PresRelease

Dylan Seamus photo

As the folks who work at the UConn Dairy Bar know, I’m a big fan of ice cream. There’s nothing like a large chocolate malt after a long meeting or a few hours of reading reports. Here I am getting the ‘tour’ backstage from Kristin Geissler. I got to see the big stainless steel equipment they use to cool and mix the ice cream, and the ‘flavoring’ machine. But I missed the cows, who were off somewhere tending to business. Of course each visit to the Dairy Bar must be matched with an exercise session walking on Horsebarn Hill – otherwise I’d look like Bibendum, the Michelin Man.

I just learned that UConn History Professor Fakhreddin Azimi’s book, The Quest for Democracy in Iran: A Century of Struggle Against Authoritarian Rule, was published in April by Harvard University Press. It discusses Iran’s Constitutional Revolution of 1906, the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty, the Anglo-American-backed coup of 1953, the Shah’s repressive policies, the revolution of 1979, and current-day Iran. Professor Azimi teaches courses on Iran and the Middle East, and also a graduate seminar He teaches a graduate seminar on historiography and the epistemology of history.

Steven Geary by Swan Lake

Congratulations to UConn’s Professor Steven Geary on his appointment as one of eight 2008-09 Jefferson Science Fellows selected from a nationwide pool by the U.S. Department of State. He’ll be the first microbiologist/vaccinologist to serve as a Jefferson Fellow. You can read more about it in the UConn Advance.

Jefferson Science Fellows spend a year working full-time in either the State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development, providing up-to-date expertise on issues that impact U.S. foreign policy decisions. Prof Geary hopes to bring his expertise in microbial diseases that can devastate the food animal industry to help the Department of State formulate and implement foreign policy to prevent agro-terrorism.

Professor Geary is a UConn alum as well as a professor in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science. He’s also the Director of the Center of Excellence for Vaccine Research where the Mycoplasma Genome Project is being conducted.

Thomas Jefferson waiting for GreenLine bus by Gulley Hall

Dylan Seamus photo

One of UConn’s corpse flowers bloomed last night. The Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Greenhouse staff has been watching it carefully over the past week, issuing daily bulletins on its progress. I paid the Titan a premature visit late last week – it hadn’t opened yet, so I didn’t get to drink in the aroma for which it’s so famous – but I did get an excellent short course on this plant from Clinton Morse, the Plant Growth Facilities Manager. That’s Clinton in the pink shirt. The Titan is in green. I’m on the left.

Dylan Seamus photo

Here’s how it looked last night at about 8:00 pm, opening to the world. These are fascinating plants – you can read about them at our Greenhouse Horticulturist Matt Opel’s blog. When our greenhouse had its first ‘opening’ in 2004, over 20,000 people paid a visit.

Wano photo

On July 4 we had a UConn contingent in the annual Willimantic Boom Box Parade, organized every year by Wayne Norman of WILI. Wayne of course is the Grand Marshal. The idea for the parade goes back to yesteryear when, as Wayne tells it, Wayne saved the annual parade in the face of a musical emergency by playing Fourth-of-July parade music on his radio show while parade marchers carried boom boxes tuned to the station.

Ken Best photo Wano photo

A great group of UConn staff and students made up this year’s contingent. Thanks to Dave Evan for all his organizing work. We all headed to the Dairy Bar after the parade. I’m already looking forward to next year.

Ken Best photo