News

In her new role at Tisch College, Diane Ryan brings experience from leadership programs at West Point About halfway through Diane Ryan’s 29-year career in the U.S. Army, she was overseeing communications infrastructure in Baghdad with the 1st Cavalry Division when she received a secondary assignment: help integrate women into the Iraqi Army. Ryan, who joined the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life as the associate dean for programs and administration in July, recalled one female Iraqi Army volunteer in particular who pleaded for more leadership training for women despite the threat from political factions opposed their integration into the military.

Tufts officially names the Henry J. Leir Institute for Human Security Tufts paid tribute to a close friend and advocate of the university with the naming of Henry J. Leir Institute for Human Security on September 18. The event recognized the generosity of Henry J. Leir, H79, and the Leir Charitable Foundations, whose partnership with the university goes back four decades.

McDonnell Family Foundation donation establishes Institute for Research on Learning and Instruction at Tufts Half of college students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) end up dropping those courses and switching to another major, says the National Science Foundation. That’s bad news given that STEM-related jobs are projected to grow to more than 9 million by 2022, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Could the answer to this problem come from advancing the science behind learning and teaching? The family of James S. McDonnell thinks so.

The Vietnam War changed how conflicts are waged and covered, says Tufts professor More than 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War—in which more than 58,000 Americans and up to three million Vietnamese died—it’s back in the news, in large part thanks to the new 18-hour documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, running through September 28 on PBS.

Panel at the Allen Discovery Center inaugural symposium spoke of what is possible to know and do Capping a day full of scientific talks at the inaugural symposium of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts, a panel late in the afternoon on September 19 took on a big topic: the frontiers of discovery in biology.

Lessons from writer and surgeon Atul Gawande, who discussed his bestseller Being Mortal at the School of Medicine How can doctors help their patients better prepare for end of life? It’s an important question that Atul Gawande grappled with in his 2014 New York Times bestseller, Being Mortal, and explored during his Dr. Maurice Segal Lecture at the Sackler Center on September 15. Being Mortal was the selection for the Common Reading Book Program for incoming medical students this fall.

In the wake of hurricanes in Texas and Florida comes possibility of righting past inequities during redevelopment, says Fletcher alumna Sarah Labowitz, F09, wasn’t supposed to be facing down a hurricane in Houston. She had hoped to be working for the first female president in U.S. history—her former boss at the State Department. But after Hillary Clinton lost her bid for the White House, Labowitz moved from New York City to Texas this spring to be near friends and family—and soon found herself on the front lines of a disaster.

At inaugural symposium of Allen Discovery Center at Tufts, scientists consider “dark matter of biology,” including possibility of regenerating limbs and organs, preventing birth defects and cancer Eight researchers in the vanguard of biological science gathered at the inaugural symposium of the new Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University today to explore new frontiers within the dark matter of biology. The day-long symposium, which attracted guest speakers from leading research institutions such as Tufts, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Jackson Labs, was expected to draw about 300 attendees.

Elliot Ackerman and David Grann are on the longlist for fiction and nonfiction When the National Book Awards longlist was announced late last week, two Tufts alumni were in the running for the prestigious honors: Elliot Ackerman, A03, F03, for his novel Dark at the Crossing, and David Grann, F92, for his nonfiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.