Persian Cultural Society to host film festival starting Wednesday

UNC’s Persian Cultural Society will host its first Iranian Film Festival Wednesday (Oct. 8) through Oct. 11.

Titled "The Day I Became a Woman: Portrayals of Gender and Society in Iranian Cinema," the festival will be held in the Frank Porter Graham Student Union’s film auditorium. All lectures and screenings are free to the public.

The film festival aims to support public education about contemporary gender issues in Iran and how they are conveyed in cinema, organizers said. Speakers at the festival include Dr. Hamid Dabashi of Columbia University, documentarian-filmmaker Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri and Dr. Negar Mottahedeh of Duke University.

Included in the festival’s seven films is the U.S. premiere of 15-year old Hana Makhmalbaf’s "The Joy of Madness," nominated for best debut at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

For a full listing of the featured films and lectures, as well as event sponsors, click on http://www.unc.edu/pcs/filmfest.html.

For more information, call Heide Iravani at (919) 740-1140.

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Zolotor receives teacher development award for scholastic achievement

A clinical instructor at UNC’s School of Medicine has been honored for his commitment to education in family medicine.

Dr. Adam J. Zolotor was selected by the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation to receive the 2003 Pfizer Teacher Development Award based on his scholastic achievement, leadership qualities and ongoing dedication to family medicine.

"This program helps to recognize dedication and mentorship among family physicians such as Dr. Zolotor," said Dr. Kenneth Evans, academy president. "His accomplishments go beyond his professional successes with an impressive array of community volunteer activities as well."

The $2,000 award, supported by Pfizer U.S. Pharmaceuticals Group, promotes interest in the part-time teaching of family medicine after residency and provides funding for each recipient to attend the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Annual Scientific Assembly, the association’s largest meeting for continuing medical education.

Zolotor, a UNC School of Medicine graduate, treats patients at Chatham Primary Care in Siler City, one of UNC Health Care’s community-based practices, and teaches part time in UNC’s department of family medicine.

He was recognized during the association’s assembly opening ceremony Oct. 2 in New Orleans.

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Roberts to serve as distinguished lecturer, will give address Tuesday

Dr. Harold S. Roberts, Sarah Graham Kenan distinguished professor of medicine and pathology and laboratory medicine, is the 2003 Norma Berryhill distinguished lecturer.

Roberts, a member of the School of Medicine faculty since 1961, is one of the world’s foremost experts on bleeding and clotting disorders. Among his many achievements, he was the first to show that mutations in the factor IX gene resulted in mild and moderate hemophilia. He and his colleagues also developed the first highly purified dried concentrate of blood clotting factor VIII, the primary therapy for hemophilia, which enabled patients to treat themselves at home.

Roberts delivers his lecture at the annual Berryhill reception Tuesday (Oct. 7). The invitation-only event also serves as convocation ceremony for new medical school faculty.

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Pierce named president of N.C. Nurses Association

Dr. Susan Foley Pierce, an associate professor at UNC’s School of Nursing, has been named president of the N.C. Nurses Association.

Pierce was inducted during the association’s annual meeting recently and will serve a two-year term.

The NCNA is the state affiliate of the American Nurses Association and the policy voice of professional nurses statewide. The association acts as the registered lobbyist for nursing in North Carolina and as a workplace advocate for nurses.

Pierce’s duties as president will include addressing nursing issues, advocating for the health and well-being of the state’s citizens and nurses, and serving members’ changing needs.

"It is an honor and a privilege to serve nursing in this way," said Pierce. "Both health care and nursing are at very critical junctures, and I intend to devote the necessary time and energy to be a part of the solution to these challenges."

Pierce is a double alumna of UNC, having received a master of nursing from the School of Nursing in 1975 and a doctorate from the School of Education in 1990.

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UNC to offer satellite voting site in advance of Nov. 4 election

UNC will offer one-stop voting for the Nov. 4 election at the Morehead Building beginning the week of Oct. 20.

All Orange County residents, including students, may vote in advance of the Nov. 4 election at the Morehead Building satellite site, located off Franklin Street. Following is the schedule: Oct. 20 through 24, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Oct. 25, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Oct. 27 through 31, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Nov. 1, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Morehead site will not be in use on Election Day, Nov. 4. Voters should go to their designated precincts on that day, election officials said.

Students who are not registered to vote may do so at the Student Government Office on the second floor of the New Union. Voter registration forms must be returned to the office by Oct. 10. Students must be registered to vote in Chapel Hill if they want to vote there.

For more information on voter registration for students, click on http://www.ibiblio.org/sg/index.php.

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Triangle scientists co-author second most cited paper in all chemistry

According to Chemical Abstracts Service, two scientists at UNC and Duke University, as well as a UNC doctoral graduate now at Cray Research Laboratories in Minnesota, are co-authors of the second most cited paper in the field of chemistry, for each of the years 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002.

The authors are Chengteh Lee, a senior scientist at Cray; Weitao Yang, now the Philip Handler professor of chemistry at Duke; and Robert Parr, a distinguished professor of chemistry at UNC.

More than 15 years ago ago Lee and Yang, then UNC graduate students from China, were doing research with Parr, their faculty mentor, exploring electron correlation, the detailed way that electrons dodge each other when they come close together. They developed an accurate new method to treat correlation, which soon became widely used around the world for the theoretical calculation of molecular structure and molecular properties.

Their paper, "Development of the Colle-Salvetti Correlation Energy Formula into a Functional of the Electron Density," was published in the journal Physical Review in 1988. The paper was derived from Lee's doctoral thesis.

Lee received his Ph.D. from UNC in 1987. Yang, a postdoctoral fellow in 1988, received his in 1986. Parr received the North Carolina Award in Science in 1999.

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UNC Symphony Orchestra to celebrate Berlioz Oct. 14

The UNC Symphony Orchestra will celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the birth of French composer Hector Berlioz in an Oct. 14 concert in Hill Hall Auditorium.

Hugh Partridge, principal violist of the North Carolina Symphony and an adjunct member of the UNC music faculty, will solo in the orchestra’s performance of "Harold in Italy," which Berlioz wrote in 1834. The concert, free and open to the public, will be at 8 p.m. in Hill Hall Auditorium.

"This is the first concert of the season for the orchestra, of whose members 40 percent are new to the group this fall," said Tonu Kalam, UNC music professor and music director and conductor of the orchestra. "This is also the first ever solo appearance with us of Hugh Partridge, our viola faculty member."

The 110-member ensemble will open the program with "Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance" by Samuel Barber. The orchestral work was drawn from the Medea ballet suite Barber wrote for Martha Graham in 1946, which she titled "Cave of the Heart."

The major work of the evening, "Harold in Italy," was subtitled "Symphony in Four Parts with Viola Solo" and straddles the boundary between being a symphony and a true concerto.

For more information, call 962-1039.

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Photo note: To download a photo of Pierce, click on http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/pierce_susan2.jpg

News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415