News Briefs

Even the UNC Libraries are ready for football season. This fall, on Fridays before home football game Saturdays, librarians will offer a "Treasure Tour of Wilson Library," home of UNC’s most prized special collections.

The guided tours will be at 3 p.m. Sept. 3, 17 and 24; Oct. 8 and 29; and Nov. 5. Besides the celebrated North Carolina, Southern Historical, Southern Folklife and Rare Book collections, Wilson features a Sir Walter Raleigh Room and other interesting visuals.

Through Aug. 30, the Rare Book Collection will continue its exhibit "Lines Written in the Sand," on the life and works of poet Allen Ginsberg. In the N.C. Collection Gallery, the exhibit on display through Oct. 8 is "North Carolina: Where the Buffalo Once Roamed." Imprints and drawings by early American artists depict the buffalo, elk, otters and colorful parrots common to the state a few centuries ago, in addition to prehistoric mammoths, ground sloths and giant camels.

For more information on the exhibits, call (919) 962-1143 or (919) 962-1172. For information about the UNC Libraries, click on http://www.lib.unc.edu/.

More than 20 musicians and other artists will accompany poet-activist Sonia Sanchez in a performance Friday (Aug. 27) in UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Student Union.

The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History will sponsor the program, "Full Moon of Sonia: An Evening of Spoken Word and Music with Sonia Sanchez," at 7:30 p.m. in the Great Hall. Sanchez will sign copies of her new compact disc after the show.

Because of mature themes, the program is not recommended for children.

Sanchez won the American Book Award in 1985 for "homegirls & handgrenades." Her other books include "Shake Loose My Skin," "Does Your House Have Lions?" and "Wounded in the House of a Friend." Her first book, "Homecoming" (1969), decried what she termed white violence. In later works, she described a neoslavery of blacks, preventing their social and psychological freedom. Sanchez was active in the civil rights movement and promoted black studies in schools and the causes of African countries. She has won a National Endowment for the Arts Award, an Outstanding Arts Award from the Pennsylvania Coalition of 100 Black Women, a 1989 Peace and Freedom Award from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and a 1992-93 Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

Tickets, sold at the door, will be $25 for the public and $10 for students. Call (919) 962-9001 to reserve tickets in advance.

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Dr. Carol P. Tresolini of the UNC School of Medicine has been named associate provost for academic initiatives, responsible for public service and outreach, beginning Sept. 7. She succeeds Dr. Stephen Allred, promoted recently to executive associate provost.

Now director of the medical school’s Office of Educational Development, Tresolini also is a research associate professor in the school’s psychiatry department. She joined the UNC faculty in 1995.

Tresolini will oversee centers and institutes including the Ackland Art Museum, the APPLES service learning program, the Carolina Center for Public Service, the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, the N.C. Botanical Garden, the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History and the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education.

She also will oversee campuswide education programs, academic facilities planning and the Center for Teaching and Learning; currently, she chairs the center’s advisory committee.

"Carol brings great depth of experience and familiarity with the health affairs side of campus," said Dr. Robert Shelton, executive vice chancellor and provost. "Her work in educational development and as a research associate professor makes her well qualified to oversee the many centers and institutes that report to our office."

Tresolini received her bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 1972 and her master’s and doctoral degrees at UNC in 1976 and 1991, respectively.

Dr. Garegin Papoian, assistant professor of chemistry in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, has won a Dreyfus New Faculty Award, including an unrestricted research grant of $50,000.

The award, presented by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, is designed to help new faculty initiate their research programs.

Papoian, who joined the UNC faculty July 1, is one of nine new faculty members nationwide who were recognized for their potential to produce outstanding scholarship that will make significant contributions to education in the chemical sciences.

His research merges modern techniques in chemical physics and bioinformatics to study physical-chemical processes in the cell. Papoian said he hopes to develop novel techniques for computational modeling of important biological processes such as signal transduction and enzymatic catalysis.

Papoian received his doctorate in theoretical chemistry from Cornell University, where he studied with Dr. Roald Hoffman, a Nobel laureate in chemistry. Papoian has been a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California at San Diego.

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Dr. Barry R. Lentz, a professor in the School of Medicine’s department of biochemistry and biophysics, was recently announced as the recipient of the Biophysical Society’s 2005 Emily M. Gray Award.

The award recognizes his promotion of biophysics to young investigators, in particular his work on the society’s minority affairs committee and his organization of the first-ever summer mini-course in biophysics.

Lentz will receive the award, which honors significant contributions to biophysics education, on Feb. 14 at the society’s annual meeting.

The Biophysical Society was founded in 1957 to encourage development and dissemination of knowledge in biophysics. The society now has more than 7,000 members, who work in academia, industry and government agencies worldwide.

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Kris Jordan of Rutherfordton, a sophomore at UNC, recently launched a Web site he designed for KidSenses Children’s Interactive Museum, designed to help elementary school teachers statewide.

NCKidScience.com helps teachers prepare for the end-of-grade examinations in science, connect teachers statewide using "Teacher Talk" message boards, and allow teachers to share lessons and comment on lessons located online, among other features.

Earlier this summer, Jordan received a grant from the Carolina Center for Public Service’s Robert E. Bryan Fellowships, designed to support public service projects addressing identifiable needs in the state. Fellows plan and implement projects in conjunction with a community partner and UNC faculty mentor.

His faculty mentor is Dr. Gary Bishop of the College of Arts and Sciences’ department of computer science, and his community partner is KidSenses Children’s Interactive Museum.

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News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu