
|
News & Events:
Current Events
A Taste of Tufts: A Sampling of Faculty Research
Fridays from Noon to 1pm
Room 155 in the Granoff Music Building
Light lunch provided after the presentation
February 3rd
Joanne Berger-Sweeney
Dean of Arts and Sciences
How understanding brain development will aid in treating
Rett syndrome
Professor Berger-Sweeney's research focuses on the
neurobiology of developmental disorders using mouse models
of diseases such as Down syndrome and Rett syndrome. Her
research includes behavioral, neurochemical, and anatomical
studies, all aimed at understanding mechanisms involved in
normal memory and cognitive processes and how these
processes malfunction in developmental disorders. |
February 10th
David Locke
Associate Professor of Music
David Locke's research subject is the heritage of music and
dance traditions of Africa. Most of his scholarly
publications have been on material from the Ewe and Dagomba
peoples of Ghana. He sees his work as a bridge between
African musicians and non-African musicians, especially
those who would perform the music in new settings. He also
likes to think that his work helps sustain valuable human
creations in an era of rapid change. He has put substantial
amounts of material up on the Internet with the idea that it
will be accessible world-wide at modest price. David's
presentation will include visiting these websites, as well
as some live demonstration and inter-active "hands-on"
learning. |
February 17th
Hugh Gallagher
Associate Professor of Physics
Despite the fact that it is the most abundant form of matter
in the universe, the neutrino still holds many mysteries. In
particular they may be the key to answering one of the
fundamental questions in science today - how the universe
came to be made of matter when the laws of physics treat
matter and anti-matter (mostly) equally. We'll talk about
several experiments that hope to unravel this mystery and
shed some light on the elusive particle that has been dubbed
"the loner of the universe." |
February 24th
Edith Balbach
Director, Community Health Program
Edith Balbach's research is focused on the tobacco
industry's political and marketing behaviors. She is
fascinated by how an industry whose product leads to
premature death of half of its users and kills approximately
six million people a year can continue to be so powerful and
so opportunistic in its marketing behaviors. |
March 2nd
Anthony Monaco
President, Tufts University
Dr. Monaco will discuss two of his most important discoveries.
His doctoral research led to discovery of the gene responsible for X-linked
Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies, which weaken the skeletal and heart
muscles. Later, he led Oxford's Neurogenetics Group, a team of scientists
investigating the genetic underpinnings of neurodevelopmental disorders,
including autism, specific language impairment and dyslexia. His group was
the first to identify a gene specifically involved in human speech and language. |
March 9th
Lisa Freeman
Professor, Clinical Sciences, Cummings Veterinary School
Dr. Freeman is a specialist in Veterinary Clinical Nutrition
at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine where she
teaches veterinary students about companion animal nutrition
and cares for patients that require specialized nutrition
for acute and chronic diseases. Her main research focus is
the use of nutrition to treat heart disease in dogs and
cats. However, she also is passionate about helping pet
owners learn to select optimal diets for their pets in
different stages of life. This interactive session will
address the role of nutrition in veterinary medicine and how
good nutrition decisions can be made based on fact, rather
than on myth. |
March 30th
Chris Rogers
Professor, Mechanical Engineering
At the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, Chris
Rogers works with researchers in engineering, education, and
child development to understand how kids learn, use that
information to design educational toys, and then collaborate
with teachers around the world to get students to use them.
He has worked with LEGO Education for almost 15 years on
their LEGO Mindstorms product, spun off a company around
making stop-action movies, designed software for National
Instruments, and worked with teachers as far away as
Tasmania, Australia and as close as Medford, MA. He has
measured what events in the classroom triggered students to
stop following directions and start engineering and what
caused them to go back to following directions. He has
measured student retention of math concepts as a result of
making a robot along with students understanding of air -
what it is and how it works. He has looked at teacher
learning as well as student learning. In this talk, though,
he will mostly just be showing cool movies of what kids
around the world have engineered. |
April 6th
Christine Cousineau
Lecturer, Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning
Christine Cousineau AICP is an architect and planner with experience in
community development and an interest in urban history. She received a
Masters in Architecture (MArch AS) and a Masters in City Planning (MCP)
from MIT. Christine has extensive planning experience in the public, private
and non-profit sectors. She worked for the Massachusetts's Division of
Capital Planning (now Division of Capital Asset Management), and was an
assistant director at the City of Boston's Public Facilities Department
(now Department of Neighborhood Development). For The Boston Foundation
she coordinated one of the Carol R. Goldberg Seminars and the resulting
publication: "The Greening of Boston: An Action Agenda." For several years
she was an associate at Goody, Clancy & Associates, a Boston-based
architectural and planning firm. Christine currently works for UMass
Lowell as a planning consultant. At UEPP she teaches Urban Planning and
Design in the fall and Green Urban Design and Placemaking in the spring.
Her teaching is informed by her professional planning experience and a
strong interest in urban and planning history. |
April 13th
Fiorenzo Omenetto
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Fiorenzo Omenetto's research spans nonlinear optics, nanostructured,
materials biomaterials, and biopolymer-based photonics. Since moving to
Tufts at the end of 2005, he has proposed and pioneered, alongside his
colleague David Kaplan, the use of silk as a material platform for photonics,
optoelectronics and high technology applications. This approach reinvents
silk as a versatile material that offers unusual combinations of form and
function. Prof. Omenetto is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America,
a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow, and was recently named one of the top 50 people
in tech by Fortune Magazine. |
April 20th
Daniel Dennett
University Professor, Philosophy
One of Daniel Dennett's ongoing projects is a series of
confidential interviews with clergy who no longer believe
what their congregations believe. From a pilot program
involving half a dozen active clergy in different Protestant
denominations, the project has branched out to include many
more clergy. Nobody knows how common this phenomenon is, but
it is certainly going to be important in coming years, as
religious organizations struggle to cope with the explosion
in information thanks to the Internet, cell phones, and
social media.
Watch a video of Prof. Dennett's presentation > |
|