Dr. Stephen G. Emerson ’74 Named Haverford’s 13th President

Dr. Stephen G. Emerson was named Haverford College’s 13th president on Monday, February 12, 2007, in a public ceremony held on campus. Dr. Emerson, who currently serves as the Francis C. Wood Professor in Medicine, Pathology and Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, also holds positions there as Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and as Associate Director for Clinical/Translational Research of the Abramson Center.
“We are very pleased with the selection of Dr. Emerson,” noted Search Committee Chair and Vice Chair of the Board of Managers, Howard W. Lutnick ’83. “Our 21-member committee worked diligently to find the best leader to move one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the country into a still stronger position both academically and financially. Dr. Emerson emerged as the premier choice amidst a national pool of candidates that numbered in the hundreds.”

Dr. Emerson graduated in 1974 from Haverford summa cum laude, with a dual major in chemistry and philosophy, before moving on to Yale for graduate studies; there he received an M.Sc. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, before also adding a Ph.D. in cell biology and immunology as well as an M.D. to his impressive academic credentials.
He began his career at Harvard Medical School and then spent eight years at the University of Michigan before returning to Philadelphia in 1994 as Professor in Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania.
“I am excited to return to my alma mater as its President,” said Emerson. “Haverford is in a distinct position, being one of the elite liberal arts colleges that also boasts a strong tradition of faculty research and social responsibility. This is an educational community that values the individual student and whose professors offer an intensely personal and scholarly undergraduate education.”

In his role as Division Chief of Hematology/Oncology at Penn, Dr. Emerson leads a group of 60 full time faculty and 25 trainees. Dr. Emerson is responsible for the selection, recruitment and career development of each of these individuals. He also coordinates and directs a research and education budget of over $50 million annually, nearly all of which is dependent on active fundraising through collaborative research grants and philanthropy. He runs one of the foremost stem cell biology and transplantation labs in the country, which is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health. He has written and lectured extensively.

Dr. Emerson’s work has been recognized with a litany of awards for research and academic prowess, including the Rolex Career Achievement Award and the Donald B. Martin Teaching Service Award.

In addition to his research and administrative responsibilities, Dr. Emerson is a clinical hematologist/oncologist who cares for patients with bone marrow stem cell disorders. He has held numerous hospital appointments throughout his career. He has been named regularly as a “Top Doc” in his field by Philadelphia Magazine, most recently in 2006.
At the national level, Dr. Emerson has been actively involved with grant review and scientific program review at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. He serves on the leadership councils of the American Society of Hematology and the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. In addition, he has served as Scientific Program Director for the Annual Meetings of each of these two distinguished societies. He serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Stem Cells, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
In a public statement released by Haverford’s Board Co-Chairs, Barry L. Zubrow ’75 and Catherine A. Koshland ’72 noted, “We set the bar high and established a standard for leadership that not only would reflect the best of Haverford for 174 years but also would motivate the College to reach its future aspirations. Dr. Emerson became the standard bearer for what we most valued. We are extremely enthusiastic about his appointment.”

Dr. Emerson will assume full duties as president, effective July 1, 2007, following the 10-year term of Thomas R. Tritton, which ends June 30.

For more information, visit www.haverford.edu/newpresident. Look for more on Dr. Emerson in future issues of Haverford Magazine.

Faculty Notes

Karin Akerfeldt, associate professor of chemistry, was co-author of the article “Reconstitution of Calmodulin from Domains and Subdomains: Influence of Target Peptide,” which was published in Vol. 358 Issue 3 of the Journal of Molecular Biology.

Professor of French Koffi Anyinefa attended the African Studies Association meeting in San Francisco, Nov. 16-19. His article “Les enfants de la guerre: Adolescence et violence postcoloniale chez Badjoko, Dongala, Kourouma and Monenembo” appeared in Vol. 66 of the journal Presence Francophone.

Associate Professor of Music Ingrid Arauco’s composition “Ritorno for Solo Piano” premiered at Museo Bellas Artes Gravina in Alicante, Spain on Feb. 7, with Mac McClure on piano. Her “In Rain for Soprano and Piano,” featuring McClure on piano and Cynthia Sanner, soprano, premiered at the University of Arizona, Tucson on April 14.

Joanna Augustyn, visiting assistant professor of French, presented a paper, “Lo que puede un sastre: The Subtle Invention of Art Criticism in Stendahl and Hugo,” at the Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium, Oct. 19-21 in Bloomington, Ind.

Rebecca Compton, associate professor of psychology, co-authored “The Automaticity of Affective Reactions: Stimulus valence, arousal, and lateral spatial attention,” for the journal Social Cognition, Vol. 24 Issue 4.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics Chris Cothran gave a talk entitled “Noroxisymmetric relaxed state in an elongated cylinder” at the 2006 American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics Conference in Philadelphia, Oct. 30-Nov.3.

Associate Professor of Religion Tracey Hucks wrote a chapter entitled “I Smoothed the Way, I Opened the Doors: Women in the Yoruba-Orisha Tradition of Trinidad,” for the book Women and Religion in the African Diaspora: Knowledge, Power and Performance, published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Associate Professor of Physics Suzanne Amador Kane gave a talk as part of a panel about biomaterials during the meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Chicano and Native American Scientists (SACNAS), Oct. 27-29 in Tampa, Fla. She also attended the American Association of Physics Teachers Winter Meeting 2007, Jan. 6-10 in Seattle, where she gave a talk on Haverford’s physics and other science pre-teacher training programs based on the College’s math/science partnership grant activities with Bryn Mawr College.

Associate Professor of Religion Ken Koltun-Fromm’s book Abraham Geiger’s Liberal Judaism: Personal Meaning and Religious Authority was published by Indiana University Press. He also contributed the chapter “Abraham Geiger’s Attitude about the Place and Status of Women in Judaism” for Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia, released by the Jewish Publication Society of America.

Vladimir Kontorovich, professor of economics, served on a discussion panel at the Association for Comparative Economic Studies Meeting in Chicago, Jan. 5-7. He also wrote the chapter “The Importance of Geography” for the book Russia’s Oil and Natural Gas: Bonanza or Curse?, published by Anthem Press.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Benjamin Le presented a paper, “Social network supportive behaviors and
commitment in long-distance romantic relationships,” at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social
Psychology, Jan. 24-28 in Memphis, Tenn.

Recent paintings by Associate Professor of Fine Arts Ying Li were exhibited at the Painting Center in New York City, Oct. 31-Nov. 26. An accompanying catalog was published jointly by the Painting Center and Haverford’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, where Li’s work will be displayed in April 2007.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Casey Londergan was co-author of the article “Two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy displays signatures of structural ordering in peptide aggregates,” which was published in Vol. 90 Issue 12 of Biophysical Journal; as well as “Tuning the Electronic Communication and Rates of Intramolecular Electron Transfer of Dimers of Trinuclear Ruthenium Clusters: Bridging and Ancillary Ligand Effects,” published in Vol. 45 Issue 2 of Inorganic Chemistry.

Associate Professor of Political Science Steve McGovern’s article “Philadelphia’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative: A Case Study of Mayoral Leadership, Bold Planning, and Conflict” was published in the journal Housing Policy Debate, Vol. 17 Issue 3.

Jennifer Pals, assistant professor of psychology, wrote “Narrative Identity Processing of Difficult Life Experiences: Pathways of Personality Development and Positive Self-Transformation in Adulthood” for the Journal of Personality, Vol. 74 Issue 4; co-wrote “A New Big Five: Fundamental Principles for and Integrative Science of Personality” for the journal American Psychologist, Vol. 61 Issue 3; and contributed a chapter titled “Constructing the ‘Springboard Effect:’ Casual Connections, Self-Making, and Growth Within the Life Story” for the book Identity and Story: Creating Self in Narrative, published by the American Psychological Association.

Associate Professor of Biology Jennifer Punt was a co-author of “Notch Activation is an Early and Critical Event During T-Cell Leukemogenesis in Ikaros-Deficient Mice,” which appeared in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Vol. 26 Issue 1.

Joshua Marc Sabloff, assistant professor of mathematics, co-authored the article “The Correspondence Between Augmentations and Rulings for Legendrian Knots,” which appeared in Vol. 224 Issue 1 of Pacific Journal of Mathematics.

Professor of Chemistry Rob Scarrow gave a poster presentation entitled “New Multidentate Ligands with Guanidinium Groups” at the Gordon Research Conference on Metals in Biology, Jan. 28-Feb. 1 in Ventura, Calif.

Associate Professor of English Christina Zwarg wrote a chapter on “Women in the Nineteenth Century” for the book American History Through Literature, 1820-1870, published by Charles Scribner’s Sons.