NEWSLETTER - Rackham Graduate School - University of Michigan

R ACKHAM ALUMNI
NEWSLETTER
Spring 2010
915 East Washington Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1070
http://www.rackham.umich.edu
STUDENT
spotlight
Jenahvive Morgan
Ph.D. Student in Civil and Environmental Engineering
Rackham Merit Fellow
In 2001, Jenahvive graduated from Michigan State University with Bachelor’s degrees in
International Relations and Chemical Engineering. Currently, she is working to understand
turbulence and its effect on stratified flow in the environment. Jenahvive aspires to
incorporate solutions to the world’s growing environmental problems into her research.

STUDENT
spotlight
Christina Chang
Ph.D. Student in History of Art
Rackham Merit Fellowship
Christina was born and raised in Los Angeles,
and received her B.A. in political economy
from UC Berkeley in 2001. Her dissertation
project examines the evolution of
painting during the 1950s in New York away from the conventional easel-sized
oil painting on canvas, to a far looser conception of the form as simply something
that hangs on a nail in the wall. Christina will finish her degree in 2010.
Mesmin Destin
Ph.D. Student in Psychology
Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship
Mesmin earned his B.A. from Northwestern
University in Psychology and Sociology.
He plans to complete his dissertation
in 2010, which explores specific psychological
mechanisms that drive the association
between financial resources and outcomes
for students from middle-school into early
adulthood. Through a series of nationallyrepresentative
data analyses and classroom
field experiments, Mesmin aims to highlight how the perception of economic
circumstances and possibilities can influence the goals and behaviors of young
people. He plans to produce research that carries significance within academic,
policy, and local community domains.
Zachary Dalebroux
Ph.D. Student in Microbiology
and Immunology
Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship
Zachary’s thesis focuses on how Legionella
pneumophila, a Gram-negative bacterial
pathogen and causative agent of an acute
pneumonia known as Legionnaire’s Disease,
utilizes a general stress response pathway to
coordinate transmission between white blood
cells. Specifically, he is studying how the
bacterium employs the molecule guanosine tetraphosphate, or ppGpp, and the
transcription factor DksA, to control expression of genes critical for intracellular
survival. Zachary will graduate in April 2010 and join the laboratory of Dr. Sam
Miller at the University of Washington in Seattle for his post-doctoral studies.
The Regents of the University of Michigan
Julia Donovan Darlow, Ann Arbor
Laurence B. Deitch, Bingham Farms
Denise Illitch, Bingham Farms
Olivia P. Maynard, Goodrich
Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor
Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park
S. Martin Taylor, Grosse Pointe Farms
Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor
Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio)
Nondiscrimination Policy Statement
The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/affirmative
action employer, complies with all
applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination
and affirmative action. The University
of Michigan is committed to a policy of equal opportunity
for all persons and does not discriminate
on the basis of race, color, national origin, age,
marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity,
gender expression, disability, religion, height,
weight, or veteran status in employment, educational
programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries
or complaints may be addressed to the Senior
Director for Institutional Equity, and Title IX/Section
504/ADA Coordinator, Office of Institutional
Equity, 2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann
Arbor, Michigan 48109-1432, 734-763-0235, TTY
734-647-1388. For other University of Michigan
information call 734-764-1817.
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FEATURE
School of Information
Prepares Librarians for a
Brave New World
By Jeff Mortimer
photo by D.C. Goings
Rackham Graduate School promotes excellence in graduate education
for students in 104 doctoral and 90 master’s programs.
Alumnae and library professionals Josie Parker and Karen Jordan
spoke recently with Ph.D. student Chris Leeder about what has
changed, and what hasn’t, in the information science program.
These can be scary times for anyone
in the information field, as technological
earthquakes rock centuries-old
notions about the acquisition, storage
and dissemination of knowledge.
Libraries are on the front lines of this
upheaval, even as equally scary economic
times have spiked demand for
their services.
In Josie Parker’s opinion, this is just
what her education in the University
of Michigan School of Information
prepared her for: not preserving the
past or even coping with the present,
but facing the future.
“What the school taught me was to
take these kinds of challenges head-on,
to not flinch, to be brave, to ask questions
that people aren’t used to librarians
asking,” says Parker, who earned her master’s in 1996 and has
been Director of the Ann Arbor District Library since 2002. “U-M
gave me a lot of courage and taught me how to use it.”
Left to right: Josie Parker, Chris Leeder, Karen Jordan
Parker was joined in a discussion of the future of libraries by fellow
SI alumna Karen Jordan, the University Library’s Exhibits and Outreach
Librarian, and Chris Leeder, a first-year doctoral student in
SI. Although their associations with the School span three and a half
decades – it was still known as the School of Library Science when
Jordan got her master’s in 1975 – their perceptions of its strengths
are remarkably consistent.
“They didn’t teach you to be limited,” says Jordan. “I think that’s
why so many Michigan alumni have reached great levels of responsibility
in librarianship around the country. They may not have been
trained in the specific skills for these jobs, but they were taught how
to learn and how to think, so they can embrace those skills. The basic
value of librarianship is access – providing information to people,
organizing it, making it available and useful, and managing all that
– and the technology is just another way of doing those things.”
When Parker was at U-M, she was one of a team of 35 graduate students
that constructed the Internet Public Library. Now Leeder is going
to U-M in the midst of the University’s historic partnership with
Google, Inc., to digitize the entire collection of the University Library.
Begun in 2005, the project is expected to be completed in the
summer of 2011, when all seven million bound volumes will be
searchable online. Users will be able to access the full text of books
that are out of copyright or in the public domain, and snippets of
those that remain in copyright.
Although Google has similar partnerships with Harvard and other
universities, U-M is the premier testing site for Google’s non-destructive
scanning technology and digitization workflow, and was
the first site to implement such technology.
“If you’re in graduate school at Michigan
right now, being involved in anything
surrounding the Google book project is
added value,” says Parker. “You’re going to
have opportunities that you could not buy
and are not covered by tuition.”
Leeder sees some other attributes of the
program as priceless, too. “The contacts
that are available here, and the networks,
add a lot to the education,” he says. “And
they’re very strong on people doing their independent
research, publishing articles, and
attending conferences. You get professional
experience and exposure and start developing
your career while you’re a student.”
It’s important to stay light on one’s feet,
too, as the ground can shift often and profoundly.
The skills whose value will endure
are grounded in the core mission of libraries,
rather than a particular delivery system.
“It’s learning a skill set you can apply
to many venues, many types of tools, many types of systems,” says
Leeder. “It comes down to basic principles.”
That’s what Parker likes to hear from someone preparing to be a leader
in the profession. In 1992, long before she became its director, the
Ann Arbor Library removed its card catalog, prompting predictable
but understandable protests. The University Library followed suit late
last winter; the last item had been added to its card catalog in 1988.
“The next generation will have to lead us into a time when people
won’t be complaining about where did the card catalog go, they’ll be
complaining about where did the shelves go,” she says. “My attitude
about that comes from what I did at the University of Michigan:
make the best out of it and own it, turn it into something positive. I
don’t want you to have to go to a museum to find out what a public
library was, but if we don’t accept that shelves will go away and the
book will change, if the library remains only about the book and not
about the community it serves, then the library goes away.”

AWARDS
Distinguished Dissertation
Awards of 2009
While all graduating Rackham students produce excellent dissertations,
some students write dissertations that are truly exceptional
for the high quality of their scholarship and for the
significance and interest of their findings. We recognize these
exceptional dissertations with the ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation
Award.
Dissertations produced in 2009 are nominated for the award by
University faculty who have served as chairs of dissertation committees
of outstanding students. The nominations are then read
by a review panel composed of members of the Michigan Society
of Fellows, with assistance from other members of the University
faculty and research community.
The awards are co-sponsored by ProQuest, which publishes 35,000
dissertations annually, including more than 800 by University of
Michigan authors. We are delighted to partner with ProQuest in
celebrating the remarkable achievements of these promising young
scholars. The awards will be presented at a special ceremony to be
held at the Rackham Building on April 29, 2010.
NEWS
The award recipients are:
Eric W. Groenendyk, Political Science
The Motivated Partisan: A Dual Motivations Theory of
Partisan Change and Stability
Blair Allen Johnston, Music Theory
Harmony and Climax in the Late Works of
Sergei Rachmaninoff
University Graduate Exercises on April 30
Jasper E. Kok, Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Science
Understanding Wind-Blown Sand and the Electrification of
Granular Systems
Eranda Nikolla, Chemical Engineering
Combined Experimental/Theoretical Approach Toward the
Development of Carbon Tolerant Electrocatalysts for Solid
Oxide Fuel Cell Anodes
Howard L. M. Nye, Philosophy
Ethics, Fitting Attitudes, and Practical Reason: A Theory of
Normative Facts
Robert Grant Rowe, Cellular and Molecular Biology
Differential Regulation of Two and Three-Dimensional
Cell Function
Nathalie E. Williams, Sociology
Living with Conflict: The Effect of Community Organizations,
Economic Assets, and Mass Media Consumption on
Migration During Armed Conflict
Ruth E. Zielinski, Nursing
Private Places—Private Shame: Women’s Genital Body Image
and Sexual Health
University Graduate Exercises, to be held on Friday, April 30, is the commencement ceremony for all master’s and doctoral graduates
and candidates who receive their degrees through the Rackham Graduate School. A formal procession of faculty and graduates in full
academic garb moves from the Rackham Building to Hill Auditorium, where commencement is held. Afterwards graduates and their
families enjoy a reception on Ingalls Mall. It’s the University of Michigan at its ceremonial, celebratory best.
The speaker at this year’s University Graduate Exercises will be Charles M.
Vest. Dr. Vest earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from West Virginia
University in 1963, and M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering
from the University of Michigan in 1964 and 1967 respectively.
He joined the U-M faculty in 1968 and was appointed associate dean
of engineering from 1981-86, dean of engineering from 1986-89, and
provost and vice president for academic affairs in 1989. In 1990 he became
president of MIT and served until 2004 when he became professor
and president emeritus. In July 2007 he was elected president of the U.S.
National Academy of Engineering. He has received honorary doctoral degrees
from ten universities, and was awarded the 2006 National Medal of
Technology by President Bush.