I didn’t like that. I didn’t know what to do with it. I cried a lot the first few years. I’m not the only one (laughs), but I won’t say who else cried. It was just confusion. Sometimes I’ll still come home and cry, but it’s not crying the same way. It just takes so much of my energy to do these things that I come home and kind of fall apart. The longer I’ve been on the road, the longer it takes me to be alone at home and get some more energy to go back out and do what I have to do.

In the book you write about effectively using a fax machine as a “techno-sexy” way to advance the work of the ICBL. That feels like a long time ago, I bet. Have you continued to harness technology in ways that aid your work?

Sure, I tweet and do all that stuff. I still see it as a tool; I don’t see it as an end in itself. I say this when I public speak: People who think that signing a petition online is activism, don’t understand activism. They massage their sense of having to do something by pushing a button on a petition and feeling they’ve done great good in the world. I’m not saying they’re not useful tools. But to believe that is activism, I think, is a little dangerous.

In Egypt, for example, when there was this sense that the movement that got people into Tahrir Square was all about the cell phone—it wasn’t. The cell phone was a tool to communicate with other people so they’d turn out at the same time. If nobody had turned out into the square, there would have been no movement. I spend a fair amount of time trying to get people to understand that.

You mention that you’ve come to see your role as “an international social worker.” What do you mean by that?

A social worker, in theory, is trying to advance the needs of human beings in their community or in their home, getting their basic needs met at least. And I guess that is what I do in the world. I believe in human security, not national security. Not that there shouldn’t be national security, but I think that the emphasis should be on human security — which means serving the basic needs of individual human beings, not protecting the structure of the state. So it’s kind of the same to me. I didn’t think about it this way until I taught at the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston.

You’ve spoken out on the need to reclaim what “peace” means. Could you elaborate a bit on this?

You know the terms — peacenik, tree-hugging liberal, all that ridiculousness — those are words that try to emasculate and disempower people who believe that sustainable peace is a possible reality. It is to make you look like a weakling, somebody who “doesn’t get it.” I think that we need to tackle that head on and affirm that building peace is damn hard work and that you have to do it every day.

I give the examples of Martin Luther King and the years in the streets and the people he helped motivate to work against racism, or Mandela, or all the icons you can name in the world. What they did was hard work every day. They didn’t sit around and sing “Kumbaya” for god’s sake. They were strategizing. They were putting their bodies on the line. If you think that’s wimpy and tree-hugging and a peacenik, then I don’t know how you think.

This interview appears in the spring 2013 issue of Vermont Quarterly magazine. Read an excerpt from Williams' book on the VQ website.

Generations of UVM students have learned about reporting and editing, photography and layout, late nights and immovable deadlines and the thrill of a byline at the Vermont Cynic.

The university's student-run newspaper is 130 years old and still going strong. For two years in a row, the paper has received a Pacemaker Award, placing it in the top rank of college journalism.

Watch the video for a glimpse behind the scenes on deadline night.

A few years from now if Luke Apfeld fulfills his dream of becoming a civil rights attorney on his way to a second career as an English professor, and Sandro Carissimo is a successful investment banker back home in New York City, it will come as no surprise to their teammates on the men’s basketball team or their classmates in UVM’s Honors College. 

The close friends and junior roommates, who helped lead the Catamounts to an NCAA Tournament win last season, are a rare college basketball tandem: teammates who lead their program in both scoring and grade point average. Apfeld, a 6-foot-7 forward with a double major in English and sociology, owns a 3.8 GPA to go along with his 10.3 scoring average, while Carissimo, 6-foot-2 point guard with a 3.6 GPA in accounting and finance in the School of Business Administration, averages 9.3 points per game.

“We have a lot of common interests, we’re both pretty low key and take our academics seriously,” says Apfeld, one of only eleven players in the nation named to the 2012 Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association Scholar-Athlete Team. “It’s nice to know that when you come back to the apartment you’ll be able to study, and it will be pretty clean. It’s a productive environment.”

For both members of the All-Academic America East team (only five are selected from the conference each year), success in academics came long before it did in basketball, especially for Apfeld who was a late bloomer on the court. He focused instead on his studies and playing classical piano two hours a day while growing up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, driving with his mother to Atlanta for lessons and to participate in competitions. Apfeld’s passion switched to basketball as he began to excel at the sport in middle school about the time his family moved to New England. He enrolled at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, where he would become a star player, class president, and an accomplished jazz pianist. (Assessing his roommate’s keyboard prowess, Carissimo makes it plain: “He’s really good.”)

“My parents always stressed academics,” says Apfeld, who lived in Switzerland as a young child and has an older brother who went to Brown and a sister at Rice University. “Since an early age basketball wasn’t my focus, so when it became a possibility I already had the academic foundation.”

Apfeld’s hoop dreams almost came crashing down after tearing his ACL twice within a sixteen-month stretch before graduating from Brewster. Some schools backed off, but UVM made good on its full scholarship offer and supported Apfeld after a third ACL surgery and a medical redshirt season in 2009-2010. “It’s pretty amazing what he’s been able to accomplish considering that he’s blown out his ACL three times,” says UVM Head Coach John Becker.

Carissimo also experienced a setback in high school at high-powered Iona Prep when he suffered an illness before his senior season. He’d already built a reputation as a solid shooting guard on New York City’s legendary Riverside Hawks AAA program (producer of more than ninety NBA players), and later with the famed New York Gauchos.

“For a while my life was academics and basketball,” says Carissimo, who has applied for internships at Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Merrill Lynch after reaching out to UVM alums at each financial institution. Looking back on his college choice, he says, “I visited Yale and some other Ivy League schools, but I knew that UVM was a Public Ivy and that if I applied myself here I could do anything I wanted after graduation.”

Not long after arriving on campus, Carissimo was asked to make the difficult transition of playing the two-guard position to running offense as the team’s point guard. Becker says he seamlessly took over the position and promptly guided the Catamounts to ten straight wins as a freshman. Carissimo, who holds Italian citizenship and would like to play there professionally after graduation, continues to improve at the position and is continuing UVM’s tradition of producing point guard prodigies such as Howard Hudson ’86, Kenny White ’92, Eddie Benton ’96, David Roach ’00, T.J. Sorrentine ’05 and Mike Trimboli ’09.

“We get notes from professors telling us how well Luke and Sandro do in their classes,” says Becker. “It’s been a pleasure having them on the team and watching them set a positive example for our younger players. I think their best is yet to come.”

It used to be just generals, presidents and criminals who wanted to encrypt secrets. Now it's a necessity for anyone who wants some privacy on their phone, and math theorist John Voight is advancing today's science of secrecy.

For his insights into some of these patterns, including his work on elliptical curves (another mathematical principle at the backbone of today's cutting edge cryptography), Voight won the prestigious Selfridge Prize in 2010 given out by the Number Theory Foundation; he has received support for his research from the National Security Agency; and, in July of this year, he was the winner of a $400,000 CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation, one the government's highest honors for young scientists.


To get a glimpse into how Voight's research might protect privacy in coming decades try this easy problem: Multiply the prime numbers 6,451 and 7,307.



With your pencil, you'll get 47,137,457 in a few minutes. Simple. But now reverse the problem. Take this 47,137,457 and give it to some friends. Let them use a basic calculator. Ask them to find the prime factors -- the two whole numbers that multiply to get this number. They'll be at it for hours until they come to 6,451 and 7,307.



Sure, a computer could figure out this puzzle quickly, mostly by raw trial and error. But increase the size of your two prime numbers to something large, in the neighborhood of, say, 200 or 300 digits.



It's still pretty easy to multiply these two large numbers together. It would only take a moment for a computer. But going in reverse, finding the prime factors that made this large product "would take longer than the lifetime of the universe," Voight says, "using all the computing resources in the world."



Easy in, hard out



That one-way street, in essence, is the heart of modern cryptography and online security. "It is the difficulty of taking a large integer and factoring it into primes that is the basis of the most widely used cryptosystem, RSA, (named for its inventors, Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman)," Voight says.



Of course, there is a lot of complexity, padding, and variation in the application of this approach, but the central idea is this: the product of two or more prime numbers can be built into a so-called "public key" encryption system. This key can be made available to anyone, like shoppers on a website, who wants to encrypt a message quickly. (People won't tolerate waiting more than a few seconds on Amazon for their "Buy It Now" message to go through.) But only the people who know the original prime numbers can unlock the message at the other end.



It's the same basic mathematical tool used by the CIA or your smartphone to take plain words or credit card numbers -- and hide them within impregnable codes.



Prime proof



Or, at least today, codes made this way seem impregnable.



Since ancient times, mathematicians have tried and failed to find a solution to integer factorization. Many think it is a fundamental law of mathematics that there are no good shortcuts or fast algorithms to solve this problem.



But, Voight is quick to point out, the absence of success is by no means a rigorous mathematical proof. Somebody might solve this factorization problem tomorrow -- discovering a deep pattern -- and the systems that protect government secrets and clandestine purchases at Victoria's Secret would crumble.



"We don't have any proof yet that these systems are secure," Voight says. And the possible arrival of unfathomably fast quantum computers might also change the security equation.



Number theory



Voight's research gets to the mathematical heart of these cyber security concerns. While his work is removed from applied cryptography, he is doing basic research that is expanding the mathematical toolbox that could improve current cryptography or give rise to the next generation of systems.



"Number theory is my subject," says Voight, an assistant professor with appointments in both mathematics and computer science, "and number theory at its heart is the study of prime numbers."



"The prime numbers conspire against those that try to study them in the sense that they do exhibit remarkable patterns," Voight says. "When you see them at large, you see patterns begin to arise. But proving that those patterns hold true is very difficult."



"John has a rare combination of computational wizardry with deep theoretical insight," says Matthew Greenberg, a professor at the University of Calgary and Voight's collaborator.



"Nothing could exist more purely in thought than primes," Voight says. Indeed, when astronomers are looking for extraterrestrial intelligence they beam out the sequence of prime numbers, he says, "because we know that whatever civilization is out there -- they won't care about the Kardashians -- but they will be able to understand the sequence of prime numbers."



And from this seemingly simple string of numbers, a torrent of theoretical complexity and chaotic practical problems rolls down.

While UVM has been collecting food waste from the dining halls since 1997 and diverts nine tons of food each week from the landfill, a new bicycle-based program is the first centralized effort to provide a composting alternative within departmental and program offices. Learn more in this video.

Jill Rosenblum Tidman ’94 keenly remembers the moment her worldview shifted in Professor Stephanie Kaza’s introductory environmental studies class. The alumna had grown up in St. Louis with a solid education and caring parents: “I felt like I kind of understood the world.” Yet, as the discussion in Kaza’s class that particular day homed in on a litany of environmental degradation, the barrage of bad news pushed her to a personal tipping point. “I got mad. I could not believe I didn't know the trajectory we were on. I felt cheated of information,” she recalls. “I thought, ‘If I don’t know this coming from my background, there’s got to be a lot of people who don't understand what is going on with the planet.'”

A philosophy major, Tidman rounded out her classes for an environmental studies minor and made a commitment. “It was very clear to me that there was nothing else for me to do in this life but to try to get the information out there, so that we have a chance of changing course. I felt a responsibility and there was no turning back.”

Post-graduation, that put Tidman’s career on a green course that included business, fundraising, writing, government, event planning and eventually promoting environmental causes through the arts. Her latest effort in that regard is Watershed: Exploring a New Water Ethic for the New West, an hour-long documentary she co-produced with Jamie Redford under the auspices of the Redford Center.

Restoring a river

Sweeping views of sinuous river and red rock canyon open Watershed as Robert Redford’s voice, a timbre that in itself evokes the American West, lays out the factual backdrop: “The Colorado is the most dammed, dibbed, and diverted river in the world… a machine supporting the needs of 30 million people.” And, perhaps the saddest fact of all — the Colorado now dries up some 90 miles short of its natural end at the Gulf of California. What’s a filmmaker to do?

“We felt like the best way to approach this was to really focus on the human dimension of the story through people who have a stake in the Colorado River Basin,” says co-producer Jamie Redford (Robert’s son). “Our action item is to return that flow to the Gulf of California and a baseline awareness story that people can connect to on a human level and on an emotional level is the best start to encouraging people to take action.”

Those human stories introduce viewers to a rancher in Durango, Colo., a county commissioner of the Navajo Nation in Shiprock, N.M., and a bike messenger in Los Angeles, among others. While they’re all bound by their dependence on the water supply of the Colorado River Basin, they’re also united by a sense of commitment and personal action. That positive slant, a light in the doom and gloom, is essential to the film’s power as a motivational tool, Jamie Redford believes. “We’re almost at a crossroads where the decision is are we going to throw our hands up and go into acceptance and denial or are we going to continue to do what we can?”

It’s an approach Tidman has pursued in the six years she’s worked on films with the Redford Center — making environmental issues relevant, human, and leaving audiences with both a sense of hope and a path for action. For Robert Redford, who has portrayed the likes of the Sundance Kid, Jay Gatsby, and Bob Woodward, environmental activist may prove to be one of his greatest roles. Film is his natural vehicle as he continues to leverage a movie star’s fame and fortune to create societal change. “He is incredibly supportive and very involved,” Tidman says. “All of this is happening because of who he is, his vision, his advocacy, and his belief that art really can have an impact on people through storytelling.”

Out in the world

At home in San Francisco these days, Jill and Wil Tidman ’95 are a very busy two-career, two-kids (Quincy, two; Stella, ten months) family. Wil, a psychology major and varsity soccer player at UVM, has worked in sports and entertainment marketing with Nike and Red Bull, and now runs media production for GoPro Camera. “It’s a fast-paced situation right now,” Jill Tidman says with a laugh, adding that working at home, working nights, and having relatives happy to visit San Francisco to babysit all help with the juggling act.

Her initial connection to the Redford Center came about through work on climate change in local government with then-mayor of Salt Lake City Rocky Anderson. When Sundance Resort hosted a national mayors’ conference on climate change, Tidman was brought in to brand the event and make it happen. A green poetry slam contest was among the initiatives she initiated that contributed to the conference’s success. And that would lead to her first film project with the Redford Center, an executive producer role in creating Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars.

Now that Watershed is completed and lined up for screenings from Istanbul to Barcelona to Burlington, Tidman enjoys the satisfaction of seeing the work go forth, harboring no regret that she can’t make it to every festival, city, or campus where it’s shown. “For me, it’s much more fulfilling to know this is happening than to be there,” she says. “I like getting it done, making the most of it, figuring out ways to get this film out in the world and in front of people.”

Those who see Watershed will meet a young woman on an Outward Bound rafting trip passing through the hush of Echo Park at the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers. With a tone that suggests equal parts wonder and betrayal, she says, “I was really shocked that the Colorado River does not reach its delta. I knew that there were dams, but I thought that people made minor changes without interfering with the river as a whole. I had no idea it was all gone before it reached where it should go.”

That sort of revelation is what it’s all about, as Jill Tidman well knows.

The job ahead, according to Mondale, requires both a collaborator and a person who can make tough decisions. “A president… must unite imagination and vision with practical know-how and be ready to make progress the old-fashioned way: through hard work and determination,” he said. “I’m glad to announce that your new president, Tom Sullivan, is that kind of man. He is brilliant; he is a scholar; he is a teacher. He is a fine, decent man.”

Before coming to UVM, Sullivan served for 15 years at the University of Minnesota, the last eight as senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, and a number of other prominent Minnesotans were here to speak in his honor, including university president emeritus Robert Bruininks, under whom Sullivan served. Bruininks called his former colleage a “bold, compassionate, very wise leader.”

Before a capacity crowd in Ira Allen Chapel, Senator Bernie Sanders, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and UVM board of trustees chair Robert Cioffi also offered remarks – extending a warm welcome to both Sullivan and his wife, alumna Leslie Black Sullivan ’77 – during the ceremony which was attended by dozens of delegates from institutions across the country including the University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse and the University of Michigan.

In his presidential address, Sullivan called on historic words from Robert Kennedy that fired his spirit during his own college years and beyond: “Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say, why not?” The president’s vision for the university is fueled by Kennedy’s challenge, to “lift expectations,” Sullivan said, “and aspire to yet unconsidered greatness.”

That goal for the president is centered squarely on academic excellence at UVM and he presented four “pathways” towards achieving success. The first and top priority, Sullivan said, is making education affordable through scholarships and financial aid. Second is “rebalancing priorities and investing in this university’s strengths to create a distinctive teaching and learning environment.” Choices, he said firmly, must be made.

Among the specifics he offered for improving student learning and success is to develop a new enrollment management plan that would lower the student/faculty ratio, decrease class size for undergraduate enrollment and grow graduate programs.

The third pathway the president identified is to improve facilities and support creativity and “breakthrough” research in order to attract and retain the highest quality faculty and staff, noting that our faculty have – and must continue to – generate preeminent scholarship and artistic work of major consequence. Providing competitive, first-rate facilities and research infrastructure for engineering, science and medical laboratories, Sullivan said, is an immediate priority.

Fourth, and central to the mission of the state’s university, is outreach throughout Vermont to further economic development, health, civic life and environmental sustainability. “At UVM,” Sullivan said, “teaching, learning and research are inextricably linked with serving the needs of the state, New England and the nation as we play a leadership role in helping to solve local, regional, national and international problems.”

Fostering relevance and trust; passionate and independent-minded students; and research discoveries that benefit society for a lifetime are the achievements that Sullivan set forth for the university. It is a mission, he says, that will require everyone’s support. He called for a campus community that works together as well as listens, learns and supports each other. Sullivan also plans a bold, creative and comprehensive campaign.

Any skeptics need only listen to the former vice president. “I thought he was out of his mind,” quipped Mondale, an alumnus and benefactor of the University of Minnesota Law School, where President Sullivan, a nationally recognized authority on antitrust law and complex litigation, was dean for seven years. He was recalling Sullivan’s announcement that he would raise $30 million for a decaying law school in five years. “He went to work, he pulled everybody together and he raised $52 million,” in just three or so years Mondale said, rebuilding not only the physical structure but the school’s stature and quality of faculty and coursework.

“It was truly transformative,” Mondale said. “And he did it by getting together with the community, leading, listening, performing the kind of leadership that every higher educational institution needs... Tom believes in the power of raising aspirations and setting ambitious goals. And the power of his beliefs are contagious.”

Sullivan’s address was followed by a choral performance from the University Catamount Singers and celebratory remarks from award-winning author and poet Patricia Hampl, Regents Professor and McKnight Distinguished Professor of English also from Minnesota’s flagship university.

Hampl drew laughs – along with knowing nods of recognition – as she confessed the “crabby lot” of English professors who may feel squeezed out by engineers and applied mathematicians. “Not so long ago from our point of view, that is to say, the Middle Ages, “ Hampl said, “our work – rhetoric and the arts of language – were… the foundation of why universities came into existence. But unfortunately those big rhetoric research dollars began to dry up several centuries ago.” Now she reassures faculty in the humanities. “Tom has proved himself to be an extraordinary supporter of the arts in relationship to their public presence… you got the right guy.”

Hampl closed with a beloved poem by a most beloved Vermont poet, ending with Robert Frost’s lines, “'Two roads diverged in a wood, and I– / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.'

Tom," she said, "I know you’ll make all the difference here.”

See more photos of the installation on Flickr:

Those who live in Burlington and attend UVM already know that the city and the university offer something special. Rankings reports released over the past several months have further spread the word around the country about how good we have it.

Burlington and UVM have graced "best of" lists for everything from our food scene to our campus offerings for outdoor enthusiasts. Read on for a roundup of how we rank:

UVM

• UVM is again listed among U.S. News and World Report's annual "Best Colleges" list. Coming in this year at number 92, UVM is among the top-third of national universities.
• Also on the 2013 U.S. News lists is the College of Medicine, which ranks 27th among best primary care medical schools and 57th for research.
• From the data culled to create the U.S. News rankings, the publication also creates a series called "The Short List," one of which ranks the most selective medical schools in the country. UVM's College of Medicine holds spot number eight.
• Outside magazine created a top 25 list of the best colleges for its readers, outdoor enthusiasts. Citing the university's 100-year-old Outing Club; the Wilderness TREK program for new students; campus proximity to Lake Champlain, the Green Mountains and Adirondacks; and engaging, fieldwork-based courses, Outside awarded rank number nine to UVM.
• The university also made a first-of-its-kind listing this year when Campus Pride, the national organization that works to create safer, more inclusive colleges and universities for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, published its "Top Ten List for Trans-Friendly Schools."
• Campus Pride also included UVM among its "Top Twenty-Five LGBT-Friendly Schools," and top college review website Unigo.com ranked UVM in its top ten schools "where there's pride and no prejudice" -- a listing of the colleges providing the best support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.
• Vermont is the most inventive state, CNNMoney reports, and UVM research is cited as a top driver of patent activity.

Burlington, Vt.

• Business Insider calls Burlington one of "The 15 Hottest American Cities Of The Future," thanks in large part to its emergence as a leader in sustainability.
• Parenting magazine calls Burlington one of the "Best Cities for Families." "Home of the University of Vermont, Burlington attracts college students who initially come for school and return to the city when they are ready to settle down."
• Burlington is number 11 on a list of "America's Leading High-Tech Metros" compiled by The Atlantic Cities. The ranking considers the number of high-tech companies as well as patents per capita and average annual patent growth.
• Vermont topped this year's Locavore Index, which figures the per-capita rate of farmer's markets plus community-supported agriculture farms, no shortage of which can be found within and surrounding Burlington.
• Another reason for students to consider taking summer classes: the 2013 Farmer's Almanac says Burlington's weather places it among the five best summer locations. "There are few days each summer when temperatures rise to 90 or above; but nighttimes cool off to the mid to upper 50s," the almanac reports.

Read more recent acclaim about the university and its hometown.

You won’t hear it from UVM track and field coach Matt Belfield, but the timing of the recent qualification of three athletes for the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships and the opening of the $2.5 million Frank H. Livak Track and Field Facility seemed more than coincidental.

“You can always find excuses not to have success,” Belfield said prior to the opening of the new facility. “You could have the best facilities, best weather, and the best coaching staff, and you can still find an excuse if you want to. But you can also find a reason to be successful, and that’s what the mindset has been here.”

Belfield’s no-excuses mantra has led the only Division I track team in the nation without a track for nine seasons to surprising success since the university’s former asphalt oval was removed in 2004 to make way for the artificial turf of Moulton Winder Field. In addition to some top-half team finishes at the America East Championships, individuals have qualified for regional and national competitions and set outdoor school records.

But it would be hard not to factor in the benefits of the new facility on the 2012 record-breaking season and the boost in pride that came with hosting the first outdoor track and field meet at UVM in 15 years on April 17 against Middlebury had on the program.

Even Belfield acknowledged the impact of the opening of the nine-lane polyurethane surfaced track with adjacent field areas in the fall with the All-American performances at the NCAA Championships by senior Morgan Powers (13th place in the 10,000-meters); sophomore Nika Ouelette (14th place in the javelin); and Junior Kirsten Weberg (17th place in the 3000-meter steeplechase), capping off one of the best performances by a UVM trio in school history.

“To actually quantify what the facility meant in terms of actual performance would be virtually impossible, but my feeling is that its existence has made a difference,” said Belfield. “That being said, the same principles of focusing on what you can control, and not fretting about those things you cannot control, will certainly remain an important aspect of any individual's success. Going out and executing to the best of your ability, regardless of circumstances, will always be a measure of a true champion.”

Officially opened at the Archie Post Athletic Complex in October 2011, the new facility includes a grass infield for javelin and discus events; an adjacent throwing area to be used for hammer throw and shot put training and competition; and two multidirectional long jump and pole vault runways and pits, along with bleacher seating for 350 spectators.

Belfield thinks the new facility impacted athletes somewhat differently based upon their event. Javelin throwers benefitted greatly from having a synthetic runway from which to throw, he said. The wider radius of the outdoor track allowed for safer and more efficient training for hurdlers and sprinters, while all field event athletes benefitted from enhanced training environments.

“Our distance runners benefit too, especially the steeple chasers having barriers on a 400-meter track to practice on,” he added. “Overall, the surface made everyone's body happy I think. Everyone benefited from the excitement of the new track and what it meant about the program moving forward with support from the university.”

The facility was made possible in large part by a $1 million donation from the late Frank Livak ’41, a standout cross country runner at UVM who has been a generous benefactor and supporter of the university. Key donations were also provided by two daughters and a granddaughter of legendary UVM coach Archie Post ’27, and track letter-winner Jim McDonald, whose son Ryan also ran track at UVM.

“A lot of people have really stepped up to make this happen,” says Bob Corran, associate vice president and director of athletics. “The new facility is a critically important campus resource that will be used by multiple constituent user groups both on and off campus. Not only is it a valuable university resource that will enhance the overall student experience, but it allows us to host events like the America East Championships that will bring people here from all across the region.”

Just how much of a boost the new facility will provide for the program in terms of recruiting and future success remains to be seen, but Belfield sounds realistically optimistic.

“I just want to make sure that people don’t think that the track is going to turn us into superstars or that it’s the end-all, be-all for why we’re successful,” says Belfield. “Women’s and men’s distance runners are still going to be attracted to this place because it’s a high academic institution and it’s a beautiful place to run cross country. Conversely, I’m not anticipating that a lot of sprinters from warmer parts of the country are going to start coming here. But I do think we’re going to get more New England-area sprinters, jumpers, and hurdlers because now there’s a place for them to compete outdoors. Ultimately, it’s about the quality of the people you bring in and to some extent the level of instruction you provide them.”

With a mere $900 in capital, BioTek Instruments set its course in 1968 when Norm Alpert, professor of physiology and biophysics in UVM’s College of Medicine, and his colleague George Luhr, head of the university’s instrumentation and model facility, began mixing biology and technology inside Luhr’s Charlotte garage. The friends, who had in tandem uprooted their careers and families to relocate from Chicago to Vermont several years earlier, wanted to create tools to help colleagues perform their clinical research. The duo transformed that garage into a re-think tank. Regardless of the nature of the request, each one called for a product that could capture precise, repeatable measurement of biological events.

Fast-forward more than forty years later, and the Winooski-based business is a true Vermont/UVM success story. BioTek is a global business, a leading manufacturer of devices and software related to the use of microplates — a series of test tubes, condensed and consolidated into a single plate, that are critical in many research and public health procedures from testing for bird flu to ensuring the safety of blood supplies.

Today, the late Norm Alpert’s sons, Briar, CEO, and Adam, vice president, continue to grow the enterprise their father began, making it a top priority to sustain the personal and business ethics that guided him. “Dad had a real romance with science,” Adam, UVM Class of 1980, says. “But above all he was a teacher. His greatest pleasure was seeing other people self-actualize.”

While Norm Alpert and George Luhr would nurture BioTek from its work-bench beginnings to a $10 million per year business, and the next generation would come on to help build it to a $100 million per year business, BioTek’s ascension has not been a straight line skyward. “There were a lot of ‘near death experiences’ before I came,” Briar, UVM Class of 1983, says, smiles, and adds, “and I contributed to some during my own experience.” Looking back, he recalls one of his father’s favorite phrases — onward and upward. “He had an optimism and a belief that everything was going to work out OK — that he’d figure it out through perseverance.”

These days, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration relies on BioTek equipment for E. coli testing; so, too, does the Red Cross for checking the safety of the nation’s blood supply. Microplates also come into play for forensic and genetic testing, in addition to drug experiments for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease. When the bird flu epidemic swept the globe last year, BioTek equipment swept into action checking 100,000 birds for the virus.

Because BioTek products run complex protocols without human intervention or error, the humans creating those instruments must be equally precise in their work. “We have to be 100-percent right all the time,” says Briar, explaining that life and death decisions are made based on the results provided by BioTek instruments. “We have a shared responsibility to each other. For us to win, everyone here has to do their job well.”

So the brothers place considerable focus on ensuring the health, happiness, and success of the three hundred individuals who comprise the company. More than two-thirds of these “contributors,” as Adam refers to them, operate out of BioTek’s 65,000-square-foot facility in Winooski. The rest are direct sales representatives who live in the region they supply and service. BioTek outposts are also located in Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Singapore, and China.

“It’s not about working harder, but making it easier for the people who work with us to do their jobs right,” Adams says. “Talent wins. Get it. Retain it. Improve it. That’s the macro-concept of human capital — and it’s the only way Americans can remain competitive against China.” Bio Tek’s effort to get and retain a top-notch staff is bolstered by the company’s creative environment and a progressive, even fun, benefits package that would be the envy of many. They provide a number of incentives to promote healthy lifestyles for employees, and racks full of bikes (even in early winter) speak to the Vermont eco-ethic of the people and place.

Running a forward-thinking business — with old-fashioned values — from northern New England in this era is a very different challenge than Norm and George faced back in the day. But for the Alpert brothers, there’s no place like home. They’re pleased with the market share they’ve been able to earn from here — about 15 percent of a $600-million worldwide industry. While it might be easy to find reasons to move or outsource, the company is sold on the state and the lifestyle advantages it offers employees. BioTek earned the Deane C. Davis Outstanding Vermont Business of the Year Award in 2010, an honor recognizing commitment to economic growth, a positive work environment, and local community support.

The renovated George D. Aiken Center’s credentials as an environmental standout are hard to miss. The solarium in the building, which re-opened in January after an eighteen-month, $13 million rehab, boasts an “eco-machine” for treating waste water, nearly every interior wall is ribbed with Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood paneling, and its green roof features eight experimental watersheds.

But the most impressive green attribute of the 40,000-square-foot building, home of UVM's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, could escape notice completely: Aiken’s unusual “building envelope,” the skin between its interior and exterior walls that insulates it from the outside cold and heat.

Thanks in large part to this almost air-tight enclosure, the renovated Aiken Center is modeled to be 62 percent more energy-efficient than the original building, built in 1984, reducing its energy use from 89 kBTU’s per square foot per year, the standard measure of a building’s energy use, to 34, despite adding air conditioning, which the original building lacked.

That’s no small accomplishment. The projected energy saving qualifies Aiken as that most talked about and elusive of projects in contemporary green building—a “deep energy retrofit,” defined as a renovated building that reduces energy by at least 30 percent over the original structure.

The reborn Aiken Center, designed by Maclay Architects of Waitsfield, Vt., is one of the first such buildings on a college campus, and one of a small number in the United States, say experts at the New Buildings Institute, which recently completed a study of fifty deep energy retrofits in the United States and Australia.

Aiken’s dramatic efficiency upgrade is not merely of academic interest. America’s 120 million existing commercial buildings are one of the country’s major pollution sources, consuming 42 percent of the nation’s energy and producing more than one third of its carbon emissions, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Aspen-based environmental think tank, which has made promoting deep energy retrofits one of its core missions.

“Adding even a net zero new building — one that consumes no energy at all — is well and good, but it doesn’t really address the current energy problem,” says Rubenstein School Dean Mary Watzin. “It is older buildings like Aiken that are the issue. We need to dramatically reduce their energy consumption.”

The new Aiken Center’s enviable energy profile came about because university leaders decided to break step with convention and make energy efficiency the top design objective — something that is rarely done in new environmental construction, let alone rehabs. Unaccountably, environmental designers have historically given short shrift to their projects' "gas mileage," as Aiken architect William Maclay puts it.

Based on the 40 percent energy savings the renovated building is modeled to achieve, the payback period is estimated at eleven to thirteen years. And the green benefits of the work helped the renovation project earn a $900,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency funded by an appropriation secured by Sen. Patrick Leahy.

It was clearly the right decision to make for both financial and environmental reasons. "We've gone from a building that was an environmental embarrassment to one that, like the Rubenstein School itself, is a national leader," Watzin says. "We look forward to having a home that will inspire our faculty, students, and staff to do their best work every time they walk through the doors." 

"No wise person would ever work for a salary." Those were Pramodita Sharma’s grandfather’s words of warning when she told him of her decision to pursue a career in education. To her grandfather, being one's own boss and staying in their family business in northern India were the keys to a good life.

It was a life Sharma was used to. Starting in grade five, she helped with accounting at her father's automotive dealerships. At the age of fifteen, when her father passed away, she continued accounting work with extended family, selling "anything with wheels."

Although she left the family business to pursue a passion for education and research, family business has not left Sharma. Today, she's a leading scholar on the topic, a research spark begun in her childhood but reignited in grad school at the University of Calgary.

“I was working on a project with a million-dollar grant marked solely for family business,” recalls Sharma, who came to UVM last year from the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University in Montreal. “I was told to do a literature review, and I started reading these articles and I thought, 'They’re talking about my family.’ It was after so many years that I found the literature that actually spoke to me, that was actually more reality to me than anything else that I had studied."

It was a fledgling field at the time, but over the years Sharma has helped define it. Her book Entrepreneurial Family Firms (2010, Prentice Hall) is one of the most widely used college textbooks and has been translated into Mandarin and Greek. She’s also editor of the journal Family Business Review and serves as director for the only global applied research initiative on family business studies, Successful Trans-generational Entrepreneurship Practices at Babson College, a group with forty-one partner institutions in thirty-five countries.

At UVM, Sharma has quickly begun collaborations with fellow faculty to sharpen the family business focus at the university. A first-ever global family enterprise case competition for students is in the works for next January. Other initiatives spearheaded by Sharma include the “UVM Family Business Awards” and the “UVM Pitch Competition,” both scheduled for Homecoming Weekend, October 4-6. The awards, organized by the Family Business Initiative, will recognize UVM alumni and Vermont-based businesses that have demonstrated a commitment to creating sustainable business through leadership and innovation. The Entrepreneurial Club is organizing the Pitch Competition, made possible by a $100,000 donation by David ’86 and Jessica Arnoff. Students in the competition will create and present an overall business plan that is comprehensive, realistic and has potential value.

As Professor Pramodita Sharma continues to delve into what makes family businesses thrive or fail and share those lessons with UVM students, her own memories are never far away. "I often relate my research to some of the things I remember growing up,” she says. “I still find it fascinating.”

Just two years out from graduation, alumna Sasha Fisher '10 has wasted no time putting her self-designed major to use. If "human security" sounds abstract and philosophical (just the sort of lofty, idealistic concept that bright, optimistic undergraduates might enjoy probing during their four years in college), Fisher has found a way to bring her choice of study back down to Earth.

Spark MicroGrants, the non-profit she's co-founded, has already helped humans in eastern Africa achieve security of one kind or another, by funding projects to improve access to education, clean water, healthcare, food and more.

Before college, Fisher "was very interested in global development and all these efforts to eradicate poverty, but," she says, "I, like a lot of people in my generation, didn't feel like they were going well."

When she arrived at UVM from New York City, her plan was to investigate aid work with a multidisciplinary approach. "I ended up realizing that in economics, the goal is to have poverty reduction -- that's not actually my goal. In political science, it's about the state -- that's not actually my goal either," she says. "What I want to do is to enable all the humans on Earth, even if they're in an illegitimate state or a corrupt state, to meet all their basic needs. And that doesn't necessarily mean money -- that means that they have food, that they have health care, that they have a house, that they have access to clean water. And so while that sounds very obvious, it's a whole other paradigm and a whole new way of thinking about aid and about what our goals are in the world."

Enter the "human security" major (one half of her double-major; Fisher also studied studio art), a term introduced to her by Ted McMahon, research associate professor of community development and applied economics. "It's a way of addressing those needs and addressing them in a non-state-based way and accepting there's a rising legitimacy in non-state actors such as NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and communities," she explains.

"Sasha's engagement and focus on real-world problems is always what struck me about her," says Peter VonDoepp, associate professor of political science, who this spring invited Fisher back to campus to speak to his students. "When she was a student, she took my African policies class, and what continued to strike me was not just her level of intellectual engagement and real enthusiasm for the material but also her applied understanding of the material and capability for thinking about real-world problems. Sasha's not stuck in the abstract, it's all about this world for her."

After finishing her senior thesis on the topic and graduating, Fisher, inspired and educated by her work as an undergrad with the New Sudan Education Initiative, another non-profit created by UVM alumni, co-founded Spark MicroGrants with Georgetown and Columbia University graduate Teddy Svoronos, who conceived of the organization as a Fulbright Scholar in Tanzania, and computer scientist Neal Lesh, who specializes in using information technology to address poverty. With an initial $10,000 investment, Fisher moved to Rwanda two months after graduating and began putting the model into action.

What is the model? It's simple, she says: let community members drive development in their villages. Rather than NGOs and other outside groups dictating what a community needs, Spark MicroGrants offers a sum of money (typically $5,000 or less) and works with the community to identify their needs and draft a proposal that ensures sustainability of the chosen project. (Watch the audio slideshow above to learn how a group of women in Uganda turned $1,600 into a school for their vilage's children.)

Don't confuse microgranting with microlending. While the latter has received a good amount of attention from the media, not all of it has been favorable. That concept, which enables individuals to loan money to help impoverished people fund a small business, has drawn criticism for failing to reach the poorest of the developing world, leading more people into the debt cycle and lacking sustainability. Spark's model of microgranting, on the other hand, erases debt from the equation, and focuses on improving quality of life for a community, rather than earning money for a single entrepreneur.

So far, Spark has funded more than 24 projects in Rwanda and Uganda, and has expanded from a full-time staff of just Fisher, then Fisher and fellow UVM alumnus Eamon Penney '09, to now employing seven full-timers and a team of part-time staff from universities in both countries. In August, Fisher says, the full-time ranks will increase to 12.

"It is so exciting to think about Spark in the long run, because one of the things we're doing is we're building a model for microgranting, and this model could be used everywhere in the world," Fisher says. "Hopefully we'll have proven that this model is the model we should be using for development."

To learn more about Spark MicroGrants and to donate, visit its website: sparkmicrogrants.org.

Why USA Today?

In the summer of 2011, she interned for the paper. Not only did DiBlasio land the prestigious and hard-to-get internship in the heart of the national paper’s newsroom, she broke records while there. Just four days after arriving, DiBlasio scored a front-page story on the dampening effect of drought and budget cuts on firework displays around the country -- the fastest, in the memory of her editor Dennis Lyons, any intern had achieved A1 placement. The next week, she landed another front-page spot with her article on a national trend toward implementing flashing, left-turn signals to improve traffic safety -- a trend she discovered through her own reporting. By the end of the summer, DiBlasio earned 18 bylines for USA Today, six of which were printed on page one.

The internship wasn't DiBlasio's first time in a newsroom. That came three years earlier, when, by chance, she enrolled in student media adviser Chris Evans' course, "News Writing Across Media." "I had no idea I wanted to go into journalism when I came to UVM," says DiBlasio, who took the class to fulfill a requirement for her public communications major. To earn extra credit, she submitted one of her stories to UVM's student newspaper, the Vermont Cynic.

"What happens at the Cynic is if you're really good, you advance through the ranks quickly," Evans says. And that is the story of DiBlasio's tenure at the paper, where she started as a reporter, became news editor and served as editor-in-chief her senior year.

How did the experience shape her time at UVM? "It changed everything. It was, really, my education at UVM," DiBlasio says. "I learned so much through everything you can do at the Cynic -- from the writing experience, from the editing experience and from our adviser."

With DiBlasio back at the helm in the fall of 2011, the Cynic, bolstered by its leadership's experience at a national paper, was awarded a Newspaper Pacemaker, college journalism's top prize and a first for the Cynic.

It was a busy fall for DiBlasio. Along with her responsibilities at the paper and finishing the coursework for her public communications major her final semester, she was selected to continue her relationship with USA Today via its collegiate correspondent program, for which she submitted one story a week to the USA Today College website. On top of that, she freelanced for the paper on stories about Occupy Wall Street, school bullying, volunteerism and more.

And, like many college seniors, DiBlasio was entrenched in a job search, as well.

The searched ended happily in January 2012, when she was offered a position back in the USA Today newsroom in D.C., working a general assignment reporting job. And two weeks after starting in March, she was on page A1 again, this time with a story about schools' leftover snow days from the year's mild winter.

"This is the job I've been wanting for so long," DiBlasio says. "I'm so excited."

As much as Kilik is drawn to meet today’s UVM students and current faculty, he also returns to reconnect to his own undergraduate years. More than three decades ago, Professor Frank Manchel’s classes sparked his love of film and drive to pursue it as a career.

From a first job as a production assistant, Kilik worked his way into the New York film world in the early 1980s. His career took flight when he connected with director Spike Lee for Do the Right Thing, beginning a long collaboration and friendship. Over the years, Kilik has earned nearly forty producer or executive producer credits on films that have received twenty-seven Oscar nominations, working with many of the industry’s top directors such as Oliver Stone, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and Robert Altman.

Kilik's latest visit to campus came the opening weekend of the 2012 blockbuster, The Hunger Games. It was an adaptation project Kilik took on before the book by Suzanne Collins or its two sequels had graced bestseller lists. No one expected the movie would have the third largest opening in North American box office history, earning an estimated $155 million. After traveling to premieres in Los Angeles, Paris, London and Berlin, Kilik spent Sunday evening at a Williston, Vt. theater screening the film and taking questions from the audience. On Monday, he visited classes and participated in another Q&A that evening on campus.

Kilik had last traveled to Burlington in 2011 with Miral, a smaller film than The Hunger Games, for sure, but one that also addresses political and social issues, a hallmark of his projects. As with the 2012 visit, Kilik's schedule included screenings, discussions, and informal talks with film students. He also made time for an interview/conversation for Vermont Quarterly magazine with Professor Emeritus Frank Manchel and Hilary Neroni, professor of film and television studies.

In that discussion, Neroni asked the producer about the extensive research he puts into his projects and the role his educational background plays in that work.

“It’s funny, because really all of the films force you to draw from all of your skills,” Kilik replied. “When I went to college, I was in the liberal arts because I wanted to be. I didn’t really want to specialize in one thing; that wasn’t for me. I wasn’t interested in being an engineer or being a doctor. I loved the idea of a liberal arts education — where you learn about history, poly sci, music, arts, religion, economics, English — and I enjoyed that very much during my first two years.

“And when I found film, I found that it really was a combination of all of these things. And that has continued from the first class with Frank to my most recent film. Each time I step on a set or read a new script, I’m immediately plugging into my skills, and they’re not completely honed yet for whatever that new project is. And, as you say, I have to do more research on it — more reading, more understanding of photography references, architectural references, costume references, music references.

This is what I love about being a producer, it’s not a specialty in just one facet — I’ve got to interact with every single department. So when I talk to a production designer, I’m looking at blueprints, I’m understanding what his needs are to build a set. And when I talk to the music composer, I’ve got to understand how he is going to create an emotional experience through the music. And the photography, setting up the lighting, I draw on my early days in photography class here at UVM.”

Read the full interview in the summer 2011 edition of Vermont Quarterly.

The national victory came on the heels of winning the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association Championship, a title the Catamounts captured for the second time in two years. Reichelt, director of skiing and head alpine coach, credits a depth of talent on the team for its successful season, including those who qualified for the NCAA championships but, because of the limit of twelve athletes per team, did not make the trip to Bozeman, Mont.

"Everyone skied to their potential and strength," Reichelt says of the team's performance at nationals, adding that the Catamounts also performed exceedingly well in events that historically have not been as strong. This year's win is the sixth in the program's history and the first since 1994.

Leading the Cats to victory were two women who captured the titles in their individual events, one alpine, one nordic. Sophomore Kate Ryley, from Toronto, won the women's slalom with a two-run total time of 1:35.17 (17-tenths of a second faster than teammate Kristina Riis-Johannessen.) And senior Amy Glen, from Anchorage, was winner of the women's 15K.

Ryley's win came under trying circumstances. "Kate shattered her hand earlier this year," Reichelt says. "She had three operations and was unable to train slalom for about two months." On top of that season setback, Ryley, who was named women's collegiate alpine skier of the year by Ski Racing Magazine in 2011, also heard some very difficult news the morning of the slalom at nationals: close friend and former teammate from Canada Nik Zoricic had died in a skiercross competition accident in Switzerland. Despite these challenging conditions, Ryley turned in two runs down the course that earned her a national title her sophomore year. Read more on the NCAA website in the article "Ryley turns grief into triumph."

"I couldn't believe it," Ryley says of her win. "I knew I had a lot of time to make up on the second run, and I knew the course was going to get rough. I had to go for it but ski smart at the same time." She is the first Catamount to win an individual title in the slalom since Gibson LaFountaine won back-to-back championships in 1993 and 1994. Ryley, a business major with a concentration of entrepreneurship and marketing, is the third UVM skier to win a slalom title at the NCAAs on the women's side.

Glen's win ended with a thrilling photo finish when she protected her lead by less than two inches from rapidly advancing Dartmouth skier Sophie Caldwell. (Advance to 54:56 in this video to see the dramatic end).

The time between the photo finish and the delivery of the results was tense for anyone watching. But the athlete, modest about her successes both in the snow and in the classroom, says she was content no matter the results. "I knew that whether Sophie or I had gotten it, I’d given it my best effort, which was my real goal. Whether I was second or first wasn’t going to change how I felt about my race."

Glen heads into the last half of her final semester at UVM a national champion in skiing with a 3.96 GPA as a biology major and animal science minor. "UVM was a place where I was excited about both the ski team and the academics they had to offer," she says of her decision to enroll four years ago. As for what will come next, "there's almost surely more school" on the agenda down the road. But in the meantime her plan is to "stay in the East and give skiing a shot full-time this next year."

Read the write-up of the NCAA skiing championships on the Athletics website.

You probably know your blood type: A, B, AB or O. You may even know if you’re Rhesus positive or negative. But how about the Langereis blood type? Or the Junior blood type? Positive or negative? Most people have never even heard of these.

Yet this knowledge could be “a matter of life and death,” says University of Vermont biologist Bryan Ballif.

While blood transfusion problems due to Langereis and Junior blood types are rare worldwide, several ethnic populations are at risk, Ballif notes. “More than 50,000 Japanese are thought to be Junior negative and may encounter blood transfusion problems or mother-fetus incompatibility,” he writes.

But the molecular basis of these two blood types has remained a mystery — until now.

In the February issue of Nature Genetics, Ballif and his colleagues report on their discovery of two proteins on red blood cells responsible for these lesser-known blood types.

Ballif identified the two molecules as specialized transport proteins named ABCB6 and ABCG2.

“Only 30 proteins have previously been identified as responsible for a basic blood type,” Ballif notes, “but the count now reaches 32.”

The last new blood group proteins to be discovered were nearly a decade ago, Ballif says, “so it’s pretty remarkable to have two identified this year."

Both of the newly identified proteins are also associated with anticancer drug resistance, so the findings may also have implications for improved treatment of breast and other cancers.

Cross-border science

As part of the international effort, Ballif, assistant professor in the biology department, used a mass spectrometer at UVM funded by the Vermont Genetics Network. With this machine, he analyzed proteins purified by his longtime collaborator, Lionel Arnaud at the French National Institute for Blood Transfusion in Paris, France.

Ballif and Arnaud, in turn, relied on antibodies to Langereis and Junior blood antigens developed by Yoshihiko Tani at the Japanese Red Cross Osaka Blood Center and Toru Miyasaki at the Japanese Red Cross Hokkaido Blood Center.

After the protein identification in Vermont, the work returned to France. There Arnaud and his team conducted cellular and genetic tests confirming that these proteins were responsible for the Langereis and Junior blood types. “He was able to test the gene sequence,” Ballif says, “and, sure enough, we found mutations in this particular gene for all the people in our sample who have these problems."

Transfusion troubles

Beyond the ABO blood type and the Rhesus (Rh) blood type, the International Blood Transfusion Society recognizes twenty-eight additional blood types with names like Duffy, Kidd, Diego and Lutheran. But Langereis and Junior have not been on this list. Although the antigens for the Junior and Langereis (or Lan) blood types were identified decades ago in pregnant women having difficulties carrying babies with incompatible blood types, the genetic basis of these antigens has been unknown until now.

Therefore, “very few people learn if they are Langereis or Junior positive or negative,” Ballif says.

“Transfusion support of individuals with an anti-Lan antibody is highly challenging,” the research team wrote in Nature Genetics, “partly because of the scarcity of compatible blood donors but mainly because of the lack of reliable reagents for blood screening.” And Junior-negative blood donors are extremely rare too. That may soon change.

With the findings from this new research, health care professionals will now be able to more rapidly and confidently screen for these novel blood group proteins, Ballif wrote in a recent news article. "This will leave them better prepared to have blood ready when blood transfusions or other tissue donations are required," he notes.

“Now that we know these proteins, it will become a routine test,” he says.

A better match

This science may be especially important to organ transplant patients. “As we get better and better at transplants, we do everything we can to make a good match,” Ballif says. But sometimes a tissue or organ transplant, that looked like a good match, doesn’t work — and the donated tissue is rejected, which can lead to many problems or death.

“We don’t always know why there is rejection,” Ballif says, “but it may have to do with these proteins.”

The rejection of donated tissue or blood is caused by the way the immune system distinguishes self from not-self. “If our own blood cells don’t have these proteins, they’re not familiar to our immune system,” Ballif says, so the new blood doesn’t “look like self” to the complex cellular defenses of the immune system. “They’ll develop antibodies against it,” Ballif says, and try to kill off the perceived invaders. In short, the body starts to attack itself.

“Then you may be out of luck,” says Ballif, who notes that in addition to certain Japanese populations, European Gypsies are also at higher risk for not carrying the Langereis and Junior blood type proteins.

“There are people in the United States who have these challenges too,” he says, “but it’s more rare.”

Other proteins

Ballif and his international colleagues are not done with their search. “We’re following up on more unknown blood types,” he says. “There are probably on the order of 10 to 15 more of these unknown blood type systems — where we know there is a problem but we don’t know what the protein is that is causing the problem.”

Although these other blood systems are very rare, “if you’re that one individual, and you need a transfusion," Ballif says, "there’s nothing more important for you to know.”

When Catlin O’Neill ’99 takes a visitor around the U.S. Capitol it feels more like she’s giving a tour of her own house than the United States House of Representatives. She seems comfortable strolling through its halls saying hello to janitors, security guards, administrative assistants, members of Congress, legislative aides and even the parliamentarian as though they’re family.

O’Neill is clearly at home in her new role as chief of staff for House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s congressional office -- even though it was a career in the music industry and documentary filmmaking -- not politics -- that she dreamed of when graduating from UVM. O'Neill experienced some success in these professions in Boston and New York, but her hometown, D.C., kept calling her back.

Maybe it's the bloodline. Although she was too young to remember much about growing up as the granddaughter of Speaker of the House Thomas Phillip “Tip” O’Neill, Jr., or "Pop-Pop" as she calls him, it seems unlikely that her lineage hasn’t played a role in her unusually high political IQ and the fact that she is a leader in the House her grandfather used to run.

“Catlin O’Neill is very much her grandfather’s granddaughter,” says Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.). “She is politically savvy, personally charming and immensely energetic. Some in Washington think Nancy Pelosi runs the Democratic Caucus. Insiders know it’s Catlin. She is a trusted adviser and the go-to staffer for members of Congress across the political spectrum.”

‘Public service in her DNA’

When O’Neill moved into a new office in the Capitol in 2003 with Pelosi, who says O’Neill has "public service in her DNA," she had no recollection of ever being there. That changed one day when she opened the door to a musty old closet and was overcome by memories, triggered by the smells inside, of playing within it as a girl.

“It’s funny, but I grew up in D.C. and I came to the Capitol a bunch, but I was young and didn’t really make the connection that he was so famous because to me he was just my grandfather,” says O’Neill, standing under a massive portrait of "Tip" located in the lobby just outside the House Chamber. “I think people had these illusions that I was going to state dinners and stuff like that, but in retirement they were just grandparents who lived in an apartment where we went for Christmas dinner like any normal family.”

It wasn’t until her grandfather, who served for 34 years as a representative from Massachusetts, including a decade-long run as speaker from 1975 until his retirement in 1987, passed away in 1994 that O’Neill fully understood the magnitude of the role he played in American politics. Just 16 years old at the time, O’Neill was being blown away by the throngs of people that lined the streets to honor her grandfather at a wake in Boston during a blizzard.

“The moment it hit me that he was a really significant figure was at a sundry shop at a hotel near the Massachusetts Statehouse,” recalls O’Neill. “A woman who was standing in line in front of me was buying a paper and said to the woman behind the counter, 'We have lost such a hero and servant to us all.’ Tears were running down her face, and then the other woman starts crying, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘This is amazing. I can’t believe this!’ I didn’t realize the effect that government could have on people, never mind one representative.”

Living life in two-year cycles

Following graduation from UVM, where she majored in sociology and minored in art, O’Neill worked as an intern at a station in Boston doing radio promotions and was later hired fulltime to work in the dance music department. She eventually moved back home to D.C. and started working for her aunt at a fundraising and event production firm that catered to members of Congress.

“That’s when I first met Nancy Pelosi, when she was still rank-and-file and was looking for someone to do fundraising,” O’Neill recalls. “She was just amazing, really magnetic. Here was this diminutive little thing, but she had so much energy. She was talking to big, burly labor guys, and she had them all eating out of the palm of her hands. She’s tough, she’s serious, she’s got so much integrity, she’s so politically savvy, and she is scary smart.”

Despite her fascination with her future employer, it wasn’t enough to change O’Neill’s mind about going back into the music industry. She moved to New York City and landed a job as a licensing manager at Kinetic Records, where she worked on contracts and was charged with finding out who owned specific songs, how to license them and negotiating ways to put them on compilation albums.

And then Sept. 11 happened.

She heard about the first plane crash on the way to work from a cab driver. "I went to my office in the Meatpacking District and watched it from the roof with four co-workers. We saw the building fall from my office. We piled in my car and drove away through Times Square. It was surreal. I cried every day for three months afterwards.”

O’Neill headed back home to D.C. again and was working at a dead-end job opening a local gym when she got a call from Pelosi’s chief of staff. She wanted O’Neill to help put on a series of events to promote Pelosi becoming the first woman to ascend to a leadership position in the House as Democratic whip. Working closer with Pelosi this time, she gained even more respect for her future boss, but left for New Mexico after her three-month contract ended.

It was in New Mexico, while working on Bill Richardson’s first gubernatorial campaign answering phones, doing field and advance work, and eventually serving as political director, that she got her first taste of working on a campaign. “It took over my life, but it was probably the greatest learning experience of my life, because for the first time I understood how hard I could really work,” says O’Neill. “I had never pushed myself that hard before. You feel like you’ve hit the point of diminishing returns, but you still have to work seven days a week for the next eight months. You wonder where you’re going to find that reserve, but ultimately you do.”

Despite still having “big dreams of going back to school to study film and moving overseas to learn Spanish,” O’Neill was eventually tempted back to D.C. yet again when Pelosi become House Democratic leader and wanted her to travel with her.

“I loved New Mexico, but this was a no-brainer. I thought I would spend a couple years with (Pelosi), and here I am almost ten years later, and I haven’t left yet,” she says with a laugh. “It’s addictive...You get caught in these two-year cycles, and you put things on hold, and then all of a sudden you wake up and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I never wanted to live in the town I grew up in and work in politics.’ This was not part of my plan. But I’ve been so blessed with opportunities presenting themselves over the years, and I love what I do.”

Read the video's transcript.

This is the reflecting dish of the Arecibo Observatory: the largest radio telescope in the world, located in Puerto Rico due to ideal natural conditions, a sinkhole in the limestone hills over which to suspend the dish. Rankin has been coming here to study stars since she was a graduate student in the 1960s. Now she brings her own students here to, as she says, “get their hands on the wheel.” Tonight, she stands next to one of the three concrete towers that surround the dish, chatting amiably in the fading pink light with her partner, Mary Fillmore, and three undergraduates from the UVM physics department: Isabel Kloumann ’10, Mateus Teixeira ’11, and Stephanie Young ’11.

Above them, 450 feet over the center of the reflecting dish, floats an impossible-looking metal lattice triangle. Suspended by cables from the three towers, it looks like some child’s fantasy airship made from an erector set — except it weighs nine-hundred tons. From the underbelly of this contraption dangles a huge antenna and a flattened silver ball sixty feet across, the telescope’s Gregorian dome.

“I’ve never lost sight of my privilege in using this instrument,” Rankin says, again turning her head skyward, “to come here and have a kind of one-way conversation with nature that almost no one else can.”

What Rankin listens for in this conversation are the sounds of pulsars — one of nature’s strangest objects. And what she hears from these unlikely stars may help to prove one of Albert Einstein’s most outlandish theories: the existence of waves in the fabric of space itself. But even if the sky were perfectly clear tonight, the pulsars Rankin has come here to study would not be visible. Instead, she relies on the staggering sensitivity of this telescope to gather infinitesimal drops of radio-wave energy from them, which she then teases apart looking for sidereal meaning, the language of stars. 

At first, astronomers thought pulsars might be aliens. In 1967, an enterprising graduate student at Cambridge University named Jocelyn Bell was baffled by the extreme regularity of highly focused radio wave bursts she accidentally discovered coming in from one point in the Milky Way. On then off — every 1.3 seconds. Nothing like this had ever been observed in the heavens; nothing like it had even been imagined. She dubbed the source LGM-1, for “little green men.” Had she made contact? The extraterrestrial messages turned out to be radio bursts from a pulsar. 

No bright glowing ball of gas like our home-star, pulsars are the burned-out core of a moderately large star that has consumed all its fuel. With no more outward pressure from the burning hydrogen, the star suddenly collapses on itself and then rebounds, blowing off its outer layer in a spectacularly violent explosion. Compressed by the explosion and gravity, what remains is a sphere so dense that its atoms degenerate into naked neutrons and exotic particles smashed on top of each other in unearthly layers that contain about a billion tons per square centimeter.

“Pulsars are about the size of a small city, like Burlington — maybe ten miles across,” Rankin says, “with mass comparable to or somewhat greater than the sun.” Compared to a black hole, a pulsar is a kind of scrawny cousin not quite massive enough to fall into complete light-sucking density. Still, a sugar cube of this star-stuff would weigh more than all the people on Earth.

And, like a twirling figure skater who suddenly pulls her arms in and starts spinning much faster, this tremendous compression of mass during the formation of a pulsar sets it spinning so fast it challenges our Earth-bound conception of speed. A “regular” pulsar will spin several times per second, but another family of pulsars gathers additional speed by pulling in gas from another star nearby. These so-called millisecond pulsars can spin as fast as seven hundred times a second, nearly one-quarter the speed of light.

“Pulsar” is a contraction for “pulsating star” — but they’re actually more like a lighthouse. As a pulsar spins — or more accurately because a pulsar spins, like the universe’s most powerful electrical generator — it shoots out two cones of radio emissions from several hundred miles above its bogglingly powerful magnetic poles. Then this dual beam sweeps across the cosmos for hundreds or thousands of years, until it happens to shine on Earth, and a few of its photons chance to fall on a reflector in a limestone sinkhole in a Puerto Rican forest — where this radio energy appears as a methodical flash in a telescope tuned to the right frequencies.

Two days later, Rankin and one of her students, Isabel Kloumann, are in the Arecibo Observatory’s control room, tuning in pulsars. They’ve been allotted about three hours to run the telescope. The place looks like a cross between the bridge from Star Trek and the nurse’s station in an intensive care unit. Behind a curving bank of double-stacked computer screens — filled with pulsing graphs and long rows of numbers — a two-story window looks out on the telescope. From speakers on the wall, a soft repetitive beeping fills the air, sounding a bit like Arecibo’s nighttime frogs. It’s the noise of motors and gears on the telescope’s platform, moving overhead to follow a star. 

Rankin and Kloumann have almost finished a forty-minute run of having the telescope track a faint pulsar named, without even a whiff of poetry, B2044+15. “So, we should make a move to a new star,” Rankin says, and then looks through the top of her glasses with a smile. “Do you want to drive?”

 “I’d love to, yes,” says Kloumann and Rankin pushes back her chair so that her student can get to the keyboard.

Rankin points to one of the flat-screen monitors glowing blue in the strange half-light. “If you go over to the left-most panel you can bring up pointing control,” Rankin instructs. “And let’s go to pulsar 2110+27,” she says.

Kloumann begins to enter instructions into the computer and soon the massive telescope outside starts moving to her commands, the Gregorian dome ponderously sliding along its curving track as the whole circular base rotates. Soon radio waves from B2110+27 will begin bouncing off the reflecting dish up to helium-cooled receivers in the Gregorian dome. Then, as improbably as picking out a mosquito’s heartbeat in a roaring stadium, the star’s pulses begin thump, thump, thumping across the screen.

In these pulses is the raw material for months of future analysis by Rankin and her students. And much of what has been learned about pulsars in the last four decades has been from radio data gathered, just like what Rankin and Kloumann are doing, here at the Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the National Science Foundation.

“But there is much that remains mysterious,” Rankin says. “We have a very good cartoon,” she says, “we know that pulsars tap their rotational energy — somehow — and turn it into radio waves.”

“But we don’t exactly understand the emissions processes,” she says, “is it more like a laser or clouds of particles?”

To even get to the cartoon stage of understanding, astrophysicists like Rankin have tried to decipher the language of emissions that different kinds of pulsars produce. And her students do the same.

“The flash is not just a flash,” Kloumann says. “It has structure to it.” 

When you shine a flashlight on the wall, some parts are bright, some are dim. Ditto for pulsar emissions. The radio beam surges and shifts like a rotating carousel of lights. “The devil is in those details of the pulse’s variations and geometry,” says Rankin.

Or consider pulsar B1944+17 that Kloumann has been studying on her own for several years. She will be presenting a scientific paper on this star here at the observatory in a few days — in a conference dubbed the “Fab Five Fest,” to honor five astronomers, including Rankin, who have been the leading pulsar scientists at Arecibo over the years. Kloumann will tell them how B1944+17 sometimes just turns off. And no one is exactly sure why.

“All of us in Joanna’s group, we’re looking at these really unusual stars that don’t fit the perfect model,” Kloumann says. “They test the bounds of the theory — which is what you always should do in science: push the limits of the theory.”

Night has fallen again and Joanna Rankin, Mary Fillmore, and Isabel Kloumann are sitting on the porch of one of the small plywood huts that dot the steep hillside about the telescope, mixing drinks with pineapple juice. Again the darkness is laced with the sound of frogs, a hint of salt air from the nearby ocean, and thin bands of stars through the thick vegetation.

Over the years, with funding from the National Science Foundation, Rankin has brought many crews of students to Arecibo. “They’re my pulsar mafia,” she says with a deadpan look and then laughs, “watch out for astronomers.” Some of the students do go on in astronomy. Isaac Backus ’11 came back for a summer internship at the observatory and then onto another post at a telescope in India. He’s about to begin a doctorate in physics at the University of Washington. Megan Force ’09 G’11 came to Arecibo with Rankin and is now enrolled in a doctoral program in astrophysics at Dartmouth. And this is Kloumann’s second trip to the telescope. She has leveraged her training in astronomy and applied mathematics into a slot as a doctoral student at Cornell.

Rankin, and several of Kloumann’s other professors, describe her as one of the finest students they’ve taught. Winner of a Goldwater Scholarship and other awards, she’s first author on a publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and is a co-author on a forthcoming article in the journal PLoS One.

In her turn, Kloumann raves about Rankin. “Joanna is a pulsar goddess,” Kloumann and the other physics students say several times during the Arecibo visit. “She’s a fantastic mentor who is there when you need her and leaves you alone when you don’t.”

Tonight, Rankin and Kloumann are tutoring a somewhat more plodding student of physics. They’re explaining to me, for a second time, how a better theory of pulsars may, in turn, help confirm one of Albert Einstein’s most intriguing predictions: the existence of gravitational waves.

In 1916, Einstein put forth his general theory of relativity and that was the end of Western science’s two-hundred-year trip on Isaac Newton’s leaking boat. In the first great scientific revolution of the twentieth century, Einstein demonstrated that space and time flow together — that they are, really, as physicists now say, “spacetime.” Equally strange, Einstein demonstrated that this spacetime, “like a vast sheet of rubber,” says Kloumann, can be bent by matter and energy.

And it’s this bending, these dimples and depressions in this substanceless sheet, that are responsible for gravity. In Isaac Newton’s universe, the moon and Earth simply attract each other. In Albert Einstein’s universe, the moon falls into the depression the Earth has made in the fabric of spacetime. And the flow of time, too, slows down as spacetime is warped near massive objects, like Earth, or, far more so, stars.

From this general theory, Einstein conjectured that when two massive objects, say two black holes, “go spinning around each other like a whirling dumbbell,” says Kloumann, they should make waves in the fabric of spacetime. “A bit like ripples from a pebble tossed into a pond,” she says.

These waves, physicists now are confident, travel through the universe, passing through Earth, you, this magazine — at the speed of light.

“To detect gravitational waves is in some sense the missing link of Einstein’s theory of general relativity,” says Rankin. Problem is, gravitational waves are small. “Exceedingly tiny, tiny, tiny,” says Kloumann. So small that a passing gravitational wave would stretch this magazine by only a fraction of the width of an atom. Which is why, though they were indirectly confirmed in 1993, they have never been directly observed.

Here’s where pulsars may help. To understand how, consider another freakish aspect of these stars: they are the universe’s best clocks. In 1967, Jocelyn Bell discovered that her little green men didn’t flash every 1.3 seconds, they flashed exactly every 1.337 seconds. No, every 1.33728 seconds…and when she and her professor were done calculating they realized that the finest human-made clocks of the day were not accurate enough to time this strange signal.

Because of their extreme density and enormous speed, pulsars turn out to be a nearly perfect flywheel — and this stability makes the arrival of each pulse so regular that some pulsars rival or exceed the precision of human-made atomic clocks. Scientists can now show that, about five hundred light-years away, the pulsar J0437-4715 spins on its axis every 5.7574451831072007 milliseconds — give or take a pinch.

And that accuracy — and more — will be necessary to surf the trough of a gravitational wave. Which is what a consortium of U.S. and international astrophysicists, including Rankin, aims to do. The group, NANOGrav, is assembling a selection of highly precise pulsars in many parts of the sky and is timing the arrival of their pulses for years.

These dozens of pulsars, working as far-off clocks, will allow the team to sift out when a gravitational wave has passed by. They’ll be looking for a distinctive pattern in the arrival time of emissions from pulsars in opposite sides of the sky. And this requires developing enough precision to distinguish the wave’s faint but unmistakable signature from many other disturbances to the incoming radio waves.

“Pulsars are highly precise, but they’re not perfectly precise,” Kloumann says. Sometimes pulsars appear to have starquakes. These kinds of glitches and the variations within single pulses that Rankin studies are one form of noise that need to be accounted for in the NANOGrav models — so the team can pick out the puny voice of gravity from the roaring din of the cosmos. 

If gravitational waves can be detected, then the location and strength of their sources can be calculated. And that, Rankin thinks, could be as revolutionary as Galileo’s invention of the optical telescope. “Being able to detect gravitational waves opens up a whole new equivalent spectrum,” she says. “We’ll be able to study gravitational radiation as well as electromagnetic radiation.”

Some astronomers anticipate the invention of gravity telescopes that will be able to look at spinning black holes, cracks in the universe called cosmic strings, and deeper into space than the most-distant quasars now visible. Some speculate about revealing new galaxies of invisible stars made from exotic dark matter. Perhaps some member of Joanna Rankin’s pulsar mafia will, like Jocelyn Bell in 1967, make the next unexpected discovery. “Who knows what we’ll find out there,” says Kloumann. “It’s like never having seen light before.”

This article orignally appeared in Vermont Quarterly magazine. To request a print copy, contact University Communications, (802) 656-2005, newserv@uvm.edu.

But when Zarghami came on board of the fledgling operation -- in a bottom-of-the-rung data entry position -- she couldn't have anticipated that some two decades later, the company would top Disney and other competitors in the now well established entertainment niche -- or that she'd be the president at the helm.

Zarghami came to UVM in 1980 to study education. Although she ultimately decided teaching wasn't a good fit for her and switched to a major in English, she says she was drawn to Nickelodeon in large part because of the audience it was serving. Nickelodeon, whose early shows included Pinwheel and You Can't Do That on Television, was meeting a need for kids that other networks were not.

"I'm in this for the audience, not necessarily to be in the entertainment business," Zarghami says. "It's because it's for kids that makes it so much fun."

Zarghami's was a steady rise through the ranks of the company. "For a long time, I was the thing that wouldn't leave," she says. "I just kept working hard and stuck around, and they gave me bits and pieces of more responsibility."  Her work on scheduling, marketing, then overseeing the network all inform her role today as president of Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids & Family Group, which also includes oversight of the merchandise, international, digital and recreation arms of the company.

"The great thing is it was a slow build," Zarghami says. "So I learned everything one piece at a time, and I think that's a rare opportunity these days because everything moves so quickly."

All those years of experience have taken Zarghami -- and Nickelodeon -- to a pivotal moment in the company's history. The first generation of kids to grow up on Nick programming are now becoming parents themselves. While mom and dad watched Today's Special and Double Dare (a gameshow Zarghami says she and colleagues practiced in the hallways before creating the pilot), their kids are engrossed in Dora the Explorer and Yo Gabba Gabba.

"That is a really unique moment in time for any brand," Zarghami says. It was a moment that called for reinvention. They knew, she says, "if we don't capture this generation of kids and their parents together, we will miss a whole generation, and we'll find ourselves in a bad place a few years from now."

Leading a reinvention

The evolution of brand's identity was the focus of Zarghami's Nov. 4 talk at UVM. As the inaugural speaker of the School of Business Administration's Dean's Leadership Speaker Series, Zarghami told those assembled -- comprising mostly students in a packed Davis Center ballroom -- about Nickelodeon's recent effort to rebrand the company's many endeavors in hopes of shoring up their identity and speaking to this new audience.

The process, begun shortly after Zarghami took the reins as president in 2006, took stock of all the irons in Nickelodeon's fire. She says of that moment in time, "We had bought Addicting Games, and nobody knew we owned it. We had a channel for preschoolers called Noggin, and nobody knew we owned it. We had launched a channel for teens called The N, and nobody knew we owned it."

Consolidating these entities under a single umbrella of the Nickelodeon brand was the end result of two and a half years of work. Noggin became Nick, Jr., The N became Teen Nick, and dozens of logos for its other divisions were reworked to reflect this newfound unity within the company. Nickelodeon's logo -- the famous paint splatter -- also got a fresh look utilizing a streamlined, but playful font that still capitalizes on their signature orange. "We took the Nickelodeon logo and reinvented it so it could actually be the mother brand for everything we do around the globe."

Five years after Zarghami initiated this reinvention, Nickelodeon is still on top, enjoying its 17th year as the leading network for kids.

As business dean Sanjay Sharma introduced Zarghami at the event, he hinted at another factor that has made Nick so successful. "SpongeBob SquarePants is often associated with a slightly younger demographic," he said, "but I have to admit that the writing is so smart that if I see SpongeBob on the television screen, I'm hooked. I'm compelled to watch. It cuts across age barriers and demographic barriers."

As the students' laughter quieted, Zarghami took the podium and mused, "If he watches SpongeBob, we're doing something right."

For the second year in a row, we fanned out across the University of Vermont and reported here with words, photos and video all that happens at UVM in one day.

5:55 a.m. Gucciardi Recreation and Fitness Center

“Me? I’m wide awake,” says first-year student Esther Nemethy. A member of the UVM track team, she’s going to practice the triple jump, but first she has to find her ID to get through the turnstile. “We’ve
been late recently,” she says, “so the coach is making us start earlier.”

6 a.m. Patrick-Forbush-Gutterson Athletic Complex

For most, the day is just beginning, but Tyler Nguyen, a maintenance unit supervisor in the Department of Custodial Services, prepares to head home after a long night of work.

6:02 a.m. Athletic Campus

Local speedster, Binney Mitchell ’91, enjoys an early morning, moonlit run.

6:15 a.m. Forbush Natatorium

The undefeated women's swim team starts the day with a practice.

6:40 a.m. Looking east

Sunrise from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

7:35 a.m. Redstone Campus

CATS shuttle driver George L'Esperance has a laugh after greeting sophomore Megan Schindler as she boards the Redstone Express's first run of the day. "You're Hollywood, you're Hollywood, get in the picture," L'Esperance jokes. A UVM driver for the past five years, L'Esperance began driving buses part time with Greyhound when he was in the Army and 36 years "on the road" followed. "I love the kids," he says. "College kids get a bad rap, but I see how hard they work. When I drive on Sundays, that's library day."

7:52 a.m. Simpson Dining Hall

Freshman Chris Damiani grabs a quick breakfast and checks his iPhone in the newly renovated Simpson Dining Hall. After the egg and bacon on an English muffin, next on the agenda is an economics class with Professor Marc Law.

8:08 a.m. Southwick Hall

Nathan Foltz, a freshman history major, plays the hymn "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" in a Music Building practice room. Foltz says he didn't go to church growing up but his mother was a church pianist, "so this is kind of what I've done." He adds, "A lot of hymns are really boring, but this one is interesting."

8:15 a.m. Campus Children's Center

Senior elementary education major Cecilia Puleio helps Ben, age 3, build a trailer with Magna-Tiles for his toy cars. Once they're safely parked, the script changes. Ben says to Cecilia, "Now you cry while I knock it down."

8:22 a.m. Gutterson Field House

Catamount goalie coach Terry Lovelette works with his athletes in an early morning practice at Gutterson. A longtime fixture with the UVM hockey program, Lovelette's charges have included Boston Bruins goalkeeper Tim Thomas.

8:30 a.m. Waterman Building

In his 8:30 a.m. class," Big Fish, Little Fish: Politics and Proverbs," where he'll be teaching today on 18th-century sayings, Professor Wolfgang Mieder takes a moment to note the loss of Steve Jobs (with proverbs, of course). He projects overhead a cartoon depicting Jobs standing in front of the ubiquitous Apple symbol. The caption: “iCame, iSaw, iConquered.”

Not quite a techie himself, Mieder tells his students he’s aware that Jobs is one of the most influential and inspiring figures of their time and shares passages from Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech he hopes they’ll embrace: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. As with all matters of the heart you’ll know it when you find it.”

Jobs ends, Mieder notes, with a variation of a classic proverb: Live each day as though it were the last.

8:30 a.m. UVM Green

While most of the campus is looking ahead to Homecoming and Family Weekend, which kicks off Friday, UVM’s groundskeeper-in-chief, Rose Leland, is gazing off into the distant future: to commencement 2012.  She’s standing just outside the construction war zone that is the UVM green, where commencement will be held, weather permitting. Will the grass grow nice and close to the newly laid concrete walkways, she wonders? Will it overwinter? Will it be strong enough to withstand all the pedestrian traffic next May?  She’ll do a walking tour of the entire campus over the next few days to make sure it’s shipshape for this weekend. But it’s that far off one that has her occasionally reaching for the antacid bottle. 

8:39 a.m. Walkway outside University Heights

Music professor David Feurzeig and his son Sam, age 11, walk past University Heights on their way to the Music Building. While the father is a pianist, the son is working on guitar. Sam, who is home-schooled, has a lesson on campus with Billy Rugger today.

8:42 a.m. Athletic Campus

UVM's second turf field is prepped to receive the green carpet. The field is scheduled to be ready for action the first week of November.

9:17 a.m. Redstone Lofts

Under clear October skies construction of Redstone Lofts is in high gear. The project will provide 403 beds within 144 units in a mix of studio, one, two, three, and four-bedroom apartments that will be available for UVM’s juniors, seniors and graduate students in fall 2012. Redstone Lofts will be owned by Catamount Student Housing, LLC and operated by Redstone Commercial Group under a long-term ground lease with UVM.

9:22 a.m. Outside Williams Hall

Amr Kashmiri, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

9:22 a.m. Speeder and Earl's, Pine Street

For some people, social life depends on coffee. Melissa Applet finished her master’s degree in social work at UVM in the spring. Today she’s headed to her job at the Lund Family Center. But first a stop at Speeder and Earl’s coffee shop on Pine Street. Of course, she could have stopped at Muddy Waters, Uncommon Grounds, Viva Espresso, Maglianero, Starbucks, The Chubby Muffin, Mirabelle’s, August First, the Bluebird Coffee Stop, Radio Bean, New Moon Café, or, yes, Dunkin Donuts. Not a bad town for joe.

9:25 a.m. Outside the Fleming Museum

Cori Ridgley, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

9:41 a.m. Royall Tyler Theatre

Prepping for his afternoon history of costume class, theatre professor Martin Thaler and his assistant Aimee Beach, a senior theatre major, dress a woman’s form in a period costume from the play, The Complete Female Stage Beauty. Also a women’s and gender studies course, Thaler will examine with students how this dress, with corset and multiple petticoats, reflect the social and economic norms of the time. “Women were not quite an accessory to men,” he says, “but were there to show off his status in society.”

9:45 a.m. Chittenden-Buckham-Wills Green

Mandy St. Hilarie, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

9:47 a.m. Bailey/Howe Library Media Resources

Checked out from the libary's media desk: Joe the King. A sociology class will view this film 1999 film about "a destitute 14 year old [who] struggles to keep his life together despite harsh abuse at his mother's hands, harsher abuse at his father's, and a growing separation from his slightly older brother." (IMDB)

9:50 a.m. College Street

The College Street shuttle makes the rounds.

9:55 a.m. Old Mill

Going down.

10 a.m. Edmunds Elementary School

Senior elementary education major Meg Hudson reads to a kindergarten class at Edmunds Elementary School in Burlington, where she's student-teaching.

10:01 a.m. Outside Bailey/Howe

Patrick LaClair, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

10:10 a.m. Williams Hall

Students interpret Professor Steve Budington's still life in his introduction to studio painting class.

10:13 a.m. Bailey/Howe Library Media Resources

Checked out from the library's media desk: Silent Light (Lumière silencieuse). This 2007 film, directed by Carlos Reygadas, tells the story of the head of a Mennonite family in Mexico who falls in love outside his marriage.

10:15 a.m. Old Mill

The political science class "Topics In Law" works on a short, in-class essay assignment.

10:22 a.m. Jeffords Hall

Sarah Alexander, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

10:29 a.m. Davis Center

Friends J.J. Newland, Sybille St. Arromand, and Rachel Weiland meet up in the Davis Center for some studying... and conversation. Newland is going over his geology notes; St. Arromand, communication law; and Weiland is catching up on some event planning for her sorority, Alpha Chi Omega.

10:35 a.m. Living/Learning Center

Recycling and Waste Management staff members Tristan Henderson (L) and Pete Pecor pick up recycled material from the Living/Learning Center, one of the 15 to 20 stops they make at campus buildings every day. A contracted firm makes another 15 to 20 stops. All told, the university recycles two to three tons of material per day.

10:36 a.m. Davis Center

"Sales have been pretty good," says Andrew Sondheim as he and friend Grace Wolcott staff the UVM Concert Bureau table in the Davis Center Atrium. They're selling tickets for Nero, playing Memorial Auditorium on Oct. 26.

10:42 a.m. Bailey/Howe Library

Keith Brunner, a class of 2010 environmental studies grad, works in the multi-media lab in Bailey/Howe Library. Brunner edits a fundraising video in support of an effort in which he and a team of UVM students will travel to the United Nations Climate Summit in South Africa next year. Brunner, who attended the last summit in Mexico, is focused on bringing a youth perspective to the talks. His challenge in the video: editing 20 minutes of film down to two minutes and making a "coherent, accessible" narrative on the complex issues of climate finance and the distribution of funds.

10:46 p.m. Kalkin Hall

There's lots of laughter in the room as introductory Arabic is clearly as difficult as it looks. Students give it their best as senior lecturer Darius Jonathan gently guides them through basic conversation.

10:53 a.m. Bailey/Howe Library Steps

Sophomore Cory Van Auken admits he brings little experience as a crepes chef to his work outside Bailey/Howe Library today. "We're all learning, getting the hang as we go," he says. Van Auken is part of a ten-member team in CDAE 166, a community entrepreneurship class. Each member of the team starts with one dollar, which they then leverage into a business venture. Today is only Van Auken's second day with the spatula in a sales effort that will continue through October. All of his group's proceeds will go to the United Way's Tropical Storm Irene relief efforts in Vermont.

10:57 a.m. Outside the Davis Center

Sociology major Diana Stewart smiles and admits she's chosen a pretty sunny spot to work on a take home exam in a class on "Death and Dying." Stewart has high praise for her professor in the course, Brookes Cowan, and says the class is her favorite this semester.

11:05 a.m. Kalkin Hall

School of Business Administration seniors Brad Opsahl and Joe Rodolfy work on their Wall Street seminar project presentation at the Bloomberg Lab in Kalkin.

11:15 a.m. Old Mill

Students grab the newest issue of The Watertower, UVM's alternative newsmag.

11:23 a.m. Computer Depot, Davis Center

Phelan Vendeville, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

11:25 a.m. Bailey/Howe Library Media Resources

Checked out from the library's media desk:  Gun Crazy. This classic film noir work, also known as Deadly is the Female, tells the story of a doomed love affair and crime spree.

11:27 a.m. Bailey/Howe Library Media Resources

Checked out from the library's media desk: Jane Eyre. New York Times reviewer A.O. Scott had this to say about the most recent adaption of Charlotte Bronte's masterpiece: "Reader, I liked it."

11:30 p.m. University Heights North

The approximately 20 students in Ian Grimmer’s first-year Honors College seminar, seated around a table in a U-Heights North classroom, are talking evolution. The text they’re discussing, Evolution for Everyone by David Sloane Wilson, is one of the many provocative titles honors students read as part of the seminar, "The Pursuit of Knowledge: Disciplines, Universities, and Engagement," which all first-years are required to take. Grimmer, whose field is modern European intellectual history, fans a free-wheeling and continuous discussion. As the class burrows into the life of the burying beetle, which has a taste for infanticide, Jake Webber concludes, “This family values stuff goes out the window. You don’t know if they’re good creatures or bad creatures.” 

11:36 a.m. Bailey/Howe Library

Students in BSAD 95 (Me and My Career in Business) collectively identify elements of a citation, under the guidance of associate library professor Trina Magi, in the Bailey/Howe Library's newly-renovated Instruction Classroom.

11:50 a.m. Chikago Landing, Davis Center

Junior Brittany Dahlberg is sitting alone at a table having a happy, animated conversation with her laptop. Studying too hard? She's Skyping with a friend studying abroad in Florence.

11:54 a.m. University Row

Transplant surgeon Jon Yamaguchi usually eats in the hospital. But one of his clinics is on campus near the UVM Green. “If I’m over there, I stop by one of the trucks,” he says, pointing to the line of food vendors along University Place. Today, Brandon Gonnion of Big Daddy’s Pizza sells him a slice. “A dollar for a cheese slice,” says Gonnion, “you can’t go wrong.”

11:55 a.m. Kalkin Hall

Not to endorse graffiti, but there’s something to be said for a fully erasable chalk tribute to legendary television art instructor Bob Ross.

11:57 a.m. Votey Hall

Ted Flanagan, professor emeritus of chemistry, waits outside of Votey Hall to meet “another retired guy” for lunch. Flanagan who retired circa 2006, says he still comes to his campus office several days a week to work on academic papers. Branimir von Turkovich, professor emeritus of engineering, rolls up in his van and the retired guys are on their way.

Noon. Ira Allen Chapel

Untitled from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

12:01 p.m. Outside Williams Hall

“Why was this so easy last week?” says sophomore Jace Curtis, inadvertently summarizing half a career’s worth of engineering wisdom. “Get it level first,” replies junior Benjamin Joslin, summarizing the other half. They’re working in a team with sophomore Kori Krichko to complete a traverse survey around Williams Hall. It’s a core task of Civil Engineering 10, Geomatics. Getting the laser in their scope to do what it’s supposed to do takes some doing. But after a few minutes, “we’re good,” says Curtis, and Krichco moves north to scout their next bearing.

12:05 p.m.Torrey Hall

The class is Math 300, Principles of Complex Systems. Mandelbrot’s Assumptions are the matter at hand as Peter Dodds, professor of mathematics and an expert in the field of complex systems, one of UVM’s Spires of Excellence, leads the discussion.

12:10 p.m. Votey Hall

“We have some sand that is stuck,” says Christina Syrrakou. She and John Hanley, both doctoral students in engineering, poke at the blockage with a ruler, passing the stick back and forth over this artificial waterway device called a flume. They’ll be teaching an undergraduate hydraulics lab here in the Votey Building shortly. “We need to get it out,” says Hanley.

12:20 p.m. Catholic Center

Junior Federica Wade boils apple skins in the kitchen of the Catholic Center from the apples she helped pick in South Hero, Vt. to make apple pie for a fundraiser.

12:22 p.m. Votey Hall

“Today? I’m trying to get a new project started,” says long-time staffer, Tim Raymond, the manager of computer facilities for the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. "But mostly what I’m doing is interruption management,” he says, laughing. His new project is, “on computer security, but I can’t tell you more than that,” he says. It will have to wait for another day.

12:23 p.m. Athletic Campus

What are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

A mystery: was this you on the bikes? We'd love to know what you were up to today.

12:25 p.m. Mann Hall

Via @innovativeEd on Twitter: Setting up iPads in Mann Hall for middle-level #vt educator workshops.

12:27 p.m. Votey Hall

Cooper Van Vranken, Will Roohan, Niall Motson and Liana Schneidman -- all juniors, and all enrolled in Mechanical Engineering 111, System Dynamics -- get close with the computers on the second floor of Votey. They’re working to master MATLAB, a technical computing program. “We’re getting stuff done,” says Motson, adjusting his cap.

12:37 p.m. Fleming Musem

Art History major Casey O'Reilly '12 works on a visual analysis of Wosene Worke Kosrof paintings from the Paul Herzog and Jolene Tritt Collection. The exhibition explores the role of Amharic language and graphic systems in Ethiopian-born artist Kosrof's work. The exhibit is on display through Dec. 16.

12:42 p.m. Carrigan Wing of the Marsh Life Science Building

Check your suede boots at the door, and enter the carefully controlled world of specialty cheesemaking. Today, at UVM’s Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese, Enric Canut, one of the world’s leading experts in making Spanish cheese, is leading a master class of twelve students who have come from the likes of Missouri and Puerto Rico to learn the history, science, taste and technology of Spain’s major cheese styles -- three types in three days. This is Ibérico day, the semi-hard cheese family (such as Manchego), made from a blend of sheep, goat and cow’s milk.

12:45 p.m. Waterman Building

Provost Jane Knodell, gives an interview to FOX44 and WPTZ5 on the status of negotiations with United Academics.

12:45 p.m. Redstone Campus

Junior Justin Houle masters the art of slacklining, a growing recreational sport that uses one-inch nylon webbing tensioned between two trees, in the woods just northeast of Redstone Campus while his lab partner, junior Jess Jacobs, records data. The exercise was part of an experiment for their Motor Learning and Control course with Jesse Jacobs, assistant professor of rehabilitation and movement sciences.

12:48 p.m. Outside Bailey/Howe Library

Piping in electronic music on his cell, Omar Jabareen '13 schools passersby with a break dancing routine on the walk toward the Aiken Building. He’s been practicing for four years, he says, one of only “two or three break dancers on campus." Jabareen likes to teach anyone who stops by. “I don’t do anything official,” the psychology major says, “‘cause then I’d need to form a club. I like to do it underground. But I’m putting myself out there everyday.”

12:57 p.m. Outside the Davis Center

Isaiah Macias, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

1:01 p.m. Outside Royall Tyler Theatre

Riding the wave of populist anger propelling the national Occupy Wall Street movement, Sydney Stieler ‘13 exhorts her fellow students to attend a 1 p.m. rally of the newly formed Occupy UVM group. Her companion identifies himself only as “a lively prop.” Stieler and others in the group want to draw attention to what they see as excess executive compensation, stagnant wages for staff and other perceived
“greed and unfairness,” she says.

1:14 p.m. Outing Club

Hanging out sleeping bags to dry is part of the afternoon's business for Eva Okrent, a junior in studio art, and house manager for the Outing Club. Okrent, who also helps lead rock climbing, kayaking, and hiking trips, says the week shapes up like this at OC HQ: Monday, gear return; Tuesday, sort gear, prepare it for the next trip; Wednesday, Free Pancake Day (guess which day is best?); Thursday, pull gear for the weekend's trip; Friday, pull food for the weekend's trip.

1:15 p.m. UVM/Fletcher Allen Clinical Simulation Laboratory, Rowell Hall

Auna Leatham, a medical student in the Class of 2012 (left), participates in the study “Evaluation of Airway Management Training and Skills in UVM Medical Students” under the guidance of Vincent Miller, M.D., assistant professor of anesthesiology.

1:22 p.m. UVM Rescue, East Avenue

Junior Sean Farley (driving) and sophomore Jamie Eastman, both officers with UVM Rescue, a state-certified Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulance, staffed and operated by UVM students 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, volunteer a minimum of 20 hours per week during the school and 1,000 hours a year during holidays and over the summer.

1:43 p.m. Outside Bailey/Howe Library

Selene Colburn, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

1:58 p.m. Library Research Annex

Letters of Evelyn Waugh, Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady; Living a Political Life by Madeleine Kunin. These are among the choice titles library assistant Peggy Powell sees in the shelves of books that will go on sale at Special Collections annual book sale. This week, Powell and fellow library staff are readying for the event, which takes place Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Billings Apse.

2:08 p.m. Centennial Woods

Zack Theberge has Centennial Woods mostly to himself as he works on trail maintenance. An environmental science major/forestry minor, Theberge has a work-study job focused on helping take care of UVM's various Natural Areas. This afternoon's task is repositioning a footbridge that was compromised by erosion during Tropical Storm Irene. "I'd be out here doing this anyway even if I didn't get paid," Theberge says.

2:15 p.m. Old Mill

Two students debate gender equality in politics in their political science senior honors seminar.

2:26 p.m. Outside the Davis Center

Senior Emily Piche and junior Anita Virmani represent for the UVM Feminist Club at a table outside of the Davis Center. Their offer: take a one question survey, get a baked good.

2:30 p.m. Bailey/Howe Library

At the Center for Teaching and Learning on the third floor of Bailey Howe Library, seven staff members are hard at work trying to break in -- or, more properly, break -- the latest upgrade to Blackboard, the online course management system UVM has used since 2008. This version is about fixing previous bugs, rather than introducing a lot of new features, says Justin Henry, CTL’s applications administrator. But bugs there still are, which the CTL team is intent on finding and fixing, either on their own or with the help of Blackboard. The upgrade will be introduced between semesters. If all goes well, faculty and students will have a smoother ride without really knowing why.

2:35 p.m. Aiken Center

Workers install window panels in the new Aiken Center atrium.

2:36 p.m. Living/Learning Center

"It's very awesome, a sweet gig," says junior Eric Le. The gig is gallery proctor at the Living/Learning Gallery, where Le and his friend Hai Chi Vu, also a junior, enjoy the quiet as they study for their Poli Sci 279 class, Politics and Film in East Asia. As for the gallery, the current show features "At Camp: Color photographs of family camps in the White Mountains and on Lake Champlain" by Rebecca Babbitt.

2:42 p.m. Waterman Building

Elementary education students watch a film about teaching literacy in Professor Jim Mosenthal's class, "Meeting Individual Needs: Assessment and Instruction." Following the film, the class dives into a discussion about teaching strategies.

2:46 p.m. Allen House

Hannah Melton, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

3 p.m. Waterman Building

John Bramley, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

3:01 p.m. Athletic Complex

The quadratus lumborum is the issue as Alison O'Connor, a 2010 UVM alumna and assistant athletic trainer at Athletic Medicine, works on loosening up the back muscles of Kaitlyn Evarts, a varsity swimmer for the Catamounts. As teams ready for afternoon practices, the
pace gets rapid in the training room at Athletic Medicine, O'Connor says.

3:10 p.m. Fletcher Allen Health Care

Senior nursing student Caitlin Morris holds an infant patient during her clinical experience in inpatient pediatrics at the Vermont Children's Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care.

3:13 p.m. Davis Center

A leading environmental scientist, Norman Myers has served as a consultant for the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the World Resources Institute, the White House, the World Bank, the Rockefeller and MacArthur Foundations. Today he’s on campus, on the fourth floor of the Davis Center, lecturing is his role as a member of UVM’s James Marsh Professor-at-Large program. Myers is concerned that we have an “obsessive attachment to the god we call GDP,” he says. He sees this time as one of environmental “breakdown or breakthrough.”

3:17 p.m. Catamount Store, Church Street

Kelly Combs, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

3:25 p.m. Outside Bailey/Howe Library

Junior English major Joe Siebert picks his bike out a thicket of two-wheelers parked outside Bailey Howe Library.  Siebert routinely rides to classes and around town from his apartment on East Ave. Are there more bikes on campus today than when he started at UVM three years ago? “There have always been a lot of bikes here,” he says. UVM was just named one of the nation’s most “Bicycle Friendly Universities” by the League of American Bicyclists.

3:28 p.m. Jeffords Hall

Dutch elm disease wiped out most elm trees. But some towns in Nova Scotia commemorate their bygone elms by carving the dead stumps into lively sculptures, says professor of plant biology Terry Delaney. He lectures to about 45 students in his course, "Plant Pathology," that meets in Jeffords Hall.

3:43 p.m. Jeffords Hall

“We found some!” says environmental science major Maggie Thomsen ‘12. Fungus that is, Rhizoctonia solani, a species that infects potatoes. She and lab partner, Rachel Brooks '12, look into their microscope as part of Plant and Soil Science 117, on the first floor of Jeffords Hall. “See the long tubules with the lines down them?” says Thomsen. Next up: they’ll search for Fusarium graminarium. “It’s menacing,” Thomsen says, “ if you’re a rye plant.”

3:45 p.m. Kalkin Hall

Students in Professor Noordewier's BSAD 150 class discuss marketing strategy for a hydrogeb-fueled passenger vehicle, the focus of their semester-long group project.

3:50 p.m. Waterman Building

We caught Dennis Mahoney, professor of German, in his office, not working on the talk he'll give soon on Goethe's use of Greek mythology. Instead he was managing email as head of the Faculty Standards Committee for the College of Arts and Sciences -- that group that makes little decisions on tenure, reappointment and sabbatical requests.

4:02 p.m. Davis Center

This morning, Dani Walsh defended her master’s thesis on the grail quest in medieval literature. It’s a bit different than Monty Python's Holy Grail, she says, enjoying a celebratory coffee at Henderson’s Café in the Davis Center with professor of English Lisa Schnell.

4:03 p.m. Southwick Hall

Carl Chaffatt, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

4:07 p.m. Admissions Office

Application review is already under way. Assistant director of admissions Kathleen Parent reviews a candidate for spring semester 2012.

4:14 p.m. Outside the Davis Center

Dan Brickman and his son Tim, a high school senior, grab a granite bench and a breather during a full day checking out college options. On a trip up from their home in Connecticut, they started the morning across the lake at St. Lawrence University, then on to UVM in the afternoon. Tim's far from making a decision with places like Hobart, Dennison, and Dickinson also on his list. But he's heard good things about UVM from friends currently enrolled, and says Burlington definitely wins out over Canton in today's match-up of college town versus college town.

4:20 p.m. Southwick Hall

The UVM Jazz Ensemble has its work cut out for it. The group is rehearsing in Southwick Ballroom this afternoon,  getting ready for one concert this weekend at Homecoming and Family weekend and another in a few weeks with James Marsh Profess-at-Large Srinivas Krishnan, an Indian percussionist and singer.  This weekend’s concert is in good shape; the playing at rehearsal is tight and ready for prime time. The later concert is another story. After the group struggles with "Seven Butter," a composition by Brian Diller, based on an Indian rag, Jazz Ensemble director Alex Stewart asks students to put their instruments down and count out the complex and shifting rhythms in vocal unison: five measures of 1-2/1-2/1-2-3, another five of 1-2-3/ 1-2-3, back to five of 1-2/1-2/1-2-3 five of 1-2-3-4/1-2-3-4  and concluding with another five of 1-2/1-2/1-2-3. The first vocal attempt falters, the second is better. Then students pick up their instruments, nail it, and let out a yell in celebration. “Srini will be happy,” Stewart says. 

4:20 p.m. Davis Center

Shoes off in a quiet corner of the Davis Center, professor of political science Alec Ewald comes the bottom of a large stack of exams in his course, Constitutional Law of Civil Rights. He has 107 students, which means “321 answers to read,” he says. In a good exam, he thinks, reading answers should be rewarding for the professor just as writing them is for the student. “But it doesn’t always work out that way,” he says.

4:25 p.m. Patrick Gymnasium

First-year player Tierra Shumpert works on her game during a ball handling drill at Patrick Gym.

4:32 p.m. Mann Gymnasium

Students work on "challenging sequencing and musicality skills," says professor Paul Besaw, in this advanced modern dance class.

4:41 p.m. Health Sciences Research Facility

Joseph Clayton, lab technician, prepares assays for a study in Professor Matt Lord's laboratory. Asked for a layperson's description of the research focus in this biophysics and molecular physiology lab located in the Health Sciences Research Facility, Clayton takes a break from the pipette work, pauses to consider, and says, "We're looking at molecular motors and exploring their role in various cell processes."

5:30 p.m. King Street Center

Leah Bauder, a senior math education major enrolled in Alan Tinkler's service-learning course "Reading in the Content Area," tutors at King Street Center, a not-for-profit community organization that provides children and families the core life-building skills necessary for a healthy and productive future.

5:50 p.m. Ira Allen Chapel

Author Rebecca Skloot speaks at  Ira Allen Chapel. Her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, was required reading for first-year students over the summer.

6:18 p.m. Looking west

Sunset from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

6:30 p.m. Given Building

At tonight's Community Medical School presentation, William Pendlebury, M.D., professor of pathology, neurology and medicine, discussed “Biomarkers and Beyond: The Science of Diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease.” “Alzheimer’s disease is the third most expensive disease after heart disease and cancer,” Pendlebury told the audience. “It is hoped that the scientific knowledge gained over the past quarter century, leading to a re-conceptualization of ‘Alzheimer’s disease’ proposed by these new criteria, will result in improved diagnosis -- and ultimately an effective disease-preventing therapy.”

6:32 p.m. Davis Center Oval

Sophomore Sarah Schumacher gets a lift to the Davis Center courtesy of her friend Michael Kardok, fellow sophomore. As if the free ride isn't enough, "Run!" Schumacher yells.

7 p.m. Burlington Waterfront

Although today's weather -- a sunny 67 degrees in Burlington -- might have suggested otherwise, winter in Vermont is around the corner. Geese depart for a warmer climate via the Lake Champlain corridor.

7 p.m. Old Mill

Taylor Sacco, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

7:01 p.m. Davis Center

Competitors in the annual Greek Life Gods and Goddesses competition line up for the event's first round. Standing before a Silver Maple Ballroom packed with their fellow brothers and sisters, the representatives from each of UVM's fraternity and sorority houses fielded questions such as: Tell us about your chapter's philanthropy focus and what it means to you? What chapter value do you embody? What is something you find unique about UVM's Greek community? And who is an alumna/us you look up to and why?

7:27 p.m. Stafford Hall

Students put their heads together in a lab section of "Microbiology and Infectious Diseases 101." Todd Cramer, a graduate teaching assistant for the course led by Professor Brenda Tessmann says the evening's session gives students experience in basic laboratory
techniques in the field such as bacterial conjugation, transformation, and transduction.

7:42 p.m. Davis Center

"Ultimate Outlaw" is on the air at student-run WRUV. DJ Sarah Attridge, a UVM junior, says she's particularly excited about sharing the new Fungi Girls recording on her rock/punk rock flavored show, which runs 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays.

7:46 p.m. Ira Allen Chapel

Sacred Harp Sing from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

Socks and shoes are clearly not required to lead a sacred harp sing, nor, apparently, is a lovely voice, given the gracious invitation to one reporter to join the quietly joyful group that gathers once a week for two hours of old-fashioned singing -- a style that caught on here, one participant said, just after the American Revolution. "The sacred harp" refers to the human voice, an instrument accessible to all.

8 p.m. Muddy Waters, Main Street

Lilly Morgan, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

8:03 p.m. Williams Hall

Nick Earl, UVM Class of 2011, has the basement ceramics studio to himself as he does final smoothing on a series of pottery works. In addition to his own clay pursuits, Earl combines work as technician for the ceramic studio with a job coordinating music events for Burlington City Arts. Though he was focused on ceramic sculpture as a student, Earl says that since graduation he's been more interested in making pots. "They just seem more authentic to me at the moment," he says. "I enjoy people being able to use my work."

8:34 p.m. Champlain Mill, Winooski

"Implied nudity" is the gist behind the Prudent Student Calendar, which particpating clubs and organizations sell to raise money. Here, members of the Women's Club Basketball team pose for their page in the upcoming edition.

9:53 p.m. Patrick Gymnasium

"Oof." “Gotchya!” Apparently, snowboarding is better preparation for dodgeball than skiing. Or at least tonight, at Gutterson Gymnasium, the Snowboard Team handed several defeats, and plenty of friendly barbs, to the Freestyle Ski Team. “It’s our sixth year of doing this game,” says Jared Necamp '13, one of the officers of the skiing team. “We’re very competitive in freeride, slopestyle, rail jams, half-pipe,” he says. Not so much in dodgeball.

10:17 p.m. Athletic Complex

Emma Logan ’13 works a problem on a climbing wall in a back hall of Gutterson.

10:35 p.m. Patrick Gymnasium

Leading a “salsa social,” introductory dance class, Ali Nickpour ‘14 and Natalie Bishop ’12 demonstrate the moves. They’re both officers in SASS, the University of Vermont’s Salsa and Swing Society.

11:37 p.m. Millis Hall

Even a college student's small motor skills are challenged as midnight approaches. As sophomore Jillian Blaisdell spins the lock on her mailbox yet agai