Milestones

Milestones covers awards, honors and major publications by faculty and staff. Send your items to Wisconsin Week, 19 Bascom Hall, or e-mail: wisweek@news.wisc.edu

Appointed
Tino Balio, professor of communication arts and executive director of the Arts Institute, and LaMarr Billups, chancellor’s special assistant for community relations, will be among the 13 newly appointed members of the Madison Cultural Arts District advisory board. The team will shepherd development of performance venues and art galleries in the Overture Center, designed by internationally known architect Cesar Pelli and slated to open in the 200 block of State Street in 2005. The board will hold its first meeting Jan. 25.

Paul Carbone, director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, is the first Yong Loo Lin Professor of Medicine at the National University of Singapore. During his three months in Singapore, he is helping develop a cancer program for the National University Medical School and Hospital.

Brian G. Fox, Department of Biochemistry, has been named the Marvin J. Johnson Professor in Fermentation Biochemistry.

Bill Hebert Jr. has been named assistant dean for minority and disadvantaged students at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Hebert will be the leader for minority affairs and career services.

Honored
Ted Goodfriend, departments of pharmacology and medicine, was awarded a three-year grant by the American Heart Association to study fatty acid metabolites that may contribute to the hypertension accompanying obesity in rhesus monkeys.

Thomas Palay, the Foley and Lardner Bascom Professor of law and associate dean for academic affairs at the Law School, has been elected president of the Madison Jewish Community Council.

Mary Schneider, Harlow Center for Biological Psychology and Department of Kinesiology, received a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for “moderate level prenatal alcohol exposure in primates.” Co-investigators are Onofre DeJesus (medical physics), Andrew Roberts (medical physics and psychiatry), Gary Kraemer (kinesiology), Robert Nickles (medical physics), and Colleen Moore (psychology). The researchers plan to assess the effects of moderate level alcohol exposure during specific gestation periods on cognition and brain integrity in a nonhuman primate model.

Waclaw Szybalski, a professor of oncology with the Comprehensive Cancer Center’s McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, was honored recently in his native Poland with an honorary degree. The Medical University of Gdansk rewarded Szybalski’s effort and perseverence, conferring upon him a Doctor Honoris Causa. The honor recognizes a lifetime’s achievements in fields related to medicine.

University Theatre‘s production of Frank Wedekind’s “Spring Awakening” was selected to appear at the American College Theater Festival Regional Competition in Milwaukee this month. The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival is a national organization that recognizes excellence in college and university theater. Six productions will be chosen from eight regions to appear in the National American College Theater Festival held at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in April. In addition, both scenic designer Nolan O’Dell and lighting designer Andrea Bilkey were awarded a citation for excellence in the design category.