Brandeis University News and Updates:
July 5, 2011:
Brandeis names new dean of Arts & Sciences
Susan J. Birren, a professor of biology and neuroscience who is affiliated with the National Center for Behavioral Genomics and the Volen Center for Complex Systems, has been named dean of Brandeis’ College of Arts and Sciences.
Birren is affiliated with the Health: Science, Society and Policy program (HSSP) and the Psychology Department.
The appointment took effect July 1.
Birren received her Ph.D. in ciological chemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles and did post-doctoral work at the California Institute of Technology, where she studied the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the development of the mammalian nervous system.
Birren’s interest in nervous system development is reflected in her teaching, which includes a course on developmental biology and an interdisciplinary course on autism and human developmental disorders. In addition to her research and teaching, she has served on several university committees, including the University Curriculum Committee, and as chair of the Centers and Institutes Committee, Oral Communications Committee and Brandeis Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
June 1, 2011: March 4, 2011:
Brandeis Researchers Make Strides in Understanding ALS
There has been a significant advance in the effort to understand amotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by reversing the toxicity of a mutated protein. Currently there is no cure for the disease which effects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord most frequently referred to as Lou Gegrig's disease. ALS typically causes death due to respiratory paralysis within three to five years of onset.
Gregory Petsko, professor of biochemistry and molecular pharmacodynamics, and Dagmar Ringe, professor of aging and neurodegenerative disease,researchers at Brandeis University reported success with a new drug called Riluzole, which can extend ALS patients about three months or longer.
Three Brandeis University publications were named finalists for the 2010 National Jewish Books Awards. The University's press is one of the premier publishers of Jewish studies and a member of University Press of New England.
The National Jewish Book Awards is the longest running North American awards program of its kind in the field of Jewish literature. Among them is a collection of short stories "Promised Lands: New Jewish American Fiction on Longing to Belonging"., "Untold Tales of the Hasidim Crisis & Discontent in the History of Hasidim" and "Learning & Community: Jewish Supplementary Schools in the Twenty-First Century".
February 6, 2011:
Brandeis graduate research programs in the sciences, history and literature are among the best in the U.S., according to an extensive, in-depth evaluation conducted by the National Research Council and released this fall. Neuroscience, American history, Biochemistry and English and American literature were rated among the top programs in their fields. Mathematics and music were also rated highly. Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffee said the results "validate the strength of our commitment to scholarship and to graduate education....It is a testament to the quality and dedication of our faculty.
Virtual tour of the Brandeis Science Center
Did you know that the Brandeis Library delivers information on line offering 24/7/365 access from almost anywhere?
Take a virtual tour of the Brandeis Science Center on line.
Go to www.brandeis.edu/bnc/ under
News and Events / Carl J. Shapiro Science Center virtual tour
or click here to start your tour:
Carl J. Shapiro Science Center.
Brandeis National Committee History: Brandeis: then and now!
Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, Brandeis University is ranked in the top tier of universities in the country. Founded in 1948 and named for the late Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis of the U.S. Supreme Court, it is the only nonsectarian, Jewish-founded university in the country, known for its academic excellence and ideals of social justice. At the same time as Brandeis’ founding, eight women from Boston, all leaders in the community, were asked to help in supporting this new university. They were given the task of building on the collection of 2,000 books in the Library, which was housed in a converted horse stable. The dedication and perseverance of these women, who now called themselves the National Women’s Committee continues today, sixty years later, as the Brandeis National Committee. With over 70 chapters nationwide and over 39,000 members, BNC is one of the largest and most successful “friends of a library” organizations in the world. Over the years, we have placed over one million books in the
Brandeis libraries, and raised over $100 million for Brandeis University and its libraries, scholarship and research. Brandeis University has become one of the youngest private research universities, with ground-breaking exploration in neurodegenerative and age-related diseases.
Now in its 60th year, Brandeis University has become well established, renowned for its academic excellence and celebrated for its ideals of social justice. But when Brandeis first opened its library doors in the fall of 1948, it was not the best of times for this unique university...yet. Brandeis's book collection was meager, only 2,000 volumes, and was housed in, of all places, a converted horse stable! This was Brandeis's infancy, though, and the nation's only Jewish-sponsored, non-sectarian University had an incredible challenge ahead.
It would be an extraordinary task to create a library that could barely compete, let alone compete well, with the "old ivies" in New England. Brandeis was determined to be first rate. Remarkably, eight women would answer this challenge. Their loyalty to this unproven university came from a different breed of faith: both to the Jewish community at large, and to education itself. They called themselves the National Women's Committee, and what they would work to achieve was no less than amazing.
Sixty years later, the Brandeis University National Women's Committee is a thriving, vital part of both Brandeis and its library fundraising efforts. We are now one of the largest, most successful "friends of a library" organizations in the world. With over 39,000 members in 76 chapters across the country, the National Women's Committee has raised over $113 million for Brandeis University and its libraries.
Additional Brandeis Sites:
www.brandeis.edu
www.brandeis.edu/now/
www.brandeis.edu/bunwc
www.brandeis.edu/b50