Expert on Mayan culture to speak Monday (April 5)

Dr. Alejandra Garcia Quintanilla, an expert on the Mayan culture of the Yucatan, will speak at 4 p.m. Monday (April 5) at UNC. The free public lecture in 569 Hamilton Hall will be "Images of Ancient Maya Women: Weavers, Queens, Intellectuals and Goddesses."

Quintanilla, who earned a doctorate in history at UNC, studies women in Mayan society and environmental and forestry issues facing the Maya in Yucatan. Now a research professor in social sciences at the Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan, she will speak as part of a series on Maya language and culture presented by the Consortium in Latin American Studies at UNC and Duke University. Quintanilla works with the consortium’s Yucatec Maya language and culture program in Mexico.

For more information, contact Sharon S. Mújica, consortium outreach director, at smujica@email.unc.edu.

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Wednesday (April 7) opening set for exhibit of North Carolina writers’ photographs

Doris Betts, Charles Frazier and Reynolds Price are among 50 authors whose portraits will hang in "North Carolina Writers: A Photographer’s Odyssey," opening Wednesday (April 7) in UNC’s Wilson Library.

Photographer and book collector Jan G. Hensley of Greensboro provided his photos for the free public exhibit through June 24, said Linda Jacobson, assistant keeper of the North Carolina Collection Gallery. A free opening reception will be from 5-6 p.m. Wednesday; from 6-7 p.m., UNC senior honors writers will read from their work.

For more information, contact Liza Terll at 962-1301 or liza_terll@unc.edu.

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Class, professor create art exhibit about Cevantes’ classic ‘Don Quixote’

"Don Quixote: Adventure, Experience, Fiction, Fantasy," a free public exhibit of woodcuts, etchings and engravings, will be displayed through May 16 at UNC’s Ackland Art Museum. Two 18^th-century editions of the novel, from the UNC Library’s Rare Book Collection, also are among 15 items displayed.

Museum staff curated the exhibit with Dr. Marsha Collins, a UNC romance languages professor, and students in her course of the same name, said Maria Gloeggler of the museum. The exhibit was a major project in the Spanish literature course, in which students read the classic novel, defined the exhibit’s focus, chose the works of art and wrote explanations to be posted with each piece.

The exhibit represents themes in the novel; portraits in which the figures appear to address the viewer parallel the novel’s use of first person.

The Ackland, on South Columbia Street near Franklin Street, opens 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 1-5 p.m. Sundays. Admission is free. For more information, call 919-843-1611 (recorded information), 919-966-5736 (museum office), 919-962-0837 (TTY) or visit the Web site at www.ackland.org.

Four faculty members serving as Fulbright Scholars abroad, to return to campus in coming months

Four UNC faculty members are serving as Fulbright Scholars during the 2003-2004 academic year, lecturing or conducting research at institutions throughout the world – and are scheduled to complete their Fulbright scholarships and return home in the coming months.

The scholars and the research on which they have concentrated are listed below:

• Dr. Carole Crumley, professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is conducting research linking human and earth systems in Burgundy, France. She is conducting her research at the European Archaeological Center of Mont Beuvray in Glux-en-Glenne, France. Her scholarship term began in January and will conclude in July.
  
  
  
• Dr. Anthony Hackney, professor of exercise and sport science in the College of Arts and Sciences and of nutrition in the schools of public health and medicine, is developing curriculum and joint research on obesity, diet and physical inactivity while shuttling between Chapel Hill and the Institute of Public Health at the Medical College of Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. He also is presenting research seminars focused on personal research dealing with physiological and endocrine responses in humans to stress. His scholarship term began in November and will conclude in May.
  
  
  
• Thomas Kelley, clinical associate professor in the School of Law, is teaching a course titled "Introduction to the American Legal System" at the University of Niamey in Niamey, Niger. Kelley also is researching customary law and state legal reform while in Niamey. His scholarship term began in August and will conclude in June.
  
  
  
• Dr. William Rohe, professor of city and regional planning in the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies, is researching comparative analysis of the urban revitalization in Barcelona and Atlanta. He is conducting his research at the Polytechnical University of Catalonia in Barcelona. His scholarship term began in January and will conclude in June.
  

The program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, has sent thousands of U.S. faculty and professionals to study, teach or research abroad. Prominent alumni include Dr. James Watson, co-discoverer of the double-helix structure of DNA and Nobel Laureate in medicine; and Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.

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Renowned scientist, author of ‘Making Genes, Making Waves’ to speak

Dr. Jon Beckwith, a microbiology and molecular genetics professor at Harvard Medical School, will give a free public lecture April 20 at UNC.

"Genetics and Society: From the Lac Operon to the Human Genome," sponsored by the student organization Socially Conscious Science, will be held at 7 p.m. in room 116 of Murphey Hall.

The lecture will focus on Beckwith’s accomplishments as a scientist and social activist, as well as discuss the impact genetics and genetic technology have on existing social institutions and the dangers of pursuing certain research. Beckwith will sign copies of his recently published book, "Making Genes, Making Waves: A Social Activist in Science," after the lecture.

In 1969, Beckwith’s lab was the first to isolate a single gene from a living organism. He is a member of the Working Group on Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of the Human Genome Project for the National Center for Human Genome Research. Beckwith also works with Science for the People, a group dedicated to demystifying the implications of science to the public. He has organized various conferences and is leading a campaign to integrate social dimensions and concerns into high school and college science curricula.

For more information, contact Sapana Vora at (919) 656-8950 or svora@email.unc.edu.

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Tickets are on sale for Lineberger Center’s April 24 fund-raiser at University Mall

The UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center is planning a casual fund-raiser, the Lineberger Beach Ball 2004, April 24 from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m. in center court of University Mall.

The fund-raiser will feature live music by The Fabulous Shades, dancing and hors d’oeuvres compliments of Spice Street. ABC 11 morning and noon co-anchor Barbara Gibbs will welcome guests and serve as master of ceremonies.

Tickets are $50 per person ($25 tax-deductible) and may be purchased by credit card by calling (919) 966-5905 or the night of the event at the Spice Street entrance to University Mall.

Organizers expect the event to draw 500 attendees. Mary Rice Seagroves is chair, and Janis Tillman and Lee Harney Harris are vice chairs. Major sponsors are Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, the Chapel Hill Herald, Eurosport, Skanska USA Building Inc., Courtyard by Marriott Chapel Hill and Grady-White Boats.

"The Beach Ball is for everyone who has been touched by cancer," said Seagroves, who is an eight-year breast cancer survivor. "When I went to the last Beach Ball held in 1995, I had not yet been diagnosed with breast cancer. I owe so much of my current good health and fortune to my physicians and their team at UNC Lineberger."

Proceeds will benefit the Lineberger Center’s cancer treatment, research and prevention programs.

For more information, click on www.unclineberger.org.

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Graduate student recognition ceremony scheduled for Wednesday; students to display N.C.-based research

The UNC Graduate School will recognize outstanding graduate students for their service and research during its Sixth Annual Graduate Student Recognition Ceremony Wednesday (April 7).

Students will display their N.C.-based research beginning at 3 p.m. in the Carolina Club, located in the George Watts Hill Alumni Center, with the awards ceremony following at 4 p.m. The university community is invited to attend.

"Whether it is through research on cancer or volunteering for community groups such as the American Red Cross, Carolina’s graduate students add to the betterment of the university and the larger community through their research and service," said Dr. Linda Dykstra, dean of the Graduate School. "These students certainly deserve recognition, as our graduate and professional students represent one-third of Carolina’s total student body."

For more information, contact Katie Meyer at meyerk@email.unc.edu or (919) 962-6326.

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Cowell, Polking, Herring receive School of Law center’s leadership awards

Three legal giants that propelled N.C. banks to national prominence recently received awards honoring their contribution to the state’s banking industry.

The UNC School of Law’s Center for Banking and Finance honored Marion A. Cowell and Paul J. Polking, both of Charlotte, and Jerone C. Herring of Winston-Salem with the center’s first Leadership Awards April 1 at the 2004 Banking Institute.

The institute is a continuing legal education program on cutting-edge banking issues held each spring in Charlotte.

The center was created in 2000 to recognize the role of banking and finance to the state economy, as well as the leadership role played by N.C.-based financial institutions within the financial services industry.

Cowell joined Cameron-Brown Co., mortgage banking subsidiary of First Union, in 1972. In 1978, he became general counsel of First Union, where he served until his retirement from the bank in 1999. First Union merged with Wachovia following Cowell’s retirement and is now the fifth-largest financial holding company in the nation. Cowell is now counsel to Kilpatrick Stockton LLP in Charlotte. He is a member of the Board of Legal Services of North Carolina Inc., a member of the Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts board and former chair of the N.C. Bar Association’s professionalism committee.

Herring was hired as BB&T’s first lawyer in 1971. When Herring retired, after 32 years at BB&T, the bank had grown from $250 million in assets when he started to more than $90 billion in assets, making it then the 11^th-largest financial holding company and the eighth-largest retail insurance broker in the nation. BB&T now operates more than 1,400 bank branches in 11 states and the District of Columbia and is recognized as a pioneer in the acquisition of thrift institutions and the use of merger-conversions.

Polking joined NCNB Corp. (one of Bank of America’s predecessors) in 1970. Polking was the bank’s second lawyer. He became general counsel in 1988 and presided over a department with more than 230 attorneys prior to the consummation of the Fleet Financial merger. Polking has announced that he will retire from Bank of America this spring. NCNB, then NationsBank and now Bank of America, is widely credited with helping to dismantle geographic restrictions on banking. Bank of America will hold the most deposits nationwide after its merger with Fleet.

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Contact: News Services, (191)962-2091, news@unc.edu