Laserfest Hits Campus, Professor Gets Presidential Honor

Professor Gets Presidential Honor

Dr. Alfredo Fontanini, an assistant professor of neurobiology and behavior, will be heading to the White House to be honored by President Obama, according to the university.

Fontanini has been named a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for his research, which focuses on the neuroscience of taste.

"Studying taste means more than studying how the brain senses the world," Fontanini said in a statement. "It means also to understand emotions and pleasure."

The research examines brain activity as a subject's psychological state changes, recording the effects that alterations in mood, memory and expectations have on the sense of taste. The findings have implications for issues ranging from obesity to addiction to mood disorders, Fontanini said.

"The goal is to understand how much of what we sense is determined by our expectations and how much is due to the actual stimulus," Fontanini said.

The PECASE honors researchers who have demonstrated a "pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology" combined with a commitment to community service, the university said.  

Anniversary of the Laser Celebrated

The fiftieth anniversary of the invention of the laser – an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation – was marked by Laserfest, an exhibit in the Student Activities Center that included educational posters and two laser shows.

Fast-moving laser beams created words and graphics on a screen in the darkened auditorium, drawing awestruck gasps from children in the second show's crowd, which numbered less than 50 people.

The images and narration explained the history, physics and uses of lasers.

Activist Speaks About Gaza

Retired U.S. Army colonel and activist Ann Wright told a group of students Thursday night about her experience on board one of the flotilla ships boarded by Israeli commandos while attempting to deliver aid materials to the Gaza Strip last May.

Wright talked about the treatment received by activists on the six ships that challenged Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory, which left nine activists dead and dozens wounded, including several Israeli soldiers. The incident provoked international outrage and an investigation by the United Nations into Israel's use of force.

Wright related accounts of colleagues on the Mavi Marmara, the ship where the deaths occurred. She said several people on board were killed by gunfire from an Israeli helicopter before commandos rappelled to the deck, where they were set upon by angry activists with makeshift clubs.

Having moved from that ship to a smaller boat earlier in the voyage, Wright talked about what she witnessed on that vessel, including the use of stun grenades on unarmed civilians and Israeli soldiers' immediate and aggressive searches for cameras, phones and other electronic equipment.

Details of the incident have been hotly disputed by both sides. The Israeli government has called the actions of the activists illegal and a threat to national security, while those on the boats have said Israel's use of force was disproportionate and illegal, being in international waters.

Wright spent 29 years in the U.S. military, involved in special operations support units that worked in the "civilian environment," she said, as something of a community liaison for the Army. She worked in the U.S. State Department for 16 years until her resignation in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war.

Wright's appearance was organized by the Social Justice Alliance, a student-run organization.