Bernstein Faculty Fellows

Tufts University prides itself on its commitment to interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research and scholarship. Through the generosity of Drs. Leonard (A'53, D'56, A'01) and Jane Holmes Bernstein, this Program was instituted in 2005 and continues to offer faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences a chance to explore potential interdisciplinary opportunities while learning to balance the multiple aspects of research, teaching, and service that comprise an academic career.

This Fellowship provides faculty development opportunities while strengthening the vision of interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research and scholarship in the School of Arts and Sciences.

The donors intend that the Bernstein Faculty Fellows Program will:

Support new collaborative, inter-disciplinary research
Support pre-tenure faculty working in collaboration with senior faculty collaborators/mentors in developing the career balance between the responsibilities of teaching, advising, and the pursuit of research and scholarship
Provide protected time through course release to facilitate thinking and learning across disciplinary lines

This Program provides funding for Bernstein Faculty Fellows for two years. Each spring, we invite proposals for the Bernstein Faculty Fellows Program from junior faculty members working with senior faculty members in other departments within Arts and Sciences or possibly one of the other schools within Tufts.

To be eligible to apply the applicant must be a tenure-track assistant professor in the 1^st - 4^th year of his/her appointment. Although this Program is designed to foster cross-department and cross-school collaboration, we do consider applications from faculty members in the same department if the proposal is strongly committed to interdisciplinary research or cross-disciplinary thinking.

The Bernstein Faculty Fellows Program will relieve junior faculty members of a course assignment for two consecutive spring semesters, providing them with additional time to devote to development of their scholarship in conjunction with a senior faculty mentor. The Bernstein Faculty Fellow is awarded a total of $1600 in research support over the two years of the project, and the senior faculty collaborator/mentor receives $700 in research support over the two year period for his or her efforts.

Proposal announcements are made in the spring semester and Fellowships are awarded at the beginning of the fall semester. The Academic Deans of Arts and Sciences review applications based on the strength of the proposal and interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary promise of the faculty members' work.

Current Fellows include:

Bernstein Faculty Fellow: Avner Baz, Philosophy
Faculty Collaborator/Mentor: Daniel Dennett, Philosophy
Title of Project: Aspect Perception and the Relation Between Philosophy and Science

Bernstein Faculty Fellow: Hugh Gallagher, Physics and Astronomy
Faculty Collaborator/Mentor: Diane Souvaine and Carla Brodley, Computer Science
Title of Project: Pattern Recognition in Neutrino Detectors and Optimal Machine Learning Strategies

Bernstein Faculty Fellow: Ioannis Evrigenis, Political Science
Faculty Collaborator/Mentor: Kevin Dunn, English
Title of Project: A Study of the Concept of the State of Nature in Early Modern Political Thought

<p><strong>Acting As Judge and Jury</strong>

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<p>Tufts faculty members, Sam Sommers and Kent Portney, share a devotion to innovative research and teaching about the roles race and gender play in the criminal justice system.</p>

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<p><strong>At Your Service</strong>

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<p>Through Tufts' Leonard Carmichael Society - the largest student-run organization on campus - students are giving back to communities in need.</p>

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<p><strong>Breaking Down Barriers</strong>

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<p>Tufts literacy expert Maryanne Wolf has pioneered ground-breaking research that has led to advances in dyslexia testing and treatment.</p>

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<br/>(A'07)

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<p>Working as an intern for MTV Hong Kong helped prepare Tufts junior Erin Yeh for the real world.</p>

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<p><strong>Everything Counts</strong>

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<p>At Tufts, students are a key part of continuing climate change and environmental awareness efforts. </p>

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<p><strong>Expanding Their Horizons</strong>

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<p>This summer was action-packed for Tufts students who undertook a variety of projects across the world and in their own backyards.</p>

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<p>Webcasting technology is giving Tufts students a real-time view of life in the Middle East. </p>

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<h4>Student Life</h4>

<p><strong>Four Years, Infinite Possibilities</strong>

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<p>Follow the evolution of an undergraduate through the journeys of six students. </p>

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<p><strong>Great Wide Open</strong>

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<p>Through the OpenCourseWare initiative, Tufts is using the power of the Internet to share its greatest resource - knowledge - across the globe.</p>

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<p><strong>Green Behind The Scenes</strong>

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<p>Committed staff, institutional partnerships and innovative technologies are helping Tufts continue to be an environmental leader.</p>

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<p><strong>Hot Stuff</strong>

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<p>When the semester starts to cool down, student performance groups at Tufts begin heating up. </p>

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<p><strong>International Appeal</strong>

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<p><i>Kaplan/Newsweek College Resource Guide</i> ranked Tufts as the "Hottest School for Study Abroad" in 2004, celebrating the university's international approach to learning.</p>

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<p><strong>Jay Cantor  </strong>

<br/><em>Professor, English</em>

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<p><strong>BACKGROUND:</strong> Raised in Great Neck, NY; Ph.D., University of California-Santa Cruz; at Tufts since 1977.</p>

<p><strong>PUBLISHED WORK:</strong> Five books, including three novels; latest work is Great Neck. Working on next novel, titled The Reborn.</p>

<p><strong>ABOUT WRITING:</strong> "It starts with just a love of putting words together and a certain physical feeling that comes with that. Beyond that, without story-telling, I wouldn't know what to do with all the lives that I hear about everyday."</p>

<p><strong>WHY TUFTS:</strong> "Tufts is a place very open to a person teaching what they are most interested in.</p>

<p>I think graduate students come to Tufts for the strength of the faculty, its accessibility, and its range of interests. They won't be disappointed by the other students, who, from my experience are a very self-directed, independent minded group."</p>
<p><strong>AFTER-HOURS:</strong> "I don't have free time. I say that because I'm either working on classes or I'm researching things for class, or for my novels or essays. But those are all things that I want to do. So you could say that the good thing about my work for Tufts is that it is what I would want to do in my free time. I also write screenplays, as work for hire for studios."</p>

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<p><strong>Jeffrey Taliaferro</strong>

<br/><em>Asking Why</em>

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<p>Taking an approach that blends political science and psychology, Tufts faculty member, Jeff Taliaferro, sheds new light on the reasons why states become embroiled in counterproductive military situations.</p>

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<p><strong>John D. McDonald  </strong>

<br/><em>Professor, music</em>

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<p><strong>Background:</strong> Born in Norfolk, Va., doctorate from Yale;
composer/pianist in residence in Mongolia via the U.S. Information
Agency; at Tufts since 1990.</p>

<p><strong>Compositions:</strong> More than 800, including commissions for the Havana
Festival 2000, St. Petersburg Spring Festival 2002, Duke University,
Wellesley College, Vienna Saxophone Quartet, Boston Celebrity
Series, Worcester Chorus, and Florestan Recital Project.</p>

<p><strong>Current work:</strong> Annual piano albums (collections of short solo
keyboard pieces); "Peace Process," a work for basset horn and piano
for Tufts Merrin Professor (and clarinetist) Ray Jackendoff; an
evening-long song cycle about animals for voice and piano; a choral
work for the Worcester Chorus.</p>

<p><strong>Goal in music:</strong> "I like to confront people, to mark events in our
lives, to capture in music something I've observed that would be
difficult to express in words-something about a person, something
political, or something completely abstract. All my acts of
composing are inherently pacifist."</p>

<p><strong>Why Tufts:</strong> "I don't feel I can meet the needs of more than
eight graduate composers at a time, so the smallness of our graduate
music program is important. I also appreciate all the contact I have
at Tufts with people from other departments and disciplines, as well
as the very high quality of our undergraduate students."</p>

<p><strong>After-Hours:</strong> Compose, practice, read, and then do those things some
more. What little free time I have, I spend with my wife and children. I also like to run in the woods."</p>

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<p><strong>Jonathan Wilson  </strong>

<br/><em>Professor and Chair, English; Fletcher Professor of Rhetoric and Debate </em>

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<p><strong>BACKGROUND:</strong> Born in London, England; educated at the University of Essex, St. Catherine's College, Oxford, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; with a dissertation on the novels of Saul Bellow; Guggenheim fellowship in fiction; at Tufts since 1982. </p>

<p><strong>PUBLISHED WORK:</strong> Seven books, including two novels, two collections of stories, two critical works and a biography of Chagall.</p>

<p><strong>ABOUT WRITING:</strong> "Writing is a lifetime of unfolding your imagination. It remains a mysterious activity."</p>

<p><strong>WHY TUFTS:</strong> "Teaching at Tufts is an undiminished pleasure. It's a pleasant atmosphere for teaching, an intimate atmosphere. I keep up with many of my former students; I get e-mails from some students I taught 22 years ago."</p>

<p><strong>AFTER-HOURS:</strong> "I'm a soccer fanatic. [Wilson covered the 1994 world cup for The New Yorker.] I also love watching TV with my sons. I used to play poker but gave that up.</p>

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<p><strong>Karina Weinstein</strong>

<br/>(A'02)

<br/><em>Spreading Hope to the Children of Chile</em>

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<p>For Tufts graduate Karina Weinstein, studying abroad in Chile during her junior year was a life-changing experience.  </p>

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<p><strong>Krishna Kumar  </strong>

<br/><em>Professor and Chair, Chemistry, Associate Member, Cancer Center, Tufts-New England Medical Center, Adjunct Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering</em>

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<p><strong>BACKGROUND:</strong> Born in Madras, India; Ph.D., organic chemistry, Brown University; Skaggs Fellow, The Scripps Research Institute; at Tufts since 1998.</p>

<p><strong>RESEARCH:</strong> De novo design and construction of proteins, especially those with nonstick properties; also probing the evolution of proteins by using bioinformatics to deconstruct enzymes to the smallest pieces that still have catalytic properties.</p>

<p><strong>ABOUT HIS WORK:</strong> "We use two complementary approaches. One is to take inspiration from biology, to push the frontiers of understanding of how biology works and use that understanding to do chemistry. The second is to use chemistry to endow extra-biological properties to molecules and organisms."</p>

<p><strong>WHY TUFTS:</strong> "We have a dual mission of education and research, and I find that Tufts does both quite well. They are synergistic-you can't do cutting-edge research without engaging in and benefiting from teaching, and students must be involved in pushing the research envelope to receive a top education and train other students."</p>

<p><strong>AFTER-HOURS:</strong> "I play squash, ski, and sail."</p>

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<p><strong>L. Michael Romero  </strong>

<br/><em>Professor, biology; Professor, environmental and population health, Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine</em>

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<p><strong>BACKGROUND:</strong> Raised in Albuquerque, NM; Ph.D. in biology, Stanford; post-doctoral fellowships from National Science Foundation and American Psychological Association; at Tufts since 1996.</p>

<p><strong>CURRENT RESEARCH:</strong> Using neuroscience, physiology, and ecology-in the lab and in the field-to learn about stress in vertebrates, specifically how levels of stress-related hormones released in an animal are barometers for how well it is coping with its environment; currently focused on what role those hormones play in survival. </p>

<p><strong>WHY TUFTS:</strong> "It's rare to find a department where faculty members co-author papers the way we do here. That's because it's rare to find a biology department with such a wide range of faculty as we have-including a physiologist, plant scientist, ecologist, neurobiologist, molecular biologist, geneticist, conservation biologist, and animal behaviorist. Tufts also is unusual in the closeness graduate students have with their advisers; most of our biology labs have only two or three graduate students in them."</p>

<p><strong>AFTER-HOURS:</strong> "I read science fiction voraciously; I also enjoy hiking, skiing and bridge.</p>

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<p><strong>Laurie Sabol</strong>

<br/><em>Renewal In Poland</em>

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<p>Tufts librarian Laurie Sabol traveled to Poland, helping to transform the neglected site of a concentration camp into a commemorative park.</p>

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<p><strong>Martin J. Sherwin</strong>

<br/><em>Walter S. Dickson Professor of English and American History</em>

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<i>American Prometheus</i> -- Martin J. Sherwin's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer -- contains lessons that resonate today.

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