J E F F E R S O N S C H O L A R S F O U N D A T I O N

The Jefferson Fellowship Program reached new heights during
the 2011-2012 academic year. Total nominations increased 58%,
each eligible department in the College of Arts & Sciences nominated a
candidate for the first time in the history of the program, the Darden Fellowship
broadened its reach with a new and improved regional selection
process, and the Engineering School nominated and received its first two
School of Engineering and Applied Science Jefferson Fellowships.
Jefferson Fellows continued to be recognized within the University
community and throughout the larger national academic community.
Julia James, the Macfarlane Family Darden Jefferson Fellow, received the
William Michael Shermet Award; and Matthew Lerner, the James H. and
Elizabeth W. Wright Fellow, received the Elizabeth Munsterberg Koppitz
Fellowship, one of only seven awarded nationally. Corlett Wood, the H.
Eugene Lockhart Fellow, and Anne Dunckel, the Paul T. Jones II Fellow,
continued scientific work as part of their respective National Science
Foundation grants. Since 2005 29 of 36 Jefferson Fellows have received
faculty tenure track positions or post-doctoral fellowships.
Two new outside-the-classroom initiatives were created by the Fellows
this past year and are described in the pages to follow. Jefferson Fellows
and Jefferson Scholars joined together in an official, structured capacity
to conduct joint research projects. The ideas germinated from Fellows
who then sought out research assistants and collaboration from Scholars.
Interested Scholars applied for the positions.
The first Jefferson Talk was presented by fifth-year Fellow Rachael
Beaton, fourth-year Fellow Bill Dirienzo and second-year fellow Chris
Irwin all from the Astronomy Department. Their presentation, “Death
from the Skies: Unsolved Mysteries in the Universe”, was more than just a
podium-delivered speech. It featured the astronomy department’s mobile
planetarium, a transportable balloon-like enclosure where as many as 10
to 15 adults can sit inside and view the entire 180 degree spectrum of the
sky from anywhere in the world thanks to cutting edge technology and
dazzling visual and display capability.
Throughout the year Fellows met twice a month for lunch and picked
one night each month for a social activity that ranged from trivia night at
a local hot spot to bowling. Their interests and passions for broadening
the scope of interdisciplinary dialogue continued with early-stage planning
of the 2012 Forum for Interdisciplinary Dialogue and the second
issue of the Jefferson Journal of Science and Culture.
the 2012 annual report
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